Chapter 83 How to Curb Land Annexation
According to the quotations of an unknown historical figure in later generations with the ID "Lingnan Governor", the best way to curb land annexation is to expand territory, just like the Yuan Dynasty, which had such a large territory that there was no need to worry about the problem of too many people and too little land.
Zhao Huan strongly agreed with this view. Land, or resources, is like a large pie. Expanding territory is the process of gradually making this pie bigger. The bigger the pie, the more people can share it.
But there is no solution, and it does not conform to the current reality. Given the current state of being leaky on all sides, it is completely impossible to expand the territory. The most urgent thing is to recuperate.
Since we can’t make the cake bigger in a short period of time, we have to think of a way to distribute the cake so that as many people as possible can share the cake.
The simplest, most violent, and most effective method is to attack the local tyrants and divide their land. Find any excuse, chop them up with a knife, and then confiscate all their property.
Without hundreds or thousands of acres of land, you can't be embarrassed to call yourself a landlord. According to this calculation, getting rid of a landlord can save hundreds or even thousands of ordinary farmers.
This sounds like a good deal, because to the imperial court, hundreds or thousands of people are far more important than a landlord; but the imperial court is just a few palaces and government offices, and food still needs to be eaten from separate pots.
The landlords do have a lot of money and land, and they don't have to pay taxes, which makes many people jealous. But this is also the land their ancestors paid for with their lives. The ancestors planted trees for the sake of providing shade for future generations. It is a bit inhumane to cut them all down.
Not paying taxes is a serious problem! The rich can't collect their taxes, so they're constantly squeezing the poor out of the common people. It's not only boring, but the money isn't much, and it's nowhere near as satisfying as the rich.
The Song Dynasty did indeed favor scholars.
Scholars and above could meet officials without kneeling and were exempt from taxes. However, this also led to the problem of unregistered households. In other words, some people, in order to avoid paying taxes to the state, donated their land to local gentry.
We should think of a way, using slightly more subtle means, to make the rich landlord willingly take out his fortune.
Apart from public power, the only thing that can make people compete for each other is interests.
Is it possible? Take advantage of the 1,000-year gap in knowledge and employ some economic tactics, like a Ponzi scheme, to make the landlords suffer.
Or perhaps, through legal reform, we could also categorize land use, such as industrial land, commercial land, and residential land? Wouldn't the price difference be immediately apparent?
However, these things require careful planning, and the ancients were not so easily deceived.
All of the above are considered from the perspective of weakening vested interests. Another important direction for curbing land annexation is to protect the existing land in farmers' hands.
First, we need to curb this ever-changing trend. Then we can gradually make improvements, which will reduce the pressure.
Otherwise, there will be a situation where you lose sight of one thing while focusing on another. On one side, you will frantically weaken the resources controlled by the landlords, while on the other side, new landlords will rise.
First, there's the policy aspect. Reducing taxes, reducing corvée labor, and encouraging production. This is standard practice. Regardless of the dynasty, whenever war breaks out, peace is followed by a period of rest and recuperation, giving the country and its people a chance to breathe.
Otherwise, they would be like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who was aggressive and aggressive, with wars lasting for years. Even if the common people turned into donkeys in the production team, they would not be able to bear it.
People must be allowed to create some wealth for themselves through labor.
Secondly, the economy. We need to make this market more open, as circulation can bring about greater economic prosperity.
Bianliang City was indeed prosperous. But this was far from the city's limit. There were simply too many truly wealthy people. Imperial relatives, the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, high-ranking officials, foreign envoys, and wealthy merchants.
However, it should also be noted that feudal society was, after all, a small peasant economy, and the landlord class was still able to be self-sufficient in a large amount of materials, and not everything was purchased from the market.
For example, the landlord Zhou mentioned earlier, the sheep he ate were raised by his own family. By analogy, the vegetables he ate might also be grown by his own family, and the clothes he wore might also be woven by his own family.
Having so much money but being outside the market economy is a huge waste of resources.
What Zhao Huan needs to do is to make them take money out of their pockets willingly and then let it flow into the entire market, thus making the market economy more prosperous.
Regarding this, Zhao Huan already had a good idea and several feasible plans in mind.
The imperial courts of all dynasties have monopolized salt and iron, and even important trade commodities such as silk and porcelain are directly controlled by the court, because these resources often bring rich rewards.
But Zhao was different. He had traveled from the 21st century. He was more discerning. He knew there was something more profitable than these things. That was tobacco.
Tobacco is not a drug. Although it is a little harmful to the body, it is not a big problem. Given the medical and health conditions in the Song Dynasty, it is estimated that few people could live to be seventy.
Coincidentally, Zhao Huan, before traveling through time, was a person who knew quite a lot about tobacco.
Tobacco is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Solanaceae family. Its leaves can be used to make cigarettes and it is a well-deserved tax-winning plant.
There are approximately ninety varieties of tobacco worldwide, most concentrated in South America. Later, with the opening of new sea routes, they began to spread globally. However, later research has shown that tobacco was also grown in the Lingnan region of China, and that it was quite flavorful.
Zhao Huan is very familiar with the entire process, from tobacco planting, to drying and shredding, to rolling paper into cigarettes.
Such a novelty, wouldn't a box be priced at five taels of silver? If you think five taels of silver is cheap, don't worry, there's a special edition, ten taels of silver a box, made from top-grade tobacco.
How can there be cigarettes without alcohol?
Strong liquor requires distillation technology, which is a bit troublesome. But beer is easy to make, as long as you have hops.
Hops, also known as hops, are a key ingredient in beer brewing. They're found in Xinjiang and northern Sichuan. If you can't get to Xinjiang, Sichuan is no problem; it's your own specialty.
The night market in the Northern Song Dynasty was so popular that beer must have made a lot of money.
In a market economy, everything can be bought and sold. So, isn't this using magic to defeat magic? We're specifically trying to get the big guys to willingly hand over their money.
As long as Zhao Huan could grasp it, it would be entirely possible to complete the secondary distribution of resources through the court, or through the royal family itself, to ensure fairness as much as possible and slow down the pace of land annexation.
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