Chapter 169: From the Land Tax to the Silver Standard and the Emergence of Capital
In the room, Zhao Duan's lecture continued.
Wang You's arrival did not cause any splash.
Because at this moment everyone has come out of their state of surprise and gradually immersed themselves in what Zhao Duan said.
The performance evaluation method...seems...
There's really something...
Although in Zhao Duan's view, this group of scholars has little experience in governance.
Even if they have experience, they were high-ranking officials when they were officials and rarely mingled with the lowest ranks. Some of their strategies and ideas are somewhat fanciful...
Just like in the history of his previous life, many strategies failed miserably because their makers were too idealistic.
Scholars in the Dayu Dynasty also had similar problems.
but……
It is undeniable that the group of people selected into the "Xiu Wen Guan" are definitely the elites of Dayu in terms of intelligence.
Talking with smart people is always worry-free. They can accurately understand what Zhao Duan means.
He even made his own deductions to fill in the gaps in details he had not thought of.
Because the scholars were very smart, they easily recognized the advanced nature of this "performance evaluation method".
"…Enforce the law and discipline to discipline the masses, and take control of the government to maintain order…"
“…In this way, the people of the Nine Enclosures will be cautious and determined; the officials who are arrogant and unruly will obey the law with awe.”
Zhao Duan wrote and spoke, and many more ink characters appeared on the screen behind him. He finally used a brush to trace deeply under the top three characters twice and said:
"I call this the 'Performance Assessment Method'."
quiet.
In the room, his story came to an end, but everyone was still immersed in it, as if thinking.
Only Wang You, who was sitting secretly in the seat and dared not say a word, had no idea what had happened.
At this time, the remaining few late scholars also came in one after another and were also stunned when they saw this scene.
"What are you doing..." someone said.
But Mo Chou suddenly glared at him, signaling him to shut up and not disturb the Grand Tutor's thoughts.
Although she was reluctant to admit it, she had already realized the value of this assessment method.
The expressions of Grand Tutor Dong, Han Zhou, Guo Jieyuan and others also showed obvious changes.
They looked at each other and could understand each other without saying a word.
"This method..."
Han Zhou opened his mouth and frowned:
"If this kind of assessment is implemented, will it lead to low-level clerks resorting to extremes to meet the requirements?"
Zhao Duan didn't say anything. Nonsense, of course I would.
Performance appraisal is certainly not perfect and has many drawbacks.
But in comparison, it is the best strategy at the current stage.
The octogenarian in red robe and white hair sitting in the armchair also came back to his senses from his deep thoughts and suddenly said something without thinking:
"In this case, the six departments will be under the jurisdiction of the cabinet."
Zhao Duan smiled and said:
"Now there is no cabinet, only the Xiuwenguan, and the Xiuwenguan follows your Majesty's orders."
The conversation between the two seems to be irrelevant.
But a smart person like Han Zhou understood it with just a glance.
Grand Tutor Dong was indeed an old hand. He saw at a glance a major drawback of the performance evaluation system, which was "suppressing freedom of speech."
Because in this design, the six censors who were originally responsible for impeachment, as well as the censors of the Censorate, were also included in the performance evaluation.
It was under the supervision of the "Cabinet", which is actually the present-day Xiuwenguan.
As a result, the censors did not dare to offend the Xiuwenguan for the sake of their official hats.
Invisibly, the censors were suppressed.
Historically, after Zhang Juzheng implemented this law, one of the crimes he was accused of was suppressing freedom of speech and concentrating all power in the cabinet.
Zhao Duan's answer was very clever.
If the "cabinet" still existed and this mechanism was activated, Li Yanfu, the prime minister, would become the most powerful official and no one would be able to suppress him.
But the "old cabinet" is gone. Today, the Xiuwenguan only has a group of young, powerless scholars and a grand tutor who is a thorough royalist.
Everyone is loyal only to the Empress.
In this way, as long as the performance evaluation system is implemented, the power of the entire court will be concentrated in the hands of the empress personally.
It would become extremely difficult for Li Yanfu to use censors to control the empress.
Master Dong was silent for a moment and said:
"Many people in the court will strongly oppose it."
Zhao Duan smiled and said:
"From the moment the new policy was planned, it was destined to be opposed by countless people."
Grand Tutor Dong nodded slowly, and the look he gave Zhao Duan was very different.
I am also looking forward to the "manuscript" in my hand more and more.
"I have seen that in your manuscript, you have only written a small part of the method of performing official duties. How do you interpret the latter part, 'sharing the land tax according to the amount of land tax'?" asked Grand Tutor Dong.
Still? Less than half?
The maesters were stunned.
Zhao Duan didn't rush to speak, but glanced at the brush on the table:
"There's not enough ink, and there's not enough white paper."
Everyone: “…”
Grand Tutor Dong turned his head, glanced around, and casually pointed at the scholars who came in later:
"Grind the ink and change the paper."
Scholars such as Wang You were in disbelief, especially the arrogant Master Wang, who almost changed his expression.
Let him serve a worthless person and help a ruthless and ruthless mistress who has risen to prominence by selling his face?
As someone from a noble family, he could not accept it.
Mo Chou also glanced at them at this moment, and said indifferently:
"Didn't you hear? Do you want the Grand Tutor to do it himself?"
“…I don’t dare.”
Wang You and his companions were intimidated and had to reluctantly take new ink and pour it into the inkstone, and replace the screen with a new piece of white paper.
Zhao Duan rubbed his throat and said, "My mouth is dry from talking."
"..." A scholar sighed and got up to make tea.
The other man opened the drawer, took out the pear that Zhao Duan had given him at noon, and returned it to its original owner.
The night breeze was cool. Zhao Duan slowly ate a pear and drank a cup of tea, also to give this group of scholars time to digest what they had just learned.
About a quarter of an hour later, he clapped his hands to attract attention and said with a smile:
"Just now, we talked about official administration. But ultimately, the biggest problem facing the court right now is money.
If Han Xueshi's ten strategies were merely intended to raise funds for the state, they would be effective. What I criticize is not their uselessness, but their enormous drawbacks.
Han Zhou blushed and said:
"Mr. Zhao, please don't mention it again. If you have any solution, please tell me."
Zhao Duan smiled and stopped teasing him. He said seriously:
"Regarding the word 'money', I would like to discuss it in two parts. The first part, which is what you discussed during the day, is the key point in Han Xueshi's strategy, namely the two major problems of taxation and corvee labor."
“They are said to be two, but in fact they are one, because corvée labor itself is a form of tax.
The largest source of money for the imperial treasury came from taxes. However, Dayu's tax collection methods, in my opinion, were far from satisfactory.
Not to mention the unavoidable heavy taxes and levies. Using goods to offset taxes also gave lower-level officials too many loopholes to profit from. And the most fatal of all was the "head tax," which had been in place for thousands of years since ancient times.
Zhao Duan wrote the three words "head tax" on the screen.
He was no stranger to the so-called head tax, which was something that everyone had to pay. It was the most common tax, regardless of time or place.
The poll tax in Dayu was a typical form of feudal dynasty.
Rich and poor, all pay the same, so the rich won’t feel anything, but it’s different for the poor.
As the saying goes, the poorer you are, the more children you have... Coupled with the high infant mortality rate, the people of Dayu are very fertile.
But the more people there are in a family, the more head tax they need to pay... Gradually, they are unable to support themselves, and if they encounter a disaster year, they cannot afford it.
They could either escape and hide, becoming "hidden households", or they could only sell their land and become tenants.
However, the gentry class enjoyed the privilege of tax exemption and had wealth, so they could buy land with impunity... This opened Pandora's box, and the wealth of Dayu quickly concentrated in the hands of a few people.
"Under the poll tax, as the dynasty continues, the amount of tax revenue the court can collect will inevitably decrease... Therefore, my second strategy is to distribute the tax according to the amount of land!"
Zhao Duan wrote these words on the screen and then explained their content.
The so-called "equalizing the land tax" is actually a modified version of Zhang Juzheng's "One Whip" system, with little change in its core.
One is to reduce all the various taxes to just one, which is "silver".
The imperial court only wanted silver, and changed the previous messy pretexts of paying goods or performing labor service.
This is similar to one of Han Zhou's strategies, that is, the people who perform corvee labor only need to pay silver, and the workers required for the corvee labor are hired by the government.
But the difference between Zhao Duan and Han Zhou's Ten Strategies is that Zhao Duan directly implemented the method of collecting taxes, so he would not collect taxes twice.
The second is to change the head tax to "land tax". People pay according to how much land they have, and those who have no land do not have to pay.
In this way, the landed gentry would have to pay the tax, while the poor, freed from the poll tax, could have as many children as they wanted.
Zhao Duan knew very well that there is strength in numbers and people are productivity. He doesn't mind having too many people, but only too few.
"besides……"
After Zhao Duan finished the main content, he turned around and added two additional words on the screen:
Fire consumption is returned to the public
Officials and gentry integrated
"In the past, the government would melt down the small amounts of silver from the taxes paid by the people into silver ingots and supply them to the court. However, this melting process inevitably resulted in losses, which were pocketed by many people.
Therefore, since the new law requires settlement in silver, this loss must be attributed to the court."
"Similarly, since the tax collection has been changed to be based on the land area, the privilege of the gentry to be exempt from tax must be stripped away. This is the integration of officials and gentry."
Zhao Duan concluded:
"The tax is distributed according to the amount of land. The more land, the more land, the more land, the fewer land, the fewer land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the less land, the more ...
He paused, looked around at everyone, and said in a resounding voice:
"If this law can be implemented, it will protect the country and the people, and the imperial treasury will never be in short supply again."
The room fell into silence for the second time.
When Zhao Duan finished speaking, many people present had looks of longing on their faces.
suddenly see the light.
"Great, very great." Han Zhou slammed the table and stood up, staring at the words on the screen with bright eyes, lost in thought.
No one knew how depressed he felt that afternoon, not only because his ten strategies were rejected.
Moreover, he racked his brains but could not think of a better way.
So-called, take the ten strategies back for revision, but how to revise them?
He had no idea.
However, at this moment, just a few hours later, he saw a set of methods that were completely different from his ten strategies, but obviously more superior.
How can I not be excited?
"The tax rate is calculated based on the land area... The tax rate is calculated based on the land area..." Mochou also murmured the words.
Although she is far inferior to a real "female prime minister", because she is a love rival of Zhao Duan, she often behaves more like a maid.
But the fact that he was valued by the empress and assisted in handling national affairs was enough to show that Mo Zhaorong was at least not inferior to these scholars in vision and judgment.
Therefore, she also understood the benefits of this method.
Later scholars such as Wang You finally understood why the atmosphere in the room was so strange before.
Truly, what Zhao Duan said was so shocking.
The key is not to say something shocking, but to think that it is feasible no matter how you think about it.
But after being surprised, Wang You, a descendant of a prominent family, frowned.
Because this new law obviously targets the gentry class.
This is not a good thing for the powerful families in various places...
"Grand Master..."
Some people looked at the old man in the lead, wanting to ask for his opinion.
Grand Tutor Dong stared at the screen with a sharp gaze for a long time before he let out a long breath:
"What a good way to distribute the tax according to the land."
After a pause, he shook his head and said, "What a pity."
What a pity? What a pity?
Master Dong looked at Zhao Duan and said:
"This method is indeed quite feasible. However, although it is much gentler than Han Zhou's method, I am afraid it will still be difficult to implement. If we want to succeed, we must take it step by step, and the court cannot wait."
Can't wait!
These words instantly brought everyone back to reality from their excitement.
Han Zhou calmed down, was stunned at first, and then sat down again.
Yes, although Zhao Duan’s method is good, after going around in circles, it is still difficult to solve the imminent problem, which is money.
If we take it step by step, it will be difficult to alleviate the empty treasury.
If one strives for speed, one will inevitably become an enemy of the gentry and powerful families. Although this may win the hearts of the people,...
If the gentry of the world become disloyal and defect to the Eight Kings, the imperial court will also be in turmoil.
It is indeed much better than his ten strategies, but distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.
Wang You's brows relaxed and his expression became a little more relaxed.
Mo Chou also reacted, her eyes slightly dimmed.
Yes, whether it is the land-based tax system or the previous performance evaluation system, it actually takes time to implement them gradually.
It’s good, but…
"Oh, Grand Master is right. If we want to implement the above two methods, it will take time."
Zhao Duan took in everyone's expressions, but he was not panicked at all.
Because Zhang Juzheng was never the only weapon in his hand.
At first, he had no idea how to make money quickly, without resorting to violence and without affecting the stability of the court.
But after talking with Han Zhou, some inspiration became clear.
"But don't forget, everyone. I just said that to resolve the word money, I would talk about two parts, but now I have only said one.
The next one is the solution to alleviate the urgent problem." Zhao Duan said with a smile.
What?
Is there any other way?
At this moment, everyone, including Grand Tutor Dong, looked at him in astonishment.
Then I remembered that this cruel and brutal official had indeed said before that there should be two parts to the story.
In full view of everyone, Zhao Duan turned around and personally changed a new piece of white paper.
On the screen, he quickly wrote a few large characters:
"Silver, merchants, capital, and markets."
(End of this chapter)
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