Ancient tax payment

It would be nice to collect 80% tax in the Ming Dynasty, but there was nothing the emperor could do. In the middle and late Ming dynasty, the emperor's expenses were strictly restricted by the cabinet, and his life was tight.

The Qing dynasty was different. Before the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), troops were sent to rob it. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the farmers who owe the most taxes will be executed that year, and the scholars who owe a penny of taxes will be deprived of their fame. Therefore, there is a saying among the people that "scholars are worthless".

A Comparison of Taxation between Chongzhen Period and Early Qing Dynasty

According to the old saying, Liao paid an extra 9 million yuan at that time, but it was not enough to stop suppressing the salary. In fact, it's more than 7.3 million [in fact, the salary stopped after only five years], which is 16 million more. Is this extra tax really big? Can it really be worthy of the evaluation?

Let's take a look at the usual fiscal revenue of the Ming government.

In the early years of Wanli, the "two taxes" paid in 2.66 million taels of silver. If natural rice is priced at the current price (one or two silver per meter, one or two silver per wheat). Then the income from the two taxes can reach 22 1.77 million 358 taels, and the business tax revenue includes 2.5 million taels of salt tax, 42,000 taels of tea tax 1 20,000 taels, 42,000 taels of urban transportation tax, 602,000 taels of pass tax and 202,000 taels of business tax, making a total of only 3.4 million taels. "[Re-exploration of the reasons for tax supervision in Wan Li Mine] A study on the social and economic history of Lin Feng and China.

The agricultural tax revenue was 2210.7 million yuan, and the commercial tax revenue was 3.4 million yuan [the highest commercial tax revenue in Wanli period was 4.8 million yuan, so it can be estimated that if the Ming government did not attach additional taxes, the total fiscal revenue fluctuated between 25 million yuan and 30 million yuan, and the difference should be not far in Chongzhen period.

The levy of Liao and the training fee160,000 is already more than half of the original total fiscal revenue. So it seems that this extra tax is really a lot. But if we look at the problem in this way, it is inevitable to draw a wrong conclusion. The crux of the matter is that the original tax revenue of the Ming government was quite low! As we quoted Chen Zhiping in the first part of the article, "Since the so-called original tax amount was formulated in the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty according to the situation of collection and taxation since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, although the population has been growing and the land has been reclaimed continuously after the social development of 1200 years in the Ming Dynasty, the' original tax amount' that the government can rely on has remained basically unchanged, and its actual collection amount has not only decreased with the actual situation of population growth and land reclamation.

"The central government can't stand a little trouble, and soon there will be a dilemma of making ends meet." "The expenditure of state finance on social welfare is not outstanding, but when some local wars are encountered, the crisis of state finance immediately appears. This financial dilemma is extremely incompatible with a centralized country with a large population and vast land. "

It can be said that the taxes originally collected by the Ming government were too low, which made the country fall into an unsustainable, stretched and unable to make ends meet when it encountered minor natural disasters or major military operations. This is the background of several large-scale tax increases during Wanli and Chongzhen periods. Chen Zhiping, for example, said, "There was a so-called' three salaries' increase in the late Ming Dynasty, which can be regarded as the most notorious increase in land tax in the late feudal society. However, after a calm analysis, the three salaries were increased, but the' nine cents of silver' per mu was less than 10 Jin meters in the grain price in the late Ming Dynasty, which accounted for a very small proportion of the per mu yield in the late Ming Dynasty. However, whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, it was not unreasonable to increase taxes moderately when the country was at war.

[For the specific analysis of the tax rate and various showdown in the Ming Dynasty, see below, which needs to be supplemented here, and how to insert it needs to be considered]

Even if the grain tax of the Ming dynasty is multiplied by three times, it is only one tenth of the tax rate, which is completely within the range that the people can bear. In other words, for the Ming government, the tax that can be increased, even if it is only grain tax, can be at least 42 million taels of silver. The extra tax in Chongzhen period was less than 20 million even at most, and most of the time it was only 9 million. It is just a joke to regard such taxes as exorbitant taxes, even unbearable for the people, which is a major reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty!

In fact, even with a little brain, you can make a judgment. In a country as big as the Ming Dynasty, the taxes collected were so arduous and tense that even the defense expenditure had to be met. If such taxes are heavy, it will be a ghost! Compared with the western countries or Japan in the same period, the taxes in the Ming Dynasty, especially in Chongzhen, had nothing to do with the so-called extortion!

If this does not explain the problem, then we should not compare the Chongzhen period with the early establishment of the Manchu Dynasty.

The Qing dynasty entered the customs and made a beautiful article. For example, in July of the first year of Shunzhi, the executioner of the national massacre, who was also ranked in the top three in human history, issued an order: "The worst thing in the previous dynasty was to increase the salary of Liao people, make the people poor and thieves, then increase the salary, then train troops for all parties, and then increase the salary. However, these three salaries are paid in several times, which is simply to cure the poison for Wang ... Since the first year of Shunzhi, everything has been increased, such as the salary, suppression, training and recruitment of Liao people. ..... If an official confuses the dark faction, he will be killed! "

It's magnificent and beautiful. But what about the actual situation?

"However, the decree exempting the' three salaries' has not been strictly enforced. In addition to Dourgen's construction, nine provinces were given extra money and grain of more than 2.5 million yuan, and Shunzhi personally ordered the amount of grain to be offset, and the training salary was levied once at the end of Shunzhi. It should be pointed out that the Liao's salary, which accounts for 1/3 of the total amount of "three salaries", has not been levied for a long time, that is, "the former Liao's salary was added in Wanli, so it is still levied", that is, it is actually levied.

It says here that the training is only collected once, so it doesn't count, but it should count. Otherwise, Chongzhen was only levied once. Regarding the situation of increasing the intensity of collection and suppressing reimbursement, Gu? In the History of Nanming Dynasty, it was mentioned that "after eighteen years of Shunzhi, he still broke his word, resumed the suppression of wages in the Ming Dynasty, and increased his salary by more than five million yuan." In addition, the Qing dynasty also had a name, that is, the coastal border was moved, and all the coastal areas from Liaodong to Guangdong were swept into white land, not to mention the extinction losses of manpower, material resources and financial resources in these coastal areas, which could not be measured by money. Just after these areas were swept into the white land, their own taxes were passed on to other areas. The annual agricultural taxes in Fujian and Guangdong provinces alone add up to more than 502,000. If all the business taxes (salt tax is the most important) and all the taxes lost by other coastal provinces are added up, I'm afraid 2 million is a conservative figure. "The Qing government adopted the method of ordering residents in the industry to share compensation to make up for some deficiencies." Its (out of) forty miles old class, with the city * * * compensation. Those who give more than their aborigines. ..... Thousands of miles from the south of the Yangtze River to the east of Guangdong, the saltworks are in business, and out-of-bounds vacancies must be filled. ""However, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and other places are absent from classes due to relocation, and they are scattered in places where Jiangsu and Songsong do not move, and the amount of salt classes is extremely heavy. "

In addition, it is even more difficult to measure the military pay collected by the Manchu through robbery and plunder. According to the history of agriculture in China,

"In the process of conquering all parts of China, the Qing army said,' Wherever the soldiers go, Tian She will be sold out'. Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the most economically developed areas, suffered extremely cruel burning, killing and looting. Yangzhou, Jiangyin, Jiading, Suzhou, Jiaxing and Jinhua, several economically prosperous cities, were almost all burned out "[p85].

"Manchu aristocrats' rule over the Han people was extremely brutal. In the process of conquering China, they plundered, burned and destroyed production everywhere. In Beijing, nearby and even in Shandong and Henan, they occupy a lot of land * * * up to 168-527 hectares, not including more than 60,000 hectares of pastures and flag fields stationed in various provinces. Many Han Chinese were forced into slavery by Manchu nobles [p88][ China Agricultural History] [Nanjing Agricultural College, China Agricultural Heritage Research Office, China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Science Press 1984]

Everywhere the Qing soldiers went, many places were burned, killed and robbed, and the converted tax revenue was about 10 million yuan.

But now we don't think about it, so we might as well save some face for Wu Si and Manchu. Let's simply calculate an account, assuming that the Manchu Dynasty only collected the original tax during the Wanli period, and did not increase the Liao salary, suppress the salary, and spread the compensation. According to the article "Historical Comparison of Cultivated Land between Ming Dynasty and Early Qing Dynasty", after the establishment of the rule in Qing Dynasty, the cultivated land area in the whole country decreased sharply compared with that in Ming Dynasty (as for the loss of agricultural population caused by the massive population loss, it is even more incalculable. It is conservatively estimated that the population of the whole country was around 200 million during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, while the population of the Qing Dynasty may be less than 50 million in the early years of Kangxi, with population loss exceeding three quarters. In the thirty-six years of Wanli, the cultivated land area in Ming Dynasty was 1 16 18948 hectares, which was equal to11890,000 mu of land, while in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty, the cultivated land in China was more than 5 million hectares. That is to say, more than 500 million mu of cultivated land (in fact, even during the Kangxi period) is a reasonable estimate considering the reduction of cultivated land 1 100 million mu due to the wars in Liaodong and Shaanxi during the Chongzhen period. Even at the end of Chongzhen, the cultivated land in the whole country should still be around 654.38+0 billion mu, which is about 50% less than that during the Chongzhen period in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi. Some provinces, such as Sichuan, were almost completely abandoned under the slaughter of the Qing Dynasty. "All the people have been abandoned, and all the land has been abandoned." "In the sixth year of Kangxi, Miao Cheng, the governor of Sichuan Province, wrote at the recital,' After the slaughter in Sichuan Province, there was no one in a hundred miles'. "Who killed who, of course, is the qing dynasty. Zhang, some people say that he was the murderer of Sichuan and died far away from Miao. There are also Henan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces and cities, which are almost extinct losses)

In the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, how much agricultural tax did Manchu collect? "In the early Qing Dynasty, the land tax was mainly cash register, and certain physical objects such as rice, wheat, beans and grass were also collected. In the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (166 1 year), the land tax levied 210.57 million silver and 6.48 million stone grain. " [Overview of Finance in the Early Qing Dynasty Author: Shi Zhihong /article.php/3879]

This tax is compared with the actual levy of 2.66 million yuan and 7680 yuan in the first two taxes of Wanli. If natural rice is at the current price (one or two silver per meter, one or two silver per wheat). Then the income from these two taxes can reach 22 177358. "

If calculated according to the value of grain and silver, the tax collected in the Qing Dynasty can reach more than 28 million yuan, which is more than the tax collected in the early period of Wanli, the most developed economy in the Ming Dynasty. Of course, there may be inflation, but the overall difference should be small!

With 50% of the arable land and more than 100% of the taxes in the Ming Dynasty, the taxes borne by the people in the Qing Dynasty were more than double that in the normal period of the Ming Dynasty, while in the Chongzhen period, even in the year with the most tax increase, it never really reached such a proportion.

It is even more difficult to measure if we consider that the Qing Dynasty searched and exploited people's property by other means such as coastal relocation, massacre robbery, enclosure, escape and pursuit. Other aspects here, such as coastal relocation, will be discussed specifically in the Qing Dynasty. However, when chasing fugitives, we might as well quote some words from A Brief History of Qing Dynasty Economy to briefly introduce the situation. "Because fugitives are related to the management of their students, the Qing government regards them as the top priority of the Qing dynasty. Escape from the nest is severely punished, and a wide range of events are implicated in each other. As the saying goes, tens of millions of people have lost their families, and "countless local officials have been dismissed and demoted"

"As can be seen from the contents of the Escape Law in the early Qing Dynasty, the punishment for fugitives is heavier than the' four escapes into the customs'; It is more important to punish the owner of the nest than the fugitive, not only for the first time, but also for the first time. There are also neighborhoods, even helpers, renting houses, and homestays. "

The fugitives were relatively light under the tyranny of the early Qing Dynasty, which was only a drop in the bucket compared with moving to the coast.

Just by enumerating figures, we may not have an image of the situation in the early Qing Dynasty. We might as well quote some records of people at that time. Look at the burden on the people at the beginning of the invitation.

"In the 19th year of Kangxi (1680), Gu pointed out that the situation in Guanzhong was' based on what we have seen today, but we can't look at the past' (referring to the last years of Chongzhen). The people were poor and rich, but they believed in migration and didn't count. ..... To a 60-year-old woman, seven-year-old orphan, four liters long, thousands of miles to camp, so strong deer stood, weak pheasant, closed the door and cried and threw himself into the river. "

Note that this happened in the 19th year of Kangxi, the so-called prosperous time of Kangxi. The situation in Guanzhong during the prosperous period of Kangxi was even worse than that in the last years of Chongzhen, which probably gave a slap in the face to some filthy literati who were shameless in singing hymns.

Look at Ye's Reading the World.

"In the early Qing Dynasty, if you were tired, you would be poor, and then you would be flogged. You have to borrow money for business, pawn and rice, and you can't clean up after borrowing a hundred, so your family is ruined and your life is martyred.' "

Shanghainese Ye recorded the situation in Jiangnan, the most economically developed area in China. "'If you are poor, you will be flogged every day, and merchants will have to borrow money and pawn money and rice. If you borrow a hundred, you will not be able to clean up, and your family business will be destroyed and your life will be sacrificed.'"

Under the oppression of the Qing dynasty, it was not a question of how much tax was levied, but "the wealth of the family was great and the lives were ruined." There was no similar situation in Jiangnan during the Chongzhen period, not one!

Meng Sen wrote "Beating the Case"

"Ming jiangnan land tax heavy. But often in arrears, the case is cleared. I noticed that there were more than 13 thousand gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, calling them "anti-grain", and then they did everything they could to whip the floor. A flower detective (Ye Fan Love) owes a dollar, and he is also ruined. There is a folk saying that' the flower detective is worthless'. "

Such a thing was unthinkable in the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty! Thirteen thousand people are not a small number, and the Qing dynasty will not be as polite as the Ming government. It is almost common for Ming Dynasty to owe taxes. It's so much in name, I'm afraid it would be nice if I could really collect it. However, if you dare to default, you will be embarrassed to come, and the butcher knife will hang around your neck immediately.

Lv Liuliang's words, "Today's poverty begins with Xi", are also recorded in the book The Mystery of Justice written by Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty. This sentence was originally put forward by Yongzheng angrily as the crime of Lv Liuliang's heinous behavior, but it didn't mean to keep some real records of people at that time (it's no wonder that as soon as Qianlong came to power, he quickly destroyed the book his father worked so hard to write as a banned book. As a son, he knew that all the bullshit prosperity in Qing Dynasty was based on lies, and there was a truth that was passed down to later generations, even as a negative teaching material, which was quite threatening. Lv Liuliang mainly lived from the late Ming Dynasty to the Kangxi period, and what he said today refers to the Kangxi period when he said this. When the Ming Dynasty perished, he seemed to be the same age as the young hero Xia Wanchun, whether he was fourteen or sixteen. It is naturally an exaggeration to say "Emperor Zixi". After all, he has never seen the era before his birth, and there is no way to compare it, but at least he experienced it in Chongzhen era and he personally experienced it in Kangxi era. The so-called "today's poverty, only to see the emperor Xihe" is probably certain. In Lv Liuliang's view, this sentence also shows from the side that people under Manchu rule live in poverty and hardship!

If we say that during the period from the middle period of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty to the twentieth year of Kangxi, the various burdens borne by the people add up, on average, it should be about three times or even four times that of Chongzhen (for individual areas, it is not a problem of three times or four times, but a problem of all property and even life loss), it should be an exaggeration. However, such a burden obviously did not make the Manchu government collapse, but made them stabilize their rule.

From the above analysis, we can generally see that from the horizontal comparison, the tax in Chongzhen period is not heavy compared with the western countries and Japan in the same period. From the vertical comparison, compared with the Manchu after entering the customs, it is extremely vicious. Crazy exploitation, sucking bones, extorting money, what is the little tax increase in Chongzhen period?

On the Concealment of Chongzhen

Is the emperor really that good?

Three salaries in the late Ming dynasty

Analysis of the cause of death in Ming Dynasty-Chongzhen was also not responsible.

The so-called "prosperous times" are almost always hungry.

Was the ancient ruler of China really that bad?

A Comparison of Taxation between Chongzhen Period and Early Qing Dynasty

Why did the low taxes in the Ming Dynasty provoke a large-scale uprising?