In the second year of Huang Kai, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty ordered the implementation of land equalization system. One ding receives 100 mu of farmland, 80 mu is open farmland (which should be turned over to the state after the death of the farmland recipient), and 20 mu is mulberry field or hemp field (which can be passed on to future generations for sale). Women, handmaiden, Niu Ding, Beijing officials and foreign officials all have corresponding regulations.
Although farmers' land quota is often insufficient, the implementation of the land equalization system, after all, enabled landless farmers to get some land, improved their labor enthusiasm, and inhibited land merger to a certain extent, thus playing a certain role in the recovery and development of agricultural production at that time.
Rent transfer compulsory service system
In Huang Kai for two years, it was stipulated that when Ding reached the age of eighteen, he was responsible for renting and adjusting labor; 60-year-olds are old and exempt from paying rent and labor. Land rent is land rent, which is regulated by changing households, and forced labor is labor. A husband and a woman are a bed, and they pay the rent of three stones of millet every year. Those who harvest mulberry fields pay a silk horse, three taels of cotton, and those who harvest hemp fields pay one end of cloth and three catties of hemp. Ding Shan and the handmaiden only need to pay half the rent. Ding Nan works as a coolie for a month every year.
Open the emperor for three years, reduce rent and adjust work. In the first three years, the land resumption people refused to pay rent and perform military service. The silk adjustment is reduced from one horse to two feet per year, and the labor service is reduced from one month to twenty days per year.
After ten years in office, the emperor stipulated that people over 50 years old could be "exempted from service and defeated in servitude", and Nablus was used instead of forced labor.
These measures have lightened the burden on farmers, improved their work enthusiasm and promoted the development of agricultural production.
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However, it was only in the second generation of the Sui Dynasty that Yang Di boasted about the country's prosperity, made great construction, made expeditions everywhere, and collected countless possessions in order to satisfy his extravagant life. A large number of soldiers and migrant workers died, rural areas were extremely short of labor and farm animals, a large amount of land was barren, social economy was seriously damaged, and people's lives were unsustainable. It led to peasant uprisings everywhere, and eventually led to the demise of the Sui Dynasty.
the Tang Dynasty
In the early Tang dynasty, the system of equal land was continued. The basic system is similar to that of the Sui Dynasty, but there are some changes in details.
The sale of land is strictly controlled, and there are cases where it can be sold, but it is stipulated that the buyer of land shall not exceed the quota of land he should occupy.
The land equalization system in the Tang Dynasty did not touch a large amount of land occupied by landlords, and it was often just allocated from wasteland. Landlords often occupy more land than farmers. However, because the land equalization system prohibits buying and selling land and occupying land indefinitely, it inhibits land merger to a certain extent, protects the small-scale peasant economy and has a good impact on the recovery and development of agriculture.
Tenancy adjustment method is the main tax system in the early Tang Dynasty, and the basis is the equal land system. The rent is levied by the amount of rent, and two stones are paid every year, which is called rent. Every year, the mulberry planting area pays two feet of silk and three ounces of cotton, and the hemp planting area pays two feet and five feet of cloth and three pounds of hemp, which is in one tune. Every ding has to serve twenty fields of corvee every year, plus two days of leap month. If you don't wait, you will break three feet of silk or cloth three feet seven inches and five minutes a day, which is called mediocrity. If you work overtime, you will be exempted for fifteen days and thirty days. The extra service cannot exceed thirty days. These policies give farmers more time to engage in agricultural production, which is conducive to social and economic development.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong, taxes and corvees were lighter than those in Sui Dynasty, especially the forced corvees were much lighter and more moderate, so as not to rob the farming season. Emperor Taizong took a series of measures, such as streamlining institutions, saving government expenses, and increasing social workers in exchange for a large number of farm animals, so that social production gradually resumed.
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However, the land equalization system implemented in the early Tang Dynasty did not change the situation that landlords occupied a large amount of land, and land could be bought and sold in various names, which could only delay but not prevent land merger. The land equalization system has been gradually destroyed, and land annexation is developing day by day. In the late Tang Xuanzong, many farmers who lost their land fled everywhere.
Especially after the Anshi Rebellion, the separatist situation in the buffer regions was formed. The strongmen of the buffer region often do not return to the central government and pay taxes to the court. Become a confidant of the Tang Dynasty.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, eunuchs were authoritarian. The wanton plundering of people's land has aggravated people's suffering and made social contradictions more acute.
The development of land annexation and the destruction of land equalization system made farmers lose their land. A large number of farmers left their household registration and became private tenants of landlords. The state controlled the population to decrease and the income to drop sharply, which caused a serious financial crisis. The Tang government took two measures: one was to rectify the land equalization system, but due to the rapid development of land merger, this measure had little effect. Second, levying all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees, expanding the scope of taxation, and arousing strong opposition from the people.
Later, the Tang dynasty decided to carry out reforms focusing on the fiscal and taxation system. For example, the monopoly of salt will be nationalized, the grain transportation will be rectified, and the Changping law will be implemented (in fact, the price will be adjusted by buying cheap and selling expensive, and the government will profit from it).
The above measures have not fundamentally solved the financial difficulties. In the first year of Dezong, Prime Minister Yang Yan suggested the promulgation of the "two tax laws" (hence the name).
The two tax laws were a comprehensive reform of the tax system at that time.
The main contents of the two tax laws are as follows: 1. Cancel the rental loan and all miscellaneous fees, and keep the tax quota. 2. Taxes will be paid based on the household registration of the place of residence at that time. Third, not according to taxes, but according to assets and fields. 4. Hong Kong businessmen who don't have a fixed residence also have to pay taxes. 5. Pay taxes every summer and autumn. Six, the central government according to the current fiscal expenditure budget, set the total tax revenue, and then distributed to all localities for collection.
The advantages are as follows: 1. In a certain period of time, it has increased the income of the country and reduced the burden on the people to a certain extent. Second, it is more reasonable to tax according to assets and fields. Third, the concept of "calculating money by tax and discounting things" emphasizes the importance of money and promotes the development of commodity economy to a certain extent.
Disadvantages: First, land merger is not subject to any restrictions, which is more serious. Second, the practice of living within our means has made the tax amount increase continuously in the future. Third, because of the lack of money, prices have been falling, which actually increases the burden on the people.
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In the late Tang Dynasty, land annexation became more and more serious. "The rich have fields, but the poor have no place to stand." Class contradictions have intensified sharply. The burden on farmers has increased. The reasons are: falling prices; Tax increase; Miscellaneous tax increase; Raise the price of salt; Advance tax collection and so on. The people can't stand it.
Huang Chao attacked the landlord class on a large scale, and the gentry class was basically eliminated. The social status of farmers has improved, and the situation of high concentration of land has also eased. Uprising embodies the peasants' thoughts and demands of "average".
Last week (95 1-960)
In the late Zhou Dynasty, Chai Rong's economic reforms mainly included: rectifying fields, stopping farming, recruiting people to reclaim land, setting taxes and developing productive forces. The national strength of the later Zhou Dynasty was greatly enhanced.
Northern Song Dynasty
Song Taizu accepted Zhao Pu's suggestion and established a financial system controlled by the central government, which greatly weakened the financial power of local governments. However, the excessive concentration of financial power leads to the shortage of local financial resources and weak material foundation.
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From the Northern Song Dynasty to Renzong, the land was highly concentrated and taxes were heavy, which made social contradictions rapidly intensify. The peasant class (that is, the fourth and fifth class families and all their customers at that time) accounted for more than 85% of the total population, and the land was less than 30%. A large number of farmers have to pay more than half of the harvest every year, and some areas even reach 70%. Moreover, there are many kinds of corvees in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the service time is tentatively set according to the specific situation.
Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun Uprising put forward the slogan of "equality between the rich and the poor", which developed the idea of "equality between the rich and the poor" in the peasant uprising in the late Tang Dynasty and reflected the peasants' demand to change the social situation of "inequality between the rich and the poor".
During the reign of God, Wang Anshi reformed. He took "enriching Qiang Bing" as his aim, and "financial management" and "army reorganization" as his main contents.
Various financial management methods: equal loss method, young crops method, farmland water conservancy method, tax exemption method, market easy method, flat field average tax method.
The new law violated the vested interests of big bureaucrats and big landlords to a certain extent and was strongly opposed by them. Less than a year after Song Shenzong's death, all the new laws were abolished. Wang Anshi died without regret and failed in political reform.
The direct reason for the failure of the political reform is that the opposition is too strong, and the fundamental reason is that the purpose is to safeguard the interests of the feudal ruling class, but it only partially improves some aspects of the rule, and it is impossible to improve the situation of the broad masses of people at the expense of the interests of the landlord class. The most terrible thing is that the problem of land annexation has not been solved, poor farmers have benefited little from the new law, and the reform has not been supported by the broad masses of the people.
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At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the government's actions of "creating bureau", "serving bureau" and "commons" polarized class contradictions, and people everywhere rebelled.
Southern Song Dynasty
In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Song and Jin wars were fierce, people were displaced, and a large amount of land was barren. The Southern Song government took the opportunity to plunder, and the indigenous landlords in the south also tried their best to seize farmers' farmland houses. People suffer from heavy land rent exploitation, and their lives are very difficult.
After the stability of the Southern Song Dynasty, the exploitation of the people by the ruling class was even more cruel. This aroused the continuous peasant uprising.
the Yuan Dynasty
In the Yuan Dynasty, the land was concentrated, and Mongolian nobles and Han landlords occupied a lot of land. The rent rate is often above 60%, and even the feudal government has issued rent reduction orders, but it is still a dead letter.
Its tax system is chaotic, and the north and south tax systems are different. In the north, there are mainly taxes, grain and taxes. Tax grain is divided into tax and local tax. Generally speaking, instead of paying two taxes at the same time, you should pay whichever tax is more. There are also cases where a household pays two taxes at the same time. Distribution silk, silver and cash are all collected by households. The tax system in the south follows the two tax laws of the Southern Song Dynasty, and taxes are levied on an acre, which is divided into summer and autumn. Autumn taxes levy grain, summer taxes levy wood, cotton, cloth, silk, silk, cotton and other things. There are two items, namely bank notes and bank notes. In addition to the above taxes, the government also has all kinds of extortion and heavy servants and servants.
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At the end of Yuan Dynasty, corrupt officials were rampant. Land annexation is serious. Mongolian princes, lamas and monks, and the first temple are not under Mongolian princes, and the wind of land annexation by Han landlords is increasing day by day. The exploitation of the people by the Yuan government has greatly increased, and various taxes have increased by 10 times and 100 times compared with the early Yuan dynasty.
Ming dynasty
In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the exiles from all over the country to return to their hometowns for production and land reclamation according to their own abilities. The reclaimed land belongs to the people. There are three types of wasteland reclamation: civil, military and commercial.
In order to master the situation of population and land and ensure the collection of taxes, the Ming government established the yellow book (recording the number of households of Li Jia in detail), the fish scale book (land register) and Li Jia (the most basic tax collection and social management unit) system.
In the early Ming Dynasty, taxes were levied by fields, and taxes were levied by households or households. Divide summer tax and autumn grain. There are three kinds of services: Ligua, Junping and Miscellaneous.
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Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, land annexation has intensified, and the royal family, heroes, nobles, bureaucrats and landlords and rich households have plundered land, resulting in increasing concentration of land. The barracks system was gradually destroyed, and the soldiers fled helplessly. Moreover, the land was annexed and hidden by bureaucratic landlords, and the amount of land held by the Ming government was greatly reduced. During the Ming Dynasty, taxes increased. Even in the early Ming dynasty, all taxes were levied on land that had never been taught. Squeezed by heavy taxes and grain, farmers are constantly going bankrupt and unemployed.
In this case, Zhang tried to ease social contradictions and save the rule of the Ming Dynasty through reform.
Clearing up the fields and increasing some fields will help to curb the phenomenon of tax evasion by landlords and change the situation of uneven tax revenue.
Implement the "one whip method". Its basic points are as follows: first, the Ministry of Labor is forced to share the land tax, which relatively reduces the burden on farmers. Second, forced labor was changed to silver, which freed farmers from certain personal attachment. 3. Taxation and collection of silver not only reflect the development of commodity economy, but also promote the development of commodity economy.
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In the late Ming Dynasty, land annexation became more violent. "there are eleven people who have fields and nineteen tenants." Due to the profligacy of the royal family, nobles and bureaucrats, the government has successively implemented the "three salaries plus faction" (Liao salary, salary suppression and training). The total amount of three salaries is more than double that of normal taxes, so farmers can't afford to run around and the land is barren. In order to get rid of the financial crisis, the rulers of Ming Dynasty plundered the urban industrialists and businessmen. Aroused the resistance of urban residents.
Early Qing dynasty
In the early Qing Dynasty, people were recruited to reclaim land. By the end of Kangxi, the wasteland in China was basically "reclaimed".
In the eighth year of Kangxi, the court ordered the former tenants to cultivate their fields for free, which played a positive role in encouraging farmers to produce. During the reign of Kanggan, money and grain were exempted for many times, which was beneficial to the development of social economy.
The tax system in the early Qing Dynasty followed a whipping method in the Ming Dynasty. Due to the further development of land annexation and land concentration, the gap between the rich and the poor has been widening, and many problems have emerged. Therefore, during the Kangxi period, the reform was carried out, and the integration of location and location was adopted. This makes the tax increase and decrease with more fields and less fields, so farmers don't have to worry about the tax and kill and escape. It is good for family population growth and national population statistics.
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In the mid-Qing Dynasty, land was highly concentrated, especially in the Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, and land mergers intensified.
Taxes are getting heavier and heavier, and the total amount of fixed silver is getting bigger and bigger. In addition to land tax and grain, the Qing government also levied various miscellaneous taxes, and many ethnic groups in various places struggled with the government and landlords.
From the description of the above facts, we can see the following basic laws:
First, the merger and concentration of land occurred in every dynasty, and there is always a growing trend. Since its establishment, the land equalization system has been in a position of being destroyed. The other side of the high concentration of land is that a large number of farmers have lost their land. This is obviously not good for the whole country. However, as the general representative of the rule of the landlord class-the royal family can not completely stop this trend. One of the important reasons is that the royal family may have gained huge benefits in the process of land merger.
Second, at the end of each dynasty, the high concentration of land and heavy tax burden are often the two most important signs, which are the direct causes of large-scale peasant wars and can induce subsequent "troubled times" and "dynasty change". The power generated in the peasant uprising in troubled times often shocked the founding monarch greatly and became a lesson for the new dynasty to adjust its tax policy.
Three, from the first two analysis, history seems to exist "reincarnation". Perhaps, as Mr. Zhang Zhizhong mentioned, "the law of historical periodicity". Founding the country-connecting the land (at least allowing farmers to get a certain amount of land), reducing taxes-social development, accumulating wealth-land merger-increasing taxes-farmers were unbearable, and the uprising broke out-troubled times-founding the country. This cycle is repeated over and over again. As the ruling class, why do landlords fail to see this rule and continue to annex land? The possible reasons are: the limitation of cognitive methodology; The relative short-sightedness caused by egoism is reflected in the time scale on the one hand and the depth of understanding of interests on the other.
Fourth, tax collection has gradually changed from heavy household to heavy field property. This was beneficial to the peasant class at that time. Because landlords often occupy a lot of land, and a large number of farmers lack or even have no land, this has caused an unreasonable situation of uneven tax revenue. If tax is levied blindly by households, farmers will only take refuge in landlords and become "hidden people", which will reduce the total tax revenue of the country. However, this trend of tax policy is unfavorable to ordinary landlords, because it makes them pay more taxes. Here, I think, what needs to be distinguished is the interests of the country and the interests of the ruling class. Sometimes the two are not the same. Levying land property tax is beneficial to the country, but not too much loss to the landlord as the ruling class. But for farmers, the gradual decline of tax status shows that the state's control over individual farmers is gradually relaxed, which is conducive to the emergence of capitalist buds.
Five, the collection from the collection of physical objects to the collection of currency. Under the condition of natural economy, commodity exchange is underdeveloped, which makes the taxes paid by farmers have to appear in kind. With the development of economy, it is inevitable that taxes exist in the form of money. This method simplifies the operation procedure of tax service, thus promoting the development of commodity economy. However, when the government issues money improperly or intentionally lowers prices, it actually increases the burden on farmers.
6. A separate investigation of forced labor can draw the following conclusions: In the land rent tax in Han Dynasty, representative forced labor is more important than land rent levied by fields. From Wei Jin to Tang Dynasty, the rent adjustment (that is, household adjustment, rent adjustment in Tang Dynasty) was still mainly based on forced labor, and farming was particularly important. The tax laws of Tang, Song and Ming included the levy representing labor in the two taxes, but did not open the service of "the rich serve their wealth and the poor serve their strength". After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a kind of whipping method drove all the "services" underground. This situation also reflects the rulers' exploitation of the surplus labor force of working peasants, from the heavy labor burden in Qin and Han dynasties to the gradual reduction of labor burden and the gradual increase of physical burden, to the gradual reduction of physical burden and the gradual increase of monetary burden, and finally to the monetary burden. Therefore, we can divide the tax system into four stages: the tax in Han Dynasty, the tax from Wei Jin to Tang Dynasty, the tax from Tang Song to Ming Dynasty and the whip after the middle of Ming Dynasty. These four stages are consistent with the four stages of agricultural output expansion, which also shows that the way the rulers exploit the surplus labor force of farmers changes with the development of productive forces.
7. Based on the four, five, six and three points, it can be seen that with the evolution of economy, class relations and financial demand, the structure of tax service has changed greatly. The land rent (tax), customs tax and labor service in Qin and Han dynasties evolved into land rent (tax) and labor service levied by land (households) in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Early Tang Dynasties, and from the middle Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty after the reform of the two tax laws. In the Qing Dynasty, the tax structure of ancient China finally completed the transformation from poll tax to capital tax, and also completed the transformation from rent tax, tax, tax to land tax. In other words, there are two main ways for the evolution of China's ancient tax structure. One is that poll tax is gradually transformed into asset tax, and the other is that forced labor is gradually transformed from active service to agency service and employment service, and the final intersection of these two methods is field tax. However, the manifestations, causes and social impacts of the above-mentioned evolution process in different historical periods are quite complicated.
8.1939 65438+February, Mao Zedong's "China Revolution and China * * * Production Party" pointed out when discussing the reasons for the long-term slow development of the feudal society in China: "... the extreme poverty and backwardness of farmers caused by the cruel exploitation and oppression of the landlord class is the fundamental reason for the stagnation of economic and social life in China society for thousands of years." Exploitation includes conscription.
"Generally speaking, feudal exploitation can be divided into land tax and personal tax, and land tax is the main form of exploitation. Although the ways of exploitation in past dynasties were different, the essence of feudal exploitation was the surplus products obtained from direct production, almost all of which were paid to private landlords and feudal countries. In addition to maintaining the survival of themselves and their loved ones, most of them can only continue to reproduce simply, and some even cannot continue to reproduce simply at all. As for farmers who can expand reproduction, there are very few. "
This passage applies not only to individual farmers or individual peasant classes, but also to the whole country. In the "reincarnation" of history, the wealth accumulated all the year round will always be exhausted in the short troubled times, and the country can only maintain its simple "reproduction". Of course, there is progress, but the overall upward trend of this broken line is still very small. )