Economic background of yeoman farmers

The yeoman is a unique class of landowners in China and an important part of the agricultural population. Individual farmers play an important role in the whole social economy and production development. Therefore, it is very important to study the economic status of yeomen, which can help us understand a series of economic and political problems related to it. Section 1 Advantages of the yeoman's economy The so-called advantages of the yeoman's economy are shown by comparison with the tenant's economy. What are the advantages? First of all, the yeoman owns private land. Although he also undertakes class service to the country, he is free from land rent exploitation. In this way, under the condition of operating the same area of land, yeoman farmers will have more net rent than tenant farmers. These products can not only improve life, but also be transformed into means of production and put into the production process. Therefore, when tenant farmers can only maintain simple reproduction, yeoman farmers have the ability to expand reproduction. Secondly, the second advantage of the yeoman economy can be derived from the above points, that is, the minimum necessary cultivated land quota of the yeoman can be lower than that of the tenant farmer, and the maximum cultivated land quota can be higher than that of the tenant farmer. The yeoman economy is more adaptable and flexible than the tenant economy. The main conditions for determining the minimum necessary farmland quota for farmers are: the relationship between minimum necessary labor, yield per mu and mountain tax can be expressed as follows: land rent = tax+pure land rent. Therefore, on the premise that the minimum necessary labor amount of the yeoman and the tenant is the same, the minimum necessary cultivated land quota of the yeoman must be less than that of the tenant because the yield per mu-the tax amount per mu > the yield per mu-the rent amount per mu. This shows that even if a certain amount of land is cultivated below the minimum necessary rent limit of tenant farmers, the yeoman farmers still have the ability to maintain simple reproduction. The maximum cultivated land limit of yeomen also depends on the following conditions: first, the number of family labor and the ability to support production. Self-employed individuals can combine a pure land rent into the necessary labor force, which is bound to be easier to support production than tenant farmers, so they are more qualified to manage the largest cultivated land that the existing labor force can cultivate. Second, when expanding reproduction, is it beneficial to invest capital in new land? Or is it beneficial to supplement the original cultivated land with the same amount of workbooks? Self-employed people will definitely compare the two. This is basically the same as tenant farmers. In addition, the maximum cultivated land quota of yeomen increases with the improvement of farming technology, but we know that in general, the farming technology level of yeomen often exceeds that of tenant farmers, so the gap between the maximum cultivated land quota of yeomen and the maximum land lease quota of tenant farmers may be even greater in the later period of feudal society. Although yeoman farmers have the ability to cultivate a larger area of land than tenant farmers, the actual amount of land cultivated is often lower than the actual amount of land rented by tenant farmers. This is because: first, under normal circumstances, when farmers expand their cultivated land, they must buy more land and pay a considerable premium; The lessee does not have to pay the land price in advance when expanding the land lease. Therefore, the maximum cultivated land limit for farmers will increase or decrease inversely with the land price. Only when the land can be obtained without paying the land price can the advantages of yeoman farmers over tenant farmers be shown. After the peasant uprising hit the landlord's land ownership, a large number of farmers can occupy the land without paying the land price, and the land price is relatively low, which is a favorable opportunity for the yeoman economy to play its role. Second, reclaiming wasteland is also an important way for farmers to expand cultivated land, without paying the land price, but it is an economic adventure. If the cost of land reclamation is equal to or fluctuates with the land price, then farmers will refuse land reclamation. Farmers are the most prudent and cautious producers in the economy, and are usually more willing to manage the original small plots of land diligently than to take risks easily. Third, "an acre of fertile land is ten times that of thin land, and an acre of fine land is ten times that of barren land, while foolish farmers are insatiable, thinking that extensive planting and thin harvest are not known." [1] As private landowners, it is impossible for farmers not to consider this "grain-oriented" problem when expanding cultivated land. Therefore, in order to avoid increasing taxes, farmers would rather try their best to increase additional support on the original cultivated land, dig deep and dig carefully, and increase the output per unit area than expand the cultivated land easily. It can be seen that on some occasions, yeomen can obtain land without paying land price; But in addition, in general, the actual cultivated land of yeomen is lower than that of tenant farmers. This gives the yeoman economy an advantage over the tenant farmer's intensive economic production, so some people in the Qing Dynasty said: "Small households cultivate their own land, and they often have a good harvest with little planting;" Tenants plant according to the land, planting more and harvesting less. " [2] Jia Sixie's so-called "every family farming, will measure their own strength, rather less good, not more evil" [3], may be based on the experience of yeomen. In a word, the labor productivity and yield per mu of yeoman farmers exceed that of tenant farmers. Again, although yeomen often have the possibility of bankruptcy, after all, the land is their own private property, so it is easy to make long-term plans when using the land and try to improve the abundance of the land. Even if you have to sell the land, the land with higher abundance can get higher land price. Tenants who cultivate the landlord's land may withdraw their rents at any time. In this case, the cost of farmers' work to improve the soil is lost by the trunk of the land. Therefore, not only on weekdays, tenants refused to advance to the land without any worries to improve its fertility, but also tried to exhaust the fertility of the land on the eve of rent withdrawal. In the last week, Guo Wei once ordered: "If the customer Yuan Dian is a mulberry house in Zhuangtian Province, he will give each house as a permanent business." . Once the state tenant farmer becomes a yeoman, because he "has his own business and is happier than one family, he builds a house and plants trees, and dares to achieve his own skills." [4] This is a strong proof that the yeoman economy is superior to the tenant economy in land use. In the history of China, in a sense, the increase or decrease of the number of yeomen often indicates the slow development of social production and the rise and fall of the economy, and it is also related to the national fiscal revenue. Feudal rulers regarded yeomen as the class most capable of providing taxes and soldiers. Song Manlu's army said, "For the sake of the country, we should not rush to protect the people. The importance of protecting people lies in taking care of the main family; And lure customers to buy land, in order to give priority to households. If the owner is loyal to the public, the state will be self-sufficient. " [5] "Empowering the people to plow the fields" in the Han Dynasty, the land occupation in the Western Jin Dynasty, the land occupation in the Northern Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the land reclamation by immigrants in the Ming Dynasty are all measures to cultivate yeomen. In doing so, the feudal regime did not really want to "protect the people", but proceeded from the interests of the landlord class to ensure tax sources and soldiers for itself. However, Lu Dajun's remarks and these measures prove the importance of yeoman economy from the side. There were a large number of yeoman economies in China feudal society, which had obvious advantages, which was one of the main reasons why the economy and culture of China feudal society were far ahead of the corresponding stage in the West for a long period of time. Section II Instability of yeoman's Economy Farmers who pay land rent for their products have been able to exploit each other and carve them up. The yeoman economy is superior to the tenant economy, and it is also a small-scale individual economy, so it is easier to have exploitation relations and polarization between the rich and the poor. As far as the possibility of becoming a landlord is concerned, tenant farmers are not as good as yeomen farmers. However, there are only a few yeomen who can really become landlords, and most of them will go bankrupt and become tenant farmers or farm labourers. The duality of yeomen's economy makes their congenital zone seriously unstable. In this sense, the yeoman is not so much an independent economic component as a transition to other economic components. An important reason why the yeoman's economy is more unstable than the tenant's economy is that the increase or decrease of state class services far exceeds the increase or decrease of private land rent. Land rent exploitation is a pure economic relationship, which is not easily interfered by other factors, while the taxes and corvees borne by yeomen are a legal right relationship outside the economic relationship. The burden of class service is not only related to the contrast of class power and the production situation of farmers, but also depends on the consumption demand of feudal rulers, the peaceful environment or the outbreak of war, the construction of large-scale projects and the implementation of policies. Lu Nangong, a Song Dynasty poet, once said, "There are many guests now, but few main households. There are also differences between the so-called owners, such as taxes accounting for hundreds of thousands, people accounting for thousands, and owners; And those with 100 yuan and 10 yuan are also the main households. ..... 100 yuan 10 yuan's house, named as the main customer, is actually not as good as the customer. who is it? The land you occupy can't give you food and clothing, but you often ask for it according to business, and there are two taxes, so it's not as good as a guest. " [6] The so-called 100 or 1000 main households here are obviously landlords; A family with 100 yuan and 10 yuan is obviously a yeoman. Their economic conditions are superior to those of tenant farmers, but the actual situation has fallen below the customers because of the "two taxes". This fact strongly shows that taxes and corvee are the important reasons for the extremely unstable economy of yeoman farmers. Landlords and yeomen are both landowners and bear the burden of class service. Landlords are exploiters, who can pass on taxes and corvees to tenants, and sometimes they can evade class service through various legal and illegal means. In order to ensure fiscal revenue, the landlord regime often transfers this part of the tax deficit to farmers. As for the yeoman, he can't pass on the class service to others, but also bear the tax passed on to him because of the landlord's tax evasion. In this sense, yeoman farmers are more likely to go bankrupt than tenant farmers. Amin scholar Fan Wenjing said, "What are you doing?" ? The money of a big family can make the gods understand, and the power can make the ghosts understand, so it is not difficult to escape; And avoid taking off the pheasant, most people are interested. What is the geometry of the product of China people and Qi pulse? As soon as you shoulder the service, your home will tilt. One family fell, followed by another, and one family fell for several years, and there was no home in the city! "[7] It is under the heavy pressure of class service that the bankrupt yeoman is getting bigger and bigger, and Fan painted a vivid picture of the yeoman's economic turmoil here. In the process of bankruptcy, the yeoman finally had to reluctantly give up his small piece of land and become a tenant farmer or farm worker. Secondly, the economic isolation and weak economic strength of yeomen are also important reasons for the extremely unstable economy of yeomen. The instability of agricultural production has led to a sharp increase or decrease in output, and yeomen also know the truth of "plowing more than three, plowing more than nine" However, in order to avoid paying the land price or incurring heavy food, they prefer to cultivate the original small plots of land instead of expanding the cultivated land easily. The scale of this private individual economy is extremely limited, and it is difficult to resist the attack of natural disasters, so "the middle-class families are not satisfied in famine years" [8]. When there are serious difficulties in reproduction, landlords are afraid of "land shortage" and will consider the problem of tenant farmers maintaining reproduction to some extent. Therefore, it can be said that the life of tenant farmers is not as "guaranteed" as that of western serfs, but it is still "guaranteed" to some extent. As for yeomen, they are restricted to be completely isolated economically; Although the landlord regimes in past dynasties also had the so-called "famine policy", however, "the sky is high and the emperor is far away", and the far water is not enough to quench his thirst. Moreover, the ruler thinks that the yeoman owns certain property and is not the poorest class, so he is not the first object in need of relief, so the yeoman benefits little. Therefore, Dong Xuan, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said, "Destroying fields and combining laws will lead to many poor households, while middle-class households will take out loans. "The economic strength of the yeoman is not as good as that of the landlord, and the relief and" guarantee "obtained is not as good as that of the tenant farmer. This unfavorable economic position makes the yeoman economy extremely unstable. The combination of the above factors makes "a middle-class family, often one year's income is not enough to support one year's expenses." "[10] Once farmers can't maintain simple reproduction, they have to reduce the actual amount of cultivated land, or even fall below the minimum necessary amount of cultivated land. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, there was a title deed two years later: "Liu Jiaxing, a native of Cihui, has four plots of land at the mouth of the Dongkou Canal, which are * * * ten mu. Because of the shortage of manpower, it was not allowed to sow, so it was rented to the local citizen Fan Caozi for three years and stopped planting for three years. The price of dry goods is fixed, wheat is five stones, and cloth is five feet. Another piece of cloth will be distributed until the end of May. After buying three feet of cloth, I went to □ and paid Liu Jiaxing ... "[1 1]. Obviously, Liu Jiaxing rented the land not as a landlord, but as a semi-bankrupt yeoman because of" lack of manpower and no planting ". As far as ten acres of land are concerned, the standard rent is far lower than the general rent. In fact, although Liu Jiaxing has not completely given up the land ownership, this land has partially become the self-cultivated land occupied by Fan Caozi, and even become the means of production that Fan Shi can use to exploit others. On the occasion of Fan Caozi's personal farming, this kind of land rent means the division between farmers; When Fan Caozi sublets the land, this land has partially supplemented the landlord's means of exploitation. If the bankruptcy of the yeoman develops further, he will become a land seller. When the land was not enough for farming, the yeoman was forced to start renting land from the landlord, and he had the status of a semi-tenant. In order to maintain the remaining small plots of land, when renting land, they can accept more stringent tenancy conditions and endure a higher exploitation rate than tenants; When there are financial difficulties, they are more willing to bear the exploitation of usury than tenant farmers. In this case, the remaining small piece of land is not only no longer a favorable condition for farmers to develop production, but also a material factor that urges farmers to unconditionally sacrifice their own interests and endure all kinds of exploitation. Farmers in this semi-yeoman and semi-tenant status can often reduce their necessary labor to below the average level of ordinary tenant farmers. At this time, the basis of their continued survival is not the superior production conditions, but the desperate struggle through lowering living standards and increasing labor intensity. Even so, they can't avoid losing all their land in the end. After the yeoman went bankrupt completely, the land was annexed by the landlord, and as a labor force, it was transformed into tenant farmers and farm workers exploited by the landlord. Therefore, as far as the material conditions (land) of social production are concerned, the owner's small land ownership can only be the backup and supplement of the landlord's land ownership; As far as the working conditions of social production are concerned, yeomen are the potential reserve forces of tenant farmers and farm labourers. Under the premise that the law of land annexation often works, the yeoman economy has been producing the landlord economy. It is in this sense that we believe that the owner's land ownership is a vassal of the landlord's land ownership. Since the feudal society in China, there have been a large number of refugees. As early as the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there was a serious situation of "two million refugees from Kanto" [12]. In later dynasties, the records of refugees were inexhaustible. The continuous emergence of a large number of refugees is naturally related to the bankruptcy of tenant farmers, but more importantly, it is due to the bankruptcy of a large number of yeomen farmers. Fu Bi, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said in an essay: "I was in Ruzhou yesterday, and I overheard many Hebei refugees coming to Xu, Ruzhou, Tang and Dengzhou to meet. ..... Let's see and ask, most of them are inferior households such as Zhen, Zhao, Xing, Marsh, Magnetism and Equality. On a scale of ten, about four or five points are not from the town, and the remaining five or six points are people from Zhaozhou who are harmonious, bright, magnetic and physical. About six or seven out of ten is the fifth category, and three or four points is the fourth category, poor households and homeless people without soil. There is no third-class home. I asked why I came to other States so far away from the countryside. In the meantime, there was a period of weeping: reluctant to leave the grave, reluctant to leave the flesh and blood, reluctant to leave the broken property, reluctant to leave the money saved by the disaster, and worried that they would kill the old and the young, so they had to flee for their lives and compete for simple accommodation. ..... I overheard someone say in the imperial court that refugees have chariots and horses, and they were all built by upper-class families, not by the poor, so that the imperial court wanted to send them away but returned to their original places. This is a person who only takes hearsay as a word and never asks himself, but knows that there are many cars and luggage, so he is called a first-class person. Every time I see seven or eight carts (the same below), about forty or fifty, with more than two hundred mouths; Four or five carts, about thirty or forty, more than a hundred; One or two carts, maybe 57 or 70 people. Its carts, donkeys and horses, etc., are generally like carts. They are close neighbors in the country, or get off, or get out of the donkey, or get out of the rope, or get out of the set, hand in hand, and get up in teams, so luggage is second to none. "[13] This is a very precious historical material about refugees. In the Song Dynasty, the third-class households "never merged" [14], which were basically landlords, and no one joined the refugee group. The fourth and fifth types of families are yeomen and semi-yeomen, who constitute the vast majority of the above-mentioned refugee groups. " Soilless drifters are bankrupt tenants, and they are only a minority. Fu Bi moved to Ruzhou in the first year of Xi 'ning [15], and the reign of God was the so-called stage of "more guests and fewer masters" in Lu Nangong. Among farmers, the number of tenant farmers is far less than that of yeoman farmers, which strongly proves that yeoman farmers are more insecure in life and more unstable in economy than tenant farmers. The Song Dynasty was a period when the number of tenant farmers increased greatly and the process of feudalism was completed. The proportion of farmers among refugees remains the same. In other generations, refugees mainly came from bankrupt farmers, which is even more obvious. The prosperity or decline of yeoman economy is actually a barometer to measure the rise and fall of social economy and the relaxation and intensification of class contradictions. Through the increase or decrease of the number of refugees, it can be predicted that the political weather will turn from cloudy to sunny, or that a "storm" is coming, so some people in the Qing Dynasty say; Refugees turn to "stealing" for the people, and refugees turn to "stealing".