Text/Gibb
In other words, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty was at its most brilliant, its gross domestic product, which we often call GDP, ranked first in the world, which means that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was the richest in the world. However, why do ordinary people continue to rise up?
During the Qing Dynasty, almost all the wealth was firmly controlled in the hands of the magnates and landlords, although the Manchu Qing authorities belonged to the world's largest economy at their peak, but the money also belonged to a very small number of people, that is, the children of the arrogant and lascivious nobles could squander it, and the common people were completely unrelated to it.
This means that 99% of the wealth is in the hands of 1% of the people, and the rest of the wealth belongs to the 99% of the poor. British economist Professor Madison has recorded a detailed report in the Millennium History of the World Economy and drawn conclusions through the calculation and comparison of data.
In his writings, he recorded that in the 1820s, China's gross domestic product accounted for 33% of the world's total economy, while the total value of europe was less than 25%, and the United States and Japan, which at that time accounted for only 4. 8%。
From this statistics, we can clearly see that the total economic volume of the Manchu Qing Dynasty is higher than that of Europe and the United States combined. Since it is so rich, why does it still appear that "Zhumen wine stinks of meat, and the road has frozen bones"?
The Manchu Qing territory of 13.16 million square kilometers was built by relying on the Eight Banners Army, so the status of the Eight Banners was extremely high in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and since entering the customs, all those who can be associated with the "Eight Banners" can unconditionally enjoy the huge benefits given by the authorities, and the official positions of the Eight Banners are permanently hereditary.
In this way, a large number of stupid children have been created, who are arrogant and lascivious every day, constantly eating away at the treasury's salary, even women, they also have a variety of "play methods" to satisfy themselves.
It can be said that the daily profligacy of the Eight Flags disciples may be higher than the annual harvest of some Han people. You know, at that time, there were still many Han people who couldn't even eat enough.
Not only that, since the Kangxi Dynasty, the Manchu Qing authorities have prevailed among officials a "wind of gifts", which is colloquially to seek improper benefits, and this "gray trade" is like a plague, spreading rapidly and extremely active.
Power has become the fastest pipeline of interests, constantly running at high speed in the bureaucratic machine, and this way of passing on benefits in the "exchange of courtesies and courtesies" has also become the accelerant of power.
In this way, corruption continued until the middle and late Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the trend of corruption became the general trend of the officialdom, and it was difficult for anyone in the entire authority system to be left alone.
It can be said that the officials are all tied one by one, often grabbing a small tail, and will involve dozens, even hundreds of officials of different levels, and even Jiaqing's use of an iron wrist to punish corrupt officials feels extremely powerless, because he knows that if he continues like this, there will be no one to use in the Manchu Dynasty.
There was no way, the exhausted Jiaqing could only stop there, he pinned his hopes on his descendants, hoping to come up with outstanding talents to completely eliminate corruption.
But the ideal is beautiful, the reality is cold, which ever thought, since Jiaqing, the emperor is not as good as a generation, especially after Cixi listened to the curtain, the Manchu Qing is even more "short of breath", and it did not take many years for the Manchu Qing Empire to collapse.
In addition, the officials and nobles of the dynasty continued to exploit the people in order to obtain greater benefits. Manchu Qing more than 10 million land, but most of the cultivated land and means of production are in the hands of these people, the people in order to survive, must cultivate land, no land to do, you have to be a tenant, pay rent to these guys.
Although there were clear stipulations in the laws of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, with the prevalence of corruption in the officialdom and the continuous deficit of the national treasury, various artificial "harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes" continued to appear, making the people miserable and the people not having a good life.
For example, no matter what the people do, they need to pay taxes, for example, housing donations, car donations, meat donations, wine donations, involving various industries and food, clothing, housing and transportation, only unthinkable, no tax involvement.
Some netizens have joked that there is also a tax on the toilet, which will be more systematic and comprehensive. It is in this environment that the people have been forced to a dead end.
References in this article: "General History of the World", "General History of China", "The Disconnect between the Manchu Qing and the World", "CNKI Related Literature - Economy and World Economy at the Peak of the Manchu Qing Dynasty", "Baidu Encyclopedia Related Terms - Manchu Economy, Late Qing Dynasty, etc."