Question/How did the Ming Dynasty die of poverty?
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Introduction: Since ancient times, taxation has been the foundation of the country, and every country attaches great importance to it. But in history, there is such a dynasty, because of its disordered fiscal policy, which led to the demise of the country, that is, the Ming Dynasty.
The demise of the Ming Dynasty was ostensibly due to internal and external troubles, which led to a rise of soldiers, and was eventually overthrown by Li Zicheng's peasant rebel army. But in fact, the root cause is poor death. How poor was the Ming Dynasty in the end?
First, how poor the end of the Ming Dynasty really was
According to historical records, the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue at its peak was only 20 million taels of silver a year. Maybe everyone thinks that this number is OK, but if you compare it, you will know that this number is really small.
The territory of the Song Dynasty was half that of the Ming Dynasty, but during the Northern Song Dynasty, the annual tax revenue of the Song Dynasty was more than 160 million yuan, the annual income of the Han Dynasty and the Sui and Tang Dynasties also reached about 50 million, and the annual tax revenue of the Qing Dynasty as the most spineless dynasty in China also reached about 82 million, even after the compensation for the cession of land, there was still money to purchase warships and form the Beiyang Marine Division. In contrast, it can be seen that the Ming Dynasty was really poor enough.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the annual revenue of the state treasury was only four million taels. What is this concept, this little money is not enough to pay officials a year's salary, let alone fight wars and disaster relief.
After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he also discovered the poverty of the national treasury, so he was very frugal in his daily life, and it is said that the emperor's dragon robes were patched. When Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, the entire Treasury of the Ming Dynasty was not enough to have 100 million taels of silver, forcing the emperor to borrow money from his ministers and pay military salaries to the Qinwang troops everywhere.
Second, why was the Ming Dynasty so poor
1、? Heavy agriculture suppresses business
Perhaps everyone will ask, in history, the commerce of the Ming Dynasty was quite possible, why does it show that the Dynasty has the performance of heavy agriculture and anti-commerce? In fact, the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce was contained in all chinese dynasties, especially the Ming Dynasty. Although the budding of capitalism once appeared in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and handicrafts developed in jiangnan, this was only a local phenomenon.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from a peasant background, has always been indifferent to the landlord class and merchants, and has always adopted a policy of cracking down on commercial trade, believing that merchants do not do practical things and take advantage of opportunism. It was even ordered that merchants should not wear silk, which led to the Ming Dynasty's tax policy has always been based on agriculture, the implementation of a two-tax system, agriculture's tax payment is mainly in kind, that is, direct payment of grain.
At the same time, a ban on the sea was promulgated, so that the Chinese people were not allowed to do business overseas and overseas trade was prohibited. One of the important taxes of the Northern Song Dynasty was the trade tax, and the Northern Song government opened up overseas trade, earned a lot of foreign silver, and filled the domestic finance.
These policies of the Ming Dynasty made the Ming government lose a huge source of financial revenue, which also led to the fact that the money of the Ming Dynasty was not enough.
2、? Land annexation
Beginning in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, land annexation was severe. Originally, the state's tax revenue was mainly "field endowment", in the early Ming Dynasty, the income of field endowment was basically maintained at about 27 million stones, and by the middle and late period, land annexation became more and more serious.
Due to the Ming Dynasty's heavy use of literati, as long as they were admitted to the examination, they would be exempted from the tax on the field. So most of the Ming officials were annexing land and avoiding taxes. Many farmers are also more than happy to attach their land to officials and avoid paying taxes.
In the long run, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, about five percent of the real peasant households were responsible for about 70 percent of the country's tax revenue. Such a peasant, even if he smashes pots and sells iron, he cannot pay much tax.
In addition, some landlord classes and merchants, even if they only need to pay a small commercial tax, still collude with the bureaucracy and wantonly damage their workers and private interests.
3、? Privileged class
The Ming Dynasty had few sources of tax revenue, but its expenditure was very large. As early as the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, the government stipulated that each prince should be paid a minimum of 10,000 stones per year, which was more than 7 times that of Ming officials. Moreover, the consumption of the Wang Ye family is paid for by the government.
Most of the princes had many children and many grandchildren, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were tens of thousands of descendants of the Zhu family. The cost of support for these people is quite large, and sometimes the financial revenue of a province is not enough to support the province's royal expenses.
3. Summary
The Ming Dynasty was already too poor to be poor in the Chongzhen period, and the Chongzhen Emperor once began to dismantle the national post in order to save money, which forced Li Zicheng, who was still working at the post, to rebel, and finally directly destroyed the Ming Dynasty. If the Chongzhen Emperor had known this, I don't think he would have abolished the station under any circumstances.