In the history of China for more than two thousand years, if you ask about the most helpless and dark period, I am afraid that many people will think that it is the Period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and the end of the Qing Dynasty. The end of the Qing Dynasty is arguably the most regrettable period of time. Thousands of years of accumulation, in just a hundred years, have been squandered. In this way, a great power missed the opportunity to go global, and finally for a long time, it was reduced to fat meat to be slaughtered.
However, before that, it can be said that the Qing Dynasty still had a prosperous era, such as the kangqian prosperous era, which is called the last glory of the agricultural era. Unfortunately, after this, the Qing Dynasty began to turn from prosperity to decline, and finally embarked on the end road.
The direct reason for all this is the order chosen by the Qing Dynasty after that, and the piece of armor does not go to the sea. This directly led to the fact that we missed the world's largest period of geographical discovery and did not have time to participate in the process of the Industrial Revolution. It should be said that the last decay and backwardness of the Qing Dynasty led to China being beaten for a long time. And the most reflective of this is the economy of the Qing Dynasty at that time.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the best manifestation of the economic decay of the Qing Dynasty was"
poor
”。 Of course, this poverty is manifested in the aspect of the state's life for the people. We all know that in the late Qing Dynasty, the qing dynasty's finances were already very bad, and the people's money began to become difficult to eat even tomorrow's meal as prices rose. Not to mention the people, even the officials at that time, the economy was very tense.
According to the "Biography of Zeng Guofan", at that time, his money was only forty-five taels of silver a year, plus the bonuses and grain of the Qing Dynasty, and there were only more than one hundred taels a year. According to the research of scholars, one or two pieces of silver at that time were probably more than two hundred yuan today.
So, how corrupt was the Qing government? Look at Zeng Guofan's salary for one month, you will know.
At that time, even an official like Zeng Guofan had an annual salary of less than 30,000 yuan, which was less than 3,000 yuan per month.
And this kind of low-priced life, in the late Qing Dynasty, was difficult to survive. Not to mention that senior officials need to often talk to their superiors in order to make a career."
Communication
”。
If this money cannot satisfy their lives, then they can only think of plugging this money from other places. So, this creates a "
Endless loop
”。 For the sake of their own desires, Qing officials had to find ways to get good things from the hands of the people and the hands of the imperial court, and the people had no money to live, so natural taxes were less. The imperial court received less income, and naturally could not maintain too much, so it had to save from various places.
Where does this save money? Of course, it was saved from the hands of the courtiers, otherwise it would be expected that the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty at that time would have to cut back on food and clothing.
So, was the income of the Qing Dynasty really so poor at that time? Do you even have to deduct the salaries of your own officials?
The answer is no.
From the "Qing Dynasty Finances from 1840 to 1849", in fact, you can get a glimpse of the leopard. At that time, the total income of 1840 was as high as 390 million taels of silver in the Qing Dynasty. During the Opium War, it grew by 0.1 billion yuan every year. If you say it directly, it may not have much of an idea, and the best way is to contrast.
According to the records of the "History of Ming", most of the total annual income of the Ming Dynasty was about three million two silver, and sometimes it was paid in lieu of grain and grass or treasures, even if it was uniformly converted, the Ming Dynasty only had more than 20 million silver a year. According to the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", during the Qianlong period, when the Qing Dynasty was at its strongest, the government also earned more than 50 million silver a year. That is to say, in the late Qing Dynasty, the annual income was more than ten times more than that of Kangqian's prosperous life. This period of time is less than a few hundred years, and even inflation is difficult to reach this ratio.
Then, why did such a wealthy late Qing Dynasty even deduct the salaries of officials?
The reason lies in the decay of the late Qing Dynasty. In the Opium War and the wars that followed, the Qing Dynasty could be said to be a piece of fat meat, ready to be slaughtered. The biggest expense is to pay reparations to other countries, and if these reparations are all added up before and after, they all have at least about 1.3 billion taels of silver. That is, the income of the Whole Country of the Qing Dynasty that did not eat or drink for about three years.
Of course, this is definitely not out of hand, so pay in installments. The amount and interest of the installment payment are tens of millions of dollars per year. In addition, the rulers of the late Qing Dynasty also had to use their income to live a luxurious life! For example, Empress Dowager Cixi, who is well known to everyone, spent all the funds of the Beiyang Fleet on her own banquets in order to celebrate her sixtieth birthday, which directly led to the complete destruction of the Beiyang Fleet in the back. And the mausoleum she built after her death and the value of her funerary goods are even more huge, almost comparable to the annual income of the Qing Dynasty, and its luxury can be imagined.
The rest is used for the operation of the country and the lives of the people. But how much of this money can be completely retained to the next level? This also needs to be a question mark. And this huge income comes from the people, but the people cannot benefit. In the end, under this cycle, the Qing Dynasty could only accelerate decay and even collapse.
Resources
: Biography of Zeng Guofan" (曾国藩傳), "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty".
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