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Introduction:
The level of economic development during the Song Dynasty was the highest among all ancient Chinese feudal dynasties.
Therefore, when modern and contemporary economists study the social and economic development of China's feudalism, the economy of the Song Dynasty has always been an important object of study.
Compared to other dynasties, the rulers of the Song Dynasty also adopted a full range of innovative approaches to economic policy. In view of the complex situation of the economic development of the Song Dynasty, whether it was the fiscal system or the tax system, the Song Dynasty experienced changeable and complex before and after.
The ruling class tried to narrow the poverty gap, so it introduced a society-wide tax reform. The tax system introduced according to the actual development situation actually needs to take into account the two aspects of fiscal revenue growth and alleviation of social contradictions.
In the development of the Song Dynasty, did the complex and changeable tax system achieve these two goals? The changes before and after the Song Dynasty Tian Fu, what are the characteristics of its era background?
- The background of the times, the elements are complex
The establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty was highly anticipated at that time, because the long war had already overwhelmed the lives of the people.
The outbreak of war is a competition for interests between those in power, but the spread of war will directly affect the daily life of ordinary people. The unification of the world has become everyone's expectation.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, most of the young and middle-aged labor force was pulled to the battlefield. The number of social producers was in short supply, so economic development also stagnated for a while.
Coupled with the war-torn situation, it will directly affect the people's desire to have children, so in the chaotic years, the country's population is also decreasing sharply.
It was not until the establishment of the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty, when the political situation was relatively stable and the lives of the people gradually stabilized, that everyone could have excess energy to think about the possibility of economic development.
It was during this relatively stable period of time that the population of the Northern Song Dynasty increased sharply, and the number of labor force also increased significantly.
As we all know, labor is one of the important factors for the development of production. Whether they are engaged in agriculture or handicrafts, or in the commodity economy, they must create social value through social production.
Only the more people involved in social production, the greater the value that the Northern Song Dynasty can create, and the financial revenue of the imperial court will increase as a result.
The government is also aware of the necessity of developing the economy, and is even more aware of the need to increase everyone's enthusiasm for labor and production. Therefore, during that time, the imperial court successively introduced a series of policies to encourage economic development.
For example, change the previous tradition of heavy agriculture and suppress business, and encourage the development of the commodity economy by lifting curfews and other means. Another example is to reduce agricultural taxes, increase the land area in the hands of farmers, reduce the burden of farmers, and thus enhance farmers' enthusiasm for agricultural production.
Of course, the government will also vigorously support the development of handicraft workshops and shops. In the middle of the Song Dynasty, the imperial court even began to operate handicraft workshops directly in the name of the official, providing employment for many working people.
Under the active fiscal policy, the fiscal revenue of the imperial court of the Song Dynasty increased year by year. Because of this, the Song Dynasty's GDP at that time was able to rank first in the world at the same time.
However, although the commodity economy is extremely prosperous, agricultural production is still the pillar industry. Therefore, the imperial court also paid a lot of attention to the land policy and the corresponding tax system.
It is worth mentioning here that the issue of land annexation in the Song Dynasty. In previous dynasties, in order to balance the interests of landlords and peasants, the ruling class would often adopt various coercive measures to curb land annexation, so that the cultivators could have their land.
However, under the development model of the public ownership economy, this coercive means still has the rationality of existence.
But once the private ownership economy begins to sprout and develop, forced land policy will lose the possibility of sustainability.
Especially in the Song Dynasty, the development of the commodity economy led to the emergence of the concept of private ownership in some landlord classes.
Landlords monopolize as much land resources as they can, and when the concept of private ownership is entrenched in society, the government cannot continue to take measures to curb mergers.
As a result, the problem of land acquisition has become increasingly serious, and landlords have more and more land resources in their hands, but some peasants do not have arable land to participate in production. The separation of agricultural production personnel and agricultural production resources made the social contradictions caused by land resources at that time become more and more large.
Once the land is lost, the peasants lose the possibility of living and developing in a certain place for a long time. Therefore, there were more and more displaced people in society at that time. The displacement of peasants actually affects the stable order of rule.
And some landlords hold a large amount of land in their hands, and they will naturally bear a larger amount of negative taxes because they occupy land resources.
In order to avoid tax pressure, some landlords will use various means to deliberately hide the area of land or the number of strong people in their homes. In this way, the government naturally has no way to increase fiscal revenue because of land.
So at that time, this economic phenomenon became more and more serious.
In addition to the crisis caused by the development of freedom within society, the Song court also faced threats from the external environment.
It is well known that the regime of the Song Dynasty was not stable from the time of its establishment. The ethnic minority regimes in the north have always been eyeing the Central Plains, and have repeatedly launched wars of aggression over the years, trying to plunder the natural and social resources of the Song Dynasty.
The military strength of the Northern Song court became weaker and weaker due to the deliberate suppression of the ruling class, and the social trend of emphasizing civility over martial arts made many military generals chill, and also made the army of the Song Dynasty lose the power to fight with ethnic minority armies.
With the deepening of ethnic contradictions, the threat faced by the Northern Song court naturally increased. The defeat in the war required the imperial court to compensate with finance.
In the process of negotiating with ethnic minorities, the Song Dynasty could only constantly compromise and back down, exchanging economic costs for sovereignty that should be in its own hands.
More and more items needed to be paid for reparations, and the Song rulers could only desperately strengthen internal financial management. Financial management and increasing wealth became a focus of the development of the times at that time.
Under internal and external troubles, the Northern Song government faced a rather serious financial crisis. Increasing agricultural tax revenue is key to improving the country's overall economic strength. After all, agriculture still dominates many developing industries.
The Tian Fu, who was constantly reformed in the later period, was born under such a background of the times. Due to the rather complex economic environment, Tian Fu itself is also changeable and complex.
- The main content, carefully distinguished
The Song dynasty's field endowments were more complex than the tax systems of other dynasties, but they were also more reasonable.
From the perspective of historical origin, the tax system of the Song Dynasty inherited the two tax laws of the Tang Dynasty to a certain extent. However, due to the different actual economic environment, the Song Dynasty naturally innovated on the basis of the two tax laws combined with the new needs of the ruling class.
In general, different tax regimes arise for different types of fields.
The first category is public land, that is, fields that belong to the state and belong to the unified management of the government. The overall area of such fields is quite large, so the state will send special officials to manage them.
The origin of this part of the field is also very complicated, some of the original owners of the fields were the old nobles of the previous dynasty, they were replaced by new forces in the war, so their fields naturally became borderless.
Some fields are wasteland that was abandoned after the war spreads, but these fields themselves have excavation value, so they can also be treated as agricultural production land for centralized treatment.
Of course, the economic income generated by this part of the land is directly owned by the state. The imperial court's management of the public field has always been in order.
In addition to public land, private land within the social sphere naturally exists in large quantities.
Since the ruling class of the Song Dynasty did not suppress land acquisition, many privately owned land properties were monopolized in the hands of landowners.
Under the influence of the commodity economy, a fixed trading pattern has gradually formed between landlords and farmers. Peasants lease land from landlords and pay rent to landlords in a certain proportion.
For this part of the land property, the Song Dynasty basically followed the two tax laws of the previous dynasty. That is, the imperial court collected taxes twice in spring and autumn. The mature crops in spring and autumn were different, so the standards for taxation by the imperial court were also different.
Of course, the quality of the land is also good or bad. Therefore, the imperial court did not treat all land equally, but set different tax standards according to the quality of the land.
The better the quality of the field, the more agricultural value it can generate, and the higher the tax standard.
Through the relatively flexible two tax laws, the imperial court gradually achieved a steady increase in agricultural fiscal revenue under the guarantee of land endowments. The country's financial crisis has also been alleviated to a large extent.
Moreover, when it came to collecting taxes on the peasants, the way the imperial court collected taxes was not static. Some farmers have enough money in their hands to bear their tax obligations by paying money.
And if some farmers cannot sell their surplus grain in time, then they can offset the tax by paying grain.
Tian Fu is complex and changeable, and the ruling class will make different adjustments according to the actual situation of the economic environment. Although land annexation will harm the fundamental interests of farmers, land endowment protects the rights and interests of farmers to a certain extent.
Therefore, in fact, the tax system introduced by the ruling class in response to the actual fiscal crisis can effectively ease the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class. The rulers tried to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, and this goal was gradually achieved through the implementation of policies.
In general, Tian Fu had a very profound impact on the economic development of the Song Dynasty. When we evaluate this system, of course, we must also learn to grasp the main points.
- Make an impact, lasting and long-lasting
Tian Fu is a special financial system born in a specific social context, and it also played a role in promoting the economy of the Song Dynasty that cannot be ignored.
The implementation process of land endowment is very flexible, and the upper class will flexibly tax according to regional differences and the amount of farmland.
For example, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the amount of land in the eastern part of the country was greater than in the west, and the quality of the eastern land was more fertile. Therefore, the output value of agricultural production in the eastern part of the country is several times that of the western part, so the peasants in the western part cannot bear the same standard tax revenue as the peasants in the east.
Combined with this actual situation, the tax standards set by the imperial court in the east and west were completely different.
In addition, Tian Fu is divided into many different levels. It involves compulsory expropriation measures under national law, as well as provisions of ordinances of socio-administrative significance. Under the dual effects of coercive and non-coercive means, the Song Dynasty gradually realized tax reform.
Moreover, Tian Fu also effectively cracked down on the monopoly of land resources by the landlord gentry.
Land resources themselves are the main trigger for the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class, and while protecting the rights and interests of peasants, cracking down on the monopoly style of landlords can also effectively maintain a relatively stable political order.
Tian Fu was born in the context of increasing centralization, so from the perspective of economic to political, this system can also effectively guarantee the implementation of centralized power, helping rulers to weaken the real power held by the bureaucracy.
Epilogue:
The economic base determines the superstructure, and economic policy will certainly have a non-negligible impact on the political environment at the top, and even play a decisive role.
In the relatively complex economic environment of the Northern Song Dynasty, the birth of Tian Fu could effectively help the ruling class solve the financial crisis and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor in society. At the same time, rulers can also use this system to strengthen the role of centralized power and increase the monarch's control over the state.
Resources:
1. "History of Song"
2. History of Ancient China's Economic System