Text/Xia Jinyu
Editor/Xia Jinyu
In Chinese history, the national treasury was full, "ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, all said to be the wealth of the national treasury, Mo Shengye." "The reason why the Sui Dynasty's fiscal revenue and expenditure situation appeared in a situation of "living beyond means" has a lot to do with the reform of the financial system and the characteristics of the system of the Sui Dynasty.
The taxes of the Sui Dynasty also underwent changes from small to large. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, because there were too many domestic affairs, the finances were very difficult. By the third year of the emperor's reign, the record of "Cangkang Shangkong in the capital" was still there.
Beginning with the Two Song Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui made major changes to his fiscal policy to reverse his weak economic situation. During the Two Song Dynasty, the government adopted the policy of "heavy rents and heavy taxes" in order to cope with uncontrolled fiscal expenditure.
Under such policies, a vicious circle is formed, that is, the government exploits the people, the people suffer, the economy shrinks, taxes are reduced, and fiscal deficits are lost. On this basis, he proposed and implemented a series of unique new financial policies.
From an objective perspective, this paper briefly discusses the changes and characteristics of the financial system of the Sui Dynasty
Taxes are thin and wide
While taxes were reduced, they were also levied extensively. Since the beginning of the New Century, it has been carried out in audits, and it has been overwhelmed. Since the fifth year of the emperor's reign, a large-scale household registration has begun nationwide, and this year, a comprehensive inventory has been carried out.
"Those who falsely declare their household registration, although they have been resettled for a long time, are expelled for their merits and recorded in their household names for concealment. In this way, there are 440,000 people, an additional 1.64 million. ”
Soon, Gao Ying's "taxation" was promoted, "Every year on March 5, the prefect inspects the prefectures, and every five days, there are three factions, according to the tax, the tax is paid from top to bottom", "Tourists are taxed, which is also the reason for the prosperity of the Sui Dynasty." ”
Five years after Daye, under the leadership of Pei Yun, another investigation was conducted across the country, "If a person is false, he will be dismissed, and his family will pay taxes on his behalf." In four years, a total of 230,000 people was obtained, and the number of employees increased by 641,500.
Because the population structure of the Sui Dynasty has clear goals and systems, and in the process of implementation, it also maintains a certain continuity and comprehensiveness, so the number of people will increase, in the first year, the population is only 4.5 million, in the second year, the population reached six or seven million, and by the third year, the number of people has exceeded 9 million. "Land rent" is based on "people", "household" is inseparable from "wealth" and "income", and "household" is also "wealth".
An attached pamphlet reads: "As far as Shandong, there are still Qi customs, and they are extremely evil, and those who have a good person, or those who are young, all have taxes." In order to implement "thin endowment and wide acceptance", it is necessary to build on the basis of "many people", so although the per capita tax is lower than before, because of the "many people", the tax revenue has not only not decreased, but has also greatly increased.
Take the lighter, discard the heavy
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the development of agricultural areas was much better than that of industrial and commercial areas, and in the Sui Dynasty, the same was true. In order to prosper industry and commerce, Emperor Wen abolished miscellaneous taxes such as industry and commerce, focusing on agricultural taxes. Various commercial taxes have been abolished.
In March, the "ban on galloping mountains and ze" was promulgated, abolishing the monopoly on steel, allowing mining and smelting without paying taxes. "In the beginning, the Zhou Dynasty was still used as an example, and businesses were set up and the private use of salt ponds and well water was prohibited.
So the restaurant was canceled, and the salt pond and the people were anointed to make people satisfied. "In the history of the Qing Dynasty, there is no record of these two taxes, which can be seen that they were abolished at the same time. It can be seen from this that the fiscal revenue of the Tang Dynasty was mainly based on agricultural taxes.
The Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the development of agriculture, and in the second year of the emperor's reign, he ordered the implementation of equal distribution, and required "Tintin men, according to the system of Northern Qi, to cultivate the land, 80 hectares per person and 20 hectares of Yongye field, and collect mulberry trees, jujube trees and other crops."
Every family gets an acre of land. "So the working class, like the peasants, can get the most land. The Sui Dynasty implemented Juntian, in stages.
During the second and fifth years of the Republic of China, the government mainly dealt with official fields, so there was a saying that "people's fields are not". From the fifth year to the sixth year of the emperor, if the land of wanderers, tourists and commoners is to be solved, then the five to twelve years of the emperor must solve these problems. Except for the narrow township, there were not many civilian fields in this period.
However, later the population increased, and this scene happened again in the twelfth year of the emperor. Emperor Wen of Sui specially ordered the superintendents of the prefectures to discuss the matter, and ordered the ministers to consult with officials in various places, and to follow the principle of "loosening the countryside" and "sending people to all directions and distributing the land equally." "It not only solved the problems in Beijing and Sanhe, but also solved the problems of the entire narrow township."
In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the average field system, the Sui Dynasty adopted strict measures to limit the occupation of land by landowners. A policy of prohibition and repression has always been adopted in the possession of land by the gentry landlords outside the scope of restrictions.
For example, during the New Year period, there was a high-ranking official Yang Su, "Tian Mansion is mostly in Huayin, although there is idleness, but often according to the law, he refuses to spare lightly", and for example, Li Yuan cut off the high-ranking official's "Yuwen land, return to the people".
Therefore, it is better to implement the system of equalizing fields for all generations. In addition to Juntian, the Sui Dynasty also took measures of reclamation, with the largest tuntian area within the Great Wall, which allowed the cultivatable land to expand rapidly, and by the first nine years, 19,441,766 mu of land had been cultivated. At the same time, it also vigorously developed agriculture and water conservancy during the Sui and Tang dynasties.
In the Sui Dynasty, water conservancy construction developed rapidly, and its scale far exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty. In addition, Emperor Wen of Sui also adopted a series of policies to promote agricultural development.
As a result, agricultural yields reached an unprecedented level, and trade between the states, from Henan to Tongguan, from Hebei to Pusaka, was several months a year, day and night.
Policies and characteristics of fiscal expenditure
In addition to actively developing taxes, there is another important aspect of financial expenditure, which cannot be reasonably controlled, and even if there is more taxation, it is impossible to make ends meet. In order to ensure the regularity of State expenditure without increasing costs, the following methods are used for auxiliary finance.
Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the officials of the first to third grades of Beijing were two hundred to two hundred, twenty to one hundred and forty, and one hundred to forty higher, and in terms of state income, except for the officials of the first product who were lower than the Tang Dynasty, the other officials were one hundred to three hundred higher. In general, Sui officials received higher salaries.
It was higher in the early Tang dynasty, which motivated officials to do more. However, while increasing labor servitude, the Sui Dynasty adopted the method of dismissing officials. Starting from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the official system was complicated and officials were overcrowded, so Emperor Mingwen carried out a large-scale streamlining and reduced unnecessary personnel.
In the third year of the emperor's reign, "all capitals were abolished, and the three-level system of prefectures, counties, and counties, which began in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, was unified into a two-level system of prefectures and counties."
During the Renshou period, the population increased, three hundred prefectures in the world, and after the accession of the emperor to the throne, everything was merged, and the "Sui Book and Geographical Record" recorded that the total population was one hundred and ninety-nine, only one-third of the number during the Renshou period, but only one hundred and ninety-nine.
At the same time, he also abolished the rule that state and county officials appoint staff separately, "as long as there is more than one official, the state and county will not appoint another staff member", so that he will not appoint another official or another official. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu, he also "abolished the officials of prefectures and counties", so after the change of dynasty, there were even fewer officials. Compared with the two Jin dynasties, the number of people enjoying the mercy was greatly reduced, which led to a decline in the state's expenditure.
Subordinate to the previous prefectural military system, it is a special military system. The northern six pillars, each column has two generals, the general Erkaifu, a total of twenty-four people, composed of one team and one team, forming twenty-four armies, each army has two generals,
"Under the personal command of the general, not restricted by household registration, the soldier only has a bow, an armor, and a crossbow and arrow, as well as some officials' servants."
Under such a military-political system, all the expenses of the soldiers, including their and their families' living expenses, weapons and clothing, are paid by the government, plus the number of soldiers is increasing, such as "Xia people are half soldiers", so the cost of military expenses is unimaginable.
In the early days of the Yuan Dynasty, because of internal stability, external resistance to rebellion, Jiangnan stability, although still in use, but there have been obvious loopholes, so in the ten years of the emperor, after dominating the world, an important change was made to the military system. Ten years after the emperor's reign, he separated the army from the civilian population and changed it to the army and the peasantry.
The soldiers were registered in the prefecture and county, and they worked with the farmers in the field registration tents, worked in peacetime, and joined the army in wartime. After the institutional reform, they also began to continue to reduce the military department, the Sui Dynasty had three ranks, upper, middle, and lower, each level of military headquarters had more than fifty, and by the Renshou period, except for the border, all other levels of military headquarters were gradually abolished, leaving only thirty-six ranks, a third less than before.
Epilogue:
Based on the above analysis, it is not difficult to see how superior the fiscal policy of the Southern Dynasty is. In fiscal revenue, we can firmly grasp the main sources in our hands, broaden the tax collection surface, not only reduce the burden of farmers, but also allow the country's income to achieve unprecedented growth.
This not only alleviated the contradictions between the state and the peasants, but also allowed the agricultural economy to develop better, consolidated and prospered the financial resources, and completely changed the vicious circle of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
In the government's budget, the second expenditure of the government was saved. In this way, funding for important works can be secured and benefits in kind can be maintained rather than restrictions on tax and land rights. In this way, not only will officials and soldiers benefit and be willing to serve the country, but the country's expenses will not increase as a result.
In terms of revenue, on the one hand, the amount of taxes was reduced, the scope of taxation was expanded, and on the other hand, strict industry and commerce were abandoned, and on the other hand, dominant agriculture was developed, and the state finances were enriched by reducing rents.
In terms of expenditure, on the one hand, it has increased official suspension and enlightenment, on the one hand, it has reduced the number of people receiving physical training, on the other hand, it has guaranteed the expenditure of important causes, and at the same time saved the maximum military expenditure, and suppressed unnecessary expenditure.
Achieve the purpose of increasing the balance of income without increasing taxes, so as to maintain the balance of income and expenditure. Tao Dai's financial policy, which advocated cutting one item and increasing two, was the secret of his financial prosperity.
As a result, the treasury during this period showed a prosperity that had not been seen before, and the savings in the treasury were so much that it could not be stored. In the 12th year of the first century, "there were ministers who made everything they had full."
Because the Sui Dynasty's economy was very developed, its regime also became more stable, from the original division to unification, the army defeated the enemy, the strength became stronger, and the territory of the country expanded from the original small area, and finally became the eastern power in the sixth century.
Because the treasury was abundant, the farmer's rent was largely exempted. This method can not only maintain the normal labor of farmers, but also do not cause excessive damage to the agricultural economy of farmers, and the development of agricultural economy provides a rich source of financial resources for finance.
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