Chapter 35 Chapter 35 The Yuan Dynasty actually died of the "economic crisis"

Speaking of the chaos in the world at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it can be said to be unprecedentedly turbulent in Chinese history.Since "the stone man had one eye and provoked the Yellow River to rebel", the Yuan Dynasty fell into nationwide riots.Large-scale resistance struggles took place in the Central Plains, East China, and South China. Large-scale uprisings were suppressed, and one was suppressed, another came again, and there was no end to it.The Yuan Dynasty, which created the largest territory in Chinese history, fell into dire straits just over a century after its founding, and finally perished in the 97th year of its rule in China, withdrawing from the Central Plains.

When it comes to the reasons for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty, modern people's conclusions mainly include the following points.One is ethnic oppression, and the division system of four classes has intensified ethnic conflicts and caused a lot of resistance; the second is rampant natural disasters. Since 1344 AD, natural disasters have occurred frequently in the Yuan Dynasty, floods, droughts, and plagues; Faint, Yuan Shundi, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, was a well-known fool in Chinese history. He was addicted to pleasure and ignored government affairs.Although the Yuan Dynasty has been hesitant on the issue of "Han Law" and refused to fully implement the "Han Law", the Yuan Dynasty learned all the problems of the Han Dynasty thoroughly in just a few years.

However, on the issue of the demise of the Yuan Dynasty, there is a fact that has not been paid much attention to, and that is economic bankruptcy. After Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, he took enlightened measures to develop production, encouraged farming and mulberry, and stopped turning farmland into pastures at will.However, out of war considerations, the Yuan Dynasty has always implemented a high tax policy, and the tax was so strict that the people in the Central Plains who could not afford the tax had to borrow usury to pay the tax, so the oppression became increasingly heavy.After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, around the question of what kind of economic system should be established, the "Han-Fa faction" and the "Economist faction" within the Yuan Dynasty fought fiercely.The former advocated light corvee and light taxation, adopting the traditional feudal dynasty's taxation method, while the latter advocated increasing taxation and detailing the content of taxation.The battle between Ahema and Prince Zhenjin mainly focused on this issue.

After the death of Ahema, the fiscal revenue of the Yuan Dynasty increased and decreased, but the main taxation idea remained unchanged, which was to maximize tax sources and increase tax rates.Moreover, in terms of tax sources, the wars at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty left a large number of unowned barren fields in the Central Plains and Jiangnan areas. Most of these barren lands were occupied by Mongolian princes and Han heroes.They enjoy a tax-free policy. As a result, high taxes can only be borne by farmers and businessmen.Beginning with Ahema, the Yuan Dynasty increased national income mainly by expropriating handicraftsmen in the southeast, livestock farmers of various ethnic groups in the northwest, and a large number of farmers in the Central Plains.The more intense the land annexation, the more and more taxes are apportioned to ordinary people of all ethnic groups.At the same time, usury was prevalent in the Yuan Dynasty, and a large number of farmers had to take out loans in order to pay taxes, and they suffered new exploitation as a result.In this way, a vicious circle was formed, so that the peasants' resistance rebounded from 1344 AD.

In the early Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty government did a lot of work to restore the economy.For example, building water conservancy in the Central Plains, reclaiming wasteland, and recruiting refugees.During the reign of Kublai Khan, he reclaimed pastures in northern China, combined the pastures and farmland into one, and implemented a reward policy for northern wasteland reclamation.At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the economy developed rapidly, but the agricultural tax in the Yuan Dynasty increased.The collection of agricultural tax in the Yuan Dynasty was derived from the content of the Two Tax Laws, and a discriminatory collection method was implemented, with different taxes in the north and the south.Agricultural taxes in the south are relatively heavy, and different ethnic groups are divided according to grades, and the severity of taxes is also different.The agricultural land tax in the Yuan Dynasty consisted of Ding tax and land tax.In the Yuan Dynasty, the small tax for tenant farmers was 3 shi, the small tax for self-cultivated farmers was 1 shi, and the maximum land tax was 5 liters, and the minimum was 3 liters.On the surface, the agricultural tax in the Yuan Dynasty was not high.But this is not the case in implementation: the payment of agricultural tax in the Yuan Dynasty began to be paid in the form of paper money with the issuance of paper money.However, the issuance of banknotes in the Yuan Dynasty was increasingly rampant, and the currency has been depreciating. As a result, all boats have risen, and the burden on farmers has become heavier and heavier.

Another fact is that in the short 70 years from Yuan Taizu Kublai Khan to Yuan Shundi Zhizheng years, the salt tax of the Yuan Dynasty increased by 20 times, the tea tax increased by 240 times, and the commercial tax increased by 10 times. times.At the same time, the Yuan Dynasty implemented the "tax package" policy, which was called "pumai" by the people of the Yuan Dynasty, that is, the merchants paid the taxes on behalf of the tenant farmers, and then the tenant farmers repaid them with high interest, which was actually usury in disguise.Ahmad during Kublai Khan's time was a veteran of this kind of thing.

In terms of commercial tax, the commercial tax of the Yuan Dynasty has always been considered to be very low, which seems to be the case on the surface, but in fact, the commercial tax of the Yuan Dynasty was low, but it was taxed in a different name.In addition to the commercial tax, another content of the commercial tax in the Yuan Dynasty is miscellaneous taxation. For example, there is a tea tax in the tea business, and a wine tax in the wine industry. Gold, silver, lakes, jade, copper, iron, mercury, and wood are all levied. There are also 32 "extra classes" for tax classes, which can be said to be various in variety and cleverly named, which really made the civil servants of the Yuan Dynasty hard to name.

Taxes continue to be strict, so what about the economic revenue and expenditure of the Yuan Dynasty government? Looking at the economic revenue and expenditure of the Yuan Dynasty government, it can be said to be even more shocking. For example, in 1292 AD, the fiscal revenue of the Yuan Dynasty was 2,978,305 ingots, but the expenditure was 3,638,543 ingots, which was a serious deficit.Then, there was a shortage of tax payments.For example, in 1309 A.D., 4 million ingots were receivable, but only 2.8 million ingots were actually received.The money in the plan cannot be collected, but the increase in taxes is increasing day by day.For example, compared with 1309 AD and 1292 AD, the various miscellaneous courses in the Yuan Dynasty increased by 20 times, but the annual income received did not increase accordingly.The shortage of tax revenue and the lack of tax sources were the problems that the Yuan Dynasty faced from the beginning to the end.

At the same time, the Yuan Dynasty had to face huge expenses.The largest expenditures of the Yuan Dynasty were the yearly gift and the establishment of the Yamen.The concubines, princesses, princes, and concubines of the Yuan Dynasty all enjoyed the "year-old gift" of the country.And as the number of members continues to increase, the country's investment in this area is increasing.At the same time, the yamen of the Yuan Dynasty was also "officials are redundant at the top, and officials are at the bottom".Nobles also enjoyed privileges. There were 72 types of Mongols and 30 types of Semu people. These expenditures alone were enough to empty the Yuan Dynasty's family.

In fact, since the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the economic situation has become more and more severe. However, the Yuan Dynasty has adopted the simplest and rude method to increase income - paper currency. The paper currency of the Yuan Dynasty is a contribution of the Yuan Dynasty to the entire human economy.The early Yuan Dynasty banknotes inherited the Song Dynasty's Jiaozi, and the system was quite complete.The paper currency of the Yuan Dynasty began in 1260 AD when Kublai Khan was in power. It was based on silk and silver as a unit. It was stable at first, and played a role in stabilizing and restoring the economy in the early years of the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty.However, as the financial crisis intensified in the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty almost regarded paper money as the only magic weapon.Every time there is no money, paper money is issued arbitrarily.The result was severe inflation and increasingly devalued paper money.According to the conversion of "Chinese Economic History", the value of Yuan Dynasty banknotes in 1287 AD is only four-fifths lower than that of 1260 AD, and the banknotes in 1287 AD are 5 times more expensive than the Yuan Dynasty 1309 banknotes. .In 1299 A.D., the Zhongshu Department of the Yuan Dynasty reported that the fiscal revenue in the national plan and the fiscal revenue actually received were doubled, and the shortfall could only be made up by increasing the issuance of banknotes.By 1355 A.D., banknotes in the Yuan Dynasty were even more prolific.At that time, not only were banknotes issued by the country at various stages mixed, but also a large number of counterfeit banknotes appeared.The funniest thing is that there is also a special "painted banknote", that is, banknotes drawn with a pen, which can be circulated in the market in an open manner, and of course they are not worth a lot of money.At this time, the paper money of the Yuan Dynasty was like a piece of waste paper.

Another problem with the Yuan Dynasty's economy is that the Yuan Dynasty has retained many barbaric and backward systems since its establishment, such as the tenant farming system.Tenant farmers in the Yuan Dynasty were like serfs.In the Yuan Dynasty, landlords had the right to kill tenants at will, and could even buy and sell tenants as a whole. The personal and family relationships of tenants were completely subordinate to the master. This was almost a big regression from feudalism to slavery.At the same time, the Yuan Dynasty's land annexation was also the most violent in Chinese history.The palace nobles of the Yuan Dynasty often plundered the land of the people, and they could announce the requisition of the land without any formalities.If a self-cultivator is unlucky and his land is favored by a nobleman, he may lose everything overnight. The handicraft industry of the Yuan Dynasty also faced the same problem.The Yuan Dynasty attached great importance to craftsmen. During the war years, every time a city was conquered, local craftsmen were gathered together.The official handicraft industry of the Yuan Dynasty mainly relied on these plundered craftsmen. They had no personal freedom, and most of them worked without pay, and could only receive a meager ration.Therefore, compared with the handicrafts of the Song Dynasty, the handicrafts of the Yuan Dynasty differed by tens of millions only based on the cultural relics unearthed in modern times. Related to the economy of the Yuan Dynasty, there is also developed overseas trade.For most of the Yuan Dynasty, the development of overseas trade was an important feature of the Yuan Dynasty.However, after the mid-Yuan Dynasty, a large number of Japanese pirates invaded the southeast coast, and the coastal and sea routes were blocked.In order to resist the Japanese pirates, the Yuan Dynasty issued an order to ban the sea, but the result of the sea ban was that the income of the Shibo Department dropped sharply.In fact, the economy of the Yuan Dynasty was unable to make ends meet from the very beginning, and then the fiscal deficit became more and more serious. The peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was not so much a peasant riot as a complete collapse of the national economy. The end of the rule of the Yuan Dynasty began with the outbreak of the Red Turban Army Uprising in 1355 AD.The reason for the uprising was that the river workers who governed the Yellow River were exploited, and their anger was quickly ignited.In fact, the project of harnessing the Yellow River presided over by Jia Lu this time was a project that affected the national destiny of the Yuan Dynasty.Because compared with the successive years of droughts in the late Ming Dynasty, the end of the Yuan Dynasty was characterized by successive years of floods. Especially in the 11 years from 1344 AD to 1355 AD, the Yellow River flooded as many as 9 times. More importantly, the country was short of money for disaster relief.For example, floods occurred on both sides of the Huaihe River, and a large number of farmers fled the famine. At that time, the Yuan Dynasty could not provide relief food at all, and could only use banknotes to make up the number.The fate of the Yuan Dynasty's demise was inevitable. As a regime transitioning from a nomadic people to a feudal society, the biggest mistake of the Yuan Dynasty was that it did not completely complete the transition from a slave society to a feudal society.In terms of agriculture and handicrafts, the slave system remains backward, but in terms of industry and commerce, it is too advanced. The result of the long-term intertwining of the two contradictions is the situation that the country cannot handle.