Chapter 29 Li Shimin Solved the Troubles of Official Administration and Military Administration

Modern Western economics advocates "small government, big society", and the Tang Dynasty seems to be an ancient version. After Li Yuan founded the country, he abolished all Shanze taxes and salt taxes, and allowed the people to operate independently in industries such as salt, iron, and wine that were previously monopolized by the state.In terms of agricultural tax, the tax in the Tang Dynasty was one-fiftieth, far lower than one-twentieth of the Western Han Dynasty, and the corvee was 20 days a year, which was also less than the previous dynasty.In 626 AD, after Li Shimin ascended the throne, he issued an edict that month to suspend all checkpoints east of Tongguan to allow free circulation of goods.In the Tang Dynasty, the collection of commercial taxes was also stopped.The Tang and Song dynasties, the most developed commodity economy in ancient China, had very little taxation on commodity transactions. The Tang Dynasty exempted them all, and the Song Dynasty levied two types of tax and residence tax, with tax rates of 2% and 3% respectively. Unprecedented prosperity has cultivated the trade spirit of the people, and on the other hand, the government's revenue has been completely dependent on agricultural tax and monopoly revenue.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, many dynasties in China implemented the policy of light levies and low taxes, and recuperation. However, as time went by, various taxes increased one after another. People attribute it to the greed or squander.In fact, the root cause is the increase in administrative costs. The most rigid ones are the cost of raising officials and the cost of raising soldiers, which are "the troubles of official administration" and "the troubles of military administration".The loose policy of the Tang Dynasty lasted for more than 120 years, which was related to Li Shimin's innovations in these two systems.

The central government of the Tang Dynasty implemented a six-department system, seven fewer departments than the Thirteen Caos of the Han Dynasty, which was a great streamlining of departments.Li Shimin used very few officials. During the Zhenguan period, the number of civil and military officials in the central government was at least 643, and there were only more than 7,000 in the whole country. This should be the government with the smallest number in all dynasties.According to the statistics of Zhu Guozhen, a scholar in the late Ming Dynasty, the total number of officials who had financial burdens in the Tang Dynasty was about 18,000 at most.

Officials in the Tang Dynasty could receive a piece of "job field" according to their official position. In addition, there was Yongye Field. Even small officials with eight or nine ranks had two hectares of Yongye Field.In addition, you can receive an annual salary.Even if it is to support the hundreds of officials, Li Shimin is still reluctant to pay for it from the finances. He came up with a very weird "public money system", which is to levy a "special property tax" on the rich families in order to support them. official. As early as the period of Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan, the imperial court conducted an asset inventory of wealthy businessmen all over the world, and set them as the third class according to the amount of assets—later it was changed to the ninth class, and stipulated that "one book is made every year, and one book is made every three years."On the premise that the number of people is basically clear, in 637 AD (the eleventh year of Zhenguan), Emperor Taizong of Tang issued an edict, allowing more than 70 yamen in Chang'an, each of which can choose a businessman who can "assess the salesman and have enough wealth" Nine people, known as "Catching Money Order History", each lent "public money" 50,000 yuan to use in commercial activities, paying interest of 4,000 yuan a month, 48,000 yuan a year, calculated as simple interest, and the annual interest rate About one hundred percent.This policy is equivalent to making the 700 richest families in Chang'an City pay a large amount of "special tax" every year.It is very likely that the "public money" loaned by the government is only in name, while the interest paid is real money.This policy was quickly implemented in states across the country.In order to encourage businessmen to accept the public money system, Emperor Taizong specially set up 7,000 grass-roots official positions ("Fangge") throughout the country. As long as one year is filled, the family can send one person to be an official, but the term is only two years. Replaced by other tax-paying "upper households".

The public money system has been implemented for a long time in the Tang Dynasty. In the early years of Xuanzong, the annual interest rate was reduced to 70%, and then to 60% and 50%. The amount of each forced loan was also reduced. When he was an official, he was later changed to exempt from corvee.This system invented by Tang Taizong has caused great controversy in the academic circles of later generations.Those who praise it believe that although this system is "rough", it is very straightforward. The government has supported officials and cleverly avoided extensive taxation.Detractors believe that this is a mandatory system of exploitation of wealthy families. Although it is milder than Emperor Wudi's calculation order, the essence is the same. In addition, the 100% high interest rate is also a The destruction of the national financial market, rich households are likely to lend money to ordinary civilians at similar interest rates, which will lead to an increase in the cost of capital circulation in the whole society. At that time, some people criticized that the result was "the rich households are exempted from their corvee, and the poor households are Take advantage of it."In any case, the method of "public money" that Tang Taizong came up with did play a role in maintaining integrity with high salaries, and the government of officials in the early Tang Dynasty was the best in history.

In terms of military expenditures, Li Shimin also spent very little. The system implemented in the Tang Dynasty was "soldiers in military towns", that is, local financial expenditures were used to support the garrison.Li Shimin appointed generals to implement the "three no principles", that is, "serve shortly, not lead remotely, and not concurrently rule", in order to prevent them from enlisting troops to become big. It can be seen that Li Shimin is one of the shrewdest rulers in history. He asked the rich to pay for officials and the local government to support soldiers, so that the central government's financial expenditure became very small, and "small government" was born. .