China has 5,000 years of history, Qing Dynasty ruled for nearly 300 years. This is a relatively long dynasty in history. So what does this so-called long-term rule have to do with the three taels of silver we are going to talk about?
Here we will talk about what "3 taels of silver" is. What we are talking about here is actually a number. But it also refers to a state.
This state is a state of poverty that is artificially shaped.
In the "Farmer Volume", the income of ordinary families in the Qing Dynasty was almost 32 taels of silver. The relatively fixed annual expenditure is about 35 taels of silver. The 3 taels gap here is what we call 3 taels of silver! It is the gap between these 3 taels of silver that makes hard-working farmers still need to live in debt in the end!
Based on the purchasing power at that time, these 3 taels of silver are converted into about 300 kilograms of grain. So these 3 taels can make people's lives different. If there is no surplus food at home, they have to fight for money. What else do you have to think about other things? Farmers don’t have money to be businessmen and will always be farmers. So even if farmers work harder, they will never be able to earn these 3 taels of silver, and they can only be less! Because the imperial power calculated these clearly.
Many people may think that when grain is high, farmers' income can increase by 3 taels. In fact, this is not the case, because the court will increase taxes at this time, of course, it seems reasonable.
However, natural disaster occurs, and the grain is not collected, and the imperial court is "the emperor's kindness!" will also reduce taxes in a timely manner, and even distribute food and grass!
Therefore, no matter how hard the farmers work hard, these 3 taels of silver are their insurmountable gullies, which makes them have to work up and down all the time. This allowed the Qing Dynasty to avoid many possibilities and ruled for nearly 300 years in one fell swoop.
