In the long history of the Chinese nation, later generations have come up with many words to summarize the differences between the north and the south in various aspects. has the " South Ship, North Horse, " that summarizes the different dietary habits of people in the north and the south, " South Meter, North Face, North " that summarizes the differences in natural disasters between the north and the south, and " South Water, North Drought, North " that summarizes the differences in housing between the north and the south. has dozens of similar words passed down from the historical accumulation, which shows that there are indeed great differences in the southern region.
Looking back at the history of Yuan Dynasty , the difference between the north and the south is no longer limited to all aspects of nature, humanities, and society, but has gradually affected the central government's implementation of the north and south policies. Many fiscal and taxation systems have very different regulations and implementations of the north and south regions. They can be summarized as "more than south and one north". The word does not refer to the heavy taxes in the south and few taxes in the south and the north, but whether the court's regulations on the fiscal and taxation system and prices are unified. The following article will study the differences in fiscal and taxation and prices in the north and south of the Yuan Dynasty respectively.
Unified tax and prices in the northern region
The Mongolians born on horseback have no history of tax system. It was not until they entered the Central Plains that they discovered that taxation in the Central Plains, which is supported by the small peasant economy, is a very necessary national policy. The fiscal and taxation system in the northern region is relatively stable. Generally speaking, it is mainly based on local tax , din tax and dynasty differences, but the amount that should be paid is closely related to the ethnicity, number of people, and wealth of each household. Later, many taxes were added, and made the people faced more and more tax pressure.
. The local tax as the basic tax is
At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the taxes that each household should pay were the same as those stipulated by the central government. There was no distinction between local tax and din tax, but this could not meet the national fiscal expenditure, so the tax revenue was doubled, but it also caused dissatisfaction among the people. Those taxes are a drop in the bucket for the rich, but the existence of the difference between the rich and the poor makes such a fiscal and tax system only make the poor families unable to survive. The poor families are getting fewer and richer, and the country's fiscal and tax revenue is getting smaller and smaller. Therefore, more flexible and changeable local taxes and taxes are implemented instead.
Every citizen needs to pay one of the local tax and the D tax. Whichever one is more, it needs to pay which one. Land tax is taxed according to the quality of the land and the number of mu. stipulates that according to the different land quality, each acre of land should be paid as land tax as land tax. D tax is the sum of the cap tax, slave tax and livestock tax. At the beginning of yuan, stipulates that each person should pay one stone of food, and livestock and slaves will be reduced by half, and the old and young are not included. Later, the local tax and Ding tax were adjusted many times, and not long after, the Ding tax increased to three stones per ding. was adjusted many times in the history of the Yuan Dynasty, but the overall trend was still that the tax was getting heavier and heavier.
. The normal science and technology
science and technology
science and technology began to appear as early as the Tang and Song dynasties, but there was no formal system, nor was it implemented nationwide on a large scale. became a formal fiscal and taxation project in the Yuan Dynasty, and was widely implemented in various regions of the country, mainly including three specific forms: silver, salary, and silk materials. is a system that replaces corvee with property.
Baoyin was collected in the situation of separatist and mixed taxes in the northern region before and after the formal establishment of the Yuan Dynasty. All finances and taxes were integrated together, called Baoyin. was initially implemented in a few provinces, and later promoted to the entire north. It was initially set at six taels, and later changed to four taels and reduced to two taels. Although the amount of Baoyin continued to decrease, the continuous increase in other taxes still made some people unable to make ends meet.
Salary Notes are also covered in the silver cover, which is responsible for the salary of officials. In the early Yuan Dynasty, officials at all levels did not have fixed salary, and they were all plundered by exploiting the people. Later, one tael of salary of each household was collected for the salary of officials.
silk material is a certain amount of silk that every household has to pay to local princes, ministers and the central government every year. is collected by local officials, but this method prevents the central government from finding out whether there are any actions of favoritism and abuse of power. later changed to the central government sending people to various places for unified collection and distribution.
. Various other taxes
salt tax was the top priority in taxation in the Yuan Dynasty. Almost half of the fiscal and tax revenue came from salt tax . The salt industry was completely monopolized by the state. In addition to paying wages to salt-making, salt traffickers and related government officials, the rest of the income in the salt industry is returned to the national treasury as salt taxes, which is the pillar of the Yuan Dynasty's fiscal revenue.
-year-old class is a part of the income drawn from the state recruiting people to mine gold, silver, jade, wood, etc.
In addition, there were also very complicated types of labor taxes in the Yuan Dynasty, and various departments were established to manage them. The types of labor labor were increasing, and the pressure on the working people was increasing, which seriously increased the burden on the people.
Overall, the central government of Yuan Dynasty made relatively unified regulations and implementation on finance, taxation and prices. Although it has undergone many changes in different periods, it still covers the entire northern region in general, with the characteristics of stability and breadth, and shows very obvious characteristics.
A variety of fiscal and taxation systems in the southern region
Compared with the unified and stable fiscal and taxation systems in the north, the central government of the Yuan Dynasty had relatively loose management of the southern region. Unlike the clear regulations in the northern region, the southern region followed the summer and autumn taxes of the Song Dynasty. is opposite to the local taxes and D taxes in the north, and there are also differences in the ancestral difference and silver, but there is a big difference from the north. It needs to be distinguished one by one and studied carefully.
.Summer tax and autumn tax
, which have been implemented in the Tang Dynasty, are the financial and taxation systems that were implemented in the Tang Dynasty, namely the summer grain harvest and the autumn grain harvest. In the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of governance, the summer tax was implemented, and more than ten years later, the autumn tax began to increase. In addition to the time difference, the content used for taxation is also different. Summer tax collects items such as wood, cotton, cloth, etc. into grain for taxation, while autumn tax collects only grain as taxation.
The implementation of these two fiscal and taxes in the south has no specific amounts. They will be collected according to the actual situation of their locations according to the actual situation of their locations. Since the southern region is more disparate in the rich and poor in various regions, provinces and cities compared with northern cities, and the rulers have fewer reforms to the southern policies, summer tax and autumn tax have become the basic taxes in the southern region.
. The rapid progress of commercial tax
In the Yuan Dynasty, commercial taxes such as tea tax and salt tax grew rapidly. In the early Yuan Dynasty, the rulers still collected very little commercial taxes, which also promoted the prosperity of the Yuan Dynasty's economy. However, the more greedy ruling class increased the amount of commercial taxes again and again. The most famous of is the tea tax, which has increased by 240 times in 70 years. Although there are reasons for inflation caused by issuing paper money, it is obvious that the Yuan Dynasty's increasingly heavy burden on the people on taxes issuing.
National wealth failed to make the people rich together, and a large amount of money went into the pockets of the ruling class. In addition, the treatment of Mongolians and Han people for a long time has been different. The contradictions among the various ethnic groups within the Yuan Dynasty began to intensify to a certain extent.
About the price of the Yuan Dynasty
In the nearly 100 years of history of the Yuan Dynasty, the state has not conducted national macro-control for the above daily necessities, which directly led to a significant increase in the prices of daily necessities such as rice, salt, and cloth in the Yuan Dynasty. Whether in the south or north, a large number of people's basic food and clothing were not satisfied. Except for some very short periods, basic prices in most periods were rising rapidly. In the war era, prices increased by dozens or hundreds of times, but the government did not take any measures to change, which aggravated the people's resistance to the court.
In addition to daily necessities such as rice, noodles, salt, etc., the prices of other commodities such as tea, livestock, fruits, etc. have not stabilized. The continuous rise in prices has not made the economic benefits merchants gained higher and higher. The main reason is the heavy and trivial fiscal and taxation in the Yuan Dynasty, where the people live poorer and the officials become richer.
In the war era, these commodities that are not necessities of daily necessities began to gradually decrease. The producers of are poor and cannot produce products. Even if there are products, there is no market to sell them. Even if they are sold, they cannot exchange them for a few money or even gradually lose money. The Yuan Dynasty's fiscal and taxation system brought a serious disaster to the national planting industry, handicraft industry, and animal husbandry.
According to the records in "New History of the Yuan Dynasty", compared with the early Yuan Dynasty, rice prices rose by nearly 30 times, salt prices rose by about 20 times, salt prices in some areas rose by more than 30 times, and cloth prices also rose by about 70 times. The reason for the unstable prices of the Yuan Dynasty was mainly due to the inaction of the court. Although the currency reform was carried out to stabilize prices by , the results were extremely limited. was a long-term accumulation of historical reasons, making it impossible to stabilize prices overnight. On the other hand, the flaws of the currency reform were still very obvious. Money became less and less valuable, and entered an infinite vicious cycle.
summary
A country's price level is closely related to the current national economic level. Stabilizing the prices of basic commodities is also the top priority for maintaining national economic and even political stability. Stable prices is to stabilize the hearts of the people. To stabilize prices, a reasonable fiscal and taxation system is needed. Every people in the country will become rich, and the country's economy will naturally flourish. Heavy taxation is a bad policy that only cares about its own interests and people's livelihood. The government must become rich. should make good use of the flexible fiscal and taxation system to strive to achieve balanced and stable development of people's economic income and national fiscal revenue. It is impossible to achieve overnight.
Yuan Dynasty rulers have also reaped the consequences of their own losses in the continuous development of the Yuan Dynasty. Although there are great differences between the south and the north in many aspects, they still belong to the same country in essence and cannot divide the country into two in one-size-fits-all manner. The country's macro-control role should be fully exerted in stabilizing prices. The failed currency reform of the Yuan Dynasty has given historical reference to all countries and regions in the conception and implementation of the economic system, and has prompted the national economy to develop in a more stable and prosperous direction.
References
1. "Price and fiscal taxation system in the Yuan Dynasty"
2. "Tax system and exemption policies in the Yuan Dynasty"
3. "Price research in the Yuan Dynasty"
