I went to borrow books yesterday. It was a coincidence. I hadn't originally intended to look for Mosori's collection of essays, but when I was browsing around, I saw a book about him and decided to borrow it. I haven't finished it yet, but I'll take notes after I finish it.
Let’s watch something else today, hahahaha
A brief look at the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty, just looking at the money first, without looking at the personal struggles and political events, shows that the demise has a long history and reasons. You know, fighting a war is expensive. The war in Liaodong cost a lot of money in the past. Where did the money come from?
Generally, it is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, which means "reducing the expenditure of money, outflow and increasing new income channels" as the name suggests. First, let's look at increasing revenue. In the late Ming Dynasty, there were three taxes: Liao, Suppression and Training. Every year, up to 20 million taels of silver were collected and handed over, but military expenditures were still not enough. The circulation process is unknown, but it is an opportunity to plunder. The people suffered for years and lived in poverty. Let's look at saving expenditure. Layoffs saved salary expenses, but only 680,000 taels of silver were saved. The people were overtaxed and suffered from famine. According to some records, it was because a post station clerk named Li was also laid off at that time, and he began to rebel. Looking closely at Li's background, the uprising may not only be caused by layoffs. Li is from Shaanxi. He doesn't like reading and is aggressive by nature. He used to make a living by working at the post station. He lost his job due to layoffs, was sued for owing money, and was paraded and tortured. The injuries aroused his animal nature, and he raped the scholar who owed him money. When he was detained, his wife was unruly and he raped her later. He was carrying 2 RMs on his back, not only because he had nothing to eat due to layoffs, but also because it triggered a "series of things" later.
But why did the Ming Dynasty have financial problems and no money?
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the income was more than 10 million taels of silver, but it was not as good as the previous year. In the end of the Ming Dynasty, the war was carried out in the north, and the wealth of the south was rarely absorbed. There are also records that Zhu was born a commoner and hated corrupt officials. He reduced the salaries of officials very much and raised taxes. The original 30 million shi of grain/year was raised to 32 million shi, which is less than 20 million taels of silver. However, due to development, the expenditure was large and the fiscal revenue remained high. For example, when repairing Dingling Mausoleum, the people had no money to do hard labor, and many burdens fell on the people. They began to levy manpower and material resources, and there was a lot of corruption and embezzlement, and even the emperor sent tj to collect.
Of course, it was also because of the reliance on Western silver, which was mainly imported from overseas. Due to the war in Europe and the United States in the late Ming Dynasty, Japan stopped importing silver, the treasury was empty, and the shortage caused a financial collapse. There were several natural disasters, and there was no money for disaster relief and military pay. The people had no money to pay taxes, and there were civil uprisings. The three taxes crushed the life-saving straw of the lower-class people, and any financial fluctuations could trigger a huge chain reaction.
The decline of the Ming Dynasty was not only a financial collapse, but also a turbulence and imbalance in the entire social system. From the initial attempts to increase revenue and reduce expenditure to the subsequent poverty and frequent uprisings, every step seemed to be pushed by the invisible hand of fate, heading towards an irreversible abyss.