Although he has a strong high-level influence, after all, his actual political status is not high enough, and it is okay to talk in general terms and influence the emperor's thinking, but it is more difficult to handle or even manipulate certain things.

The military industry was privately built by borrowing the high arch handicraft, laying the foundation for the weapons and equipment of the Ming army to far exceed the same period in history; "Shu Yi Lu Shu" not only borrowed the hand of Gao Gong, but also borrowed the momentum of Guo Pu's return to the dynasty, and finally completed it in the "Guo Pu era", which got rid of the first big burden for the Ming Dynasty, and strengthened the post station system.

The major events at the national level that he has done single-handedly are only the Beijing camp reform, and although the matter has been done, it is still in the "consolidation period", which is not as unbreakable as the two things of the military industry and the post station.

And now, with the limelight of being promoted to the head of the household department, Gao pragmatic not only intends to take the opportunity to stabilize the results of the Beijing camp reform, but also intends to move the financial system of the Ming Dynasty because he is finally in charge of one party.

Of course, he still doesn't dare to touch the basic financial system for the time being, such as asking him to directly turn the Ming Dynasty into the Great Song Dynasty, then he will definitely not dare, it is unrealistic, and it is unnecessary.

If the core does not dare to move for the time being, then it will first be tempted and probing, and find a direction that has both a "mass base" and others dare not move lightly.

For example, the reasonable social status of businessmen is fully recognized, but at the same time the businessmen are required to assume their due social responsibilities.

The reason why this incident is said to have a "mass base" is not a joke, the peasants of this era actually knew that the merchants were "powerful" than themselves, especially the big businessmen.

The reason is very simple, big businessmen are not only rich, but also must have some background in officialdom. These backgrounds may have cultivated scholars and officials in the family themselves, or they may have invested in a certain or certain official - this has been mentioned above, so I won't say much.

In short, anyone who can be called a big businessman must have the background of the government behind him, super wealthy businessmen invest in the central ministers, big wealthy businessmen invest in the governors and governors, small and medium-sized wealthy people invest in the government and the county, and no matter how poor they are, they will also invest in the government and county officials - don't look at the officials or even officials, there are many positions in terms of real power, which is almost equivalent to the deputy county level in later generations.

And what about ordinary peasants? I'm sorry, most of him can't even enter the county office, and he doesn't want to, he doesn't dare to go in.

The merchants are only big and small, but the peasants are not, and the "big peasants" are another class, the landlord class, and they do not regard themselves as peasants.

Therefore, in the eyes of the peasants, even if the merchant is a traveling merchant carrying a flat burden and pushing a wheelbarrow, he is better than them, at least well-informed—this kind of thinking was present in many rural areas at the beginning of liberation.

Therefore, it was not easy for the merchant class in ancient China to be despised by some people in front of them, and secretly envied by some people on the other hand, and the "certain people" here sometimes overlapped.

But in any case, the status of merchants among the people was not actually very low, it is certain that their "low status" was mainly in front of the imperial court and court officials.

However, this situation is not static, in fact, the Ming Dynasty has been in a state of change for two hundred years, and the general trend is that merchants are gradually treated by the imperial court - this level is far from enough for Gao Pragmatism, but the trend is still to be affirmed.

Even in the original history, since the completion of the tribute, the status of merchants has been significantly improved.

Why? Since then, the Ming court has opened trade to almost all borders (probably only except Chahar), and the late Qing thinker Wei Yuan commented in the Shengwu Ji that this peace policy "opened the peace for the present dynasty for 200 years (because the Qing dynasty continued the northern frontier trade)." ”

The policy of opening up border trade was a very important turning point in the international policy of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also an important business opportunity for Shanxi merchants.

Since then, the Jin merchants have gradually entered the grain industry, tea industry, cotton cloth industry, animal husbandry and other industries, and have become the most important and economically active border trade operators in the Ming Dynasty. Xie Zhaoqian, a famous scholar of the Ming Dynasty, said in "Five Miscellaneous Works": "Those who are rich and powerful, the south of the Yangtze River pushes Xin'an, and the north of the river pushes the right side of the mountain." That is to say, the richest merchants in the Ming Dynasty, the richest Hui merchants in the south, and the Jin merchants in the north. (Note: There are many businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who go to the same stream or cooperate with Huizhou merchants.) )

In fact, after arriving in Jiajing, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated when he founded the country: "The common people's houses, but only three rooms, five frames", have long been left behind by the people of the time, Hui merchants such as salt merchants and other "prosperous palace rooms, beautiful clothes, extravagant food, supporting Zhao women", these rich businessmen's enthusiasm for pursuing wealth for a time was far higher than that of any dynasty.

It's good to have money, of course, but it's more unpleasant when they have to meet with the officials — you have to change out of these costumes, put on coarse cloth clothes and go to the meeting, and be submissive. Even if you are the "gold master" of that official, sometimes it can only be like this.

Is there a way to change that? It can't be said that there is none, for example, if you are very rich, but you are really not the material for studying, then you can think of donating a prisoner - that is, the identity of a student of Guozijian.

It may not be possible to say how valuable this identity is, after all, it is only equivalent to "Guozijian is reading", not even "reading", but "having read". But Guozijian doesn't care whether he graduates or not, because it is only a school prepared for the imperial examination, and it is just a relatively high grade.

So by analogy, the donated prisoner is actually like a "correspondence class of Guozijian" - whether he has read it or not, only God knows.

But don't worry, "read" Guozijian itself is a little powerful, because the prisoner is basically analogous to the student in terms of political status, with the name of "prisoner", you are no longer a copper-smelling businessman who is despised everywhere, but equivalent to a talented master.

However, that's the end of it, the social status that businessmen can "get" is basically the end of the prison students, and then unless you study and take the imperial examination and win the promotion, jinshi or something, otherwise the "analogue student" is the pinnacle of your political status.

This status, if it is only at the county and government level, may be able to make do: there is a seat in the county office, and there is a place for you to stand in the government office, but if you go up further, then you are embarrassed, you should kneel, you still have to kneel.

In the Ming Dynasty in the current world, due to the dominance of the real school for nearly twenty years, the status of merchants is even higher than in the original history.

It is not surprising that Gao Gong wrote a book in his early years to talk about the "distinction between righteousness and benefit", and as Gao Gong continued to be in power, the reform of the practical school continued to advance, and the impact of this view on the people and even the official was immeasurable.

Moreover, Gao Pragmatic himself also set an example: Wen is the champion, and Shang is the richest man.

Although limited to the "ancestral law", all parts of his name have clansmen and family members who act as white gloves, but who in the world still doesn't know that he is the real owner of Jinghua?

And what kind of existence is Jinghua? It's not about scale, it's about social contribution: Jinghua paid 1.73 million taels of various taxes in all parts of Daming's industries last year, of which 590,000 taels were finally able to receive from the center, which is close to one-tenth of the total annual income of Daming's households.

With such a big social contribution, you say that Gao Pragmatic, this "businessman", is a bad guy?

This is true at the civilian level, and the same has changed at the official level. Needless to say, the practical school has always advocated the improvement of the status of merchants; In fact, the Heart School is also consistent with the Real School in this regard - in fact, there are more big businessmen behind the officials of the Heart School!

From the point of view of the court officials, the most influential such as Qiu Jun, Wang Shouren, Wang Tingxiang, Gao Gong and others, all of them supported the improvement of the status of merchants, and various theories had already been laid.

Here's a question: since so many bigwigs support improving the status of businessmen, why hasn't it been done yet?

The answer is not complicated: social status must be linked to social contributions, and the court or emperor can accept it.

You just ask for an increase in status, but my emperor and the court don't see any benefits, why should I promise you? I'll help you reform this thing, you think it's cost-free? I have to consider whether the diehards will stand up to the bull, whether the "legitimacy" will be shaken by changing the ancestral system, and all other things that need to be considered.

I'll do it for you just by moving your mouth, where is your face so beautiful?

However, the problem is stuck here, because before the emergence of high pragmatism, almost no businessman was willing to assume any "social responsibility".

Or to put it another way, today's businessmen feel that they have taken on a lot of social responsibility.

What the? You don't even want to pay taxes, what kind of bullshit responsibility do you bear?

It's a bit of a misunderstanding here.

In the eyes of high pragmatism, paying taxes is almost the most basic one, because taxation is in principle "taken from the people, used by the people", but the problem is that this view is not consistent with the mainstream view of today's Ming era.

The mainstream view is: the world is the emperor's world, so the people of the world provide wealth to the emperor.

Not to mention that the people think this way, in fact, even many officials see it this way, which is bad.

All the people in the world support your family and surname, we are all the ruling class, and we are all people who suffer losses, so of course the less you pay, the better!

If this problem is to be carried out and comprehensively reformed, the emperor must limit the financial power of the household, because only the emperor cannot take the money of the household department for private use (such as rewarding King Lu), and the world will not feel that the money is all handed over to the emperor personally, but Gao pragmatic obviously can't do this.

However, this matter cannot always be thought of by the emperor to compromise first, otherwise it will be delayed today and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow will not be solved until it is wasted.

The power is limited, so let's get the businessman first.

What is the reason why businessmen do not pay much tax and still think that they have taken on social responsibility?

It is that they often do some "righteous deeds" of building roads and bridges for the sake of their reputation in the countryside, and they also contribute money for disaster relief like Gao Pragmatic did back then, which is often done by businessmen, and it is also the main reason why they think that they have actually assumed social responsibility.

In addition, for example, in those years, when the Japanese were very strong, many merchants would also donate silver taels (or were forced to donate) to strengthen the local garrison.

In addition, there are all kinds of things, whether the local government wants to carry out any construction or defense work, and at every turn, businessmen will be summoned to "donate" and "pledge donations", and businessmen, whether they are sincere or false, do not have much confidence to say no to the local officials, so they ...... Isn't social responsibility just shouldered?

But Gao Pragmatic thinks that this kind of "commitment" is very distorted, and as far as the imperial court is concerned, this thing is not controllable at all!

In history, Emperor Chongzhen himself was so poor that his dragon robe had to be patched, and the jewelry of the harem concubines was about to be donated. Yes, but not much. Even the officials of the Beijing division are even more ruthless: I am a Qing official, I have no money to donate!

Then Li Zicheng came, and the number of directly confiscated exceeded 20 million taels.

Gao's pragmatic point of view is very simple, your money is legally obtained, no matter how much you have, the court should not beat you with the idea of this money, but you have to pay the taxes that should be paid. As for donating or something, if you have a strong heart, it is of course good that you are willing to dedicate this effort; On the contrary, if you refuse to donate, there is nothing wrong with it, and you can't engage in moral bondage.

(The following 500 words are anti-theft, duplicate content, and updated to real content after half an hour)

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However, this matter cannot always be thought of by the emperor to compromise first, otherwise it will be delayed today and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow will not be solved until it is wasted.

The power is limited, so let's get the businessman first.

What is the reason why businessmen do not pay much tax and still think that they have taken on social responsibility?

It is that they often do some "righteous deeds" of building roads and bridges for the sake of their reputation in the countryside, and they also contribute money for disaster relief like Gao Pragmatic did back then, which is often done by businessmen, and it is also the main reason why they think that they have actually assumed social responsibility.

In addition, for example, in those years, when the Japanese were very strong, many merchants would also donate silver taels (or were forced to donate) to strengthen the local garrison.

In addition, there are all kinds of things, whether the local government wants to carry out any construction or defense work, and at every turn, businessmen will be summoned to "donate" and "pledge donations", and businessmen, whether they are sincere or false, do not have much confidence to say no to the local officials, so they ...... Isn't social responsibility just shouldered?

But Gao Pragmatic thinks that this kind of "commitment" is very distorted, and as far as the imperial court is concerned, this thing is not controllable at all!

In history, Emperor Chongzhen himself was so poor that his dragon robe had to be patched, and the jewelry of the harem concubines was about to be donated. Yes, but not much. Even the officials of the Beijing division are even more ruthless: I am a Qing official, I have no money to donate!

Then Li Zicheng came, and the number of directly confiscated exceeded 20 million taels.

Gao's pragmatic point of view is very simple, your money is legally obtained, no matter how much you have, the court should not beat you with the idea of this money, but you have to pay the taxes that should be paid. As for donating or something, if you have a strong heart, it is of course good that you are willing to dedicate this effort; On the contrary, if you refuse to donate, there is nothing wrong with it, and you can't engage in moral bondage.

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