Songjiang Prefecture, Chuansha County.

The dialogue between Emperor Zhu and Endashen continued, and although the goals of both sides were not necessarily the same, they both agreed that the overpopulation was indeed a problem.

Engels said lightly: "But for human beings, it is not enough to teach and guide, some people need to be forced." ”

Emperor Zhu nodded, of course he was going to force it! People are forced out, if these gentry continue to comfortably oppress the poor middle peasants, why should they take the road of industry and commerce? Similarly, if Emperor Zhu found some way to make the life of the poor middle peasants of the Ming Dynasty better...... For example, if you reduce rent and interest or something, you can make them barely make ends meet, and they are willing to go all the way to open up a new home? If China's old peasants had this energy, there would have been nothing white in the New World and Australia!

Engels said: "I think Jason you are currently forcing two types of people, one is the gentry who own the land but do not know how to operate; The second is the peasants who have no land to stand on or only a small piece of land, and whose family business is declining and who is unable to return to the sky. ”

There is nothing surprising that this is said from the mouth of the great god. Because the tenants and poor peasants are not the proletariat in the true sense of the word, and only when they lose the means of production at the bottom and are left with the freedom to sell their labor power, they are the real proletariat!

Endashen said eloquently: "The gentry I am talking about are wealthy families, who originally disdained to manage land, and their wealth did not come from agricultural production, but from official corruption. Holding land is simply because there is no other business to do that is safe and profitable and does not have to be nerve-wracking. Moreover, these gentry who held large tracts of land were not willing to sit on just a small rent, so they turned their brains to the land and national taxes. They often collude with officials and officials to control the land tax. Invent all sorts of names. Harsh ropes. Therefore, you Chinese have the saying that officials are like hungry tigers out of the forest, and gentlemen are like poisonous snakes.

The so-called tenant poor peasants, although worthy of sympathy, are the operators who should be eliminated from the perspective of industrial development, because the main force of agricultural production in China's countryside is not these tenant poor peasants, but large households with certain financial resources and business acumen. ”

The big households mentioned by the great god are actually the middle peasants, rich peasants, and small and medium-sized landlords - farming is a business that requires a combination of mind, physical strength, and the spirit of enduring hardship. Since it's business. There are losers and winners! The bureaucratic landlords, represented by the gentry, were not normal participants in the business of farming, and thus did not benefit from the increase of rural productivity in the slightest. And the tenant poor peasant is the loser of the business of farming! In a ruthless capitalist society, the loser in business either commits suicide or becomes a proletariat that sells its labor power, and it is impossible to continue to trade at a loss year after year.

However, in the current Ming Dynasty, due to the existence of the gentry, an abnormal participant in agricultural management, agricultural resources could not be concentrated in the hands of truly capable operators, but let the gentry lease to "losers" who had no management ability at all, and the gentry transferred the taxes that should have been borne by themselves to the middle peasants, rich peasants, and small and medium-sized landlords who were good at running agriculture, thus posing a great obstacle to the development of agricultural productivity! At the same time, hundreds of millions of poor peasant tenants were tied to a few acres of thin land. In the end, it turned into a super bomb destined to destroy the entire gentry class.

Therefore, in order to develop the agricultural productivity in the interior of the Ming Dynasty, it was necessary to clear the gentry and poor peasant tenants at the same time. The most competitive rich peasants and small and medium-sized landlords were left behind, and the future farmers and agricultural capitalists could only be produced from among them.

Of course, such a thing can only happen in the great powers that follow the broad path of capitalism, and the poor peasant tenants who have been eliminated can be absorbed by the development of industry and commerce or the development of colonies. If China still develops into a semi-colony along its original trajectory, of course, there will be no way to absorb this surplus population through external expansion, and at the end it will have to embark on a path of social revolution.

Engels continued: "Jason, my first solution is to change the land tax to a land tax, no longer distinguish between the upper field, the middle field, and the lower field, and no matter what kind of crops these fields are used to grow, the tax will be charged according to a uniform tax rate and standard. As far as I know, most of the current gentry class have changed their own Ueda into Nakata and Shimoda, and other people's Nakata and Shimoda into Ueda. Therefore, a reasonable tax method has become unreasonable, so the best way for the government to deal with it is to come up with a tax method that is most easy to operate but unreasonable. ”

Zhu Jishi sighed slightly when he heard this, he suddenly had a sense of powerlessness, as if he, the emperor, was fighting wits with the entire bureaucratic system.

"Well, that's a solution! Those farmers with no background are already taxed at a higher standard, and it would certainly be beneficial for them to have a one-size-fits-all tax rate. And the gentry ...... Will they come up with any bad ideas again? Friedrich, I wonder if His Majesty Prussia will be like me and will fight with his own bureaucracy all day long? ”

"Not really, the Prussian king's troubles come from the bourgeoisie and the proletariat." Endashen lit a Cuban cigar, took a puff and said with a smile. "Jason, I think you will definitely have a headache for the Chinese bourgeoisie and proletariat in the future."

"We'll talk about the future, but for now...... Is there any other way to do it than to adjust taxes? "Emperor Zhu was very confident in the consciousness of the Chinese bourgeoisie and proletariat, and they were not as fond of struggle and democracy as their Western counterparts.

"Of course there is a way, but it is more dangerous." Engels took a puff of cigarette and said with a smile, "I have found that your government is extremely efficient in disaster relief, and last year's relief of the floods in the Yangtze River valley and the famine in the Central Plains surpassed that of a certain European power. ”

This great power was the British Empire, and when the famine in Ireland struck, the British government was extremely slow to respond, even less than the Sultan of the Turkish Empire, Abdul. Mejid I donated £10,000 and, in the face of opposition from the British government (which outnumbered the Fat Lady Victoria), secretly sent three ships full of food to Ireland.

"Jason, based on my research with several students from the Department of Political Science at Jeshi University, I found that the Chinese gentry also played a great role in disaster relief. In China, when peasants encounter a famine, they have a custom called eating big households. The gentry reluctantly fed the thousands of people who had gathered to feed the peasants, and the gentry had the weakest control over the peasants...... I think they must want all the farmers who come to eat big to go to the South Seas and the Northeast, right? ”

Engels's recounting made Zhu Jishi sigh: "Why did I forget? If we don't help a little less disaster, we can probably recruit hundreds of thousands more people to go to the Northeast, right? ”

Engels smiled: "As far as I know...... China is a disaster-prone country, and various natural disasters often occur. In the future, whenever there is a disaster, the government will adopt the method of resettlement relief, and the colonies in the northeast and Nanyang will definitely be filled up quickly. ”

"Also, Jason, have you ever heard of primogeniture?" Engels added, "I think Chinese reluctance to leave his hometown may have something to do with the system of inheritance of property...... Every son was given a small piece of land, but at the same time, he was bound by this small family business. In Europe, only the eldest son can inherit the family property, and the remaining sons can only go out and have a good time. ”

"The primogeniture system ......" Zhu Jishi certainly knew about this system. Because Churchill was not the eldest son, he did not have the property rights of Blenheim Palace, and he could not inherit the huge fortune of the Churchill family.

"The system of separation of production has been implemented in China for more than 2,000 years, and it has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people." Zhu Jishi frowned. In fact, he really wanted to implement the primogeniture system in China, but the problem of civil property inheritance could not be solved by an edict issued by him, the emperor.

"Then you can do the opposite." Engels smiled and said, "For example, the son of a peasant family who voluntarily renounces his right of inheritance can be granted land in the northeast, of course, not immediately, but in the form of a collective farm for 20 years, before he can have land ownership." (To be continued......)