Recently, a batch of wild Song powder appeared on the Internet, dedicated to establishing a brand-new positive image for the Song Dynasty.

We have always had the impression that the Song Dynasty was poor and weak, and was beaten to pieces by its neighbors.

Some Song powder boasted that the Song Dynasty was not as weak as we thought! Commodity economy flourished in Song Dynasty, with GDP accounting for 80% of the world at that time!

Look at the Qingming Riverside Map. At that time, the capital of song dynasty was more prosperous and people's lives were richer!

Even, in their eyes, it is of great significance for the Song Dynasty to send the old coins to Liao, which is a small sum of money for the peaceful development of the country, and also to pull Liao into the currency circle controlled by the Song Dynasty and launch a financial war!

The so-called low-level wars seize land, intermediate wars seize resources, and high-level wars control the economic and financial lifeline. This is a senior strategic player in the Song Dynasty!

In short, in Song Fen's eyes, that is a sentence of Da Song: Good.

So, what was the economic situation of the Song Dynasty? How do ordinary people live? We don't look at data from unknown sources, and we don't just look at the life picture of first-tier cities, and we don't really look at taxes.

1. In the Song Dynasty, the fiscal revenue could not make ends meet, and the political reform was full of twists and turns.

If we want to talk about taxes in the Song Dynasty, we can't bypass those political ministers.

The first appearance was Fan Zhongyan, who was "worried about the world first, and happy after the world".

Zhao Kuangyin, Song Taizu, became mutinous and yellow robe as the future of military commanders. When he came to power, he tried to block the way to usurp the throne.

He adopted the principle of separation of powers in the establishment of civilian military commanders, and did whatever he could for three people, and resolutely refused to let one person work hard. In addition, the northern minorities are ready to move, and domestic farmers occasionally riot, so the Northern Song Dynasty government recruited a large number of soldiers. As a result, there were many government troops in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the financial burden was unbearable.

Fan Zhongyan suggested that we should reform the military service system, reform the selection mechanism, improve administrative efficiency, in a word: reduce financial expenditure!

However, whose life is it to reduce fiscal expenditure? This is the life of bureaucrats. Reform the selection mechanism, improve administrative efficiency, put on a good show, and let officials take their own lives and smash their own golden rice bowls. Can they agree?

Sure enough, there was opposition in the DPRK, and Song Renzong, the big boss, failed to resist the pressure, decisively betrayed his teammates and relegated Fan Zhongyan and other reformers far away.

Fan Zhongyan died before he started his career, and the waves behind the Yangtze River pushed the waves before him. During the Song Shenzong period, another powerful reformist stepped onto the historical stage, and he was Wang Anshi.

Drawing lessons from Fan Zhongyan's failure experience, the center of Wang Anshi's political reform is not to save money and reduce the number of people receiving wages, but to get more financial income, even if the state treasury is rich.

For example, recruitment methods. According to the regulations, every young man has to work. What if he doesn't want to go? You don't have to run away. When paying taxes in spring and autumn, you will be exempted from this kind of labor if you pay appropriate exemption money. Then if everyone is like this, who will lead the corvee? The road won't be repaired? The reservoir is not built?

Don't worry, the court just pays people to work. In this way, the work was done, the people were happy, and the price difference of the imperial court was earned, which was won in one fell swoop.

Another example is the young crop method. Every spring and summer, the crops are green and yellow, and farmers just don't have enough to eat. The government comes forward and lends money to farmers at low interest, whether it is to buy grain or seeds for farming. Anyway, when the grain is ripe in autumn, farmers will return the interest to the government in the form of taxes. In this way, farmers don't have to borrow usury from the rich, and the government has also increased its fiscal revenue, killing two birds with one stone.

Another example is the equal loss method and the simple market method. According to the current situation of the tributes needed in Beijing, except for the high-quality tributes that need to be transported to the capital, the general tributes are sold on the spot, converted into silver and sent to the state treasury.

At the same time, the government allocated 5 million yuan to buy materials at a low price in the harvest year, and then distributed them when the harvest failed to stabilize prices.

Multi-pronged, multi-channel income generation. This is Wang Anshi's political reform. Such a vigorous political reform movement involving all aspects naturally needs the opposition.

We are also familiar with the leaders of the opposition, that is, Sima Guang who "smashed the jar" and Su Dongpo, the literary male god.

Why do these two great writers with both ability and political integrity oppose political reform? This is because, in their view, the exemption law has changed people from paying fees to paying fees, isn't it more harmful? In times of disaster, taxes can be exempted, but service fees cannot.

Then, isn't the amount of money exempted equal to another heavy tax on the people? Also, under the law of market changes, the government will personally participate in the sale of goods, which will not only increase the financial burden because of purchasing materials, but also affect normal business activities and business tax revenue.

How can the people be rich if the country is not strong?

In this way, the two sides played hundreds of rounds, and Song Shenzong always stood firmly on Wang Anshi's side. Unfortunately, a good political reform was also firmly supported by the emperor and eventually aborted.

Why? Because Wang Anshi's political reform was too hasty, when it came to implementation, the following people added more. It was a good policy, but it went bad when it arrived.

Like the young crops law, it was originally convenient for farmers to borrow money, but when they arrived, it became a strong buying and selling. There is also the law of market changes, which is originally to stabilize prices. As a result, the government monopolized the market, and state-owned enterprises and related households made a fortune.

Finally, Wang Anshi's political reform failed. The phenomenon of redundant soldiers, officials and expenses still existed in the Song Dynasty. However, the poverty of the imperial court in the Song Dynasty did not necessarily mean the poverty of the people. Compared with the previous dynasties, the agricultural tax in the Song Dynasty was really greatly reduced.

2. Is it frivolous to collect wealth from the people, or is it excessive to collect miscellaneous taxes?

The agricultural tax in Song Dynasty inherited the "two tax laws" implemented in the middle of Tang Dynasty. Convert all previous rents, expenses and adjustments into cash and merge them into household tax and local tax.

Pay taxes once in summer and once in autumn. As long as you have real estate in the local area, you must pay taxes at the local household registration. More fields pay more taxes, less fields pay less taxes, but the tax collected per mu is fixed. how much is it?

Shen Kuo said in Meng Qian's Bi Tan: "A bucket of mu tax is the law of the universe."

Regardless of the output, a barrel of tax is charged per mu of land. In the Song Dynasty, the yield per mu of land was about one stone to four stones. In other words, one stone for ten, that is, the agricultural tax rate is 2.5% to 10%. Compared with the previous dynasty, it can be said that it is relatively low.

Even when the imperial court collected taxes, it did not follow the actual number of fields. Wang Mingqing recorded in "The Back Waves Push the Front Waves": "For private enterprises, one mu of tax is levied on every three mu of land." Even, in order to encourage everyone to open up wasteland, 100 mu of land only needs to pay four mu of land.

The imperial court once wanted to raise the tax to 20 mu per 100 mu. As a result, officials wrote a letter against it, saying that "the people suffer and the people are heavy." Compared with previous dynasties, this tax burden is simply too light.

Under such a policy, farmers in the Song Dynasty really enjoyed a happy time. Sima Guang once visited a rural area and found that even the inferior households with the least land in the village had almost no corvee burden except paying two taxes. As long as we don't encounter famine, we will live a happy life.

But the problem is that these two taxes, that is, positive taxes, are just a kind of tax burden faced by farmers. Do you think that a common people in Song Dynasty only need to pay taxes regularly? It should be noted that in addition to regular taxes, there were various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees in the Song Dynasty.

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the rulers wanted to have a rest. But later, seeing the people getting richer, local officials began to be tempted and tried to exploit the people.

During the reign of Renzong, there was a thinker named Li Gou who wrote a poem: "Officials should be lenient, even in ancient times today. States and counties are suspicious of the rich, and the rate is unknown. "

He really wants to be frivolous about taxes. The agricultural tax is set lower than the ancient 10%. It's a pity that local officials in these counties can't see that people's lives are getting better and better, and they are willing to collect money.

In Jin Ping Mei, Ximen Qing's wife's brother, Wu Shu, said that in Jeju, he paid less than 520 taels of taxes to the imperial court every year, and he would take care of the chariot and get more 120 taels of silver from the people every year.

You see, when you were a local official in the Song Dynasty, you had so much money to earn. By the way, do you know why Buddhism in Song Dynasty didn't flourish in Tang Dynasty?

That's because you have to pay a service fee to become a monk. Being an official in the imperial examination not only doesn't have to pay taxes, but also makes a lot of money. So why don't you like being an official and becoming a monk?

In fact, at the beginning, these miscellaneous taxes in the Song Dynasty were still relatively small, and the central court would correct them in time after discovering the private tax increase. However, geopolitics became more and more tense, and the war expenditure became larger and larger, and exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes became the norm.

During the reign of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Fang La Uprising broke out. Because of the shortage of military expenditure, the official at that time proposed to levy seven kinds of miscellaneous taxes, such as liquor sales money, head money and printing money, which were collectively called "official money"

After several wars, the court in the Northern Song Dynasty decided to "always make money", "print money" and "pile up money every month".

These kinds of money were created during the war, and the set amount was relatively high. Special measures can be taken in special periods, and people are willing to temporarily tighten their belts for the sake of the country.

But who knows, when the war is over, the money will continue to be collected. Who can stand the belt tightening all the time? As a result, people can't afford so much money, and various means of increasing income have come out.

For example, some people simply don't plant crops or fields because they can't afford to pay taxes, but the tax collector will still find him and ask him to pay taxes.

For another example, when the government tries a case, the richer the prisoner, the heavier the sentence. Why? If you are given a key sentence, can't you take out your property and fight for a reduced sentence? Even, some people were stolen and robbed on the road. After the thief was caught, the government directly confiscated the stolen money and did not return a penny to the owner.

So at that time, if someone borrowed money to hide debts in other places, the creditors simply gave the creditor's rights to the government in retaliation. The government's debt collection, which is called chasing after it, is more active than tax collection.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, even the scientist Zhu wrote to his son, telling him not to forget to pay taxes in time for education. Zhu couldn't help feeling: "The law of exploitation from ancient times to the present is complete in this dynasty."

Think about it. At the end of Xichun, the total revenue of the Song Dynasty was 65.3 million yuan, of which the miscellaneous tax was nearly 45 million yuan. The income from miscellaneous taxes is more than that from regular taxes, and the Song Dynasty was the first one.

In the Northern Song Dynasty 160, farmers revolted more than 200 times, and the Southern Song Dynasty was similar. If ordinary people really live a good life, where will they be forced to rebel and assemble?

Of course, Song fans are right about one thing, that is, the commerce in Song Dynasty really developed rapidly.

In the previous thousands of years, China's fiscal revenue was mainly agricultural tax. Song Dynasty was the first dynasty in China where industrial and commercial tax revenue exceeded agricultural tax revenue.