Agriculture was the most important production sector in feudal society, and Zhu Yuanzhang paid special attention to agriculture. In feudal times, the main measures to restore and develop agriculture were to reward reclamation and implement reclamation. After the peasant war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, many bureaucratic landlords fled, and some of the land they occupied was returned to farmers and some were abandoned. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that all fields abandoned in the war and cultivated by others became the property of the cultivators. If the original landowner returns, the government will allocate the same amount of wasteland as compensation. In fact, this is the recognition of the fruits of farmers' victory in the Anti-Japanese War. For those ownerless wasteland, Zhu Yuanzhang encouraged farmers to actively reclaim it. In the first year of Hongwu (1368), it was stipulated that people were allowed to reclaim wasteland everywhere, and they would always be their own businesses, free from corvee for three years. After two years, it was stipulated that the wasteland near the northern counties and cities should be distributed to unemployed farmers for farming, with each household 15 mu and vegetable fields of 2 mu. There is no limit on the number of acres of idle production capacity, and all of them are tax-free for three years. Similar policies have been implemented in some southern areas, such as Taicang, Suzhou, where land is granted per hectare 16 mu. Later, it was stipulated that in Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Peiping and other places, as well as Fengyang, Huai 'an, Yangzhou and Luzhou, farmers were allowed to try their best to reclaim wasteland, and the government was not allowed to levy taxes. Many farmers who fled returned to their hometowns to reclaim land and became yeomen with small plots of land.
The Ming government also vigorously promoted reclamation. There are three kinds of reclamation: civil, military and commercial. People's villages mainly migrate unemployed farmers and criminals, from small and densely populated areas to sparsely populated areas to reclaim wasteland and cultivate seeds. The government will pay the tolls, and some will also give cattle, farm tools and seeds, and there will be no tax for three years. For example, in the third year of Hongwu (1370), more than 4,000 unemployed farmers from Suzhou, Songjiang, Jiaxing, Huzhou and Hangzhou moved to Fengyang to cultivate land, more than 32,000 desert survivors moved to Beiping to cultivate seeds, and farmers from Zezhou (now Jincheng) and Luzhou (now Changzhi) in Shanxi moved to Hebei.
Throughout the Hongwu era, there were more than1600,000 immigrants, and the actual number may be more than twice this figure. Most of them later became small farmers. The garrison shall be borne by the garrison troops. At that time, it was stipulated that the border troops should guard the city for three points and sow for seven points. The mainland army is divided into two parts: guarding the city and sowing. Each sergeant is allocated 50 mu of land by the government and given cattle, seeds and farm tools. In the first few years of planting, there is no need to pay taxes. Later, a barrel of tax was paid per mu, and the rest of the harvest was left to Ben Wei as rations. Most of the rations of the army in the early Ming Dynasty came from the income of the army. Zhu Yuanzhang once boasted: "I raise a million soldiers and don't work for the people." Shangtun is a supplement to Juntun. At first, the Ming government implemented the "China Salt Law", which allowed businessmen to transport grain to frontier health centers and then give them equivalent salt guides. Merchants then took the salt to the salt-producing areas to collect salt and transport it to designated areas for sale. Later, merchants simply raised people to settle in the border areas and paid food on the spot to save freight, so Shangtun appeared.
With the development of military and commercial villages, a large number of wasteland has been developed.
In order to promote the development of agriculture, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to water conservancy construction. Acceded to the throne that year, he ordered:
"Whenever people put forward suggestions on water conservancy, local officials must report them in time." Later, he specifically instructed the Minister of Industry: "All ponds, lakes and weirs that can store water and drain water and prevent droughts and floods should be repaired according to the terrain." During the Hongwu period, many large-scale irrigation projects were built, some of which involved hundreds of thousands of people and could irrigate tens of thousands of hectares of land. For example, in the sixth year of Hongwu (1373), 18 gates from Xiao Mu in Kaifeng to Shahekou in Zhouchensha were dredged, involving 250,000 people. After two years, dredging Jingyang Hongqu weir can irrigate more than 200 miles of fields in Jingyang, Sanyuan, Liquan, Gaoling and Lintong. In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu (139 1 year), Dinghai and East Lake in Yinxian were treated, which could irrigate tens of thousands of hectares of fields. The following year, Yinshu Dongba River in Liyang dug more than 4,300 feet, and mobilized as many as 359,700 migrant workers from Jiaxing and other states. What is more important is to urge local officials to organize labor force, make use of slack season and vigorously build small and medium-sized irrigation projects. For example, in the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu (1394), imperial academy students were sent to all parts of the country to urge officials and people to build water conservancy projects. By the end of the second year, 40,987 ponds, 4, 162 rivers and 5,048 canals had been built in China.
In the thirty-first year of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, so many water conservancy projects were built, which is rare in the history of China. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also attached great importance to the protection of water conservancy projects. According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, those who illegally break the river defense and build dikes and ponds will be severely punished, and officials in charge of water conservancy will also be punished if they fail to repair the river defense, build dikes or repair them in time.
In order to arouse the enthusiasm of farmers, Zhu Yuanzhang also took measures to improve their social status.
Farmers in the Yuan Dynasty had a strong personal attachment to landlords, and the law stipulated that tenants mainly paid servants' courtesy to their owners when they saw the land. The dead landlord only fined 170 stick, and then paid 520 pieces of buried silver. The Ming government stipulated that tenants should pay tribute to their elders when they met the landlord, canceling the provision in Yuan Law that the landlord only had to pay 170 sticks and the dead tenant had to levy 520 taels of silver. Farmers' dependence on landlords has been reduced. Slavery was very popular in the Yuan Dynasty, and there were a large number of slaves, exorcists and exorcists in all walks of life, some of them as many as thousands. In the storm of peasant war at the end of Yuan Dynasty, many slaves got rid of the bondage of their masters and won their freedom, but some farmers became slaves again because of famine. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that all people who were forced into slavery in the war must be released by their masters immediately and restored to their status as freemen. And ordered the government to pay for the redemption of men and women who were sold into slavery because of famine. In the 19th year of Hongwu (1386), only Henan Political Department redeemed 274 men and women who were sold into slavery by Kaifeng and other officials. The law of the Ming dynasty also stipulated that there should be no more than 20 slaves in the hero's family; Slaves should not be kept in the homes of ordinary people, or they will be punished with a hundred sticks and the handmaiden will be returned to the people; Anyone who takes in lost children, sells escaped children as handmaiden, or assumes that freemen are handmaiden will be severely punished.
While improving the status of farmers, Zhu Yuanzhang tried to reduce the burden on farmers. Through the peasant war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that squeezing the people too much would cause strong resistance, and understood the truth that "if you are in a hurry, you will fall (wrestle), if you are in a hurry, you will be ruined, and if you are in a hurry, you will be in chaos." After he acceded to the throne, he repeatedly stressed that it is necessary to control the tax corvee within a certain limit, "take it in moderation and use it in moderation", not only paying attention to immediate interests, but also exhausting interests and completely squeezing the people. The tax law enacted in the early Ming Dynasty stipulated that the average taxable grain per mu in private fields was five liters, five scoops and three taels, which was thirty taxes and one tael based on the lowest yield per mu at that time. The corvee collection was also much lighter than that at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Due to the long-term war, most of the household registration books and local books in the Yuan Dynasty have been lost, and the preserved ones are not in line with the actual situation. The landlord took the opportunity to hide Ding Kou and land property, evade corvee and taxes, and passed the burden on to farmers. Officials also colluded with each other, taking the opportunity of fraud and corruption, which added an extra burden to farmers. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered a nationwide census of household registration and land measurement. In the fourteenth year of Hongwu (138 1) and the twentieth year of Hongwu (1387), the Yellow Book of Taxation and the Atlas of Fish Scales were compiled as the basis for taxation. After the Yellow Book was compiled, the corvee was reorganized. This, to a certain extent, limited the situation that the powerful landlords concealed the land and property of Dingkou and evaded taxes, so that the burden was relatively even, thus reducing the burden on farmers.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born in poverty and knew well the hardships of material resources and farmers. He said: "The people of the four industries, namely scholars, farmers and businessmen, suffer the most. They work hard all the year round and seldom rest. In the harvest year, you can still eat enough. In case of floods and droughts, the whole family will starve to death. When I put on a dress and have a meal, I always think of the hardships and tiredness of farming and weaving. " Therefore, he is more sympathetic to the people's feelings, pays attention to thrift, refrains from extravagance, and cherishes the use of people's resources to reduce the burden on the people. A chamberlain was walking in the rain in his new boots, and Zhu Yuanzhang scolded him. The other rider is wearing gorgeous new clothes. Zhu Yuanzhang asked him, "How much is this dress?" He replied, "Five hundred passes." Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Five hundred crowns, which is the annual expenses of a farmer's family of several, but you use it to make a dress. It' s really a waste of money to be so arrogant and extravagant. " He not only asks others to be frugal, but also asks himself. He said, "The so-called frugality is not the first. Why should we lead?" In the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), the Imperial Palace was rebuilt. He instructed the ministers around him: "I just want to build the palace safely and firmly, without pursuing luxury or fancy carving." Only simple and powerful can be passed down forever, so that my descendants can take the world as the law. As for the works of Taixuyuan, I don't want to waste other people's money and take pleasure in seeing things! " He offered sacrifices to temples in the suburbs, and the heart of the mattress was made of red cloth. The imperial bed in the Qing palace is painted very lightly by Jinlong. If anything, it's not much different from a middle-class bed. Every day, we have breakfast and only vegetables. Under his influence, empresses also pay attention to economy, wearing old clothes that have been washed several times and never dressing up, for fear of ruining things and depriving people of their wealth. Zhu Yuanzhang also strictly controlled large-scale construction projects, and all large-scale local projects must be submitted for approval before they can start. All projects that are not urgently needed should be postponed as much as possible.
General engineering, as far as possible, also arranged in the slack season, so as not to delay the busy season. He also ordered many times that taxes and levies should be reduced or exempted according to the specific conditions of different places. When the disaster happened, he donated money, cloth and food to help farmers tide over the famine.
These measures. This has also reduced the burden on farmers to some extent.
Besides agriculture, Zhu Yuanzhang also attached great importance to the development of industry and commerce. Zhu Yuanzhang paid special attention to the cultivation of cash crops when grasping agriculture. Before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, he ordered in the occupied area of the south of the Yangtze River that farmers with fields ranging from five mu to ten mu, half mu of mulberry, hemp and cotton, and more than ten mu, should be doubled, and the number of fields should be increased in proportion. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, this order spread to all parts of the country. Later, I asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development to order people all over the country to plant all kinds of mulberry, jujube, persimmon and cotton. Every family planted 200 mulberry dates in the early years, 400 in the following year and 600 in three years, and all the families who disobeyed orders were exiled. Many kinds of cotton are duty-free. In order to encourage farmers to diversify their business as much as possible, in the 28th year of Hongwu (1395), it was also ordered that no matter how many mulberry and jujube trees were planted after the 26th year of Hongwu, they should be exempted from tax. The development of cash crops, especially the extensive planting of cotton, not only provides raw materials for handicraft production, but also promotes the prosperity of commerce. Zhu Yuanzhang also reformed the system of perennial service for craftsmen in the Yuan Dynasty. In the 19th year of Hongwu (1386), it was stipulated that craftsmen would serve in Beijing once every three years for three months at a time. In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393), a more detailed service law for craftsmen was formulated. According to the different types of work and the distance to Beijing, the shifts of craftsmen were rearranged and divided into five, four, three, two or one years. Each shift serves for three months, and this kind of craftsman is called shift craftsman. Other craftsmen who work in the capital or local government are called residential craftsmen and serve for ten days a month. Artisans are free to work outside working hours. In terms of business tax, Zhu Yuanzhang also carried out rectification, stipulating 30 tax/kloc-0 tax, exempting books and farm tools, and abolishing the 364 tax department.
The implementation of the policy of "rest and recuperation" has made the social economy on the verge of despair slowly recover and develop.
The development of agriculture is particularly prominent. The area of cultivated land in China has greatly increased. In the 24th year of Hongwu (139 1), it reached 3,874,746 hectares, more than double the first year of Hongwu (1368). Compared with the highest cultivated land figure in the Northern Song Dynasty, it increased by more than 3 million hectares (there was no national cultivated land figure to compare in the Yuan Dynasty), and the government's tax revenue also increased. In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393), it reached 32,789,800 stones, nearly twice that of Yuan Dynasty. With the development of agriculture, handicrafts and commerce are increasingly developed. The population has also increased rapidly. According to the statistics in the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393), there were 10652870 households and 605458 12 people in the whole country, which was 7 million people more than that of Yuan Shizu in the heyday of Yuan Dynasty. With the development of production, "the four people have their own jobs, and the people are content with farming and have no other ambitions." The government drove them to agriculture without disturbing them, so the family gave enough to others and was willing to work for agriculture. " On the basis of economic development in Hongwu period, social production continued to rise in Yongle, Hongxi and Xuande periods, forming a "prosperous time in the early Ming Dynasty".