fantasy novels Chapter 652: Integration Of Government And Business, The Ming Dynasty Is Overthrown And I Feel Tired
Chapter 652: Integration Of Government And Business, The Ming Dynasty Is Overthrown And I Feel Tired
Yan Changqing on the podium looked at Zhu Yuanzhang who had understood, as well as the princes Zhu Biao, Zhu Di, Zhu Fan, Zhu Di and other princes, and continued:
"Now that's not to say that there was no collusion between government and businessmen in the Ming Dynasty."
"But on the one hand, there are His Majesty's harsh laws that hang over the heads of all officials, so that even if those officials want to accept bribes from those merchants, they dare not."
"On the other hand, those merchants also know that when a scholar has begun to make a fortune, embarked on an official career, and became an official, they will try to curry favor with him.
"Then the cost of flattering, currying favor, or even bribing such scholars and officials will become very high, even to the point where even they can hardly pay it."
"And if these officials have concerns, such as the laws established by His Majesty to punish corruption, they will basically not help those businessmen."
"But what if this official didn't become successful before?"
"What if this official passes the Jinshi examination before, or passes the examination and then becomes an official?"
"What if this official was still a scholar and was struggling to study because of poverty?"
"If you help them at this time, it will not only be as simple as fawning and flattering, but also a kind of 'helping them in times of need' for these scholars who later became officials.
a feeling of!"
"When these scholars become officials and become successful, as long as they still have a little bit of humanity that knows how to be grateful."
"Then these scholars and officials will naturally have a good impression and gratitude towards the businessmen who helped and funded them during their difficult times!"
"At that time, let alone taking care of those merchants within the scope of 'reasonable and normal business behavior'."
"Even if it goes beyond 'reasonable and normal business behavior,' they are likely to try their best to give some care to the businessmen who have funded them!"
"Otherwise, people will say that they are ungrateful and supercilious. Once the reputation becomes like this, what consequences will there be for the officials? His Highness King Yan also said it just now."
Hearing this, Factor Baobiao suddenly asked:
"With this method of training scholars to become officials, can those merchants really recoup their costs?!!"
"After all, the Ming Dynasty's imperial examinations, if not the best among many scholars, are at least the best among many scholars.
"Even if those merchants want to train scholars to pass the Jinshi examination and become officials, it is not an easy task, right?!!"
"And as long as those scholars fail to pass the Jinshi examination and become officials, then the cost invested by those merchants will be in vain?!"
"Once such investment costs increase, even those businessmen may not be able to afford it, right?"
Although the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination is not as scary as the college entrance examination in later generations, where thousands of troops and horses cross a single-plank bridge, there is still no problem in saying "one in a thousand, one in a thousand".
Among so many scholars participating in the imperial examination, if you want the scholars you train to pass the examination and even become Jinshi, you can only use the crowd tactics to fill the gap.
In other words, you can only train a large number of scholars to take part in the imperial examinations, thereby increasing the probability that the scholars you train will pass the imperial examinations and Jinshi.
But if you want to cultivate scholars, you still need to cultivate a large number of scholars, and the cost investment required is very high!
After all, whether it is the four treasures of the study that scholars need to consume during their studies, or the minimum living guarantee money that allows scholars to not have to think about life problems, as well as the cost of hiring famous teachers to teach scholars, etc.
The total sum of these costs and inputs is definitely not something that just one or two so-called merchants can afford.
Regarding Prince Zhu Biao’s question, Yan Changqing smiled and said:
"Your Highness, do you know how much gifts those merchants have to give when they ask powerful officials in the court to help them?!!"
Prince Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment, then shook his head.
Naturally, he didn't know how much it cost to ask an official to take action at one time.
If he knew, then this official's career would more or less come to an end.
Of course, what is more likely is that by the time Prince Zhu Biao knew about it, this official had already been beheaded by Zhu Yuanzhang.
After all, even Prince Zhu Biao knew it. If Zhu Yuanzhang said he didn't know, it would be impossible.
When it comes to dealing with corrupt officials and illegal officials, Zhu Yuanzhang has never been soft-hearted. He will chop him off whenever he wants. No one can plead for mercy, and he will never hesitate at all!
Looking at Prince Zhu Biao shaking his head, Yan Changqing gave the answer:
"If a businessman wants to ask the powerful officials in the court to help them, he will have to start with at least 10,000 taels!!!"
"Most of them cost tens of thousands of taels, or even hundreds of thousands of taels."
"And it's not certain whether those powerful officials are willing to help."
"After all, for those powerful officials, it is not an exaggeration to say that things like this are a beheading business."
"You must know that His Majesty has stipulated that if corruption exceeds sixty taels, he will be skinned directly."
"So under such circumstances, if those businessmen do not come up with huge profits that are enough to make those officials stupid, then most of those officials will not take risks."
"However, it only takes a few hundred taels to train a child from reading and studying, to becoming a candidate, becoming a Jinshi, and finally becoming an official."
"Compared with spending tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands taels to ask a powerful official in the court to help, the difference in cost can be said to be as big as heaven or earth."
"Even if you train a hundred children and only one succeeds in becoming an official, it will be much more cost-effective than giving gifts to those officials in the DPRK and China."
"Furthermore, if a huge amount of silver is given to those powerful officials, they may not be very happy in doing things. They may find excuses to delay the process and take the opportunity to make more money."
"Even those businessmen have to worry about whether those powerful officials will push them out at any time to take the blame!"
"In addition, every time I ask for help, I have to send another high-priced gift and worry about whether I will continue to help next time."
"But those children who received financial support from merchants to study in their most difficult moments and passed the exams became officials after they became officials. Out of gratitude, they became more effective in doing things."
"And more importantly, these officials who were supported by merchants in their early years to study and become officials are inextricably linked to merchants."
"It can be said that they are businessmen who cultivate them by being close to them from birth!!!"
"At that time, those merchants will only have to kidnap the interests of those officials into their own camp. In this way, these officials and those merchants will form a community of interests.
"For the common interests of both parties, when the merchants are in danger, even if the officials themselves have concerns, they will still spare no effort to take action.
"Because safeguarding the interests of merchants is safeguarding their interests!!!"
"This is much better than trying to curry favor with officials who are already powerful!!!"
"And this phenomenon, I call it the phenomenon of Tang Emperor's ten-body transformation!!!"
“Once the phenomenon of ‘integration of government and business’ becomes widespread, officials above the court will become the spokespersons for the interests of these businessmen. "
"At that time, what all the officials in the DPRK will see is no longer the interests of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court, and the people of the world, but the interests of the merchants and themselves!"
“Once the policies of North Korea and China harm the interests of businessmen and themselves, they will find various reasons and excuses to boycott it wildly.
"For example, what I just said is, 'The court cannot compete with the people for profit.'"
"Of course, what those ministers actually said was that 'the imperial court cannot compete with officials and businessmen for profit,' which we have just said."
"For another example, two years ago, when His Majesty wanted to change the commercial tax from thirty-one tax to ten-ten tax, he encountered vocal opposition from many ministers in the DPRK and China.
"It's just that in the end, His Majesty used his own power to suppress them and then forced them to pass.
“However, it can also be seen that the phenomenon of ‘integration of government and business’ has begun to take shape.”
"If this phenomenon cannot be curbed and continues to develop, eventually there will be no official in the court who considers the interests of the Ming Dynasty, the court, the people, and the rise and fall of the world!!!"
"But when all the ministers in the court no longer do their best for the country and the people, but only consider their own selfish interests."
"Then under the governance of these officials, how can the people have a happy and stable life?!!"
"Once the people are unable to live a stable life, they may even be forced into desperation and have to sell their children, daughters, or land."
"The Ming Dynasty will be full of refugees again. All it takes is a beggar refugee like Your Majesty, or a careerist like Zhang Shicheng or Chen Youliang to raise his arms."
"Then the Ming Dynasty might be destroyed again!!!"
At the end, Yan Changqing shook his head slightly, as if sighing for the future demise of the Ming Dynasty.
But he was telling the truth. The integration of government and business was indeed an important reason for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty in the original history.
By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, merchants had already cultivated a group of middle- and upper-level officials to serve as spokespersons for their interests in the court.
And these middle and upper-level officials in the court also played a guiding role that cannot be ignored in the court's decision-making!!!
For example, Zhang Siwei, the first assistant in the Wanli period, and Wang Chonggu, the governor of Xuanda, were his uncles. His father, uncle, father-in-law and other family members were all Shanxi merchants, and almost all of Wang Chonggu's family members were big salt merchants.
At the same time, the Wang and Zhang families also married Ma Ziqiang, the Minister of Rites, so the imperial censor Gao Yongchun said, "The bad habits of the salt law are going to be rampant, because of business patents."
For another example, most of the members of the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty were interest representatives of small and medium-sized landowners or lower-level officials in Jiangnan.
These Donglin Party officials opposed the imperial court's tax collection from industrial and commercial businesses, but advocated increasing taxes on ordinary people in the northwest region.
And taking advantage of Emperor Chongzhen's opportunity to eliminate Wei Zhongxian's influence, he canceled or reduced taxes such as overseas trade tax, mineral tax, salt tax, tea tax, etc.
This made the source of fiscal revenue more single in the late Ming Dynasty and further increased the burden on the people.
In addition, various natural disasters continued in the late Ming Dynasty, which resulted in the bankruptcy of a large number of peasants and the formation of a large number of refugees, which "directly led to the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty.
It's just that these officials and businessmen don't care about the survival of Ming Dynasty, they only care about their own interests.
So later, when the peasant uprising intensified, in order to safeguard their own interests, these officials and businessmen even colluded with the Manchu Qing Dynasty and carried out crazy suppression of the peasant uprising army in the Central Plains under the slogan of "avenging Chongzhen".
And this also brought the already precarious Ming Dynasty to almost an end.
This is why it is said that "integration of government and business" was an important reason for the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
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