The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, Marin's implementation of "cancellation of head tax" and "split into mu" in Dongfan Island is just a pilot. His real purpose is to implement such a policy in Beihai. After all, the nobles did not pay taxes on their fields, and even ordinary landowners did not have to pay taxes, which made Marin very depressed.

Why can't Europe fight a big war? Because the king can't collect taxes! The king's income is only territorial income and commercial taxes, and nothing else. In this way, it is strange for the kings of Europe to be rich. Without enough money and food, naturally it cannot support a large-scale army. Then, of course, there will be no large-scale wars. Even, let alone being unable to support a large-scale army, even the daily expenses are somewhat limited. In this era, most of the great nobles have to find someone to borrow money to maintain.

Therefore, Marin decided-to promote the land taxation system in the colonies in the future, and to promote it as soon as possible. In other words, Marin intends to promote the land taxation system in the colony from the very beginning. Because, if you don't promote it now, and wait until the tax is suddenly raised later, it is estimated that there will be rebellion.

Historically, the reason why the North American colonies rebelled was because Britain suddenly raised taxes. However, the stamp duty and tea tax increased by the British are not exorbitant taxes at all in the eyes of modern people, and they will not make the people miserable.

However, the descendants of exiles in the North American colonies are used to not paying taxes or paying less taxes. They are not happy to suddenly give him a stamp duty and tea tax. Plus they have guns in their hands, so it's the opposite...

Therefore, the old American independence movement advocated in the history books is not for the purpose of being too righteous, but because these uncles are used to the good life of low taxes, and suddenly raise taxes for him, even if it is a good tax, it will make them unbearable. After all, "it is easy to go from thrift to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality." After paying less taxes for a long time, I mistakenly think that I should not pay taxes or pay less taxes by nature. If the tax rate of later generations is from that era, why not scare those people to death? In short, everything is used to...

Because of the lessons learned by the British, Marin decided to pay taxes to them from the beginning, so that the people in the colonies could get used to paying taxes. In this way, the changes caused by tax increases in the future can be fully avoided. Since everyone has paid taxes at the beginning, who can talk about taxes in the future-since everyone pays taxes, why don't you pay them? Do you think you are Fan Bingbing?

Moreover, Marin's development in the American colonies is now his personal investment, and no one else has participated. However, America is so big, there will always be others involved in the future.

Therefore, Marin needs to make a model in advance and formulate a tax system. In this way, disputes can be avoided as much as possible in the future. The system of "split to mu" and "cancellation of poll tax" tried out on Dongfan Island are actually explorations of the management of American colonies.

The Ming Dynasty is different from Europe. Europe is still a serf system, and there is no such thing as land tax. And Dongfan Island belongs to the Ming Dynasty in name, so naturally the European serf system cannot be applied. Therefore, Marin is also doing as the Romans do, engaging in the management mode of equalizing land and taxation.

and,

In the future, the European and American colonies will eventually abandon the backward serfdom system and switch to a system of private ownership of farmland and taxation.

Therefore, the tax system implemented in Dongfan Island can be regarded as an attempt and exploration of Marin. When this set matures, it will be directly applied to the American colonies. In the future, it will also be applied to the mainland of Europe, and finally complete the transformation of society...

...

In fact, Yongzheng, who came up with "split into the mu" and "abolished poll tax", was also unlucky. He was obviously the most promising emperor in the civil affairs of the Qing Dynasty, but he was hacked by civil servants. The most important thing is that his son Qianlong actually let the civil servants hack him. Qianlong was an unfilial son, as long as the civil servants praised him as an "eternal Mingjun", it was enough. As for the civil officials blacking his father, they turned a blind eye. If he had known this earlier, Yongzheng should have shot the unfilial son Qianlong against the wall...

Sometimes, Marin had to wonder whether the plot of "Qianlong is a child brought by Yongzheng" written by Jin Yong is true, because this bear boy does not defend his father's reputation at all, it looks very different biological……

In fact, this statement was not first proposed by Jin Yong, but a folk legend. After all, an emperor who allowed his ministers to blackmail his father is so rare that people have to wonder whether Qianlong was born by Yongzheng himself. Otherwise, why don't other emperors have such legends? In short, either Qianlong was not filial, or he was really not born to Yongzheng, otherwise he wouldn't be so cheating...

...

The Taipei Basin has been laid down, but it is very troublesome to develop the Taipei Basin. Among other things, the dense forest in the Taipei Basin is very difficult to solve. It is not an easy task to transform the Taipei Basin from virgin forests into fertile fields.

First of all, just like the development of North America, Marin needs a lot of manpower to cut down most of the trees in the Taipei Basin and turn them into farmland. Among them, the most difficult thing is not to cut down the big tree, but to dig the roots. After all, the taller the tree, the more intertwined the roots. It takes a lot of work to dig up the roots.

Fortunately, Marin conquered the Taipei Basin this time and captured more than 6,000 indigenous people. Among them, there are about 1,800 young people alone. So, after Marin ordered a large number of shackles from Fuzhou, he handcuffed these young and strong aborigines, and then asked the militiamen to escort them to cut trees and dig roots. And at night, these young and strong indigenous people will be temporarily locked in the temporary rammed earth wall compound...

In fact, Marin was unwilling to abuse these aborigines. Therefore, apart from shackling their feet and driving them to log and dig roots, Marin did not do anything to abuse the young and strong aborigines. Moreover, Marin also bought a lot of food from Fuzhou for the consumption of these aborigines.

The reason why they were handcuffed at the beginning was because these aborigines were used to freedom, and if they wanted to manage them, they had to be ruthless at first to subdue them. Then, like a labor reform, let these aboriginal young men help cut down trees for a few months, and reclaim the land as arable land... After they get used to this kind of life, Marin will assign them to the island's officials and Soldiers acted as tenants and helped to cultivate the land.

No matter what, the Taipei Basin is 240 square kilometers in size. Even if only 100 square kilometers are reclaimed as arable land, there are still 150,000 mu. Based on the calculation that each household can take care of a maximum of 50 mu of paddy fields, 3,000 households and more than 10,000 people can be resettled. And if it is calculated based on the scale of 20 mu of paddy fields for one family, it can even accommodate 7,500 households with a population of 20,000 to 30,000.

Of course, this is only calculated based on less than half of the land in the basin, without counting the resettlement of those craftsmen and fishermen.

Moreover, the Taipei Basin on Taiwan Island is not the largest plain area. The largest plain area on the island is the Tainan Plain (also known as the Chianan Plain) in Tainan. The Tainan Plain covers an area of ​​4,500 square kilometers and is crisscrossed with rivers and canals. It is a famous granary for later generations.

In later generations, the area of ​​cultivated land in the Tainan Plain was as high as 3,250 square kilometers, equivalent to 4.875 million mu of land, accounting for more than one-third of the entire cultivated land of Taiwan Island, and it was the most important agricultural area on Taiwan Island.

However, for now, the most important thing for Marin is not to develop Tainan, but to develop Taipei and Keelung.

Because Marin occupied Taiwan Island not for farming, but for trade. The Tamsui River Estuary on the north side of the Taipei Basin is facing Fuzhou and is the hub of maritime trade. Therefore, speaking of it, Taipei is much more important than Tainan.

Moreover, Keelung near Taipei also has the world-class Jinguashi gold mine that can be developed. The combination of the two is much more important than farming in the Tainan Plain. Therefore, developing Taipei and Keelung is the best choice for Marin. As for the Tainan side, people will not be sent there until the development here is almost complete.

...

However, it is very difficult to develop only the small Taipei Basin with a small area. There is no shortage of manpower to develop the basin. After all, there are thousands of immigrants in Marin and thousands of captured aborigines.

But in addition to the trouble of cutting down trees and digging out roots, the shortage of farming cattle is also a huge problem.

Zhang Cai told Marin that the merchant ships sent to Fuzhou can purchase other things without any problem, but it is hard to buy cattle. Because, the Ming Dynasty also lacked cattle...

Daming cattle are not expensive, they can be bought for only 8 to 10 taels of silver. However, if nothing happened, no one wanted to sell cattle. Because, in the farming era, cattle are one of the most valuable assets of farmers, second only to land.

Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, no one sells cattle at all. Zhang Cai even bid a sky-high price of 20 taels of silver in Fuzhou, and only bought 100 cows back. Moreover, among the 100 cows, there are still 30 calves that have not grown up...

"I heard that Hu Jianjin Yijiang, in order to solve the problem of cattle shortage, specially bred a kind of pony to replace cattle to plow the land..." Zhang Cai told Marin the news he heard.

"Jinyijiang... pony... cultivated land... Isn't that Jinyijiang horse?" Ma Lin suddenly remembered that it seemed that Jinyijiang horse was also a famous horse in later generations. Of course, its fame is not because of its ability to run, but its ability to adapt to the hot and humid climate of the southern coast. It is hard-working, and it is a rare breed among horses that can cultivate paddy fields.

You must know that it is difficult for ordinary farm horses to adapt to paddy field farming. Because in paddy fields and cultivated land, horseshoes are often soaked in water, which is easy to rot. Ordinary horses can't adapt to paddy fields at all, but Jinyijiang horses can adapt to this very well, and their ability to pull carts is also good.

So, after thinking about it, Marin said to Zhang Cai:

"Since you can't buy farming cattle, you should inquire to see if there are any horses that can plow the paddy fields. For example, you can buy more horses from Jinyijiang as you mentioned. It doesn't matter if the price is higher. Remember. , we are not short of money!" Marin Niubi said coquettishly, a wave of embarrassment rushed towards him...