Although the East Asians were very hateful, they had to admit that the success of the East Asians in education had allowed them to quickly rise again in another time and space, even if they had suffered heavy losses. They had become an economic powerhouse.
It was the same for the Germanic Empire. Even if its homeland was reduced to ruins during the war, it quickly developed again.
This was inseparable from the fact that they valued education and had many high-quality talents.
In this aspect, the gap between the Ming Empire and the western world was too great.
Most of the people were illiterate. And even those scholars were mostly so-called pedantic scholars who were familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics to deal with the eight-part essay exam.
If Dog Butcher of the Ming Empire didn't increase his efforts to develop education, the gap between the Ming Empire and the western world would only get bigger and bigger. It would be even more difficult to surpass the western world.
"In addition to education, agriculture and people's livelihood will also be the next key development direction of the Ming Empire. My Great Ming has a population of 400 million. However, most of them were farmers. Moreover, life was very difficult. Many people could only rely on sweet potatoes or potatoes to fill their stomachs. They could not even eat their fill, let alone buy goods to promote the development of industry and commerce. Therefore, this aspect had to be improved!”The Emperor of Guang Dong suggested a new direction.
The higher-ups in the cabinet of the Imperium didn't quite understand what the Emperor of Guang Dong wanted to do in this aspect.
"As far as I know, the vast number of farmers in the Ming Dynasty almost do not have their own land. They can only cultivate the land for the landlord. Not only did they have to bear taxes, but they also had to bear high land rent. The landowners not only exploited the peasants cruelly. They even placed the land under the name of the officials to avoid taxes. This was extremely detestable!”The emperor continued.
The cabinet ministers all had ugly expressions on their faces.
The people of this era placed great importance on land. Whether it was being an official or doing business, once they had money, they would buy a large amount of land and keep it for their family.
Almost all of these cabinet ministers were landowners.
Prime Minister Li Shaoquan probably had hundreds of thousands of acres of land under his family name, or even more.
Even if the others were not as good as Li Shaoquan, they were not in the minority either.
Not to mention all the bureaucrats in the country, which one of them wasn't like this?
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is a serious matter. You have to be careful!”Li Shaoquan persuaded.
"I know." The emperor nodded. Therefore, I hope to use the name of the Imperial Court to purchase the land in the hands of the landowners throughout the country. Then, it would be distributed to landless and landless farmers for free so that they could have their own land to cultivate. These lands belonged to the imperial court. The peasants were not allowed to buy or sell them, but they could use them. Every year, they only had to pay 10% as agricultural tax, and the rest would belong to the farmers themselves. In this way, the living standards of the farmers could be greatly improved. Once farmers had money, they would naturally start spending. This will promote the development of industry and commerce!"
The ministers were all dumbfounded. They had never expected the Emperor of Guang Dong to have such a grand plan.
However, all the land in the country was concentrated in the hands of the landowners! Even if the imperial court wanted to redeem them, they simply did not have that much money!
"Emperor, the national treasury simply doesn't have that much money to buy land.”Zhang Zhiwan's expression was almost bitter.
Each of the policies proposed by the Emperor of Guang Dong required a large amount of money!
It was to the extent that every single one of them far exceeded what the Ming Empire's finances could afford.
"Of course I know. However, the imperial court was not buying these lands at the market price, but at half of the market price. Moreover, he would not pay all the land purchase fees in one go, but would pay them over ten years. This way, the financial pressure on the empire would be much smaller!”said the emperor of Guang Dong.
The ministers finally understood. However, wasn't this like getting something for nothing?
Those landowners were not fools. How could they agree?
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this will arouse the opposition of many landlords!”The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Wu Yuan Bing, was very worried.
"Humph! I'm afraid they won't rebel. If someone objects, then I have to suspect that they are the Gong Prince's henchmen and that they want to rebel. Otherwise, why would they oppose such a policy that benefited the country and the people? Any landlord who objected would have their property confiscated. Moreover, they had to investigate whether these landowners had done anything wrong, harmed their neighbors, and killed people. Once these crimes were committed, they would all be severely punished!”The emperor of Guang Dong didn't hide his killing intent.
The cabinet ministers of the Ming Empire could not help but sweat profusely.
After all this, the Emperor of Guang Dong had no intention of buying it at all. On the contrary, he had his eyes on the property of those landowners!
It was no wonder that the Ming Empire needed a large amount of money to vigorously develop industries, transportation, education, and so on. Those landowners were all so rich that the Emperor of Guang Dong naturally had his eyes on them.
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