Chen Qingsong later told Kong Shaoan that in addition to those gentry-backed landlords in Jiaodong area, there is another type of people who need to pay special attention to.

"Common landlord?"

Kong Shaoan had never heard of such a word, but Chen Qingsong understood it after a little explanation. The so-called commoner landlords are actually merchants and loan sharks who purchased a large amount of land. However, no one in these people is an official, and even if they have a student, they can only buy the fame of a student, so they are looked down upon by the real gentry class.

Some of these people bought land for their children and grandchildren, some bought charity land to contribute to the clan, and some were to control grain and hoard food during the turbulent and famine years. The most common method they used was the "sent-household system", that is, to spend a lot of filial piety and purchase land outside their registered place in the name of an official or a juren.

"Don't underestimate these people. Common landlords will also rely on wealth to monopolize rural power, which is commonly known as the arbitrary countryside qualifier. A gentry landlord, a common landlord, and the Qing Dynasty's public donation and selling official positions and titles will allow the landlord class to control the entire economy."

Having said that, Chen Qingsong changed his mind and asked Kong Shaoan another question.

"Xiao Kong, do you agree with some people's statements, that is, as long as we guide and complete the primitive accumulation of capital, the germination of capitalism in the feudal era can form a prairie fire?"

Kong Shaoan hesitated for a moment and nodded, "When I was in the power plant before, everyone would talk about this when they were free. I didn't understand it very much, but I just heard them say it, but I think it makes sense. As long as we can change the policy of valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce and working hard to promote business, we can surpass Westerners and complete modernization ahead of schedule. But..."

Chen Qingsong smiled slightly and said, "What?"

"I was a little confused after hearing what you said just now. You know, I don't really understand a lot of things, but I will do whatever Mr. Zhao said to you."

Chen Qingsong smiled and patted Kong Shaoan on the shoulder, satisfied with his statement, and then explained: "Capitalism has always accumulated production capital through the production field, not business or other fields. The commodification of labor is actually monetization. The history textbook shows that capitalism has sprouted at the end. This is right, it is also there now, but it is always just sprouting and cannot develop at all."

"Ah?!Why?"

"Xiao Kong, the monetary wealth of these years is in the hands of landlords, gentry and merchants. If you want to develop from the beginning, you must attract these wealth to the germination industry. Even if it is profitable, it is only because of the increase in demand for maritime trade. One day the emperor feels that it threatens the rule, and a decree will be over. As for the rural population, which accounts for 90% of the country, is self-sufficient."

"Yes, you said it before," Kong Shaoan thoughtfully turned to the page at the beginning and said word by word: "One of the characteristics of China's feudal economy is the combination of small agriculture and domestic handicrafts for agricultural producers."

Chen Qingsong nodded approvingly and said, "No matter how hard the buds are, it can only grow in the gaps of the feudal economy. When people have money, they will only want to buy land, and in the end they will still strengthen the landlord economy. Don't underestimate the trinity economic model. It contains huge wealth-proliferation power. No matter how much money is made in industry and commerce, it is better to collect rents. As long as you have land, you will have the foundation for your establishment, and then invest wealth accumulation in the most favorable direction.

"Records of the Grand Historian. Biography of Merchants" says that farmers are not as good as workers, and workers are not as good as merchants. Don't look at the Confucian scholars and officials who listed "Shang" as the last of the four people, and they said that "Businessmen value profit and neglect separation", that is just a trick for people before and after people. By the way, I know that you are from Jining, do the Sun family of "Yutang Sauce Garden" know?"

Of course, Kong Shaoan knew that he had often bought pickles from his house before. Since he went to Jiaodong, he would come with a small plate every day for breakfast.

"Sun Yuting was a Jinshi in the 40th year of Qianlong's reign. He worked as a Hanlin and is currently a salt law in Guangxi. His pickled vegetable garden was opened with others with a capital of 40,000 yuan. If he wanted to be rich, he would sell sauce and vinegar. Do you think he was ashamed of doing business? The confidence he dared to do this is because the Sun family has 30,000 acres of arable land in Jining, which is definitely a big landlord! And I am sure that his family also runs a pawn shop and puts usury loans."

"Xiao Kong, I'm telling you so much, but I'm telling you that although those landlords seem to be well-educated and well-behaved and moral, they actually have a very serious exploitation of the lower-level farmers. Both commercial profit margins and usury interest rates are based on the land rent rate as the minimum limit. Otherwise, merchants and usury would rather collect rent and taxes specifically than take the risk of losing money!"

Kong Shaoan nodded, he actually knew all of this. According to the survey data of the rural work team, in addition to physical fixed-rate land rent, the four counties of Jiaodong currently have deposit-like rent similar to deposits, and even pre-payment of rent.

In the future, people may see a famous person in history books in the countryside, leading his servants to write masters and read, pastoral songs, reading and chanting poems, which is so pleasant. But in fact, their comfort and leisure are based on the blood and sweat of poor farmers.

Since the Han Dynasty, the general land rent rate in China has been more than 50%. Due to the popularity of the "permanent tenancy system", the burden on the lower-level farmers has become heavier. The ownership of land and the right to cultivate is separated, which is called field bone field skin in the south and field ground field skin in the north. In later generations, land transactions generally talk about the purchase and sale of use rights, but in this year, it is necessary to discuss it separately. The tens of thousands of acres of land owned by many large landlords are likely to be just field skin, not ownership.

For the above good water-watered fields, the skin of the field will be more expensive than the bones; so as long as you obtain the right to cultivate, you can turn it over and get a lot of profits. For the lower-level farmers, after obtaining the harvest, they must first rent the landowner and then rent the landowner. Although the levels of the two vary according to the land barren situation, the poor are also poorer.

Why have Fujianese people gone to Southeast Asia since the Ming Dynasty? Nothing else is because the leather rent is too high. There is insufficient arable land, and there are eight mountains, one river and one branch of the land. In some areas, the leather rent even exceeds several times the amount rent, resulting in the poorer the farming.

If Beihai Town wants to collect the land within the pass as state-owned, it is useless to just obtain the land bones, and it doesn’t matter if it can’t be obtained for the time being. The land is the most critical. On the contrary, there is no such problem outside the pass, and all the means of production are provided by themselves. To put it bluntly, Zhao Xin first recruited refugees, and he wanted to stipulate the land rent as "rejecting Sanqi". There are people rushing to do it.

How fresh is it. No means of production need to be produced, and the work efficiency of the tractor is so high. The refugees only pay half or even one-third of their hard work, and they can obtain higher farming profits than those in the pass, and they can also get fifty acres of permanent tenancy rights. The fool will not join!

Chen Qingsong said so much in one breath, and Kong Shaoan also had some ideas.

"Teacher Chen, then when I go back, I start with reducing the rent. What do you think?"

"Well... I'm afraid it's not enough to just reduce rents. We must get 50% of this position by landlords. We must never let them control both commercial capital and usury capital!"

"I understand! If you say a thousand words, you can't convert them between land rent, commercial profits and usury."

Speaking of the issue of landlords' loan sharks, we have to mention a person - Gu Yanwu's nephew Xu Qianxue. This person was a famous scholar in the Kangxi period. He served as the Censor of the Left Capital and the Minister of Justice. It is said that the Xu family's loan sharks were famous in history when they were impeached and returned home. When he was impeached and returned home, Mingzhu's nephew collected evidence of the Xu family's crimes in order to avenge him, including the seal money that gave him five cents of profit. Xu Qianxue was frightened and vomited blood and died of death.

But in the Qianlong period, five points of profit was nothing! There were even a lot of profits.

The Qing court once restricted the interest rate of private lending and required a maximum monthly interest rate of three cents. However, the landlords and gentry who controlled the usury market from cities to rural areas made it a piece of white paper. In some places, 100% annual interest rate has become a common phenomenon. As for the "Beijing debt" used by officials to bribe officials in the capital, it is a profitable transaction. In this year, scholars will definitely deal with money shops and accounts as long as they start to go to Beijing for the exam.

The reason why Beihai Town provides a allowance to all scholars who come to take the exam is that they may borrow usury, which will eventually lead to the monetization of power.

After this conversation, Kong Shaoan finally realized that what he wanted to do was not simply reduce rent and interest rates, but a revolution that would affect people from all walks of life.

So when he returned to his base camp Wendeng, he once again convened members of the working team from the four counties to hold a mobilization meeting.

"...I have told you so much and it has been drawn on the blackboard. I believe everyone understands how the landlords and gentry have engaged in the trinity to exploit the people. Our task is to first discount their legs and cut off their wealth cycle. Haha, what I said about discount is not really rushing into the other party's house to break the leg of the man, but to use the spear of the son and the shield of the son!

What you need to do this time is to investigate the usury and land rent situation in each township and village, summarize the data, and with these, you can compete with the landlords. Tell the farmers that whoever dares to force them to sell their children and girls, the North Haijun will arrest whoever they dare to sell their children and their houses!"

With the end of the mobilization meeting, more than 100 rural working teams composed of Beihai Army, civil affairs officers and agricultural technicians set out again. From July 5, 1793, Beihai Town began to implement the farmers' associations in the four counties of Jiaodong and promulgated relevant bills. It clearly required that under the leadership of the work team, three-level farmers' associations be established in counties, townships and villages. Indirect agricultural operators, such as those who rent out the fields, bones, fields and skins, only collect rent but not farming, are not allowed to join. The farmers' association has a tenancy department to mediate tenancy disputes in the form of negotiation and arbitration.

Like the farmers' associations that Zhao Xin set up in Java, all farmers' association members will receive a set of production tools and high-quality and high-yield seeds for free. The farmers' associations at the township level will provide a full set of agricultural machinery services including horse-drawn seeds and harvesters to their subordinate villages; the Administration will build and improve farmland water conservancy facilities in each township, focusing on the farmers' association member households.

Immediately afterwards, Jiaodong Administrative Administration announced relevant examples on land management and private lending. Taking into account the habit of using the lunar calendar in inland areas, the specific implementation time was set on the first day of the seventh lunar month. It mainly includes the following contents:

1. No matter the size of the landlords in the four counties, they can retain 50 mu of paddy fields or 100 mu of dry land, and the rest of the land is expropriated by the Military Control Commission in monetary form; landlords who do not participate in the expropriation compensation are not allowed to join the Farmers Association, and they will not be able to enjoy many benefits such as seeds and farm tools. After the expropriation, the land will be owned by the Military Control Commission, and then rented and cultivated by the farmers in need, and the share of the tenant is 30%.

二,在征收补偿方面,地主可得到50%的现金补偿,其余的50%则是以北海镇民政发行的债券来支付,十年等额偿付,附加年息8%.

3. Members of the farmer's association rent to the landlords. The maximum proportion of the total rent fee for land bones and field skins shall not exceed 40% of the output in the year, and a fixed land rent shall not be implemented. If the existing land rent is above 40%, it must be lowered to this standard. If it is below this standard, it shall not be increased. Otherwise, the tenant farmers have the right to give up the tenant and farming, and all economic losses shall be borne by the tenant.

4. Landlords shall not prepay for land rent in the form of a deposit, and if they encounter a bad harvest, they shall be reduced. The tenant lease period shall not be less than 6 years. After the lease period expires, unless the landlord takes back the self-cultivation, it shall still be rented to the original tenant farmers. If the landlord wants to sell the land, the landlord shall not split the land bones and field skins. At the same time, the Beihai Town Military Control will have priority purchase rights.

五,在自耕农方面,对不足2亩地的自耕农免征一切税赋,仅在销售过程中征收5%的固定税费,此外如果是农会成员在税收上可减免1%.

六,民政将拨款五十万在胶东地区成立农村信用部,为农会成员提供借贷和存款等一系列服务.

7. For the act of laying out money by the civilian government, once seized by the Military Control Commission, the borrower only needs to repay the principal without paying interest; those who cannot be paid can be repaid for up to ten periods. At the same time, the Military Control Commission will impose a high fine of five times the principal on the lender and hold criminally liable.

The release of relevant government orders immediately caused an uproar in the four counties of Jiaodong. The gentry landlords who were originally smiling at the work team met the members of the work team again, either tried to persuade them with great thoughts or were in a panic all day long. Without exception, these people sent their own relatives to the homes of the poorest tenants in their villages and towns, giving them food and asking about their well-being. For a time, all the gentry in each township and village became great charity.
Chapter completed!