The Tang Dynasty, a glorious dynasty in the history of China, was not only a source of pride at that time, but even now everyone talks about it. Before the Anshi Rebellion, the economic and military strength of the Tang Dynasty was second to none at that time, with extremely developed economy and unprecedented social prosperity. We use two ancient economic indicators to illustrate the situation at that time: population and food.

When Wu Zetian abdicated, the population of the Tang Dynasty was 37 million. By the first year of Tianbao in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, the population had reached 489 1 10,000. Before the Anshi Rebellion, the total population was 52.88 million, and the actual population was estimated to have exceeded 70 million. During the Tianbao period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the per capita grain possession was 700 Jin, which was not reached until 1982 after the founding of our country. The grain reserve in this period was 1 100 million stone, which was the total grain output in four years at that time. Economic prosperity goes without saying.

Class contradictions have intensified.

However, under the economic prosperity, social class contradictions are becoming more and more serious. During the period of Emperor Taizong, although the taxes were light, the corvee gradually became heavier. In the period of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian, not only did the corvee not decrease, but the taxes became heavier and heavier. Under this double exploitation and oppression, the poor people rose up in succession to resist. From the reign of Emperor Taizong Zhenguan to the reign of Tang Zhongzong, there were six or seven peasant uprisings, some of which even reached tens of thousands, with far-reaching influence.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, although there was a prosperous social economy in the new century, the degree of exploitation and oppression of ordinary people did not decrease, class contradictions became more and more serious, and the resistance struggle remained unabated.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang government was seriously short of financial resources and often made ends meet. What can we do? We can only increase taxes continuously, and the exploitation and exploitation of ordinary people are more serious. Jianghuai area in the south was the most important tax area of the imperial court at that time, and the degree of exploitation had reached the point where even if the whole family died, the rental agent could not be exempted, and it had to be paid by relatives and neighbors.

Therefore, whether there is war or not, the burden of ordinary people is the heaviest. The increasing burden of ordinary people has led to the escalation of social contradictions, and timely and effective measures are urgently needed to solve and alleviate this contradiction.

Financial expenditure is increasing day by day.

The first is the substantial increase in official salaries. During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, the number of officials was 642. Since Wu Zetian, the ranks of officials have grown rapidly. By the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the total number of officials reached 18805, 30 times that of Zhenguan period. There are more officials, and the expenses will increase accordingly.

The salaries of officials in the Tang Dynasty were very high. From Zhengyipin to Zhengjiupin, the average monthly salary of each person is 84 stones (about 60 kilograms per stone in Tang Dynasty), and the money is 900 ounces (65,438+0,000 copper coins per ounce). Then by the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the monthly salary of all officials was 6.5438+0.6 million stone and 6.5438+0.7 million yuan. What a big expense it is in a year! Not only that, when I arrived in Tang Daizong, the salaries of officials kept increasing. The monthly salary of the powerful minister is 9000, that of the secretariat is 1000, and that of the general Guo Ziyi is 20000. This is a third more than the previous expenditure.

There are also royal expenses, which are increasing year by year in the case of more and more extravagant trends. For example, in Tang Zhongzong, Princess Anle knitted two skirts with the feathers of hundreds of birds, worth 1000. Tang Xuanzong himself was extravagant and wasteful, and one meal was the property of ten middle-class families. Yang Guifei was even more extravagant than Tang Xuanzong. There are 700 workers in the palace who specialize in brocade embroidery for her, and hundreds of people carve a series of utensils for her. It is estimated that the actual annual expenditure of the royal family during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was more than 1 10,000 yuan.

In addition, there are military expenditures, incentive expenditures and other infrastructure expenditures, such as farmland water conservancy, transportation, industrial and mining trade and so on. All these expenditures were difficult to achieve at that time by relying on taxes, and the fiscal deficit was extremely serious.

Taxes are gradually decreasing.

Before the Anshi Rebellion, the buffer region was mainly the ten ambassadors of the border. After the Anshi Rebellion was put down, the mainland began to set up our time, and the number of buffer regions gradually increased, even near Chang 'an City. With the expansion of the power and territory of the buffer region, the contradiction with the central government of the Tang Dynasty has gradually become acute. The establishment of our special envoy for the times not only sharply increased the fiscal expenditure, but also greatly reduced the fiscal revenue due to the uncontrolled buffer zone.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the independence of the buffer region not only controlled the tax revenue of the area under its jurisdiction, but also controlled the land reclamation income of the local area, resulting in the rich local area and the lack of the central government. In the end, only Jiangnan No.8 Road paid taxes, totaling 40 states,1440,000 households. This figure is only a quarter of that of the Tianbao period in the Tang Dynasty, and the fiscal revenue is also reduced by half compared with that of the Tianbao period.

Of course, the decrease in the taxpayer population is not only due to the separatist regime in the buffer region, but also the consumption of war. In the eight years of An Shi Rebellion, the national population was only 6.5438+0.699 million, which was reduced by more than half.

In this case, the price of rice in the Tang Dynasty rose sharply, from less than 20 before the war to 400, and in some places it even rose to 1, 000 to 1, 400, which was dozens of times higher than before. People are suffering!

Faced with this situation, Tang Suzong promoted Ada, then assistant to the Minister of Finance, to be the official Minister of Finance, and set the rules in the book, that is, to focus on personnel and economic work as a prime minister.

Ada, a native of Nanhua, Cao Zhou (now Dongming, Heze, Shandong), was a famous economic reformer and financier in the Tang Dynasty. Ada was born in the third year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty (AD 7 15). He has been very clever since he was a child. At the age of seven, he was called? A prodigy? There were too many prodigies in the Tang Dynasty, and Li Bi, the Taoist prime minister who saved the fate of the Tang Dynasty, was also called a prodigy when he was a child.

Ada was also mentioned in The Sacred Amethyst compiled by Song people. Don Ada, seven-year-old Fang, is a prodigy of orthography. Young as he is, he is an official. ?

When Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty went to meditate on Mount Tai, he passed by Ada's hometown. On the way, Ada took his own article "Dongfeng Book" and was called by Tang Xuanzong. Premier Zack Zhang inspected Ada on the spot, and Ada answered questions fluently. He was awarded provincial orthography by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and was the official in charge of proofreading books. Yang Guifei also likes Ada very much. She held him in her lap and pushed him herself. Ada became a civil servant of the imperial court before he came of age.

When Ada became prime minister, he cultivated people's strength, developed production and opened up financial resources. We should actively recover from the disasters caused by the war and gradually stabilize people's lives. He also reformed taxes, balanced social burdens and eased class contradictions. Restore and reform grain transportation to make transportation smooth. Rectify the government affairs of salt and iron, and implement salt and iron monopoly. Carry out Changping Law, adjust prices and solve financial difficulties. He implemented a prudent monetary policy and formulated two tax laws, which conformed to the social and economic development at that time.

After a series of reform measures in Ada, the crisis in the Tang Dynasty was relieved, and the dangerous period after the Anshi Rebellion was safely passed, which made the national movement of the Tang Dynasty last 140 years.