Edo Period: "Give up half of your rice harvest" ← This lol

Seems like they made some fried rice with it.

If you secretly grow wheat, you could have unlimited udon!

What do they do with all that rice?

>>3
They sold it to merchants. The buyers used it to make sake.

Even now, when you get your salary, you have to give half of it away.

>>4
It's more like 30%, isn't it?

>>16
As a freelancer, it feels like I'm spending half of my income.

How about we settle with sweet potatoes? 🍠

In some regions, the amount of tax didn't change from the early Edo period to the end. Since the tax was based on the Taiko land survey, by the end of the Edo period, they only had to pay about 5% of the total harvest.

Millet and foxtail millet were tax-exempt.

It's better than having half of your salary taken away.

The Sendai domain focused entirely on rice farming, leading to massive damage during famines.

Shimabara domain: "Pay 90% of your yield."

King: "Pay your taxes" ← Understandable
Christian Church: "Pay your taxes" ← Not understandable

>>24
Kings wanted easy and stable governance, so they teamed up with religion. Can't be helped.

>>24
Until the Middle Ages, Christianity was more of a political power than just a religion.

What was the justification for taxes in such ancient times? Nowadays, it's for infrastructure and welfare.

>>29
That's a mystery. Nowadays, there's a return on investment, but back then, there wasn't.

>>47
In ancient times, taxes provided practical benefits like protection from raiders.

There were cases where the lord's vanity led to the starvation or rebellion of the villagers.

>>39
Like the Sanada clan, who reported 140,000 koku to the shogunate when they only had 30,000 koku.

Nothing's changed. With income tax, resident tax, social insurance, and consumption tax, half of it is gone.

For reference, Matsukura Katsuie of the Shimabara Rebellion:
- Temporary tax increase for the Luzon expedition (not temporary)
- Tax increase for shogunate tasks
- Tax increase for building a luxurious castle
- Double the regular tax (from 4 to 10 koku)
- 90% tax rate (nine parts to the lord, one part to the farmer)
- Tax increase during poor harvests
- Tax on secondary crops (normally untaxed)
- Construction tax for building houses
- Renovation tax for repairing houses
- Tatami tax for laying tatami mats
- Well tax for digging wells
- Head tax for childbirth
- Existence tax for being alive
- Death tax for dying
- Burial tax for digging graves
- Tax for paying taxes
- Over 120% tax rate (various theories)

>>50
No wonder they revolted with the intention of total annihilation.

Modern times:
- Work: Income tax
- Quit: Retirement tax by Kishida
- Buy: Consumption tax
- Own: Property tax
- Live: Resident tax
- Don't live: Vacant house tax
- Watch: NHK fee
- Don't watch: NHK fee
- Drink: Alcohol tax
- Smoke: Tobacco tax
- Drive: Car tax, weight tax, environmental tax, gas tax, mileage tax, road tax
- Use: Transportation tax (based on France)
- Bathe: Bath tax
- Create: Corporate tax
- Die: Inheritance tax
- Inherit: Inheritance tax
- Give: Gift tax
- Receive: Gift tax
- Birth: Birth tax
- No birth: No child tax
- Divorce: Divorce tax
- Flee: Departure tax
- Young: Pension
- Old: Care insurance
- Over 6 million yen income: Extreme social insurance tax
- Commute: Wage slave tax (commuting allowance confiscation, dependent deduction, spouse deduction, life insurance deduction abolished, company housing taxed by Kishida)
- Don't work: Welfare

Reading about the lives of villagers during the Sengoku period, they sometimes killed officials for not working even after paying taxes. They weren't oppressed at all!

>>54
It depends on the location, but generally, in shogunate lands, there wasn't harsh exploitation. The government was just understaffed.

??? "Here to collect taxes."
Villager: "Yes, sir. Here is this year's tax."

A few days later

Official: "Pay your taxes!"
Villager: "I just paid!"
Official: "We didn't receive anything. Hand it over!"
Villager: "These guys are fakes! Kill them! (stab)"

Mito domain: "Officials were killed? Alright, kill them all."

Hundreds of armed soldiers sent, village annihilated.
This is a true story.

With hidden fields, they could easily avoid taxes. Maybe it was better than now.

By the way, Matsukura Katsuie, the lord of the Shimabara domain, was the only daimyo in the Edo period to be executed by beheading.

>>69
Seppuku is essentially a dignified beheading. Don’t worry.

People still believe this? They collected taxes very roughly since they couldn't accurately measure harvests. The shogunate land tax was less than 30% of the harvest.

Meanwhile, the Satsuma domain took 60-80%.

>>74
I feel bad for the people in the Southwest Islands who had to detoxify cycads to eat.

>>77
It's shocking that people died from eating cycads during famines even in relatively modern times.

Why use rice as money? What's the point of koban? Transporting rice bales for trade is a hassle, and they don't last long due to pests.

>>75
It's the other way around. Paying rice was first, and koban came as an alternative. Koban became trusted and widespread because it could be used to pay taxes instead of rice. But that was mostly in the Kanto region. In the west, they didn't trust it and used silver on scales, which was a hassle.

Surprisingly educational thread, nice.

No different from today's 48% national burden rate.

Heavy taxation is a Japanese tradition.