Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 264 Officials’ Salaries (I)
In future generations, what basic qualities should a qualified financial personnel possess?
In addition to basic financial knowledge and specific business capabilities, a good financial personnel should have the nature of a miser in character - he likes to see the assets and funds in the accounts he manages continue to grow, expenditures are controlled, and non-performing assets are continuously stripped off.
There is no doubt that Xu Honggang possesses such qualities.
Therefore, after seeing that His Royal Highness was going to raise the salaries of officials across the country and asked the Ministry of Revenue to make preparations in advance, his mood suddenly turned bad.
But in Zhu Youdong's view, the Ming Dynasty's civil service system did need to be rectified. But before rectifying the civil service system, the officials' salaries must be raised first.
Because the official salaries of Ming Dynasty officials were too low!
When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, because the household registration system was in a mess, the court collected taxes entirely based on its instincts. In addition, it had to fight against the remnants of the Mongols and the separatist armed forces that took advantage of the situation in various places. Therefore, the finances of the entire court were extremely tight. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang was a stingy person. Therefore, during the Hongwu period, the salaries of officials were basically enough to meet their basic needs.
For the lowest class (rank nine and below), their monthly salary was only three dan of rice. According to the calculations of later Ming Dynasty experts, these three dan of rice, converted into RMB, were about 383 yuan.
A county magistrate of the seventh rank had a monthly salary of 7.5 dan, which is about 955 yuan in RMB.
Even the first-rank Tai Shi only had a monthly salary of 87 shi, which is equivalent to about 11,087 yuan in RMB...
This amount of income can only be used for eating, and the official himself has to eat.
But this was the Ming Dynasty! The dual-career lifestyle was not popular! Not only that, this era advocated having many children and more blessings. A family, at most, had four or five people!
So many mouths to feed, relying on one person's income. How can it be enough?
What's even more ridiculous is that the salary the court gave you was not all rice, but also a considerable portion of cloth, or even wood and charcoal. If the court collected too much of a certain specialty that year - such as dried salted fish, then it was possible that you would be given salted fish!
The above-mentioned things are still considered physical objects. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the government finances collapsed, and a considerable part of the salaries of officials were paid in the form of treasure notes!
Moreover, as mentioned in the previous article, the price of salt in the Ming Dynasty was the highest in the history of the Chinese Empire!
In short, this salary is not enough to support a family for middle and low-level officials.
As for senior officials? On the surface, a monthly income of tens of millions of yuan can support a family. However, as people's level rises, the people they meet and the circles they enter will be completely different, and their consumption level will also increase rapidly. Therefore, for senior officials, their salary will be even less than enough!
What to do? The only option is corruption and bribery.
Zhu Youdong always believed in one thing: high salary may not necessarily lead to honesty, but too low salary will definitely breed corruption! Didn't you see that Zhu killed so many corrupt officials but officials still kept coming? If the salary problem is not solved, officials can't support their families with their salary. No matter how sharp the emperor's knife is, they will still engage in corruption!
Therefore, it is necessary to rectify the administration of the Ming Dynasty today. But before that, you have to increase the salaries of officials.
As an old bureaucrat, Xu Honggang certainly understood the intricacies of this. Therefore, although as the Minister of Revenue, he was instinctively unhappy when he heard that he had to pay a large sum of money. But when he calmed down, he also thought clearly: the salaries of officials should be increased.
After figuring this out, he began to think about it.
Old Xu was 62 years old this year. After decades of ups and downs in the officialdom , he climbed to the second rank of the imperial court with a monthly salary of 61 dan, which is about 30.5 silver yuan according to the current rice price. (Equivalent to about 7773 yuan in RMB)
This amount of money is definitely not enough for an official in this position.
Among Mr. Xu's four sons, there is one Jinshi, one Juren and two Xiucai, and his three daughters are all married. So his expenses for his descendants are almost zero.
However, in addition to his wife, he also had three concubines. There were also 40 to 50 servants, including maids, servants, cooks, doormen, and guards, serving him at home. In addition, he also kept two teachers - they did not teach, but were responsible for the official correspondence and writing of the Grand Tutor, as well as the exchanges and social activities between scholars.
With all these factors, how could the 61 dan of rice per month be enough to support the whole family?
Moreover, as the Minister of Revenue, a senior official of the court, he could not avoid all kinds of welcoming and seeing off. The simplest thing was, when it came to weddings and funerals, you were a minister, and when your subordinate got married, you gave a gift. It was impossible for you to only give five cents or a silver coin, right?
In short, Xu Honggang made a rough estimate: in his position, he would need at least 150 silver dollars a month to barely make ends meet - and this was because he was generally frugal and did not have too many concubines or opera troupes at home. If he met an official like Li Sancai, 15,000 silver dollars a month would not be enough.
Moreover, Xu Honggang is different from many middle and low-level officials in the Ming Dynasty in one aspect: his children are all adults, and he does not need to worry about their food, clothing, education, marriage, house purchase, etc. For officials who still need to face such problems, the expenditure on this alone is probably more than all the daily expenses of Minister Xu!
"Well, it seems that the salary really has to go up." After pondering for a while, Xu Honggang said to the clerk beside him: "Wang Cheng, how much is your monthly salary?"
"Ah? Oh, I'm a clerk, not a high-ranking official. Every month the Ministry of Revenue gives me one dan of rice, two silver coins, and one foot and five inches of cloth. In addition, at the end of the year, there is also a silver coin reward."
Glancing at the silent Xu Honggang, Wang Cheng continued, "Grand Tutor, this is the treatment in the last one or two years. Before, there was no silver coin, but a small black silver ingot worth about one or two coins. And there were also treasure notes."
"Well, is this amount of money enough?"
"Of course it's not enough. Grand Tutor, I won't hide it. Over the years, if it weren't for the rewards given by the Huohao and local officials when they came to do business, I wouldn't have been able to last so long in the Ministry of Revenue."
"Yes, I know this. As long as you don't go too far in asking for door-to-door payments from the local officials who want to see me, I will just turn a blind eye."
"Thank you for your understanding, Master Situ."
"Now." Xu Honggang shook the manuscript in his hand: "His Highness the Regent is going to increase the salaries of all officials and clerks across the country. How much do you think an official of your level needs to spend every month? What I mean is that you should rely solely on the salary, not on any side business."
"Well... Da Si Tu, please allow me to leave for now. I will give you a report later."
"Can."
After a while, Wang Cheng came in again and submitted a very detailed report to Xu Honggang.
In this report, Wang Cheng gave a very detailed list of the daily expenses of a family of four.
Rice: A family of four consumes nearly one stone of rice per month, which costs 0.5 yuan.
Side dishes (meat, vegetables, oil): 0.5 yuan.
Salt: 0.1 yuan.
Clothes: Each person in the family needs four sets of clothes per year, which is equivalent to 2 yuan in total. If it is divided into 12 parts, it is 0.17 yuan.
Medical expenses: 0.2 yuan.
My son’s education expenses: at least 0.5 yuan per month.
Rent: 0.5 yuan.
Various weddings and funerals: Two events per month, each costing at least 0.2 Yuan, for a total of 0.4 Yuan.
Support for the elderly in my hometown and financial assistance to poor relatives at home: on average, at least 0.1 yuan per month.
Others: including temporary travel, going home to visit relatives during the Spring Festival, snacks for children, daily gatherings with friends, incense money for temples during festivals, etc., on average within 12 months, it is about 0.5 yuan per month.
To sum up, an ordinary family of four in the Ming Dynasty would need an income of at least 3.5 silver dollars a month to make ends meet.
Moreover, Wang Cheng repeatedly stated in his report that this is already the minimum standard. For example, many citizens now have children who are very greedy, and the family budget for food alone far exceeds one yuan. Moreover, children grow fast, so the cost of clothes is also much higher.
At the same time, once a family's child has some academic performance and wants to go to a higher level school or seek advice from a famous teacher, the cost will be enormous. If the budget is 3.5 yuan, the whole family cannot afford it even without food or drink.
Therefore, Wang Cheng’s final suggestion is: If all the officials in the country want to live decently relying solely on wages, the monthly salary should be five yuan or more!
