Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 522: Even Petty Officials Have Big Corruption
After the Lantern Festival, the first State Council meeting of the seventh year of Tianqi in the Ming Empire was held immediately.
"Your Majesty, colleagues." Wang Shaozheng, the Minister of Revenue, spoke first: "After the intense work of the Ministry of Revenue during the Spring Festival, the revenue and expenditure of the sixth year of Tianqi have basically been determined."
According to convention, at the first State Council meeting after the Spring Festival, the emperor and the leaders attending the meeting would first listen to the Ministry of Revenue's income and expenditure report. However, the Ming Dynasty was too large, and if we really wanted to fully count the income and expenditure from January to December each year, the results would not be available in mid-January of the following year. Therefore, after consultation, everyone changed it to: the income and expenditure from December of the previous year to November of the previous year would be regarded as the income and expenditure of the previous year.
"In the sixth year of Tianqi, the court's cumulative revenue was 183.56 million silver dollars."
"Wow!" After this number was announced, everyone was slightly surprised, and then began to applaud vigorously.
"Everyone." Wang Shaozheng, smiling, waited for the applause to stop and then cupped his hands. "I would like to remind you that this number is much higher than the 130 million last year, but you should know that since last year, the court has implemented a policy of converting all land taxes into silver. Therefore, the court's income will be in cash from now on, and there will be no physical goods such as grain and rice. According to the ratio that the land tax collected by the Ming Dynasty in the past could generally be converted into 20 million dan of physical grain, and two dan of grain could be exchanged for one silver dollar, the actual number is at least 10 million less."
"Grand Situ, this is already very good. Even if it is reduced by 10 million, it is still 40 million more than last year. This increase is incredible. The Ministry of Revenue has done a great job under your leadership!"
"Haha, you are too kind, Grand Chancellor. I dare not take credit for it. This increase mainly comes from the General Administration of Industry and Commerce and the Royal Bank. The former collects more taxes, and the latter lends more, so naturally the interest converted into more profits is also more."
"Hahaha, I see. Director Li and President Cao have worked hard. So, Da Situ, what about the expenditure?"
"As for expenditures, the total expenditure is 156 million, and the court had an overall surplus of more than 23 million last year."
"Oh, this is such a blessing!"
"Yes, since the second year of Tianqi, the country's annual income has increased sharply, but the expenditure has also remained high. As a result, every year there is either a slight deficit or barely breaking even. Now we finally see a large surplus. Um, Da Si Tu, where does the expenditure mainly go?"
"There are five main items. The salaries and office expenses of officials nationwide account for about 20%, military expenses also account for about 20%, and infrastructure accounts for 30%. Because the country no longer collects grain , and in order to prepare for disasters, it must ensure that the total inventory of each grain depot is above 30 million shi. So last year, the Ministry of Revenue spent a total of 12 million to purchase grain, which accounted for 7.6%.
The last major item is education and medical care. According to the emperor's requirements, since the sixth year of Tianqi, the country has completely followed the previous Fangshan model to build one middle school in one prefecture and one primary school in one county. Last year, the Ministry of Rites built a total of 32 middle schools and 125 primary schools. Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't cost much to build a school. The main thing is to maintain the school after it is built. According to the emperor's requirements, the salary of teachers is not lower than the ninth rank and not higher than the seventh rank. The salary of middle school teachers is not lower than the eighth rank and not higher than the sixth rank. This salary alone is incredible. Moreover, after the students enter the school, in addition to the textbook fees, not to mention the tuition fees, the school also subsidizes lunch... The Ministry of Revenue allocated more than 8 million to the Ministry of Rites for this purpose, which accounts for a little more than 5%.
As for medical care, according to the emperor's wishes, each prefecture must build a comprehensive hospital. In addition to daily treatment of patients, it must also undertake the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in the prefecture... Last year, the Ministry of Revenue allocated more than 6 million to the Imperial Hospital, and built 35 prefecture hospitals, accounting for a little more than 3%. The rest are various miscellaneous items. "
"Good, good. A strong country and flourishing culture and education. This is exactly what this cabinet should do."
Looking at the ministers who were celebrating, Zhu Youdong smiled slightly: What's the big deal about this surplus? After all, the Ming Dynasty hasn't fought a war for many years. After cutting off all the garrisons and military garrisons, the standing army was maintained at a low level of 300,000. The expenditure was reduced so much, while the income soared rapidly due to the popularization of steam engines and the full opening of the Greater East Asia market. It would be abnormal if there was no surplus, right?
Actually, this surplus is far from enough. If we really want to fight a national war in the future, I will have to expand the standing army to at least 5 million. How can I support it with this income and surplus?
However, the Ming Dynasty now has a great strategic advantage, and there is really no need to rush into a new war. It is better to rest and recuperate for a while: as a hardworking and tenacious nation like the Han nationality, as long as the rulers do not mess around and give the people a period of stable development, they can create any miracle in the world.
After the ministers calmed down, Zhu Youdong spoke: "Thank you for your hard work, Grand Tutor. I have one more request."
"I ask the emperor for instructions."
"If a person wants to be useful to the country, he must first have a healthy body, and secondly, rich knowledge. The former depends on doctors, and the latter on teachers. Therefore, in the seventh year of Tianqi, the country's investment in education and medical care must continue to increase. I have told you many times that money is only money if it is used, otherwise it is just junk that takes up space. For the sake of national security, it is right for the Ministry of Revenue to ensure a certain surplus. But too much surplus is actually not good for the country. The specific theory has been explained very clearly in Fangshan's financial course, and you should understand it."
"Yes, I accept your order. But Your Majesty, building schools and hospitals is easy, but the talent pool is really insufficient. Last year, the Ministry of Revenue took the initiative to ask the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Hospital if they needed more funds. In the end, they all said that they did not have enough talents and could not build more schools and hospitals. If they took too much money but failed to do the work, the Censorate would make trouble for them. So..."
"Hahaha, I see. It seems that I am anxious. Okay, I won't put too much pressure on you guys about this matter. Just be steady."
"Your Highness obeys your order."
"Okay, that's enough about the money . Next, the Ministry of Personnel."
"Your Majesty." The Minister of Personnel Sun Chengzong stood up and said, "Last year, the Ministry of Personnel completed the sorting and grading of officials across the country. After verification, in the sixth year of Tianqi, our Ming Dynasty had a total of 37,560 civil officials and 13,600 military officials. There were 357,600 clerks at all levels. According to the will of the emperor, in the fifth year of Tianqi, our Ming Dynasty abolished corvée labor for the people across the country and levied corvée taxes instead. Therefore, starting from the sixth year of Tianqi, our Ming Dynasty no longer has corvée labor. The work of corvée labor will be undertaken by clerks. The problem now is that the ratio of officials to clerks is too disparate, and the future of clerks is greatly limited, so the work enthusiasm and sense of responsibility of clerks are very poor. In the past year, the proportion of officials investigated and punished by the Censorate is very small, and the vast majority of those investigated and punished are clerks."
"It is indeed as the Grand Chancellor said." Zhao Yan, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Metropolitan Censorate, stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the Metropolitan Censorate investigated and punished 1,986 officials across the country last year. There were only 75 officials, and the rest were all clerks. Although these clerks have no rank, they are the ones who truly manage the people, so they hold considerable power. If these people do bad things, the harm they cause is also great. I have a case that I personally handled. A clerk in the General Administration of Industry and Commerce who was in charge of checking accounts accepted bribes from merchants and turned a blind eye to their false accounts. Over the past three years, he collected more than 300,000 silver dollars in stolen money, causing a loss of nearly 5 million in tax revenue for the country."
"Hmm..." After listening to Sun Chengzong and Zhao Yan's explanations, Zhu Youdong knocked on the table out of habit.
Before the Ming Dynasty, there were about 80,000 officials, including more than 20,000 civil officials and more than 50,000 military officials. However, after Zhu Youdong's military reform, all the military guards and military towns were disbanded, and the number of military officials naturally decreased.
At the same time, due to the drastic social changes, the country's administrative agencies have also increased accordingly, so the number of civil servants has increased dramatically in recent years.
But now it seems that the increase is still not enough.
Officials were selected through the imperial examinations, while clerks were appointed by officials themselves in the past (more important positions required the status of scholars and were reported to the Ministry of Personnel). Now, a large number of former garrison soldiers and military garrison soldiers are appointed. If you say that the gap between officials and clerks should be bridged now, so that clerks can also have a smooth channel for promotion, not to mention that scholars and officials would not agree, even the common people would not agree.
However, if officials are not allowed to have channels for promotion, it will inevitably lead to the hereditary and shameless nature of the officials. In this way, no matter how hard the Censorate tries, it will not be able to completely change the administration of officials.
The root of this matter ultimately lies in the radical change of the standards for selecting officials.
