Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 104 Salary Increase

Of course, for this war, Zhu Tianqi not only had to make full military preparations, but also ensured the stability within the court. The tax reform intensified the opposition between the ministers and himself, so Zhu Tianqi still Certain means must be adopted to win over people's hearts.

At that time, when discussing the tax and service reform plan with the ministers at the early court meeting, Zhu Tianqi had also promised that although the new tax and service system of the court would no longer retain the many privileges of officials and gentry in payment of taxes and services, it still favored them Yes, and one more thing is to give everyone a salary increase!
Nowadays, the tax reform is a foregone conclusion, and the new tax law has been promoted. However, the specific implementation plan for the taxes and salaries of ministers has not yet been finalized.

According to the provisions of the new tax law, domestic scholars, scholars and scholars still enjoy the original privileges, and are exempted from taxes and servitude by [-]%; officials of the ninth to fifth grades of the DPRK are exempted from tax by [-]%, and officials from the fourth to first grades are exempted from tax by [-]%.

Although under the new tax law after the reform, distinguished gentry and court officials can still enjoy a certain degree of tax exemption privileges, and it is not ruled out that some people will donate their fields to the names of gentry or officials in order to avoid taxes, the levy of the new tax law is If the expropriation is based on the number of acres of fields, the larger the number of acres of fields, the higher the proportion of expropriation, so there will be certain curbs on this situation.

All in all, the new tax law not only retains the tax-free privileges of gentry and officials to a certain extent, but also curbs donations and eases domestic land mergers.

But even so, it can only guarantee the interests of the gentry and wealthy officials. For those officials who are more honest or from poor families, this level of tax exemption policy cannot allow them to get much. It was affordable. After all, the salary given by the court was too low. It was difficult to meet daily expenses with the little farmland at home.

Therefore, it is imperative to raise the wages of ministers. Otherwise, in order to make a living, everyone will have to violate their own principles and engage in corrupt practices. In the end, it is the people at the bottom who are exploited.

Since Zhu Tianqi had already said that he would give them a salary increase, and that it would not be a small increase, but a big increase, he was not just talking casually. While drafting the new tax law, he had carefully discussed it with the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Household Affairs. This incident also provided an in-depth understanding of the current salary situation of officials in the Ming Dynasty, which shocked Zhu Tianqi greatly.

According to the ancestral system set by Zhu Yuanzhang in the 25th year of Hongwu, the salary standard of the Ming Dynasty was: "The monthly salary of the first grade is 87 stones, from the first grade to the third grade, it decreases by 35 stones to 26 stones, from the third grade is 24 stones, to the fourth grade is 21 stones, From the fourth grade, [-] stones, to the fifth grade, sixteen stones, from the fifth grade, fourteen stones, to the sixth grade, ten stones, from the sixth grade, eight stones, to the seventh grade, from the ninth grade, the number decreases by five dou, until it reaches five stones."

Estimating based on this salary standard, the monthly salary of a first-grade official is only 87 shi. Calculated according to the current rice price of 190 taels of silver per shi, it is only [-] [-] taels of silver. In fact, the salary of a first-grade official is much higher. Far from reaching this number.

Because the price of rice during the Hongwu period could not reach the high price of two taels of silver per stone. Now the price of rice has risen to such a high level due to the impact of natural and man-made disasters. In previous good years, it would only be around one tael of silver, that is It is said that if calculated according to the normal price of rice, the monthly salary of a genuine official would not even be more than a hundred taels of silver.

From this point of view, Lao Zhu's family is indeed a bit too stingy, but Zhu Di will tell you that you said it too early!Zhu Di did not change the official salary standards set by Zhu Yuanzhang, but Zhu Di made some changes in the way of salary distribution. : "The first and second grades have four branches of rice and six branches of banknotes; the third and fourth grades of rice have half and half banknotes; the fifth and sixth grades of rice have six banknotes and four; the seventh and eighth grades of rice have eight banknotes and two."

Such a change did not have any obvious impact on the income of officials in the early stage of implementation, but with the collapse of the Ming Dynasty's financial system and the sharp depreciation of the Ming Dynasty's treasure banknotes, it instantly made the already very poor Ming Dynasty officials even more miserable. To make matters worse, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were almost like toilet paper, which made officials cry without tears.

Therefore, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the corruption of officials in the DPRK became more and more serious, which had a lot to do with the Ming Dynasty's too harsh official salary system.

This is why Zhu Tianqi must raise the wages of officials and significantly increase their salary standards. In order to solve the problem of official corruption in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to high-pressure anti-corruption, the implementation of "high salaries to maintain integrity" is also an indispensable part.

Of course, the so-called "high salary to support integrity" does not really mean that the salary is raised to a high standard, let alone comparable to that of the Tang and Song Dynasties. After all, the salary standard of officials in the Ming Dynasty is really too low. Compared with the salary standards of officials in the Tang and Song Dynasties, The standard is even less than one-tenth. With such a low starting point, I am afraid that even if Zhu Tianqi just doubles their salary, it will be enough for them to shed tears of gratitude.

In addition, regarding the way officials' salaries are paid, since the imperial court has merged many exorbitant taxes and levied cash uniformly based on the number of acres of land, there is no need to make officials' salaries so complicated anymore, and the money will be paid directly. Come, it will be convenient for the court and everyone will be happy.

Once the new official salary system was announced, it really surprised the officials in the court. Everyone even felt a little unbelievable. After all, they had worked for the Ming Dynasty for so many years. They were thankful that the court did not default on their salary. How could they dare to think about "increase"? "Salary" is such a beautiful thing?Not to mention that the emperor was so generous that he doubled everyone’s salary!
You know, the imperial court supports so many officials. If the salary of each official is doubled, the financial burden on the imperial court will be very heavy. This expenditure is not a small amount.

Therefore, a salary increase is a salary increase, but if you want to get this money, there are conditions. How could Zhu Tianqi be so kind and take advantage of these officials for free?
During Zhang Juzheng's reform at that time, in addition to the whipping method, he also proposed an important reform plan - the "testing method"!
The so-called examination method is simply the official evaluation system established by the imperial court. Although the "examination method" proposed by Zhang Juzheng is more complete and rigorous than the official performance evaluation system before the Ming Dynasty, in Zhu Tianqi's view, it is still not enough. Very satisfied.

Therefore, Zhu Tianqi asked the Ministry of Officials to sort out in detail the work content, job responsibilities and obligations of the existing various positions in the imperial court, and established different assessment standards for officials of different positions.

The assessment method is not limited to subjective assessment by officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs or the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Instead, it is based on the files of officials' daily work, benchmarking against the job assessment standards of the officials being assessed, and conducting assessment and scoring from multiple dimensions to achieve Well-founded, open and fair, it can be said that this is the KPI assessment system for Ming officials.

(End of this chapter)