Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 117: The vassal’s salary limit
The ministers tried to dissuade him one after another, and Zhu Youjian learned some of the true facts about the clan from their mouths.

Hearing that some clan members were so poor that they were begging for food, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but sigh, knowing that the Ming Dynasty's system had to be changed, and the country would be destroyed if it didn't change:
Scholars, farmers, industry and commerce are the four people of the country.

Because the scholars were tortured by the eunuchs, they had many resentments towards the court. Fortunately, after eradicating the eunuchs, some people's hearts can be restored.

After the reform of the one-whip method, the burden on farmers has been reduced a bit, but according to Huang Zongxi's law, after every tax and fee reform, new taxes and fees will appear. The burden on farmers is now heavy again, and there is also an increase in wages.

With the level of natural disasters in recent years, farmers in the northwest are about to run out of accumulation and are likely to rebel. They need relief from the court, not more.

Not to mention industry and commerce, they had little status in the Ming Dynasty, and craftsmen and merchants would definitely be dissatisfied.

Scholars, peasants, businessmen, and merchants were all dissatisfied. The army that could suppress the world was owed wages and was likely to become the main force of the rebellion.

If the system of the Ming Dynasty is not changed, the dynasty will change.

From the imperial clan to the people, including scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, Zhu Youjian clearly realized that there had been too much dissatisfaction within the Ming Dynasty, to the point where it was impossible to change without reform.

But he has not thought about how to change it. Now he can only speed up the gathering of power and implement his will.

Realizing the difficulty of borrowing money from the vassal king, Zhu Youjian gave up the idea. What he needs to worry about now is the poverty of the lower-level clan.

This made Zhu Youjian raise his forehead and feel that he should not mention the clan.

But now that it has been mentioned, it is not enough to just ask, otherwise it will be considered as being unkind to the clan.

Even if the family members are too poor to beg for food, everyone will think that the emperor is too cold, and he still needs to take care of this matter!

Thinking that some vassal princes were very wealthy but the lower-level clans were so poor that they were begging for food, Zhu Youjian said:
"How many Lumi are there in the clan, and how are they distributed?"

Guo Yunhou responded:

"According to the "Huang Ming Ancestor Instructions", the prince's son inherits the throne and is paid 10,000 shi per year; the other princes are granted the title of county prince, and are paid 2,000 shi per year; the prince of the county is granted the title of general of the country, and is paid 1,000 shi per year; the grandson is granted the title of auxiliary to the country. A general is awarded a salary of 800 shi per year; a great-grandson is awarded a general of Fengguo, with a salary of 600 shi per year; a great-great-grandson is awarded a lieutenant of Zhenguo, with a salary of 400 shi per year; a grandson of the fifth generation is awarded a lieutenant of the state of Fuxing, with a salary of 300 shi per year; and a grandson of the sixth generation and below He was awarded the rank of Lieutenant of Fengguo and received an annual salary of 200 shi."

"There are also princesses and their consorts who eat two thousand shi of rice; the princess, the princess and her guest eat 800 shi of rice; the princess, the princess and her guest eat 600 shi of rice; the granddaughter of the princess and her guest eat 400 lumi. One hundred stones; the great-granddaughter of the county king and his guest will eat three hundred stones of rice; the great-great-granddaughter of the county king and his guest will eat two hundred stones of rice."

"Such a system could still be implemented in the early days of the country. However, as the clans multiplied, the imperial court was unable to support it."

"In the forty-first year of the Jiajing reign, Lin Run, the imperial censor, said: The world's annual food supply to the capital is four million dan, while the amount of food provided to all prefectures is 8,530,000 dan."

"In the forty-third year of Jiajing, more than 140 people including Zhu Rongyu, a member of the Han clan clan, secretly crossed the border to Xi'an to demand the 600,000 shilumi they were owed."

"Shaanxi could only provide 78,000 taels of silver back then and was unable to distribute it. Emperor Shizong demoted the troubled clans to civilian status."

"In the forty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign, the imperial court revised the vassal regulations. The prince's annual deduction was five hundred to two thousand shi. The prince and general's lumi would be discounted at seven cents, and the lieutenants would be given six cents. Eight-cent discount."

"Only 20% to 40% of the money distributed is real money, and the rest are all treasure notes."

Treasure money is just waste paper, Zhu Youjian knows this very well. One of the reasons why the salaries of Ming officials were low was that part of the salary was discounted. Otherwise, one stone in the Ming Dynasty is equivalent to five stones in the Han Dynasty. The lowest salary is sixty stone from the ninth rank, which is equivalent to three hundred stone officials in the Han Dynasty. The salary is not low.

However, after the demonetization of treasure banknotes and the complete replacement of currency status by silver, the value of the salaries received by Ming officials plummeted.

During the Jiajing period, silver had become the dominant currency of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, when issuing treasure banknotes to the clan, waste paper was used instead of Lumi.

In this way, the imperial court only needs to distribute about 30% of the 8.53 million shi, which is about 2.5 million shi.

This number may be affordable by the imperial court, but it has never been achieved.

After the implementation of the one-whip method in the early years of Wanli and the full use of silver, the clan's salary was only 1.25 million silver.

Moreover, as the clan multiplied, the amount of Lumi needed would increase exponentially, making it impossible for the court to bear it. Therefore, during the Wanli period, the clan Lumi changed again.

The Zonglu reform during the Jiajing period did not solve the fundamental problem. According to Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's rule that "the descendants of the sixth generation will be awarded Fengguo Lieutenant", the Ming Dynasty clan must award Fengguo Lieutenant at least, with an annual salary of 200 shi.

Moreover, the population is growing exponentially, and the population of the next generation may be several times that of the previous generation. The amount of Lumi needed by the clan will expand very quickly.

Sure enough, Guo Yunhou mentioned this matter:
"In the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, there were more than 28,000 members of the clan."

"During the Wanli period, the clan's population exceeded 80,000. There were still many people who did not ask for names and were granted titles, but lived by their nicknames."

"The imperial court really couldn't afford so many clan Lumi, and it had no choice but to allow clan clans to apply for names and receive titles, so they successively set the Lumi quota for each vassal as a permanent quota, and no additional ones were allowed."

"At the time of the late emperor, the law of limiting the salaries of sects and vassals in the world was determined. 'The salary figures before the fourth year of the Apocalypse were calculated as the salary amount after the five years of the Apocalypse'."

"It's just that there are still some vassal kings who want to be exempted from salary restrictions."

Zhu Youjian admired the vassal salary limit very much, and felt that it should have been set long ago. Otherwise, it would be too unkind to limit the growth of the clan's population by asking for names.

Based on the growth rate of the clan population during the Jiajing and Wanli years, Zhu Youjian estimated that the actual clan population was approximately 200,000.

These people are a force if used well, and the possibility of threatening his throne is minimal, so Zhu Youjian said:
"The lower-level clans are poor, but some princes and princes are very wealthy. This is not the original intention of the clan system established by Taizu."

"The salary limit for the vassal vassal has been set, but the method of payment must also be changed."

"I have decided to establish a clan bank and store the money and food that should be given to the clan from various places in the clan bank and distribute it to each clan."

"Each vassal will first distribute Lumi to all clan members at the rate of one stone per person per month to maintain the clan's basic life."

"The remaining balance will be distributed to the clan in proportion to the salary that should be paid."

"Do you think this is okay?"

Some of the ministers thought this was appropriate, while others looked embarrassed.

Because even according to the clan population during the Wanli period, there were 80,000. Each person is given one stone per month, which is 960,000 stones.

The court's limited amount of salary and silver for each vassal was only about 1,560,000 taels. And because local officials often default on arrears, the actual figure cannot be reached at all——

Each clan is given one stone of Lumi per month, which may not be possible.

Knowing this truth, Zhu Youjian had nothing to do. The finances of the Ming Dynasty were in a mess. The court sometimes did not know whether local officials were in arrears and how much they were in arrears.

He could only ask the Ministry of Rites, the Clan's Mansion and the Inner Court to send people to investigate, and at the same time, include all eligible clan members in the roster. He could not let them live with their nicknames for the rest of their lives.

In short, we must make the clan realize the emperor's benevolence. As for more money and food, it's nothing.

All clans must allocate their own Lumi within the quota of 1,560,000 taels. As for the distribution method, let the various clans discuss it.

It is estimated that after all the clans are listed on the roster, the average income per person will be less than ten taels.

There is really no way to reduce the money and food for the clan.

　"Records of Ming Xi Zong":
　　Xue Sansheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, made a report on the salary limit for the vassals in the world. The salary limit in Jiangxi was used as the standard. The salary before the fourth year of the Apocalypse was calculated, and the salary after the fifth year of the Apocalypse was considered. Each government saw the amount of salary and decided for itself. He was accommodating, and ordered each person to care about the affairs of the department according to the age limit, and not to be content with the current income.

　　The above is true, and the orders should be written down and written down so that they can be followed.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)