This money may be nothing to the powerful gentry, it may be just the cost of a meal, but to ordinary people in this era, this is a huge sum of money.
The income of ordinary people in the contemporary Tang Dynasty is still relatively low. An ordinary female worker in a textile factory in Shanghai can only earn about two yuan a month after working fourteen hours a day.
The monthly income of ordinary skilled workers is only four or five yuan.
As for ordinary company employees who don't have any skills or literacy, their monthly income is about four to five yuan. This is the kind of job Lu Zhenjiang did before.
Generally speaking, only experienced and skilled master craftsmen, or only middle-level managers, can earn more than ten yuan a month.
The monthly salary of some senior managers can reach tens of yuan.
Although the above is only the salary in ordinary enterprises in Songjiang Prefecture and cannot be used as an absolute reference, it is enough to reflect the income level of the contemporary Datang Empire.
For example, for officials, the income of officials in the Tang Empire was relatively high, but the income of officials in the Tang Dynasty was divided into several parts, including grade salary, position salary, and local subsidies.
Among them, the level salary is directly determined by the central government. However, for example, the lowest level ninth-level official, which is currently the most numerous grassroots official in the Tang Empire, has a level salary of only more than two yuan per month.
The job salary is based on the situation in each place. The central government gives a range, and the local government decides on its own. The central government finally approves it. For example, the lowest-level patrol policeman has different job salaries in different places. The range is generally from one yuan to more than three yuan.
No wait.
There are also some subsidies, some of which are local welfare subsidies, and some of which are subsidies for dangerous positions. For example, criminal patrol police who are more dangerous and need to frequently perform arrest tasks and face-to-face with criminals will also receive some subsidies.
To sum up, take a ninth-grade criminal patrol officer who passed the exam, was promoted successfully after three years of service, and worked in Shanghai as an example. His income is two yuan in grade salary plus two and a half yuan in job salary, and then
Including a hazard subsidy of more than RMB 1 yuan and a special subsidy in Shanghai, his total income is a little over eight yuan per month.
If he is not a patrol officer, but an ordinary civilian official, the new official assigned just after the high school entrance exam, with a rank of ninth grade, and only doing ordinary work, then his monthly income will only be more than five yuan.
Overall, the official group of the Tang Empire appears to be a high-income group, but those who can really earn legal high incomes are middle- and high-level officials. However, the number of middle- and high-level officials in this group is relatively small. Most of them
They are still the grassroots officials of the eighth and ninth ranks. In the pre-Ming Dynasty, these grassroots officials were defined as officials.
And their income is actually the same as that of ordinary people, or at most slightly higher.
Of course, the income of officials, even if they are just a patrol policeman from the ninth grade, their income is not limited to salary income, but also various underground incomes that are not known to outsiders.
Although the Supervisory Office arrests countless corrupt officials every year, the problem of officialdom is a stubborn problem that cannot be completely solved. It can only be controlled to prevent the situation from getting too worse. It is impossible to completely eliminate the corruption problem.
Considering the current overall situation of the Tang Empire, it is unimaginable for ordinary people, even ordinary people who have studied like Lu Zhenjiang, to earn dozens of yuan a month doing ordinary work.
Only by doing some risky jobs can you get higher income.
Although being a seafarer carries all kinds of huge risks, and although a trip to sea can take anywhere from a few months to a year or more, Lu Zhenjiang is still willing because of the high income.
It's just that there are still relatively few scholars like Lu Zhenjiang who are willing to risk their lives and be bored at sea to become sailors. Most scholars are still more willing to stay at home safely and do some decent work, although they will not become rich.
It’s expensive, but at least you can afford to have enough food and clothing.
Lu Zhenjiang has been working for Weilan Trading Company for more than half a year. When the fleet arrived at some ports to rest, he did not go out to have fun, get drunk and relieve stress like other crew members as soon as they landed.
Although he occasionally relaxes, he still saves most of the money directly, intending to send part of the money home after returning to China, and the other part will be saved for himself as capital.
If he calculated it carefully, he should be able to save two hundred yuan on hand after returning to China. If he adds an uncertain amount of bonuses, it may reach four to five hundred yuan.
When the time comes to send a sum of money home, it should also be able to settle the second brother's marriage.
Although Lu Zhenjiang himself is not married yet, he is high-spirited. Because he is educated, ordinary farm girls look down on him, and women with better conditions are also looked down upon by Lu Zhenjiang, a dabbler from a farm family.
This has been delayed until now, which makes Lu's mother anxious.
But Lu Zhenjiang himself was not in a hurry.
However, he himself is not anxious, but he is anxious about his younger brother's marriage. His younger brother is at home now, and the age of marriage in his hometown is relatively early. He is already seventeen this year, which is not too early, even if it is not immediately
To get married, you need to find a marriage first.
However, getting married requires money. In the past, the Lu family's family background was average. In the early years, they had to pay off debts and support their third brother's education. Life was very tight, so there was no money left to save for the second brother's marriage.
As for Lu Zhenjiang himself, if he is willing to put aside his status, even if the Lu family is still poor, with his reputation as a scholar and a decent job as a clerk in the city, there are still many women from ordinary families who are willing to marry him.
, especially many farm girls in the village, if they are allowed to marry Lu Zhenjiang, they are even willing to pay a certain amount of dowry.
However, Lu Zhenjiang is very ambitious and does not want to marry an ordinary peasant girl!
When I return to China, I will send back a sum of money. The second brother will have money to get married, and the third brother will have money to go to school.
If I save for a few more years, I might be able to support my third brother in middle school.
His third brother is the same as Lu Zhenjiang. Although he is talented in reading, he is in liberal arts. Although he is acceptable in science, he is still not at the level of receiving a scholarship.
If such a liberal arts student wants to go to middle school, he has to pay for it at his own expense, and the cost of going to middle school at his own expense is huge. It costs at least tens of yuan a year. It is definitely not something that an ordinary family can support. In the past, Lu Zhenjiang was an ordinary person.
When he was doing paperwork, his income was only a few dozen yuan a year, which was enough to support his third brother in middle school without food or water.
But is it possible not to eat or drink?
impossible!
But now as a sailor, his income is enough to support his family, and he even has a surplus to accumulate as capital.
After all, he doesn't plan to be a sailor for the rest of his life, nor does he plan to be an ordinary clerk for the rest of his life. He still wants to do something on his own.
Lu Zhenjiang thought about how much money he should send home after returning to China, how much money he could save, and how many years he would need to save before he could start a small business of his own.
As he thought about it, he felt more and more comfortable in the South African sunshine.
When he was thinking about this, even when his colleagues asked him to wait for the ship to dock and get on the ship together to enjoy themselves, he smiled and agreed, but he had a certain limit when it came to doing these things.
After landing, he will relax like other colleagues, but at most he will find a good pub, have a good meal, and then find a clean and comfortable inn to sleep for a few days. Of course, during this period
It is also inevitable to go to the local green small building to experience it.
But it is limited to this. Like other colleagues, he will not stay in the green building or the casino almost every day during the berth at the port. He can spend a month or even several months in just a few days.
My monthly salary was squandered.
After all, not all crew members are like Lu Zhenjiang, who save all the money they make and send it home or plan for the future. In fact, people like Lu Zhenjiang are in the minority among seafarers.
Most contemporary crew members, regardless of whether they are ordinary sailors or captains, although their income is high, their expenses are even greater!
The risk of going to sea for trade is huge. No one can guarantee that you will come back alive after going to sea. In addition, after going to sea, you will stay on the ship for many years, so most of the crew members spend money like water when the ship docks in the port.
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These crew members are also the most popular guests in major coastal ports. They have money and are generous with their money. Restaurants, green buildings, casinos and other places are the most popular guests.
As for Lu Zhenjiang, this is not the case. He has a clear plan for the future!
He doesn't plan to be a seaman for too long. He can quit working for a few years at most, and then use the saved capital to start other small businesses.
Lu Zhenjiang has his own life plan, but this does not affect his getting along with his colleagues. After they waited in boredom for two days in the harbor, the Shuilan was finally allowed to enter the dock berth.
The Shuilan is a merchant ship, and it is also a merchant ship of a local trading company. The berth it docks at is naturally not a berth in the port area specifically for foreign merchants, but a berth in the warehouse area.
After docking, many crew members began to disembark in groups to have fun. However, Lu Zhenjiang could not go to have fun immediately because Lu Zhenjiang's job was to be a ship's clerk and he needed to be with the company's team manager.
The registration and handover took me a long time to finish my work.
The manager who led the team was also an individual subordinate. After finishing his work, he gave Lu Zhenjiang a vacation. However, his vacation was not long. He had to report back early tomorrow morning because the Shuilan was here for business and the shipment was here.
For such a large amount of goods, it is necessary to find buyers one by one. While selling the goods, you also need to purchase local specialties or European goods to ensure that the cargo is carried in the cabin when returning, rather than returning empty.