I only heard Emperor Chongzhen say seriously: "First, from now on, salaries will be distributed without any compromise!"
Upon hearing this, even though it did not mention an increase in salary, the civil and military officials immediately smiled on their faces.
This is really a scam. The imperial court will give whatever it has in the treasury, and what is given is not the market price, but is often lower than the market price. Even in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were almost becoming waste paper
Yes, but the court also calculated the salary according to the face value.
It's a pity that by this time in the late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were completely useless, otherwise, the salaries of the Ming Dynasty officials would have been really cheated.
While they were rejoicing, they heard Emperor Chongzhen announce again: "Second, the salary distribution will all be changed to new money from the court, and it will be converted according to the method of one tael of new money for ten stones."
The issuance of new money, after two years of implementation, has gained enough credibility. At least what is currently used in the market is basically new money.
When the civil and military officials heard this, they had no objections.
As for converting it according to ten stones and one tael of silver, this price is still a bit of a loss in the current eighteenth year of Chongzhen.
In the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver was equivalent to different amounts of silver in different periods. In good years, 1 tael of silver could buy 12 shi, while in poor years, it ranged from 7 to 8 shi. In war-torn times, such as the early years of Chongzhen, one shi of rice even cost 2 taels.
The extreme situation of two silver coins.
Thanks to the peace and tranquility in the world in the past few years, Jiangnan Procurement Office has been continuously transporting grain to the north. Today, the price of grain in the capital is about one tael of silver and eight stones. And in the future, one tael of silver will still be available.
Buy more food.
Under such circumstances, Emperor Chongzhen said that one tael of silver should be converted into ten stones. Although some ministers felt a little disadvantaged, they thought that they would no longer compromise and the price of food would become cheaper and cheaper in the future.
All are defaulted.
The salary of the Ming Dynasty was calculated based on the ninth grade and the eighteenth grade. The details are as follows:
The monthly salary of the first grade is eighty-seven stones, from the first grade to the third grade, the decrease is thirteen stones to thirty-five stones, from the third grade to twenty-six stones, from the fourth grade to twenty-four stones, from the fourth grade to twenty-one stones, to the fifth grade to sixteen
Stones, from the fifth grade to fourteen stones, to the sixth grade to ten stones, from the sixth grade to eight stones, from the seventh grade to the ninth grade, decreasing by five buckets, to five stones.
According to the rules announced by Emperor Chongzhen at this time, the monthly salary of a first-level official in the Ming Dynasty was 87 taels, and the annual salary was 1044 taels. Converted to silver, the monthly salary was 8.7 taels, and the annual salary was 104.4 taels.
What is Song Yingxing’s annual salary?
As many as one hundred thousand taels!
Although Song Yingxing's title was higher than the first rank, the gap was too big. It's no wonder that young officials in the Ming Dynasty, who felt that they could do well in studying the study of physics, would abandon their official positions.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen then announced there: "Thirdly, the current salary amount will be the basic salary in the future. In addition, there will be official salary, that is, no matter what official you are, you will get the salary corresponding to the official position. As for the various officials in the Ming Dynasty,
The official salary will be announced later."
Hearing this, the civil and military officials were all happy and at the same time surprised that they still had official positions and salaries!
From the perspective of future generations, this is actually very simple. Rank salary is equivalent to the basic salary for future generations; official salary is equivalent to the job salary for future generations.
Needless to say, this is the advice Liu Weichao gave based on the salary details of later generations.
However, if you want to say how innovative this is, it is not. In ancient times, some officials were awarded several titles, which actually meant they received more salary, which was very similar to this.
However, in ancient times, only high-ranking officials could benefit; with the suggestions given by Liu Weichao, all the official systems of the Ming Dynasty could clearly benefit.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was not done yet and continued: "In addition, in order to encourage court officials to serve as officials in poor areas, another subsidy is added to the salary. To give a simple example, if you go to the southwest to serve as an official, you can receive it
Subsidy; if you leave Southwest, the subsidy will be cancelled. The amount of the subsidy will be announced later."
Since ancient times, few officials have been willing to go to poor places to serve as officials; when the Ministry of Personnel selects officials, if they know that they will be sent to poor places to serve as officials, many people would even give up their official positions.
Nowadays, people in the southwest are converting from native land to rural areas, and in the future there will be people who are converting from pastoralism to rural areas. If there is no policy encouragement, obviously not many people will be willing to go.
In Emperor Chongzhen's plan, in addition to subsidies, such officials would also be given incentives to be promoted first. However, they were talking about salary at this time, so he did not mention it.
Seeing the civil and military officials below all showing joy, Emperor Chongzhen then announced: "Also, every year in the future, superiors can assess their direct subordinates and divide them into grades A, B, and C, and also issue year-end salaries. However, it should be noted that there are proportional restrictions for grades A, B, and C.
, if you are dissatisfied with the assessment, you can appeal to a higher level, or you can appeal to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The year-end salaries at all levels will be announced later."
This year-end salary is similar to the year-end bonus. If you have done well or not, your immediate superior should know best, so the power to assess the grade lies in the hands of your immediate superior.
Gu Meng
The ministers in the Wenhua Hall all heard this with great curiosity. They wonder where the emperor came up with so many famous things?
Of course, the first thing they thought of was probably the salaries of the gods in the sky. Is this how they are divided?
Emperor Chongzhen then raised his voice a little and concluded: "From now on, the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty will be composed of three parts: grade salary, official position salary, and year-end salary. There are also subsidies for poor areas. I can tell you first. Basically, each
The salary of senior officials is almost four times the current salary. The salary of those who have done an outstanding job is almost five times."
When the civil and military officials in the Wenhua Hall heard this, they were immediately filled with joy.
These words of the current emperor, in short, mean that in the future, their salaries will not only no longer be discounted, but will generally increase by more than four times, which will make them feel a lot more comfortable!
Before they could express their gratitude, they heard Emperor Chongzhen continue to say: "When the world is at peace and the people are prosperous and the country is strong, I will see the opportunity to continue to increase salaries for the ministers. In short, I want to ensure that the ministers can work for the court and don't worry.
It’s hard to feed the family!”
To be honest, when I heard it, my salary increased four times. This increase is definitely very large.
However, unfortunately, the official salaries of the Ming Dynasty were too small.
The annual salary of the highest-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty was only 104.4 taels. If it were quadrupled, it would be 417.6 taels. What?
Not to mention comparing with a special being like Song Yingxing, after all, Song Yingxing is engaged in technology, and the value he created is far more than this amount. Just compare the salary of Ming officials with other dynasties, and you can see how low it is:
For example, in the Tang Dynasty, the monthly salary of a first-grade official was 8,000 hectares, and there was also a job field, and a first-grade official was 60 hectares. There was also a salary of 2 million (two thousand guan) for a first-grade official. To put it simply, the annual salary of a first-grade official in the Tang Dynasty was more than 400 taels.
The annual salary of officials in the Tang Dynasty was probably only the monthly salary of officials in the Song Dynasty.
Nowadays, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty have quadrupled, but they are still about the same as officials in the Tang Dynasty, and even less so than officials in the Song Dynasty.
Even so, the economy of the Ming Dynasty has increased significantly compared to the Tang Dynasty hundreds of years ago, both in terms of total material volume and population. In this regard, the salaries of Ming Dynasty officials are still higher than those of Tang Dynasty officials.
Be low.
In other words, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty still had room to increase.
However, for the Ming Dynasty officials in the Wenhua Hall at this time, they were all overjoyed. Not only did their salaries increase a lot, but the emperor also said that they would continue to increase their salaries in the future.
Needless to say, civil and military officials, including eunuchs, all thanked the emperor for his kindness, and the voices of "Long live my emperor, long live, long live," were probably the loudest ever heard in the Wenhua Palace.
Emperor Chongzhen certainly had confidence in announcing this salary increase.
Except for the fact that Liaodong was not restored and the southwest was still being reorganized, the other places could basically be completed in the 18th year of Chongzhen. According to predictions, after cleaning up hidden households and re-measurement of grain fields, Mao estimated that
The annual tax revenue can reach as much as 30 million taels.
This does not include the income brought by the imperial court's deployment of troops overseas and encouragement of maritime trade after the world was at peace, as well as the material growth brought about by the advancement of science and technology.
According to the information provided by Liu Weichao, the Manchu and Qing Dynasty's tax revenue in later generations. In the 10 years before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the Manchu and Qing Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue was around 80 million taels of silver. The peak occurred in 1891, reaching 89.68 million taels.
Emperor Chongzhen was very confident. With the help of Liu Weichao, according to Liu Weichao, the Ming Dynasty's economic aggregate would become higher and higher, and the resulting taxes would also increase. Compared with the Manchu and Qing taxes,
It will definitely be just a lot more.
In this way, giving this small amount of money to his ministers would not be a big pain at all.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen heard the cries of the ministers shouting "Long Live the Mountain", smiled and asked them to stand up, and then announced: "This salary reform does not involve the clan or nobles for the time being. In addition, I plan to treat all officials across the country in the future.
Some changes have also been made to the officials so that they can receive royal salaries."
Officials in the Ming Dynasty were not part of the imperial official system and did not receive salaries. These officials were actually considered a type of corvee, working for the court for free, and generally speaking, they inherited their father's legacy and passed it down from generation to generation.
.
As a result, it is true that officials often take advantage of their positions to make more money than officials who receive royal salaries.
Even in many cases, the so-called corruption of official administration starts from the officials. Otherwise, how can we say that official administration is corrupt!
At this time, these ministers in the Wenhua Palace happen to be the beneficiaries, so naturally they will not have any objections to this.
However, some people are still worried. For example, the royal family's salary and salary are too heavy a burden on the court. They have been cheating in the past and not paying is common. The emperor wants to reform the salary and salary, but I don't know how he will reform it?