"Oh? Who is this man? Yang He said.

Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "This person is a relative of his brother Fengwu's wife, named Fan Liu, who is engaged in the silk business in Funing County. Because he is related to Fengwu, I am afraid that it will be inconvenient to spread it, so I rarely interact with him, and I forgot about this person for a while. This man is a good businessman, and he earned hundreds of taels of silver last year. ”

Yang He couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this: "Then Brother Lao Zhang will invite him." ”

"It's not convenient to invite him at this time, right?" Zhang Fengqi said.

Yang He smiled: "What's inconvenient? Brother Li and Hu Xiancheng are not outsiders, so let's have a drink together. ”

Zhang Fengqi nodded: "That's okay, I'll send someone to summon him." ”

After speaking, Zhang Fengqi summoned his subordinates and ordered him to invite Fan Liu to the Silk Village.

Seeing that Zhang Fengqi arranged it one by one, Yang He smiled and said: "Brother Zhang, I think you are a very moist county master, so many people can listen to it at any time." ”

Zhang Fengqi shook his head and smiled: "These people's salaries have to be borne by me personally, brother, I'll be honest with you, I can't support so many people with my little money, but if I don't support these people, I have to do everything myself, I can't do it at all, and sometimes I need these people to support the scene." ”

"How much is Brother Zhang's monthly salary?" Yang He asked.

"A month's worth of rice is seven stones and five buckets of rice." Zhang Fengqi said.

(The official's salary is calculated according to the net rice, and when the tax is paid, it is rice, and it is not hulled.)

Yang He frowned when he heard this: "What is the current price of rice in Funing County?" ”

"A tael of silver is a little more." Zhang Fengqi said.

"That means that your monthly salary is almost eight taels of silver." Yang He said.

Zhang Fengqi shook his head: "It's not you who calculates it like this, where are there so many?" ”

"How much is that?" Yang He asked.

Zhang Fengqi sighed and said: "There are two parts of the official's salary, one is the true color, and the other is the folded color.

The true color of the rice includes the real rice, the silver and the silk, the official of the seventh grade is 12 stone a year, the silver is 35 stone a year, the silk is 7 stone a year, the true color is a total of 54 stones, and it is 27 taels when converted into silver.

The folded color is included in the folding cloth and the folding of banknotes, the official folding cloth of the seventh grade is eighteen stone meters a year, and the folding of banknotes is also eighteen stone meters a year, a total of thirty-six stones, which is converted into silver money is eighteen taels.

Together, these two items are a total of 90 stone meters, which is 45 taels when converted into silver.

That is to say, my annual income is forty-five taels of silver, and after deducting the twelve stones of rice, the silver is only thirty-nine taels. ”

(The data is taken from Wanli's "Daming Huidian")

Yang He was puzzled when he heard this: "Wait a minute, your Yulu doesn't seem to be right, your Yulu is calculated according to one tael of silver and two stones of rice, but you just said that the current price of rice is a little more than one stone of rice and one tael of silver, how can there be such a difference." ”

Zhang Fengqi smiled bitterly: "The official's salary was set during the Taizu period, and at that time, one tael of silver could buy two stones of rice. ”

"The Yulu formulated during the Taizu period has been used until now?" Yang He exclaimed.

Zhang Fengqi smiled bitterly and nodded.

"A year's salary is only forty-five taels of silver, and you support so many people? Can you afford it? Yang He frowned.

Zhang Fengqi smiled bitterly: "Of course I can't afford it, so I can only think of other ways to subsidize it." ”

Yang He nodded silently when he heard this, and said in his heart: No wonder when the Ming Dynasty is mentioned, it shows that the officials of the Ming Dynasty are corrupt and bribed, and the income of the Ming Dynasty officials is indeed too low. This amount of money is definitely enough to support only parents, wives and children, but if you raise a few more servants and one or two concubines, it will be far from enough.

Yang He doesn't know if Zhang Fengqi has a concubine, but the servants are not less, Yang He often sees four people, just raising these four people, I'm afraid Zhang Fengqi's money is not enough.

Picking up the teacup, Yang He took a sip slowly, and then thought silently.

Listening to Zhang Fengqi's side, Yang He often sees four people, one is a secretary of staff, this person is equivalent to a secretary, helping Zhang Fengqi write some documents, draft official documents or something, as a magistrate, busy affairs, it is normal to have a book.

The horseman is alone, this person is equivalent to the driver, Zhang Fengqi can't always walk when he goes outside the city to deal with official business, so this person is a must.

The two messengers are equivalent to clerks, responsible for all chores, such as finding people, delivering letters, and delivering orders.

At this time, there was no mobile phone, and if you wanted to find someone, you had to find it in person, like looking for Hu Xiancheng and Fan Liu just now, Zhang Fengqi couldn't find it himself, so he could only send someone to go.

It should be said that Zhang Fengqi, as the magistrate of the county, has two errands around him.

Of these four people, there are at least three people involved in official business, but the salary needs to be borne by Zhang Fengqi personally, if Zhang Fengqi is not corrupt and bribery, then he can only drink the northwest wind.

Suddenly, Yang He remembered that there was a famous Qing official in the Ming Dynasty: Hai Rui.

Once Hai Rui's mother celebrated her birthday, he went to the street to buy a few catties of meat, so that the whole city was a sensation: Hai Rui bought meat.

Yang He didn't know what Hai Rui's official position was, and he didn't know how much Hai Rui's salary was, even if Hai Rui and Zhang Fengqi were of the same grade, and the annual salary was forty-five taels of silver, then if Hai Rui only supported his old mother and his wife and children, he would not even be able to afford meat.

That is to say, Hai Rui should also have people around him who listen to the use and need to bear the salary of the next person.

However, there should not be as many people who come to Hai Rui's side to listen to it, otherwise, with him being so incorruptible, he can really only drink the wind.

If even people like Hai Jui must have people around them who listen to them, it means that these people are indispensable.

Since it is indispensable, it is not the individual officials who pay for these people's salaries, but the imperial court that pays for them.

The imperial court did not bear the burden, and the officials were naturally unwilling to be willing to live in poverty.

It should be said that most officials do not want to be corrupt officials, but their salaries are too low.

These people have studied hard for many years, and they are not officials to live a hard life.

So he began to embezzle and accept bribes, and even came up with various ways to exploit the people.

Yang He doesn't believe that the rulers of the Ming Dynasty can't see this shortcoming, if no one can see it, doesn't it mean that the Ming Dynasty doesn't even have a person of insight?

According to Yang He's understanding, the fact should be that the rulers of the Ming Dynasty knew about this problem, but they couldn't solve it, because the state had no money, and the state couldn't come up with money to pay the salaries of these people.

But why is the country so poor?

Could it be that the economy of Daming is really underdeveloped?

Yang He remembered that a historical economist in later generations said that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the budding capitalism had begun to appear in China.

Even the germ of capitalism has come out, and the economy of this country will be underdeveloped?

If the economy is developed, but the country does not have money, then there is something wrong with the country's system, at least the tax system.

Remembering that Zhang Fengqi just said that the field tax of Daming is 30 taxes and 1, that is, a little more than 3 percent, plus all kinds of apportionments are only 10 percent, it is obvious that this tax rate is very low.

Normally speaking, a tax rate of 6 or 7 percent is quite reasonable, and with the addition of various assessments, it should be acceptable for the people to control the burden of the people within 15 percent.

The total amount of taxes paid by the Ming Dynasty in a year is 27 million stones, and if the tax is increased by 5 percent, it can increase by nearly 2 million stones.

According to the standard of the seven-grade official, he can afford 10,000 people.

After silently calculating for a while, Yang He suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Daming can collect 27 million stone grain a year, if the tax rate is 10 percent, that is to say, Daming's land is 270 million mu, how can a country as big as Daming have less than 300 million mu of arable land?

After thinking for a while, the more Yang He thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong.

Raising his eyes to look at Zhang Fengqi, Yang He asked, "Brother Zhang, how many acres of land are available for cultivation in our Ming Dynasty?" ”

Zhang Fengqi looked at Yang He in surprise when he heard this, and didn't understand why Yang He suddenly asked such a question.

However, Zhang Fengqi still replied: "During the Wanli period, Mr. Taiyue ordered the land of the whole country to be cleared, and the result was a little more than 7 million hectares (700 million mu). ”

Yang He frowned: "Seven million hectares? How can the annual tax payment of 7 million hectares of land be only 27 million stones? ”

Zhang Fengqi smiled when he heard this: "Brother, you were thinking there just now, you weren't thinking about this problem, right?" ”

Yang He smiled and said, "I just suddenly felt that something was not quite right." ”

Zhang Fengqi smiled: "Brother, are you confused?" Some people don't pay taxes, and those royal relatives, eunuchs and gentry don't have to pay taxes, and the land of the guards doesn't have to pay taxes. This land is not subject to tax and accounts for more than half of the country's land. ”

Yang He suddenly woke up when he heard this, and knew that he was not asking a proper question.

With a wry smile, Yang He said: "I know that these people don't have to pay taxes, but I didn't expect that there would be so much land that doesn't have to pay taxes." ”

Zhang Fengqi sighed: "Originally, I didn't know that there was so much land that didn't have to pay taxes, until the year before last, when I went to Beijing to report on my work and chatted with my classmates in the household department. ”

Shaking his head, Zhang Fengqi sighed and said: "Daming has a total of two capitals and thirteen political envoys, except for two capitals, basically each political envoy has a vassal king, your Shandong side is considered to be few, there are only two vassal kings, the worst is Henan and Huguang two provinces, each has eight vassal kings, and the good land in these two provinces is basically occupied by these vassal kings." ”

After a pause, Zhang Fengqi continued: "In addition to the royal family, there are also official eunuchs and gentry, and these people also have a lot of land in their hands.

Since the gentry were exempt from paying taxes, many people put their land in the names of the gentry, so that they only needed to pay a small amount of grain to the gentry, and they did not have to pay taxes. ”

As he spoke, Zhang Fengqi suddenly sneered: "Less than half of the fields that Daming needs to pay taxes on, and they can't make ends meet every year, so those people in the Donglin Party still have to reduce taxes, I really don't know what kind of heart they have." ”

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