Qing Yao

Chapter 20 The County Magistrate's Words Are Not Good

The "top silver" that Ji Bochang mentioned refers to the severance pay that the person filling the vacancy must pay to the previous clerk when there is a vacancy.

The amount of money received as a farewell gift from the six rooms is not a uniform amount, but is determined based on how much profit they make.

For example, the "top silver" for the Lifang Office usually starts at 50 taels, while the Gongfang and Xingfang Offices require at least 200 taels. The lowest is the Lifang Office, which can get by with 30 taels.

Zhao An was seconded to the household department. If there really was a vacancy to be filled, the minimum salary would be one hundred taels.

In other words, as long as his work performance in the cloth shop was recognized by Master Ji, the other party would save him one hundred taels of "top silver".

The various gray incomes he earned as a clerk in the household registration office only amounted to about one hundred taels a year.

In other words, if you want to become a formal clerk in the government office, you must first pay a year's salary.

There is no room for bargaining unless the leaders above you give you the job to do.

Master Ji made such arrangements obviously because he knew that Zhao An, a poor boy from the countryside, had no money, so he paved the way for him in advance.

This kindness is no less than that of my cousin Wang Defa.

A typical adoptive father is above his parents and is grateful to his children for their kindness.

Zhao An was naturally very grateful. He didn't know whether Master Ji had a daughter. If so, no matter how fat or thin, beautiful or ugly she was, as long as Master Ji was willing, he would be her son-in-law without hesitation.

A trip to the rear court transformed Zhao An from a mere temporary worker into the number one "chief secretary" in charge of the deputy county magistrate.

Next, he only needs to serve one leader, that is, Master Ji.

He quickly got into his role and began to assist Master Ji in collecting inspection fees from various cloth shops in Ganquan County.

How to collect it? Just collect it directly.

Just like the tax bureau collecting butcher tax, you pay the money and get the stamp.

The process is also very simple. Just go directly to the cloth-making association in Ganquan County and send a document.

No matter what era, every industry has an organization, even the dung collector has a dung shop.

The original purpose of guilds was undoubtedly solidarity and mutual assistance, but over time, they gradually developed into a monopoly, responsible not only for setting market standards for their industry but also for regulating the industry's entry system.

If outsiders want to engage in a certain business, they must report to the local guild, pay a certain entry fee and guarantee to abide by the guild's rules before they will be allowed to enter.

The existence of guilds can also effectively help the government reduce industry conflicts. When encountering commercial disputes, officials basically use the guild rules as a reference when making judgments.

In addition, any matters concerning the government would be directly notified to the guild leader, who would then convene merchants in the guild to discuss them. This reduced the "head-on" confrontation between the government and merchants, and served as a moderation and buffering force.

To put it bluntly, the Green Gang that monopolized the canal transportation was simply a guild in the canal transportation industry, but this guild had too many members and a too complex composition, and was already involved in organized crime.

It is even possible that it involves a conspiracy to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, because it is said that the Qing Gang is also a branch of the Hongmen.

At least some Hongmen members infiltrated the Qing Gang.

What is the purpose of the Hongmen?
Anti-Qing and restore Ming!

Of course, Zhao An couldn't be sure whether this was true or not. After all, he didn't know much. At present, apart from Sun Rui, who might have a connection with the Qing Gang, he had no contact with the Qing Gang.

Ganquan County is a subordinate county of Yangzhou Prefecture, and the county's cloth-making guild is located in the most prosperous Dongguan Street.

Since this was Zhao An's first time dealing with the specific work of the yamen, Master Ji was afraid that he would make mistakes so he specifically told him about the cloth-making industry. He also gave Zhao An a brief list of all the large and small cloth-making workshops in the county and asked him to memorize the conditions of each workshop.

These simple tables are actually statistics on the cloth industry compiled by the household department over the past few decades. They mainly include information about annual cloth sales, which workshops are the major sellers, and whether the taxes collected from the cloth industry increase or decrease each year.

This is a very simple and primitive economic census method, probably used to deal with the higher-ups, but it also gives us a glimpse into Yangzhou's economy.

Before Zhao An had finished reading, Master Ji had already drafted the document for the Cloth-Making Guild. After the ink dried, he instructed Zhao An, "Send this notice to the Cloth-Making Guild now. Also, have their representative come to the yamen tomorrow. The county magistrate may need to discuss details with them."

"Yes, sir."

Zhao An nodded first, and then cautiously raised a question, that is, isn't it too rough to collect money from the cloth shop based on a casually drafted document?

You know, this document doesn’t even have the official seals of the chief official or the assistant official. What if the guild doesn’t recognize it?
"Could you please use your seal, lest the guild say something and cause trouble for you?"

Zhao An also had good intentions, or perhaps he was used to the "red head" in his previous life, and always felt that it was too sloppy without a big seal.

Unexpectedly, Master Ji waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "Send it away like this. I don't think they will dare to deny it."

It seemed as if he had long been accustomed to this "sloppy" approach. Zhao An said "Oh," but out of kindness, he added, "Sir, I just looked and found that the county's cloth industry pays 20,000 to 30,000 taels of commercial tax to the Taxation Bureau every year. According to my understanding of the Taxation Bureau, the cloth industry's taxes account for about a quarter of the county's commercial taxes, which is of great significance to the county's economic development."
"The county has played a vital role in tax collection for this county, but now it wants to charge inspection fees to the cloth industry. Will this harm the development of the cloth industry? What if this causes some workshop owners to be reluctant to operate, and the original commercial tax will be reduced?"

Zhao An understands better than anyone else the harm of "random charges" to economic development and has seen more than anyone else.

If he had not been involved in this matter, he could have pretended not to see it, but since Ji Bochang had asked him to participate in this matter, he still had to remind him of the pros and cons.

"I didn't expect you to have such insight."

Master Ji glanced at Zhao An with a hint of admiration, then said, "What you described will indeed happen, but it's not our concern, nor is it our business. As you said, serving the County Master well is serving the people well. If we can't help the County Master solve the deficit problem during his tenure, then what does the County Master want you and me to do?"

He paused, then added meaningfully, "The county magistrate's troubles are our troubles. What have other people's troubles got to do with us? If you're working in the government office and you're only concerned about the well-being of the people, you won't be able to make a living there."

"This"

Zhao An was speechless. He knew that what Master Ji said was the truth, but in his heart he still couldn't accept that local officials were destroying the local economy for their own interests.

Isn't it true that the better the local economy, the more income the county magistrate will earn?

Perhaps knowing that Zhao An still had many doubts or discomforts in his heart, Master Ji simply told Zhao An a fact that stunned him and even made him unheard of.

That is, the Qing court allowed county governments to get involved in local specialty industries, that is, allowed county magistrates to do business.

"This county only charges inspection fees from the cloth workshops. Do you know how it's done elsewhere? Let's not even talk about faraway places, let's take Zhejiang, where the silk industry is the most prosperous. The entire local silk business is controlled by the county magistrates, to the point that every county magistrate is the richest man in the area."

The "interference" that Master Ji mentioned was manifested in two ways. One was to directly expel the original merchants from the industry, and the county magistrate sent his family members to run the business; the other was that regardless of whether the merchants were willing or not, the county magistrate had to buy a stake, so that he could make money just by sitting in the yamen.

For this reason, many businesses were even severely punished by local county officials using various excuses.

In comparison, Ganquan County only charges inspection fees from workshop owners, which is simply the act of a living Bodhisattva.

"Students are really ignorant,"

Zhao An admitted that he was still too much influenced by his past life. He always thought that he was constantly breaking the moral bottom line, but he didn't expect that the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty had no morals at all.

Qing officials had no idea of ​​protecting and developing the local economy. The only thing they cared about was how much money they could make.

If he can't make money, no matter how good the economic development is, it has nothing to do with him!
"Do you think this official is a piece of shit?"

Master Ji smiled and said, "Let me tell you, our county magistrate is already very good. Do you know how my last benefactor got the money? Charity!"

"Charity?"

Zhao An thought this was a good thing.

I still think it's too simple.

The Jiangxi county magistrate whom Master Ji served last time had to organize at least three charity events a year. On the surface, it was a good thing to relieve the poor, but in fact it was an opportunity to make money. He would earn at least 18,000 taels of silver from each charity event.

Even so, he still had a very good reputation as an official. The common people praised him, and the higher authorities also praised him. As a result, he was promoted to prefect before his term was over.

Are you angry?

"You are still young and don't understand many things. You will understand them naturally as you see more. It's really hard to be an official. The court only gives the county magistrate a small amount of salary and maintenance silver each year, but the expenses of the county magistrate's affairs are worth tens of thousands of taels."

Master Ji advised Zhao An with the look of an experienced person, "Let's take our county magistrate as an example. Last year, he gave 11,000 taels to the governor, 9,000 taels to the governor, 7,000 taels to the governor, 5,000 taels to the governor and the governor, and 3,000 taels to the prefect.
Just the tributes to the above-mentioned lords alone amount to 40,000 taels, not to mention the expenses for the capital, various expenses of this county, and the money collected by the court. How can we do this without money?"

The Zhitai is the governor-general, the Futai is the governor-general, the Fantai refers to the provincial governor, the Neitai refers to the provincial judge, and the Xuetai is in charge of education.

They are all giants who sit at the table and speak in a province, and they all need to be fed.

After calculating all the accounts, as a county magistrate at the grassroots level, he has to make money in various ways, otherwise how can he continue to hold this position?

Ji Bochang, the legal advisor, and Zhao An, the temporary worker in the yamen, could only focus on one thing to carry out their work.

That is to spare no effort to help the county magistrate get money.

Whoever makes more money will have greater contribution.

What else is there to say?
Zhao An pinched his nose and went to the cloth-making guild to deliver documents. No matter how well the economy develops, if the county magistrate doesn't benefit, then no one will benefit.

Unexpectedly, the head of the cloth-making guild was stubborn. When he saw the document requiring each of their cloth-making workshops to pay a minimum of 500 taels for inspection, he immediately threatened: "Does the government know about this? You can ask our cloth-making workshops to pay, but we need the order from the governor!"

(End of this chapter)