Chapter 270: Exploring the Hidden and Unraveling the Subtle: An Audit of Coin and Grain

"Shit…"

Li Liye was about to continue his report when he heard this modal particle that had gradually spread through the capital — he froze for a moment.

"It's nothing… carry on." Lu Zhenfei shook his head, forcibly suppressing his frustration.

Li Liye, not understanding what it was about, assumed he had misheard and went on to the most important part.

Laoting County — just how much money could actually be collected from these 800,000 mu of land!

"As for taxes, we'll need to break it down into several parts."

"Let's start with the land tax."

"Laoting's assessed quota, summer tax and autumn grain combined, is 4,763 shi, most of which is shipped north to the Shimen Fort granary inside the Great Wall." "The journey is only 200 li, not too far, so only an additional 69 shi of transport surcharge rice is levied."

"The remainder, about 200 shi or so, is kept in the county's reserve granary."

"This item, calculated out, comes to about five ge, eight shao, and four cuo per mu…"

Lu Zhenfei frowned and raised a hand to cut him off.

"Change how you present this kind of data from now on — switch it all to decimals, stop using that way of saying it."

"For example, this would be… 0.00 per mu?"

Lu Zhenfei was actually not very practiced with this new thing either; he held out his fingers, double-checked, and only then said: "0.00584 shi per mu." He added: "His Majesty dislikes this cumbersome way of calling out shi, dou, sheng, ge and liang, qian, fen, li. He has specifically required that new-policy matters be converted to run decimals alongside uppercase numbers. From now on, all data, in addition to shi-dou-sheng-ge, must be marked again in decimal format."

Li Liye nodded to show he understood and picked up a brush to make a note beside it.

What kind of level was a tax of 0.00584 shi per mu?

To answer that, one first had to clearly define what the per-mu yield was here in Laoting.

But this matter was actually not so easy to define, especially given the Great Ming's historical lack of detailed statistics and its single-minded focus on getting peasants to pay taxes. Because what the land produced was, in truth, tied to a great many things.

Was it irrigated land or dry land? Superior-grade or inferior-grade? Intensive cultivation or extensive sowing? Was fertilizer sufficient? Was it a famine year or a bumper year? Was it planted with wheat? Or sorghum? Or millet?

Even if it was all planted with wheat… then, if I may ask, was it spring wheat or winter wheat?!

In short, agricultural questions were extremely complex. When the Eternal Prosperity Emperor first ascended the throne, he just slapped his head blindly and set his own imperial estates at a flat 1 shi per mu — an utter amateur among amateurs.

— Of course, the Eternal Prosperity Emperor was also diligently studying, and improving at a rapid pace.

Lu Zhenfei was certainly not so unworldly as that city bumpkin the Eternal Prosperity Emperor, but he also did not care to tax his brain over it. He asked directly, "What do you all reckon the per-mu yield is around here these days?"

Adviser Wang took over the reply.

"My patron, Liye and I made a cursory tour over the past few days."

"Paddy land is 2 to 3 shi, but the acreage is too small — we can set that aside for now."

"For the rest, if it's top-grade irrigated wheat land, it's always above 1 shi."

"But if it's dry land planted with millet or wheat, then it's only three to five… 0.3 to 0.5 shi or so."

"We estimate, for now, let's provisionally calculate based on 0.6 shi per mu."

Li Liye took out another, smaller booklet and pointed it out to Lu Zhenfei.

"We calculated this strictly according to the booklet Methods for Rapidly Estimating the Actual Tax Burden Rate on the Local Populace."

No need to say more — as usual, a product of the Northern Zhili Command, not rigorous, but absolutely serviceable.

"Adviser Wang and I had a look. Most of the land is fallow at present. One can roughly tell that two harvests in three years seems to be the minority, and summer wheat land really only accounts for about thirty percent. The majority is still planted with autumn millet."

"So according to the booklet, seed input for millet is calculated at 1/6, and seed input for winter wheat is calculated at 1/11…"

"Then on the fertilizer side, it's not like the south — very few people buy fertilizer."

"That is to say, we can roughly lump the local agricultural… primitive… capital input at 1. …" Li Liye was still not used to these new terms, and inevitably stumbled over them as he spoke.

"Calculated that way, the actual per-mu output… no… net output is 0.522 shi."

"Then using the local tax per mu of 0.00584 shi, divided by this net output per mu of 0.522 shi, the final tax rate comes out to…" "1.12."

Lu Zhenfei was not the least bit surprised by this astonishingly low land-tax ratio.

On the surface, this tax rate was truly extremely, extremely low — even far lower than the so-called one-in-thirty tax (3.33).

Yet, where in this world was there a free lunch?

The Great Ming granted you leniency on the surface, so naturally it would take more from you in the shadows.

Li Liye continued speaking, casually rattling off two more data points of no great importance.

"Household salt-certificate silver, cotton, silk cloth — in the past there were some items that had to be delivered in kind, but now they've all been commuted to silver, 1,184 taels per year. As for fodder grass, 93,112 bundles must be delivered each year, and that has to be delivered in kind."

"Additionally, there are 280 militia conscripts, each granted one qing of garrison land to farm, from which 1,920 shi of black beans must be collected annually."

"These taxes are, as before, dispatched to the various granaries; only a small portion is retained in the county itself."

Li Liye spoke very rapidly, disposing of these minor items before finally arriving at the tax item that truly made the common people of Laoting suffer.

"Horse-price silver: 4,176 taels per year, dispatched as customary to the Court of the Imperial Stud."

"Though sometimes they demand the levy of actual horses, which requires the horse agents to take the money and go beyond the passes to buy them. The skulduggery in this is enormous, because the set price is 30 taels per horse."

"Post-station silver: 4,367 taels per year, mainly to supply the two post stations at Yuguan Horse Post and Lufengkou Post."

Without pausing, he continued on, finally reaching the money that truly belonged to Laoting County itself.

Yes — virtually all of the money mentioned before had to be turned over to the imperial treasury or to superior yamen. Only a small portion of this last batch of funds… a very small portion, was what stayed for Laoting's own use.

This was the core source of local-government finance in the Great Ming — the Equalized Corvée Silver!

What was called "equalized corvée" meant apportioning corvée labor equally and commuting it to silver payments (the Single Whip law was its upgraded version) — that is, converting the various labor services the common people had to bear into money, and then spreading the burden evenly.

At first, this equal apportionment still followed the person, but later it essentially followed the land.

That is to say, it slowly transformed from a "head tax" into a "land tax."

This kind of policy was in fact aimed at the rich and intended to help the poor, and naturally ran counter to the fundamental interests of the scholar-official class.

Yet ever since the Chenghua reign, equalized corvée had been the political orthodoxy of the Great Ming. Although there were many reversals, in the end it was slowly implemented.

By now, even here in Laoting County, corvée labor had basically all been commuted into silver.

This was the most fascinating thing about a feudal bureaucratic dynasty.

The bureaucrats were gnawing away at the foundations of the Great Ming.

But on the other hand… they were also constantly repairing this great ship…

Only, after all that patching and mending, was this great ship still the same ship it had been at the start?

The established laws of the ancestors had long since become nothing more than a sheet of scrap paper.

When Li Liye brought up the Equalized Corvée Silver, the other two men's attention visibly sharpened — after all, this was the centerpiece of the tax levies.

"The Equalized Corvée here in Laoting differs in one respect from what the master formerly administered in Jingyang County, Shaanxi."

"There is no Militia Silver item here. The local militia are allotted garrison fields and then levied black beans; no additional silver is collected."

Indeed, in the present Great Ming, aside from the border troops having shifted to the recruited-soldier system, the militia in many places had in fact also shifted to the recruited-soldier system.

"Apart from this one difference, everything else is more or less the same."

"First, the Silver Levies — twenty-five items in total, this portion comes to 3,622 taels."

The so-called Silver Levies can be understood as particularly onerous corvée services for which people can no longer be conscripted, so they are simply commuted to silver and handed up. For example, the Court of Imperial Entertainments Fruit Silver of 124 taels — in the past, this required assigning men to deliver the fruit by fast horse to the Court of Imperial Entertainments; now there is no need to send anyone, the silver is given directly.

Another example is the Ministry of Works Iron-Smelting Civilian Laborer Silver of 618 taels — in the past, this required sending civilian laborers to the Ministry of Works to work at iron-smelting; now the men no longer need to go, the silver is given directly. Beyond these, there are also the runners of Shuntian Prefecture, the archers of Tongzhou, the grooms of the Liaodong Circuit Intendant, and so on — none of these now require sending personnel; it suffices to give the silver directly.

Li Liye continued without pause. "Next, the Labor Levies — forty-two items in total, this portion comes to 2,835 taels."

The so-called Labor Levies can be understood as corvée services that are not so burdensome; the common people may serve if they are willing, and if unwilling, they may pay money in lieu, whereupon Laoting County will use that money to hire people itself.

For instance, this county has twenty mounted couriers, at twenty taels each, for a total of four hundred taels.

Another example: the patrol office has twenty archers, at four taels each, for a total of eighty taels.

There was, of course, a reason why these Labor Levies were not counted as Silver Levies.

For some of these Labor Levies, far from anyone being unwilling, people practically fought to serve — some even resold their service quotas.

Take this county's mounted couriers: the market rate in Laoting was ten taels.

And with that ten-tael capital, once one got hold of a single grain-collection summons and went down into the villages, one could earn back several dozen taels!

For posts like this, in the south there were even people willing to pay a price of one hundred taels!

This was also why the Great Ming court repeatedly forbade subofficial clerks from going down into the countryside without cause — because every time a clerk went down into the countryside, it was a storm of blood and wind. Li Liye continued on to the final item.

"Lastly, the Lijia Silver — fifty-seven items in total, this portion comes to 1,666 taels."

The Lijia Silver can in fact be understood as the odds and ends of the tax and corvée system.

In local finance, apart from the two major categories of corvée — the Silver Levies and the Labor Levies — there were in truth a great many scattered fiscal expenditures, or scattered levies. In the past, this portion was directly apportioned to the lijia headmen, who were told to designate the common people under their names to contribute money or labor.

But with the implementation of the Equalized Corvée Silver, after many miscellaneous services were commuted to silver, a number of administrative items that were not corvée per se but were nonetheless necessary were also fixed and collected in silver.

For example, travel expenses for military examination candidates proceeding to the examinations: one tael of silver.

Another example: travel expenses for this prefecture's juren attending the metropolitan examination: fifteen taels of silver.

Yet another example: for newly successful juren and jinshi, the honorific archways, banners, and plaques, and the flower-coin banquet silver: forty-seven taels.

Ahem… the hierarchical distinction between the Great Ming military examinations and the civil examinations can be glimpsed from these prices.

Li Liye did not register that these mere three lines of data had taken a very long time to recount.

He simply and calmly performed the final summation:

"Adding together all of the above, the Equalized Corvée Silver totals 8,123 taels."

"Additionally, this county's customary-fee silver has also been clearly ascertained. The master's own portion is around 1,300 taels; adding those of the Vice Magistrate, the Constable, and the Instructor, it reaches roughly 2,000 taels."

The world at large, knowing that Hai Rui as a county magistrate could take 3,000 taels in customary fees, assumes that the entire Great Ming realm is the same.

Three thousand taels a year, clean and clear? Where would one find anything so delightful?

Chun'an County had eighty lijia of registered households, was situated inland, saw considerable transit traffic in salt, and within its borders the mulberry industry was highly developed — in the Great Ming, it was actually a mid-to-upper-tier wealthy county!

Laoting, by contrast, had twenty-seven lijia of registered households, and aside from having plenty of land, possessed no other merits; right next door was the Changlu Saltworks… in truth, it could only be counted as mid-to-lower tier. Lu Zhenfei nodded and continued his questioning.

"And the tax rate after everything has been commuted to silver? That should also have been calculated, I take it? Let me have a look."

Li Liye handed over the ledger.

"In this, the current market price of rice grain is calculated at 0.6 taels per shi, fodder grass at 10 wen per bundle, and black beans at 0.4 taels per shi. All the silver from the land tax, military garrison fields, fodder grass, post stations, Equalized Corvée, and so forth, added together, comes to a total of 22,406 taels."

"And spreading this total silver across 800,000 mu gives 0.029 taels per mu."

"Then, commuting the per-mu yield of 0.522 shi into silver, and calculating that against the per-mu tax in silver, the nominal tax rate borne by the common people of Laoting County comes to… 8.82!"

And yet, if the tax rate borne by the common people were truly a mere 8.82, how could it ever have come to selling their children and abandoning their homes at the slightest provocation?

(Attached chart: may all you new-policy county magistrates kindly view the basic data on Laoting County that this humble one has compiled.)

(Attached chart: may all you new-policy county magistrates kindly examine the estimation case study and complete the post-lesson practice assignment, to be submitted before training begins tomorrow.) Lu Zhenfei took the ledger, studied it for a moment, then simply picked up a brush and recalculated it himself. Only then did he look up and speak. "If we add the customary-fee silver, this tax rate becomes 9.61."

"And then, as the ledger says, for subofficial clerk corruption, duplicate corvée levies, pick an estimation coefficient between 1.3 and 2.0…" Lu Zhenfei pondered briefly. Unsure just how ferocious the local clerks were in this place, he first settled on a middle value.

"Then let us set it at 1.5 for now. That gives a tax rate of 14.4."

"As for the coefficient for the gentry's standard tax exemptions, and for fraudulent registrations and scattered assessments beyond those exemptions…"

Lu Zhenfei sank into thought for a moment, synthesizing various data points in his mind.

First, the situation in his former post, Jingyang County — a sample with a very high number of bureaucrats and gentry.

Second, the situation in his home county of Quzhou in Guangping — here, after the Wanli era, eleven jinshi had emerged, far better than Laoting, but still not matching Jingyang. Third, the reply letter from his eldest son, recounting the data after their household had cleared out fraudulent registrations.

And most importantly, considering Laoting County's pitiful number of jinshi and juren — not even enough to fill one hand.

Lu Zhenfei had no choice but to rationally produce a pessimistic figure.

"Ah… even a coefficient of 1.3 for the gentry side seems exaggerated. Let us set it at 1.2 for now."

"Calculated that way, the actual tax rate borne by the common people of Laoting County who are truly paying taxes comes to 17.29."

"And if we further account for those twenty thousand Liaodong refugees having been apportioned taxes, I fear this tax rate would be even lower…"

"Ah… what a wretched place this is." At this, Lu Zhenfei could not help but heave another long sigh.

Things like bureaucrats and rural gentry only become terrifying once they reach a certain scale.

In a hellish place like Jiangnan, where a single county might have several dozen jinshi and several hundred juren, the harm done by the gentry was basically on the same order as subofficial clerk corruption. The reference recommendation in the ledger was essentially to calculate using the maximum coefficient of 2.0.

But a mere four officials and gentry… Lu Zhenfei actually felt he was being a little too optimistic.

Of course, all the figures above were nothing more than estimates.

The real data would only be obtained once Lu Zhenfei truly had Leting County in his grasp.

And that data would subsequently serve as a critical benchmark in the new policy performance evaluations, incorporated into the reference framework.

And among the tasks led by Regional Inspector of the Eight Prefectures Yuan Keli, apart from the three metrics of farmland acreage, population count, and tax revenue, the one given the greatest weight was this real tax rate.

Whoever dared to falsify or deceive on this matter, once found out, could well imagine the consequences.

It would no longer be merely a question of administrative performance, but a question of reputation.

Compared to corruption and incompetence, a reputation for "fleecing the people to curry favor with superiors" was far more capable of utterly destroying a man's political life.

What was more… in this matter, there was absolutely no chance whatsoever of obtaining so-called "superiors' favor."

Judging from Lu Zhenfei's experience training in Jingyang, in his hometown, and in the capital.

A tax rate of a mere 17.29 percent actually already counted as a place at peace…

But the situation in Leting being excellent naturally meant Lu Zhenfei's own situation was not.

His dream was not some trifling top-grade evaluation; he wanted to be number one in Northern Zhili!

With such a wretched situation, how exactly was he to break the deadlock?

Lu Zhenfei drew a deep breath and spoke.

"The situation is basically clear from our discussion."

"Next, let us talk about next year's new policies, and see how, on such a foundation, we can still work wonders."

"Let us put our respective ideas together, first settle on a draft, and then refine it as we go along."

(One last thing, a chart is appended below, showing the "grain per mu" figures for each prefecture of Northern Zhili, as well as for every province of the realm.)

(But please bear in mind, these figures are only the summer tax and autumn grain levies. Many online bloggers make an issue of this, but it is in fact meaningless. In the Northern Zhili region the figures are low, and the corvée labor is naturally heavier; in short, the Great Ming is quite fair.)

(Moreover, the closer one is to the prince, the sharper the law cuts like a blade — this is also true. Baoding, Shuntian, Hejian, and Zhending, which have low land taxes, are all around the capital, and have historically been known for low taxes and heavy corvée.)