Chapter 349: Ministry of Justice

The decision to select and transfer the Left Vice Director of the Court of Agriculture from the Ministry of Revenue was one that Zhu Youjian had made only after careful deliberation.

Song Yingxing, after all, had never served as a principal official governing a region; he had not the slightest experience in how to coordinate and lay out the overall structure of so large a department. What suited him best at present was a deputy's post, which would exactly allow him to bring his technical strengths into play, throwing himself into hands-on practice among the fields and furrows, the workshops and kilns.

The advantages of the Bureau Directors of the Ministry of Revenue's various cleanly-governed bureaus have been explained earlier—these officials were all seasoned hands in officialdom, thoroughly versed in their business, knowing full well how to develop and push forward the affairs of the court. So long as Hou Xun kept strict oversight, selecting from among a dozen or so Bureau Directors one whose experience was comparatively rich in all respects and whose work style was steady and solid was hardly a difficult matter.

The post of Vice Director of the Court of Agriculture held a tremendous allure for the Bureau Directors of the Ministry of Revenue. The step from fifth rank to fourth rank was a ceiling for mid-level officials; without a powerful background or backing, the vast majority of officials reached fifth rank and stopped there.

Hou Xun's heart was already blooming with joy.

He had been mulling over the vacancy left by Zhao Zhiyong and the string of personnel matters that would follow, when unexpectedly another high-ranking post at the fourth rank was handed to the Ministry of Revenue.

For the head of a ministry to recommend a full fourth-rank senior official from within the ministry—this was something absolutely unprecedented in the Ministry of Revenue's two hundred years of history.

This was not to say that Ministry of Revenue officials had never had precedents of promotion before, but those who had been promoted had not been recommended by the ministry's own head; they had risen through other channels.

And this time, the selection of talent from within the ministry had met with no outside interference whatsoever—the candidates were genuinely settled upon by several of the ministry heads after their examinations.

The promoted Zhao Zhiyong was also a veteran who had spent ten years in the ministry, rising step by step from Bureau Secretary to Bureau Director on the strength of his ability. All of this had been witnessed by everyone up and down the ministry; though some did gossip about his promotion, the majority expressed their approval, all feeling that this elevation was comparatively fair.

After their own Minister was promoted to Grand Secretary and had obtained from the Emperor the authority to grant promotions and rewards to the ministry's officials, the respect felt toward Hou Xun by everyone up and down the ministry was visible in every word and expression. All who saw Hou Xun would bow and pay their respects with full courtesy, their eyes upon him filled with reverence and fawning; everyone performed their duties with even greater diligence and devotion, each longing for everything they did to be noticed by the ministry head.

The two Vice Ministers now made it their first task upon reporting for duty each day to go separately to Hou Xun's office to report their arrival and pay their respects, requesting instructions and reporting on what ministry business needed handling that day—only then would they return to their own offices to do their work. This had been utterly impossible before.

Hou Xun knew perfectly well in his heart that his entry into the Grand Secretariat was already as good as settled; the next matter was determining who would succeed him in the Minister's seat.

Following the Emperor's style over the past several years of favoring professional talent, the post he vacated should be filled by selection from among the two Vice Ministers, and the Emperor would certainly seek his opinion and views on the matter. One could say that his own words would directly decide who could sit in that full second-rank seat of Minister.

As matters stood at present, Left Vice Minister Zhou Zhiqian had every hope of becoming the new Minister of Revenue.

Whether in ability or in conduct and dealing with others, Zhou Zhiqian was somewhat stronger than Right Vice Minister Li Fengcun. When Hou Xun had audiences with His Majesty, he had deliberately brought Zhou Zhiqian along to show his face several times, and judging from the Emperor's attitude, he was comparatively satisfied with Zhou Zhiqian.

Zhou Zhiqian, fully aware of all this, was extremely grateful for his gestures, and in his dealings with Hou Xun, every word and action was permeated with respect.

The various changes in the ministry left Hou Xun privately feeling immensely pleased with himself.

To have received His Majesty's grace to enter the Grand Secretariat, and moreover to be able to influence the selection of second-rank and fourth-rank senior officials—this was already the pinnacle of a lifetime.

Yet what he had not expected was that these good things were not the end of it. The Emperor had actually, right on the heels of all this, tossed another big meat bun at the Ministry of Revenue—he could once again exercise a decisive choice over the seat of a fourth-rank senior official. After this affair, his prestige within the ministry would be even more at its zenith.

"I beg to report to Your Majesty: since it is Your Sacred Will to relax the tea prohibition, I naturally dare not presume to question the deeper intent therein. But from this point forward, the Taicang treasury will lose another stream of revenue, and as for how the relevant personnel of the ministry's Tea Horse Bureau and Tea Tax Bureau, as well as the tea-inspecting Censors of the Censorate, are to be reassigned—I humbly request Your Majesty's instruction!"

"I looked into the relevant figures previously. The tea tax pays only a little over one hundred thousand taels into the Taicang treasury each year; at present, whether it be the national coffers or the privy purse, both have been improving day by day, and We can hardly be said to lack these paltry sums of silver. Once the tea prohibition is lifted, tea sales will surge severalfold or more, and tea-growing households will certainly increase the acreage they plant, benefiting from it for the long term thereafter. Hence, opening tea to free trade is the inexorable trend of the times! As for the reassignment of surplus personnel, the Ministry of Revenue can absorb them itself—the Tea Horse Bureau and Tea Tax Bureau are hereby abolished as of this day, and the tea-inspecting Censors will naturally be reassigned by the Censorate!"

Promoting and stimulating the circulation of goods was, apart from agriculture, the top priority, and also the most important factor in driving economic development.

And tea, as one of the three great articles the Great Ming sold far overseas, should all the more receive vigorous policy support. Lifting the tea prohibition, converting tea from government management to private management—this was one of the most effective means.

The lifting of this prohibition also brought the gentry of Jiangnan a new avenue of profit, expanding their margins still further, while at the same time driving a comparatively substantial increase in the incomes of the farming households involved.

The abolition of the tea prohibition meant the court would no longer restrict or regulate the acreage of tea cultivation, and tea merchants would no longer have to purchase tea from the government before selling it—this both lowered costs and reduced intermediate links, thereby making tea a completely free-flowing market commodity.

On the surface the court lost over a hundred thousand taels of silver in revenue each year, but the social benefits thus triggered and generated were incalculable and immeasurable, and it also served as an excellent impetus for the development and promotion of maritime trade.

In truth, Zhu Youjian had long since sent people to investigate the matter of the tea prohibition. In Jiangnan and the Yunnan-Guizhou regions and other major tea-producing areas, many local gentry and wealthy magnates had long ignored the court's prohibition, secretly or semi-openly expanding their tea-planting acreage to satisfy the ever-growing market demand, reaping enormous profits for themselves in the process.

These people were all prominent figures in their localities, all with countless connections to the local authorities. Proceeding on the principle of sharing the benefits, local officials had tacitly permitted their practices.

If not for the existence of these privately planted and harvested tea gardens, where would the vast quantities of tea that the Great Ming consumed domestically each year, and sold overseas and to the frontier regions, have come from?

"I beg to report to Your Majesty, your servant has a memorial to submit!"

The one who rose to speak was Feng Ying, the Minister of Justice, past sixty years of age.

As one whose presence was extremely faint, Feng Ying had always rarely spoken up to participate in governance; at every consultation he sat in silence as an onlooker. Over time, the Grand Secretaries and senior ministers, Zhu Youjian included, had basically forgotten that such a person even existed.

"Oh? Hehe! Minister Feng is a rare speaker! If you have something to say, by all means say it! We too would like to hear what counsel you have to offer!"

Zhu Youjian was first slightly taken aback, then smiled and gestured to this old minister.

"I beg to report to Your Majesty: your servant, observing Your Majesty's successive moves of keen reform, and comparing them against the affairs of my own ministry, was struck by some thoughts. I thereupon drafted a routine memorial, setting down today's reflections upon it for Your Majesty's perusal. Your servant is advanced in years, and my deliberations may still contain crudeness and omissions—I humbly request that Your Majesty, after perusing it, kindly offer corrections!"

"Minister Feng, do sit, do sit! Whatever omissions your counsel may contain, when it concerns official business, one may speak frankly without reserve! I had not expected that all my ministers should hold such distinctive thoughts on governance—my heart is greatly pleased! You may speak from your seat! May I ask what it is, roughly, that Minister Feng wishes to memorialize?"

Wang Cheng'en brought Feng Ying's routine memorial and placed it in Zhu Youjian's hands. Zhu Youjian did not immediately open it, but instead asked with evident interest.

He did so deliberately, precisely to let Feng Ying publicly state his ideas before all the ministers—a chance for this old minister to show his face.

Whatever Feng Ying had written in the memorial, so long as it concerned public affairs, it was worthy of affirmation and praise.

"Your servant thanks Your Majesty for his grace! What I speak of in my memorial concerns three matters touching the Ministry of Justice. The first concerns the inspection of criminal cases in the prefectures and counties; the second concerns changing the method of escorting and transporting exiled convicts; and the third concerns improving the condition of prisons and jails in the various local governments!"

"Oh? These three matters truly give me a feeling of fresh ears and new eyes! Minister, speak quickly—I and all my ministers are listening with rapt attention!"

Feng Ying's words roused Zhu Youjian, who had held no particular expectations of him, and he smiled and urged him on.