I was compiling the daily records during the Wanli reign

Chapter 298 Shen Yiguan Offers a Plan! The usual practice of handing over the fire tax to the public and replacing it with a generous reward will be adopted.
Zhang Juzheng then exposed the numerous instances of local officials in counties and townships using various pretexts to seek personal gain outside the Single Whip Law, as well as the existence of the "fire loss silver" system.

The officials in the court were engaged in continuous discussions and submitted memorials to express their opinions.

To the surprise of all five cabinet ministers—

All officials supported the legalization of the fire loss tax, but the attitude of the vast majority of officials towards "lower-level officials creating pretexts to seek personal gain" was completely opposite to the consensus reached by the five cabinet ministers to "severely crack down on all exorbitant taxes and levies outside the Single Whip Law".

Nearly 80% of the officials who submitted memorials believed that it was not easy for local officials at the lower levels to hold their posts.

The imperial court should turn a blind eye to some "private items in land tax" and allow "regularities" to exist; otherwise, lower-level officials will be unable to perform their duties, and chaos will inevitably break out in counties and townships.

This incident led officials to discuss the difficulty of local officials fulfilling their duties.

Many officials with local political experience said that local county officials are lowly, poorly paid, have little power, and heavy responsibilities. They maintain their dignity entirely through "customary practices" and rely entirely on "customary practices" to make the yamen runners and clerks in the six departments willing to work for the government.

After the implementation of the Single Whip Law, many local customs disappeared.

If the "unauthorized additions of pretexts" are cracked down on further, it would be tantamount to leaving those low-level clerks without food, which would surely cause trouble and affect the progress of the court in collecting land taxes.

In short: It is necessary to leave room for lower-level officials to seek regular (gray income).

……

After reviewing these memorials, Shen Nian quickly deduced the officials' thoughts.

In short, everyone thinks about problems from their own self-interest.

Officials all supported making the fire tax silver compliant.

The main reason is that the land tax paid by the people was the source of the salaries of officials throughout the country. If the loss of silver was not borne by the people, it would affect their salary payments.

As beneficiaries, the scholar-officials naturally wanted to legitimize it.

As for the fact that nearly 80% of officials support local officials adding arbitrary charges and obtaining regular income (i.e., gray income) in private.

This is because they are also regular beneficiaries.

It was a well-known fact throughout the Ming Dynasty that officials supported their families through regular allowances rather than official salaries, and many officials' regular allowances could even reach more than ten times their annual salary.

If the imperial court were to launch a campaign to "cancel the established practices," it would essentially strip them of their greatest privilege as officials.

On the surface, they sympathized with lower-level officials, but in reality, they wanted to ensure that the "custom" would continue to exist and that they could continue to amass wealth in the future.

After all, it's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to

Many officials now consider routine payments to be their normal income as officials.

……

this moment.

Shen Nian pondered how to ensure that the common people would not have to bear the burden of fire tax.

In his mind, the new policy was based on the Single Whip Law, and it had to be strictly enforced. Even if there was an extra "small whip" as thin as a cow's hair, it did not count as the Single Whip Law, and any additions of names must be rejected.

If the silver coins are of insufficient purity or contain too many impurities, then that is the people's problem.

However, the losses incurred during the transportation and smelting of silver should not be borne by the common people.

"Could the imperial court bear the cost?" Shen Nian murmured, pondering how to resolve the issues of fire tax and land tax in order to maximize the interests of the people.

……

On the third day of the sixth lunar month, in the early morning, the regular morning assembly was held.

All civil and military officials gathered at the Imperial Gate.

The main issue to be addressed at today's court assembly is whether the court should tacitly approve of the extra-legal practices (gray income) outside the Single Whip Law.

As for the fire loss silver, since the current petitioners all support compliance, it will not be discussed further unless anyone raises the issue again.

At the suggestion of the young Wanli Emperor, Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng was the first to step forward.

"Recently, the officials in the court have been discussing the land tax regulations that have arisen from the implementation of the Single Whip Law, and have even discussed the difficulties faced by local officials in fulfilling their duties. The key to solving this problem lies in whether there is a good plan that can abolish the land tax regulations while ensuring the livelihood of lower-level officials and maintaining stability in the countryside. Everyone, please speak freely!"

Zhang Juzheng's choice of words was extremely precise.

He referred to "regular land tax practices" rather than "regular practices," meaning that the discussion today mainly concerns the regular practices of farmland taxation after the implementation of the Single Whip Law, rather than all official practices.

This was a common practice, found in every corner of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom.

The most common expense was the land tax, from which clerks and officials profited the most. Other expenses included paperwork fees for lawsuits, tea money for merchants, and litigation costs for stamping documents.

The largest and most substantial amount must be the customary gifts given by lower-ranking officials or merchants to high-ranking officials during festivals in the capital, such as ice gifts, charcoal gifts, and festival gifts.

The group of scholar-officials standing under the Huangji Gate were clearly the ones who received the most preferential treatment.

If all customary practices were forcibly abolished now, and those who received them were all treated as corrupt officials, then an anti-corruption storm would inevitably sweep through the court.

The prisons of the Three Judicial Offices and Shuntian Prefecture would surely be overcrowded, and even insufficient to meet demand.

For the sake of stability in the court and the implementation of the new policies, this discussion focused solely on the usual practices of land tax.

Soon, a clerk stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, I believe there is no strategy that can abolish the regular land tax while simultaneously ensuring the stability of local communities!"

“In local villages and towns, everything depends on the regular land tax system. Without the regular system, the clerks will not listen to the county magistrate, and the county magistrate will be powerless to manage the clerks. As a result, the county and town officials will be unable to collect taxes, and unruly people will rise up everywhere!”

Upon hearing this, the young Wanli Emperor nodded in agreement.

The most important factor the imperial court used to evaluate the performance of county and township officials was not public security, education, commerce, or engineering projects.

Instead, it was the collection of taxes, or levies.

If local officials and clerks fail to perform their duties, tax collection will inevitably fall into difficulties.

Swish!
At this moment, another censor from the Censorate stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, abolishing the regular land tax may seem like a way to benefit the people, but in reality it disrupts the order between officials and the people in the counties and villages. Some say that the local clerks are the ones who exploit the common people the most, but they are also the ones who help the court manage the common people. If our dynasty first abolishes the regular land tax in the villages and then implements the nationwide land survey policy, I estimate that it will be impossible to complete the nationwide land survey task in five years!"

"I second the proposal!"

"I second the proposal!"

"I second the proposal!"

……

Next, several more officials stepped forward to discuss the importance of land tax regulations to lower-level officials.

Officials certainly have some self-interest; they can only have income if those at the bottom have income.

But the reasons given were impeccable. When it comes to getting low-level officials to work, nothing is more effective than money.

At present, anyone who wants to advocate abolishing the regular land tax system must first come up with a way to compensate county and township officials.

Just as Shen Nian was about to step forward and express her thoughts, Shen Yiguan, a Hanlin Academy Reader, stepped forward.

Shen Yiguan bowed and cupped his hands towards the young Wanli Emperor, then said loudly, "Your Majesty, I believe that those officials who advocate for the standardization of land tax regulations are all selfish and self-serving individuals!"

Swish!Swish!Swish!
All the officials looked at Shen Yiguan.

If he cannot give a specific reason, he will offend a large group of officials today.

Shen Yiguan paused for a moment, then continued, "What is the usual practice? It's money that can't be made in the open, money that comes extra."

"If the land tax regulations are compliant, it means that our dynasty is currently implementing a multi-whip system instead of a single-whip system. Such illicit extra income is not worth discussing in court. If the court agrees that the land tax regulations are compliant, the land tax regulations will become even more complicated in the future. In the long run, the money that the court has retained through the new policies and reforms will flow into the hands of countless corrupt officials who illegally collect these regulations. What is the point of implementing the single-whip system then? What is its value?"

Shen Yiguan looked around.

"My fellow colleagues, your concern that the land tax regulations should be kept in accordance with the law is probably not that the order of the villages will be disrupted and the court will not be able to collect taxes, but that your own regulations will be disrupted and your relatives and friends will lose a source of income. If you really want to share the burden of the emperor and reduce the burden on the people, you should advocate abolishing the land tax regulations and at the same time come up with a plan to maintain stability in the villages and localities!"

At this moment, Shen Yiguan puffed out his chest, feeling as if he were the only one who was pure while all the officials were corrupt.

The officials were somewhat bewildered by his reprimand.

But hearing him criticize others so confidently, he must have a good plan.

One official couldn't help but speak up: "Shen Shidu, if you believe our motives are impure, then on the premise of abolishing the regular land tax, come up with a strategy to stabilize the order in the countryside!"

Shen Yiguan looked at the young Wanli Emperor and bowed again.

"Your Majesty, abolishing the regular land tax will have two major impacts. First, the interests of local officials and clerks will be harmed, causing them to be less diligent in their duties and leading to problems in local order. Second, it will make it more difficult for local governments to collect taxes. In other words, it will be easier to cause chaos and harder to collect taxes."

"I have a solution that can resolve this dilemma!"

"Speak quickly!" Little Wanli leaned forward and said.

"First of all, I believe that the fire loss silver collected spontaneously by local counties and townships is a law within the court and is in accordance with regulations. However, the fire loss silver should not be used indiscriminately or for private purposes. Its proportion should be determined by the court, and its use should be allocated by the court."

"I suggest that the amount of fire loss silver be set at 30% of the silver tax revenue, and after collection, all of it be handed over to the various provincial administration offices."

"Afterwards, each provincial administration commission would reward lower-level officials based on the tax collection performance of each county and township. The earlier the taxes were collected and the higher the completion rate, the higher the reward. This reward could come from the fire loss silver. If the fire loss silver was insufficient, it could be allocated by the local prefecture."

"Among county and township officials and clerks, those who truly need regular pay are the clerks who receive wages and food allowances. If they receive rewards, county and township officials do not need to pay. As for the amount of the rewards, it is sufficient to ensure that the wages and food allowances of 50% of the clerks are doubled."

"This is a method I devised to replace the usual practice of paying the fire tax to the public with a generous reward."

"There are three benefits to implementing this method."

"First, clean up the corruption of county and township officials and maintain order in the villages."

"The abolition of the regular land tax system at the county and township levels will ensure the purity of the Single Whip Law, which will eliminate the frequent cases of corruption and embezzlement at the county and township levels, and will make the people and officials no longer adversarial. In addition, the township officials will be generously rewarded, and the order in the townships will be more stable."

"Secondly, improve the efficiency of tax collection."

“The difficulty of collecting taxes in local villages and towns has been a problem that has plagued the imperial court for many years. However, when the imperial court replaces the usual land tax with generous rewards and implements a system of more pay for more work, local officials will inevitably be more proactive in collecting taxes.”

"Thirdly, it enabled the court to win the hearts of the people."

"The absence of land tax regulations reduces the number of instances where officials and clerks oppress the common people. The people are freed from oppression, and paying taxes becomes more convenient. Naturally, they will be grateful to the court and His Majesty!"

……

After Shen Yiguan finished speaking, the entire Huangji Sect fell silent.

For the imperial court, his method of "turning the fire loss to the public and replacing the usual practice with generous rewards" was indeed beneficial, except for the excessively large proportion of fire loss silver.

Most importantly, this method not only solved the problem of disorder in the countryside, but also improved the efficiency of the imperial court in collecting taxes.

Tax collection has always been a major challenge, but this reward system can indeed greatly improve tax collection efficiency.

At this time.

Shen Shixing stepped forward and said, "Shen Shidu, isn't adding 30% to the fire loss allowance a bit too much?"

Shen Yiguan bowed slightly to Shen Shixing.

“Grand Secretary Shen, the 30% ratio seems high, but it is actually not. Currently, the combined land tax and fire loss tax in some counties and townships is already twice the original fire loss tax. Such a ratio is still to reduce the burden on the people. My suggestion of 30% is actually to reduce the burden on the court. Otherwise, if this generous reward is paid entirely by the local prefectures, they will definitely be in dire straits.”

Upon hearing this, a smile appeared on the face of the young Wanli Emperor.

His favorite strategy is to "do big things with little money".

At this moment, Shen Nian couldn't help but frown.

The "fire loss" mentioned by Shen Yiguan is almost identical to the "fire loss returned to the public" in later generations, except that the proportion is slightly higher.

Shen Nian found it hard to accept this 30% ratio.

For the officials standing under the Imperial Gate, one or two taels of silver was not a large sum of money at all.

But for many ordinary people, an extra tael of silver could mean an insurmountable burden, as it could lead to high-interest loans or even the forced sale of their children.

As for Shen Yiguan's proposed method of "replacing the usual practice with generous rewards," Shen Nian found it even more difficult to accept.

To put it bluntly, this is a method of rewarding and improving efficiency that has been grafted from commerce; the more efficient the tax collection, the more commission one receives.

However, the efficiency of tax collection by the imperial court cannot be compared to other methods.

When it comes to efficiency, some clerks, in order to receive generous rewards, might urge harvesting of crops in the fields while they are still green.

In addition, the delay in tax payment by ordinary people is largely due to natural disasters and man-made calamities. If officials force them to pay taxes for high rewards, it will only lead to their resistance.

Officials should be punished if they collect taxes too late, and they should be punished even more if they collect them too early.

Shen Yiguan looked around and saw the gazes of many officials, feeling that he had made a name for himself today.

He had thought of this plan two days ago, but felt that the impact of submitting the memorial was not strong enough, so he chose to speak about it personally during the regular court session.

He has such confidence.

On the one hand, abolishing the land tax was the original idea of ​​the five cabinet ministers, and his move can be said to be in accordance with their wishes.

On the other hand, this policy not only earned the imperial court a good reputation, but also solved the most difficult tax collection problem for local communities.

Just as Shen Yiguan was waiting for the five Grand Secretaries to shout "Second the proposal" and for the young Wanli Emperor to reward him.

Shen Nian stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, in my opinion, Shen Shidu's plan is a very poor one and absolutely unacceptable!"

(End of this chapter)