In ancient times, salt was a strategic material of the country and was controlled by the imperial court. The salt policy of the Qing Dynasty was notoriously rich in oil and water. Apart from anything else, salt merchants, large and small, have considerable filial piety every year. Everyone is familiar with the oil and water of salt officials, so I won't say much here. I will mainly talk about the two yamen of river course and grain transportation.
In the fiscal expenditure of the Qing Dynasty, besides military expenditure and official salary, the biggest expenditure was river engineering. Since Jiaqing and Daoguang years, serious river disasters, together with recurrent expenditures such as river regulation and water conservancy projects, have spent more than 5 million taels on river projects every year, accounting for more than 10% of the total fiscal expenditure. According to an imperial edict of Emperor Jiaqing, the cost of Nanhe alone reached more than 40 million yuan in a few years.
River regulation is a big project, and the effect can not be seen in one year or two, so river officials have the opportunity to profit from it. On the surface, the money allocated by the state to river workers is huge, but it can really be used to control rivers. In addition to the staggering amount of expenses, a considerable part has fallen into the pockets of officials at all levels.
During the Daoguang period, a contractor who worked as a river yamen once described the luxury of the river yamen as follows: the governor's yamen was located in Qingjiangpu, and the Taoist priest and navy officer lived in a bad place. The annual expenditure is several million and two million, less than one tenth of which is actually used for the project, and the rest is used for the profligacy of civil and military officials. The entertainment, welcome and hospitality, food, clothing, horses and chariots, and fun of the big and small government offices are all ingenious and extravagant.
It is said that as long as the yamen is opened, it is impossible without a few hundred taels of silver. Dried dolphins, goose feet, humps, monkey brains and fish soup are all commonly used recipes at banquets. River workers' banquets are all running water seats. One group eats them, and the next group eats them, so the party lasts for days and nights. Every yamen, from the big and small river governors down, has hundreds of aides. They are well-paid. They worship ice in summer and charcoal in winter, and have holidays, especially those who have been stationed in construction sites and yamen for a long time, and their income is even more amazing.
River engineering is so erosive, some people say that if water transport and river engineering are not rectified, the world will not be cured. ? At the end of the Qing Dynasty, it is said that river officials with a little conscience spent three-tenths of their funds on river projects, while those officials who were greedy for ink were less than one-tenth, and even developed to the point where they didn't spend a penny unless they were in emergency rescue. It can be said that once you go downstream, you will have nothing to worry about for the rest of your life.
Compared with the river workers, the waterway yamen is a fat job and a bad debt. The Qing dynasty followed the practice of the Ming dynasty, collecting 4 million stone grains from Jiangnan every year and transporting them to the capital through the canal. Food is supplied to the royal family of the Eight Banners in Beijing. As water transport is of vital importance to the country, besides using a lot of funds to control river disasters to ensure smooth water transport, a vertical management system below the governor of water transport has been set up. This system was expensive from the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, and it has become a bottomless pit in the middle and late period.
Someone once posted an account of grain delivery. Basically, the cost of transporting a stone of grain from Jiangnan to Beijing is more than three times the original price. With such a heavy burden, the expenses and expenses of grain transport officers and soldiers at all levels account for a large part. The number of commissary appointed by the governor of grain transportation has increased from a few in the early days to more than 80 in Jiaqing, and most of them are cronies of the governor of grain transportation, who want everything and do everything. However, there was no radical solution to the management of grain transportation in the imperial court, and officials of grain transportation were allowed to extort money.
Let's take a look at another official position related to food, namely the route for providing foodstuff. Taking the grain route in Shaanxi as an example, it is recognized as fat deficiency in Shaanxi Province. Shaanxi is an important strategic location, where many soldiers of the Eight Banners and green camp are stationed, while the grain route post station is only responsible for the soldiers' grain revenue and expenditure, and there are few other official duties. There are two warehouses on the grain route. There are about 200,000 stones of war grain every year, but there will be a price difference of about 1 1,000 stones in the middle. If it is changed into silver, it will be more than 60,000 ounces.
This more than 60,000 taels of silver became the government's non-staple food income. In addition, the government that provides food also makes money by means of more in and less out, folding colors and so on. At least 300,000 taels of silver a year fell into the pockets of government officials to provide food. It is conceivable that a four-level yamen still has so much income, and the burden on the people is not heavy. In the final analysis, no matter which yamen it is, it is the money of the court and ultimately the money of the people.