Wang Xifeng said, "There are great difficulties", and for the traditional big family, the emperor, as the first in the world, is naturally the most difficult.
There are many harem personnel, relying on eating "big pot rice", spending uncontrollably, even the thickest foundation can not stand, must introduce the "wage" system, in the Qing Dynasty, it is not called wages, called palace shares.
How much is the palace? There are different grades, the empress dowager's annuity is twenty-two, the annual silver is two thousand, and the queen's annual silver is one thousand and two.
In addition to cash, there are also salaries in kind, such as the queen can get two horses of the big roll river every year, four horses of makeup satin, four horses of satin and other fabrics, in addition to forty catties of cotton, forty pieces of mink, fifty pieces of Ulla mink, etc., very specific. The most amazing thing is that the queen gives sixteen catties of pork every day, a plate of mutton, two small livestock, and even how many radishes and cabbage to give, there are clear regulations.
Legend has it that Cixi had more than a hundred dishes a meal, which is indeed true, but Cixi only ate a few dishes close to herself, and the other dishes were just a pose, and some of them were already satisfied and still served on the table. When it came to Boyi, such a pomp and circumstance could not be talked about, only a large Kang table plus a small Kang table, and the emperor and empress took concubines to eat at the same table.
The qing palace had a low income, but the empress did not spend much except to take care of people. Concubines are different, the power is not large, the income is low, not enough to make some eunuchs, it is inevitable to think of some "outside the plate". For example, Zhenfei once took advantage of Guangxu's favor to privately sell the official Title, according to Hu Sijing's "National News Preparation", Zhenfei once bribed as much as 40,000 taels, so she was cold palace.
Why are harem salaries so low? This is related to the Qing dynasty Ming system, the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang began from the grass, hated greedy businessmen, pursued a low-salary system for officials, and the rewards given by the emperor to the ministers in the ming dynasty were mostly worthless things. The Qing Dynasty officials imitated the Ming Dynasty, and the income of officials was also very low, since everyone was low-wage, the emperor himself had to set an example, so the harem salary was pitifully small.
There is another reason for the low salaries in the harem, which is related to the lack of hard currency. Both the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty issued currency, and the additional issuance of currency can bring significant benefits to the government, as an authoritarian regime, it is difficult to suppress the desire to use this means to plunder private wealth. For example, Zhu Yuanzhang issued paper money, because of indiscriminate issuance, not long after, its value has been almost the same as waste paper. The currency was unstable, and the circulation could only rely on hard currency such as silver, at that time, China's silver ore resources were limited, and the supply of money was in short supply, so it had to import a large amount of silver from overseas. It is calculated that three-quarters of the silver that the Spaniards plundered from the Americas at that time flowed to China. Even so, the problem of insufficient currency is still serious. The harem uses more "wages in kind" and less hard currency, which is also helpless.
However, it turns out that low wages have not really curbed corruption. By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, bribery had become semi-public. Even when the chancellor saw the emperor, he had to stuff the eunuch with "red envelopes", otherwise he would have to wait for a long time, or even not see him. For such a situation, the emperor can only turn a blind eye, because their salary quantity is also stipulated in the "Ancestral Family Law", and they cannot take more money to pay the eunuchs, the eunuchs have no enthusiasm for work, and the emperor has no ruts.