As the saying goes, "Get rich when you get promoted." "For most officials in the Qing Dynasty, there was an equivalence between promotion and wealth. Promotion is to get rich, and you can get promoted after you get rich.
Qing Dynasty officialdom
Since this was the case, the Qing Dynasty officialdom had the idea of "fat shortage". The so-called "fat shortage" is an official position with a relatively high gray income outside of Feng Lu. So, in the Qing Dynasty, which official positions were the most oily?
Jin Anqing, a Zhejiang native who once served as an envoy to Jiangsu and was an aide to Zeng Guofan, wrote a note reflecting the various conditions of all sentient beings in society, "Spring in the Water Window". In the "Spring in the Water Window", Jin Anqing believes that among the first and second ranks, the oil and water of the governor, the governor, the inspector and other feudal officials are significantly higher than the cabinet scholars, the six Shangshu and other Beijing officials. Among the eight governors, the governor of Liangjiang has the most abundant oil and water, and can easily enter 300,000 taels of silver a year.
Governor's Office of Liangjiang
What is the concept of 300,000 taels of silver?
Under normal circumstances, the Annual Salary of the Qing Dynasty's Yipin Cabinet University was 180 taels of silver, and the annual salary of Qipinzhi County was 45 taels of silver. The 300,000 taels of silver earned by the Governor of Liangjiang in a year can be paid one year's salary to 1,666 Yipin Cabinet University scholars and 1 year's salary to 6,666 Qipinzhi Counties.
Why did the Governor of Liangjiang have such abundant oil and water? This is related to the area under its jurisdiction. The Viceroy of Liangjiang had jurisdiction over the three provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi, and belonged to a prosperous and prosperous land. In the late Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, which was under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu, was the largest city in China at that time, which naturally brought a steady stream of wealth to the viceroy of Liangjiang.
Zeng Guofan was an incorruptible official who was reluctant to collect gray income. Even so, according to the calculations of the historian Mr. Zhang Hongjie, Zeng Guofan served as the governor of Liangjiang for 10 years and the governor directly under the governor for 2 years, with a total income of no less than 1.8 million taels of silver. Most of this was obtained during the tenure of the Governor of Liangjiang.
Zeng Guofan
We can imagine how much silver other greedy officials would have earned when they reached the post of Governor of Liangjiang.
Jin Anqing believed that in addition to the governor of Liangjiang, the most oily and watery were the governor of Liangguang and the governor of Sichuan.
Why did the Governor of Liangguang have oil and water? Because Guangdong is the land of fish and rice, Guangzhou has long been a place of "one mouth of trade", with active commerce and developed economy, and the governor of Liangguang has many doorways to obtain gray income, not bad money.
Guangzhou during the Qing Dynasty
Why does the governor of Sichuan have oil and water? Because Sichuan is a famous country of heavenly capitals, the land is fertile and fertile, and it is rich in salt, tea and other state monopoly resources, and it is difficult for the governor of Sichuan to make money. No, in the "Yongzheng Dynasty", the Kangxi Emperor's eldest brother Yinzhen knew that the Sichuan Salt Tea Ceremony could get 100,000 taels of silver per year, let alone the governor of Sichuan?
Relatively speaking, there are not many channels for Beijing officials to obtain gray income, and the number is limited, far less than that of local officials who call the wind and rain at the local level, so there is a saying that "monks in Beijing, officials who leave Beijing". Of course, the Beijing officials are not stupid, and they will also think of ways to make money. For example, all six ministries will set the departmental fees according to the authority and responsibility of their own departments.
Officials must pay the ministry fee to the ministry to make up for the actual vacancy; in order to prevent the criminal department from rejecting the case, the envoy must pay the ministerial fee to the criminal department; when the envoy reimburses the expenses, he must pay the ministry fee to the household department... If you don't pay the ministry fee, it will bring a lot of trouble.
In 1788, after the victory of the famous general Fu Kang'an in the Battle of Gorkha, the Banshi returned to the dynasty, and the scenery was infinite for a while. However, when Fu Kang'an reimbursed the military expenses in the household department, he was harassed by a scrivener and allocated 2 million taels of silver to the household department as a military reimbursement department fee, which completed the reimbursement process.
Fukang Ann
After receiving the ministry fee, the six ministries will give different amounts of subsidies such as rice and silver to officials such as Shangshu, Shilang, Langzhong, and chief affairs according to different levels, and everyone will be wet with rain and dew, eat meat together, and drink soup together.
Among the six ministries, the officials, households, punishments, and ceremonies have the greatest power and receive the most ministerial fees. Among them, the ministry of households is the most generous. In 1879, Wang Wenshao, the left attendant of hubu, received 24,000 taels of silver and rice, and Hubu Shangshu's rice silver must be more than this amount.
In addition to the governor, the inspector, the Shangshu, the waiter, and other first- and second-class officials, did the middle-level official positions have oil and water?
Chongyi's "Miscellaneous Records of the Dynasty and the Wild Since Daoxian" records that there are "ten advantages and disadvantages" specially prepared for the officials of the five and six pins in the official field of the capital. "Ten advantages and disadvantages" refers to the three libraries, three mouths, two money bureaus, and two passes. Specifically, the three libraries are the silver, satin, and pigment warehouses of the household department; the three are Zhangjiakou, Killing Hukou, and Shanhaiguan; the second money bureau is the Baoquan Bureau of the Household Department and the Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Works; and the second guancha is a member of the General Office of the Chongwenmen Taxation And Customs School.
Chongwenmen Tax Customs
In these official positions, either the treasurer manager, the tax and customs manager, or the person responsible for minting coins (Hubu Baoquan Bureau, Gongbu Baoyuan Bureau), is it not easy to catch some oil and water?
If it is an official below six pins, it is best to serve as a prefect or county in the local area, and you can also get rich oil and water, which is much stronger than being a Beijing official in the capital. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there was a Beijing official named Qi Xuan, who, because he was envious of the income of local officials, sold his wife's dowry to do some official work, and finally got his wish and was released as the prefect of Chengjiang Province, Yunnan.
In fact, during the Qing Dynasty, the most ideal local officials were Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places, such as "Jinping Lake, Yinjiashan" in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Nanhui, Jiading, Baoshan and other places in Jiangsu. Yunnan is a barren land, and most officials are reluctant to go. Qi Xuan was sent to Yunnan as an official, presumably because the ministry fees sent to the officials were a little less.