Chapter 443 - The Knowledge of Grain Collection

Over the following minutes, Wang Zhaomin maligned Chen Minggang continuously—though "malign" wasn't quite accurate; he was simply stating facts. The Revenue Section clerk clearly hadn't been getting along with Private Secretary Wang in recent years.

Wang Zhaomin had no idea his words were being recorded—of course, he lacked such awareness. The Political Security Bureau took keen interest in such material where natives exposed one another. Sometimes a few words or a single sentence could yield a wealth of useful information.

After listening attentively for some time, Wu De spoke in a deliberately reluctant tone: "What Private Secretary Wang says may well be true, but we are unfamiliar with the terrain in Lingao. Without relying on such people, I fear we cannot gain a foothold..."

Wang Zhaomin thought: If not for so many "traitors" helping you work and fight, you certainly couldn't have stayed. But such words could only be said in his belly. These Hair Bandits are truly cunning—obviously he wants me to state my terms first.

Wang Zhaomin proposed the conditions he had discussed with Wu Mingjin: When autumn grain collection commenced, the Transmigrators would proactively pay grain and tax to the county yamen in the name of Bairen Village. The taxed area would be five hundred mu of paddy fields. Regardless of fertile or lean land, the flat rate would be three dou five sheng of brown rice, plus nine li of Liao Supplies. Poll money would be three hundred wen per person, collected based on the approximately fifty people registered in Bairen Village's household rolls.

In return, Wang Zhaomin promised that for every shi of quota autumn grain, an additional one dou two sheng five he of "wastage rice" would be levied. This income would be entirely handed over to the Crossing Group—roughly one thousand shi of grain. As for the "Reasonable Burden" the Crossing Group collected themselves, the county yamen would not interfere; they could collect however they pleased. Indeed, even if they wanted to interfere, they couldn't.

Wu De calculated. According to these conditions, after deducting necessary taxes, their actual income would be somewhere around seven or eight hundred shi of rice—essentially net income obtained without expending any significant effort.

However, this fell far short of their goal. The Crossing Group didn't particularly value this bit of rice at present—not counting Lingao's warehouses, their granaries in Vietnam still held seven or eight thousand shi of brown rice awaiting shipment. Purchasing another few thousand shi was a trivial matter.

What the Crossing Group intended was to use this opportunity to shatter the Ming dynasty's tax system—chaotic and riddled with abuses for centuries—and establish an efficient, orderly collection system, thereby infiltrating and controlling Lingao's county administration. In other words, they were preparing to use Lingao as a test field for their new administrative management system. For this goal, the Crossing Group was prepared to pay an enormous price. How could they be bought off by a mere one thousand shi of rice?

Wu De didn't respond directly but instead asked: "Private Secretary Wang, we truly know nothing about the intricacies of autumn grain collection. Could you enlighten us?"

Wang Zhaomin said: "What's difficult about it? Only, discussing all the tricks and abuses within—three days and three nights wouldn't suffice."

"Please, we're all ears."

Since he had time on his hands, and since this Chief Wu showed no obvious signs of rejection—there was probably still room for negotiation—Wang Zhaomin selected some of the various abuses and tricks in grain collection to share with Wu De, hoping to win the Australians' trust.

"Actually, I originally trained in legal affairs," Wang Zhaomin began. "However, I also learned money and grain management. I can handle the financial affairs of an average small county."

Generally, when a magistrate took office, the Legal Secretary and the Money and Grain Secretary were the most important assistants. The former assisted the magistrate in trying criminal cases. The latter specifically handled money and grain reporting, land and poll tax, doorplate registers, land measurement, opening granaries for relief, and miscellaneous tax collection. Their specialty lay not merely in mastering the various tricks of the trade but in skilled accounting as well.

Wang Zhaomin's specialty was legal affairs, but his skills weren't refined enough to secure good employers—mostly juren lords or "associate jinshi" circulating among remote small counties. Small counties had small populations and naturally fewer lawsuits. Hiring two private secretaries was somewhat wasteful, so he had learned money and grain management as well. Though not extremely proficient, holding two posts provided extra income for himself while saving his employer the expense of another person. Everyone benefited.

The skill of a Money and Grain Secretary, beyond wielding an abacus, lay in understanding the situation and being adept at handling clerks. For quota money and grain and the land-poll tax, the Board of Revenue only demanded the total number, not the details. Who locally owned how much land, where it was located, how much tax was levied—only the Revenue Section clerk in the county yamen knew these things clearly. What they relied upon was a secret book passed down through generations: the "Fish Scale Register." Without this book, even a man with heaven-reaching abilities couldn't collect money and grain.

The Fish Scale Register was originally public property, drawn and revised under government auspices. But over generations, county archives had been either destroyed or lost, their whereabouts long unknown. The "public registers" revised by the government had instead become the private property of the clerks. Whether it was the Magistrate or the Money and Grain Secretary, to smoothly handle the official business of the two annual summer and autumn taxes, they were often held hostage by the clerks.

Generally speaking, after a magistrate took office, the Money and Grain Secretary had to negotiate terms and haggle with the Revenue Section clerk to form a tacit understanding, each colluding to take what they needed. Between Wang Zhaomin and Chen Minggang, however, there had always been friction—the reason being that Lingao was extremely remote, far from the emperor, so the clerk's fear of officials was much diminished.

Because the "Revenue Clerk" held the Fish Scale Register, not only could official business proceed smoothly, but he could also profit handsomely from it. For many years, the collection of money, grain, and land-poll tax had been a muddled affair. Those who paid might never receive the "grain receipt" from the government, while those who didn't pay held invalid receipts. Some had no standing room yet still had to pay grain tax; some possessed a thousand qing of fertile fields yet paid not a single grain of rice. Anyway, as long as the "superiors" received the full quota amount, they simply didn't care about mismatched names.

As for the tricks involved, they had many names. Wang Zhaomin mentioned "proxy registration" and "property gone, tax remains." The latter Wu De already knew from Zhang Xingjiao's case, and he had some understanding of "proxy registration" as well.

"Speaking of court exemptions, haven't there always been fixed quotas?" Wu De "sold" a bit of the knowledge he had heard, lest Wang Zhaomin truly think they knew nothing and feed them nonsense.

Wang Zhaomin was indeed startled—Chen Minggang probably told them, he thought—and explained: "The court's exemptions originally had fixed quotas." These were set during the Hongwu reign. Roughly, a first-rank capital official could exempt 30 shi, second-rank 24 shi, and so on down the line. External officials received half the exemptions of capital officials. As for Students of the Imperial College, juren, and xiucai, custom allowed them to exempt 2 shi. Beyond the tax-exempt share, all self-purchased land had to be reported for tax payment.

"In reality? Those entitled to exempt two shi exempt dozens. When Grand Secretary Zhang measured the land during his administration, he first checked his own family's holdings. The quota exemption was over eighty shi, but the actual exemption approached nine hundred shi."

Wu De listened intently. He guessed "Grand Secretary Zhang" referred to Zhang Juzheng. Yu Eshu had specifically mentioned in his lecture on Ming dynasty land tax systems that Zhang Juzheng conducted land measurements during his tenure—not too distant from the present era.

"Beyond the court's exemptions," Wang Zhaomin smiled bitterly, "there exists another class of people who also practice so-called 'proxy registration.'" Every county had its share of tricky, domineering, and difficult-to-handle "special characters"—either powerful landlords and gentry or rural rascals. These had to be appeased. Even if their weights were short or their rice quality poor, it had to be accepted without complaint. Sometimes they were even given "grain receipts"—proof of tax payment—falsely, simply to buy local peace. Many commoners and small households would "cast their land" under such figures to pay less tax. This was one aspect.

The second aspect was that some people would ask these figures to "contract payment" on their behalf. Over time, so-called "Tax Farming Households"—Baohu—emerged. These Tax Farmers were either "grain runners" colluding with officials or local strongmen who could coerce officials. If small households entrusted them to "contract payment," though the "floating collection" portion was unavoidable, it was still much cheaper than paying directly.

"The two Gou brothers you eliminated—they were originally the county's two biggest Tax Farmers," Wang Zhaomin said. "However, if they hadn't colluded with Chen Minggang and served as 'grain runners,' they could never have become Tax Farmers."

Wu De nodded. This "Tax Farmer" did carry the meaning of a "tax contractor."

"Tax Farmers" naturally didn't work for free. Customarily, they skimmed from the middle. The most audacious among them simply collected grain but never remitted it, delaying endlessly, waiting for the court to eventually "pardon" the arrears. This situation was rampant in the Jiangnan region during the late Ming and early Qing.

If some paid less, others had to pay more. The county's taxes still had to come from the county's people. Adding the various exploitation costs and benefits for county officials, everything fell upon the heads of the small folk. This was called "Wastage and Heaping," also known as "Floating Collection."

"Wastage and Heaping" wasn't "arbitrary charging"—it was clearly stipulated in the Great Ming tax system. In some places, the additional wastage rice and "heaped" rice per shi reached as much as 7 dou 6 sheng, exceeding half the principal quota. This extra income was the largest and most reliable "gray income" for local officials—far safer than black money from perverting justice and similar activities.

"Wastage and Heaping" was nominally meant to cover transport costs and loss of tax grain, but in reality, there was no standard—the arbitrariness was enormous. Wang Zhaomin's willingness to propose an additional levy of 1 dou 2 sheng for the Crossing Group exploited precisely this loophole.

Wang Zhaomin remained vague about the "Floating Collection" portion, saying only that it covered transport costs and grain losses. Naturally, he didn't want the Australians to understand this income too clearly.

Wu De thought: No wonder Luo Duo said back then that Lingao County's true tax burden exceeded 15,000 shi. Looking at it now, that's entirely possible.

"What is the customary wastage rice per shi in this county?"

Wang Zhaomin started and hurried to say: "Oh—the Noble Group need only pay the principal quota; all floating collections are waived for you."

Wu De thought: It doesn't matter if you won't say—we can find out ourselves.

"The Liao Supplies surcharge must be very difficult for the county, correct?" Wu De pressed.

"Difficult." Wang Zhaomin was worrying about this very matter and nodded involuntarily.

"Where exactly does the difficulty lie?" Wu De seized upon this point and wouldn't let go.

Wang Zhaomin hesitated before answering: "Silver is expensive."