Emperor Qin Shihuang
Qin Shihuang first started selling officialdom——
"Maisu Qianshi worships the first class"
In the feudal era of China, buying and selling of officials should have started in the Qin Dynasty. During the time of Qin Shihuang, one year was plagued by migratory locusts, and Qin Shihuang issued an edict to sell the title to the world publicly: Everyone who pays millet and thousands of stones can be worshipped at the first level.
In the Qin and Han dynasties, the official system was divided into three categories: title, rank and position. "Jue" is used to distinguish between high and low social status, and the symbol of nobility is distinguished from "people"; "rank" is the salary level, and the amount of income depends on "rank"; "post" is the administrative position, and the power is determined by "rank". The modern cadre hierarchy is affected by the decision of "professional".
In the third year of Qin Xiaogong (359 BC), the Qin State established a 20-level title when it first reformed. The so-called "demonstration of knights and land" can be expressed in another way: only those with knights can have "private land" and "homestead." The lowest level is the "Prince" and the highest level is the "Marquis of Che". The "doctor" of the fifth nobleman of the time could serve as a "county lieutenant" equivalent to the current county head level. Based on this, it is speculated that the status of "public servants" is equivalent to a local leader, and can serve as village cadres, small section members and so on.
During the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng allowed the trading of officials. According to the "Historical Records: The Book of the First Emperor of Qin", in October of the fourth year (218 BC) of Yingzheng becoming emperor, locusts were plagued at that time, so the government sold knights for relief. The selling price is: "The common people are nasu and thousands of stones, and they will worship the first class". That is, for every one thousand stone millets paid, the title can be awarded to 1st rank.
The so-called "worship" is actually selling, but it sounds better than selling. How is this market? Here is the conversion. Millet cannot be eaten directly. The millet is edible only after pounding and peeling. The ratio of millet to rice is about 1:0.6. 1000 shi millet is 600 shi millet.
Calculated on the basis of the Qin scale (volume), 1 stone is equal to 100 liters in Qin Dynasty, and 1 liter is approximately equal to 342.5 grams in modern times; then, 1 stone is approximately equal to 68.5 modern jins. 600 shi millet is 41100 modern catties, which is about 21 tons.
If it is calculated by the Qin Heng system (weight), it is like this: 1 stone is equal to 120 Qin Jin, 600 stone millet is 72,000 Qin Jin; Qin Jin is less than modern Jin, about 253 grams, about 0.506 modern Jin; then, 1 stone is 60.72 kilograms of modern jin, 600 shi millet is 36,432 kilograms, about 18 tons.
The difference between the two algorithms is about 3 tons, but it should be calculated by the former at that time. How much was 600 shi millet worth in the Qin Dynasty? There is no direct historical data to refer to, but the current market price of Xiaomi can be used to convert the renminbi. If calculated at 3 yuan per catty, it is 109,300 to 123,300 yuan.
During the period of Qin Shihuang, a village official was bought for 100,000 yuan-
"Su Qianshi" is equivalent to more than 30 tons of grain
If you travel back to the Qin Dynasty and buy a village cadre Dangdang from Emperor Qin Shihuang, the minimum cost is more than 100,000 yuan, which is definitely a "sky price" at that time, and the "millet" is more than 30 tons of grain.
Calculating upwards, if you buy the highest level of the 20th "Chehou", you will have to spend 20,000 shi millet, which is 12,000 shi millet, converted into RMB, and the lowest is: 12,000 × 60.72 × 3 = 2185920 (yuan), which is 2,185,920 Yuan; the highest is: 12000×68.5×3=2466000 Yuan, which is 2.466 million Yuan.
So, regardless of corruption, how long will it take to recoup the cost of buying officials in the Qin Dynasty?
In the case of the Marquis of Che, the Marquis of Che was in charge of the court to the Sangong. San Gong is the highest official position in the Qin Dynasty, namely Taiwei, Situ, and Sikong. Their power and status are equivalent to the current level of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. They are all "ten thousand stone" high-ranking officials. It should be noted that the "stone" here is not a unit of measurement, but a unit of grade; the so-called "ten thousand stone" is not an actual annual salary of 10,000 stone, but a senior official of the "ten thousand stone" level.
So, what was the annual salary of the "CPC Politburo Standing Committee" in the Qin Dynasty? The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system. According to the salary standard in the "Hanshu·List of Baiguan Gongqing", the annual salary (salary) of senior officials at the level of Wanshi in the Han Dynasty was 4,200 hu. Based on this calculation, the annual salary of Qin Shisangong should be similar.
Qin Shi's measurement system includes Hu, Dou, Sheng, etc. 1 Hu is equal to 10 Dou, and 1 Dou is equal to 10 liters. The ratio of "Hu" and "Stone" used for measurement is also different, and the exchange relationship between different dynasties is also different. In Qin Dynasty, 1 Hu was approximately equal to 0.52 Shi, so 4200 Hu was 2184 Shi; Su 2184 Shi was approximately 1310 Shi Millet. If the difference between quantity and balance is no longer considered, it will be regarded as a lower “stone” (unless otherwise stated in the following text, the “stone” in the sense of the balance is used for calculation) and converted into RMB It is 238,600 yuan. In other words, the annual salary of Qin Shi's Politburo Standing Committee is around RMB 240,000.
Comparing the selling price, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that if you buy the Marquis of Che, who can be a Sangong, it will take about 10 years to receive the investment cost of 20,000 shi. However, the above is only a theoretical calculation. In fact, Qin Shi would not sell high-level titles like the "San Gong". And even if you buy it, it is not a real job that can be paid, and it is mostly imaginary.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty will add 2 catties of gold to each level of selling officials——
The eighth-level official position "Le Qing" spends 310,000 gold
Compared with the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty market for buying and selling government officials is more mature. When Liu Che (Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty) was emperor, the monetary policy became stronger, and the buyer no longer collected grain, but directly collected money.
According to the "Hanshu·Shihuozhixia" record, in the sixth year of Yuanshuo (123 BC), the court started selling martial arts lords. Shi Wugong Jue is divided into 17 levels, but from bottom to top only sells to the eighth level "Le Qing". After all, this title is imaginary, and the buyer is not very active. To stimulate consumption, the court tried to give the person who bought the martial arts title a "real" official. The "Qianfu" in the martial arts title is the same as the "five masters" in the civil service.
The price at that time was 170,000 gold for the first level, plus 20,000 gold for each level. Then the price for buying the eighth-ranked "Le Qing", the highest rank allowed to be sold, would be 310,000 gold. Note that the "gold" here is not gold, but copper coins. One copper coin is 1 article as the descendants said; "10,000 gold" is 10,000 copper coins, which was equivalent to 1 catty of gold at the time.
In this way, 170,000 gold is 17 catties of gold, and 310,000 gold is 31 catties of gold, which are equivalent to modern 8.5 catties and 15.5 catties, respectively. Converted at a price of about 175,000 yuan per catty of gold, they are 1,487,500 yuan and 2,712,500 yuan respectively.
If you compare it in RMB, the official price of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is higher than that of Emperor Qin Shihuang, and Qin Shi bought a "Politic Bureau Standing Committee" for a higher price than RMB 2.466 million. What about Liu Che's quotation of official sales if he counts on the price of food at the time?
Just like today, the price of food has changed greatly throughout the ages, and the years of abundance and deficiency are also different. When Liu Che's grandfather Liu Heng (Emperor of Han Wen) was the emperor, under normal years, his father Liu Qi (Han Jing Emperor) was the emperor, and the price of food was not high. When Liu Che was the emperor, the early stage was stable, but after he used troops against the Xiongnu, the price of food quickly rose. Calculated based on the "Guyan Sixty-six Stones, Straight Money 2,310" in the "Juyan Han Jianjia", the grain is the millet, so Liu Che's millet is 35 yuan per stone, and the actual grain price may be higher. .
For a grain price of 35 yuan per stone, 170,000 yuan can buy 4,857 stone millets. In the Western Han Dynasty, the annual salary of the "three gongs" was only 2184 Shisu, and the asking price of Han Wu Emperor was really not low! If you think that the price of food is low, it is assumed that more than 30 years after the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when his great-grandson Liu Xun (Emperor Han Xuan) was the emperor of the Western Regions, Zhangye (now Zhangye, Gansu) was "more than a hundred millstones" ("Hanshu·Zhao Chongguo Biography" Calculated at the price of grain, 170,000 yuan can also buy millet at around 1,700 shi.
Comparing the prices of the emperors in later generations, Liu Che's asking price is indeed the lion's open mouth? There were two reasons. One was that people were rich at the time. After the "government of Wenjing", the people of the Western Han Dynasty became rich and the folks made a lot of money; the other was Liu Che's official power and the ability to pay wages, which was worth the money.
Because people were very active in buying officials at the time, the ratio of officials to civilians in the Han Dynasty rose during Liu Che's reign. By the end of Liu Xin (Emperor of Han's Ai) as emperor, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty had reached 120,000 from Zuoshi to Prime Minister. At that time, half of the state’s annual fiscal revenue was used to pay official salaries. According to Huan Tan, a scholar of the early Eastern Han Dynasty, in his "New Theory", when Liu Xun was the emperor, his annual financial income was more than 4 billion yuan.
Han Ling Emperor Liu Hong
Selling officials can hit "white bars"——
Cao Cao’s father, Cao Songhua, buys Taiwei for "100 million"
After Liu Che, selling officialdom became popular. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, when Liu Hong (Emperor of Han Ling) was emperor, he also set up a "wholesale department" for selling officials. Those who wanted to buy officials but had no money could even "baitiao" to take office.
The best way to buy Liu Hongguan is Cao Cao's father, Cao Song. Cao Song was Cao Teng's adopted son. Cao Teng was one of the most famous eunuchs in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He worked in the palace for more than 30 years and served four emperors successively. Because of his meritorious service as the emperor, Liu Zhi was named Feitinghou. His annual salary was second only to San Gong, and he accumulated countless family properties, which can be described as a super fortune in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Cao Song, who has the dual identities of "the second generation of officials" and "the second generation of wealth," although he inherited the Marquis of his father Cao Teng, he always felt that he had no real power and wanted to buy a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo by "Hou Shenggong" at that time. , One of the three males, the lieutenant did it. Liu Hong’s post of "Prince" was sold at a price of 10 million yuan. Although the asking price was high, there were still many people who wanted to buy it. Cao Song had to participate in the "bidding", and in the end, including bribes, the price was ten times more than the reserve price. The cost is getting what you want. That is, as recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Cao Teng's Biography: "(Cao Song) bought the middle officials and lost 100 million yuan to the West Park, so he became the lieutenant."
What market is this? If you don’t consider the change in the exchange between gold and money at this time, the bottom price is 10 million, which is equivalent to 1,000 catties of gold at that time. Cao Song’s 100 million is equivalent to 10,000 catties of gold, which is about 5,000 catties in modern times, which is 2.5 tons per ton. .
How much renminbi can 2.5 tons of gold be worth today? For 175 thousand yuan per catty of gold, it is 875 million yuan. This is probably the highest price for an official in ancient Chinese history!
