My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 614 Evolution
Most importantly, compared to the lower classes who don't have much money to buy a title and whose crimes aren't too serious, and nobles who are reluctant to use their titles to atone for their crimes, merchants are the ones who really need the attribute of a title being 'can be used to atone for crimes'!

On the one hand, in this distant prehistoric era, the frequency of crimes committed by merchants was actually quite high.

Especially in the present Han Dynasty, just fifty years after Emperor Gaozu ended the war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, on average, at least nine out of every ten successful merchants made their first fortune through robbery and plunder.

They weren't like bandits who raided villages and robbed;
Instead, they would travel with other caravans, and when passing through sparsely populated areas, they would kill and rob to obtain their initial capital.

With this initial capital, they could run a quick business while simultaneously accumulating wealth to seize opportunities for murder and robbery. Over the years, they were able to amass a vast fortune that Sima Qian described as "rich enough to rival a nation" and "accumulated immense wealth."

To put it bluntly, these days, in this world, no businessman has a clean reputation, and none of them have escaped bloodshed.

Those who have never harmed anyone and whose hands have never been stained with blood have long since become the blood on other people's hands, and have long since become the withered bones in some unknown grave in the wilderness.

This is one of the reasons why the whole society systematically despises, discriminates against, and even is hostile to businessmen in this era.

—From the perspective of the government and the rulers, merchants, as a mobile population, were difficult to control.

They'd be gone for a year or two, and nobody could say where they went or what they did.

They call themselves businessmen, but once they're on the road, they might just cover their faces, draw their swords, and become bandits!

After looting the goods and killing the people, they took off their face coverings and washed the blood off their swords—guess what happened?

He's back to being a businessman!

Just like the nomadic people of the grasslands, whose nomadic and unsettled nature prevents the rulers of the grasslands from effectively achieving centralized rule;
Merchants thus became the only uncontrollable factor in China's agrarian feudal dynasties.

But you can't stop him from traveling as a merchant;
Without these shameless, greedy, and ruthless merchants, the world's wealth would truly be unable to circulate.

There was nothing the ruling class in China could do but curse, despise, and grumble, while simultaneously having to acquiesce to the continued existence of these destabilizing factors.

This has led to a situation where all businesspeople who can become "businessmen" have a shameful, embarrassing, and unacceptable past, and because of this past, they have developed a distorted legal concept.

"Walking on the edge of the law" is no longer enough to describe them.

Often, when faced with many situations, the solution that instinctively comes to mind is not communication or negotiation, but murder.

The government is generally aware of this.

Although it is unclear exactly which merchants killed which people in which places;

But any official could confidently guarantee that if every businessman who managed to build his business survived, there might be some wrongful executions if they were all arrested and beheaded, but if every other businessman was executed, there would be absolutely no wrongful convictions!
Therefore, officials were quite adept at manipulating these businessmen.

—You don't even need to get any specific incriminating evidence;

All it takes is a vague statement: "You really think you did something so secret back then that nobody knew anything about it?"
There are gods watching over us!
Then, the guilty merchants will eagerly offer gifts, even going so far as to spend a fortune to save their own lives.

All of these factors combined make the business community a group with an extremely high crime rate and frequency, and one that desperately needs 'immunity' measures.

It's not just about past crimes that require businessmen to have means of atonement to gain peace of mind; it's also about potential crimes that require businessmen to have means of atonement to gain room for maneuver.
In the future, businessmen may be manipulated, blackmailed, or even subjected to malicious acts such as "borrowing someone's head for personal gain" by bureaucrats. They will also need sufficiently reliable countermeasures to ensure their safety.

Nobility titles are undoubtedly what merchants need most, desire most, and are most in line with their needs.

Just imagine;
What will be the fate of a merchant without a title, whose name is recorded as a 'merchant'? What will happen to him if he is found guilty of murder and robbery in the deep mountains and forests a few years ago?
—For merchants of low social status, their homes and families will be confiscated and their property exterminated!

But what if he was a high-ranking official, just one step away from becoming a Marquis within the Pass, and a quasi-noble whose household registration was listed as "farmer's register," and he got into some trouble because a distant relative was doing business...

Yes, that's right.

Once a merchant's household registration is transferred to the "agricultural household" status and they obtain the 18th-level Grand Master title, they are no longer considered a merchant.

He would not be regarded as a 'merchant with a high title';
Instead, they would be seen as nobles with high titles and illustrious status who had inadvertently gone astray and dabbled in the lowly business of commerce.

Such people are not only difficult for officials to control or make things difficult for, but they are even more likely to "borrow the emperor's head for their own use";

Any official who is a little stupid, a little out of touch with the news, and doesn't know the true nature of the other party's businessmen might even turn around and try to curry favor with them!
Even if one were to acquire the title of Grand Master of the Eighteenth Rank and still be unable to shake off their identity as a 'merchant' in the local area, it would still be perfectly acceptable.

At least this title is enough for a merchant to deal with any malice directed at him by the government without solid evidence.

Even if the evidence is conclusive and the crime is proven, can't the noble title still be used to offset the crime?

It's nothing!
Deduct it from the title!
I'll buy a few more levels to make up for it later!
Paying the fine at the traffic police station in advance, and also paying the fine for the next traffic violation in advance, is considered...

Another point that must be mentioned is that in this era, the level and rank of the department to which a person is tried after committing a crime is directly linked to their noble title.

For example, local county governments could only try criminals with ranks of eighth grade or lower.

If a person's rank is higher than the eighth-rank Duke, the local county government has no right to adjudicate them; it can only send them to the higher-level prefectural government.

The judicial authority of the prefectural government was also capped at the sixteenth rank of Grand Master. Criminals of higher rank had to be escorted to the capital, to the Chang'an Court of Justice (Dali), where they would be tried directly by the central government.

This gave merchants not only greater confidence and a higher tolerance for wrongdoing by using their titles to offset their crimes, but also an additional layer of protection.

—If your rank is high enough, the local officials cannot judge you;

This forced some local officials who were eyeing merchants and plotting to exploit them to abandon their plans.

For example, a merchant without a title—not even the title of First-Class Duke—who is registered in the merchant register, can be arrested by a local official on any pretext or with some dubious evidence.

While it is true that property should be confiscated, local officials are well aware of how much is confiscated and how much is secretly taken away, and they have a whole set of procedures for embezzlement.

However, a merchant with a noble title and registered in the agricultural register, even if his title is only a first-class duke, will be subject to some scrutiny from local officials.

Even if they actually executed the person and seized their property, they still had to give a decent explanation—after all, executing an entire family was no small matter, and the process had to be done smoothly to avoid giving others grounds for criticism. Further up the hierarchy, a merchant registered in the agricultural register with the rank of ninth-grade fifth-grade official was completely beyond the control of the local officials.

—If someone really needs to be punished, it should be handled by the prefectural government, not by a county magistrate like you!
The investigation was conducted secretly by the prefectural government, the crime was determined by the prefectural government, and the confiscation of property was also carried out by the prefectural government. At most, the local county government would actively cooperate, but it could hardly get involved.

This gives local officials at the county level an extra layer of concern.

—What if someone in the prefectural government has a good relationship with this merchant? Wouldn't I be shooting myself in the foot?

As for the seventeenth-rank chief of the four-horse chariot, there is no need to elaborate further.

The prefectural government can't handle it; it has to be handled by the Chang'an Court of Justice (Dali)!

Regardless of how the Court of Justice ultimately decides the case, once the Court of Justice intervenes, the process becomes so rigorous that not a single problem is allowed to arise.

If anything goes wrong, it can lead to a complete reshuffling of the officialdom in a county or even a prefecture.

Therefore, the sense of security that noble titles—especially the seventeenth-rank Siche Shuzhang and above—provided to merchants of this era was absolutely unmatched by any other means.

Even if the prime minister of the current dynasty or a marquis with ten thousand households were to be a backer or supporter, it would not be as reassuring as a 17th-rank chief of a four-horse chariot.

Therefore, Chao Cuo donated grain and titles, and Emperor Taizong Xiaowen readily accepted his advice. As a result, Han dynasty titles immediately became the most sought-after 'commodities' on the market.

—In just a few years, the Han dynasty sold over a thousand titles of Grand Master of the Eighteenth Rank!

These thousands of chieftains alone earned tens of millions of shi of military rations for the Han soldiers on the northern wall—and it was delivered right to their door!
If the 18th-rank Grand Master of the Palace is like this, then the lower-ranking 17th-rank Siche Grand Master of the Palace and the 16th-rank Grand Master of the Palace naturally see their sales increase as their rank and price decrease.

From the lowest level to the second-level superior, in just over twenty years since Emperor Taizong Xiaowen donated grain and titles, the Han people have "sold" over a million of them!
Considering that the Han dynasty at that time had only five million households, it meant that on average, one in every five households would scrimp and save, even selling their pots and pans, to obtain a second-level superior title of nobility for future use.

Of course, Emperor Taizong only played this word game once before the people of the world became completely immune to it.

Because shortly after the system of paying grain for titles was abolished, and after merchants had all "bought" their desired titles, Emperor Taizong belatedly announced that the titles purchased through paying grain for titles would only be honorary titles.

What is a nominal title?

For example, a first-class duke can have one house, while a second-class duke can have one two-section house—that is, two houses.
Therefore, those who purchase a second-level Shangzao title by donating grain and money will not be able to enjoy the maximum eligibility for housing and land ownership that comes with the Shangzao title.

For example, those of the fourth rank who were exempt from corvée labor were allowed to ride in public carriages and horses;
However, those who purchased their titles or ranks by paying tribute in grain or donating money also did not enjoy these benefits.

Furthermore, the salaries that the seventeenth-rank Siche Shuzhang and the eighteenth-rank Da Shuzhang could receive, as well as their automatic eligibility to be nominated when a position became vacant, also excluded titles obtained through the donation of grain.

To put it bluntly, it refers to your title. Any title you buy by paying taxes or donating grain, no matter how high it is—whether it's the second-level Shangzao, the fourth-level Bugeng, the eighth-level Gongcheng, the ninth-level Gongdafu, or even the seventeenth-level Siche Shuzhang.

If you purchased your title by donating grain or money, the benefits you receive will still correspond to the title you originally obtained through military merit.

If you were originally a Gongshi (公士), even if you donated grain and a title to become a Siche Shuzhang (驩车庶长), you would still enjoy the treatment of a Gongshi—that is, you would not receive any treatment.

You were in a slightly better position than before, since you didn't originally have a title—as long as you donated grain to buy a title, you could still enjoy the same treatment as a public servant.

Although you won't enjoy the benefits corresponding to the title you purchased, it's still much better than not having a title at all.

Then, Emperor Taizong announced that the eighteenth-rank Grand Master and the seventeenth-rank Four-Chariot Master, because they were closely related to the ancestral temple and the state (high-ranking nobles and reserve high-ranking cadres), would no longer be included in the list of those who donated grain and titles.

Those who donated grain and titles were limited to the sixteenth rank of Grand Master.

As for those who originally spent tens of thousands of bushels of grain to obtain the titles of 18th-level Grand Master and 17th-level Four-Chariot Master, they were automatically demoted to 16th-level Grand Master.

The price difference will not be refunded.

This sudden turn of events awakened the talents of the world as if they had just woken up from a dream: Oh~
Oh, that's how it is~
They thought that by donating grain and offering titles, they could buy genuine titles.
So it's just a 'nominal title' that can only be used to atone for a crime, but can't provide any social status at all?

With this understanding, the enthusiasm of people all over the world—whether they were commoners or merchants—for donating grain and titles diminished somewhat.

But it was only 'slight'.

After all, whether it's ordinary people or businessmen, buying a title is meant to atone for their crimes.

Since this so-called 'nominal title' can still be used to atone for a crime, it still has value in being bought.

It wasn't until later, when Emperor Taizong started by frequently bestowing titles upon the people of the realm, and Emperor Xiaojing and Liu Rong followed suit, that the system of paying taxes in grain and donating titles finally became a mere formality.

—What's the point of buying it?

The emperor gives them away for free every now and then, why would you spend money to buy them? Are you stupid?
Of course, as mentioned before: the merchant class does not enjoy any policy benefits, including being granted titles.

Therefore, the system of paying tribute in grain and donating titles still exists today, and merchants still buy it every now and then.

However, established merchants bought them long ago, and their descendants can inherit the titles;

Even today, only newly emerging merchants still spend large sums of money to donate grain and offer titles in exchange for ranks.

At the same time, as time went on, business people also began to "not put all their eggs in one basket" and choose to walk on two legs.

Before Emperor Taizong donated grain and titles, merchants could only collude with officials and find an official to rely on.

After paying tribute in grain and donating titles, merchants no longer placed their hopes on officials, but instead bought titles to ensure their safety.

Nowadays, merchants are already holding onto their level 15 or 16 titles while simultaneously seeking another powerful patron.

(End of this chapter)