Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 252 - 251: Acquiring Property in Creek Town
On the second day after eating mutton, Lin Wanwan went to Xiaoxi Town with Kunlun to handle some affairs with Xiao Chong at the County Government.
In the first month, after the Wang Family was dealt with, the main culprit awaited execution in autumn, while the women sold houses and land to gather fines and ransom for their crimes.
Lin Wanwan was in need of land. Although she was a Secondary Fifth Rank Village Lady and could receive taxes from 300 households, it was merely a nominal title, not actual. Meaning she could collect taxes from 300 households each year, but without corresponding land and residents, which equated to about 100 stones of grain, decreasing during famine years.
Thus, she arranged through the Shi Family to buy 30 mu of land from the Wang Family, who were unwilling to sell to Lin Wanwan due to their deep-seated grudge.
Later, the land measurement and spring plowing proceeded uninterrupted, although the processing time for the deed was prolonged, adding more taxes through the Shi Family’s involvement.
The Wang Family’s dozens of mu of land were now mostly sold off, divided among Mao County’s large households.
Now, considering her Permanent Land allocation, Lin Wanwan possessed a total of 50 mu of land, plus 10 mu of granted land, making it 60 mu altogether.
According to the regular yield in Great Tang, these 60 mu of land were not much, but with fertilizers and high-yield seeds at hand, these fields held great potential!
She planted 30 mu of cotton alone, along with sweet potatoes, corn, wheat, and hybrid rice, so this year’s harvest would not be meager for Lin Wanwan.
By early May, farming was not yet complete, but for Lin Wanwan, who only needed to oversee operations, it was not particularly busy anymore. After all, the crops were already planted, and the Manor Guests would take care of the subsequent management.
Today she visited Xiaoxi Town, not only for the deed but also to handle matters concerning the purchase of shops and residences.
Now, with so much money, she could easily buy the siheyuan and shops in town.
The real estate industry in Great Tang wasn’t as developed as in later generations, but it was quite formal. The law stipulated that your housing and land must match your status (of course in Mao County, far from the Emperor, these laws in Tang Six Classics weren’t strictly enforced).
Lin Wanwan, now a Secondary Fifth Rank Village Lady, a member of the noble bureaucrat group, buying a residence in Xiaoxi Town where the County Government was located was normal; not buying would be strange.
After obtaining the Village Lady title this year, Lin Wanwan resumed connections with the Shi Family, Zhang Family, Wang Family, Fan Family, and Fang Family, originally the Lin Family’s kinship, using information they provided as reference for the house purchase.
In Great Tang cities and towns, buying houses and land wasn’t just about having money, as Great Tang had issued the first-ever "purchase restriction order."
According to Tang Huiyao, "Provinces under heaven, those with real estate must first sell to relatives and neighbors."
What does this mean? It means if you wish to buy land and property, you must first ask your kin and neighbors whether they’d like to buy, then you can trade on the market.
This law was established in early Tang to manage citizens, maintain societal clan order, and prevent arbitrary migration of civilians.
Great Tang was unlike later generations, where a mere ID allowed free movement; the government strictly managed population flow, especially concerning civilians, wanting to bind generations to their original place.
A farmer should honestly and diligently work the land for generations; fisherman should live by the waterside and fish for generations.
The siheyuan Lin Wanwan bought was sold by the Yu Family, Zhang Family’s neighbor. The Yu Family was moving back to their ancestral home in Yu Yao, so they sold this residence.
Zhang Family facilitated Lin Wanwan’s dealings with the neighbors, who all waived their buying rights, and finally it was Lin Wanwan’s turn.
This residence had a total of thirty-nine rooms, covering an area of 2.9 mu, priced at two hundred guan and one piece of silk.
Don’t be fooled by seemingly low costs, the real hurdle in buying this property was not the money, but the identity and social relations involved.
Great Tang was a highly hierarchical era; initial real estate prices weren’t high, but the barrier was in the status. This eased during Tang Xuanzong’s reign, notably after the An Shi Rebellion, as merchant status rose, prompting property prices to surge.
Aside from the one-time house purchase fee, each year Great Tang townhouses required a property tax, called "spacing tax."
The residence Lin Wanwan bought was classified as a middle house (hence occupying 2.9 mu, not 3), subjecting it to annual tax of a thousand coins for each room.
This residence had thirty-nine rooms, implying an annual tax of thirty-nine thousand coins, which actually wasn’t insignificant.
Lin Wanwan was informed of this spacing tax when processing the house deed at the County Government, feeling utterly shocked at the news.
A 200 guan price for a house and an annual tax of 39 guan!
What is this! The modern Lin Wanwan expressed amazement at this tax law.
No wonder Du Fu couldn’t afford a house, fantasizing about "building vast buildings to shelter the suffering scholars," and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel Han Yu saying, "When I first arrived at the Capital, I carried only a bundle of books. After thirty years’ toil, I then had this abode."
If it’s this difficult to buy a house in the Mao County County Government, then naturally it’s even harder in Chang’an.
Lin Wanwan nearly wanted to back out of buying, as she mainly purchased the house for convenient handling of modern materials, not for permanent residence.
But she reconsidered, realizing that possessing endless pepper and glass, she was as wealthy as a nation in Great Tang, and a 39,000 coin property tax wouldn’t matter; converting it to twenty-one pounds of pepper made it trivial!
Besides, renting a house would cost 24,000 coins a year, and it wouldn’t even be hers.
After paying the tax and holding the receipt, Lin Wanwan found Xiao Chong’s handsome face increasingly displeasing, feeling that he was mocking her.
"Humph!" Lin Wanwan couldn’t resist giving a hefty humph upon leaving.
Xiao Chong raised his handsome eyebrows and smiled, saying, "Congratulations to my cousin on acquiring the residence, I’ll definitely have a drink at the housewarming."
"Hehe." Lin Wanwan smirked and turned to leave.
Xiao Chong watched her back and chuckled.
After suffering with the property tax on the house purchase, Lin Wanwan now faced another hurdle with the shop purchases, truly feeling like fish on a chopping block with no solutions!
However, for the store with production potential, Lin Wanwan’s grievances over taxes were lesser, since selling cosmetics brought from modern times here would be enough to gather Mao County’s upper-class ladies’ small fortunes.
These makeup shops pursue high precision pathways, with furniture inside crafted entirely from huamu (Yellow Flower Pear Wood in Great Tang), and equipped with three beauty salons.
The employees inside would naturally be purchased from the brokers, consisting of New Luo Maid and Kunlun slaves; the former’s role was service while the latter provided security. Although buying them was pricier than buying Tang slave servants, Lin Wanwan didn’t mind, not feeling heavy-hearted about enslaving foreign races.
Apart from security and service, the most important shopkeeper was introduced by Xiao Chong, and Lin Mengli was called out from Wanghai Town’s restaurant, to learn under the shopkeeper.
After opening a school, whenever Lin Mengli had time, he’d come to learn arithmetic. During the shop renovation period, Lin Wanwan planned to tutor Lin Mengli extensively in the double-entry bookkeeping method, allowing him to keep separate accounts, serving as supervision of the shopkeeper.
