>> I used to read about countries where it was a common practice to pay bribe money to be given a job

> For your first bit, do you mean things like fathers paying some shop owner some money to give their sons a chance at a job over some other kids that went through a hiring process, or do you mean things (still going on) like politicians backing certain regulations that just so happen to mightily benefit the corporation they become a highly paid member of when they lose their reelection or retire?

I assume he's talking about neither of those, but rather the common practice of buying a job for yourself. For example, you might go to a highly-placed English functionary with a big bag of cash and purchase a post as customs inspector for a port somewhere in the Empire. Historically this was more the norm than the exception in colonial Europe.

(Fun fact: the customs inspector position was generally a lot more expensive than notionally better jobs like "governor" (also for sale). That's because the customs inspector was ideally placed to take bribes himself.)