Chapter 137: Salt Drying Method

Moreover, during the Hongwu period, there was no felony for privately minting copper coins, which was caused by the government's positioning of copper coins.

The positioning of copper coins in the Ming Dynasty is to assist in positioning, stipulating that more than 100 documents are used in banknotes. The circulation of copper coins is limited, so naturally there is no need to worry about management.

It's just that times have changed.

Yang Pu said: "Your Majesty is wise. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "First mint the silver coin, this silver coin will go down, make a version to remove the square hole, and then let me take a look, after reiterating the ban on private money, the court will also find a way to mint more money." ”

Zhou Chen's heart moved, and he stopped talking. Yang Pu immediately spoke: "After the old minister goes down, he will arrange it immediately." ”

Zhou Chen immediately lowered his head and swallowed what he wanted to say.

Zhu Qizhen didn't notice Zhou Chen's expression, he also knew that things had to be done step by step. The matter of the money law will be pushed forward for the time being. Bring the focus back to the salt method again.

The central idea of Zhou Chen's salt method has not changed. It is the general principle of private work, official collection, official general sale, and private distribution. The imperial court only had to station a few officials near the salt works. You can control the salt profit. A lot of administrative resources are saved.

Overall, it is also easy to operate.

However, Zhou Chen has also made some repairs during this period of time. It is in the original principle of salt distribution in the Ming Dynasty. Local officials were allowed to buy salt in the name of the government.

The so-called counting and dispensing of salt is actually one of the general principles of the Ming Dynasty.

Where did the salt guide set by the imperial court come from, that is, the population of each place, and the population of a certain place is calculated as much salt as the local population uses. Set how much salt to lead.

The people also had to pay for salt from the government. It is generally rice for salt.

However, the number is not much, during the Hongwu period, Emperor Taizu specifically said that this kind of tax is called salt rice, which is a heavy levy on the poor people, so it is specially explained that it is not allowed to fold rice.

Generally speaking, if you buy salt from the government, you don't have to pay this money.

But you have to know the virtues of government. It's easy to set a tax, but it's hard to reduce one.

During the Yongle years, there were changes again. It is the imperial court that faces the price of treasure banknotes falling step by step. I thought of a lot of ways to save the price of the treasure banknote.

Many people think that the price of treasure banknotes has plummeted, because the imperial court blindly issues them and does not recycle them. Contrary to the laws of economics.

But I don't know that in the early Ming Dynasty, I didn't know how much effort was made to save the treasure banknote.

Among them, the tax on this kind of salt and rice was changed to salt money, and it was stipulated that all treasure money should be paid. What kind of commercial tax, almost except for the basic land tax, the other taxes are all treasure money.

But the effect is not good at all, and it is still declining.

Now, some magistrates are not willing to collect treasure money, on this

Many places have turned this tax into color, from collecting treasure money to collecting physical goods, such as cloth or something.

This is also Zhou Chen's concern that too much tax will be collected on the salt tax, which will affect people's livelihood, so he will reduce the tax first. Although it is not much, it is also a good thing for the people.

Zhu Qizhen naturally did not allow it.

As long as the salt tax can make up for this shortfall, there will be no problem.

After adding this patch, Zhu Qizhen and Yang Pu revisited the salt method. In the second half of the year, it will be tried in the Changlu salt field, and then it will be extended to all the salt fields along the coast next year, and then it will take three years to turn the well salt in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and the pool salt in Shanxi and Shaanxi into this model.

Overall, it will take about three years for the salt tax to triple or quadruple as it is today. Not only did Zhu Qizhen not know, but Zhou Chen didn't dare to pack the ticket.

Zhou Chen said: "The minister thinks that Wang Zuo, the servant of the household department, once supervised the salt administration in Changlu, and Wang Zuo is responsible for the affairs of Changlu, if everything goes well in Changlu." The new law will then be implemented in all salt transportation divisions. ”

Zhu Qizhen nodded and said: "This is the old way of seeking the country, and now with this 10 million taels of silver as the foundation, some things don't have to be done in such a hurry, I'd rather slow down than make mistakes." ”

Zhou Chen said: "Your Majesty's holy teachings, the ministers keep it in mind, and they must not dare or forget it. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "It just so happens that I have one more thing, I want to discuss it with the two of you, the matter of the salt drying method, do you two know?" ”

Yang Pu twisted his beard slightly and said, "The old minister knows. According to legend, it was a method created by Chen Yinggong in the Song Dynasty, but at the beginning of the founding of this dynasty, Emperor Taizu set the salt method, but did not use this method. ”

Zhu Qizhen asked, "Why didn't Emperor Taizu use this method?" ”

This is also the doubt in Zhu Qizhen's heart.

In the past two months, both sides of Jinyiwei and Hanlin Yuan are in action, Jinyiwei is naturally distributed all over the place to investigate the actual problems of the salt drying method in various places, and the Jinshi of the Hanlin Academy will also turn the salt drying method out of a pile of old papers.

In fact, the salt drying method has a long history.

Shanxi salt solution is made by drying salt method, but this is because of the natural situation of the solution. But in the Ming Dynasty, the salt drying method was nothing new.

However, Emperor Taizu unified all salt farms in the world to use the salt frying method, which severely dealt a blow to the development of the salt drying method in Fujian.

Yang Pu said: "There are two reasons, the first is that the salt drying method is not perfect, relying on the climate of Fujian, as for whether other places can be implemented, it is still unknown, the salt fields all over the world use the method of frying salt, and the imperial court will not use the method of drying salt for the sake of safety." ”

"Secondly, the decoction of salt is conducive to the imperial court's control of private salt."

Immediately, Yang Pu explained to Zhu Qizhen in detail.

The frying salt method may have such and such problems, but in the eyes of the imperial court, it has a great advantage, that is, the stove is combined

Salt cannot be produced alone.

The salt frying method requires a lot of firewood and a large cauldron, and the amount of labor is very large, so it also requires a large number of people to cooperate. Not to mention anything else, just talking about the cauldron used to fry salt, which weighs thousands of catties, it is definitely not something that can be purchased by one or two stove households.

Therefore, the salt produced by the stove households, which is beyond the quota of the imperial court, is also under the control of the imperial court. The production link was firmly grasped by the imperial court.

This investigation and handling of the major case of illicit salt has also revealed this characteristic: if there is no collusion between people and inside and outside the salt farm, there will be no illicit salt.

But the salt drying method is different.

The salt-drying method reduces the process too much, and although there are still some requirements for the beach, it is generally not so harsh.

Not to mention that the coastline of Daming is not densely populated as everyone imagines, even if the imperial court can control the coastline, but some small islands overseas, can it be controlled?

In this way, the salt drying method has been promoted, but it is much more difficult to control private salt. Even if the production increases significantly, if private salt is rampant, it is really hard to say whether it will be good or bad for the imperial court.

It's also impossible to keep it a secret.

Just think about it, there is a shortage of more than one million in Damingwei, and the stove households are living so hard, didn't they flee? It's just that he fled before, and it is impossible to make salt elsewhere. After all, the production tools and everything are in the salt works, and they can't do it with just people.

If the salt drying method is promoted, these will take away the technology. It's simply unstoppable. The salt drying method further reduces the cost of table salt.

But no matter how the cost of official salt is reduced, it will not be able to beat private salt.

After all, there is a high salt tax in it.

Moreover, the market for salt is basically fixed, and in this part of Daming, the salt frying method can also be satisfied. From the top of the guarantee of state tax revenue.

Salt drying is not a good option.

Zhu Qizhen listened, and suddenly turned out from the depths of his brain for an unknown number of years, feeling obscure words.

It is the mutual matching of productive forces and production relations.

Isn't this an obvious case in front of you?

If later generations look at it, they will definitely think that the people of the Ming Dynasty were extremely stupid, and they did not use the more efficient salt drying method, but wasted more salt frying methods.

But after careful analysis, everyone who makes decisions is not necessarily a fool, but has their own unique historical context.

Zhu Qizhen thought about it carefully, a large amount of money was needed to fight with the tile spur, and the salt tax was the most important pillar of it, and the salt drying law was not conducive to protecting the salt tax. After this kind of deduction, Zhu Qizhen's decision should naturally be to suppress the salt drying method, or even ban it.

But Zhu Qizhen's values made him feel that this was simply a paradox.

And Zhu Qizhen only thinks that there is a problem with that point, but what is the problem? I couldn't think of it for a while.