In ancient times, important materials such as salt and iron were monopolized, and the production and marketing were controlled by the imperial court, that is, all kinds of traders could not buy and sell important materials such as salt and iron without the permission of the imperial court, and salt was the license certificate for the transportation and sale of salt issued by the ancient imperial court to salt merchants.

When it comes to salt, we have to talk about the price of salt in ancient times, modern people eat one or two yuan a pound of salt, and may feel that salt, the most basic consumer product, should be quite cheap, at most a few dollars a pound in ancient times.

It is wrong to think in this way, taking the price of salt in the Jiajing period as an example, according to the record of "Salt Zhengzhi": at the beginning of Jiajing, Huguang and Jiangxi sold silver for three cents and four cents per pound of salt, and Nanzhili sold for one and a half cents of silver per pound of salt.

In the Ming Dynasty, one cent of silver was equivalent to about 60 yuan now, three and a half was equivalent to about 200 yuan, and one cent and a half cents was equivalent to about 100 yuan.

That is to say, in the early years of Jiajing, Nanzhili, where the price of salt was the cheapest, was 100 yuan a catty, while the price of salt in Huguang, Jiangxi and other places was 200 yuan a catty, is there any mistake?

Make no mistake, the salt of the Ming Dynasty was at this price, and it cost dozens of yuan a pound when it was cheapest, and it even reached three or four hundred yuan a pound at the most expensive time!

Why was the price of salt in the Ming Dynasty so outrageous?

In fact, the cost of salt production in the Ming Dynasty was not high, and when the imperial court requisitioned salt from the stove households who were specifically responsible for salt production, they only paid one stone of rice for every 400 catties, which means that the cost of salt production by stove households was less than one yuan per catty.

However, most of the sales prices of commodities are not determined by cost, there are many factors that affect the sales price of commodities, the production cost of salt in the Ming Dynasty is indeed not high, but after layers of exploitation, the high price of salt is somewhat outrageous.

In the Ming Dynasty, salt trading was carried out in the open middle method, which simply means that salt merchants who want to buy and sell salt must transport grain and grass to the border towns in exchange for salt according to the requirements of the imperial court.

This method seems simple, but the process is quite complicated.

First of all, the salt merchants must apply to the Nanjing Household Department for salt introduction, that is, to promise the imperial court how much grain and grass will be transported to the border towns, and after the Nanjing Household Department accepts the application, it will issue the corresponding salt guide vouchers to the merchants, and distribute the corresponding salt to the border towns.

Then, the salt merchants had to transport the promised grain and grass to the corresponding border towns, and after being verified by the border town generals or governors, governors and other officials, they could only exchange for the corresponding salt guides.

After receiving the salt, the salt merchant must also go to the corresponding salt factory to receive the salt, and finally it can be transported to the designated area for sale.

The additional costs associated with this process are quite intimidating, far exceeding the cost of salt itself.

For example, when a salt merchant applies for salt from the household department in Nanjing, he must pay a salt tax, and the standard of salt tax is three taels per introduction, and a salt introduction can also support 300 catties of salt, that is to say, the salt tax alone is as high as five or six yuan.

That's not all, salt is not something you can get when you apply, if you don't find a relationship, the application is in vain, people won't bird you at all, and this relationship has to spend money, Yang Cong's grandfather Yang Rong is looking for the relationship of the Wei State Mansion, how much money was spent, Yang Cong is not clear, in short, it will not be lower than the corresponding salt tax, that is to say, just the application link, the additional price of salt is as high as more than ten yuan a catty.

Immediately followed by the transportation of grain and grass baggage, generally transporting five stone grain and grass, in exchange for a salt lead, and the freight of transporting grain and grass baggage to the border town even exceeds the grain and grass baggage itself, that is to say, transporting five stone grain to the border town, the grain consumed in the transportation process is more than five stones.

This is also the reason why the imperial court implements the law of opening the middle, there is no way, it is too expensive to transport grain and grass to the border town, it is better to let the salt merchant send it over, so that the imperial court does not have to spend money, but in this way, each catty of salt is attached to the additional cost of more than ten yuan.

That's it, that's not all, salt merchants don't transport grain and grass to the border towns to get salt, and the generals and officials at all levels in the border towns are not vegetarians, you don't have filial piety, they can drag you until you squirt blood, this filial piety down, and each catty of salt is attached to the additional cost of more than ten yuan.

Then, the salt merchant went to the salt factory to withdraw the salt, and it still cost money, and it still cost money to transfer the salt to the corresponding place of sale......

After this whole set of processes, the salt was transported to the place of sale, and before it began to be sold, the salt merchant had already spent dozens or even hundreds of yuan per catty of salt, and it was no wonder that the salt could be sold cheaply!

Now, what Xu Yande, the Duke of Dingguo, and Liu Yu, the Chengyi Bo, discussed with Yang Cong and Lu Bing is actually the first process of salt sales, that is, the share of salt introduced by the Nanjing household department.

At this time, the salt tax collected by the Ming Dynasty is about one million taels a year, and the salt merchants pull the relationship, and the money spent to obtain the salt introduction share is about one time of the salt tax, that is to say, the salt introduction share can produce about two million taels of "dividends" a year!

Is the "dividend" of about two million taels exaggerated?

Not an exaggeration at all!

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there was an outbreak of the "Two Huai Salt Case", the cause of which was that the new Liang Huai Salt Governor You Bashi asked for bribes from salt merchants to no avail, and then exposed the corruption of his predecessor Pufu to the imperial court.

As a result, Qianlong issued an order to investigate, hungry and obedient, the first three salt officials of You Bashi, Jiqing, Gao Heng, and Pufu accepted bribes from salt merchants in a total of 10 million and 141,769 26 yuan in more than ten years!

The two Huai salt policies of the Mite Qing Dynasty are also the salt policies of the Ming Dynasty, and the salt introduction only accounts for about 30% of all the salt introductions, that is to say, if you monopolize all the salt quotation shares, you can "earn" more than 30 million taels in more than ten years!

With such huge interests, Xia Yan and Yan Song naturally would not let go, while the Wei Guogong family represented the original interest group, and they naturally refused to let go, which is why Xu Yande, the Duke of Dingguo, and Liu Yu, the sincerity of the Bo, consulted with Yang Cong and Lu Bing.

, this Xia Yan and Yan Song have such a big appetite, they actually want to break the original principle of benefit distribution and arbitrarily cut off all the salt shares!

Do they eat such a large profit?

The two of them will definitely not be able to eat it alone, but they must have also found other forces to help, such a huge benefit, there must be a lot of people who want to get a piece of the pie, as long as they let out the wind, it is estimated that many people will swarm like flies discovering stinky meat.

This matter is too involved, can he manage it as a new champion?

Yang Cong looked at Lu Bing, and then asked solemnly: "How much share did you occupy before, and what are you going to do this time?" ”

Xu Yande, the Duke of Dingguo, subconsciously looked around, and then said cautiously: "Our Dingguo Mansion and the Wei Mansion used to each occupy about one percent, this time we just want to keep our share, but they are almost all cleaned up by Xia Yan and Yan Song, and they have no hope of the position of the Nanjing Hubu Shangshu, so we can only find another way, Qingfeng, do you think Yangming will be interested in this?" ”