Chapter 43: The Salt Merchant

"Is that really good?" Zhang Xuan frowned and said.

"Your Majesty, I want to gather enough salt for the whole country in a short time. I'm afraid that's the only way. Yao Qisheng said.

At this moment, Yao Qisheng's face was a bit weathered.

In just one or two months, Yao Qisheng went back and forth from Zhejiang to Guangdong, and checked all the documents related to the salt industry in the three provinces. All the salt works were inspected, although such inspections could only be described as superficial.

But it also gave Yao Qisheng a full understanding of the salt industry in Daxia.

So on the way back, he put forward his own salt policy plan.

There are three problems to be solved, the first is that there is too little salt, because China produces the most salt, and the cheapest price is Lianghuai salt, known as Lianghuai salt, which is salty in the world. Although the salt administration of the Ming Dynasty divided the salt sales area, the two Huai salt often had cross-border salt sales, which can be seen that the two Huai salt industry produced the most salt and had the lowest cost.

The second salt class is too little, although salt is the most important income of the Ming court, but this income, compared to the Song Dynasty, compared to the Qing Dynasty, is not much. I don't even know how much less. And as far as the imperial court is concerned, the most important thing is that Lianghuai salt, Zhejiang salt, Fujian salt, Guangdong salt, Shandong salt, Hedong salt, and Sichuan salt are generally suppressed.

Hedong salt and Sichuan salt, fortunately, are not sea salt. But in other places, the investment of the imperial court is not enough, and the income is naturally not much.

Of course, with the political affairs of the Ming Dynasty in a mess, if you want to really enter the hands of the imperial court, the salt class may not be as much as the officials get from their hands. 、

Yao Qisheng was the head of the household, although a lot of power was usurped by Zhang Xuan. For example, clearing the acres of land and rectifying taxes, this thing should have been done by the head of the household, but it was given to Yan Yingyuan by Zhang Xuan. But that doesn't mean he wasn't responsible for the court's financial problems.

Therefore, Yao Qisheng also tried to find a way to collect more taxes for the imperial court.

Therefore, guaranteeing and expanding the salt class is something he wants to do. In turn, it is impossible for the people to eat salt, the court does not levy taxes, but instead sticks a lot of silver taels.

Third, there is too little investment.

As mentioned above, the salt farms in these three places are not as good as the two Huai salt fields. There was not much investment before, and in terms of climate and time, it was not as superior as the northern salt farm. In the past, the imperial court had a better choice, and naturally there was no intention of throwing money here.

And now Zhang Xuan is overstretched, and he is eager to collect money and food in advance to learn from the Qing court. But Zhang Xuan also knew that this was absolutely impossible. A vigorous reduction in expenditures and a nationwide clean-up of officials may not be for the sake of making money. Where is the money to throw into it.

Other minor problems, I don't know how many there are. But Yao Qisheng has to solve it

That's all three.

The plan given by Yao Qisheng can be described in two words, that is, contracting.

The salt farms were contracted to merchants, and the districts were divided into districts to set the price of salt. Limit the total amount of taxes to be paid by each salt farm. No matter how much salt is produced, there is always so much tax to pay. It can be said that it is a package of production and tax.

The reason why Zhang Xuan frowned was because he felt uncomfortable losing control of table salt, but when he thought about it, this method might be good.

First of all, the financial expenditure on the expansion of the salt plant can be saved. Secondly, Zhang Xuan still has a few characters in it, although there are some talents in his hands. But in response to today's huge government, Zhang Xuan still feels that there are not enough people. Enke in the first year of Zhaowu is also in preparation.

It is necessary not only to clean up the salt works, but also to supervise the production of the salt industry, and to be honest and honest. Such a talent, where it is not possible, must be placed on the salt field.

Third, it can also collect a large amount of money from businessmen to support government expenses.

If you think about it, you also know that if you don't talk about the salt tax, just say that these merchants want to get the salt works from the hands of the imperial court for no reason and monopolize them, how can it be possible without bleeding? Moreover, when the salt tax was being formulated, it could also be raised, at least much higher than the salt tax in the Ming Dynasty.

But not without its drawbacks.

First of all, in this way, it is good to create a large number of salt merchants who have become rich. Since Guan Zhong proposed Guanshan Hai, salt has almost always been controlled by the imperial court, and the salt tax is not only a tax on salt, but also an indirect way to tax people.

Because in many cases, it is impossible for the imperial court to investigate exactly how many people there are, even in the modern census, how much water there is. It's hard to say, let alone that era, but people can not register with the government and become black households, but they can't help but eat salt.

Therefore, no matter how Zhang Xuan squeezes these big salt merchants who contract salt farms, as long as they get a salt word, they will be rich in the future.

And in order to sell salt smoothly and crack down on illegal salt. These salt merchants all had official titles. Of course, most of this official is false, as long as he has power in the matter of cracking down on illegal salt. But when people have the wealth of a rich country, this is a kind of power in itself, and in a sense, they are also in the power field, what will they do, Zhang Xuan also has some expectations in his heart.

Not to mention, these businessmen are privately contracted, which means that they are worldly businesses.

Zhang Xuan looked at Yao Qisheng with the rest of his eyes, and had other thoughts in his heart, such as this matter, whether Yao Qisheng would use it for favors, such as introducing some powerful people in the DPRK and China into the contracted salt works. For some people, Zhang Xuan allows them to be rich and glorious for a lifetime, but wealth and glory for a lifetime are two concepts that rival the rich country. But a lot of people don't see it that way.

Here's another one

Troublesome things.

"Your Majesty." Yao Qisheng said: "This is just a stopgap measure. In the future, when the country recovers the two Huai, this policy can be abandoned. ”

Zhang Xuan sighed and said, "It's easy to say, but it's not easy to do." ”

Do you really think that the emperor can do what he says? It is easy to let go of the opening, but it will not be easy to put it away in the future. But this is already the case, Zhang Xuan does not dare to ask for any perfect policy, so let's get over the current difficulties first.

"You'll have a plan ready and we'll see it at a cabinet meeting in a few days."

When Yao Qisheng heard this, he knew that Zhang Xuan agreed.

Although Zhang Xuan is not the founding monarch, he is no different from the founding monarch in terms of authority. To a certain extent, in matters of national affairs, Zhang Xuan has the authority to make a decision, but Zhang Xuan is self-aware. He never felt like he was a genius, just a poor man who was involved in this era.

Zhang Xuan is more knowledgeable, but in many cases, the right one may not be the right one.

Therefore, any of his administrative plans had to be discussed with a scholar and then presented at a cabinet meeting. Let everyone discuss.

Even in order to make it easier for people to speak, he even told many ideas to others and let them put them forward on their behalf.

Although there are six books, I may not know it. But after that, they pretend not to know.

After all, opposing colleagues and opposing His Majesty are two different concepts. But generally speaking, they can also see that those plans were proposed by themselves, and those plans were said by Zhang Xuan through the mouth of others.

Generally speaking, if a plan convinces Zhang Xuan, the rest of the things will be much easier. Yao Qisheng has a way of convincing others.

Zhang Xuan said: "Yao Qing, have you ever seen these things? Zhang Xuan waved his hand and asked the little eunuch to send a tray.

On the pallet were large and small gold and silver coins.

These gold and silver coins are the currency of the Westerners, but gold and silver are hard currency, so the people also love to use them.

Yao Qisheng's Huiji and Ningbo, also overseas trade is also quite developed, but also the window of the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade, when the Portuguese first came, they traded with local merchants on Shuangyu Island outside Ningbo, and were later surrounded and suppressed by the Ming court. But this kind of atmosphere is still there, and after Zhang Xuan opened the port of Macao, there was a large inflow of this kind of coin, how could Yao Qisheng not know?

Yao Qisheng said: "But it's the coins of the Yi people. Yao Qisheng stretched out his hand and pinched one on the tray, spread it on his hand, and said, "This is a double column." ”

Most of these silver coins are Spanish silver coins, which flowed into China from the Wanli period, and were widely spread in the Qing Dynasty, and even later in the ocean, there were imitations of this kind of silver coins.