In the Daming Palace, Jia Qing's majesty is not over.

"Well, now that you have seen the wealth of the salt merchants, what do you think?"

Jia Qing listened to Emperor Zhengqing's words, and guessed that Emperor Zhengqing meant that he should not be very happy with this established situation, so he said:

"Since Your Majesty asked, Wei Chen had no choice but to say that shallow opinion."

Seeing Emperor Zhengqing nodding and the others also listening quietly, Jia Qing continued:

"The wealth of salt merchants lies in the importance of the salt industry, the first priority is people, and the second priority is profit!

The first is people. Since the establishment of the dynasty, the people of Dachu have experienced nearly a hundred years of peace and prosperity, with a population of more than 20,000! And man, how can there be a reason not to eat salt?

Weichen roughly estimates that the average annual consumption of salt consumed by the people of Dachu, including the salt eaten and wasted, will not be less than ten catties a year!

In this way, it is 2 billion catties of salt consumption per year. As far as Weichen knows, the official salt on the market today is generally 60 to 70 wen a catty, and in 60 wen, that is 120 billion wen, which is converted to just about 100 million taels of silver!

Secondly, although the price of salt is very high, its production cost is pitiful! On average, a pound of salt is produced, and the labor cost is less than three cents! (Salt doesn't talk about the cost of raw materials, it is taken from nature)

Calculated in this way, the cost consumption of three or four hundred taels is basically negligible. In other words, this is a full 100 million taels of silver, which can be said to be the pure profit of the salt industry! What a profiteering?

And Weichen also heard that in previous years, the tax collected by the imperial court was less than 150,000 taels a year! In this way, it is no wonder that salt merchants can accumulate mountains and reclaim wealth. ”

Emperor Zhengqing and others listened quietly, and the people present all had an understanding of the huge profits of the salt industry, but even if they understood, they still had a shocking feeling when they heard someone elaborate like this again! How terrible it is for an industry to make a profit of 100 million taels of silver!

Cui Wenlong once had experience in the household department, although he was not in the salt department, his understanding of the salt industry was still better than others.

"General Jia's estimate is already conservative, in fact, the weight of the profit of the salt industry must be more than 100 million taels of silver!

However, the salt tax is not low. Every year, the imperial court's annual income in the salt industry is not low. Fifteen million taels is far more than all taxes, including the iron industry, and is only under the agricultural tax. No matter how much it is, it will be to take advantage of Li Shu.

What the imperial court wants to do is not to increase the revenue from the salt tax, but to find a way to reduce the price of salt.

The price of more than 60 wen a pound of salt is still too heavy for the poor people. ”

Lower the price of salt? It's so hard!

The salt tax of the imperial court is three taels of silver per catty, and three hundred catties per catty, which is about 12 wen per catty, plus the cost, it is not much, only fifteen wen......

However, in order to completely control the salt industry, the salt road yamen (not the salt government yamen, one is in charge and the other is in charge) in various places have raised a large number of salt officials! The court didn't care about the hired silver of the salt officials. As a result, the salt road yamen can collect some additional tax money from the salt merchants to maintain the operation of the salt road yamen, which is called miscellaneous, which is legal.

The point is that in order to get the salt introduction, which indicates the identity of the official salt, the salt merchants also have to deliver grain to the nine borders, and the more they send, the more salt they can get, which is called donation, which is one of them. Second, every year, salt merchants have to pay tribute to all kinds of "magnates", which is a secret rule, and every salt merchant who can become big must abide by it. Thirdly, some places also have card taxes, which vary from place to place. Fourth, the transportation and sales costs of transporting salt from the salt factory to a specific place for sale. Fifth, the amount of money that the salt merchants need to earn......

All these have created a high price of official salt! There is no way, if the government asks for a lower price of salt, the custody will soon run rampant with private salt...... But the official salt can't be sold, because no one will do anything that doesn't make money!

In fact, this is the case, and the private salt of the people has been repeatedly banned! The imperial court is also well aware of this. After all, according to conservative estimates, the theoretical value of the main class silver taels recorded by the imperial court every year should also reach 20 million taels (12 wen per catty), where are the rest? It must have been leaked from the private salt!

"What Lord Cui said is, it's just that Lord Cui must also understand why the price of official salt is so high, if you want to reduce official salt, in the eyes of the lower officials, it is impossible at all, unless you ......"

Hearing Jia Qing say the word "unless", everyone else was concentrating on him! The difficulty of reducing the price of salt is well known, otherwise the imperial salt industry would not have remained unchanged for decades. However, listening to Jia Qing's meaning, could it be that he still has a way?

Even Emperor Zhengqing couldn't help but say, "Unless what? ”

If others asked, Jia Qing might dare to sell it, but Emperor Zhengqing asked, and he had to say honestly: "If you want to change the status quo of salt politics, unless you break the status quo of the monopoly of salt merchants!" ”

"Breaking the monopoly? What does General Jia mean? ”

"The reason why the salt industry is so difficult to get rid of now is that it has formed a circle of land between the salt merchants, and in order to keep their own territory, the salt merchants have to send filial piety and silver to the local magnates and officials! However, since ancient times, the wool comes out of the sheep and costs the money, how can there be no reason not to double the fish?

Of course, breaking this monopoly can not only suppress this factor that leads to the high price of official salt, but more importantly, it can effectively suppress the profits of salt merchants! As long as a county, a state capital, or even a province no longer has only one or a few shops that can sell salt, but every trader, as long as they want, can get salt from the salt farm, and then they can sell it in places where there is a shortage of salt at will, and the price of salt will naturally come down! ”

Jia Qing said it easily, because he deeply knew that only competition is the most reasonable way to regulate the market!

The huge profits of the salt industry are true, if it were not for this, the imperial court would not have included it in the official industry! To put it bluntly, the imperial court was the initiator of the monopoly of the salt industry and was the leading reason for the high price of salt.

Regardless of this, Jia Qing didn't dare to say that he would let the imperial court give up this money bag. However, squeezing the profits of the salt merchants, then there is no problem, and it is also what Emperor Zhengqing and others think.

Cui Wenlong frowned and said: "If everyone can sell salt, how should the imperial court govern it, and won't there be a flood of private salt at that time?" ”

Jia Qing shook his head and said: "Using a specific salt merchant to sell salt can't solve the problem of illegal salt!" Even if there is only one salt store in the whole world, as long as the imperial court still collects salt taxes, the existence of private salt is inevitable!

Moreover, it does not mean changing the system of salt industry and government. All salt still has to be implemented in the process of civil system, official collection, and vendors. The imperial court only required that all salt should be taken from the salt farms under the jurisdiction of the government, and as long as it was taken, it would pay taxes, and it would not have any adverse effect on the collection of salt taxes. ”

Cui Wenlong frowned, Jia Qing's words seemed to have some truth, but after all, this is not a simple matter, not a problem that can be solved by a wise man in a few words, it involves too many aspects, and people have to think about it......