Salt barons, generally speaking, refer to the smugglers who sell illicit salt, and in a narrow sense, it refers to the leaders of the armed smuggling teams, the famous salt barons in history, including Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao in the late Tang Dynasty, and Zhang Shicheng in the late Yuan Dynasty. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In most of the ancient period, salt was government-run, and the government relied on the salt industry to obtain huge profits, and the consequence of the monopoly industry was that the product price was high and the quality was poor, and official salt was no exception, so the emergence of illicit salt was inevitable, and the smuggling team selling illicit salt was repeatedly banned.

The quality of illicit salt is relatively good, at least much better than official salt, but the price is significantly lower than that of official salt, so the competitive advantage is great, but even so, selling illicit salt is also profitable, so it attracts countless outlaws.

A team that sells illicit salt, with basic force, and a larger team with a higher degree of organization, the leader is called the salt lord, and there is a group of old men who follow him, and have a lot of experience in playing hide and seek with the government.

Once the world is in turmoil, these salt lords are very likely to become the king of grass in troubled times, relying on the huge profits from selling salt to recruit troops, and after seizing the opportunity to become bigger, it is Wang Xianzhi, Huang Chao or Zhang Shicheng and the like.

The salt barons sell illicit salt, first of all, the sales of official salt have shrunk, and the government's salt income has plummeted, and secondly, the armed ranks of the salt barons will seriously affect public order, so the salt barons are an extremely dangerous and unstable factor for the government.

Yu Wenwen suddenly thought of this question because he knew the relevant history, so in Lingnan in this era, once the salt trade is booming, will there really be a powerful salt lord?

This question is easy to judge, first of all, let's start with the cause of salt owls.

The reason why there is a situation of selling illicit salt in the world is because the government implements a monopoly on the salt industry, and the price difference between official salt and private salt makes smuggling a profitable thing, so as long as the government implements a monopoly on the salt industry, there will inevitably be smuggling.

Therefore, whether there will be a salt smuggling frenzy in Lingnan, and then derive large and small salt lords, the key depends on what kind of salt policy is implemented by the imperial court.

The other party's answer is very straightforward, that is, once the Zhou State unifies the world, the imperial court is very likely to relax the salt policy to "benefit the people", and it is even possible that the salt tax will be canceled, which will be equivalent to the private salt industry at that time.

Therefore, people who want to make a fortune in salt trading can justifiably open salt farms to make profits, where there will be sales of illicit salt, and there will be no salt barons.

In the original history, the Tang Dynasty exempted salt tax and opened the salt industry before the Anshi Rebellion, and it was not until the imperial court revenue was depleted after the Anshi Rebellion that the salt industry was monopolized to increase the treasury revenue.

The salt administration of the Tang Dynasty was in accordance with the practice of the previous dynasty, and the Sui Dynasty adopted an attitude of "benefiting the people" to the salt industry, exempting salt taxes and not monopolizing.

The source of the emergence of salt barons such as Wang Xianzhi and Huangchao at the end of the Tang Dynasty was the re-implementation of the salt monopoly by the Tang government after the Anshi Rebellion.

By analogy, as long as Zhou's salt policy is relaxed and not monopolized, there will be no extremely harmful salt lords.

In the major affairs of the imperial court, with Yu Wenwen's current status and identity, he cannot participate in decision-making, but one thing is more certain, that is, if he suggests that the law of opening China be implemented in Lingnan, then the salt policy in Lingnan may be different from other places.

In order to implement the Kaizhong Law, it was necessary to monopolize salt production, so Lingnan must implement a monopoly on the salt industry, so as to attract merchants to participate in Kaizhong, provide food for the garrison of the Guangzhou Governor's Office, and strengthen the imperial court's control over the Lingnan region.

This suggestion has a strong political correctness, as long as the superior is sensible, he will agree to the "special case", so Yu Wenwen is not afraid that the imperial court will not agree to his suggestion, and Lingnan is quite far away from the Central Plains, and the salt produced in Guangzhou will not cause much interference to the salt of Lianghuaihai, Hedongchi and Shudijing.

Then, as the Lingnan government controls the production of sea salt, the smuggling team of smuggling people selling illicit salt in Lingnan will inevitably increase gradually, and sooner or later salt barons will be born among them.

Based on the actual situation in Lingnan, it is probably the local chieftain who sells illicit salt and finally converts it into salt barons, and now there is a similar example: Anzhou Ningshi.

Anzhou is far away from Guangzhou, basically belongs to Ning's own territory, Anzhou is known as the state of bondage in later generations, with the benefits of sea trade and sea salt, Ning's strength should not be underestimated, but today's Ning clan patriarch Ning is fierce and sincere to serve the new court, can be omitted.

Because the location of Feng Xian's family is near the sea, it also has the benefits of sea trade and sea salt, and it is also very convenient to privately open a salt farm to make salt and engage in smuggling, but now Mrs. Xian, who is in charge of Feng Xian's family, will not do this, so there is no need to worry about it for the time being.

The problem lies in the fact that the local tyrants in the coastal areas will inevitably rely on the sea to eat the sea, and once they master the salt drying method, they will definitely make smuggled salt and smuggle it for profit, and these local tyrants may not have the high consciousness of Feng Xian's, Ning's, and Chen's.

Most of these local tyrants are slang people, and their centrifugal force is very strong, and once they have a few money in their hands, their minds are easy to activate.

Not every slang leader is as aware of the righteousness as Madame Xian, once they find out that selling illicit salt can make a lot of profits, and the Lingnan government promotes iron tools, when the time comes, they will find a way to melt iron to make weapons, and then call the small minions to rebel, it is easy to make the government anxious.

The reason why Yu Wenwen operated in many ways to ensure that Yang Ji was turned into the governor of Guangzhou was to let his own people control Lingnan for several years and lay a solid foundation for Huangzhou merchants to open up business routes and markets in Lingnan, so Lingnan must have a stable environment and must not be in chaos.

The opening of the Chinese law must be tried and implemented, so the monopoly of the Lingnan salt industry is also an inevitable result, so there will be more and more cases of smuggling salt, so how to crack down on smuggling is an inevitable problem faced by the Guangzhou Governor's Government.

Smuggling and anti-smuggling are like spears and shields, and generally speaking, smugglers will inevitably buy off the management organs, so it will involve the rule of officials, and in order to crack down on smuggling syndicates, it is necessary to form an anti-smuggling armed force.

As the saying goes, pull out the radish and bring out the mud, in order to build a Zhenyang Gorge plank road, there are many things to do, Yuwenwen only feels that there are more and more things, it's really annoying, so...

So, what's the matter with me? I'm not the manager of Guangzhou, so it's not my turn to bother with these things!

Yuwen Wen thought so, and finally the thought was clear, and the troubles disappeared and then the fatigue swelled up, and he was about to sleep well but found that the sky was abnormal, and he looked up through the window and saw that the east had been exposed.

Unconsciously thinking about the events of one night, Yu Wenwen sighed, walked to the bookcase, lit the oil lamp, took out a few photo frames from a wooden box, and looked at the light carefully.

This is a portrait he painted for his family, using sketches instead of photographs, including portraits of Wei Chi Chifan, Yang Lihua, Xiao Jiuniang and his children, all of which he personally drew with charcoal.

Each portrait is lifelike, palm-sized, and packed in a wooden glass frame, so you can take it with you when you go out and take it out when you have time.

Looking at the portraits of his wife and concubines and children, Yu Wenwen was a little distracted, he had been away for more than half a year, although there were constant correspondence, but he hadn't seen anyone for more than half a year.

"I don't know when I'll be able to go home..."