The Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui Dynasty's policy of opening up the salt industry, but after the "Anshi Rebellion", it also began to pay attention to the importance of salt profits to the state and finances during wartime. When Yan Zhenqing www.biquge.info a famous calligrapher in Hebei put down the rebellion, he learned from the "salt military management" system during the Wei and Jin dynasties, and purchased salt produced in Jingcheng County (now Cangzhou), and then sold it at a unified price, which solved the problem of insufficient military spending.

The "salt reform" carried out in the first year of the reign of Emperor Zongqian of Tang Su (758 AD) had the greatest impact on the salt policy of the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Tang Suzong appointed Duzhi Langzhong and the fifth Qi of Yushi Zhongcheng as the "salt and iron envoy", presided over the national salt political reform, and launched the "Salt Law". "New Tang Dynasty Book Food and Goods Zhi IV" records: "At the beginning of the salt method, the prison was placed in the land near the mountain, sea and well stove, and the nomads who were engaged in salt were pavilion households, and they were free from miscellaneous duties. The thief is the law. And Qi is the salt and iron envoy of Zhuzhou, and the salt in the world is exhausted, and the price of the bucket is 100 yuan, which is 110 yuan. ”

As a result, the Tang Dynasty established a salt monopoly system based on the prison court, and formed a salt monopoly mode of private production, official revenue, official transportation, and official sale. The Fifth Qi Salt Law, also known as the "on-site monopoly system", is a creation in the history of the ancient Chinese salt industry.

On this basis, Liu Yan, who presided over the southeast finance, further deepened the "salt reform" in the Tang Dynasty, controlled the "wholesale" link, wholesaled the salt purchased by the whole company to merchants at a price lower than the market price, encouraged merchants to transport and sell it, and established a new model of salt monopoly of civilian property, official revenue, commercial transportation, and commercial sales.

The Tang Dynasty played the role of merchants in the circulation of salt, mobilized the enthusiasm of salt merchants, they wholesaled to the salt, "bear their own stones, to the people Boyi", in order to make more money, often over the mountains and mountains, deep into the poor countryside, to serve the people. The politician Han Yu once wrote "On the Matters Concerning the Salt Law", fully affirming the role of the market and salt merchants, and opposing the 18 articles of the salt law proposed by Zhang Pingshu, a household servant, to restore the official camp and completely ban it.

In the late Tang Dynasty, the imperial court simply did not ban salt and collected taxes uniformly. At the same time, the imperial court established the "Changping Salt System", in which when there was a salt shortage, if merchants hoarded Juqi, the price of salt would be "excessively expensive", and the official salt would be "reduced" to control the price of salt.

In the Song Dynasty, salt production was divided into two categories: official and private, and the finished salt was purchased by the government, and it was strictly forbidden to sell it privately, but the government often could not pay off the salt on time. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty: Food and Goods": "At different times, the stove households are salty, and the official is the city, and the salt field pays it from time to time, and the stove households are poor. On the other hand, "the price of salt is so high that the smugglers turn into thieves and lose their taxes." ”

To this end, the Song Dynasty launched several rounds of "salt reform". For example, in the eighth year of the Qing calendar of Song Renzong (1048 AD), the imperial court implemented the "salt money law". Salt banknotes are a kind of voucher bills for salt sellers, this law changes the official sales of salt to commercial sales, no longer exchanging grain for salt, but replacing grain with banknotes, so that merchants buy banknotes, salt merchants transport and sell their own, operating costs are reduced, and salt prices are stable.

In the third year of Emperor Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty (1121 AD), the imperial court changed all the previous salt tax laws to the salt money law, allowing private sales of salt. "History of the Song Dynasty: Food and Goods" said: "Those who have not sold tax salt banknotes and have been asked to count or have been invested in the warehouse and have not been invested, and go to the goods business to change to the new law banknotes, and allow them to be sold." ”

Salt banknotes are not only of great significance in the history of salt reform, but also have a positive contribution in the history of finance, and together with the "jiaozi" that was also pioneered by salt merchants, it contributed to the birth of paper money.

However, there were many drawbacks in the implementation of the "Salt Money Law", and in this regard, many politicians in the Song Dynasty called for "deepening the salt reform", among which the "salt reform" plan proposed by Shen Kuo, the author of "Mengxi Writings", received the most attention. In the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty (1075 AD), Shen Kuo submitted the "Four Sayings of Salt Beetle" to the imperial court, in which one point was that it was recommended to expand the scope of salt sales by merchants and reduce official sales. Shen Kuo's "salt reform" took effect soon after it was implemented, "the price of salt is constant, and the banknote has a fixed number". From the end of Song Zhenzong to the early years of Song Shenzong, many salt-producing areas were once all opened to salt merchants. Later, he created the "salt introduction system", which is a kind of valuable sales certificate used to sell the monopoly right of salt to merchants.

After that, the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties also had corresponding "salt reform" plans, but basically they were all carried out on the basis of the "banknote introduction system" in the Song Dynasty. Among them, the "salt reform" in the 12th year of Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty (1832 AD) was the most successful, and the "gang salt system" implemented in the Ming Dynasty was changed to the "ticket salt system". According to the "Qing Historical Manuscript Food and Goods Chronicle", ticket salt can be operated across regions, breaking the monopoly monopoly, and the price of salt immediately "plummeted".

On the question of state monopoly or free trade, Yang Ke clearly knows that there is never a one-size-fits-all single standard, in ancient times, grain, salt, cloth, iron, and livestock were the five major trade subjects, and salt ranked second, and this second place is not the kind of ranking in no particular order, but the ranking of transaction scale, the proportion of national tax sources, the scope of influence and the group. Later, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the revenue from the salt tax accounted for almost half of the entire national fiscal revenue.

The official salt monopoly reached the Ming Dynasty, and the more it was played, the more it was played, and at the beginning, it could only be circulated for one year, and gradually there were thirty years of circulation. It will be in circulation for so long because the market needs money. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the market was prosperous, and the use of copper coins was too heavy, and silver was appropriate, but China was a country with very little silver, with an annual output of only 100,000 taels of silver. However, there are advantages and disadvantages, salt is caused too much, and the role of its own tax payment voucher has become a problem. After receiving the salt, it can't be sold, and the salt boat has formed a long line, and there are two queues, one team sells this year's new salt, and the other team sells the old salt of the past years.

So what to do? Reform, this invented the concept of the nest: you hand over half of the salt, or two-thirds, and the government stipulates that a certain port allows you to monopolize salt ------------ permanently! Attractive, right? Do you still need to work hard to transport grain and grass to the border? Not anymore; Do you still need to work hard to sell salt? Not anymore; Do you still need salt induction? No more! You occupy the nest, and then you just collect the filial piety of those who have taken the salt and are in a hurry to sell it, what else do you have to do? What else do your children and grandchildren have to do? No, just sit and collect the money. A medium-sized salt merchant, with his nest, earns 100,000 taels a year, which is equivalent to the annual income of ten princes, the annual income of twenty county kings, and the annual income of 5,000 scholars, which is equivalent to the annual output of silver in the whole country. During the Kangqian period, 60 percent of the world was in the hands of Yangzhou salt merchants, and the entire salt merchant group relied on the nest to lead, with an annual income of more than 10 million taels, many salt merchant families operated for a hundred years, with millions of taels of family assets, and the government's annual financial revenue was only more than 30 million taels, so Yangzhou at that time could be described as rich in the world.

In the eleventh year of Daoguang (1831), Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang, was corrupt and owed a lot of classes, so he played the quasi-imitation lighting system and abolished the ticket in Huaibei. The principle is that regardless of new or old merchants, as long as they pay enough salt class, they can get tickets to transport salt. The fact that there is no restriction or fixation on ticket dealers can abolish the disadvantages of the root nest monopoly.

Soon Huainan and Fujian imitated one after another. Its system is printed by the transportation department of the triple bills, one is kept as a stub, one is stored in the division, and one is for the people to be transported. Civilian vendors in various states and counties will go to the salt works to buy salt, and after paying taxes, the salt will be transported out of the market, and they will be sold at designated ports. There is a difference in the size of the salt ticket, each small ticket in the Huaibei area can transport ten citations of salt, each quotation is 400 catties, six coins and four cents of silver, and there are also small tickets that can transport 120 citations of salt each; The big ticket is 500 citations each, and it is in Huguang and Jiangxi.

In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang, because of the depression of Jianghuai household registration at that time, there were few wealthy merchants. Later, he ordered the ticket dealers to donate 400 taels of silver according to one vote, and those who donated silver were called old merchants, and from then on they were allowed to circulate and transfer every year, and new merchants were not allowed to join. So the old merchant had a ticket, which became a patent, and those who did not have a ticket had no way to transport salt, so they had to buy a ticket from the old merchant. The ticket price is expensive, to the beginning of Guangxu, a Huai ticket, worth more than 10,000 taels, and the temporary rental is also more than 1,000 taels. And become the descendants, the ticket law has become a law, the ticket dealer has been no different from the previous nest business, until the death of the Qing Dynasty and has not changed.

Until Yang Ke crossed over to the previous life, the national monopoly system of salt has never changed, in his mind, the formation of the official salt system has been a long time, and his age has exceeded the Great Wall.

When the ministers were arguing passionately, Yang Ke was like a fugue out of the world, and the old monk seemed to be as steady as Mount Tai, Tang Zhong's eyebrows couldn't help but twist into a pimple, and they all said that the emperor's mind was unfathomable, and he now felt more and more that Yang Ke's ideas were elusive, and there was no problem with different opinions, but the problem was that someone had to come out to make a conclusion, even if it was a summary of opinions, otherwise this court meeting would not end until tomorrow morning? He kept using his eyes to inquire about Yang Ke's meaning, Yang Ke was good, and he turned a blind eye from beginning to end, when he and the Manchu Dynasty were transparent existences.