The salt production took a lot of time in Qindong, and the local officials built the salt pans and crystallization ponds according to his requirements, laid a sewage channel under the salt pans and crystallization ponds, and began to introduce seawater into the salt pans at high tide, and when the salt pans were filled with seawater, the aqueduct gates were closed, and the seawater was left in the salt pans.

The next thing is to dry the salt, wait day after day, the salt is a very boring thing, and the time to choose the salt must be more than ten days in a row can not rain, which requires a person with rich experience and good at observing the weather conditions, otherwise, when the salt is almost sun, suddenly a heavy rain falls, these days the salt is white again, you can only start again.

The terrain of the salt pan is slightly higher, higher than that of the crystallization pond, so that the seawater that has been saturated in the salt pan can be introduced into the crystallization pond.

When the seawater in the salt pan was dried for the first time until the salt reached a saturated state, Qin Dong couldn't help but be excited and ordered the sluice gate to open the crystallization pond, and the seawater in the salt pan entered the crystallization pond through the guò diversion channel, and then let the seawater continue to be exposed in the crystallization pool.

As time went on, Qin Dong and the local officials stood on the edge of the crystallization pond and saw with their own eyes that the crystals of salt in the pool appeared at the bottom of the pool, and the salt crystals emitted a bright light after being irradiated by the sun at the bottom of the pool, which was very dazzling. At this moment, Qin Dong and the local officials, as well as the local people, were ecstatic, this kind of thing was unbelievable, they had never thought that salt appeared like this, and it was amazing that the salt in the sea water could be dried just by drying it.

When the seawater in the crystallization pond is dried. The bottom was all covered with a layer of white, shiny salt, very white, much whiter than boiled salt. This is because the saturated seawater is automatically filtered out of impurities as it passes through the aqueduct.

"Well, yes, it's salty! Taste it! Qin Dong took a little salt with his finger and put it in his mouth to taste it, and then pointed to the white salt in the pottery bowl and said to the local officials.

The officials crowded over and put a little bit of it in their mouths with their fingers, and one of them said, "King, this is refined salt, and it is the best salt." It is much better than the salt sold by the Roman Empire, and the lower officials think that our salt can be sold at five times or even ten times higher than ordinary salt! ”

Another official disagreed. "The king, the lower officials think it's inappropriate, salt is a daily seasoning, and it must be used every day for every meal. If the price is too much higher than the average salt. Ordinary people can't afford to eat it, and the reason why the king came here is to solve the problem of the people eating salt, and now the salt is made of zuò, but the people still can't afford to eat salt, isn't this contrary to the purpose of the king coming here? ”

Qin Dong nodded after hearing this and said: "Yes, we are making salt here so that the people can eat salt and can afford to eat salt, and the price of this refined salt cannot be set too high." But it can't be set too low, and if it is set too high, there will be fewer people who can afford it. If the price is set too low, it is likely that there will be merchants hoarding a large number of them, and in the end the price will still be speculated, so let's make two kinds of salt, one is this refined salt, which is mainly sold to wealthy merchants, nobles, and officials, and the other is a kind of coarse salt, coarse salt is salt that has not been purified and filtered, and this kind of salt is about the same as the coarse salt made by boiling salt, and it is sold to the people at a price half lower than that of foreign salt in our territory. In this way, it will not be long before the people in our territory will be able to eat the salt we make, and the salt shipped from outside will have no market because of the high price, and the market will gradually be replaced by us!

Of course, refined salt can also be sold to ordinary people, as long as they have money, as long as they can afford it, anyone can buy it, but I believe that most of the people who eat refined salt should be rich merchants, officials and nobles, and if there is excess refined salt, we can also sell it to merchants to sell to the Roman Empire, or even further afield, I don't know what you think? ”

The local officials all bent down to touch their chests and saluted: "The king is wise!" ”

Qin Dong then inspected the Black Sea, before and after more than half a month, found a total of several coastal areas suitable for the construction of salt pans, Qin Dong ordered people to build salt factories in these places, the management of the royal court under the jurisdiction of the royal court, the regent palace also set up a salt industry department to manage the salt production and sales of the major salt farms, and the profits were handed over in addition to the daily expenses and operation of maintaining the salt works.

When the salt from the major salt farms managed by the Salt Industry Department appeared on the market, and the coarse salt was sold at a price lower than the price of salt in the Roman Empire, the salt trafficked from the Roman Empire could not be sold, and the people only bought local salt, which was not only half the price lower, but also finer than the salt of the Roman Empire, whiter in color, more salty, and salty in taste.

And when refined salt appeared, it immediately caused the purchase of rich merchants, officials, and nobles, and refined salt and coarse salt were divided into grades, and rich people, officials, and nobles naturally wanted to distinguish themselves from ordinary people in order to show their status, and of course they had to eat expensive and fine salt.

In a very short period of time, local salt was popular in the sphere of influence that Qin Dong could control, and foreign salt could not be sold at all, and some salt merchants from the Eastern Roman Empire bribed the local government office to suppress the local salt merchants administratively, and also maliciously lowered prices to fight a price war, but how did they know that the local salt was officially made, and it was not to seek death if they went against the official? These unscrupulous salt merchants of the Roman Empire were not only arrested for bribery, but also for disrupting the market.

After satisfying their own needs, the salt made by Qin Dong was sold to the territory of Sambus, the king of the Southern Courtyard, and Urgan, the king of the Western Courtyard, as well as the territory of Itur, the king of the Northern Courtyard, and Qin Dong did not prohibit local merchants from going to the territory of other Xiongnu generals to do business, not only did not prohibit it, but also encouraged and allowed them to sell locally produced goods to distant places, and then bring goods that were urgently needed locally, so that the royal court could not only collect taxes, but also sell local goods, and local merchants also made money, It was also possible to buy much-needed supplies and goods.

Many foreign merchants who came to the Xiongnu Empire found that the salt here was not only cheap, but also very delicate, much better than other salts. As long as there is a profit, there are merchants who seek profits, these foreign merchants immediately buy salt from the local salt merchants, but they find that the profit from buying salt from the salt merchants and then shipping it back and selling it again is very small, if they want to make money, they must reduce the cost, and the freight is impossible to reduce, only to buy goods at a low enough price, but if you want to buy goods at a low enough price, you must find a salt factory opened by the government to buy.

When these foreign merchants arrived at the local area, they explained that the officials of the salt works did not dare to make their own decisions, and that salt was an extremely important strategic material in this era, and it had not yet been sold to foreign merchants, and there was no precedent to follow, so the officials of the salt works could not make the decision, so they could only report the matter and then ask these foreign merchants to go to the salt industry department of the regent's palace.

The matter was quickly handed over to Qin Dong, who heard that a foreign businessman wanted to buy salt, so he immediately waved his hand: sell!

Selling things is simple, people come to the door, how to sell how you want, but the key is to have enough profits, if you rely on domestic businessmen want to sell their own goods abroad, there will be a lot of difficulties, because there is local protectionism, but if foreign businessmen sell their own goods to foreign countries it is much easier, because there is no local protectionism, foreign businessmen will not go against themselves, so that the speed of market expansion is undoubtedly much faster.

Qin Dong instructed the officials of the Salt Industry Department to let the major salt factories sell to foreign merchants at the domestic ex-factory price, and for both domestic and foreign merchants, the ex-factory price given by the salt works is the same, but in order to sell the salt abroad, the merchants must also pay an export tax. Salt is a scarce material, it is a strategic material, and it is not worrying that there is no market, if it is to grab the market with other commodities, Qindong may not collect export taxes, but salt is not worried about not being able to sell, and it is completely possible to collect export taxes.

Generally speaking, the main purpose of imposing export tax is mainly in four points: the first is to increase fiscal revenue, the second is to restrict the export of important strategic resources and raw materials to foreign countries in large quantities to ensure domestic demand, and third, to raise the production cost of foreign processed products that mainly use the country's raw materials and weaken their competitiveness. The fourth is to restrict foreign countries from purchasing primary products and raw materials at low prices in their own countries, and the only reason why Qin Dong wants to levy an export tax on salt is to increase fiscal revenue.

After the Salt Industry Division communicated the request for the imposition of export tax to foreign merchants, the foreign merchants calculated that even if they had to pay export tax, they would still make a lot of money, so they were willing to buy and pay export tax willingly.

Foreign businessmen who have come to do business have discovered a phenomenon, there are not so many checkpoints in the territory of Qin Dongkongzhì, and the merchants can go all the way unimpeded as long as they pay taxes at a fixed time and place every month, and when they pass through the checkpoint, they can give the tax payment voucher to the officials at the checkpoint to check.

This phenomenon surprised foreign merchants, and they all liked to come to Qindong's territory to do business, and the sales of salt increased dramatically within a few months, and there were great signs that it was about to seize all the markets of Obaro, even the salt produced by the Roman Empire was difficult to sell in its own country, and even the quality and fineness were much worse than the salt sold in Qindong, how could there be sales? (To be continued......)