According to the Ming Salt Administration, salt trading could not be carried out without the permission of the imperial court. The purpose of this was to control the salt merchants and facilitate the collection of taxes. Later, the method of opening up the middle was implemented, and salt could also be borrowed to attract grain to ensure the grain transportation on the nine sides. Later, the Kaizhong Law was abolished, and the imperial court collected money and sold salt, which led to the bankruptcy of the border fortress merchants, the lack of food for the border army, and the weakening of national defense.

During the Jiajing Dynasty, Wang Chonggu and others wanted to reopen the border Sai Shangtun and then open the Chinese and French countries, but it was impossible for the two Huai salt merchants to agree again.

A rash crackdown on the salt merchants of the two Huai will inevitably lead to social unrest. Zhu Cihong saw this very clearly, but these salt merchants were also the big landlords of the two Huai, and if they were not attacked, the cost of controlling Huai would remain high.

Zhu Cihong's method of attack was very simple, clarify the area of the salt pan, calculate the salt output, and determine the test score of the state and county officials to which the salt factory belonged. If you sell to the quota, you will pass the test, and if you sell more, you will get extra points, and the bonus will naturally follow. If the sales are less and the test score is low, the state and county officials themselves will have to weigh it well.

As for the business travelers who come to buy salt, they don't ask about the outline, only look at the business license.

As long as it is a company that has registered and declared the sale of salt, it can buy salt from the salt factory and sell it to the private sector anywhere. In this way, the geographical division of the program introduction system has also been broken, and the price competition in the salt market has been stimulated.

Now, if someone sells high-priced salt in one place, within three days other salt dealers, big and small, will flood the market with salt until the price of salt is brought down.

In order to ensure the supply of salt, the imperial court relaxed the approval for the opening of government-run salt factories in coastal counties, and prohibited private capital from intervening in the production of salt factories. Not only do coastal provinces have one, but inland provinces such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shanxi, and Henan also have well salt, lake salt, and mineral salt. Its responsibilities have changed from salt administration management to salt factory management, and from mainly prohibiting illegal salt. It has become a major ban on smuggled salt plants, but the intensity of work has not decreased.

By the end of the 21st year of Chongzhen, if the salt administration of the provinces could pay the salt money in real amounts, the revenue of the national treasury should be more than 15 million taels of silver.

It is said that after such a policy is put down, salt merchants who have a large amount of money can still legally and reasonably take possession of a large amount of salt produced by the salt factory through the funds in their hands. But there's a big problem here. When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince returned to Beijing, he passed through Yangzhou and met with a group of salt merchants, who were still the same old way in Jiajing: crying poor.

When they cried poor, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was not polite, and with a stroke of the pen, he set a rule: the salt factory only accepts paper money.

Since you want to cry poor, then let you be really poor!

Where can you get paper money unless you keep a lot of silver in a bank? And now the situation is that paper money is in short supply, even if you want to save it. The bank doesn't accept it yet!

"Huang Tang has to think of a way, he can't watch the people eat without salt, right?" The salt merchants gathered in the shadow garden of Zheng Yuanxun's house, and everyone had a frightened and anxious look on their faces.

Zheng Yuanxun was a Jinshi in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the head of the two Huai salt merchants, and the shadow garden built to take care of his mother also made him famous for future generations. However, at this moment, although he has an official body but no official position, although he is promoted by the salt merchants, he has no real power, and he is the most thankless role.

"I've also told the Fuzun. Fuzun just said that there is nothing to be done, what can we do? Zheng Yuanxun sighed: "Now my family is also guarding outside the gate of the salt factory. Just collect some salt skins here and there. ”

"The crown prince doesn't understand the economy and people's livelihood, and if he continues like this, something big will inevitably happen!" Someone said fiercely.

Zheng Yuanxun glanced at the man and said, "This matter is still in a hurry, so wait a while." At the beginning of the country, the issuance of treasure banknotes was also valuable. It didn't take long for the treasure money to overflow, and the price naturally fell cheap. I don't think there's a need to be too anxious to exchange the silver. ”

When everyone heard this, they said: "After all, the master of Jinshi has insight, and now the banknote factory is rushing to make paper money day and night, and the face value is getting bigger and bigger, and most of them will become a piece of waste paper in the future." ”

Zheng Yuanxun comforted everyone. was about to talk about some idle stories, and suddenly saw a figure shaking outside the flower hall, but it was his son Zheng Hanxue who was exploring outside. He said his offense and walked out quickly. When Zheng Hanxue saw his father come out, he hurriedly stepped forward to speak, but was stopped by Zheng Yuanxun and walked all the way to the back study before letting go.

"My lord, there is already news from Nanjing." Zheng Hanxue couldn't suppress the excitement on his face.

Although Nanzhili has been divided into Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, and Yingtianfu has also changed Jiangning Mansion, people still habitually call Jiangning Nanjing.

Zheng Yuanxun said leisurely: "What a big thing, there is no city government like this!" Seeing that his son was ashamed, he said again: "What did Jiang Ning say?" ”

"This time, I went to the door of Jiangnan Town to guard the heart of the eunuch king. He was willing to come forward and save five million taels of silver for my family. However, he wants a dry share of our salt company. Zheng Han learned.

Zheng Yuanxun's face was solemn, his eyebrows were frowned, and he said, "Yicheng." ”

"My lord, my son thinks it's still counted." Zheng Han learned: "Nowadays, several major salt families do not have banknotes in hand, if we can have five million taels of banknotes to buy, not to mention two Huai salt, I am afraid that Beizhi and Shandong salt can be eaten?" ”

"Are you reluctant to give up money as a father?" Zheng Yuanxun glanced at his son dissatisfied: "I'm really worried that colluding with internal officials will attract taboos. Especially in this salt industry, everyone in the world knows that this is an inexhaustible mountain of gold, but they don't see that what is blowing on this mountain of gold is not the wind, but the knife! ”

Zheng Hanxue didn't think that his own business was too risky, and he was a little unimpressed.

Zheng Yuanxun shook his head, and secretly hated in his heart: If it weren't for me as a son, I really wanted to throw him out and let him fend for himself!

"How many times have I told you, going to the door, giving benefits, and making friends with people, these are all things that small traders and vendors do." Zheng Yuanxun hated that iron could not become steel: "If you want to be a wealthy businessman, you can't focus on this!" We must do it with a vision of the sky and a mind for the world! ”

"My lord, this is the fact that the crown prince is dissatisfied with our lack of benefits......"

"Fart!" Zheng Yuanxun spit out two words heavily: "Your vision is the same as those mediocre talents!" He said and pointed in the direction of the flower hall, and said: "In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, when has the crown prince asked for silver?" He grabbed it directly! The savings of eight or nine generations of Jin merchants in Zhangjiakou, he said that he would rob them. Let's go hand in hand with the Jin merchants, the world calls me 'domestic merchants', but I am not as powerful as the border merchants in Shanxi, why doesn't he rob it? ”

"Didn't the lord say that once he robbed us, the two Huai would be in chaos?" Zheng Han learned weakly.

"Is he really afraid of chaos?" Zheng Yuanxun asked rhetorically: "What good do we have if it's really messed up?" This is actually what the wolf is afraid of, just have a bottom in your heart, don't really take it to others. ”

"What do you mean by that adult......" Zheng Hanxue was a little impatient in his heart.

Zheng Yuanxun leaned on the official hat chair in his early fours, raised his eyes to look at the top beam, and thought for a long time before saying: "Don't want the way of the king's heart, let's see who the crown prince wants to do in the salt business." ”

Zheng Hanxue felt a little aggrieved in his heart. Nanjing is the way he finally got through, I thought that after getting the five million taels of banknotes, my father would be impressed, but who knew that my father did not appreciate it, but he was still a little blamed.

Zheng Yuanxun didn't dare to move, but other people may not be so cautious.

Since Wang Zhixin can open his mouth to the Zheng family, he can naturally also open his mouth to other salt merchants. He does have the ability to speak, because the crown prince has already approved the project of Jiangnan Banknote Factory and wants to find a site in Jiangning to open a factory. In this way, the banknotes are not rolling in?

This kind of exchange of paper for silver, to whom is it not exchanged? The silver is not afraid of salt and lo-lo smell.

Zheng Yuanxun also intentionally or unintentionally urged other salt merchants to test the water first, as long as they figured out the routine of the crown prince's cards, they would have the opportunity to make money in the future. What is this small loss now?

Soon, the people who tested the water really stepped into the mud.

A strange company was born, with a total registered capital of only 100,000 taels, but the shareholder register was thicker than several tomes. Anyone with a little experience can see that this is a "meeting", and it is all small families getting together.

It was this small company that gathered together from the Yancheng Salt Factory to take away the largest amount of salt since the implementation of the New Deal - 300,000 catties!

The ex-factory price of salt issued by the imperial court was eight yuan per catty of coarse salt and twenty-two yuan per catty of refined salt, which was two cents of silver. 300,000 catties of refined salt is only 6,600 taels, which is not surprising. Surprisingly, this salt company called "Ankang" bought 300,000 catties of salt in Yancheng, and at the same time bought no less than 100,000 catties of salt in other salt factories in Huai'an Province.

Later, there was more news and legend: Ankang Salt Industry also collected hundreds of thousands of catties of salt in Zhoushan, Zhejiang.

Not only is the capital abundant, but also the courage is great, and it has the momentum to swallow the southeast salt market in one bite.

Zheng Hanxue is still young, and the industries he takes over are all businesses on the surface. Zheng Yuanxun knows very well that the salt industry has never been a warm and harmonious way to make money. In the entire Ming Dynasty, only the royal family and eunuch relatives were eligible to resell salt for profit. If the salt merchants below had only done serious business, they would have starved to death.

Therefore, smuggling is the norm and not to mention, robbing salt and stealing salt, killing people and destroying mouths in the middle of the road, these things almost run through the entire industrial chain. There are even a group of outlaws raised by salt merchants, and they will not tolerate those who sell salt in other places and do not follow the rules. This was the so-called Salt Gang in later generations, and its leader was the "Salt Lord".

Huang Chao at the end of the Tang Dynasty and Zhang Shicheng at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were all figures in this.

The big salt merchants, including Zheng Yuanxun, who are not salt lords secretly? Even if you don't dare to compete with Ankang on the surface, won't you use some means secretly? In particular, several official roads and waterways for transporting salt in the Ming Dynasty are as familiar to the salt barons as their own courtyards.

"Don't rush when the salt truck comes. When I raise the fire, the brethren will go up together! This time, as I said, if you don't have a living mouth, how much salt is our brother's errand money! The outlaw with the scar on his face muffled his voice, his gaze seeming to penetrate the mist of dawn. (To be continued......)

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