Speaking of salt, no one can lack it from ancient times to the present, and you have to use food every day, and the news about it is constantly in modern times, and it has been strictly controlled by the governments of all dynasties, but it is not only a people's livelihood and economic material, and sometimes even involves political and military levels. The Song Dynasty also implemented the official monopoly of salt, which not only provided a large amount of taxes for the government, but also played an important role in international relations, which was enough to influence the relations of neighboring states such as the Northern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia, and became a sharp weapon against opponents, and this is by no means an exaggeration.

The grain of the party members who are engaged in animal husbandry is mainly obtained by exchanging the local natural and abundant pond salt with the border people. At that time, the Song Dynasty's salt ban policy was aimed at causing a food crisis in Western Xia, but the border people of Guanlong were also in an uproar because of the salt cut-off, and the nomadic tribes were even more disturbed by the food panic, which contributed to Li Jiqian's troubles. Later, the Western Xia and the Song Dynasty signed the Jingde Peace Treaty, and the Song Dynasty, in order not to open the Western Xia to import Qingbai salt, would rather give more to the Western Xia and cancel the conditions for Li Deming's son to be taken hostage by the Song Palace.

Since the contract did not allow the Western Xia to sell the green and white salt to the Song Dynasty, but the market did not disappear, and this was also an important financial income of the Western Xia, in exchange for the main material of grain, so the Western Xia government adopted a policy of turning a blind eye, and sometimes even encouraged salt smuggling.

The result of the Xia government's connivance was that the contract became waste paper. A large amount of green and white salt was sold to the territory of the Song Dynasty by smugglers. It severely impacted the salt industry policy of the Song Dynasty and affected the country's income. Later, the government of the Song Dynasty found that the taste and price of the well salt of the Tubo people were similar to that of the Qingbai salt of the Western Xia, so they started the idea of introducing the well salt of the Tubo to fight the Qingbai salt, so the Song Dynasty sent troops to the Tubo and forcibly took the wood to levy the salt well, which caused the Song Dynasty and the Tubo to turn against each other, and the Tubo fell to the Western Xia.

The long-term war between the Song and Western Xia led to a large supply of grain, grass and military supplies in the border areas, but at that time there was no developed road and railway system, and transportation was very difficult. In order to reduce the burden of grain transportation in the northwest, the imperial court was in order. So he tried every means to encourage private businessmen to assist the government in transporting grain and materials to the northwest frontier. But businessmen are 'unprofitable and can't afford to be early', not all of them are like Lei Feng, if you don't give him some benefits, how can he give you a contribution in vain! As in ancient and modern times, the country's northwest is now being developed. Attract private capital, but the state does not give a preferential policy, who goes, at that time the same country also has to carry out policy guidance, the government moved its brains to the head of "salt", so the salt money law was born.

Because salt is a necessity for people's livelihood, most people can't live without salt, but at that time, salt was sold by the government with full authority, not open to private enterprises, and all the profits were owned by the state. However, the northwestern frontier of the Song Dynasty was far away from the main salt-producing areas of the Song Dynasty, and the government had to manage the salt sales in addition to the military burden in the northwest. It's a bit too busy to take care of it. In this case, simply give up a part of the profits from salt sales to the merchants, so as to encourage the merchants to 'drop by' to help the government send supplies to the northwest front.

This system of allowing private merchants to buy money and get money for salt allowed merchants to make a profit from selling salt while assisting the government in transporting materials to the northwest. First of all, the government does not need to pay for the freight, which reduces the financial burden, and can exempt the people from forced labor and do not use the people's manpower. In addition, the government is not without a penny, it can also make profits from the hands of merchants, and the channels for obtaining salt in the northwest have increased. It will reduce the demand of the military and civilians in the northwest region for the green and white salt of the Western Xia, play a role in cracking down on the smuggling activities of the Western Xia, and weaken the enemy's economic strength. It can be seen that the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated, how good this policy is formulated, it is much more clever than the various 'investment' policies that are now patted on the brain......

But when Zhao Ji ascended the throne. The 'banknote salt system', which has been implemented for nearly 100 years, is almost on the verge of collapse, and there are its own reasons for this. Of course, there are external reasons as well.

Of course, the merchants transported salt for profit, but after Xihuang opened the border, the local Tubo and Qiang tribes had realized that when salt brought wealth to them, it also attracted the disaster of killing, so they donated salt wells one after another, and there were more channels to obtain salt in the northwest than in the past; On the other hand, the smuggling of salt on the border of the Xia and Song dynasties intensified, and the influx of green and white salt also hit the market, and the salt solution was also flooded, the price rose, and the salt transported to the northwest could not be sold, and it was seriously unsalable. As a result, the merchants gradually became reluctant to buy salt money, and the transportation of materials to the northwest became empty talk!

The issuance of salt banknotes in the early stage did play a role in activating the market and increasing fiscal revenue, and the issuance of salt banknotes also provided convenience for big businessmen to collect resources and obtain huge profits, and at the same time, salt banknotes as a way of investment also provided convenience for businessmen to seek illegal interests. In addition, the issuance and recycling of salt banknotes are carried out by the government, and businessmen cannot participate in it, which also provides convenience for the government to deprive salt merchants of their interests by controlling the issuance of salt banknotes and the exchange of salt banknotes, causing merchants to lose confidence in buying banknotes, resulting in the depreciation of salt banknotes.

Therefore, in the later period, due to changes in the external environment, defects in the system, difficulties in entering the middle school, and problems such as the inspection of the quality of grain and grass, on the one hand, the price of grain and grass was raised, and on the other hand, a large amount of national finance was consumed! In addition, salt banknotes have been in circulation for almost 100 years, and in the past, salt banknotes have been widely used as checks in various transactions. By the time of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, salt banknotes had become an indispensable part of various consumer transactions and were flooded in the market, but because of the gradual collapse of the banknote salt system, people gradually lost confidence in salt banknotes, and the transactions on the market were also affected by the collapse of the banknote salt system, and the economic system fell into chaos.

Zhao Ji came to power and faced such a situation, and then Cai Jing stepped into the phase, and the first problem he had to solve was how to reform the banknote and salt system, revitalize the market, and stabilize prices. Cai Jing carried out a drastic reform of the banknote salt system.

First of all, the private sector was fully liberalized, the plate was enlarged, and the banknote salt system was expanded to the whole country, so that merchants could use salt money to extract salt from salt-producing areas all over the country, and the scope of sales was expanded from the northwest to all parts of the country. For the depreciation of the salt banknotes like waste paper, Cai Jing's method is also very simple, with the old banknotes for new banknotes, this method is still used in modern times, but he is much inferior to Cai Jing, after the two world wars, many countries and many countries are facing the problem of soaring prices, and money has become worthless. As for the difficulty of entering the central government, Cai Jing believes that in the future, the central government should directly handle it, and change the past to the local government to issue salt banknotes for the central government's overall distribution, so as to ensure that the benefits enter the state treasury and put an end to the cattiness.

However, Cai Jing's rectification of the banknote salt system also caused frequent problems and mixed reputations because of insufficient planning and supervision.

Originally, the banknotes and salt system were sold by local officials, and most of the salt profits were returned to the state and county governments for local funds. After Cai Jing changed to the central government's overall planning, most of the salt profits were subsumed by the central government, and the local prefectures and counties lost their main source of funding. Therefore, the local governments are 'forced to exploit the people', and the account must of course be counted on Lao Cai's head (for specific situations, you can refer to some strange appearances after the implementation of the 'purchase limit' policy). …,

After the implementation of the new salt banknote system, many large salt merchants tried to buy old salt banknotes at a low price, exchange them for new salt banknotes in Kaifeng, and collect the price difference from them, making a big profit. However, because the old banknote salt system gave people too much shadow, Cai Jing kept a close eye on the price and currency value, and controlled it at any time. As a result, the sequelae of 'overreaction' is that the salt banknotes are frequently replaced. The original new salt banknotes have not been used up, and the new salt banknotes have been issued again, and the merchants can only trade in the old ones with the money again. However, more businessmen did not have enough money to exchange for new salt banknotes, but could only hold the new salt banknotes that had become waste paper and commit suicide by diving, which was naturally repaid by Lao Cai.

Although Cai Jing's rectification of the banknote salt system had the above-mentioned negative effects, in general, it still promoted the social economy of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the sixth year of Zhenghe, when Song Xia went to war again, the government's salt tax revenue had reached 40 million yuan, and the economic abundance naturally guaranteed the development of foreign military activities, but it also made Zhao Ji more confident, feeling that the treasury had too much money, and started the largest image project at that time, 'Gen Yue', and the result was endless harm...

Zhao Ta used his prophet to speculate on the issue of salt and made a lot of money, but now he is not facing speculation, but a serious crisis of 800, if he can make good use of the resource of salt, not only can he get through the difficulties, but also make sufficient material preparations for the future war. But the economy is not Zhao Ta's director, and his staff is not proficient in the operation of salt banknotes, Wei Bochu is an expert in this area, it can be said that the new banknote salt system Cai Jing is the designer, Wei Bochu is the actual operator, and no one can understand the "mystery" in this world better than him!

Therefore, Zhao Ta knew that Wei Bochu's character was problematic, but he finally took him in. Zhao Ta thinks that 'those who are close to ink are black, and those who are close to Zhu are red' He thinks that although Wei Bochu has done a lot of bad things, it was also instigated by Cai Jing, a big bad person, and in the future, under the influence of his own 'good man', he will definitely change his past wrongs, be a new person, and become a good person who is beneficial to the country and himself! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )