For ordinary people, food, clothing, housing and transportation are often their most concerned issues.

And food is the most important of them, because the people take food as the sky, because those who do not eat will starve to death.

Seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea.

The first four are indispensable, and the last three are dispensable for the common people. Of course, if you are hungry, you can do without oil and salt. From a scientific point of view, salt is one of the main ways in which humans consume sodium.

The sodium ions in table salt are essential for the transmission of information in the nervous system, and are related to muscle contraction and heart beating. Therefore, if the human body lacks salt, the nervous system will be very weak, and people will appear weak. If you go on like this, you'll get sick.

A person can't lift his spirits when he does anything, and he has no energy to do anything. What can such a person do?

Not only that, salt can also preservative, so that food can be stored for a long time.

So salt became an indispensable thing. And it's a high-yielding thing that is durable. It stands to reason that if you can't finish eating, the people can eat too.

The Ming Dynasty implemented the Kaizhong Law, which was originally intended to encourage merchants to transport grain to the border.

At first, the official salt operation was not bad, the Ming Dynasty set up a total of six major transfer salt envoys, including two Huai, two Zhejiang, Changlu, Hedong, Shandong, Fujian, under which there are 14 divisions, 116 salt farms, in addition to the six major salt areas set up the transfer of salt envoys, there are also some smaller salt areas and remote places set up salt section lifting division. The supply of salt is guaranteed, and the price of salt is stabilized.

Later, more and more powerful people participated in the sale of salt, and in order to meet their own interests, they inevitably had to look for loopholes everywhere.

When the regulator of the opening of the law becomes the beneficiary of the opening of the law, is it still a fart?

Illegal salt is rampant, officials and businessmen collude, manipulate the market, and collapse the lake.

Zhu Youzhen plans to do it himself.

On the one hand, it can make money to relieve the economic pressure of the imperial court.

On the other hand, the market of smuggler salt is attacked with low-priced salt.

After the construction of railways in various places is put on the agenda, the transportation capacity is increased, and the transportation cost is reduced, the salt market will be fully controlled by strong means. If you become a demon again, you will be dead.

According to the records of "Heavenly Creations", there are many types of salt. It can be roughly divided into sea salt, pool salt, well salt, soil salt, cliff salt and sand and gravel salt.

China has a long coastline, and sea salt manufacturing accounts for the vast majority.

But the way sea salt is made is also different. There are two commonly used ones:

One is to grow salt in places where the waves on the shore do not flood, and the other is to dry salt in places where the tide is shallow.

Modern processes such as seawater salt production are not easy to achieve with current technologies, such as electrodialysis or vacuum. Therefore, in Zhu Youzhen's idea, it is also necessary to adopt the traditional salt drying mode.

Only by reducing costs can we be competitive in the market, and how to effectively reduce costs is the most important issue to be considered at present.

Zhu Youzhen plans to use cement to build salt ponds to increase salt production and reduce costs.

The salt produced was then transported to the mainland by steam ships to occupy the market at a low price.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen urgently summoned Song Yingxing.

"Song Qing, do you know anything about salt making?"

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister knows a thing or two."

"That's fine, I'm going to build a large salt farm in Tianjin. You go on a trip these two days to help me choose a site! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Song Yingxing is used to it, and he can be used for big and small things. There's no way, who told him to do anything.

After Song Yingxing left, he pulled the map and looked at it for a long time, Tianjin Salt Field was only the first step, followed by Taiwan and North Korea. As long as the capacity can be reached, it is just around the corner to kill those salt merchants.

Tianjin, starting with Tianjin.

"Wang accompaniment, pass on Xu Yingyuan."

Xu Yingyuan has been very idle recently, both global business and global banking have entered the formal, and he only needs to make decisions on some big decisions.

If it can be solved, it will be solved, and if it can't be solved, he will report to Zhu Youzhen.

On the way into the palace, he was still puzzled.

Long live has not summoned himself for a long time, and now that the New Year has just passed, could it be that Your Majesty has a new move?

Thinking of this, Xu Yingyuan was very excited, it was good to work for His Majesty. There is no shortage of face.

"Long live the slave Xu Yingyuan!" As soon as he looked at him, Xu Yingyuan knelt on the ground and sang loudly.

"Get up. Haven't you been relaxing lately? ”

"This..."Xu Yingyuan didn't know how to answer, I just couldn't say that I was very idle.

"Well, I know it. Then you're going to have to get busy. I'm going to build a salt factory in Tianjin to produce sea salt, and you're in charge of that. ”

"Long live thanks!" Xu Yingyuan was ecstatic. This is another big fat difference!

"Don't be in a hurry to thank you first, you need to hide behind the scenes in this matter, don't leak the news and expose the official background."

"Yes, long live!"

"Go, I will give Song Yingxing an order and ask him to send someone to accompany you to choose a site."

The eighteenth day of the first month

Song Yingxing personally went out of the capital with Xu Yingyuan and went to Tianjin to select a site for the salt farm.

In terms of establishing salt works, Tianjin has unique conditions. The later Tanggu salt works were built here.

In later generations, the Tanggu salt field was very large-scale, with more than 2 million acres of salt fields and an annual output of more than 3 million tons of sea salt.

Three million tons is billions of catties. The entire people of the Ming Dynasty together can't eat it all.

But at the moment, he can't build such a large-scale salt farm, and it would be nice to have a tenth, or even a tenth, of the output.

The twentieth day of the first month

Xu Yingyuan came back, and under the guidance of Song Yingxing, he chose the address in Tanggu, Hangu, Dagu, Nanpu, Daqinghe and other places. After obtaining Zhu Youzhen's consent, Xu Yingyuan began to recruit craftsmen to build a salt pond. Got up in full swing.

It is convenient and fast to build a salt pond with cement. Coupled with the quick-drying characteristics of cement, the built salt pond can be put into use in two or three days.

The eighth day of the second month

The first batch of salt was taken by train into the capital.

Now that the salt is produced, it has to be sold. How to price it became a big problem.

The price of salt in the Ming Dynasty can probably also be explained by the example of Songjiang Mansion and Shaanxi in the late Ming Dynasty. In the early years of Chongzhen, the price of salt in Songjiang Mansion was between 0.15 and 0.16 taels of silver per 100 catties. At this time, one tael can be exchanged for about 1,500 Wen. Then the price of salt per catty is about ten cents. However, Songjiang is a salt-producing area, and the price is relatively low.

If you go to Shaanxi, the price of salt is relatively high, and it costs more than ten wen per catty of salt.

According to Song Yingxing's records, every 50 catties of salt, when the price is expensive, it costs more than 5 yuan in silver. But when the price is cheap, it only costs more than 4 yuan. Therefore, according to the normal price system, in the Ming Dynasty, the price of salt per 100 catties roughly hovered back to between 0.8 and 1 taels of silver.

Of course, the premise of guaranteeing this price is that there can be no disasters, riots, wars, and so on.

"The Ancient God Emperor"

If it is a famine year, some illegal traders dare to sell a pound of salt for hundreds of yuan, or even hundreds of yuan.

Zhu Youzhen's idea is only one, that is, cheap.

How much does it cost to get something out of the sea?

Bawen.

It's cheaper than you.

So under Xu Yingyuan's secret propaganda, a salt shop in the capital began to sell salt. Eight pennies a pound!

When the people heard the news, they all ran to grab salt. Eight pennies a pound, rounded up is equivalent to giving it away for nothing. The common people have benefited, and some people have begun to sit still.

Where does cheap salt come from?

Where did the salt merchant come from who didn't know the rules?

Fight the price war, right, come on. If you sell Bawen, I will also sell Bawen!

The next day

Xu Yingyuan asked people to hang a signboard with seven cents and one pound outside the salt shop.

Still reducing the price?

I'm down too!

Day 3

Six wen a pound.

Falling again?

Follow the drop!

Then there are five texts, four texts.

Damn it! It can't go down any more! We're going to lose money! Find someone to find out what these grandsons are!

As a result, it turned out that Tianjin had just built a salt factory.

Illicit salt!?

Dare to blatantly sell illicit salt! Still fighting a price war with us!? Arrest!

But when these people tried to use their own means, they found that it was not easy to use. No one dares to move this salt farm, the background is deep, and it is a hard stubble. But I don't know what is going on!

Deep background? It can't be that the emperor doesn't care about selling private salt by himself, right?

We're going to sue! Tianjin, the land of Gyeonggi, at the feet of the Son of Heaven! There is such a bold person, what do you eat when you patrol the salt imperial history!?

For a time, the excerpts of the imperial history of the salt patrol were impeached, and the excerpts of the Tanggu salt field were required to be strictly investigated, and they flew into the palace like snowflakes.

They will never allow a guy who doesn't know the rules to touch this cake.

Zhu Youzhen sat in the palace and watched the twists and turns, thinking about the appearance of these people who were in a hurry to lose their popularity, and felt very comfortable.

He called Fan Jingwen and showed him the fold.

"Your Majesty, these people have deep energy, and there are salt dealers they can't move? What exactly is the background? After reading it, Fan Jingwen also asked Zhu Youzhen strangely, but saw Zhu Youzhen smiling.

Oh.

I see.