After Yan Song left the chamber, he obeyed the emperor's order to oversee the auction of the two Huai salt farms, and it has been nearly three years since the fourth year of Zhengde.

After the auction office fixed 900,000 taels of silver every year, and no longer had various large and small yamen such as the transshipment department, the salt factory, and the inspection office, the administrative efficiency was greatly improved.

In addition, the merchant could not pay the silver taels to the auction house. The auction office and the household department have to handle the delivery of the management rights and the payment of the silver taels, and the state treasury collects the money.

The only annoying thing is to deal with the relationship between the private operator of the salt farm and the stove owner.

In the past, it was not possible to leave the household registration of a stove household, but now it is difficult to define the status of a person who is employed by the private sector.

Because of the hardship of the stove households, many people fled their homes, which led to a significant increase in the employment costs of the private owners of the salt works.

After all, the imperial court uses power to exploit stove households, and other groups do not have such ability. In case of a fatality, the auction house will have to take care of it.

The push up of costs has led to an increase in salt prices in the Lianghuai region. Fortunately, the imperial court still maintained the concept of the scope of salt, that is, only a certain type of salt can be sold in a certain area.

It's just that this will lead to an increase in the cost of living for the people in the two salt areas such as Nanzhili.

If you think about it according to the logic of normal people, it is natural that Liangzhejiang, Shandong and Changluyan will sneak into Nanzhili. Even the operators of the Lianghuai salt industry directly bought the two Zhejiang salts privately, and then sold them as two Huai salts.

In order to solve this problem, in the third year of Zhengde, the imperial court comprehensively accelerated the auction of salt farms in Zhejiang, Shandong and other places, handed over more salt farms to private operators, and eliminated the price advantage of salt in other regions after the reform.

Even so, there seems to be some kind of chaos in the salt industry. Some of the salt farms have been auctioned, while others have not, and the painful period of reform has made people worried.

Throughout the three years of Zhengde, the salt industry has been a major event in the imperial court.

But at the end of the year, an even stranger scene appeared, the price of two Huai salt suddenly dropped!

The direct reason was the appearance of a widow named You Sanchun.

This person runs an Andong salt farm, a Qingjiangpu salt farm, after her husband died, there were no children, after she took over the industry, she first solved the problem of expensive employment.

The reason why stove households are expensive is that most of the stove households who knew how to dry salt earlier are unwilling to continue to engage in their old business, and the remaining willing ones also have high prices. But with the help of his mother's family, You Sanchun formulated a set of standardized processes for specializing in salt production, and then recruited those who couldn't even eat enough to eat, which was of course cheap.

Later, she entrusted the relationship of her deceased husband's friend in the government, continued to collect evidence, and reported to the auction house that other merchants used salt from other regions to counterfeit Lianghuai salt for sale.

This is the core interest, if it is not the advantage of the marketing area, how much better can the salt of Lianghuai be than the salt of other regions?

After these two fatal moves, the two salt farms operated by You Sanchun suddenly reduced their costs and became marketable, and their business conditions improved greatly.

But in fact, there is a pair of hands secretly helping her.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao did not want the reform he promoted to die halfway, and if the merchants who auctioned off the salt works could not survive, then there was nothing to do later.

Therefore, when Yan Song played these things, he secretly instructed the auction house to cooperate with the local government and the transshipment departments in other regions to crack down on illegal cross-regional sales, and he also happened to find a reason to investigate the corruption of several other transshipment divisions

After the salt in other districts was less, there was a vacuum in the market, and the two Huai salt came to life again, and the salt sold by You Sanchun here was the cheapest, so the salt in the two salt farms was quickly sold out.

Until this year, You Sanchun and Hui Yanji have become rapidly popular in the Lianghuai area.

But salt is like grain growing in the ground, and the annual output is limited, and even if it is done well, it will be sold out. There were originally more than 20 salt farms in Lianghuai, and it was impossible to occupy all the markets now with two.

In the fourth year of Zhengde, after Hui Yanji became popular for a year, You Sanchun also began to become worried, in the final analysis, her training method will slowly be stolen by others.

What will she do then?

So she is contacting Yan Song through various means.

First, we will auction this year, and then we will take the salt farm, and second, we will ask for another 'policy'.

Originally, the imperial court prevented individual salt merchants from becoming larger, so the transfer of salt farms between salt merchants was strictly restricted. You can't eat small fish with big fish, and small fish eat dried shrimp, and finally make a big businessman with assets of tens of millions.

However, businessmen are also smart, and they have found a 'loophole' in this regulation.

Even Zhu Houzhao didn't expect that Yan Song probably couldn't get an idea, so he wrote the situation into a song and passed it to the palace.

"In this case, does the auction house agree?" Zhu Houzhao asked Situ Hao, the deputy director of the auction house.

"Back to the emperor, Yan Suozheng has not agreed. It's just that this is what Hui Yanji invited...... Therefore, Yan Suozheng felt that he must play His Majesty, and His Majesty will decide. ”

Zhu Houzhao touched his chin, there are no perfect laws and regulations, and smart people will always find loopholes in them.

The imperial court forbade the transfer of salt farm management rights between salt merchants, and the discerning person did not want a single salt merchant to occupy too many salt farms. You Sanchun probably understood, so she changed her mind and made a request: whoever originally operated the salt farm belonged to whomever it was, and this dead rule did not change, but can Hui Yanji buy salt from other salt merchants?

It's a market action, and it's achievable.

To put it simply, if the price of bulk sales is 5 yuan per catty, then it is completely possible to sell 10,000 catties at the price of 4 yuan per catty. Although the price is a little lower, it is more profitable than the original, but it saves worry and effort, and there is no need to hire other people.

For Hui Yan Ji, it has established a perfect sales channel after the four years of fire in Zhengde, but this kind of channel has a cost, every store, every shopkeeper is a cost, and to share this cost, it is necessary to use the scale to offset it, it is impossible for a store to only sell for two months a year, and the remaining ten months are out of stock, right?

So buying more salt at a lower price is one of the few ways out.

Zhu Houzhao admired it, the original purpose of the imperial court was to prevent the salt merchants from becoming bigger, but the law of market operation is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the power of this law is very strong, and at the beginning of the game, there are already big fish that can eat other fish.

"If the imperial court agrees, then the salt merchants who operate other salt factories will make a small profit in a short period of time, but the cost of sales saved will reappear at another price.

This You Sanchun is so powerful, she will definitely lower the price when the conditions are ripe, such as you Situ Hao, you have no way to sell the salt in your hand in bulk, and the buyer who has been buying the salt in your hand suddenly bargains with you slightly, what do you do? ”

For example, she will let you earn a tenth less than last year, and cut your flesh little by little.

"Then what does Your Majesty mean, do you agree?"

"No, promise her." Zhu Houzhao shook his head.

Situ Hao was a little puzzled, "Didn't Your Majesty say that she would be bigger?" Why is that? ”

"Because the power of the law is very strong, you can only follow it, not go against it. Hui Yanji has something to ask for from the imperial court, and the imperial court can also put forward its own conditions. You can discuss this with Yan Weizhong again. It's not a good idea to beat you to death with a stick and not give a way. ”

No matter how much the imperial court restricts the salt merchant family from becoming bigger, in the end, there will only be a few left in the market, so this law must be followed. You have obstructed it here, and then it will definitely use all kinds of light and dark ways to achieve its goals in order to survive.

Situ Hao didn't understand what the 'conditions' the emperor wanted, and he didn't even have a general direction, so he bluffed up and asked, "Your Majesty, the minister dares to ask the imperial court...... What kind of conditions do you make with a businessman? ”

As soon as he asked, he immediately got the emperor's black face, "So I told you to discuss it with Yan Weizhong again, this matter is cautious, and I can't make up my mind for a while." Do you understand? ”

……

……

"Your Majesty should have blackened your face." The carriage swayed, and Yan Song, who was sitting inside, also criticized Situ Hao unceremoniously, "No matter what you say today, it's not nonsense." Since we talk about 'deliberation', either we haven't thought it through, or we have thought it out but it's not convenient to talk about it. It's good that you asked directly. If you don't blackface, who will you blackface? ”

Situ Hao felt uncomfortable when he thought of his bad performance in front of the king, and said with a hot face: "The lower officials are also afraid that they will be wrong about the holy will, the court and Hui Yanji, Your Majesty and a businessman, as an official, what conditions can be put forward with a businessman?" ”

That means, this thing is not on the table at all.

What is the status of the government, what is the status of the merchants, these two talk about cooperation, shame!

Yan Song hated that iron could not become steel, and reprimanded with some eagerness: "You feel that your face is dull, does Your Majesty feel that there is light on your face?!" ”

Situ Hao patted his head, looking like he had an epiphany, "Oops! That's not to ask! ”

"In the future, we still have to feel more and figure out the intentions of the saints, otherwise it will be difficult to gain."

"Thank you Yan for the point. But...... His Majesty spoke of deliberation and did not say anything about the conditions. This ......"

"You've already thought of it. Why don't you understand? What is the only thing it can give to the imperial court? ”

Situ Hao frowned, thought for a few breaths, and then suddenly understood, "Silver!" It's silver! ”

"You've got some brains." Yan Song sighed, "You Sanchun has already arrived in Jingshi, you can talk to her first in a few days." The official did not come forward, remembering, status, honor, fame...... It can't offer anything, the only thing it can give is silver. But the imperial court should not directly mark a price, since Your Majesty feels that his face is dull, then we have to be smarter, not too naked, to change the way, for example, how about asking it to dry up a little? ”

"Yes, Xia Guan understands."

After saying this, the library garden has almost arrived.

The groom lifted the curtain and helped Yan Song out, "It's really a lot of carriages." ”

"The event is rare, I want to come and join in the fun."

Yan Song turned his head and saw that Xie Pi was also here.

"Weizhong, let's go in together, right?"

(End of chapter)