Household Yamen.

Jiang Xinghuo was sitting opposite Xia Yuanji drinking tea, and the heat rose between the two.

"How much is missing?"

Xia Yuanji didn't dial the abacus, nor did he turn over the account book, and after blowing the foam on the tea, he picked up a pen and wrote a string of numbers on the paper.

"1,750,000 taels."

At present, it is agreed that within one year, Daming's commercial tax will increase to 2.1 million taels, and under normal circumstances, the annual commercial tax is about 350,000 taels, that is, there is a difference of 1.75 million taels that Jiang Xinghuo needs to conjure out of thin air.

Now there is no way to dig silver in Japan, and the domestic silver mine production is negligible, let alone increase production, so Jiang Xinghuo can only figure out his own way.

Normally, if the commercial tax wants to get a large-scale explosive growth, there is actually only one way, that is, through the imperial court's policy, adjust and reduce the relevant tolls and card fees, reduce the commercial card, and at the same time improve the safety of the road, and send more soldiers to maintain traffic.

In this way, merchants have the enthusiasm to carry out large-scale geographical movement of goods.

Otherwise, according to the current commercial tax policy of the Ming Dynasty, every time you pass a place, you will be stuck in oil and water, even if the price difference between the two places is high, no businessman will choose to sell it long distance, because the money earned is not enough to pay taxes.

And if it is decided today, in places where the government has strong control, security is still guaranteed, but in places where the control is insufficient, people intercept the road, kill people and throw them into the ravines, and the government can't control it at all, let alone solve the case.

Therefore, doing business is actually a business that can be both profitable and life-threatening.

But now the problem Jiang Xinghuo is facing is that the imperial court does not give policies.

Yes, if you don't give policies, you have to make money.

It's like asking your daughter-in-law to cook and not giving her rice. The reason is also very simple, it is still on the "Da Ming Law".

If the "law" cannot be changed, nothing can be talked about.

However, although it is impossible to promote the reform of the legal system for a while, it cannot stop making money for a moment, because this is the core of the [Fengtian Palace's Court Debate], an extremely serious political commitment, if it cannot be completed, something will happen, and something will happen.

"1.75 million taels, deducting the franchise goods, there is still about 1.43 million taels, that is, the products of the glass and fertilizer workshops, which were sold and made a profit of 320,000 taels."

"Exactly."

Xia Yuanji's expression was also a little serious, his hands were interlaced, and then his index fingers were released, touching each other, but he still didn't come up with any good solution.

Because the main sales objects of chemical fertilizer are landlords and homesteaders, the price cannot be the same as glass, sold according to luxury goods, the 320,000 taels, glass, especially glass mirrors, accounted for the majority of sales.

The beginning of the Ming Dynasty is not the end of the Ming Dynasty, there are no millions, tens of millions of taels of silver, the whole country is limited in silver, according to the price of silver in the early Ming Dynasty, in fact, in just a few months, relying on the monopoly goods can earn 320,000 taels, it is already very, very remarkable, is a great wealth, enough for the Ming Dynasty to build a ship for a year, or pay for the cost of repairing the "Yongle Canon" for two to three years.

However, this is still far from enough for the promised 2.1 million taels.

Jiang Xinghuo took a sip of tea, then wrote two words on the paper, and then said.

"The latest news that has come back is that Li Jinglong has launched a landing at Thanh Hoa Port and successfully controlled the port and Thanh Hoa City, the western capital of Annam."

Xia Yuanji was stunned for a moment, and then his eyebrows and eyes stretched slightly. "That's good news."

"yes, good news." Jiang Xinghuo smiled, "Lai of Champa, the king of Champa Country, has already agreed

In the "Ming Zhan Friendship and Trade Contract", we obtained the lease right of Tuo Ha Port from the Zhancheng State, and the Zhancheng State fully opened the cities, roads, and rivers to trade with the Ming Dynasty, and it was still zero-rated...... For this alone, the Ming Dynasty can earn back at least one million taels of silver from the Champa City every year (the trade difference is the income of merchants, not equal to the income of the Ming court, and the tariff should be converted according to the percentage), and what is the rent of 20,000 taels per year for Tuohao Port? If you take the ivory and rhino of the city country

Horn, agarwood, and other items are sold to Korea and Japan, which are cut off from trade, and the value will be doubled."

Jiang Xinghuo cautiously estimated: "The size of Annan is larger than that of the Champa Kingdom, it can make more money, and it collects more tariffs, even if it has just started this year, the trade between these two countries and the Ming Dynasty will not be a problem until the middle of next year, at least two or three hundred thousand taels of customs taxes."

Xia Yuanjiti wrote it down, and said as he wrote it down: "1.43 million taels, be conservative, minus 250,000 taels from the tariff, there is still a gap of 1.18 million taels..... What about tomorrow's unarmed free trade zones?"

When it comes to this matter, Jiang Xinghuo is still relatively confident, no matter what, the Japanese businessmen represented by Feifu still trust the business environment of the Ming Dynasty, and the auction will do very well, successfully solving the difficulties of Wang Jing, the left waiter of the Ministry of Rites at that time, and the big businessmen of Daming and Japan can be regarded as getting together to meet and have dinner, and reached a basic consensus.

After all, under the strict maritime ban policy of the Ming Dynasty, to be honest, there are only two kinds of people who have the ability to be maritime merchants, one is deadly, and the other is with an amazing background.

"Imagawa has already returned home with the mission and accompanying merchants, and the Ming side agreed, Japan should not object, after all, for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, although he failed to get the exploration trade he wanted the most, offshore trade is also a big piece of fat, enough to alleviate the financial embarrassment of the shogunate, and he can collect money lying down, so why look at the faces of the merchants? Who doesn't love free trade?"

Xia Yuan Ji pondered for a moment and said: "Maritime trade has just started, although Japan's trade demand has been very strong in the past 30 years, but it is still uncertain how large the unarmed free trade zone will be tomorrow..... Japan is different from Annam, the Ming expeditionary force can win in Annam and include it in the Ming sphere of influence, which is the confidence to make estimates, but after all, Japan is an independent country, and the shogunate's military strength is also quite strong, and the Ming Dynasty cannot conquer it by force for the time being, so it cannot be said that the unarmed free trade zone cannot be negotiated, and what can the other party do."

Jiang Xinghuo led the way slightly, and said, "That's the case, after the battle against Annam, the military strategic focus will be on the north, Japan will not be able to fight for a while, and our fleet will also need two to three years of development. In the final analysis, the strength of the naval division is too weak, during the Southern Song Dynasty, the naval division that could cross the sea often had tens of thousands of ships, but now it is far inferior, just from Guangdong to send 30,000 troops to the central part of the Zhancheng country, it has consumed all the capacity of the ocean-going naval division.

The two discussed for a while, and felt that since the matter of tomorrow's unarmed free trade zone had not been discussed, and there was no 100% certainty that it would be carried out, then don't deceive yourself and make up the numbers, so the number is still stuck at 1.18 million taels, and the trade volume of the North Korean side, due to roads and other reasons, is really not large, and the commercial tax that Daming can extract from it is even less pitiful, so it is also ignored.

"Matsue cotton."

Jiang Xinghuo took the paper and wrote down these three words himself.

In fact, the reason why Jiang Xinghuo has the confidence to make a political commitment of 2.1 million taels of commercial tax is because of the terrifying profits of Songjiang cotton.

The 2.1 million taels, the bulk of the head is still in Songjiang cotton, the warehouse is now through the hydraulic spinning wheel and intensive labor, the production of cotton cloth can be said to be piled up, as long as these can be sold, not only the household advance to pay for the construction of the field, labor, raw materials can all be recovered, and this is the royal family through the household capital investment in the factory area, profits after deducting the cost and expansion of reproduction needs, can be directly counted into the commercial tax, and fertilizer, glass this special commodity, the nature is the same.

Whether it is Japan, North Korea, or Annam, the cotton textiles in these countries are basically at a cost price of 0.17-0.2 taels of silver/horse, and the selling price is 0.3 taels of silver/horse.

The cost price of Daming's current home cotton textiles is 0.13-0.14 taels of silver/horse, and the selling price is 0.15-0.16 taels of silver/horse.

The cost price of cotton textiles produced by handicraft workshops through hydraulic spinning wheels and intensive labor is 0.09-0.1 taels of silver per horse.

Even in order to protect the domestic family handicraft textile industry, the small-scale peasant economy that maintained the male farmer and female weaver was not shaken for the time being, and only went abroad

Dumping goods, Songjiang cotton produced by handicraft workshops, can still fight a price war, dumping the price of foreign cotton cotton textiles to 0.15-0.16 taels of silver / horse to compete, that is to say, the price of foreign cotton textiles to a level with Daming China, and at the same time make the foreign cotton textile industry unprofitable.

In this case, even if the transportation and storage costs are included, under the trade conditions of zero or low tax rates, each exported Songjiang cotton can earn a profit of 0.05 taels of silver.

Profit margins are as high as 50%. It's undoubtedly good business.

Moreover, there are two advantages in the trade of Songjiang cotton, the first is that in view of the high quality and low price of Songjiang cotton, the foreign elite will definitely buy and hoard in large quantities, and take the initiative to be a comprador to help the Ming Dynasty collapse the cotton textile industry in their country; The second is that after the markets of Annam and Champa were occupied, Zheng He's fleet could dump Songjiang cotton into Tianzhu and the Arab region as long as it continued to travel westward and did not need to go too far to reach Tianzhu to establish a stable trading post.

Why is it called "reverse dumping"?

Because the origin of cotton is Tianzhu and Arabia, before cotton was introduced into China, there was only kapok that could be used to fill the pillow, and there was no cotton that could be weaved, during the Tang Dynasty, it was said that cotton was introduced, but it did not attract attention, and before the iron-blooded Song Dynasty, China only had the word "cotton", and there was no word "cotton".

Even so, a large amount of cotton was introduced to the Central Plains, but also in the Song and Yuan dynasties, "between the Song and Yuan dynasties, it was first planted in China, and Guan, Shaanxi, Fujian and Guangxi were the first to get its benefits.

In fact, it was the Mongols' great world conquest that led to this extensive, cross-regional exchange of resources.

It was after the arrival of this change that China, Korea, Japan, Annam, and Champa began to vigorously develop the cotton textile industry.

Since the beginning of the Hongwu period in the Ming Dynasty, cotton has entered the homes of ordinary people, so that the people finally get a kind of affordable warmth, and they don't have to shiver in winter like the ancestors.

Generally speaking, in Songjiang Prefecture alone, the annual output of cotton textiles in the middle of the Ming Dynasty (Jialongwan period) was about 15 million horses, 13 million horses were exported, and the government tax revenue was 1.5 million horses...... After the Industrial Revolution, the annual production of cotton textiles in Britain was as high as 100 million horses.

Therefore, as long as the trade route to Tianzhu is opened, the trade between Tianzhu and Arabia is integrated, and it can be sold indirectly to Arabia, even if it is not compared with Britain after the Industrial Revolution, compared with the Ming Dynasty more than a hundred years later, the production capacity and foreign sales channels formed by the handicraft workshop through the hydraulic spinning wheel are basically the same, right?

Therefore, the annual export of 10 million cotton textiles, the profit of each horse is 0.05 taels of silver, and the total profit is 500,000 taels of silver, which is extremely conservative and reliable. In fact, even if the net profit reaches 70-800,000 taels of silver, it is not unusual, after all, in the case of free trade, good quality and low price is the biggest killer move, and there is no awareness of trade protection in this era, let alone tariff barriers.

"Songjiang cotton is calculated at 500,000 taels, so there is still a gap of 680,000 taels."

According to the most conservative estimates, not counting the benefits brought by the unarmed free trade zone on the Japanese side, and not counting the profits that Matsue cotton may earn, the final shortfall is all that remains.

"You'll have to start with the salt method."

Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a moment and asked, "Have you found all the data that you wanted to investigate before?"

Going around and around, the core of such a big hole is still in the salt method.

Xia Yuanji naturally knew the purpose of Jiang Xinghuo's coming today, in fact, he felt the pressure on Jiang Xinghuo's body.

At the current stage of the reform, it is useless to say anything, and only by making achievements can we break through all obstacles and continue to implement it.

Xia Yuanji put down the teacup, burned the paper on the table on the brazier next to him, and replied as he burned it:

"I found it, these things from the previous generation are not easy to check, and they are all classified and placed in another connected room, Master Jiang will come with me."

The two of them came to another temporary storage place in the household, which was a three-room room, and the middle partition was opened.

There are dense paperwork on different shelves inside, and judging from the ledgers and abacus on the table, there should have been many people working here before.

In fact, the household department used a lot of manpower and material resources to count the previous salt tax data, in order not to fight an unprepared battle.

If you want to use the knife against the salt method, and if you want to deal with these monsters that have been raised by the Kaizhong Law, it is useless to do some surgical anti-corruption of the verification yamen that has long been rotten, and it must be rectified from the root.

And Jiang Xinghuo's consistent attitude towards governance is the set of "don't speak without investigation", first study the facts of the matter clearly, and then talk about how to do it.

Xia Yuanji took out the sorted out data conclusions and explained them to Jiang Xinghuo one by one.

"The peak population of the Song Dynasty exceeded 100 million, and the annual salt output was about 1 billion catties, and the most important salt producing area of the two Song Dynasty was the Lianghuai Salt Field, which was no different from the Ming Dynasty, and because the Song Dynasty always controlled the Lianghuai River Basin, until the eve of the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Lianghuai defense line was not broken through by the Mongols, and during the Song Dynasty, the salt output of the Lianghuai Salt Farm accounted for about half of the country, according to the record of Shaoxing in the 27th year of the "Records of the Year since the Establishment of Yan", the salt production in Huainan reached 3.8 million stone (Song Dynasty weights and measures 1 stone = 120 catties, is about 456 million catties), and according to the "History of the Song Dynasty, Currency Chronicles" records: the salt is 116.5 catties per piece of salt, and the price is 6 yuan...... That is to say, the salt introduction in the Song Dynasty at that time was 116.5 catties, which was not much different from a stone."

"What was the revenue from the salt tax in the Song Dynasty? Like the population, it is also calculated according to the peak data, so it is convenient to bring in the same proportion to the Ming Dynasty to estimate the ideal data." Jiang Xinghuo keenly grasped the crux of the problem and asked.

"During the time of Song Shenzong, the official salt of the Song Dynasty sold salt to salt merchants, and the price of one citation remained the same, still 6 guan, but the salt tax reached 12 million guan, that is, it was sold for 2 million yuan, which was about 2.06 million stones."

"That's not right."

Jiang Xinghuo interrupted Xia Yuanji's words first and figured out his thoughts.

"It stands to reason that the salt output of the Northern Song Dynasty is 8 million stone a year, about 1 billion catties, and the population of the Northern Song Dynasty is 100 million, and the annual salt consumption per person is about 10 catties?"

"Less than 10 catties, the output has always been surplus."

Xia Yuanji explained: "It is clearly written in the "Guanzi", 'the number of salt eaten by Qi people, five liters less than half a year for husbands, half for three liters for women, and half for babies', this is a matter of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but Qi is a big salt producer, and the amount of salt consumption has never changed much, even if there is an increase, the Northern Song Dynasty has a maximum of 7 catties per person per year."

Well, according to the weights and measures, one liter of Qi is about equal to 200 ml, and the salt standard of Qi is 6 grams for men, 4 grams for women, and less than 3 grams for children, and the modern World Health Organization advocates a healthy diet of 6 grams per person per day.

The 7 catties of salt per person per year is calculated according to the standard of 10 grams per day, and it is doubtful whether there can be this standard in the Northern Song Dynasty, so it can only be calculated according to a maximum of 7 catties per person per year.

"That is to say, the population of the Northern Song Dynasty is 100 million, each person is 7 catties per year, the annual salt consumption is 700 million catties, and the output is 1 billion catties."

"No, it's still not!"

Jiang Xinghuo recalculated the number, according to the salt tax revenue, the amount of salt sold was 2.06 million stones, that is, 247 million catties, and the actual salt consumption was less than 700 million catties, but no matter how small it was, there was still a difference of about 400 million catties of salt in the middle, and there was the output of the government salt farm.

If it is calculated according to 247 million catties, it is definitely not enough for the consumption of 100 million people in the Northern Song Dynasty, and this bit of salt is not enough to maintain the basic needs of the body, and the population of the Northern Song Dynasty is no problem, and the salt sold is also counted.

"Therefore, sixty percent of the salt in the Northern Song Dynasty was private salt, and a large amount of private salt flowed out from official salt, that is, after the official salt was mined, it was confiscated and taxed, and it became private salt and flowed into the market, meeting the people's demand for salt." Jiang Xinghuo said after calculating.

"There is no specific record, this kind of thing can't be counted, but from the numbers, it should be so."

Xia Yuanji nodded, and then compared the current salt production of Daming.

"Da Ming's is easier to calculate, because Taizu Gao Huang

The reason for the emperor's complete ban on private salt is that the current annual salt introduction issued by the imperial court is 2 million citations, and each quotation is 300 catties of salt, so the annual salt output of the salt farm is 600 million catties, which is very clear."

Jiang Xinghuo asked again, "What about the demand? How much salt does Daming actually consume each year?"

This question is also not difficult, Xia Yuanji replied: "According to the population statistics of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, the total population of the Ming Dynasty is 60.54 million, and now ten years have passed, counting natural growth and war losses, it should still be about 60 million, and each person needs 420 million catties of salt according to 7 catties of salt per year."

In this way, the annual salt consumption of the Northern Song Dynasty is 700 million catties, and the output is 1 billion catties; Next year's salt consumption is 420 million catties, and the output is 600 million catties.

In other words, it is normal for salt production to be higher than the actual consumption.

Xia Yuanji nodded, and then continued: "Let's talk about the salt tax, the salt tax revenue of the official salt of the Northern Song Dynasty is 12 million guan, assuming that the value of the copper coin remains unchanged, according to the current silver price (1 tael of silver = 1200 copper coins), it is basically equivalent to the current 10 million taels of silver."

That's a staggering number!

The commercial tax revenue of the Northern Song Dynasty has been clarified before, which is about 7.6 million taels of silver.

The revenue from the salt tax is as high as 10 million taels, which is still the situation that official salt only accounts for 40% of the market circulation.

In this way, it is not difficult to understand how the Northern Song Dynasty earned 100 million yuan a year.

"The salt tax of the Ming Dynasty, converted into silver, is about 2.5 million taels per year."

"So, no matter how you look at it, it's a strange number."

The weirdness here does not refer to the problem of private salt, in fact, the private salt thing cannot be banned by the system alone, and the strangeness that Jiang Xinghuo said is something after removing the private salt.

Since the annual salt consumption per person is the same, the population of 100 million in the Northern Song Dynasty and the population of 60 million in the Ming Dynasty, and the salt tax revenue of the Northern Song Dynasty has reached 10 million taels in the case that the official salt only accounts for 40% of the market circulation, and if the same official salt only accounts for 40% of the market circulation, then the reasonable tax should be 6 million taels, but now it is actually only 2.5 million taels.

- Where is the remaining 3.5 million taels?

As long as the problem of salt tax is solved, then the gambling problem faced by Jiang Xinghuo will naturally be solved.

There are two variables that can cause a discrepancy in the numbers.

The first is the proportion of official salt in the market, and the second is whether the tax per catty of salt was the same in different periods of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

But as far as the question of "the proportion of official salt in the market" is concerned, the Ming Dynasty prohibits private salt, and the government severely cracks down on the sale of illegal salt, although the private salt trade has been repeatedly banned, but no matter what, even if it is worse, it is impossible for official salt to only account for 40% of the market transaction, in fact, the official salt of the Ming Dynasty should account for 5 to 60%, that is to say, the number should not only not fall, but should rise.

But in this way, the difference is getting bigger and bigger. "How did Da Ming take the salt tax?"

This question, as the head of the household book, Xia Yuanji is naturally clear.

"The Ming Dynasty levied taxes per catty of salt, which was only a little less than that of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was basically negligible."

The problem seems to have reached a dead end.

The high proportion of the market and the same tax collection cannot explain why the salt tax revenue can be 3.5 million taels different.

Open the law? No, not exactly.

In order to defend against the Northern Yuan's attack on the Central Plains, the Ming Dynasty deployed hundreds of thousands of troops on the border, but because the border was too far away from the large-scale grain production area, in order to solve the difficulties of logistics supply and reduce the financial burden, the method of opening the Central Plains was adopted.

Merchants transported grain to the border area in exchange for salt, and then went to the salt factory designated by the imperial court to exchange for salt, and then sold it within a fixed range, and promoted the commodity trade of salt by delegating the qualification to sell salt.

But in any case, the actual expenditure on salt is still in the Lianghuai salt field, and this part of the salt is counted as the imperial court to deduct the cost of transporting grain to merchants, but it will definitely not be as high as 3.5 million taels of silver.

Why? Because of the amount of grain transported to the north every year through the Kaizhong method

is fixed.

The Jin merchants at the end of the opening of China and France were responsible for providing grain to several border fortresses such as Datong and Juyongguan, and obtained the salt introduction of the Hedong Salt Pond and the salt introduction of the Lianghuai Salt Field, which was about 5 million stone meters through Shangtun and transportation every year. Jiang Xinghuo is in Changzhou Mansion, is to play the role of a rice merchant to secretly visit the local grain theft case, very clear that according to the current price of the Ming Dynasty, the price of a stone of rice is about 240-250 Wen, that is, about 0.2 taels of silver, every year the imperial court through the opening of the law, in order to transport 5 million stone rice for the border army, the price of rice before the transportation is 1 million taels of silver, after the transportation converted into salt, about 2 million taels.

Yes, don't transport 10 stone rice to the north, eat 9 stone rice on the road to calculate, this is the wartime standard, and the opening of the law is to solve the daily expenses of hundreds of thousands of troops in the north, choose the most convenient economic plan for the imperial court, the imperial court does not care how to transport the merchants of the opening of the Chinese and French...... If you don't transport it, I don't care if you farm next to the barracks, as long as you send 5 million stone rice to the border.

Do you think that merchants really travel thousands of miles to transport grain?

Businessmen are not stupid!

Now the Jin merchants are directly planting grain in the northern tuntian, and then the quantity is not enough, so they come by sea from the south, and they don't have to transport it themselves, knowing that the loss of shipping is very low.

This way of tuntian + sea transportation has effectively controlled the price of rice transported by the Jin merchants to the border army, about 0.25 taels of silver / stone, and then the salt is sold, and the Jin merchants themselves do not care about distribution or the like, that is, the salt is sold to the merchants in the salt producing areas, and the profit is hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year.

Therefore, even according to the most cautious estimates, when the proportion of official salt in the market is 40% (in fact, about 50% or 60%), there is still as much as 1.5 million taels of silver salt tax revenue, which is gone!

"There is still a gap of 680,000 taels."

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the final number and muttered to himself.

Xia Yuanji calculated the account: "Don't care about other places, as long as the salt tax of the two Huai salt farms with the highest output is sorted out, and the tax money that should be taken back for the salt issued by the imperial court, at least 70-800,000 taels of silver salt tax can be recovered, as additional income, supplemented to the agreed 2.1 million taels."

Jiang Xinghuo sorted out the entire composition of the 2.1 million taels of taxes, and finally made up his mind at this time.

At present, it is far from enough to crack down on some people in the Yanzheng Yamen.

"So, you're looking for your own death...

Next, it's time to settle the score."