In fact, to be honest, the big dog households have made a lot of money, and they have been raised by the sixth child, and they are already a little disdainful of these land businesses in the southwest.

For example, although the tea and horse trade is also trade, the limitation of transportation capacity determines that the tea and horse trade can never be compared with the maritime trade.

Of course, in the future, the access to the sea will be opened, which is another matter...... But that's another story.

But there are many people who eat with them, and there are still people waiting to get rich under their hands. What's more, the bigger the family, the more you have to diversify the risk, you can't put your eggs in one basket, otherwise one day the prince won't be able to cover it, and the court will re-ban the sea, and they will have to drink the northwest wind.

This is also the reason why they are so enthusiastic about the mercantilism of the prince. Only by reversing the stubborn idea of valuing agriculture over commerce can we avoid the sad situation that no matter how big the business is, it will be easily handled by the imperial court.

"Now is not the time for the tea and horse business to expand its scale, we have to wait until the imperial court has cleaned up Luchuan, repaired the road and set up a post station, and all the conditions are ripe, and then it is time to do it with great fanfare." Zhu Zhen decomposed one by one:

"The same is true of Yunnan copper, and Dongchuan is not too neat. Because of the matter of the copper mine, the toast over there was also the most ferocious last year, and at the end of the year, the king summoned a few people. I don't think they have the courage to rebel now, but they will definitely dare to block the road and rob them. And they lost so much last year, and this year they will definitely try their best to make up for it, and the robbery will definitely be even more fierce. ”

"In addition, the roads have not been repaired, and the copper has been smelted, and it is difficult to transport it. Therefore, the copper mine should also be put first. Let's get well salt first. Zhu Zhen said in a deep voice.

~~

The salt made by pumping underground brine by drilling wells is called well salt.

Everyone in the world knows that Sichuan produces well salt, but Yunnan's well salt is not inferior to Sichuan. Moreover, there are salt wells in central Yunnan, southern Yunnan and western Yunnan, known as the nine in central Yunnan. Not only is the output large, but the quality is also very good......

The Yunnan salt produced in Yunnan is snow-white and delicate, and the taste is also better, so it sells better than sea salt and is very popular with the people in the mainland. Naturally, salt merchants also flocked to it.

The big dogs are also very fond of it, who doesn't want to have more identities as salt merchants in addition to maritime merchants?

"What's going on, is it open?" Cheng Qian asked tentatively.

"Yes, Kaizhong!" Zhu Zhen nodded heavily.

~~

The law of salt, the army guards the border, the people are paid, and the salt lives in it, which is the hub, so it is said to be open.

In the third year of Hongwu, because Shanxi and other border areas were in urgent need of military rations, Yang Xian, who participated in the politics of Shanxi at that time, recruited merchants to export grain in exchange for salt, and transported and sold salt in designated areas with the introduction of salt, which solved the urgent need of the army. Since then, the opening of the Chinese law has become a common tool of the imperial court.

Yunnan had difficulties in transporting grain, and the imperial court was under great pressure, so the strength of the merchants was added to help the imperial court deliver grain, which could greatly reduce the burden on the government.

"Of course, it is also very difficult for you to transport food, because it is very expensive to transport food over long distances, which no one can avoid. But you can think differently, and at the same time hire labor in Yunnan to cultivate the fields, produce grain, and put it in the warehouse in exchange for salt, so as to make more profits—this is the method of Shangtun. Zhu Zhen introduced again.

"That's a good way!" The big ones couldn't help but praise.

Luo Guanzhong shook his head: "Confucius said, 'Because of the interests of the people, benefit without expense.'" ”

"Look, our teacher Luo is literate." Zhu Zhen smiled and gave the old baby a thumbs up.

"But what if we recruit long-term workers and see that the prince's policy for immigrants is so good, what should we do if we run away?" Someone asked aloud.

"If you run away, you will run away, the meat will rot in the pot, as long as you don't run out of Yunnan." Zhu Zhen smiled disappretently.

"Haha, too, it's time to help the prince immigrate." The big families are also very open-minded, when there is a higher pursuit, people will not be competitive.

"You can sign a contract with the hired workers, if they are red-eyed, they can settle down and stay after a few years expire, you can recruit another batch, anyway, the most important thing in Daming is people." However, Zhu Zhen still gave them advice:

"All the preferential policies of the government here are based on the premise of settlement. You brought them here, go to the government to report first, they can't settle down if they don't recover their freedom, don't they? However, the government only protects the contract for a maximum of three years, and the family can settle down after three years. ”

This can be regarded as a relatively acceptable balance between the government, the common people and the merchants. However, this requires large households to recruit people in Yunnan every year...... But isn't this exactly what Zhu Zhen wants to see?

"How much grain does the prince want?" Gu Yuanchen asked.

"Of course, the more the merrier. The Yunnan salt method played by the household department before was to lose two stones of rice and give a small salt introduction. It was dismissed by the king. In the end, it was decided to lose rice and stone to lead salt. ”

"Is it so generous?" The big families couldn't help but cheer. The "Kaizhong Regulations" stipulate that according to the distance of the road, five stones to one stone of rice are lost, and one salt is given, that is, one hundred and twenty catties. What Zhu Zhen gave them was indeed the most favorable conditions......

Of course, salt is only a voucher for the purchase, sale and transportation of salt, and you have to buy it with money when buying salt. But the salt itself is a precious security, because without this thing, the salt you sell is private salt, and if you are caught, you will be beheaded.

So the price set by the prince is really too conscientious.

You must know that you can only exchange two stones of rice and two stones to Gansu in exchange for Huai salt and salt. The price of Yunnan salt is twice that of Huai salt......

"Then you can't crowd the salt division?" The big families said and worried about the prince: "I'm afraid that the prince won't be able to give so much salt at that time." ”

"Don't worry. Don't worry I can't afford salt. I tell you, whether it is copper or well salt, the Mongols have not mined even one thousandth, or even one ten-thousandth. We can achieve a thousand-fold scale, that is, the whole Ming Dynasty eats Yunnan salt, and uses Yunnan's copper, which is not exhausted! Zhu Zhen was shocked.

"Really?" The big families naturally believed in the words of the prince, and couldn't help but be overjoyed and said: "Then you really have to catch this splashing wealth." ”

"Of course. When the time comes, let you choose one of the two with maritime trade, I'm afraid you will choose Yunnan. ”

"Yes, yes, yes." The dog nodded his head. Maritime trade is risky, and this monopoly can be eaten from generation to generation, who is not rare?

"I told the Yunnan Salt Division, and when the time comes, they will supervise you to open the mine." Zhu Zhen then said in a deep voice: "Well salt is not as easy to obtain as sea salt, and it is necessary to dig deep wells to draw brine, which has high technical content and is labor-intensive, especially in Yunnan. That's why Yunnan salt is so expensive, because it's so difficult. But it is precisely because it is difficult that this king can convince his father to let you take charge of the mining. ”

Zhu Zhen knew that if it was handed over to the government to obtain brine salt, the final production scale would definitely be very small, and it would be difficult to achieve the desired effect...... This is normal, all the salt, iron and copper mines in the Ming Dynasty, but all the official and run mines, in the end, they are all privately owned.

So it's still businessmen who want to come.

"My only condition is to hire people from the mainland! Businessmen should also have a sense of the overall situation, and remember that the more Han people in Yunnan, the better. Because there are people who have land. If there are too few Han people in Yunnan, even if our generation can't lose it, future generations will lose it.

"Don't worry, prince, we remember, we must find ways to immigrate here!" The big dogs nodded heavily and expressed their determination.

"Well, during this time, I will send someone to accompany you to inspect the salt mines in various places first, and you can also investigate by the way, where is suitable for Shangtun." Zhu Zhen finally said.

"Yes." The big guys responded in unison.

(End of chapter)