The status of merchants in the Ming Dynasty was very low, and if they were rich, they could not wear some good clothes, they could only wear some coarse cloth clothes, like yarn and silk, not to mention.

Outside, you can't even drink tea, you can only drink plain water, and among the three religions and nine streams, the status of merchants is the lowest.

The fundamental reason is that because the economic thinking of the ancient people has been in a backward state for a long time, the ancients only saw that the merchants sold high and bought low in the circulation field to earn the difference in the middle price, so they thought that the merchants were cunning and treacherous, did not do production, and shared the profits in vain, and believed that the merchants themselves did not create value, but harmed the farmers, so the status of the merchants has always been relatively low.

Zhu Song's mind is more open-minded, but Zhu Song also knows that if he wants the world to let the court have a correct understanding of the art of Shangjia, I am afraid that this road ahead will be full of obstacles and difficulties.

However, this dress is not good, and it is not allowed to drink tea outside, but this house is a good house, which is an elegant and exquisite garden building, with rockery corridors everywhere, and flower fish ponds that have everything.

The Jia Yuanwai heard that Zhu Song didn't bring a maid this time, all of them were Jinyiwei's spies, this Jia Yuanwai was afraid that Jinyiwei was going to die, but the prefect gave an order to let him pour out the house, and he didn't dare to disobey, and in order to add icing on the cake, he also allocated half of his maids, subordinates, and cooks to honor Zhu Song and serve Zhu Song.

After Zhu Song arrived at the Qin Mission, he sent half of the subordinates, maids, and cooks sent by Jia Yuan to the outside of the backyard, and these maids and maids were not allowed to come in before the middle gate.

Zhu Song came to Jiangnan this time to collect salt tax, and the ghost knows whether this Jia Yuan, who is mainly engaged in the cloth business, is involved in the external salt tax, and who knows if these subordinates and maids have ulterior motives to approach him and want to spy on those people outside.

After Zhu Song arrived at Xingyuan, he drank a cup of tea and sobered up, and after a while, Chen Zheng rushed back, wearing a coarse cloth clothes at the moment, with makeup on his face and a fake beard, looking the same as the crop handle.

"How?"

Chen Zheng said: "Your Highness, I have inquired clearly, the largest salt merchant in Hangzhou, named Shen Zhengcong, this person is from Yangzhou, after coming to Hangzhou a few years ago, he unified the salt merchants in Hangzhou, and he came out to buy salt from the imperial court, and then he allocated all the salt of the salt merchants in Hangzhou to him, and after he sent people to sell, everyone was in the unified distribution of profits. ”

"Oh?"

After Zhu Song listened, he squinted his eyes and remembered that he and King Yan were together in Yangzhou at that time, although Yangzhou City was still a little worse than the grand Yangzhou City he imagined, but compared with the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, there were only eighteen households, and Yangzhou City at that time was already well recovered.

And which occupies the main position and credit is the salt merchants, and the world's salt merchants to Yangzhou salt merchants are the most famous, the law of the year, the largest profit in each region is the brunt of this Yangzhou, this Yangzhou has profits, there is money, slowly in Yangzhou also brought extravagance.

And if you have money, you have to spend, so businessmen from all walks of life in Yangzhou City came into being, the most famous of which belong to the green building and casino.

Yangzhou can be regarded as a special economic zone at that time, and the imperial court has always had a very clear attitude towards merchants, that is, it is heavy on agriculture and suppresses business, but the tax charged by merchants is very light.

Yangzhou is different, Yangzhou land is not much, the peasants' taxes can not be collected, so they have to let these merchants hand over a little silver, salt is a way to pay silver, and the silver obtained after selling salt has to be handed over to the government, which is another entry.

In addition, in order to restore the people's livelihood and people's hearts, Emperor Hongwu gave Yangzhou City a high privilege, so it was okay and reasonable for Yangzhou City to collect taxes from salt merchants and other merchants.

This Yangzhou salt merchant Shen Zheng seems to have two brushes, if he didn't write the means, how could he unify the salt merchants in Hangzhou?

As long as people are involved in interests, especially businessmen, the interests of businessmen are money, and this interest is enough to face directly, if they accidentally touch the interests of the other party, then as businessmen, they are likely to be desperate.

And the salt merchants are also different from ordinary merchants, the imperial court that buys salt controls the salt, and when they get the salt introduction, they basically get the state license that can hereditarily make and sell salt, so in some aspects, they buy the salt quotation and the imperial court have a little line, and at least they can be familiar with the officials, not to mention the collusion between officials and businessmen, so this salt merchant has some official and commercial implications.

This Shen Zhengcong was able to unify the salt merchants of the entire Hangzhou, and get all the salt merchants regardless of the size to his hands, and the small salt merchants were easy to understand, because they couldn't take out so much silver taels to buy salt, and why did the big salt merchants want to mix with Shen Zhengcong, either Shen Zhengcong's way could make them make more money, or he used his power to oppress people.

"Those people who accompanied the king to dinner today, do you have this Shen Zhengcong?"

Chen Zheng shook his head: "No, they are businessmen, and they are the least popular, most of the so-called gentry and celebrities who accompanied His Highness to dinner today are very land-owned, and to put it bluntly, they are landlords." ”

"This Jia Yuanwai is a well-known landlord and businessman in Hangzhou, and more than half of the hundreds of acres of land under his name are planted with silk."

Zhu Song nodded.

"Today, the officials of the Liangzhejiang Salt Envoy Department are available?"

Chen Zheng replied: "Your Highness, none of the officials of the Salt History Department of the two Zhejiang capitals are here today. ”

Zhu Song was stunned when he heard this.

"Oh, these guys are so bold, this king is here in person, they don't want to show their faces, it seems that this is deliberately avoiding this king."

Lao Cao twisted his beard beside him and thought for a moment.

"Your Royal Highness, the lower officials think that none of the officials of the Salt Transfer Division have arrived, they should have been instructed by some officials, such as the Hangzhou Prefect and the Yamen of the Division, without the instructions of a few of them, of course this Salt Transit Division will not dare not come out and show his face, in addition, this Salt Transit Department is an official of the imperial court from the third grade, and this official level is not small, and he actually does not show up?"

Zhu Song smiled coldly: "It seems that this is someone who disagrees with this king, since he knows that this king is specially here for the salt tax, and this yamen who specializes in salt does not show up, this is to give this king a closed door, I want to see if this king will give them hard means." ”

"It's really bold, they are right, the court should try to avoid using strong means, so this is forcing this king, okay, since they want to see the attitude of this king, let them see."

"Let the brothers under your command continue to investigate! Tomorrow the king will go out to visit. ”