Genius remembers in a second [Aishang Novel Network biquge.info] to provide you with wonderful novels to read.

The demon beasts that attacked this time did not go to the three states of Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Xuzhou, where the Qingyang Sect was located, but Jizhou and Yangzhou, which are rarely frequented.

It is said that because of the ocean currents, there are relatively few monsters living in the sea off Jizhou and Yangzhou, and their strength is relatively weak.

Although nearby monks arrived in time to stop the further atrocities of these demon beasts, they still caused great damage to the coastal towns of Jizhou and Yangzhou. The merchant also made a special mention of the salt works along the coast of Yangzhou......

"Big brother, is there enough salt at home?" Li Ziren suddenly asked a strange question.

"Huh?" his eldest brother was also stunned, a little unable to keep up with his younger brother's train of thought. This is a good talk about the East China Sea demon disaster, why did the building crookedly say that the salt went up?

The six-year-old brother showed a worried look that was completely out of step with his age and said, "Hey, the salt works are gone, will this salt not be bought?"

Then he frowned and said to his eldest brother very seriously: "Let's talk to my father and mother and let them buy more and save it." After the province, the dishes cooked at home are not salty. How can I eat this dish if it doesn't taste?"

"Huh?!"

Looking at the foodie brother who was worrying about everything, Li Zisheng was really amused, he laughed and said, "Ren Yanzi, you kid! This salt will definitely not go unsold." Ha ha...... Hey...... Shh

Li Sangongzi laughed happily a few times, suddenly gasped, hurriedly took the business news recorded by the reporters next to him, and quickly flipped through it.

"How can this be?!" Li Zisheng looked at the information in his hand and muttered to himself.

As mentioned in the previous document, Zhongzhou is not now a country ruled by a centralized government with executive power, but there are countless local governments, and there is no condition to implement the same monopoly as the salt monopoly system of the ancient Celestial Empire.

Of course, this is not to say that there are no big salt merchants in Zhongzhou, there are many big businessmen who run the salt business in Yangzhou, and almost all of the nine families in Tiantongmen are engaged in the salt business.

This is because. In Middle-earth, there have long been people who have already prescribed the salt drying method that does not require the use of fuel. Well, of course, Yangzhou, which is located in the south, has a hot climate and a long sunshine time a year, and has unique conditions to become the largest and most important salt producing area in Central Continent. Yangzhou's local wealthy families naturally became big salt farm owners and big salt merchants who integrated production and marketing.

However, before the Battle of the Heavens, like the salt monopoly system that has been practiced in our world, the production and marketing of salt in Chixian Zhongzhou was also controlled by the royal family of the previous dynasty, and whether it was the government of the mortal world or the heavenly realm, it was natural to do so in order to grab huge profits.

The salt monopoly system has a long history in the Celestial Empire of our world, from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of the Qi State to be praised by Confucius Lao Er as a "micropipe." I will be the left of the "left side" of Guan Zhong to implement the "official mountains and seas" to the beginning of the dynasty, almost accompanied the entire exhibition process of the history of the Celestial Empire.

The monopoly of salt in all dynasties has been regarded as an important source of financial revenue. There is such a record in the "New Tang Dynasty Book: Food and Goods Chronicle": "The endowment of the world, salt is half of it, and the palace is served, the military salary, and the hundred officials are all dependent on Yan." This sentence means that after the Tang Dynasty, the proportion of profits from the salt monopoly to government revenue increased significantly. Even down to half of them.

There is a question here, since monopoly management can bring huge profits, why did the ancient Celestial Empire and the former Middle-earth Dynasty not implement a grain monopoly system like they did for salt?

On the surface, grain and salt are the same, both are a commodity with a high demand and a small price elasticity of demand. The so-called "price elasticity of demand is very small" means that no matter how high the price is. Consumers have to spend money on the minimum amount of necessities to survive.

Yes, monopolies can bring huge profits to the government, but they also come at a huge cost.

Salt production can theoretically be controlled from the source, but how can food production be controlled from the source?

And there is a good saying, no one does the business that loses money, and someone does the business that kills heads.

Ma Laozu also famously said: capitalists are afraid of no profit or too little profit, just as nature is afraid of a vacuum. As soon as there is an adaptable profit, the capitalists are bold. If there is a profit of ten percent. He will ensure that he will be used everywhere; if he has 20 percent of the profits, he will be active; if he has 50 percent of the profits, he will take risks; for the sake of 100 percent of the profits, he will dare to trample on the laws of the world; and with 300 percent of the profits, he will dare to commit any crime, even risking hanging.

However, his sentence is a bit biased, and it would be more accurate to replace the capitalists with the vast majority of human beings.

It also started from the Middle Tang Dynasty. Even though the government set strict punishment laws, the desperate trafficking of illicit salt still rampant in the Celestial Empire, and it is becoming more and more intense. The more the government prohibits it, the larger the scale of illicit salt sales below.

And the biggest problem with private salt is not that it undermines the salt monopoly system. Causing economic losses to the national government.

Illicit salt trafficking is often carried out by local tycoons and outlaws. In order to counter the state organs, they often use armed escorts when selling illicit salt, and it is easy for such gangs to become a paramilitary organization, and once their power is large, they will become a factor of social instability.

Huang Chao, who "burned the inner library for the splendid gray sky street and stepped on the bones of the princess", and Wang Xianzhi, who died in the previous war, were born as smuggler salt dealers.

The situation at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was even more interesting, as such a large number of rebels who raised troops against the Mongol and Yuan Tatars, Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youliang and Fang Guozhen, all made a living selling smuggled salt in their early careers. Even Zhu Yuanzhang, who killed them, has been involved in this industry.

Probably because of this reason, after winning the country, Emperor Hongwu hated and hated illegal salt, and sentenced his son-in-law Ouyang Lun to death for this crime.

This is still the "necessities of life" salt, which is far less than the "necessities for survival" grain. "I don't know how many people are called emperors and kings".

It was not until the Celestial Empire that the first powerful government that could extend its ruling tentacles to the grassroots level was the only such a government that could implement the unified purchase and marketing of grain.

It's pretty much the same here in Middle-earth, even if there are cultivators who can fly through the sky, it's too difficult to monopolize the grain business by administrative means.

Of course, if administrative means don't work, it doesn't mean that market and financial means can't work, otherwise how can there be a Tiantongmen.

However, Tiantongmen is not so powerful, and they have the power to price grain by relying on food stamps, which does not mean that they can monopolize the salt industry.

Because although salt and grain have some similarities, they are still different commodities after all.

First of all, the amount of salt used is much less than that of grain. Ordinary adults eat at least about a pound of grain a day, and only a few grams of salt are enough.

Secondly, even if someone does not eat salt for ten days and half a month, at most his hands and feet are weak, his face is yellow and his muscles are thin, and he will not be able to die. What mortal can go ten days and a half without eating?

Finally, grain production is much more troublesome than salt production. And it's not that only Yangzhou can produce salt, there are more people drying salt in the world. Although the forces of the Qingyang Sect are now mainly concentrated in Qingzhou, there are still Tianfu Gate and Tianzhen Gate, and even the Tiandan Gate in Xuzhou has also intervened in it. Naturally, there are a lot of people under these big sects who deal in salt.

For these reasons, Tiantongmen carries food stamps, not salt stamps.

The salt business is indeed a very profitable business in Tiantongmen, but it is not the main business. Moreover, most of their salt production is nearby to Jingzhou, which does not rely on the sea and therefore does not produce salt.

You must know that they are just like the American imperialism in our world, and they can use the printed paper to buy materials and exchange yuan stones when they turn on the printing press.

Is there a more lucrative business in the world than printing money?

It is also because the salt in Jingnan is mainly supplied by Tiantongmen, so the salt sold here is a grain store. Of course, these grain stores have something to do with Tiantongmen.

Li Zisheng's grain shop only deals in grain from the vicinity of Lishan, so it does not sell salt.

The price of salt on the business report that the teenager is seeing now is extremely abnormal!

He thought carefully about the price of salt these days, immediately poked his head out of the car window, and shouted to his driver: "Stop quickly, turn around and go back to Dongcheng immediately!"