Speaking of the salt method, Xu He asked Chen Hua: "Master Chen is also from Zao, so he must have thought about the salt method. Why don't you talk about it first?"
Chen Hua glanced at this boy angrily, thinking that if he didn't show his hand today, he would really be looked down upon by this boy.
He pondered for a moment and then slowly said: "Although the Jiubian has been disturbed by bandits from time to time in recent years, there have been no major wars. In other words, Kaizhong's payment of grain has lost its own meaning!"
"You also said before that to collect grain from Kaizhong, it would be too cumbersome and expensive for merchants to travel thousands of miles from Shanshan to Lianghuai to collect salt!"
"In this case, it is better to use Kaizhong Nayin instead of Kaizhong Nai Liang!"
"Salt merchants directly receive the silver and salt department, and then the transportation department transfers the silver to the household department, and hands it to Taicang for collection and storage, and then the household department distributes it to various places on time."
Xu He looked at Chen Hua in disbelief.
"This old farmer has something!" Xu He thought to himself.
The original salt method required traveling long distances to transport grain, or fielding grain on site. Both methods increased the transportation and time costs of merchants, and merchants were not very motivated to buy official salt.
But he directly took the silver to the Salt Department, obtained the salt guide, and then distributed the salt. It shortens the operating cycle and increases the operating income of salt merchants, thus effectively mobilizing the enthusiasm of salt merchants.
Official salt earns less, but it is still profitable after all. For hard currency like salt, if the production end is taken care of, sales will not be a problem at all in today's market.
"I didn't expect that Mr. Chen would also think of the [Opening the Color Folding Method]!" Xu He smiled slightly.
The so-called folding means folding everything into silver. The method of opening the middle was originally to receive grain, but now it is changed to receiving silver. Isn't it called "folding"?
Chen Hua was shocked when he heard this: "Have you thought of it too? Open the Zhongzhe color method? This name is good, this name is good!"
Xu He smiled slightly. In fact, he did not come up with this name. The Ming Dynasty in another time and space also encountered the same problem as the Wei Dynasty. During the Hongzhi period, Ye Qi, the Minister of Household Affairs, also recognized this problem, so he launched the The famous salt law reform in history.
The content of the reform is to change from opening the middle and receiving grain to opening and breaking the color.
Because of Ye Qi's reforms, the north of Huai'an City became the gathering place for Huaibei Gang Salt Farm. The salt merchants were all wealthy and wealthy households in Huizhou and Yangzhou, and they had thousands of people and merchants working together. "
The prosperity of the salt transportation brought Huai'an's urban development to unprecedented prosperity during the Ming and Qing dynasties, making Huai'an quickly become one of the four major cities along the canal, laying a good foundation for Huai'an to become a national historical and cultural city in the future.
Of course, this reform also made achievements for Huizhou merchants. From then on, Huizhou merchants replaced Shanxi merchants who transported grain from nine sides and became the largest profit group in opening China to France.
However, Xu He’s idea is not just a superficial tinkering with the salt industry.
He smiled slightly and said to Chen Hua: "My lord, both the court and the merchants can benefit from this method, but what about the kitchen servants? By the way, there are also debts that the court has owed to the salt merchants in previous years."
Chen Hua felt as if a basin of cold water was poured over his head when he heard this.
That's right, where are the cooks?
The purpose of their trip was to solve the problem of Zao Ding's rebellion.
His memorial will also be handed over to them for their purpose.
Although the Kaizhong folding color method increased the output and attractiveness of officials, the situation of the kitchen workers did not change. On the contrary, they would be burdened with greater production pressure due to the increase in official salt production.
Once this method is used, it is estimated that the smart people among Zao Ding can tear Chen Hua apart on the spot!
Thinking of this, Chen Hua broke into cold sweat again.
Xu He had long known that these scholar-bureaucrats did not care about their origins, and in the end, their butts would determine their heads, so he had already told Old Zheng and others in front of him that he would show them the memorial when the time came, just in case Chen Hua's butt would sit in the imperial court again. By then, when the Kaizhong Zhese method was implemented, Chen Hua gained fame and became the founder of the new method, and he rose to prominence from then on.
The court's tax revenue increased due to the new law.
What about the people?
They did not enjoy the slightest change brought about by the new law from this official who was born in Zaoding.
It's just so cruel.
Fortunately, Chen Hua didn't notice Xu He's little trick. He asked doubtfully: "Then what better way do you have?"
Xu He did not answer Chen Hua's question immediately, but reorganized the current situation of Wei Dynasty.
After Emperor Zhizheng succeeded to the throne, the economic crisis in the imperial court intensified. In order to extract wealth from the salt industry monopoly, the government ignored the balance of production and sales and distributed salt indiscriminately. After the merchants obtained the salt, they went to the salt field but there was no salt to support it.
Then, the lower-level officials controlled the kitchen workers to dry their own salt for profit.
The low price of private salt forced the government to further run out of salt. However, where the court needed money, the number of people increased instead of decreasing, and they gradually became unable to make ends meet.
Therefore, the official salt authorities had no choice but to further increase the salt tax and distribute salt indiscriminately.
In this way, the hard days of the kitchen workers have come, and they have become more and more serious in recent years.
This time can actually be seen as a general outbreak of accumulated abuses in the salt industry.
So there are three problems to be solved now.
First, the court must repay all the salt debts accumulated in previous years!
Second, the lives of the cooks must be guaranteed and their enthusiasm must be mobilized.
Third, production was controlled by the imperial court, which increased channels for official corruption and undermined Zaoding's enthusiasm for salt production.
"During the Zhizheng period, the Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers had to exchange 900,000 salt coins every year, of which Huainan salt coins accounted for 680,000 coins and Huaibei salt coins accounted for 220,000 coins. Therefore, a surplus of 600,000 taels of salt silver was brought to the Taichou of the Ministry of Revenue. However, , because after the imperial court issued salt citations and levied salt taxes, it could not exchange salt for the already issued salt citations (called old citations here) in time, so there was a backlog of about 2.5-2.6 million Lianghuai salt citations."
"If the imperial court exchanges all the salt from the Lianghuai River for these old coins, at a rate of about 900,000 old coins from the Lianghuai River every year, it will take about three years to exchange them all. However, the salt tax collected by the imperial court from the Lianghuai River will also be suspended. After three years of collection, the financial losses to the Ministry of Household Affairs alone amounted to 1.8 million taels."
"The losses caused by the northern frontier army's lack of merchants to transport grain and grass for three consecutive years have not yet been calculated. Therefore, the imperial court continued to issue salt quotas - to be precise, it continued to forcibly apportion salt quotas and levy salt taxes in advance. Domestic merchants may go bankrupt. , or flee, the situation of illegal salt trading is irreversible!"
After hearing all this, Chen Hua stood up from his seat in surprise: "You, you actually understand so clearly?"
Xu He smiled slightly. After what happened, he talked a lot with Xie Liangcai, and even wrote to Kong Yiyuan, the former censor of the Lianghuai salt industry, to get an in-depth understanding of the current situation of the Lianghuai salt industry.
By the way, Kong Yiyuan retained his official position because of his teacher, but a few days ago he received a document from the Ministry of Personnel, asking him to return to Beijing for appointment.
That is to say, we should clarify the problems in the past. As for what position we will give you in the future, we will talk about it later.
But the time limit for returning to Beijing was about two months, and there was still plenty of time. Kong Yiyuan did not change his stubbornness, and stayed in Huai'an to play and sing every night, completely dissolute.
However, the letter from Mr. Si Qing was still useful. After all, he still had to hang out in the officialdom, so Kong Yiyuan spent his busy schedule writing more than 20 pieces of paper detailing the situation of the Lianghuai Salt Industry and delivered it via post. .
It can be said that today, the world's understanding of the Lianghuai Salt Industry can be counted on two hands, who can surpass Xu He.
"It can be said that the imperial court's salt industry in the Huaihe River is now at the end of its rope. In order to avoid a major chaos, we are faced with not only the kitchen servants, but also the salt merchants holding a large stack of [Old Yin] in their hands!"
Chen Hua was completely convinced this time. He said tremblingly: "Then, what should we do?"
