Wu Zhenzhou knew that these short-haired officials didn't like people kneeling down, but he was so scared at the moment that he couldn't care less. He knelt down and kowtowed hurriedly, saying that he was obsessed with money and saw that ginseng was cheap, so he came. Don’t refuse.
"Boss Wu, we are not here to arrest you today, otherwise we wouldn't have just three people here. But if you hide it for those people, you will have to bear the consequences."
"The villain is guilty! There are six groups of people in the ginseng picking gang in the mountains. Xu Mazi's group has the largest number, with more than 300 members. The other four groups have as many as 100 members and as few as 30 members."
"Who was the group that hurt people on the mountain trail in the first two days?"
Wu Zhenzhou said calmly: "It should, it should be Xu Mazi's person."
According to an investigation conducted by the Civil Affairs Bureau some time ago, since the Qing army withdrew from Ninggu Pagoda in May, some criminals who had been exiled here took advantage of the chaos and fled into the mountains, formed gangs, illegally dug ginseng, robbed border residents of their property, and frequently injured people. occur.
Furthermore, today's Northeast ginseng is all natural ginseng, and the total annual output is almost more than 100,000 taels. The current market price of ginseng in Beijing is forty taels of silver per tael, and it is even more expensive in the south; that is to say, this is A large industry with an annual trade volume of more than four million taels, and this is what Zhao Xin really cares about.
Beginning in the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court decided to follow the "Salt Introduction Law" and take the ginseng harvesting business under the private ownership of the royal family by issuing "ginseng tickets". During the Yongzheng period, the ginseng harvesting industry in the Northeast was contracted to the Fan family, an imperial merchant. This Fan family was the Jiexiu businessman Fan Yongdoujia, the head of the eight most unscrupulous merchants in the late Ming Dynasty.
As an aside, the most glorious period of the Fan family was the Yongzheng Dynasty. Not only was the family an imperial merchant, handling many businesses such as copper and ginseng, but there were also people who served as ministers of Taipusi Temple and were ranked second-rank officials. But good and evil will eventually be rewarded. Due to the rise in copper prices in the forty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign, the copper industry presided over by the Fan family suffered serious losses. Therefore, Qianlong decreed that Fan's official position and imperial merchant qualifications were removed. The family property was also seized, and the head of the Fan family was also involved. Prison, never recovered from the fall.
Since the imperial merchants took over the ginseng procurement business, the benefits brought by ginseng votes have been huge. To put it simply, a ginseng ticket collects sixteen taels of ginseng, 10 taels are handed over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the six taels are collected by the merchant. Fan Jiaguang's annual profit from this business is about three hundred thousand taels of silver.
Seeing the profits, the Qing court wanted to take back the ginseng harvesting industry. So starting from the 10th year of Qianlong's reign, the saying that "the imperial merchants only wanted to make profits for themselves and could not sincerely release tickets" was officially changed to a government-run business and was undertaken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
When it came to gathering ginseng, Wu Zhenzhou told Zhao Xinzhi everything. This was not a secret in the first place.
"In the past, the imperial court..." Wu Zhenzhou paused and saw that Zhao Xin and the others did not respond, and then continued: "They set up official participation bureaus in Shengjing, Jilin, and Ningguta, and the voting was controlled by the Ministry of Household Affairs in the capital. When it comes out, it should be handed over to General Shengjing and the various official bureaus, and every year the Ministry of Internal Affairs will send people to help."
Zhao Xindao: "What are the rules on the number of votes?"
Wu Zhenzhou said: "There is no limit on this. As long as someone takes it, the court also hopes that the more the better."
In short, the Manchus hope that they can earn as much as possible. The original "Ten taels are paid to the public, six taels are returned to oneself" has been changed to "Ten taels are paid to the public, two taels are shared by the public, and one tael is paid to the guarantor"; in addition, a tax of six taels of silver per kilogram of ginseng is required. In the 18th year of Qianlong's reign alone, the sales and tax revenue from ginseng was more than 1.5 million taels of silver. The national customs revenue that year was only more than 4.33 million taels.
The year with the largest number of ginseng tickets issued in history was the 25th year of Qianlong's reign. The official ginseng bureaus in the three places issued a total of more than 60,000 ginseng tickets. Even based on the price of thirty-two ginseng and one liang, the direct income of one ginseng ticket It’s three hundred taels, not counting taxes. However, after the forty-second year of Qianlong's reign, the ginseng picking industry in Northeast China began to deteriorate and failed to recover.
The civil affairs cadres on the side heard something strange here and hurriedly asked what was going on.
Zhao Xin sighed: "It's nothing more than 'fishing in the lake'."
Wu Zhenzhou extended his thumbs up and praised: "This gentleman has a great opinion, but this is actually the case."
The ginseng harvesting model in the Qing Dynasty involved only plowing and not planting. It lasted for more than 200 years and was a large-scale, fishing-style excavation. There were not enough mountains to dig. The Manchu Qing Dynasty not only did not support the artificial cultivation of ginseng, but strictly prohibited it. They sent officers and soldiers to arrest those who cultivated ginseng in various places. The reason was that "the fake was confused with the real one."
A ginseng needs to grow for at least three years before it can be harvested. Large-scale ginseng harvesting year after year has destroyed the growth of ginseng seedlings, and the decline of the industry is an inevitable trend.
Although the Manchu Qing Dynasty also explicitly ordered to stop the mountains to cultivate ginseng, this could only be limited to the official ginseng bureau not releasing ginseng tickets, but it could not prevent the people from illegally collecting ginseng. In fact, the more severe the ban, the higher the price of ginseng, and the more serious illegal harvesting will be. The main reason for this is that ginseng is hugely profitable. There are many people in the officialdom who secretly support refugees to harvest it privately and transport it into the customs. There are also gangs of officials who extort ginseng and even pass it off as good to enrich their own pockets.
Wu Zhenzhou spent more than an hour giving a brief introduction to the situation of the Northeast ginseng industry. He also talked about how hard it is to dig ginseng, and it must be processed in time after digging out the soil. Otherwise, the ginseng that has been dug so hard will rot and deteriorate if there is too much water.
After he explained this, his mouth went dry, and Zhao Xin and the other three listened attentively.
However, after Zhao Xin finished listening to the other party's explanation, he returned to the original topic and asked: "That Xu Mazi group, you said there are more than 300 people, who are they?"
When Wu Zhen heard this on Monday, he felt that he was still thinking about this person! So he quickly said: "Sir, Xu Mazi's place is mostly filled with prisoners who have been exiled and cannot endure the hardships. There are also runaway slaves of the bannermen, unemployed vagrants, etc. In addition, there are also some officers and soldiers who were beaten away by the pioneers. They There were only a few dozen people in that group last year, but this year they have a lot more people."
Don't think that most of the exiles in Ningguta are wronged people. The local exiles can be roughly divided into political prisoners, criminal prisoners, and ethical prisoners, with criminal prisoners being the main ones. These people who originally deserved death for serious crimes were sentenced to exile because of amnesty from the Qing court or other glimmers of hope.
According to the "Laws of the Qing Dynasty", there are probably more than 30 reasons for the exile of Ning Guta. These include those who escaped and were recaptured after being exiled to the smoky land in the south, those who trafficked in people, those who pretended to be under the flag, those who escaped death by bandits, those who trafficked in smuggled salt, those who engaged in secret sects, those who stole grain, those who counterfeited money, etc.
Those who dared to come to Ninggu Pagoda to steal ginseng in recent years, braving severe punishment from the Qing court, were not good deeds. They dared to brave the strict laws of the Qing court and go into the mountains to steal ginseng and dongzhu. No matter what the reason is, they will pose a threat to the future governance of Beihai Town and must find a way to solve it.
Zhao Xin nodded. It was the right time to come to Hengfeng Pawnshop today. It seems that although shopkeeper Wu is a pawnshop owner, he is very familiar with the ginseng industry.
It seems that the local Beihai garrison has to move out to clear out the ginseng stealing gangs occupying the hills and restore peace to the place. If Xu Mazi and his group are allowed to develop, they will definitely become the biggest source of instability under Beihai Town.
He thought for a long time and winked at the next person. The man understood and said that he had something to do and left for a while. After that, he hurried out of the back hall, walked around the counter and went out.
Later, while drinking tea, Zhao Xinze asked about the market situation of ginseng in the past two years, and then asked about the situation of more than a dozen other pawnshops in the city. Wu Zhenzhou could only answer one by one, and he couldn't answer it for a while. I can't figure out Zhao Xin's intention.
After about an hour of burning incense, the civil affairs cadre who had just said goodbye came back and nodded towards Zhao Xin as soon as he entered the door.
Zhao Xin suddenly asked: "Shopkeeper Wu, is your Hengfeng Pawnshop the property of Naqitai? Who was the man who entered your shop before the three of us came? Where is he now?"
Three questions were asked one after another, which was truly shocking, and Wu Zhenzhou was immediately frightened to the point of sweating on his forehead. He slumped on the chair, with no strength left in his legs. Just as he was thinking about how to explain, he heard a burst of noisy footsteps outside the door, and then someone sternly shouted: "Come out! If you don't come out again, shoot!"
Wu Zhenzhou immediately panicked, and then he heard another person beg for mercy: "No! Don't! The young one is a shareholder of this company, come here to discuss the accounts with Shopkeeper Wu!"
If it’s not Chang Wu, who is it?
After a while, the door opened, and Chang Wu, who was tightly tied up, walked in escorted by two soldiers from the Northern Navy.
A soldier said to Zhao Xin: "Sir, a dagger was found on this guy."
Only then did Wu Zhenzhou understand what the man who had just gone out was doing. He knew that he couldn't hide anything now, so he exerted force with his hands, moved his body forward, and knelt on the ground again.
Although Zhao Xin didn't want people to kneel down, he deliberately wanted to tease the other party this time, so he didn't let Wu Zhenzhou get up. Instead, he showed a sneer and said: "Although it is okay to say that there is no prohibition, but Shopkeeper Wu, we have to enforce Ning Guta At the beginning of military control, each store was asked to explain their shareholder status, and they also stated that they would not embarrass you businessmen who are partners. But you are on the good side. Several times you came to inquire about the situation, and you said that it was your own business and that you had no cooperation with anyone in the government. Do you think we are easy to deceive?"
"Master, have mercy on me!" Wu Zhenzhou lowered his head and lay on the ground, trembling like chaff. "The master asked his concubine's brother Chang Wu to hold the shares, and this person is it. It's just that the master has a high position, and the villain dared to ask for his old man's money. It was all given voluntarily by the villain. Chang Wu The second time I came here I wanted to take the discounted share capital back to Jilin. Before the gentleman came, I was doing the accounting with him."
Zhao Xin asked: "How much money does Qitai want to take?"
"Sir! I'm not an assassin. That knife is for protection against wild beasts when I go out." Chang Wu was already out of his mind at this time. He dared not say anything about money. He knelt on the ground with snot and tears, kowtow and begged for mercy.
"Are you Na Qitai's brother-in-law or brother-in-law?"
"The villain's sister is the concubine in the fifth room of the lord."
"Tsk, tsk~~" Zhao Xin sighed at how good Qitai's physical strength was, and then said: "Why are you crying? No one will kill you. Go back and tell Qitai, don't think about getting some money. If you want to do business, come to me directly.”
"Yes, yes, I don't dare to do that anymore! Huh?" Chang Wu was stunned.
Zhao Xin smiled slightly and said, "You go back and tell Na Qitai what I look like, and he will understand what's going on. Get out of here!" After that, he motioned to his men to take Chang Wu out and let him go.
After Chang Wu left, Zhao Xin said to Wu Zhenzhou: "Shopkeeper Wu, do you think you should be punished?"
"You deserve the punishment, and the villain will accept it."
"How much ginseng have you harvested these days?"
"More than 23,000 kilograms." Wu Zhenzhou lamented in his heart, thinking that now the compensation would go to his grandma's house!
Good guy, Zhao Xin was shocked when he heard this. If this was transported into the pass, it would be nearly one million taels of silver!
"Hmm. What's going on with ginseng in Guan Nei right now?"
Wu Zhenzhou said: "This is different. The master will understand after listening to the little one..."
According to the records of the Guangchu Department of the Qing Dynasty, the current classification of ginseng includes six categories: special-grade ginseng, and first- to fifth-grade ginseng. In addition, there are also pickled ginseng, slag powder, reed mustard, raw ginseng, ginseng leaves, ginseng paste, and crushed ginseng. Seven categories including ginseng.
Among them, special, first- and second-class ginseng are collected in limited quantities each year and rarely used; good whole ginseng is reserved for emergencies. In fact, the most commonly used ones are pickled dices, slag powder, and reed mustards. All the new harvests are often used up every year, leaving no trace left in stock. What the Ministry of Internal Affairs sells is generally fourth- and fifth-grade ginseng.
Among them, reeds are the cheapest, selling for about 50 taels of silver per catty, diced ginseng is sold for 200 taels of silver per catty, and ginseng residue can be sold for 300 taels per catty. The fourth- and fifth-grade ginseng stocks are the largest, priced at 200 taels per catty. The price is eight hundred taels; while special grade and first and second grade ones are more expensive, hundreds or even thousands of taels per piece.
After explaining the ginseng market in Guanzhong, Wu Zhenzhou told the truth that the price he charged for ginseng was basically about five or six times different. After hearing this, Zhao Xin said to his heart that pawnshop owners are really shady.
"I won't make it difficult for you. You can sell all the ginseng you collect to Beihai Trading Co., and the price will be calculated based on what you collected. Someone will naturally come to count it for you in a while. In addition, I will fine you another twenty taels of silver. This is because you failed to truthfully explain your store holdings to the Military Control Commission."
"Ah? This... the villain is willing! The villain accepts the punishment!" Wu Zhen was overjoyed when he heard this on Monday. He originally thought that his home would be ransacked and he would be imprisoned.
Zhao Xin nodded, then stood up and said, "Okay, I'll take my leave first. They both still have something to ask you."
Wu Zhenzhou hurriedly kowtowed and said, "I would like to express my gratitude to Master Qingtian!"
On the way back to the Military Control Commission's office, Zhao Xin basically had a solution to the ginseng industry in Ninggu Tower and Sanxing City. That is the government's guidance to control the market and sales of ginseng through the exchange; at the same time, it encourages ginseng customers to cultivate ginseng seeds and carry out extensive planting.
Speaking of which, there is no such thing as sulfur fumigation, sugar boiling, potassium permanganate dyeing, or even metal aggravation in these days.
To hell with Korean ginseng and American ginseng! The Chinese like to use ginseng as health care products so much that they must develop this industry. How much does a kilogram of forest ginseng cost in later generations? The cost price is only 1,200 yuan at best. There will be more industries in the outer Northeast, the people and border residents will become rich, and people's hearts will be stable!
(The author once helped a ginseng market in Northeast China make investments and read the relevant accounts, only then did I know the price of ginseng.)
The error-free chapters of "The Forty-Eight Years of Qianlong" will continue to be searched and updated. There are no advertisements on the site. Please also bookmark and recommend the search!
If you like The Forty-Eight Years of Qianlong, please collect it: () The Forty-Eight Years of Qianlong is the fastest to be searched and updated.
