After Yan Song left the attendant's room, he followed the emperor's order to take charge of the Lianghuai salt field auction, which lasted nearly three years until the fourth year of Zhengde.
The auction house turned over a fixed amount of 900,000 taels of silver every year, regardless of other matters. After there were no longer various large and small offices such as the transshipment department, salt field, and inspection office, the administrative efficiency was greatly improved.
In addition, merchants cannot pay silver coins to the auction house. The auction house must work with the household department to handle the management rights delivery and silver payment matters, and the treasury will collect the money.
The only troublesome thing is to deal with the relationship between the private operators of the salt field and the kitchen households.
In the past, Zaohu household registration could not be removed at will. Now that they are employed by private parties, their identity has become difficult to define.
Due to the poverty of Zao households, many people have fled their hometowns, which has led to a significant increase in employment costs for private salt farm owners.
After all, the imperial court used its power to exploit Zao households, and other groups did not have such ability. If someone loses his life, the auction house will still have to take care of it.
The rising cost has led to an increase in salt prices in the Huaihe and Huaihe regions. Fortunately, the imperial court still maintained the concept of salt sales scope, that is, only certain types of salt could be sold in a certain area.
But this will lead to an increase in the living costs of people in the Lianghuai Salt Area such as Nanzhili.
Following the logic of normal people, it is natural that salt from Zhejiang, Shandong and Changlu will sneak into South Zhili. Even Lianghuai salt industry operators privately purchase Liangzhe salt themselves and then sell it as Lianghuai salt.
In order to solve this problem, in the third year of Zhengde, the imperial court comprehensively accelerated the auction of salt fields in Zhejiang, Shandong and other places, handed over more salt fields to private parties, and eliminated the price advantage of salt in other regions after the reform.
However, even so, there seems to be some chaos in the salt industry. Some salt farms have been auctioned, while others have not. People are beginning to worry during the period of reform.
Throughout the three years of Zhengde, the salt industry had always been a major event for the imperial court.
But at the end of the year, an even stranger scene occurred. The price of Lianghuai salt suddenly dropped!
The direct reason was the appearance of a widow named You Sanchun.
This person ran an Andong Salt Farm and a Qingjiangpu Salt Farm. After her husband passed away, she had no heirs. After taking over the property, she first solved the problem of expensive employment.
The reason why kitchen households are expensive is that most of the kitchen households who were able to dry salt in the early days are not willing to continue to work in their old profession, and the remaining ones who are willing also charge high prices. But You Sanchun, with the help of her family, developed a standardized process for salt production, and then recruited people who were not even hungry to eat. The price was of course cheap.
Then she relied on her late husband's friends' connections in the government to continue to collect evidence, and reported to the auction house that other merchants were selling salt from other regions as Lianghuai salt.
This is the core benefit. If it were not for the advantages of the marketing area, how could Lianghuai salt be any better than the salt from other regions?
After these two fatal moves were carried out, the costs of the two salt farms run by You Sanchun suddenly dropped, sales increased, and the operating conditions were greatly improved.
But in fact, there was a pair of hands helping her secretly.
Of course, Zhu Houzhao did not want the reform he promoted to die halfway. If the businessmen who auctioned the salt fields could not survive, then there would be nothing to do in the future.
Therefore, when Yan Song reported these matters, he secretly instructed the auction house to cooperate with local governments and transshipment departments in other regions to crack down on illegal cross-regional sales. He also found a reason to investigate corruption issues in several other transshipment departments.
After the shortage of salt in other districts, there was a vacuum in the market, and Lianghuai Salt came back to life. The salt sold by You Sanchun here was the cheapest, so the salt in the two salt farms was quickly sold out.
As of this year, You Sanchun and Hui Yanji have quickly become popular in the Lianghuai region.
But salt is like food growing in the ground. The output in a year is limited. No matter how good it is, it will be sold out once it is sold out. There were originally more than 20 salt farms in Lianghuai and Huaihe, but just two of them could not occupy the entire market now.
In the fourth year of Zhengde and one year after Huiyanji became popular, You Sanchun also began to worry. After all, her training methods would slowly be copied by others.
What will she do then?
So she is using various methods to contact Yan Song.
Firstly, we need to auction the salt farm this year, and secondly, we need a 'policy'.
The imperial court originally prevented individual salt merchants from growing larger, so the transfer of salt fields between salt merchants was strictly restricted. You can't let the big fish eat the small fish, and the small fish eat the shrimp, and finally create a big businessman with assets worth tens of millions.
However, businessmen are also smart, and they found the 'loophole' in this regulation.
Even Zhu Houzhao didn't expect that Yan Song probably couldn't make up his mind, so he wrote the situation into a memorial and sent it to the palace.
"Has the auction house agreed to this situation?" Zhu Houzhao asked Situ Hao, deputy director of the auction house.
"Replying to the emperor, Yan Suozheng has not yet agreed. However, this is what Hui Yanji requested...so Yan Suozheng feels that he must report to His Majesty and let His Majesty make a decision."
Zhu Houzhao touched his chin. Laws and regulations are not perfect. Smart people will always find loopholes in them.
What the imperial court prohibited was the transfer of salt farm management rights between salt merchants. A discerning person would see that they did not want a single salt merchant to occupy too many salt farms. You Sanchun probably understood, so she changed her mind and made a request: Whoever owns the salt farm originally owns it. This rule does not change, but can Huiyanji purchase salt from other salt merchants?
This is a market behavior and it is achievable.
To put it simply, if the retail price is 5 cents per catty, then 10,000 catties can be sold at a uniform price of 4 cents per catty. This business is completely feasible. Although the price is a little lower, it saves worry and effort, no need to hire other people, and it is definitely more profitable than before.
As for Huiyanji, it has established a complete sales channel after the four-year fire in Zhengde. However, this channel has a cost. Every store and every shopkeeper has a cost. To share this cost, scale is needed. To offset it, it is impossible for a store to only sell it for two months a year and say it is out of stock for the remaining ten months, right?
So buying more salt at a lower price is one of its few options.
Zhu Houzhao was impressed. The original purpose of the court was to prevent salt merchants from getting bigger, but the law of market operation is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the power of this law is very powerful. As soon as the game starts, big fish that can eat other fish have already appeared.
"If the imperial court agrees, then although the salt merchants operating other salt farms will survive with meager profits in a short period of time, the saved sales costs will reappear at other prices.
This You Sanchun is so powerful, she will definitely lower the price when the conditions are ripe. For example, you, Situ Hao, you can't sell the salt in your hands in bulk, and the buyer who has been buying your salt suddenly wants to bargain slightly with you. What do you do? "
For example, she will let you earn one-tenth less than last year and cut you off bit by bit.
"Then your Majesty means not to agree?"
"No, promise her." Zhu Houzhao shook his head.
Situ Hao was a little confused, "Didn't His Majesty say that she would become bigger? Why is that?"
"Because the power of laws is very strong, you can only comply with them and cannot go against them. Huiyanji has requests from the court, and the court can also put forward its own conditions. You can discuss this with Yan Weizhong again. Beat him to death with a stick, no matter what Giving a way out is not a good idea."
No matter how much the court restricts the growth of a salt merchant family, in the end, there will only be a few left in the market, so this law must be followed. If you block it here, it will definitely use various overt and covert methods to achieve its goals in order to survive.
Situ Hao didn't understand what the 'conditions' the emperor wanted, and he didn't even have a general direction, so he got up and asked, "Your Majesty, I dare to ask what kind of conditions the imperial court wants... to offer to a businessman. ?”
When he asked this, he immediately earned the emperor's dark face, "That's why I asked you to discuss it with Yan Weizhong again. It's prudent and I can't make a decision at the moment. Do you understand?"
…
…
"It's your Majesty's fault." The carriage swayed, and Yan Song, who was sitting inside, criticized Situ Hao unceremoniously, "No matter what I say today, it is nonsense. Since we talked about 'negotiation,' either I just haven't thought about it, or I have thought about it but it's not convenient to talk about it. It's better for you to ask directly. If I don't blame you, who can I blame?"
Situ Hao felt uncomfortable when he thought about his poor performance in front of the king, and said with a hot face: "I am afraid that I will misunderstand the holy will. The imperial court and Hui Yanji, your majesty and a businessman, as an official, can you propose to a businessman?" What conditions?"
That means that this matter is fundamentally off the table.
What is the status of the government and what is the status of merchants? It would be shameful for the two to talk about cooperation!
Yan Song hated the fact that iron cannot become steel, and rebuked a little eagerly: "You feel that your face is dull, how can your Majesty feel that your face is bright?!"
Situ Hao slapped his head and looked like he had an epiphany, "Oh! That's not a question you should ask!"
"In the future, we still need to have more insights and try to figure out the Holy Spirit's thoughts, otherwise it will be difficult to gain anything."
"Thank you Yan for your point. But... His Majesty said it would be discussed, but didn't say anything about the conditions. This..."
"You have obviously thought of it. Why don't you understand? It's just a merchant. What is the only thing it can give to the court?"
Situ Hao frowned, thought for a few breaths, and then suddenly realized, "Silver! It's silver!"
"You still have some brains." Yan Song sighed, "You Sanchun has arrived in the capital. You go and talk to her in a few days. I won't show up. Remember, status, honor, reputation... it provides everything. No, the only thing that can be given is money. But the court should not directly mark a price. Since His Majesty feels that his face is shameless, then we have to be smarter and not be too naked. We have to find another way, for example, how about asking for some shares? ?”
"Yes, I understand."
After talking about this, the library garden has almost arrived.
The groom opened the curtain and helped Yan Song out, "There are really many carriages."
"A grand event is rare, so everyone wants to come and join in the fun."
Yan Song turned around and saw that Xie Pi was also here.
"Wei Zhong, let's go in together?"
(End of chapter)
