After the shopkeeper weighed it, he gave the old woman salt, wrapped it in paper, and sent the old woman away.
Zhu Yunwen signaled Xie Jin to buy a catty of salt, and then asked the shopkeeper: "Is the price of salt given by the dental store really eighteen cents per catty?"
The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly and raised his hand in assurance.
Xie Jin asked the shopkeeper to weigh it and said, "Where is the dental shop in Yan City? Who holds the dental post?"
The shopkeeper looked at Xie Jin and others and felt a little uneasy: "These are..."
Zhu Yunwen comforted the shopkeeper: "We are Huizhou merchants, and we also want to settle in Yangzhou. We are unfamiliar with this place. We must get to know more about it and get to know some people with great hands and eyes."
The shopkeeper was immediately happy. There were many such merchants in Yangzhou. Although the people in the dental shop were not very good, it would be an exaggeration to say that they had good hands and eyes, but in Yangzhou, ordinary merchants still had to rely on the dental shop.
"Most of the tooth shops are in Renfeng, where there are many rich families. Feng Cheng, the tooth shop who manages the salt market, by the way, walk 200 steps north along the street. There is a Mingyue Warehouse there. He usually works there. There."
Warehouses, that is, didian, tafang, and yahang, can often provide warehouses to store goods.
Zhu Yunwen thanked the shopkeeper and left the salt shop. Liu Changge came over, turned his gaze to the west, and whispered: "The old woman bought the salt and returned home. She should be a commoner living near the west gate."
Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly: "Then let's go and take a look."
Zhu Di and Xu Huizu had no choice but to follow.
Zhu Yunwen said to Xie Jin and others: "What do you think about dental practice?"
Regarding this point, Zhu Di was somewhat helpless and sighed: "I'm afraid the dental industry still needs to exist."
Xu Huizu and Xie Jin nodded repeatedly.
There is a reason for saying such things, and the reason is Zhu Yuanzhang.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, dental shops existed, and they were divided into two categories: official dental shops, which were set up by the imperial court in various places to assist government offices in collecting commercial taxes and managing the market; and private dental shops, which were later called secular shops. Brokers are mainly responsible for helping the government calibrate weights and measures, collect commercial taxes, stabilize prices, and also help identify counterfeit currency.
The existence of Yahang has its positive effects, especially for large-volume goods transactions. It can rely on its own connections and abilities to facilitate transactions and make resource allocation more efficient. But at the same time, some dental shops rely on information, connections, and privileges granted by the government to control market trade, control prices, and harm the people.
Moreover, after passing the dental shop, the dental shop needs to charge a dental servant, that is, an intermediary fee.
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't like being charged intermediary fees, and the teething problem did exist, so in the second year of Hongwu, he built a warehouse and a livestock farm in the capital, "to store merchants' goods, pigs, sheep and other livestock" for buyers to Come here with the sellers to discuss directly face to face, "retire from office and go privately".
Summary: This is a market without middlemen making price differences.
But the problem is that few people believe this advertising slogan after it is typed. Even the omnipotent Internet cannot ban middlemen, let alone the Ming Dynasty with serious information asymmetry?
Although Zhu Yuanzhang abolished his official and private teeth, he even said directly in his imperial edict:
If you dare to say that you are an official or a private person, you can get it from your neighbors and go to Beijing, so that you can migrate to other places. If it is an official, the official's whole family has moved, and if he dares to act as an official privately, the two neighbors will not lead, and the crime is the same.
Being punished at the banishment level at every turn, and being punished even if you don't report it, is that pretty awesome, isn't it?
But the problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang cannot defeat the laws of the market, nor can he defeat the market itself. Yaxing does not exist, and many things cannot be done. The goods here cannot be sold, and the prices are so cheap that they lose money. The goods there cannot be collected, and the prices are too high. .
After going back and forth, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to revoke these bans in the later period of Hongwu and reset the official and private teeth. However, considering the dental problem, the government is very strict in management.
The toothpaste is a way for the government to control dental shops. It is similar to a license. It is usually renewed every two or three years. Of course, the replacement of the toothpaste is not free. It is not much, just one stone per kilogram.
Of course, if you are unwilling to part with this stone and rice, you will need to turn in the toothpaste when it expires, and you will not be able to enter this industry in the future. You must think clearly about the consequences.
Generally speaking, those who work as dental shops are not poor people. They at least have family property, connections in the industry, and they must be literate as much as possible. Otherwise, how will you register the merchants? If you don’t register the merchant’s name, home address, quantity of goods, and transaction amount, That means eating a stick.
The imperial court recognized the existence of dental shops and supported their collection of dental servants, but at the same time, a portion of the dental servants needed to be taxed. This was the dental tax and could not be reduced. Don’t think that income is non-taxable. If you conceal your income or set up a small treasury privately, if you are discovered, you will be beaten fifty times.
Yaxing cannot die. This is the reality of the Ming Dynasty. Even a tough person like Lao Zhu can't do it. I have to admit that Zhu Yunwen will not cut off Yaxing with one blow. However, after visiting several salt shops, he found that the price of salt is indeed at increased, and the increase was a bit large.
When the price of salt increases, it stands to reason that the court's salt tax should also increase, but in fact this is not the case. Liu Changge has investigated and found that the Salt Transfer Department of the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River has not adjusted the salt price. In other words, how much salt should the court sell? Still, the rise in salt prices has nothing to do with the court.
So here comes the question. The rise in salt prices is a fact, not a problem of the government. Whose problem is it?
"Is there any reduction in Zaohu staff?"
Zhu Yunwen asked.
Liu Changge shook his head: "According to the investigation by the Security Bureau, last year the Lianghuai Salt Farm absorbed victims due to disaster relief, and the number of kitchen households increased by 3,000. This year's salt production is no less than in previous years."
Zhu Yunwen looked at Xie Jin: "What do you think?"
Xie Jin thought for a while and analyzed: "It is not a problem of kitchen households, the salt production in the salt farm can keep up, and the government has not adjusted the price of salt. It stands to reason that the price of salt should remain stable. Even if there are some fluctuations, it will not exceed two We need money. But now the price of salt has increased from ten cents per catty in the early years of Jianwen to eighteen cents, and it has nearly doubled in just four years. I am afraid that someone is behind it."
Zhu Di agreed with Xie Jin's view and pointed the finger at Yahang: "Yaxing has dominated the market since ancient times. The current surge in salt prices in Yangzhou is probably inseparable from Yahang."
Xu Huizu persuaded with a smile: "The housekeeper should not be too arbitrary. The court's control over the salt shop is so strict now. Even if they want to manipulate the price of salt, I'm afraid it won't be easy. In my opinion, there is probably a bigger conspiracy behind this." figure."
Zhu Yunwen raised his eyebrows. Xu Huizu's analysis made sense. Although Yaxing was greedy, they were at the end of the circulation chain. One end was related to the store, and the other end was not related to the court, but to the water merchants.
Water merchants are related to internal merchants and border merchants. What are these three merchants? This issue is related to the salt policy of the Ming Dynasty and the price of salt.
The salt administration of the Ming Dynasty adopted a monopoly system, and the core of the monopoly system was the kaizhong system. That is, merchants transported grain and other materials to border areas designated by the court. The government issued quotations, that is, certification documents, and then the merchants took these quotations. Go get the salt and sell it.
In other words, the imperial court used the benefits of selling salt in exchange for merchants' labor and physical goods as a means of adjusting military reserves and material supplies.
The operation of the open system can be compared as follows:
Suppose the bastard Chang Baiye, a border merchant, sent a bunch of grain to Gansu and Song Sheng opened a warehouse for him. Chang Baiye took the warehouse money and asked for salt.
Where is Shiobei?
In Lianghuai!
So Chang Baiye had to take a donkey to the Salt Transportation Department in Lianghuai and ask the Yamen Office staff to check the money coming to the warehouse. He calculated it clearly and found that the total was 10,000 yuan. After the receipt was opened, he went to the Approval and Inspection Office to withdraw it. Bar.
Before Chang Baiye reached the gate of the laboratory, Shen Yiyuan ran over and stopped Chang Baiye. He said hello and started to fool around: "Sell me the salt in your hand."
Often do not do anything.
Shen Yiyuan continued to persuade: "It took you several months to come here from Gansu. If you drag Yan back, how long will it take to travel back and forth? Why not just sell it and save a lot of money, right? Besides, Huai The salt can't reach Shanxi, and you don't have any channels to transport it to other places. The time lost on the road is all interest. Don't you feel bad? Tell me how much it costs per yin, and I'll buy it."
Chang Baiye calculated in his mind: running here and there, travel expenses, hard work expenses, labor expenses, food expenses, time expenses, as well as handling fees and paper expenses for salt printing. Added up, the cost of one salt printing is roughly 500 yuan.
So Chang Baiye said: "You want it, no problem, six hundred and fifty articles per quotation."
Shen Yiyuan immediately agreed and bought it. At this time, Shen Yiyuan's identity was that of an internal businessman.
But Shen Yiyuan is also a businessman. He bought the salt from the border merchants. It is impossible for him to eat all the salt himself, so he just acts as a middleman and makes a fortune.
Shen Yiyuan took the salt he bought to the laboratory and prepared the salt.
Don’t think that it’s easy to get salt by holding it. There are complex interests involved.
Not to mention the large amount of money Shen Yiyuan paid to buy the border merchant Yanyin, he also needed to pay the following fees:
Salt comes in packages, and packaging requires extra money. It's not much, and one package costs 800 yuan. Fifty coins must be paid for each quotation and kept in the treasury to prepare for relief. This is relief silver.
By the way, because the food sent to the border troops by border merchants is usually spoiled, they need to be fined. This is a fine of silver, and you only need to pay a fine of two hundred coins. There is also cutting of silver, that is, weighing whether there is too much or not. No matter it is too much or too little, you still have to pay some respect to the silver.
Collecting salt at the end of the day, transporting salt to the end, and stacking salt across the bridge, these things cannot be done by one person with only one dollar. The clerk also has travel money, and the boatman also needs to pay one dollar.
Moreover, with so much salt produced and so much money advanced, it would be impossible for Shen Yiyuan to sell the salt on the same day. It would take several months, and the interest lost during this period must also be taken into account...
After going around in a circle, Shen Yiyuan finally got the salt and said: I have a lot of salt here.
After businessman Liang Wenxing heard about it, he came to find Shen Yiyuan: "Tell me how much it costs per yin, I will buy it."
Shen Yiyuan thought of his hard work and expense in the process of collecting salt at the end of the game. After calculating, he said to Liang Wenxing: "You want it, no problem, just three or two for a penny."
Liang Wenxing immediately agreed and bought it. At this time, Liang Wenxing's identity was a water merchant.
From a border merchant, a quotation of 650 yuan was transferred to an internal merchant, and by the time it was in the hands of a water merchant, the price had already increased to 30,000 yuan. And water merchant Liang Wenxing still needs to change hands once...
PS:
The amount of salt here is 400 kilograms.
