Xinshun 1730

Chapter 968 The Second Memorial of Salt Reform
Wandu has been reduced to a small village in the later generations, the Yellow River flows south, and there are constant breaches, which has changed many things.

Not only was the coast stretching inward for more than a hundred miles created out of nowhere, it also completely changed the economic conditions here. The original affluent areas were mixed up like this, and Liu Yu was filled with emotion.

Accompanied by Shi Shiyong, Liu Yu just walked around the Wandu saltworks, chatted with the people who boiled salt, and then left.

The boiled salt method is still used here. In fact, the sun-dried salt method has been matured for a long time.

If you think about it, you can actually understand why reform is so difficult.

The firewood, coal, and huge iron pots used to cook salt are not something poor stove households can afford alone.

This also enabled the court to control them, because the court's management ability was too low, so it could only choose to retreat and manage by retreating.

There is a sun-salt method obviously, but how to manage the sun-salt method?

Once the firewood, coal, and pots and stoves are under control, the production of salt for boiling salt can be controlled, thereby preventing smuggling, and only then can the salt tax be collected.

But what if the sun-salt method is used?Is it possible to check the sun like checking firewood and coal?
Like the lifting of the ideological ban in the late Ming Dynasty, new technologies such as drying salt can be spread in Fujian and other places, not because the imperial court took the initiative to promote progress, but because the imperial court was unable to govern.

The salt in the Lianghuai area is too important, accounting for the bulk of the salt tax, and the imperial court here can only choose to use this backward method to control it-because it is important, it is backward.

The software of the empire determines the upper limit of the hardware that the empire can control.Let the hardware be updated, and when the empire's software finds that it can't keep up, it will choose not to allow hardware updates, or even let the hardware back version.

Those places that develop and break through the shackles are not that the imperial court does not want to take care of them, but that the imperial court is unable to take care of them.

For this kind of thing, others may have to ask why the stove households who cook salt are so bitter?

Liu Yu didn't need to ask.

As a person who promotes the waste of rice in Songjiang Prefecture and the silver tax, he knows very well what it looks like when the rice is collected every year.

After the rice comes down, the merchants will lower the price to an extremely low price.

When there is a shortage of money, they will lend money at a very high interest rate.

The same is true for these salt-cooking stove households, which are controlled by salt merchants to drive down the price of salt; when capital is needed to buy firewood, loans with high interest are issued.Theoretically, the imperial court has set prices, but once it is only theoretical, it means that it does not exist.

Originally designed in the early Ming Dynasty, the government provided capital, iron pots, firewood, etc., boiled salt, and purchased it according to the official price.

But the imperial court had no money, so it issued banknotes with no reserve funds and no tax collection.

A whole set of official methods under the full control of the imperial court, no matter if it is clear or smooth, it will not work.

The logic of small producers has never been to oppose all kinds of exploitation, but to oppose that they are not exploiters. This is the doomed thing of the small peasant mentality.

Even if Dashun comes to reform now, it will be difficult to change to full imperial control and turn these small producers of salt households into hired workers of the official saltworks.

The imperial court not only wanted the people to eat salt, but also ensured that they could receive taxes from the salt, which created an almost unsolvable situation.

Unless Dashun's grassroots control reaches an astonishing height.

But Liu Yu is on the bank of the Yellow River, thinking about the mobilization and control ability of a prefecture-level city under the same technical conditions and the same iron tools that are being built on the opposite side of the river, and the mobilization and control of this whole country. The tragic comparison of abilities makes it clear that this is just a delusion.

The difficulty in promoting the reform of the salt drying law is never in the production technology, but in the anti-smuggling technology and the grassroots management capabilities.

What about a more relaxed method that is in line with Dashun's control ability and allows capital to enter the market?

Relying on sufficient capital, how about crowding out these small salt households and turning them into impoverished proletarians to give birth to a new era in advance?

After a short inspection at the Wandu saltworks, Liu Yu wrote the second memorial to the emperor on the reform of the salt administration.

There are two questions in total.

Why is there smuggling of "Sichuan salt into Chu and Guangdong salt into Hunan" in Lianghuai salt?Hubei and Hunan are both "sales areas" of Lianghuai.

Because Sichuan Salt cooks salt with natural gas, there is no need to burn firewood at all.

As for Guangdong and Fujian, because of the lack of jurisdiction in the previous dynasty, the sun-dried salt method was popularized early.

The cost of salt in the Lianghuai area is much higher than in these two places.

Burning firewood also costs money.

Even, the money for burning firewood accounts for almost two-thirds of the cost of cooking salt.

Firewood is not available everywhere. In order to cook salt, a lot of land is dedicated to planting trees, and the planted trees are used to ensure the fuel for salt cooking.This in turn increased the land conflict in the Huaibei area.

Regardless of whether it is natural gas boiled salt in Sichuan, or sun-dried salt in Fujian and Guangdong, fuel costs are saved.

Therefore, in order to eradicate the problem of Sichuan salt entering Chu and Guangdong salt entering Hunan, fundamentally speaking, it is best to let the two Huaihe Rivers adopt the salt drying method.

Otherwise, they are all means to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and the more illegal salts are investigated, the more illegal salts will be found.

This is a cost issue, and it is used to solve the problem that the salt tax of Lianghuai salt is taken away by smuggled salt in Hubei and Hunan.

The other is that Liu Yu proposed a method similar to that of Songjiang Marine Commercial Group, in the form of a large company, which is convenient for government supervision and control, and adopts the method of drying salt.

There is a technical problem with the salt drying method in the Lianghuai area, that is, because the Yellow River flows into the sea, the sea water here is "lighter" than other places.

It is lighter than other places, and it is not easy to dry out the salt.But in fact, there is no solution, and that is to drench bittern.

Since there are no technical problems, this kind of large companies investing in and crowding out those small salt households has another advantage, that is, these large companies can adopt some new technologies.

In the northern Jiangsu area, windmills were used to extract salt water, but with the gradual retreat to small farmers, even salt cooking, the northern Jiangsu windmills that existed in the Song Dynasty have basically disappeared.

Now that Dashun can make steam engines, they dare not and cannot use them in the textile industry. They can be used in places that have little impact on the traditional small-scale peasant economy.

Why can these salt farms take such an approach?

Because a large number of salt cookers flee every year, the imperial court spends money to recruit them every year, and gives them some equity to do it.

But often, within a few years of working, the hanging hairs exploited by salt merchants are gone.What else to do but run away?

This is different from small farmers on traditional land. The imperial court is worried about affecting their livelihood.

But for boiled salt, it is to face the situation of people running away constantly.

In fact, it has become more serious in the past few years. With the development of Nanyang in the Huanghuai area, the exclamation of persuading Jun Mo to go to Nanyang has not yet spread, and a large number of salt households secretly ran to Nanyang.

In this case, there is no need to consider whether it will affect the livelihood of the "small people".

On the contrary, it is possible to use the simplest and most direct means to stage a scene in which "big factories crush individual handicrafts and reduce them to destitute proletarians".

It just so happens that steam engines, etc., which can greatly improve production efficiency, are not affordable or affordable for small private households.

At the same time, as a large company, it can produce more stock, as long as the government supervises it in place.

Compared with scattered small households, large companies, like those monopoly groups in Songjiang Prefecture, are actually easier to be supervised.

The selling price of salt set by the imperial court is theoretically profitable.It's just that those small salt households have to rely on fuelwood to cook salt to increase costs, and on the other hand, they are exploited by salt merchants who "collect salt to lower prices and buy firewood to increase prices", so it is difficult to make money.

Therefore, if the reform can be implemented, it can not only ensure the profitability of the undertaking company, but also lower the price of Lianghuai salt, so as to drive away the problem of Sichuan salt entering Chu and Guangdong salt entering Hunan.

At the same time, since the imperial court wanted to reform, it had to introduce the Salt Outline Law into the Salt Ticket Law.

Then, paying taxes by bills can also achieve the goal of the imperial court after the production of salt industry: tax collection.

Large companies can keep costs down, and drying salt requires space, so private salt can only choose to continue cooking, which is more secretive, and it is bound to be unable to compete with large companies that have adopted new technologies.

Either go bankrupt and go to Nanyang Plantation.

Or go bankrupt and work as a hired worker in the saltworks.

Either go bankrupt and go beggar.

There is no fourth way to go.

The imperial court had to do two things: check the quality of salt and collect taxes according to the quantity of salt.

In addition to these factors directly related to the salt industry, Liu Yu also mentioned another benefit that seems to have little to do with the salt industry, or planning.

The entry point is glass production, and the reason for this entry is that glass production has also been an important tax source for the imperial court in recent years.

When considering glass production, market issues must be considered first. The economy in southern Jiangsu is developed, and the sales volume of glass is increasing year by year.Glass is more troublesome to transport than porcelain, and it cannot withstand the stormy waves at sea.

Therefore, it is best to directly put into operation some glass production plants in southern Jiangsu.

The imperial court supports the development of the glass industry, because each piece of glass will be taxed before it leaves the factory.

Moreover, the imperial court controls the new-style soda plant in the north, which is undertaken by the Academy of Sciences.

The upstream raw materials of the glass industry are controlled from the source, which means that although the glass industry is run by merchants, there is no room for tax evasion-how much alkali corresponds to how much glass, this is the same as the salt industry's previous inference based on the amount of firewood. Private salt is the same reason.

Glass production requires a lot of coal, or burning wood is fine.

The price of firewood in southern Jiangsu is very expensive, the population is large, there are no large coal mines there, and the urbanization rate is relatively high compared to other places, so the price of firewood is naturally expensive.

In addition to glass manufacturing, some emerging industries in southern Jiangsu have also begun to use steam engines.Such as sawing wood, shipbuilding, etc.

If Huaibei can also use steam engines to extract brine for drying salt, then the conditions for building a coal port centered on Lianyungang will be ripe.

There is coal in the Huaibei area, especially the Xuzhou area and Zaozhuang area that are not too far from Lianyungang.

The coal there can also be used by steam engines-because of the diversion of the Yellow River, some coal mines before the Song Dynasty had a lot of water.And these clumsy steam engines are used to lift water, and they are just very suitable for coal mining there.

As long as it is profitable, then Liu Yu can take the lead in transporting coal to Haizhou by using the original river channel, coupled with the pig iron rails of Shangmala, and combining iron and water transportation.

Part of it is used for drying salt in Huaibei.

Some of them go to southern Jiangsu by boat, which can not only alleviate the dilemma of "expensive firewood" in southern Jiangsu, but also promote the industrial development of southern Jiangsu.

Because at this time the Yellow River has not created a wide Sulu Yellow River Flooding Area, in fact this seemingly large project is actually not that big.

To the west of Haizhou, because the yellow flood zone has not yet appeared at this time, the Qiangwei River can be passed by boat.

At the same time, there is also Qingyi Lake, which has dried up in later generations, but exists at this time.

To the west of Qingyi Lake, there is also a large Luoma Lake at this time. Because of the existence of the Yellow River water, the water volume of the Grand Canal in the section of Luoma Lake is navigable.

In essence, what needs to be repaired is only a section of road from Luoma Lake to Qingyi Lake, about 80 miles, and there is not much money. The capital can fully repair it, and it is profitable.

Because this road not only transports coal, but also transports salt and other commodities.Considering the current price of firewood in southern Jiangsu and the level of navigation in Dashun, it is still profitable to transport coal by sea.

Finally, from the perspective of the imperial court, Liu Yu analyzed the benefits of such a plan "to the imperial court and to the emperor":

After the canal was abandoned, only the navy remained to maintain the link between North and South.

Such a bond is not strong enough.

The best way is to strengthen economic ties between the North and the South, that is, the South cannot be separated from the North, and the North cannot be separated from the South.

Only in this way can the problem of estrangement and separation between the north and the south after the canal is abandoned can be resolved.

If the imperial court wants to control southern Jiangsu in the future, it actually only needs to leave Gyeonggi, pass Jinan, and go to Xuzhou.Controlling the coal there means controlling the growing industries in southern Jiangsu.

Only in this way can the country and the country be stabilized.

Every reform plan of Liu Yu must let the emperor see: what good will it do to strengthen the imperial power and strengthen the emperor's control over the world.Although there were pits buried inside, Liu Yu estimated that the emperor would not be able to see it at all.

As for the others... just listen to what the emperor and scholar-bureaucrats say about the common people in the world, but don't really believe it, it doesn't matter which emperor, as long as he sits firmly in his seat.

The simplest example, if the imperial court is really for the sake of the common people and the people of the world, the sun-drying salt method has been promoted in the Lianghuai area a long time ago, and it is now its turn?
(End of this chapter)