Prince of Chaos

Chapter 441
People take food as their heaven!
This rule applies throughout the ages!

Since there is food first, there must be something that "advances with food"!
And this thing is salt!

People without salt are powerless.

Therefore, the importance of salt is self-evident.

Since Guan Zhong in the Spring and Autumn Period, the salt administration has undergone several changes in the past dynasties, but all changes have remained the same. Salt administration taxation has always been an important source of taxation for the court. When it is high, the annual salt tax can support half of a country’s income!

But after the Ming Dynasty, the salt tax system underwent a fundamental change.

According to the tax policy formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang when he founded the country, the salt tax per catty in the Ming Dynasty was only 2.7 cash, which was the lowest salt tax in all dynasties.

Therefore, even though the population of the Ming Dynasty had skyrocketed compared with the previous generation, the income from the salt tax was greatly reduced, and it could no longer be compared with the previous generation.

Originally, this was considered a good policy for Zhu Yuanzhang to benefit the people.

However, the problem appeared again, that is, the population surge and the supply of salt have always been unbalanced.

The total number of registered households in the Ming Dynasty was about 6000 million, so when the government made salt, it was produced according to the supply of 6000 million people.

As for why not prolific?
The reason for this is the difference between ancient and modern salt-making techniques and the greedy nature of human beings.

The salt boiling method used in ancient salt making, as the name suggests, is to boil seawater to evaporate the water in the seawater, so as to obtain coarse salt that can be eaten by humans.

Moreover, in order to ensure the price system and supply of salt, special stove households were set up. These stove households have been passed down through the ages and can only make a living by boiling salt. Moreover, it is also stipulated how much salt they have to hand in on a regular basis.

There is nothing wrong with this provision if it is viewed from the perspective of the actual problems at the time.

After all, the imperial court needed a stable supply of salt as well as a stable price system.

However, the biggest problem among them is the mismatch between population and productivity that happened later.

From the Ming Dynasty to the Wanli period, the population exploded several times. According to later studies, the population at the end of the Ming Dynasty was about [-] million.

However, the salt produced by the kitchen households used by the imperial court was still produced according to the supply of 6000 million people.

Therefore, the problem is naturally serious.

So what about the salt supply for the remaining 1 million people?
There is only one answer, and that is private salt!
The proliferation of private salt made the salt merchants in Lianghuai and Huaihe Rivers rich. However, after these people became rich, they did not pay a penny of salt tax to the imperial court.

Moreover, even the salt tax originally set by the imperial court for the consumption of salt by a population of 6000 million, they would use various excuses to default or even refuse to pay.

Gradually, the Ming Dynasty's salt tax system suffered a devastating blow.

Although the imperial court invented policies such as "opening the law", "salt introduction" and "outline law" in order to collect salt tax normally, but these methods are only palliatives, not root causes, and are just bug patches on the original version of the salt policy That's all.

Therefore, looking at the salt tax in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there is still not much improvement, and private salt is still rampant!The profiteers are still the salt merchants and their protection umbrellas, and have nothing to do with the imperial court.

Speaking of this, I have to complain about the low productivity and extremely inefficient bureaucratic system in ancient times.

Under the high-pressure cultural suppression dominated by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, this system has not improved or changed in the long years.

Its stability has reached the point where it can imprison an entire era!

It can be seen that since the Song and Ming Dynasties, this great country has lost its forward momentum.Although, she has always maintained a corresponding strength, but this strength is just a huge inertia.

When this inertia disappears, the civilization that catches up will let the current civilization that relies on inertia to survive understand what pain and humiliation are!
After Zhu Changluo checked all the information on Daming's Salt Administration, he asked Wei Zhongxian to call Dong Qichang and Liu Pinru over.

Zhu Changluo looked at the two and asked, "What do you two think of the current Yanzheng?"

As soon as Zhu Changluo said this, Dong Qichang and Liu Pinru felt excited.

Because, even if the crown prince wants to ask about such a major policy, he will ask the cabinet boss and other giants.

Now, he actually asked them this question, obviously Zhu Changluo wanted to hear their opinions.

If I answered well enough, maybe I am right in front of me.

Dong Qichang glanced at Liu Pinru, but he didn't speak first. After all, the knowledge of Yanzheng was beyond his understanding. He had to listen to Liu Pinru's words first, and then process it himself. This was safe enough.

Liu Pinru knew that this was his chance, so he sorted out his thoughts and said, "Your Highness, there are three major disadvantages in the current salt administration!"

Liu Pinru's speech is a typical literati speech, and what he pays attention to is that his words are not surprising and endless.

However, Zhu Changluo, who is a time traveler, has long been immune to such remarks.

Zhu Changluo watched Liu Pinru's performance, and he said with a smile: "Continue."

Zhu Changluo's reaction made Liu Pinru feel guilty for a while. Obviously, the expected effect he thought did not seem to be reflected in Zhu Changluo.Zhu Changluo was a little unimpressed with his discussion of the "three major disadvantages".

Liu Pinru held back his momentum, and then said a little weakly: "The minister thinks that the salt administration has three disadvantages, one is that the supervision is not good, the second is that salt leads to excessive distribution, and the third is that the salt tax is unclear."

Liu Pinru's speech made Zhu Changluo yawn, obviously these three things are not what Zhu Changluo wanted to hear.

However, considering that Liu Pinru is only a feudal bureaucrat, Zhu Changluo has no reason to be too harsh on him.

Zhu Changluo said: "These three evils have existed since ancient times. How to solve them?"

When Liu Pinru heard Zhu Changluo asking how to solve it, he hesitated for a moment.

Then, he gritted his teeth and said, "Reform!"

When Zhu Changluo heard these two words, he finally became interested.

Zhu Changluo asked, "How to change it?"

Liu Pinru said: "First, reform the supervision method, strengthen the assessment of the salt road, clarify its responsibilities, and examine its merits. Second, reform the law of salt introduction to prevent excessive salt introduction. Third, the Ministry of Households can set up a special The task is connected to the salt road to ensure that the salt tax is directly deposited into the silver warehouse of the warehouse department."

After Zhu Changluo finished listening, he looked at Dong Qichang and said, "What do you think, Master Dong?"

Dong Qichang said: "Your Highness, I think Liu Shilang's opinion is very pertinent. However, from the perspective of my minister, I think that the anti-corruption investigation of Yandao should be intensified, and the officials of Yandao should be promoted to be clean and honest. In accordance with the law, the normalization of the salt tax will be restored."

After Zhu Changluo listened to their speech, he said: "Both of you are right. However, there is one thing you have overlooked."

After Dong Qichang and Liu Pinru heard Zhu Changluo's words, they immediately bowed and said, "Please show me, Your Highness."

Zhu Changluo said: "The reason why the salt tax is unsustainable is that the tax law is unclear and the rights and responsibilities are difficult to distinguish. Of course, this is only the surface. The biggest problem is the insufficient salt production."

"Gutiao has read some information on the salt road. Today, the policy of the continuation of the Ming Dynasty's salt administration is still based on the policy formulated by Emperor Taizu. The kitchen households that burn salt are still comparable to those in the Hongwu period, and the amount of salt produced is still at the same level. The number of people in the early Ming Dynasty is 6000 million. Now that the Ming Dynasty has been in peace for more than [-] years, is there no change in the number of household registrations compared with the early Ming Dynasty?"

"I think that in 200 years, the number of households in my Ming Dynasty must have far exceeded that of the early Ming Dynasty. But why did the salt road continue to produce salt with 6000 million people? Have you ever thought about the problem? Isn't this the case? Is there a huge interest group inside that is preventing the imperial court from reforming the Yandao?"

Zhu Changluo's words are equivalent to opening the skylight and speaking brightly.

This sentence can scare Dong Qichang and Liu Pinru quite a lot. The problems in it are problematic as long as they think deeply.But why hasn't anyone brought it up?Obviously, the problem here is just like what Zhu Changluo said, there is a huge interest group that is blocking the reform of the imperial court.

Moreover, this interest group not only controls the country's salt cooking industry, but also controls the country's salt sales channels. Once they are moved, the whole country will face the situation of no salt available.In such a serious situation, even the most powerful imperial court would hesitate in the face of such a situation.

After all, once a nationwide salt shortage is caused, such a disaster will be difficult to estimate and unbearable.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, we must start from two aspects, one is to find enough salt, and the other is to find a sales channel that can replace the original salt.

Only by combining these two points can it be possible to reverse the monopoly problem of the salt road at once without causing huge social turmoil!
However, is Zhu Changluo ready for these two points?

Obviously, Zhu Changluo felt that he had made some preparations.

Zhu Changluo said: "I am alone planning to reform the salt administration, what do you two think?"

Dong Qichang and Liu Pinru were asked by Zhu Changluo, and they could only reply: "I support Your Highness's reform."

Zhu Changluo said: "Okay, but as the first step in reforming the salt administration, I'm going to let Erqing go first. First, Master Dong will lead the Anti-Corruption Agency to settle in Yandao to find out the facts of corruption in Yandao. Second, by Liu Shilang went to the court to set up the taxation department of the household department to directly connect with the salt road, and take over the salt tax storage matters full-time. What I have to do is to give you the greatest support, so don't be lonely and disappointed."

"Yes."

The two prayed again.

However, at the end, Liu Pinru still said a very important thing, "His Royal Highness, the Ministry of Households really has no money to support the war, what should we do?"

Zhu Changluo looked at Liu Pinru's embarrassment, and he said: "I have my own plans, and you should do your job right away. As long as you are alone, you will not be used as a scapegoat."

Zhu Changluo's words reassured Liu Pinru, and he knocked heavily excitedly, "I must be heartbroken to repay Your Highness's kindness!"

After Liu Pinru finished kowtowing in gratitude, Zhu Changluo said, "Okay, it's nothing, you can step back."

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(End of this chapter)