Start with Baihuguan

Ma Yongcheng's actions here naturally attracted the attention of the emperor and Li Huan. Seeing that Ma Yongcheng came quickly with a secret letter, his eyes naturally fell on the secret letter in Ma Yongcheng's hand.

Walking to the front, Ma Yongcheng bowed to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, the spies from Dongchang have just sent the news."

Zhu Houzhao frowned while taking the secret letter from Ma Yongcheng and said, "Oh, what's the news?"

Ma Yongcheng said, "It's the news from the Stone Chamber of Commerce."

Zhu Houzhao had already opened the secret letter at this time, glanced at the contents of the secret letter, with a disdainful smile on the corner of his mouth, while handing the secret letter to Li Huan, he said: "It's really a group of merchants who only have interests in their eyes. This Chen family was also the head of the Stone Chamber of Commerce at the beginning, but they were abandoned by them so easily."

Li Huan took the secret letter and looked at it, heard the words and said with a light smile: "Your Majesty's words are very true, merchants are the most ungrateful for profit, Chen's committing crimes, it will be strange if they don't abandon Chen's."

At this moment, Zhu Houzhao chuckled and said, "It seems that the Xu family thought they had joined the Qing family's line, so they couldn't wait to replace the Chen family."

Li Huan nodded slightly and said: "Since ancient times, the benefits of salt and iron have been the most important. Compared with the amount of salt tax in previous dynasties, it is simply incomparable. Among them, the benefits of salt and iron are all in the hands of merchants. Naturally, Xu can't wait. .”

Hearing what Li Huan said, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but sighed softly.

As a generation of emperors, Zhu Houzhao naturally knew what the salt tax of the Ming Dynasty was all about. As an emperor, looking through the historical records, not to mention compared with the Mongolian Yuan, it was far worse than the former Song Dynasty. many.

In the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties, the annual income tax on salt tax was tens of millions of silver. Similarly, in the former Song Dynasty, the southeast half of the country received tens of millions of tax silver, almost half of which was the tax on salt and iron.

In contrast, Daming's annual income tax on salt tax is only in the millions, which is simply unbelievable.

You must know that even in the later Qing Dynasty, the annual income from the salt tax alone was as much as tens of millions of taels. The salt tax in the past dynasties was the bulk of the court's income tax, and even directly affected the rise and fall of a court.

Daming's income tax on salt tax is so low that it is unbelievable in all dynasties.

"Taizu once said that the salt tax is related to people's livelihood. If the salt tax is too heavy, it will inevitably lead to a soaring salt price. In the end, it will be the people who suffer. Therefore, the Taizu did not impose a heavy tax on salt, hoping to benefit the people at the bottom. .”

In the past, the Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang’s tax on salt, iron, and industry and commerce was extremely low. Not to mention, the salt tax alone has been in the millions of taels since the founding of the country. Over the past hundred years, the population of the Ming Dynasty has at least skyrocketed. several times.

Under normal circumstances, when the population increases, the amount of salt consumed by the people should also double accordingly. Correspondingly, the salt tax should also increase with the increase in population due to the increase in salt consumption. That's right.

However, the Ming Dynasty was peaceful for a hundred years, and the population soared, but the salt tax did not change much. Compared with a hundred years ago, the salt tax not only did not increase, but even decreased somewhat. No one will believe it.

Zhu Houzhao, who was expressing emotion, flashed a stern look in his eyes at this time and said: "The original intention of Taizu was to benefit the people, but he never thought that Taizu's kindness did not benefit the people, but it was cheaper. Such a group of merchants gave birth to A group of salt merchants known as the richest in the world came out."

In the past, Zhu Houzhao's understanding of salt merchants was limited. In Zhu Houzhao's simple understanding, salt merchants are just a group of itinerant merchants who sell salt everywhere. They earn some hard money, and they don't make much money.

However, these days, whether it is the information about the Daming salt merchants submitted by Li Huan or the information about the salt merchants collected by Dongchang under his orders, Zhu Houzhao's understanding of the Daming salt merchants suddenly changed. A sea-shaking change has taken place.

If it weren't for the extremely detailed information collected by Dongchang and Jinyiwei, Zhu Houzhao couldn't believe that in Daming, the rich and wealthy families among the salt merchants in the district actually had tens of millions of taels There are very few salt merchants, but most of them have at least one million net worth.

When Zhu Houzhao suddenly saw the news about the Salt Merchants Group, he was in a daze, or he couldn't believe the news he saw.

It is said that the royal family is the princess of the world, and it is only when the world is rich, but even the royal treasury has less than ten million taels of silver. In the case of silver wealth, if this is not the case, the royal family's internal silver inventory is actually only a few million taels.

Millions of taels of gold and silver are definitely an astonishing wealth, and Zhu Houzhao himself thinks so, but when Zhu Houzhao collected information about salt merchants from Dongchang and Jinyiwei, he found that millions of taels of wealth are important for salt merchants. As far as Shang Shang is concerned, it can only be regarded as mediocre, and one can imagine how complicated Zhu Houzhao's mood would be as the emperor.

Zhu Houzhao breathed out a turbid breath, as if he had become quite unhappy because of the salt merchants of the Stone Chamber of Commerce, looked at Li Huan and said, "Li Qing, I will leave the matter of the salt merchant group to you to deal with."

Originally, this matter was handed over to Li Huan, but now Zhu Houzhao repeated it again, which shows that Zhu Houzhao was not at peace at this time.

Li Huan nodded and said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will definitely live up to your Majesty's expectations, and will definitely tighten up the salt class."

Walking to the side, Zhu Houzhao sat down on a seat, and at the same time motioned for Li Huan to take a seat.

After hearing Li Huan's words, Zhu Houzhao took a deep breath and said to Li Huan: "The Ming Dynasty's salt administration has had a long history of abuses. I don't know how many officials, big and small, have benefited from the benefits of salt and iron. If Li Qing wants to take action on the salt department, he must Just be careful."

Zhu Houzhao would not naively think that rectifying the salt administration would be an easy task. Not only the big and small salt merchants were involved, but also countless officials involved.

What's more important is that these officials are densely packed from the local area to the court, interweaving a large network of interests. This is an extremely large interest group, and even Zhu Houzhao, the emperor, knows the degree of difficulty in it.

Li Huan said with a serious look on his face: "Although this matter is difficult, for the long-term consideration of Ming Dynasty, someone must break this interest group. If so, let me do it!"

Li Huan said with a smile on the corner of his mouth: "Anyway, I have never had a good reputation, and this is not bad."

Zhu Houzhao's eyes were full of emotion when he heard the words. Not everyone would dare to do this kind of thing. If one is not careful, it may end in death.

However, it is said that the transfer of salt envoys in both Huaihe Rivers and Huaihe Rivers suddenly ushered in a team of brocade guards this day.

As the salt transport envoy, Jin Li can be said to be the chief official of the salt transport envoy in both Huaihe Rivers and Huaihe Rivers. Anyone who does anything knows what kind of a fat job this salt transport envoy is.

If Yan Yunshi does not have sufficient background and connections, not everyone can take this seat.

There is even a joke in the market, as a salt transport envoy, even if you exchange a servant, no one may be willing.

Daming had six major salt transport envoys, divided into Lianghuai, Changlu, Liangzhe, Fujian, and Shandong East Transshipment Salt Envoys, as well as Guangdong, Haibei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Black Salt Well, White Salt Well, Anning Salt Well, Five wells and other seven salt department and the Shaanxi salt department, it can be said that these thirteen yamen are almost in charge of the salt industry affairs of the huge Ming Empire.

The salt produced by the Lianghuai River accounted for almost half of the Ming Dynasty. It is conceivable what kind of influence the Siyamen, the salt transporter of the Lianghuai River, had in the Daming salt industry.

As the head of the Siyamen, the salt transport envoy of the Huaihe River and Huaihe River, Jin Li is definitely a man of the hour.

On this day, Jinli was in the yamen as usual to issue and verify the Lianghuai salt imports and count the amount of salt produced by the Lianghuai salt yards managed by the Lianghuai Dushi Yamen.

Others don't know the salt produced by the salt factory, but as the leader of the yamen, Jin Li wants to find out clearly. Of course, this is not because of tax collection for the court, but because it is produced by the Lianghuai salt factory. The amount of salt is directly related to his income.

The salt produced in the official saltworks of the Ming Dynasty can be divided into regular salt and surplus salt. The regular salt is the amount of salt that each person in the salt household must hand in each year as stipulated by the imperial court, and the surplus salt is the amount of salt that is in addition to the quota handed over to the imperial court. Part of the extra salt produced.

According to the intention of the imperial court, Zhengyan belongs to the approved number of tasks completed by Yanhu households, which must be completed by Yanhu households. As long as the annual quota is completed, the imperial court will provide basic food.

As for the surplus salt, the imperial court will recycle it at a price higher than the market salt price, in this way to prevent the surplus salt from flowing out of the salt field and becoming private salt in the market.

It can be said that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the policy of the imperial court, that is, to provide the salt households with a certain basic living security, and to charge the excess salt at a high price to improve the life of the salt households.

But there is no problem with the policy, and there is too much room for manipulation in the hands of specific local officials.

Let’s not mention Zhengyan for the time being, let’s just talk about the remaining salt. The remaining salt is the output beyond the imperial government’s plan. There is no quantification. The quantity is all determined by the salt transport envoys in these places.

The most important thing is that the original intention of the imperial court was to collect the surplus salt from the salt households by the salt transport envoy Siyamen at a high price, but when these local officials implemented it, it turned into collecting surplus salt at a low price and then reselling it at a high price to the salt merchants colluding with it. .

In addition, the salt transport envoy Siyamen has the right to issue normal salt and salt quotations, and often one salt quotation can sell several copies of salt quotations in the hands of salt merchants.

The Ming Dynasty has always had legal salt imports only for regular salt, and the amount of regular salt is a fixed amount, which means that the number of salt imports is also a fixed number, which also leads to no major changes in the salt tax that Daming can collect. Variety.

Don’t you know that the population of Daming is soaring, how can the demand for broken promises not soar? For hundreds of years, the salt tax of Daming has not fluctuated at all. The real reason is that a large amount of surplus salt flows into up the market.

The amount of this part of surplus salt is huge, even far exceeding the amount of normal salt, and even several times that of normal salt. However, this part of surplus salt has no salt guide, and without salt guide, it is impossible to impose a salt tax.

Under the collusion of officials and businessmen, a large amount of surplus salt entered the hands of salt merchants majestically and flowed into the homes of ordinary people. The huge salt profits contained in it naturally became the pockets of officials and salt merchants.

Flipping through the salt output of Lianghuai Saltworks last month, which was compiled not long ago, Gionee couldn't help showing a little smile on his face.

In addition to the table salt to be included in the normal salt, the surplus salt produced last month was worth 10 taels. Even if he had to manage it up and down at that time, at least ten thousand taels of silver were distributed to him in the end.

At least tens of thousands of taels of silver are bought every month, and it is as much as 10,000+ taels a year. This is only the benefit he gets from sitting in this seat, not counting the income from the salt and iron business of the family behind him. as much.

Jin Li took a sip of tea beautifully. He was recommended by Chen Wenliang, and he sat on the seat of the Salt Transport Envoy for nearly ten years. I think he was a second-best Jinshi when he first entered the officialdom, because he worshiped Chen Wenliang as his teacher. Later, he married a daughter of the Chen family, and since then entered the Yamen of the Salt Transport Envoy, and became the top leader of the Yamen in just one year, and this stay has been in the past for nearly ten years.

His Jin family was originally just a poor family, but because he became a Jinshi in high school, divorced his wife, and worshiped under Chen Wenliang's family, in less than ten years, the Jin family has become a well-known noble family in Yangzhou. , with wealth in the millions.

Looking through the account books, Jin Li nodded in satisfaction, and when he was ready to return home, he would send someone to notify the clansmen, as well as the Chen family, Xu family, and Zhao family, to transfer the salt from the salt field.

Suddenly, there was a rush of footsteps coming from outside the hall, Jin Li couldn't help frowning when he heard the footsteps, and looked outside the hall.

When he saw the person coming, Jin Li couldn't help shouting in a deep voice: "Jin San'er, why are you in such a hurry!"

Jin San'er is Jin Li's book boy, and has followed Jin Li for more than 30 to [-] years. It can be said that he is Jin Li's most trusted confidant. At this time, Jin San'er's face is full of panic.

Panting, Jin San'er said to Jin Li: "Master, it's not good, Jin Yiwei... A group of Jin Yiwei appeared outside the Yamen, and they may have broken in by now!"

Jin Li was taken aback when he heard the words, then frowned and said, "Sun Chang, a hundred households of Jinyiwei, just withdrew 3000 taels of silver from me a few days ago..."

Jin San'er shook his head again and again and said, "Master, it's not Sun Chang who came this time, they all look like strangers, they are not from Sun Chang's group at all!"

[Those who have a monthly pass will smash the monthly pass. 】