golden scales

According to the Ming Dynasty's Salt Administration, no salt trade could be conducted without the permission of the imperial court.The purpose of doing this is to control the salt merchants and facilitate tax collection.Later, the method of opening China was implemented, and it was also possible to use salt to attract grain to ensure grain transportation from the nine sides.Later, the Kaizhong method was abolished, and the imperial court collected money and sold salt, which led to the bankruptcy of the merchants in the frontier fortress, the shortage of food for the frontier army, and the weakening of national defense.

During the Jiajing Dynasty, Wang Chonggu and others wanted to reopen the frontier fortress merchants, and then open China and France, but the Lianghuai salt merchants could no longer agree.

Hastily attacking the Lianghuai salt merchants will inevitably lead to social unrest.Zhu Cihong saw this very clearly, but these salt merchants were also big landlords in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River. If they were not attacked, the cost of governing the Huaihe River would remain high.

Zhu Cihong's attack method is very simple. He clarifies the area of ​​the salt field and calculates the salt production, so as to determine the examination results of the state and county officials to which the salt factory belongs.If you sell to the quota, you will pass the exam, if you sell more, you will get extra points, and bonuses will naturally follow.If the sales are low and the test scores are low, the state and county magistrates will have to weigh it themselves.

As for the business travelers who come to buy salt, they don't ask about the outline, but only look at the business license.

As long as the company is registered and declared salt trading, it can buy salt from the salt factory and sell it to the private sector anywhere.In this way, the geographical division of the guideline system was also broken, and price competition in the salt market was stimulated.

Now if someone sells high-priced salt in one place, within three days, other large and small salt merchants will flood into the market with salt until the price of salt is smashed down.

In order to ensure the supply of salt, the imperial court relaxed the approval for opening government-run salt factories in coastal prefectures and counties, and prohibited private capital from intervening in the production of salt factories.Originally, there were seven salt class promotion departments in the country, but they were also set up according to the locality. Not only the coastal provinces have one, but also inland provinces such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shanxi and Henan, because of the well salt, lake salt, and mine salt, they also set up a promotion department. Judiciary.Its responsibility has changed from salt administration management to salt factory management, from mainly banning illegal salt to mainly banning illegal salt factories, but the work intensity has not decreased.

By the end of the 21st year of Chongzhen, if the provincial salt administrations can actually pay the salt money.The treasury income should be more than 500 million taels of silver.

It is said that if such a policy is put down, the salt merchants who have a large amount of funds can still legally and reasonably occupy a large amount of salt produced by the salt factory through the funds in their hands.However, there is still a big problem here. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince passed by Yangzhou when he returned to Beijing.I met with a group of salt merchants. These salt merchants were still in the same old way in Jiajing: crying poor.

As soon as they cried for poverty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was not polite, and with a swipe of a pen, he made a rule: the salt factory only accepts banknotes.

Since you want to cry poor, let you be really poor!

Where can you get paper money unless you deposit large amounts of silver in a bank?And the current situation is that banknotes are in short supply, even if you want to deposit them, the bank will not accept them!

"Huang Tang has to think of a way, he can't watch the common people have no salt to eat, can he?" Salt merchants gathered in the movie garden of Zheng Yuanxun's home.Everyone had a look of panic and anxiety on their faces.

Zheng Yuanxun was a jinshi in Chongzhen for 17 years, the head of the Lianghuai salt merchants, and the movie theater he built to take care of his mother also made him famous for future generations.But at this moment, although he has an official status, he has no official position, and although he is recommended by many salt merchants, he has no real power.It's the most thankless role.

"I have also told the Fuzun that the Fuzun just said that there is nothing we can do, so what can we do?" Zheng Yuanxun sighed: "Now my family is also guarding outside the gate of the salt factory, collecting some salt skins here and there. .”

"The crown prince has no understanding of the economy and the people's livelihood, and if this goes on like this, there will be big trouble!" Someone said harshly.

Zheng Yuanxun glanced at the man, and said: "There is no need to rush this matter, just wait a moment. The precious banknotes issued at the beginning of the country are also valuable. It won't take long. The flood of precious banknotes will naturally lower the price. Don’t be too anxious to exchange for silver.”

After hearing this, everyone said, "After all, the master Jinshi is knowledgeable. Now the banknote factory is rushing to make banknotes day and night, and the denominations are getting bigger and bigger. Most likely, it will become a piece of waste paper in the future."

Zheng Yuanxun comforted everyone, and was about to talk some idle talk, when he suddenly saw a figure shaking outside the flower hall, but it was his son Zheng Hanxue who was looking outside.He said offended, and walked out quickly.Zheng Hanxue saw his father come out.He hurried forward to speak, but was held back by Zheng Yuanxun, and he walked all the way to the back study before letting go.

"My lord, there is news from Nanjing." Zheng Hanxue couldn't restrain the excitement on his face.

Although Nanzhili has been divided into two provinces, Anhui and Jiangsu, and Yingtianfu has also been changed to Jiangningfu, people still call Jiangning Nanjing by habit.

Zheng Yuanxun said leisurely: "What a big deal, there is no city like this!" Seeing his son's face showing shame, he said again: "What does Jiangning say?"

"This time, we have reached the door of Wang Zhixin, the eunuch guarding the south of the Yangtze River. He is willing to save 500 million taels of silver for my family. However, he wants [-]% of our salt industry shares." Zheng Hanxue said.

Zheng Yuanxun's face was dignified, his brows were frowned, and he said, "[-]%."

"My lord, my son thinks it's a good idea." Zheng Hanxue said: "Nowadays the big salt houses don't have banknotes in hand. If we can buy 500 million taels of banknotes, not to mention Lianghuai salt, I'm afraid it won't be Beizhi and Shandong Yandu. Can you eat it?"

"Are you reluctant to give up money as a father?" Zheng Yuanxun glanced at his son dissatisfied: "I am really worried that colluding with internal officials will cause taboo. Especially this salt industry, everyone in the world knows that it is an inexhaustible place. The golden mountain, but did not see that what blows on this golden mountain is not wind, but knives!"

Zheng Hanxue didn't feel that his own business was too risky, and he was quite disapproving.

Zheng Yuanxun shook his head, secretly resenting in his heart: If it weren't for me, this is the only son, I really wish I could throw him out and let him fend for himself!

"How many times have I told you that going through the door, giving benefits, and making friends with people are all things that small businessmen do." Zheng Yuanxun hated the iron but said: "If you want to be a wealthy businessman, you can't focus on this. Above! You must be able to see the sky and have the world in mind!"

"My lord, the essence of this matter is that the crown prince is dissatisfied with us for not giving us any benefits..."

"Fart!" Zheng Yuanxun spit out two words heavily: "Your vision is just like those mediocrity!" He said, pointing in the direction of the flower hall, and said: "Since the 16th year of Chongzhen, when did the crown prince ask for money? He robbed it directly! The savings of eight or nine generations of Shanxi merchants in Zhangjiakou, he said he robbed it. We and Shanxi merchants go hand in hand, and the world calls me an "internal merchant", which is not as powerful as the Shanxi border merchants. , why didn't he grab it?"

"Didn't your lord say that once he robs us, the Lianghuai will be in chaos?" Zheng Hanxue said weakly.

"Is he really afraid of chaos?" Zheng Yuanxun asked back: "What good is there for us if there is chaos? This is actually something that both sides are afraid of when you beat a wolf with a stick. Just have a bottom line in your heart, and don't really take it. "

"What does your lord mean..." Zheng Hanxue felt a little impatient.

Zheng Yuanxun leaned on the official hat chair in his early years, raised his eyes to look at the top beam, and thought for a long time before saying: "Wang Zhixin's connections are not worth mentioning, let's see who the crown prince wants to do the salt business."

Zheng Hanxue was quite aggrieved.Nanjing is where I finally got through. I thought that my father would look at me with admiration when I got the 500 million taels of banknotes, but my father didn't appreciate it, but rather blamed him.

Zheng Yuanxun didn't dare to move, but other people might not be so cautious.

Since Wang Zhixin could speak to the Zheng family, he could naturally speak to other salt merchants as well.He did have the ability to speak up, because the crown prince had internally approved the project of the Jiangnan banknote factory, and he wanted to find a location to open the factory in Jiangning.In this way, the banknotes are not rolling in?

This kind of exchange of paper for silver, who is it not for?There is no fear of salt and brine on the silver.

Zheng Yuanxun also intentionally or unintentionally urged other salt merchants to test the water first, as long as they figured out the crown prince's routine of playing cards, there would be opportunities to make money in the future.What is this little loss now?

Soon, the person who tested the water stepped into the mud.

A strange company that was neither outside nor inside was born out of nowhere, with a total registered capital of only 10 taels, but the register of shareholders was thicker than several tomes.Anyone with a little experience can tell that this is a "meeting", where all small families gather together.

It was this small company gathered by a small family that took away from the Yancheng Salt Factory the largest amount of salt since the implementation of the New Deal—30 catties!

The ex-factory price of table salt issued by the imperial court is 22 yuan per catty for coarse salt, 30 yuan per catty for refined salt, and two cents and two cents of silver. It is not surprising that 600 jin of refined salt is only 30 taels.Surprisingly, this salt company named "Ankang" bought [-] catties of salt in Yancheng, and at the same time bought no less than [-] catties of salt from other salt factories in Huai'an Prefecture.

Later, there was more news that Ankang Salt Industry also collected hundreds of thousands of catties of salt in Zhoushan, Zhejiang.

Not only is the capital abundant, but also the courage is great, and it has the momentum to swallow the southeast Yanshi in one gulp.

Zheng Hanxue's qualifications are still inexperienced, and the industries he takes over are all bright businesses.However, Zheng Yuanxun knew very well that the salt industry has never been a warm and gentle business.Throughout the Ming Dynasty, only the royal family and eunuchs' relatives were eligible to resell salt for profit.If the salt merchants below were only engaged in serious business, they would have starved to death long ago.

So smuggling is normal, not to mention, robbing salt and stealing salt halfway, killing people to silence, these things almost run through the entire industrial chain.There are even special salt merchants who have raised a group of desperadoes, and will never show mercy to those who sell salt in different places and do not obey the rules.This is the so-called Salt Gang in later generations, and its leader is the "Salt Owl".

Huang Chao at the end of the Tang Dynasty and Zhang Shicheng at the end of the Yuan Dynasty are all of them.

Among the big salt merchants including Zheng Yuanxun, who is not a salt lord secretly?Even if he didn't dare to compete with Ankang on the surface, wouldn't he still use some tricks secretly?In particular, the several official roads and waterways used to transport salt in the Ming Dynasty are almost as familiar to the salt lords as their own courtyards.

"Don't be in a hurry when the salt truck comes. Wait for me to use the fire as a sign, and the brothers will go together! This time the boss said, no one will be left alive, and the salt is our brother's errand money!" The desperado suppressed his voice, his eyes seemed to penetrate the mist of dawn.

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