Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

In the year before last, the Lu family's income grew rapidly because of the addition of Wu Shigong, a sales area for salt products.But when the Lu family was about to make a big splash last year, suddenly, the salt transportation made the yamen stop issuing salt to the Lu family.There were also several small salt merchants in Yangzhou who suffered the same fate.

The reason for the salt transportation to the Yamen is that because of the flood of private salt, the salt tax of the imperial court has dropped too fast, so it is necessary to concentrate the salt imports in the hands of several large salt merchants, which is conducive to the unified tax collection of the imperial court.

But who knows, which year wasn't the flood of private salt?In fact, all salt merchants know this, and this is another drama where the big fish eats the small fish.As expected, the salt of the Lu family was allocated to the Qi family, while the salt of several other small salt merchants was distributed to several other large salt merchants.

However, at the time of the Ming Dynasty, unlike modern business, commercial warfare could be carried out by any means. As long as one wins, the victor will be king.Commercial competition in the Ming Dynasty was actually limited to a very small area.

Especially a large group like the Yangzhou salt merchants, who formed a very influential commercial guild.In this commercial guild, it basically acts in a unified manner externally to maintain high profits in the industry while minimizing friction internally.

Of course, this does not mean that there is no competition among salt merchants in Yangzhou, but there must be a reasonable reason for this competition, otherwise, the winner is likely to be squeezed out by the entire salt merchant group and eventually ruined.

Therefore, the act of Qijia and other big salt merchants robbing the Lu family and other small salt merchants Yanyin through the salt transport envoy this time is completely against the rules.This is also the main reason why the two brothers of the Lu family couldn't bear this tone.

But what the two brothers of the Lu family didn't know was that this behavior that did not conform to the rules this time was not the behavior of big fish eating small fish after Qijia and other big salt merchants bought the salt transport envoy.On the contrary, it was the Yangzhou Salt Transport Envoy who found large salt merchants such as Qijia and asked them to swallow the salt quotations from small salt merchants such as Lujia.

Since Emperor Chongzhen came to power, eunuchs who supervised taxation were recruited from various places.In Emperor Chongzhen's view, without these violent and corrupt eunuchs, and only using clean and honest civil servants, the country's tax situation will definitely improve.

But what Emperor Chongzhen didn't expect was that the appetite of civil servants was not small at all.What is even more unbelievable is that the civil servants all claim that "taxes come from the land". In addition to increasing taxes from free people's land, other taxes such as commercial taxes and mining taxes are exempted if they can.The same is true of the salt tax in Yangzhou.

It can also be seen from here that although eunuchs may be more greedy than civil servants, with their existence, the imperial court can still collect some business taxes and mining taxes, but without the existence of eunuchs, the imperial court has no problem with these taxes. I can't collect the two silver coins.From this perspective, in fact, for the Ming court, it was actually better to have eunuchs collecting local taxes than to have no eunuchs collecting taxes locally.

The salt tax in Yangzhou accounted for one-fifth of the income of the entire Ming court. However, after Emperor Chongzhen came to the throne, without the supervision of eunuchs, the salt tax in Yangzhou immediately dropped by one-third.This was a huge hole for the Ming court.

And when this happened, the responsibility must be pursued, so the original salt transport envoy was dismissed from office.Guan Yin, the current salt transport envoy, took office immediately.

After Guan Yin took office, he knew that if the salt tax was not increased, Emperor Chongzhen would definitely not be able to pass it, but he also knew that the salt merchant group was quite powerful.In particular, the southern scholars supported by the salt merchants entered the officialdom in large numbers, forming a huge protective umbrella for the salt merchants.If Guan Yin just raised the salt tax in this way, he would definitely not be able to stay in this position for long.

Therefore, Guan Yin and his staff discussed this method: reduce the number of small salt merchants, and concentrate the salt in the hands of those small salt merchants into the hands of large salt merchants.And the big salt merchants used part of their increased profits as taxes for the court.Of course, a large part of this will fall into the private hands of Guan Yin.

After Guan Yin's idea was proposed to Qijia and other big salt merchants, it hit it off.Although those big salt merchants were still half-hearted in front of Guan Yin, in their hearts, they had long wanted to swallow the salt of those small salt merchants.It's just that due to the rules of the industry, it was not possible to open your bloody mouth naked in the past.And now with the support of the Salt Transport Envoy Yamen, they can also eat these small fish from the Lu family with peace of mind.

This is the ins and outs of the Lu family losing Yanyin.But up to now, the Lu family still doesn't fully understand why they lost Yan Yin, and they still hate the Qi family's unruly behavior.

Under the guidance of the steward sent by the Lu family, Wu Shigong just settled down in an inn arranged by the Lu family, when Lu Jianyin and Lu Jianchen came to the inn to meet Wu Shigong.

As soon as they saw Wu Shigong, Lu Jianyin and Lu Jianchen bowed their hands to Wu Shigong and said: "Master Wu, the villain didn't greet you at the city gate, so I'm so rude."

Wu Shigong also hurriedly smiled and bowed his hands in return: "It's okay! But this time I'm going out in casual clothes, the two gentlemen still call me Mr. Wu."

Wu Shigong welcomed the two brothers from the Lu family to his room and sat down. Lu Jianyin said: "Mr. Wu, I take the liberty of letting you come to Yangzhou this time, because brothers have something to talk to each other face to face. Mr. Wu is tired from the journey, so let's take a rest first. In the evening, my brother will be the host, so that Mr. Wu can enjoy the night view of the Little Qinhuai River."

"You're welcome! You're welcome!" Wu Shigong smiled and waved his hands.For Wu Shigong, when he came to Yangzhou this time, he didn't have the mood and time to go to any romantic places.He is not the protagonist of some web novels, he will have an affair as soon as he arrives in Yangzhou.

Wu Shigong wanted to talk about good things earlier, and then return to Runing Mansion as soon as possible.So Wu Shigong said to the two brothers of the Lu family: "Brother, I'm just impatient. I don't talk about good things, and I don't want to have fun. Can you explain the matter of the salt farm right away?"

Lu Jianyin and Lu Jianchen glanced at each other, they didn't expect Wu Shigong to be so anxious.Lu Jianyin nodded, stood up straight and said, "That's good! Mr. Wu knows that our Lu family has a salt farm, and the salt production can reach more than 2 shi each year. If it is fully produced, it can reach more than [-] shi."

"But because of the changes in the Lu family, the Lu family has lost their salt since last year, and the salt in this salt field cannot be sold. Mr. Wu, I don't want to lie to you. There are not one or two salt merchants who covet this salt field. , They all forced the Lu family to sell the salt farm to them."

"But because they snatched Yanyin from the Lu family by any means, our Lu family will never sell this salt farm to other salt merchants. But those salt merchants have great influence in Yangzhou, and they united with their peers and refused to buy Lu The salt goods from the family saltworks, so that now the saltworks are deserted."

"So this time Mr. Wu was invited here because he wanted to borrow from the two Marquis houses behind Mr. Wu. Otherwise, without the support of the Marquis houses, the salt farm would be swallowed up by other salt merchants sooner or later. Our Lu family can take the salt farm Give it to Mr. Wu, but Mr. Wu is in Henan, so he definitely doesn't care about this salt farm. Our Lu family can manage this salt farm. As long as Mr. Wu gives our Lu family [-]% of the profit, plus With the support of the Hou Mansion, our Lu family will borrow some salt from other good salt merchants, which can completely solve the problem that the salt goods in the salt field cannot be sold."

After listening to Lu Jianyin's words, Wu Shigong frowned.This is different from what he imagined before he came here.Along the way, Wu Shigong and Yuan Xingshan guessed the reason why the Lu family sent him to the saltworks.But the biggest possibility they guessed was that the Lu family wanted to use Wu Shigong's territory in Henan to sell salt from their saltworks.

Wu Shigong was mentally prepared for the division of the Lu family.He is also ready to agree to the condition that he will distribute [-]% of the profits to the Lu family.But what I didn't expect was that what the Lu family took a fancy to was the power of the Xue and Wu families behind Wu Shigong.

But I know my own affairs, not to mention whether the power of the Xungui family in the capital can reach the southern region of Yangzhou.Just talk about the situation of these two marquis mansions.The Xue family is still thinking behind closed doors.If you step into the Yangzhou salt merchant circle with fierce interest disputes, it may make the current situation even worse.

But what about the Wu Mansion?Wu Shigong believed that if he told his father Wu Weizhong about this situation, he would definitely accept it with a happy smile.But Wu Shigong himself could not get anything, at most his father Wu Weizhong would give him some leftovers.It doesn't help your own income.

Wu Shigong thought about it for a long time, and finally decided to agree to the conditions of the Lu family first.Wu Shigong first lent the power of the two Marquis Houses to the Lu family on his own initiative. As for any problems in the future, it will be decided at that time.

Seeing Wu Shigong agreed, the two brothers of the Lu family smiled happily.They also agreed immediately, and the Lu family bought the goods brought by Wu Shigong this time with money first, and helped Yuan Xingshan prepare the goods and ships to be transported back to Runing Mansion.

Then, the two brothers of the Lu family took their leave first, preparing to arrange Wu Shigong's banquet at night.Wu Shigong also stretched himself, wanting to rest on the bed.