Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 231 Who Is The Salt Merchant I Can Trust
The guards are field troops, so they do not have the responsibility of defending the city and maintaining law and order. Even if they rest, they will only rest and recuperate on the spot in Yangzhou Prefecture, which can be regarded as saving dispatch time.

Among the hundreds of thousands of Guards, only the First Corps of the Guards, under the leadership of Liu Zhaoji, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Guards, went to Jinan to help Zhu Zhaoming.

Now that the Guards are resting in Yangzhou Prefecture, Zhu Youjian also plans to stay in Yangzhou City for a few days, and the Second Guards Army, which is responsible for defending Gyeonggi, will not be transferred back to Nanjing for the time being.

In this early summer season, Yangzhou became more lively than before after adding tens of 10 people, and the prosperity of Yangzhou was even better than before.

Before Liu Zongzhou, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites arrived, Zhu Youjian happened to be able to find time to stroll around the city of Yangzhou.

As for the rewards for the meritorious personnel of the war, the compensation for the casualties of the Guards, and the money and food needed to restore people's livelihood and Huguang military affairs, specific arrangements can only be made after returning to Beijing, and the war has just ended, and all news and intelligence are still on the way. Well, it's rare for him to be able to sneak away these days.

Since the 17th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian has been implementing many reforms, especially in terms of military administration, money, law and taxation.

However, Zhu Youjian only restored the salt industry to the system before the opening of China and France. Therefore, from the beginning of the year, most salt merchants began to purchase fields in the Jiangbei area and grow grain in exchange for salt. This is also the reason why Chongzhen’s grain production continued to grow in 18 years one of the reasons.

The Guards' annihilation of the Duduo Department of the Qing Army also prevented these salt merchants from losing food in the Jiangbei area, which made them very happy that the Guards defeated the Qing Army.

Zhu Youjian walked on the Fucheng Street in Yangzhou, and he could see vertical banners celebrating the victory of the guards' flag hanging on the arches and wooden buildings everywhere, and the bravery of the Guards was spread in the teahouses and restaurants.

And in the Huaiyang Governor's Office, where Li Mingrui is now stationed, there are even countless wealthy businessmen queuing up to see him.

Thanks to Ma Shiying, Shi Kefa, etc. in the Office of the Governor of Rivers, and the current Governor's Office of the Rivers also has the emperor Zhu Youjian stationed here, so wealthy businessmen dare not find the Governor's Office of the Rivers.

Zhu Youjian naturally also knew that these Yangzhou salt merchants paid so much attention to the Guards and were so close to the Guards not only because they obeyed public opinion and appreciated the Guards’ efforts to resist the establishment of slaves, but because the number of salt imports is now controlled by the military. , The right to introduce salt is now in the hands of the governor of Huaiyang and the Minister of the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War determines the amount of salt to be imported according to the army's food needs, and then the governor of Huaiyang orders the Lianghuai Salt Road to issue the salt.

But now after the end of the war, the food supply will inevitably increase and the army's food demand will inevitably decrease, which means that the amount of salt will also decrease, and the price of salt will increase. That is to say, whoever has a better relationship with the military from now on will naturally The chance of getting Yanyin is greater, and the money you will make next year will naturally be more.

Fortunately, the Guards had military discipline and had to enter the city at will, so that the Yangzhou salt merchants had no way to directly corrupt the army. Of course, with the emperor Zhu Youjian still in Yangzhou City, the officials of the Grand Marshal's Mansion naturally They didn't dare to make mistakes, so they just obediently stayed in the Hedao Governor's Office and Huaiyang Governor's Office to do business. Even if relatives and friends came to visit, they were all temporarily arranged in the post station, and they were not allowed to meet casually.

Zhu Youjian didn't want his guards to be tied to the interests of Yangzhou salt merchants, but he was also concerned about one thing, which was the official end of the tax holiday starting from July [-]st in Chongzhen.

Starting from July [-]st, the first wave of business taxes and customs duties in Ming Dynasty will start to be levied, that is, starting from all walks of life, they must officially pay taxes according to their business scale and annual income. How much the Ming treasury will earn and how many obstacles it will encounter are unknown.

And these wealthy Yangzhou salt merchants not only have to pay grain to obtain salt from the military, but also have to pay commercial taxes based on the scale of salt sales. By then, the price of salt will inevitably reach a level that the common people cannot afford.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian wanted to directly control the basic salt price by the imperial court, and at the same time cancel the salt introduction system so as not to restrict the output of the salt industry, and at the same time only allow the central imperial court and local governments to establish salt industry companies, so as to achieve the benefits of market competition , so that under the same salt price, salt companies dare not adulterate and reduce the quality of salt, and retailers dare not adulterate and increase the selling price in order to increase sales. In addition, the imperial court can also adjust the salt price through the tightness of the state's finances. Reach the proportion of macro-control wealth flowing into the treasury.

The abolition of the salt introduction system is different from Zhu Youjian's improvement of the salt introduction system last year. This will inevitably touch the interests of the military. The most directly related is the Ministry of War. In the military group.

But now, if Zhu Youjian wants to abolish the salt introduction system, he must ensure that the exploitation of the interests of the bottom-level people through the salt industry can be successfully banned before the Guards are eroded by the salt merchants, so as to alleviate class conflicts.

But Zhu Youjian also had to consider the interests and needs of the military. The maintenance of a strong combat effectiveness of an army not only requires a great abundance of the spiritual world, but also requires great material conditions and a very high political status to ensure .

Zhu Youjian has already given both the spiritual world and political status. As for material benefits, military salaries, combat rewards, and weapons research and development, since Zhu Youjian wants to abolish the salt introduction system to provide benefits to the army, he needs to be Other aspects are taken care of by the military.

But this cannot harm the interests of the common people and the gentry class. The only way is to allow the army to obtain interest needs through trade and plunder from the other side.

Zhu Youjian can imagine that in the future, he will definitely have to compete with Zheng Zhilong's smuggling and pirate group.

In China, Zhu Youjian will definitely not allow the army to participate in the period, as that will only disrupt the market and increase the zero-corruption and zero-failure rate of the military.

Right now, since Zhu Youjian is in Yangzhou City, he must first determine who is better to hand over the pricing power of the salt industry, and find the first batch of candidates for the salt industry company.

Zhu Youjian knew that whoever controlled the pricing power of Daming's salt industry would be profitable.

The first batch of salt companies will definitely become the largest batch of salt merchants in the future. Once they become legal salt producers and wholesalers, they will have obtained the right to produce salt, but future salt companies will definitely There will be fewer salt merchants than the current one, which means that the person in charge of the salt company in the future will be able to obtain greater profits.

Who is better to give such a big cake, Zhu Youjian didn't dare to make a random decision for a while.

In fact, if Zhu Youjian did this, he would definitely deprive most of the current salt merchants of their interests, and then distribute them to the central court, local governments, and ordinary people, benefiting a small number of salt merchants that the imperial court can control.

Doing so will definitely meet with great opposition from the majority of salt merchants, but using the quota of salt companies to win over a few well-established and reliable salt merchants to side with the imperial court will naturally make the reform much less difficult.

Who is the most trustworthy and reliable salt merchant?Zhu Youjian picked up the chopsticks in his hand and looked at the wealthy businessmen outside the building talking and laughing at Yanyan, feeling puzzled for a while.

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(End of this chapter)