New Shun 1730

As for whether the emperor can agree, Liu Yu believes that there is a high possibility that he will agree to play a big one.

This is still related to economic relations.

In history, similar salt cases have broken out, whether during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty.

And the handling of salt cases also follows the basic law of economic relations.

Speaking of the cause of the salt case in history, or the fuse, it is also very simple.

Salt merchants have money, and Confucian scholars have the right to public opinion.

The two must have worked closely together, with salt merchants spending money to support Confucian scholars and Confucian scholars' public opinion feeding salt merchants.

If you have to make an analogy, it seems similar to the guests in the Warring States Period. But the bloodline system in the Warring States Period is different from the imperial examination and Confucian system in later generations, so it is actually more similar to... the public opinion big V in later generations.

There was a literati named Luo Yu who wrote some couplets for money.

As for his couplets, to put it bluntly, 50 coins can be exchanged for one in the market, but he asked the salt merchant for 16 taels of silver. The salt merchant gave it to him, but after that, Luo Yu felt that it was not enough to spend, so he hoped that the salt merchant could help him "sell" the couplets, 4 taels for one, and help sell dozens of them... Those who understand what this means will understand.

As a result, the salt merchant felt that his appetite was too big, 16 taels today, 100 taels tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow? So he chose to break off the friendship directly.

Luo Yu thought to himself, damn it, you don't give me money, isn't this being rich and unkind? I'll kill you.

So he wrote a "Salt Law Theory" to strongly argue about the harm of the current salt administration.

Of course, the Confucian scholars took action and killed people with every move. The direction of the cannon was not the corruption of the salt merchants, but the salt merchants "made friends with the harem", "sent money to the ministers in the court to make friends, and found it expensive", "capital meddling in politics".

But this kind of thing, to put it bluntly, is similar to the Ryukyu incident, all of which are covering their ears and stealing the bell. Everyone knows it but pretends not to know.

The attitude of the imperial power depends on the economic relationship here.

The imperial power gave the salt merchants a monopoly.

The salt officials were just doing things.

Therefore, the result is obvious. The imperial power severely punished the salt officials, but treated the salt merchants lightly.

The reason is simple: the economic relationship is here. If the salt officials are missing, they can be replaced, but if the salt merchants are missing, it will be troublesome.

Power rent-seeking, who gives this rent? The imperial power gives it.

Who is rent-seeking? Merchant capital.

Is it wrong to trade power for money? In the eyes of the imperial power, it is not wrong.

But whose power is the power? Who should the money be given to?

Damn, you salt officials are just workers, don’t you have any sense?

The money of the salt merchants is not given to me, the emperor, but to you salt officials?

You even take 70% and give me 30%, and sometimes you don’t even give me anything.

You really don’t know what your surname is. Do you really think your power is your own? You are just representatives of the imperial power. Your power is not your own. You are not qualified to take 70%.

I am raising pigs here, and I will cut the meat when they are fat. As a result, you don't wait for him to get fat, but you remove some tenderloins today and cut some hindquarters tomorrow. Isn't this nonsense?

This is the "urgent financial" problem of the "salt merchants" mentioned by Liu Yu; the salt merchants are the economic vassals of the imperial power seeking rent.

The reason why Liu Yu was sure that the emperor would support him this time was very simple. The economic foundation had changed.

The emperor's treasury had overseas trade.

The treasury income increased and the household government's fiscal revenue was insufficient. The household government could not take out money in many places where money was needed. It urgently needed a new tax source that "did not affect the treasury income and would not cause a huge burden on the people and lead to an uprising" - not because the emperor really put the people first, but because it cost money to suppress the uprising.

In other words, the main force of the economic vassal of the imperial power is now those who monopolize overseas trade in Songjiang Prefecture.

The household government has no money and needs to be reformed. Where should it be reformed?

Two major taxes, land tax and salt tax, which one is easier to touch? This is self-evident.

Why must it be changed? Can't it be changed?

No.

Two reasons.

The canal was abandoned, and the old salt transport route was changed. Accordingly, it would cost money to deploy new anti-smuggling, patrol, investigation of smuggled salt, ferry inspection, etc., all of which require money.

Since it has to be changed anyway, it is better to change it all at once.

Second, the court needs money.

The plan to repair the Huaihe River is to invest more than 30 million taels of silver. So should the Liaohe River in Yingkou and other places and the Haihe River in the capital area be repaired? Should the Western Regions be relocated, should it cost money? Should the Northeastern Region be relocated, should it cost money? Should the military reform continue?

Can this money not be spent? No, because Dashun has the sequelae of the late Ming Dynasty.

Since a small tribe of 200,000 people almost caused the land of China to sink, the control of the border areas must continue to expand the buffer space to prevent the things of the late Ming Dynasty from happening again. The Rakshasas and the Mongols are very dangerous, and they must be guarded against.

How to prevent it?

Immigrants to the border.

Build bastions.

How much does a real bastion cost? How much does it cost to immigrate to the Western Regions?

In short, it is impossible without money.

The money from the sea trade cannot be moved for the time being, because the emperor saw the profits from overseas trade, and the white silver fell in front of him. He had to prepare for the future "collecting rent from India and opening up European tariffs to sell tea and porcelain", and the sea merchant group could not be moved.

The monopoly of the sea merchant group is also the rent-seeking of the imperial power. Now it seems that these sea merchant groups do not have middlemen to make a profit, and they give more, and they are also the vanguards of future external expansion.

Do the Lianghuai salt merchants have military and political significance similar to the sea merchant groups?

Yes, but they have all been replaced.

The use of troops in the northwest and northeast now relies on merchant groups that provide logistics, no longer salt merchants. Instead, they were merchant consortiums from Xijing, Shanxi, and Gyeonggi regions that went to Rakshasa and Mongolia to sell tea, cloth, and lend money.

Emergency finance was replaced by the Songjiang Prefecture Chaebol Group headed by Liu Yu, which was more cost-effective and would not trigger internal conflicts.

When a force cannot reflect its value and becomes fat, it is the time to be liquidated.

Regarding the land issue, theoretically speaking, taxation has a great effect... but it may be easy to explode, and it will be exploded to pieces, so I dare not touch it.

In this case, the emperor's purpose for the salt policy reform was very clear in Liu Yu's view: to tax revenue and to stabilize tax revenue.

The Songjiang Prefecture Zaibatsu provided emergency finance; the salt tax was converted into a stable and stable tax.

Therefore, the problem here is essentially similar to the salt case in history.

The salt case in history: Are the salt merchants guilty? Yes, a major sin. Fraud, bribery, fraud, and corruption. Can it be cured? Just laugh it off and govern officials rather than business. As long as you know who to give money to in the future, you will be fine.

Now, the logic is the same, but in a different form: Now, are the private salt dealers guilty? A mortal sin. Does it need to be severely punished? unnecessary. The emperor is merciful and allows them to become regular employees. As long as they pay all the taxes after becoming regular employees, they will be fine.

Once this is understood, Liu Yu's "points of reference" for Shi Shiyong will become clearer.

Does military control of children ignore private salt dealers?

As Shi Shiyong said, they don't care. The Boy's Army is an internal spy organization that manages officials and officials.

However, this idea is wrong.

So after Liu Yu finished writing the memorial to the emperor and the letter to Songjiang Prefecture, he talked to Shi Shiyong about the private salt dealers.

"Brother Shi, I have said before that you need to investigate. It's simple. In the salt administration system, from officials to businessmen, everyone has shit. The key is to find the right direction to investigate."

"Furthermore, according to the name, investigation and investigation, these two words, you actually only have one word, investigation, and it cannot be done."

"Now, I suggest that you'd better investigate the private salt dealers. Especially the private salt dealers covering the Huaibei Salt District."

"After you find them, don't move and keep a close eye. If necessary, bring them over and I'll treat them to a meal."

Shi Shiyong guessed that Liu Yu might make a big move. Although it didn't seem to correspond to their business and was a matter of the local government and the salt patrol, they were definitely more professional in checking people than the intricate local government.

"The Duke is preparing to recruit soldiers?"

Liu Yu smiled and said: "You have to be qualified to recruit people. If you don't have the ability, there is no need to recruit people. You need to recruit people who are really capable."

"Fortunately, the Huaibei salt area is not big. It only reaches Henan and Hubei. It is impossible to conjure salt out of thin air through smuggling. I trust your ability. It shouldn't be difficult to investigate them."

Shi Shiyong nodded and said: "As long as we know who to investigate, we can investigate. As the Duke said, everyone has shit on their butt. The difficulty is not to find the shit, but to identify who to look for. In that case, this matter Leave it to us and we’ll find out soon.”

"I will send someone to handle it myself. I will accompany the Duke here. Firstly, it is inconvenient for me to check, and secondly, I am worried that they will be detrimental to the Duke."

For such kindness, Liu Yu could only thank him and said: "Well, His Majesty's imperial approval will not arrive until ten days, so let's not stay here. It will be troublesome whether we accept the money or not by then. You can arrange it, Tomorrow morning, come with me to the nearby salt field."

Shi Shiyong thought for a while and then said: "There are too many informants here. If I send people out to check out the illegal salt dealers, will it be possible to alert the snake?"

Liu Yu laughed and said: "No, you know, they don't know; they don't know that you know, but you think they know that you know. That's why you think you will alert the snake."

"Even asking for bribes requires a legitimate reason, right? I pretend to be doing something for my own benefit, and I investigate and deal with illegal salt dealers. I ask these officials to pay me some favors. Isn't it justifiable?"

"Although these words are a bit disrespectful, these businessmen still feel that His Majesty felt that Yangzhou did not pay enough last time. It is hard to say whether the money was collected by me or on my behalf."

Shi Shiyong thought for a while and said with a smile: "Yes, I understand. Then first I wish the Duke to receive an extra two to three hundred thousand, and I will arrange the people right away."

After leaving Liu Yu, Shi Shiyong quickly arranged for someone to return to Beijing and escort Liu Yu's people to Songjiang. He also wrote a memorial to the emperor, completely using the perspective of a third party observer, writing down what happened today and the things Liu Yu said in public to threaten the salt merchants. After sealing it, he sent it back together.

Early the next morning, under the astonished eyes of all the salt merchants, he and Liu Yu left Haizhou directly.

Salt merchants hurriedly came to see him off and asked where Liu Yu was going. Liu Yu only said that he was going to the salt field to visit, and was too lazy to talk nonsense with these people. He left Haizhou and headed towards the Wandu Salt Field on the edge of the Yellow River in the south.

The salt merchants thought to themselves that the Wandu Salt Field was almost finished, so what were they going to do there? Although this is the north bank of the Yellow River, it is no better than the sections of the river close to the canal in the west. There is no unspoken rule here about "protecting the north but not the south".