Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 277, the method of drying salt
Emperor Hongzhi was a good man, but it is not necessarily a good emperor.

He was too deeply influenced by Confucianism, and he used to rely heavily on civil servants, so he lacked his own opinions on many things, and was led by the nose by civil servants.

Coupled with his mercilessness, he completely destroyed the good systems left by his ancestors, and the most serious damage was the Yanyin system.

The Yan Yin he rewarded was many times more than that of his father Ming Xianzong. Not to mention, the Yan Yin rewarded to the Zhang brothers was worth hundreds of thousands of Yin every time. .

And the Zhang brothers, relying on Empress Zhang's love and their status as uncles, are like wolves who can't get enough to feed. Can't see the long-term problem.

Of course, the most important thing is that Emperor Hongzhi lacked assertiveness and long-term vision. Not only the Zhang brothers, but also the princes and nobles, the six tribes and nine ministers have also received a lot of salt from Emperor Hongzhi.

Emperor Hongzhi himself was very stingy, and coupled with the emptiness of the national treasury and the running of rats in the internal funds, naturally there was no silver reward, only rewards such as salt, taxation and empowerment.

For example, the elders of the three cabinets, and the six ministers have all been rewarded by Emperor Hongzhi. As for the princes surnamed Zhu, many of them have been rewarded with the taxation rights to obtain fiefdoms, or they have allowed these princes to expand their land and so on. of.

It seems that things were done without spending money, won over people's hearts, and gained a good reputation, but the real situation is that the salt introduction system, which has already run into problems, cannot be implemented at all.

Merchants have worked so hard to transport grain to the border in exchange for salt, but they have never been able to get the salt out, because there are princes and nobles, six ministries and nine ministers, etc. who have their salt in their nests, and their salt is not brought out. , Naturally, there is no such thing as the following businessmen.

If there are not many rewards, the merchants can just wait.

However, Emperor Hongzhi rewarded so many salts that even though many merchants had empty salts in their hands, they still could not get any salt. It would take them decades to get their turn. , and wait for decades, the day lily is cold.

Because this greatly affected the enthusiasm of merchants to transport grain to border towns, which in turn made the Yanyin system unsustainable. Therefore, in the fifth year of Hongzhi, Ye Qi proposed the reform of the Yanyin system. Replaced Naliang Kaizhong.

The so-called Nayin Kaizhong means that merchants don’t need to work hard to transport grain to border towns in exchange for Yanyin. They only need to pay the silver to the imperial court in exchange for Yanyin. The imperial court has silver in their hands to buy grain. Transport to Border Town.

It seems that it is also said in the past, and there is not much difference.

But the real situation is that merchants pay less and less money every year, because tax evasion is the nature of merchants; and the money collected should be earmarked for the purpose of buying food for the frontier army.

But the literati were in power in the Ming Dynasty, and they wanted to cut military expenditures cleanly. The food became silver and went to the Ministry of Households. Naturally, it was the Ministry of Households who had the final say. Give everyone extra subsidies, etc. In short, there are not many of these money that can eventually fall on the frontier soldiers.

As a result, the frontier army became extremely distressed, and even the most basic food became a big problem.

In the past, businessmen kept bringing food in. At least it was definitely not a problem to eat. The extra food can be used to exchange for other military supplies. The military supplies are guaranteed, and there is no need to look at the faces of those civil servants, let alone I begged my grandpa to sue my grandma and begged them to allocate funds to buy food.

It's different now, there are no merchants to transport grain, and the money allocated by the top is deducted layer by layer. When it comes to ordinary soldiers, rice and flour may become bran, and food is a problem, let alone other armaments. In terms of things, how can there be any fighting power here?

If Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the good national policy he had racked his brains for had been ruined in this way, he would probably jump out of the coffin immediately in anger.

A good salt introduction system, a salt introduction system that is sufficient to guarantee the military supplies of the frontier army, is so abrupt that it will be played by future generations. This is also an important reason for the final demise of the Ming Dynasty.

In the late Ming Dynasty, all kinds of taxes could not be collected at all, and the expenditure of frontier military salaries increased year by year, which dragged down the Ming Dynasty, a large enterprise that was in financial difficulties.

Speaking of this, I have to mention that under the advice of the court officials, Emperor Hongzhi paid attention to governance by doing nothing, and paid attention to light corvee and light taxes. Therefore, during the period of Emperor Hongzhi, Emperor Hongzhi paid a total of one-third of his fiscal revenue in taxes. Fu is the emperor who exempted the most taxes in the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, this must be considered a good thing. The emperor who is lightly paid and poorly paid always has a good reputation, and it is also a manifestation of loving the people like a son.

However, most of what he waived was commercial tax, which did not reach the ordinary people at all. The tax that the common people should pay is still a lot, and the rent that should be paid will also not be reduced or exempted.

In the end, the merchants were benefited, the court was trapped, and the common people suffered.

From these places, it can be seen that Emperor Hongzhi was definitely not as wise and powerful as the capitals and close-ups in the history books. Although he was a good emperor, he was definitely not a qualified emperor. There were too many failures in his governance.

He is good to literati, similar to Song Renzong, and his reputation in history books is extremely good. big mistake.

The Yanyin system has changed, the combat effectiveness of the frontier army is low, and it cannot be hardened abroad; a lot of commercial taxes have been exempted, which is easy to avoid, but it is difficult to collect it again. The court has no money and financial difficulties. The Ming Dynasty was completely dragged down; partial belief in literati, too much indifference to civil servants, caused an imbalance of power, the superiority of the civil servants and the inferiority of the martial arts, and the late imperial court had endless party disputes.

(cough cough~cough cough, personal opinion, please lightly spray if you don’t like it~)

Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Emperor Hongzhi's face was ugly, and he was also lost in thought.

Because of the appearance of Liu Jin, Emperor Hongzhi has changed a bit compared to the history. Now he is slowly using both civil and martial arts. He also knows how to use the power of factory guards and knows a lot of information that he didn't know before.

A catty of salt costs tens of renminbi. Ordinary people can only buy a catty of salt for a day of work. This price is really not ordinary expensive. It is also conceivable how rich the salt merchants of the Ming Dynasty were. They were really wealthy. world.

"The cost of salt from this salt field is almost zero?"

Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and asked Liu Jin.

"If your majesty doesn't believe it, you can ask someone to check it out. The stove households are the poorest. They are forced to cook salt all day long, but they can't even eat enough."

"Moreover, the salt actually produced by this saltworks has a very large initial income compared with the salt reported to the court. A large part of it is the salt that the officials of the saltworks squeezed and boiled day and night."

Liu Jin quickly replied that Xiahetun, where he was located, was close to the sea, so he also relied on boiling salt for his livelihood, so he was very clear about this.

The common people in Xiahetun are very miserable, but they are not the most miserable. The most miserable are the military households and Yanhu households. They are the most miserable. Never turn over.

"If you want to set up a salt factory, you have to hand over two million taels of silver to the imperial court, and you still need to make a profit. Do you have any new salt-making methods?"

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly. He had asked Xiao Jing to investigate these matters, and the results would be forthcoming. After thinking for a while, he looked at Liu Jin and asked. The young man in front of him always played cards out of routine. To release such a seaport must have its own trick.

Just like this briquette, like this sea fish, and the merchant ships going out to sea, Emperor Hongzhi's pockets are now bulging, and they are all inseparable from Liu Jin.

"Your Majesty's eyes are as bright as a torch. I do have a new method of making salt."

Liu Jin smiled and nodded back.

"Let's hear it~"

Emperor Hongzhi immediately became interested, and his tone became much calmer. He still likes Liu Jin very much.

"Your Majesty, the traditional method of making salt is simply to boil salt, and use a pot to boil seawater and brine to obtain salt. This method not only requires a lot of firewood, but also requires a lot of labor and time."

"However, the method of making salt that I have newly researched does not need to be boiled, but only needs to be dried, relying on the sun's rays to dry the seawater to obtain salt."

Liu Jin simply talked about the sun-dried salt method.

"Sun salt?"

Emperor Hongzhi and Zhu Houzhao both said in unison.

"Yes, it is sun-drying salt. A salt pan is built on the coastal tidal flats, and seawater is drawn in. The seawater is dried by the sun, and the salt will come out naturally. There is no need to work hard to cook salt, saving time, effort and cost. And low, that's why Caomin is confident in fulfilling his promise to His Majesty."

Liu Jin said confidently that there is no boiled salt in later generations, all of them rely on sun-dried salt, and the salt produced is many times more than the current salt.

　Let's go to the first chapter, and there will be more tonight~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)