Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 148 The North is too poor!

Beiping.

It is already August, midsummer.

There weren't many people on the streets of Peking, and the few places where people gathered were usually under the trees in the woods.

Xia Zhibai walked leisurely in the city.

He was not affected by what happened in Prince Yan's Mansion just now.

Xia Zhibai was very interested in this future capital city.

Because I've never been here.

He walked in the city for a while, calculated the time, and then headed towards the place where he had agreed to meet Heiwa. It was not a secret place, but just a dining room next to his residence.

The wind blows through the willow branches, making them chilly.

On the west side of the moat surrounding the city, Xia Zhibai slowly stopped walking. Heiwa, who was standing beside him, seemed to have arrived a long time ago. He was squatting by the river, bored, looking at the wild ducks still playing in the water under the gurgling water.

Seeing Xia Zhibai arriving, Heiwa walked over with a happy face.

"Brother Xia."

Xia Zhibai nodded, looked at the scorching sunlight, and looked around for a herbal tea stall.

The two of them sat down casually.

"How did you find out about what I asked you to find out?" Xia Zhibai's face felt a little hot. While his son brought him some cold tea, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

Hei Wa said, "How dare I not do what Brother Xia tells me to do seriously?"

"I have found out everything."

"Now in Peking, a pound of salt is thirty-nine cents."

"Thirty-nine cents?" Xia Zhibai looked a little surprised.

Heiwa said excitedly: "Brother Xia, I'm still underestimating this. The price of salt in some stores is almost fifty cents."

"The salt here is different from that in Yingtianfu."

"It seems like it's a franchise or something. It's different from other places."

"The imperial court also acquiesced to such high salt prices."

"It is said that further north, the price of salt and rice is even higher."

At this time.

The child brought over a pot of herbal tea.

Heiwa took it with a smile. He didn't even need the waiter to place the bowls. He took it on his own initiative and poured two full bowls. He placed one bowl in front of Xia Zhibai, then picked up his own bowl and drank it in big gulps.

I drank very happily.

He ran across most of Beijing today.

I've been so thirsty for a long time.

He drank two large bowls in a row before he finally stopped.

Xia Zhibai drank it in small sips, but he was thinking about the price of salt in Peking.

finally.

He thought of the Kaizhong method.

This should be the reason for the high salt prices in Peking.

Merchants transported grain to various garrisons in the north and exchanged them for salt permits from the imperial court. In order to make a profit, they naturally had to raise the price of salt.

Peking is a big city, and the price of salt cannot be lowered.

Other places will naturally be higher.

The population in the north is too small and the commodity economy is underdeveloped, which is bound to drive up prices.

Xia Zhibai said: "Except for salt, I'm afraid the prices of other food, clothing, etc. will be much higher than those in Yingtian Prefecture."

Heiwa nodded: "Yes."

"Even that inferior ramie cloth costs five or six cents per foot."

"Yingtianfu only costs thirty or forty coins."

“That’s a huge difference.”

"For example, a piece of better quality silk would cost three or four taels of silver."

"This is not selling cloth, this is selling human life. It would be a miracle if this cloth can be sold."

Heiwa couldn't help but complain a few words.

Xia Zhibai smiled. There was no such thing as freedom of dress in the Ming Dynasty. Most families, or even entire families, shared the same piece of clothing. In most cases, whoever went out would wear it. As a result, you could often see a woman or a teenager wearing ill-fitting clothes on the streets.

As for the cloth sold in the cloth shop, it is not sold to the poor.

Only those who have spare money in their pockets or whose families are well-off would think about how to dress. As for the current situation in the Ming Dynasty, silk and other brocade clothes are mostly bought by powerful and wealthy officials and landlords. As for the common people, they would only be willing to buy some when they get married.

But most of them are home-woven.

Hei Wa poured himself another bowl of cold tea, and with his black eyes he glanced around, and whispered, "Brother Xia, you don't know, when I was outside those silk shops, I saw those shopkeepers, all wearing silk clothes. If they were in Yingtian Prefecture, they would have lost their heads long ago."

Xia Zhibai laughed.

The Ming Dynasty did prohibit merchants from wearing brocade and silk.

But how could it be forbidden in private? Even if they wore coarse cloth clothes in public, the lining inside was mostly silk.

Local authorities have always turned a blind eye to these things.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang himself.

Xia Zhibai actually knew the reason for this.

Just like the ban on "showing off wealth" in later generations, the people of the world are living a hard life, but a group of people of low status wear gold and silver every day. What do the people think when they see this?
"What about the price of rice?" Xia Zhibai asked. Heiwa put down the tea bowl, not caring about his image at all, wiped his mouth with his hand, and said, "One stone of rice is about nine coins of silver, one coin higher than Yingtianfu."

"One stone of rice is about 120 kilograms, and 900 coins is a bit high."

Xia Zhibai whispered, although low grain prices hurt farmers, whether the grain is cheap or not has nothing to do with the people at all, because it is not the people who decide the price, but the government and the merchants who collect grain. Low grain prices only refer to the low price of the grain collected, not the low price of the grain sold.

In many cases, the government deliberately kept the price of grain low so that they could collect more grain from the people and make huge profits from the price difference.

Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the government has successively established "Price Stabilization Orders".

But the Ming Dynasty did not have that.

The so-called "stabilization" depends entirely on the officials' words.

If the court felt that the price was too high, it would use force to suppress it; if the court felt that the price was too low, it would raise it.

What a child's play.

There are too few officials in the Ming Dynasty.

There are only about 10,000 people who are above the ninth rank.

The vast majority of the others were clerks, and some were in the military.

It was still okay during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, as these clerks still had room for advancement and could become "officials" based on their own talents. However, starting from Zhu Di, this upward channel was abolished. Zhu Di was a man who had a clear distinction between love and hate. He was never stingy with rewards for those he liked, but he hated those he disliked so much that he prohibited them in various ways.

It was also from Zhu Di that the "five corners and four seas" employment policy of Zhu Yuanzhang's period was completely destroyed.

The "officials" of the Ming Dynasty had no upward path and could not see any political future. Therefore, as the largest and most powerful group in the Ming Dynasty officialdom, the only purpose of their hard work was to use their positions to engage in corruption, extortion, and exploitation of the people's livelihood.

Under this political environment, the politics of the Ming Dynasty went completely awry.

It has also completely formed a situation where one test determines your entire life.

Under this deformed political ecology, the emergence of the Donglin Party was almost inevitable.

Xia Zhibai actually did not have much feeling about the Yongle Reign that was praised by later generations. As a scholar, his feelings were the most intuitive.

With Zhu Di's words "From now on, the censors will no longer be employed as officials", the Ming Dynasty's court went completely awry.

If the censors cannot employ clerks, then can the county magistrates and county commissioners employ clerks? Can the six ministries employ clerks? Can the censors employ clerks?

Although Zhu Di did not say it explicitly at the time, in the cautious environment of the officialdom, how could the officials of the Ministry of Personnel take risks? In this case, the safest way is to fully cultivate the Hanlin Academy Shujishi, downgrade the training of ordinary Jinshi, and selectively train outstanding Juren.

At the same time, the door for "officials" to enter the officialdom was closed.

However, Zhu Di did not think that the Jinshi had personal relationships such as teachers and classmates, and the Hanlin Academy Shujishi had worked together in the same compound for many years. After they ascended to high positions, it was almost natural for them to stick together for warmth and form various gangs.

As for the subsequent corruption and the undermining of imperial power, they were all natural and inevitable.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, letting people abide by the law is the most beneficial to the world. However, Zhu Di, as a man with a silver spoon in his mouth, could not understand, empathize, or sympathize with the lower classes.

He naturally has a sense of superiority and inferiority in his eyes.

Xia Zhibai didn't think much about these things, he asked Heiwai other questions one after another.

Heiwa answered all the questions one by one.

Sitting in the tea shop, Xia Zhibai drank herbal tea to cool off, but he was thinking about his future business layout in his heart.

After the iron factory is opened, priority must be given to the salt factory. Xia Zhibai doesn't care much about the salt output, but is only concerned about how to quickly expand it later and how to save costs to the greatest extent possible.

The small population in the north is a big problem.

Fewer people means that it will cost more financial resources to expand the market.

He didn't have that much money to throw in.

a long time.

Xia Zhibai couldn't help but sigh: "The North is too poor."

It’s poor and prices are high.

He has now figured it out. If he just runs the salt shop, he might not be able to make back his investment, at least in the short term. He must find other ways to make a living.

He thought about it and only thought of one.

It's postal delivery.

Now that Zhu Yuanzhang had relaxed restrictions on the post stations, it seemed that he could take advantage of the opportunity to run a mail transportation business. Although many of the soldiers in the garrisons brought their families with them, many also went north alone. After being away for a long time, they would inevitably feel homesick. It would be feasible for him to run a post office as well.

As for maintaining the high price of salt, this is not what Xia Zhibai wants.

What he wants is for the North to develop as quickly as possible.

That would inevitably lower the prices of goods in the North.

Benefit the people.

Only in this way can we attract people from the south or central China to move north, thereby filling the northern population and further accelerating the development and recovery of the north. However, there is still good news, that is, there is plenty of coal in the north.

The price of coal is lower than in the south, which can reduce costs to a certain extent.

a long time.

Xia Zhibai gritted his teeth and said, "We still have to do some publicity to spread the news about the salt industry in Kyoto, so that the people will have expectations for the salt shop opened by me, Xia Zhibai. At the same time, we can take the opportunity to spread the word among the big banks and further expand our influence."

“Ultimately, we will occupy the market efficiently and conveniently.”

"Build your reputation first, and then fill in the rest later."

Xia Zhibai decided on a strategy.

Just when Xia Zhibai was clarifying his business idea, a figure appeared in the tea shop.

When he saw Xia Zhibai, the visitor smiled.

Then he walked in.

Then, he smiled and said, "Shopkeeper, give me another pot of herbal tea. I will sit at the same table with these two people."

　I haven't adjusted yet, I owe two chapters
　　
　
(End of this chapter)