I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 207: Take the Lead in Everything

Zhu Yijun stretched out his hand and gestured, "Gentlemen, you don't have to be polite. Let's continue."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Mr. Xing'an, please continue to talk about your views and suggestions on salt administration."

"Your Highness, I dare to make a suggestion. The salt administration is in chaos and must be changed with thundering measures. The first step is to implement the small salt law. Previously, the salt permit issued by our ancestors was 300 kilograms of regular salt and 280 kilograms of surplus salt.

Taking into account the cost, salt tax and freight, one load of salt would cost hundreds of taels of silver. Smaller merchants simply could not afford one load of salt, and could only buy two or three loads if they pooled their money.

In the end, it will only benefit those wealthy businessmen who can buy hundreds or thousands of them and make huge profits.

I suggest that the salt permit should be 300 jin per regular salt and 180 jin per surplus salt. This will allow more civilians and merchants to buy salt permits, thereby facilitating the flow of civilian and merchant goods and money, and speeding up the exchange of goods and money. This will benefit both the public and private sectors, and merchants will be happy to come."

Zhu Yijun nodded without saying anything, waiting for Pang Shangpeng to continue speaking.

"I suggest that the Restriction Law be abolished."

"The Law of Restraint?"

"Your Highness, this law is the one currently set by the Ministry of Revenue's Salt Supervisor, and Lianghuai, Changlu, Sichuan, and East Zhejiang are all following it.

It stipulates that patrol soldiers who investigate and investigate smuggled salt must seize a certain amount of jin of smuggled salt and arrest a certain number of smuggled salt dealers every quarter. If they fail to do so, their wages will be deducted.

This was an evil law, which forced patrolmen to arrest law-abiding merchants indiscriminately or falsely accuse them of smuggling. Some patrolmen, after having their wages cut, joined the ranks of smugglers. As a result, the more smuggled salt was banned, the more it became.

I believe that this law is a lazy way to treat the symptoms, and it cannot solve the fundamental problem of the rampant illegal salt production. The most important thing is to solve the root cause. I suggest that this law be abolished, and the original quota of illegal salt production in various government offices should be exempted. "

Zhu Yijun nodded, thought for a while, looked at Pang Shangpeng and said, "Mr. Xing'an, please continue."

Pang Shangpeng became more and more generous as he spoke, he said loudly.

"Third, I suggest that officials buy private salt. Start by eliminating the source of private salt. When I was inspecting eastern Zhejiang, I found that a large part of private salt came from the surplus salt that had not been purchased by the salt fields. The salt farmers suffered from the difficulty of transporting the salt and the pain of waiting for the silver, so they sold it directly to the private salt dealers who came to collect the salt, and they could get the money immediately.

I suggest that the surplus salt from each salt field should also be sold to the government without any mistakes. The government should send out salt collection teams to various salt fields. If they find any surplus salt from the salt workers, they should weigh it and check it, and pay in cash immediately without delay.

Zhu Yijun heard that Pang Shangpeng's voice was a little hoarse, so he quickly pointed to the teacup next to him and said, "Mr. Xing'an, please have a sip of tea to moisten your throat."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

After drinking two sips of warm tea, Pang Shangpeng continued, "Fourth, I propose to implement the salt law. Nowadays, the official salt production of salt fields is limited, but it is often controlled by the powerful. They take the salt first with the salt permit. Ordinary civilians and merchants wait for three to five months with the salt permit, or even a year and a half, but still cannot get enough salt on the salt permit.

I suggest that the salt permits for the whole country be compiled into a book divided into ten categories, with one category being used to issue accumulated permits and the ninth category being used to issue new permits each year.

The list of salt merchants and merchants in the trade market is based on the auction of salt licenses. Merchants who get the licenses will keep them as their permanent licenses, and new licenses will be issued every year according to the old numbers in the list. Those without names are not allowed to join. "

Zhu Yijun immediately said: "So, from now on, the right to purchase, transport and sell salt in the world will belong to the Gangpai merchants, and can be inherited by the generations?"

Pang Shangpeng answered carefully: "Yes."

"Um, any more?"

"As for the reform of salt administration, I can only think of these four points."

"Well, these four points alone have surpassed 90% of the officials in the court." Zhu Yijun stood up, put his hands in his sleeves, and paced in front of Ye Mengxiong and Pang Shangpeng.

This Pang Shangpeng is indeed quite capable and can be a pioneer of reform.

Zhu Yijun stopped, turned around and said, "The four points are very promising, but they have not yet escaped the most fundamental shackles." Pang Shangpeng said unconvincedly, "Please give me some advice, Your Highness."

"With the Small Salt Law, you realized the importance of cost pressure and capital turnover speed. With the Gang Salt Law, you understood that the rich and powerful would often rush to take the salt first. With the Surplus Salt Law, you have actually touched the threshold of the problem, just a little bit away."

"Have you reached the threshold of the problem?" Pang Shangpeng was a little puzzled.

"Yes. In fact, one of the fundamental problems is low productivity. Throughout the dynasties, salt production was nothing more than a frying method, using a plate for frying and a pot for boiling. It not only required iron tools, but also a lot of firewood.

In the first year of the Jiajing reign, the salt fields in Haifeng County, Jinan Prefecture, Shandong Province, began to change from boiling to drying, which did not require iron tools or firewood.

Although it is affected by the weather and rain, the salt produced in one go is equivalent to the annual output of hundreds of households, but we don’t use it. Of course, the reasons are complicated, so I won’t go into details. "

"The second is the backward production, transportation and marketing system. Mr. Xing'an, you actually already understand the operation tricks of the Coordination Bureau, but you are reluctant to mention it out of concern. So you proposed the Surplus Salt Law and the Gang Salt Law, which can solve the problem, but still have major drawbacks."

The Salt Gang System can indeed ensure that not all the salt produced will be taken away by the powerful and wealthy, and can ensure that the salt tax will increase sharply in a short period of time. However, the salt gang is hereditary, which has greater disadvantages in the long run.

Pang Shangpeng lowered his head and remained silent when Zhu Yijun exposed his little thoughts.

Ye Mengxiong quickly said, "Your Highness is wise. I think Your Highness has a plan in mind and should have a comprehensive and good plan. Please teach me and others."

"Mr. Longtang, Mr. Xing'an, why don't we follow the example of the Coordinating Bureau and set up a Salt Administration Bureau, and then set up a government-supervised and privately-run salt trading company.

There are two types of salt trading companies: one is to run salt fields and produce salt by sun-drying and boiling; the other is to collect and transport salt. They collect salt from salt fields in cash and then transport it to branches of provincial governments. Merchants from various provinces then go to salt companies of provincial governments to sell salt to local counties.

Salt production, collection, transportation and sale are all carried out in salt fields and salt cooperatives. When the salt cooperatives sell salt to merchants, the price of salt includes salt tax, and salt tickets are given, which can be sold in the states and counties under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.

The Salt Administration supervises the entire process to prevent the smuggling of surplus salt and the evasion of salt taxes.”

Pang Shangpeng was the first to understand it clearly. He stroked his beard and praised, "Your Highness is wise. The salt business can be handed over to the trading companies. Production, transportation and sales can be separated. The salt fields are responsible for producing salt, and the salt companies collect and transport salt, which will be transported to different companies in different provincial governments, and then they will sell it.

The Salt Administration Bureau was directly appointed by the Ministry of Revenue. It was only responsible for checking accounts and inventory, and supervising that salt taxes were not lost, but it was not directly responsible for business operations.

Ye Mengxiong also understood and nodded in approval, "Your Highness is wise, this method is very comprehensive."

Zhu Yijun waved his hand, "I don't know whether this new law is comprehensive or not. But there is a principle that must be mastered."

Pang Shangpeng and Ye Mengxiong hurriedly bowed and said, "Your Highness, please teach me."

"First, the responsibilities and powers must be clearly defined. Those who are responsible for producing salt are responsible for producing salt. If the production is insufficient, the salt fields can be held accountable. The salt cooperatives are responsible for collecting, transporting and selling salt. If the transportation is not in time or the sales are insufficient, the salt cooperatives can be held accountable. The Salt Administration Bureau is responsible for supervision. If the salt administration is chaotic and salt tax is lost, the Salt Administration Bureau can be held accountable.

Secondly, the identities should be separated. If the court officials do not understand economic laws and business techniques, they should not interfere. The management of salt administration should be handed over to the salt fields, salt societies, and merchants, and the court should only supervise through the Salt Administration Bureau.

This will save all the officials, big and small, from getting involved, with some being incompetent and some being greedy, and finally making a mess of it, but the court will have to take the blame and the people will have to pay for it.”

Zhu Yijun looked at Pang Shangpeng and Ye Mengxiong and said, "You two are capable officials. You two should think carefully about the method we discussed today, and then go to the nearby salt fields of Changlu and Haifeng, as well as northern Zhili and Shandong to try it out.

Summarize the pros and cons. Lianghuai Salt Administration was the first blow, and it was cut by Gangfeng. But how to eradicate the drawbacks and come up with a comprehensive and long-term solution, we have to think ahead and also go ahead. "

"Yes!"

After sending Ye Mengxiong and Pang Shangpeng out of Ziguang Pavilion, Zhu Yijun called Feng Bao over.

"The East Factory will immediately dispatch spies to closely monitor Nanjing City together with the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If there are any unusual movements of troops on land or sea, they will be reported immediately to Cao Bangfu who is temporarily stationed in Wusong, and the supervision office will be sent urgently."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)