Borrow the day to change the day

() "Your Majesty, I know that every dynasty has never been soft on private salt dealers and severely suppressed them. But no matter how you suppress them, there are still private salt dealers, right?" Zhong Jinwei asked rhetorically.

Emperor Chongzhen nodded. He knew that Zhong Jinwei had an idea, that's why he brought up this topic, and he was looking forward to seeing some wonderful ideas.

Seeing Emperor Chongzhen nodding, Zhong Jinwei continued: "Your Majesty, if you can't suppress it by force, you can use market means to squeeze it. There won't be a private salt dealer in the future."

What, there is no private salt dealer, how is this possible.Emperor Chongzhen's first thought was this, and he immediately asked Zhong Jinwei: "Master Zhong, what is the market method, is it really so powerful?"

"It's actually very simple. It's what I said before. Set the price of official salt to the price of private salt. In this way, no matter how good the quality of private salt is, how many people would dare to take the risk to buy private salt? How many people will take the risk of beheading for a little profit from smuggling salt. It seems that the price of official salt will be lowered, and the tax will be less. Pay less money to buy salt, and use a slogan in my world: hello, hello, everyone." Zhong Jinwei saw that there were only him, Emperor Chongzhen, and Wang Chengen in the hall, so he didn't hesitate to say that about me. The world is gone, so I repeat this content again, because I want to instill market concepts and economic warfare models into Emperor Chongzhen.

Emperor Chongzhen was quite moved, but Wang Chengen knew more about this aspect than Emperor Chongzhen. He said to Zhong Jinwei: "Since Jiajing, the Ming Dynasty has adopted methods such as increasing the amount of attention and increasing the amount of weight to increase the sales of official salt, but the competition is not enough. Cheap and high-quality private salt, so the court was powerless. But Yuan Shizhen’s salt administration reforms in the past few years have collected a lot of salt tax.”

"Cut, the imperial court is afraid that it can't compare to the cheap and high-quality private salt? They are risking their heads. The imperial court has the technology and manpower, and they can kill them if they play casually. By the way, you said that Yuan Shizhen's salt Political reform, what's going on?"

Wang Chengen looked at Emperor Chongzhen, and Emperor Chongzhen also nodded his head to indicate that he was not clear about this matter, after all, his time as emperor was too short and there were too many things, it was impossible to take care of all aspects.

Seeing that both of them wanted to be his audience, Wang Chengen cleared his throat slightly, and introduced according to his memory: "This Yuan Shizhen, styled Yizhi, named Cangru, was the third-ranked Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli. "Ten Discussions on Salt Law", he later served as Deputy Envoy to Shuli Lianghuai Salt Law Road, Shandong Press and Procuratorate, and promote the law."

"What guidelines?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.

"The servant girl is about to explain." Wang Chengen bowed to Emperor Chongzhen, "The content of the outline law is to organize the salt merchants who hold a large amount of salt into ten outlines. Every year, the government will exchange 20 old salt quotations , At the same time, a total of 180 million salt taxes for new salt quotations will be collected from the remaining salt merchants in the nine guidelines. In the future, only if they are listed in the catalog can they buy new ones based on the number of old quotations in the catalog, and then they can operate salt business in designated areas , can also be hereditary, and those who are not named in the catalog can no longer operate the salt industry."

Zhong Jinwei frowned, but Wang Chengen didn't finish speaking, so he didn't speak, and continued to listen patiently.

Wang Chengen continued to introduce: "Yuan Shizhen also abolished the past three unreasonable additional taxes, recruited soldiers and bravery to form a joint defense with the salt farm stove, and used the method of joint sitting to catch smuggled salt dealers."

Speaking of this, Wang Chengen looked at Emperor Chongzhen and Zhongxing Bo, and finally concluded: "He has been in office for four years, and he has a total of 280 taels in Taicang, and 640 forty taels in Biancang. The salt merchants also paid There are more than 150 taels of salaries in Liao, and more than 620 taels of interest on the treasury money."

It seems that the famous people in history are not smart, and they can remember clearly the fraction of silver taels.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard the silver, his eyes glowed, and what I lack is silver!

Zhong Jinwei sneered and said, "I don't think this person is very good, there is something tricky about it."

Wang Chengen was stunned, and said a little unconvinced: "How can we see that in the past, Wei Zhongxian's party members framed Yuan Shizhen for being corrupt and sent him to the prison of Yangzhou Prefecture, but there was no real evidence, and finally detained Yuan Shizhen for recruiting soldiers, building a Zhun Temple and spending money on money. Wan Liang was charged with forcing Yuan Shizhen to repay the loan. Lianghuai salt merchants were grateful for Yuan Shizhen's merit and paid the wronged money on his behalf."

"Hahaha..." Zhong Jinwei burst out laughing when he heard this, Emperor Chongzhen and Wang Chengen looked at him, could it be that he would go crazy?

Zhong Jinwei felt that Wang Chengen's proof of Yuan Shizhen's merits and virtues, in his opinion, just happened to be another criminal evidence, which is really funny.

"Master Zhong, what are you laughing at?" Emperor Chongzhen frowned and asked, not because he blamed Zhong Jinwei for being rude, but because he felt that Zhong Jinwei laughed inexplicably.

When Zhong Jinwei saw Emperor Chongzhen's question, he stopped laughing and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, I feel that Wang Gonggong's argument happened to be another major evidence of his crime. Maybe I misunderstood, and I said everything I thought. , Your Majesty and the prince can have a look to see if what I said makes sense."

"Okay." Emperor Chongzhen nodded.

"Before I analyze, there is a premise. I first ask Wang Gonggong." After Zhong Jinwei finished speaking, without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen's consent, he turned to Wang Chengen and asked: "Wang Gonggong, I want to ask you, the richest man in the world tomorrow." A class of people, what kind of people are they, do they have a role as Lianghuai salt merchants?"

Wang Chengen didn't expect Zhong Jinwei to ask this question, but if we really talk about wealth, basically everyone knows that salt merchants are rich.The famous Yangzhou lean horse industry is a product of salt merchants fighting for wealth.Wang Chengen nodded, expressing his affirmation of Zhong Jinwei's question.

Zhong Jinwei turned to Emperor Chongzhen again and said, "Your Majesty, you may not be convinced. I think those salt merchants have more money than you."

It cannot be said that Zhong Jinwei was provoking. The salt merchants at that time were really richer than the royal family, let alone the poor and clinking Chongzhen Emperor.In the later period of Chongzhen, it is said that the clothes of Emperor Chongzhen were mended by his queen, free of charge.Unlike Daoguang and Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, who love to wear patched clothes, a patch costs between five taels of silver and hundreds of taels of silver.

Without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen to say something, Zhong Jinwei said according to his own thinking: "The salt merchants are rich, and they are very rich. Everyone has no objection to this. Then let's analyze Yuan Shizhen's policy next."

Zhong Jinwei stretched out his left hand, clenched it into a fist, and then stretched out a finger: "First, turn the big salt merchant into ten parts, give salt and pay taxes in turn, let's not talk about the relationship between salt and tax, let's talk about them." Next, only those who are named in the compendium can buy new ones according to the number of old quotations in the compendium, and can go to the designated area to operate the salt business, which can also be hereditary. What, it's a monopoly."

"What is monopoly?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.

"A monopoly means that only these companies can sell, and no one else is allowed to sell." After Zhong Jinwei explained the monopoly a little, he continued: "In this way, these salt merchants have the privilege of this monopoly, and the price can be set as much as they want. Anyway, only His family has it, and salt is a necessity for the people, so they have to buy it. This has caused the salt merchants to become richer and richer, with more money than they can spend.”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard that there was too much money to spend, his eyes lit up.

Zhong Jinwei continued to stretch out his second finger, and said: "For the court, the so-called abolition of unreasonable additional taxes is reasonable or not, we don't know; but for salt merchants, as long as they collect taxes, it must be unreasonable." Yes. The abolition of the tax will certainly be to the advantage of the salt merchants, that is certain, and will make them richer as a result."

Zhong Jinwei stretched out his third finger, and said: "It seems to be a normal court behavior to form a joint defense and arrest private salt dealers, but it is beneficial to the salt merchants when combined with the above two points. This measure strengthens their monopoly position, and the result is that the salt merchants will become richer."

Zhong Jinwei finally stretched out his fourth finger and said: "The Lianghuai salt merchants are grateful for Yuan Shizhen's merit, and repaid 2 taels on Yuan Shizhen's behalf. If this is used to prove that Yuan Shizhen has won the hearts of the people, it is better to say that he is even more popular with the salt merchants." If someone who can bring such wealth to a salt merchant, if I were a salt merchant, I would not only pay back the money for him, but also pay for him to develop relationships and keep him in office."

Finally, Zhong Jinwei shook the four fingers of his left hand and said, "These four points are my opinion."

Wang Chengen was sweating profusely when he heard that, so he could still think so, but Wang Chengen had to admit that what Zhongxing Bo said was also reasonable.

Emperor Chongzhen wished he could confiscate all the rich and oily salt merchants' homes one by one, and he could breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe my Minister of the Household Department would be happier than me.

Zhong Jinwei suddenly added another sentence: "Besides, these salt merchants usually sell salt, and they may also mix in private salt to sell it, which is even more profitable."

Emperor Chongzhen Huo De stood up from his throne and said to Zhong Jinwei: "Master Zhong, what can you do to solve this salt tax problem and take the profits from the salt merchants?"