Borrow the day to change the day

() Emperor Chongzhen knew that he was moving today and was busy, so he would not summon him for no reason. At the moment, Zhong Jinwei did not dare to neglect, and took five Dongchang guards to the Forbidden City to meet the emperor.

After arriving at the Wenhua Palace, I found that besides the Emperor Chongzhen, Wang Chengen, the admiral of the East Factory, Bi Ziyan, the Minister of the Household Department, and even Wen Tiren, the cabinet minister, were there.

Emperor Chongzhen has now understood that in the current cabinet, Wen Tiren is capable of practical things, honest and upright, dedicated to public service, and has no other people's small thoughts.So he had already begun to consciously encounter problems, so he called Wen Tiren over to discuss it together.

Zhong Jinwei looked at these people and guessed that it should be the matter of the Yanzheng.

Sure enough, after Zhong Jinwei finished saluting, Emperor Chongzhen said to him: "Master Zhong, I have discussed the reform of the salt administration with all the ministers and workers. They are quite new to your views on salt administration, and they still have some questions." I'm asking you."

"Oh, if anyone has any questions, please tell me." Zhong Jinwei had no opinion at all.

The Salt Administration has always been directly managed by the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Bi Ziyan has always had a headache about this matter.Since Yuan Shizhen resigned, the amount of salt tax turned over to the treasury of the Ministry of Accounts has been decreasing year by year.

Bi Ziyan even planned to suggest to Emperor Chongzhen Shangshu to restart Yuan Shizhen to take care of the Lianghuai salt administration, so as to make up for the successive years of deficit in the national treasury.

But I didn't expect to be called by Emperor Chongzhen to discuss matters early in the morning, and what they were talking about was the reform of the salt administration.Bi Ziyan first read the memorial, and then under Wang Chengen's explanation, he had a new understanding of the two reforms of the salt administration.

The idea that the price drop of official salt is not only beneficial to the country but also beneficial to the people is even more novel, but it has to be admitted that it makes sense.

Since Bi Ziyan became Daming's housekeeper, his hair has turned gray from years of losses.Even his own younger brother died because the national treasury was short of money and could not allocate military pay.

On the one hand, the military expenditures of successive years of wars have continued to increase. On the other hand, the northern area of ​​the Ming Dynasty has been plagued by disasters, and taxes cannot be collected, and even tax relief is needed. In addition, the Donglin Party members in the imperial court are constantly pleading for the "people" and abolishing various taxes. .This Hubu Shangshu is really not a human being, and the ears of the Hubu Shangshu's wife can hear the callus.

For Bi Ziyan now, as long as someone can propose to increase the revenue of the national treasury, he will support it with both hands and feet.

Now that the emperor is planning to reform the salt administration to improve the revenue of the treasury and the living standards of the people, he is naturally very happy and can't wait to implement it immediately.But there are still doubts about some specific issues.

Emperor Chongzhen summoned Zhong Jinwei, the person involved, and it was more reliable to ask him face to face.

Bi Ziyan looked at Zhong Jinwei and asked sincerely: "Uncle Zhongxing, the method of increasing the production of salt you mentioned is good, but you said that the rewards are graded according to the production of salt dings. If this is rewarded, the court has no money! "

Sure enough, it was the Minister of the Household Department, and it was about money when he opened his mouth.

Zhong Jinwei was taken aback for a moment, really, he hadn't thought about it.

Zhong Jinwei tried to answer: "How about keeping the account, after receiving the salt tax, then take it out and exchange it for Yan Ding?"

Wen Tiren interjected: "Uncle Zhongxing, the first time you implement this incentive measure, you first need to establish trust. In the past, the government of Shang Yang needed to reward the people who move the wood at the city gate with a hundred gold. If you use the method of bookkeeping and credit, Yanding may I won’t believe it.” Wen Tiren, who has rich experience in politics, immediately found out a flaw in this method.

Bi Ziyan stood on his own point of view and added: "Even if Yan Ding can believe that the imperial court will fulfill his promise, but after receiving the salt tax and then paying Yan Ding silver money, I am afraid that there will be very little salt tax left." Bi Ziyan Yan naturally knows that if this method is really implemented, the explosive increase in salt production will be obvious.

When Zhong Jinwei heard that there were still so many unfavorable factors, he had no choice but to give up the way of keeping accounts, and lowered his head to think again.

Suddenly, he remembered that when traveling in later generations, there was a matter of internal tickets for employees, and a flash of inspiration came to his mind, and there was.

So Zhong Jinwei slapped himself on the forehead excitedly and said, "I have a solution."

Emperor Chongzhen has been paying attention to the conversations of several courtiers, hoping to solve the problem as soon as possible, and implement the reform of the salt policy, so that the treasury can receive a lot of money earlier, and the rich and unkind salt merchants and private salt dealers will be squeezed to death.

But when I saw a question from the Minister of the Ministry of Households, it seemed that I couldn't solve it. I was so anxious that I was about to ask a question. When Zhong Jinwei said that I had it, I hurriedly said: "Master Zhong, if you have any ideas, come quickly."

Zhong Jinwei laughed, bowed his hands to Emperor Chongzhen and said: "The imperial court can use salt as a reward. After setting the reward level, it will issue a salt usage certificate to Yan Ding, which is equivalent to Yan Yin. Yan Ding can legally own this part of the salt and use it for himself. Or sell it. This not only solves the helplessness of the imperial court who has no money to exchange for rewards, but also makes the salt miners profitable, mobilizes their enthusiasm, and also disgusts the big salt merchants and private salt dealers."

Everyone in the hall thought about Zhong Jinwei's proposal carefully, and felt that under the current situation, this should be the only feasible way, and it didn't cost the court a copper coin, it was just a matter of opening a certificate.

All the people in the hall agreed to this approach, so the problem was solved.

"Bo Zhongxing, the second problem is that if we use the method of opening up the Chinese market to exchange grain for salt, there are two problems that need to be solved. One is the issue of the exchange sequence between the stock salt and the new salt; The suggested method is to take the salt profit from the old big salt merchants, but if the big salt merchants also exchange grain for salt, wouldn’t they still be unable to seize their profits?”

Regardless of whether they have their own ideas or not, everyone is used to looking at Zhong Jinwei to see how this resourceful Uncle Zhongxing can solve it.

Zhong Jinwei thought for a while and said: "In the name of the imperial court's urgent need, we can encourage merchants to send grain to the disaster-stricken areas, the Northeast War Zone, and the frontier lands to exchange for salt. Therefore, the salt must be cashed in immediately, so that the merchants will be motivated. Of course , the imperial court kept its word, the old Yanyin also needs to be exchanged, you can break the order of the Yanyin, and exchange half and half of the new and old Yanyin. In addition, due to the increase in the production of salt, the imperial court can promise how long it will take All salt quotations have been exchanged and will become invalid after the expiration date."

The last sentence made everyone startled, and it expired.This too?Bi Ziyan asked everyone's doubts.

Zhong Jinwei smiled and explained: "When the output increases in the future, a large number of warehouses may be needed to store salt, not the current situation. The salt is not enough to exchange. Building a large number of warehouses to store salt will cost a lot of money. Maintenance It also requires cost. At that time, some salt merchants felt that the salt could be exchanged at any time and there was no shortage of salt, so they were not in a hurry to exchange it, and put it in the official warehouse. There is another benefit of exchanging."

"What are the benefits?" Unexpectedly, Emperor Chongzhen and Bi Ziyan asked in unison, and the Wenhua Hall burst into laughter, making the atmosphere in the hall even more harmonious.Emperor Chongzhen has no dissatisfaction at all, as long as it can solve the problem, I like it.

Zhong Jinwei didn't hold back anymore, and said: "Not exchanging them after the expiration date shows that the imperial court has the confidence to exchange all the salt notes, and the merchants have confidence. Now they lack confidence in whether the imperial court can exchange the salt notes."

"However, if it is not exchanged after the expiration date, it may be that the court has no salt to redeem and what should I do after the deadline?" Emperor Chongzhen did not ask first, and asked the Minister of the Household Department who was in charge of the salt administration to interrogate.

Zhong Jinwei said nonchalantly: "Then Yan Yin will be doubled, and the officials in charge of Yan will be dismissed."

Except for Emperor Chongzhen, everyone gasped, which was cruel enough.Emperor Chongzhen liked it very much, he was confident and courageous enough.

Zhong Jinwei explained on the side: "If it is not like this, it will not show the confidence of the court; if it is not like this, it will not be enough for officials who produce salt to do their best."

Having said that, everyone thinks this is very necessary.To be honest, the court's reputation in all aspects is not good now, so it is reasonable to pay so much attention to it.

"As for the second question, the limit on the amount of grain that can be exchanged for salt can be removed, that is, as long as the common people have surplus grain, they can exchange it for salt, as long as the amount of salt is enough, but it is not good if the amount is too small .Of course, it’s no problem for the big salt merchants in the past to exchange grain for salt. You’re welcome. What the imperial court wants is a large amount of grain for disaster relief and as military funds to build captives. In fact, they still have to do this.”

"Why?" This time it was Emperor Chongzhen who asked, and he was very concerned about the problem of the big salt merchants.