Jiajing Chengming

After Zhu Houcong said this, Gui E's eyes lit up and said:
"Your Majesty, if that's the case, why don't the Salt Administration do the same?"

“In fact, salt is quite expensive for ordinary people!”

"Now, the imperial salt administration is equivalent to selling salt to wealthy merchants, but these wealthy merchants use their power to monopolize the salt market and collude with bureaucrats to crack down on small salt merchants, so that small salt merchants either pay the salt transport office but cannot get salt, or get salt but it is bad and cannot be sold."

"At the same time, they deliberately hoarded salt and drove up the price of salt or the price of salt, thereby exploiting ordinary merchants and citizens."

"So, why not let the imperial court do the same with salt administration, and set up salt administration officials and merchants at all levels, which will benefit both government departments at all levels and ordinary small merchants, and also help the common people in the world to get salt! And truly realize the national salt monopoly!"

After hearing this, Yang Yiqing immediately said, "Your Majesty, this is a good policy for the salt administration, but the existing policy has been in place for a hundred years, and many salt merchants have paid silver for their salt. The situation of salt vouchers being blocked is still very serious, and the number of officials in the court is limited."

"So, if we allow government departments at all levels to set up supply and marketing shops and open government-run grain shops for wholesale, and also do the same with the salt administration, it will be too hasty and make the salt industry more chaotic. Therefore, I think it is not appropriate to change the salt administration at the same time."

Zhu Houcong nodded.

He was also worried that if the salt industry did this, the salt producers would go on strike directly, or the existing salt merchants would refuse to sell salt, or they would bring unapproved salt to the court and demand approval of salt.

Because of the corruption in the government offices and the connivance of emperors of all dynasties, many salt merchants paid for salt permits but could not get salt. As a result, many salt merchants held a lot of unsold salt permits, which caused a congestion in the salt permits.

Therefore, if these salt merchants really make a big fuss, the imperial court will be caught in an awkward situation where if they give the salt to the rich, all the remaining salt may fall into the hands of the rich, but if they do not give the salt to the rich, the imperial court's credibility will be greatly damaged.

Zhu Houcong also said at this time: "Let's do this in grain policy first, try it out, and summarize the drawbacks before making any decisions."

Gui E bowed and nodded in agreement.

Then, Zhu Houcong said, "This matter will be led by Gui Gelao! Select an official from the Ministry of Personnel, another official from the Ministry of Revenue, another official from the Censorate, and then select a censor from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel, and select a cabinet scholar from the Ministry of Finance to form a grain policy office, which will be responsible for doing a good job. When the matter is done, the office will be dismissed, and the officials will return to the ministry and the censors will return to the corridor of science."

Gui E was pleased again and looked excited.

He knew that the emperor had put him in charge of this matter as a sign that he would reform the salt administration in the same way in the future.

It all depends on how he does.

Therefore, Gui E naturally determined in his heart that he must do a good job in grain policy reform this time.

……

……

"What a good thing those wealthy and luxurious people did!"

"Yan Fenyi punished them and made them pay taxes and accept the punishment. He had no intention of exposing them. He only wanted them to earn less money without affecting the court's border defense plan. However, these wealthy and extravagant families insisted on taking all the profits and sued Yan Fenyi for excessive punishment."

"Now it's good!"

"Your Majesty therefore wants to reform the grain market in a way that 'the state advances and the people retreat' way, directly setting up government-run grain merchants, and setting them up at all levels, with wholesale at every level, and only those who sell grain directly to the people are ordinary merchants!"

"As a result, in such a huge grain market, everyone can only make a small profit."

"It is truly a good policy to share the benefits and food of the world, but it just makes Zhang, Gui and others happy!"

After returning home, Yang Yiqing saw Xia Yan who came to inform Hanlin Qingliu about the situation. He told Xia Yan about what happened in the imperial study in a rather depressed manner.

After hearing this, Xia Yan sighed: "This is indeed because the wealthy and extravagant family behind this is too greedy! Let Your Majesty have the heart to continue the reform!"

"To be honest, Yan Fenyi is a man who knows the big picture. If he hadn't been forced into this situation, he wouldn't have been forced into this situation step by step."

“Who isn’t the same?”

"Short-sighted people, unable to contend with the power of today's emperor, yet always have the same ambitions as the Han and Tang dynasties!"

"If the imperial court is really controlled by them, it will sooner or later fall into the hands of foreigners again!"

After Yang Yiqing asked, he started talking again.

Xia Yan advised Yang Yiqing: "Prime Minister, calm down. There is nothing we can do now! I just hope that they can learn a lesson from this incident! They will know that they are not the winners and no longer have the idea of ​​winning everything."

"I hope so. If he is still blinded by greed and is willing to sell the knife that cut his own neck to Your Majesty, then even a god cannot save such a fool!"

Yang Yiqing sneered as he spoke. Then.

Yang Yiqing frowned again and said, "Moreover, His Majesty has already asked Gui E to take charge of this matter. This means that if there are unscrupulous merchants in the trade of bulk commodities such as salt, iron and tea who disregard the long-term stability of the country and the people and only seek to make huge profits, the relationship between officials and merchants will continue to expand like this."

"That would be horrible!"

After hearing this, Xia Yan muttered to himself.

Because Confucianism actually advocates a liberal economy, therefore, in terms of finance, Confucianism advocates light taxes and levies, and advocates that the court and government should not compete with the people for profits, but should rest with the people.

Therefore, traditional scholar-officials like Xia Yan would also feel that if Zhu Houcong continued to run government-business relations and monopolize various important industries, it would be a terrible situation.

But Zhu Houcong had no choice.

He doesn't want to get involved in the big government thing and wants to have fewer problems.

But the facts prove that the wealthy businessmen of the Ming Dynasty and the luxurious and tycoon families behind them are just so fucked up!

Putting aside their disloyalty to the emperor, the key point is that many of them have no sense of country and nation. They are unwilling to make concessions for the sake of their own interests and ignore the overall national defense of the court. Even if Yan Song, who represents the court, only lets them take less profit, they are unwilling to do so and are determined to overturn the table, forcing Yan Song to follow suit.

This meant that Zhu Houcong simply took advantage of the Ming Dynasty's system of a centralized empire, directly dismantled state-owned grain companies, monopolized the grain trade, and only gave a little bit of the profits to ordinary vendors and common people at the bottom.

At least in this way, Zhu Houcong could directly hold the bureaucrats accountable for the unstable grain prices and force these officials to stabilize grain prices for the sake of their own political future and even family interests and personal lives.

In addition, those who can become bureaucrats are selected from thousands of troops, and their self-control and comprehension are not comparable to those of ordinary wealthy people.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong thought about it and finally decided to continue to expand the scale of the state-owned economy and allow the court to directly control more interests.

In this way, it would be easier for him as the emperor to distribute the benefits of the world.

Of course, the prerequisite for doing so is that he, as the emperor, can persist in working hard to govern the country and enrich the country and benefit the people. Otherwise, this will only accelerate the concentration of the world's interests in the hands of a few.

This is because once the person on the emperor's position is a greedy and selfish emperor who regards the people of the world as straw dogs, this emperor will be able to more easily seize the world's wealth through this more massive bureaucratic system, thereby widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

However, Zhu Houcong could not worry about whether there would be a flood in the future.

Now, if he wants to strengthen the country and the army and enrich the country and the people, this is the only way.

After all, the wealthy and luxurious people are unwilling to cooperate or compromise at all!

As the saying goes, those who eat meat are vulgar and cannot plan for the long term.

As the governor of Ji and Liao, Yan Song had fantasized about forcing the wealthy businessmen controlled by these luxurious families to compromise on some of their interests, even at the cost of undermining the administration of the imperial court.

But the result is that these vested interests have become so stubborn that they would rather die than take everything.

Although the direct manifestation was that Liang Cai, an honest official who was not greedy and did not take anything, finally put up a stubborn resistance, this would not have happened if it were not for a wealthy businessman like Shirakura who openly reported the incident.

However, there are always individuals who betray their class.

Gui E, who had always advocated radical reforms, adjustments to the distribution system, reforms to strengthen the country, and strengthening the court's ability to control, was very active in carrying out this kind of reform that would advance the country and weaken the people after he was ordered to be in charge of this matter.

Almost all of the officials he selected were innovative.

Therefore, the court's decision to directly set up grain merchants was carried out with great vigor and vitality.

As a result, more than one million shi of grain were taken out of the granary and prepared to be wholesaled to various military governors and provincial governments. A batch was directly transported to Changping.

Seeing this, many merchants in Changping came to the governor's office of Yan Song and knelt down to beg:
"Minister, please allow me to report this! This incident is all the fault of Shirakura alone. It's not that we are unwilling to accept the punishment and pay taxes!"

"Please ask the Ministry to report to the court and ask them not to compete with the people for profits and ask government offices at all levels to close down supply and marketing shops!"

"Please ask the Ministry to report to the court and ask them not to compete with the people for profits and ask government offices at all levels to close down supply and marketing shops!"

"Please ask the Ministry to report to the court and ask them not to compete with the people for profits and ask government offices at all levels to close down supply and marketing shops!"

Merchants kowtowed and cried outside the governor's office. (End of this chapter)