Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 39 Lu Beigu's Vision
"First, [well salt notes] were established in Sichuan, requiring merchants to purchase Sichuan well salt with copper coins, and the sales range could not exceed the original sales area of ​​well salt."

"Secondly, the [Jieyan Salt Notes] were issued in the northwest. The court would issue salt notes specifically for purchasing grain in the northwestern states, based on a certain percentage of the annual output of Hedong Jieyan. Merchants could use these salt notes to exchange for salt at the Hedong salt fields, but the sales area could not exceed the original sales area of ​​Jieyan."

"Third, following the strategy of Liu Yan of the Tang Dynasty, instead of shipping military grain directly from the southeast to the northwest, every few years, merchants from the southeast will bid for the right to undertake grain transportation in sections based on the amount of [well salt notes] they hold."

"Fourth, a special military grain warehouse for the northwest will be established in Kaifeng to store military grain transported from the southeast. Merchants can choose to undertake the task of transporting military grain to the northwest after paying a deposit, and then exchange it for [salt notes] in the northwest, which is far less than the amount they would receive if they purchased and transported the grain themselves."

"Fifth, a salt note exchange place was set up in Kaifeng, allowing merchants to exchange [well salt notes] for [salt notes] according to the ratio set by the court."

The amount of information was quite large, and Zhao Yan did not understand it clearly after listening to it.

"Please elaborate."

"Yes."

Lu Beigu cleared his throat and said, "If this law were to be implemented, first, many small and medium-sized merchants would buy [Salt Notes] to obtain Sichuan well salt, just as they did before. However, because there were no restrictions on the means of payment, it wouldn't alleviate Sichuan's copper coin shortage. However, if iron coins and cloth were no longer accepted, the influx of copper coins into Sichuan would increase significantly."

"Of course, if we just sell Sichuan well salt normally, we won't be able to increase the amount of copper coins we import to a level that can alleviate the money shortage."

"But if there were a rule that 'every few years, merchants would bid for the right to transport grain in sections east of Kaifeng based on the amount of [well salt notes] they held,' then powerful merchants would certainly compete to purchase the right to transport grain in sections in order to profit from transporting grain."

I would like to add here that buying poker was a system widely used in Song Dynasty society.

Lu Beigu's idea was only to buy the qualification to transport military rations to the northwest in sections through the canal transport, not to buy the canal transport itself.

The scope of the canal transport was extremely wide. In addition to military rations, the canal transport was also responsible for transporting various items from the southeast, such as bamboo, wood and rattan handicrafts, groceries and daily necessities, copper and ironware, luxury goods such as ambergris and ivory, local specialties and tributes, firewood, charcoal, feed, etc., to Kaifeng, and then transported them to various parts of the north with Kaifeng as the center.

Then you ask why we should buy out the right to transport military grain in sections east of Kaifeng?

That must be because the cost of buying the pawns and letting merchants undertake the transportation in sections is much cheaper than the court doing the transportation itself!

The route of the Southeastern Canal Transportation is not a straight line at all, but a big network!
The imperial court coordinated the purchase of grain itself, then transported it along different waterway tributaries, transported it to certain waterway intersections, and then continued to transship it. The tangible and intangible costs required were quite high.

However, if it is subcontracted to a certain businessman, after setting hard indicators, and using water transport nodes as acceptance inspection points, a game of interests will be formed between him and upstream and downstream merchants. No matter how greedy the businessman is, he can only make a small profit at most.

But if the transport department and the shipping department continue to interfere with the grain transport every year, the losses will be incalculable!
The two big men must understand the twists and turns here.

Zhang Fangping seemed to have figured something out at this time, and he asked Zhao Yan directly.

"How does the loss compare to the original canal transport?"

Zhao Yan said affirmatively: "It will definitely consume much less than if the Transportation Bureau and the Shipping Bureau continued to undertake the transportation of grain for the Northwest Army." As the Transportation Commissioner of Yizhou Road, Zhao Yan had personally rectified the collection of taxes and naturally knew the ins and outs of it.

Zhang Fangping's attitude also changed at this time, and he sat up straight unconsciously.

Lu Beigu continued, following his train of thought, "At this time, the big merchants will need to import the large amounts of copper coins they have hoarded into Sichuan in exchange for large quantities of [Well Salt Notes], which they will use as bargaining chips in the purchase of salt. With this cyclical inflow of copper coins every few years, the copper coin shortage in Sichuan will naturally be gradually alleviated."

"It sounds feasible and can indeed alleviate the copper coin shortage in Sichuan."

Zhao Yan pondered for a moment and then raised the question that concerned him most as a transport envoy: "Will merchants, driven by profit, steal or withhold grain, or substitute inferior grain for good?"

Lu Beigu explained, "When buying a puff, you have to ask the merchant to be responsible for transporting the grain in sections. The amount of grain transported to the next section is fixed, and losses are inevitable, but they are all borne by the merchant. If he steals, deducts, or replaces grain with inferior grain, and the merchant responsible for the next section fails to detect or cannot make up for it, then the merchant in charge of the next section will suffer losses or be investigated and punished. To avoid losses, the merchant who buys the puff for each section of transportation will enter into a game of interests with the two merchants above and below him."

What this means is not that Merchant A, who is located upstream of the river, buys 1,000 dan of grain and transports it to the middle reaches of the river, and then hands it over to Merchant B to transport it downstream of the river.

Instead, Merchant A, who was responsible for transporting military rations along a tributary, purchased 1,000 dan of grain and transported the grain to the intersection of two tributaries. The grain was then inspected for quality and quantity at a checkpoint. After the inspection, the grain was handed over to Merchant B. Merchant B also purchased 1,000 dan of grain. Merchant B needed to transport these 2,000 dan of grain from the intersection of the two tributaries to the transfer node where the tributary merged into a main stream for further inspection.

The entire process is like the root system of a big tree.

At this point, some smart people might ask, if merchants cannot steal or withhold food, or sell inferior food as good quality, why would they be willing to do this?

In fact, buying the qualification to transport military rations in sections may not seem to bring much benefit on the surface.

But for businessmen, it is a very profitable thing.

On the one hand, according to the Song Dynasty's system of buying and selling rights, transporting military rations in sections would definitely not make merchants run at a loss. They might not make much money, but as long as they were not particularly unlucky and did not often encounter things like pirates robbing rations or ships sinking, the accumulated profits from buying and selling rights over a few years would be a sure win. It was a stable income item that did not require too much risk.

On the other hand, there is a hidden benefit in transporting military rations in sections. You can take advantage of the special properties of military rations and try to make extra money by transporting other things during the section where you buy food. Of course, you can only transport small and valuable items. Large items definitely cannot be transported by ship. After all, there are random inspections at checkpoints. Fewer random inspections during the transportation of military rations does not mean no random inspections.

In general, even if there are certain operating and inspection risks, businessmen will still flock to it.

The bidding for the tickets is repeated every few years, and even if secret deals are reached between merchants, there are still many variables in the game, which prevents the system from becoming rigid quickly.

"You go on."

Zhang Fangping became completely serious.

(End of this chapter)