Old Master Mei is old and has not been responsible for family affairs for a long time, but his conversations and ideas are very clear.

But when Mr. Mei was bending his finger, he said, "The salt in the world is divided into sea salt, well salt, earth salt, pond salt, nitrate salt, and rock salt. But it is mainly three types of sea salt, well salt, and pond salt. Among them, pond salt has the salt degradation from Shanxi, and well salt is mostly from Sichuan. But well salt is not as good as pond salt, and pond salt is not as good as sea salt."

Lin Yanchao nodded and said, "What my father-in-law said is that he was appointed as an official in Guide. Guide was originally a place where salt was removed and salt was carried out. It was most dependent on the weather, so the annual amount was often insufficient. Moreover, the journey from Shanxi to Henan was far away, which was small and expensive, so it was mostly inconvenient for local people to eat salt."

"At that time, the magistrate Fu changed the salt to sea salt, which was a temporary virtue."

"Magistrate Fu?" said Mr. Mei, the eldest son of Mei, and said: "It is the current left governor of Henan."

Lin Yanchao smiled and said, "Yes."

Old Master Mei nodded immediately and said, "Fu Fangbozhen is a capable minister and an official. How dare you ask the master of the ministry where the sea salt was used in Guide Mansion later?"

Mei Kan said: "I originally used Changlu salt, but later it was changed to Shandong salt."

Old Master Mei nodded and said, "So that's it. Shandong salt is worth 140,000 yuan a year. I heard that I could use it myself. I wonder if it's enough to provide more money to the government?"

Lin Yanchao smiled and said, "Guide's house has 300,000 people, barely enough."

Old Master Mei nodded and said, "If it comes to the wealth of salt, it should be my Huai Salt. As the saying goes, Lianghuai Salt is salty in the world. My Lianghuai Salt is 700,000 yuan a year. In addition to the local area, it also supplies the two provinces of Jiangxi and Huguang. Unfortunately, it is inconvenient to go to Henan."

When everyone said this, everyone smiled, Mei Kan said with a smile: "Dad, you are the one who is Wang Po who sells melons and boasts."

After Mei Kan finished speaking, his brother immediately raised his face and said, "Where is no such thing? There is no rule."

Mei Kan said yes when she heard this and immediately stopped the sound.

Lin Yanchao looked at the eldest son of the Mei family and Mei chatted.

Old Master Mei did not care about the words of the two brothers, but continued: "It's not just that I was boasting. Taizu decided that our two Huai Rivers would be 350,000 yuan, and later it increased to 700,000 yuan. Even so, Huai Yan still had more than 500,000 yuan."

Lin Yanchao said: "The difficulty of remaining salt in the two Huaihe Rivers has long known it."

Speaking of these two Huai salts, it is the history of the reform of the salt law in the Ming Dynasty. It is difficult to explain without tens of thousands of words before and after.

To sum up, half of the Taicang income in the Ming Dynasty's treasury was salt tax, and half of the salt tax came from Huai Yan.

The first salt tax in Lianghuai was set to be 350,000 yuan for the main salt, which means that after merchants transported grain to the front line, they could get the Huai salt salt and then use the salt to lead them to the salt field to get the salt.

But the problem is what to do if the stoves producing sea salt in Lianghuai, in addition to paying the regular salt from the court salt amount every year, have excess salt in their hands.

In this way, if the court does not collect the remaining salt, it will be converted into private salt, and the national salt industry's system of buying and selling is destroyed.

At first, officials suggested that it would be easy to increase the salt amount, but this move was immediately denied because increasing the salt amount would be a disaster for some stove residents who had insufficient salt production, which could easily cause the stove residents to pay insufficient positive amount and flee.

Therefore, the initial method of the court was to collect the remaining salt by the official, and the court used money to acquire it uniformly.

The annual income of 600,000 taels of surplus salt was handed over to Taicang. Before Zhang Juzheng's reform, the 600,000 silver from the Lianghuai Salt Administration was a quarter of the income of Taicang. The Lianghuai Zhengyan provided military rations to the state, providing military rations to the defenders of the Shenchi forts in Gansu, Yansui, Ningxia, Xuanfu, Datong, Liaodong, Guyuan, and Shanxi. In addition, it was also offered to Guanglu Temple, Shengong Supervisor, and Inner Official Supervisor.

But there is a problem with the official method of collecting residual salt, that is, the unified purchase price of the state is too low, which leads to the stove owners who would rather sell the residual salt to private salt dealers than to the court.

Therefore, the huge profits of private salt have led to many people in the Jianghuai generation not farming, but instead make a living by selling private salt. These people are armed, garrisoning salt and building forts in villages, and they will be beaten when they encounter officers and soldiers, causing the government to dare not care about these people.

These are the people described in later generations, so the people in the Jianghuai River in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were very strong. It is well known that the predecessor of Beiyang was the Huai Army.

Later, the court also raised the purchase price of surplus salt, but the profit was not as high as that of private salt. Therefore, the official acquisition of surplus salt led to the corruption of the salt law, so the court changed to the merchant to collect surplus salt, but the merchant acquisition of surplus salt caused the court to make no money.

Because according to Kaizhong and France, salt merchants transported grain to the north and then exchanged for regular salt and salt. However, after the merchant received the residual salt, the merchant could buy the residual salt locally, and who would use the method of transporting grain to exchange for regular salt. Moreover, the price of merchants receiving residual salt was high, which led to the salt merchants selling salt to merchants instead of the imperial court, so the imperial court could not even collect the regular salt.

So the court reformed again, first the official collection and then the business collection. Lianghuai salt turf was increased from 350,000 to 700,500, and the government collected 350,000 more surplus salt from the salt people, and then the salt people had the remaining surplus salt to sell to the merchants.

The merchants have to buy a certain amount of salt before they can buy residual salt and forcefully sell it.

It seems to solve the problem perfectly, but the result is that in the Jiajing period, Lianghuai's regular salt was 700,000 yuan per year and the remaining salt was 3 million yuan, which far exceeded the output of local salt residents, and was equivalent to writing a short check.

Then the merchant took a large amount of salt and salt entries, but he couldn't buy a grain of salt in the salt field. At the same time, the salt amount increased to 700,000 yuan, causing a large number of salt households who had not been able to catch the original strength to flee.

This move was scolded by the merchants and salt people. During the Longqing period, the court was forced to reform the salt law again, that is, merchants first collect the salt and then collect the official. The merchants first buy the remaining salt and then the court guaranteed the situation.

However, the business contract was first collected and then the official contract was no different from the original business contracted surplus salt. Anyone who was willing to sell salt to the court would sell as much as they could to the merchants. The merchants even used the convenience of buying salt in the salt farm to bypass the salt intake and buy private salt from the salt merchants.

Therefore, private salt in Lianghuai was flooded, but no one bought the main salt, so the court had to pay out of its own pocket for the silver.

Therefore, there was another news in the officialdom, and the court intends to resume the official collection of salt again. In short, it is to make a comeback and forthcoming.

The official collects surplus salt, and the salt merchants suffer losses.

The merchants collected surplus salt, and the court suffered a loss.

When I knew my temper today, I loved money like the people, how could I agree to the people below reaching my hands into the court?

At this time, the imperial court had a general opinion that the court's salt law was not good, and that the officials in charge of the salt industry were repeatedly bribed by salt merchants, which led to the destruction of government orders.

Yes, the system is good, but the problem is that officials are not ethical, which leads to the deterioration of the salt law.

Therefore, we must choose an official with integrity and integrity, that is, a person who is cautious in salt, to kill this evil wind in the Yangzhou officialdom, so as to eliminate the bribery trend, rectify the salt industry in the Lianghuai River, and ensure the tax on the court's salt.

Under this argument, to fundamentally manage the salt administration, the primary official lies in the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Envoy.

So not long ago, my former salt transport envoy of Lianghuai was confiscated.

In addition, private salt must be investigated strictly, which describes how arrogant the private salt merchants are. The censor reported to the emperor that private salt ship merchants gathered hundreds of large ships, and held wars openly. They drove on the river with flags. The ships were equipped with muskets and cannons. Their equipment was better than that of the official army. For such private salt and salt merchants, the court must arrest and kill several, otherwise what consequences would be caused.

Lin Yanchao knew very well that under such arguments, the salt merchants in Lianghuai, including the Mei family, had a little hard life.

But at that time, Lin Yanchao was an official of the Ministry of Rites and the Salt Law was not within his jurisdiction. Just listen to this matter, and there is no need to stand out.

It's different now.

Old Master Mei described the current salt method, and then asked Lin Yanchao: "In view of the great views of Master Wutang, is there any vulgarity in today's salt method? Do you need to change it?"

Lin Yanchao smiled reservedly when he heard this, saying, "This salt law is a matter of the Ministry of Revenue and the Salt Transport Department. It is only an official of the Ministry of Rites, so it is not easy to interfere in other departments."

Old Master Mei smiled and said, "Mr. Master is really cautious."

Lin Yanchao smiled.

Grand Master Mei said, "Dad, the master of the ministry is also exhausted. It is better for us to talk after the banquet."

Old Master Mei clenched his beard and smiled, "Whether or not, the master of the ministry has arrived in Yangzhou, and he will stay here for a while, so that he can complete the friendship of the landlord."

Lin Yanchao refused to comment.

The three of them immediately attended the banquet with Lin Yanchao.

Lin Yanchao nodded slightly when he entered the banquet. The banquet was not a delicacy, but it looked very delicate and delicious.

The banquet held by the Mei family mainly consists of Huaiyang cuisine, and in later generations, the state banquet was Huaiyang cuisine.

This Huaiyang dish can become a famous dish, of course, inseparable from the continuous excellence of Yangzhou salt merchants over the past few hundred years.

After giving up for a while, the eldest son of the Mei family said, "I heard about the prosperity of the capital. Compared with this palace banquet, our local dishes in Yangzhou were laughed at by the Lord of the Ministry."

Lin Yanchao smiled and said, "When talking about the word prosperity, the capital is not as good as Yangzhou. When he was in the capital, he heard that Yangzhou salt merchants only had three things to build gardens, raise actors, and enjoy delicious food in their lives."

Listening to Lin Yanchao's words, Old Master Mei and Young Master Mei were both stunned and laughed dryly.

Mei Kan smiled and said, "Yes, as the so-called food and sex, not to mention other salt merchants, our Mei family raises several famous masters. Look, this fried pork with pear shredded pork was made by Fatty Shi in Wuzhong, this crab noodles were made by Kong Ru'an, Wuxi, and this Wensi tofu was made by the monk Yiqing of Tianning Temple."

"Monk?" Lin Yanchao asked.

Mei Kan smiled and said, "Yes, I really took some effort to invite him. The master of the tribe also knew that monks could not favor gold and silver. Therefore, in order to invite him to take charge, my brother built a Buddhist temple for him in the city."

Lin Yanchao sighed silently. He thought Shen Shixing knew how to enjoy it, but he was still inferior to others.

Master Mei looked at Mei Kan and quickly explained: "You are not afraid of laughter from the masters. The masters of the masters don't know that my father was poor in his early years, so he didn't like luxury. It's enough for just a bowl of rice and tofu every day. As a son, he had to work hard on the kitchen."

Lin Yanchao praised: "Brother Mei is filial."

Old Master Mei said happily: "I will make my own boast about you and make me laugh, please help me!"

Everyone immediately started to eat their chopsticks, and after the banquet, Lin Yanchao immediately said goodbye.

The Mei family originally asked Lin Yanchao to live directly at the Mei family, but Lin Yanchao refused. So they asked Lin Yanchao to stay in the Mei family's Yangzhou villa. Lin Yanchao agreed and agreed to stay in Yangzhou for two days, then picked up his wife and children from the boat, and the students stayed in the villa together.

Although this place is a villa, it is very exquisite and elegant. Not only are there pavilions and towers, but the most important thing is that there is a library building inside. This building contains more than 100,000 volumes of books, including many rare ancient books, many of which can be replaced in Yangzhou where every inch of land is valuable.

I heard that these books were collected by the eldest son of the Mei family from all over the place. The eldest son of the Mei family also spared no money. When he encountered secret rare books, he would spend a lot of money to buy them, but he only bought books and collected them and did not live here to study on weekdays.

This place is where he entertains literary friends. His literary friends are all well-known scholars from Yangzhou, as well as local officials, and retired officials. Everyone cooks wine and papers here.

Although this courtyard is close to Yangzhou City, it is very quiet and has no hustle and humbleness at all. Lin Qianqian and Lin Yanchao's students and fellow villagers lived there and admired that Yangzhou people really know how to enjoy it.

The next morning.

Master Mei immediately came to the other courtyard to invite Lin Yanchao.

Yesterday, Lin Yanchao knew that in the Mei family, the eldest son of Mei was the person involved. The most important salt industry in the Mei family was managed by this person, while other matters were managed by Mei Kan.

After a little contact yesterday, Lin Yanchao knew that this eldest son Mei seemed elegant and romantic outside, but in fact he was very cunning inside.

On that day, Master Mei did nothing else, but arranged for Lin Yanchao to inspect the Mei family's property.

Like the big businessmen at this time, the Mei family had countless industries, including teeth shops, pawn shops, and even brothels, but the most important thing was the salt industry.

Meijia’s salt industry is mainly sold in Huguang, Jiangxi, with the Yangtze River as the transport route, and the salt ships leave Yangzhou from Yizhen.

At this time, the salt merchants had various rules for transporting salt, such as paying beam head tax (the width of the ship), river work tax (draining the river channel), supply, whole wine, paper-friendly, etc., these are all taxes from the salt merchants in the middle.

The government is responsible for collecting salt entries. After receiving the salt entries, the transportation department will put the salt entries that the salt entries should be obtained into the sealing seal, and then handed them over to the salt entries, and then notified the branch and asked the branch to go to the salt yard separately.

After the salt merchant arrives at the salt farm, he takes out the salt from the envelope and entices to the salt farm officials for verification. After the salt farm officials obtain branch documents and checks the salt farm, they will cut off a corner of the salt, and then seal the salt for the second time and return it to the salt merchant.

After the salt merchant packed the salt on the ship, he arrived in Yangzhou and handed the salt to the inspection department. After the inspection department was correct, he cut off a corner of the salt to return it to the salt merchant, and issued a document allowing the salt merchant to go to Yizhen.
To be continued...