In the luxurious mansion, Wu Tong was drinking with two beauties on his left and right.
Sitting opposite him was one of his shopkeepers named "Du Zhixin", who was in his forties and well-dressed.
"There are more than 5,300 registered households in Qingfu County, plus the hidden households, as well as the Miao, Yi, and Bo villages, there should be 30,000 to 40,000 people. Based on the calculation of two kilograms of salt per person per year, if the whole county only buys us
The annual income of the salt should be around 60,000 guan. In addition to the salt used to pickle vegetables and meat, there should be more."
Du Zhixin adjusted the abacus and said at this point: "But... Tuojing Supervisor, the transfer envoy will definitely know."
"Calculate, how much money will it cost?"
The abacus crackled again. Du Zhixin took a pen and wrote down the money needed to manage officials at all levels on the paper, and finally handed it to Wu Tong.
"Fifteen thousand guan... 60,000 guan. I can only get 15,000 guan? That doesn't count the capital."
"yes."
Wu Tong was silent for a while, staring at the official names line after line on the paper, none of which could be omitted.
Finally, his eyes fell on the words "Qingfu County Lieutenant Li" and asked: "Give Li Xia six thousand guans a year?"
"Dong Weng said it could be as little as five hundred guan per month." Du Zhixin said: "What's more, without Li Xia, we wouldn't be able to sell salt in Qingfu. Not only the county government, but also other salt merchants would cause trouble.
"
"It's hard to make money." Wu Tong sighed.
Du Zhixin asked: "What does Dong Weng mean?"
"Go ahead and set up the shop first and expand the business. We'll see if a new county captain comes next year."
Wu Tong is not a stingy person. If it were in the past, he would have sent the six thousand guan from the first year right now to ensure that everyone is in the same boat...if there was no festival at that time.
"Yes, the little man rushes over first and prepares the shop before the New Year. It can be opened after the New Year..."
Du Zhixin left Wu Tong's mansion.
In the alley behind him, an iron hook clicked against the wall.
Jiang Fan stared at the sedan chair going away and said, "Song He, follow this man named Du back to Qingfu and report the news he has found out in the past few days to the county captain."
Two days later, Du Zhixin sat in Li Xia's public room.
As a private salt dealer, he was really not used to sitting in the government office.
Of course, it's not that Du Zhixin hasn't dealt with the officials before. The officials he dealt with were several ranks higher than the county lieutenants. But everyone has a private house and a separate courtyard, and they won't discuss things in public rooms.
Du Zhixin couldn't help but secretly thought: "No wonder you want to make money like this, you don't even have a place to live."
But he also knew that although Li Xia loved making money, he was not incompetent. He had the credit for killing the Mongolian general.
He had just entered the county seat, and he had already felt its control over Qingfu County.
To Du Zhixin's surprise, Li Xia treated him very warmly, far beyond his expectation.
"I don't know much about salt affairs, and I would like to ask Shopkeeper Du for some advice."
"The county lieutenant is too polite to take advice seriously... Besides, when doing business with my proprietor, the county lieutenant doesn't need to know too much about it. He only needs to keep some people under control."
"Which people?"
Du Zhixin said: "There are two salt merchants currently selling salt in Qingfu County, the Lu family and the Yin family. When we start selling salt, they will definitely come and cause trouble."
Li Xia said: "I heard that Shopkeeper Du wants to open a shop. I'm curious about how to open a shop for selling smuggled salt?"
"Obviously, of course, we are selling official salt. We also have a small amount of salt. But when customers come, we can sell our private salt."
"I do not understand."
Du Zhixin had no choice but to smile bitterly and patiently explain to Li Xia.
"If the county lieutenant wants to understand the secrets of this, I'm afraid I have to start with the salt administration of our dynasty."
Li Xia said: "I'm very free, so it doesn't matter if Shopkeeper Du takes your time."
"At the beginning of the founding of our country, it was stipulated that salt should be sold by officials or sold to various states and counties through trade. In the third year of Zhizhenghe, Cai Jing created the 'salt introduction method', using official bags to pack salt, with a limited weight and a seal as a mark.
For Yiyin, a quotation book is compiled. The salt dealer first pays the tax to receive the salt quotation, and then uses the salt quotation to check the quotation book and withdraw salt.
The well salt produced in Sichuan is slightly different from other places. The salt merchants buy the salt directly from the well households. The government inspects, weighs and distributes the salt, but it also collects the introduction tax, passing tax and residence tax first."
Li Xia asked: "It's the same salt introduction method. The only difference is that elsewhere, salt merchants buy salt from the government, while in Sichuan, they buy it from well households?"
"Yes." Du Zhixin said: "In any case, they are heavy taxes. Especially in these years when the Mongolian army attacked Shu, the court could not make ends meet, so the salt tax was naturally rising. The salt merchants paid heavy taxes to buy salt, so the price of salt naturally remained high.
Recently, the price of salt in Qingfu County has been around 140 cents per pound, and the Lu family and the Yin family have also used the usual trick of mixing sand into it and selling the sand at a high price.
Once our salt is sold, no one will buy their salt anymore. They will naturally come to cause trouble, such as asking the county government to forcefully sell their salt."
Li Xia asked: "Why should I help them sell by force?"
"The salt tax in Qingfu County is the county official's political achievement." Du Zhixin said with a smile: "Of course, County Lieutenant Li is not lacking in this political achievement. Unlike other county officials."
Li Xia asked again: "If I have solved all these troubles, why don't I sell salt myself and cooperate with Brother Wu?"
Du Zhixin was stunned for a moment, and the smile on his face froze. After a while, he said: "The troubles that County Lieutenant Li dealt with are just minor troubles in the county. The salt tax is only a matter for one county, and there is also the Cuijing Supervisor above.
, the state capital, the Transportation Department, these are the big troubles, and they are all handled by my boss."
"anything else?"
"Li County Lieutenant doesn't have any salt, does he?"
"Well salt is not difficult to make." Li Xia said, "Dig a well, draw out the brine, and fry the salt."
"Huh?" Du Zhixin said with a smile: "You can't just dig a deep well and get brine out."
"I heard that on the rocky mountains not far from the river in Kawachi, you can dig wells to collect salt?"
"That was an exaggeration by people at that time." Du Zhixin said: "This matter is not easy. For example, digging a well and repairing it requires experienced craftsmen; frying salt requires a salt burner; setting up a brine pit requires a craftsman; installing a fire pit requires experienced craftsmen.
, there is a stove to set up the fire ring; there is a water bearer to transport the brine... There are forty or fifty kinds of division of labor. Lieutenant Li is a noble civil servant of the Qing Dynasty, and he cannot care about such trivial matters."
At this point, he laughed again and said: "What's more, my boss worked hard and sold salt in Qingfu. After deducting the capital, he made less than what he gave Li County Lieutenant in a year."
"Shopkeeper Du is deceiving me that I don't know how to do business. Brother Wu is already selling salt to the southwest. If he sells Qingfu to one more county, he doesn't need to dig any more wells or open any more stoves. How can he add some capital?"
"So, the proprietor and Lieutenant Li will both benefit from their cooperation, right?"
"Yes." Li Xia said, "It seems that I am more comfortable eating a bonus in peace."
Du Zhixin was overjoyed and said: "That's exactly it."