Since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, salt and iron monopoly has been practiced in China for thousands of years.
It was through controlling two strategic resources, salt and iron, that dynasties in the past dynasties gained a large amount of wealth and maintained their operations.
Without Zuo Menggeng's intervention, this system would have continued until the 21st century to complete its mission.
There are various reasons why the salt and iron franchise has continued.
And to put it bluntly, it’s nothing more than profit.
Salt and iron are indispensable important materials for production and life in the world, so they naturally have a huge market, forming a business that guarantees harvests despite droughts and floods.
It is impossible to estimate how much wealth the past dynasties gained by controlling these two materials.
In feudal society, the most important means of production was land.
Salt has become an important source of profit besides land.
Therefore, in order to control society, each dynasty held salt tightly in their hands.
Without salt, it will affect people's daily life and physical health. Mastering this is equivalent to mastering the people.
To put it bluntly, the salt and iron monopoly system in feudal society, just like household registration, Baojia and other policies, is a kind of personal restraint and management of ordinary people.
In addition, backward productivity has caused salt output to lag behind market demand.
If we don't hold the salt tightly in our hands, the market will definitely become chaotic, causing national and social turmoil.
Why does Shandong want to liberalize the salt monopoly?
Don’t Zuo Mengeng and the officials know the powerful relationship?
Of course they know, but they have to do it.
First of all, although it was very quick to quell the rebellion of the Lianghuai salt merchants, it also brought considerable side effects.
Shandong's murderous approach really frightened the other businessmen.
If this problem is not solved, it will greatly affect subsequent business development.
Shandong is based on business and will never allow problems in the commercial field.
Under such circumstances, only by providing large enough benefits can businessmen strengthen their confidence in the Shandong regime, and thus choose to support Shandong and become Shandong's supporters.
The transformation of Huizhou merchants is proof.
When they first met Zuo Mengeng, they were all like quails, cautious and fearful of dying.
After learning that Shandong would liberalize the salt franchise and allow them to participate in shares and operate businesses, they immediately became enthusiastic.
When I look at Shandong again, it seems extremely friendly.
Secondly, before the reorganization of the Lianghuai Salt Fields, Shandong had already completed the reform of the salt industry.
All salt fields in Shandong are consolidated under the name of Shandong Salt Industry Company and are operated using market methods.
After two or three years, there is no harm in doing so.
The purely market-oriented management method has greatly enhanced the enthusiasm of businessmen and stimulated the enthusiasm of workers.
Various new salt-making methods are emerging in Shandong, which has greatly increased the production of salt.
Several workers who improved the production and quality of salt were all awarded the title of Master Craftsman. They were both outstanding and prosperous, and even gained huge wealth.
The government was liberated from the specific production of salt and focused only on supervision, which greatly saved administrative costs. On the contrary, the salt tax increased a lot.
With this precedent, Shandong dared to take action against the Lianghuai Saltworks.
The news of the liberalization of the salt industry caused a tsunami, and not only the Lianghuai area, but also people from Songjiang Prefecture rushed over after hearing the news, wanting to get a piece of the pie.
In this regard, Zuo Mengeng's instruction is that no one will be refused.
As long as these businessmen spend real money and have sufficient qualifications, they can be recruited as shareholders.
In just half a month, the newly established Lianghuai Salt Industry Company accumulated more than 500,000 yuan in capital.
With this money, the corresponding reforms will definitely be very smooth.
A total of twenty-five board members were elected for the new salt company headquarters, located in the original Shanshan Association.
The largest shareholder is, of course, the local government.
Chen Jie was appointed as the general manager of Lianghuai Salt Industry Company, responsible for daily management and operations.
This appointment may seem ordinary, but in fact it is a high promotion.
Chen Jie's status has become equal to that of ordinary municipal officials, and he is directly responsible to the cabinet.
After stabilizing the situation in Yangzhou, Zuo Mengeng began to tour various places in Lianghuai.
What worries him the most is still flooding.
Standing on Fanggong Embankment and looking at the surrounding terrain, Zuo Mengeng was worried.
“If the Lixiahe area is not transformed, the harm will be even greater in the future.”
The so-called Lixia River refers to the vast area between Huai'an, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Yancheng and other places.
The canal between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River is called the Li Canal, also called the Li River.
This section of the canal is parallel to Pham Gong Dyke.
There is also a Chuanchang River to the east of Fanggongdi, also called Xiahe River.
The vast area between Lihe River and Xiahe River is called Lixiahe River.
Lixiahe is a famous depression.
To the south is the Tongyang Canal and the high sandy land along the river; to the west is the canal and the towering canal embankment, the lifeline of the Ming Dynasty; to the north is the Yellow River, which is more than five meters higher than the Lixia River; to the east are Fangongdi and Chuanchang River, which are also
It is much higher than Lixiahe.
In this way, once a flood occurs in the Huaihe River, this will be a natural flood discharge area.
The local people have suffered from floods for hundreds of years, and are in poverty and life worse than death.
Such a large area cannot be developed due to the harm of floods. Anyone who looks at it will feel extremely regretful. The property damage caused is also unacceptable.
Zuo Mengeng looked at Xue Fengzuo.
"Is there a solution?"
Xue Fengzuo did not disappoint him.
"have."
Historically, when floods occurred in the Huaihe and Huaihe areas, there were two solutions.
One is to direct floods to the Yangtze River through the water network in the Lixiahe area.
Another option is to open the sluice on Fanggong Dike to discharge the water into the salt field and into the sea.
The former method had little effect, and the latter method was in vain due to the opposition of salt industry officials and salt merchants, which caused the flooding in the Huaihe River to become a problem.
The method Xue Fengzuo came up with was to concentrate manpower and manually dig a wide flood discharge channel inside the salt field, directly to the sea.
When floods occur again, the gates on Fanggong Dyke will be opened to allow the floodwaters to flow into the sea through the flood discharge channel. In this way, the flooding in the Lixia River area should be minimized.
Just doing this will inevitably divide the salt ponds and cause many salt ponds to be abandoned.
This plan was out of the question in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, and it was simply impossible to implement it.
But in Shandong's hands, there was no obstacle.
Because the traditional forces that originally controlled the Lianghuai Salt Fields have been swept away, Shandong has just taken over, and no established interest groups have yet been formed.
If no one's interests are harmed, naturally no one will object.
"The only trouble is manpower. If you want to dig out such a flood channel, it is impossible to complete it before the rainy season without tens of thousands of laborers."
The things that Xue Fengzuo found difficult were much simpler for Zuo Mengeng.
"This time we conquered the Lianghuai River, and there were many prisoners and criminals. I'll leave all the people to you and just make them work. It will also save wages."
Xue Fengzuo was very happy to learn that there was enough manpower.
He doesn't care how many of these prisoners and criminals will die under these powerful labors.