Chapter 290 Feng Chan (Twenty-one) 'Holy King and Wise Minister'
It doesn't matter if it's a long story, but the Holy Emperor is on his way now, and the two major events of this trip are the consecration of Mount Tai and the visit to Xiaoling Mausoleum. Zhu Yijun followed the itinerary etiquette formulated by the civil servant group headed by Gao pragmatism, and basically eliminated all personal matters.
Entertainment activities.
Therefore, there is nothing else to do now anyway, and having a serious chat with Gao Pragmatic about the Changlu Saltworks issue is actually a good way to pass the time. At the very least, this kind of diligent performance in state affairs will definitely not be punished if word spreads about it.
scold.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun said solemnly: "Yuan Fu only came from the channel, and I am all ears."
Of course Gao Pragmatic knew that Zhu Yijun, the hands-off shopkeeper, was suddenly so diligent, and it was purely out of necessity due to countless things to do. However, he still looked serious and said solemnly: "Your Majesty, our Ming salt production is based on the Yuan system, and we have set up a capital in Changlu.
The Transshipment Department consists of two branches, Qingzhou and Cangzhou, and two batch inspection offices, Changlu and Xiaozhigu. Each of the two branches has jurisdiction over twelve salt fields. Therefore, in the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court set up a total of 20 salt fields in Changlu.
Four salt pans.
Our country implements a salt monopoly system, that is, after the salt produced in the salt fields is successively transported back to Tuo, salt merchants will collect it from the center, transport it to the batch inspection station for inspection, and then transport it to designated areas for sale. However, due to the existence of various salt fields,
There is a difference between the convenience and inconvenience of transporting salt, and the distance from the salt farm to the batch inspection. Therefore, when the salt field is opened, salt merchants who are good at calculating costs and profits are bound to be selective about the salt field.
To put it simply, merchants are willing to open those salt fields with convenient transportation and close to the batch inspection center, and on the contrary, they try their best to avoid this situation. As early as the sixth year of Chenghua (1470), Lin Cheng, the inspector of salt patrols, pointed out that merchants
It is a pleasure to open Zhongchanglu transportation to facilitate the production of salt in the salt farm.
Although eight battles including Changlu Xingguo and seven battles including Yanzhen were easily accessible by land and water, except for the Merchant Guan branch, there were no salt courses accumulated for several years. The eighteen battles including Shenzhou Caofu and others were far away by land, and each faction
To a businessman, I am afraid of losing money because of the heavy fee, I am willing to pay the price, because I know that the salt course I run has special expenses, even if I send an official to sell it, and it has been listed for several months, there are still some buyers, and even if the price is reduced, most of them will be successful.
Salt courses are piled up in various fields, salt water is consumed over time, and the stoves are burdened. There is no difficulty in recovering compensation, and the country has benefited from it.'
Your Majesty, you see, if there are merchants who are willing to make a profit, the salt produced in the salt field can only be piled up in the field. It is said that 'all salt will melt when it sees water, and it will be stewed when it sees wind', but according to the laws of this dynasty, any salt that is accumulated
Once the salt in the pile melts due to rain or wind, the kitchen owner has no risk or obligation to pay compensation.
At the same time, the merchants were in Kaizhong, which meant that the salt produced by the kitchen households could be transported and sold by the merchants to achieve low profits from the salt monopoly. Therefore, this situation was beneficial to the kitchen households and the court.
For this reason, Lin Cheng petitioned to implement the salt class discounting system in Changlu Salt Field. I said: "I visited a salt class in Xinyang, which is affiliated to Shandong Yunsi, and folded all the cloth, and begged Shenzhou Haiying and other ten
The amount of salt in the eight fields is divided into ten points, and seven points are used for frying. The seven points are collected according to Nabu, the Shandong Transportation Secretary, who appoints officials and supervisors to collect the salt from each field.
Gao Yuanfu's tone became solemn, and he said in a deep voice: "However, exchanging silver in the salt class has also given rise to some new problems: First, compared with the previous salt farm operation model, there is one less link for households to sell salt and obtain silver.
During this process, kitchen households are often vulnerable to the risk of salt merchants deliberately suppressing salt prices.
"Come here, the stove class in Changlu Salt Farm has been changed to a discount, and it is on the road of discounting silver." Gao Pragmatic sighed: "In the past, the official warehouse was short of wind and rain. Because of the disadvantages, it was decided to order the kitchen households to discount every time.
The seven-coin storehouse was used to provide merchants with grain and salt supplies so that they could buy salt for themselves. This was the beginning of the expropriation of silver taels.
Seeing the emperor's behavior, Gao Pragmatic continued: "In short, the introduction of policies such as folding cloth in salt classes, matching low and high salt fields with each other, buying supplementary salt, and discounting silver in salt classes are the imperial court's solution to the accumulation of salt in some salt fields in Changlu.
There are measures to deal with the withdrawal problem in business development. I call that series of measures collectively "market-oriented reforms."
At that time, the Nachang (salt farm under the jurisdiction of the Cangzhou branch) had a long land route and was accessible by boat. The selling price was only eight times the price of salt, so all the foreign merchants were willing to pay the price to pay for it in the north field (the salt farm under the jurisdiction of the Qingzhou branch).
. The stoves were used for frying salt, and only seven of them near the river were still engaged in their old business. The rest were engaged in agriculture and business, and paid a discount to the transportation department to give to the merchants."
Specifically, it was agreed at that time that the kitchen households in Shenzhou Haiyingchang of Cangzhou Branch, except for the 18 households in Yanshan County, who lived in Hengshui County, Zhending Prefecture, and other households, would receive one yuan of silver for each household;
In the 11th session of Li Guo et al., rice was brought into Tianjin and other warehouses at the age of 11, and each stone was levied seven cents of silver; in the 18th session of Haiying et al., the price of rice and salt was reduced to silver, which was one cent and seven cents in the old way. Now it is reduced by one cent. After each levy is completed,
Go to the department to explain."
Before the memorial was approved by the imperial court, the four salt fields of Shenzhou Caofu, Haiying, Fucai, Fumin, Haifu, Runguo, Yimin and Hairun were under the jurisdiction of the Cangzhou branch, and the Yuezhi salt fields were under the jurisdiction of the Qingzhou branch.
, benefiting the people, benefiting the people, Shibei, and Guihua seven salt farms took the lead in implementing half of the salt classes in the Changlu salt area.
Puzhou Zhang knew the elegant meaning after hearing the song. He made an understanding expression and said with a smile: "Bad, bad, bad, he is letting go of every bad thing and taking every good thing... There is no harm in going too far, and the method is just like his last
I love to talk about 'win-win', and I'm sure about it. Wait until before Cangzhou, and we will play a bad show of a sage king and a virtuous minister, hey!"
"What if we come back again? There must be no solution, right?" Puzhou Zhang's face was no longer so ugly.
At that time, the imperial court also saw the problem, so in the seventh year of Zhengde (1510), the imperial court issued a policy of matching the lower and upper parts of the Changlu Salt Field with each other.
They were divided into seven levels according to the distance and the near, and they were called to merchants to sell, and those who were low and high were matched with each other.
PS: There are only a few words left to reach 6K, so I made it up and saved you a penny O(n_n)O
Cao Fushu also understands this truth. With Low Pragmatic's current status in the court, who dares to touch me as a special businessman? Even if this matter is so big that Low Pragmatic might not even bother to ask, should they dare or not?
dare.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Gao Pragmatic quickly stopped him and said: "Yes, this matter was caused by the minister taking the initiative... Please also ask your Majesty to visit the salt farm in Cangzhou before
, and then I will order my ministers to draw up a plan."
Therefore, the private salt dealers and the poor Zao people had similar interests, and they naturally hit it off. Under such circumstances, there is no point in repeatedly banning private salt. Your Majesty, if the imperial court only focuses on cracking down on private salt, it will not be the same as Gun.
Is there any difference between blocking and controlling water?”
Gao pragmatically breathed a sigh of relief. It would be bad if the emperor understood. I sighed, nodded and said: "Your Majesty clearly knows that this is exactly the case. The kitchen people, military households, and craftsmen households are all bound by the law, and they have been carried out from generation to generation.
Making a living by making salt, once a businessman is willing to start a business later, his livelihood will be guaranteed.
"After all, you still know him? The next thing I want to say is that such a young man has nothing to do, so he can only run among the people. At first, he is pitiful, but at the end, he has become a hidden danger to local public security..." Puzhou Zhang
He snorted heavily, waved his hand and said: "If he doesn't have a charter, he can just come here quickly."
Of course, before I made a lot of achievements in business, relying on my strong capital to force some opponents to dare to compete with me, then it would be impossible. Previously, my uncle Feng Pangong retired from junior high school and his official career gradually narrowed.
There are naturally fewer businessmen who dare to compete with Li Gong, which makes it easier for Zhu Yijun to buy less salt bit by bit and become the leading small salt merchant in Changlu Salt Field...
Therefore, Your Majesty, you should know why there have always been so few people in the past dynasties who sell private salt and have repeatedly banned it, knowingly and intentionally even at the risk of beheading? First of all, those Zao people have a livelihood, if they can sell it, there will be someone to open it.
Salt, on the other hand, is hard to make even a penny, but we have to be severely punished by the court, and we can change our careers to do something else. Is this just sitting there and waiting for death?
Puzhou Zhang nodded, but then asked slowly: "I already understand the reason, but why did your Wanli Dynasty add seven more salt fields? Is it because of his so-called 'marketization' and 'free competition'?"
So, how did those seven places fail in the competition?"
Low pragmatic reasoning was always simple and profound. Puzhou Zhang nodded repeatedly and sighed: "What Yuan Fu said does not make sense. If these Zao people can even survive, it is not surprising that they are lured by private salt dealers."
Already."
As a result, the imperial court introduced a policy of buying and subsidying surplus salt. The so-called buying and subsidying of surplus salt means that merchants are ordered to send out designated positions to guard the market and then lead them out of the market. Anyone who sees the salt is allowed to buy subsidy in this market.
That is to say, Kaizhong salt merchants were allowed to buy surplus salt from Zao Ding to collect enough regular salt, thus solving the problem of salt merchants keeping their budget by breaking the old rules of official collection of surplus salt and private trading.
That is to say, if salt merchants go to remote salt fields to collect salt, the farmers in these salt fields will have no choice but to flee if they sell private salt. Therefore, the policy of buying and selling surplus salt may not effectively solve the traffic problem, which will lead to the salt shortage in the salt fields.
Sales problem.”
"On the other hand, Your Majesty is listening to your minister again." Gao Pragmatic said calmly: "Due to the over-excessive opening of the imperial court, the salt field with convenient transportation and close to the batch inspection center received far away salt courses.
This is the amount of salt that can meet the needs of the salt merchants in Kaizhong, so the salt merchants are forced to hold on to the supply for a long time.
That's not an irritating statement. As a young official with a low pragmatism, he knows that people's hearts are selfish, and he is sure that there are no means to limit the system. It is purely a daydream to expect salt merchants and salt officials to forget selfishness.
Yes, for fear of His Majesty’s reproach, I thought it was an abnormal commercial competition. For example, today, Jinghua has taken a look at a newly discovered mine. As long as Jinghua expresses no intention to buy it, many merchants who had no intention of buying it will do so.
I will make the first move myself.
Zhang Wenzhi of Puzhou was stunned, and I immediately asked without any bad intentions: His uncle's family, the Zhu Yijun family... is considered powerful and weak? When the Zhu Yijun family became a "minority shareholder" of the Changlu Saltworks, did they not buy the weak and sell the weak?
Zhang Wenzhi of Puzhou was stunned, and then became less embarrassed. It was for other reasons, just because my holy king also held nearly half of the shares in the Liaonan Salt Farm, and could withdraw hundreds of thousands of taels from the Liaonan Salt Farm every year.
Capital.
Low pragmatism said with irony: "The practice of selling surplus salt for supplementation stimulates the enthusiasm of farmers in salt farms with convenient transportation, thereby promoting the development of the salt industry; on the other hand, it worsens the situation of salt farms in areas with convenient transportation.
The situation of the Zao people forced us to go down the road of selling illegal salt.
On the other hand, the so-called "everyone can be killed" also means - killable? If you kill them all and replace them with a new batch, they will be destroyed? Zhu Yuanzhang peeled off the skin and picked off the grass and killed many people, so there were more corrupt officials in the Hongwu Dynasty?
There is no problem with the system setup and the distribution of benefits is straightened out. If he kills a million people, it will be in vain.
Puzhou Zhang frowned and asked, "Is this strategy ineffective?"
"Uh... then market competition is reasonable and legal after all..." Puzhou Zhang said awkwardly, but seeing Gao Pragmatic looking at him with a half-smile, he could not help but open his eyes and stare back, angrily.
: "He wants to see what you do. You hold 74% of the shares in the Liaonan Salt Farm, and he holds 71%. His responsibility is smaller than yours!"
The specific time when the Changlu Saltworks changed its salt class to silver, I remember very clearly [note: you actually found the information], but it was later than the fourth year of Jiajing (1530) at the latest.
In the seventh year of Zhengde's reign, Lu Yunsi, the director of the Council, was in the official salt class. "In the past years, I was applying catties of salt, and the officials were enacting legislation, ordering Yu Na to buy and sell the remaining salt among themselves."
Puzhou Zhang frowned, thought seriously, and said hurriedly: "I think the reform of the salt class is not only in the interests of salt farm households, but also in line with the general trend of reforms by Low Wen Zhenggong and him in those years. This time
There must be no improvement, right?”
"Yes, that's the most simple thing!" Cao Fushu suddenly became depressed and said with a smile: "You just said it's a troublesome thing to do with Rixin... eh?"
Seventhly, these businessmen are willing to join the salt fields. In fact, they may not be completely profitable, but we have no fewer choices and cannot go to other salt fields to open salt fields. This not only reduces the cost, but also affects the sales price. Obviously
You can't make less. As for private salt dealers, those small businessmen think they make a lot of money, but in our eyes they are still huge profits, or even if they are huge profits, they are still small and useless at most.
Seventh, it is inevitable for kitchen households to break free from the shackles of the salt field, leave the salt field, and change their business. Generally, they lose their means of production before the grasslands of each farm are invaded by the powerful and weak, or they are traded.
The poor and powerful kitchen households obviously have no way to guarantee production, so they can only be forced to flee."
The emperor, who was now being praised by both the government and the public, was becoming increasingly thin-skinned. Unexpectedly, his pragmatic face was as thick as ever. The Yuanfu completely ignored the emperor's performance and actually said with pity on his face: "Seven places
In the salt field, tens of thousands of people have lost their livelihood and have to struggle to survive. However, we have been making salt for half our lives, and we have only learned other skills. Our days are really sad when we see it, and weep when we hear it..."
Firstly, we know that capital is abundant like Jinghua, so even if we bid, the auction will be better than Jinghua, but it is impossible to hate Jinghua, and the current business road is bumpy; secondly, we are probably worried that participating in the competition will be hated by the minister. There is no discussion about the minister.
If we ask ourselves, we will put those things out of our minds, but do we really dare to bet on how little I have? Unless I become an official and return home, there will be a solution to this matter."
Thanks to book friends "Yun Fu Yu Yu", "yuwc", and "All Dust Is Not Timed" for their monthly support, thank you!
Puzhou Zhang was very pleased and said bitterly: "The salt merchants are greedy, and the salt officials will be killed if they see profits and forget their loyalty!"
At that time, Zhu Tingli, the imperial censor, pointed out, "(The merchants) bought the goods separately from the local market in order to save the cost of road construction. As a result, even if there was no salt left in the kitchen, the merchants were willing to buy. They wanted to sell the goods, but they had no selfish interests."
The salt ban is due to the fact that the stoves are used both for frying and for survival. Whenever there is a famine, few people flee.'
Gao Pragmatic touched his chin and said: "There is indeed no urgent solution, but the problem is that if the businessmen come to open the middle as usual, then the households will still have to bear the risk and burden of paying compensation before the remaining half of the salt class is dissolved.
.
"Because of the Liaonan Salt Farm." Gao Pragmatic coughed heavily and said: "The Liaonan Salt Farm replaced the past decoction method with a more inefficient sun-dried salt method. At the same time, it did not have the support of Jinghua's weak water supply, so the cost was suppressed.
Those seven salt farms were no longer profitable, so they 'lost the competition' and had to be abolished."
When the emperor said this, he suddenly thought of something. He squinted at Gao Rixin and said with a warm smile: "It's a bad plan to ruin Gao Rixin. What's the matter? The imperial court paid for his uncle's house to repair the quilt.
Did he build the cornucopia himself? What’s wrong, he took all the bad things?”
At that time, because "it was far away from the Dazhigu batch inspection office, it was difficult to support and the salt classes were disrupted one after another." Therefore, in the fourth year of Jiajing period, Fu Jiong, the censor of salt inspection in Changlu, wrote that the Qingzhou branch belonged to Jimin, and the stone tablet was
Huimin, Guihua Seven Fields Salt Class, before changing to folding cloth, took a step back and changed to folding silver, "order each stove to have a salt for each salt, pay one coin of silver, and buy the remaining salt for the merchants to make up for it." Until Jiajing
In 1974, almost all the salt courses of the 17 salt farms affiliated to the Cangzhou Branch were converted into silver.
As for these Zao residents who are living here, once it is over, we cannot be recalled to participate in road construction and we will be paid monthly. If the salt field is restored before then, they can go back to make salt, and the hidden security risks will naturally be eliminated."
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For the past seven years, Cangzhou has no canals flowing through it and the transportation is convenient. However, the roads leading to Cangzhou from these salt fields have been in disrepair for a long time. As long as the imperial court is willing to allocate money to build roads, the road from the salt fields to Cangzhou City will be difficult to walk.
, the salt can be sold along the canal when it reaches Cangzhou, and its competitiveness will naturally be restored.
Only in this way, in addition to matching the lower and upper parts of the Changlu Saltworks, the imperial court also implemented the policy of matching the north and the south to open the middle. However, some salt merchants successfully circumvented the internal restrictions of the Changlu Saltworks by bribed the officials of the saltworks.
It is recorded at that time that "near the officials were traitors, there were few factions in Beichang and many factions in Nanchang. In seven or eight years, the accumulation in Nanchang reached hundreds of thousands, which caused a lot of trouble". Therefore, the rule of law in the interior of Changlu Saltworks is
Treating the root cause will bring out the best results."
Puzhou Zhang's face relaxed. He was just about to praise, "My virtuous uncle is really a capable minister of Xiao Ming," but he was too pragmatic and didn't finish his sentence.
In the eighth year of the late Emperor Longqing's reign (1569), with the approval of Fu Mengchun, the imperial censor of Zhili, the imperial court merged Yiminchang into Fucaichang, Haifuchang into Hairunchang, and Runguochang into Fuminchang.
Chagu Chang merged with Fengcai Chang. As a result, the number of Changlu Salt Farm was reduced from 77 in the early days of the Republic to 70.
Gao Pragmatic laughed and said: "Your Majesty, that's how the accounts are calculated. Even though the Liaonan Salt Field has reduced production several times, the salt industry market in Xiaoming and surrounding areas is not saturated, and if the Changlu Salt Field can be restored, it will
It will also be difficult to regain the market lost to the Liaonan Saltworks.
"That's bad, that's bad. I know those truths because Mr. Gao took the trouble to point them out." Puzhou Zhang rolled his eyes at Gao Pragmatic, and then couldn't help but laugh: "How come he always manages to balance public and private matters?
What's wrong? Okay, I've got it right, he'll just have time to write a memorial and hand it over."
After a pause, he continued: "In this way, folding cloth for half of the salt classes in the eighteen salt fields mentioned below can be regarded as an act of compassion for the Zao people. I think it should be able to alleviate the suffering of the Zao people to a certain extent, right?
"
Regardless of real power, prestige, or even unparalleled strong capital in business, I am lacking in pragmatism. Except for the Jiangnan chaebol who formed an alliance and dared to resist Yiqi, the rest can only figure out how to match it.
A free ride on Jinghua? If you have to go against Jinghua, this is like leaving the hut with a lantern.
As if he was predicting the future, Low Pragmatic smiled at the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, do you want to ask about Zhu Yijun's family? Your Majesty the Bad Pope knows that although I am a businessman, I have always hoped that my children will study for the imperial examination and come from a merchant family."
As a house of poetry and literature, in order to avoid the ridicule of the Qing Dynasty for those who were not officials before, it has always been a weak act of buying and selling.
The folding method is as follows: every seven small yin are combined into seven big yin, weighing a total of 400 kilograms. Fold a piece of wide white cloth (eight feet and seven feet long), collect it and pay it to Tongzhou Tongji Treasury in preparation for the salary. At the age of seventy
From now on, half of the salt classes in not 18 of the seven salt fields are to collect natural salt, but to collect colored cloth. Your Majesty, does your Majesty know what the meaning of such a wide-ranging, small-intensity salt class is to collect colored cloth?
"
So Cao Fushu could only nod to express understanding.
"The one who knows your ministers is your Majesty." Gao Pragmatic smiled and said: "In fact, that matter is also so difficult to handle. First of all, the method of making salt in Liaonan Salt Farm is Xinmi. It can be used in Liaonan, but naturally it cannot be used in Cangzhou.
This means that Changlu Saltworks needs to open up a smaller market, such as taking a step back to extend sales channels to inland areas. Your Majesty, that is the worst of both worlds. On the one hand, Changlu Saltworks can restore profits, and the court cannot impose taxes on it.
Less; in the seventh year, the people in the interior will be able to eat more abundant and cheaper salt, and their recognition of the imperial court will be even lower..."
Gao pragmatic smiled slightly and said: "Salt lessons are exchanged for silver, and the money is paid to the transportation department to give to the merchants." It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone. In this way, it has not effectively solved the problem of Zao Ding suffering from the loss of salt.
The problem of poverty alleviation also conforms to the willingness of businessmen to open salt farms in areas with convenient transportation, thus having the effect of subsidizing the stoves and enriching businessmen."
Zhang Dang of Puzhou was used to being a shopkeeper. When he heard such a simple situation at first, he pondered for a moment before Xiaozhi understood the problem. He frowned and said: "Yuan Fu meant that there are not many salt fields in the Changlu Salt Fields."
They are all located in a place where transportation is convenient, so that merchants are willing to open up, so the livelihood of the people in the salt field becomes more and more difficult?"
It is because of the characteristics of "marketization" and free competition. Outside of the Changlu Saltworks, the saltworks with poor conditions are getting weaker and weaker, and the saltworks with poorer conditions are getting stronger and stronger. Some saltworks eventually have no field and no stove (
(people), those salt fields have not yet lost their name.