On the wide beach in Tanggu, Tianjin, Liu Jin rode a tall horse, followed by Tong Yuan and several stewards of the Changlu Saltworks, inspecting the saltworks under construction here.
At this time, on the vast tidal flats along the coast, a large number of people were working tirelessly despite the severe cold. These people were thinly dressed and thin. At a glance, they could be identified as poor people from nearby coastal areas.
In later generations, areas close to the sea meant developed areas and high-income areas. However, in this era, areas close to the sea were just the opposite. Being close to the sea meant there were no fertile fields or green mountains and green waters, which meant poverty.
Liu Jin knew this very well. Xiahetun, where he was born, was very poor. It had always been the case that only girls were married out, but no girls were married in. It was a notoriously poor village from all over the country.
"When working in the water in winter, we must prepare hot water for everyone to soak their feet, as well as hot tea and ginger soup. In addition, everyone must have a guaranteed daily meal, including meat for three meals."
Liu Jin looked at the people working in the severe cold, thought about it and gave instructions to the manager of the Changlu Salt Farm next to him.
"Yes, we have prepared hot water and ginger soup. As for food, if meat is required for three meals, it can only be cheap fish. There is not that much pork in the market."
Next to Liu Jin, Li Jiye, the general manager of Changlu Salt Farm, who was also an old man from Xishan Coal Industry, nodded and said.
"Just fish, Tong Yuan. You can ask Tianjin Port to deliver it every day."
Liu Jin nodded. The nutritional value of fish is actually no worse than other meats, but this fish doesn't taste as satisfying.
Eating fish is now a commonplace thing for the people in the Beijing-Tianjin area. The fishing industry here in Tianjin Port has gradually begun to flourish. The sea fish caught every day pile up in piles, which not only meets the huge demand in the Beijing-Tianjin area, but also even
Now we have started selling to areas such as Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.
The marine fishing industry in these areas has not yet started. The market demand for meat is very huge, the price can be higher, and the market is always moving to areas with higher profits.
"Okay, mentor~"
Tong Yuan took out a charcoal pen and notebook and wrote down what Liu Jin had ordered.
"Okay, give us another ten cents a day's wages. The water work in the winter, if not handled well, will leave the root of the disease. We can't treat them badly."
"Our salt farm occupies their coastal area, which will affect their livelihood. When recruiting employees for this salt farm, we must take care of the people around us as much as possible, so that everyone can enjoy certain benefits from our salt farm."
After thinking for a while, Liu Jin ordered Li Jiye again.
"Sir, the most difficult thing for our salt farm right now is recruiting workers. We need to pay them to build the salt farm. The wages are higher, and there are a lot of people who are willing to come, even if it is winter."
"However, the recruitment of long-term employees in our salt farm has not been going smoothly, and no one is willing to work in our salt farm."
When Li Jiye heard this, he couldn't help but complain.
During this period of time, he has been recruiting workers in the Tanggu area. It is easy to recruit people to build salt fields, but it is even more difficult to recruit regular workers for the salt fields. No one is willing to come.
"Why is this?"
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately asked, "Li Jiye is an old man from Xishan. He is already familiar with the management of Xishan. The salt farm is recruiting workers. The salary must be very good, but it is unexpected that there are no people available."
"The salary for recruiting workers at the salt farm is based on the salary at Xishan Coal. As long as you are willing to work hard, you will definitely have no problem earning two or three taels of silver a month."
"But one thing that everyone is very worried about is that they are afraid of changing their household registration after entering the salt farm, or changing their household registration to a kitchen household, which will affect their descendants. So even though the wages are high, no one is willing to come."
Li Jiye told the reason.
"Change to Zaohu?"
"We are just recruiting workers, what does it have to do with household registration? What's more, we are not the imperial court, so how can we change people's household registration at will?"
When Liu Jin heard this, he was confused. It was just a simple recruitment. You work for me and I will give you wages and food. There is no household registration involved.
"I also told the people around me, but they didn't believe it, because they think salt has always been mined by the imperial court. Even though we are doing a good job now, maybe we took it back that day and used it to work on the salt factory.
Don’t people suddenly become kitchen households?”
"Everyone knows very well what the situation of Zao households is. Zao households are even poorer than military households. No one dares to do anything."
Li Jiye said helplessly.
After hearing Li Jiye's words, Liu Jin suddenly fell silent, and immediately felt deeply that the household registration system was an extremely important shackle restricting the development of capitalism.
Because of the household registration system, people in the Ming Dynasty could not move around at will, and many people never even left their own county in their entire lives.
In addition, the existence of this household registration system has seriously affected the improvement of productivity. Sons born in Zaohu households have been Zaohu for generations, and they have been squeezed to death by the officials in the salt field, and they even have no way to resist.
Everyone's worries are not unreasonable. Once you work in the salt field, even if you are not a kitchen farmer, others will think you are a kitchen farmer. It will be difficult to get a wife by then. Who would be willing to marry a kitchen farmer?
No child born can study or take the imperial examination, and generations of households have to boil salt in a pot.
"It seems that this matter requires an imperial edict from His Majesty, or from the Crown Prince Zhu Houzhao. Even if I open my mouth and make a promise to everyone, it will be of no use."
Liu Jin soon realized in his mind that this matter was something that even he could not solve. In fact, everyone was worried, afraid, afraid that once he entered the salt field to work, he would become a kitchen household in the future, and he would be humble for generations.
Zaohu.
Even though the benefits offered by the salt farm are very attractive now, no one dares to gamble with the future of themselves and their descendants.
"I will report this matter to the emperor and ask for a decree from His Majesty. When the time comes, you can use this decree to recruit workers."
After thinking about it, Liu Jin also said to Li Jiye, feeling very helpless. There are really many shackles to developing capitalism in this era.
The previous opening of the sea was fiercely opposed by the court officials. Now it is only half a salt farm. Because of the existence of the household registration system, it is difficult to recruit workers. This feudal dynasty has too many restrictions on the germination and development of capitalism.
"It's no wonder that after Western capitalism develops to a certain level, it needs to carry out reforms and gain the right to speak. In the final analysis, it is to enable production relations to keep up with the development of productive forces."
"Lao Ma is really amazing, he can tell the truth with just one word."
In his heart, Liu Jin couldn't help but express his admiration for Marx again.
"Besides recruiting workers, are there any other difficulties?"
Liu Jin looked at the vast tidal flats. Thousands of people were busy here, using cement to build dams and transform the tidal flats into square salt fields.
The investment in the Changlu Salt Field was huge, even greater than the investment in the Miyun Iron Works. The amount of money handed over to the treasury alone was two million taels of silver, and the total amount of funds raised reached five million taels of silver.
But in fact, the only money that can be used to invest in building salt fields is only three million taels of silver. Of course, three million taels of silver is definitely a huge amount. That is to say, Liu Jin and Zhu Houzhao are now very wealthy, otherwise they really would not be able to build it.
With three million taels of silver thrown in, the Changlu Saltworks directly bought all the hundreds of kilometers of tidal flats around Tanggu. At the same time, they also placed a large number of orders with more than ten large cement factories in Tianjin and Beijing.
, preparing to build a super large salt field here.
The long, open, flat muddy beach here is definitely the most ideal salt pan, and more importantly, the climate here is very suitable for salting.
The rainy season here is very short, the temperature rises very quickly in spring, there is more wind and less rain, sufficient sunshine, and strong evaporation. It is the most ideal place to dry salt. In later generations, the salt production in this area accounted for a quarter of the country's total, and the scale was very large.
of vastness.
Liu Jin naturally wanted to occupy such a good place first, not to mention that if the salt farm was not built bigger, he would not be able to make much money.
"Sir, we have never done this salt drying method before. We have also consulted many experienced salt farmers and built some salt fields for experiments. Although some salt was produced, we have never been able to achieve what you said.
The kind of salt that is as white as sugar.”
Li Jiye thought for a while and said.
Liu Jin had told him the detailed method of drying salt, and he did what Liu Jin said, and indeed the salt was produced, and the efficiency was indeed very high, but there was still no way to say that it was as good as what Liu Jin said.
to the degree of fine salt.
The solar salt method is actually very simple. It uses light, temperature, and wind to evaporate the water in seawater to obtain salt.
The specific operation is to first introduce seawater into the evaporation pond. After being exposed to wind, water and sunlight, the water evaporates to a certain extent, and then introduced into the crystallization pond. Continue to be exposed to wind and sunlight, and the seawater will slowly evaporate, thus obtaining salt.
Of course there is no difference between the salt obtained in this way and the salt obtained by boiling salt. The only difference is that which one is more efficient and produces a greater amount of salt.
Similarly, the salt obtained is also coarse salt. There are a lot of impurities in it, the taste is very bad, and the crystals are also yellow, so it must go through some chemical treatment steps to remove the impurities in order to obtain snow-white salt.
Snow white refined salt.
"I forgot to pass on the most important step to you. This step is very important. We need to add some things to the crystallization tank to make high-quality salt..."
Hearing Li Jiye's words, Liu Jin patted his head and actually forgot to explain the removal, so he quickly explained it.
