Ma Yongcheng's actions here naturally attracted the attention of the emperor and Li Huan. Seeing Ma Yongcheng coming quickly with a secret letter, his eyes naturally fell on the secret letter in Ma Yongcheng's hand.
As he approached, Ma Yongcheng saluted the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, the spies from Dongchang have just sent the news."
Zhu Houzhao raised his eyebrows and took the secret letter from Ma Yongcheng and said, "Oh, what's the news?"
Ma Yongcheng said: "It's the news from Sitong Chamber of Commerce."
Zhu Houzhao had already opened the secret letter at this time, glanced at the contents of the secret letter, and showed a disdainful smile at the corner of his mouth. He handed the secret letter to Li Huan and said: "They are really a group of businessmen who only have interests in their eyes.
The Chen family was also the principal of the Sitong Chamber of Commerce at the beginning, but was abandoned by them so easily."
Li Huan took the secret letter and read it. Hearing the words, he chuckled and said: "What your Majesty said is true. Merchants are the most profit-seeking and unjust. When the Chen family committed crimes, it would be strange if they did not abandon the Chen family."
At this moment, Zhu Houzhao chuckled and said: "It seems that the Xu family thinks that they are on the Qing family's side, so they can't wait to replace the Chen family."
Li Huan nodded slightly and said: "Since ancient times, the benefits of salt and iron have been the most important. Compared with the amount of salt tax collected by previous dynasties, it is simply incomparable. Among them, all the benefits of salt and iron have gone into the hands of merchants. Naturally, the Xu family can't wait
.”
Hearing what Li Huan said, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but sigh.
As an emperor of his generation, Zhu Houzhao naturally knew what the salt tax of the Ming Dynasty was all about. As an emperor, he looked through historical records and found that not only compared with the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, but also compared with the previous Song Dynasty, it was far behind.
many.
During the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties, the annual income tax on salt tax amounted to tens of millions. Similarly, the southeastern half of the pre-Song Dynasty received tens of millions of silver in taxes, almost half of which was the tax on salt and iron.
In comparison, the Ming Dynasty's annual income tax on salt tax was only a few million, which is simply unbelievable.
You must know that even later the Qing government's annual income from salt tax alone was as much as tens of millions of taels. The salt tax of all dynasties was the bulk of the court's income and taxes, and even directly affected the rise and fall of a court.
The Ming Dynasty's salt tax and income tax were so low that it was unbelievable among all dynasties.
"Taizu once said that salt tax is related to people's livelihood. If the salt tax is too heavy, it will inevitably cause the price of salt to skyrocket. In the end, the people will suffer. Therefore, Taizu did not impose a heavy tax on salt, hoping to benefit the people at the bottom.
.”
In the past, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang set extremely low taxes on salt, iron, and industry and commerce. Not to mention other things, the salt tax alone has been over one million taels since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past hundred years, the population of the Ming Dynasty has at least skyrocketed.
several times.
Under normal circumstances, as the population increases, the amount of salt consumed daily by the people should also double. Correspondingly, the salt tax should also increase as the population increases because of the increase in salt consumption.
That's right.
However, during the Ming Dynasty, the population surged, but the salt tax did not change much. Compared with a hundred years ago, the salt tax not only did not increase, but even decreased to some extent. If there is no problem in this, I am afraid it will be difficult to say it.
No one will believe it.
Zhu Houzhao, who was sighing with emotion, flashed a stern look in his eyes and said: "Taizu's original intention was to benefit the people, but he never thought that Taizu's kindness did not benefit the people, but instead made it easier for such a group of merchants, which gave birth to
A group of salt merchants who claim to be the richest in the world came out."
In the past, Zhu Houzhao's understanding of salt merchants was limited. In Zhu Houzhao's simple understanding, salt merchants were just a group of businessmen selling salt everywhere. They only earned some hard-earned money and did not earn much money.
However, in these days, whether it was the information about the salt merchants of the Ming Dynasty submitted by Li Huan or the information about the salt merchants collected by Dongchang under his order, Zhu Houzhao's understanding of the salt merchants of the Ming Dynasty suddenly changed.
A sea-shaking change.
If it weren't for Dongchang, the information collected by Jinyiwei was extremely detailed. Zhu Houzhao couldn't believe that in the Ming Dynasty, a wealthy family with a net worth of tens of millions of taels, maybe a wealthy family with a net worth of tens of millions of taels.
There are only a few salt merchants, but most of them are worth at least one million.
When Zhu Houzhao suddenly saw the news about the Salt Merchants Group, he was completely confused at the time, or in other words, he couldn't believe the news he saw.
It is said that the royal family is the princess of the world, and she is the richest in the world. However, even the silver in the royal treasury is less than ten million taels. This is because Li Huan has confiscated the family and exterminated the clan in the past few years and transferred a large amount of gold to the inner treasury.
In the case of silver wealth, if this were not the case, the royal family's silver inventory would actually only be a few million taels.
Millions of taels of gold and silver are definitely an astonishing amount of wealth. Zhu Houzhao himself thought so too. However, when Zhu Houzhao collected information about salt merchants from Dongchang and Jinyiwei, he discovered that millions of taels of gold and silver were extremely valuable to salt merchants.
As far as Shang is concerned, it can only be regarded as average. You can imagine how complicated Zhu Houzhao's mood would be as the emperor.
Zhu Houzhao let out a breath, as if he was feeling quite unhappy because of the salt merchants of the Sitong Chamber of Commerce. He looked at Li Huan and said, "Li Qing, I will leave the matter of the salt merchant group to you this time."
Originally, this matter was handed over to Li Huan, but now Zhu Houzhao repeated it again, which shows that Zhu Houzhao was not calm at this time.
Li Huan nodded and said: "Your Majesty, please rest assured, I will definitely live up to your Majesty's expectations and will definitely strictly control the salt class."
Walking to the side, Zhu Houzhao sat down on a seat and motioned for Li Huan to sit down.
After listening to Li Huan's words, Zhu Houzhao took a deep breath and said to Li Huan: "The salt policy of the Ming Dynasty has been deeply flawed. I don't know how many officials, big and small, have benefited from the salt and iron. If Li Qing wants to take action on the salt course, he must
Just be careful."
Zhu Houzhao was not naive enough to think that rectifying the salt policy was an easy task. This involved not only salt merchants, large and small, but also countless officials involved.
What is particularly important is that these officials, from the local government to the court, are densely packed and intertwined into a large network of interests. This is an extremely large interest group. Even the emperor Zhu Houzhao is aware of the degree of difficulty involved.
Li Huan said with a somewhat solemn look on his face: "Although this matter is difficult, for the long-term consideration of the Ming Dynasty, someone must break up this interest group. In this case, let me do it!"
As he spoke, Li Huan showed a slight smile on his lips and said, "Anyway, I don't have a good reputation all the time, and this is not bad."
Zhu Houzhao's eyes were filled with emotion when he heard this. Not everyone dares to do this kind of thing. If you are not careful, you may die.
But it was said that Si Yamen, the salt envoy from Huaihe River and Huaihe River, suddenly welcomed a team of royal guards on this day.
As the salt transport envoy, Jin Li can be said to be the chief officer of the Salt Transport Envoy Department in the Huaihe River. Although the official rank of the salt transport envoy is not high and he is not even well-known among the local yamen, as long as he knows the Salt Transport Envoy Department
Everyone knows what kind of fat man this salt transporter is.
If you don't have enough background and connections, not everyone can take the position of Salt Luck Envoy.
There is even a joke among the people that as a salt transport envoy, even if you exchange it for a minister, no one may be happy.
There were six major salt transportation departments in the Ming Dynasty, namely Lianghuai, Changlu, Liangzhe, Fujian, Shandong and Hedong salt transportation departments. In addition, there were Guangdong, Haibei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Black Salt Well, White Salt Well, and Anning Salt Well.
Wujing and other seven Salt Class Offices and the Shaanxi Salt Class Department, it can be said that these thirteen yamen almost took charge of the salt industry affairs of the huge Ming Empire.
The salt produced by the two Huaihe Rivers accounted for almost half of the salt produced in the Ming Dynasty. You can imagine the influence Si Yamen, the salt transshipment envoy from the two Huaihe Rivers, had on the salt industry of the Ming Dynasty.
As the head of the Yamen of the Salt Transport Envoy in Huaihe and Huaidu, Jin Li, the salt transport envoy, is definitely a man of great influence.
On this day, Jin Li was issuing orders as usual in the yamen, verifying the Lianghuai salt import and making statistics on the amount of salt produced by the Lianghuai salt factory managed by the Lianghuai salt transfer envoy's yamen.
Others don't know the salt produced by the salt factory, but as the top leader in the yamen, Jin Li wants to know it clearly. Of course, this is not because he wants to collect taxes for the court, but because it is produced by the Lianghuai salt factory.
The amount of salt is directly related to his income.
The salt produced in the official salt fields of the Ming Dynasty can be divided into regular salt and residual salt. Regular salt is the amount of salt that each salt household must turn in every year as stipulated by the court, and residual salt is in addition to the quota handed over to the court.
Part of the extra salt produced.
According to the wishes of the imperial court, salt production was an approved number of completed tasks for salt households, which they must complete. As long as the annual quota was completed, the imperial court would provide basic food.
As for the excess, it will be allocated to the remaining salt, and the court will recycle it at a price higher than the market salt price. In this way, the remaining salt will be prevented from flowing out of the salt field privately and becoming private salt on the market.
It can be said that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the imperial court's policy, which is to provide salt households with a certain basic living security, and to improve the lives of salt households by collecting excess salt at a high price.
But there is no problem with the policy. When it comes to implementation in the hands of local officials, there is too much room for maneuver.
Let’s not mention the regular salt for now, let’s talk about the surplus salt. The surplus salt is the output beyond the imperial plan. There is no quantitative quantity. The excess is calculated by the salt transportation envoys in various places. In this way,
The quantity is entirely determined by the salt transport envoys in these places.
The most important thing is that the original intention of the imperial court was to collect surplus salt from salt households at a high price by the salt transportation envoys, but when these local officials implemented it, it became a low price and then resold it at a high price to the salt merchants who colluded with them.
.
In addition, the salt transportation official Si Yamen also has the right to issue regular salt orders. Often, one portion of salt can be sold to a salt merchant, and several portions of salt can be sold.
In the Ming Dynasty, only regular salt has legal salt tax. The quantity of regular salt is a fixed quota, which means that the amount of salt tax issued is also a fixed number. This also means that the salt tax that the Ming Dynasty can collect will not have any big changes.
Variety.
Don’t you know that with the population booming in the Ming Dynasty, how could the demand for broken promises not rise sharply? However, for hundreds of years, the salt tax in the Ming Dynasty has not fluctuated at all. The real reason is that a large amount of surplus salt flows in under the label of regular salt.
market.
The amount of this part of residual salt is so huge that it far exceeds the amount of normal salt, and is even several times as large as normal salt. However, this part of residual salt has no salt. Without salt, naturally there is no way to impose a salt tax.
A large amount of surplus salt openly entered the hands of salt merchants under the collusion of officials and merchants, and flowed into the homes of ordinary people. The huge salt profits contained in it naturally became the pockets of officials and salt merchants.
Looking at the salt output of the Lianghuai Salt Farm last month that was compiled not long ago, Jin Li couldn't help but smile a little.
In addition to the table salt that will be included in regular salt, the extra salt produced last month is worth hundreds of thousands of taels. Even if he has to manage it up and down, the final amount that will be distributed to him will still be at least ten thousand taels of silver.
He buys at least tens of thousands taels of silver every month, which amounts to more than hundreds of thousands taels a year. This is just the benefit he gets from sitting in this position, and it does not include the income from the salt and iron business of his family behind him.
Times as much.
Jin Li took a nice sip of tea. He was recommended by Chen Wenliang and sat in the position of Salt Transport Envoy for nearly ten years. I think back then he was still a second-ranked Jinshi who had just entered the officialdom. Because he worshiped Chen Wenliang as his mentor,
Later, he married a daughter of the Chen family. From then on, he joined the Yamen of the Salt Transport Envoy and became the top leader of the Yamen in just one year. He stayed here for nearly ten years.
The Jin family was originally just a humble family, but because he was a high school scholar, divorced his poor wife, and became a disciple of Chen Wenliang, in less than ten years, the Jin family has become a famous gentry family in Yangzhou.
, with a family fortune in the millions.
After flipping through the account books, Jin Li nodded with satisfaction. After preparing to return home, he sent someone to inform his clan members, as well as the Chen family, Xu family, and Zhao family, to transfer the salt from the salt farm.
Suddenly, he heard a rush of footsteps coming from outside the hall. Jin Li couldn't help but frowned when he heard the footsteps and looked outside the hall.
When he saw the person coming, Jin Li couldn't help but shouted in a deep voice: "Jin San'er, why are you in such a hurry!"
Jin San'er is Jin Li's book boy and has been with Jin Li for twenty or thirty years. He can be said to be Jin Li's most trusted confidant. At this time, Jin San'er's face was full of panic.
Panting, Jin San'er said to Jin Li: "Master, what's wrong, the Jin Yiwei... A group of Jin Yiwei appeared outside the Yamen, and I'm afraid they have broken in now!"
Jin Li was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then frowned and said: "Sun Chang, a member of the Jinyiwei family, just withdrew three thousand taels of silver from me a few days ago..."
Jin San'er shook his head repeatedly and said: "Master, it's not Sun Chang who's here this time. They all look like strangers. They're not Sun Chang's group at all!"