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Chapter 101: On Salt Administration

() "Oh, okay, I'll ask the imperial doctor to check on his injury, and then go back to recover early, and then I'll be your bodyguard after he's healed." After Emperor Chongzhen finished speaking, he ordered him to go down, so that Gu Baichuan wouldn't have to stay at the Meridian Gate all the time.

Waiting, delaying recovery.

After settling Gu Baichuan's matter, Emperor Chongzhen said to Zhong Jinwei: "Master Zhong, you are tired too. Take a good rest. We will see the situation tomorrow. It's okay not to move to the new residence for now. Just continue to live in the side hall."

Archie was gone, and he felt uncomfortable living in the side hall alone. Zhong Jinwei quickly said: "Move, move, we will move as planned tomorrow."

As soon as he finished speaking, he remembered something and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, I remembered a few things on the way and I want to report to Your Majesty."

Oh, Master Zhong has another idea. Emperor Chongzhen was very curious, and when he was about to ask, Wang Chengen came in with a memorial.

"Your Majesty, today's excerpt of the capital donation has arrived."

Emperor Chongzhen was very concerned about the resettlement of refugees, and the resettlement of refugees depended on the level of donations from wealthy households in the capital, so Emperor Chongzhen asked Wang Chengen to repay it every day.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he realized that it was getting dark and it was time for the daily report. So he asked Wang Chengen to show him the memorial.

After reading it, Emperor Chongzhen asked Zhong Jinwei to also take a look at the donation situation.

Zhong Jinwei took it from Wang Chengen and took a look. The memorial was clearly written. How much cash will be donated today, how much will be the discounted price of materials, how much will be the registered labor, and how much will the above items accumulate. Then there will be the number of refugees, and the donated labor will be enough to support the refugees.

By this time, all of this will be clear at a glance, especially the amount of food, clothing, and coals, which are the current necessities of the refugees.

After Zhong Jinwei read it, he smiled and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, it took more than a month to support more than 100,000 refugees. The charity donation has only been carried out for about seven days. With so much, it is considered sufficient."

"Master Zhong, you don't know that the total number of daily donations is now on a downward trend, and the follow-up situation is not optimistic." Emperor Chongzhen's face did not show a smile at all because of Zhong Jinwei's relief. Han, maybe the continued cold time will

Longer." Wang Chengen also helped Emperor Chongzhen explain the seriousness of the situation.

"Oh, that's it, it doesn't matter. There is no perfect path. With such a long time buffer, you will definitely be able to find a way." Zhong Jinwei comforted him. He suddenly remembered what he had thought of on the way, and said to Emperor Chongzhen again: "

Your Majesty, the imperial court can use work-for-relief to relieve the pressure on the refugees."

"Master Zhong, if you want to work for relief, you have to be rich." Emperor Chongzhen sighed.

"Your Majesty, I may have a solution. There are some things that I want to report to Your Majesty."

Emperor Chongzhen remembered that Zhong Jinwei had said something happened before, but was interrupted by Wang Chengen, so he hurriedly said: "Master Zhong, if anything happens, come quickly."

"Your Majesty, it's like this. I stayed at Yan Yingyuan's house for two days and got to know some things about the people. I want to talk to your Majesty."

Emperor Chongzhen was a little disappointed after hearing this, thinking that he had some good idea and not some trivial matter.

Zhong Jinwei saw the change in Emperor Chongzhen's face and knew that he might not pay attention to it, so he emphasized to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, this matter is related to what I want to say later about improving people's lives, so it is necessary to talk about it first.

.”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard that the affairs of Yan Yingyuan's family could improve the lives of people all over the world, which was a big deal, he sat up straight and pricked up his ears, wanting to hear what Zhong Jinwei had to say.

Wang Chengen was also very curious, but he knew Zhong Jinwei relatively well and knew that he would not make unintended targets, so he listened carefully.

"Your Majesty, I learned a set of data on people's lives at Yan Yingyuan's house: a commoner can live on about one or two and a half yuan of silver a year, and a person needs about fifty kilograms of salt a year to maintain his body and not be weak. And the usual amount of salt

Prices vary. Fifty pounds of salt costs more than five yen when it is expensive, and less than four yen when it is cheap. Salt accounts for 27% to 37% of ordinary people's living costs, and the remaining

Most of the money is used to buy food. After a year, there is basically no money to buy other items. Therefore, people are very happy all year round if they have new clothes during the Chinese New Year."

Zhong Jinwei conveyed all the information learned by Yan Yingyuan's family to Emperor Chongzhen in one breath, but neither Emperor Chongzhen nor Wang Chengen had any special reaction, and they did not hear anything very important.

Zhong Jinwei saw Emperor Chongzhen blinking and was a little confused. He didn't know what he meant by these words, so he had to explain in detail: "Your Majesty, first of all, does salt money account for too much of the expenditure in people's lives?

Yes, these are necessary daily necessities, and they account for such a large amount of expenditure. Do people still have money to buy other items? Can their lives be good?"

"Master Zhong is right, but salt tax has been a major source of revenue for the imperial court since ancient times. If the price is too low, the imperial court will not be able to collect much tax." Emperor Chongzhen explained.

"Your Majesty, what is the purpose of the imperial court collecting taxes? Is it to take it from the people and use it for the people?" Zhong Jinwei asked.

From a general point of view, this is the case, but in fact it is often not the case. Emperor Chongzhen didn't know how to explain it to Zhong Jinwei.

Zhong Jinwei did not wait for Emperor Chongzhen's explanation and said directly: "Your Majesty, the price of salt is set high, but the tax collected is not necessarily high."

"What's the explanation for this?" Emperor Chongzhen didn't understand. How could such a simple truth be wrong?

"Your Majesty, have you ever heard of private salt?"

Of course I have heard of this. As long as you are an emperor, there is no one who does not know about illicit affairs.

"If the official salt price is set high, there will be room for private salt sales. To be honest, Your Majesty, if the official salt price is set too high, and the common people cannot afford the price of necessities beyond their purchasing ability, no matter how much the court prohibits it,

There will always be people who buy private salt, because private salt is cheaper, and it is said that private salt is of better quality than official salt."

When Emperor Chongzhen was considering whether such people were unruly people, Zhong Jinwei continued to explain his reasons: "Your Majesty, if this is the case, the court will not tax the private salt, and this part of the tax will be in vain.

Already."

Emperor Chongzhen heard what Zhong Jinwei said and felt that if the official salt was set too high, private salt would be more rampant. The more private salt would be rampant, the less taxes the court would collect. This is the truth.

When Zhong Jinwei said this, he turned around and asked Wang Chengen who was on the side: "Eunuch Wang, does your East Factory have an investigation report on the price of salt in major regions across the country?"

Wang Chengen looked at Emperor Chongzhen. This kind of information was also one of the top secrets. He would not dare to tell it privately in front of the emperor.

Emperor Chongzhen obviously had nothing to hide from Zhong Jinwei, and he actually didn't know it himself. So he also asked Wang Cheng'en: "Big companion, do you have this report?"

"Your Majesty, there is such a report. It is an investigation made during the Tianqi period to regulate the price of salt in Huaihe River." Wang Chengen answered truthfully.

When Emperor Chongzhen asked about the result, he looked at Zhong Jinwei, wondering what he meant.

When Zhong Jinwei saw that Wang Chengen said yes, he didn't want Wang Chengen to take it over and read it. The memorial must have no punctuation marks, so he didn't bother to read it.

Zhong Jinwei asked Wang Chengen directly: "Eunuch Wang, you should have read that report. I would like to ask, generally speaking, what is the ratio of the price of private salt to official salt?"

"The price ratio between private salt and official salt is about one to two to one to four. If the quality is very different, the ratio will be smaller. If the quality is not very different, the price will be different." Wang Chengen answered truthfully.

"Okay, let me ask you again, how many kilograms of salt is needed by the country's population in a year, and how many kilograms of official salt are sold?" Zhong Jinwei continued to ask.

This question is not easy to answer. Wang Chengen was silent for a moment, made a quick estimate in his mind, and then replied: "The salt requirement for the Ming Dynasty in a year is about 1.8 billion jins, and the official salt sales volume is basically fixed at about 500 million jins."

In other words, the annual sales volume of private salt is approximately 1.3 billion kilograms, accounting for about three times the sales volume of official salt.

After Zhong Jinwei asked about the situation, he turned to Emperor Chongzhen and said: "Your Majesty, you should be able to see how much salt tax the court loses in a year. And this is because the official salt price is too high, which gives room for private salt sales.

the result of."

Zhong Jinwei made another calculation for Emperor Chongzhen: "Assume that the price of official salt is reduced by half, and the sales volume is doubled. The tax collection will be similar to what it is now, but the living costs paid by the people will be doubled, and the imperial court will still have 300 million kilograms.

Salt can be taxed again, and both the people and the court will benefit. This is the benefit of lowering the price of official salt."

The more Emperor Chongzhen heard about it, the more surprised he became. If he followed Zhong Jinwei's algorithm, lowering the price of official salt and squeezing out private salt would have so many benefits.

In fact, it wasn't just this benefit that Emperor Chongzhen didn't know about. There were also chain reactions caused by it, such as using the money originally spent to buy salt to buy other items, or buying more salt to pickle fish, etc., which promoted the prosperity of other industries.

etc.

Emperor Chongzhen thought of this and was a little confused, so he asked Zhong Jinwei: "Is it possible to reduce the official salt?"


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