() "Your Majesty, I know that every dynasty will never be merciful to private salt traders and severely suppress them. But no matter how suppressed, there are still private salt traders, right?" Zhong Jinwei asked rhetorically.
Emperor Chongzhen nodded. He knew that Zhong Jinwei had some ideas, so he brought up this topic. He was looking forward to coming up with some wonderful ideas.
When Zhong Jinwei saw Emperor Chongzhen nodding, he continued: "Your Majesty, if force cannot be suppressed, we can use market means to squeeze it. After all, there will not be a single private salt dealer in the future."
What, there is not even a private salt dealer, how is this possible? Emperor Chongzhen’s first thought was this. He immediately asked Zhong Jinwei: "Master Zhong, what are market methods? Are they really so powerful?"
"Actually, it's very simple. As I said before, the price of official salt should be set to the price of private salt. In this way, no matter how good the quality of private salt is, how many people will still dare to take the risk to buy private salt? What's more?
How many people would risk beheading for a little profit from selling private salt? It seems that the price of official salt has dropped, and the tax collected will be less. In fact, the quantity has increased, and the tax collected is not a lot at all, and it can also make the people
Spend less money to buy salt, and use an advertising slogan from my world: It’s good for you, good for me, and good for everyone.” Zhong Jinwei saw that he, Emperor Chongzhen, and Wang Chengen were the only three people in the hall, so he said that without any scruples.
world, the reason for repeating this content is to instill market concepts and economic warfare models into Emperor Chongzhen.
Emperor Chongzhen was quite moved, but Wang Chengen knew more about this aspect than Emperor Chongzhen. He told Zhong Jinwei: "Since the Jiajing period in the Ming Dynasty, they have adopted methods such as increasing the number of yinmu and jinjin to increase the sales of official salt, but they cannot compete with it.
Private salt was cheap and of high quality, so the imperial court was powerless. However, Yuan Shizhen's salt policy reform a few years ago resulted in a lot more salt taxes."
"Oh, the imperial court is afraid that it can't match the price and quality of private salt? They are risking beheading. The imperial court has the technology and manpower. It can kill them casually. By the way, you are talking about Yuan Shizhen's salt.
Political reform, what’s going on?”
Wang Chengen looked at Emperor Chongzhen, and Emperor Chongzhen also nodded. He didn't know this matter. After all, the time he was emperor was too short and there were too many things to do, so it was impossible to take into account all aspects.
Wang Chengen saw that both of them wanted to be his audience, so he cleared his throat slightly and introduced based on his memory: "This Yuan Shizhen, whose courtesy name is Yizhi and whose name is Cangru, was the third-level Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli, and served as Shandong Shilangzhong.
, proposed the "Ten Comments on the Salt Law", and later served as the coordinator of the Salt Law Road in the Huaihe River and the deputy envoy of the Shandong Yincha Division to implement the Outline Law."
"What principles?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.
"My slave is about to explain." Wang Chengen bowed to Emperor Chongzhen and said, "The content of the Gang Law is to organize the salt merchants who hold a large amount of salt into ten gangs. Every year, the government exchanges 200,000 old salt bills for the salt merchants in one of the gangs.
At the same time, a salt tax of a total of 1.8 million new salt citations was levied on the remaining nine-gang salt merchants. From now on, only those whose names are on the gang book can buy new ones based on the number of old yin in the gang book, and can they go to the designated place.
The salt business in the region can still be hereditary, but those who have no name in the list can no longer operate the salt industry."
Zhong Jinwei frowned when he heard this, but Wang Chengen didn't finish speaking, so he stopped talking and continued to listen patiently.
Wang Chengen continued to introduce: "Yuan Shizhen also abolished the three unreasonable additional taxes in the past, recruited brave soldiers to join forces with the salt farm kitchen workers for joint defense, and used the joint sitting method to specifically catch illegal salt dealers."
At this point, Wang Chengen looked at Emperor Chongzhen and Uncle Zhongxing, and finally concluded: "In his four years in office, he took a total of 2,863,642 taels in Taicang and 1,563,000 in side warehouses.
One thousand, six hundred and twenty-four taels. The salt merchant also handed over more than 230,000 taels of silver to the Liao Dynasty, and the interest on the national treasury money also amounted to more than 110,000 taels."
It seems that the intelligence of famous people in history is not limited, and they can remember fractions of a silver tael clearly.
When Emperor Chongzhen heard about silver, his eyes lit up. What I lack is silver!
Zhong Jinwei sneered on the side and said: "I don't think this person is very good. There is something fishy in him."
Wang Chengen was startled, and said a little unconvinced: "How come we know that in the past, Wei Zhongxian's party members falsely accused Yuan Shizhen of embezzlement and sent him to Yangzhou Prefecture Prison, but there was no real evidence. In the end, he deducted a recruit for Yuan Shizhen and spent two dollars to build a Zhunti Temple.
He was charged with ten thousand liang and forced Yuan Shizhen to repay the money. The Lianghuai salt merchants were grateful for Yuan Shizhen's merits and paid the unjust money on their behalf."
"Hahaha..." When Zhong Jinwei heard this, he burst into laughter. Emperor Chongzhen and Wang Chengen both looked at him. Could it be that they would go crazy like this?
Zhong Jinwei felt that Wang Chengen's proof of Yuan Shizhen's merits, in his opinion, happened to be another evidence of guilt, which was really funny.
"Master Zhong, why are you laughing?" Emperor Chongzhen asked with a frown. He didn't blame Zhong Jinwei for being rude, but felt that Zhong Jinwei was laughing inexplicably.
When Zhong Jinwei saw Emperor Chongzhen's question, he stopped laughing and replied to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, I feel that Wang Gonggong's argument happens to be another major evidence of his crime. Maybe I understand it wrong. I will tell you what I think.
, Your Majesty and the prince can see if what I said makes sense."
"Okay." Emperor Chongzhen nodded.
"Before I analyze it, there is a premise. I first ask the prince." After Zhong Jinwei finished speaking, without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen's consent, he turned to Wang Chengen and asked: "My prince, I want to ask you, who is the richest person in the world today?
What kind of people are they? Do they belong to Lianghuai salt merchants?"
Wang Chengen didn't expect Zhong Jinwei to ask this question, but if we really want to talk about wealth, basically everyone knows that salt merchants are rich. The famous Yangzhou thin horse industry is a product of the salt merchants' fight for wealth. Wang Chengen nodded and expressed his affirmation
Zhong Jinwei's problem.
Zhong Jinwei turned to Emperor Chongzhen and said, "Your Majesty, you may not be convinced. I think those salt merchants are richer than you."
It cannot be said that Zhong Jinwei was provocative. The salt merchants at that time were really richer than the royal family, not to mention the poor Emperor Chongzhen. In the later period of Chongzhen, it was said that Emperor Chongzhen's clothes were mended by his queen for free.
That kind. Unlike the two weirdos Daoguang and Xianfeng of the Manchu Qing Dynasty who loved to wear patched clothes, the cost of a patch ranged from five taels of silver to hundreds of taels of silver.
Without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen to express his views, Zhong Jinwei followed his own thinking and said: "The salt merchants are rich, and they are very rich. Everyone agrees on this. Then let's analyze Yuan Shizhen's policies."
Zhong Jinwei stretched out his left hand, clenched it into a fist, then stretched out a finger and said: "First, divide the big salt merchant into ten parts, give salt in turn and pay taxes. We won't talk about the relationship between salt and taxes, let's talk about him.
Next, only those with names on the outline can buy new ones based on the number of old ones on the list, and can go to designated areas to engage in salt business. They can also be hereditary. Those without names on the list can no longer operate the salt industry. This is
What, this is a monopoly."
"What is monopoly?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.
"Monopoly means that only these few companies can sell, and no one else is allowed to sell." After Zhong Jinwei briefly explained the monopoly, he continued: "In this way, these salt merchants have the privilege of monopoly and can set whatever price they want. Anyway, only
His family has it, and salt is a necessity for the people and must be bought. This has caused the salt merchants to become richer and richer, and they have more money than they can use up."
When Emperor Chongzhen heard that there was so much money to spend, his eyes gleamed.
Zhong Jinwei continued to extend his second finger and said: "The so-called abolition of unreasonable surcharges, for the court, we don't know whether it is reasonable or not; but for salt merchants, as long as they collect taxes, it must be unreasonable
. The abolition of taxes will definitely be beneficial to the salt merchants. This is certain. The result will be that they will become richer."
Zhong Jinwei stretched out his third finger and said: "Forming a joint defense and arresting illegal salt dealers seems to be a normal behavior of the court, but combined with the above two points, it is also beneficial to the salt dealers.
These measures have strengthened their monopoly position, and as a result, the salt merchants will become richer."
Zhong Jinwei finally stretched out his fourth finger and said: "The Lianghuai salt merchants were grateful for Yuan Shizhen's merits and repaid 20,000 taels on behalf of Yuan Shizhen. If this move is used to prove that Yuan Shizhen wins the hearts of the people, it is better to say that he wins the hearts of the salt merchants.
.For someone who can bring such wealth to a salt merchant, if I were the salt merchant, I would not only repay the money for him, but also pay for him to establish relationships for him to keep him in his job."
Finally, Zhong Jinwei shook the four fingers of his left hand and said, "These four points are my opinions."
Wang Chengen sweatdropped after hearing this. It turned out that he could still think this way, but Wang Chengen had to admit that what Zhong Xingbo said made sense.
Emperor Chongzhen wished he could confiscate the houses of all the rich and oily salt merchants one by one, so that he could relax. Maybe my Minister of Revenue would be happier than me.
Zhong Jinwei suddenly said something else: "Besides, these salt merchants usually sell salt, and they might even mix it with private salt and sell it, which will make them even more money."
Emperor Chongzhen suddenly stood up from his throne and said to Zhong Jinwei: "Master Zhong, what can you do to solve this salt tax problem and take away the salt profits from those salt merchants?"