() Emperor Chongzhen knew that he was moving today and was busy, so he would not summon him for no reason. At that moment, Zhong Jinwei did not dare to neglect and took five Dongchang guards to the Forbidden City to meet the emperor.
After arriving at the Wenhua Hall, I found that in addition to Emperor Chongzhen, there were also Wang Chengen, the admiral of Dongchang, Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, and even Wen Tiren, the assistant minister of the cabinet.
Emperor Chongzhen now understood that in the current cabinet, Wen Tiren was capable of practical work, honest and honest, dedicated to the public affairs, and did not have other people's petty thoughts. So he had begun to consciously encounter problems, so he called Wen Tiren over to discuss it together.
Zhong Jinwei looked at these people and guessed that it was about the salt administration.
Sure enough, after Zhong Jinwei finished his salute, Emperor Chongzhen said to him: "Master Zhong, I have discussed the reform of the salt policy with all the officials. They are quite curious about your views on the salt policy and have some questions.
Asking you."
"Oh, if anyone has any questions, please tell me." Zhong Jinwei had no objection at all.
Salt administration has always been under the direct control of the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and Bi Ziyan has always had a headache about this matter. Since Yuan Shizhen resigned, the amount of salt tax paid to the treasury of the Ministry of Revenue has been decreasing year by year.
Bi Ziyan even planned to propose to Emperor Chongzhen that Yuan Shizhen should be reinstated to manage the salt administration of the Huaihe River to make up for the continuous deficit in the national treasury.
But he didn't expect to be called by Emperor Chongzhen early in the morning to discuss the matter of the salt policy reform. Bi Ziyan first read the memorial, and then under Wang Chengen's explanation, the two reforms of the salt policy had
Got a new understanding.
The idea that the falling price of official salt is not only beneficial to the country, but also beneficial to the people is even more novel, but it has to be admitted that it makes sense.
Since Bi Ziyan became the steward of the Ming Dynasty, his hair has turned gray due to years of losses. Even his own brother died because the treasury was in short supply and could not allocate military pay.
On the one hand, the military expenditures of successive wars have continued to increase. On the other hand, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty has been hit by disasters one after another. Taxes cannot be collected, and even tax reductions are needed for disaster relief. There are also Donglin Party members in the imperial court who constantly plead for the "people" and abolish various taxes.
.This Hubu Shangshu is really not a human being. These words make the ears of the Hubu Shangshu’s wife feel numb.
Now for Bi Ziyan, as long as someone can propose increasing the revenue of the national treasury, he will support it with both hands and feet.
Now that the emperor is preparing to reform the salt policy and improve the treasury revenue and people's living standards, he is naturally very happy and can't wait to implement it immediately. However, he still has questions about some specific issues.
Emperor Chongzhen summoned the person involved, Zhong Jinwei, and it would be more reliable to ask him face to face.
Bi Ziyan looked at Zhong Jinwei and asked sincerely: "Uncle Zhongxing, the method you mentioned to increase salt production is good, but you said that rewards will be graded according to the output of salt. If you reward this, the court will have no money!"
"
As expected, he was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and as soon as he opened his mouth, it was about money.
Zhong Jinwei was stunned for a moment after hearing this. Really, he had never considered this matter.
Zhong Jinwei tried to answer: "How about accounting? After receiving the salt tax, we can exchange it for the salt tax?"
Wen Tiren interjected: "Uncle Zhongxing, when you implement this incentive measure for the first time, you must first establish trust. In the past, Shang Yang's government required a hundred gold rewards for those who moved the wood at the city gate. If you adopt the accounting credit method, Yan Ding is afraid that
I won’t believe it.” Wen Tiren, with his rich political experience, immediately discovered a flaw in this method.
Bi Ziyan added from his own point of view: "Even if the salt tax can be trusted by the court to fulfill its promise, after the salt tax is received, there will be very little silver left to pay the salt tax." Bi Ziyan added.
Yan Ziran knows that if this method is really implemented, the explosion of salt production will be obvious.
When Zhong Jinwei heard that there were so many unfavorable factors, he had to give up the accounting method and lowered his head to think about it again.
Suddenly, he remembered that when traveling in later generations, there was a matter of internal employee tickets, and an idea flashed in his mind, and he had it.
So, Zhong Jinwei excitedly slapped his forehead and said, "I have an idea."
Emperor Chongzhen has been paying attention to the dialogue between several ministers, hoping that the problem can be solved as soon as possible, the salt policy reform can be implemented, and the national treasury can receive a lot of money as soon as possible, and the big salt merchants and private salt dealers who are rich and unkind can be squeezed out.
But seeing a problem with the Minister of the Ministry of Finance that seemed to be unsolvable, he was extremely anxious. When he was about to ask a question, he heard Zhong Jinwei say that he had it, and he quickly said: "Master Zhong, if you have any ideas, please tell me quickly."
Zhong Jinwei laughed, bowed his hand to Emperor Chongzhen and said: "The imperial court can use salt as a reward. After setting the reward level, it will issue a salt usage certificate to the salt collector, which is equivalent to a salt guide. The salt collector can legally own this part of the salt and use it for himself.
Or you can sell it. This not only solves the problem of the court having no money to exchange for rewards, but also makes the salt collectors profitable and mobilizes their enthusiasm. By the way, it can also disgust the big salt merchants and private salt dealers."
Everyone in the hall thought carefully about Zhong Jinwei's proposal and felt that under the current situation, this should be the only feasible way. It would not cost the court a single coin, and it was just a matter of opening the certificate.
Everyone in the palace agreed to this approach, so the problem was solved.
"Zhongxing Bo, the second question is, if we use the Kaizhong method to exchange grain for salt, we still need to solve two problems. One is the issue of the order of exchange of existing salt and new salt; second, what Zhongxing Bo said
The proposed method is to wrest salt profits from the hands of the old big salt merchants, but if the big salt merchants also exchange grain for salt, wouldn't it still be impossible to wrest their profits?"
Regardless of whether they have their own ideas or not, everyone is accustomed to looking at Zhong Jinwei to see how the resourceful Zhong Xingbo solves the problem.
Zhong Jinwei thought for a while and said: "In the name of the urgent need of the imperial court, merchants can be encouraged to send grain to the disaster areas, the Northeast War Zone, and the border army's land in exchange for salt. Therefore, the salt must be cashed in immediately, so that the merchants have the motivation. Of course.
, the imperial court was true to its word, and the old salt currency also had to be exchanged. The order of the salt currency could be broken, and the old salt currency and the new salt currency could be exchanged half and half. In addition, due to the increase in salt production, the imperial court estimated how long it could promise to deliver the salt.
All salt quotations have been redeemed and will become invalid upon expiration."
Everyone was startled when they heard the last sentence. It is invalid after expiration. Is this necessary? Bi Ziyan asked everyone's doubts.
Zhong Jinwei smiled and explained: "When production increases in the future, a large number of warehouses may be needed to store salt, instead of the current situation where there is not enough salt to exchange. Building a large number of warehouses to store salt will cost a lot of money and maintenance.
There is also a cost. At that time, some salt merchants felt that the salt can be exchanged at any time and there is no shortage of salt, so they were not in a hurry to exchange it, and kept it in the official warehouse until it was used, which in vain increased the burden on the court. In addition, expired
There is another benefit to redeeming it.”
"What other benefits are there?" Unexpectedly, Emperor Chongzhen and Bi Ziyan asked in unison, and the Wenhua Hall burst into laughter, making the atmosphere in the hall even more harmonious. Emperor Chongzhen is not dissatisfied at all, as long as the problem can be solved, I will
like.
Zhong Jinwei didn't care anymore and said: "Not redeeming it after the expiration date shows that the court has the confidence to redeem all the salt coins, and the merchants have confidence. Now they just lack confidence in whether the court can redeem the salt coins."
"But if it is not redeemed after the expiration date, it may be that the court has no salt to redeem and what should I do if the deadline expires?" Emperor Chongzhen did not ask first, and asked the Minister of Household Affairs in charge of salt affairs to ask.
Zhong Jinwei said nonchalantly: "Then the salt quota will be doubled and the officer in charge of salt will be dismissed."
Except for Emperor Chongzhen, everyone else gasped, this was cruel enough. Emperor Chongzhen liked it very much, he was confident and courageous enough.
Zhong Jinwei explained on the side: "If this is not the case, it will not show the confidence of the court; otherwise, it will not be enough for the salt-producing officials to perform their duties with all their heart."
Having said that, everyone feels that this is very necessary. To be honest, the court's credibility in all aspects is not very good now, so it is reasonable to attach such importance to it.
"As for the second question, we can remove the limit on the quantity of grain exchanged for salt. That is, as long as people have surplus grain at home, they can exchange it for salt. As long as the amount of salt is enough, it is fine. But it is not good if the amount is too small.
Of course, in the past, if the big salt merchants wanted to exchange grain for salt, there was no problem and they were welcome. What the imperial court wanted was a large amount of grain for disaster relief and as military supplies to build captives. In fact, they had to do this."
"What's the explanation?" Emperor Chongzhen asked this time. He was very concerned about the problems of the big salt merchants.