Except for the officials who were on duty, all the officials had left.
Zhang Yue, Xue Xiang, and Cai Jing are still discussing countermeasures.
The Yanyan salt pool has been flooded, so there is a possibility that there will be no Yanyan salt production next year.
The royal court gained five million guan a year from the release of salt banknotes, of which the actual output of salt goods was more than 3 million guan, and the false estimate was nearly 2 million guan.
In other words, Zhang Yue produces 3 million guan of salt a year, but earns 5 million guan from selling it. But now, once the 3 million guan of salt is not produced every year, five million guan will be needed.
deficit.
This was a huge political blow to Zhang Yue.
Cai Jing's plan is to use the method of issuing new banknotes to abolish old banknotes, forcing businessmen holding old banknotes to use cash subsidies. Then, by constantly scrapping old banknotes and issuing new banknotes, forcing businessmen who are unwilling to lose sunk costs to continue taking money.
Invest.
This indeed relieved Zhang Yue's urgent need, but it also deceived countless businessmen holding salt banknotes.
The most important thing in business is credibility. Without credibility, there is nothing.
Especially the Exchange, it is a hen that keeps laying golden eggs. Once the reputation of Yanqian goes bankrupt, it will also lead to the bankruptcy of Jiaozi's reputation, and finally the Exchange will be finished together.
Not to mention that the Exchange was Zhang Yue's hard work. Back then, the Zhang family and the Wu family bought a large number of Exchange shares internally and from the market. Now, relying on stable dividends, they have a lot of income every year.
This is a more profitable income than lending money.
According to Zhang Yue’s knowledge, Cai Jing also holds a large number of shares in the Exchange.
If it were Cai Jing in another time and space, he would have resorted to such methods of killing the goose to lay the eggs, but he certainly would not have done so in this time and space.
So Cai Jing was playing a trick and involved himself and Xue Xiang.
Cai Jing used the elimination method, and the following strategies were what he really wanted to say.
But seeing Cai Jing hesitate for a moment, he said: "Beijing's plan is really difficult to implement. That is to abolish official sales and official sales in the world, and allow merchants to exchange salt banknotes for salt at various places."
Zhang Yue smiled calmly after hearing this. As expected, Cai Jing really did not disappoint him.
It turns out that the anchors of salt banknotes are Jieyan and Zhangyan. Businessmen can take the salt banknotes and go to the salt fields in Jiezhou or Xihe to get salt with the banknotes.
Although the salt solution is gone now, merchants can now take salt banknotes to salt fields all over the world and withdraw the same amount of salt as the salt solution.
This seems like a good idea, but it's actually a scapegoat idea.
Because of Cai Jing's proposal, all local salt profits were returned to the central government, which would inevitably cause serious dissatisfaction among local officials. Since ancient times, the issue of fiscal revenue distribution between the central and local governments has always been a focus of conflict.
At the same time, in addition to salt, the local area also has supporting industries surrounding salt, such as official transportation, official sales, etc.
Merchants transport salt from other regions to Shaanxi for sale. This is a problem involving cross-regional sales of salt.
Song law stipulates that salt in each region must be sold in an officially designated area. Those who dare to secretly refine more than three kilograms of private salt will die, and those who sell more than ten kilograms of official salt to forbidden areas will die.
In other words, selling more than three kilograms of private salt will be punished by death. Three kilograms of official salt only costs more than a hundred yuan, and private salt only costs thirty or forty yuan. This crime is punishable by death.
As for cross-regional sales, it is not allowed. Even if you are transporting official salt, if you sell salt in a sales area that is not designated by the imperial court, you will be put to death if it exceeds ten kilograms.
This shows how strict the laws of the Song Dynasty were.
Selling a small amount of private salt is considered a serious crime, and private salt dealers are engaged in the beheading business. At the same time, prohibiting the sale of official salt across regions is also to protect local salt profits.
The words "Those who dare to compete with the imperial court for profit will die" are almost written on his face.
But a bad move broke all this.
Originally, the local government was responsible for the transportation and sales of official salt. Once merchants were allowed to withdraw it freely, it would be equivalent to commercial transportation and sales, destroying the entire original system.
It also destroyed the original fiscal and taxation system. This encountered much greater resistance and opposition than Zhang Yue's original change of the exemption law.
Therefore, Cai Jing listed it as the next best option.
After Zhang Yue heard Cai Jing's plan, he first thought about whether this method was feasible.
Zhang Yue leaned against the chair, stroking the smooth teacup in his hand and thinking carefully.
From Zhang Yue's 20 years of experience in handling government affairs, he could see at a glance that Cai Jing's strategy was feasible.
This is a kind of intuition. If you ask Zhang Yue to say something, he won't be able to tell you right away. But skilled officials have this kind of ability. The officials below will tell whether things work or not, and whether the plan is reliable or not.
, he made a judgment in his heart as soon as he heard it.
This is a kind of talent, just like the first-class intuition of ancient famous generals on the battlefield.
I just feel that there may be an enemy ambush here, but I can't explain why you want me to.
The same goes for businessmen. Excellent businessmen have a keen intuition about business opportunities.
Zhang Yue has this kind of intuition when it comes to handling government affairs, but not when it comes to using troops. Therefore, he is destined not to become a famous general, but he can become a famous minister. Now he can see at a glance that Cai Jing's method is the best solution to this problem.
.
You want to ask Zhang Yue why?
Zhang Yue couldn't answer it for the moment, but he could find it from history. The problem he was facing now had similar problems in the Ming Dynasty.
Later, Yuan Shizhen's "Gangyun Method" and Cai Jing's solution were both the same.
Zhang Yue said to Cai Jing: "The only two things that benefit the country most now are tea and salt."
“If tea salt is sold commercially, the credit period can be shortened, production can be increased, and funds can be withdrawn immediately.”
“But the government-run system does suffer from inefficiency and inflexibility.”
After a pause, Zhang Yue said: "Actually, to be honest, whether it's a government-run thing or a government-run thing, if it weren't for the salt banknotes going awry, who would be willing to do it commercially?"
"The salt law of this dynasty has been corrupted. At the beginning of Xining, Wang Shugong planned to practice the method of salt cutting in Hebei (hebei was the only one in the world that did not have salt cutting. It was not because of the good intentions of the court, but mainly because he was afraid that the Liao Kingdom would invade and the people of Hebei would turn against him).
At that time, the court had no money, so it tried to increase the court's income by selling salt, but Han Wei Gong, Su Zizhan and other officials opposed it."
If it weren't for Han Qi, who was half Hebei, he would have to speak up for his hometown. If it weren't for Han Qi, Hebei would also have to fight for salt. After all, Song and Liao were basically at peace at this time.
Zhang Yue said: "In the tenth year of Xining, private salt was prevalent because the price of salt was too high, and official salt was too expensive, and people were unwilling to buy official salt."
"Beijing and Dongxi have suppressed the distribution of official salt, and forced each household to purchase salt according to the number of households, whether rich or poor, and the size of each household."
"When Scholar Sima heard about this, he was furious and cursed the Salt Law for harming the people. The court criticized the salt for buying it at a low price and selling it at a high price. The official salt was inferior. They used force to feed the people, and they couldn't eat them. They used threats and torture, and finally forced the people to go bankrupt and lose money.
.”
In the 10th year of Xining, official salt could not be sold because it was too expensive and of poor quality, and private salt was prevalent everywhere.
At that time, for the sake of salt profits, local officials forced the people to buy official salt. According to the amount of family assets, they forcibly divided the money among the members of the family. If they did not buy, they would be punished. In the end, many people were forced to lose their homes.
Sima Guang scolded the New Party on stage for this matter.
Zhang Yue said in a more serious tone: "It is an indisputable fact that official salt cannot be sold now and the salt law has been corrupted."
To be honest, the imperial court had already imposed extremely severe penalties on private salt dealers, but they still could not ban them.
Not to mention selling illicit salt, isn't that what Peng Sun and Peng Jingyi are doing?
Private salt dealers are armed, and as Huang Chao's colleagues, they dare to fight with officers and soldiers.
In the 10th year of Xining, in order to deal with illegal salt dealers, the imperial court also issued a law that if a person who bought and sold illegal salt was reported, all the property of the other person would belong to the person who reported it.
But the problem still cannot be avoided, and in places where it is forbidden, many people have died because they cannot afford official salt and eat it lightly. Even if it is sold at such an expensive price, official salt is still more unpalatable than private salt. At that time, even Renzong's imperial meal was eaten by official salt.
Salt also contains soil.
After hearing Zhang Yue's words, Xue Xiang and Cai Jing both sighed.
Zhang Yue said: "Since I have been an official, I have always remembered what Ouyang Gong said, it is difficult to specialize when you are doing good things, but you must share it with the bottom. Then it will flow without stagnation."
"Nowadays, the purpose is to seize the profits from the merchants. Once they are returned to the public, they are dedicated to them. If they want to be specialized, they will suffer losses... If they want to return ten percent of the profits to the public, they will lose in the middle, and they will not get three out of ten. It is better to share it with the merchants, and always get five.
.”
"Many officials use the slogan of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, but who are the people who buy salt? They are all ordinary people. In fact, this is a way to suppress business and harm farmers. They are too harsh. They don't care about tea, but they discuss salt.
It must be changed.”
To be honest, the Song Dynasty's official salt management was too much. The cost was only ten yuan when it was handed over to the people, and the rest was not all given to the court. Most of it was lost to corruption by officials.
Zhang Yue said: "What do you think Mr. Xue wants?"
Xue Xiang thought for a while and said: "If this method is feasible, businessmen will be more successful and the people will not have to suffer from suppressing their spouses."
"But all official matters are handled by the Transportation Department? How to balance it?"
The transshipment department was mostly responsible for transporting grain to Beijing. In order to prevent the ship from returning empty, it also often transported salt for sale. Now that the commercial transport business has been sold, the transshipment department's income will definitely be gone, which will inevitably arouse opposition from various transshipment departments.
Zhang Yue nodded and said, "One-third of the income from salt banknotes can be sent to the transportation departments of various ministries."
Xue Xiangdao: "This still needs to be discussed in detail."
"If everyone in the world uses salt banknotes to pay for salt, and at the same time, the government's transportation of salt changes from official transportation to commercial transportation, the court's salt profit income will not only not decrease, but will also increase significantly."
Zhang Yue nodded when he saw this.
He had long wanted to change the salt method, and at the same time changed the anchor of salt banknotes from salt salt to various official salts.
However, he did not say a word because he knew that there would be opposition from below. Zhang Yue did not have the courage and skill to force reforms before.
Now that the Jiezhou Salt Pond is flooded, it gives him a chance.
It is much more logical to turn a crisis into an opportunity and use this to reform the law than to blindly use centralized power to suppress people with authority and then carry out reforms.
Of course, the latter is also what Zhang Yue is doing.
Zhang Yue glanced at Cai Jing and saw that he was faintly lustful. When he saw his eyes, he immediately lowered his head.
Zhang Yue said to Cai Jing: "Chang Yuan, don't tell me about this matter with Mr. Zhao Wen or anyone else."
Cai Jing's expression changed after hearing this, and Zhang Yue's method came.
Because Zhang Yue expected that Wang Gui knew that the salt pond was flooded, the salt banknotes would definitely depreciate, and his nephew would definitely sell short and profit from it.
And this time he is going to make Wang Gui and those who use insider information speculate and short-sell a big disaster.
As for you, Cai Jing, who did not inform Wang Gui in advance, you will definitely lose a lot of points with Wang Gui.
