Wu Yi, the governor of water transportation in the Ming Dynasty, and Cheng Bi, the salt transport envoy from Huaidu and Sidu, sat on the left and right in the Yangzhou government office and met with a group of Huizhou salt merchants first.
The greeting gifts given by the salt merchants were very generous.
He donated 100,000 taels of silver to His Highness Lu Jianguo, 50,000 taels each to Cheng Yanshi, the governor of Wu Cao, and another 100,000 taels of silver to help pay, for a total of 300,000 taels of silver.
Wu Yi looked at the gift list and just laughed.
Cheng Bi said, "The salt from the Huaihe River is sold to Nanzhi, Huguang, Henan, and Jiangxi. The salt area is huge and the sales volume is also very wide. I am a salt merchant before, so I know very well how much profit we salt merchants can make from selling salt."
of.
I heard that after the Tatars occupied Yangzhou, they recruited new salt merchants and set a salt course for you, about six million taels of silver a year?"
A group of Huizhou salt merchants immediately complained, saying that in the past, the total salt lessons of the Ming Dynasty court were only more than one million taels a year, but now the Qing government asked them to pay six million taels of silver a year, which was ten times the amount in the past.
more than.
But Cheng Bi just laughed.
"In the past, Yangzhou salt merchants could earn at least fifteen million taels of silver a year, but they could not pay the salt tax of one million taels a year."
Someone said with a wry smile, "Mr. Cheng has worked in the salt industry before. He knows that the salt class is only on the surface, and there are all kinds of gray and black expenses. For example, he has to pay every year to the Cao Governor, the Salt Transport Envoy, and
There are salt patrols sent by the imperial court, Nanjing Six Ministries, etc. There are quite a lot of these regulations. The governor of Cao earns no less than 200,000 taels of silver a year. Where do they come from? Less than half of them are salt regulations given by our salt merchants.
."
You have to give it when you see an official, plus various apportionments and donations from the court and local governments. In addition, you have to manage powerful local officials in the court to ensure the qualifications of salt merchants. These expenses are huge, even far more than what they say on the surface.
Hand in salt lesson.
But Cheng Bi didn't know this.
"If it was really as difficult as everyone said, you wouldn't be so sharp-headed as to get into the salt industry. Although the white, gray, and black expenses are high, they are nothing compared to this huge salt profit.
It doesn’t matter, besides, everyone is not so honest in selling salt. There are many tricks such as mixing official salt with private salt, right?”
Meeting a senior Huizhou salt merchant like Cheng Bi here, the salt merchants knew they couldn't be fooled, so they could only talk about how they were all new salt merchants. In the past, they had no share in the profits made by the salt merchants, but now they are killing pigs and plucking their hair.
They were all hit.
"We haven't even started to earn a tael of silver yet, but all the money we collected from here and outside has gone to sea. Now that we can't sell the salt, we are almost bankrupt."
"Lu Jianguo will not make things difficult for you. Again, the common people have to eat salt. You can't eat it lightly. You are salt merchants. The salt produced by the people has to be sold, and so does the court.
The salt tax is collected to subsidize the finance, so we cannot do without you."
"Of course, the court can't do without the salt merchants, not some individual salt merchants. If you can't do it, the court can change the group of people."
"Please tell me, sir, what does the imperial court need from us? We also want to collect salt and transport it for sale as soon as possible, but we can't leave Yangzhou City now, and the salt ships can't leave the dock."
Seeing that he was almost finished, Cheng Bi said bluntly, "The thing is actually very simple. In normal years, you can earn more than 15 million taels a year from selling salt. The Qing government asked you to pay a salt tax of 6 million taels.
Now that the Ming Dynasty controls Yangzhou, your salt tax will be handed over to the court from now on."
Upon hearing this, the salt merchants wanted to run away.
The Qing government forced them to pay a salt tax of six million taels a year, and now the Ming Dynasty wants to tax them another six million. Even if, as Cheng Bi said, the Yangzhou salt merchants control the provinces from Huguang to south to Jiangxi and Henan, and the salt area is large.
The annual salt profit is at least 15 million guan, but the 6 million salt tax is only an apparent expenditure.
If they pay another six million, they will really lose money.
"Isn't it normal for you to pay money to whomever you ask for salt? Now there is no salt in the Tatars. You have to buy salt from us, so you can't pay us salt money and salt taxes? You don't even get salt from the Tatars.
Then what are you going to do when you receive salt and pay the salt tax to them?"
"If you really want to pay, that's your business, but don't complain to us." Wu Yi interrupted them rudely.
The salt merchants all looked sad, it was really the hardest thing to be caught in the middle.
"Our Ming army now controls most of the salt fields in Lianghuai, not to mention the canals and Yangtze River waterways that transport salt. They are all under our control. If you want to sell salt, we will not use the old rules. From now on, we will follow the new rules.
Follow the rules."
The salt merchants cried and begged for a long time,
Only then did Cheng Bi come up with the real new rules.
"In the future, when you go to our salt warehouse to pick up salt, every pound of salt will be changed to one hundred kilograms. In addition to the salt price of one tael per pound, you will need to pay a salt tax of one tael per pound. That is, a tax of one cent per kilogram of salt, plus
The cost of one cent per pound of salt is two cents of silver."
"In addition, we no longer ask for your nest, we will pay for it. From now on, there will be no restrictions on salt merchant status. Regardless of whether you have a license or not, you come to buy salt. You can receive the salt after paying the tax.
After tax, we will send you an invoice with which you can sell anywhere."
"Of course, according to the current lijin method, when your salt passes the customs, you still have to pay the customs fee of 50% per 100%. If you sell it in a shop, you also have to pay the market levy of 100% per 100%. But this %50 is still very low.
"
"Finally, there is a voluntary insurance premium for transporting salt, that is, you can voluntarily choose whether to pay or not. After paying the money, you can transport salt on the corresponding canal section or the Yangtze River section. As long as you have our insurance policy and flag, we will
The navy ships will protect you from attack and plunder."
The implication is that if you are robbed without paying this insurance, you will be responsible for it.
The salt tax is one tael for one hundred kilograms of salt, and the cost is another one tael. One hundred kilograms of salt costs two taels of silver. The cost of one kilogram of salt is two cents of silver. This is no different from the original, but there is no restriction on the identity of the salt merchant and no restriction on the sales of salt.
District, selling these freely made these salt merchants frown.
It's not much for Guan Li to draw five ounces of silver.
It's just that their monopoly salt merchants and salt districts spent a lot of money.
But the Ming army refused to admit it because the money was not given to them unless they paid six million.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! They now control many salt farms and salt warehouses. If they have salt in their hands, they just sell salt and do nothing else.
As for things like salt tax, city tax, transportation insurance, etc., they are separate matters and have nothing to do with salt tax.
Anyway, the Ming army is trying to simplify salt and salt tax as much as possible.
As for the salt confiscated by the salt merchants after the Ming army attacked the city twice, neither Wu Yi nor Cheng Bi mentioned it, and the salt merchants did not dare to ask for it back. This kind of thing is obviously something that Roubaozi beats the dog with.
There is no return.
"Everyone, the Salt Law of the Jianguo is more lenient than that of the Tatars. A pound of salt is only charged one cent of silver tax, and nothing else is charged. You can enjoy it secretly."
The salt merchants were hesitant. Although they would not be able to monopolize salt profits in the future, it was true that every pound of silver was worth one cent and no extra money would be charged to them.
There are even quick-thinking salt merchants who are already thinking that after paying money and receiving salt from the Ming army to sell, if other salt merchants come to his salt area to sell salt, they will ask the Qing army to help them attack them.
Private salt seller.
After all, the money on the other end was paid by a specialized merchant.
"How is it? Is the matter settled like this?" Wu Yi asked.
The salt merchants nodded.
"Okay, then I will ask His Highness the Supervisor to come over and meet you."
Wu Yi came over to report to Zhu Yihai the results of the talks with the salt merchants.
"We only charge one cent of salt tax per pound of salt. Isn't it too little?"
Zhu Yihai smiled and said, "Actually, it's quite a lot. The salt is not produced by us. We collect the salt from the salt farmers, and the cost is not much. We increase the price and sell it to the salt merchants at a cent per catty. It is already very profitable.
, now an extra cent of silver is levied, which is a lot of tax."
"Besides, according to the old rules, we have to collect taxes from the salt people and collect taxes from both ends. From the salt merchants, we have to collect customs fees, shipping charges, market charges, etc., and even charge them insurance premiums.
There are many charges here and there, and it’s just a few million taels of silver a year, isn’t it good?”
Wu Yidao said, "The Tatars are even more ruthless. They charge six million taels a year from Yangzhou salt merchants."
"Don't worry about them, we'll take what's ours, but now that we've reached an agreement with the salt merchants, we have to report it to the Navy. From now on, any salt in the canals, Yangtze River and sea that is not sold with taxes from our salt farms will be cracked down and confiscated.
"
"We also have to protect our salt merchants."
Wu Yi did not expect this, "It is better to supervise the country and plan for the future."
"Okay, let's meet these salt merchants. They are the richest people in the world. I heard that the eggs they eat cost one or two silver each. Those chickens grew up eating cordyceps and ginseng every day. In the future, they will be
We sell salt and pay taxes to make money, so we should thank you very much."