dream of red mansion

Page 433

First is people.Since the establishment of the Kingdom, the people of Great Chu have experienced nearly a hundred years of peace and prosperity, with a population of more than [-] million!And people, is there any reason not to eat salt?

Weichen roughly estimates that the daily consumption of salt by the people of Dachu, including the salt eaten and wasted, will not be less than ten catties a year on average!

If calculated in this way, it is 20 billion catties of salt consumption every year.And as far as Wei Chen knows, the official salt on the market today is generally between 200 and [-] Wen a catty, calculated at [-] Wen, that is [-] billion Wen, equivalent to almost [-] million taels of silver!

Secondly, although the selling price of salt is high, its production cost is pitifully low!An average catty of salt is produced, and the labor cost is less than three pennies! (Salt does not talk about the cost of raw materials, it is taken from nature)

Calculated in this way, the cost of three or four hundred taels is basically negligible.In other words, this is a full 400 million taels of silver, which can be said to be the net profit of the salt industry!What kind of profiteering?

And Weichen also heard that the taxable silver collected by the imperial court in previous years was less than 5 taels a year!In this way, it is no wonder that salt merchants can accumulate wealth like mountains and seas. "

Emperor Zhengqing and the others listened quietly. Everyone here knew about the huge profits in the salt industry, but even if they understood, hearing people explain it like this again would still give them a shocking feeling!How terrible it is for an industry to make a profit of [-] million taels of silver!

Cui Wenlong had experience in the Ministry of Household Affairs, although he was not in the Salt Division, he knew more about the salt industry than others.

"General Jia's estimate is considered conservative. In fact, the profit of the salt industry must be more than [-] million taels of silver!

However, the regular salt tax is not low anymore.Every year, the imperial court's annual income in the salt industry is not low.Fifteen million taels is far beyond all taxes including the iron industry, and it is only under the agricultural tax.No matter how much it is, it is to compete with Li Shu for profit.

What the imperial court had to do was not to increase the regular salt tax revenue, but to find a way to suppress the price of salt.

The price of salt per catty above sixty cash is still too high for poor people. "

Lower the price of salt?too difficult!

The official salt tax of the imperial court is three taels of silver for one quotation, and three hundred catties for one quotation, which is about twelve cents per catty. Including the cost, it is not much at first, only fifteen cents...

However, in order to completely control the salt industry, the salt road yamen (not the salt government yamen, one is in charge and the other is doing things) in various places has raised a large number of salt officials!The imperial court doesn't care about the employment money of the salt officials.Therefore, the Yandao Yamen can collect some additional tax money from the salt merchants to maintain the operation of the Yandao Yamen, which is called miscellaneous lessons, which is legal.

That's all, the point is, in order to get Yanyin, a thing that indicates the status of official salt, salt merchants have to deliver food to the Nine Sides, and those who send more can get more Yanyin, which is called Donate and lose, this one.Second, salt merchants have to donate money to various "powers" every year. This is a secret rule, and every salt merchant who can grow bigger has to abide by it.Third, there are checkpoint taxes in some places, which vary from place to place.Fourth, the transportation and sales costs for transporting salt from the salt field to a specific place for sale.Fifth, the silver that salt merchants need to earn...

All these have created the high price of official salt!There is no way, if the government asks to lower the price of salt, private salt storage will soon run rampant...but the official salt cannot be sold, because no one will do anything that does not make a profit!

In fact, this is the case, private salt among the people has been banned repeatedly!The court is also well aware of this.After all, according to a conservative estimate, the theoretical value of the main course silver taels entered by the imperial court each year should reach 2000 million taels (twelve coins per catty). Where did the rest go?It must have been missed by private salt!

"What Mr. Cui said is, but, presumably Mr. Cui also understands why the price of official salt is so high. To lower the official salt, in the eyes of the lower officials, it is impossible, unless..."

Hearing Jia Qing mention the word unless, everyone else turned their attention to him!The difficulty of reducing the price of salt is well known, otherwise the imperial salt industry would not have remained unchanged for decades.However, according to what Jia Qing meant, could it be that he really has a way?

Even Emperor Zhengqing couldn't help but said, "Unless what?"

If someone asked, Jia Qing might still dare to play tricks, but when Emperor Zhengqing asked, he could only honestly say: "If you want to change the status quo of the salt administration, you have to break the status quo of the monopoly of the salt merchants!"

"Break the monopoly? What does General Jia mean?"

"The reason why the salt industry is suffering from serious diseases is that it is hard to get rid of it because of the formation of a well-marked territory among the salt merchants. In order to protect their respective territories, the salt merchants have to send filial money to the dignitaries and government officials everywhere! But , since ancient times, the wool comes from the sheep, and the cost is spent. Is there any reason not to double the money?

Of course, breaking this monopoly can not only suppress this factor that leads to higher official salt prices, but more importantly, it can effectively suppress the profits of salt merchants!As long as a county, a state capital, or even a province no longer has only one or a few shops that can sell salt, but every vendor can get salt from the salt field as long as he wants, and then he can go to places short of salt at will. The place sells it, and the price of salt will naturally come down! "

Jia Qing said it easily, because he deeply knows that only competition is the most reasonable way to regulate the market!

The huge profits of the salt industry are true. If it weren't for this, the imperial court would not have listed it as an official industry!To put it bluntly, the imperial court was the initiator of the monopoly of the salt industry and the leading cause of high salt prices.

Regardless of this point, Jia Qing dare not say that the court should give up this money bag.However, it would be no problem to squeeze the profits of the salt merchants, and it was also what Emperor Zhengqing and others were thinking about.

Cui Wenlong frowned and said: "If everyone can sell salt, how should the imperial court govern it? Will there be a flood of private salt by then?"

Jia Qing shook his head and said: "Using specific salt merchants to sell salt will not solve the problem of private salt! Even if there is only one salt shop in the whole world, as long as the imperial court still collects salt tax, the existence of private salt will inevitably exist!

Moreover, it does not mean changing the system of government-run salt industry.All the salt still needs to implement the process of civil system, government collection, and merchants.The imperial court only needs to force all the salt to be taken from the salt field under the jurisdiction of the government. As long as you take it, you will be taxed, and it will not have any adverse impact on the collection of salt tax. "

Cui Wenlong frowned. Jia Qing's words seemed to make sense, but it was not a simple matter after all, and it was not a problem that a wise man could solve in a few words. It involved too many aspects, so people had to think about it...

It is true that the salt merchants in the Qing Dynasty were once the most powerful and wealthy in the world. This is a historical fact, and it is not necessary to fabricate the plot.

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

"If the privileges of those salt merchants are removed, how will the food shortage in the border areas be solved every year?"

The problem Cui Wenlong mentioned was also an important reason for the initial formation of the salt merchant group.There are nearly a million troops stationed on the nine sides of the country, and most of them are in poor areas. Every year, the court needs to provide food.And because of the geographical differences, the transportation is extremely inconvenient.

Later, the imperial court thought of a simple and cost-effective way, and took aim at the Yanzheng.Isn't the salt industry very profitable?Well, if you want to make some money here, you can transport me a certain amount of grain to Jiubian every year, so as to obtain the qualification to take salt from the salt field and sell it in the designated area.

Anyway, for the court, it doesn't matter who sells the salt, so it solves the problem of food shortage for the frontier army so easily, isn't it good governance?

This was something that the Supreme Emperor had decided in the early days of his reign.There was really nothing wrong with it at first. Those vendors rushed to transport grain to the border to obtain qualifications. At that time, the problem of food shortage at the border was indeed solved.It's just that over the past few decades, due to various reasons, just like land mergers, a small number of large salt merchants covering a province or even spanning several provinces have been formed.

Anyone with a little economic sense should know that with such a huge industry giant, the price of a catty of salt is not completely up to them to decide?

"For donations, it is indeed a good thing. But I heard that the donation of salt merchants has long since left only a formality! The amount of grain transported by salt merchants to the border every year is no longer what it used to be.

May I ask Mr. Cui, is the amount of money and food requested by the border from the court increasing every year? "

As a cabinet minister, even if he didn’t participate in the operation, he still knew about it, so Cui Wenlong nodded and said: “That’s true! The last time Mr. Zhao of the Ministry of Households mentioned this matter at the court meeting, he said that the money and food allocated by the Ministry of Households to the border gates every year have already been paid. More than 500 million taels of silver, plus more than 1000 million taels of military rings, war horses, and reported damage to weapons, etc., the imperial court's annual military expenditure for the frontier army alone reached an astonishing 800 million taels!

Therefore, Mr. Zhao also proposed that the court disarm to reduce military expenditure. "

Although Jia Qing has not been on duty for a few days as a member of the military department, these are just within his purview, and he is familiar with these data.In addition to the frontier army, the imperial court also spends nearly 500 million taels of silver to the Beijing army every year, which adds up to 300 million taels of military expenditure!Almost caught up with nearly half of the country's fiscal revenue!

If the military expenses of the troops stationed in the interior were not borne by the local government and its own output, and the imperial court only paid a symbolic supplement, the military expenses alone would overwhelm the finances of the Ministry of Households.

No wonder since ancient times, so many dynasties have prioritized culture over military affairs. Regardless of other reasons, raising soldiers is too expensive, which is definitely the main reason!

Because of the historical lesson of the Qing soldiers entering the customs, the number of soldiers raised in this dynasty is the highest in history. Since the dynasty was stabilized, the number of soldiers raised has never been lower than 100 million!

Not much to talk about in this section, let’s get down to business.

Jia Qing listened to Cui Wenlong's words and said: "It can be seen that relying on salt merchants to provide food and grass for the frontier army has long been a history. If this is the case, it is better to abolish this outdated decree. Otherwise, the country's salt policy will never be changed!

Those big salt merchants will still rely on this form to gather massive wealth. "

Cui Wenlong said noncommittally: "If according to what you said, the privileges of the existing salt merchants are exempted, what will happen next?"

After all, it is impossible for the imperial court to sell salt in person, and the matter depends on the salt merchants in the final analysis.

"It's very simple, take back all the ownership rights of all salt imports (the proof of getting salt from the salt field, which is also the proof of collecting salt tax), and then sell it to all merchants in the world by the imperial court, and no longer set geographical boundaries for selling salt... No businessman will fail to see the huge profits of the salt shop, and will definitely rush to buy it!

Everyone has salt in their hands. In order to sell the salt in their hands, the salt sellers must lower their prices...

This situation will not ease until those salt merchants feel that there is no longer much profit in selling salt (that is, reaching the industry average profit value as modern times say). "

After hearing Jia Qing's words, Cui Wenlong murmured: "There's too much movement..."

Jia Qing didn't hear it, and continued: "At that time, it doesn't matter if the consumption of salt merchants sending grain to the border in the past is included in the regular salt tax. Compared with the inevitable reduction in the price of salt, this increase in cost There is no impact on the price of salt at all.

In this way, the imperial court can include the additional tax money into the scope of military expenditures. In this way, it can not only solve part of the pressure on military expenditures, but also reduce the price of salt. Wouldn't it be the best of both worlds? "

Of the six people present who had the right to speak, Fang Shou was a pure literati, and had no experience in the household department, so he was not very familiar with these economic methods.Not to mention Feng Tang, his background as a soldier.Prince Jing, of course, knows even less.