Chapter 11 The brave will die of overeating, while the timid will die of starvation
The meeting lasted for most of the day, and it was almost dusk when Zhu Niang came out of the official inn with her son.
"Xiao Hao, it's ok for him to borrow money, but why did he give more?"
Zhu Hao said: "Given our current situation, is it possible to borrow money in Anlu by mortgaging the property deed?"
Zhu Niang thought about it and shook her head decisively.
"Only he would lend us money... If I'm not mistaken, he must have suffered a loss at the hands of my grandmother. Knowing that we want to borrow money, he can't wait to send the money to us." Zhu Hao said with a smile.
"Why is that?"
Zhu Niang still looked confused.
"If we pay back the money when it's due and he can cure my grandmother, he can vent his anger; if we can't pay back the money, the land and house will belong to him, and he will feel even better... It doesn't matter whether he suffers or not, how can such a smart man like him not settle the account?"
Zhu Niang was completely speechless.
Zhu Niang wanted to say something, but when she looked around, she saw a lot of people walking around, and Yu San was following behind her with a bag of more than two hundred taels of silver on his back, so she had no choice but to hurry back to the shop.
When the mother and son returned, Aunt Li saw that Zhu Niang looked unhappy, and her heart sank. She said goodbye to Yu San and hurriedly closed the door. She came over and asked in a low voice, "Madam, did you not conclude the business?"
Zhu Hao nodded: "It's settled."
Aunt Li was pleasantly surprised and said, "Then you should be happy, Madam..."
Zhu Niang did not answer Aunt Li's question. Instead, she looked at Zhu Hao and said, "Xiao Hao, it was difficult to talk on the road just now. You can borrow money, but you are talking to Master Su about the separation of salt permits. If you are caught by the government, you will be treated as smuggling salt."
Aunt Li was shocked.
He was negotiating business with the brother-in-law of the Left Governor of Huguang, who was in charge of the official salt trade, but in the end, the deal turned out to be about selling contraband salt?
If you are engaged in the official salt business and don’t even know what a crime it is to sell private salt, then you’d better stop it as soon as possible.
This is a business that requires you to be cautious. If you don't understand the law but still want to sell salt, how many lives do you have?
The Great Ming Code stipulates: "Merchants are not allowed to carry salt and salt permits separately when engaging in salt trading. Those who violate this rule will be punished with smuggling salt. Those who fail to return the salt permit within five days after the sale will be punished with 60 strokes of the cane. Those who use old salt permits to implicate salt will be punished with smuggling salt. Those who forge salt permits will be beheaded. Those who buy private salt for food will be punished with one level less than the crime of private salt trading, and those who sell salt will be hanged."
The so-called "salt permits are separated" means that during the process of selling official salt, the official salt and salt permits must be kept together at all times, and must be returned to the government within five days after the sale is completed.
The so-called "old salt permits refer to salt goods" means using the official salt permits that have been sold out as a basis for selling salt of unknown origin, which is equivalent to selling private salt.
"Mom, we didn't sell private salt. You may not have understood the details of what I discussed with Su Dongzhu... He is so smart. If we sell private salt, he will accept it. Will he do something that is against the law? He is smarter than anyone else."
Zhu Hao smiled and comforted his mother.
Zhu Niang frowned, still confused at this moment, Aunt Li hurriedly asked: "Madam, Master, what is going on?"
Zhu Hao said: "It means that Lord Su gave us his official salt and salt permits, and asked us to 'screen' the coarse salt into refined salt and then sell it to him, but when we sell it back to him, the salt permits will not be returned."
"Ah? I'm afraid this won't work. Master Hao, just as Madam said, if we don't give them salt permits, we will be smuggling salt. If we are caught by the government, we will lose our heads."
Although Aunt Li did not know much about the specific content of the Ming Dynasty's Salt Law, she also felt that Zhu Hao and Su Xigui were walking on the edge of a knife when doing business.
Then Aunt Li thought of another question and asked curiously, "We dry our salt and give the salt and salt guide to Mr. Su after drying. Why do we keep the salt guide separately?"
Not to mention Aunt Li, even Aunt Zhu didn't understand.
Zhu Niang looked at her son, hoping that Zhu Hao could give a reasonable explanation.
Zhu Hao said: "The price we agreed with Shopkeeper Su is basically the cost price. We currently buy official salt from him at ten coins per pound, and sell it at sixteen coins."
Aunt Li thought about it and nodded, "We can earn six cents per pound of salt. Is this price okay?"
"not good."
Zhu Hao shook his head. "After deducting the labor and site costs, and the impurities removed during the salt purification process, as well as the losses caused by leakage during the salt drying process, after all this trouble, we are lucky to make a penny per kilogram of salt. We have to hand over 40 taels of silver to the family every month. How much can we keep? I'm afraid we are losing money!"
Aunt Li asked in confusion, "We were doing pretty well in business before, weren't we?"
Zhu Hao said, "Aunt, that was an extraordinary period. We had no choice but to pour the salt into the backyard pond... But if we really melted and dried the official salt to sell, it would be more trouble than gain... The official salt had many impurities, and sometimes the salt merchants did it on purpose. They mixed sand into the official salt. Sometimes there would be two taels of sand in one pound of salt. Can you imagine how much loss there would be after purification?"
Zhu Niang said, "Then we will continue to sell the official salt wholesaled to us by Su Dongzhu as before... The official salt wholesaled to us by Su Dongzhu this time is slightly lower than the price we paid from the big salt merchants in the city before."
Zhu Hao shook his head. "After what happened last night, we have offended both the Anlu Prefecture and Changshou County government offices. Customers may not dare to patronize us anymore. Besides, the premise for Mr. Su to continue doing business with us is that we sell him snowflake salt. If we don't sell it to him, how can he sell official salt to us at a low price?"
“Then…then…”
Zhu Niang and Aunt Li were speechless.
Originally, they all thought that Zhu Hao bought the official salt and purified it himself, but after hearing this, they realized that this approach was not feasible.
Zhu Hao placed his hands on Zhu Niang and Aunt Li's shoulders and said firmly, "Mother, don't ask. Just listen to me."
"We don't actually need official salt to purify salt. There are many salt pits in Anlu that are used to dry salt for livestock. We can just buy brine and dry it, and it will have the same effect as official salt. We can even hire people near the salt pits to help us dry the salt. In this way, we don't have to sell salt or make salt. We can just be the middleman and make the difference, and neither side can find us."
Zhu Hao knew that Hubei's salt mine resources were particularly rich, and that it would become the main production area of rock salt in later generations. There were super-large rock salt deposits and underground brine deposits near Anlu Prefecture, and the brine-rich lowlands, namely salt pits, were widely distributed. However, because the minerals they contained were too many and too complex, the boiled salt could not be directly consumed by humans.
Zhu Hao has a special "salt washing" technique to extract refined salt from brine, so there is no need to purchase official salt and dissolve it before making snowflake salt. This naturally greatly reduces costs.
After hearing Zhu Hao's plan, Zhu Niang was shocked: "Xiao Hao, the salt produced in our local salt pits often causes accidents when eaten by livestock, and it is not good for humans to eat..."
Zhu Hao said, "Mom, how much better is the salt in our backyard pond than the salt produced in the salt pit? Won't it also turn into white snowflake salt?"
Zhu Niang was stunned.
My son is going to fly to the sky. He can actually use the bitter brine from the salt pit to dry out white snowflake salt?
Appalling.
Aunt Li said: "Even if that's true, this salt is private salt and we don't have a salt permit."
"Who said no?"
Zhu Hao said, "Don't we have the salt permit given by Su Dongzhu? When we trade with Su Dongzhu, we have the salt permit regardless of whether we are buying or selling. The local government can't do anything to us.
"Once the transaction is completed, we can resell the official salt purchased from Su Dongzhu because we have the salt permit. Su Dongzhu gives us a price that is one or two cents lower than the general wholesale price, so it is easy to sell."
When Zhu Niang heard this, she was stunned for a moment. No matter how she thought about it, she felt that there was something wrong with what her son said, but she didn't know where the problem lay.
After a while, Zhu Niang frowned and said, "But we don't have salt primer for the salt we gave to Su Dongzhu, what should he do?"
Zhu Hao laughed and said , "He has connections everywhere, do you think he would be afraid? He transports more than a dozen ships of salt at a time, and he is the brother-in-law of the governor's wife, would anyone really check the salt permits?"
"Besides, he is not afraid even if he is investigated. In this day and age, who dares to interfere in the official salt trade? Would he not have extra salt permits? There are many powerful people who take advantage of others. I am afraid that the salt permits that Su Dongzhu has not been redeemed are more than the ones that have been redeemed. Moreover, the salt sold by private salt factories in the salt fields is not considered private salt now. We should just give him a chance to redeem salt permits."
"Otherwise, why would he buy the finest snowflake salt from us at the price of 16 coins? The price of this snowflake salt would at least increase tenfold if it were shipped to the provincial capital and the two capitals of the north and south. He can do the math himself!"
Zhu Hao was well aware of the nature of the Ming Dynasty's salt administration.
If this method of salt production had been used before Chenghua, one would surely have died.
However, in the second year of the Hongzhi reign, the imperial court found that the salt merchants had long been unable to redeem their salt vouchers, and the salt cookers were not very enthusiastic about making salt. They often had salt vouchers but no salt supply, so they stipulated: "If merchants do not have salt to pay, they can buy salt from the salt cookers. This is the beginning of the surplus salt."
From then on, salt merchants could buy salt directly from salt merchants. After the salt merchants paid a certain amount to the government every year, the excess could be sold directly to salt merchants who held salt permits but could not exchange them for salt through formal channels. The precedent of salt merchants' private ownership began from here.
During the Hongzhi period, first the eunuch Li Guang, and later royal relatives such as Zhang Heling, Zhang Yanling, and Zhou Yu, obtained millions of salt permits from the emperor through informal channels.
After Emperor Zhengde ascended the throne, villains were rampant and the salt in the salt fields was monopolized by these people. There were a lot of salt permits but no salt, and the salt policy of the Ming Dynasty collapsed.
With such a historical background, Zhu Hao and Su Xigui's business can be a win-win situation.
It seemed that Su Xigui suffered a loss as he could not take back the salt permits he had issued, but in fact he had plenty of salt permits in his hands. He could buy snowflake salt at a fair price and transport it to the provincial capital and even the two capitals. It could be said that he made a lot of money.
It was for this reason that Su Xigui readily accepted Zhu Hao's conditions.
Zhu Niang and Aunt Li spent a long time digesting the secret but still couldn't figure out the whole thing.
The main reason is that they do not understand this era and the policies of the Ming Dynasty. They only think like small merchants and instinctively think that only by doing business honestly can they gain a foothold. However, they do not know that honest people are most likely to suffer losses these days.
In the law of the jungle, the first to be eliminated are those who stick to the rules.
Aunt Li comforted her, "Madam, why don't you listen to the young master? In fact, we have no other choice, right? If we don't do this, how can we keep the property left by the master?"
Zhu Niang nodded helplessly.
She was also aware of her own situation. She was almost forced into a desperate situation by the Zhu family. If she didn't give in and fight, she would only die.
"Mother, we were selling government salt and followed the rules, but didn't we still end up in trouble with the government and almost broke? There is no real way to follow the rules in this world. Only those with power can talk about rules."
Zhu Hao was determined. He also wanted to use this to strengthen the confidence of Zhu Niang and Aunt Li: "And this time, mother, we won't show up. We will find someone to act as our agent and let him take the lead in everything. Su Dongzhu's official salt will go through the Han River and will not go ashore. After the goods are handed over, we will directly resell the official salt to foreign merchants."
"We'll ask Yu San to transport the salt. Nominally, he's employed by Su Dongzhu. Even if the government finds the salt flats where we dry salt and finds our snowflake salt, we can just take out the salt permit and say that we bought Su Dongzhu's official salt and processed and purified it. It's not reasonable, but it's legal."
"As long as we keep a low profile, nothing should go wrong in the next few years, because the salt we produce will not be sold locally and will not affect the fundamental interests of local salt merchants. In addition, Su Dongzhu has a strong network of connections, and his brother-in-law Huang Fantai... will be a prominent figure in the court in the future. We don't have to worry about his downfall and political opponents' counterattacks."
There is another reason why Zhu Hao has such great confidence in cooperating with Su Xigui.
In the future, Huang Zan made outstanding contributions in suppressing the Ning Wang Rebellion, so he was known as the "first-rank commoner". When Huang Zan retired, it was already the Jiajing period.
Having such a promising partner makes doing business more confident.
