Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 251 Salt Tax Should Be A Lot
"Your Highness, I, Bi Maokang, pay my respects to you."
"Please excuse me, Mr. Bi."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
"Well, Bi Qing, do you know what we are going to do when you are transferred to Beijing this time?"
"When I received your Highness's order, the eunuch who delivered it had already reminded me. Your Highness's intention was to rectify the salt administration."
"That's right. How about this, Mr. Bi? Do you have any strategy?"
"There are a few things, please correct me, Your Highness."
On January 15, 1615, Bi Maokang, who was serving as the Imperial Censor of Salt in Shandong, quickly entered the capital after receiving the transfer order, and was immediately received by Zhu Youdong. When the emperor and his ministers made a discussion, Bi Maokang generally explained his ideas on rectifying the salt administration.
"Your Highness, I think that after I have worked as an assistant minister in the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing for a month and have become familiar with the operation of the Ministry of Revenue and with my colleagues in the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing, Your Highness should let me go south to Nanjing to serve as the Minister of Revenue."
Why did Bi Maokang say this? It was not because he wanted to get promoted, but because the salt permits for the entire Ming Empire were printed and managed by the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue.
However, Zhu Youdong did not comment on Bi Maokang's idea. However, Zhu Youdong, who was becoming more and more mature as a ruler, had begun to get used to observing his subordinates first and then gradually guiding them.
"If Bi Qing goes to Nanjing, what are you going to do?"
"After I go to Nanjing, I will first repay the salt permits that the court has owed to the good people over the years. Otherwise, no one will believe in the new salt policy in the future."
"Well, that's right. So Bi Qing, how are you going to repay me?"
"Your Highness, the salt fields are unable to provide salt to the civilians who have salt permits. There are two main reasons. First, the royal family and various dignitaries have taken too much for free. Second, the officials of the salt fields have embezzled too much. After I go to Nanjing, I will first order all salt fields to suspend salt production. I will ask the civilians who have old salt permits but have not been able to redeem them to come to Nanjing. After I replace them with new salt permits, I will directly urge the salt fields to repay these salt permits first."
“No.”
"Your Highness?"
"Bi Qing, if you do this, those unscrupulous merchants will take the opportunity to raise the price of salt. The price of salt in is about 250 to 300 copper coins per pound on the market. It is already the highest in all dynasties since the First Emperor unified China. The people have suffered from the bland taste for a long time. If it is two or three times higher..."
"Your Highness is wise, but if we don't first repay the salt permits of the honest people who transport grain for the country, how can the country's salt administration gain the trust of the people?"
"...Bi Qing, let's skip this step for now and talk about what to do next if you successfully repay all the salt vouchers of previous generations?"
"Of course, all the old salt permits are invalid! Your Highness, I have noticed that the court has recently distributed special yellow paper to various provincial governments. The paper is very tough and does not absorb water. It also has hidden patterns. This kind of paper can be used to make new salt permits."
"Then what?"
"Then I will naturally strictly follow the rules for issuing salt permits. Your Highness, rest assured that I am a strong commander and will never issue salt permits at random due to pressure from the princes of the royal family and various dignitaries. In this way, the salt administration can be standardized and the Kaizhong Law can be restored."
After listening to Mao Kang's words, Zhu Youdong was very disappointed: this person's ideas were ultimately unable to break free from the shackles of past thinking. He thought that as long as there was strict management and the chief officials were honest, everything could be solved.
If everything in this world is so simple, why are reforms so difficult throughout the dynasties?
Well, everyone has their own specialty. I know that you, Bi Maokang, are honest and have strong points. But your talent is really not in this area. After the salt administration is rectified, you should go to Fangshan Laboratory.
The Ming Dynasty had a method of sea salting, so the salt production was far higher than that of previous dynasties. After more than 200 years of peace, the population of the Ming Dynasty was also far higher than that of previous dynasties. Moreover, salt is a rigid demand for humans and must be consumed every day.
Let's do a simple calculation: Assuming that the population of the Ming Dynasty was 100 million, and each person consumed 4 grams of salt per day (the recommended dosage in the 21st century is no more than 6 grams per day. In ancient times, there was a shortage of side dishes, so it should be more than 6 grams). Then, the annual salt consumption of the Ming Dynasty should be: 292 million catties. According to the current tax of 20 coins per catty of salt in the Ming Dynasty, the annual salt tax should be 5.84 billion coins.
The silver-copper price ratio in the Ming Dynasty was always changing. On the one hand, a large amount of overseas silver poured in, and the price of silver continued to depreciate. On the other hand, the court was in financial difficulties, and the quality of copper coins was getting worse and worse. Therefore, in the case of the continuous depreciation of silver and copper coins, even if a larger value is taken, one tael of silver is exchanged for 1,000 copper coins. In theory, the salt tax collected by the Ming Dynasty should be 5.84 million taels of silver every year. And if it is calculated according to the current exchange rate of 1:250 between silver dollars and new copper coins, wow, Zhu Youdong should have an income of 23.36 million silver dollars every year from salt tax alone! Even if the new copper coins now contain more copper than previous copper coins, the salt tax collection must be adjusted up and down by 20 wen per catty, but in any case, Zhu Youdong should have at least 10 million yuan .
In fact, the salt tax in the entire Ming Dynasty is only 1.3 million yuan.
Last year, Zhu Youdong subsidized the Beijing Ministry of Revenue with 3.7 million yuan. If the salt tax could be collected, why would the country's finances need Zhu Youdong's subsidies? Wouldn't he have more money to expand the army?
Therefore, the salt administration must be rectified.
What was the problem with the salt administration? In the Northern Song Dynasty, people used large stoves to boil salt, and the market price was only 50 wen per catty, even though the court collected 30 wen in tax. In the Ming Dynasty, the court collected only 20 wen per catty in tax, but the market price was 300 wen...
Therefore, the first problem to be solved in rectifying the salt administration is: unscrupulous merchants!
However, the salt merchants in the Ming Dynasty were all powerful and wealthy. Or rather, they themselves were powerful and wealthy!
Moreover, the salt industry in the Ming Dynasty was often a place where the royal family gathered: the Ming central government often did not have the money to pay the salaries of Zhu's relatives on time, and often when they were pressed to do so, they used salt vouchers to offset the money: anyway, salt vouchers were also printed on paper, and after the treasure banknotes were printed too much and turned into waste paper, salt vouchers were still valuable. Then the royal family relied on their status to take the salt out in advance and sell it at a high price with the salt vouchers in their hands...
So, the second question: royal family.
The third problem is officials. The fourth problem is management. The fifth problem is transportation... Stop! There are so many problems, don't expect to solve them one by one.
So, is there any way to solve these problems in one fell swoop?
have!
"Bi Qing, I want to try to privatize the salt field starting this year."
"Ah? Your Highness, this is against our ancestral rules!"
"Times have changed. Haven't I violated many of our ancestors' rules? For example, abolishing the skinning and straw feeding rule established by Taizu was something that all the ministers and chancellors unanimously asked me to do."
"Tsk!" Bi Maokang smacked his lips in silence: Ye Xianggao's resignation audit made Zhu Youdong abolish the system of skinning and stuffing with straw with everyone's unanimous support. From then on, if anyone said that Zhu Youdong changed the ancestral system, Zhu Youdong would bring this up to make a fuss...
"Bi Qing, think about it. After the salt fields are privatized, the imperial court can no longer issue salt permits. Those royal family members and high-ranking officials can no longer use their power to get salt permits and salt for free. If they do so, the merchants who bought the salt fields will go bankrupt!"
Your Highness, you are very vicious! Can ordinary merchants buy salt fields? Aren't they the royal family or even high-ranking officials? With this move, you have divided the gentry, wealthy merchants, and royal family. They will not be able to unite to fight against your rectification of the salt industry. On the contrary, they have to try their best to please you to see if they can buy salt fields at a preferential price! After that, if nobles who don't have salt fields want to get salt for free, nobles who have bought salt fields will stand up and compete with them. The country and the royal family will no longer have this trouble!
"Your Highness, do you mean that those who want to buy the salt field must first pay off those good people who had salt permits but did not get any salt?"
"Yes, cash or salt compensation is fine. I don't care anyway."
"Your Highness, do you mean that after the salt works are sold, the state will send officials to the salt works to implement the on-site taxation system?"
"No, no, no." Zhu Youdong shook his head quickly. "Based on the current ethics of officials in the Ming Dynasty, if I let officials settle in the salt field to collect taxes, the salt tax of more than one million yuan will become more than one hundred yuan. I plan to implement a fixed tax system. In other words, when the state sells this salt field to you, the amount of salt tax you should pay to the state every year is also marked. If you think it is profitable, you buy it. If you think you can't afford it, then don't buy it. As for the fact that after you got this salt field, you improved the production method and increased the salt output. That's because you have the ability, and you should earn more!"
"But Your Highness, if this is the case, no matter how many people there are in the Ming Dynasty, the salt tax will only be this low."
I just want to quickly increase the salt tax to alleviate the country's urgent need for money. As for the future? After I have conquered Mongolia, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and China has a dumping ground. Especially after the steam engine is developed and the industrial revolution begins, the salt tax will not be so important to the country.
"It's okay, Bi Qing. The state has been managing all the salt fields for so many years, how much money can it collect? After the deregulation, not only will the salt tax soar, but private salt will also be dealt with by the major salt field owners themselves, and the price of salt will fall - the major salt fields want to compete for the market."
"Your Highness is wise. I have one last question."
"speak."
"What if the major salt mine owners are so crazy that they unite to raise the price of salt?"
"This problem is also easy to solve. First, when selling salt fields, not all of them can be sold out. There must be one or two salt fields directly under the state in the east, south, west and north. The daily output of these salt fields does not have to be too much, and they do not even have to sell in large quantities. Once the market is unstable, the inventory of the state salt fields can be put on the market to stabilize the salt price. Second, the state will formulate a guiding salt price, and the main sales price of each salt field shall not exceed 20% of this guiding price. If it exceeds..." Zhu Youdong's eyes flashed with a cold light: "I will slaughter his entire family!"
As expected, people with knives in their hands speak with authority. At this point, Bi Maokang no longer hesitated: "I admire your strategy Highness, rest assured, I will definitely rectify the national salt administration this year. I ask your Highness to set a quota. Except for a few core salt fields, the sales revenue of all other salt fields in the country must not be lower than how much? In the future, the annual salt tax must not be lower than how much?"
"Well, I'm not too greedy. Let's put it this way. The proceeds from the sale of the major salt mines this year will be at least 100 million silver dollars. The annual fixed tax system will be no less than 15 million silver dollars."
"Well... Your Highness is not too... greedy. I obey your command!"
