Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1034 The Patcher's Despair

The official case mentioned by the Lianghuai Salt Envoy went all the way back to the Wanli Dynasty for more than [-] years.

And this public case is actually the source of Dashun's salt administration reform.That is what the Lianghuai Salt Envoy said, "Drinking poison to quench thirst at the beginning, but not drinking can't work."

It can also be regarded as the source of the near-collapse of faith after a huge conflict between beliefs, ideals and reality.

In general, private salt was rampant at that time, and even some salt officials believed that private salt sold well and was beneficial to the people.

In fact, this is really hard to refute from a purely logical point of view.

Whether it is Confucian benevolence, righteousness and morality.

It was Liu Yu who advocated the free trade theory in order to open the door in Europe.

There is no way to refute.

Makes sense, right?
exactly.

Theoretically, the imperial court abolished the salt tax, abandoned the monopoly of salt and iron, comprehensive privatization and marketization, and smuggling is no longer smuggling, so smuggling salt is no longer smuggling salt.

Then, basically, a conclusion can be drawn: the price of salt will drop.Benefit the people.

The logic seems to be right.

But reality is not a world run by perfect principles.

There is no perfect world that does not need to consider national defense, disaster relief, water conservancy, education, and government operations.

This matter is actually similar to the British tea tax issue.

The solution to the British tea tax problem is to increase the window tax to make up for it.Daming abolished the salt tax, can you collect the clear window tax?Waiting to die without money?

At that time, some salt officials in various places in the local area had a sense of righteousness, so with this righteousness, they really dared to slander them, and they couldn't even enter the jurisdiction.

Is righteousness useful?

it works.so useful.

Even private salt dealers feel that their cause is just, and they have the righteousness to reduce the burden on the people.

The low-level officials who are useful to investigate and deal with illegal salt, when facing illegal salt dealers, they will be three points short in their hearts, and feel that what they have done is wrong.

Historically, this mentality lasted from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the 18th century, so that many places were indeed psychologically inferior to private salt dealers.

Psychologically, I first think that the fault is my own, and I am wronged.

This kind of mentality is very easy to understand, and it is not uncommon, and it will be more common after a long time.

To be clear, the ideological level has completely collapsed.

This kind of thing can't be said in a serious way. It is said that the salt officials must have filled their own pockets, collected money from private salt dealers, and worked in collusion.

Although most of them are, after all, the Boston Tea Party was also the beginning of the founding of the country, and welcoming the Dutch into London to weaken the royal power was also the Glorious Revolution.

If you can't punish your heart, you can pretend that this is the awakening of the budding consciousness.

Speaking out of context, this is almost entering the classical liberal economics. If this is not counted, then what is it?

However, the next step of awakening should be to raise troops to hold down the emperor's head, establish a great constitution, and serve on the gallows if he dares not agree, suppress the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty, hang all the peasant uprisings and slaughter all bankrupt small farmers, and conquer the Tartars in the north.

As a result, none of the three things were done.

It's just that mud can't support the wall, and it can't be the ruling class.

Against this background, Yuan Shizhen, the central government of Yingtianfu in the Ming Dynasty, was thrown out to sort out the Lianghuai salt administration and solve long-standing problems.

The collapse of the salt administration, on the surface, seems to be due to too much salt introduction, not enough salt, and insufficient production.

This salt quotation is actually a bit similar to "national bonds" and "bonds", except that the imperial court uses the sales rights and profits of salt to pay back, which is also normal. European countries are also using taxation as collateral for issuing national bonds at this time.

However, payment is ineffective.

This is a disease in the womb when the country was founded, and the central government has insufficient funds to cure it.

They can only continue to "borrow" and "overissue banknotes" to maintain their livelihoods.

In addition, vassal kings engage in salt imports, wealthy families and dignitaries engage in salt imports, affiliation, shareholding, imports of three hundred catties dare to transport thirty thousand catties, etc...

This is very easy to understand, although it means that Taizu said at the beginning that no one should destroy the salt administration, otherwise the stick will be one hundred.but.

Not to mention that later the emperor led the vassals to violate it, randomly distributed salt to attract benefits, and disintegrated the national defense mobilization system.

For example, if an official of Liu Yu's level finds a white glove to get salt, holds [-] catties of lead in his hand, contains [-] catties, and reports the name of the backstage, can the local officials really take care of it?

In the 45th year of Wanli, the salt quotations in the hands of some merchants may have to wait until 1644 in the fucking Western calendar to cash them out.

The centralization of the previous dynasty collapsed, the governance was weak, and the "commercial atmosphere" among the people was extremely strong.

Speculation, dumping, hoarding, and futures are just a waste of money.

For example, if you are a businessman responsible for selling and transporting salt, you get the salt lead, and when you go to the salt field, you find that there is no salt.

Calculate the time, oh, you want to get the salt, then wait for two years.Or, you have to be anxious, you can take one-third in Huaibei, one-third in Huainan, one-sixth in Changlu, and one-sixth in Fujian.

What do you do at this time?

The capital is insufficient, and I can't afford to wait for these two years.Going around Huaibei, Huainan, Changlu and Fujian, the fare is more expensive than Yanyin.

At this time, a big monopoly capital came to you and said, brother, sell me your Yanyin, I have Yanyin that can get salt tomorrow.You Yanyin, sell it to me for 60 taels of silver; I, who can get salt tomorrow, sell it to you for 150 taels of silver.Not to mention two years, Lao Tzu's capital can be turned over in five years.

You said that my salt quotation is worth 100 taels, and your salt quotation is also worth 100 taels. I think I am at a loss inside and out.

Monopoly big capital tells you, casually, voluntarily, not forced.If you are willing to wait, you can just wait, or go to Fujian to fetch salt and transport it to Henan for sale.I'm not forcing you, we trade fairly and contractually, just like tenants renting land from landlords, it's purely voluntary.

No way, buy it, sell it, is it really waiting for two years?

This situation, if you want to solve it, is also easy to solve.

But just like what Yin Niu Congyun, governor of the state of Syria, said, rebellion is the highest legal principle, and it is the only highest legal principle that can completely deny all previous contracts, whether they are express contracts or customary contracts.Although he used the wrong word, a simple rebellion cannot completely negate all the previous contracts and legal basis, but it makes sense.

However, the Ming court at that time wanted to solve it, but it had no solution.

After Yuan Shizhen left, what should we do?Don't you recognize these salt quotations?If he dares not admit it, he will die tomorrow.

He is not a traitor, and this is not a rebellion. This is when the court is still there, and rules must be followed.The imperial court is the biggest beneficiary of the rules, and these salt quotations still have to be recognized.

Besides, the roots are intricate and powerful, so what can he do?
We can only collect all the old quotations together and announce that the payment will be made in ten years.In each of these ten years, 90% of the new quotations are taxable, and the remaining 10% are old quotations that do not need to be taxed.

And in order to get the recognition of big capital, what can Yuan Shizhen do?
Only promises can be made: Yanyin hereditary.

How much salt you buy today, your descendants will have these salts in the future. It will never be easy, just like land, hereditary.

Merchants then enthusiastically buy.

Does he know that this is drinking poison to quench thirst?
know.

It's obvious, this is a necessity of life, a merchant monopoly hereditary?No matter how stupid you are, you can't be so stupid that you don't even understand this.

But what can be done?
It has been 45 years since Wanli, and anyone with a discerning eye knows that if the money cannot be collected, the court will be finished.

I'm going to die of thirst at night, and I still have to think about whether this is poisonous alcohol?Can you die after drinking it?

As soon as the Yanyin hereditary came out, the big capital cheered and bought enthusiastically.

The ass determines the head, and whoever was the big hoarder and speculative monopoly capital at that time would be cheered.

So that later Yuan Shizhen was framed by the eunuch party for accepting bribes. It is unknown whether he accepted bribes or not.

He directly handed over the money to the guarantee, and didn't let him spend a penny.

Since then, the Yan government has completely deviated from the track of common people's production, official purchase, official transportation, and merchant sales since the Tang Dynasty.

Although it actually collapsed a long time ago, it was in this year that the legal transformation was completed.

Originally, Dashun had the opportunity to completely deny it.

However, Wude was not strong enough, and he lost the battle with a piece of stone.

After reaching Jiugong Mountain, Dashun took the initiative to cut down the banner of "equalizing the land" and set up the banner of "protecting the world".

Protecting the world is actually protecting everything in the past.Both the essence and the dross are preserved.

Just like a land deed, as long as you choose to protect the world, you can only accept it.And after Yanyin's hereditary inheritance, it is actually almost the same as the land deed, so it can only be recognized.

Fortunately, in the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty, a wave of "equalization of land" was completed in Yanyin.

Shanxi merchants, Shanxi merchants, and Huizhou merchants stood in their own teams at the beginning.So on the premise of not changing the legal rights, the newcomers replaced the old ones.

During the recovery period, it is not bad to use the hereditary law.

Of course, in the end, the Li family dynasty in Dashun made up their minds to change the salt policy because overseas trade replaced the salt tax as a national debt, and the strategic focus of the end of the Northern War could not be shifted.

But in fact, the emperor was playing a rogue: I don’t recognize this past contract, what can you do, if you don’t accept it, you can pull a team to fight, if you are cruel enough, come and kill me, I will wait for you in the Forbidden City.

The foundation of "public opinion" that guarantees this salt administration reform is that Dashun has just completed the eastward expedition, the westward discussion, the southward movement, and the construction of the Huaihe River.Show the whole world the muscles of the imperial court——I have achieved several major things similar to Emperor Sui Yang's in 20 years, but the country has not yet been subjugated.

After sorting out the seemingly inevitable path from the central fiscal policy of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, to the later opening of China, and finally to the final outline and salt law, it is also clear why the Lianghuai salt envoy said that Liu Yu made his faith collapse.

Originally, he was ambitious and thought he could solve the salt administration problem once and for all.

But from the book to the real world, he couldn't come up with a perfect answer to a few small questions.

Ask Liu Yu what to do.Liu Yu said that there is no solution if we need a road transportation network that starts from the East China Sea on the first day of the lunar new year and reaches the Western Regions at the end of the month.

In other words, in Liu Yu's view, the fundamental solution to the salt administration problem lies in logistics and transportation, not in this policy or that policy.

It is both in production and not in production; it is also in the lead and not in lead; it is in the policy and not in the policy.

As long as there is no transportation and logistics system that he said will go to the East China Sea in the early days and go to the Western Regions in the dark days, or the vague and true statement is that the productivity cannot reach a certain level and the next step cannot be achieved.

So, under the current conditions, no matter what to do, it is all about tinkering.Because the real solution is not supported by the current level of productivity.

Liu Yu felt that it didn't matter and was full of confidence.

Can Lianghuai salt envoys dare to believe it?Can you believe that one day, there will be a means of transportation that can travel from the East China Sea to the Western Regions in a month?

If he didn't believe it, and looked back at the series of changes from the previous dynasty, his remaining ideals and beliefs really collapsed.

He doesn't believe in the free trade theory that Liu Yu peddles everywhere in Europe, but he believes in benevolent government, and he can draw the same conclusion, although the reasoning process and axioms are completely different.

The deduction of the benevolent government, the legalization of private salt, and the relaxation of the salt ban are beneficial to the people.At the time of the Salt and Iron Conference back then, there was already a lot of fluff.

There is no need to quibble about who is the "people", if this is a purely theoretical question, and does not consider national defense, disaster relief, water conservancy and other expenditures; does not consider the economic transfer of remote areas controlled by the state; does not consider education, etc. Under the premise of perfect conditions , It is indeed beneficial to the people, and it is indeed the people of the common people.

However, the real result is that he almost died without money.

This is a conflict of belief and reality.

The conflict between ideal and reality is that he believes that there is a good way, which can not only guarantee the tax revenue of the court, but also reduce the price of salt to benefit the people, and take a "compromise" benevolent government.

The reality is that when I came to Haizhou full of ambition, my mentality of asking two small questions directly collapsed.In the end, the solution given by Liu Yu was even more clear to him, that is, repairing and repairing, merging and re-equalizing the land, it will not cure the root cause.

The sages and sages he learned from reading books told him that there is a way to treat the symptoms and cure the root cause.

However, the reality ruthlessly told him that under the current conditions, whoever claims to be able to cure the symptoms and cure the root cause is pure nonsense.

When it came to the production process, Liu Yu spoke bluntly to a certain extent, without any cloak of tenderness, and spoke bluntly.

However, in his opinion, these methods are really effective.

He is not a child, nor is he ignorant of world affairs, but there is still a little bit of sage knowledge left in his heart.

But within a few days, the only remaining thing was severely trampled by Liu Yu.

It's pointless to tell him to do anything.

It's all just tinkering, and the reincarnation of the eternally fallen dynasty cannot be detached.

Dashun will eventually be destroyed, and the destruction itself is also a patchwork of mergers and re-equalization.

(End of this chapter)