Xinshun 1730

Chapter 964 Opening of Tinker Reform

Liu Yu, who had another meal with the emperor, came out of the palace when it was already dark.

During the meal, the emperor did not abide by the rule of eating without speaking, and said a lot of words such as reform and reform.

Thinking about the few things the emperor ordered, Liu Yu felt that the emperor's southern tour was an eye-opener. How much dissatisfaction did this hold?
In Liu Yu's opinion, the few things to be dealt with are actually not difficult.The emperor was worried that something would happen to the Caomi shipping for the first time, but in fact it was unnecessary. Those people on the canal can do things, but what skills do those people on the sea have?
If you can still achieve great things under the premise of being escorted by battleships at sea, then why should you only be a rabbit with a gun in your nest?There are many opportunities to make a fortune in the sea outside, and the emperor really overestimated these people.

As for the reform of the salt industry, the emperor underestimated the stock of private capital. In fact, there are more people who are capable of entering this industry, but they just didn't give them the opportunity before.

Do you really think that without the Huaibei salt merchants, this salt industry transfer will not work?Nonsense, it really doesn't work, just make the private salt dealer a regular, this can be solved.

Can a group of businessmen who rely on the monopoly power of super profits granted by the state administration have the ability to fight businessmen?
On the contrary, the emperor didn't care much about it, and thought that the money reform and land reform, which were ranked after the quadruple, were the really important reforms.

Dashun does not have its own San Francisco or Old Silver Mountain, which can mine 500 million taels of gold and tens of millions of taels of silver in ten years. If the money is not reformed, the more developed the overseas trade, the more serious troubles will happen.

There is no right to issue banknotes, and the right to issue banknotes is all in the hands of foreign trade. If capital speculation is really released, the group of people in Songjiang Prefecture who hold silver and foreign currencies can depreciate the value of money to 1500 within two years—— Even if it is not for speculation to make money, lowering the price to 1500 means that the original one tael of silver can be bought for only 6 taels of silver, and then sold outside, at the original purchase price, the first 50% profit will be made.

Liu Yu wants to take them outside to make a fortune and accumulate capital, not to go to Europe to learn from Lei Feng and stabilize prices for them.Dashun has not experienced the impact of the price revolution, and the cost is already low enough, so there is no need to continue to increase trade advantages with monetary means.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help shaking his head secretly, turned his head to the palace, and muttered something.

"tinker"

After muttering this sentence, he sighed, got into the carriage, and wandered towards the house.

After two days of rest in his own duke's mansion in the capital, two days of imperial court, he kept pretending to be dead, and after two or three days in a daze, he finally found an acquaintance.

Liu Yu, who was notified by the door welcome, also went to the gate of the mansion to greet her in person.Shi Shiyong, who hadn't seen him for a few years, was wearing a uniform of a military officer of the Boyer Army, and he smiled and said some polite words without too much barrier.

After being welcomed into the mansion, Liu Yu asked, "Your Majesty sent Brother Shi to Huaibei?"

"Well. This time is both an open investigation and an unannounced visit. Your Majesty told us that we don't care about the affairs of the salt administration. We only care about people. He also specially told us that if the Duke wants to do anything, he can do it cheaply, as long as he returns on time. "

Liu Yu said with a smile, "It's a sledgehammer to kill a chicken."

Shi Shiyong also said with a smile: "Your Majesty attaches great importance to this matter, and we know what to do. But I don't really understand how the court will change. What is beneficial and what is disadvantageous depends on the Duke's arrangement."

"Salt from the Huaibei Salt Field is sold in several provinces and many prefectures. Not to mention Fengyang Mansion and Bozhou in Anhui, not to mention; Shangcai and Ruyang in Henan are also far away. The field is too big, and it needs to be solved. too many people."

"Investigate, how to investigate, to what extent, and who should be arrested first, these princes need to give some pointers."

Liu Yu couldn't help laughing and said, "You should know that private salt dealers have nothing to do with you, right?"

Shi Shiyong nodded and said: "That's natural, we don't care about private salt dealers. That's what local officials and inspectors do. We mainly check for the tricks in official salt. The key is that there are many tricks in official salt. , priorities, how should I say?"

Liu Yu waved his hand and said, "It's not that troublesome. Weeding is for planting crops, not weeding for the sake of weeding. Don't control those that don't hinder the planting of the crops, and only control those that hinder the planting of the crops. What should be controlled and what should not be controlled, we When we got there, we watched and talked."

Shi Shiyong said with a smile: "With this sentence, I feel relieved. Then when shall we set off? The Duke is in the light, and I am in the dark? Or what?"

"Leave in three to five days. You don't need to be in the dark. You don't need to go in the dark. Go to Haizhou first. Just go there with great fanfare." Liu Yu counted the days, and he has nothing to do in the capital. Seeing friends and family, In terms of relationship, he doesn't participate in the affairs of the court at all, and the emperor is not prepared to let him play around in the court at all.

Shi Shiyong and Liu Yu have known each other for a long time, knowing Liu Yu's style of work, he said: "If that's the case, then we must prepare. Your Majesty specifically ordered that you must protect the Duke. I have also selected some good players here, and I will also take care of you." It is necessary to send some hidden stakes in advance."

Liu Yu didn't take it seriously and just smiled.

If there are too many debts in the heart, you will not worry, and if you have too many lice, you will not itch.

I have offended a lot of people about the abolition of the canal.The abolition of the canal has actually offended many salt merchants and officials, and cut off the source of wealth they carried with their tank boats.This time the emperor wanted to move the salt politics and law by himself again. He obviously didn't take the lead, but he still let himself do it, which showed that he wanted to let himself attract firepower.

This thing is actually very safe.No one would be so stupid as to dare to openly use a knife on a duke. If they did, it would not be an official shock in one prefecture or one county, but a nationwide cleansing, which would be regarded as an open challenge to the imperial power.

If this matter is not public, then it is not so serious. It can be criticized, smeared, framed, etc., and it must follow the nonsense process in the court, and it may lose or win.

But this matter is actually taking the private path of "imperial power". The emperor made it clear that he needs a tool man to attract all the firepower. If he uses himself at this time, it is tantamount to the local forces openly challenging the imperial power and asking for the importance of the crown—— As for local affairs, the emperor, you'd better leave it alone, whoever cares will die.

At that point, the emperor had two choices left.

Either pretend to be dead, deal with it in a formal way, declare that all your ambitions are nonsense, and admit defeat; or, really take out the deterrent power that has been scaring people before, people from the Wude Palace system and the Xinxue system, and come to me. A big change of blood broke out the official atmosphere of the Hongwu period.

Deterrent power cannot be used. In theory, it is the most powerful before it is not used.But when it got to that point, he could only fight to the detriment of both sides, so he had to use it.

…………

Huaibei.

Haizhou.

The salt merchants with the strongest capital in the salt industry in Huaibei waited anxiously.

The news that the imperial court sent Xing Guogong to inspect the Huaibei Salt Administration has spread, and the fast horses sent out early continue to return the closer distance.

This is not a routine inspection, but an accidental behavior specially assigned by the emperor.

However, rumors about the reform of the salt administration have already spread.

Reform, reform, as long as there is any reform, it is always to go to the old and support the new.

If it was someone else, these salt merchants would not be too flustered, but Liu Yu was sent by the emperor.

Before the commercial prosperity of Songjiang Prefecture, who was the richest group in the whole world?
Nature is a salt merchant.

But now, who is the richest group in the world?I'm afraid it may not be a salt merchant.

It's just that the salt merchants have a thicker background. Relying on "making friends with scholars" and "clan relations", the accumulation of two to three hundred years has people inside and out.

The elegance and culture of Yangzhou are all related to these salt merchants.No money, playing hammer art, a large number of literati are supported by salt merchants.

In the eyes of the salt merchants, those merchants in Songjiang Mansion are just a group of nouveau riche.

As a businessman, when a group of businessmen get mixed up to talk about identity, blood, family, and official position, when they want to dislike another group of businessmen as nouveau riche, it can only be said that these businessmen have "degenerated".

The reason they were afraid of Liu Yu was because of the nouveau riche behind Liu Yu.

There is only a Huaibei salt field, and the salt industry in 46 state capitals is franchised, with an annual capital of only a few million for two weeks.

If it were someone else, maybe these salt merchants could really give them some good looks, and let them know the embarrassing phenomenon that the salt industry cannot operate without capital.

However, the group of "upstarts" behind Liu Yu, if they really want to reform the salt policy, it is said that the annual turnover is only three to five million taels, and they can pile up the money in an instant.How much money does salt make? The nouveau riche in Songjiang Mansion are like a mirror in their hearts, but they have no way out...

The current situation is also funny.

Salt merchants dare not play the capital card, and they are thinking about official relations to suppress the reform of salt administration.

The Duke does not play the official game, and is thought to use capital to promote the reform of the salt administration.

The major salt merchants waiting for Liu Yu in front of them are all Anhui merchants, who made their fortunes by relying on the reform of the salt administration in the Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years.

The imperial court has fallen every year, and in order to save trouble, they have no time to manage the huge group of three merchants, so they simply let some well-capitalized general contractors.

General contracting, distributed to sub-contractors.

The imperial court only deals with general contractors, and the general contractor pays the amount of tax to be paid, which saves the trouble of dealing with those subcontractors.

This is too troublesome, and that is too troublesome. Saving costs everywhere, the result is all costs and water leakage everywhere.

If there is a reform of the salt administration, these general contractors will be the first to be affected.

Discrete merchants and sub-contractors still have a way to survive.

Because these retail merchants and sub-contractors have channels, markets, and sales outlets.

The general contractor has only the monopoly power granted by capital and administration.

Retail merchants and sub-contractors earn money from the common people.Regardless of whether it is a price increase or selfishness, in the end it is still a catty of salt and a catty of salt to extract money from the people.

As for general contractors, there is neither market nor sales outlets, and some only have strong capital, similar to the decision-making of "taxpayers", and they earn money from subcontractors—if they want to sell salt, they will first give it to the general contractor. how much silver.

This is similar to the Netherlands that Liu Yu dealt with: it was not the financial capital of the Dutch that revived the shareholders of the Dutch East India Company, but the market, routes, and smuggling channels of the Dutch.In the eyes of the Dashun Emerging Class Group, tangible capital is shit, and the intangible capital accumulated for two to three hundred years is the priceless treasure.

The same is true of these salt merchants.

They can suppress the imperial court, because the imperial court has no hair, Dashun has no state-owned assets at all, and can't mobilize many resources. In short, there is no money.

But for the same reason, Liu Yu couldn't suppress Liu Yu, who had a group of upstarts with tens of millions of shares behind him, especially these upstarts would have been drooling at Yanli for a long time.

Liu Yu's reputation, even in the merchant world, is extremely polarized.Some got rich with him, and some went bankrupt because of him.

Although this time the reform of the salt administration was not proposed by Liu Yu at all, but being sent by the emperor to "attract firepower" as an errand, these salt merchants who had already suffered great losses due to the reform of water transport, naturally hated their teeth itching.

But... there is nothing I can do.

Several general contractors glanced at each other, and they all saw some tension, panic, vigilance and helplessness on each other's faces.

"Hey... I think your ancestors overcame all obstacles and accumulated a large family business. Once the Duke came, it's hard to say whether the family business can be maintained."

Someone complained in a low voice, and the people next to him also sighed in the same way, thinking that their ancestors accumulated money one copper coin at a time, and step by step to today, will they be destroyed in their own hands?
(End of this chapter)