Xinshun 1730

Chapter 966
All the salt merchants and salt officials looked at each other, thinking that those who came were not kind.

Or just really ready to die.

Or they are ready to ask for a price. If you open your mouth like this, I am afraid it will not be enough to send a few hundred thousand taels.

The method of labeling is too skillful. Other officials who ask for bribes are at best labeled as sabotaging the salt administration.

Who dares to take this hat?

Zheng Yuji swallowed quietly, moistened his dry throat, and said with a smile: "The Duke speaks seriously. How dare I wait for such thoughts? We are just small businessmen, please don't scare us. "

"It's just that the matter of salt administration is related to the salt consumption of millions of people. It's not a trivial matter. We certainly benefit from it, but if we oppose the salt administration, we are mainly worried that the reform will cause people to live in poverty and damage the court's salt tax revenue."

"For example, the story of Wang Jinggong in the Song Dynasty was changed and changed, so that he was ashamed of Jingkang. The demise of the Northern Song Dynasty all started from Jinggong's reforms."

"There are many policies that look good, but in practice not only fail to benefit the people, but harm the people."

"Yes, please think twice."

Liu Yu nodded and said, "It seems reasonable for you to say that. We still have to conduct on-the-spot investigations and research. Policies must never be decided on the basis of their own brains, especially when it concerns the use of salt by tens of millions of people."

With just one sentence, the scene that was as dead as if it had been cast with necromantic magic was instantly revived.

Everyone thought, damn it, a duke is a duke, and extorting bribes has to be so big.

With such a big hat, it seems that this is a preparation of 50 million as a base.

Anyway, the easiest way to make money is to bet on your life and follow the dragon.

As long as the money is collected, it's easy to say, and the atmosphere immediately relaxes.

For a while, he flattered Liu Yu again and said a lot of nonsense.

Liu Yu's talk about salt merchants ended here, and he didn't say anything in this direction.

As soon as the banquet was over, Shi Shiyong came to Liu Yu's room and asked, "Isn't the Duke showing off his power today? Could it be that he really wants to get some money first?"

Liu Yu nodded and said: "Sure, money must be picked, and reforms must be changed. If you don't have money, how can you change it? Just right, I want to send a letter to His Majesty, and Brother Shi will send someone back first. Then send a few more people , Escort my people to Songjiang Mansion."

Shi Shiyong was puzzled and said, "What can money do to solve this matter?"

Liu Yu smiled, knocked on the table and said, "At the banquet today, those people threatened me, did you understand?"

"Well...they frightened the Duke of the country by saying that if reforms are easy, it is easy to create a situation like Duke Jing's reform, which will cause the people to live in poverty." Shi Shiyong can still understand this point.

"Yeah, I haven't been frightened by anyone for many years. I didn't want to play like this at first, but if you frighten me, then you will be punished. What problem do you think money can solve? Money can buy salt. A few 10 taels Interest, add leverage, so that these old-age businessmen know what it means to change the times."

Shi Shiyong didn't know what Liu Yu was going to do, but following the procedure, he would report today's events to the emperor.Since Liu Yu said that he would also go to the school, it also saved a lot of trouble.

Liu Yu, who picked up a pen and wrote a few words, suddenly sighed, shook his head and said, "I hope I don't end up taking off my pants and farting. If that's the case, I'm so disappointed... This group of people really Hopeless."

Historically, during the reform of the salt administration, in addition to using the official network, the biggest confrontation these salt merchants did was to find Taoist priests at home, witches and witchcraft, and curse those officials who supported the salt administration reform with playing cards.

Liu Yu sincerely hopes that these people can do something, at least to prove that these businessmen still have the spirit of struggle.

If you really mess around and make yourself take off your pants and fart, those people can only stay at home looking for monsters to play cards and curse, then it is really... hopeless, destroy it.

After sighing, Liu Yu wrote a memorial to the emperor, roughly explaining the means of reform - who to send to suppress the place, that is the court's business, he only guarantees that there will be no mistakes in the reform process.

Huaibei Salt Field is not the only place in Dashun.

There is Changlu Salt Field in Tianjin, Yingkou Salt Field in Liaodong, and Salt Field in Taiwan.

The salt output of Changlu Salt Field is extremely high.

Because before the reform of water transportation, a lot of salt from Changlu Salt Field flowed to various places with rice boats.

The salt carried by the rice boat is theoretically "private salt", because the scope of the Changlu Salt Field is not the surrounding area of ​​the canal.

The water transportation reform that started this year has laid a good foundation for the success of this salt administration reform.

Canals are no longer used for water transportation, and a large amount of private salt in Changlu Salt Fields has been backlogged.

There is no need to consider this, it is inevitable.

It’s not a day or two for the rice boats to carry Changlu salt. When the water transportation was abandoned, this was also a reason to attack the canal. How could Liu Yu not know?

The reform of the salt administration in Huaibei Salt Fields seemed to be full of difficulties, but in fact, the imperial court did not understand at all where the difficulties of the reform were.

As far as these general contractors of salt merchants are concerned, to put it bluntly, they are a group of pigs.

They only have three ways to resist.

The first is to use official connections and intricate networks to oppose reforms.

But the premise of this matter is that the emperor is a nagging, soft-eared emperor, and it is useless to meet a group of emperors with hard ears.This group of salt merchants is now, when they meet Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who is so hard-hearted, those officials entrusted with official relations will cry.

The second is to draw circles and curse at home.

The only third type that may have an impact is to rely on capital confrontation.

How much salt is shipped, how much they eat.

After eating all of them, there was a panic about salt shortage, forcing the imperial court to abandon the reform of salt administration.

As for the remaining methods of resistance, they only exist in theory, and they can only be thought about in reality.

For example, collusion with local officials, the card requires salt ticket merchants to cross the border, and the emperor can print a salt ticket pass with a sufficient level. What do spy organizations like the Boyer Army do?
The key here is not the Huaibei Salt Field, but the entire Lianghuai Salt Field.

The salt merchants in Huaibei and Huainan are family members.

If the reform in Huaibei is successful, then Huainan will definitely be next.

Huaibei cannot be kept, but it will cause great trouble for Huaibei Salt Reform, so as to keep Huainan.

There are 25 saltworks in Huainan, but only three or five in Huaibei.

Huainan produces 140 million salts each year, while Huaibei only has 30.

Reform can only be done from Huaibei.

Huainan can only be mobilized after the reform of Huaibei is successful.

For salt merchants, Huaibei can be thrown away, just as some meat has been cut.

Huainan, on the other hand, is the bones of the heart and lungs.

So if they resist, they can only choose to use their capital to exhaust all means to make Huaibei Salt Reform into a salt industry version of the "refugees map" effect.

In this way, the court can only retreat.

Even if the salt reform in Huaibei was continued in order to save face, Huainan would definitely not dare to move.

It should be said that if these salt merchants have such a "struggle" ability, it is still gratifying. At least they are not so bad that Liu Yu feels that they are destroyed. At least they can transform in the future and transform into capital groups that are expanding abroad part.

But I'm afraid it's just a bunch of rotten shit.

They can actually grasp one of Dashun's weaknesses, that is, Dashun's annual taxes and assets are not enough to fight against them.

To some extent, the total capital of Lianghuai Salt Merchant is more than Dashun's normal annual treasury income.

Moreover, Dashun has no control power, at most it can only control a few grains of rice, and guarantee a few million stones of rice, other than that, nothing else can be done - the only thing Dashun can do in terms of economic intervention is to guarantee the prosperity of the Gyeonggi area. food prices.Other than that, nothing works.

This weakness can be exploited.

Even if you fight an economic war, you have to have money and supplies, right?But Dashun has no money.

Liu Yu's plan is very simple. Since everything else is easy to talk about, the only thing to worry about is that the salt merchants rely on capital to fight, so we have to beware of this.

The reform of water transportation has resulted in a backlog of smuggled salt in Changlu Salt Field.

In addition to Changlu salt, there is also Yingkou salt, Taiwan salt, salt, theoretically there is absolutely no shortage.

However, Dashun didn't have enough money and hoarded enough salt to prepare for this battle.

Because salt is not changed by silver, salt needs to be hoarded, and silver cannot be used as salt.Dashun didn't even have enough food reserves, how could he have the money to store salt.

So, what to do?
At this time, the role of Songjiang Prefecture Bank is reflected.

If the salt merchant bribed Liu Yu, Liu Yu could use the bribe money as interest and immediately borrow millions of silver.

These millions of silver can be paid in advance to salt cookers in Changlu and other places.

As a result, they hoarded the smuggled salt they had produced at a low price, water transportation was abolished, and the smuggled salt had no market at all.

If they can't be transported out, they are piled up at home, so they can naturally be sold at a low price.

Secondly, it is also possible to pay in advance to salt merchants in other places and prepay a certain amount to allow them to increase production.

Although the Lianghuai salt merchants have a lot of capital, they don't actually have much working capital.

A large amount of silver is used for lending; some of it is used for the transfer of salt, which is a state of circulation, and there is not a lot of silver that can be used quickly in their hands.

If you count too much, the working capital that can be used is 2000 million taels.But 2000 million taels, how much can you eat?How much do you dare to eat?Really so united?
If the Huainan salt merchants are going to make trouble in the Huaibei salt area, then let go of the salt and sell it outside.

How much you can eat and how much you can sell.

The profit of salt is there, if they dare to eat it, the imperial court dares to sell it.

If he was really brave enough to eat all the salt sold in silver that Liu Yu lent with their bribes as interest, he could make millions of taels by changing hands.

Wait until they can't eat anymore and admit defeat, and then send a baby army to arrest people - Dashun is not the United Kingdom, nor is it the Netherlands, there are not so many perfect laws, and deliberately disrupting the salt administration, this can also be convicted.

As such...

Matsue Prefecture Bank received interest.

The court reaped the profits.

At the same time, enough salt was seized and a reserve warehouse was established for emergencies.

Moreover, the capital of Huainan salt merchants will basically be eaten up by then. Once they lose, there will be no resistance to the reform of Huainan's salt policy.

At that time, the salt will belong to the imperial reserve.

The principal is returned to the bank.

The profits earned were deposited in the bank by the imperial court to make precious metals, which were exchanged at any time with salt and banknotes to promote banknotes.

Liu Yu is really not afraid of them playing, but afraid of them not playing.

If they don't play and just confess, it's a waste of practice.It is meaningless to treat the bribes as interest, sell the salt next year, collect the principal and repay the principal, and earn a profit from smuggling salt and keeping the price low.

For this approach to be successful, four prerequisites are required.

Moreover, of these four preconditions, only one has not been determined, and the rest have been determined.

First of all, the sea freight foundation is required.

Shipping by sea not only ensures that salt from Changlu, Taiwan, Yingkou and other places can be quickly transported to Lianyungang...or Haizhou.

It is also the guarantee of abandoned water transportation.

Secondly, with the basis of sea transportation and the South Seas, the abandoned water transportation has made a large amount of smuggled salt hoarding in Changlu salt, which is seriously surplus.

The surplus salt this year has guaranteed two more benefits.

The first advantage is that you can buy these excess salt at a low price and prepare to fight the salt war.

The second benefit is that the smuggled salt is cut off, and the effect of Huaibei salt reform is really immediate.

The salt that can be sold this year is definitely more than before, which further proves the correctness of the salt reform.

Some people can only see the surface: In essence, it is a market for salt smuggling by canals. Because water transportation was abolished, the vacated market was occupied by official salt. This is the real reason.But in the eyes of others, it is the credit of the reform of the salt administration. Once the reform was made, it doubled immediately, and the system is almost omnipotent.

The third condition is a large amount of sea trade silver from the Bank of Songjiang Prefecture.

It can be guaranteed that Liu Yu can quickly borrow enough silver, or even half silver and half banknotes, with not too high interest.

These borrowed banknotes or a small amount of additional banknotes can be used as capital to buy the most important bargaining chip in the salt war: salt.

And without this thing, the imperial court would not be able to spend so much money to play.

A maximum of 30 million taels will be used as an advance payment for the salt reform this year, and we will try our best to carry out the salt reform so that no one will buy a ticket. We can first make the principal to buy salt and let the government sell salt.

These three conditions have now been met, so the last condition is the emperor.

Emperor, do you want to play like this?
If the emperor does not want to play like this, but superstitiously believes in the power of the imperial power, and uses the spy organization to investigate those who buy salt and hoard salt, let them see what is the iron fist of feudal imperial power, then it will be impossible.

And it can backfire.

Because... the power of the imperial power can arrest people, but it cannot guarantee commercial transactions, and will instead create a lot of chaos.

Dashun's economic management and control capabilities and grassroots administrative capabilities are like a pile of shit.It's okay to arrest people, but the control is weak.

Therefore, Liu Yu needs to write down all the benefits and factors clearly, and wait for the emperor to reply.

The emperor wrote back and agreed, and he took the money.

If the emperor disagreed, he would not charge money to avoid trouble.

As for changing the salt guideline to the salt ticket, this is not a problem.The general contractor opposed it, but some of the subcontractors supported it.And there is also a key force, the private salt dealers who are eager to become a regular.

(End of this chapter)