Xinshun 1730

Chapter 973 Name and Reality

After arriving in Yangzhou, Zheng Yuxu did not ask his servants to send 30 taels of silver, but went out of the house to greet him in person, dispelling the last entanglement in Wu Jingzi's heart.

Now Zheng Yuxu is most concerned about the reform of the salt administration, but Wu Jingzi did not directly talk to Zheng Yuxu about the salt administration, but talked about the reform of the imperial examination in Dashun.

"Brother Zheng, do you still remember the reform of the imperial examination? It is rumored that the reform of the imperial examination affected many people. Kang Zhongxian, the chief aide of Duke Xingguo, finally gave up the imperial examination because of the reform of the imperial examination."

"Someone said before that the method of selecting scholars can't cultivate real gentlemen, they are all those who search for chapters and quote sentences. Therefore, we must select talents in the way of selecting gentlemen."

"Even the extreme ones propose that you must master the six arts and the six classics. You must know the five rites, six music, five shooting, five controls, six books, and nine numbers; you must know "Yi", "Book", "Poetry", " Ritual, Music, and Spring and Autumn; it must involve ink, Taoism, Yin and Yang; it must understand history, Han, Three Kingdoms, Tang and Song Dynasties; it must examine practical affairs; it must discuss the situation..."

"A family like Brother Zheng, do they like the selection of stereotyped essays? Or the selection of poetry, books, etiquette and righteousness like the latter?"

This issue seems to have nothing to do with the reform of the salt administration.

Zheng Yuxu didn't understand what Wu Jingzi was going to say. After thinking about it, he smiled and said, "For families like ours, the latter one is better."

"It's not easy for ordinary people to study, how can they drive a cart, ride a horse, read the Four History, and discuss the general trend?"

"On the contrary, it is a stereotyped article with a fixed format, and ordinary people come forward every year. Therefore, in the end, the Guochao still retained the stereotyped format, but expanded the scope of topic selection."

Wu Jingzi nodded and said: "At that time, the minister who asked to change back to stereotyped writing said that the selection of talents as before was just [a matter of filial piety and integrity in the name of the imperial examination]."

"That stereotyped article is really a good thing."

"If this stereotyped essay is done well, you can do whatever you want. If you want poems, you can write poems. If you want poems, you can write poems. There will be marks from the whip, blood from slaps."

"I have a bit of literary fame, and it was also when I tied my hair that I practiced stereotyped essays. The advantage of stereotyped essays is that the format is fixed and the selection of materials is limited, so that people who come from common people may compete with those who have a long history of learning. Chance."

"The principles of the world are all interlinked."

"Looking back at the reform of the imperial examinations in this dynasty, and thinking about the reform of the salt administration today, brother Zheng still doesn't understand what to do?"

"This time, the reform of the salt administration has to be changed."

"If you don't change it today, someone will mention it tomorrow. If you don't change it tomorrow, someone will mention it the day after tomorrow."

"Change it so that you can stop the mouth of the world."

"Xiaolian is good, whoever mentions that is stupid.

"In the name of imperial examinations, doing filial piety and honesty, this is what brother Zheng should do!"

"If the imperial examinations continued to select gentlemen at that time, would people in the world feel bad? Compared with before Shang Yang's reform, princes, generals and ministers are really kind, doesn't it still seem fair?"

Zheng Yuxu groaned, seeming to understand something, and hurriedly said: "It's fair. The imperial examination is fair. You don't have the money to learn how to ride a horse, you don't have money to learn how to play the piano, you don't have money to study the history of Yin and Yang, and you don't have the connections to understand imperial policies." , that means you are incompetent, and your family is incapable. The rules are here, and they are not selected according to the family background, so why is that unfair?"

Wu Jingzi saw that Zheng Yuxu already had eyebrows, nodded and said, "What I want to say is exactly the truth."

"Nowadays, the law of salt administration is raging all over the world, and everyone thinks that it needs to be changed. But the biggest public opinion that needs to be changed is that the big contractors such as Brother Zheng have the salt in their hands. There is a kind."

"However, Brother Zheng, you can think about it. If the father of Qian dies and the son succeeds, will the people of the world think it's wrong?"

"Yobi, is it money? Or power?"

"Princes and generals, indeed, have kindness, which will make the world resent. But the property of a wealthy businessman, whose son still has a wealth of ten thousand, will the people of the world object?"

"Turn power into money; from light to darkness."

"Using the story I am about to tell, it is the general trend of the world to abolish the method of promoting filial piety and honesty. Those who follow it will prosper and those who go against it will perish. To 'in the name of the imperial examination, to do things of filial piety'."

"The analogy to the salt government is 'the law of votes and salt, and the affairs of the government'. Change without change, change without change. From the original power to fairer money; from the original because of your surname Zheng, it’s because of how much money you have that you can enter and do this trip.”

"So, the world has nothing to say. He was not surnamed Zheng before, so he was not eligible to enter; but now, Zhao Qiansun, Li Zhouwu, King Zheng, anyone can enter, as long as you have silver. What else can you say? Woolen cloth?"

"Based on the salt outline, the difference between you and those retail merchants, Brother Zheng, is that your surname is Zheng, while those retail merchants are not named Zheng."

"In terms of ticket salt, Brother Zheng, think about the difference between you and them?"

These simple few sentences are bringing up the key point.

"In the name of ticket salt, the reality of practicing Gangyan? How about using the name of imperial examinations to practice filial piety and honesty?"

Zheng Yuxu carefully comprehended these two sentences, the more he tasted, the more he tasted them.

Hearing Wu Jingzi's question, he suddenly said: "In terms of fairness in silver, the difference between me and them is that I have millions of silver, while they only have thirty-five thousand?"

Wu Jingzi clapped his hands and said, "Yes! As long as you draw a line, you can be engaged in the salt industry with a family property of [-] yuan. Then this is called 'in the name of ticket salt, and the reality of salt'."

"Brother Zheng still controls the salt industry, but the reason is that Brother Zheng's surname is Zheng, and he inherited the salt nest of his father's ancestors; Brother Zheng is rich enough to meet the qualification line to engage in the salt industry."

"It is unwise to directly confront reform. It is better to use force to transform it and use other means."

Wu Jingzi's idea stems from Cheng Tingzuo's reasoning in Songjiang Mansion's comment on the Chisui incident that he quoted - to replace the hidden one with the public one.Use money to replace moral identity and blood.

After seeing through the Songjiang Mansion's standard of "distinguishing people by the amount of money", he pointed out the key to Zheng Yuxu's solution.

Zheng Yuxu thought about Wu Jingzi's words, and gradually realized some key points.

If the imperial court wants to reform the salt administration, it must follow the bill and salt law.

At that time, it is necessary to encourage small amounts of capital to enter the market and carve up the control of the big salt merchants.

Yanyin changed to salt tickets, so that one thousand eight taels of silver can enter the market, and there is no longer a need for large salt merchants with a share capital of millions.

One of the key reforms is to abolish the monopoly system of Yanyin.

For example, the Zheng family holds hundreds of thousands of salts. These salts belong to him, and the regulations are his, and they can be inherited by father and son.

That's where the problem lies.

It's like the Lianghuai Salt District, which manages a hundred state capitals.

Divide these state capitals into different sales areas such as A, B, C, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, and Xin.

If A, B, and C are close together, the salt from A, B, and C will be transported together, distributed in a large warehouse, and then sold by the person in charge of the sales area of ​​A, B, and C.

A’s salt cannot go to B, and B’s salt cannot go to A. Of course, neither A nor B can go to private salt.

The privileged contracting of sales areas such as A, B, C, D, Wu, Ji, Geng and Xin are inherited and unchanged.

For example, the Zheng family, with the privilege of seventy or eighty sales districts, does he need to do it himself?
Obviously, it is not necessary. For example, he has 70 sales districts, and the court asked him to charge [-] yuan, which is equivalent to the franchise right of one district.

Why would he do it himself?Wouldn't it be enough to sell the sales rights for two yuan and five one districts to sub-contractors?Why do you have to do it yourself?

The starting point of the salt administration reform that has been discussed a lot in the past few years can be summed up in one sentence:

[Profits at the top do not belong to the imperial court, and those at the bottom cannot feed the ordinary people, but all go to those who are full of money]

The core idea is to eliminate the middleman, and there is no middleman to make the difference.

How to cancel the middleman to earn the difference?

The group of people in the imperial court thinking about reforming the salt administration also had a very simple idea: marketization.

Abandon the salt introduction and salt guide system, and let small businessmen enter the market.

A ticket, how much salt, clearly written.

After buying the ticket, as long as it is within the sales scope of Huaibei Salt District, it can be sold.

In theory, many problems can be solved by eliminating the need for middlemen to earn the price difference.

However, as these large contractors and general contractors, this is what they are afraid of doing.

In this way, their monopoly power will be gone.

Now Wu Jingzi's idea is not to fight openly, but to go on the road of "the name of ticket salt, the truth of gang salt", which immediately provided Zheng Yuxu with an idea.

As a big salt merchant, he has plenty of capital, can't he afford salt tickets?

The key issue is not that you can't afford it, but that others can buy it.

So, is there a way to not only adopt the ticket-and-salt law, but also formulate a range from the property to prohibit those merchants with small capital from entering the market?
As long as this can be done, the problem will be solved.

Just, how to do it?

Seeing that Zheng Yuxu was still thinking, Wu Jingzi said again: "Brother Zheng, do you understand why the imperial court wants to change the salt policy?"

"Where is the root? What are you looking for?"

"For the common people?"

"For the salt tax?"

This is a question that does not need to be answered at all, and it is also a question that cannot be answered at all.

I know it clearly, but can it be said that the imperial court did not reform for the sake of the people at all?

What is the reason for the reform of the salt administration?
According to the slogan of political correctness, it is for the common people of the world, for the common people.

This is political correctness.

What is the real reason for eliminating these political correctness?

It's private salt.

Why is private salt selling so well?

Because official salt is expensive.

Why is official salt expensive?

Theoretically, according to the tax charged per salt introduction, private salt cannot compete with official salt, because it involves a "maximum death penalty" cost.

However, if you want to talk about theory in everything, it can only be theory.

Under this variant tax package system, the court asks the general contractor to collect taxes, and the general contractor asks the sub-contractors to collect money. There are second-hand dealers who make the difference, so the official salt becomes more expensive.

The more expensive official salt is, the easier it is to sell private salt.

The easier it is to sell private salt, the harder it is to sell official salt.

The harder it is to sell official salt, the less official salt produced by these kitchen households who cook salt.

The less official salt, the more private salt.

There are more and more private salt, and fewer and fewer people officially buy salt.

Fewer and fewer people buy official salt, so kitchen households can only sell a large amount of salt to private salt dealers, resulting in more and more private salt.

There are more and more private salts, and eventually the salt government will collapse completely, and the most important tax revenue of the imperial court besides land tax will be finished.

After sorting out this point, we can understand, what is the root cause of the imperial court's reform of the salt administration?
It is to solve the problem of official salt taxation.

The reason why these general contractors are moved is because they, as middlemen, have earned too much difference in price, which is considered to be the main reason why official salt cannot be sold privately, so there should be no need to add one of them.

The people are just a cover.

(End of this chapter)