The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 464 On Salt
On the quiet table, everyone looked at Jia Lian with burning eyes.

Jia Lian picked up a piece of preserved deer and was about to put it in his mouth. Seeing this, he swept everyone away, then put down his chopsticks and wiped his hands.

"Everyone, do you really want to listen?"

"My lord, please declare!"

Jia Lian returned the handkerchief in his hand to Zhao'er next to him.Wu Zhirong and others can dismiss the waiter, but they have no right to let his people leave the table.

Turning his head to look at Zhou Boru and the two beside him, Jia Lian said: "President Zhou and Vice President Wang, the imperial court is very dissatisfied with you!"

When everyone heard this, their faces changed a little.

Facing Jia Lian, Zhou Boru was very calm, he hurriedly put on a more respectful attitude, and said to Jia Lian, "Please teach me, my lord, I will be very grateful."

Jia Lian looked at Zhou Boru and blinked slightly.No wonder the information he got was the least about this person, and he couldn't even confirm who was behind him.

But to be able to secure the position of president all year round, and get the biggest share of the entire Lianghuai salt administration, there must be many reliance that ordinary people don't know.

"Of the four major salt policies in the world, only Yangzhou is the most important, accounting for almost half of the world's salt tax.

Not to mention, in the past ten years, the tax money collected from Yangzhou into the national treasury ranged from 800 million to 900 million.However, since the year before last, the salt tax in Yangzhou has dropped sharply to less than 700 million taels, and even less than 600 million taels last year...

If things go on like this, within a few years, the entire Yangzhou Salt Administration will not even be able to pay the national tax? "

The irony in Jia Lian's words was unavoidable, and all the officials and salt merchants present could hear it.

The officials who can be present today are basically fed by salt merchants every year.Hearing what Jia Lian said at this time, he was also complaining in his heart, these salt merchants were greedy and touched the bottom line of the imperial court, which made them also fearful.

The salt merchants also had ideas.The small salt merchants complained to the big salt merchants in their hearts, while the big salt merchants complained to each other, blaming others for taking a large share and engaging in smuggling, which made everyone unable to step down.

The vice president Wang Shanxiang couldn't help explaining to Jia Lian: "My lord doesn't know, there is a reason for this..."

"Oh? Let's hear it."

"The reason why the salt tax has been reduced in the past two years is all because of the imperial court's new salt policy!
We are all working for the imperial court, no matter what decrees the imperial court makes, we will fully support and assist.

The imperial court asked me to donate and lose, and we all obeyed.It’s just that what I was waiting to do was drudgery, and almost every year’s profit was handed over to the imperial court, leaving only some meager profits to barely cover the lives of the brothers at the bottom.The imperial court suddenly asked me to spend extra money and work hard to escort the grain and grass to the border, which made our situation worse.

As the saying goes, we are responsible for our own profits and losses. After we have undertaken such a huge expenditure, it is really difficult for us to maintain the previous total national tax.How could the imperial court know that although the tax on the treasury is lower, the life of the salt merchants is even more difficult for me.To be able to pay so much national tax, I waited for a few companies to subsidize the profits of the previous years to get so much..."

Jia Lian suppressed a smile and asked pretending to be puzzled: "Is that so? But as far as I know, after the imperial court launched a new policy, the special commissioner and others raised the price of salt by [-]%, and the extra income from official salt was calculated. It is also enough to offset the donation.”

"This is the inconsiderateness of the imperial court. The adults in the imperial court only think that raising the price of salt will increase our profits. As everyone knows, there are only so many people who eat salt in the world, and the price of salt has increased. Many people choose not to eat salt. We wait for business and free trade, so it won’t happen that ordinary people don’t buy salt and we force them to buy it, right?
Of course, this is no wonder to the imperial court. The adults in the imperial court are all elegant people who have read poetry and books, and it is not uncommon for them not to understand business.

Fortunately, the adults came down to inspect the Salt Administration this time, and the young ones just asked the adults to make a statement to the court on my behalf and abandon the method of donating. In this way, I believe that the national tax of the Salt Administration will be fully restored in a short time, even more than before. Not impossible! "

As Wang Shanxiang said, he looked at Jia Lian expectantly, as if Jia Lian was the savior of their hard-working people who interceded with the inconsiderate court.

"Hehehe..."

Jia Lian finally laughed again and took a deep breath to suppress the anger in his heart.

This person surnamed Wang is treating him like a nerd!
Although I knew that these salt merchants would have a set of rhetoric that belonged to them, I didn't expect it to be so shameless.

And you want to use him as a gun?
How dare they say that salt merchants are drudgery?If it spreads out, wouldn't it make merchants from all walks of life in the world laugh their heads off?

The Great Wei has recuperated for a hundred years and has a population of nearly [-] million. How huge is the annual salt consumption?

Fortunately, the most important thing for Wei Wei is the agricultural tax. The salt tax is not too high, but it is only about [-]% of the salt price.In this way, although it is still not cheap for the common people to eat salt, it is much better than some dynasties that used salt to exploit the common people.

At present, the market price of salt is only between [-] and [-] yuan per catty. Calculated, even if a person eats freely, he can barely eat one tael of silver per year.Save a little, one or two coins is enough.

This kind of expenditure is really not high for Da Wei's living standard.At least for the wealthy Jiangnan, it is not a problem at all.

But even so, on average, the revenue of salt merchants in the world is at least 7000 million taels.

What a huge piece of cake this is?You know, the annual income of the entire Great Wei is almost only this amount.

According to Lin Ruhai and others, the cost of raw materials for producing a catty of crude salt in the Jiangnan Salt Field is only two to three cash, which is basically negligible compared to the market price.

In other words, if the imperial court can really do it and collect all the benefits of the Salt Administration into the national treasury, it can almost double the annual revenue of the national treasury!Of course, this is theoretical and practically impossible.

And the Great Wei Salt Administration also used the salt quotation system, with three hundred catties as a quotation, and a regular salt tax of three taels of silver was levied for one quotation!

Zhengke salt tax, that is, national tax.

Calculated in this way, even if it is based on fifty cents per catty, the regular salt tax only accounts for less than [-]% of the selling price.

In other words, the salt merchants still have at least [-]% of their income, which can be used to pay the miscellaneous taxes of the local government, the salt transport department, and other costs...

Even if these costs are high, but in the face of a premium space of 5000 million taels or more, there is at least a net profit of 2000 million taels left, so there is no problem at all.

This is still completely in accordance with the official salt.

Of all the salt merchants in the world, which one does not secretly operate a little private salt business, as long as it is not obvious, the imperial court will not care too much.

Therefore, one can imagine the huge profits.

And there are less than one hundred salt merchants in the world who are qualified to operate the salt industry.One hundred families get 2000 million yuan, and each family can get at least [-] yuan every year.

This is white money!
In this era when 20 taels of silver is enough for a family of four to live in stability and wealth for a whole year, one can imagine what an astronomical figure 10 taels of silver is.

This is the averaged number.

The annual profits of the seven major salt merchants in Yangzhou, which occupy the most affluent areas, are even more immeasurable.

So, these people complained of suffering and poverty in front of him?It really made Jia Lian such a well-mannered person, he couldn't help feeling cold.

In fact, the imperial court realized that these salt merchants in Yangzhou were too rich, so they decided to take another knife from them to supplement the military and reduce the expenditure of the treasury.

Jia Lian even remembered the scene when those salt merchants went to patrol the salt censor's yamen to protest when they first went to Yangzhou.

Perhaps the protest was not successful before the policy came down, but after the policy came down, they started to think differently, trying to use this method to force the court to submit?
Let's see, just because of your mess, the revenue of the treasury has been reduced so much, so don't hurry up and cancel the donation so that the treasury can recover its revenue.

To be honest, if the emperor were to be fooled, and the salt merchants put in more effort (money) in the court, it would really be possible for them to succeed in the game.

It's a pity that Emperor Ningkang has realized some of their attempts and is ready to make an example to others.

(End of this chapter)