Daming: I help my wife be the empress

Chapter 599 Can only cooperate, civilian salt matter

"Of course not." Liu Zhongzao said, "Jinyiwei had investigated the Lianghuai salt merchants before, and all the guilty ones have been brought to justice."

According to Lin Zhongding's speculation, His Majesty probably hinted that the Jinyiwei would strictly investigate the salt merchants in Lianghuai.

In the past few months, nearly half of the Lianghuai salt merchants were arrested and ransacked. It is said that the stolen silver alone was as much as 3000 million taels, and there were several 10 taels of gold.

Under this level of strict investigation, it is indeed impossible for the remaining salt merchants to have problems.

Of course, it was Jin Yiwei who wanted to arrest illegal salt merchants, making the salt merchants in Lianghuai and Huaihe Rivers panic and frightened.

Coupled with the fact that the imperial court has the right to take back all the salt fields, the salt merchants will not have the ability to sing against the imperial court after losing the salt fields.

Now these Lianghuai salt merchants either no longer do salt business, and they can only cooperate with Huaiyan Salt Wholesale Company.

Overall, after several months, the reform of the Lianghuai Saltworks was considered a success.

But as far as the entire salt industry of Ming Dynasty is concerned, it is just the beginning-from south to north, from east to west, many other saltworks also need to be reformed, and the General Administration of Salt Affairs has a long way to go.

···
In a courtyard in Yangzhou City.

The three rich and middle-aged men gathered together, all frowning, but with a look of helplessness.

"Brother Wu, are you sure you want to cooperate with the court?" Fang Minwen asked.

"Is there any other choice for me?" Wu Zhigui asked with a wry smile.

Cheng Fen next to him said: "Why not? We just don't do the salt business. Now all the places respond to the imperial court's call and set up various factories, some of which can even get technical support from the imperial court's department.

We have money and connections, as long as we run a good factory, are we afraid that we will not make money?As far as the profit from selling salt is concerned, to be honest, I really don't like it. "

"The factory is not that easy." Wu Zhigui shook his head, "When we go in, we are newcomers, and our previous contacts may not be useful.

On the contrary, if you cooperate with the imperial court to sell salt, although the profit is much less than before, you can make small profits but sell more. Isn't it safer than taking risks to set up some factories? "

Hearing this, Fang Minwen finally made a decision.

"Brother Wu is right. It's better to be familiar with business than to be in business. Let's cooperate with the imperial court and make money safely."

Cheng Fen actually had no idea about setting up a factory, and wanted to bring the two of them together. Now that they both decided to continue selling salt, he could only sigh and said, "Okay, let's cooperate with the court."

A few days later, all the salt merchants bought salt from the Huaiyan Wholesale Company and transferred it to their respective "distribution area" stores to start retailing...

Chuzhou, Lai'an County.

"Master, the salt is gone again, hurry up and buy some salt."

Ding Qi, who was meeting with each other, took off his apron after hearing this, washed his hands, but couldn't help but said: "You prodigal bitch, you use salt so quickly, don't you know how expensive it is?"

It turned out that Ding Qi's family opened a food shop in the city of An County again, specializing in the business of ordinary people, and they didn't make much money a year, which was better than their livelihood.

I reckon that saving for ten years should be enough for my son to marry a wife.

After opening the food shop for so many years, Ding Qi felt that one of the items that consumed the most was salt.Therefore, every time the salt was used up and he wanted to buy it, he couldn't help but say something.

But his daughter-in-law said: "Our little cookbook is so-so, if there is not enough salt and oil, who will eat yours?"

"Okay, you have a point."

Ding Qi was too lazy to argue with his wife, so he took dozens of pennies and left.

Soon, Ding Qi came to the grocery store where he usually buys salt in the city.

I glanced inside and found that there was only refined salt, not coarse salt.

As far as Ding Qi knew, refined salt now costs hundreds of dollars a catty, and the snack shop in his family couldn't afford it, so he usually bought coarse salt.

In comparison, coarse salt is much cheaper.

A few years ago, the world was in chaos, and coarse salt was only thirty or forty Wen a catty when it was the most expensive.When His Majesty put down the Qing captives and rogue bandits, the price of coarse salt dropped even more, down to a price of more than ten yuan per catty.

However, Ding Qi heard from some old people that coarse salt was even cheaper during the Wanli period, and one catty could be bought for less than ten cents.

Ding Qi didn't dare to think that the price of coarse salt would return to the Wanli period, as long as it stopped rising.

The shopkeeper of the grocery store looked up at Ding Qi, and said, "Now there is only refined salt. As for coarse salt, it will take a while to get it."

"Ah?" Ding Qi frowned upon hearing this, "My house is out of salt, what should I do?"

Seeing Ding Qi's anxious look, the shopkeeper stopped teasing him, and said with a smile, "I don't have coarse salt, buy refined salt. Now the price of refined salt has been reduced, and it only costs [-] yuan a catty."

"Only twenty coins? Is it true or not?" Ding Qi didn't believe it at all, looked at the fine salt there and said, "Shopkeeper, there shouldn't be any problem with your salt, right?"

"What's the problem?" said the shopkeeper, bowing his hands to the south, and said: "The Holy Majesty will reform the salt policy immediately. Now the price of salt has been reduced, and the price is the same everywhere. Do you want to buy it or not?"

Previously, a catty of coarse salt cost thirteen cents, but the price of a catty of refined salt dropped to twenty cents, which Ding Qi could still afford.

But he didn't dare to buy more, and said, "Weigh a catty for me."

After finishing speaking, twenty copper coins were given, including Zhaowu Tongbao and Chongzhen coins.

The shopkeeper frowned and said: "You have Chongzhen money here, twenty is not enough, you have to add five more."

Ding Qi also knew that it was not easy for Chongzhen to make money, so he mixed up with Zhaowu Tongbao out of luck.Hearing what the shopkeeper said, he blushed and added another five Chongzhen coins.

The shopkeeper handed over the fine salt, and said, "Money other than Zhaowu Tongbao will become less and less useful in the future. If you have any, you should take it to the Superintendent's Money Office and exchange it for Zhaowu Tongbao."

"understood."

Ding Qi thanked the shopkeeper for his kindness, and returned home with refined salt.

When the daughter-in-law saw that he was buying refined salt, she yelled, "You still say I'm a prodigal? You're the prodigal, okay? Why don't you buy refined salt instead of coarse salt?"

"Don't worry." Ding Qi explained patiently, "The price of refined salt has dropped, and you can buy a catty for twenty yuan, and there is no rough salt at the grocery store today."

"Twenty cents a catty? Is it real or not?" Ding Qi's daughter-in-law was also in disbelief when she heard the price.

Then she looked at the pound of refined salt carefully, and said, "Master, I see that this refined salt is much finer than before? There will be no problem, right?"

Ding Qi was also worried that there was something wrong with the salt - in the end, he still couldn't believe such a great thing as a big drop in the price of table salt.

So he said: "You use this salt to eat a bowl of noodles for me, don't you know if there is something wrong?"

"Then how?" His wife disagreed, "If something happens, it's over?"

"Then what should we do? Could it be possible to make a bowl and feed it to the dog?"

"Feed the dog, feed the dog."

Although Ding Qi's daughter-in-law felt sorry for the money for a bowl of noodles, she cherished her husband's life even more, so she immediately cooked a small bowl of noodles and took them to the street to feed the dogs.

When she came back, she smiled and said, "It looks fine, that dog tastes good."

Ding Qidao, "Don't jump to conclusions so quickly, just wait and see."

As a result, after waiting for more than a quarter of an hour, all the customers came to the shop, and Ding Qi didn't see anything wrong with the dog, and it kept jumping around alive and well.

So he made noodles with refined salt and served them to the guests.

Soon the guests had feedback——

"Old Ding, your oily noodles taste more delicious today."

"Yeah, the taste is indeed better than before."

"Does my brother think so too? I thought I was the only one."

"Old Ding, is your daughter-in-law secretly learning art from some master?"

After hearing what the guests said, both Ding Qi and his wife were pleasantly surprised.

He knew that refined salt was better than coarse salt, but he didn't expect to improve the taste of the food in the shop so much.

"It's delicious, let's eat it tomorrow morning." He said with a smile.

　First more.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)