In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 227 How Serious Is The Song Dynasty Concealing Fields?

The imperial court changed the major salt farms into salt factories, which were specially responsible for salt production, and then private merchants and ordinary people, who wanted to sell salt, came to the factory to get salt.

In the second step, the more salt you take, the cheaper the price, thus reducing the viability of small salt merchants.

For example, if you, Du Fan, say that I am rich, you can purchase 100 million catties at a time, and the Imperial Salt Factory will give you the wholesale price of five cents per catty.

You, Li Huang, are just a small peddler. If you want to buy a thousand catties, the Imperial Salt Factory will give you a wholesale price of ten Wen per catty.

In this way, your Li Huang's selling price in the market will definitely not be able to compete with Du Fan, and it will be more difficult for small salt merchants to survive.

However, the imperial court must ensure that the ex-factory price is far lower than the market price. One is to ensure that small salt merchants can also make money, and the other is to reduce the profit margin of private salt and crack down on private salt.

Along the coast, many people often secretly make salt, one household or several households together. This kind of private salt used to have an impact on official salt, because their price is low and the quality is good.

But generally speaking, the amount and quality of salt produced by this kind of private workshop will not be better than the official salt in the future.

"In addition, private salt well fields, etc., measure production according to the area and number of workers, and levy salt taxes."

In addition to private sun-dried salt and boiled salt by the sea, there are also large-scale private salt production areas such as Yanjing in Sichuan and other places. In the past, the salt they produced could only be sold to the imperial court at a low price, and then the court sold it at a high price.

Now they can sell directly themselves.

However, the imperial court will charge a certain fee every year based on the area of ​​the opponent's salt field, the number of tools, the number of workers, and the estimated output, and then ignore it.

This fee will be adjusted once a year. At that time, various departments of the imperial court will often come to check the output and selling price, so as to adjust the fee.

At that time, the seaside salt households needed fixed salt fields, whether they boiled salt or dried salt. Officials only needed to come to see the size of the salt field and the number of tools to estimate the approximate output.

According to Zhao Yurui's request, [-]% of the assessed output is taxed.

That is to say, if the annual output is estimated to be [-] catties, the tax will be collected at [-] catties to benefit the people.

The tax is ten coins per catty.

The highest salt tax in the Southern Song Dynasty was 80.00%, and Zhao and Rui received ten coins per catty, which was relatively high among historical dynasties, but it was quite low compared to the current Southern Song Dynasty.

Calculated according to the cost, each catty of salt costs five or six renminbi, and the tax is ten renminbi. After the court, every catty of salt sold is about [-] renminbi.

The original official salt price of fifty or sixty renminbi a catty was directly reduced to [-] renminbi, and the rest of the money was earned by merchants.

In this case, the market salt in the market must also be greatly reduced.

Businessmen don’t need to sell more than 100 Wen to make money. I can sell private salt for [-] Wen. I can sell [-] Wen, [-] Wen, or even [-] Wen. This effectively combats the survival of private salt.

Du Fan, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, turned green when he heard it at the time: "Your Majesty, with such a change, I am afraid that next year's salt tax revenue will be cut in half?"

If Zhao Yurui really did what he did, Du Fan could imagine that the price of salt would drop significantly starting next year.

"Why is it low?" Zhao Yurui asked with a smile.

Du Fan said that the price of salt will definitely drop sharply next year.

That's right, Zhao and Rui said, the price of salt has dropped sharply, and ordinary people will be able to eat more salt. Next year, the sales of salt will reach a peak, and the output will increase. I am afraid that the salt tax will rise instead of falling.

This is called small profits but quick turnover.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the high price of official salt, poor quality, rampant private salt, and the invasion of Yunnan and Xixia’s low-priced salt, the official salt sales were actually quite poor. Many ordinary people could not afford it, so they could only eat a small amount of salt. Official production is also low.

Zhao Yurui seems to have suppressed the price of salt, but if the common people can afford it, the supply of table salt will definitely be in short supply like the Lianghuai in the Qing Dynasty, and it can also suppress the imported salt from outside.

Du Fan thought about it, and it seemed that what the officials said made sense.

In the end, Zhao Yurui said that next year there will be an order that all salt should not be mixed with sand, and anyone who dares to sell salt mixed with sand will be directly punished and ransacked.

Zhao Yurui also needs to register the information of the salt merchants who come to get salt from the salt factory, and then observe the price of salt they sell. If any salt merchants try to monopolize and raise the price, but still sell high-priced salt, they will be included in the official blacklist immediately, and they will never be allowed to sell salt again. Get the salt.

"I want the common people to eat enough salt to eat good salt."

"Your Majesty is holy." Everyone in the hall knelt and bowed.

The emperor will vigorously rectify the tea and salt market next year. On the Liangzhe side, Guo Chengzhang will cooperate with the chief of security to take the lead in implementing it. They will first rectify the government-run salt factory.

Give salt households corresponding treatment, and set bonuses according to output and quality, so as to greatly improve the quality and competitiveness of official salt.

The emperor said a lot that day, and everyone listened and remembered, feeling that after the emperor's reform, no matter whether the imperial salt tax will increase or decrease, the people of the Song Dynasty will definitely get benefits.
-
In August of the second year of Baoqing.

Qian Hongzu and Yang Gongwen came to Fuzhou Port Wharf.

This month, the local area organized [-] households of immigrants to go to Dayuan. The scene was full of sails and flags, and at least a thousand ships were at sea.

Qian Hongzu has been an official for so many years, and it is the first time to see so many ships going out to sea at the same time, which is quite spectacular.

Last year, the imperial court allocated [-] households in Fujian, and by the time of this batch in August, [-] households had already immigrated.

The speed of completion shocked Qian Hongzu and Yang Gongwen.

Quan Yong is in charge of the entire immigration, and the Fujian Provincial Commissioner only cooperates and purchases the required items.

At that time, Qian Hongzu had great difficulty in enlisting [-] recruits, thinking that immigration was difficult to complete.

Unexpectedly, Quan Yong finished it in August.

Qian Hongzu once again saw the ability of the imperial court to promote and mobilize, which was not seen by any emperor in the Song Dynasty when he was in power.

The emperor's control over the people below is getting stronger and stronger, and Qian Hongzu believes that it will become more and more difficult in the future.

In March of this year, Fuzhou Jinyiwei was established. In July, Jinyiwei was established in all prefectures in Fujian.

At this rate, it will be set up in all counties next year.

With the improvement of Jinyiwei, the imperial court's supervision of local execution capabilities has become stronger and stronger.

This year's food tax has not yet been paid, but under Quan Yong's guidance, the copper coin making is expected to be completed.

"Ouch." At this time, Yang Gongwen looked at the various boats on the sea, and shouted: "The immigration is finally completed, and the food tax can be dealt with next."

"It's already August, I don't know if it's too late." Qian Hongzu smiled wryly.

"With the support of the whole commander, according to his approach, there should be no problem." Yang Gongwen sighed: "I just hope——"

I hope there will be no chaos.

The two waited until the immigration was completed before they began to collect food taxes.

The imperial court gave them a target of 200 million shi last year, and Jin Yiwei is now urging them.

I didn't do it before, because they still need to use local landlords and merchants to buy supplies.

Now that the emigration is complete, you can do it. The whole routine is still used by Zhao Fan, the Liangjiang system.

In mid-August, the Fujian Provincial Commissioner began to issue official documents, requiring landlords from all over the country to report the number of acres of land in their homes.

As soon as the official document came out, the whole of Fujian was in an uproar, and the landlords cursed one after another.

Because in the 16th and 17th years of Jiading, the court made statistics once.

Therefore, Jiankang Prefecture at that time would have more than 400 million mu of data.

This is only the second year of Baoqing, and it has only been two or three years since the last statistics, and the statistics again, is the court sick?

But scolding is scolding, everyone still has to do it.

At the same time, the county government officials in Fujian also received orders to go to various places to measure the grain fields of landlords' families with a size of more than [-] mu, and they were not allowed to favoritism.

This kind of similar thing was done once by Wang Anshi in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the 5th year of Xining (1072), Wang Anshi implemented the square land average tax law, and clearing the land is the core content: to check and measure the cultivated land in each state and county, and to verify the amount of land owned by each household. According to terrain, soil quality and other conditions, the cultivated land is divided into five classes, and the cadastral book is compiled to determine the taxable amount of different classes of cultivated land.

Due to the large population and obvious land concealment in the north at that time, the focus was on clearing the cultivated land in Kaifeng, Jingdong, Hebei, Hedong and Shaanxi.

At that time, the imperial court registered 1.2 million yuan, but the final amount reached 2.48 million yuan, a full increase of 1.26 million mu, more than doubled, which shows how serious the Northern Song Dynasty concealed grain fields.

Moreover, the North Fifth Road alone has increased by 1.26 million mu. It is conceivable how many mu are hidden across the country.

However, Wang Anshi's Fangtian average tax law offended the interests of too many people, so it was strongly opposed by powerful landlords, and was finally abolished in 1085, so it was not implemented throughout the country.

Of course, Fujian has always had few fields, and there will certainly not be as many hidden fields as in the north.

A few days after the official document was issued, the servants of Fuzhou government also received the task and began to take measurements at the homes of major landlords according to the roster.

According to the request of the envoy, four people should be in a group, no favoritism should be allowed, and it should be completed before December [-].

Li Jiwen, the head of the taxation of the Eight Caos in the Fujian prefect's yamen, is a native of Fuzhou.

He was originally just an official in the magistrate's yamen.

At the beginning of the second year of Baoqing, the imperial court was restructured, and the government set up six Caos (households, rituals, soldiers, criminals, workers, and officials), and each Cao set up a chief and a deputy.

Not long after, merchant cao and tax cao were added.

Because of Li Jiwen's good performance before, he was recommended by Qian Hongzu and became the head of Tax Cao.

At that time, it was set as a civil official of the seventh rank, and he was promoted from official to official at once.

Of course, many officials performed well in this reform of the imperial court, and all officials who cooperated with the imperial court were promoted.

After Li Jiwen was promoted to an official position, his relatives also became officials, and several relatives and friends became officials.

Because Zhao Yurui wanted to lay off 60 officials across the country, they are being reduced in batches and provinces.

After the reduction, the family members of local military officers will be prioritized as officials.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Jiwen also arranged for several relatives and friends to be officials.

One day after the announcement came out, four officials came to Li Jiwen's house.

It was Li Chen from Li Jiwen's family, Wu Guangming and Zhou Delu, relatives of his mother-in-law's family, and Yuan Kui, another relative of the deputy head of Tax Cao.

As soon as the four entered the door, they asked Li Jiwen, how to measure this time?

Among them, Yuan Kui participated in the statistics of Jiading from 16 to 17.

He said: "There are 321284 households in Chunxi, Fuzhou, 4263318 acres of grain fields, and 11356 stones of autumn tax rice."

"In the 17th year of Jiading, the grain field was reduced to 12 million mu, and the autumn tax rice was reduced to more than 8 shi."

"According to Master Li, what should we do this time?"

Li Jiwen stared at him, what do you mean?Why do you ask that?

Yuan Kui looked around and thought that the scene was all his own people, so he whispered: "Mr. Lin came to the door last night, which means—"

(End of this chapter)