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

Chapter 266 The first state-owned enterprise in the Song Dynasty

In September of the third year of Baoqing, Ma Guangzu came to Songjiang Saltworks at the same time that the bank thunderstorm broke out in the Song Dynasty.

Ma Guangzu was Zhao Yurui's first Jinshi when he was the emperor, and he also took the examination of Confucianism and Yike.

He didn't make the top three in the original history, but this time because of the good writing of the "strategy", he was selected as the second place by the emperor Zhao Yurui.

And had the opportunity to dine and communicate with the emperor alone.

Ma Guangzu's performance in history is also quite outstanding, and he has known Jiankang Mansion three times.

The first time I came to Jiankang, I paid 20 yuan for regular public utensils to reward soldiers and civilians; cut taxes and raised widows, widows, widows, widows and sick people; , relying on the pavilion to exempt tens of thousands; building a school, honoring talents, and officials are all very temporary choices. In the fifth year of Baoyou, Jiankang snowed heavily, and he himself donated 30 yuan to help the army and the people. (But why he is so rich, I don't know if he was born as an official, gentry and landlord.)
After that, he served as an envoy for the coastal system for a while, and then learned about Jiankang for the second time. He leniently supported the people's strength, made ups and downs, exempted more than one million yuan owed by the previous government, stopped and reduced the fishery tax tax, and benefited the people.To save costs, we built warehouses to store 15 shi of rice, and purchased more than 200 million yuan for the warehouse storage. The sales were often reduced to the market price to benefit the people.It is appropriate to repair the military and defense, prevent the expansion of key points, and be lenient and fierce in government.

Even Tuotuo, a famous minister of Yuanmeng, said: Ma Guangzu governed Jiankang, and his love for him is still in the hearts of the people. He can be said to be a capable minister.

But this time Ma Guangzu's career has completely changed.

He was recognized by the emperor in the palace examination, and was ranked second in the list. He was first promoted to Secretary Lang (eighth grade), and then went to Songjiang Saltworks.

Since the decision to restructure last year, the imperial court has set up a commercial and tax department at the road (provincial) level, and canceled the original promotion of Changping Tea and Salt Department.

The taxes collected on tea and salt, except for personal use, are all handed over to the commercial tax bureaus of each province.

And in Fuzhou below, the original salt farm was changed to the nature of a company manufacturer, which is tantamount to changing it to a state-owned enterprise.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were five salt fields in Songjiang, namely Qingcun, Yuanpu, Pudong, Punan, and Xiasha. After restructuring, they were unified into Pudong Salt Industry Company with five factories.

When Yuan Mihai was there, he was the factory supervisor. When Ma Guangzu came down, he was changed to a salt envoy (from the seventh rank), with two deputy salt envoys (from the eighth rank), five factory managers (from the eighth rank), and ten deputy factory managers. People (Nine Ranks), and Si Cheng, Guan Gou or Gan. The latter two used to be servants, but now they are all from the Ninth Rank.

In this way, the Pudong Salt Industry Company officially became a state-owned enterprise in the Song Dynasty. Their annual profits, except for their own expenses, were handed over to the Commercial and Taxation Department.

Basically, it is the business and taxation department that calculates their superior department.

Ma Guangzu was able to come here because he impressed the emperor with his strategies in the palace examination.

At that time, the palace examination, the imperial court came up with two strategies, one was on the measurement of Qingtian, the other was on the reform of the saltworks, asking about the pros and cons and their own ideas.

Ma Guangzu quoted scriptures and cited data, which is the only one among all Jinshi who uses data to prove it. Finally, it proves that if the imperial court followed the new policy of restructuring, the imperial court’s salt tax would be lower, but its income would definitely increase.

Ma Guangzu must have made a lot of preparations before participating in the palace examination, and he also guessed what the court would test.

During the restructuring of the saltworks, the imperial court said that the main business would be wholesale, and the tax would be ten cents, with the minimum price starting at five cents. What would be the impact, pros and cons? Some people said that the imperial salt tax would be reduced. Will it be so?

Ma Guangzu said no, the court would only increase income.

He said that the price of salt now varies across the Song Dynasty. The high price is [-] yuan, and the low price is only [-] or [-] yuan. The common people cannot afford salt and do not consume enough.

If the price of salt is lowered, the common people can afford to eat salt, and the production of salt can keep up, and they will make a lot of money.

Then he cited data.

In the pre-Qin period: a family of ten, ten people eat salt, a family of one hundred, a hundred people eat salt, the eldest son eats five liters of salt and less than half, the eldest daughter eats three liters of salt and less pass, my son eats two liters of salt and less Dou, he calculated that in the pre-Qin period, the per capita The amount of salt to eat is 25 grams per person, which means [-] catties a year.

Of course, from that time to before the reform of Zhao and Rui in the Song Dynasty, there were many impurities in salt, and it was normal for each person to eat fifteen kilograms per year (after all, there were many impurities in it when it was bought).

According to the standard of the Han Dynasty, the per capita salt is 22 grams per day, about [-] catties a year.

Tang Dynasty: For one male, two liters of rice, two teaspoons and five pinches of salt are given daily, and for boys and girls under the age of six, five pinches of salt.

According to Ma Guangzu's calculation, the per capita salt in the Tang Dynasty was 15 grams per day, about nine catties a year.

To this dynasty: "The price is high, and people are not willing to buy it, so it is so scientifically fussy."

Ma Guangzu estimated that the average per capita of this dynasty was similar to that of the Tang Dynasty, about nine kilograms per year.

There is a record in the Yuan Dynasty: "There are more than 16 million mouths in Zhejiang and Jiangdong, and the daily salt is four cents and one cent and eight cents." This data is estimated to be about [-] grams per day, about ten catties a year. , basically equivalent to Song Dynasty.

Ma Guangzu said in his policy statement that the Song Dynasty had a population of 8000 million.

According to the current average of nine catties a year per capita, if the price of salt is reduced, it may reach fifteen catties a year, even if it is ten catties a year, [-] million catties of salt will be consumed every year.

For every catty sold by the imperial court, the minimum price is five coins, and the tax is ten coins, that is, fifteen coins, which is 1000 and two million guan.

This is the lowest quantity and lowest price. In fact, it is estimated that 500 million guan can be received, which is far more than the two Song Dynasty dynasties.

But table salt was not just for eating in ancient times.

In ancient times, table salt had three functions: to preserve food, to use salt in agriculture and animal husbandry, and to brush teeth with refined salt.

Ma Guangzu calculated that the annual consumption of cured meat alone was [-] million catties.

Adding other things is one billion catties, and it is another 500 million strings.

Then Ma Guangzu said that if the price of salt dropped to fifteen cents, it would definitely hit the original green salt (Xixia salt), which meant that exports could be expanded and sold to Jin, Mongolia, even Korea, Japan, Champa and other places.

To sum up, if the imperial government reforms the salt tax and lowers the salt price, the common people can afford to eat salt, the output can keep up, and exports can be expanded. In the future, the imperial government’s salt tax revenue is expected to reach 3000 million guan.

This data is a bit watery, but it cannot be said to be too exaggerated. It is theoretically possible to achieve it. After all, the later Qing Dynasty received 4000 million taels of silver at its peak.

The peak of the salt tax in the Qing Dynasty was at the end, in the third year of Xuantong (AD 1911), the salt tax revenue (counted) was about 4500 million taels. Of course, the population at that time was much larger than it is now.

Ma Guangzu’s article quoted various data, although it was a bit watery and exaggerated, but Zhao Yurui admired it very much. After all, it was rare to see officials of the Southern Song Dynasty citing data to write policies, so they decided to appoint him as the ambassador of the salt industry company.

Ma Guangzu became the first general manager of Songjiang State-owned Enterprise in Songjiang area (where Jiaxing Mansion was located at this time).

After Ma Guangzu won the second place in the list, he first met the emperor alone, chatted and had dinner, and was immediately shocked. The emperor was a few years younger than him, but he seemed to be well-informed and proficient in everything about astronomy and geography. I was stunned for a while, and finally I fell to the ground, I couldn't admire it.

After three months of intensive teaching, the top three in the palace examination stayed in the palace for a few more months. Every time the emperor held a small official meeting, in addition to convening the chief officials of various important departments, the three of them could also sit in on it.

This continued until September, when Ma Guangzu came to Songjiang Salt Company.

Before coming here, he had received relevant training, and he also knew that the salt tax in the Song Dynasty was very important now. In addition to being linked to the income of the imperial court, it was also related to the power of local officials and gentry.

If the imperial court wanted to rectify the salt tax, it needed to control the power of local officials and gentry.

Fortunately, the emperor had already started to measure grain fields across the country, and by taking advantage of the matter of measuring the fields, the focus was on the local officials and gentry. After he took office, he needed an opportunity to attack the important local salt merchants.

On the third day of September, Ma Guangzu came to Xiasha Salt Field, where the office of the Salt Industry Company is located.

Deputy envoy and local official Tang Bin received him with a smile.

There were a lot of local officials at the local welcome banquet, Tang Bin entertained Ma Guangzu with good wine and good food, Ma Guangzu ate and drank calmly, and casually inquired about the affairs of the yamen.

The Salt Company has two deputy envoys, namely Tang Bin and Qu Lai, who used to be the deputy envoys of the Salt Bureau.

During the Song and Song Dynasties, salt bureau ambassadors and deputy envoys were set up in salt fields. In addition to ambassadors, deputy envoys and other salt field officials were all selected from local wealthy households and could be hereditary.

Therefore, there are two rich merchants near Songjiang, Tang and Qu, who were officials of the local salt bureau from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, and the two have survived for hundreds of years.

However, the salt industry in the Southern Song Dynasty was quite corrupt. On the surface, these two companies were helping the government, but in fact they were selling private salt. They basically owed money to the court and enriched themselves.

After the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan people changed their system and no longer tolerated them.

By the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the court also used the Qu family and the Tang family as local officials, but added that once the salt bureau suffered losses, the two wealthy families would be required to compensate.

In the Yuan Dynasty, it was also: "Official houses are set up in the sea, and soldiers guard the barracks. Private vend officials are prohibited, and private vend officials are punished. The regimental hall is strict and strict, and there is no harm in legislation."This effectively prevents the sale of private salt and enables the country to monopolize its profits.

The Yuan Dynasty had more experience in doing this than the Southern Song Dynasty, so the five salt fields in Songjiang had an annual salt output of 4000 million catties in the Yuan Dynasty, about two or three times that in the Southern Song Dynasty.

But the Yuan Dynasty was also bad because of the salt tax.

At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the price of salt from the salt field was only about 80.00 yuan, which was similar to that in the late Southern Song Dynasty. However, the salt tax in the Yuan Dynasty accounted for [-]% of its income, and it relied entirely on salt to make money.

Therefore, in the Yuan Dynasty, the price of salt became higher and higher. In the middle and late stages, the bid price from the salt field was 250 Wen per catty. The common people are [-] Wen per catty, and the price of salt far exceeds that of the Song Dynasty, and it is also the most expensive salt price in all dynasties.

In the Yuan Dynasty, when the market price of salt was 250 renminbi per catty, the salary paid to the salt workers by the imperial saltworks was [-] renminbi. You see, the imperial court earned [-] times for nothing, and the capitalists were moved to tears.

How much will the two Songs give?
Ma Guangzu asked Tang Bin and Qu Lai that day.

After the reorganization of the imperial court, there were two deputy envoys, one in charge of salt production and the other in charge of sales.

Tang Bin was in charge of making salt. He said that according to the new regulations of the imperial court, there were originally ten stoves and one armor, but now ten armors were added to form a regiment. , with one head and one deputy head.

The imperial court does not pay money according to output, but directly pays wages.

Because kitchen households are hereditary for the whole family, and the imperial court has a new system, each household is divided into adults.

(End of this chapter)