I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 206 Salt Law Reform
The first year of Jianwu in the Ming Dynasty, 1723 AD.

June twenty.

Nanjing Imperial Palace.

Royal study.

Zhu Yijiong reviewed the memorials as usual. Although the situation in Jiangnan has become increasingly clear, he, the founding emperor in a substantial sense, still cannot slack off.

Not only him, but also the various cabinet ministries are also busy every day, even if they have one day off all year round.

However, everyone is enjoying it.

After all, this is the founding of a country, and it is not as good as working for others. Now that you work hard, it is not impossible to become a prince.

The Secretary's Office was obviously familiar with Emperor Zhu's work habits, and directly placed the Ministry of Affairs and the Privy Council's memorials at the top.

Opening the first memorial, it was a military report sent from Nangan.The Privy Council has already given its opinions on the matter, and the Cabinet of Secretaries has also proposed some amendments as usual, which all make sense.

Huang Dian openly disobeyed military orders and dispatched troops south without authorization.Although he took the initiative to admit his guilt in the memorial afterwards, making a mistake is a mistake, and punishment will definitely be imposed.

However, Huang Dian took this opportunity to capture Nangan. This was another military achievement and a great achievement.

The Privy Council felt that this was a counterweight to the merits and could be given a little hammering.

The Secretariat believes that punishment must be given, but rewards must also be given, that is, both kindness and power should be given.

Both sides' opinions are valid. The former is from a human perspective, while the latter is from a system perspective.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a moment and wrote a reply: "State-owned and state-owned laws."

After all, he is now the emperor, and the so-called affection cannot outweigh everything else, especially imperial power.

Huang Dian acted without permission this time and disobeyed military orders, and the impact was too bad.

If it becomes a trend, then where will the majesty of the future center be?
From this point we can see the difference between the Secretariat and the Privy Council.

The former always thinks from the perspective of imperial power, while the latter is more diplomatic.

After thinking about it, Zhu Yijiong added another sentence: "You should also think carefully about it."

As for whom this was said, it depends on what the Privy Council thinks.

The Privy Council has already made arrangements to mobilize troops to support the Southern Jiangxi affairs.Once he receives a reply from one side, he can quickly mobilize troops to support him there.

I took out the second letter, which was from Huainan Yang Gong.

It mainly records the war in Huainan, and also requests for reinforcements to garrison Huai River.

At the same time, he also reported congratulations to Nanjing that Fengyang Mansion, the central capital of the Ming Dynasty, had been captured.

Regarding this, Zhu Yijiong didn't have much trouble in his heart. Zhongdu Fengyang was nothing more than Lao Zhu's hometown and the location of the Ming Dynasty ancestral tomb.

When the Ming Dynasty was still in Zhejiang, if they could capture Fengyang, they might be able to cheer up.But now that even Jiangnan has been basically occupied, Fengyang Mansion no longer has much meaning.

All I can say is that talking is better than nothing!

The Privy Council and the Secretariat had unanimous opinions this time. They both suggested that the emperor should choose a day to go there in person or send representatives there to pay homage to and repair the Ming Emperor's mausoleum after settling down in Fengyang border town.

Zhu Yijiong raised his pen and said: "Yes."

It's just a matter of sending people to worship, and it won't waste much time.

After reviewing it, I continued to scroll down, and finally found the latest military report.

It turned out to be an urgent report from Yangzhou.

After opening it for a few glances, Zhu Yijiong's face suddenly darkened, and then he said, "Here comes someone!"

"His Majesty!"

The secretary on duty will come in immediately.

"Immediately summon the six ministers of the cabinet to come to the imperial study for an audience."

"The minister obeys the order."

Seeing Zhu Yijiong's solemn expression, the secretary quickly trotted down to ask someone to inform the various cabinet ministries.

These people responsible for reporting are all well-informed, mainly from the Sixth Department of the Cabinet, the Three Legal Departments and other agencies, and not all of them are built around the palace.

Some are far away and some are close. This is also to avoid collusion between departments and work interference.Under the rapid notification from the palace knights, several pavilion elders and six chief officers soon learned that the emperor wanted to summon them urgently.

They all looked confused. They had just held a study room meeting some time ago, so why were they having another meeting now?

Moreover, they only called their cabinet and six ministries to come, but not several other ministries.

Especially the Privy Council, which has been in court with the six branches of the cabinet.

Although Zhu Yijiong deliberately raised his hand in the Ordnance Bureau, it was an organization similar to the Ministry of Industry, and there were only a few officials in it.

In addition to the rank and the emperor's holy family, even the newly established Sanfa Division is somewhat incomparable, and it is only slightly better than Honglu Temple.

However, since the emperor had announced his intention to come quickly, these people naturally did not dare to delay and rushed to the palace in sedan chairs.

Since it was an urgent summons, including the round trip time, these people hurried and hurried slowly, and it still took them less than half an hour to arrive at the palace.

The chief officers of the six departments below hurriedly came to ask several pavilion elders, but even the chief assistant Wang Li didn't know.

A group of people came to the imperial study room full of doubts. Wang Li took the lead and everyone saluted.

Amidst the shouts of long live the mountain, Zhu Yijiong raised his hand slightly, with an indescribably serious expression: "Pingshen."

"This is an urgent report sent from Yangzhou, take a look!"

When he heard that it was an urgent report from Yangzhou, Zhu Chengxun, who was attending the meeting as a cabinet minister, shrank his pupils, as if he had guessed something.

Soon, all the ministers present finished circulating it. Except for a few pavilion elders who were good at nourishing qi, the rest all had different expressions, some were surprised and some were doubtful.

However, Zhu Yijiong did not ask the officials what they thought of the memorial as usual. Instead, he said: "Have you read it all? Since you have read it all, let me ask you now, what is the current salt law of the Ming Dynasty?"

Although he asked calmly, everyone present heard the connotation of the emperor's words.

The emperor is angry!
"Your Majesty, calm down!"

In an instant, people were kneeling on the ground.

Zhu Yijiong just glanced at the people kneeling below and said: "Salt is the foundation for the livelihood of the people. If the people cannot eat salt, they will not have the strength to work."

"Yangzhou salt merchants can donate one million taels of military expenses to our Ming Dynasty every year. It's great. It's quite a generous gesture."

Without waiting for Wang Li and others to reply, Zhu Yijiong continued: "I originally thought that the new tax laws should make the people live a little better, but I didn't expect that I ignored such an important matter. This is my fault..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Li hurriedly knelt forward and said: "Your Majesty, please calm down, this is all the fault of the humble minister. As the chief minister of the cabinet, the minister failed to detect the omissions for your majesty, which led to such a catastrophe. Please convict Your Majesty!"

A good minister does not need to have high abilities, but he must be able to stand by the emperor at any time.

Zhu Yijiong said: "I will be exempted from the crime! But the Salt Law..."

Wang Li said categorically: "Reporting to your majesty, I believe that the salt merchants should be completely banned, and the salt merchants should be exclusively operated by the government, and the price of salt should be strictly regulated."

This is obviously a bit too extreme, and it is purely government-run. In ancient times, it was the same as private salt merchants.

This was also done during the Northern Song Dynasty, but in the end it had to be returned to the private sector because corruption in the government sector was too serious.

Zhu Yijiong already had a draft in mind and said: "A complete ban is not necessary, but we should not be too liberal. We can openly recruit monopoly dealers in each province and grant them the salt monopoly, but it cannot be permanent, only five years at most."

"Investment will be re-invited after five years, and every step of the salt factory, transshipment, and retail must be reported. Salt sold without registration permission will never be allowed on the market."

"Also, the market price of salt is strictly stipulated. If it exceeds the limit, the salt monopoly qualification will be revoked. At the same time, the local government will also strictly crack down on illegal salt. Any illegal salt will be banned and the family property will be confiscated."

"Finally, the General Department of Salt Administration was established, with the subordinate salt administration departments responsible for the salt drying plants in various places."

"This law will be written into our Great Ming Law, and future kings will not ban it for any reason."

This method is actually just a small repair, mainly because there is no other way.

In this era, it is sheer nonsense to engage in salt management.History has long proven that government-run operations will only accelerate the decay of the salt administration. Even later state-run operations were entrusted to the private sector for retail sales.

Therefore, setting up a monopoly dealer in each province and adding a limited time exclusive right can basically put an end to the hereditary monopoly among salt merchants.

As long as the imperial court tightly controls the means of production of the salt-drying salt factory, cracks down on the private salt industry, and monitors the market salt price, there will basically be no problems.

Of course, there are definitely loopholes that can be exploited, but it is definitely much better than the original diversion system.

The purpose of attracting exclusive traders to the shore is collusion between government and businessmen, and monopoly capital. This is how the Yangzhou salt merchants came to be.

At this time, Zhu Yijiong could only use the knife in his hand to stabilize the price of salt.

(End of this chapter)