Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 232 When Encouraging the Transformation of Salt Merchants

Gao Hongtu, the second assistant to the cabinet who accompanied Zhu Youjian, and Li Ruolian, the commanding envoy, saw Zhu Youjian's expression of panic and thoughtfulness, but they didn't know what to say.

In the end, it was Gao Hongtu who tried to ask: "Is it possible that Your Majesty doesn't like this Huaiyang cuisine?"

Naturally, Zhu Youjian was not indifferent because of the tastelessness of the dishes. Seeing Gao Hongtu asking himself suddenly, he also replied: "If I remember correctly, Aiqing is from Jiaozhou?"

Gao Hongtu naturally said yes quickly.

"Salt seems to be produced in Jiaozhou, Shandong Province, and the area has always been flooded with illegal salt. Does your Gao family have any people engaged in the salt industry?"

Zhu Youjian still remembers the fact that Gao Hongtu turned his back on the battlefield and did not follow Zhang Shenyan and other rebels to trap the court in danger.

Gao Hongtu's style of work is worthy of Zhu Youjian's appreciation, which also made Zhu Youjian realize that although Gao Hongtu has no talent for helping the country, he has good conduct and can distinguish right from wrong. The assistant does not hold real power, and Gao Hongtu has never complained. Although his disciples and old officials are all over the world, he did not use this to set off a factional dispute in the court.

Zhu Youjian suddenly felt that he could actually give Gao Hongtu a chance to benefit his family. With Gao Hongtu's position in the cabinet and Gao Hongtu's status among the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, let him lead the reform of the salt industry, and perhaps the resistance will be much smaller. , and the benefit is naturally to make the Gao family an extremely wealthy imperial merchant.

Gao Hongtu didn't know that His Majesty Zhu Youjian was going to give him a huge fortune. When Zhu Youjian asked about the private salt, he thought that His Majesty wanted to rectify the salt affairs, so he had no choice but to reply: "Don't dare to lie to Your Majesty, Weichen’s family has been salt merchants for generations, and the proliferation of private salt is indeed a chronic problem in the government, but the people who sell private salt are either princes or desperadoes, and the rectification of salt affairs can be said to involve a lot.”

"Very well, I'm asking you this, not about cracking down on private salt, but about people eating salt," Zhu Youjian told Gao Hongtu his thoughts.

"Since the Aiqing family has been salt merchants for generations, they should understand that private salt is difficult to prohibit and official salt is difficult to sell. The reason is that most of the income from the salt industry of the imperial court flows into the pockets of powerful and powerful families, but it also benefits the people; the current crackdown on private salt, even with an iron fist, will not be effective for a while, and it will also be difficult to change the status quo of official salt. It is a move to win the hearts of the people.”

Zhu Youjian said again: "The price of salt is set by the imperial court, and the production of salt is negotiated by the government. It should not make the people have no edible salt and the city has no bad salt. Since Aiqing's family has been a salt merchant for generations, it should be Knowing who is loyal, benevolent and filial among the salt merchants in the world, and who only cares about fame and fortune, I can recommend them, and I plan to set up the first batch of salt companies in these two Huai salt industries."

Gao Hongtu also understood the meaning of Zhu Youjian, Emperor Chongzhen, and knew that it was a good thing that His Majesty Zhu Youjian wanted to give his family a day of wealth.

"Get up, you are the chief assistant of the cabinet, and your disciples and old officials are all over the world. It is a good thing for you to take the lead in this matter, but if your Gao family becomes an imperial merchant, I will not let you alone." Zhu Youjian took the picture Shoot Li Ruolian:
"The Commander of Jinyiwei knows that Li Ruolian has been guarding me since he moved to the south. You should be able to understand the merits of his hard work. Let him take [-]% of the shares in your Gao family's salt industry. Li Ruolian gets half of it, and I get [-]%. The same is true for the other salt merchants you introduced. What you need to do now is to calculate the number of salt producing lands in Daming and how many salt companies need to be established before the commercial tax collection starts in July. After the Yanyin system is banned, how to arrange its way out, how much benefits the common people can get, how much the government can benefit, and at the same time, mobilize your students to play this matter. At that time, I will let you take the lead in this matter, with the help of your Gao family, you As the second assistant to the cabinet, I believe you can handle these matters well."

After Zhu Youjian finished speaking, Li Ruolian also thanked him. From a certain point of view, he is now regarded as Zhu Youjian's royal capital manager in the salt business.

It is naturally necessary for Zhu Youjian to allow himself to occupy a certain percentage of the salt industry's profits.

The imperial finances have always been divided into internal funds and treasury. The profit from the salt and iron mines belonged exclusively to the emperor. Zhu Youjian now only occupies a part of it to stimulate scientific and cultural undertakings and improve the quality of life of the royal family. Naturally, it is understandable. There are still many dilapidated places in the Nanjing Forbidden City. Besides, if you are an emperor without capital control, it is not easy to exercise imperial power.

Gao Hongtu naturally did not refuse Zhu Youjian's certain percentage of the commission. He believed that the salt merchants who would become imperial merchants in the future would definitely not refuse, after all, this was the wealth that Zhu Youjian bestowed on them.

While the salt merchants were still throwing stones and asking for directions for Yanyin, Zhu Youjian has already started to cooperate with big bureaucrats like Gao Hongtu to move their cakes.

However, Zhu Youjian didn't care about the life and death of most of the salt merchants. After all, their families also raised many low-level people, and they were in charge of everything from salt transportation to grain transportation.

What Zhu Youjian wanted was to control the price of salt and the quality of salt, not to let most people lose their jobs. Therefore, before returning to Beijing, he decided to summon Wang Jiaqin of the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty to discuss and encourage those who failed to become emperors. The salt merchants of the merchants took loans for transformation.

Zhu Youjian established the Daming Central Bank, and up to now it is still mainly focused on savings business, lending has basically not been hyped up, and businessmen have not yet got the habit of lending bank money when doing business.

And this time the salt merchants are transforming, Zhu Youjian can naturally encourage them to borrow money from the bank, and stimulate them to expand their capital and business ideas to more industries, not just limited to salt, grain, tea, etc.

In the future, the development of light industries such as the textile industry, leather industry, paper industry, and daily chemical industry will require the participation of a large number of private capital and businessmen. Only in this way can the further development of the Ming Dynasty's commodity economy be promoted.

Zhu Youjian didn't want these merchants who had mastered wealth to only know about the trade of salt, iron, tea, grain and cloth.

After returning to the River Governor's Office, the sky began to darken, and Zhu Youjian couldn't help asking Li Ruolian: "I have bestowed you with such wealth, have you ever thought about what you will do with this wealth in the future, answer truthfully!"

"Returning to Your Majesty, I dare not lie to Your Majesty, so I bought land and real estate. Now the north is occupied by slaves, and many scholars and people in the north live in the south of the Yangtze River, which makes the land and housing prices in the south of the Yangtze River rise. , but still live in the courtyard twice, the family has no real estate, and the family of eight lives on the salary of humble ministers and the New Year's rewards of His Majesty!"

After Zhu Youjian heard about it, he couldn't help sighing that Li Ruolian, as a third-rank official, still had pressure to live in Jiangnan where prices were high, not to mention the people at the bottom, it seemed that his own salt reform was very necessary.

(End of this chapter)