I'm a big dick

Chapter 285 Disadvantages of the Law
Now that the Chinese New Year has just passed, he finally has some leisure time, and the Secretary of the General Administration also played the memorabilia of the backlog of the previous year.

After seeing these two test books, Zhu Youxiao discovered that the problem of salt monopoly was not solved by the law as he imagined.

What caused the "Huaiyue dispute" was caused by the division of salt system in the Ming Dynasty's Salt Law.The so-called zone-based distribution of salt means that the country is divided into several major salt areas, and it is stipulated that only official salt marketing is allowed, and it is limited within the respective salt areas.

At that time, the government stipulated that the southern part of Huguang, where Huai salt should be purchased, because it was far away from the Huai salt production area and the transportation was not smooth.And it is very close to Guangdong, where there is nowhere to sell salt, which creates a very embarrassing situation.

In the second year of Zhengde, the Ming government approved the sale of the long-accumulated Guangyan out of the province, and then Hunan began to buy Guangyan.

However, although the imperial court's approval resolved the cross-border sales of Guangyan salt, the high price of official salt made it difficult to compete with relatively cheap private salt, which aroused strong dissatisfaction from the officials in the Lianghuai area.

In the third year of Zhengde, the Ji'an government re-sold Huai salt. Later, the governor of Nangan requested to expand the sales scope of Guangyan in the Lianghuai area on the grounds of raising military rations, but was forced to stop it due to the opposition of the governor of Jiangxi.

Since then, in order to seek their own interests, the central government and local governments, local governments and local governments, as well as various power groups, have either mediated or played games with each other, leading to the "Huaiyue dispute" that was barely resolved until Chongzhen ascended the throne in history.

The so-called reluctant solution is just a compromise, or balance, by the government to the local government in order to collect salt tax, but it has not completely solved the disadvantages.

In fact, according to normal thinking, you can think of the disadvantages of salt sales in different areas.That is to say, the edge of the salt area must cost more, and it is far away from the salt production area!
However, official salt cannot compete with private salt, and private salt has been banned repeatedly. The water here is deep.

In Zhu Youxiao's mind, the cumbersome management and official exploitation must be important reasons.And the development and growth of private salt must have the shadow of some powerful bureaucrats behind it.

Let's just say "the dispute between Huaihe and Guangdong". Is it really the two major salt areas competing for the completion of the country's salt class?Or are local bureaucrats trying to use it for personal gain?I am afraid that there are several players, and it is an extremely complicated game.

Originally, after Yuan Shizhen introduced the guidelines and laws, the Lianghuai salt administration had improved quite a bit. Zhu Youxiao felt that he didn't need to bother too much, and concentrated on doing important things well first.

But now it seems that this matter is not too urgent, but it can't be delayed for too long.After all, the She'an Rebellion has not yet been settled, and southern Jiangxi and Hunan must ensure the logistics supply of the Ming army, which cannot be ignored.

"Come here, ask Liu Ruoyu to come here." Zhu Youxiao had read the two scriptures, but was not very clear about the crux of them, so he ordered the palace servants to summon Liu Ruoyu.

Not much time, Liu Ruoyu rushed to the study.Zhu Youxiao directly asked him to find out the title book of Yuan Shizhen's proposed outline, and prepare to study it carefully.

At the same time, Zhu Youxiao ordered the palace staff to find Li Qiyuan, Shangshu of the Household Department, and asked him to send officials familiar with salt administration to the palace to inquire.

Liu Ruoyu's work efficiency is very high, which shows that he usually puts great effort into sorting out the memorabilia, and soon submitted Yuan Shizhen's memoir.

The outline law enables the Lianghuai Salt Administration to hand over millions of taels of silver every year. Zhu Youxiao also knew that it was continued by the Qing Dynasty, so he did not study it deeply.

After getting the specific implementation plan of the Gangfa, Zhu Youxiao asked Liu Ruoyu to read and talk while he drank the tea slowly, and his mind began to work rapidly.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the salt monopoly implemented the "opening method", that is, merchants were asked to purchase materials urgently needed by the country and transport them to designated places. .

This is originally a policy of taking what they need, and both sides benefit, and there is nothing wrong with it.

However, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, in order to collect more wealth from the salt monopoly, the imperial court disregarded the balance between production and sales, and distributed salt indiscriminately.

The consequence is that after the merchants get the salt, there is no salt to support in the salt field, and the phenomenon of salt accumulation occurs. This problem is most prominent in Lianghuai.

At the same time, the government's treatment of the salt farms has also dropped again and again, and some salt farm owners have taken risks and sold their salt to private salt dealers for huge profits.

As a result, official salt was congested, private salt prevailed, and salt tax was difficult to guarantee.The tax supervisor first borrowed salt tax from salt merchants, and later developed to pre-collect salt tax.

As a result, the capital of salt merchants has been occupied for a long time, and operating costs have increased.In the 43rd year of Wanli, the government forcibly controlled the salt price at the port (Hankou), forcing some salt merchants to flee at a loss, and the market fell into chaos.

By the 44th year of Wanli, that is, eight or nine years ago, the Lianghuai salt tax had been suspended for two and a half years.When many people thought that the Lianghuai Salt Administration was hopeless, Yuan Shizhen stepped forward and took on the important task of saving the Lianghuai Salt Administration from danger.

Yuan Shizhen conducted an in-depth investigation and research on the pros and cons of the salt administration at that time. Aiming at the current situation of the Lianghuai salt administration, he put forward the "Ten Proposals on the Salt Law".

The "Gangfa" is a plan proposed by Yuan Shizhen after he arrived in Lianghuai and took office, focusing on promoting new quotations and supplemented by sparse sales and accumulated quotations.

To put it simply, the Gangfa is to organize the salt merchants who hold the backlog of salt quotations over the years into ten sections. Every year, the government exchanges 20 old salt quotations with one of the "gang" salt merchants, which is equivalent to repaying the debt.

At the same time, the government collected a total of 180 million salt taxes for new salt quotations from the remaining nine "programmes" of salt merchants.

In this way, the state is equivalent to repaying a total of 200 million old salt debts in ten years, and at the same time, it can guarantee that new salt taxes will be put into the treasury every year.

Zhu Youxiao raised his hand to signal Liu Ruoyu to stop first, he had to ponder and digest.From the point of view of this policy alone, it would be a good idea.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Youxiao thought there was nothing wrong with it, but the salt merchant seemed to be unprofitable, so why did he agree?With doubts in his heart, the emperor waved his hands and told Liu Ruoyu to continue reading.

After Yuan Shizhen launched the "Guidelines", as expected, not many salt merchants responded eagerly, but most of them took a wait-and-see attitude.

Then, Yuan Shizhen introduced the "occupation of nests" law to stimulate businessmen.

The so-called "occupation method" is to publish a catalog based on the current data, "keep it with all merchants for a hundred years, and keep it as a nest book", "according to the old number in the album every year, send it to the new quotation."

That is to say, in the future, those who are famous in the compendium can only buy new quotations according to the number of old quotations in the compendium, and can operate salt business in designated areas, and can also be hereditary, while those who are not named in the compendium will be excluded.

I go!As soon as he heard the word "hereditary", Zhu Youxiao instinctively felt something was wrong.Isn't it because of hereditary inheritance that the suzerain and vassals can't lose their tails and become a heavy financial burden for Ming Dynasty?

Of course, it is a matter of course that the emperor himself is hereditary, and it has been the rule for thousands of years.

(End of this chapter)