In the 20th year of Zhenguan... Dengzhou began to develop. Li You had a sudden idea and began to build sea fields in Dengzhou. What is this sea fields made of? Hehe... it is used to dry salt.

It is known that salt is an ancient strategic storage and distribution material, and this salt is mainly distributed in seawater, salt lakes, salt wells and salt mines.

In addition to sea water, other methods of obtaining were not very mature during the Tang Dynasty, so these salts were all salt blocks with large grains, even bitter salt. The salt eaten by the people of the Tang Dynasty was not good.

When Li You went to the house of the people, he saw large salt blocks in the house of the people, so he thought of building a sea field, and then used the salt drying method to obtain salt and sell salt.

But what Li You didn't expect was that the method of salt drying was very difficult. At the beginning, Li You used his memory to dry salt, but it was not successful at all. Finally, he had to return to modern times. After watching in modern times for a few days, he came back to teach successfully.

The salt field method brought back by Li You from modern times is called solar evaporation method... Its principle is to use the sun to evaporate the sea water in the salt field, and the concentration of salt gradually increases, and finally the salt crystallizes from the sea water.

The salt field method first requires building a salt pond on a wide and flat beach, and putting seawater in at high tide, that is, "invigorating tides". Then let the seawater shine through the multi-level salt pond to sunlight, causing the seawater to evaporate and salt to concentrate. This process is called "making brine".

In the process of making the brine, impurities such as iron, calcium, sulfur will be first precipitated from the salt pond. When the seawater evaporates 90%, the salinity of the brine reaches 26%, which means that it reaches the "salt point", and the brine is introduced into the crystallization pond to crystallize.

When 85% of the salt precipitates, other minerals such as magnesium salt and potassium salt are extracted from it. The salt obtained by salt drying in seawater is coarse salt, which contains more impurities (such as calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, etc.). Through purification of coarse salt, the salt obtained is refined salt.

Once these fine salts were made, they became the most popular commodity in the entire Tang Dynasty. At this time of the Tang Dynasty, salt was relatively relaxed and there was no need to pay taxes. Therefore, Li You's salt was not only good, but also sold cheaply. This is also one of the reasons why Li You's salt became a popular commodity.

Of course, although there was no tax on salt in the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty's management of the salt industry was consistent and did not let it go.

If you want to sell salt, you must have salt entries. However, others may be troubled by salt entries, but Li You does not need it. You should know that the Tang Dynasty is now under the rule of the crown prince Li Zhi. Li You submitted a report and said that as much salt entries as you want, Li You will directly approve the salt entries.

Although Changsun Wuji wanted to object, there was no tax on salt, and Chang'an and other areas were indeed short of salt. In addition, Li Zhi was desperate and Li Shimin did not pay much attention to this matter, so although Changsun Wuji was determined to object, he had no strength.

The main reason is that salt does not require tax payments now, which has nothing to do with the court. Li Zhi made a lot of money by making a lot of money, and Li You had no shortage of salt in the area, so Dengzhou made a big deal with salt.

Moreover, this transaction is not a one-time, it is eternal. Li You used this salt-drying method to directly reflow the people of Dengzhou, from 50,000 to 100,000 now.

It's really a huge deal.

Of course, Li You's salt is sold at a cheap and good price. Of course, it has hit some people who sell salt. These people who sell salt are basically controlled by the aristocratic families. By Li You's blow, many aristocratic families hate Li You to the core.

This also led to Li You's trouble in the future.

Li Shimin had actually seen this step a long time ago, so Li Shimin was indifferent to Li Zhi's criticism of salt for Li You, because this is a good thing. It can not only attack the aristocratic families, but also arouse the aristocratic families' boycotts and dissatisfaction with Li You, and it is like killing two birds with one stone.

No, it is the Three Diao, because Li You's salt is really good, not only cheap but also fine. This allows the people of the Tang Dynasty to eat cheap and good salt. What is this the Three Diao?

Li Shimin is scheming and has to admire him.

This salt... Actually, it was done very well in the early Tang Dynasty, because in the early Tang Dynasty, in order to encourage production and cultivate and replenish people, the court adopted a relaxed attitude towards the private salt management, and did not impose salt taxes, and gave acquiesce to the private sales of private salt.

It has always been very good, but after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty's economy suffered a heavy blow and urgently needed to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

So Emperor Xuanzong of Tang turned his attention to the salt administration and began to impose taxes on salt taxes. During the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang, the two tax laws had replaced the system of renting and mediocre taxes as a way for the imperial court to collect taxes, and salt taxes became an important tax source for the imperial court.

This was done, and soon a kind of salt monopoly appeared... The salt monopoly was prevalent in order to solve the problem of "resource depletion" in the army. Later, in order to increase fiscal revenue, the salt monopoly system began to take shape after the Anshi Rebellion, and the government began to monopolize the entire production and sales process. As the saying goes, "Salt in the world is the best".

The specific approach is to set up a special supervisory authority in the salt production area, responsible for purchasing locally produced salt, and then the government is responsible for selling it to all parts of the country. The government monopolizes the salt administration and sells all profits, and the price of salt is decided by the court.

However, the country has obtained huge fiscal revenue through the salt industry, but this is based on exploiting the people. The court has set high taxes on merchants, so in order to make profits, merchants naturally have to transfer the prices to the people.

The rise in salt prices opened up a vicious cycle. During the Tang Dynasty, many businessmen became rich because of salt trading. In contrast, the people's living burden increased and they even had to choose to eat lightly.

The court had such strict control over official salt, and merchants were greedy to sell salt at higher prices, so the public naturally sold private salt. The Tang Dynasty strictly controlled the sale of private salt, and the sentence was very heavy. Those who stole a stone of salt and were sentenced to death, and those who stole more than one bucket would be sentenced to poker. If they were arrested for selling private salt in the capital, then his neighbors and family would be held in a row.

However, the profit of selling salt is so high that some salt households take risks and sell official salt to merchants at high prices. The merchants sell them at prices lower than the market price to make huge profits. In the long run, those who sell private salt are supported by the people, and the Tang Dynasty government gradually loses the people's hearts.

Later, a large number of followers appeared around the people who sold private salt and openly challenged the government. Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, leaders of the peasant uprising in the late Tang Dynasty, were born to sell private salt. Later, Wang Jian and Xu Wen also made a living by selling private salt.

The demise of the Tang Dynasty was more or less like the shadow of salt. However, this situation has not happened in the Tang Dynasty now, so Li You could sell salt openly. If Li You traveled through time after the Anshi Rebellion, then selling salt like Li You would not be valid, because at that time the salt tax was the most important source of the Tang Dynasty and had to be nationalized.

Li You dare not say that he would get permission from the government if he sold salt. Even if he got it, an official would interfere with it. Li You would still lose it. The good thing is that the current Tang Dynasty salt tax is not the only one, so Li You’s salt can be sold or sold all over the country.

It's a time difference issue.

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Chapter completed!