In early February of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, spring returned to the earth and everything revived.

The beginning of spring means that a new reincarnation has begun, which is the beginning of all things and the meaning of all rebirths.

After the beginning of spring, spring plowing began in various places. Zhu Cixiang left Nanjing again and went to Yangzhou Prefecture in the north of the Yangtze River to inspect the area to completely solve the problem of dwindling salt taxes.

As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, China's salt production industry had been quite developed. For more than two thousand years, the southeastern coast has been one of the salt production centers.

The largest salt field in the Ming Dynasty is undoubtedly the Lianghuai Salt Field in South Zhili. The production areas include salt fields in Huainan and Huaibei. Among them, the Huainan Salt Field has the oldest development history, and the Huaibei Salt Field has the largest production scale.

The Ming Dynasty continued the system of the Yuan Dynasty and set up the Lianghuai Capital Transfer Salt Envoy Department in Yangzhou Fucheng, with three divisions, two batch inspection offices, thirty salt fields and salt courses each. During the Hongwu period, more than 352,000 cooking courses were held every year.

Yin, after the Hongzhi, it was changed to Xiaoyinyan, which was doubled.

Salt is one of the indispensable necessities for the human body to survive. It has a similar value to food. In a society with a backward commodity economy, it is a hard currency and can be used as a material for circulation and exchange.

Zhu Cixiang had already set his sights on the salt industry. At first, because the stakes involved were too high, he did not dare to take action.

Nowadays, the nobles of the two capitals in the north and south, the gentry officials, landlords and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River have been killed one after another by him. The backers of those big salt merchants have been almost wiped out by him. Now if they want to engage in the salt industry, it is like

It is just as easy for a strong man to bully an orphan or a widowed mother.

Since ancient times, the salt tax has been one of the important taxes collected by various dynasties. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, where the tax rate was low, the salt tax sometimes even accounted for half of the tax revenue.

After Zhu Cixiang finished handling the trade and maritime trade matters, he immediately went on a patrol to the north to inspect the production of sea salt in the Huaihe River. He also went out incognito and randomly inspected places.

In the fifth year of Hongzhi's reign, the imperial court reformed the salt tax, replacing the kaizhong method with the kaizhongzhese method. The method of attracting merchants and paying grain was changed to paying money to pay for the ministry. Then, you could go directly to the salt farm to collect salt. You could get salt by paying a certain amount of silver.

"Yin" is a salt-producing unit, and one yin can be divided into three hundred kilograms. According to the rules, each yin is equivalent to one meter per stone. The salt is first converted into rice, and then converted into silver according to the price of rice.

In the forty-fifth year of Wanli, after more than 100 years of practice, the imperial court adopted the salt method introduced by Yuan Shizhen, promoted the steel salt method, and implemented the salt industry monopoly.

The Gangsalt Method is to compile the salt quotations received by each merchant into a compendium, divided into ten compendiums. Every year, one compendium is used for accumulated quotations, and nine compendiums are used for current quotations. Every year, new quotations are issued according to the number on the compendium.

Those who are famous will be regarded as the nest, and those who are unknown will not be allowed to join. From then on, officials will not collect salt, and merchants and salt households will trade directly.

The Gang Salt Law gave salt merchants hereditary arbitrary power, and the salt merchants began to accumulate huge wealth from this period. For this reason, some Shanxi merchants even went to the Huaihe and Huaihe areas to compete with Hui merchants for salt profits.

Direct transactions between merchants and salt farmers have certain benefits for the salt farmers. Salt production is no longer subject to government supervision and control. As long as the salt tax is paid on time, you can do whatever you want at your own time. You can develop side businesses.

It can also produce more salt.

Salt never worries about sales. After more salt is produced, businessmen will naturally come to buy it. The purchase price is often higher than the original price offered by the government. If they catch up with the good market, the life of the salt collectors will be as good as it is.

It's very nourishing. If you make enough money, you can start a business or buy land and become a small landlord.

Nowadays, one stone of rice in the southern Zhili area costs more than 20 taels of silver. Logically speaking, a saltman can earn more than 20 taels of silver in a year. In the countryside at that time, this was a very considerable income. At least we can achieve a moderately prosperous living standard.

However, Zhu Cixiang, who was patrolling incognito, saw a place where a salt-making village was located. The houses were very dilapidated, and the salt workers who came and went were all still dilapidated, with disheveled faces, just like refugees.

Zhu Cixiang immediately realized the seriousness of the problem. The salt industry chain might be far darker than imagined.

At Zhu Cixiang's signal, Li Hu, the imperial guard general of the Qianqing Palace, stepped forward and grabbed an old man and asked: "Old man, Yangzhou Prefecture is so prosperous, why are you so poor?"

The old man looked Li Hu up and down, frowned and said: "What did the young man say? The poor have dug up your ancestral graves? Can't you live?"

Zhu Cixiang secretly shook his head, Li Tingbiao was like a personal genius, how could he give birth to such an unworldly guy.

He stepped forward and said: "I misunderstood, my guard rarely comes out and can't speak. Please forgive me."

"That's true!" The old man's face softened, and he looked at Zhu Cihong again, and then said: "Looking at your outfit, you should be a rich man. What are you doing in our Yanghe group?"

"I heard that your Yanghe Group produces salt. We would like to buy some salt in large quantities."

The old man raised his eyebrows, with a hint of fear on his face, and asked tentatively: "Salt merchant?"

Zhu Cixiang smiled and said: "Don't be nervous, old man. We are serious businessmen and trade legally. I will underwrite all the salt you produce. This year, I can buy it for three taels of silver per pound. What do you think?"

"Three twos and one lead?" The old man couldn't help but be overjoyed after hearing this.

According to the normal purchase price, a piece of salt is only 2 taels to 2 taels and 5 taels of silver. The young man in front of him was given three taels at once. He was naturally very happy. This is not a serious businessman. He is simply the God of Wealth descending to earth. !

The old man who was originally sullen immediately changed his attitude. He turned sideways and stretched out his hand and said: "Master, please follow me and sit in my house for a while. I will go and invite the leader!"

When Zhu Cixi came, he had a general understanding of the salt industry's production chain and market conditions, and knew that the salt industry's production organization was divided into three levels: field, group, and kitchen.

The salt field is the management agency, which is also commonly known as the salt yamen. Officials are called salt ambassadors. Each salt field, salt pond, and salt well has a salt department, which is a grassroots salt affairs organization.

The Salt Ambassador is an official of the eighth rank, in charge of farm, pond, well production and salt tax collection matters. He is under the jurisdiction of Yun Tong and Yun Deputy, and is under the jurisdiction of Yun Envoy or Salt Law Road.

Tuan is a place where salt people live together. All households are gathered in a group, and gates are set up to prevent them from leaking their private information. Many places along the coast are named after "Tuan".

The stove is the stove household, the person who sets up the stove to cook salt, and the stove cook is the one who burns the salt. This old man should be the stove household, but judging from his behavior and temper, he may be the leader of this village.

Before leaving, the old man turned around and asked: "Are you sure you want to take over the entire salt field for our group?"

"Sure!" With that said, Zhu Cihong asked Li Hu to give the old man a deposit of one hundred taels of silver.

The old man couldn't help but be overjoyed when he received the heavy amount of silver. He bent down and nodded his thanks repeatedly, and asked his wife to dig out all the fine wine that had been stored at home for many years.

At this price, this will be a big deal. Not only will my life be better in the future, but I will also have some surplus.

In the courtyard a mile away, an old man knocked on the door.

"Who is it? Don't you have a mouth?"

An impatient voice came from the courtyard, and then the door slowly opened.

The old man chuckled and said, "Master Han, we have a big business!"

The old man came close and whispered a few words.

The middle-aged fat man known as Mr. Han screamed strangely: "Ding Laosan, you want to die, don't you? How dare you change hands in the Wei family's business? If these salt merchants send people down, my life will be in danger."

You may not be able to keep it!”
Chapter completed!