Fatty Han saw that Zhu Cixiang was looking at it seriously, so he invited him to see the prepared salt, so that the God of Wealth could inspect the goods on the spot.

"Salt is divided into three types: salt, green salt and refined salt. Look, sir, how good the ingredients of this refined salt are!"

Zhu Cixiang took a closer look and saw that the refined salt produced was snow-white, crystal clear and very beautiful, very delicate, much like the refined salt consumed in later generations' homes.

Seeing the prince reaching out to try it, Li Hu beside him quickly picked some with his fingers, put it into his mouth, smacked his lips, and reported: "Salty, it melts in your mouth, the quality is good."

Later, Li Hu tasted the green salt and salt that showed green gray and blue-gray green, and reported again: "It's a bit bitter and the taste is not good."

Fatty Han said with a smile: "You get what you pay for. Only gentlemen like you can afford refined salt. Common people like me can only eat coarse salt."

Fatty Han added: "The salt produced by our Yanghe Group is 20% pure salt, 30% green salt, and 50% refined salt. We specialize in the high-end market and fully meet the needs of the young master!"

"If this refined salt is placed on the market, the price will be at least ten times higher! If it goes to the mainland, it is not impossible to sell it for thirty or forty times."

Zhu Cixiang frowned slightly: "The profits of this salt industry are so huge, it's terrifying."

Salt is a necessity of life, and it has been monopolized by the state in the past dynasties. The salt merchants who have obtained salt regulations and run the salt industry are all extremely rich! But why is the salt tax collected less and less? Zhu Cixi decided to find the salt transport envoy in Yangzhou

Ask carefully.

He knew very well that in the history of the Qing Dynasty, salt merchants were almost the emperor's personal purse. Whenever the court needed money for major military supplies, celebrations, relief services, projects, etc., it would ask salt merchants to take over the orders.

Loss of name donation.

When Qianlong's prodigal son went to the south of the Yangtze River to pick up girls, most of the six trips were paid for by salt merchants from Changlu, Lianghuai and other places, providing hundreds of millions of dollars to please Qianlong.

During the Qianlong and Jiaqing years, salt merchants from various places donated military supplies amounting to thirty million taels of silver. During the four years during Jiaqing's suppression of the White Lotus Rebellion, salt merchants from Lianghuai and Huaihe actively donated as many as six times, donating five hundred and fifty

Ten thousand taels of silver.

The Manchu Qing court also responded to the salt merchants' dog-like performance and donations, awarding them political titles and making the salt merchants bureaucratic.

The wool comes from the sheep, so after the salt merchants donate the money, they will naturally not pay for it themselves, but pass it on to consumers and salt industry workers. They have the final say on the purchase price and sales price anyway.

In order to protect the good licking dogs of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government provided economic benefits, allowing the licking dogs to increase the official price of salt, and also allowed salt merchants to increase the number of kilograms of salt per bale, and even exempted them from the arrears of salt taxes.

Although he got his beard caressed, the Manchu emperor went on tour too frequently. Even though the salt merchants had a rich family, it was hard for them to bear all the trouble, but the mute couldn't tell the pain after eating Coptis chinensis.

At this time, the imperial fathers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty would naturally not abandon their loyal licking dogs and lend money specifically for turnover, which is called "money capital";

In fact, it is just like opening a bank to lend money. Salt merchants pay interest every year, which is called "profit". This is a typical collusion between government and businessmen.

The salt merchants who made money began to purchase land, convert the profits into feudal land ownership, and turn themselves into feudal landlords. Land sales were frequent and mergers became more and more serious. In the end, their emperor's empire was no longer guaranteed. Maybe this was the reason.

The so-called curve to save the country, the high-end route...

In all dynasties, this has been a problem that cannot be eradicated. The Ming Dynasty did a little better in this regard, but it was not much better.

The salt merchants who received the hereditary salt order under the salt law system also tried their best to keep the purchase price at the bottom, and on the other hand, they tried their best to increase the selling price. They did not pass off inferior products as high quality products, and used bad products as good products. The real unlucky ones were the common people and the general public.

Salt industry kitchen households.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cixiang's hands itched again, thinking about small goals in his mind, how many people would be killed in this batch, how much money would be taken...

He looked around and found that all he saw were boiled salt production methods, so he asked Fatty Han: "Han Tuantou, don't you use the sun-dried salt method?"

In the first year of Jiajing (1522), Haifengchang took the lead in frying and drying. After more than a hundred years of development, it should have become popular in the south.

The so-called sun salt method, in brine sand and brine production, the filtration process is basically similar to the salt boiling method. The difference lies in the salt production process, which is to pour the brine into a special salt tank and expose it to the sun.

Before the sun rises, the brine must be poured into the salt trough. After a day of exposure, when the sun sets, the salt can be scraped with a board and stored in a bamboo basket.

In the hot summer, a salt tank and two or three times of brine can be evaporated to dryness, which is very efficient.

The production of boiled salt is backward, with low output, low labor productivity and high cost. In particular, it consumes a lot of firewood. Boiling a load of salt consumes about 400 kilograms of firewood. It was later gradually replaced by the sun salt method.

Fatty Han smiled and replied: "Young Master knows a lot. Our Yanghe group and even the entire Huainan salt field use the sun-dried salt method, but we have to wait until midsummer when the weather is hot and there is no rain. Spring has just begun."

, it’s been cloudy again recently, and a tank of brine can’t produce salt even after three to five days, so we can only use boiled salt.”

"After the rainy season in summer, we will have three to four months of salt exposure. The amount of salt produced by then will definitely satisfy the young master!"

Zhu Cixiang looked at the gloomy weather and felt a little embarrassed. There are specialties in the art industry. The ancients are honest and can't be bullied...

However, both boiled salt and sun-dried salt are labor-intensive industries. The sun-dried salt method with large output requires working under the hot summer sun. It is very hard work when you think about it. All these salts are

It is the result of the hard work of working people.

After a detailed understanding, Zhu Cihong gave the deposit and took the people away from Yanghe Group.

A few days later, Zhu Cixiang appeared in the prince's honor guard heading to Yangzhou Fucheng, and several inspection teams scattered in the surrounding salt fields to investigate the situation also rushed back.

Zhu Cihong asked Zhu Chenggong: "How is the situation of other salt groups over there?"

Zhu Chenggong also dressed like a rich man and replied: "Your Highness, the situation is not optimistic. There are a total of fifteen salt balls in the salt field in Yancheng. Twelve of them have been contracted by salt merchants. The price of one salt is

Between two and one to two and a half taels of silver, there are three more that have been contracted by the saltworks ambassador, and the price per citation is only one tael of silver."

Zhu Cixiang's face darkened. These people who had killed a thousand swords were simply cannibals without spitting out the bones. The purchase price of each salt for the salt stove was hard enough to pay the salt class. One tael of silver was used to buy a bait and sold for dozens of taels.

Silver, even hundreds of taels of silver, is faster than robbing money!

Seeing that the Crown Prince looked unhappy, everyone immediately shut up and did not dare to make any noise. It looked like someone was about to lose his head again.
Chapter completed!