My father is Jiajing

Chapter 207 Yan Maoqing's Choice (Monthly Ticket Plus)
To talk about salt tax, we must first talk about salt administration.

Because the term salt tax is not very precise.

The origin of salt administration has a long history, starting from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong of Qi State implemented the policy of "official mountains and seas", which established the government's monopoly on salt.

Therefore, the so-called "salt tax" collected throughout the dynasties was not actually a tax, but a "payment for goods."

The government monopolized the source of salt, and all salt merchants who wanted to participate in the purchase and sale of salt had to purchase "salt permits" from the government.

Only after obtaining a salt permit can one be considered a legitimate salt merchant, otherwise he would be a smuggler.

Therefore, when the imperial court sold salt, they would first sell salt permits. Each salt permit corresponded to one salt sales qualification and quantity.

If salt merchants sell more than the quota stipulated in the salt permit, this is also considered smuggling.

So in a sense, the salt permit is equivalent to a kind of "futures" certificate in later generations.

However, it cannot be freely bought and sold in the secondary market like futures, because the issuance and trading rights of the salt permits are all in the hands of the government. Anyone who dares to privately resell his salt permit to others will lose his head.

Of course, no one would be stupid enough to buy salt permits from private individuals, because ever since this great invention of salt permits was made by Zhu Yuanzhang, it has been in a state of over-issuance.

It can be said that the stock of salt permits in the Ming Dynasty market is higher than the output of the salt fields.

Therefore, if anyone wants to make achievements in salt administration and get money, he must have extraordinary financial management skills.

Otherwise, every time a salt official takes office, as long as they want to complete the court's tasks, they have to increase the issuance of salt permits and coerce and bribe the big salt merchants to continue to purchase salt permits.

But how could these big salt merchants, who already had countless salt permits, be willing to surrender?

So salt administration is difficult!
But even though it was such a difficult matter, the imperial court still kept a tight control over it and did not allow ordinary merchants and people to directly participate in it.

This shows that salt is still a lucrative industry, otherwise salt would not have been controlled so strictly throughout the dynasties.

Moreover, as far as Zhu Zaigui knew, even in the world before he traveled through time, when salt freedom had been achieved, the production of salt was still an official monopoly, and the most private individuals could do was to take on distribution and make a profit.

If you want to earn more, you will definitely have to pay a price.

This shows that salt is so important.

The reason why salt is so important even in the age of advanced technology is not because salt is still extremely profitable, but because salt is a necessity that humans cannot live without.

People will feel weak without salt. It’s okay not eating salt for a short period of time, but if you don’t eat salt for a long time, there will definitely be big trouble.

Moreover, the ancient salt production method was backward, and salt was almost always produced by boiling.

Therefore, salt was considered a relatively precious commodity in ancient times. Some poor people who could not afford salt would sometimes even boil manure water to make saltpeter just to have a bite of salt.

This kind of salt is also called "small salt" by the people, to distinguish it from the "big salt" made from seawater.

However, in addition to its bitter taste, this salt also contains the preservative ingredient sodium nitrite, which can cause cancer if consumed in excess and is a very strong carcinogen.

Therefore, before modern times, if you wanted to eat a bite of clean and hygienic salt, you could hardly even think about it unless you came from a well-off family.

The reason for this is very simple. One reason may be the backward productivity, the lack of high salt production to supply, and the lack of good transportation conditions to spread salt across the country.

Secondly, maybe someone, for some unspeakable secret, simply doesn’t want ordinary people to eat cheap and easily available salt... Of course, this speculation is just one person’s opinion and has no reference value.

The knowledge of salt administration and salt tax that Gao Gong taught Zhu Zaigui was also quite solid.

Gao Gong since the Spring and Autumn Period was only briefly mentioned, and the focus at the end was on the salt administration history of the Ming Dynasty.

The salt administration of this dynasty is inherited from the Yuan Dynasty, following the old system of the Yuan Dynasty and still implementing the salt quotation method.

During the Hongwu period, Emperor Taizu imitated the Song Dynasty's compromise system and implemented the "Kaizhong Method" in order to resist foreign invasions and prepare for border reserves.

The method is:
The Ministry of Revenue would issue a notice to summon merchants, ordering them to deliver grain to the border or other places where grain was in short supply. The imperial grain collection office would register the amount of grain paid and the amount of salt to be paid, and fill in the warehouse notes. The merchants would then take the notes to the Salt Transport Commissioner in the salt-producing areas to exchange for salt permits. They would then use the permits to go to the salt fields to purchase salt, which would be transported to designated areas for sale.

Therefore, this law is still based on the official collection of salt in the market, and still belongs to the market monopoly system of private salt production, official collection, official sale, commercial transportation, and commercial sales.

Therefore, its production, transportation and sales systems remained largely the same as those of the Yuan Dynasty, but what made it even more perfect was that Emperor Taizu placed the national salt administration under the Ministry of Revenue.

Then, a Salt Transport Commissioner's Office was set up in major salt-producing areas to be in charge of the salt administration in the area; a salt field office was set up in the salt field, called the Salt Tax Office, to supervise the production and collection of salt.

There were many salt fields under the jurisdiction of District One, so a branch office was set up under the Transport Office as a dispatched agency of the Transport Office to manage the salt fields under its jurisdiction nearby.

Then, in order to supervise the salt administration, the imperial court set up the post of Salt Inspector above the Salt Transport Commissioner.

Then the emperor would send special ministers every year to manage the salt administration affairs of a certain area.

For example, Yan Maoqing was recommended by Yan Shifan to be a special minister, and the scope of his management is very broad, directly suppressing the salt inspectors who supervised the salt administration.

He was so powerful that it was not an exaggeration to call him the Salt Tsar.

But unfortunately, no matter how capable Yan Maoqing was, he had to find a way to feed Yan Shifan and himself before he could work for Emperor Jiajing.

Therefore, when he was managing the salt administration at the local level, he was destined to offend many people.

And once these people seize the opportunity and make an effort, Yan Maoqing will definitely end up with his property confiscated and his family exterminated.

After all, he came to manage the salt to snatch food from the tiger's mouth. Since he dared to snatch the meat from the tiger's mouth, he must be prepared to be bitten back by the tiger.

But unfortunately, many people always have the illusion that they are the tiger when they hold power.

Little did he know that his power was actually nothing more than a grace that depended on others.

Once the person he relies on falls, or wants to abandon him as a pawn, his end will inevitably be extremely miserable.

Therefore, at this time, Yan Maoqing did not see his fate clearly at all, or maybe he saw it clearly, but he had no choice.

After all, the only way for him to advance is the powerful support of Yan Shifan.

If he didn't hold on tightly, he wouldn't even have the qualifications to fall to his death after climbing high. He would just be an insignificant ant that could be crushed at any time.

So no matter how the road ahead goes or what the future holds, it’s not as good as the high spirits we have today!
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Due to some personal reasons, I have been typing on my phone these days... There may be a lot of typos, please bear with me... I will try to correct them

(End of this chapter)