I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 164 Salt Policy
"Borrow?" Yang Tinghe and Liang Chu exchanged glances and saw each other's intentions in each other's eyes.

"That's fine!" Yang Tinghe agreed immediately. He didn't care about the interest because he had no intention of paying it back.

"If you want to borrow money, you need collateral. I wonder what the two ministers will use as collateral?" Zhu Houxuan said with a smile.

"You need another collateral?" Yang Tinghe asked in surprise.

"Yes, if we borrow without collateral, how can we get the loan back from the Royal Bank?" Zhu Houxuan said as a matter of course.

Yang Tinghe looked into Zhu Houxuan's eyes and suddenly realized the real purpose of Zhu Houxuan's detour. "I wonder what collateral His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing has set his eyes on?"

"Changlu Salt Field!" Zhu Houxun no longer hid it.

"That's impossible!" Yang Tinghe and Liang Chu said in unison.

"How is it impossible?" Zhu Houxun said with a smile.

"The Changlu Salt Field is related to the salt use of the northern people. How can it be controlled by private individuals?" Yang Tinghe said seriously.

"Is the Royal Bank private? It is your Majesty's property," Zhu Houxuan continued.

"You" Yang Tinghe was speechless for a moment.

"Don't be angry, Mr. Yang, let's talk it over nicely," Zhu Houxuan said with a smile. "I don't have any other intentions, I just want to do business with the court."

"Doing business with the court?" Yang Tinghe asked in surprise.

"Yes, I wonder how much salt tax the Changlu Salt Field can collect in a year?"

"Three hundred thousand taels of silver!" Liang Chu said after thinking for a while.

"Let me manage the Changlu Salt Field. In addition to the 100 taels of salt tax every year, I will pay another 130 million taels of salt tax to the court. This year's salt tax can be paid now. The two ministers can directly take away the million taels of silver," Zhu Houxuan said in a tempting tone.

The two elders were quite interested in Zhu Houxuan's words, but Yang Tinghe still refused, saying, "The matter of the salt field is of great importance. It is directly related to the military rations of the nine borders. We must be cautious!"

"I didn't say that I won't redeem the salt permits after I run the Changlu Salt Field. I will still redeem the salt permits as usual," Zhu Houxuan looked at Yang Tinghe deeply.

Yang Tinghe paused when he heard this, and looked at Zhu Houxun with inquiring eyes, "Your Highness, why do you have to wade into this muddy water? The salt administration is very complicated!"

"Lord Yang, don't worry about this. Do you think this condition is okay? I have already rushed to the front, and the court should just sit back and reap the benefits. Besides, this is a regular annual income," Zhu Houxuan continued with a smile.

Yang Tinghe looked at Zhu Houxuan deeply and said, "This matter is of great importance. I will think about it when I get back."

After saying this, he took Liang Chu away.

Zhu Houxuan sat there and watched the two elders leave.
Zhu Houxun was going to take action against the salt policy of the Ming Dynasty. In ancient dynasties, salt tax was the most important tax besides agricultural tax, but it was an exception in the Ming Dynasty.

The salt tax of the Ming Dynasty at that time was less than one million taels of silver a year. Comparing the Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, we can see how outrageous this number is.

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the salt tax collected was 1200 million strings of cash every year.

The national salt tax in the Qing Dynasty before the Qianlong period was also around 1200 million taels of silver.

So did the low salt tax in the Ming Dynasty benefit the people?
Not really. A pound of salt in the Song Dynasty sold for 50 wen, and a pound of salt in the Qing Dynasty sold for 20 wen.

According to Zhu Tingli's "Salt Administration Records" during the Jiajing period, "In the early Jiajing period, each catty of salt in Huguang, Jiangxi, and Nanjing was sold for 3.4 cents of silver", and in the seventh and eighth years of the Jiajing period, "each catty of salt in Huguang and Jiangxi was sold for 1.5 cents of silver. In Nanjing, it was sold for 1.2 cents of silver." This refers to the market selling price of Huai salt.

At its highest price, a pound of salt could be sold for three or four cents of silver, which is equivalent to 300 coins per pound. These 300 coins could buy to pounds of rice, which shows how expensive salt was.

According to the Ming Dynasty's salt system, merchants holding salt permits were divided into 10 groups according to regions. Each group's salt permit was 20 permits, totaling 200 million permits. Each permit was equivalent to 300 catties of salt, or 6 cents of silver, called "woben". In addition, there were 596 taels of silver for tax and 6.72 taels of silver for public envoys (transportation). The annual salt production was 6000 million catties, and one catty was equivalent to grams at that time. The total amount is equivalent to million catties today (according to official statistics during the Hongwu and Wanli periods, the population was still million, the same as in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty).

The Ming Dynasty's salt tax revenue was: 6 taels, 6 qian and 4 fen of silver per salt tax, which was 1328 million taels of silver!
But in fact, the total amount of salt tax in original and discounted form in the Ming Dynasty is less than one million taels of silver, and the whereabouts of 12 million taels of silver in salt tax every year are unknown.

As for where it went, of course it was swallowed up by eunuchs, nobles, relatives by marriage, military generals, and merchants.

That’s why Yang Tinghe reacted so strongly. This thing is too complicated, who dares to touch it!

The salt permits of the Ming Dynasty were originally the Kaizhong system. Border merchants transported grain to border towns, and the court gave them salt permits as compensation. Later, the Kaizhong system fell into disrepair. During the Hongzhi period, Ye Qi introduced the silver payment system for the transport department, which required the transport department to pay one million taels of silver to the national treasury in a short period of time. However, this led to the complete corruption of the Kaizhong system and also gave rise to the stubborn problem of hoarding grain.

Who controls the salt administration of the Ming Dynasty now?

It’s not the imperial court, but the hoarders!

Ye Qi's reforms were well-intentioned, but the collusion between officials and businessmen was so good that they turned the salt permits into something similar to "salt futures."

Salt merchants have been divided into three categories: border merchants, water merchants, and domestic merchants. Border merchants transport grain to obtain salt permits, and then sell the salt permits to domestic merchants. Domestic merchants use the salt permits to buy salt from the government, and then transport it to various places for sale through water merchants.

This model seemed to have no loopholes, but after Ye Qi's reforms, domestic merchants could purchase salt permits directly from the government.

A group of wealthy and well-connected domestic merchants suddenly transformed themselves into salt hoarders and took the opportunity to purchase a large number of salt permits. Because there was a fixed quota for salt permits every year, ordinary domestic merchants were unable to obtain salt permits.

Then, this group of hoarders purchased large quantities of salt, causing ordinary domestic merchants to be unable to buy salt even with salt permits, and they were unable to ask water merchants to transport salt to border merchants.

Border merchants held salt permits but could not exchange them for salt, so they could only sell them at a low price to salt collectors. When domestic merchants found that border merchants had no salt permits, they could only buy salt permits from salt collectors at a high price, and then use the salt permits to buy salt and sell it.

The salt hoarders did nothing but hoard salt permits crazily, and then colluded with the government to control the shipment of salt, artificially creating a periodic shortage of salt permits and salt, in order to squeeze the border merchants and domestic merchants to earn the price difference. The salt permits have been turned into "futures" by them. At the same time, the annual issuance of salt permits by the imperial court actually became the issuance of salt permits by the salt hoarders, and the salt policy of the entire country was controlled by the salt hoarders!
Who are the hoarders?

Mainly Hui merchants, especially the Lianghuai salt merchants, who have countless powerful people backing them.

Moreover, these stock hoarders had not committed any crime, they were just engaging in futures trading, and even if officials and businessmen colluded to disrupt the market, there was no relevant law in the Ming Dynasty to restrict them. In fact, they built bridges and roads, established schools and promoted education, and were generous and charitable, and they had a very good reputation in their hometown.

Zhu Houxuan didn't want to get involved in political affairs for the time being, but he really wanted to take care of business matters.
(End of this chapter)