In the Ming Dynasty 1498, my restaurant connects two worlds.

Damn it, Song Xiaoyi thought to himself, who says that mushroom and chicken noodle soup has to have mushrooms and chicken? Does wife cake have to have a wife in it?

How come the people of the Ming Dynasty are so cunning?

After much persuasion, Song Xiaoyi coaxed the two officials into the shop. At a corner table, he served them two bowls of tomato beef noodles and a basket of steamed buns. "My lords," he said, "this is our shop's signature dish, passion fruit juice noodles. This is our Yangzhou Prefecture noodle dish. Please taste it and give us your feedback."

After a friendly exchange, Song Xiaoyi learned that in the Ming Dynasty, the source of goods for restaurants was also regulated. In comparison, the food safety control in the Ming Dynasty was no worse than that in modern times.

Taoye Ferry Pier was under the jurisdiction of the Jubaomen Tax Office and the Inspection Office. Even though the pier was very close, merchants were not allowed to directly purchase vegetables and meats transported from the pier. If you bought them and the other party sold them, both parties would be punished.

Vegetables delivered by farmers and meat vendors must first be exchanged with "Tafang," which is an official institution, before merchants in the city can purchase their goods from Tafang.

The tax rate for food in the Ming Dynasty was 1/20, or 5% from both ends. That is to say, for vegetables that cost 10 coins, the farmers paid 5% and the buyers paid 5%, so by the time the vegetables reached you, the cost was already 11 coins.

That's not all. Once your shop processes these vegetables into finished products and sells them, you'll have to pay an additional tax of 5-20% depending on the sales volume.

Regular dishes are taxed at 5%, while high-priced items are taxed at 10%. If you don't lower the price of your own instant noodles, you'll have to pay the 10% tax as if they were high-priced items.

The 20% tax mainly targets private brewing and other luxury consumption among the people. The Ming Dynasty allowed shops to sell small quantities of privately brewed wine, but they had to pay taxes, heavy taxes. Those who did not want to pay heavy taxes could buy official wine and sell it, which was also subject to a 5% tax.

Understanding the rules is the most important thing. Tax evasion is not within Song Xiaoyi's consideration, at least not at the moment. Song Xiaoyi wants to be a good citizen who pays taxes legally, because only by paying enough taxes can his identity be re-verified. Otherwise, he and Zhu'er will ultimately be unregistered residents here.

The tax collection process of the Ming Dynasty was relatively simple and crude. The tax was set for Song's Restaurant. The tax collector would randomly select a day and count the number of people entering and leaving the store from the time the store opened until it closed. Based on the average price of the goods in the store, the daily turnover was calculated and multiplied by 30 days. Even if you were on holiday and did not open the store, the turnover would still be calculated. The loss caused by the holiday was borne by the merchant.

The tax office determined that Song Xiaoyi's "Song Family Restaurant" had a turnover of 500 cash on the first day, and the business tax for the first month was 500 cash × 30 days × 10% = 1500 cash. This was definitely a huge rip-off for Song Xiaoyi at the moment. The actual revenue of the restaurant in the two days was only a little over 500 cash, all of which was in the cash box. The key point is that the tax rate was doubled, which was too outrageous.

Arguing was pointless, so Song Xiaoyi readily admitted it, saying that his superiors could collect it at the end of the month. As for the "security fee" of the patrol office, it would also be settled monthly.

Fortunately, Song Xiaoyi received two pieces of good news from the other party. First, the collapse of Jubaomen was located in Taoye Ferry, on the riverbank opposite his own street.

The second piece of good news is that "black liquor" can be sold in the store, but not to other merchants. "It's an exclusive business; only a fool would sell it to others."

"However, shopkeeper, if you sell illicit brews, the commercial tax cannot be reduced. Taking one-tenth of the tax is already a favor."

Song Xiaoyi pretended to hesitate for a moment, then accepted the setting. The total was 10%, which was neither high nor low.

After seeing off the tax officials and urban management officers, Song Xiaoyi locked the door from the outside and headed to the collapsed house in Taoye Ferry to officially begin his second shop visit. This time, he was visiting a raw material shop to see what he could buy.

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The Deputy Commissioner of Taxation returned to his residence that evening, locked the door, took out the top stack of Xuan paper from a hidden compartment in the wall, pulled out the first page, ground ink, and continued registering the remaining pages:

June 27th, the eleventh year of the Hongzhi reign

The owner of Song's restaurant noticed me and another person observing his shop and invited us in. He offered us tomato juice noodles, but I didn't know what tomatoes were. The noodles were sweet and sour, and very fragrant. However, it cost seven coins, which was expensive.

The shop sells Yangzhou-style pastries with generous fillings, and the prices are low, attracting many customers. Even the shop owner's wife eats them herself.

They were willing to pay the full tax, taking one-tenth of it. They had some private brewing, but it wasn't found; we'll investigate further at a later time.

Unaware of the collapsed house, he was very concerned about the household registration. Upon investigation, the Yingtian Prefecture had no record of his household, suspecting him to be a fugitive. However, this did not seem likely. How strange!

(The original paper version had no punctuation; the author added it for easier reading.)

Then he wrote down surveillance records of other people's shops, dried them, carefully organized them, and put them back.

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The collapsed buildings at Taoye Ferry were neater than Song Xiaoyi had imagined, with two rows of orderly open-plan sales units, each category clearly categorized and zoned.

The first room upon entering is the grain section. One tael of silver is one shi (a unit of dry measure) of polished rice, 800 wen (another unit of dry measure) of unpolished rice, and 600 wen (another unit of dry measure) of wheat (coarse flour).

Song Xiaoyi simply bought one stone of each, took out one official silver from his space and exchanged it with the system for 4 silver coins plus 10 standard silver ingots. He paid the bill with 3 silver ingots, totaling 2400 coins. After deducting 120 coins for tax, he got 480 coins back. He still had to pay 3 coins to find a porter to deliver it to the shop.

Next up is the meat section. In the Ming Dynasty, there were no freezers, and using ice was a luxury. Although it's not too hot now, the meat is only available in the morning. Fortunately, the quality is quite good. The pork here comes from pigs that have been raised for a year. Modern pigs that are slaughtered in March are simply incomparable to the pork here. You can buy the pork without hesitation.

Song Xiaoyi directly purchased a 120-jin (60 kg) pork carcass at 8 wen per jin, totaling 1008 wen including tax. He paid an additional 2 wen and hired a porter to deliver it directly to the shop.

Upon seeing a buyer like Song Xiaoyi who wasn't particularly discerning, several laborers who made a living from the collapsed house followed behind to serve him.

Further ahead is the mutton section. In the Ming Dynasty, the consumption of mutton in Yingtian Prefecture was not very high. Southerners did not like to eat mutton, and it was almost summer, so mutton would not keep well. Therefore, there was only one live sheep in the mutton section, which had not been slaughtered.

Song Xiaoyi wasn't very familiar with the rules for slaughtering sheep in the Ming Dynasty. He made his own demands based on his own ideas, thinking, "I'm the buyer, so I have priority, right?"

"I want to buy the whole thing. Please kill it for me, except for the feathers. Don't gut it, and leave it bleeding. Is that okay?"

In the end, the price was negotiated down to 5 wen per catty for a whole sheep. This sheep weighed 120 catties, so the price was 660 wen including tax. The labor cost for slaughtering and collecting the sheep's blood was 8 wen. With an additional 2 wen, we hired a laborer to take it home, which cost us another silver ingot.

Song Xiaoyi always paid for vegetables with silver, preferring to receive change in copper coins, the more copper coins the better.

Upon arriving at the seafood section, fish and shrimp were Song Xiaoyi's favorites. A half-pound wild crucian carp was only 2 coins each!

"I love crucian carp the most. I bought some from other stores first, and when I get back, I'll take all the rest."

Grass shrimp are not easy to keep alive, so Song Xiaoyi didn't hold back and bought them all. Wild shrimp from unpolluted waters are practically priceless and hard to find in modern times, and they would be snapped up as soon as they hit the market.

Free-range chickens, ducks, and waterfowl (pheasants and wild ducks), "These can be selected by other vendors first, and the rest can be delivered directly to the entrance of Song's Restaurant for fresh slaughter. I want them all."

Vegetables were scarce in the Ming Dynasty, consisting mainly of radishes, cabbages, and winter melons. Song Xiaoyi bought some and sent them home.