Lord of the House

At the end of January, "Yantie Division was merged into the Ministry of Households, and Yanyin pledged to debit and borrow money" was promulgated in the world.

There is a precedent for the redemption of food with salt and silver, and it is not so difficult for the world to accept the payment of salt and silver for silver. The officials wanted to have their salaries paid out earlier, and this decree was widely supported and praised.

Yan Tie Si was merged into the Ministry of Household, that is, it was included in the civil service system. Zhang Yan, as an internal minister, was forced to resign as an envoy of Yan Tie; Lin Xuwen, deputy minister and minister of the Ministry of Household, recommended Liu Shidu, the prefect of Huai'an, to lead the Yan Tie Division, and added the censor of Zuo Yudu. The impeachment of the salt officials was also approved.

Liu Shidu has served as the prefect of Hailing and Huai'an successively. He is familiar with the salt affairs of the two Huaihe Rivers. In terms of qualifications, political achievements and familiarity with salt affairs, no one can compare with Liu Shidu. Of course, Liu Shidu has cooperated with Lin Fu in Hailing and Huai'an over the years. The government's implementation of the new policy has long been marked by the Huaidong Department.

At the beginning of February, at the same time that Liu Shidu arrived in Jiangning to be dismissed by edict, the Yantie Division Yamen also moved from Weiyang to Jiangning.

The two-dimensional salt collection in Weiyang is caused by various reasons:

In the former dynasty, Hailing was only a county under Weiyang, and the east of Hailing was the scope of the Lianghuai Salt Fields. The salt service is concentrated in Weiyang, and it is also convenient for the nearby management of salt fields and the prohibition of private salt inspections. Since the two dynasties, the speed of land formation on the east coast of Chongzhou has accelerated, and the salt field has been moving eastward. Weiyang has actually separated from the salt field, but Weiyang is located in the necessary place of the north-south waterway transportation system, so it has become the transportation center of Lianghuai salt. The imperial capital is in the north again, and the layout of the Weiyang Salt Affairs Center has not changed since its inception, which is a matter of course.

When Emperor Yongxing ascended the throne in Jiangning, Jiangning became half of Jiangning's political center. Jiangning and Weiyang were only two hundred miles away from each other, and Jiangning's position in the Yangtze River shipping system was not weaker than Weiyang's. Going to Jiangning, in addition to the need for centralization, there are no special obstacles in other aspects.

As early as the beginning of Emperor Yongxing's ascension to the throne in Jiangning, there were officials discussing that the Salt and Iron Division would be relocated, but the traditional forces were still strong and had not been able to make the trip. Jiangning did not see much resistance. Speaking of which, the salt transportation business between the two Huaihe Rivers and Huaihe River was concentrated in Jiangning and then sold to the world by salt merchants.

With one goal in mind, salt merchants can only follow it.

The story of the Salt and Iron Division is far from over. After Liu Shidu arrived in Jiangning in early February and was dismissed from his post, he immediately requested a decree to control the salt soldiers, prohibit the investigation of private salt, and reduce the tax price. Waiting until this moment is always going to be ruthless.

In late February, the Metropolitan Procuratorate impeached Mao Wenjing, the captain of Zuo Huyan, for corrupting the law and embezzling salt profits, and requested that he be brought to justice.

In order to support more than 500,000 Zhengding soldiers, plus additional funds for Nanyang and Hezhong Mansion, Jiangning must raise at least 10 million taels of silver every year - this has not yet combined the civil administration and the huge bureaucratic group, clan, honorary Expensive salaries and consumption of the inner court are included. The four million taels of silver that the Qianzhuang borrowed from the Ministry of Housing could only last for three or five months. In order to solve the political crisis, Jiangning really needed to kill some big households to solve the urgent need. The Salt and Iron Division was merged into the Ministry of Housing After that, it has actually become the consensus of Jiangning officials to use the salt merchant to operate. Mao Wenjing is not the first unlucky person.

When Liu Shidu took office, he was ordered to attack the officials and merchants of the Lianghuai Salt Department. At the end of February, an edict ordered Mao Wenjing to enter Jiangning and imprison him. He arrested more than a dozen of his children and sent them to prison.

The water and land transportation routes from the Lianghuai Salt Fields to other places have long been under the control of Huaidong.

In order to cooperate with Liu Shidu's investigation into the prohibition of illicit salt, the Huaidong inspectors who controlled the water and land traffic gathered together to collect the bag mouth, and the Privy Council and the water transfer more than 5,000 infantry soldiers called to the Salt and Iron Division. Since the inspection of Mao's, the salt rectification has been vigorous. expansion.

From mid-February to the end of March, for more than a month, the total amount of illicit salt in the Huaihuai and Huaihe Rivers that was banned was 4 million catties. People, five of Weiyang's thirteen salt shops were directly involved in the case and were detained and sent to Jiangning for trial, and the rest were also anxious...

Since the beginning of the Yue Dynasty, taxes have been imposed on salt, and a system of increasing the price of salt has been implemented. During the Chongguan period, the salt households paid the salt and iron company 10 yuan per catty for cooking salt, and the salt and iron company re-sold it to the salt merchants at the price of 200 yuan per catty plus tax and sold them to the prefectures and counties. Fees were not included. A catty is worth more than two hundred and ten dollars. However, due to the proliferation of private salt, the price of salt in all prefectures and counties is lower than this.

As a sequel to the salt problem, the price of salt in Jianghuai, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places soared day by day. By the first ten days of March, the price of salt in Jiangning City had soared to a height of 600 yuan per pound of salt, an increase of nearly five times. far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

This is actually the biggest crisis facing the salt rectification, and the Queen Mother also twice called Lin Xuwen and Liu Shidu into the palace to question the matter.

The empress dowager and the ministers of the political affairs hall directly put pressure on the Ministry of Households. The former officials of the Salt and Iron Division and the salt soldiers also complained, not to mention the thoughts of the salt merchants behind them, but the real pressure still lies with the people. If the price of salt cannot be suppressed, public resentment will boil over, and the situation will be unstable. The rectification of the salt issue can only be abandoned halfway, directly bowing to the salt merchants and restoring the old system.

The matter of salt, which was troubled until March 16th, had the tendency to be unable to be suppressed any longer. The Queen Mother directly summoned Liu Shidu to the Political Affairs Hall to inquire about political affairs. ...

"Jianghuai is full of private salt, Yan Fei doesn't know it, but the system of increasing the price of salt by kilogram has been implemented for more than 260 years, and it is difficult to return. And the people of Jianghuai are really difficult to bear the price of official salt. It is really a last resort to charge it with private salt." Zhang Yan was in front of the capital to justify the flood of private salt when he was serving as the iron salt envoy, and in fact he was also defending the private sale of salt merchants. The entry of the library, but it caused the people to stir up the boiling water, is not worth the loss. The first emperor Xu Yan managed the salt affairs, and Yan also reported the matter of private salt. In the seventeenth year of the governance of Lianghuai salt, the Lianghuai salt and silver increased from more than 1.7 million taels to a maximum of 2.68 million taels. However, due to the war, the original Lianghuai salt was sold in Henan. , Huaixi is broken. Last year, I was able to save 1.5 million taels of silver. Yan Youruo, please ask the empress dowager and the emperor to rule it... The salt merchants charge it with private salt, which is a violation of the national ban, but the official salt does not count the foot fee and increases the price Afterwards, it was worth two hundred and ten dollars. Before the Ministry of Household’s administration of salt, the price of Jiangning salt was only one hundred and forty dollars. Salt merchants are not allowed to charge it with private salt, so why not?”

Lin Fu is a privy envoy, and it has nothing to do with this matter on the surface, but the empress dowager and the prime ministers forced him to bring him here, just to point the finger at him - everyone with discernment knows that without Huaidong's support, Liu Shidu would not be able to be so ruthless. hot hand.

Lin Fu and all the prime ministers were granted seats, but Liu Shidu and Zhang Yan were the only ones arguing in front of the hall.

Liu Shidu said: "In the time of Emperor Gaozu, the price increase system for the kilogram of salt was implemented at the beginning of the implementation of the two Huaihe Rivers. One kilogram of salt was charged at sixty yuan. At that time, the price of Jiangning salt was only one hundred and twenty yuan, and the Lianghuai salt profit could still accumulate more than one hundred and thirty yuan every year. Ten thousand taels of silver. At that time, the population of the land under the jurisdiction of the Lianghuai was less than half of what it is today. Since then, the proliferation of private salt has caused salt profits to be damaged, and the minimum is less than 400,000 taels. It is impossible to prohibit smuggling, so the salt tax can only be increased repeatedly. , until it increased to 200 coins in recent times, which is more than three times more than at the beginning. Compare today's Jiangning salt price with Gaozu's time; Salt and silver, can this salt merchant be called good?"

Lin Fu sighed softly and said, "Yes, based on the price increase of the pound of salt in the time of Emperor Gaozu, the salt sales area of ​​Dinghu and Lianghuai, compared with today, the annual salt and silver of the Iron Salt Company should be 2.6 million yuan. taels, not one and a half million taels—where has the one million taels of salt and silver gone?"

"Governing a big country is like cooking a small dish. It has been accumulated for several generations, and people can't make it right away." Empress Dowager Liang sat down with her hands together, and said, "Zhang Yan has meritorious deeds and faults in the management of salt matters. Tie Shi, Zhang Yan is not as good as Zhang Yan in treating Liang Huai salt. Those who violate the ban should be banned, but the common people must also eat salt. It is also reasonable to say that it is difficult to return. The Ai family does not have the energy to listen to what you are arguing about here. Go and solve it, you can't make people's resentment boil. This court can't stand any more trouble, Liu Shidu, Lin Qing recommends you to be the head of the Salt and Iron Division, you must have an accurate idea..."

"Unlike rice grain, there is a shortage of salt, and it is not harmful to increase the price in a short period of time; the first step is to investigate and ban illicit salt, and the next step is to reduce the tax price a little, and send salt officials to various prefectures and counties to supervise salt affairs and take over the banned salt. It can be used as an official camp; salt is sold in various places, and the government and the private are combined, and the price is determined, which should be able to benefit the merchants and the people, and not harm the society and crops..." Liu Shidu replied.

Lin Fu also did not intend to ask Liu Shidu to entangle Zhang Yan's problem. Zhang Yan's overall contribution to the salt treatment is greater than his deeds, but he should not play tricks on the salt merchants. The support of the salt merchants in Huaixi last year will only become more rampant - also borrowing As a result, the forces of the Weiyang House family were withered.

"Well, if you extend your time limit for one month, if you don't lower the price of salt at that time, you can only go back to the old way!" Queen Mother Liang said.

Liu Shidu hesitated a little. Seeing that Lin Fu and Lin Xuwen had nothing to say, he could only bite the bullet and agree: "The minister leads the order." In his heart, he was not fully satisfied with the quelling of the salt chaos within a month. After all, it was a move. The root of the two Huai salt matters.

********************

After the political affairs hall discussed the matter, Lin Fu, the "unrelated" person, went straight to the house to rest, and Lin Xuwen and Liu Shidu chased after him.

"To what extent is it appropriate to cut the tax price?" Liu Shidu asked after Lin Bie's bookstore in the front garden of Chen Yuan.

There are no macro statistics in the world, only the flood of private salt, but the total sales of private salt plus official salt in Jianghuai, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places, no one knows what the scale is.

To cut the tax price, it is necessary to reduce the current salt price on the market, which is agreed by the business people, but at the same time, the excessive reduction will also cause the salt and silver to drop sharply. At that time, even if the palace and the political affairs hall will not be held accountable, the annual expenditure of the Ministry of Household is really inseparable from the salt and silver. Huaidong Qianzhuang lends silver to the household department, which can only solve the urgent need, but at the same time, it consumes a lot of annual interest every year, and the gap of annual interest itself needs to be plugged with salt and silver.

Lin Mengde, Qin Chengzu, Gao Zongting, Song Fu and others all came to the bookstore, and they all found it difficult to answer Liu Shidu's question...

"A family of peasants, who plant ten acres of land, and levy taxes, how much is the annual income?" Lin Fu asked Liu Shidu back.

"If you can get 30 stone of grain, it should be considered a good year." Liu Shidu said.

Lin Fu sighed softly and said, "Yes, if you can earn 30 shi of grain every year, it will be considered a good year. Before the war, the price of rice in Jiangning was 600 yuan per shi, and 30 shi of grain was only 18,000 yuan. Even if it is private salt To offset the price of salt, Jiangning was not less than a hundred dollars before the war. If the military supply is calculated, a farmer needs twenty catties of salt per year, which is two thousand dollars. You know the samādhi in the phrase 'rough tea and light rice'!"

Liu Shidu and the others looked at each other in dismay, Lin Fu sighed with emotion, and settled the accounts, but they couldn't solve the actual problems, and they couldn't cut the current army by half because of the hardship of the people.

Lin Bie said with his hands up: "We need to reduce the price of salt to less than fifty cents, and the price of salt can't be increased by more than twenty cents. I think it's the limit!"

Liu Shidu was stunned there, looking at Lin Xuwen, Lin Mengde and the others, not knowing how to respond to Lin Fu's words, this was too cruel.

Even if the private salt floods, it has not flooded to more than ten times that of the official salt. The price of salt has dropped to one-tenth of the previous price. The most direct consequence is that the salt and silver will drop sharply in the future.

Salt and silver were merged into the household department, and the revenue of the household department was only about 10 million taels of silver. It had to cope with the expenses of various places, and it was stretched everywhere. If one million taels were slashed all at once, the loophole would be too big to end.

The annual income of the inner government is almost cut out, and the expenses of the court are the responsibility of the household department.

Even if the Huaixi, Chizhou and other armies do not care, the Huaidong army alone will cost more than 200,000 soldiers and horses, and it will cost nearly 5 million taels to maintain the daily armament in a year. ——You can still save some money in the five counties of Chongzhou, but it is to prepare for the large-scale war in the future. Besides, Lin Fuhua’s money in the five counties of Chongzhou is also a big hand and thigh. With millions of taels of silver, who knows where he will have to poke a hole for him next?

"Is it cut too much?" Lin Xuwen asked, "Restoring the salt system of the emperor should be able to achieve a general balance."

"Restoring the salt system of the emperor's ancestors, then we will offend the salt merchants and the old salt officials, and we can't get any good from the people. It's better not to do anything about the salt in the first place," Lin Fu said. , then it is serious if you can win some people. Temporarily try it with 20 yuan, and then copy a few of his houses, it should be able to make up for the shortage of salt and silver in a year or two. Just a tune up - our faces, we can't ask others to fan them at this time! Besides, when we return to the salt system of the emperor's time, Zhang Yan, Yu Xinyuan and the others will probably find other excuses to make things difficult and stop them; If it drops so low all of a sudden, they will wait for us to make a fool of themselves with the mentality of watching a good show..."

Lin Xuwen looked at Lin Mengde, Gao Zongting, and Song Fu, but it was still difficult to follow Lin Fu's decision.

Lin Bie added: "Besides the increase in the price of salt, I think the Ministry of Household still has one more thing to do..."

"What's the matter?" Lin Xuwen asked with a sad face, "Seventeen, you won't ask the household department to reduce taxes again, will you?" He could understand Lin Mengde's mood, the plate was so big, Lin Fuhua didn't know how much money it cost. Heartache - the Ministry of Household has stepped forward to reduce taxes and taxes, but the reduction is the annual income of the Ministry of Household, and the New Deal cannot be implemented at the moment. This loophole is getting bigger and bigger.

"I asked you to guess," Lin Fu said, "After the emperor ascended the throne in Jiangning, he imposed three consecutive levies on the Jiangnan provinces, which made the farmers in Jiangnan to the limit. At that time, it will be more than worth the loss…”

The chaos in Huaisi is still fresh in people's memory, and the tragic disaster in Huaisi is even more unforgettable for a hundred years.

In the ninth year of Chongguan, the Yan army invaded the border, causing great damage to Yan Ji and others, but due to the short duration, it was easy to recover. The foundation of the Central Plains has been hollowed out - by the end of Chongguan, even if Lin Fu has 200,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, he will not actually be able to compete with the Donghu people in the north. In the situation where the entire Northland was crippled, Huaidong soldiers and horses could be thrown to the north through waterways, but when they left the offshore area to fight, supplies would not be guaranteed.

"How to loosen the binding?" Lin Xuwen asked with a face like a bitter gourd.

As long as there is no change in the local area, and only tax reduction and tax reduction, the prefecture and county will definitely welcome it, and the reduction will only be the revenue of the Ministry of Household.

"Each household is allowed to reduce or exempt the tax of a small amount of money, and also ask the government to force the local government to reduce the tax to the corresponding head share!" Lin Fu said.

"Only one ounce?" Lin Xuwen asked.

"Only one inch, nothing else!" Lin Bie said with great certainty.

Ding tax is also an oral tax, and men from seven to sixty years old have to pay it, and only officials, gentlemen and nobles can be exempted. Since the beginning of the Yue Dynasty, Ding Zhuang's imperial servants have promised to use oral fu to be exempted, and finally established side by side with Tian fu, which is one of the most important sources of central finance.

On the one hand, the existence of the Ding tax has restrained the increase of Dingkou, but on the other hand, it has also led to the generation of a large number of escaped households.

The actual number of household registrations recorded by the Ministry of Households is much lower than the actual number—the household registration information of the Ministry of Households is the most complete. As soon as Lin Fu opened his mouth, Lin Xuwen quickly calculated how big the gap should be reduced: 800,000 Two silvers - fortunately, only a dime was subtracted.

Lin Fu has reduced the tax of one ding ding at this time, and will not consider a full exemption in the future, but will incorporate the ding ding tax of the remaining dings into the local finance, mainly because of the effect of suppressing the increase of the population - after the ding ding tax is merged into the local finance , local officials will only make efforts to catch fleeing households and fleeing persons. A good habit should be formed from the beginning.

Lin Xuwen said with a wry smile: "Both things together~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Cheng Yuqian and others will definitely not object, they will definitely wait to see our good show!"

The military support on the Huaixi side will be offset by taxes from the Shou, Hao, Xinyang and other prefectures after two years. The Xiangtan, Jinghu and other armies also controlled a large area of ​​land. Taxes were only nominally reported to the Ministry of Households. What would really be affected would be the salaries of Chizhou soldiers and horses, Huaidong itself, and Jiangning officials.

Taking these two things together, it is very likely that the annual income of 2 million taels will be short, and the annual interest rate for borrowing silver from Huaidong Bank will drop, but the household department will still have to pay an additional 500,000 taels every year - Cheng Yuqian, Zhang Yan and others naturally Happy to see Huaidong's good show.

"Reduce!" Lin Fu waved his big hand and said, "The foundation is not solid, and it is impossible to take advantage of the rivalry with Yanlu two years ago. The people's hearts are uncertain, and the implementation of the new policy will also cause great resistance..."

For the time being, Lin Fu had no intention of implementing the New Deal in the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, so he did not directly control the government. In addition to maintaining stability at the moment, another reason is that the taxation of the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River is extremely heavy, and the people are already unable to breathe. The instability factors on the network will increase sharply and are difficult to control.

Lin Fu implemented the New Deal in Chongzhou. It was only after the local forces in Chongzhou had beaten the East China Sea pirates extremely badly and became ineffective, and only after they were confident enough, did they implement the New Deal to Hailing, Huai'an and other governments.

"Grit your teeth," Lin Mengde became optimistic, and persuaded Lin Xuwen, "It's good to survive the first two years."

The annual income of the household department was reduced by 2 million silver, which was spread to the households in Jianghuai, Zhejiang and Fujian. Each household could get two or three buckets of rice grain. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter