Ming Dynasty: The Sixth Brother of the Zhu Family Seeks Immortality

King Han sighed, narrowed his eyes and asked, "Nephew, if you have any idea, just tell me."

Although he wanted to rely on transfers from the Ministry of Accounts to raise money.

But if there is one more way to make money, that would be better.

"Although it is said that there are several methods such as salt and iron and house confiscation."

"But in fact, it's all a method to investigate corruption and money circulation." Seeing that the King of Han became serious, Zhu Zhankan slowly introduced.

"During the Taizu period, corruption was extremely strict. Anyone who embezzled sixty taels of silver would be skinned and placed in front of the temple!"

"However, the emperor was kind and did not continue to implement the skinning method."

"Therefore, corruption has become more common."

"But then again, making money from salt and iron is not all corruption. There are also people who make money by exploiting policy loopholes."

The prince and the king of Han were a little confused.

Between corruption and non-corruption? What is this operation?

The prince, who has been in charge of the country for a long time, knows more about the corruption Zhu Zhankan said.

Since the Yongle New Dynasty, the supervision of corruption has indeed become less strict.

"Zhankan, what do you mean by exploiting loopholes?" the prince asked with a frown.

"Does father know the unit price of salt on the market today?" Zhu Zhankan asked with a smile.

"In Yingtian Mansion, ordinary table salt costs forty or fifty cents per catty when it's cheap, and it's estimated to cost over a hundred cents per catty when it's expensive." The prince thought for a while and replied.

The King of Han nodded in approval, even though he had never purchased salt himself.

But the Han Palace was engaged in selling salt, and it was also a big source of income for the palace.

The King of Han was naturally very concerned about the price of salt.

Zhu Zhanji was surprised: "The price of salt has changed so much?"

Both the prince and the king of Han were silent. This was the fault of the new dynasty's political affairs.

Zhu Zhankan smiled and explained: "Brother, salt is something that the people must eat, and it is a bit laborious to make. Plus there are salt taxes and salt quotas, so the price of salt has not been low.

A few years ago, in order to make up for the emptiness of the national treasury, the Ministry of Revenue further vigorously developed the Kaizhong method. Many salt dealers and even the power to sell salt were divided among different levels. It is not surprising that the price of salt fluctuates greatly. "

Salt was made by the people, collected and sold by the court, salt was sold by officials, salt was collected by merchants, salt was transported by merchants, and salt was sold by merchants.

After experiencing so many hands of salt, the price will naturally be ridiculously expensive!

Zhu Zhanji thought for a while and said: "The process of collecting and selling salt is so complicated? Can't we save some links?"

The prince shook his head, Zhan Ji was still young.

Explained: "Civil manufacturing and commercial operations cannot be omitted. Is it possible to stop the imperial court from getting involved in the salt policy?"

If the imperial court does not interfere, believe it or not, the price of ordinary salt will reach 200 yuan in a year or two!

Businessmen are profit-seeking, and most of them have no concept of the country and the world.

In years of great disaster, it is common to hoard goods, store grain in warehouses, and drive up grain prices.

Besides, the majority of the imperial court's income came from the salt administration.

By selling salt and adding salt tax, it is conservatively estimated that one can earn tens of millions of taels of silver a year!

If this income is abandoned, the imperial government's finances may become even tighter.

Zhu Zhanji looked at Zhu Zhankan and said, "Sixth brother, there is no way to eliminate the intermediate link. Do you really recommend that my second uncle go to control corruption in the salt administration?"

After saying that, Zhu Zhanji showed a gloating expression.

Zhu Zhankan's serious voice sounded.

"Father, do you still remember how many people there are in the Ming Dynasty?"

Population is an issue that every dynasty attaches great importance to.

The prince, who has been supervising the country for many years, naturally knows the population number well, although the current population statistics are not accurate.

Last year, the tenth year of Yongle, a population of more than 60 million was actually reported.

As a result, when it came time to collect taxes, officials everywhere were paralyzed.

Fortunately, the prince is a kind lord and still collects taxes according to the original 51 million people.

"About 51 million people."

Zhu Zhankan nodded, and it was about the same as he estimated, and continued: "There are more than 50 million people. An adult will eat an estimated ten catties of salt a year. Adults who cultivate will eat more, and the elderly and children will eat more." You should eat less salt, plus more salt is used in restaurants and other places. The total consumption is 50 million catties a year, which is not a lot, right?"

The prince and the king of Han nodded when they heard this.

According to the consumption idea, it is indeed not much. In fact, the consumption should be higher than 50 million.

"How much does a pound of salt cost?" Zhu Zhankan looked at the prince.

The prince thought for a while and said: "The official price is twenty cents per catty, plus the salt tax, salt imports, and shipping costs vary from place to place. The price on the market is about dozens of cents to hundreds of cents per catty. Yingtian Mansion After all, it’s a capital city, and sometimes it’s more expensive.”

The price was lower than Zhu Zhankan expected, but it was normal.

In the Ming Dynasty, there has not yet been a large-scale inflow of silver, so prices are naturally not high.

Chapter 26 Magical Weapon—Salt Magic Sword

Zhu Zhankan continued to ask: "How much is the income of the Ming Dynasty Salt Administration?"

"Last year's income was extraordinarily high, reaching tens of millions of taels. In previous years, it was about seven to eight million taels a year."

When the King of Han heard this, he felt something was wrong and said: "Brother, the salt tax is a total of seven to eight million taels a year. How come my father is short of money for the war? You are still fooling me, the King of Han, who does not understand government affairs! These guys... ..”

"Hey! Hey! It's not the salt tax! It's the revenue from salt."

"What's the difference? If it doesn't work, I'll take some out of the salt tax..."

The prince stopped the king of Han and said, "Don't dare to move. The salaries of salt officials are paid from these revenues. A large part of the post stations are subsidized by the salt administration revenue. In addition, the travel expenses of salt officials in various inspections will take up nearly half of the revenue. The court can only use a few million taels of silver."

To be honest, a few million taels of silver are not enough to subsidize the gap in the court.

Not to mention that these revenues are not necessarily all silver.

The tax law formulated by Taizu requires what to be taxed.

For example, if you pay agricultural taxes, you pay corn if you grow corn, and you pay rice if you grow rice.

The only advantage of doing this is to avoid some middlemen who make a profit from the difference between the people.

After all, the grain is directly handed over to the court, and the people don't have to bear the price drop or rise of grain prices.

"Wouldn't that leave a lot of money?"

"Oh, the remaining income will be used for border defense, war horses, disaster relief and other emergencies."

The tax collection policy set by Emperor Taizu was indeed carefully calculated.

It almost guarantees that the tax collection for one year is enough for one year.

But once natural disasters, man-made disasters and border wars occur, the tax revenue will not be enough.

The income from salt and iron supplements the expenses of the court very well.

"Zhankan, please continue." The prince interrupted the King of Han quickly, fearing that this strong and brave second brother would really mess with the salt administration silver of the court.

"Dad, the silver income of our salt administration is not small?" Zhu Zhankan asked with a strange look on his face.

The prince replied with a proud face: "Of course! The salt administration income of my Ming Dynasty is much higher than that of the Yuan Dynasty."

Zhu Zhanji sensed something wrong from the tone of his sixth brother.

When he followed his sixth brother to learn about steam engines, he also learned some simple mathematics.

He didn't know complex knowledge, but he still knew addition and subtraction.

After listening to the prince's salt administration income, Zhu Zhanji took out a few pieces of paper and silently calculated.

In less than a moment, Zhu Zhanji's face suddenly became ugly.

How many people will be implicated in this calculation!

The prince naturally noticed Zhu Zhanji's little action of calculating the accounts, and hurriedly asked: "What did you calculate?"

Zhu Zhanji replied solemnly: "According to my sixth brother, the silver income is about 25 million taels of silver, and the court only has a few million taels left to use, but there is another question, what is the approximate cost price of making salt?"

Hearing the huge figure of more than 20 million, the prince and the king of Han both looked depressed.

The court only has a few million to tens of millions of taels of income, and almost half of it will be spent on salt administration, and only a few million taels can be used elsewhere.

Where did the rest of the money go?

The manufacturing of salt is in the hands of the court throughout the process, and the minimum punishment for selling private salt is 100 sticks.

Ordinary people will be beaten to death if they are beaten with 30 or 50 sticks, let alone 100 sticks.

The prince called over and asked him to find an official from the Ministry of Revenue who was in charge of calculating the salt administration revenue.

After a while, the official came over.

The King of Han couldn't wait to ask, "What do you think the cost of making salt is?"