New Shun 1730

Wandu has been reduced to a small village in later generations. The Yellow River flows southward and breaks continuously, which has changed many things.

Not only did they create a coastline that extends more than a hundred miles inland, but they also completely changed the economic conditions here. Liu Yu was filled with emotion that the originally prosperous area had become what it is now.

Accompanied by Shi Shiyong, Liu Yu just took a short walk around the Wandu Salt Field, chatted with the people who boiled salt for a few words, and then left.

The boiling salt method is still used here, but in fact, the drying salt method has been mature in technology for a long time.

If you think about it, you can understand why reform is so difficult.

The firewood, coal, and huge iron pots used for boiling salt are not something that poor stove owners can afford alone.

This also enables the court to control them. Because the court's management ability is too poor, it can only choose to retreat and manage in a retreating way.

Obviously, there has been a drying salt method for a long time, but how to manage the drying salt method?

By controlling firewood, coal, and stoves, we can control the output of salt for salt boiling, thereby preventing smuggling and collecting salt taxes.

But what if we use the sun-drying method? Can we check the sun like we check firewood and coal?

Just like the ideological lifting of the ban in the late Ming Dynasty, new technologies such as sun-drying salt can be spread in Fujian and other places, not because the court actively promotes progress, but because the court is unable to govern.

The salt in the Huaihe River region is too important and accounts for the majority of the salt tax. Here the court can only choose to control it in this backward way - because it is important, it is backward.

The software of the empire determines the upper limit of the hardware that the empire can control. When the hardware needs to be updated, the empire's software will choose not to allow the hardware to be updated, or even let the hardware roll back when it finds that it can't keep up.

Those places that have developed and broken through the shackles are not because the court does not want to manage, but because the court is unable to manage.

For such things, others may still ask why the salt cookers are so miserable?

Liu Yu doesn't need to ask.

As a person who promoted the abandonment of grain tax and the collection of silver tax in Songjiang Prefecture, he knew very well what it was like when the rice was harvested every year.

After the rice came down, the merchants would lower the price to an extremely low price.

When they were short of money, they would lend money at an extremely high interest rate.

The same was true for the salt cookers, who were controlled by the salt merchants and lowered the price of salt; when they needed capital to buy firewood, they would lend money at high interest rates. In theory, the court had a set price, but once it was only in theory, it was equivalent to non-existence.

The original design in the early Ming Dynasty was that the government would provide capital, iron pots, firewood, etc., boil salt, and purchase it at the official price.

But the court had no money, so it issued paper money, paper money without reserves and without tax collection.

The whole set of official mountain and sea methods that were fully controlled by the court could not be played by the Ming Dynasty or the Shun Dynasty.

The logic of small producers has never been to oppose all kinds of exploitation, but to oppose that they are not exploiters. This is destined by the small peasant mentality.

Even if Dashun were to reform now, it would be difficult to change to full court control and turn these small salt producers into employees of the official salt fields.

The court wanted the people to have access to salt and also to receive taxes from the salt, which created an almost unsolvable situation.

Unless Dashun's grassroots control reached an astonishing height.

But Liu Yu was on the bank of the Yellow River, thinking about the tragic contrast between the mobilization and control capabilities of a prefecture-level city and the mobilization and control capabilities of the whole country under the same technical conditions and the same iron tools being built across the river, and he knew that this was just a delusion.

The difficulty in promoting the reform of the salt-drying law has never been in production technology, but in anti-smuggling technology and grassroots management capabilities.

What if we change to a more relaxed method that is in line with Dashun's current control capabilities and allow capital to enter the market?

Relying on sufficient capital to squeeze out these small salt households, making them impoverished proletarians, and nurturing the birth of a new era in advance?

After a brief inspection of the Wandu Salt Field, Liu Yu wrote the second memorial to the emperor on the reform of the salt administration.

There are two questions in total.

Why is there a smuggling situation of "Sichuan salt into Chu, Guangdong salt into Hunan" in Lianghuai salt? Hubei and Hunan are both "sales areas" of Lianghuai.

Because Sichuan salt uses natural gas to boil salt, there is no need to burn firewood at all.

And Guangdong and Fujian, because they were less governed by the previous dynasty, the method of drying salt was popularized early.

The cost of salt in Lianghuai is much higher than that in these two places.

Burning firewood also costs money.

In fact, the money for burning firewood accounts for almost two-thirds of the cost of boiling salt.

Firewood is not available everywhere. In order to boil salt, many lands are specially planted with trees, and the planted trees are used to ensure the fuel problem of boiling salt. This has in turn increased the land conflicts in Huaibei area.

Whether it is natural gas boiling salt in Sichuan or sunlight drying salt in Fujian and Guangdong, the fuel cost is saved.

Therefore, if we want to eradicate the problem of Sichuan salt entering Chu and Guangdong salt entering Hunan, fundamentally speaking, it is best to let Lianghuai adopt the sun-drying salt method.

Otherwise, these are only temporary measures, and the more we investigate, the more smuggled salt there will be.

This is a cost issue, which is used to solve the problem that the salt tax of Lianghuai salt is taken away by smuggled salt in Hubei and Hunan.

Another is that Liu Yu proposed a method similar to Songjiang Maritime Business Group, in the form of a large company, which is convenient for government supervision and control, and adopts the sun-drying salt method.

There is a technical problem with the sun-drying salt method in Lianghuai, that is, because the Yellow River flows into the sea, the sea water here is "fresher" than elsewhere.

It is lighter than other places, so it is not easy to dry salt. But in fact, it is not without a solution, that is, brine.

Since there is no technical problem, there is another advantage of such large companies investing and squeezing out those small salt households, that is, these large companies can adopt some new technologies.

The northern Jiangsu region originally had the means of using windmills to extract salt water, but as it gradually retreated to small farmers, even salt boiling also retreated to small farmers, and the windmills in northern Jiangsu that existed in the Song Dynasty were basically no longer seen.

Now Dashun can already make steam engines, but it dares not and cannot use them in the textile industry, so it can be used in these places where the impact on the traditional small peasant economy is not great.

Why can these salt fields take such a measure?

Because a large number of salt cookers flee every year, the court has to spend money to recruit them every year, give them some equity, and let them do it.

But often, after working for a few years, they are exploited by salt merchants and have no money left. In addition to fleeing, what else can be done?

This is different from traditional small farmers who have land. The court is worried about affecting their livelihoods.

But for salt boiling, people have to face the situation of people running away constantly.

In fact, it has become more serious in recent years. With the launch of the "going to Southeast Asia" in the Huanghuai region, and the lament of advising you not to go to Southeast Asia has not spread, a large number of salt households are running to Southeast Asia secretly.

In this case, there is no need to consider whether it will affect the livelihood of the "common people".

Instead, the simplest and most direct means can be used to stage a process of "large factories squeezing out individual handicrafts and reducing them to impoverished proletarians".

It just so happens that steam engines that can greatly improve production efficiency are not affordable for small private households.

At the same time, as a large company, it can produce more stocks as long as the court supervises in place.

Compared with small households, large companies, like those monopoly groups in Songjiang Prefecture, are actually easier to supervise.

The price of selling salt set by the court is theoretically profitable. It's just that those small salt households have to rely on firewood to boil salt to increase costs on the one hand, and on the other hand, they suffer from the exploitation of salt merchants "buying salt at a low price and buying firewood at a high price", so it is difficult to make money.

Therefore, if the reform can be implemented, it can not only ensure that the company is profitable, but also lower the price of Lianghuai salt, thereby driving away the problem of Sichuan salt entering Chu and Guangdong salt entering Hunan.

At the same time, since the court wants to reform, it must reform the salt-introduction and salt-introduction system into the salt-invoice system.

Then, paying taxes according to the invoice can also achieve the court's goal after salt production: collecting taxes.

Large companies can lower costs, and salt drying requires a site, so private salt can only choose to continue to cook, which is more secretive, and this is bound to be unable to compete with large companies that have adopted new technologies.

Either go bankrupt and go to the Nanyang plantation.

Or go bankrupt and work as a hired worker in the salt field.

Or go bankrupt and beg for food.

There is no fourth way to go.

There are only two things the court has to do: check the quality of salt and collect taxes according to the amount of salt.

In addition to these factors directly related to the salt industry, Liu Yu also mentioned another benefit that seems to have little to do with the salt industry, or it is a plan.

The entry point is glass production, and the reason for this entry is that glass production has also been an important source of tax revenue for the court in recent years.

Glass production must first consider the market. The economy in southern Jiangsu is developed, and the sales of glass are increasing year by year. Glass is more troublesome to transport than porcelain, and it cannot withstand the wind and waves at sea.

Therefore, it is best to directly put some glass production plants into production in southern Jiangsu.

The court supports the development of the glass industry, because each piece of glass will pay taxes before leaving the factory.

Moreover, the court controls the new alkali factory in the north, which is hosted by the Academy of Sciences.

The upstream raw materials of the glass industry are controlled from the source, which means that although the glass industry is run by merchants, there is no room for tax evasion - how much alkali corresponds to how much glass, which is the same as the salt industry's previous inference of whether there is private salt based on the amount of firewood.

Glass manufacturing requires a lot of coal, or burning firewood is also fine.

The price of firewood in southern Jiangsu is very expensive, the population is large, there are no large coal mines there, and the urbanization rate is relatively high compared to other places, so the price of firewood is naturally expensive.

In addition to the glass manufacturing industry, some emerging industries in southern Jiangsu have also begun to use steam engines. For example, sawmilling, shipbuilding, etc.

If the Huaibei salt-drying industry can also use steam engines to extract brine, then the conditions for building a coal port centered on Lianyungang will be ripe.

There is coal in the Huaibei area, especially in Xuzhou and Zaozhuang, which are not too far from Lianyungang.

The coal there can be used for steam engines - because of the diversion of the Yellow River, some coal mines before the Song Dynasty were flooded. And these clumsy steam engines, used for water extraction, are very suitable for coal mining there.

As long as it is profitable, Liu Yu can take the lead and use the original river channel, combined with horse-drawn pig iron rails, to transport coal to Haizhou by combining rail and water transportation.

Part of it is used for Huaibei salt-drying.

Part of it is taken by boat to southern Jiangsu, which can not only alleviate the dilemma of "expensive firewood" in southern Jiangsu, but also promote the industrial development of southern Jiangsu.

Because the Yellow River has not yet created a widespread flood area in Jiangsu and Shandong, this seemingly large project is actually not large.

To the west of Haizhou, the Yellow River flood area had not yet appeared, so the Qiangwei River was navigable.

At the same time, there was also a Qingyi Lake that had dried up in later generations but existed at this time.

To the west of Qingyi Lake, there is also Luoma Lake, which is very large at that time. Because of the presence of the Yellow River, the water volume of the Grand Canal in the Luoma Lake section is navigable.

In fact, what needs to be built is only a section of road from Luoma Lake to Qingyi Lake, which is about 80 miles. It doesn't cost much, but the capital can be fully built and it can make money.

Because this road not only transports coal, but also salt and other commodities. Calculating the current firewood prices in southern Jiangsu and the level of navigation in Dashun, sea transportation of coal is still profitable.

Finally, from the perspective of the court, Liu Yu analyzed the benefits of such planning "for the court and the emperor":

After the canal was abandoned, the only thing that maintained the bond between the north and the south was the navy.

Such a bond is not solid enough.

The best way is to strengthen the economic ties between the north and the south, that is: the south cannot do without the north, and the north cannot do without the south.

In this way, the problem of estrangement and separation between the north and the south after the canal was abandoned can be solved.

If the court wants to control southern Jiangsu in the future, it actually only needs to leave the capital, pass Jinan, and go to Xuzhou. Controlling the coal there means controlling the growing industry in southern Jiangsu.

In this way, the country can be stable.

Every reform plan of Liu Yu must be shown to the emperor: what are the benefits of strengthening the imperial power and the emperor's control over the world. Although there are traps in it, Liu Yu estimated that the emperor could not see it at all.

As for other things... just listen to what the emperor and the literati say about the people of the world, don't really believe it, no matter which emperor, as long as he sits firmly in the seat.

The simplest example, if the court really cares about the people of the world, the salt drying method would have been promoted in the Lianghuai area long ago, why is it still the turn now?