New Shun 1730
Chapter 973 Name and Reality
After arriving in Yangzhou, Zheng Yuxu did not ask his servants to send him twenty or thirty taels of silver, but came out of his house to greet him in person, which relieved Wu Jingzi's last entanglement.
Now Zheng Yuxu is most concerned about the reform of the salt administration, but Wu Jingzi did not directly talk to Zheng Yuxu about the salt administration. Instead, he talked about the imperial examination reform in Dashun.
"Brother Zheng still remembers the imperial examination reform that year, right? It is said that the imperial examination reform affected many people. Kang Zhongxian, the chief staff member of Duke Xingguo, finally gave up the imperial examination because of that imperial examination reform."
"Some people said before that the method of selecting scholars cannot produce true gentlemen. They are all just people who pick up chapters and sentences. Therefore, we need to select talents in the same way as selecting gentlemen."
"Even to the extreme, it is proposed that one must master the six arts and know the six classics. One must know the five rituals, six music, five shots, five controls, six books, and nine numbers; one must know "Yi", "Book", "Poem", "Poetry" "Rites", "Music", "Spring and Autumn"; it is necessary to deal with Mohism, Taoism, Yin and Yang; it is necessary to generalize history, Han, Three Kingdoms, Tang and Song Dynasties; it is necessary to examine practical matters; it is necessary to discuss the situation..."
"Do families like Brother Zheng prefer the selection of eight-legged essays? Or do they prefer the selection of poems, books, etiquette and ethics like this?"
This issue seems to have nothing to do with salt policy reform.
Zheng Yuxu didn't understand what Wu Jingzi was going to say. After thinking about it, he smiled and said, "For a family like ours, the latter one is better."
"It is not easy for ordinary people to study, so how can they drive a car, ride a horse, read the Four Histories, and discuss the general trend?"
"On the contrary, it was a fixed-format eight-part article, and ordinary people came forward every year. Therefore, in the end, the state still retained the eight-part format, but expanded the scope of topics."
Wu Jingzi nodded and said: "The minister who asked for the change back to eight-legged writing at that time said that the previous selection of candidates was nothing more than "acting filial piety and honesty in the name of the imperial examination".
"Those eight-part articles are really good stuff."
"If these eight-legged essays are well done, you can do whatever you want, poetry if you want, poetry if you want, poetry if you want. It will be a mark with a whip, and blood with a slap."
"I have a few literary names, and it was during the time when my hair was tied that I practiced eight-legged writing. The advantage of these eight-parted writing is that it has a fixed format and a limited selection of materials. It makes it possible for ordinary people to compete with those who are from that family. Chance."
"The principles in the world are all the same."
"Looking back at the imperial examination reform of this dynasty, and then thinking about today's salt policy reform, brother Zheng still doesn't know what to do?"
"This salt policy reform is inevitable."
"If you don't change it today, someone will mention it tomorrow. If you don't change it tomorrow, someone will mention it tomorrow."
"Only by changing it can the world's mouth be blocked."
"Xiaolian is good, whoever mentions it like this is stupid.
"In the name of the imperial examination, to practice filial piety and integrity, this is where Brother Zheng wants to work hard!"
"If the imperial examination had continued to select gentlemen at that time, wouldn't the people of the world feel bad about it? Compared with before Shang Yang's reform, the princes, generals and ministers were indeed distinguished. Doesn't it still seem fair?"
Zheng Yuxu sighed, seeming to understand something, and said hurriedly: "It's fair. The imperial examination is fair. You don't have money to learn to ride a horse, learn to play the piano, read Yin Yang History, and have no connections to understand the imperial policies. , that’s because you don’t have the ability, and your family doesn’t have the ability. The rules are here, and the selection is not based on family background. What’s unfair about this?”
Wu Jingzi saw that Zheng Yuxu had already formed an eyebrow, so he nodded and said, "This is exactly what I want to say."
"Nowadays, the law of salt administration is in turmoil, and everyone thinks it needs to be changed. But the biggest public opinion that needs to be changed lies in the big contractors such as Brother Zheng. The salt in their hands was inherited by the father after his father died. This is true for princes, generals, and ministers. Kind of."
"But Brother Zheng, you can think about it. If Qian's father dies and his son succeeds him, won't the world think it's wrong?"
"Shiobiki, is it money? Or power?"
"Princes, generals, and ministers are indeed talented, and this will disgust the world. But if a wealthy businessman has property, and his son still has a fortune of tens of millions, the world will object, right?"
"Turn power into money; turn light into darkness."
"To use the story I am about to tell, it is the general trend of the world to abandon the method of promoting filial piety and honesty, and those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. However, if we abandon the method of promoting filial piety and honesty and conduct imperial examinations, how to take the imperial examination can be done To 'do filial piety and integrity in the name of the imperial examination'."
"An analogy to the salt policy is to 'vote for salt laws and carry out salt affairs'. Change without changing, change without change. From the original power to fairer money; from the original power because of your surname Zheng, it’s because of how much money you have that you can enter the market.”
"In this case, the world has nothing to say. In the past, his surname was not Zheng, so he was not qualified to enter. But now, anyone from Zhao Qian, Li Zhou, Wu, Zheng, and Wang can enter, as long as you have silver. What else can I say? Woolen cloth?"
"Based on the Salt Gang, the difference between you, Brother Zheng, and those merchants is that your surname is Zheng, while those merchants are not surnamed Zheng."
"On a matter of votes and salt, Brother Zheng, think about the difference between you and them?"
These simple sentences hit the key point.
"In the name of voting salt, how can we practice the practice of official salt? What if we use the name of imperial examination and practice the practice of filial piety and integrity?"
Zheng Yuxu understood these two sentences carefully, and the more he tasted them, the more he tasted them.
When Wu Jingzi asked this question, he suddenly said: "If we talk about the fairness of silver, the difference between me and them is that I have one million silver, while they only have three thousand five thousand?"
Wu Jingzi clapped his hands and said, "Come on! As long as you draw a line, you must have a family fortune of 100,000 yuan to engage in the salt industry. Then this is called 'taking the name of salt and practicing salt in practice'."
"Brother Zheng still controls the salt industry, but the reason for his control is that he inherited the salt nest of his father and grandfather, and he is rich and qualified to engage in the salt industry."
"It is unwise to directly resist the reform. It is better to use the power to transform it and take other measures."
Wu Jingzi's idea originated from the truth in the comment of Songjiang Prefecture on the Ako Incident quoted by Cheng Tingzuo to him - replace the hidden with the public. Use money to replace moral identity and bloodline.
Seeing through the standard of "using the amount of money to distinguish people" in Songjiang Prefecture, he pointed out the key to the solution to Zheng Yuxu.
Zheng Yuxu pondered Wu Jingzi's words and gradually tasted some key points.
If the court wants to reform the salt policy, it must go with the ticket salt system.
At that time, it is necessary to encourage small capital to enter the market and divide the control of large salt merchants.
The salt permit was changed to salt ticket, so that anyone with 1,800 taels of silver could enter the market, and no longer needed a large salt merchant with a capital of millions.
One of the key reforms is to abolish the salt permit monopoly.
For example, the Zheng family holds hundreds of thousands of salt permits, and these salt permits belong to them. The regulations state that they belong to them and can be inherited from father to son.
This is where the problem lies.
For example, the Lianghuai Salt District manages hundreds of prefectures.
These prefectures are divided into different sales areas such as A, B, C, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, and Xin.
If A, B, and C are close to each other, the salt of A, B, and C will be transported together, distributed in large warehouses, and then sold by people who are specifically responsible for the sales areas of A, B, and C.
A's salt cannot go to B, and B's salt cannot go to A. Of course, private salt cannot go to A and B.
The privileged contracting of sales areas such as A, B, C, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, and Xin is inherited and unchanged.
For example, the Zheng family holds the privileges of seventy or eighty sales areas. Does he need to do it himself?
Obviously not. For example, if he has seventy sales areas, the court asks him to collect 70 yuan, which is equivalent to the monopoly of one yuan per area.
Why should he do it himself? Why not just sell the sales rights of one district for 2.5 yuan to a secondary contractor? Why do you have to do it yourself?
The starting point of the salt administration reform that has been discussed in recent years can be summarized in one sentence:
[The profits do not go to the court, and cannot feed the common people, but all go to the middlemen]
The core idea is to eliminate the middlemen and make no profit from the price difference.
How to eliminate the middlemen and make a profit from the price difference?
The idea of the group of people in the court who are thinking about salt administration reform is also very simple: marketization.
Abandon the salt permit and salt gang system and allow small merchants to enter the market.
A ticket clearly states how much salt is.
After buying the ticket, you can sell it as long as it is within the sales range of the Huaibei Salt District.
In theory, without the middlemen making a profit from the price difference, many problems can be solved.
However, as these large contractors and general contractors, they are afraid of doing this.
In this way, their monopoly rights are directly gone.
Now Wu Jingzi's idea is not to confront openly, but to go the way of "the name of ticket salt and the reality of salt", which immediately provided Zheng Yuxu with an idea.
As a big salt merchant, there is plenty of capital, can't you afford the salt ticket?
The key issue is not that you can't afford it, but that others can buy it.
So, is there a way to adopt the ticket salt law and set a range from the property to prohibit those merchants with small capital from entering the market?
As long as this can be done, the problem will be solved.
But how to do it?
Seeing that Zheng Yuxu was still thinking, Wu Jingzi said again: "Brother Zheng, do you understand why the court wants to change the salt policy?"
"What is the root cause? What is it for?"
"For the people?"
"For the salt tax?"
This is a question that does not need to be answered at all, and it is also a question that cannot be answered at all.
Obviously know, but does it mean that the court did not reform for the people at all?
Why did the salt policy reform?
According to the slogan of political correctness, it is for the people of the world and for the people.
This is political correctness.
Apart from these political correctness, what is the real reason?
It is private salt.
Why does private salt sell well?
Because official salt is expensive.
Why is official salt expensive?
Theoretically, according to the tax collected per salt, private salt cannot beat official salt, because this involves a cost of "maximum death penalty".
However, if everything is to be theoretical, then it can only be theoretical.
Under this variant of the tax farming system, the court asks the general contractor to collect taxes, and the general contractor asks the sub-contractor to collect money. There are middlemen who make a profit from the difference, so official salt becomes more and more expensive.
The more expensive the official salt is, the easier it is to sell private salt.
The easier it is to sell private salt, the harder it is to sell official salt.
The harder it is to sell official salt, the less official salt these salt cookers produce.
The less official salt, the more private salt.
The more private salt there is, the fewer people buy official salt permits.
The fewer people buy official salt permits, the cookers can only sell a large amount of salt to private salt dealers, resulting in more and more private salt.
The increasing number of private salt will eventually lead to the complete collapse of the salt administration, and the most important tax revenue of the court, except for the land tax, will be ruined.
After clarifying this point, we can understand what the root cause of the court's reform of the salt administration is?
It is to solve the problem of tax collection on official salt.
The reason why these general contractors are needed is that they, as middlemen, earn too much difference in price, which is considered to be the main reason why official salt cannot sell as well as private salt, and there is no need to add one of them.
The people are just a cover.
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