Chapter 261: The Salt Method is in the making (please vote for the new volume, will be updated tonight)
"Madam, all the things have been loaded on the ship."
The maid Cuiping reported to Fang Ruolan. Fang Ruolan nodded and checked the luggage list again. Then he said:
"My husband said that it takes fifteen days to reach Shanghai County by boat. In this case, it is easier to take the boat."
Although Fang Ruolan said it easily, the servants were still a little afraid of taking the boat.
Fang Ruolan's mother's home is Quanzhou, and Quanzhou itself has a tradition of going to sea.
So when Su Ze suggested to Fang Ruolan later that year that Changningwei take a boat directly to Shanghai, Fang Ruolan agreed.
Now that the Lantern Festival has passed, Fang Ruolan followed Su Ze back to Changningwei to celebrate the New Year.
At the beginning, Su Ze was still nervous whether Fang Ruolan would see Lin Mojun.
Later it was discovered that Su Ze was overly worried.
Although women in the Ming Dynasty had more freedom after marriage than before marriage, Fang Ruolan, as a woman from an official family, rarely went out even when she returned to Changning Guard.
In addition to following Su Ze up the mountain once and seeing the overseas crops grown by Su Ze, Fang Ruolan also only chatted with Lin Cainiang.
As for Lin Mojun, he was just a member of the local health center, and Fang Ruolan had no interest in knowing about him.
He stayed in Changningwei until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Su Ze received news from Fuzhou Prefecture that a batch of grain prepared by Eunuch Tao in Fuzhou Prefecture was to be transported to Jiangnan. So Su Ze happened to set off from Changningwei and set off with this fleet. Shanghai.
If this route is safe, Su Ze can quickly travel between Fujian and Shanghai in the future.
This time, Su Ze was still riding Changningwei's lucky boat. However, after Lin Zongyuan's renovation, the decks of the lucky boat were replaced with stronger oak decks. Four newly purchased doors were also installed on the lucky boat. Western naval gun.
As a loyal supporter of cannon doctrine, Su Ze added a Franco machine gun to the stern of the ship.
This kind of firepower is already quite sufficient in the East Asian waters. Together with the fifty gunmen traveling with the ship, they escorted Su Ze's family to Shanghai.
When they set sail, Lin Mojun did not appear at the dock, which made Su Ze feel relieved.
There was no danger during this voyage. It was Fang Ruolan's first time on a sea ship and she was very interested in everything on the sea.
But in fact, the scenery on the sea was very monotonous. Apart from the blue sky, there was the endless sea. Fang Ruolan soon became bored with these repetitive scenery.
Fortunately, this voyage did not take long. By February, the fleet arrived in Shanghai.
In February of the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing, just as the Su Ze family was unloading their luggage at the Shanghai pier, just after the New Year, and after various ministries and offices started to go back to work, several orders were issued from the Sixth Department of the Capital, and they were quickly sent to Nanjing and the Thirteenth Department. Dao Buzheng sent the letter to the Yamen in a hurry.
These orders are so urgent, naturally they are to prepare for the reconstruction of the three main halls.
First, there was an order from the Ministry of Industry, requiring Jiangxi, Fujian, Yunnan and other provinces to pay tribute to royal wood to finance large-scale construction.
In particular, there is a lot of wood in Yunnan. In addition to ordering Yunnan to harvest the wood, the Ministry of Industry also ordered the two provinces along the way, namely Guangdong and Guangxi, to contribute money and effort to transport the wood to the capital.
Immediately afterwards, in order to raise the cost of building the palace, the Ministry of Revenue ordered the issuance of additional salt citations in South Zhili, and asked the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue to sell these salt citations and use the money from the sale of salt citations to raise funds in Jiangnan.
The last thing is that national donations are still expanding. After hundreds of officials in the capital took the lead in donating their salaries to support the great work, the six yamen in Nanjing also took the lead in starting "voluntary donations." Naturally, the yamen of the thirteen provinces cannot lag behind. A vigorous campaign to "voluntarily reduce salary" to build a palace for the emperor was launched.
With the mentality that "the emperor's kindness is not over", officials of the Ming Dynasty "actively" donated their salaries to the emperor to build the palace. The emperor was naturally very "touched" and said many times, "I am not short of this little money"!
It's a pity that the ministers were too "enthusiastic", and in order to prevent his ministers from being "embarrassed", the emperor finally accepted the donation of salary reduction and used the money to repair the palace.
In addition to the generous donations from the officials, the common people in the capital who were based in the imperial city and bathed in the emperor's kindness on weekdays also "voluntarily" joined the ranks of those who had no money to contribute.
On February 1, the emperor issued an order to recruit 60,000 civilians to join the Beijing camp, and together with the soldiers in the Beijing camp, they were recruited by the Ministry of Industry to build three main halls.
The people in the capital began to flee one after another. For these people who could not take the initiative to share the worries of their emperor and father, and even wanted to run away, the yamen at all levels in the capital launched an attack and used shackles and shackles to make them repent. The wealthy households who were sentenced could only Just pay the money and you'll be exempted from service.
But all this had nothing to do with Su Ze who was far away in Shanghai. After Fang Ruolan got off the ship, she got on the carriage to Nanjing.
Fang Ruolan was very curious about everything in the south of the Yangtze River. From time to time, she would lift the curtains and look outside. Compared with the mountains in Fujian, the scenery of the endless water network in the south of the Yangtze River was indeed very beautiful.
By the time they arrived in Nanjing, Fang Wanghai had already received the news in advance and sent a housekeeper to greet him outside Nanjing.
After meeting the old housekeeper at home, Fang Ruolan naturally had mixed feelings. Although it had only been more than two months since she got married, Fang Ruolan felt like she had been separated from her parents for such a long time.
Fang Ruolan is already married, and if she continues to live in Fang Wanghai's house, others will say that Su Ze is barging in the door. Fortunately, Su Ze was not short of money now and bought a new house not far from Fang Wanghai's mansion. Fang Ruolan asked Cuiping to settle her luggage, and then she and Su Ze went to visit Fang Wanghai.
"Madam is waiting for the young lady in the back house. Please follow the old servant to the study. The master is waiting to see you."
If you are so anxious to see yourself, I am afraid that your father-in-law will encounter some trouble again.
As expected, he saw an anxious-looking Fang Wanghai in the study. The first words he said were:
"Rulin, take a look at this!"
Su Ze took it and took a look. It was an official document sent by the cabinet to the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs. The content was It is to ask the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs to sell Jianghuai salt diversion to raise 50,000 taels of silver for the construction project.
"So many?" Su Ze took a breath.
Fang Wanghai also frowned and said: "Yes, since the Japanese pirates ravaged the north of the Yangtze River, the Jianghuai salt law has been blocked. It is not enough to accept the salt salt sold before. How to sell the new salt issued by the imperial court?
" No wonder Fang Wanghai is worried, because one of the important tasks of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue is to be responsible for the salt affairs of the entire southern Zhili.
Salt has been recognized as a strategic resource since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. After the Han Dynasty established the policy of salt and iron monopoly, salt tax has always been an important part of the national finance.
Since the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, Wu Qi, a famous financial minister in the Tang Dynasty, established a salt institute in Jianghuai. After the salt affairs reform in the Jiangnan region, the salt tax in the entire Jiangnan region accounted for more than half of the country's total.
Su Ze had only a partial understanding of the salt laws of the Ming Dynasty before traveling through time, so he asked Fang Wanghai about the situation.
"Father-in-law, could you tell me how the Jianghuai Salt Process siltation was formed?"
Fang Wanghai also calmed down a little, and he began to talk about the Ming Dynasty's salt policy:
"I have forgotten that Rulin has never governed the salt administration. Let me explain the salt administration of the Ming Dynasty, which is the kaizhong system." "The kaizhong system is the salt
law system of the Ming Dynasty that is different from the previous dynasty. When the Kaizhong system was created, it was to solve the problem of food supply in the health center." "In
our Ming Dynasty, there were a total of six salt transportation departments and eight salt collection departments. Among them, the salt transportation department was responsible for the storage and transportation of salt, and The Salt Lifting and Lifting Department is responsible for managing the production of the salt field."
Fang Wanghai took a sip of tea and said,
"This is how the Kaizhong method works. First, the military and health departments from various places check and report to our Nanjing Household Department to clarify the needs of each place. Then our Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs determines the quantity of salt for each health station. This step is 'opening'." "Salt merchants
will transport the designated grain to the designated health center based on the list of salt collection departments in various places. , the voucher exchanged from the guard station is called 'Cangchao', and this step is called 'Reporting'." "
After the salt merchant completed transporting the grain, he went to the Salt Transportation Department with the Cangchao in hand to exchange the Cangchao into 'Salt Yin', and 'Kaizhong' 'The stage is over."
"Of course, the salt transportation departments in various places cannot print salt notes on their own. The salt notes need them to report to the warehouse for verification. After that, our Nanjing Household Department will check the 'opening' and 'reporting' of each place. The account book is then printed in the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs and sent to the Salt Transportation Department, which then sends it to the salt dealers." "
After the salt merchants get the 'salt guide', they have to go to the designated salt field to pick up the salt. This step is called 'keeping the branch' '."
"After the salt merchants obtain the salt, they can only sell the salt in designated areas. Therefore, the salt must be sent to various batch inspection offices for verification. After verification, it can be sold in the area. Once the sales are completed, To turn over the salt, this is the whole process of opening up the system."
After listening to this, Su Ze had some understanding of the salt affairs system of the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, to put it bluntly, the emergence of the Kaizhong system was actually to cooperate with the health system in the early Ming Dynasty. The imperial court wanted to solve the problem of food logistics supply in the health center through the Kaizhong system.
Because there were a large number of guard posts established in the early Ming Dynasty, the food problem of these guard posts could not be solved by relying solely on the military camps.
The Kaizhong method means that the imperial court outsourced the procurement and transportation of grain to merchants. The merchants obtained warehouse notes and salt by transporting grain to remote guard posts, and then obtained salt, a national monopoly product, for sale, thus gaining profits.
Su Ze also admitted that when the Kaizhong Law was established, it was indeed a very sophisticated method. It could be regarded as solving the two problems of food supply for remote health centers and the sale of salt to the imperial court at the same time. It was a good way to kill two birds with one stone.
However, Su Ze, who has traveled through time for so long, also knows that things are not that simple. No matter how good the method is, it will change in this era.
Su Ze asked: "Excuse me, father-in-law, what's the problem with the Salt Law now?"
New volume, please vote, this chapter is 3,000 words, it will still be 4,000 words at 7pm, and an additional chapter will be added before 12pm.
It’s not just to make up the word count, it’s just the right word count for this chapter.
This volume may be a bit conceptual. I have always believed that there is no good or bad system, only whether it is suitable or not.
The Salt Law is a big problem, but it is still a matter of implementation. If just a new system could solve all problems, then history would not be so complicated.
What Fat Bird writes is actually non-mainstream. Thank you all for your support!
(End of chapter)