Wishing you prosperity, red envelopes are brought!

The chamberlain took paper, pen, ink, and inkstone. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Picking up the pen, Li Chao first wrote a big word on the jute paper that Yizhou paid tribute to.

Li Shimin looked at the word, pursed his lips, and couldn't help laughing. Li Chao's calligraphy has been around for several years, and it is still so ugly, compared to his quill writing, pencil writing, and fountain pen writing, it is far worse.

"Your Majesty, salt this thing, in fact, itself is not unusual, the coast can directly boil the sea to dry salt, there are also salt ponds and salt lakes in the interior, in Shannan Bashu and other places, you can also drill salt wells to cook mineral salt, although the salt ponds and salt mines in the interior are not as convenient as the coast, but in general, in fact, the cost of salt is not high, mining, transportation and marketing, these links are well controlled, and the cost of salt is far lower than that of growing grain."

"Growing grain is also affected by the season, although salt mining and drying are also affected by the season, but the impact is much smaller. And people eat salt no more than they eat grain. A ding normally has to eat a few stones of grain a year, but ten catties of salt is enough. ”

During the Sui Dynasty and Wude, the imperial court did not control salt, and allowed private salt to be sold, so salt was actually very cheap before, a pound of salt was only a pound of grain price, and the people did not say that they could not afford to eat salt. At most, in some places where transportation is inconvenient, salt is more expensive, which is limited by the cost of transportation, not anything else.

But it is such a small salt, after the Tang Dynasty, but it has become a major item in the income of the imperial court, to the Song Dynasty, the salt tax has even reached more than 30 million, the Ming and Qing dynasties, the salt tax is also an important source of financial income for the imperial court, the Ming and Qing dynasties, the richest businessmen in the world, is the salt merchants.

At present, the imperial court's policy on salt is relatively simple, that is, merchants are allowed to contract salt farms, etc., and they just need to get a certificate. Then the salt produced is to be sold, and you need to pay a tax to the imperial court first, and the tax is not much.

Li Chao is now ready to make a fuss about salt and increase the income of the imperial court.

"We can change the way salt is produced, transported, and sold. Tighten the salt control! ”

"How?"

"Civil system, official collection, and then commercial transportation, commercial sales."

Separate several links, prevent businessmen from engaging in one-stop, and strengthen control. For salt farms in various places, it is still necessary to apply for approval and issue licenses, and for unlicensed salt farms, we must resolutely crack down on and ban them, and check one by one when they are found.

The task of producing salt was given to the merchants and ordinary people, and they were allowed to operate the production after registration, but they had to be supervised by the imperial court. The salt they produce must not be sold privately, and must be sold to the imperial court in its entirety.

Salt was purchased and sold by the imperial court.

Of course, the imperial court received the salt and did not sell it directly.

Another point is that the businessman who contracts the salt factory has to apply for a license, and the salt license must have restrictions, allowing the salt license to be held for generations and can also be transferred, but the license of the salt license must be expensive. This is the same as the salt merchants in the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations, they want to sell salt, not only have salt leads, but also have salt nests, this salt nest is actually a business qualification, very valuable.

With a salt card, the imperial court can immediately collect a large amount of money.

In the future, you can also conduct an annual review of the salt card every year, and you can also collect a small amount.

Secondly, even if the salt license is established, the salt factory must levy a business tax every year according to their output.

"What else?" Li Shimin's eyes lit up when he listened.

"The imperial court set up a special salt yamen to be responsible for salt affairs in the world, and sub-bureaus were set up in various places to be in charge of salt affairs. After the salt output of the salt works was produced, it was purchased by the imperial court, stored in the salt warehouses in various places, and then uniformly distributed to the large salt warehouses. At this time, the imperial court could bid for tenders from merchants from all over the world and let them come to the imperial court to buy salt. ”

"Salt lead?"

I just heard a salt card, and now there is another salt citation, Li Shimin said that he didn't understand.

"The salt brand is the certificate for the salt field to obtain the qualification for salt production, and the salt introduction is the certificate for taking salt."

Salt quotation is a powerful thing, at the beginning, he is just a kind of voucher, salt merchants want to sell salt, they must first buy salt quotation from the government, each quotation number, divided into two volumes before and after, after stamping, divided into two parts from the middle, the back roll to the merchant, called the introduction paper, the front volume stub, called the root.

If a merchant wants to buy salt, he must first buy salt from the imperial court, and with salt introduction, he can go to the salt warehouse to receive salt, and then sell it himself. When transporting and selling, there must be salt quotations for government inspection, and if there is no salt quotation, then it is considered illegal salt, and the illegal salt dealers must be confiscated and punished.

"Your Majesty, there is another advantage of salt introduction, that is, the salt and introduction of the imperial court are separated, while paying money to sell the introduction, while collecting the introduction of salt, the salt introduction money and the salt in the salt warehouse are managed separately, to avoid corruption and other problems, better supervision. At the same time, when the imperial court sells salt, it directly levies a salt tax in the salt introduction, so that every time the salt is sold, the imperial court has directly collected the salt tax. ”

Li Shimin couldn't stop twisting his beard when he heard it, this is indeed what he meant.

"So you can raise 30 million yuan?"

"Of course not." Li Chao replied very directly, just like this, how could he get so much money.

It's all about the mix.

Li Shimin is still puzzled, his mind is always a little unable to keep up with this kind of things that are too complicated, especially things that are in the number game.

In later generations, the salt quotation is not just a simple certificate to buy salt, it is also a kind of bond.

In all dynasties, salt is not so honest, and it will basically be overissued.

That is to say, there may be 30 million people in Datang now, and according to the average demand for 10 catties of salt per person, 300 million catties of salt may be needed a year. 、

Three million salt was brought to the salt merchants, which was just right.

But the imperial court sold salt to attract money, and for the sake of money, it was overpaid.

The market only needs 3 million salt, but the imperial court issued 10 million salt, the merchants paid money to buy salt, paid salt tax, and then went to the salt warehouse to receive salt, but it turned out that the salt warehouse did not have so much salt, or received salt, but the market was saturated and could not be sold.

In most cases, the salt output of the salt field is also limited, and it cannot keep up with the amount of salt issued by the imperial court, so the more common situation is that the salt merchants take the salt lead, but they have to queue up in the salt warehouse to receive salt, which is the same as the indiscriminate issuance of official hats, and the lack of officials is a reason.

There is salt, but there is no salt.

At this time, salt introduction is actually equivalent to a kind of salt debt, which is the nature of a bond.

If the number of over-issuance is well controlled, it is actually very beneficial, but if there is too much over-issuance, then the salt market will be chaotic and corruption will inevitably occur.

However, what the imperial court needs most now is money, so Li Chaocai proposed the salt card and the salt citation.

Salt politics is very complicated, such as the opening of the middle law, the outline of the salt law, the ticket salt law, etc., there are regional sales, and there are also unlimited land sales.

Li Chao does not plan to engage in zoned sales, but can sell as long as there is salt, and as for whether to sell or not, it all depends on the ability of the market and businessmen. The imperial court is only responsible for the collection of salt and the unified sale, as for the specific total sales, the profit and loss are all irrelevant.

Therefore, Li Chao's salt policy is actually similar to the ticket salt system after the salt reform of the Qing Dynasty.

"One hundred catties of salt, do you need three million a year? How much did the imperial court price per salt introduction? ”

What price should be set for salt?

This is a detail, Li Chao feels that he can summon the prime ministers to discuss together.