258 Windfall profits of illicit salt

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After dinner, Guan Daowen took Li Zixiao and his son Guan Shengjie into his study. Please search (product % to see the most complete!) target

"Brother-in-law, this is what you asked me to count, and I haven't left any of the list of seized property you brought back, and all of them have been registered."

After entering the study, Guan Shengjie handed Li Zixiao an account book and said excitedly.

Li Zixiao took the account book and flipped through it roughly, he couldn't help but be stunned, looked at Guan Shengjie and said, "So much? ”

"Yes, brother-in-law, the total amount of these belongings you brought back is more than 5,000 taels of gold and nearly 300,000 taels of silver, all of which are packed in boxes in carts.

In addition, there are silk, cloth, gold, silver and jade jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, etc., all of which are robbed according to their valuables. ”

When Guan Shengjie talked about these seized materials, his eyebrows also danced.

"It seems that these would-be robbers are not only robbing ordinary people, but also obviously robbing many large families, otherwise ordinary people would not have so much gold and silver in their homes, let alone silk, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings."

After Li Zixiao listened, he said contemplatively.

"That's right, in those two cartloads of gold and silver, we found that they were all silver ingots, and they looked like they were in the cellars of the rich men.

Most of the common people used copper coins and broken silver, and there would be no such silver ingots. ”

Guan Daowen knows more about these, after all, their family is also a big family, and it is estimated that they also have a lot of silver ingots, of course they understand.

"In this way, I don't have to worry, anyway, the wool is out of those big landlords, I don't have to worry.

Even if those big families are robbed, they will not fall to the point of starvation, but those ordinary people, if they are robbed by those widows, I am afraid that the whole family will have no rice to cook.

So tomorrow I will take out 100,000 taels of silver from these seized goods, and purchase a batch of grain from your Guanjia grain shop.

You sent people to the villages and towns around Yangzhou that had been looted by the Japanese to release the news, saying that I, Li, were in Yangzhou City to distribute food to these robbed people.

According to the population, each family has five catties of grain per person, and as long as those robbed families have the vouchers issued by the local government, they can come to Yangzhou to get grain.

In this way, it can be regarded as making up for the losses of those robbed people, and as for the silver of those who were robbed, I will laugh and accept.

After all, those soldiers under my command can't die in vain, these big families have been fishing for the people's fat and ointment all their lives, but they have never paid a penny of taxes for a long time, and this time these are the taxes they paid. ”

This is the best solution that Li Zixiao came up with, which can make up for the losses of the people who were looted by the Japanese robbers, so as not to cause resentment among the people.

"Hey, hey. Ziqian's plan is very good. ”

Guan Daowen smiled awkwardly at first, and then said appreciatively.

After all, the Guan family also belongs to Li Zixiao's mouth, those big families who don't pay taxes all year round, so they are embarrassed.

"However, brother-in-law, if you do this, you must get the cooperation of Governor Lin, otherwise the local government will not issue vouchers to those people who have been robbed.

When the time comes, everyone will come to receive food, and it is estimated that there will be a big mess. ”

Guan Shengjie didn't think as much as his own Lao Tzu thought, but he really admired Li Zixiao in his heart, and planned for him at this time.

"This point is easy to solve, it just so happened that Governor Lin invited me to his mansion to talk about it, and I will go over to visit him tomorrow, and tell Governor Lin about this matter by the way, presumably he has no reason to refuse."

"So it's good."

Guan Daowen likes Li Zixiao more and more, not only leading the troops to fight well, but also thoughtful, brave and strategic.

"By the way, father-in-law, among the seized items, those gold and silver jewelry, silk, calligraphy and paintings, etc., I kept them useless.

Trouble your merchants, and exchange them for silver, and you will exchange them at the market price. ”

Li Zixiao said to Guan Daowen.

"Hey, Ziqian has a heart."

Guan Daowen heard Li Zixiao say this, with a relieved smile on his face, and said.

He knew that whether Li Zixiao took out 100,000 taels of silver to purchase grain from their grain store before, or asked them to close the family firm to dispose of these valuables for him.

It can be regarded as taking care of their Guan family's business, and these two transactions alone can make the Guan family make a small profit, and more importantly, it has driven the business of the Guan family's firm.

"Father-in-law is polite, we are now a family, so we don't have to see each other.

In the future, there will be more businesses that need to cooperate with your firm. I'll leave this matter to Xiaojie. Then, Li Zixiao continued.

Guan Shengjie on the side listened to Li Zixiao's words, and he was even more grateful to him.

Guan Shengjie has been trying to get his father's approval, thinking that one day he can stand alone and take over part of the Guan family's business.

Now that Li Zixiao has given him this opportunity, it is clear that he is fighting for him for the opportunity, how can he not be grateful.

Guan Daowen looked at what Li Zixiao did and his son's expression, and nodded with a smile.

"Okay, let Xiaojie handle these things for you!"

Guan Daowen is not stupid, he can see that Li Zixiao is deliberately gaining the favor of his son, compared to his father-in-law, Li Zixiao is obviously more suitable for his brother-in-law.

And Guan Daowen is also a human being, of course, I hope that Guan Shengjie can follow his brother-in-law in the future, and at this time, he just pushes the boat.

Subsequently, Li Zixiao discussed the matter of Yangzhou with the Guan family father and son.

After all, the Guan family is one of the several major families in Yangzhou, and they know more about it.

With the Guan family father and son giving Li Zixiao a detailed lecture, Li Zixiao had a deeper understanding of the situation in Yangzhou.

"I didn't expect that Wanjia's power in Yangzhou would be so huge." Finally, Li Zixiao sighed.

"Yes, the old man of Wanjia is not simple, Wanjia is raised by him, revitalize the lintel, three generations of Wanjia are entrenched in Yangzhou, and they have long regarded this place as their nest, and outsiders are not allowed to touch it.

In Yangzhou, whether it is the government, or the underworld, the Tao, there are people in Wanjia who have joined Wanjia Heavy Business, and the development of these decades has made Wanjia Commercial Bank grow into the first commercial bank in Yangzhou.

At this time, 10,000 families are enough to describe a rich country. ”

Guan Daowen sighed on the side and said that he really admired the old man of the Wan family.

Even if the Wan family was suspected of annexing their Guan family's business at this time, Guan Daowen's tone was still respectful when he mentioned the old man.

"That old man from Wanjia is still alive?" Li Zixiao asked.

"Of course he is still alive, but this old man has never been in Yangzhou, and in the capital, as long as the old man of Wanjia does not fall, Wanjia will be solid in Yangzhou.

Old man Wan has been an official in the court for decades, and he has been full of peach and plum all over the world, and he has been a scholar in the Wanli period.

Later, he served as the secretary of the household department, the imperial envoy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, a student of the Wenhua Palace, and other important positions, and also entered the cabinet three times.

At this time, the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, that one didn't give Old Man Wan a little face, otherwise you think that Wan Jia would dare to be so domineering in Yangzhou! ”

Li Zixiao has always known that the old man in Wanjia is very powerful, but after listening carefully to Guan Daowen's words today, he realized that the old man in Wanjia used to be so good!

Li Zixiao's high-ranking official positions after hearing about them were enough to shock him.

Those are all real high-ranking officials, but they are not comparable to Yu Shiming, the Qing officials who are studying for bachelors in the Hanlin Academy.

"I see, sure enough, Wanjia's arrogance is justified." Li Zixiao nodded.

"However, recently I got news that Wan Jia was sued, which alarmed the Holy Lord, and there were rumors that Wan Jia was going to be unlucky.

Otherwise, the lord of the Wan family would not have been dismissed from the position of the prefect of Yangzhou by the saint, and this time the prefect of Lin seemed to come to Yangzhou to check the Wan family. ”

In the end, Guan Daowen told Li Zixiao such a shocking story, which attracted Li Zixiao's attention.

These are all information that Li Zixiao could not obtain at this time, after all, he had just risen to prominence, and the intelligence department under his command had not long been established.

has not been able to penetrate the Ming court, and he is far less aware of these insiders in the court than the Guan family father and son.

You must know that the Guan family is a big businessman, and it is inevitable to have a good relationship with those court officials, and it is easier to get news from the court.

"Why do you say that?" Li Zixiao humbly asked.

"Ziqian, do you know what business is the most profitable in Jiangnan?" Guan Daowen did not answer Li Zixiao's question, but asked him.

"The most profitable business? Grain? Cloth? Silk? Tea? ”

Li Zixiao said casually, he was not very familiar with these business things.

But Guan Daowen, who was on the other side, shook his head when he heard it.

"What's that?"

In the end, Li Zixiao couldn't think of it, he thought that at this time, the situation was turbulent in various places, and there was famine in various places, of course, food was the most valuable.

But Guan Daowen still shook his head, which made Li Zixiao puzzled.

"Brother-in-law, it's private salt!" In the end, it was Guan Shengjie on the side who explained Li Zixiao's confusion.

"Illicit salt. yes, how did I forget about it. Suddenly, Li Zixiao also suddenly realized.

The violence of illegal salt, Li Zixiao has long learned about it in historical documents.

"Father-in-law, are you saying that this time Wanjia was sued to the emperor because he was suspected of illegal salt trading, so the imperial court wanted to investigate Wanjia?"

Li Zixiao thought of a lot of things at this time.

"That's right." Sure enough, Guan Daowen said immediately.

"In fact, Wanjia has been suspected of illegal salt business since ten years ago, and later they have become bigger and bigger, making huge profits from it.

Otherwise, Wanjia Commercial Bank would not have expanded so fast.

In the past four or three years, with the eldest lord of Wanjia, he has become the prefect of Yangzhou.

He took advantage of his position and blatantly let Wanjia swallow up other illicit salt dealers.

In addition, they almost monopolized the sale of illicit salt in this area of Jiangbei, and even their illicit salt was exported to other places, among which it is said that there is no shortage of Tartars outside the Guan.

However, the rise of Wanjia will also squeeze out the business of other illicit salt traders.

This kind of profiteering business, who doesn't blush! And Wanjia is still so domineering, he even wants to eat alone.

It is precisely because of the actions of the master of the Wan family that he hurt the interests of other people, so someone stumbled on them.

Otherwise, more than ten years have passed, and there will be no accident now. ”

Li Zixiao listened and couldn't help nodding, this kind of lucrative business, eating alone is the most hateful.

Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents, for money, many people dare to take any risks, even if Wanjia has a huge power in Yangzhou, some people also dare to deal with them.

Subsequently, Li Zixiao learned from Guan Daowen that some interests were entangled.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, although the imperial court was also implementing the monopoly of salt and iron.

However, under normal circumstances, the imperial court sold the salt at a low price to those salt merchants, and then these salt merchants sold to various places.

The price of each pound of official salt is one cent of silver, but that is only the lowest price.

The price of salt often rises, sometimes reaching six cents per catty.

And what is the cost of the salt that those salt merchants took from the imperial court?

The price of each quotation of eight coins and the tax rate of five coins and five cents are 300 catties.

One leads 300 catties of salt, but the purchase price is eight dollars, plus a sharp rate of five dollars and five points.

Even if it is sold at the price of one penny of silver and one pound, it can be sold for three taels of silver.

There is a difference between two or six dollars and five dollars, even if there are links such as transportation and distribution in the middle, but the profit is extremely amazing.

What's more, these salt merchants often take salt, lead private salt, and collect salt directly from stove households, which is cheaper and evades taxes.

Therefore, after the implementation of the Gang Salt Law, countless people and elites issued it.

The salt merchants are even more famous, and the micro-merchants, Yangzhou merchants, etc., have risen strongly, creating countless big salt merchants, who are rich enough to rival the country.

A pound of high-quality pork is only two cents of silver, but a pound of official salt is sold for one cent of silver, and sometimes even sold for six cents of silver, which is equivalent to the price of three catties of pork.

In fact, there is no official or private distinction between this salt. The so-called official salt and private salt are just monopoly salt that has no tax.

Selling salt is so profitable, of course, everyone is red, and Wanjia is eyeing this piece of fat.

However, because of the monopoly, ordinary businessmen cannot get the right to distribute salt at all.

Even Wanjia is no exception, they were people outside this circle before, and now if they want to enter this circle, they will inevitably squeeze out the interests of some people, and of course those people are not happy.

Therefore, Wanjia took a risk and directly sold illegal salt.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, private salt was very rampant.

Official salt is at least a penny of silver per catty, but what about private salt? One pound is only one and a half centimeters, and the price of one pound of official salt can buy forty pounds of private salt.

In this way, of course, the people are more willing to buy illicit salt.

But in this way, those salt merchants who have monopoly power are of course not happy.

There are many people who sell smuggled salt, from small salt sellers who carry them on their shoulders to large salt sellers who carry them in vehicles and boats.

There are even many who are actually salt merchants themselves, and they secretly sell to other salt merchants' areas.

Northern Jiangsu belongs to the salt area of the Lianghuai Salt Field, which is a salt-producing area.

It is more convenient to obtain private salt from here, and it is cheaper.

The sale of illicit salt is extremely profitable, and it can be said that there are salt sellers everywhere, and all kinds of illicit salt dealers emerge in endlessly.

At this time, Wanjia was the largest smuggler of salt in northern Jiangsu.

These people are grabbing money, robbing salt merchants who have real legal monopoly rights.

Now there is a rumor among the people that the gains from selling salt are profitable and not laborious.

Fivefold windfall profits but no work, who is not impressed.

Marx once said: "If there is a 10% profit, capital is guaranteed to be used everywhere; With 20% of the profits, capital can be active;

With 50% of the profits, capital will take risks; For the sake of 100% profit, capital dares to trample on all the laws of the world; With more than 300% of the profits, capital dares to commit any crime. ”

If you make three times the profit, you dare to commit any crime, let alone sell salt with five times the profit!

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