To put it bluntly, before the reform, it was the merchants who suffered, but they still had to make money - and after the reform, it was the border soldiers who suffered.

This laid a foreshadowing for the border soldiers who were as poor as beggars in the last years of the Ming Dynasty.

Even at that time, Ye Qi's change of law was also a controversial matter.

When the Ming Dynasty was first built, the country was empty and the people were empty, rice was expensive and silver was cheap, and this was especially true at the border gates. The emergence of Shangtun made the supply of rice abundant, so there was a situation where rice was cheap and silver was expensive, and the grain at the border was guaranteed. After Ye Qi's reform, the merchant lost two buckets and five liters of rice to the military warehouse for every salt he introduced, which was worth three silver coins in the past, but now it is only worth five cents of silver. If the nanometer is changed to silver, for every salt tax levied on the silver, three and a half cents to four and two cents, the profit will be as much as eight times, and the state treasury will increase the amount of silver by more than one million taels every year. Here's the benefit.

However, the disadvantages are greater, although Ye Qi's reform increased the government's financial revenue in a short period of time, but in the first year of Zhengde, Tuntian's grain also began to be converted into silver, and the rich people of Shanxi and Shaanxi moved to Huaizhejiang, so that Shangtun completely withdrew from the border grain supply system, and the production of border grain declined, resulting in the high price of silver and rice. As a result, the government's increased fiscal revenue due to Ye Qi's reform was still far from satisfying the deficit that was later formed by the rise in grain prices, and as a result, grain could not be transferred to other places on the border, and the problem of transporting grain from the border region returned to the situation at the beginning of the implementation of the system in China.

Before the reform, the five towns of Yansui, Gansu, Ningxia, Xuanfu, and Datong originally received 1.54 million stone of grain and 1.14 million stone of grain for the people. By the early years of Jiajing, the grain had dropped to 570,000 stones, while the grain for the people had risen to 2,070,000 stones.

It not only made the supply of border grain tight, but also greatly increased the burden on the people and the imperial court.

And behind Ye Qi's change of law, there was a very ulterior purpose.

Ye Qi is a native of Huai'an and has a deep relationship with Hui merchants. Huizhou merchants do not refer to Anhui merchants, you must know that the word "Anhui" did not appear until the sixth year of Kangxi, and it was formed by combining the names of Anqing and Huizhou. Huizhou merchants refer to the merchants who came out of Huizhou Mansion to do business during the Ming and Qing dynasties, also known as Xin'an merchants. Huai'an, Huizhou, Nanjing, Haozhou, and Dingyuan are all subordinate to Nanzhili, so Ye Qi can be said to be the hometown of Huizhou merchants.

Ye Qi changed the law, and there were many people who scolded.

"Since Ye Qi changed the law, there are many shortages of side storage"

"The law of going to the border to open up the middle is abolished, the business is withdrawn, the pineapple is expensive, and the border storage is empty"

"The merchants of Zhuhuai have withdrawn from their businesses and returned, and the merchants of the Northwest have also migrated to Huai, and the border land is a ruin, and the rice stone is worth five taels of silver, and the side storage is still in place."

And Ye Qi has a motive for changing the law: "The salt merchants are all aware of it, and Qi said: 'Merchants go to the border to pay grain, the price is small and there is a long journey; In the transport of silver, the price is more and it is easy to do. 'Strange. Ye Qi also asked the businessman's suggestion to Xu Pu, the first minister, because Pu and Qi had "the thickest friendship", so he also agreed. "Qi then asked the Taiwanese businessmen to accept the bank, solve Taicang, and distribute it to all sides."

In other words, the reason why Ye Qi changed the law was because the merchants transported grain to the borderlands, and there was a long way to go, and there was no easy benefit.

Under the Kaizhong system, Shanxi merchants are on the border of the merchants, the Hui merchants are far away, the life and the land are sparse, the customs are very different, it is difficult to reclaim, and it is not easy to plant. Whether it is to import millet or to plant nearby, Huizhou valve reading family generally disdain to do business, and ordinary people can not get the abundant capital needed to operate the salt industry, so before Chenghua Hongzhi, only a few businessmen in Huizhou are involved in this field. But not getting involved doesn't mean not blushing.

The main people who operated the salt industry in Lianghuai were Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants, and the original policy of opening up the middle and receiving grain was convenient for Shanxi merchants but inconvenient for Huizhou merchants. Shanxi merchants stored grain on the border, the land was close and laborious, and only the Hui merchants had "the labor of traveling far away". After receiving the silver in the two Huai, the Hui merchant land is close to the two Huai, in order to "get the easy profit".

The biggest beneficiary of Ye Qi's change is them.

After Ye Qi changed the law, the Jin merchants, Shaanxi merchants and Hui merchants launched fierce competition, and finally the Shaanxi merchants were defeated, and the Jin merchants and the Hui merchants did not give in to each other and were equally divided.

Today, in the eighth year of Chongzhen, there are not a few Jin merchants who have become Juwan homes because of selling salt, and they sell salt and take formal channels. In Shanxi, there are also a lot of people selling illicit salt. Naturally, they didn't have salt to lead, and it was impossible for them to travel thousands of miles to the Lianghuai and Changlu salt fields to support salt, but they could still survive.

Because there is a pond salt in Shanxi.

Just like there is sea salt in Lianghuai and well salt in Sichuan, the pool salt in Shanxi is also famous and not inferior.

However, Dong Ce doesn't know much about this, so he has to find a professional to ask.

He estimated that Huang Ji couldn't ask why, after all, he was just a family nurse, and he couldn't touch some upper-level things, so it was estimated that it was not easy to figure out the route. This thing, you have to ask what you do.

Is there only one right now?

Dong Ce waved his hand to beckon Dong Yongzhen: "The last time I went to the alley outside Zhang Mazi's house, do you remember?" ”

Dong Yongzhen thought for a while, nodded and said, "Remember." ”

"Find him quickly." Dong Ce looked at the few broken tables and chairs left in the room, and said, "By the way, go to the woodware shop where Wang Tong went last time to take a look, and ask them if those tables, chairs, benches, counters, or anything have been done, it's all been a year later." Also, I remember that there is a Four Seas Restaurant at the mouth of the alley of Zhang Mazi's house, and I went there to order some wine and food and came back. ”

Originally, Dong Ce planned to open a jewelry store, and he wanted to make some new ideas, so that Wang Tong could order many tables, chairs, cabinets and other utensils, and in order to attract attention, he carefully told Wang Tong to tell the carpentry shop that it must be customized according to what he said. Although I have no intention of opening a jewelry store now, I have already paid a deposit for those tables, chairs and benches, and it is better to get them back this morning.

Dong Yongzhen nodded and went out.

…………

The flowers bloomed two and each showed a branch, and Dong Zhongyong and Dong Zhongkang received Dong Ce's task, so they went to Qipan Street, and walked from south to north along Qipan Street, ready to buy monkeys.

If you want to buy a monkey, it is difficult to say that it is difficult to say, it is possible to search for a huge county town and not find a monkey, but it is possible to buy it by walking around the street casually. After all, although the fashion of keeping pets has been very popular since the Tang Dynasty, almost no one has monkeys, and this thing is honestly unpleasant. If you want to buy monkeys, you can basically only buy them from one kind of person -- monkey puppeteers.

Fortunately, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, monkeys were not a rare thing, and they were quite common.

Especially now is the New Year, and it is not out of the fifteenth day of the first month, it is the season of the Ming Dynasty up and down carnival, the street is extremely lively, all kinds of small businessmen will naturally not let go of this opportunity to make a fortune. Dong Zhongkang has a lot of experience in the market, although he hasn't seen it all the way, but he knows that it is impossible not to do without.

The southwest side of the mountain is Henan, Xinye is in Henan, and Xinye can be called the hometown of monkeys.

The history of the new savage playing with monkeys can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty, and later generations unearthed from the Han Dynasty portrait bricks in Xinye, there are people leading dogs and playing with monkeys. And there is also a rumor, it is said that from the 35th to the 38th year of Jiajing, Wu Chengen served as the magistrate of Xinye County, watched the folk monkey opera many times, and created "Journey to the West" with the Xinye monkey opera as the material.

Henan is located in Zhongzhou, which is the heart of China, and the land is also fertile, which is the source of Chinese civilization. Floods, droughts, and locust plagues followed. In the year of famine, in order to support their families, the poor people of Xinye had no choice but to "shoulder their belongings and lead monkeys, wandering and performing for the sun and moon".

Most of the businessmen who can be seen playing monkeys at this time are new savages.

Dong Zhongkang's patience was indeed rewarded, and after walking forward for about a cup of tea, Dong Zhongkang saw a large circle of people on the street in front of him, and there were bursts of gongs and shouts from inside. Dong Zhongkang was overjoyed in his heart, knowing that this would be inseparable.

The two of them relied on their strong bodies and squeezed into it vigorously, and some people opened them and looked at them with dissatisfaction. When he saw their majestic and burly figures, and the pouch at his waist that seemed to hide a sharp blade, he immediately turned his head and did not dare to speak again.

Dong Zhongkang and the two squeezed in to take a look, and sure enough, there were monkeys inside.

A monkey trickster with two monkeys.

The monkey man looked quite old, at least sixty years old, and his hair and beard were already gray. He was wearing a dirty robe, and he didn't know how long he hadn't washed it, and he couldn't even tell the original color, anyway, it was dark now, and when he looked at it in the sun, it seemed that there were still some places shiny, like a layer of paint, especially the hem and two sleeves, and I don't know how much snot this old guy wiped on his head. There were already many openings in the clothes, but they were not filled, and the exposed cotton was stuffed in haphazardly, and it was a black color. He didn't wear a hat, and the two black cotton shoes on his feet had been opened in front of them, revealing dirty black toes.

However, although this old man is not young, he looks very good. He is not tall, that is, to Dong Zhongkang's shoulders, he is loving and fat, his belly is round and shy, and his face is oily, but his face is full of red. If you wash him and change into decent clothes, he will be a very rich man.

He carried a gong in his left hand, and the gong hammer in his right hand was struck dangling, and the gong in his hand was not a big gong, so the sound was relatively high-pitched and crisp, and it spread far and wide. This person's mouth is really a Henan accent, and he said with a smile: "The little old man has just come to Baodi, and he is not familiar with life, but when he sees all the nobles, he feels comfortable and transparent." I think that the little old man and I have also walked through half of the Ming Dynasty, Beizhili, Henan, Shandong, and Shaanxi, which have all been there, but in our Yanghe City, the people here are all kind-hearted. Whether it is feng shui in this realm, it will be a great official in the future, and a rich and noble person will be produced, maybe it should be on you. ”

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