Chapter 2797 2799 [Salt Policy Reform]

Author: Ji Mobai

Chapter 2797 2799 [Salt Policy Reform]

"Master Li, I have read the information from the Ministry of Household Affairs before, and I know that salt and iron have always accounted for the majority of the imperial tax, and are closely related to people's livelihood. They are also crucial for military supplies.

If salt and iron production are opened up, how will taxes be collected? How will prices be controlled? How will outflows be restricted?" Xiang Nan asked.

The salt and iron monopoly, production, and sales are all controlled by the government so that taxes can be collected smoothly. If it is open to business, it will be difficult to stop tax evasion alone, not to mention affecting the national strategy.

Modern control is so tight and science and technology are so advanced that it is impossible to put an end to smuggling. In ancient times, the imperial power did not go to the countryside, and control at the grassroots level was quite weak. Moreover, the investigation technology was also quite backward, and there was no way to prevent smuggling.

And once it is opened for business, the consequence is that the price of salt and iron will be controlled by merchants and raised to an extremely high level.

In modern society, there have been phenomena such as "garlic you are cruel", "beans you play", "ginger your army", "onion shock wave", "apple what", "spicy as hell" and other phenomena of skyrocketing prices.

These foods are not considered necessities of life, and they can be avoided or overcome. However, salt and iron are directly related to people's livelihood issues and are indispensable every day.

If it is open to business, the people will be really miserable, and they will have to pay extremely high prices to buy salt and iron. At that time, those businessmen will make a lot of money, and the people will be exploited.

The worst thing is that the imperial court will not only lose the salt and iron tax revenue, but also lose the support of the people, and its collapse is not far away.

At the same time, if operations are opened up, once the salt and iron are leaked out, it will be a major threat to national security.

Although the Western countries can also smelt iron, their scale and quality are far inferior to those of the Toyo Dynasty. Therefore, when the Western countries raid the borders, they often take away iron pots and farm tools.

If there is an unlimited supply of iron to the countries in the western border, and with their system of all-people soldiers, they can raise hundreds of thousands of brightly armored and well-equipped armies in minutes, which will naturally be an extremely serious threat to the Toyo Dynasty.

Therefore, these three major problems are difficult to overcome. The Prince's Young Master Li Shaoqing's proposal to open up salt and iron is just empty talk.

…

Everyone present saw that Xiang Nan had just listened to Li Shaoqing's suggestion and quickly listed the three most critical problems, and they couldn't help but respect him.

Xiang Nancai's quick thinking, sharp eyes, and careful thinking are all evident.

Fortunately, Li Shaoqing is not a general person. He dared to propose the opening of salt and iron, and he naturally had his reasons, so he also talked about it eloquently.

At that moment, Xiang Nan started discussing with them.

After the discussion, Xiang Nan couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

He was sure that although Li Shaoqing was not a corrupt official or a mediocre official, he and the royal family were not of the same mind.

Just like the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty, they kept saying that they were serving the country, demanding integrity and serving the government, revitalizing officialdom, opening up the public opinion, eradicating the accumulated abuses of the government and the public, and opposing corruption and perversion of the law by the powerful.

But it was these Donglin Party members who were upright, honest, and iron-clad, who could be regarded as moral models. They advocated frivolous corvee and low taxes, which made it difficult for the country to collect taxes. Even if they wanted to fight, they had no money. In the end, the Qing troops entered the customs and the country The family was destroyed.

Li Shaoqing is a similar person.

He is knowledgeable, capable, neither greedy nor robbing, honest and upright, and is well-known by everyone, but if you really want to use his words, he is really a loser.

He is just like those current politicians who are under the banner of political correctness. On the surface, they are impeccable, everything they say is correct, and no one can fault them, but they are just unrealistic.

This also gave Xiang Nan some insights.

He originally thought that to govern the country, he only needed to use those honest and upright, selfless and honest officials. Now it seems that honest officials may not be honest, and honest officials may not be able to be used.

…

Xiang Nan then wrote a statement to Li Zuo regarding the salt and iron issue and put forward his own reform opinions.

Today, the salt administration of the Toyo Dynasty implements the system of "democratic system, official collection, official transportation, and official sales".

Because the government intervenes too much, much of the salt profit is misappropriated by officials. Moreover, the government is inefficient in its work, and the three links of collection, transportation, and sales are constantly hindered.

Not only the price of salt remains high, but there is often no salt available. At the same time, due to excessive government exploitation, salt households are not very motivated to make salt. The output is declining year by year.

Xiang Nan suggested that salt be implemented under a democratic system, with commercial collection, commercial transportation, and commercial sales. In this way, all the rights to purchase, transport, and sell salt would be vested in merchants, also known as the "merchant monopoly system."

Supervision by the government and distribution by merchants can not only prevent officials from misappropriating salt profits, but also prevent official salt from being blocked and private salt from becoming prevalent.

This merchant monopoly system was implemented in the middle and late Ming Dynasty and lasted until the end of the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for nearly three hundred years. It can be said to be quite mature.

Of course, the merchant monopoly system is not without its shortcomings. For example, it will create a group of monopoly merchants. For example, during the Qing Dynasty, the Lianghuai salt merchants were the richest in the world, and everyone knew about it.

However, merchants in ancient times had no status and were just fattened pigs to be slaughtered. They were fattened and then killed.

During the Qing Dynasty and since Kangxi and Qianlong, whenever the Qing government held major events, salt merchants often donated huge amounts of silver, ranging from one million to one hundred thousand.

Therefore, it is actually better to make businessmen rich than to make officials rich.

…

Li Hao couldn't help but feel satisfied after reading Xiang Nan's 30,000-word statement, from the shortcomings of the current salt policy, to the advantages of the "commercial monopoly system", to the specific implementation, supervision, and adjustment methods.

nodded.

Xiang Nan's salt administration is indeed much more complete and advanced than the current methods. It seems that he really put his heart into it. He did not choose the wrong person when he chose him as the prince.

However, Li Hao did not implement it immediately, but suppressed the deal.

When Xiang Nan found out, he was a little surprised, but he didn't say anything about it. He believed that Li Hao had his own reasons.

In the next few days, Xiang Nan was still busy compiling books, studying and participating in government affairs.

Although he has never been a prince before and has no experience in managing a country. But he has been a national counselor, a martial arts leader, and managed a large company with tens of thousands of people, so he still has some experience in governing.

Moreover, there is nothing new under the sun. Many things that happened in the Toyo Dynasty were compared in history books. Xiang Nan was familiar with the Twenty-Four Histories, Barnyard Officials and Unofficial History and other historical materials. By comparing the two, he naturally acted in an orderly manner.

I dare not say that he has perfect strategies, but he is also quick-thinking, shrewd and capable. This makes Li Fu very satisfied and makes the courtiers understand that Xiang Nan will definitely be a wise king when he succeeds to the throne in the future.

And this also made Gao Ming feel uneasy.

Because the better Xiang Nan performs, the less likely he will be controlled by him in the future. After all, the Holy Lord Ming Jun is not willing to be someone else's puppet.

But now, Xiang Nan has ascended to the position of crown prince. If they want to drive him down again, it will not be that easy.

Let’s not talk about whether they can drive him out. Even if they drive him out, who can guarantee that the next prince will be controlled by them.

You must know that if Xiang Nan is deposed, only Li Chengyuan and Li Chengwen will be left. The Gao family has never had any friendship with them. There was even a dispute during the process of seizing the legitimate heir.

Even if the Gao family in turn pushes them to become more powerful, let alone the price they have to pay, even if they do become more powerful, they may not reuse the Gao family.

"If that doesn't work, just support our own people." Gao Ming couldn't help but think.
Chapter completed!