At the beginning, it was okay. Private traders were relatively restrained and bought salt at a higher price than during the government-run period, which brought a lot of benefits to the salt farmers.

In the past, the government bought sea salt at a bargain price of two or three wen, and then resold it for twenty or thirty wen. When it was expensive, they even dared to sell it for 50-70 wen. The better quality snowflake white salt was equivalent to a luxury salt, and the government could sell it for 100-300 wen per catty.

The profit from this transaction can be dozens or even hundreds of times.

Now that private individuals are involved in the business, the purchase price is much higher than before. Salt that usually sells for twenty or thirty wen can be purchased by private vendors at seven or eight wen, and good salt can reach thirty or forty wen per catty.

Even though it's just a price increase of a few cents, salt originally wins by quantity. According to "Song Huiyao", the Shuangsui Salt Field in Ruian, Wenzhou produces more than 3 million kilograms of salt a year. An increase of a few cents means the total amount increases several times.

In addition, private merchants also have to pay a lot of costs for transportation, sales, and taxes. The purchase price of a shipload of salt may be 30,000 strings of cash, but by the time it is transported to Bianliang, the total cost has reached 60,000 or 70,000 strings of cash, and they can only make a profit of 10,000 or 20,000 strings of cash after selling it.

If you are unlucky and encounter bad weather, or if the price of salt plummets due to other factors, it would be a good thing not to lose money.

So to some extent, it was reasonable for salt, which normally sold for 20 or 30 wen per jin in the market, to be sold for 7 or 8 wen at the salt works. At least it was much better than the previous government price of 2 or 3 wen, or even 1 wen per jin.

However, capital is certainly not satisfied with this.

Since we cannot make huge profits on the sales side, we should start with the costs.

If private traders could lower the price of salt just like the government did in the past, wouldn't they make a lot of money?

Therefore, it is obvious that someone has started to have evil thoughts.

"Well, I know about this."

Zhao Jun nodded, looked at Liu Yong and said, "Please pay more attention to this matter. Record who is doing what and report it to the transportation envoy's office."

"yes."

"It's the new policy, so I have to do my part every month. The court will reward those who have made contributions and punish those who have made mistakes. They will never wrongly accuse a good person, nor will they let a bad person go."

"I naturally believe that the court will make a fair judgment."

"Well, you just need to stabilize the people's livelihood within the country, visit the counties more often, and understand the people's sentiments. When problems arise, you must handle them properly, and when you encounter unreasonable things, you must speak up for justice. Don't be afraid, even if it's your superiors. Don't let those corrupt officials, corrupt officials, profiteers, and evil gentry undermine the foundation of the Song Dynasty."

"yes."

Liu Yong nodded repeatedly to show that he understood.

Then Zhao Jun encouraged him a few more times. Although he did not promise him a promotion, as long as he did his job well, he would not have to worry about the promotion.

After all, being an official is not like writing poetry. If you write good poetry, you will be praised by others, but if you do not do your job well as an official, the lives of tens of thousands of people in the county will be at stake. So let alone Liu Yong, even if Li Bai and Su Shi came, they would have to achieve results before they could be promoted.

After seeing Liu Yong off, Zhao Jun sat in the hall, looking sternly at the door.

Or there are not enough places to go.

In just a few years, state-owned enterprises have changed dramatically.

It seems that combating corruption should be normalized and carried out annually, and we should not relax.

(End of this chapter)