Now that the Chinese New Year has just passed, he finally has some free time, and the Ministry of Public Administration has also submitted the memorials that have been piled up over the year.
When he saw these two memorials, Zhu Youxiao realized that the problem of salt monopoly was not solved by the Gangfa as he had imagined.
The "Huai-Yue Dispute" was caused by the Ming Dynasty's salt law, which divided the country into several salt zones and restricted the sale of only official salt within each zone.
At that time, the government stipulated that southern Huguang should purchase Huai salt, but because of its long distance from the Huai salt production area and poor transportation, it was very close to Guangdong, where there was nowhere to sell salt, which created a very awkward situation.
In the second year of Zhengde, the Ming government approved the long-accumulated Guang salt to be sold out of the province, after which the Hunan region began to purchase Guang salt.
Although the imperial court's approval solved the cross-border sales of Guangdong salt, the high price of official salt made it difficult to compete with the relatively cheap private salt, and caused strong dissatisfaction among the officials in the Lianghuai region.
In the third year of Zhengde, Ji'an Prefecture resumed the sale of Huai salt. Later, the governor of Nangan requested to expand the sales scope of Guang salt in the Lianghuai area on the grounds of raising military rations, but was opposed by the governor of Jiangxi and was forced to terminate it.
After that, the central government and local governments, local governments and various power groups either mediated or played games with each other in order to pursue their own interests, which led to the "Huai-Guang Dispute" in history, which was barely resolved until Chongzhen ascended the throne.
The so-called forced solution was merely a compromise, or balance, between the government and the local authorities in order to collect salt taxes, but it did not completely resolve the problems.
In fact, according to common sense, we can at least see the drawbacks of zoning salt sales. That is, the cost of selling salt in the edge of the salt zone will definitely be higher, because it is far away from the salt production area!
However, official salt cannot compete with private salt, which leads to the fact that private salt continues to exist despite repeated bans. There is a lot of water involved here.
Zhu Youxiao believed that the cumbersome management and official exploitation were the main reasons. The growth of private salt production must have been due to the influence of certain powerful officials.
Take the Huai-Yue dispute, for example. Was it truly a struggle between two major salt regions to meet national salt taxes? Or was it a bid by local bureaucrats to exploit for personal gain? It's probably a combination of all three, a highly complex game.
Originally, after Yuan Shizhen introduced the Gangfa, the salt administration in Lianghuai showed considerable improvement. Zhu Youxiao felt that there was no need to worry too much and should concentrate on getting the important things done first.
Now it seems that this matter is not too urgent, but it cannot be delayed too long. After all, the Shean Rebellion has not yet been quelled, and Gannan and Hunan must ensure the logistical supply of the Ming army, which cannot be neglected.
"Come, call Liu Ruoyu over." Zhu Youxiao looked at the two papers and was not very clear about the crux of the matter, so he ordered the palace servants to summon Liu Ruoyu.
Liu Ruoyu arrived at the study soon after. Zhu Youxiao asked him to find the manuscript of Yuan Shizhen's proposal for the outline law and study it carefully.
At the same time, Zhu Youxiao ordered the palace servants to find the Minister of Revenue Li Qiyuan and ask him to send an official familiar with the salt administration into the palace to inquire.
Liu Ruoyu was very efficient, which showed that he was very careful in organizing memorials and presented Yuan Shizhen's memorial very quickly.
The Gang Law enabled the Lianghuai Salt Administration to pay several million taels of silver every year. Zhu Youxiao also knew that it was continued by the Qing Dynasty, so he did not study it in depth.
After getting the specific implementation plan of the outline law, Zhu Youxiao asked Liu Ruoyu to read it and explain it while he slowly drank tea and his brain began to work rapidly.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the salt monopoly implemented the "Kaizhong Law", which required merchants to purchase materials urgently needed by the country and transport them to designated places. The government would issue "Salt Permits", and merchants would use the "Salt Permits" to purchase salt from salt fields and then sell the salt in designated areas.
This is a policy that benefits both parties and there is nothing wrong with it.
However, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, in order to make more money from the salt monopoly, the imperial court ignored the balance between production and sales and issued salt permits indiscriminately.
The consequence was that after merchants received salt permits, they had no salt to buy at the salt fields, resulting in a backlog of salt permits. This problem was most prominent in Lianghuai.
At the same time, the government's treatment of salt fields was reduced again and again, and some salt field owners took risks and sold salt to private salt dealers for huge profits.
As a result, the supply of official salt was blocked, private salt became prevalent, and salt tax collection became difficult to guarantee. The tax inspectors first borrowed salt tax in advance from salt merchants, and later developed the practice of pre-collecting salt tax.
As a result, salt merchants' capital was long-term constrained, increasing operating costs. In the 43rd year of the Wanli reign, the government forcibly controlled the price of salt at the port (Hankou), forcing some salt merchants to flee at a loss and plunging the market into chaos.
By the 44th year of the Wanli reign, eight or nine years ago, the Lianghuai salt tax had been suspended for two and a half years. When many believed that the Lianghuai salt administration was beyond repair, Yuan Shizhen stepped forward and took on the important task of saving the Lianghuai salt administration from danger.
Yuan Shizhen conducted an in-depth investigation and research on the pros and cons of the salt administration at that time. In response to the current situation of the salt administration in Lianghuai, he proposed "Ten Proposals on Salt Law", which was welcomed by Emperor Shenzong. He was appointed as the acting Lianghuai Salt Administration and began to rectify the salt administration.
The "Gangfa" was a plan proposed by Yuan Shizhen after he arrived in Lianghuai and took office, which focused on promoting new taxes and supplemented it with the elimination of existing taxes.
Simply put, the Gang Law is to organize the salt merchants who hold the accumulated salt permits over the years into ten gangs. Every year, the government will exchange 200,000 old salt permits with the salt merchants in one of the "gangs", which is equivalent to paying off the debt.
At the same time, the government collected a total of 1.8 million new salt permits as salt tax from the remaining nine "gangs" of salt merchants.
In this way, the state would pay off the total debt of two million old salt vouchers over ten years, while also ensuring that new salt taxes would be deposited into the treasury every year.
Zhu Youxiao raised his hand to signal Liu Ruoyu to stop. He needed to think it over and digest it. From a policy perspective alone, it was a good idea.
After thinking for a while, Zhu Youxiao thought there was nothing wrong with it, but the salt merchants seemed to have no profit, so why did they agree to it? With doubts in his heart, the emperor waved his hand and asked Liu Ruoyu to continue reading.
After Yuan Shizhen introduced the "Gangfa", not many salt merchants responded enthusiastically. Instead, most of them took a wait-and-see attitude.
Then, Yuan Shizhen introduced the "Occupy Nest" law to stimulate businessmen.
The so-called "occupying nest method" is to publish a list based on current data, "leave it to the public for consultation, forever and ever, as the nest book", and "each year according to the old number in the book, assign new quotas."
In other words, only those whose names are on the list can buy new salt permits based on the number of old permits on the list, and can run salt business in designated areas, and the business can be inherited. Those whose names are not on the list will be excluded.
Oh my god! When Zhu Youxiao heard the word "hereditary," he instinctively felt something was wrong. Wasn't it because of hereditary succession that the vassal states became so powerful and a heavy financial burden on the Ming Dynasty?
Of course, it is natural for him to be an emperor by inheritance, and this has been the rule for thousands of years.
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