After three long live cheers, Baili Tang did not let them continue as usual, but instead asked Ye Chao: "Lord Ye, do you need to eat salt every day?"
Ye Chao answered honestly, "It's natural. If I don't eat salt for three days, I'll feel dizzy when I walk."
"So, you can see how important salt is, right? Your family, including the servants, needs a pound of salt a day for food."
"This...this minister hasn't counted it yet. I guess it's necessary?"
"How many people are there in your residence?"
"Including servants, there are more than seventy people." There are only so many people in a marshal's mansion, which is actually very few.
"Yes. I once studied under an old man who taught me arithmetic. A family of over seventy people needs a pound of salt a day. According to you, a family of seven, with two elders and three children, would need a pound of salt in ten days."
So His Majesty has a teacher? No wonder!
In ancient times, most salt was coarse salt, not the refined salt that came in small bags.
Baili Tang continued, "In a month, we need to consume three kilograms of salt. In a year, we need to consume thirty-nine kilograms of salt. Based on the current market price of salt... Lord Ye, how many kilograms of grain do you think we need to exchange for it?"
Ye Chao: "Your Majesty, we need to exchange nearly 2,000 kilograms of grain!"
Baili Tang asked Dai Chunyin, "Lord Dai, if this family of seven, near Lord Hu's home, could only grow rice once a year, and they had ten mu of land, after deducting all taxes, how many kilograms of rice would be left?"
Everyone listened quietly. This wasn't some complicated arithmetic; any child could do it. But it was indeed a shocking number!
Dai Chunyin wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "Your Majesty, one acre of rice can produce an average of 380 kilograms of millet. After deducting various taxes, there are still about 2,500 kilograms left..."
"And after buying the salt, there's nothing left, right? Ye Aiqing is a military general, and he's really bad at math. How could an ordinary person possibly afford so much salt?"
Everyone: “…”
Even Empress Dowager Lin behind the curtain couldn't help laughing!
Even if you're bad at math, can't you figure it out?!
"I, let's just assume that this family of seven can't consume thirty-nine kilograms of salt a year, but we'll consume twenty kilograms. That leaves fifteen thousand kilograms of millet. Winter is approaching, so I need to add a quilt to the family and buy a few dozen kilograms of charcoal. It's New Year's, so I'll buy some meat... As for roast duck, I'll forget about eating it in this lifetime.
I also have to buy new clothes for the three children for the New Year, and give them New Year's money... I must not get sick, because poor people are not allowed to get sick.
Mother, do you think we should increase taxes on these poor people?"
"I came here this morning just to listen. You decide." One could not tell whether he was happy or angry from his voice.
"But mother, if we don't raise taxes, where will the money come from for this empty treasury?"
"I am just a woman. If I could solve this problem, I would have solved it long ago. There is no need to wait for you, the emperor, to come back."
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