eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 565 Old Man Yan and the New Situation of the Auction House
After Yan Song left the attendant room, he followed the emperor's order to manage the auction of Lianghuai Salt Field. It has been nearly three years since the fourth year of Zhengde.

The auction house pays a fixed 90 taels of silver every year, regardless of other things, and there are no longer various large and small offices such as the transshipment department, saltworks, and inspection offices, and the administrative efficiency has been greatly improved.

Also, merchants who pay silver taels cannot be paid to the auction house.The auction house will work with the Ministry of Households to handle the delivery of management rights and the payment of silver and silver, and the treasury will collect the money.

The only troublesome thing is to deal with the relationship between the private operators of the saltworks and the kitchen households.

In the past, the household registration of Zaohu could not be released casually, but now it is difficult to define the identity of the privately employed people.

Because of the poverty of the kitchen households, many people fled from their hometowns, which led to a substantial increase in the employment costs of private operators in the saltworks.

After all, the imperial court used power to exploit Zao households, and other groups did not have such capabilities.In the unlikely event that someone dies, the auction house will take care of it.

The increase in cost has led to an increase in the price of salt in the Lianghuai area.Fortunately, the imperial court still maintains the concept of the range of salt, that is, only a certain type of salt can be sold in a certain area.

It's just that this will lead to an increase in the living costs of the people in the Lianghuai salt areas such as Nanzhili.

Following the logic of normal people, it is natural that Liangzhe, Shandong and Changlu salt will sneak into Nanzhili.Even the Lianghuai salt industry operators directly buy Liangzhe salt in private, and then sell it as Lianghuai salt.

In order to solve this problem, in the third year of Zhengde, the imperial court comprehensively accelerated the auction of salt farms in Zhejiang, Zhejiang, Shandong and other places, and handed over more salt farms to private owners, eliminating the price advantage of table salt in other regions after the reform.

However, even so, there seems to be some kind of chaos in the field of salt industry.Some salt farms have been auctioned off, while others have not yet. The throes of reform make people start to worry.

Throughout the three years of Zhengde, the salt industry has always been the main event of the court.

But at the end of the year, an even more strange scene appeared, the price of Lianghuai salt suddenly dropped!
The direct reason is that a widow named You Sanchun appeared.

This person runs an Andong salt field and a Qingjiangpu salt field. After her husband passed away, she had no children. After she took over the property, she first solved the problem of expensive employment.

The reason why kitchen households are expensive is that most of the kitchen households who were able to dry salt in the early days are unwilling to continue to engage in their old business, and the remaining willing ones are also expensive.But You Sanchun, with the help of her natal family, formulated a set of standardized procedures for salt production, and then recruited those who couldn't even eat enough. The price was of course cheap.

Then she entrusted her late husband's friend's relationship in the government, continued to collect evidence, and reported to the auction house that other merchants used salt from other regions to sell as Lianghuai salt.

This is the core interest. If it weren't for the advantages of the marketing area, how could Lianghuai salt be better than table salt in other regions?
After these two deadly moves were made, the cost of the two saltworks operated by You Sanchun suddenly dropped, sales increased, and the operating conditions were greatly improved.

But in fact, there is a pair of hands secretly helping her.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao didn't want the reform he promoted to fail halfway. If the merchants who auctioned the salt farms could not survive, then there would be nothing to do later.

Therefore, when Yan Song reported these matters, he secretly instructed the auction house to cooperate with the local government and other regional transshipment departments to crack down on illegal cross-regional sales, and just found a reason to investigate the corruption of several other transshipment departments

After the salt shortage in other districts, a vacuum appeared in the market, and the Lianghuai salt came back to life. The salt sold by You Sanchun here is the cheapest, so the salt in the two salt farms sold out quickly.

So far this year, You Sanchun and Huiyanji have rapidly become popular in the Lianghuai area.

But salt is like growing grain in the ground. The annual output is limited. No matter how good it is, it will be sold out when it is sold out.There used to be more than 20 Lianghuai Salt Fields, but now two can't take up all the market.

After four years of Zhengde and one year after Huiyanji became popular, You Sanchun also began to become worried. After all, her training methods will be slowly learned by others.

What will she do then?

So she is using various methods to contact Yan Song.

First, this year's auction will take the salt field again, and second, we will need another 'policy'.

The imperial court originally prevented individual salt merchants from becoming bigger, so the transfer of salt farms between salt merchants was strictly restricted.Big fish cannot eat small fish, small fish can eat dried shrimps, and finally a big businessman with tens of millions of assets can be created.

However, businessmen are also smart, and they have found the 'loophole' in this regulation.

Even Zhu Houzhao didn't expect that Yan Song probably couldn't make up his mind, so he wrote the situation into a memorial and handed it to the palace.

"In this case, does the auction house agree?" Zhu Houzhao asked the deputy director of the auction house, Situ Hao.

"Returning to the emperor, Yan Suozheng has not agreed yet. It's just that this was requested by Hui Yanji... So Yan Suozheng felt that he must report to His Majesty and let His Majesty decide."

Zhu Houzhao touched his chin. There are no perfect laws and regulations, and smart people will always find loopholes in them.

What the imperial court prohibited was the transfer of salt farm management rights between salt merchants. People with a discerning eye didn't want a single salt merchant to own too many salt farms.You Sanchun probably understood it too, so she changed her mind and made a request: whoever owned the salt farm originally owned it. This deadlock does not change, but can Huiyanji buy salt from other salt merchants?
This is a market behavior, and it is achievable.

To put it simply, if the wholesale price is 5 Wen per catty, then it is possible to sell 4 catties at a price of [-] Wen per catty.Although the price is a little lower, it saves worry and effort, and you don't need to hire other people, and it is definitely more profitable than before.

As for Huiyanji, it has established a complete sales channel after the four-year fire in Zhengde, but this channel has costs. To offset it, it is impossible for a store to only sell for two months a year, and say it is out of stock for the remaining ten months, right?
So buying more salt at a lower price is one of the few ways out.

Zhu Houzhao admired it. The original purpose of the imperial court was to prevent the salt merchants from growing bigger, but the law of market operation is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.Moreover, the power of this law is very strong. As soon as the game starts, there are already big fish that can eat other fish.

"If the imperial court agrees, then although the salt merchants operating other salt farms will survive with meager profits in a short period of time, the saved sales costs will reappear at another price.

This You Sanchun is so powerful, and when the conditions are ripe, she will definitely lower the price. For example, you Situ Hao, you have no way to sell the salt in your hand, and the buyer who has been buying the salt in your hand suddenly bargains slightly to you. What do you do? "

For example, she will let you earn one tenth less than last year, and cut your flesh a little bit.

"Then what does His Majesty mean, that you don't agree?"

"No, promise her." Zhu Houzhao shook his head.

Situ Hao was a little confused, "Didn't Your Majesty say that she would become big? Why is that?"

"Because the power of the law is very strong, you can only follow it, not go against it. Hui Yanji has something to ask from the court, and the court can also put forward its own conditions. You can discuss this with Yan Weizhong again. If you beat him to death with a stick, you can't go against it." Giving a way out is not a good way.”

No matter how much the imperial court restricts one family of salt merchants from growing bigger, in the end, there will only be a few salt merchants left in the market, so this rule must be followed.You obstruct it here, and later on it must use all kinds of bright and dark ways to achieve its goals in order to survive.

Situ Hao didn't understand what the 'conditions' the emperor wanted, and didn't even have a general direction, so he got up and asked, "Your Majesty, I dare to ask the court what kind of conditions... ?”

When he asked this question, he immediately got the emperor's black face, "So I told you to discuss it with Yan Weizhong again. This matter is cautious, and I can't make a mess for a while. Do you understand?"

……

……

"It's your majesty's shame on you." The carriage shook, and Yan Song, who was sitting inside, criticized Situ Hao unceremoniously, "No matter what you say today, it's not nonsense. Since you talked about 'negotiation', either It’s just that you didn’t think about it, or you just thought about it but it’s not easy to talk about it. It’s good for you to ask directly. If you don’t disgrace yourself, who else will you disfavor?”

When Situ Hao thought of his poor performance in front of the king, he felt uncomfortable all over his body, and said with a hot face: "I am also afraid that I will make a mistake in the holy will. The imperial court and Huiyanji, your majesty and a businessman, as the government can raise a business with a businessman. What conditions?"

That meaning, this matter is not on the table at all.

What is the status of the government and what is the status of the merchants? It is embarrassing for the two to talk about cooperation!

Yan Song hated that iron could not be made into steel, so he scolded eagerly: "You feel that your face is dull, so does your majesty feel that your face is bright?!"

Situ Hao slapped his head, with a look of epiphany, "Oh! That shouldn't be asked!"

"In the future, we still need to understand more and try to figure out the will of the Holy One, otherwise it will be difficult to gain anything."

"Thank you Yan for your point. But... Your Majesty talked about the discussion, but didn't say anything about the conditions. This..."

"You have already thought of it. Why don't you understand? What is the only thing that a mere merchant can give to the court?"

Situ Hao lowered his eyebrows, thought for a few breaths, and then suddenly understood, "Silver! It's silver!"

"You still have some brains." Yan Song sighed, "You Sanchun has arrived in the capital, you go talk to her first in a few days. The official will not come forward, remember, status, honor, reputation...it provides everything No, the only thing that can be given is silver. But the court should not directly mark a price. Since His Majesty feels that his face is dull, then we have to be smart and not be too naked. We need to change the method, for example, how about some dry shares? ?”

"Yes, the officer understands."

After talking about this, the library is almost here.

The groom lifted the curtain and helped Yan Song out, "There are really many carriages."

"The event is rare, everyone wants to join in the fun."

Yan Song turned his head and saw that Xie Pi had also come.

"Weizhong, shall we go in together?"

(End of this chapter)