The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

After listening to Lin Jiading's lecture that lasted for two to three quarters of an hour, he and the salt merchants in the congregation finally understood the salt law policy that the Da'ei court would implement.

Generally speaking, it still inherited the gangyun method and salt introduction system of the previous Ming Dynasty. (Shiohiki is actually a note permitting the wholesale sale and purchase of salt.)

But many reforms have also been made.

The production reform policies were largely implemented two to three years ago.

This time, most of the reforms were in transportation and marketing.

The main reason is to strengthen the supervision and reasonable restrictions on salt merchants.

For example, in order to avoid multiple price increases by middlemen, salt merchants are not allowed to engage in secondary distribution.

That is, either be a wholesaler in a region or a local distributor.

Taking Huaiyang Salt Industry as an example, only nine wholesalers are still allowed to exist, plus the official one, the number becomes ten.

Within the area in which it operates, there must be a certain number of distributors, and the retail price of salt must not be higher than the local maximum salt price stipulated by the government.

In this set of rules, salt is no longer allowed to be bought and sold, but has become a pure permission note.

It can be said that if large salt merchants (wholesalers) want to make more profits, they can basically only start from the logistics link.

Or cooperate with manufacturers to try to produce lower-cost salt.

However, it is difficult for manufacturers to take advantage of opportunities and pass off inferior products as good ones, because the government is very strict on the qualification review and supervision of manufacturers, and any violations of the law will be severely punished.

Experienced big salt merchants such as Wang Wende and Cheng Xinyan found that the salt law policy after Da'ei's reform was indeed more rigorous and superior than the previous one.

But more officials are also needed to implement it.

This will undoubtedly increase the administrative costs of the court in supervising the salt industry.

But as long as this policy can be strictly implemented, the Damei court will definitely earn much more than the previous Ming court as a whole.

but.

Why didn't the salt method before the Ming Dynasty intersect with the Kaizhong method and Gangyun method and make progress?

Isn’t it very suitable for the national conditions in the first place?

Unfortunately, as time goes by, these salt laws have been eroded by human greed and are full of loopholes.

Therefore, how long Da'ei's salt law can be implemented and how much salt tax revenue it can bring to Da'ei's court ultimately depends on how well Da'ei's officialdom is managed.

At the end of the meeting, bidding for the qualifications of the nine major Huaiyan wholesalers was held on the spot.

"Next, I will be responsible for presiding over the bidding meeting."

Chen Jitai, co-organizer of Huaiyang Salt Company, stood up.

"Only merchants who have obtained the wholesale license from our Da'ei Salt Industry Group can participate in this bidding."

"There are a total of twenty companies that have qualified to bid this time. I will announce the list below: Wang Wende..."

Although Wang Wende guessed that he should be qualified to bid, he did not expect that his name would be the first to be read.

From this point of view, he is considered to be well qualified and trustworthy in the eyes of the government.

But having the qualification to bid does not mean that he will be qualified as a wholesaler, so he quickly thought about countermeasures.

When Chen Jitai announced the list, most of the twenty big businessmen who had qualified to bid were flushed with excitement.

After all, being able to obtain this bidding qualification represents the official recognition of their financial resources and credibility.

Even if he fails to obtain wholesaler qualifications in the end, if the news spreads, it will be a face-saving matter in the Lianghuai business community.

"Next, I will announce the specific rules for the bidding."

"We have divided the transportation and sales areas of Huaiyang Salt Company into ten areas. In addition to the area under official responsibility, the other nine areas are participating in this bidding."

"At the same time, we will provide a minimum deposit for wholesale operations in these nine areas and secretly reserve a maximum deposit amount."

"Everyone bids on the spot with a secret note, writing down the area you want to bid on and the amount of deposit you are willing to pay."

“Then the bidder with a deposit amount closest to the highest amount we set for the area will be the winning bidder.”

“But if the amount written exceeds the maximum amount, it will be invalid.”

"If the deposits written on the secret sheets of bidders in a certain area exceed the predetermined maximum amount, the bidding for that area will be restarted until someone wins the bid."

"In addition, a wholesaler can only be responsible for one area, and you cannot select multiple items when bidding."

"The bidding rules are as above, do you have any questions?"

Although the salt merchants present were afraid of the government, especially since several large salt merchants had their homes confiscated in the past few days, they thought that this matter involved money. After everyone whispered for a few words, some people still had the courage to ask questions.

A salt merchant bowed his hands and said, "May I ask Co-organizer Chen, what is this deposit used for?"

Chen Jitai said: "As the name suggests, the deposit is to allow wholesalers to guarantee the total sales volume of salt in the area where they win the bid."

"To take an extreme example, the imperial court handed over the annual salt demand of the people in a certain area to a salt merchant. If the salt merchant had evil intentions and deliberately reduced the sales of salt in the area, not only would the imperial salt tax be greatly reduced, but the people's consumption of salt would also be greatly reduced. It will also be very difficult.”

"Afterwards, the salt dealer could even evade responsibility by claiming ignorance. The existence of the deposit meant that the salt dealer must sell a certain amount of salt in the winning bid area that year."

"As long as the total principal of salt transportation and sales in the bidding area exceeds the minimum deposit set by the court, the deposit will be used to offset the wholesaler's cost of purchasing salt."

"If there is any leftover, it will be returned to the salt merchant."

"But if the actual total amount of salt sold is less than the minimum deposit amount, then the court will confiscate the deposit paid by the salt merchant and investigate the reasons for this result."

"If it is due to objective reasons such as natural disasters or man-made disasters, the court will forgive it and refund part of the deposit."

"If the salt merchant takes the initiative to cause this problem, the court will not only disqualify him from bidding next year, but also hold him legally responsible!"

Hear this.

Only then did a group of salt merchants realize that it was not easy to become an official merchant of the Da'ei imperial court and get a share of the salt industry.

But after all, the Da'ei imperial court did not directly ask for a large sum of money from the salt merchants, but it made the salt merchants feel relieved.

It is regarded as accepting the deposit requirements.

Then, another salt merchant braved another question.

"I would like to ask Co-organizer Chen, if someone in the government had an affair with a certain salt merchant and disclosed the maximum deposit amount reserved by the government in advance, how could we win?"

Chen Jitai was obviously displeased upon hearing this and felt that this was a profiteer provoking the authority of the government.

If he had known it beforehand, he would probably not have given this person a good look, and would have even refused to explain.

But at this time, he explained patiently, "The maximum guaranteed price for reservations in the nine major regions will be decided by the general office, myself, and a few people including the Supervisory Salt Censor on the day of the bidding meeting."

"After the decision is made, the relevant documents will be sealed immediately until the bidding conference is completed."

"During this period, several of us will live in the same compound and supervise each other."

"In addition, the documents related to each bidding process and results will be sent to the Salt Industry Group and the Supervisory Office for review to ensure compliance and reasonableness."

"So, do you still have any questions?"