New Shun 1730

However, at this moment, it seems that this fork in the road is still too early. Instead, it is a scene of flourishing flowers and blazing fire, as if Dashun is going to be completely renewed.

In Haizhou City, merchants from all walks of life and former private salt dealers have already gathered, fearing that they will have no place if they come too late.

This salt administration reform has filled many people with hope.

This hope, or atmosphere, is indeed the energetic state of "reform".

As long as you have a few hundred taels of silver, you can enter the industry.

Even how the first pot of gold of these few hundred taels of silver came from, that is, the Eight Immortals crossing the sea and showing their magical powers. Anyway, the court does not care and will not hold the past accountable.

Everyone is eager to get rich, and everyone has the hope of getting rich quickly.

This "vitality" and "vitality" are indeed the flavor of reform, and this cannot be false.

Now that the farce in Funing ended with a bigger farce at the court meeting, Liu Yu nominally retreated to the second line in the matter of salt administration.

The person who replaced him to preside over this matter was the newly appointed Lianghuai Salt Administration Commissioner and Jiangsu Jiedushi, not the Jiangnan Governor and Lianghuai Salt Administration Commissioner.

This arrangement is very interesting. Now everyone in the court knows that there is no Jiangsu Province.

Since Liu Yu started tossing around in Songjiang Prefecture, the salt administration of Southern Jiangsu, Northern Jiangsu, Jinling, and Yangzhou Haizhou has been divided.

And with the fact that the grain from Nanyang came from Southern Jiangsu and Southern Jiangsu became an important treasury of the emperor, the identity of the Jiangsu Jiedushi was quite embarrassing.

It is even embarrassing to say that the current Jiangsu Jiedushi should be stationed in Jinling or in Northern Jiangsu.

Liu Yu did not have many official titles, but his affairs included "trade with foreigners", "transportation of grain from Nanyang", and "business affairs in Southern Jiangsu".

If these three were to be chopped off, if he did not manage salt and continued to reclaim wasteland in Northern Jiangsu, the Jiangsu Jiedushi would have to choose between the Xuzhou Prefecture Governor and the Jiangning Prefecture Governor.

It is said that the court should send a governor to supervise Anhui and Jiangsu, but the gold and silver involved in the two matters of grain transport and trade are already shocking enough.

It is impossible to let Liu Yu do it if we have another governor to supervise Anhui and Jiangsu? If we do it, it will be fine. The military, politics, and finance of the entire Jiangnan will be in control. Let alone whether the emperor dares to do it, even if the emperor dares to do it, Liu Yu will not dare to take it.

If someone else is replaced, it will not work for the former Nanzhili governor, regardless of trade with foreigners, grain transport, and industrial and commercial affairs.

It is not yet time for two people to play against each other. The emperor is still counting on Liu Yu to make money. At this time, it is unnecessary to have another person to compete with him.

So this time, a very strange Lianghuai Salt Administration was brought in to handle such a big thing.

The meaning is very clear: Duke Xingguo will help you get things done, and we will get closer. In the future, you two will have your own division of labor. You only need to manage the salt administration. You don't need to care too much about the affairs of northern Jiangsu, and you don't need to interfere in the industry and commerce of southern Jiangsu.

This is an obvious arrangement. It is said that Liu Yu did not care about things because of the heavy killings, but he just kept the situation under control, but the newly transferred Lianghuai Salt Administration Envoy knew it very well.

If Liu Yu did not help, he was not a powerful governor of Jiangnan, and a small governor of Jiangsu, how could he do a good job in salt reform?

Salt is produced in Jiangsu, but it is not only sold in Jiangsu.

This matter must be done well.

Because from the beginning of the emperor's surprise attack, it became similar to the state of war, the emperor did "strategic guidance", rather than the emperor directly appointing senior officials to go to a place to act at his convenience.

Whether it is "personal expedition" or "strategic guidance", it is two-sided.

If it wins, it means Yongle's northern expedition, the King of Qin breaks the formation, the prestige increases, and the nobles are in charge of the army. It is definitely better than letting the border generals take advantage of it, so as to avoid arrogant and brave generals or self-reliance. The emperor's personal expedition or strategic guidance is the basis for the nobles to control the army.

If they lose, it will be Tumubao, and the emperor will have to take the blame. In the future, there will be no nobles in charge of the army, and all the contradictions accumulated before will burst out.

If this matter is not handled well, it will be a slap in the face of the emperor.

It's not that no one wants to take advantage of the emperor's embarrassment and not to be too tight in the future and take such a big step of reform.

However, although Liu Yu is nominally not in charge of salt affairs, he is just here to keep the peace.

But in the final analysis, he is still in charge, and he has brought troops here, and he has just handled a major case that shocked the world and killed hundreds of people.

Even if the anti-reformists want to make trouble, they can only do it secretly, and they can't do it openly.

The two Huai salt administrators thought clearly in their hearts. After a few days in Haizhou, they saw the gathering of merchants, and they were happy at first.

They felt that the people's hearts were in favor, and this matter was easy.

But soon, their faces looked ugly.

This new Lianghuai Salt Administration Commissioner was naturally a salt administration reformist in the court. Since the emperor wanted to change it, he couldn't send a conservative to reform it.

But this reformist was the kind of person Liu Yu said, "When he met capital, he was confused, he made random suggestions, and he smoked opium when he had a headache."

Before he came, he was full of confidence.

After he came, he was still full of confidence when he saw all the merchants coming.

Then, he was asked a few questions by some people who had a deep understanding of the moral character of grassroots merchants.

He was overwhelmed.

In fact, they didn't ask much, just two simple questions.

One: In theory, since the salt permit was changed to salt ticket, capital speaks, and they have money, why don't they let people buy it?

But if you want to attract enough merchants and get small merchants involved in the future, you must show fairness.

Fairness means that you can't refuse big salt merchants to enter and hoard tickets.

Unfairness means that small and medium-sized merchants have lost confidence. If the court still uses the trick of "open tickets and secret invitations", what will they do in the future?

Second: Tickets cannot be issued indefinitely.

The result of issuing salt tickets indefinitely is that the market will collapse completely. A total of one million kilograms of salt can be consumed. This year, merchants are in high spirits. The principle of issuing as much as they sell is that five million kilograms of salt are issued.

Then, the salt market will collapse directly. Next year, salt producers will go bankrupt and the salt industry will collapse.

Since it cannot be issued indefinitely, it means that every ticket is valuable.

Then, new problems will arise.

For example, a small merchant is worth 100 taels of silver.

Then, in theory, he can only buy tickets worth 20 taels of silver.

Because turnover, sales, and transportation all cost money.

The farthest place takes five or six hundred days to turn around, and the interest on borrowing is high. This means that you can only eat one-fifth of the bowl you have.

However, the problem is that tickets are scarce. Because if you don't want the salt industry to collapse, you can't release unlimited tickets.

If you don't release unlimited tickets, then the so-called fairness can only be achieved by means like drawing lots.

Then why didn't he bet all 100 taels of silver, gamble on his luck, draw lots to win, and then sell the 100 taels of tickets to others?

As long as there are few tickets and many people buy them, and it is fair, and small merchants are eligible to participate, then there will inevitably be a premium on the tickets.

Auctions are not okay?

No.

Because the reformists' idea for this salt policy reform is "release".

Release those complicated reviews, release those powers that can be directly supervised, and try to make the salt merchants transport without obstacles.

So, how to auction?

Divide the sales area into towns as the smallest unit, and then the tickets of Town A cannot go to Town B?

This is called reform?

This is clearly the salt ticket method.

The idea of ​​the ticket salt reformists is to clear some obstacles set by power and promote marketization in the Huaibei salt area. Although they may not say this word, it does not mean that they don't have similar ideas.

Then, the entire Huaibei salt area is a large sales area, and people can freely move around with tickets. How to auction?

After the auction, should we set a maximum price for selling salt?

The court must have the ability to set the maximum price and supervise it in place to ensure implementation. If there is such organizational strength, can the private salt almost collapse the official salt?

Because of incompetence, private salt collapsed the official salt, so reform is needed, and the premise of the reform plan is that the court is capable and has strong ruling power?

So, in the end, how to ensure that small vendors do not sell salt themselves after drawing tickets, but sell the tickets to others?

Or, how to prevent big merchants and big merchants from directly hiring people to draw tickets? Then hoard goods and sell them?

These are just the two simplest practical problems in the salt administration reform.

Other dirtier things, I didn't dare to ask.

These two problems that made the Lianghuai Salt Administration so anxious made him understand that this should be Liu Yu's reminder to him.

This must be thanks to Liu Yu.

Asking before doing something feels like a show of power, but it actually helps a lot.

And if something goes wrong after doing something, the face now is saved, but the future, face and future will be gone.

"Duke, these merchants are really cunning. I understand why your majesty must ask you to supervise all the affairs in southern Jiangsu."

"It is hard to imagine that the things here are so complicated in the temple. I am really talking about it on paper and talking about it."

"Business and industry are really different."

The Lianghuai Salt Administration expressed very tactfully that he, the governor of Jiangsu, would never manage business and industry in the future. Liu Yu didn't care much about this, but he was really speechless to the reformists in the court.

"Lord Lin, regarding the reform of the salt administration, to be honest, outsiders think that we are both reformers. In fact, we are quite different. I changed the direction of production and transportation; you changed the direction of sales."

"In fact, these things cannot be solved. I have no way."

"Don't say I can't do it. Just these two simplest problems, similar things may make people anxious even a hundred years later."

"So, since it can't be solved, why solve it?"

The Lianghuai Salt Administration was shocked and said, "Don't solve it? I didn't think much before, and now I'm sweating just by hearing some of it. In this way, in three to five years, I'm afraid that big merchants from all over the country will come here, hire people to participate in the fight for tickets, and hoard salt tickets for salt permits."

Liu Yu laughed and nodded, "You are right. It's true. But I say that if this matter wants to be solved, it can only be solved if one day, the roads are crisscrossed, and it can even start from the East China Sea and reach the Western Regions. Otherwise, there is no solution."

The Lianghuai Salt Administration smiled bitterly, thinking, isn't this nonsense? But what kind of road can start from the East China Sea on the first day of the month and reach Yumen Pass at the end of the month?

"Lord Lin, don't smile bitterly. Although this matter cannot be solved, why must it be solved? If you think about solving these things, at least you are thinking in the wrong direction on this matter."

"Please enlighten me."

Liu Yu smiled and said, "The key to this matter lies in one sentence. 'Ensure that some of the right people can get the right tickets', and let them do whatever they want with the rest. Follow the story of the good family children in this dynasty to keep the basic base."

"Let's talk about the future later. If it can be continued for a few years, it can be continued for a few years, and it can be repaired."

After thinking about the words "let the right people get the right tickets", the Lianghuai Salt Administration felt uncomfortable.

His starting point for supporting the reform was to protect the court's salt tax, to let the people eat cheaper salt, and to hope that the word "fairness" could be reflected a little.

Now Liu Yu said this, which was obviously unfair. Isn't this open tickets and hidden quotes?

Seeing that he was silent, Liu Yu just smiled and thought to himself that you are so worried about these two problems? If you change it as you think, there will be a lot of headaches in the future.

"For this matter, I personally think that we should do it this way..."