New Shun 1730

With just one sentence, the eyes of those investors suddenly flashed like Sirius in the night sky at the end of the month.

The salt market has been basically divided in China. They also hope that their salt fields can invade other salt areas, but it is just a thought.

They cannot decide. It is said that the fact that they can seize the Huaibei salt area now is the result of the support of the court. How dare they get more.

Even if they are bold and lead the bourgeois revolution, they can't sign laws that are in their interests by pressing the emperor's head.

Because they can dry salt, can't the capital in Hebei, Fujian, Huainan, and Guangdong dry salt? You can't press the emperor's head and force the emperor to order that only Huaibei can dry salt, right? But in that case, before they press the emperor's head, the capital in Hebei, Fujian, Huainan, and Guangdong will press their heads first.

The law that is beneficial to their class is "allowing the opening of large salt fields to squeeze out small salt households."

It is definitely not "only the Huaibei salt field is allowed, and the rest of the salt field is not allowed". This is not called bourgeois revolution, this is called feudal aristocratic privilege.

Now they have already achieved the demand of "allowing the opening of large salt fields to squeeze out small salt households" without spending a single shot or a penny.

So from this moment on, they have completely lost their progressive fighting spirit.

Or, in other words, they have become reactionary subjectively.

Liu Yu certainly did not expect this group of people to do anything, so he mentioned letting them open their eyes and see the world.

In fact, their eyes have been opened and they have already looked at the world. But the problem is that salt is not silk, raw silk or porcelain.

In the near future... In the near future, they can't make the decision.

For example, the trade with Japan, their current salt price and the navigation of Dashun at this time are completely profitable.

But this is the same as the British East India Company selling Indian cotton cloth. The biggest problem is not the market law, but the British government distorting the market law and insisting on ultra-high tariff protection.

It is similar in Japan. What can be sold and what cannot be sold is not an economic issue, but a political and military issue.

These merchants have no guns and no battleships, so they can only rely on the Dashun government to negotiate with Japan.

Liu Yu did not say where to sell, but these people naturally thought of selling to Japan.

When collecting Changlu salt before, it was for official transportation to Hankou, but the name shouted was to sell to Japan.

Now Liu Yu mentioned this matter again, it is much easier to cover up.

In fact, Liu Yu wanted to use the overseas reason to expand the production capacity of Huaibei Salt Field in advance. Take advantage of the salt production period before the Xiaoman solar term to quickly expand the production capacity so as to complete the occupation of Huainan salt as soon as possible.

Since the government has intervened between production and sales for supervision, these people in Huaibei Salt Field dare not easily expand production capacity even if they are profitable.

On the one hand, they are worried that they can't sell it.

On the other hand, the regulators also need to look at the account books and investments.

Without the above requirements, suddenly expanding production capacity, are you preparing for smuggling?

In the current situation, is Liu Yu's "looking at the world" feasible? Will it succeed? Is there a price list for Japanese salt prices?

None of these are important.

What is important is that investors really want to expand production capacity.

Because even if looking at the world fails, the production capacity will be expanded so much at once, and the court is supporting them, so they will definitely find a way to smooth things over.

Even if they don't guarantee to take all the salt used to expand production capacity, then they can always give them a portion of the shares from other places, right?

Their salt production cost is the lowest, which means that they support the expansion of production capacity, and it is precisely the court that supports them that hinders them from expanding production capacity.

Similarly, it is precisely the court that supports them that puts them in an advantageous position, making it impossible for other places to build large-scale salt factories of the same level for various reasons.

This principle is a bit similar to the demands of Britain in launching the Opium War, calling for opium to become legal. But if opium really becomes legal as Britain demands, British opium dealers will cry instead.

Under this awkward situation, they can only be the dogs of the court, that is, the "obedient chaebols" shown by Liu Yu to the emperor.

Those sea merchants can go a long way with Liu Yu, and salt is like this, they can only be "really" obedient chaebols.

This obedience is reflected in the fact that they have no motivation to overthrow the imperial power, and also in the fact that Liu Yu can make them decide to increase production capacity with just one sentence.

Whether it can really open up the external market and how sure it is, it doesn't matter at all, and there is no need to consider it.

"Duke, how many tens of thousands of catties of production capacity are you prepared to expand for us? As long as the Duke reports a number, we can start work while the weather is still cold and rainless."

Liu Yu reported a number that was about two-thirds of the number of salt in Hubei last year.

Lin Min next to him was confused, thinking that his Lianghuai Salt Administration Envoy was really about to become an empty shell. Such a big thing, he didn't know anything about it?

Then he thought again, although the overseas trade center of the Celestial Empire is now in Jiangsu, I am the governor of Jiangsu, and I am about to become the governor of Xuzhou, Jiangning, and Haizhou. It is normal that I don’t know about overseas trade.

Anyway, it was you who proposed this matter. If there is a problem with the surge in production, it can’t be blamed on me.

He didn’t understand overseas trade, so at this time he could only analyze it from the perspective of a Celestial Empire official: "This matter is indeed beneficial and harmless."

"If it can be sold, it will naturally be the best, and the annual salt tax will increase a lot."

"Besides, the salt produced in various places is often unstable. Sometimes there will be a lack of salt when there are strong winds, big waves, or heavy rain."

"Previously, when the sea tidal intrusion occurred in Huainan, a batch of salt had to be allocated from Sichuan and Fujian to support it."

"If something like this happens again in the future, we have to focus on our own country. But we can stop the salt of foreign trade and just support it elsewhere."

"Japan is a large country with a large population. The increase in production capacity reported by the government is not that much."

Liu Yu smiled and praised: "Yes. If the imperial court controls land sales as strictly as it controls salt administration, my Ministry of Industry and Commerce can be completely disbanded."

"Now you who produce salt, at least when it comes to salt, can do something far away. If you are not allowed to sell in the nearby salt area, you can't sell it and can only run away. This is forcing you to be heroes. Better than those who always focus on the domestic pie.”

"Master Lin has a far-sighted thinking. In the end, no matter how you look at it, it is a good thing."

Several investors looked at each other and nodded.

Now that the original small producers in Huaibei have been basically forced into bankruptcy, there is no need to use as harsh methods as before to roughly enclose the land.

Now, relying on capital, we can buy up those nearby salt areas that are available or suitable for building large factories at low prices.

I bought it at a high price a few months ago, but many people didn’t sell it. If you buy at a low price these days, there will definitely be a lot of sellers.

Liu Yu has no doubts about the production capacity of Huaibei salt. Not to mention the introduction of preliminary modern factories, in the past, relying on private salt, in a hundred years, the Huainan salt area was completely destroyed. .

Historically, the private salt industry in Huaibei destroyed the salt in Huainan, which was also the prerequisite for Zhang Jian and others to set up a land reclamation company in Huainan.

The natural conditions are indeed better here.

For investors, the faster the investment, the better.

The sooner it can be made a fait accompli, the better.

By then, it has become a fait accompli. Even if the Japanese market cannot be opened, you can still cry to the court: Look, we have produced so much salt and the salt is unsaleable. Save us. Japan cannot go to Japan. Then we can also use salt from other places. Give it to us.

…………

A few days after the inspection, Liu Yu and others boarded the ship at Lianyungang, which was still under construction, and headed for the capital.

The journey was uneventful until the ship passed Weihaiwei and entered the Bohai Bay. Liu Yu suddenly asked Lin Min a tentative question.

"Master Lin seems to be quite supportive of the former Xu Guangqi's policy of using salt to reclaim wasteland. So Master Lin thinks that the root of Huainan's salt reform lies in the introduction and voting? Or is it the production method?"

Lin Min chuckled, "How did you end up with Xin Dao Yin and Piao?" Yin and Qiao are all about drinking poison to quench thirst, and they are all about tinkering. How did you do it in Huaibei? Are you confused about what you did in Huaibei?

According to your method of equalizing land, merging, and re-equalizing land, the voting method and the introduction method are basically left and right hands. No one has seen how much advantage they have.

Wait twenty years later, and the salt tickets will be monopolized by big hoarders again. If you backhand and redirect the tickets, isn't that just changing the name, changing the soup without changing the medicine?

Now you ask me whether I am attracting votes at all or producing. How can I give you another answer?

"My lord, since there are no outsiders, the boat has arrived at the Bohai Bay. You know it and I know it. Then I might as well tell you directly."

"Xu Guangqi saw the key point, but at that time, the Ming Dynasty was already declining, and the priority was not to change from boiling salt to drying salt, but to collect the money."

"Although he got the method, he didn't get it at the right time. What a pity."

"At this time in this dynasty, the debate over introducing votes has not yet reached the point where the salt policy is completely corrupted. Therefore, the key to Huainan's salt reform is to change the production method. That is, changing boiled salt to sun salt, and boiling salt The firewood and grass were reclaimed for fields.”

"In the Battle of Huaibei, it is no longer possible for the court to object on the grounds that it is worried about insufficient salt production after the changes."

Liu Yu hummed and said, "But there is something I still have to remind Mr. Lin."

"Huainan's salt production is no better than Huaibei's. Now that the canal has been abandoned and maritime transportation has risen, considering the rain, heat, wind, tide, and the coal that drives the steam engine..."

"Is it necessary to produce salt in Huainan?"

"Why do I feel that, looking at it now, the only reason for producing salt in Huainan is that Huainan has produced salt since ancient times?"

After a brief shock, Lin Min smiled helplessly.

He did not talk about these hard and seemingly inhumane production issues, but talked about humanistic care.

"My lord, my lord, since ancient times there has been a saying of riding a crane down to Yangzhou."

"It's not enough for you to abolish the canal, but you also want to abolish the Huainan salt. Many cities along the canal, and many cities in Huainan that prospered because of salt, will all be destroyed in the hands of the Duke."

"I'm afraid that a hundred years from now, someone will read that he has a hundred thousand guan in his pocket, and he will feel puzzled. If he has a hundred thousand guan in his pocket, why not go to Songjiang? Why go to Yangzhou?"

"Will the glory of Yangzhou be destroyed by my hands in the future?"

Liu Yu disagreed and said: "Xijing in Chang'an is extremely beautiful; merchants are passing through the cities in the Western Regions. Isn't it the same? To put it more recently, how prosperous was Macau in the last years of the previous dynasty, connecting east and west? Now it is like hell. There are only human traffickers and opium dealers left.”

"I estimate that Huai'an is said to have 800,000 people. Within ten years, there will only be 100,000 left? But Yangzhou should be stronger, so it won't be like that."

"This is a natural principle, there is no need to regret it."

Lin Min smiled bitterly and sighed.

I thought to myself, your light words have caused so much trouble. A large town with hundreds of thousands of people has to bear the burden of everyone, and the pain of migration has nothing to do with you anyway.

What the court said is true, you really have no human touch at all.

You are right in principle, but if you want to do this, you go and tell me, I won't tell you anyway.

Even if I tell you, I will try to smooth things over and build a salt field in Huainan.

I support the change to drying salt, but I didn't say I support moving the largest salt production area to Huaibei.

If you insist on talking about the right time and place, rain, heat, wind, salt content, and coal production area, that is your perspective, not the perspective of everyone in the court.

Anyway, you have already abolished a big city of Huai'an. If you are willing to bear the reputation of the decline of Yangzhou, you can bear it, don't look for me.

Abolishing Huai'an is easy to say, after all, it is to abandon the issue of sea transportation itself. The ministers in the court also know that "to manage the river, you must first abolish the canal", as long as you are not a pig brain, you still have this insight. Controlling the Yellow River was the most important thing for the court, second only to fighting a war. It was acceptable to abandon Huai'an for this.

But you even want to abolish the Huainan Salt District, which is a bit shocking. This is not a matter of right or wrong, but a direct challenge to the normal cognition of the court.