Chapter 34 Trends in Civil Unrest
Wang An couldn't help but feel ashamed again. As a member of the glorious group of time travelers, he had been in Ming Dynasty for so long. Even with Zhou Kui's windfall, his entire worth was only a few hundred taels of silver.

However, Wang An subconsciously overlooked the fact that in the Ming Dynasty, the annual income of an ordinary farmer was only about eight taels of silver. Even if they were soldiers and received imperial rations, they would only earn about ten taels of silver a year.

Even for a small business owner, earning thirty or fifty taels a year is considered a good year.

Wang An had only been in Ming Dynasty for more than half a year, but he had already accumulated a fortune of several hundred taels. Even though he could not compare with the people in the city, at least he was the undisputed richest man in Doujiafang.

It would be great if my rich cousin was willing to invest.

Thinking of his cousin, Wang An bit his lip and said, "If we look at both mines together, how much silver will it cost?"

When Zhou Jian heard Wang An ask about the price, he immediately said excitedly: "Not expensive, not expensive, they are all top-quality mines, one frame is priced at twelve thousand taels of silver!"

After that, Zhou Jian gritted his teeth and said, "If you can take over both mines, this warehouse with coal will be a bonus and given to you!"

Two top mines plus a warehouse and all the inventory, twenty-four thousand taels is indeed a bargain.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the two mines are really as good as Zhou Jian said, and can be dug with a hoe.

Wang An pursed his lips and said nothing. After a long while, he bowed to Zhou Jian and said, "Mr. Zhou, please allow me to think about it for a few days!"

"Okay." Zhou Jian also knew that a business worth tens of thousands of taels of silver could not be decided in just a few words, so it was normal for the other party to ask for a few days to consider it.

However, he still couldn't hide his disappointment, and said with a cupped hand: "Then this young master should hurry up, after all, the weather is so cold, which household doesn't burn coal?"

Wang An nodded, and he thought so.

However, Zhou Jian deliberately did not mention the interests behind the coal business, and Wang An was, after all, an "outsider" and neglected this matter for a while.

When he returned to the herbal medicine shop, Wang An paced back and forth in front of the shop door with a long sigh, and glanced at the streets from time to time, just like an old mother who was waiting for her son to return home.

I just stood at the door for a long time but didn't see the face I wanted to see. As it was getting dark, I returned to the shop disappointed.

…………

Chongzhen suddenly sneezed, and Wang Chengen quickly took out a cloak and put it on Chongzhen, saying, "It's very cold this year, Your Majesty, please take care of yourself."

Chongzhen didn't say anything but just continued to review the memorials in front of him. He didn't know how many he had reviewed. Just when Wang Chengen was feeling drowsy, he was suddenly awakened by Chongzhen's laughter.

When Wang Chengen looked over, Chongzhen was furious again.

Wang Chengen hurriedly said with concern: "Your Majesty, please take care of yourself. Being angry is bad for your health!"

Chongzhen threw the memorial in front of Wang Chengen and said, "This group of Jiangnan gentry is simply lawless. They actually dared to conspire for a civil uprising. Are they planning to rebel?"

Wang Chengen was shocked. Civil unrest was not a good word, especially since the Ming Dynasty had shown signs of being in turmoil in the past two years.

He quickly lowered his head to look, and saw that the memorial was sent by Wei Zhongxian who went to Jiangnan to collect taxes.

He started by reporting the good news, saying that within less than a month of arriving in Jiangnan, he had already collected commercial taxes of 300,000 taels of silver.

I think Chongzhen’s laughter before was because of this incident.

However, Wei Zhongxian soon began to report worries again, saying that the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, in order to oppose the court's collection of commercial taxes, were secretly instigating the people to cause trouble at the Suzhou government office!

According to Wei Zhongxian's estimation, the number of people who might participate in the riot would reach tens of thousands, and the main group would be the kitchen owners.

Because after Wei Zhongxian arrived in Jiangnan, he first started with the salt tax.

There are many stove households in Jiangnan area. Like music households and boat households, stove households were determined in the time of Taizu, and their sons and daughters could only do the same thing from generation to generation.

The musicians provide entertainment for people, the boatmen make a living by fishing, and the stove households are responsible for making salt.

In fact, Wei Zhongxian's collection of salt tax had little to do with these stove owners.

Because the imperial court stipulated that the salt produced by the stove households was divided into regular salt and surplus salt.

The quota of regular salt is about 400 jin per ton, which is called a big ton.

The remaining salt quota is 200 jin per ton, which is called a small ton.

The regular salt was purchased by the government at cost price, which was equivalent to commissioned production in later generations.

It’s just that the next generation of workers also need to make money, but the salt farmers don’t make any money from regular salt, so the money they don’t make is considered the salt tax paid by the salt farmers.

The surplus salt is the remaining salt after each adult male pays 28 jin of regular salt per year. The purchase price per jin of this salt is twice that of regular salt, but the quantity is half less.

After the government purchases salt, it adds a markup and sells it wholesale to salt merchants to make a profit, which can also be considered as part of the salt tax.

After the salt merchants got the salt, they transported it to designated areas and designated shops for sale. When the people bought salt, in addition to the price of the salt itself, they also had to pay salt tax on the spot at a ratio of twenty to one. This was another wave.

Therefore, the salt tax is composed of three parts: salt farmers, salt merchants, and the people.

But the premise for forming such a tax cycle is that there is no private salt.

The so-called private salt means that salt merchants bypass the government and directly purchase surplus salt from salt farmers, and then do not sell it in designated areas or stores, but buy it directly from the people.

As a result, the government could not earn money from selling salt permits, nor could it collect taxes from the people who bought salt.

Even the proliferation of private salt will directly impact the sales of official salt.

Just imagine that if salt merchants purchased surplus salt directly from salt farmers, the government would not be able to purchase any excess salt other than regular salt, resulting in insufficient inventory, and insufficient inventory would make it impossible to sell more salt permits.

The people were also more willing to buy private salt because they didn't have to pay taxes. Then no one would buy official salt, and with fewer people paying taxes, the sales of salt merchants who used salt permits fell, and they bought less salt permits from the government.

The prevalence of private salt has dealt an all-round blow to the court's salt tax revenue.

Therefore, if Wei Zhongxian wanted to collect salt tax, he had to crack down on private salt trafficking.

However, would salt merchants be willing to pay taxes and buy salt permits?

Obviously unwilling.

So some people secretly encouraged the stove owners, saying that if the court wanted to collect salt tax, it would prohibit you from selling surplus salt.

However, the government's purchase price of surplus salt could not keep up with the price of private salt.

In order to make more money, these kitchen owners are naturally unwilling to ban private salt sales. Otherwise, who would buy their surplus salt?
But in fact, the government had implemented the Gang Law as early as the Wanli period.

The so-called Gangfa was to change the monopoly to a private system. In addition to retaining the wholesale of regular salt, the government allowed salt merchants to purchase surplus salt directly from salt farmers and sell and transport it on their own.

However, if you want to buy salt directly from the salt farmers, you also need a salt permit, but the price of this salt permit is much more expensive than before.

(End of this chapter)