Chapter 37 Everyone in the World is a Salt Merchant

"Of course!" Wang An said, "The reason the cooks are making trouble is nothing more than to oppose the government's prohibition on selling surplus salt to salt merchants. The main reason for the cooks' opposition is that the purchase price of salt merchants is slightly higher than that of the government, so it is obviously more profitable to sell to salt merchants."

"This is also the mass base that the salt merchants can easily incite the stove owners. So as long as this point is broken, it will be impossible for the salt merchants to incite the stove owners. After all, the stove owners are just trying to make a few more cents to buy rice. As long as they can make a living, who would go against the government? Isn't this crazy!"

Chongzhen was silent upon hearing this, but Wang Chengen said, "But since the implementation of the Gangyan Law during the Wanli period, salt fields in various places have almost stopped purchasing surplus salt from salt farmers, and the regular salt they purchased is only supplied to the palace, officials at all levels, and the military."

"At this point, let alone how to deal with the remaining salt, there is no way to solve the problem of how to spend the money to buy the remaining salt!"

Wang An laughed and said, "Didn't Wei Zhongxian go to Jiangnan to collect salt taxes? The taxes collected can be used as start-up capital for purchasing surplus salt. Think about it, using salt taxes to collect salt is almost a cost-free business. Is there anything more profitable than this in the world?"

Wang Chengen continued: "What if the salt merchants also follow up on the purchase price?"

Wang An rolled his eyes and said, "Our goal is to let the salt merchants know that the government will not prohibit them from selling surplus salt privately. If the salt merchants also follow up on the purchase price, then the rumor that the government prohibits the private sale of surplus salt will be refuted!"

Wang Chengen suddenly realized what was going on and couldn't help but give Wang An a thumbs up in admiration.

But at this moment, Chongzhen, who had been thinking for a long time, suddenly said: "It is really hateful that these salt merchants use the ignorance of the stove owners to attack the government. I wonder if you can teach these lawless salt merchants a lesson?"

Wang An glanced at Chongzhen and thought that his patriotic cousin's old habit had come back again.

Whenever the country or the court is mentioned, it seems like they are related to him.

Wang An smiled and shook his head, saying, "My dear brother, if someone didn't know you, they would think you were the newly-appointed Emperor Chongzhen!"

Chongzhen and Wang Chengen's faces froze immediately. Chongzhen smiled awkwardly and said, "Brother, please don't talk nonsense. Be careful not to say anything that may cause trouble!"

Wang An laughed. Although he didn't care, he thought about it patiently and said, "The most arrogant people in all dynasties are the salt merchants. They make a lot of money, but they still rack their brains to avoid and evade taxes."

"If it's up to me, the government should just take back the private salt business and make it a government-run monopoly! You guys are making a lot of money, but you don't even want to pay a little tax. Then don't pay a penny and don't do this business anymore! It would be great if we could just go our separate ways!"

In history, the Jiangnan salt merchants could be said to be richer than the Shanxi merchants who betrayed the country.

How rich is it?

Standing on a tall building and throwing gold foil onto the river surface, just to make the prostitute happy...

As for the luxurious mansions, beautiful concubines, wine and women, that is just routine operation.

According to calculations by market enthusiasts, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the capital of the Qin, Jin, and Hui merchants in Yangzhou's salt industry was about 30 million taels, while the fiscal revenue of the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty was only 3.66 million taels a year at its lowest point...

In other words, the total assets of these three salt merchant groups alone are enough for the Ming Dynasty to collect taxes for ten years!

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the salt merchants' wealth. There is another data that can roughly reflect how rich the salt merchants in the Ming Dynasty were. After Wanli, the salt law was changed to the "Gangyan Law", which means that the court was only responsible for approving salt permits, and the rest was completed between the salt merchants and the salt farmers.

At that time, the "wholesale price" of each ton of salt was stipulated to be six qian and four li, plus three liang of salt tax and three liang of public silver. The total official "wholesale price" of each ton of salt should be six liang, six qian and four li.

At that time, merchants holding salt permits across the country were divided into ten "gangs" according to regions, and each "gang" held 200,000 salt permits.

It was calculated that the amount of silver the court should have received was 200,000 taels multiplied by ten "gang" and then multiplied by six taels, six qian and four li, totaling 13.8 million taels of silver!
That’s 13.8 million taels of silver every year!
But in fact, the salt tax revenue in the late Ming Dynasty was only 2.5 million taels!

Where did the remaining 11.3 million taels go?
Undoubtedly, the money went into the pockets of salt administration officials at all levels and salt merchants of all sizes!
And while the Ming Dynasty has been functioning for so many years, these parasites have been sucking blood from the salt profit chain for so many years!

After more than two hundred years, it is hard to imagine how rich the salt merchants must have been!

When Wang An stated the above data one by one, Chongzhen's eyes turned red!

Thirteen million eight hundred thousand taels of silver per year, but you only give me two million five hundred thousand taels!
You really think I'm an idiot, don't you?

Originally, he did not agree with Wang An's statement that "it would be great if we could just go our separate ways", but after learning that the salt merchants treated him like an idiot, he decided not to even think about going our separate ways, and even wanted to drag the salt merchants down with him to perish together.

Damn it, I've been worried about the border military expenses of hundreds of thousands of taels, and my hair has turned white, while you guys are living a life of luxury with tens of millions of taels. Otherwise, I would have thought that the world belonged to you salt merchants, and our Zhu family was just working for you!
"Damn it, catch them all and kill them!" The more Chongzhen thought about it, the more he stood up, clenching his fists and looking furious.

Wang An was startled and said in a panic, "Haha, my dear brother! I know you love your country, but this is the money from the court, so don't get excited, okay?"

Chongzhen ignored Wang An and was so angry that he was speechless.

Wang Chengen was also trembling and dared not say a word, because he knew too well how much the emperor worried about the money.

He was so worried that he even used an abacus to calculate the account books of the Ministry of Revenue himself, for fear that his subordinates would waste a few taels of silver.

As a result, now that he knew that more than 11 million taels of silver slipped away right under his nose every year, it was a good thing that he didn't die of anger on the spot.

Chongzhen looked like an irritable rabbit, pacing back and forth, wishing he could jump up on the spot.

After wandering around for a long time, he managed to calm down, grabbed Wang An's arm and said, "So according to what you mean, brother, do you want to abolish the Gang Law and let the government run it exclusively?"

Wang An nodded, thought about the salt industry in the future and said, "Of course it would be best if we could do this. Each provincial government would set up a government office specifically responsible for salt sales, directly include the tax in the finished product, and sell it directly to the people! Bypass the salt merchants, or everyone in the world can be a salt merchant!"

"Anyone in the world can be a salt merchant?" Chongzhen was stunned. His original intention was to eliminate the salt merchants, so how come he suddenly made it so that everyone in the world can be a salt merchant?

(End of this chapter)