Chapter 38: Killing People to Open a Business
Wang An showed a wicked smile and said, "Abolish the salt permit!"

Although Chongzhen was furious, he had never thought of such a horrifying statement!

You should know that the salt permit system started in the eighth year of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it has been nearly six hundred years now.

During the Ming Dynasty, the salt permit system was implemented throughout.

The most important thing is that this is an ancestral law and it cannot be abolished just like that.

However, Wang An continued to explain the benefits of abolishing salt permits and reforming the salt law.

First, after the abolition of the salt permit, each provincial governor set up a business office, which could be called the Mingyan Provincial Government Salt Trading Company, and they were specifically responsible for supplying salt to a certain place.

For example, Henan established the "Mingyan Henan Provincial Administration Salt Trading Company" as a government office directly under the Henan Provincial Administration, responsible for supplying salt to Henan.

Since there were no provincial governments in North and South Zhili, they could directly register their businesses under the North and South Ministry of Revenue.

In short, although it was a trading company, it was fully officialized, which is what later generations called a state-owned enterprise.

The provincial secretariats' shops do not need to achieve full retail coverage. They only need to set up direct-operated stores at the county level and set a uniform price for salt in the stores.

The supply of salt to rural areas can be handed over to ordinary small shop owners or peddlers walking the streets to complete the "last mile" coverage.

These small shop owners and peddlers could have originally sold rice, cloth, or even rice fields. Even if they were ordinary people, as long as they were registered and reviewed and the goods they purchased met a certain standard, they could get a wholesale price and then sell them on the streets by themselves without having to obtain a salt permit.

The provincial offices would offer prices slightly lower than those of the direct-operated stores, and sell them to these small shop owners and peddlers at "wholesale prices" to sell in towns and villages that were not covered by the offices. This way, the people would not have to travel through mountains and rivers to go to the city to buy the products.

However, small shop owners and peddlers must sell according to the prices of the directly-operated stores and are not allowed to increase prices without permission. If found doing so, they will be severely punished!

In this way, the retail price of salt can be unified within a province, avoiding large fluctuations in salt prices during special periods such as war, which would cause people to be unable to afford salt.

The imperial court could also supervise the salt sales prices of each provincial government, and if it found the prices were too high or too low, it could issue an imperial decree to regulate them.

In this way, the production, wholesale and retail of salt were almost entirely controlled by the court, and all the profits were undoubtedly obtained by the court.

Perfectly bypass those salt merchants who pay the least but get the most profit!

Moreover, direct taxes have been reduced to indirect taxes, and middlemen have been eliminated, making it almost easy to collect taxes.

Because the government has already collected the salt tax the moment it sells the salt.

Naturally, there would not be incidents like Wei Zhongxian's tax collection in Jiangnan being secretly disrupted by salt merchants, because there were no such things as salt merchants at that time, or in other words, anyone in the world could be a salt merchant.

However, how much money these "salt merchants" could make was determined by the imperial court, so they had no chance of making it big.

As to whether the "Salt Company" would engage in corruption, this is almost certain.

As long as there is pork, there will always be people reaching out for it.

However, compared with private salt merchants, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were still at the stage of "if the king wants his subjects to die, they have to die". It would be more straightforward to improve the administration of officials, implement supervision measures such as imperial envoys, and execute the entire family of anyone who dared to be corrupt than to argue with those old foxes of the salt merchants.

After listening to Wang An's words, Chongzhen felt as if he had suddenly realized something. The salt administration could be done in this way!

That 13.8 million taels...

At this moment, Chongzhen seemed to see endless silver, transformed into a silver baby, waving at him. However, the next moment, Wang An poured a bucket of cold water on him.

"But it's easier said than done." Wang An grinned, "Let's not talk about how many people in the court are receiving tributes from salt merchants. If this decree is issued, you can imagine how much resistance it will encounter in the court and the public."

"If they get angry, the salt merchants might even secretly support the Jian Nu or the bandits and overthrow the Ming Dynasty. After all, in the eyes of these merchants, there is no concept of home and country, they only care about money."

"They dare!" Chongzhen was immediately furious and stood up from the chair again.

Looking at Chongzhen gasping for breath, it was unimaginable that he looked as if his lungs were about to explode.

Wang An hastily changed his words and said, "Brother! Don't get excited! Okay, okay, they don't dare to do it, right? There is still one more problem. If we want to achieve the imperial court's monopoly, we must first defeat those salt merchants in a direct commercial war."

"If you want to stop the salt merchants from causing trouble, you have to offer a higher purchase price than the salt merchants. The salt merchants have a lot of money, can the court follow up? Maybe at the beginning, the salt merchants don't realize the court's purpose, and will wait for the court to get angry and spend all the money."

"But if they realize that the imperial court intends to uproot them, they will definitely fight a price war with the imperial court at all costs! Does the imperial court have so much money to fight a price war?"

Chongzhen was stunned and asked, "Then is there no other solution?"

Wang An sneered and said, "Of course there is a way. As the saying goes, the people should not fight against the officials."

"After all, these salt merchants are just civilians. Why not just find a reason to destroy them before they start a price war with the imperial court? Then not only will the obstacles be removed, but the salt merchants' property will also be confiscated, right?"

"Hehe, these salt merchants are very rich! If we kill just one of them, it would be enough to feed the whole court for a year!"

"But it's not easy to find a reason. People have to be convinced. This depends on the court's skill."

After Wang An said this, he chuckled strangely, and it was obvious that he did not approve that the infiltrated court could unite to fight these salt merchants.

However, Chongzhen seemed to have opened the door to a new world, and his eyes lit up.

"Kill people and open a business! Kill people and open a business!"

Wang An pulled Chongzhen curiously and asked, "Brother, what are you mumbling about?"

"Hmm? Ah!" Chongzhen came back to his senses and laughed, "No, nothing, I just suddenly remembered that I have something urgent to do. Brother, I will take my leave now."

Wang An didn't think much about it, nodded, and personally sent Chongzhen to the door.

But Chongzhen had not walked far when Wang An remembered something and waved at Chongzhen, saying, "My dear brother, remember to find Zhou Jian. The coal mine won't wait for anyone!"

…………

After returning to the Wenhua Hall, Chongzhen could not wait to write a letter, and then handed it to Wang Chengen, saying, "Send it 600 miles quickly and make sure it reaches Wei Zhongxian!"

Wang Chengen vaguely guessed Chongzhen's thoughts, and his hands were shaking with excitement.

Thirteen million eight hundred thousand taels of silver!

If I had this money, I wouldn't have to worry.

(End of this chapter)