Chapter 439 Settlement

Hubu Yamen.

Jiang Xinghuo was sitting across from Xia Yuanji drinking tea, and heat was rising between them.

"How much money is left?"

Xia Yuanji didn't dial the abacus or flip through the account book. After blowing on the foam on the tea, he picked up a pen and wrote a series of numbers on the paper.

"1.75 million taels."

The current agreement is that within one year, Daming's commercial tax will increase to 2.1 million taels. Under normal circumstances, the annual commercial tax is about 350,000 taels, which means that there is a difference of 1.75 million taels that Jiang Xinghuo needs to conjure up out of thin air.

Now there is no way to go to Japan to dig silver mines, and the domestic silver mine production is negligible and impossible to increase, so Jiang Xinghuo can only find a way on his own.

Normally speaking, if commercial taxes want to achieve large-scale explosive growth, there is actually only one way, which is to adjust and reduce related tolls and card fees through the government's policies, reduce commercial cards, and at the same time improve road safety. , sending more soldiers to protect traffic.

In this way, merchants have the enthusiasm to carry out large-scale geographical flow of goods.

Otherwise, according to the Ming Dynasty's current commercial tax policy, you will be stuck in oil and water every time you pass by. No matter how high the price difference of the same product between the two places is, no businessman will choose to sell it long distances because the money earned is not enough to pay. tax.

And now the world has decided that in places where the government has strong control, safety can still be guaranteed, but in places where the control is insufficient, if someone intercepts someone, kills people and dumps goods into ravines, the government will not be able to control it at all, let alone solve the case. .

Therefore, doing business is actually a business that can cost you both money and life.

But the problem Jiang Xinghuo faces now is that the court does not provide policies.

Yes, if we don’t provide policies, we still need money.

This is like asking your daughter-in-law to cook without giving her rice.

The reason is also very simple, it is still in the "Da Ming Law".

Change the law, change the law, if the "law" cannot be changed, nothing will happen.

But although it is impossible to promote the reform of the legal system for a while, the money making cannot be stopped for a moment, because this is the core of [Fengtian Palace Debate], an extremely serious political commitment, if it cannot be completed, something will happen. Yes, and something big happened.

"1.75 million taels. After deducting the specialized products, there is still about 1.43 million taels left, which are the products of the glass and fertilizer workshops. They were sold in total and made a profit of 320,000 taels."

"exactly."

Xia Yuanji's expression was also a little serious. He crossed his hands, then released his index fingers and touched each other, but he still couldn't come up with any good ideas.

Because fertilizers are mainly sold to landlords and farmers, they cannot be sold as luxury goods like glass. Of the 320,000 liang, glass, especially glass mirrors, accounted for the bulk of the sales.

The early Ming Dynasty was not the late Ming Dynasty. There were not millions or tens of millions of taels of silver at every turn. Silver was in limited supply throughout the country. According to the strength of the price of silver in the early Ming Dynasty, in fact, in just a few months, one could make money by relying on specialized products. 320,000 taels is already very, very impressive. It is a huge amount of wealth. It is enough for the Ming Dynasty to build ships like dumplings for a year, or to pay for the repair of the "Yongle Dadian" for two to three years.

However, this is still not enough for the promised 2.1 million taels.

Jiang Xinghuo took a sip of tea, then wrote two words on the paper, and then said.

"The latest news coming back is that Li Jinglong has launched a landing at Qinghua Port and successfully controlled the port and Qinghua City, the western capital of Annan Kingdom."

Xia Yuanji was startled, then his eyebrows relaxed slightly.

"This is good news."

"Yes, good news." Jiang Xinghuo smiled, "Lai of Champa, the king of the Champa Kingdom, has agreed to the "Mingzhan Friendship and Trade Contract", and we have obtained the lease rights of Tuohuang Port from the Champa Kingdom, and The Champa State fully opened its cities, roads, and rivers to trade with the Ming Dynasty, and the tax rate was zero. For this alone, the Ming Dynasty could earn back at least one million taels of silver trade difference from the Champa State every year (the trade difference is the income of merchants, It is not equal to the income of the Ming Dynasty. The tariff should be converted as a percentage). What is the annual rent of 20,000 taels to Tuoshan Port? What if the ivory, rhinoceros horn, agarwood and other items from the Champa State are sold to a country that is cut off from trade with it? In North Korea and Japan, the value will double again."

Jiang Xinghuo cautiously estimated: "The Annan Kingdom is larger than the Champa Kingdom. It can make more money and collect more tariffs. Even if this year has just started, the trade between these two countries and the Ming Dynasty will not be until next year." Among them, there is no problem if the tariff is at least two to three hundred thousand taels."

Xia Yuanjiti took notes and said while writing down: "1.43 million taels. To be conservative, let's subtract 250,000 taels from the tariff. There is still a gap of 1.18 million taels. Where will the unarmed free trade zone be tomorrow?"

When it comes to this matter, Jiang Xinghuo is quite confident. After all, the Japanese businessmen, represented by the rich, still trust the Ming Dynasty's business environment. The auction did a good job and successfully solved the problem of the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, Wang Despite Jing's troubles, the prominent businessmen from Ming Dynasty and Japan got together to meet and have dinner, and reached a basic consensus.

After all, under the Ming Dynasty's strict maritime ban policy, to be honest, there are only two types of people who are capable of being maritime merchants, one is life-threatening, and the other is someone with an astonishing background.

"Imagawa Ryotoshi has returned home with the envoys and accompanying merchants. The Ming Dynasty has agreed, and Japan should not object. After all, for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, although he failed to get the prospecting trade he wanted most, Offshore trade is also a big piece of meat, which is enough to alleviate the shogunate's financial difficulties. Why should we depend on the faces of businessmen when we can just sit back and collect money? Who doesn't like free trade?"

Xia Yuanji thought for a moment and said: "Ocean trade has just started. Although Japan's trade demand has been very strong in the past thirty years, it is still uncertain how large the unarmed free trade area will be tomorrow. It is estimated that it will be Be conservative, and even prepare for the failure of this matter. Japan is different from Annan. The Ming expeditionary force can win in Annan and bring it into the Ming Dynasty's sphere of influence. This is the confidence to make an estimate, but Japan after all It is an independent country, and the shogunate’s military is also quite powerful. If the Ming Dynasty cannot conquer it by force for the time being, it cannot say that the unarmed free trade area cannot be negotiated, and what can be done to the other party."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded slightly and said, "That's what it is. After defeating Annan, the military strategic focus will be on the north. Japan cannot be defeated in a while, and our fleet will also need two to three years of development." After all, the navy is still too weak. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the navy could easily cross the sea with tens of thousands of ships, but now it is far inferior. Just sending 30,000 troops from Guangdong to the central part of the Champa Kingdom was enough. All the ocean-going naval transport capacity was consumed.”

The two discussed for a while and felt that since the matter of tomorrow's unarmed free trade zone has not been discussed yet and is not 100% sure to be carried out, they should not deceive themselves and make up the numbers, so the number still stayed at 1.18 million taels, while North Korea The trade volume was not large due to roads and other reasons, and the commercial taxes that the Ming Dynasty could extract from it were even pitifully small, so they were ignored.

"Songjiang cotton."

Jiang Xinghuo took the paper and wrote these three words himself.

In fact, the reason why Jiang Xinghuo had the confidence to make the political commitment of 2.1 million taels of commercial tax was because of the terrifying profits of Songjiang Cotton.

Most of these 2.1 million taels are still in Songjiang cotton. The warehouse is now using large hydraulic spinning wheels and intensive labor to produce mountains of cotton. As long as these can be sold, not only the construction, labor, and raw materials advanced by the Ministry of Household Affairs will be paid. All expenses can be repaid, and this is a factory area invested by the royal family with funds from the Ministry of Revenue. After deducting the costs and expansion of reproduction, the profits can be directly included in the business tax. Unlike special industries such as fertilizers and glass, The properties of the goods are the same.

Whether it is Japan, North Korea, or Annan, the cost price of cotton textiles from these countries is basically 0.17-0.2 taels of silver per piece, and the selling price is 0.3 taels of silver per piece.

The current cost price of household cotton textiles in the Ming Dynasty is 0.13-0.14 taels of silver/horse, and the selling price is 0.15-0.16 taels of silver/horse.

The cost price of cotton textiles produced by manual workshops through large hydraulic spinning wheels and intensive labor is 0.09-0.1 taels of silver per piece.

Even if in order to protect the domestic household handmade textile industry and maintain the small-scale peasant economic pattern of men farming and women weaving for the time being, and only dumping goods abroad, Songjiang cotton produced in handicraft factories can still engage in price wars and reduce the market share of foreign cotton textiles. The price was dumped to 0.15-0.16 taels per horse to compete, which meant that the price of foreign cotton textiles was brought to the same level as that in Ming Dynasty, while the foreign cotton textile industry was made unprofitable.

In this case, even accounting for transportation and warehousing costs, under zero tax or low tax trade conditions, each piece of Songjiang cotton exported can earn a profit of 0.05 taels of silver.

The profit margin is as high as 50%.

This is undoubtedly a good business.

Moreover, the trade of Songjiang cotton has two advantages. The first is that due to the high quality and low price of Songjiang cotton, the foreign elites will definitely buy and hoard in large quantities, and take the initiative to act as compradors to help Ming Dynasty destroy the country's cotton textile industry; secondly, Second, after the markets in Annan and Champa were occupied, Zheng He's fleet could reverse dump Songjiang cotton to Tianzhu and Arabia as long as they continued westward without going too far to establish a stable trading station in Tianzhu.

Why is it called "reverse dumping"?

Because the origin of cotton is Tianzhu and Arabia. Before cotton was introduced to China, China only had kapok that could be used to fill pillows and no cotton that could be used to weave cloth. During the Tang Dynasty, it was said that cotton was introduced, but no attention was paid to it. Before the Iron-Blooded Song Dynasty, there was only the word "mian" in China, but not "cotton".

Even so, it was during the Song and Yuan dynasties that a large amount of cotton was introduced to the Central Plains. "It was first spread to China between the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the Guan Shaanxi, Fujian and Guangzhou were the first to benefit from it. Because of this, cotton was exported to foreign countries, and Fujian and Guangzhou were connected to the sea, so the Guan Shaanxi was connected to the Western Regions." also".

In fact, it was the Mongols' world conquest that prompted this extensive, cross-regional exchange of resources.

It was after this change came that China, North Korea, Japan, Annan, and Champa began to vigorously develop the cotton textile industry.

Starting from the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, cotton entered the homes of ordinary people, allowing the people to finally obtain a kind of affordable warmth. They no longer had to wear long robes to shiver in the winter like the ancestors. Both rich and poor depend on it.”

Generally speaking, in Songjiang Prefecture alone, the annual output of cotton textiles in the middle of the Ming Dynasty (Jialongwan period) was about 15 million pieces, with export sales of 13 million pieces, and government tax revenue of 1.5 million pieces. After the Industrial Revolution, the annual output of cotton textiles in Britain was as high as One hundred million horses.

Therefore, as long as the trade route to Tianzhu is opened, the trade between Tianzhu and Arabia is integrated, and it can be indirectly sold to Arabia. Even if it is not compared with Britain after the Industrial Revolution, compare it with the Ming Dynasty more than a hundred years later. Now The production capacity and external sales generated by the large hydraulic spinning wheel in the manual workshop are basically the same, right?

Therefore, if 10 million pieces of cotton textiles are exported a year, the profit per piece will be 0.05 taels of silver, and the total profit will be 500,000 taels of silver. This estimate is extremely conservative and reliable.

In fact, even if the net profit reaches 700,000-800,000 taels of silver, it is not unusual. After all, in the context of free trade, high quality and low price is the biggest killer. In this era, there is no awareness of trade protection, let alone tariff barriers. .

"If Songjiang cotton is calculated at 500,000 taels, there will be a gap of 680,000 taels left."

According to the most conservative estimate, not counting the benefits brought by the unarmed free trade zone on the other side of Japan, nor the additional profits Songjiang Cotton may earn, this is the final gap left.

"We still have to start with the salt method."

Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a moment and asked, "Have you found all the data that you wanted to investigate before?"

Going around and around, the core of such a big hole is still the salt method.

Xia Yuanji naturally knew the purpose of Jiang Xinghuo's visit today. In fact, he felt the same pressure on Jiang Xinghuo.

At the current stage of the reform, it is useless to say anything. Only by achieving results can we overcome all obstacles and continue to implement it.

Xia Yuanji put down the tea cup and burned the paper on the table in the brazier next to him. While burning, he replied: "I found it. It is difficult to check these things from the previous generation. They were all sorted and placed in another connected room. Master Jiang, come with me."

The two came to another temporary filing place in the Ministry of Accounts. This was a three-room room with the middle partition opened. There were densely packed documents on different shelves inside. Judging from the account books and abacus on the table, , there should be many people working here before.

In fact, this is also the case. The Ministry of Household Affairs spent a lot of manpower and material resources to count the previous salt tax data in order not to fight an unprepared battle.

If you want to take action on the salt method, and if you want to get rid of these monsters raised by the Kaizhong method, it is useless to just perform surgical operations to eliminate corruption in the already rotten verification yamen. You must deal with the root causes. Remediation.

Jiang Xinghuo's consistent policy attitude is that of "don't speak without investigation." He first studies the facts of the matter clearly, and then decides how to take action.

Xia Yuanji took out the compiled data and conclusions and explained them to Jiang Xinghuo one by one.

"The peak population of the Song Dynasty was over 100 million, and the annual salt production was about 1 billion kilograms. The most important salt producing area in the Song Dynasty was the Lianghuai Salt Field, which was no different from the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, because the Song Dynasty always controlled the Lianghuai River Basin, until On the eve of the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Lianghuai defense line was not breached by the Mongols. During the Song Dynasty, the salt output of the Lianghuai salt field accounted for about one-half of the country's total. According to the records of the Song Dynasty, the salt production in Huainan reached 3.8 million shi (1 shi = 120 kilograms in Song Dynasty, approximately 456 million kilograms). According to the "History of the Song Dynasty·Tonghuo Zhi": each salt quotation produced 116.5 kilograms of salt, and the price was 6 Guan. In other words, one salt of the Song Dynasty weighed 116.5 kilograms, which was not much different from one stone."

"What was the salt tax revenue in the Song Dynasty? Just like the population, it is also calculated based on the peak data. This makes it easier to bring the same proportion to the Ming Dynasty to estimate the ideal data." Jiang Xinghuo keenly captured the key to the problem and asked.

"During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the official salt of the Song Dynasty sold salt to salt merchants. The price per pound remained unchanged at 6 guan, but the salt tax reached 12 million guan, which means that 2 million guan was sold, which is about 2.06 million shi. .”

"wrong."

Jiang Xinghuo first interrupted Xia Yuanji and pondered his thoughts.

"It stands to reason that the salt output in the Northern Song Dynasty was 8 million shi per year, which is about 1 billion catties. And with a population of 100 million in the Northern Song Dynasty, each person consumed about 10 catties of salt per year?"

"Less than 10 kilograms, the output is always surplus."

Xia Yuanji explained: "The "Guanzi" clearly states, 'The amount of salt eaten by the people of Qi is five liters a year for husbands and half less, three liters less for women and less than half two liters for babies.' This was something that happened during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. But Qi is a major salt-producing country, and the amount of salt consumed has never changed much. Even if it increased, the maximum amount in the Northern Song Dynasty was 7 pounds per person per year."

Well, if converted according to weights and measures, one liter in Qi is approximately equal to 200 milliliters. The salt standard in Qi is 6 grams for men, 4 grams for women, and less than 3 grams for children. The dietary health standards advocated by the modern World Health Organization are also 6 grams per day for humans.

Seven kilograms of salt per person per year is calculated based on the standard of 10 grams per day. It is doubtful whether this standard was available during the Northern Song Dynasty, so it can only be calculated based on a maximum of 7 kilograms per person per year.

"That is to say, the population of the Northern Song Dynasty was 100 million, each person was 7 kilograms per year, the annual salt consumption was 700 million kilograms, and the output was 1 billion kilograms."

"No, it's still wrong!"

Jiang Xinghuo recalculated the figures. Based on the salt tax revenue, it was deduced that the amount of salt sold was 2.06 million shi, which is 247 million jins. The actual salt consumption was less than 700 million jins, but no matter how small it was, , there is still a shortfall of about 400 million kilograms of salt, and this includes the output of government salt farms.

If calculated as 247 million kilograms, it would definitely not be enough for the 100 million people of the Northern Song Dynasty to consume. This amount of salt would not even be enough to maintain the basic needs of the body. However, the population of the Northern Song Dynasty was no problem, and the salt sold was also sufficient.

"So 60% of the salt in the Northern Song Dynasty was private salt, and a large amount of private salt came out of official salt. That is, after the official salt was mined, it was confiscated and taxed, and it became private salt and flowed into the market, meeting the people's salt needs. ." Jiang Xinghuo said after calculating.

"There are no specific records, and it is impossible to count this kind of thing, but judging from the numbers, it should be so."

Xia Yuanji nodded, and then compared the current salt output of the Ming Dynasty.

"The Ming Dynasty is easier to calculate. Because Emperor Taizu Gao completely banned illicit salt sales, the court currently distributes 2 million jins of salt every year, and each jin is worth 300 kilograms of salt. Therefore, the annual salt output of the salt field is 600 million kilograms. This is Very clear.”

Jiang Xinghuo asked again: "What about the demand? How much salt did Ming Dynasty actually consume every year?"

This question is also not difficult. Xia Yuanji replied: "According to the census of the 26th year of Hongwu, the total population of the Ming Dynasty was 60.54 million. Now ten years have passed. Taking into account natural growth and war losses, it should still be 6,000." About 10,000 kilograms of salt per person per year, and 420 million kilograms of salt are needed per person per year."

It seems that the annual salt consumption in the Northern Song Dynasty was 700 million jins, while the output was 1 billion jins; next year the salt consumption was 420 million jins, while the output was 600 million jins.

In other words, it is normal for salt production to be larger than actual consumption.

Xia Yuanji nodded, and then continued: "Let's talk about the salt tax. The salt tax revenue of official salt in the Northern Song Dynasty was 12 million guan. Assuming that the value of copper coins remains unchanged, it is basically equivalent to the current silver price (1 tael of silver = 1,200 copper coins). Compared to the current 10 million taels of silver."

This number is quite astonishing!

The commercial tax revenue of the Northern Song Dynasty was previously clarified, which was approximately 7.6 million taels of silver.

The salt tax revenue is as high as 10 million taels. This is still the case where official salt only accounts for 40% of the market circulation.

In this way, it is not difficult to understand how the Northern Song Dynasty's annual income of 100 million yuan came from.

"The Ming Dynasty's salt tax, converted into silver, is about 2.5 million taels per year."

"So, no matter how you look at it, this number is weird."

The weirdness here does not refer to the issue of illicit salt. In fact, illicit salt is something that cannot be banned by the system alone. The weirdness Jiang Xinghuo is talking about is what happens after the illicit salt is eliminated.

Since the annual salt consumption per person is the same, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of 100 million and the Ming Dynasty had a population of 60 million, and the salt tax revenue in the Northern Song Dynasty reached 10 million taels when official salt only accounted for 40% of the market circulation. If the Ming Dynasty had the same Official salt only accounts for 40% of the market circulation, so the reasonable tax should be 6 million taels, but now it is actually only 2.5 million taels.

——Where is the difference in the remaining 3.5 million taels?

As long as the salt tax problem is solved, the gambling problem faced by Jiang Xinghuo will naturally be solved.

There are two variables here that may cause the difference in the numbers.

The first is the proportion of official salt in the market, and the second is whether the tax on each kilogram of salt was the same in different periods of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

But as far as the issue of "the proportion of official salt in the market" is concerned, the Ming Dynasty banned illegal salt, and the government severely cracked down on the sale of illegal salt. Although illegal salt transactions have been repeatedly banned, no matter how you put it, even if it is worse, it is impossible. Official salt only accounts for 40% of the market transactions. In fact, the official salt of Ming Dynasty should account for 50 to 60%. In other words, the number should not fall, but should rise.

But the difference is getting bigger and bigger.

"How did the Ming Dynasty impose a salt tax?"

This question, as the Minister of Household Affairs, Xia Yuanji naturally asked Qing'er.

"The court tax on every pound of salt in the Ming Dynasty was only slightly less than that in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was basically negligible."

The problem seems to be at a dead end.

The market ratio is high and the tax is the same, which simply cannot explain why there is a huge difference of 3.5 million taels in salt tax revenue.

Open Chinese law?

No, not exactly.

In order to defend against the Northern Yuan's invasion of the Central Plains, the Ming Dynasty deployed hundreds of thousands of troops at the border. However, because the border was too far away from large-scale grain-producing areas, in order to solve the difficulties of logistical supply and reduce the financial burden, the Ming Dynasty adopted the "Open China" method to shed the burden.

Kaizhongfa did indeed consume salt. Merchants transported grain to frontier areas in exchange for salt. Then they went to salt farms designated by the court to exchange for salt, and then sold it within a fixed range. By decentralizing salt sales qualifications, the commodity trade of salt was promoted. .

But in any case, the bulk of the actual expenditure for salt imports was still in the Lianghuai Salt Fields. This part of the salt imports was counted as a deduction by the court for the merchants' grain transportation costs, but it would never be as high as 3.5 million taels of silver.

Why? Because the Kaizhong Law is passed every year, the amount of grain transported to the north is fixed.

Shanxi merchants, who were at the end of Kaifa, were responsible for providing food to several major border fortresses such as Datong and Juyongguan, and obtained salt imports from the salt ponds in Hedong and the salt farms in Lianghuai. The amount of salt transported through merchant settlements every year was about 5 million shi rice.

In Changzhou Prefecture, Jiang Xinghuo played the role of a rice merchant to secretly investigate the local grain theft case. He knew very well that according to the current prices in the Ming Dynasty, the price of one stone of rice was about 240-250 Wen, which is about 0.2 taels of silver. Every year, the court approved the opening China and France, in order to transport 5 million stones of rice to the frontier army, the price of rice before transportation was 1 million taels of silver. After transportation, it was converted into salt, which was about 2 million taels.

Yes, don't calculate it as 10 shi of rice transported to the north. You have to eat 9 shi of rice on the way. This is a wartime standard. However, the Kaizhong method solves the daily expenses of hundreds of thousands of troops in the north. The choice is the most To facilitate the imperial court's economic plan, the imperial court doesn't care how the businessmen from China and France transport it, but you don't transport it. I don't even care if you farm next to the military camp. As long as you send 5 million stone meters to the border.

Do you think merchants really travel thousands of miles to transport grain?

Businessmen are not stupid!

Nowadays, Shanxi merchants directly cultivate grain in the north, and then transport the insufficient quantity by sea from the south. They do not need to transport it by water, knowing that the loss of sea transport is extremely low.

This method of farming + shipping allowed Shanxi merchants to effectively control the price of rice transported to the border troops, which was about 0.25 taels of silver/stone. The salt was then sold, and Shanxi merchants themselves did not care about distribution at all. The salt is sold to merchants in salt-producing areas, making profits of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year.

Therefore, even according to the most cautious estimate, when official salt accounts for 40% of the market (actually about 50-60%), there is still a salt tax revenue of up to 1.5 million taels of silver that has disappeared!

"There is still a gap of 680,000 taels."

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the finally calculated numbers and murmured to himself.

Xia Yuanji calculated the accounts: "Don't worry about other places. We just need to straighten out the salt tax of the Lianghuai Salt Farm, which has the highest output, and get back the tax money that should be paid for the salt produced by the court. At least 700,000-800,000 taels." The salt tax on silver can be recovered and used as additional income to supplement the agreed 2.1 million taels."

Jiang Xinghuo clarified the entire composition of the 2.1 million taels of tax, and finally made up his mind.

Now, just arresting some people in the Yanzheng Yamen is not enough.

"So, you are seeking death on your own. Next, you have to settle the accounts of the past."