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Text Chapter 591: Praise

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    "Haha, okay, with these things, the salt merchants in Lianghuai can just admit defeat!" Zhang Ke gritted his teeth slightly and said slowly: "Pass my order to promulgate a new salt law immediately and abolish the monopoly!"?¡­  As the territory becomes larger and larger, more and more areas are controlled, and the relatively remote Liaodong is no longer enough.  Zhang Ke moved the royal palace to Tianjin, appointed Liu Shaoqing as the commander-in-chief of Tianjin, and ordered the preparation of the Tianjin Navy to protect maritime trade routes.  In fact, the reason why the southeast stopped supplying grain was not only the bureaucrats and businessmen in the southeast. They did not have the courage. Zhang Ke was the driving force behind it.  This will not only defeat Chongzhen's army, but also take the opportunity to destroy the canal.  Although the Grand Canal has been the main north-south transportation artery since the day it was built, maintaining the life and death of the huge empire.  But now, the slow and inefficient canal has become a bottleneck restricting trade between the north and the south.  Compared with sea transportation, river transportation has only one advantage, and that is safety.  However, with the advancement of sea-going ship technology, maritime shipping has become quite safe, especially coastal navigation. Many experienced captains can do it with their eyes closed.  The reason why the canal has been preserved for a long time, regardless of the high maintenance costs, is firstly because of the fear of the ocean, and secondly because there are millions of boatmen up and down the canal, and they all live by the canal. Once the river transportation is changed to sea transportation, they will  They will lose their source of livelihood and may even rebel.  But these are not problems for Zhang Ke. No matter how many boatmen rebel, they can be sure to suppress them.  And the most important thing is that Zhang Ke has huge overseas power in his hands.  Whether it is farming, continuing to work as a boatman, or even doing business to make a fortune.  There are ways to accommodate them.  With a better way out, as long as he has a sound mind, not only will he not oppose Zhang Ke, but he will also loyally support the prince.  Sure enough, as the news was announced, Tianjin became more and more lively, with five elements and eight works.  All the three religions, nine streams, and even wealthy businessmen from the capital gathered here.  There is not enough room in the original city.  They even had to enclose land to build new cities.  At this time, Zhang Ke announced another brand-new decree, which was to zoning out the Changlu Salt Farm and abolish the previous monopoly policy.  Any salt merchant who has obtained development qualifications can produce and trade at will as long as he pays a tax of three cents per kilogram of salt, and the court is not allowed to interfere.  "We've finally taken action on the salt!" In the teahouse, dozens of merchants in luxurious clothes and jewels gathered. Some of them came from the southeast, some from Liaodong, and some from Shanxi and other places.  Now they have all gathered in Tianjin, and there are hundreds of people like them.  "Haha. If we know about the prince's new policy, I'm afraid ten out of ten businessmen in the world will come here!" The speaker was a fat man with a tonnage of more than 300 kilograms. This person was Huang Delu.  He was the first Shanxi merchant to deal with Zhang Ke. Fan Yongdou and others were killed, but Huang Delu survived by luck. From then on.  He completely changed his tune and followed Zhang Ke's footsteps.  I dare not have any other illusions.  Opposite him sat Bao Shiqing.  After a few years, he has become the number one person in the southeast business community, and he has also gained weight. He only has a pair of small black eyes, which are full of brilliance.  "Brother Huang, I have long said that the prince is talented and has great plans. Just changing river transportation to sea transportation is not worth the effort. He even moved his hometown here. Depending on what the prince wants, Tianjin will become the north in the future.  "It's the center." Huang Delu drank the tea in one gulp, narrowed his eyes and said with a smile, "It goes without saying that with the convenience of shipping, in a few years, the world's wealth will be concentrated in Jinmen."  As he said that, he smiled.  "Brother Bao, you are the prince's confidant. I want to ask you something." Bao Shiqing smiled and stretched out his hand, "Brother, please tell me." Huang Delu looked around, lowered his voice and asked: "Brother, what do you say?  Is there any secret behind this salt farm? Are all the old nests, kitchen households, and salt sales in the district gone? " Bao Shiqing smiled slightly: "Brother, you want to ask if these things can be transferred to you?  In your hand, right?" Huang Delu didn't care much at all, and said with a smile, "Wouldn't it be better if it was possible?" "I definitely won't have it." Bao Shiqing sighed: "Actually, I didn't expect it.  The prince would be so generous as to directly abolish the salt monopoly that had lasted for more than a thousand years. What a sudden move!" In fact, Zhang Ke had long been very dissatisfied with the monopoly profits of the salt merchants. The result was that the court could not collect taxes.  , the common people cannot eat cheap salt, and it only enriches a group of wealthy businessmen and bureaucrats in the middle, which is extremely undesirable.  It's just that these salt merchants, like Shanxi merchants, are powerful and have too many spokespersons in the court.  And this time when the southeast cut off the grain supply, they also had their shadow, but they just wanted to take the opportunity to pushHigh prices, huge profits.  But they obviously didn't expect that Zhang Ke's suppression of bandits was fake, but the real target was them.  The maritime merchants from the southeast have surrendered, and the Shanxi merchants have been subdued, leaving only a group of salt merchants. It is time to deal with them.  The new salt law divides the Changlu Salt Field into many small pieces. Each salt field is priced at 100,000 taels and is publicly auctioned. Anyone who buys the salt field can form a company to produce salt.  ?According to the production quantity, after paying taxes, it can be shipped to various places for sale without any restrictions.  Huang Delu has read Zhang Ke's salt method several times, but he still has many doubts in his heart.  "Brother Bao, we just divided the salt fields, but there are no kitchen households, how can we produce salt? Aren't you afraid that the output will be insufficient and the price will skyrocket?" "Hahaha, Brother Huang is really worried. Who told you that you must have a kitchen household?  Only in this way can we produce salt. In fact, there are salt fields in Lianghuai and other places. Just introduce the sea water into the dug pond and dry it in the sun. Although Yangguan is not as fast as burning fire, don't forget that the pond is bigger than the pot, and the output is only 1.  An increase of thousands of times, and it also saves money on firewood." "That's it." Huang Delu nodded and suddenly wondered: "Since drying salt is better than boiling salt, why" "The reason is very simple and easy to control.  "Ear!" Bao Shiqing said with a smile: "No one knows how much a large salt field produces, but it is much easier to use a pot. It is clear at a glance how many kilograms of salt a pot can cook and how many pots can be cooked in a day." How long Huang Delu has been in business.  Business is revealed in one point.  "Your Majesty really has a wonderful method, but in this way, the kitchen households may not be able to use much, right?" "That's right, so the prince arranged overseas fields for them. Speaking of which, the kitchen households are poorer than ordinary farmers, and the profits from salt  We were all eaten by those people from Lianghuai. Even though we are all upstarts, we are probably not as good as them in terms of foundation." Huang Delu glanced at Bao Shiqing and sneered in his heart, "Just fool me!"  Not to mention anything else, just the Jiangnan Bank shares in the Bao family's hands, plus real estate, and fleet, at least tens of millions of taels, which the salt merchants of Lianghuai and Huaihe could not compare to even if they accumulated it for several lifetimes.  "Brother Bao, what do you think the prince's salt policy might have?" Bao Shiqing smiled slightly, grabbed a piece of candied fruit, stuffed it into his mouth, and said vaguely: "Brother, do you know what the price of salt is?"  "This varies from place to place. Some are expensive and some are cheap. However, prices have skyrocketed in recent years. Even if it is cheap, it should cost more than a hundred cents." "Well, what I said is right. According to my estimation, the prince's  After the New Deal, the price of salt will drop to less than 20 cents, or even cheaper. " "What?" Huang Delu jumped up from his seat, his body trembling.  "How can it be so cheap?" "Haha, there is nothing surprising. The cost of a pound of salt is less than one copper. If you pay a tax of three coppers, deducting the freight, the cost is only six or seven cents at most, and it can be sold for twenty cents.  , that¡¯s all the money I paid was folded in.¡± Huang Delu stretched out his fat fingers and did the math, his face suddenly filled with shock.  Five times, a full five times!  With so much money, Zhang Ke can get support from many poor people just for a piece of salt.  For ordinary people, it is nothing more than firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea.  Whoever can bring practical benefits to everyone, follow him.  The emperor of the Ming Dynasty collected taxes every day, making the people miserable.  And Zhang Ke's drastic reforms can only bring benefits to the people. There will be no need to fight when the time comes. As long as Zhang Ke waves his hand, the huge Ming Dynasty will fall apart!  Where is the new salt law!  It is clear that he is poaching Daming!  Huang Delu¡¯s face kept changing wildly, his limbs couldn¡¯t help but tremble, and he was so frightened that he was stunned.  "Hehehe, brother, we businessmen should not think so much!" Bao Shiqing said with a smile: "I am thinking that if the price of salt drops, the people will have more money. Then they will buy more cloth.  , more porcelain, farm tools, and a business worth millions or tens of millions of taels." "Yes!" Huang Delu sat heavily on the chair, shook his head and sighed: "Just make money, don't think about anything.  , It deserves to be punished, it deserves to be punished!" As he said this, he substituted tea for wine and drank three cups in a row.  ¡­ ¡­ One month after the new salt law was promulgated, the first batch of salt fields were auctioned off in one fell swoop, earning two million taels of silver.  All the money was used to purchase grain. The first batch of grain was transported by sea to Tianjin and then to the capital.  In the past period of time, the price of grain in Beijing has soared five times. Nobles, officials, businessmen, and anyone with some ability have been hoarding it and waiting for the price to rise.    The momentum turned out to be even more noisy than in the Southeast, and whether Chongzhen had the courage of Zhang Ke, he could only stare.  When the first batch of grain was transported into the capital, prices dropped immediately. The news reached the palace, and Chongzhen almost cried with joy.  Chongzhen loves and fears Yizhou soldiers at the same time. No matter when, they are a sharp sword and can solve any problem, but the sword also has another side, which can also hurt himself.  At the same time as the new salt law was promulgated, Qiao Fu raided twelve large salt merchant families and killed them all on charges of colluding with bandits. Thousands of family members were relegated to slavery.  Outside the city of Yangzhou, the river was stained with blood. For several days, the bustling paradise was shrouded in blood.  Countless censors and officials, as well as local officials, could no longer bear the harsh behavior and wrote letters of impeachment.  Beijing was bustling with excitement, but the local people were not. With the arrival of the first batch of low-priced salt, the voices questioning the Yiju soldiers disappeared, leaving only praise!  (To be continued)
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