New Shun 1730

Liu Yu was thinking about how to fish for a case similar to the "empty seal case" of the previous dynasty that shocked the whole country.

In the capital, a huge map of the Yellow River and Huai River basins was hung in front of the emperor.

However, the thing the emperor was holding in his hand seemed to have nothing to do with the Huai River, the Grand Canal and other issues. He was reading a memorial by Liu Yu on trade.

"On the British Tea Tax"

But every time the emperor looked at it for a while, he would stop and glance at the hanging map of the Yellow River and Huai River, and glance at Haizhou, Yangzhou and other places.

Those were the two major salt fields of Dashun.

One was north of the Yellow River and the other was south of the Yellow River.

In the memorial, Liu Yu introduced the British tea tax that led to the proliferation of smuggled tea, smugglers led to the sluggish sale of legal tea, and the sluggish sale of legal tea promoted the proliferation of smuggled tea.

These things could be understood by the emperor and any minister of Dashun, because Dashun was also facing a similar thing.

Salt.

The reason is the same - high taxes, more private goods, more private goods, official goods can't be sold, official goods can't be sold, more private goods... just like tea.

This time, the abolition of the canal and the sea, the cleaning of the Huaihe River, and the transfer of the grain to the south are all large-scale reforms, and they are basically concentrated in Jiangsu, which is the place where these major reforms have the greatest impact.

It seems that it has nothing to do with salt.

In fact, it has a huge relationship.

Because the abolition of the canal and the sea means that the transportation route of salt will also change.

In the past, salt was transported to the north and south after the grain ship passed through the canal, and the canal was also used.

In order to facilitate inspection, anti-smuggling, and prevent smuggling, etc., special inspection places must be set up, and the routes must be rigidly stipulated. The regulations must be bundled and transported together for easy inspection.

Now it is necessary to abolish the canal and the sea, not only the problem of millions of canal workers, but also the problem of salt transportation.

Salt needs to change its transportation mode, and the canal can no longer be used... It can be used this year and next year, but as long as the canal transportation is abolished, the canal will be completely blocked in three to five years at most, based on the silt carried by the Yellow River.

Transportation is not a problem.

It has never been a problem, including the canal rice.

Problems other than transportation are the problem.

For example, for the canal rice, we have to consider the risk of pirates without a navy, and the possibility that Westerners will directly raid the Yangtze River estuary to cut off the canal rice and directly split the north and the south. On the contrary, the safety of transportation is the lowest priority.

The same is true for salt.

Transportation is not a problem, even if the canal is gone, transportation is not a problem.

The problem is that under the current policy, the anti-smuggling and inspection agencies that support transportation are the big problem.

The Dashun court is full of top talents, and the imperial examination is really a battle of thousands of troops. Those who can pass the imperial examination and become the top scholar are basically good at math, geometry, physics and chemistry since elementary school.

The main reason is that the things they learned are not good.

But when they really became officials, the things they learned were basically useless, and they still had to rely on practical accumulation. They were smart people, so they naturally thought of many reform measures, especially the reform of salt administration.

But they couldn't use them before, and they didn't dare to use them.

Because the court's first choice was stability.

For example, when Dashun abolished the canal and changed to the sea, Liu Yu's original idea was to wait for the Yellow River to burst, silt up the canal, and had to go by sea. It was just that after the emperor saw Dashun go to Southeast Asia and saw that the navy was guaranteed, he took the initiative to try the reform.

This was an unexpected decisiveness, an unexpected surprise outside Liu Yu's plan, and he thought he had to wait for the Yellow River to burst.

Nowadays, salt has not had a big problem for the time being.

The emperor was reading Liu Yu's theory of the British tea tax, and his eyes kept glancing in the direction of Shanghai and Yangzhou on the map...

It seems that there is a bit of "one sheep is driven, two sheep are also released". Anyway, after abolishing the canal and changing to the sea, it will also be changed, so it is better to change them all at once.

But in essence, this is not the reason.

Salt tax.

The importance of the previous Ming and Dashun dynasties is not just the salt tax itself.

Rather, it is a kind of "emergency finance", which is the fundamental reason why the salt issue is so important.

Liu Yu has told the emperor countless times why the Ming and Dashun dynasties cannot have national debts. Of course, the emperor also envied the British national debt system, but after listening to Liu Yu's explanation of the simple interest issue, he knew that it was pure nonsense and could only envy it.

Dashun's taxation continued the Ming system, and it was very poor. It collected only a few cents a year. Once a war or a disaster occurred, the treasury would be empty in an instant.

What to do at this time?

The importance of salt merchants as "emergency finance" was highlighted.

The "donations and contributions" of salt merchants were the "national debt" of Dashun.

Yangzhou was the "Square Mile" of Dashun.

Salt tickets were the "emergency national debt" of Dashun.

This is more important than stable taxation.

Why did the British government allow the East India Company to buy emergency national debts? Because of the monopoly, the emergency national debt of 6 million taels of silver before the War of the Austrian Succession was paid in exchange for 20 years of monopoly.

Why could Dashun ask salt merchants to "donate"? Because of the monopoly, the emperor went to Jiangnan to repair the Huaihe River, and the reward of 3 million taels of silver was exchanged for the monopoly of salt administration - want to do it? Donate money. Don't donate money? Get out.

Moreover, there is another major historical factor that Dashun has always maintained this policy on the issue of salt administration.

In theory, if the court is short of money, it can also increase taxes.

But Dashun has PTSD from the late Ming Dynasty, so it can be said that the "Liao salary", "Lian salary" and "Suppression salary" that theoretically the people can bear are not completely unbearable can be said to be "fresh in memory".

I know too well what this tax increase will become once it is implemented.

Britain can collect window taxes, and if Dashun collects window taxes, it can directly lead to a wave of uprisings. If the upper level collects 2 million taels, the lower level dares to collect 20 million taels.

Therefore, Dashun dare not use this theoretical thing.

In this case, tax increases are not possible, and national debts are not possible, so the only way is to keep the salt policy unchanged.

However, with the rise of commerce in Songjiang Prefecture, the emperor's pig farming policy, and huge overseas trade, the emperor saw a new and alternative source of "emergency finance".

There is an important factor that has not been implemented in the "salt policy reform":

All the salt policy reform plans proposed by the ministers can guarantee one thing: the salt tax will not be less than before.

But all the plans did not solve a problem: once an emergency occurs, the salt ticket will be changed to salt ticket, and there will be no monopoly, so who will pay for the emergency financial needs?

It seems that the salt merchants do not contribute much every year, on average, one or two million a year?

But the key lies in the difference between "emergency" and "average".

There is no disaster or war this year, and there is no need for salt merchants to contribute. The government is basically not short of money.

Once there is a major disaster or war this year, contributions will be needed.

The 5 million taels of silver in the 13th year of Chongzhen is equivalent to collecting 500,000 more taels of silver every year for 275 years.

The plans given by the ministers are all very good, and they have perfectly demonstrated various benefits, but they did not mention the emergency financial situation.

Now, Liu Yu has quietly solved this problem.

The rise of the navy solved the fundamental problem of grain transport. The difficulty of sea transportation has never been a problem. The Mongols and Yuan Dynasty can play with it; the risk of maritime attacks and the severance of the connection between the north and the south, leading to the collapse of the financial system and the collapse of centralization, are the big problems.

The rise of foreign trade solved the fundamental problem of salt administration. Salt tax has never been a problem. All reforms that do not mention the abolition of salt tax are to ensure that salt tax will not be reduced; fundraising under emergency financial needs is the big problem.

Foreign trade sea merchants "pig" in Songjiang Prefecture.

They are not necessarily "poorer" than salt merchants.

In addition to the pigs in the pigsty of Songjiang Prefecture, there are also 7 million taels of silver that Duke Qi brought back from the Netherlands a while ago.

Dashun... can afford to borrow national debt!

Liu Yu clearly told the emperor that the borrowed money does not need to be repaid. Just pay the interest every year, as long as it is interest, the interest rate can be reduced to 5% next time.

It should be said that at least for thirty or even fifty years, the loan interest rate in Europe will basically remain at around 5%.

This is also thanks to the two bubble economic crises that affected the entire Western Europe and exploded in succession in 20 years.

Although, like the tulip bubble, economic bubbles and speculations do not have a long memory, it is not a problem to "well rope" for thirty to fifty years at this time.

Due to the impact of these two bubble explosions, it should be said that within thirty to fifty years, there has been no investment that can attract and accommodate enough capital like the later bubbles.

As long as Dashun can guarantee an annual interest rate of 5% to 7%, there will be no problem with loans.

Moreover, with the size of Dashun being so large, the biggest fear of borrowing national debts is that it will lose the war and cannot pay back the money. As long as the size is large enough, as long as it is still the perfect country ruled by the moral philosopher king that Europe believes is "beyond the ideal country, utopia, and Ocean City", borrowing money will not be a problem at all.

Moreover, Dashun can not only borrow national debts, but Liu Yu also set up a bank, or "money house" in Songjiang Prefecture, to compulsorily store foreign trade silver. Although it is guaranteed to be issued at a 1:1 ratio and can be exchanged at any time.

However, this thing is usually not needed. Once it is needed, when it really comes to "asking relatives, father-in-law and ministers to borrow millions of taels or the country will be destroyed", who cares?

Directly embezzle the silver first. As long as the 20,000 garrisons in Songjiang Prefecture are still there, is it possible that the bank vault that is said to be "impregnable" is really impregnable?

In addition to the above factors, there is another factor that cannot be ignored, that is, the in-depth and enhanced version of the "One Whip Law" reform implemented by Dashun.

Although the "One Whip" is only being implemented in southern Jiangsu for the time being, the head tax reform as a precursor has already begun in other places.

It can be said that a lot of people popped up in Dashun overnight.

Many of them were not born at all, but were hidden by various means because of the existence of the head tax before.

This also led to the rapid update of Dashun's population statistics, and the population statistics were closely related to the number of salt permits.

Salt is not sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat, or rice. If we only count the output of wheat and rice, we have to consider the people who eat sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Selling rice will not increase because of the population surge. Many people may not be able to afford rice at all, and they can just survive by eating sweet potatoes or something.

But salt is different.

The noble emperors who eat sweet potatoes, rice, and even delicacies from mountains and seas have to eat salt.

Everyone is equal in front of sodium chloride.

Once the population increases, the amount of salt permits will also change.

Coupled with the changes in the patrol and anti-smuggling routes caused by the abolition of the canal and the change to the sea, the routes of inspection and anti-smuggling will also change.

Although driving one sheep is as good as letting two sheep go, it was only a minor contributing factor to the salt administration reform. However, these two minor reasons together just happened to promote the emperor's determination to reform the salt administration this time.