Gongsun Xiu studied the finances of the entire Liaodong and quickly discovered the problem.

As a coastal country, the Liaodong Peninsula has abundant fish production, including three important fiscal revenues: salt, iron and war horses.

Needless to say, salt and iron have been a state-owned industry since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Salt is a basic food for humans and its importance is no less than cereals. The state monopolizing the salt industry is to control key taxes. At the same time, it also focuses on punishing salt vendors who sell private salt. Selling more than 100 kilograms is a death sentence.

Gongsun Xiu knew that salt was one of the important taxes, but he found that the manufacturing cost of salt prices was not consistent, and it was frequent.

He summoned the salt officer and asked, "What's your name?"

Yan Guan was a short and fat middle-aged scholar. He squinted his eyes and seemed to have some ears. He listened to the King of Yan's question and hurriedly said, "Go back to the king - that, the lower official Li Yan."

Gongsun Xiu looked at his face and chuckled, "I'll ask you, how much does it cost to make a pound of salt now?"

Li Yan said: "When I returned to the king, the salt making process is complicated, the storage is difficult, and the transportation along the way is complicated, and the cost of a pound is about forty yuan."

Liaodong was separated from the Central Plains for thousands of miles and was not subjected to major wars. Therefore, the coins used were still using the Wuzhu coins in the Han system.

Of course, the chicken-mesh Wuzhu used in Liaodong, which is much smaller than the Wuzhu coins. It weighs only 0.65 grams and the diameter of the coins is only 1.15 cm. It will break if you break it with your hands. It will not sink when you fall into the water, and it will be as light as if nothing is left.

After years of war, almost all the coins of the countries have depreciated seriously, and the people have complained.

It is worth mentioning that in ancient times, coins were equivalent, unlike the paper currency used in modern countries, which was endorsed by national credit. The US dollar with a denomination of 100 yuan only costs 20 cents to print. If you start the printing machine crazy, you can spread a large amount of dollars, and everyone will depreciate it.

It was different in ancient times. In the Han Dynasty, the merchants who used copper to mint coins with scammers would patiently grind off the edges of the coins. As long as there were enough copper coins and time, they could always make the coins thin and light, and the remaining copper materials would be pure profits.

Because the copper of the coins is missing and everyone follows this method, the coins circulating on the market become more valuable.

If the bigwigs of the Federal Reserve also come over to meet Sun and Liu, they will understand that compared with the monetary policy of the Three Kingdoms period, the Federal Reserve's money-freedom is like an old man who is on a small quotation - weak.

In the 19th year of Jian'an, Liu Bei attacked Liu Zhang. When he entered Chengdu, the military expenditure was tight and the weak economy could not support it. At Liu Ba's suggestion, he cast a 15-zhu coin. The Three Kingdoms record: "Bei follows it", and then "for several months, the treasury was enriched."

This statement is shameless, and money will not be made out of nothing. In fact, it is to cast the money thinly and increase the face value of the coins. In fact, the currency depreciates and sucks blood from the people.

The straight five-zhu cast by Liu Bei means a "straight hundred five-zhu", which is equal to the face value of one hundred five-zhu coins. One Han Wuzhu weighs three grams, while the straight five-zhu weighs only four Han Wuzhu weighs, which is equivalent to the actual value of the straight five-zhu, which is only one-twenty-fifth of the face value.

Of course, Sun Quan is a sensible person in terms of making money. Wu's money has gone from 500 to 50000 to 50000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"The Book of Food and Message" records that "Lu Meng attacked Jingzhou and gave him 100 million yuan." I don't know how much the so-called 100 million yuan depreciates. According to the calculation of Daquan to be a thousand, the weight of a Daquan to be a thousand is 12 grams, and the amount of Wuzhu coins in the Han Dynasty is only 3 grams. The amount of copper used between the two is only four times, and the face value is one thousand times different, which is equivalent to the depreciation of Wuzhu in the Han Dynasty by Daquan to be a thousand times.

The Wei State was relatively solid and always used the Han Wuzhu. In fact, Cao Pi and others were unwilling to mint coins, and even used barter to circulate and exchange grains and cloth as coins.

However, the profitable merchants from various countries found it profitable, mixed grains with water and silk with silk, so they had to resume using Wei Wuzhu, which was almost the same as the coins of the Han Dynasty, and the texture was slightly smaller.

Gongsun Xiu frowned when he heard this and asked, "Just production cost just needs for forty yuan. So I ask you, how much does it cost to sell official salt to the people?"

Li Yan replied sincerely: "The price of official salt is sold to the people at 120 yuan, which is roughly twice the profit."

"So expensive?" Gongsun Xiu didn't believe it.

As the saying goes, three pounds of rice per kilogram of salt is normal, and it is more expensive than rice. But it is impossible to increase the price to this price, right?

According to the nutritional standards of later generations, the daily salt required by normal people is 5 grams. If they consume too much salt, they will cause edema, and if they are less, they will suffer from stomach problems, weakness in the limbs, etc.

Gongsun Xiu saw the fine sweat beads on Li Yan's forehead and knew that the guy was afraid and must have concealed the secret. He just laughed: "How much is the salt industry income in Liaodong in one year?"

Li Yan held out the memorial in both hands and whispered: "King, last year - the income of the salt industry was fully entered into the national treasury, totaling 130 million yuan. This is the tax after deducting the salt workers' wages."

Jia Fan heard nothing next to him, and the servant came forward to take the memorial and presented it to Gongsun Xiu.

He just glanced at it casually and waved his hand, "Go out, I understand."

Li Yan felt relieved and thanked him for leaving.

Jia Fan frowned and said, "Your Majesty, what are you confused about?"

He threw the memorial on the table and said lightly: "Of course there are problems. There are 350,000 people under the rule of Liaodong. Each person eats at least one and a half cents of salt per day (Note 1: 5 grams), which means it is about seven kilograms and three liang a year. Calculated at one kilogram of 120 jin, you should get 350 million yuan. Now the net income tax is only 130 million yuan. Mr. Jia thought, what's the problem with this?"

Jia Fan was stunned and said, "The difference between the two is 220 million yuan, but after all, private salt is difficult to ban. Salt dealers are greedy for huge profits and risk their lives to sell salt. People think that official salt is expensive, so they buy private salt for food."

Gongsun Xiu shook his head and said, "Old Jia, where does the benefits of private salt come from? It comes from corrupt officials like Li Yan. Although Gu has never made salt, he never believes that the cost of official salt is as expensive as forty dollars."

Jia Fanqi said: "What the king means is that Li Yan, as a salt official, secretly joins forces with private salt dealers?"

"No, that's not what I mean."

Gongsun Xiu signaled him to sit down first and said aloud: "The production cost of official salt accounts for a large part of the cost of official salt. It is put into Li Yan and his disciples' pockets, so the cost of reporting is high, so the official salt sold to the people is naturally higher. Once the price of official salt is high, the people with a little banditry think that it is profitable to sell private salt at risk of their lives, and they can get several times the profits for one pound. No matter how kind the people are, they will inevitably have a different intention. Therefore, private salt is a bad thing for salt officials, and the difference in salt tax is more than half, and they all rely on salt officials."

Jia Fan suddenly realized that King Yan's argument was really powerful, and said admiringly: "If the production cost is hidden, the old minister would like to send someone to capture Li Yan and interrogate it strictly."

After hearing this, he couldn't help but shook his head and smiled, saying, "Don't worry, Zigu is Li Yan, the Great Salt Division below, and there are more than a dozen layers of ridges below Li Yan. After the salt is prepared, it will be reported to Gu's hands layer by layer, and it will naturally become forty coins. Even if he is caught, it will be useless. You can't catch thousands of people from above, right?"

Jia Fan felt it was reasonable and immediately fell silent.

Gongsun Xiudao: "Old Jia, how many salt officials are under Li Yan?"

Jia Fan thought for a moment and replied, "It's probably five."

He whispered: "I will remember one sentence, copy five copies, and hand over these five letters to these five people. The difficulties in salt administration and taxation can be resolved."

Jia Fan immediately picked up the brush, dipped ink in the inkstone, condensed the brush in the air, waiting for Gongsun Xiu to read the content of the letter.

Gongsun Xiu cleared his throat and said loudly: "I have now ascended the throne. I think that the people are short of war and have harsh taxes and donated miscellaneous taxes. Therefore, this letter has been announced: Anyone who is good at managing salt affairs, who is good at controlling, and who is streamlining finances and making the salt price cheaper will be given five times the monthly salary, and who can become a major salt official, and those who are low-priced will receive it."

Jia Fan wrote down word by word, and couldn't help but look surprised: "The king raised the salary of the salt official five times, isn't it a waste of money?"

"Five times the salary is a reward for finding the truth."

He laughed: "There will be a result within three days."

Jia Fan was very puzzled and did not understand what method Gongsun Xiu used.

Gongsun Xiu was determined to manage the salt administration, so he did not want to behead the salt officials like his predecessors. The salt traffickers were in a row to show punishment. That would treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

Give him some flexibility from the root and the tax revenue will increase.

Jia Fan had no choice but to patiently copy five letters, and then the personal servants stamped them with seals and sent them out one by one outside the palace.

The next day, on the shore of the seashore.

There are hundreds of acres of salt fields, each of which is seven or eight meters square, with a smooth surface like a mirror, and the water-milled desktop is not as smooth as this.

The salt worker irrigates seawater into the salt field, drys it, scrapes off the salt-containing soil, and then turns it into brine, and then gradually drys it into salt particles.

As one of the five major salt production areas, Shen Xing is tall and has a smart and capable face. He is a salt official in Xiangping, who is in charge of hundreds of acres of salt fields. The things here are no less serious than those of selling ice powder in later generations. Once the government seizes them, it will be imprisoned and beheaded. It is ruthless to say.

Dare to buy and sell private salt?

Sorry, look, are you brave or the executioner's big sword that cuts fast or slows down for a second, it is considered the executioner's dereliction of duty.

Shen Xing climbed up to the high place and looked at it. He saw that twenty cargoes of salt had been collected and weighed it. He put a seal on it and ordered his guards to escort it to Xiangping City.
Chapter completed!