"The most cruel tyrant of the Song Dynasty"

Salt is not very eye-catching, especially for later rabbits from the flower farm family, you can spend two yuan to buy a bag of fine salt packed by one pound in any small supermarket.

Note that it is fine salt, not coarse salt. Anyone who dares to sell coarse salt for 2 yuan per pound will definitely be called a profiteer.

But for the people of the Song Dynasty, it is not possible. Not to mention fine salt, even if it is coarse salt, the people of the Song Dynasty would not be able to buy it for 2 yuan per pound.

One of the most critical issues here is that salt, iron, tea and other things are sold by the imperial court.

Before the Jingkang Reform, the largest proportion of fiscal revenue in the Song Dynasty still came from the agricultural tax rather than the commercial tax in the ten years of Xining. The income from the agricultural tax reached 57 million guan, while the private commercial tax was less than 20 million guan.

Just selling salt monopoly rights to "salt" gave the Song Dynasty a fiscal revenue of 40 million yuan, and the labor and additional profits of the salt-making industry have not been included.

Taking the four major salt production areas of the Song Dynasty as an example, the prices of Chi salt in Jiezhou, Shanxi and sea salt in various places are 40 cigarettes per catty, the prices of marinated salt in Taiyuan are 36 cigarettes per catty, and the prices of Jing salt in Sichuan are 100 cigarettes per catty.

According to the deductions of later experts and professors, the purchasing power of each cent of money in the Song Dynasty ranged from about 0.3 yuan to 2 yuan. According to Zhao Huan's observation, the purchasing power of each cent of money in the Song Dynasty was about 1 yuan.

However, even if calculated based on the purchasing power of 0.3 yuan per cent, the price of a pound of salt must be around 12 yuan.

This is a price that is almost something that makes people want to curse. Just imagine, if Chinese salt dares to set the price of salt to 12 yuan per catty...

Of course, the issue of salt prices in the Song Dynasty mainly depends on whom to compare them.

When the salt price in the Ming Dynasty was the cheapest in Jingtai, it was only 1.79 pm, but it was only about six or seven pm. In the early years of Jiajing, the salt price of Hu Guangdahuang rose to 28 pm to 32 pm, which was still cheaper than my Song Dynasty. The price of 2 yuan per pound for the flower farmer was even more unknown how many times the price of salt in the Song Dynasty was cheaper.

But! If every penny is equivalent to the purchasing power of one yuan, the price of salt of 40 pounds per pound in the Song Dynasty will be almost the same as the price of 4.49 US dollars per pound in the beautiful scenery.

However, it should be noted that salt is a must-have for daily life. The price elasticity of this thing is very low and there is no substitute. The increase or decrease in price will not have a great impact on sales. In other words, you have to buy this thing when it is cheap, but you still have to buy it when it is expensive.

The price of 12 yuan per pound of salt is definitely not a cheap price for the people of the Song Dynasty. The final result is to eat less salt or simply not salt.

Basically everyone knows the importance of salt to health.

That's why Zhao Huan planned to mess with salt.

"How come I forget to relieve the taste when I hear Shao, and I have eaten no salt in the mountains recently."

Zhao Huanqu knocked on the table with a finger and said, "I have recently read "The Legend of the Mountain Village" written by Mr. Dongpo. These two episodes really touched me deeply."

"I have no shortage of salt in my harem, and the nobles in the court are not short of it. Even ordinary local wise men and gentry are not short of this thing."

"But what about ordinary people?"

"How many people can afford to pay for 40 cents per pound?"

The hall fell into silence for a moment.

This is almost an unsolvable puzzle.

Even if Zhao Huan said he wanted to build a few more salt farms to expand the production of salt, in fact, this is just a good word, but it is still very difficult to implement it.

If you want to expand your output, you have to open a new salt farm and hire more staff. The cost will not be reduced. The only benefit is that you can actually increase the output.

Then the problem returns to the original origin because of the irreplaceable nature of salt. No matter how much the output increases, it will be difficult to affect the final sales price due to various messy reasons.

Unless the control of the salt industry is completely relaxed, people are allowed to go to the beach to dry salt or contract salt mines, salt ponds, salt wells and produce and sell them.

However, whether from the perspective of the impact of the court's fiscal revenue or from the impact of salt on a country, it is not a big deal to completely relax the control of the salt industry.

"In ten years, I plan to completely reduce the price of salt in ten years, to only three cents per kilogram of salt."

After a while of silence, Zhao Huan finally made a decision.

"The first step is to increase the salt yield first."

"Let the Royal Academy think about it and see how to increase the salt yield and reduce the cost."

"The second step requires the cooperation of Zhuang Qing."

Suddenly hearing that this matter still requires the cooperation of the Ministry of Revenue, Zhuang Chengyi was stunned and bowed and said, "Please give instructions from the official."

Zhao Huan nodded, bounced the table with his fingers and said, "Reclaim the salt and buy it, and the Shaofu led the Secretariat and the Ministry of Revenue cooperated to establish the Dasong Salt Industry Group."

"After the completion of the Dasong Salt Industry Group must spread the sales network throughout the Dasong Dynasty, and the shops must be opened to the township and town level to undertake all the salt sales in the Dasong Dynasty."

"In other words, in the future, whether it is Jiezhou salt pond, Sichuan salt well, or other salt mines and sea salt, all the salt produced will be sold by Dasong Salt Industry Group."

Zhuang Chengyi's first reaction was to say that the treasury had no money

Reduce forty cents of salt to three cents? Just think about it and you will know that even if the Dasong Salt Industry Group can make money in the future, it will definitely lose money in the early stage, and it may even not make money at all!

According to the requirements of the government, as long as the so-called Dasong Salt Industry Group does not make money in one day, the treasury will have to pay money to subsidize him for a day!

How much does it cost to get this subsidy?

Not to mention the prerequisite for reclaiming salt and lure buying, this alone means that the annual salt tax in the Song Dynasty is 40 million jin less!

Forty million yuan! It’s enough to buy eight million workers!

Or to put it simply, if these 40 million chunks are used simply in military affairs, it will be enough for the government to go out and fight a battle to destroy the country!

How many benefits can a war to destroy the country bring to the Song Dynasty?

Now, because of the light words of the official family, forty million yuan has disappeared, and the treasury still has to pay for money to subsidize. Isn’t this a waste of my life?

After complaining wildly for a while, Zhuang Chengyi bowed and said, "I will report to the official, this salt industry group can do it, but it has to pay taxes normally. In addition, for the early losses, will the official treasury also have to subsidize a portion of the treasury?"

Zhao Huan unexpectedly glanced at Zhuang Chengyi and smiled, "What's wrong with this today? Zhuang Pixiu, who has always been stubborn, has changed his temperament and is willing to bleed heavily in this matter?"
Chapter completed!