Chapter 111: Salt Profits

In front of Jingchun Tower, Li Youjin, upon hearing Zhao Sihai's question, hurriedly tugged at his sleeve and moved to a less crowded spot. After looking around, he lowered his voice and replied, "Brother Zhao, have people also come to your door?"

Zhao Sihai could tell from his tone that Li Youjin must have encountered a situation similar to his own. He then roughly recounted what had happened that day, though he omitted many embarrassing details.

Li Youjin sighed, "My situation is much the same as yours, brother. The Embroidered Uniform Guard has already investigated my family's background thoroughly—they even found out that I've been on close terms with Liu Er, who occupies Mount Liufeng in Laishui County! They threatened that if I didn't come to this meeting, they'd send troops to wipe out Liu Er, then pin a charge of colluding with bandits on me and have my family executed and our property confiscated!"

Zhao Sihai said doubtfully, "If you ask me, since we're here, we're here. If what those people said is true, this is a good thing! Such fine salt, delivered right to our door, saving us countless expenses, and at a low price—even if we sell it at the current market rate, wouldn't our profits be even fatter?"

Li Youjin shook his head and said, "Brother, haven't you thought it through? If that were really the case, how could the authorities let it go? This is tantamount to snatching money from the court's hands! Even if it is fine salt, once we buy and distribute it, if the court sends troops to investigate, that would be no small disaster!"

Zhao Sihai pondered for a moment and felt that what Li Youjin said did make sense.

Previously, they first had to purchase salt certificates from the government, and the court already took a cut of the profit. Then they had to send people to the salt works at Lianghuai to collect salt according to the certificates, and they had to pay customary fees to smooth relations along the way. After that, they shipped the salt north by canal boat, and at every checkpoint along the route, soldiers and petty officials all had to be bribed. Adding it all up, the money spent on bribes and fees far exceeded the cost of the salt itself.

These were conventions formed over many years that no one could change. The salt allotted on the certificates was far too little, so salt merchants would buy extra from the salt households and smuggle it back to sell, in order to earn greater profits.

What they didn't know was that most of the profit the salt households earned from selling them private salt would be skimmed off by officials and petty clerks, then pocketed by individuals.

Why was so little salt allotted on the certificates? Because if there were more official salt, those who used the opportunity to line their own pockets would see their profits shrink. These people colluded together, coordinating from top to bottom, deliberately reducing the amount of official salt, then selling it privately to salt merchants to reap enormous profits—so much so that the court's salt tax revenue plummeted sharply.

This sort of thing was an open secret; the Embroidered Uniform Guard could uncover it clearly with just a cursory investigation. After Chongzhen introduced sun-dried salt, if the old salt certificate system were still followed, most of the profits from salt would still be carved up by the old and new parasites, and the privy purse and the state treasury would still only receive a small share.

Chongzhen had originally wanted to abolish the salt certificate system and bring salt production and sales entirely under state control. Although corruption would inevitably still occur, with clear accounts and regular inspections by dispatched officials, the vast majority of profits would still flow into the state treasury and the privy purse.

But abolishing the salt certificate system would inevitably offend the interest groups' cheese. The people involved in these groups were countless, from Grand Secretaries and senior ministers at the top down to petty clerks and minor functionaries at the bottom. One careless misstep could brew a great disaster. With internal strife and external threats, natural calamities and man-made misfortunes coming one after another, biding one's time was the best choice for now.

But Chongzhen was unwilling to let the profits that rightfully belonged to him be carved up by these people. After pondering for a long time, he finally came up with a scheme to pull the firewood from under the cauldron—using high-quality, low-cost sun-dried salt, distributed through northern salt merchants, to gradually squeeze Lianghuai and Sichuan salt out of the northern market. Once the domestic situation stabilized in the future, he would expand further south, until he completely dominated the entire Ming Dynasty's salt market.

Chongzhen had roughly calculated the numbers. According to historical data, the Ming Dynasty's total population was around one hundred twenty million at present. The amount of salt people consumed each year at this time was astonishing—many sources proved that an adult needed roughly fifteen jin of salt per year.

If that figure were averaged out with the elderly, weak, women, and children, taking a lower value—say five jin of salt per person per year—and calculating with a population of one hundred million, then the entire Ming Dynasty's annual salt consumption would be around five hundred million jin.

According to data provided by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, salt prices north of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty were far higher than in Jiangnan and other regions. Near the capital, the price per jin had already reached around seven qian, and it showed signs of continuing to rise.

Chongzhen planned to flood the market with large quantities of low-cost sea salt, striking at the inferior-quality, high-priced Lianghuai salt, and to abolish the old system of rationing salt by head. As long as there was market demand, supply would be increased—sell as much as people wanted to buy.

Of course, none of this could be enacted as official decrees in the government's name. He didn't want to stir up more trouble.

The cost of sun-dried salt had already become negligible due to the increase in salt fields. According to the price Chongzhen set, at this salt merchant recruitment meeting, the price to salt dealers was fixed at eighty wen per jin. This was even after Chongzhen had steeled himself to raise the price because he was truly short of money—originally he had wanted fifty wen per jin, since the common people were suffering, and he couldn't bear to squeeze their hard-earned money from such a basic necessity of life.

In a few years, once internal strife and external threats had subsided, Chongzhen would greatly lower the price of salt to ease the people's basic survival pressures and burdens.

At eighty wen per jin, calculated against the roughly forty million people in the region north of the Yangtze, the annual revenue would be an astronomical figure. Even after deducting miscellaneous expenses, the salt profits alone would be enough to support all of the court's expenditures.

After running these numbers, Chongzhen finally understood why the Jiangnan salt merchants were so fabulously wealthy—some would spend millions of taels of silver just to build a garden. The profits from salt were simply too substantial, so substantial that if anyone tried to snatch food from the tiger's mouth, even if you were the Emperor, these people would unite and fight you to the death.

Chongzhen mused privately—salt profits were so high, why did those transmigrators go to such lengths to make soap and perfume to earn money? Those things weren't necessities, but salt was something everyone had to use. In transmigration novels, whether the protagonist transmigrated into an emperor or a commoner, they almost always ended up with formidable military force in hand. Since they had force, why not just profit directly from salt? Why go through all that trouble and draw criticism from countless readers to make soap? Could it be that all those great transmigrators disdained such petty profits?

The reason Chongzhen had the Embroidered Uniform Guard come forward to back this salt merchant conference was to let the salt merchants know who their patron was. The Embroidered Uniform Guard's current reputation was enough to suppress all dissent, and the civil officials whose cheese had been moved couldn't do anything about them. The Embroidered Uniform Guard was the Son of Heaven's personal army—no one had jurisdiction over them, and impeachment was utterly useless. If anyone went too far and thoroughly offended the big shots of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, there was no telling when the Northern Provost's Office might catch them on corruption charges and drag them straight into the Imperial Prison. Once inside the Imperial Prison, no one but the Emperor could save them.

Although Chongzhen disliked this system of privilege, there was no other way in these troubled times. He could only adopt harsh measures to make money by indirect means, and the drawbacks could be reformed once the situation stabilized.

Around noon, once all the notified salt merchants had gathered, Gong Fanwu appeared in a white robe, introducing himself as a man of leisure who had happened upon a method of salt-making by fortunate coincidence, and had thus produced fine salt. Today he wished to make money together with everyone present. Since every salt merchant in attendance had already been briefed by the Embroidered Uniform Guard officers who had visited their homes, Gong Fanwu openly and frankly explained the purpose of the gathering, and then the banquet began. Gong Fanwu started going table to table toasting, followed by several Embroidered Uniform Guard officers, each carrying a tray piled with fine salt that was slightly yellower than snow.

Everywhere he went, the guests at each table were stunned by the salt's color. The salt they had been dealing in for years was always coarse-grained, dark-colored, and bitter-tasting crude salt—they had never seen fine salt of such quality. After tasting it with a fingertip, the mouthfeel was far better than before, with only a very faint bitterness. Whether in appearance or taste, it was already top-grade fine salt.

After Gong Fanwu finished toasting on the second floor east and returned to the main table on the third floor, Zhao Sihai at the same table couldn't hold back any longer. The salt was fine salt, no salt certificates were needed, and the cost of long-distance transport was saved—however you calculated it, it was a good deal. But the government's attitude was the key question.

He stood up, cupped his hands, and said, "Master Gong, I am Zhao Sihai, a salt merchant from Zhending Prefecture. I have been dealing in salt for over a decade. The salt I have seen today is indeed top-grade fine salt! But there is one matter I don't understand, and I beg Master Gong to speak frankly!"

Gong Fanwu smiled and said, "Is Master Zhao worried about the government's stance?"

Zhao Sihai quickly nodded in agreement. The reason he was so respectful was, of course, his fear of Gong Fanwu's background. Although he didn't know who this man really was, with the Embroidered Uniform Guard as his backing, he was certainly no ordinary figure.

Seeing that the salt merchants at the table and around them were all waiting eagerly for his answer, Gong Fanwu smiled and said, "Gentlemen, rest assured in distributing the salt. My master has already made arrangements with the authorities—the salt you sell will not be seized as private salt. I'm sure you can all guess what I rely on. I'll make a pledge here: if any of you seated here selling my family's salt should run into trouble, I will protect the safety of you and your families, and bear all expenses arising from it! I believe there is no one who dares to openly challenge my master!"

Seeing the half-doubting, half-believing expressions on everyone's faces, Gong Fanwu immediately played his trump card: "I know you all have misgivings. How about this—today I will give away the salt you have seen for free! Large households distributing across four or more prefectures get five hundred dan each! Medium households covering two or more prefectures get three hundred dan! Small households get one hundred dan! Settle the payment only after you've sold it all!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd immediately began murmuring and discussing among themselves. Since the man had given his guarantee, was giving away trial stock for free, and had the Embroidered Uniform Guard's backing, it was probably safe—nine times out of ten.

Just as everyone was about to voice acceptance of these terms, Zhao Sihai gritted his teeth and stood up again. He cupped his hands toward Gong Fanwu and said, "Master Gong! This is everyone's first time doing business together—there's no reason to take advantage of someone by buying on credit! I came with ready silver this time. I trust Master Gong! I'm willing to purchase one thousand dan with cash!"

Li Youjin knew that Zhao Sihai was gambling. The Embroidered Uniform Guard's reputation was too formidable—since they had sent people to call in person, they must be confident in their position.

Although they were wealthy local magnates with decent connections among local officials, how could those connections compare to the Embroidered Uniform Guard?

Since they had taken a liking to one's distribution channels, rather than half-accepting and half-resisting, it was better to throw oneself wholeheartedly into their embrace. Being able to latch onto such a powerful patron by chance—that was a blessing one wouldn't even dare dream of normally.

Li Youjin immediately rose, cupped his hands, and said, "I am Li Youjin of Baoding! I'm willing to purchase one thousand dan with cash!"