Pay huge amounts of silver to obtain monopoly management rights, and salt merchants take huge profits

In Chinese history, salt was originally a long-term monopoly target. Both the Han and Tang dynasties used monopoly salt profit as an important means to increase fiscal revenue. However, granting salt merchants absolute monopoly management rights was only available in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In the early Ming Dynasty, because a large number of troops were hoarded on the northern border to defend against Mongolian forces, the court stipulated that salt merchants must first collect grain to the border, and then the government issued salt induction according to the amount of grain they paid. After the merchants received the salt induction, they could go to the salt field to obtain salt for marketing. This system was called "Kaizhongfa". By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Kaizhongfa gradually became abolished, and a situation of salt induction and sales occurred.

In the 45th year of Wanli (1617), Yuan Shizhen, who was responsible for rectifying the salt administration, began to implement the "Organization" to digest the backlog of salt quotations. He divided the old quotations in the hands of merchants into ten quotations and compiled them into pamphlets. Every year, one quotations were used to carry out old quotations and nine quotations. In order to avoid new competition and facilitate management, the number of merchants was strictly controlled. Every year, when issuing new quotations, the original merchants and quotations in the pamphlet were based on the original quotations, and no names in the pamphlets were allowed to join. In this way, those famous merchants (so-called "Organizations") obtained the monopoly management rights licensed by the government, and could use them to make huge profits, and this right could be hereditary.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the salt law was followed in the Ming Dynasty. Salt merchants transported and sold salt, they had to pay salt classes to the Salt Transportation Department, receive salt entries, and then go to the designated salt production area to buy salt from the stove owner, and then sell it to the designated salt entries (called "现海"). However, salt entries cannot be collected casually. Merchants must use the entries as a basis to prove that they have the privilege of transporting and selling salt. In order to obtain the entries, merchants must "recognize the entries" in advance, that is, pay huge amounts of silver to obtain the monopoly management rights granted by the government.

During the actual operation of the salt law, the role of salt merchants split, and there were names such as woven merchants, transport merchants, market merchants, and general merchants. They each had different functions in the process of salt circulation. woven merchants, also known as business merchants. In the early Qing Dynasty, there was no difference between woven merchants and transport merchants. All salt merchants with woven merchants transported and sold salt by themselves. Later, because some salt merchants with woven merchants lacked capital and were unable to traffic, they rented the woven merchants to operate without woven merchants, so there was a difference between woven merchants and transport merchants.

The merchants themselves do not operate the salt industry, but rely solely on renting to attract houses to make huge profits. This is the most prominent manifestation of the monopoly of the salt industry. Transporters, also known as renters. If they want to sell salt, they must first pay the "gun price" to the merchants, rent and take the houses, and then go to the Salt Transportation Office to take the lead. They play a bridge between the place of origin and the place of sale in the process of salt flow. Trading merchants are merchants who purchase salt from stoves at designated salt farms and then resell them to transporters. They seize the privilege of purchasing all salt production in the salt farms, so they often use unequal exchange methods to cruelly exploit producers.

The salt law in the Ming and Qing dynasties adopted this "outline business guide" system, and there were various complex reasons behind it. However, the most direct reason was that the country in the Ming and Qing dynasties did not have much power to directly control the social economy, so it tended to adopt the form of "contracting", grasping strong people and instructing them to contract to the end. This is particularly obvious in the setting of general merchants. General merchants, also known as general merchants, are rich and well-capitalized among transportation merchants. The salt transportation department yamen designated them as general merchants and divided them into their names. Every year when recruiting classes and quoting, general merchants must be supervised and responsible for the investigation and ban on private salt. If the court takes measures in salt administration, it often has to negotiate with general merchants.

In addition to monopolizing the management rights, the court also gave salt merchants many other preferential conditions, such as allowing them to "increase the price" (increase the official price of salt sold), "increase consumption" (increase the amount of pounds per invoice), and "borrow the money" (that is, borrow money from the treasury to operate). With such guarantees, salt merchants can be said to be profitable.

In all aspects of salt acquisition, transportation and sales, relevant officials all extend their greedy hands

Although salt merchants held monopoly management rights and could make huge profits, the court and government did not give them these benefits in vain, but pointed out that they increased their fiscal revenue. Therefore, their burden was also heavy. According to Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang and the governor of Lianghuai during the Daoguang period: In the early Qing Dynasty, the Lianghuai Salt District (the places where marketing include today's Henan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, and Hunan Province) had a total of more than 900,000 taels of silver, plus other miscellaneous sums, and only more than 1.8 million taels of silver. However, by the Qianlong period, this number had reached more than 4 million taels of silver, several times the original amount. After the 20th year of Jiaqing (1815), the amount that Lianghuai Salt District had to pay annually reached more than 8 million taels.

The burden of salt merchants is not only to carry out salt classes, but also to bear additional exploitation from officials. In order to strengthen the collection of salt classes, the court set up various institutions and officials. In addition to receiving salaries, these officials also had a generous amount of money to raise integrity, with the purpose of avoiding their corruption. However, they still regard salt merchants as arbitrarily slaughtering pigs and sheep in the circle, openly and secretly, endlessly.

In the purchase, transportation and sales of salt, all relevant officials stretched out their greedy hands and plucked their hair by the geese. Bao Shichen of the Daoguang Dynasty said: "Huai Shang conducts transportation, accepts the invitation, presents the guide, and listens to money and grain. In a yamen of the transportation department, sets up income and expenditure, sets up pavilions, and takes four rooms, and goes five or six times each. They go through the warehousing, and knows that the four leaders of the Shangsi are all the leaders of the Shangsi. Therefore, the Shang orders will be suspended from the hands of the department. Then they will transfer to the branch office, the field staff, dam officers, supervisors, and checks, and the Yan Yan offices. Then the salt can be put on the boat to the shore. Anyone who passes through a office and invests in a room, there will be a fee. The total cost is almost mixed, and it is tortually complicated." It can be seen that the internal organization of the Salt Administration Office is complex, and the officials exploit it layer by layer, and the merchants have their own difficulties.

At that time, someone pointed out that in all the things that need to deal with the government, there is nothing more difficult and heavy than salt merchants who run salt. In total, the expenses spent by merchants in secret were almost half of the cost. During the Yongzheng period, the emperor strictly carried out reforms and transparently treated many bad rules to prevent officials from collecting them. Lianghuai Salt District stipulated that salt merchants should give 80,000 taels of silver to the Salt Administration in the name of "official affairs" and 40,000 taels of silver to the Salt Transportation Bureau in the name of "salary".

In addition, whenever the salt transport envoy leaves or transfers outside, the salt merchants also give a large sum of money as usual. The income of the salt official is so rich, no wonder everyone is rushing to do it. For example, the position of the Salt Censor was only sixth rank at the beginning, but it was a fat man that everyone envies. Moreover, it is not others' turn, and it can only be held by an official of the "Interior Affairs Office" equivalent to the emperor's slave. During the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Xu, an official of the Interior Affairs Office, served as the Salt Administration of Lianghuai for a long time. When he left office, he was reluctant to leave and repeatedly submitted a letter to the emperor, requesting another term to stay.

It should be pointed out that although the emperor repeatedly issued an order to strictly prohibit officials from corruption, the levy they added to the salt merchants themselves was the largest. Emperor Qianlong made six southern tours. Although he verbally said that "everything comes from the inner palace, and there is no trouble and the company provides 100 million yuan", the main expenses were the money of Changlu and the salt merchants in the Huai River. The salt merchants rushed to the forefront and each made a strange move to win the emperor's favor and cost no matter what.

The Lianghuai salt case that broke out during the Qianlong period had a deficit of more than 10 million taels, including "preparing for business trips to the southern tour". Not only that, since Kanggan, the court has encountered major military supplies, celebrations, relief work, and projects, and when money is needed, the salt merchants have to donate enthusiastically, ranging from millions to hundreds of thousands. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing period, salt merchants from all over the country paid as much as 30 million taels of silver. Among them, in order to support the court to suppress the White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan and Chu, salt merchants in the two Huai have donated six consecutive times between the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799) and the eighth year, totaling 5.5 million taels of silver.

Salt merchants lead the luxury lifestyle, and it is said that the Queen Mother of the Cialis, who is far away in Beijing, also imitates prostitutes in Yangzhou when combing her hair.

Salt merchants basically monopolized the sales of salt across the country, so they can arbitrarily lower the bid price, raise the selling price, and make huge profits. However, due to traditional economic and political reasons, they tend to use the money they earn to buy land or donate official positions instead of expanding reproduction. In addition, they will invest a lot of money in luxury living consumption, especially the salt merchants in Lianghuai who live in Yangzhou.

Yangzhou is the location of the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Office, and most salt merchants gather here. According to the "Qing Bai Lei Chao", Huang Juntai was the leader of the eight major merchants in Lianghuai at that time. He consumed 50 taels of silver for a bowl of egg fried rice. The reason why it was so expensive was that the bowl of egg fried rice was intact and had to be separated. Each grain had to be soaked in egg juice. The fried rice was golden outside and white inside. The soup was matched with this bowl of rice. The soup included crucian carp tongue, silver carp brain, carp white, spotted fish liver, yellow croaker fat, shark fin, turtle fin skirt, eel blood, bream paddling, mullet fillet, etc., which was extremely exquisite. What was even more amazing is that the eggs he ate were not laid by ordinary chickens, but by chickens with ginseng, atractylodes and other medicines, so the taste was particularly good.

The book "Yangzhou Huafanglu" by Li Dou, a Qing Dynasty man, is a comprehensive record of the luxury of salt merchants in Yangzhou. There is no need to mention eating, drinking and having fun. It is said that salt merchants will come up with various tricks to entertain. For example, when they get tired of beauty pageants, they choose ugly, and apply soy sauce on their faces to the sun to see who is uglier. For example, in order to compare who is richer, everyone engraved their names on the gold foil, ran to the pagoda of Jinshan, Zhenjiang to throw the gold foil out, and saw whose gold foil floated to Yangzhou first.

The salt merchants lived a very leisurely life. They built buildings, pavilions, raising opera troupes and opening theaters, pondered exquisite dishes, went to brothels to raise "slim horses", and adjusted fat and made powder. The salt merchants' lifestyle profoundly influenced the social atmosphere in Yangzhou. At that time, there were a large number of idle people wandering around on the market. They were not engaged in production and were idle. They "bring in the morning to cover water and in the evening to cover water" and lingered between teahouses and bathhouses. The lifestyle of the Yangzhou salt merchants also had the role of leading fashion. It is said that the Queen Mother of the Cixi, who was far away in Beijing, also had to imitate prostitutes in Yangzhou when combing her hair, otherwise it would be not fashionable enough.

The luxury of the salt merchants in Lianghuai is not only to satisfy their own expectations, but to some extent, it also serves the need to win over and bribe officials. Although salt merchants are not satisfied with the official's standards at all levels, they also need the protection of these officials, so they often have to try their best to prepare items that satisfy the officials.

Gao Heng, the Lianghuai Salt Administration, was born in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was a real playboy. The Salt Administration was completely unwilling to care about the affairs of the Salt Administration, and only knew how to accumulate wealth. The salt merchants looked for beauties, collected treasures, and gave them to him, but in the end they were just right. Gao Heng could even agree to write off his previous deficits.

Lu Jian, the salt transport envoy of Lianghuai, was once a famous scholar. He admired himself and felt that yellow and white things were vulgar. The salt merchants devoted their interests and spent a lot of money to buy rare books and inscriptions and calligraphy. Lu Jian Zeng felt that the bribe was very good, so he accepted it with a smile, and then continued to accept it, and enjoyed it. In short, Lianghuai salt merchants carefully studied the hobbies of officials, and used their own lifestyle to infect officials, so that they "entered my destiny". What was covered in the luxurious atmosphere was the corruption of officials and the collusion between officials and businessmen.

The new system that broke the monopoly gradually replaced the old system, the popularity of salt merchants was no longer there, and decline was a foregone conclusion

After the mid-Qing Dynasty, the pressure of salt merchants to donate gradually increased, and they had to taste the bitter fruit of "borrowing money to repay interest". In addition, officials extorted themselves and lived a luxurious life. Many people fell into a situation where they were strong outside and worked hard on the inside and were unable to make ends meet. In order to overcome the crisis, they had to keep raising the price of salt, which led to the situation among the people that the people were forced to eat indifferently, and the public was full of grievances. Private salt took the opportunity to become popular, occupying almost half of the market for official salt.

The official salt was severely unsalable, and merchants began to owed salt classes, which directly affected the court's fiscal revenue. In order to increase the income from salt classes, the Qing court decided to reform the salt law. In the 12th year of Daoguang (1832), the governor of Liangjiang Tao Shu proposed to change the salt affairs of the brigade general Lianghuai to the governor of Liangjiang to unified the power of the affairs. After that, he drasticly used salt to draw salt from Huaibei to be used as a ticket salt. In other places where transportation was inconvenient and merchants refused to go, he allowed merchants with less capital to operate. They did not have to recognize the nest, and as long as they paid the salt class, they would be given official tickets and let them sell salt with tickets. Tao Shu's move quickly achieved practical results, which not only facilitated the people, but also increased the income of the court. In the 30th year of Daoguang, Liangjiang Governor Lu Jianying implemented this method in Huainan. Later, the billing and salt law gradually promoted to Fujian, Liangzhe, Changlu and other salt areas.

The outline was changed to the vote method, which fundamentally abolished the monopoly of salt merchants over the salt industry, deeply violated the vested interests of salt merchants, and caused their strong dissatisfaction. It is said that the salt merchants at that time hated Tao Shu and designed a new card rule. They added two new cards, one was "peach tree", and those who got this card "even if they win, they lose all their losses", so they scolded them once they picked this card. The other was "Miss Tao", which implied Tao Shu's daughter, "those who get it lose all their losses will win all their losses", so all those who got this card were happy and "thumbs up, extremely obscene". However, no matter how much they hated, the new system gradually replaced the old system, and the salt merchants' glory was no longer there, and the decline was a foregone conclusion.

Looking at the rise and fall of salt merchants in the Qing Dynasty, we can see that their monopoly management rights were also a tool for the government to make profits, which is the profound reason for their tragic fate.

(The author is an associate professor at the Institute of Ancient Law of China University of Political Science and Law)

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Salt citation: also known as "salt banknote", is a certificate of salt acquisition in the Song Dynasty. "silence" refers to securities that can be circulated as "tokens". During the Ming Dynasty, if you want to sell salt legally, merchants must first obtain "salt citation" from the government. Each citation number is divided into two volumes before and after, and then divided into two parts from the middle, and then rolled to the merchant, which is called "silence paper" - salt citation; the siltation in the front roll is called "silence root". Merchants use salt to lead to salt farms to support salt, and then go to the designated salt sales area to sell salt.

Lianghuai Salt Cases: In the 33rd year of Qianlong (1768), the new "Salt Administration" checked the accounts and found that in the 20 years before him, the officials of the "Salt Administration" privately "super-issued" salt inducement, withdrew more than 10 million taels of "silver". Qianlong was furious, and many officials and Huizhou salt merchants were arrested and questioned in Beijing, including Ji Xiaolan and other well-known "maintainers" (Ji was implicated and sent to Xinjiang).
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