Chapter 24 Inside Story
“Meet Your Highness!” Gu Tingye’s grandfather and grandson stepped forward and bowed.
"No courtesy." Zhao Xing waved his hand.
"Your Highness, please come inside!" Gu Tingye invited.
Zhao Xing nodded and walked in front, and the group entered the house.
Arriving at the main hall, Zhao Xing sat down on the main seat and said with a smile: "Exceptor Bai, Zhong Huai, you all can take a seat."
"Thank you, Your Highness." The two thanked each other and sat down at the bottom. .
Zhao Xing looked at the Cao brothers and said, "Two cousins, go and guard outside."
"This..."
The two brothers are a bit agitated. He hesitated, but after thinking about it carefully, there were only Zhao Xing, Sanshui, and Gu Tingye's grandparents in the hall. There seemed to be no danger, so he bowed and left.
"Exceptor Bai, I heard that the Bai family has many salt farms in the south of the Yangtze River. I wonder if this is true?" Zhao Xing asked.
Mr. Bai was startled and didn’t understand why Zhao Xing asked such a question, but he didn’t dare to hesitate and said, “Your Highness, the Bai family does run some salt farms.”
“ There is an epidemic of illegal salt in Jiangnan. I wonder if Bai Yuanwai knows some of the inside story?" Zhao Xing didn't go around in circles and asked directly what he wanted to know.
Mr. Bai's eyes flashed slightly. Even though he was just a businessman, he certainly had unique wisdom in being able to accumulate such a large family fortune.
Zhao Xing asked him about private salt. It was obvious that the court wanted to take action on the salt affairs.
After pondering for a while, Mr. Bai held up his hands and said, "Common people, if you dare, can I ask His Highness a question before answering this question?"
"It's okay for Bai Yuanwai to just say it." Zhao Xing said.
"May I ask if Your Highness knows anything about the salt affairs of the Song Dynasty?" Old Master Bai asked.
“I know a little bit about it. Salt households make salt and then sell it to the imperial court, which sells it uniformly.” Zhao Xing said.
He didn’t know much about salt affairs at first. The reason why he chose salt affairs as his first target was because in the original play, Zhao Zongquan thoroughly investigated the salt affairs after he became emperor.
The second thing is that he learned that the profits of the Salt Service of the Song Dynasty once accounted for half of the court's income.
During this period, he studied the court system and specifically learned about salt affairs.
Salt was not produced directly by the imperial court. Instead, it was produced by salt households and sold by the imperial court after purchase.
The reason why salt in the Song Dynasty accounted for half of the court's revenue was actually because the court regarded salt as a means of collecting taxes.
If the imperial court is short of money, it will not directly impose various exorbitant taxes on the people, but will increase the price of salt.
Because salt is government-run, salt households can only sell to the court. The price given by the court will naturally not be high, but the pricing power of the sale is controlled by the court, so the profit is naturally very high.
"Does Your Highness know where the private salt comes from?" Old Master Bai asked.
Zhao Xing was startled when he heard this. He had thought that private salt was made secretly by someone, or secretly purchased from salt households at a high price.
Now listening to what Old Man Bai means, it seems that there is something else hidden in it.
"Your Highness, Cao Min is very old, and he doesn't have long to live. Whatever Your Highness wants to know, Cao Min can tell His Highness, I just ask that Your Highness can agree to Cao Min one condition." Old Master Bai said.
"Grandfather, you..."
Gu Tingye, who was sitting aside, was a little worried when he heard that his grandfather actually made conditions to Zhao Xing.
"Zhong Huai!"
Zhao Xing waved his hand to stop Gu Tingye and said: "Exceptor Bai, I agree to your conditions."
"Your Highness does not ask the common people What are the conditions?" asked Old Man Bai.
"No matter what the conditions are, I agree." Zhao Xing said lightly.
Old man Bai first said that he would not be alive for long, and then asked Zhao Xing to agree to a condition.
Obviously he told Zhao Xing that he has no children now and is so old. If Zhao Xing did not agree to his conditions, he would not say anything. And Zhao Xing was also sure that Mr. Bai would not put forward any outrageous conditions. After all, his daughter was dead but his grandson was still there.
“Your Highness is wise!”
Old Mrs. Bai showed admiration and looked at Gu Tingye and said: "Brother Ye, I will go out first."
"Grandpa, I..."
Gu Tingye looked at his grandfather and then at Zhao Xing .
"Zhong Huai, you go out first, and I will have a chat with Bai Yuanwai alone." Zhao Xing said.
"Yes!" Gu Tingye saluted and withdrew with some worry.
"Commander Bai, tell me, what are your conditions?" Zhao Xing asked.
"Your Highness, this matter is not urgent. Let the common people talk to Your Highness about the private salt first." Mr. Bai said.
“Aren’t you afraid that I won’t agree to your terms after knowing what I want to know?” Zhao Xing said with a smile.
"Your Highness is true to his word. Since he has already made a promise, he will naturally not make a mistake." Old Master Bai said.
Zhao Xing was noncommittal, nodded slightly, and asked Mr. Bai to start talking about private salt.
"Private salt is actually official salt. Officials who purchase salt will be short of salt when collecting salt from salt households. Gravel will also be added to the salt sold to salt dealers to increase the weight." Mr. Bai said .
"This is impossible!" Zhao Xing said in disbelief: "If this is the case, why would those salt merchants buy it? And no one has ever reported it?"
If it is true what Mr. Bai said, In that case, the problem of salt affairs will be too big.
This shows that almost all officials in charge of the salt service system have problems.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible to hide it for so long without his father noticing at all.
"Salt is government-run. Salt merchants must first buy salt citations from the court before they can have salt. Only with salt citations can they open a salt store to sell salt. Who dares to report? Moreover, salt merchants who buy salt citations can use it at a lower price. If you buy the same amount of good salt, no one will report you." Mr. Bai said.
Zhao Xing's face turned gloomy after hearing this, and he basically believed what Mr. Bai said.
No wonder the population of the Song Dynasty has surged and the economy has prospered in recent years, but the income of salt affairs has declined instead of increasing.
Those officials in charge of salt affairs can get a batch of salt from salt households for free if they are short of a pound or two of salt when collecting salt.
Add impurities to the salt so they can get another batch of salt.
The salt that the salt merchants bought from the imperial court contained many impurities. Even if they were sifted back and the impurities were removed, the weight would be much less, so naturally they would not be happy with it.
Even if the salt merchant wants to make this money, he can only endure it and dare not report it. As time goes by, some rumors will inevitably spread.
But the salt merchant who got the salt quotation could buy the same amount of good salt at a lower price than the court.
In this way, the cost for them to get salt did not increase, but on the contrary, they got more salt than before.
This forms a complete chain of interests. Whether it is salt officials or salt merchants, they will keep secret about this matter and make a fortune in silence.
After a long time, Zhao Xing came back to his senses and said, "Thank you, Mr. Bai, for informing me. I wonder what Mr. Bai's conditions are?"
......
After coming out of Bai's house, Zhao Xing didn't play either. After thinking about it, he took the car directly back to the palace.
There are problems with the entire salt affairs officials, which is shocking.
On the way back to the palace, Zhao Xing was thinking why the salt affairs were so corrupted.
In the end, we came to the conclusion that there was a lack of effective supervision, and the court was too tolerant of civil servants and lacked deterrence.
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(End of this chapter)