Chapter 160: Salt and Iron Monopoly and Smuggling Merchants

The Great Ming Dynasty seized control from the hands of the Yuan Dynasty. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a strict economic blockade policy against the Mongol remnants who had fled to the border areas in order to combat the Northern Yuan.

Zhu Yuanzhang declared:

No more mutual market.

No more transactions.

If you can’t outrun them, then block them damn well.

Many people scoffed at the Ming Dynasty’s economic blockade, thinking it wouldn’t have much effect. Those who held this view typically thought:

“Mongol tribes, well, they have pure milk when thirsty, beef and mutton when hungry, and natural sheepskin coats when cold. They drink milk heartily, eat meat heartily, carefree and happy, facing the wind boldly. They don’t worry about food and clothing, so why would they fear the Ming Dynasty’s economic blockade?”

This is not wrong; the Ming Dynasty’s blockade couldn’t stop the Mongols from raising cattle and horses, nor could it stop them from having children.

But no matter how much beef and mutton you eat, don’t you need salt?

Without salt, everything you eat tastes bland, and that’s fine, it might be a little uncomfortable for your taste buds, but it won’t hurt your stomach too much.

However, if you go without salt for a long time, your body functions will deteriorate, you’ll feel weak all over, and then, forget about herding cattle and horses, even if you have a rope, you’ll only be dragged along by the livestock.

Whether it’s grasslands or deserts in Mongolia, where can you find salt?

Even if you’re lucky enough to find a salt marsh, it’s probably only enough for your family to eat. For supplying the vast Mongol tribes, that’s wishful thinking.

Apart from salt, there’s also iron.

Despite the vastness of the Mongolian grasslands, there are occasional mountains, but the discovery of iron ore is not abundant. Moreover, even if you dig up iron ore, don’t you need craftsmen?

You can’t just light a small fire and play with burning stones to produce knives and iron pots…

Unfortunately, despite the large territory of the Mongol tribes, salt and iron are scarce commodities.

Looking at the Central Plains dynasties, many dynasties wielded salt and iron as a powerful tool, holding it in the hands of the court and declaring:

Monopoly of Iron and Salt.

In reality, the monopoly of salt and iron did not form instantly, and not every dynasty implemented it.

Dynasties like Xia, Shang, and Zhou did not have specific salt industry policies. They only appointed officials to manage the production of edible salt and allowed private individuals to mine freely. If you extract it, you can use it yourself.

During this period, some feudal lords even presented salt as tribute to the Zhou dynasty.

This era can be considered an entirely open market, with salt positioned as a kind of local specialty that everyone needed.

Things changed during the Spring and Autumn period.

Duke Huan of Qi thought to himself:

This is a chaotic world. Instead of being taken down by others, why not take down others? Taking down others requires money, and having money enables military competition. The question is, who can help me make money?

Duke Huan of Qi approached Bao Shuya, who shook his head, indicating that he couldn’t do it. So, he recommended the economist Guan Zhong.

When Guan Zhong came on board, he implemented the “State-Owned Mountains and Seas” policy. It meant that all mountains, forests, seas, and lakes in the Qi state belonged to the government, and, of course, salt and mineral resources were also government-owned.

Guan Zhong’s salt policy can be seen as a “partial monopoly system.” The government and the private sector could both extract salt, but there was one condition: the salt extracted by private individuals couldn’t be taken to the market and sold at a stall. Instead, it had to be sold to the government, which would handle unified sales.

The benefits of promoting salt and iron made Qi the dominant power in the Spring and Autumn period.

Moving on to the Qin Dynasty, the rise and fall of the Qin Dynasty always had the shadow of salt and iron monopoly from start to finish. Although sometimes localities were allowed to mine edible salt, the government was responsible for taxing it.

When the state lacked money, they just taxed salt and iron. Triple or quintuple the tax? Not enough. Let’s start with ten times, and there’s no upper limit, even twenty times.

In the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, to deal with the Xiongnu, there were continuous wars, and Wei Qing and Huo Qubing were heroes of this period. However, wars require money. When Emperor Wu saw that there was not enough money, he thought about managing the salt policy.

Once you manage the salt, the state has money.

Supporting the finances of the war, a large part came from the monopoly of salt and iron.

During the reign of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, the “Salt and Iron Monopoly” was questioned, leading to the famous “Salt and Iron Conference” in history. People gathered to discuss whether to continue the monopoly of salt and iron. In the end, Sang Hongyang, a prominent advocate, won the debate, and the salt and iron monopoly system continued to be used.

In the Eastern Han period, Liu Xiu, the son of a parallel world, abolished the monopoly of edible salt, allowing free extraction and trade. The government only imposed taxes.

During the Wei and Jin periods, a complete monopoly system was adopted again to extract salt profits, and the Western Jin Dynasty followed suit.

However, during the Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties period, things became somewhat chaotic. Today, they might enforce a monopoly, but when they had money tomorrow, they might switch to a tax system, behaving inconsistently and unpredictably, much like a fickle person.

In the Sui and Tang periods, a miracle occurred.

The salt and iron monopoly or tax system, which had persisted for over a thousand years from the Spring and Autumn period to the Sui and Tang periods, disappeared in the early stages of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, there was neither a monopoly nor a tax on salt. This was truly a unique existence in the history of Chinese feudal dynasties.

In the third year of the Kaihuang era, Emperor Wen of Sui abolished the monopoly of salt, iron, and alcohol, and there was no taxation either.

From the third year of Kaihuang to the end of the Jingyun era of Tang, a period of 128 years, the concept of salt taxation simply did not exist.

Saying that Cheng Yaojin was a private salt trader was nothing more than the invention of later novelists.

During this period, there was no distinction between public salt and private salt, and there was no concept of salt taxation. Even if Cheng Yaojin, with his strong physique, carried three hundred catties of salt and sold it at a street corner, no one would arrest him and throw him in jail.

In the Tang Dynasty, the salt tax was heavy, and its revenue became a pillar of the national treasury. For example, in the late Dali era, with an annual financial revenue of 12 million guan, the salt tax alone accounted for 6 million guan, supporting almost half of the empire.

During the Northern Song period, a “middle-of-the-road approach” emerged. Merchants were tasked with transporting grain to the border regions, and they were issued a “transaction voucher.” Merchants would then present this voucher in the capital, obtain a certificate, go to the salt field to collect edible salt, and later sell it.

In the Southern Song period, Cai Jing, one of the “Six Thieves,” introduced the innovative Salt Voucher System. It involved issuing two copies, one as a record and the other as a voucher. Merchants paid money to purchase salt vouchers, then went to collect the salt and sell it.

The Salt Voucher System strengthened control over salt merchants, benefiting the imperial court. Subsequent dynasties generally adopted variations of this system.

The Yuan Dynasty also utilized a salt voucher system. However, for some reason, the prices skyrocketed over time. Initially, a salt voucher was only nine guan, but after thirty years, it had increased to one hundred and fifty guan. In practical terms, a pound of salt required three to four hundred wen.

In the late Yuan period, despite Chen Youliang being a fisherman and Zhu Yuanzhang being a farmer, both, like Zhang Shicheng, were involved in salt trading.

For example, Zhu Yuanzhang, although he personally did not carry bags to sell salt, had substantial support from a large number of salt merchants. Otherwise, how else could they afford the expenses of warfare?

Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on the Salt Voucher System, and even during Zhu Yunwen’s reign, this system persisted.

For merchants who wanted to sell salt, they had to follow the “Opening Central” and “Salt Voucher System.” The government drew a circle on the map, and as long as merchants transported a certain amount of grain into the circle, the authorities would issue salt vouchers. After obtaining the vouchers, merchants were required to follow designated routes and locations to sell the salt.

Therefore, for the Mongolian tribes during this period, obtaining salt and iron through regular trade with the Central Plains was absolutely impossible.

Unless they resorted to smuggling!

And what Song Sheng mentioned about merchants was actually referring to smugglers.

As Zhu Yunwen pondered, using these individuals, who should have been executed, to gather intelligence on the Mongolian tribes—whether it was feasible or not—remained to be seen.

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