Chapter 214 Caring for the People

When Fang Xuanling talked about giving gifts, the expression on Li Xiang's face was a little weird. You are like the old fox in the palace. You only put things in your pockets. When will you be able to give me gifts? Even if you give me a gift, I have to figure out the price.

There are 358 states in the world, and the imperial court is quite generous this time. Each state will give Li Xiang ten salt citations, and each salt citation can sell three hundred kilograms of salt.

According to Li Xiang's original calculation, he only needed to sell 500,000 catties per year. Unexpectedly, the expansion doubled all of a sudden without spending a penny. Li Xiang was a little frightened by the olive branch extended by the court.

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister, isn't this a little too much?"

As the saying goes, no reward for no merit, I haven't even worked here yet, and someone started giving gifts right away, which really makes me feel guilty.

"The Emperor has ordered His Highness to assist me in completing the auction of salt."

Only after Fang Xuanling asked for an imperial edict did Li Xiang understand what was going on. The emperor really couldn't resist the temptation. Under such circumstances, the emperor also wanted to take action against the wealthy family.

"There is another thing that the court must know. After the salt auction, the price of salt from various places will definitely rise. According to some estimates I made, the increase may be around 60 to 70 percent. Of course, there will be Look at their auction prices, if the auction price is higher, then the price of salt will also be higher."

This matter is also risky. The court must set a price limit. The current price of salt is not very high, about ten cents per catty. But if the price of salt auctioned by the court is high, then all places will The salt merchants in China will not lose money. They will definitely continue to increase the price. When the time comes, it will still be the common people who will suffer.

"We have also thought about this. Compared with the early years of this dynasty, various tax rates have not increased, and people's lives are much richer than that time. If the price of salt rises a little, if it can increase the income of the court, society will It’s also acceptable.”

After listening to Fang Xuanling's words, Li Xiang understood what the court meant. It could not only attack the wealthy families, but also exploit the common people, and increase the court's income. For the court, it was killing three birds with one stone. Of course, Li Xiang There was no way to stop it. I thought it was an attack on the wealthy families, but I didn't expect that even the common people would have to be cut with leeks.

"Besides, isn't it a good thing that the price of salt has increased? Your Highness's salt is only 500 cents per pound. I think this price is still a bit cheap. You must know that the salt you make has never appeared. Even if it is the same as the price of your liquor, I I guess some people will buy it too.”

Regarding this issue, the emperor and Fang Xuanling speculated for a long time. They always felt that Li Xiang was a vampire in business. How could it be possible to set a price of only 500 Wen per pound? If others priced it like this, it would make sense. Li Xiang is a luxury goods seller, how could he give up such a good opportunity to make money?

"Master Prime Minister, a gentleman loves money and gets it wisely. I have raised the price of liquor a lot, but liquor is not necessary for everyone. Some people don't drink at all, but salt is different. Everyone Everyone needs salt, and if I raise the price too high, it will be the common people who will ultimately pay for it, which is not good for us, the people of the Tang Dynasty."

Li Xiang said very seriously that others did not know how much profit Li Xiang gave up, but Fang Xuanling knew very well that as the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, if Li Xiang equalized the price of salt and the price of wine, then Li Xiang could earn millions of dollars every year, but now he can only earn hundreds of thousands of dollars, and his profits have dropped more than ten times.

In the past, Fang Xuanling's impression of Li Xiang was just that he was a smart royal child, but today it has indeed changed. While making money, he can also keep the people of the world in his heart. If Li Xiang is allowed to ascend to the throne, It is also a happy event for people all over the world.

"His Highness's realm is really admirable. Looking at the young talents in the world, it is really difficult for someone to make the same choice as His Highness. Your Highness will always keep the people in his heart in the future. This will already make him much better than others. .”

Fang Xuanling said these words from the bottom of his heart. If Li Xiang pursues profits, in five or ten years, the price for people in the world to buy salt will definitely be higher. According to the history that Li Xiang knows, in the absence of salt When the iron monopoly was sold, the price of salt was only ten cents per catty, but later it rose to one hundred and ten cents per catty, which was more than ten times what it was at this time. But the people had no choice but to choose to buy at a high price. Official salt.

Ordinary people have no choice. Emperors of all dynasties have made selling illicit salt a serious crime. Even if you only sell a pound of illicit salt, you will be imprisoned for several years, and you will even be tattooed on your face after you are released. , the cost of crime is so high, even if everyone knows that officialdom and salt are expensive, they still have to spend money to buy it.

Li Xiang priced his refined salt at five hundred cents to let the following people see that no matter how much you want to raise the price, I will be waiting for you here. If you raise the price too much, If so, I don’t mind reducing the dimensionality to hit you.

Looking at the lives of ordinary people for hundreds of years, they have always been concerned about the price of salt. The imperial court also relies on this to suck the blood of the people all over the world. Li Xiang is ready to change it from the source. The imperial court can suck blood, but there must be a limit. We must let all the people eat salt.

Li Shimin was a wise king. He had ideas about the profits of the salt and iron monopoly, not to mention those fools. Once a fool faced a financial crisis, he would impose everything on the people. The price of salt and iron is The easiest to do.

Therefore, before those foolish kings appeared, Li Xiang tried his best to limit the price of salt within a region, and also found a large number of salt wells across the country. As long as such a thing was known to all the people, then even if If you want to raise prices in the future, it will be impossible. Of course, the ultimate goal is to cancel the Yantie official camp.

Turning salt into an ordinary commodity and a cheap commodity is Li Xiang's ultimate goal. Of course, Li Xiang cannot say it at the moment. If he had said it at the moment, Fang Xuanling would probably The first person to stand up and object was that the salt tax was very important to the court. Without other taxes to replace it, there could never be any wavering...