Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 38: Open Source? Save Money?

At this time, Li Pan spoke up to help: "I am still a young student. If there are any shortcomings in my thinking, please give me more guidance."

"It's okay." Zhang Fangping waved his hand.

Lu Beigu sat upright and said, "Although our country is rich, we are burdened by the 'three redundancies' and it is difficult to move forward. Although I live far away from home, I have given this matter some thought and have an idea."

"That's putting it mildly."

"It's more than just 'it's hard to move forward'. With limited tax revenue and almost unlimited spending, we've long been in a precarious position, and now we're barely keeping afloat."

Zhang Fangping's words were not polite. As a former envoy of the Three Departments, he knew very well the financial situation of the Song Dynasty.

Without the skills of a "top wall repairer", it is impossible to do this job.

Precisely because of this clarity, Zhang Fangping is instinctively wary of any economic policy suggestions from anyone.

In fact, even now, Zhang Fangping did not think that Lu Beigu, a student of the county school, could offer any good suggestions, but he liked to support the younger generation and talk to people by nature, so at present he just took the time to listen with the attitude of "listen to both sides to gain a clear understanding".

After all, for Zhang Fangping, if it is feasible, then that would be great; if it is not feasible, then that doesn’t matter.

Lu Beigu nodded and continued, "And I believe that the country's finances are primarily based on the salt law."

"Why, you mean to increase revenue from the salt industry?"

This question seems to be asked casually, but it contains a test.

Who in this world doesn’t know that increasing revenue makes money faster than reducing expenditure?
But taking a family as an example, all the family members work diligently to earn money, so why do most families choose to live frugally instead of going out to do business?

This is because doing business recklessly will not only result in a low success rate and may lead to loss of capital, but it may also cause the family finances to be unable to circulate positively, and then fall into a more passive situation.

The same is true for the country. At present, the finances of the Song Dynasty can only be maintained by relying on years of deficits①. If the revenue is increased indiscriminately, the finances may collapse directly.

It’s not that there are no smart people in this era, nor is it that these smart people don’t understand that increasing revenue can make money faster than reducing expenditure.

Firstly, there is no room for trial and error. Secondly, with the grassroots governance capabilities of the Song Dynasty, no matter what good open source methods you come up with, they will be distorted when promoted nationwide.

Therefore, if one really intends to increase revenue from the salt law, one may be able to reap temporary benefits, but in the end it will certainly be worse than not changing it.

Li Pan was secretly sweating beside him, hoping that Lu Beigu would not give a random answer.

"Opening up the salt industry is unacceptable."

Lu Beigu shook his head. "The people are already burdened with a heavy salt tax. Adding more will not only not bring in much money, but will only make things worse."

Zhang Fangping nodded slightly. As long as they were not suggesting that he open source the information, he would listen.

"The students' idea is to partially amend the salt and banknote laws, using commercial principles to enable inter-regional exchanges of goods and services, thereby improving efficiency and reducing losses."

After hearing this, Zhang Fangping, who had just softened his attitude, frowned tightly.

"Then do you know how the salt bill system came about?"

"know."

Lu Beigu recalled for a moment and sorted out his thoughts.

In the third year of Emperor Taizong's Yongxi reign, in order to alleviate the problem of grain supply in the northwest, he promulgated the "Compromise Law," requiring merchants to transport grain and grass to the northwest border in exchange for salt permits. With these permits, they could obtain salt from designated salt fields and then sell it within designated areas.

"However, due to the poverty of the northwest, grain prices in the border areas were high, and grain and fodder were only supplied to the border troops, not the people. Therefore, the people often made a living by selling private salt. The merchants had to spend a lot of money to transport grain for thousands of miles, and even if they obtained salt permits, they could still not make a profit by exchanging them for official salt. Over time, the 'compromise law' fell into disuse." "The compromise law is simply not feasible." Zhang Fangping's brows were still furrowed. "So when Fan Jingong was in charge of the blue and white salt in the Shaanxi border areas, he changed the salt law. He changed the physical compromise to paying for salt notes. Salt merchants paid copper coins directly in the capital to exchange for salt notes, and then went to the salt fields to collect salt. Meanwhile, the northwest grain and fodder were transported directly by the southeastern grain transport. The 'compromise law' was completely abolished."

Fan Jingong refers to Zhang Fangping’s good friend Fan Xiang.

After passing the imperial examination, Fan Xiang was promoted from the position of Qianzhou Tuiguan to Zhenrong Army Tongpan. He personally led troops to resist the siege of Li Yuanhao. Like Zhang Fangping, he was a man who was well versed in border affairs and economics. He also presided over the construction of Liufan Fort and Dingchuan Fort. He made great achievements in the tasks of promoting the smelting of silver and copper mines in Shaanxi and the production of green and white salt on the border of Shaanxi. Now he serves as the magistrate of Huazhou in Guanzhong.

And if nothing unexpected happens, with Zhang Fangping resuming his post as the Three-Commissioner in charge of national finances next year, Zhang Fangping and Bao Zheng will soon jointly request the reinstatement of Fan Xiang as the Salt Administration Envoy, allowing him to regain control of the Northwest Salt Administration, and promote him to the Deputy Transport Envoy to assist Zhang Fangping.

Lu Beigu knew about Fan Xiang and the Salt and Banknote Law he formulated.

This person is quite famous in ancient Chinese economic history, especially in the economic history of the Song Dynasty.

The "History of the Song Dynasty: Records of Food and Goods" clearly records that the salt and money law formulated by Fan Xiang was quite complete. Later, the civil servants in charge of the salt law did not dare to change it at will, and only made slight additions and deletions on its basis.

What Zhang Fangping said next was also very direct, and he didn't even give Lu Beigu much face.

"Since you know about the Salt Banknote Law, why do you think your design can be better than Fan Jingong's?"

On the basis of the already complete Salt and Banknote Law, Lu Beigu proposed to Zhang Fangping to amend the Salt and Banknote Law formulated by his good friend Fan Xiang. The other party's attitude was not surprising.

But Lu Beigu did not back down, he said.

"I think my husband is well aware of the drawbacks of Sichuan's lack of copper coins. When I and my group passed through Luzhou, we saw a constant flow of ships transporting well salt from several southern Sichuan states."

"You mean transporting salt from Sichuan to Guanzhong? And then exchanging it for copper coins?"

At this time, Zhao Yan interrupted and asked, he was originally the transport envoy of Yizhou Road, and he also understood economic matters.

"That's not the case," Lu Beigu shook his head and said, "The roads in Shu are difficult to travel. If salt is transported overland, the price will be completely different from the well salt shipped eastward along the Yangtze River. The people in Guanzhong can't afford it, and it's impossible to exchange it for copper coins. I think we can have merchants from the southeast come to Sichuan with copper coins to buy salt to alleviate the copper coin shortage in Sichuan."

“Isn’t that what’s done nowadays?”

Zhao Yan frowned, completely confused. "The problem is that the imperial court has annual sales limits on well salt. Southeastern merchants can't pay for well salt entirely with copper coins. Most of the money they pay for is iron coins, Jiaozi, and even cloth. Besides, what does this have to do with the northwest?"

Yizhou Road is different from other roads because Sichuan is rich in tea and well salt, so the transfer envoys here also have a special task, which is to supervise the monopoly income of tea and salt.

Therefore, Zhao Yan has a lot to say about the issue of Sichuan well salt.

“That’s exactly what’s being done today, so it’s practical.”

Lu Beigu's words were difficult to interpret, but he didn't elaborate. Instead, he returned to the topic and said, "I've been thinking about this: Sichuan has a lot of well salt but is short of copper coins; the northwest is short of grain; the southeast has a lot of copper coins; and the Central Plains has a lot of grain. These four things could form a cycle."

"Oh?"

Zhang Fangping's frown relaxed slightly.

He was keenly aware of something, but what was in front of him was still hazy and there was a layer of window paper between them, which he could not see through.

Afterwards, Lu Beigu revealed all his ideas.

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①Deficit is not a modern word, but is derived from the "red out and ink in" stipulated by Su Cho of the Western Wei Dynasty in the accounting system. "Deficit" was often used in the Sui and Tang Dynasties to indicate that the country's fiscal expenditure is greater than its revenue.

② The certificate for exchanging salt. From the record in "History of Song Dynasty·Tonghuozhi", we know that at that time "each salt voucher could be used to exchange for 116.5 jin of salt, with a price of 6 guan".

(End of this chapter)