Do you know: I, a commoner prime minister

Chapter 73 Investigating Salt Affairs?

In the evening, Zhou An took Shulan to a tofu restaurant for a delicious meal. On the way home, Shulan kept praising the dishes at the tofu restaurant.

"If you like it, you can come often in the future, until you get tired of it," Zhou An said with a smile.

"I think I'll pass. It's fine to come here occasionally. The food is delicious, but it's too expensive."

Shulan shook her head and said, "If we come every day, we'll be running into a deficit."

Hao put her in charge of the household, but the housekeeper was very capable.

You need to calculate your household income to plan your expenses. Not only should you not spend more than you earn, but you should also have a certain surplus.

Only in this way can we have enough money and supplies to deal with special circumstances.

It is often said that men are responsible for external affairs and women for internal affairs.

Zhou Anshang is currently studying and has no income, so she has to be very careful with her money.

"I never expected my wife to be such a thrifty and capable homemaker."

Zhou An laughed and said, "Don't worry, we won't be short of money in the future."

During the month he spent at home, he had Shi Tou contact his brother and sister-in-law.

Shi Keng and his wife have already agreed and have contacted many people who work on ships.

However, Zhou An did not allow them to expand too much, but instead asked them to first integrate the operations.

They ran boats to transport goods for small merchants. Because the goods were limited, they usually had to take on several jobs and transport them together.

Otherwise, the shipping costs would be too high for small merchants to bear.

However, this presents a problem: it's difficult to receive enough work at the same time, especially since it's all destined for the same place.

If you're lucky, it will only take about a day; if you're unlucky, you might have to wait several days.

Although it was a bit slow, there was nothing that small merchants could do about it.

After integration, a pick-up point can be set up at each dock, so that passengers can be picked up no matter where they are going.

Goods traveling in the same direction can be transported; once they arrive at another port, they can be transferred to another ship.

Once they have integrated and adapted to this model, they can gradually expand their business to include the transportation of private letters and goods.

Those small merchants don't demand timeliness, not because they don't want it, but because they can't do it right now.

For those who work on ships, it saves them waiting time and allows them to earn more money, making it a win-win situation.

As the integrator, Shi Keng only needs to take a small cut.

The idea came from Zhou An; he was the one who took the lead.

Of course, Zhou An wasn't getting paid for nothing. He had connections in Tongzhou, Jinling, and Yangzhou, and he could resolve any trouble he encountered.

Needless to say, Jinling and Tongzhou are fine, but for Yangzhou, you can ask Sheng Changbai for help.

The docks are places frequented by low-class people and shady characters. You won't encounter any major trouble there; as long as you have some official connections, everything can be resolved.

The real trouble here is not only for Zhou An, but also for Shi Keng and his men. Even the dockworkers who manage the docks are not people they can afford to offend.

"I believe in you, sir!"

Shulan was unaware of these things and thought Zhou An was referring to passing the imperial examination and becoming an official in the future.

As long as an official is truly not short of money, even a ninth-rank official, with an official position but no real authority, can still accumulate several hundred taels of silver a year from various miscellaneous incomes.

If you have a job, even just a minor one like a clerk, you can earn around one or two thousand taels a year.

This is still normal income. Even without deliberately being greedy, the gifts given by local landlords and gentry during festivals would far exceed their annual salary.

After a long day of travel, the couple returned home, washed up, and went to bed to rest.

After a shameless and unrestrained sexual encounter in their new home, they fell asleep.

The next day, after breakfast, Zhou An went out, while Shulan was busy directing the servants to clean the house and see what needed to be added.

The house was, after all, raided, and almost all the valuables were taken away, leaving only some ordinary furniture that was worthless.

Adding things would cost a lot of money, so Shulan carefully calculated and decided to only fully furnish the backyard and main hall, and not waste money on other places since they were not needed for the time being.

Zhou An arrived at Tongzhou Academy by carriage. After being informed, he was led to Hu Yuan's residence.

"This student pays his respects to Scholar Hu!" Zhou An bowed deeply.

Now that I'm going to study under Hu Yuan, I naturally have to refer to myself as a student.

"Wilde is back!"

Hu Yuan was very happy to see Zhou An. After inviting him to sit down, she smiled and said, "You've come back just in time. After the provincial examination, I sent a letter to Xuewen and just received his reply a couple of days ago."

Xuewen said they were recently preparing to submit a petition requesting the withdrawal of the salt administration investigation, and now it seems they've already submitted it!

"Inspecting salt administration?"

Zhou An was stunned when he heard this. Wasn't this something Zhao Zongquan did after he succeeded to the throne?

"That's right!"

Hu Yuan nodded and said, "The court's revenue mainly comes from taxes, commercial taxes, the Maritime Trade Office, and tea, horse, salt, and iron.

Salt accounts for a very large proportion of revenue, but salt-related income has been declining in recent decades, which must indicate a significant problem.

Investigating the causes of the corruption in the salt administration would not only increase the government's revenue and alleviate the financial difficulties.

The important point is that the salt administration involves many officials, which can eliminate a large number of corrupt officials in one fell swoop.

Han Da Xiang Gong served as the Three Departments Commissioner a few years ago, and now Xue Wen is serving as the Finance Commissioner, making it even easier to investigate!

Xuewen said that this decision was inspired by your previous remarks.

Zhou An suddenly realized that Zhao Zongquan's investigation of the salt administration after ascending the throne was actually for money.

Lu Wang proposed investigating the salt administration because he had previously told Lu Wang not to directly raise the banner of reform, but to try to divide and win over the people.

Investigating the salt administration is indeed a very good starting point. Once it is investigated, it can quickly increase the court's revenue. Secondly, there are a lot of officials involved in the salt administration.

Most importantly, the officials had no reason to oppose it.

Since the corruption in the salt administration was indeed a problem, those officials who did not profit from it naturally could not stand up to stop it.

Otherwise, if any problems are found, they will also be held responsible.

However, Zhou An was not optimistic about this salt inspection, because the young prince did not live much longer.

If the young prince were to die prematurely, not only the Emperor, but even Han Zhang and others would probably have no time to investigate the salt administration.

Because an even more serious problem awaits them—the establishment of an heir apparent!

The current emperor is already over forty years old, which is considered quite old for an emperor.

At this age, let alone having children, one might even die within a few years due to the shock of losing a child.

Moreover, after the prince dies young, those members of the imperial family will become restless.

If a crown prince cannot be determined quickly, the court will inevitably descend into a situation where members of the imperial family secretly court officials and engage in open and covert struggles over the issue of succession.

"Does Huai De not have a positive outlook on investigating salt administration?"

Hu Yuan noticed that Zhou An's expression was a bit off and asked him in confusion.

In his view, investigating the salt administration was a very good idea, and the court's defensive posture was indeed due to a lack of funds.

However, the relationship between the Great Zhou and the Liao Dynasty remained relatively stable, but there were many frictions between the Great Zhou and the Western Xia.

Once Liao and Xia initiate a war, the Great Zhou will have no choice but to respond.

But wars cost money, and the imperial court had no money, which created a vicious cycle.

He didn't know how many corrupt officials could be found by investigating the salt administration, but if the revenue from the salt administration could be restored to the level of decades ago, it would add at least ten to twenty million taels of silver to the court's revenue every year.