Yangzhou, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, is located in the middle and west of Jiangsu Province, adjacent to Huai 'an, Yancheng, Taizhou and Tianchang in Anhui Province, and across the river from Nanjing and Zhenjiang. Yangzhou is quiet now, but it is a famous first-tier city in history. As far as economy is concerned, Yangzhou's position in ancient times can be compared with that of Shanghai today.
During the Western Han Dynasty, there was a famous Seven-State Rebellion, among which Liu Ying and Wu Wang had the strongest economic strength. He controlled the Jianghuai and Zhejiang areas, where there are many rivers and lakes, enjoying the benefits of fish and salt. Wu is now in Yangzhou, which was called Guangling in ancient times.
In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, someone said such a famous saying, which was mistaken for a poem written by the Tang people. This is "riding a crane to Yangzhou with a lot of money". After the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Yangzhou was one of the first-tier cities, one of the economic centers and one of the salt capitals.
People can't help eating salt. Guan Zhong said, "Without salt, it is swollen." In ancient times, salt was monopolized by the court or some merchants appointed by the court. Ancient salt merchants were basically rich people with countless money.
There is a plot at the beginning of the classic TV series Yongzheng Dynasty: there is a flood in the south of the Yangtze River, and the court has no money to save it. On May 8th and 9th, the fourth elder brother Yin _ and the thirteenth elder brother Huang Anxiang went south to Yangzhou to fight the salt gang leader headed by Ren Boan who supported them. Finally, millions of taels of silver were found from these salt merchants for disaster relief.
Ren Boan and others paid a tribute of one hundred and twenty pieces of silver at a time to show their respect for the nine brothers, showing the wealth of salt merchants. Ren Boan was sold by Mei's brother, because the punishments wanted to slaughter white ducks, thus escaping the task of patrolling the salt road in the south of the Yangtze River. One of the conditions for Ren Boan to take refuge in the Prince is to restore the patrol post on the salt road in the south of the Yangtze River, because he knows that this is one of the fattest jobs in the world.
The plot of TV series is fictional, but the important position of Yangzhou in the salt industry in Qing Dynasty is real.
Huizhou merchants account for the vast majority of salt gangs in Yangzhou. Where is Huizhou? Huangshan City is located at the southernmost tip of Anhui Province. 1987 was renamed Huangshan city.
Huizhou merchants are very famous in history. In fact, more Huizhou merchants are working hard in Yangzhou. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Yangzhou was prosperous, but it was said to be the economic gathering place of Huizhou merchants. Huizhou merchants blossomed everywhere in Yangzhou, which can be traced back to Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang originated in the southeast, and Yangzhou, which has a prosperous economy, has long been Zhu Yuanzhang's territory. In order to unify the whole country, Zhu Yuanzhang had to raise a lot of money and food. What kind of war can he fight without money and food? where is the money to come from? Zhu Yuanzhang lifted the ban on salt industry, and the people could manage the salt industry independently.
In the salt market at that time, the most valuable thing was the introduction of Huai salt. According to the regulations, anyone who transports grain from the south of the Yangtze River to the border of Beiyuan can get two copies of Huai Salt Guides issued by the imperial court, and get a lot of salt benefits. Because Shaanxi is close to the border area, Shaanxi merchants can transport grain nearby, so it is easy to get a lot of Huai salt. Jiangnan merchants suffered as a result. After all, Jiangnan is too far from the frontier fortress and the cost of transporting grain is too high.
Ye Qi, the head of the household department in the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, thought that this rule was unfair to Jiangnan merchants, so he stipulated that Jiangnan merchants did not have to go north to transport grain, but could exchange money for Huai salt. Ye Qi did this because he came from Huai 'an, South Zhili, and represented the interests of Jiangnan businessmen in the court.
Shaanxi businessmen have great opinions on this regulation.
Huizhou merchants constantly suppressed Shaanxi merchants in Yangzhou's commercial competition. How come? In short, this is a lawsuit. Huizhou merchants generally came from feudal literati and received strict education. At that time, Huizhou people either became Confucian scholars or businessmen.
Huizhou merchants often find loopholes in the management of Shaanxi merchants, and basically all kinds of lawsuits can win. With the passage of time, the commercial control scope of Shaanxi merchants in Yangzhou has been eroded by Huizhou merchants. By the time of Wanli in Ming Shenzong, Huizhou merchants had ranked first in Yangzhou. After the great turmoil in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Yangzhou gradually recovered its vitality.
Photo-Slender West Lake in Yangzhou
The capital of the Qing Dynasty is in Beijing, and it takes a lot of money to travel from south to north. In this case, the advantages of Huizhou merchants are even more obvious. They won the trust of the court by paying them all kinds of money. Because of the failure of Yangzhou business circle, Shaanxi businessmen shifted their goals and concentrated on running Sichuan. Many big salt merchants in Yangzhou in Qing Dynasty were Huizhou merchants.