I watched a costume drama yesterday, ah, let's not talk about the TV series in the plot that can not stand up to scrutiny, there is such a very ridiculous bridge section in the play, a common people, when eating, I actually found that he put a lot of fine salt, which makes people feel particularly pulled, why? You may not know it! In ancient times, unlike now, salt was a national war material.
Now those of us who eat that can be said to be a meal can not be said to put salt, what dish does not put salt, this dish is completely wasted, coupled with the blessing of various seasonings, the flavor of the dish is drooling, but the ancient times are not the same, the price of salt can be said to be quite expensive, in the ancient army, the importance of salt is second only to equipment, salt is simply a necessary resource for marching and fighting.
In ancient times, the production of salt was not as easy as it is now to obtain a large number of fine salts with machinery, and there was no concept of mechanical production in ancient times, only through seawater drying, so you can see a lot of salt drying places around the ancient sea, and even some inner lakes also have salt places, and in ancient times the salt merchants were really a million profits, because salt would really be a strategic necessity there.
Therefore, the imperial court also set up a special official position, called the salt governor, in ancient times the salt merchants are directly controlled by the imperial court, because although the salt is small, but the problem is that this is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, if it is taken care of by private individuals, it is bound to cause a lot of impact on society, which is not conducive to the development of society, so on the one hand, salt under official control can bring huge financial revenue to itself.
On the other hand, salt can also be used to control the whole country, but due to the corruption of ancient officials, the price of salt has become higher and higher, and the people naturally cannot afford to consume, so private salt has risen, at that time, it will sell salt as much as now, ah, once you are caught selling salt, basically beheading, but in the face of huge interests, people will inevitably have other ideas.
However, when I checked the information, I found that during the sui wendi period, the imperial court began to relax the control of salt, allowing the people of the society to start operating private salt, and also abolished the control and sale system, and in order to further encourage people to sell salt, therefore, during the Sui Wendi period, the imperial court did not levy any taxes on salt merchants, at this time the salt industry began to develop in a large area, and the market prospered.