The word "salt" originally means "to cook the brine in a vessel". It is recorded in the "Sayings" that those who are born are called brine, and those who cook are called salt. Legend has it that during the Yellow Emperor's reign, there was a prince named Su sha, who boiled seawater and fried it into salt, and the colors were blue, yellow, white, black, and purple. Chinese began to cook salt around the time of the Shennong clan (Yandi) and the Yellow Emperor. Moreover, in ancient China, salt was boiled from seawater.
It was not until the Shang Dynasty that Chinese came to know about such things as "salt", but at that time, salt was not popularized as a seasoning, but appeared as a medicine for curing diseases, in order to "nourish the veins with salt". From the zhou dynasty onwards, table salt entered thousands of households and became an indispensable part of the Chinese "food element". It was also during this period that some people put forward the theory of "no salt is swollen", pointing out that table salt is indispensable to the human body.
By the Han Dynasty, salt had become the core of the seasoning, and it was for the "general of the eater". As the status of salt in human society gradually improved, salt was gradually given a political color. In the traditional agricultural society, the grain and cotton needed for life can be self-sufficient, but the salt must be obtained from the salt producing area. In the case of grain, as long as there is arable land and water, as long as there is no natural disaster, production can always be guaranteed.
Therefore, in the two thousand years of feudal history, table salt has a pivotal role for the country.
Why?
That is: the economy of the ancient dynasties was closely related to table salt.
Those scholars and doctors in feudal society who have a sense of financial management have an image description of this, "a hole in the profit", and its image lies in the fact that it only sees the benefits, but does not look at how the benefits are generated. The ruling class cleverly borrowed the appearance of salt as a commodity to conceal its essence of plundering the wealth of the people, so it is of great significance to clarify the economic characteristics and operating laws of the salt monopoly system.
In fact, in the "three generations period", China did not yet have the concept of "state". By the time of the Zhou Dynasty, salt, a specialty of the coastal region, had triggered many political changes. We know that the aristocratic class at that time was dependent on the people, and they were keenly aware that salt was a commodity that could affect the fortunes of the world. Therefore, Zhou Tianzi appointed the first batch of salt officials to manage the circulation of salt in the Central Plains.
The Eastern Zhou Dynasty was a golden period of China's development, during which the speed of economic and cultural development soared. With the popularization of salt, the production of salt has also increased, with sea salt in the east, rock salt in the west, and native salt in the south. In the context of the society in which the princes divided the world, the salt-producing princely states relied on the irreplaceable salt to make a profit.
In addition, some private merchants have also seized the business opportunity of salt and made a lot of money by selling salt. For example, Yi Dun, who was born in Hedong, started with salt and became one of the richest merchants at that time. After the rise of the Legalists, Guan Zhong, who advocated the concept of "taking advantage of a hole", implemented the official salt system in the State of Qi. It can be said that once the system of Guan Zhong was implemented, the concept of "salt government" was introduced, which once affected the feudal history of the next two thousand years.
Guan Zhong tailored the official salt sales system for the State of Qi, which was "measuring its weight, counting its wins, the people gaining seven, and the king getting its third", prohibiting all private business practices of selling salt, and changing taxation to monopoly. Guan Zhong's reforms were significant, as it was the first time that the monopoly power of the ruling class shifted from politics to economics. Guan Zhong's decree brought two major benefits to the development of the State of Qi:
First, the country's ability to absorb wealth has increased significantly;
Second, the state's monopoly made it easy for the State of Qi to achieve the goal of weakening the people and strengthening the country and suppressing business.
So, what kind of understanding does Guan Zhong have about table salt?
We may wish to look at Guan Zhong's theory on salt administration in "Guan Zi": the state levies a house tax on the people, and the people will demolish the houses; the state levies a tree tax on the people, and the people will cut down trees; the state levies an animal husbandry tax on the people, and the people will kill livestock; the state collects a population tax on the people, and the people will refuse to have children. Only when the state firmly controls salt can it control the people and make them obey.
Therefore, salt can promote taxation, as long as the people cannot do without salt, it means that no one can evade taxation. After the introduction of the salt policy of "managing mountains and seas", the price of salt in the State of Qi was instantly raised by dozens of times. Under the constraints of this system, salt begins to be produced, and the process of pricing and selling it is controlled by the authorities.
It can be said that in the country of Qi at that time, table salt has basically faded the commodity attribute. Even if the salt in the country of Qi rises to a sky-high price, the people must pay for it. The private property of the people, through the medium of salt, quickly flowed into the treasury of the State of Qi and was transformed into state property. Sima Qian commented on this: "Qi Huan used the strategy of managing Zhong, passing through the power of light and heavy, and the business of mountains and seas, and became hegemonic with the princes of the dynasty and the Qi of the districts. ”
In Sima Qian's view, the territory of the State of Qi was small, the land was not suitable for farming, and resources were scarce, and the reason why "Qi of The Qi of The District" could rise was because of the "industry of mountains and seas". From the beginning of the State of Qi, official salt became an important means of profit for feudal rulers, and the profit of official salt increased twentyfold during the Qin Dynasty. A vast state apparatus, in its operation, is powered by salt as fuel.
Who would have thought that the condiments needed by the common people every day could support two thousand years of feudal dynasties, which is definitely a miracle in human history.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the state officially introduced a salt and iron monopoly system, and the official monopoly on the salt and iron industry. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up thirty-six salt officials in twenty-seven counties across the country, who were responsible for monitoring the salt industry along the coast, northwest, and southwest. In the sixth year of the first century, Emperor Zhao of Han gathered more than sixty scribes from the people to debate with the imperial master Sang Hongyang on the salt and iron monopoly, which is the famous "salt and iron conference" in history.
In the later feudal dynasties, successive rulers followed the example of the Han Dynasty, set up salt officials in salt-producing areas, and strictly controlled the operation of the salt industry.
Resources:
["Pipe", "Sayings", "The Origin and Institutional Change of Salt", "Ancient Dynasties and Salt"]