When it comes to salted fish, the first thing the four girls think of is the car of salted fish that accompanied Qin Shi Huang. Qin Shi Huang never dreamed that an emperor like himself who had never existed in ancient times would be treated in such a way after his death, and he chased immortality in the later period of his reign, but he did not want to die of illness on the way out. The death of the emperor outside the capital was not a very good thing, and the death of Qin Shi Huang was even more special, he died in the sand dunes, died in the hottest July, died when there was no heir. So the secret of the funeral became an inevitability, and in order to cover up the death of Qin Shi Huang, Zhao Gao and others got a cart of salted fish and put it on the car that Qin Shi Huang was riding on before he died, so a cart of salted fish accompanied Qin Shi Huang's body back to Xianyang. It is hard to imagine the extent to which Qin Shi Huang's body has decayed, after all, there is no way to do any anti-embalming measures on the road, but can only let it rot.
So, was it illegal to sell salted fish in ancient times? Normal trading is certainly not illegal, but there is one thing involved, and that is salt. Salt in ancient times in the vast majority of periods is salt monopoly, outside of this all salt trading can be characterized as the sale of private salt, this is an illegal act, each dynasty has a punishment for the sale of private salt, but the sale of private salt is repeatedly prohibited, and even the stricter the control, the more severe the trafficking, the reason is no other, high profits.
Bootleg salt also has a long history in ancient times, it was born almost at the same time as the salt monopoly, and the government has been cracking down on the sale of bootleg salt. In the novel, Cheng Yaojin's former occupation was to sell smuggled salt, and in real history, the leaders of the famous Huangchao Uprising, Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi, were both salt smugglers, because they were dissatisfied with the unfair treatment of the government, they rose up and created turmoil for Datang for ten years, and after the Huangchao Uprising, Datang could never stand up again. No one could have imagined that two smuggled salt dealers could seriously hurt The Tang Dynasty' vitality, which also showed from the side that the smuggled salt dealers were not ordinary people could do, after all, the salt at that time was the government monopoly policy adopted, and it was not an ordinary person to be able to oppose the government.
So, why did the imperial court implement the salt monopoly? Salt monopoly as early as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty began to practice, this is the Spring and Autumn Period famous masterpiece of Guan Zhong, in order to increase the income of the State of Qi, so that the State of Qi as soon as possible among the princely states to stand out, Guan Zhong carried out a series of reforms, one of which is "light and heavy fish salt profit", "the industry of the mountains and seas", the mountains and seas are salt and iron, the book "Guan Zi" explains that Guan Zhong's proposition is "Guan Shan Hai", that is, the salt and iron industry that rules the country.
Salt is an indispensable thing in daily life, only eating is the most important use of salt, as well as gargling (ancient brushing more salt), sterilization, etc., in short, the amount of salt is very large, and the production of salt is more concentrated, easy to manage, so the control of salt is very profitable, and the State of Qi is indeed the first to dominate the princely states in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Duke of Qi Huan became the first overlord, which has a certain relationship with the government's control of salt and iron. It is likely that from this time on, the rulers saw the great potential of salt and began to control salt, but at first, the imperial court only taxed salt, but as the tax brought by salt increased, the government began to monopolize salt, that is, salt officials sold, officially implemented during the Han Wudi period, and thus, there was a confrontation between the sale of private salt.
Whether the government adopts taxation or official sales, the result is that salt is monopolized, the price becomes very high, and as a daily consumer product that the people must buy, it is not unreasonable to sell salt, after all, the people cannot afford to buy official salt and want to get salt from other channels.
In fact, most of the people who sell illegal salt have backgrounds, such as directly having officials mixed in it, or some people have organized armed forces to do it, but the government is naturally not vegetarian, the laws of various dynasties and generations have penalties for smuggled salt dealers, taking the Tang Dynasty as an example, once the smuggled salt dealers are caught, it is a major crime to kill the head, and officials may also be seated, after all, in the financial revenue after the Tang Dynasty, salt accounts for nearly half, such a high proportion, no wonder the government wants to implement monopoly, no wonder the government wants to crack down on the sale of smuggled salt.
But with the development of the times, the behavior of selling private salt is becoming more and more serious, and there are many tricks, and it is not impossible to use salted fish to sell private salt, but the difficulty here is still relatively large, because when fishermen marinate fish, the salt used must be officially sold, and the amount of salt used is also controlled, which is clearly stipulated by the government, so in the pickled salted fish, the vast majority of them are used official salt, of course, it is not impossible to mix some private salt.
But by selling salted fish to sell private salt or buy private salt to use to marinate salted fish is actually not much profit, after all, salt is a necessity for the people, but salted fish is not, which has little to do with the salted fish is expensive, mainly because salted fish is dispensable for the people, and salted fish can be completely self-made.
Therefore, the proportion of private salt that can be related to salted fish is very small and almost negligible, so, in fact, it is illegal to sell private salt, but selling salted fish is not an illegal thing.