Why did the ancient rich sell salt, and why was the salt so profitable?

Since ancient times, salt has been a very profitable item, and it was a very profitable item in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States PeriodThe Jin State relied on the profits brought by salt to make its own country's economy strong and dominate the world. In the Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou salt merchants can be said to be the pinnacle of salt merchants. has reached the level of being rich and rivaling the country, and even the imperial court has to give three points

Why did selling salt become the most lucrative business in ancient times? <>

First, edible salt is the main intake of inorganic substances that maintain the health and normal functioning of human beings, and it is a necessity for life。People who do not consume salt will have problems with their body functions, so that the body cannot function properly. Therefore, wherever there are people, there must be a market for selling salt, which is a necessity for consumption.

It is different from gold and silver jewelry, famous paintings. Table salt is a necessity for the whole society. Salt is sold in all markets, but luxury goods such as famous paintings and gold, silver and jewelry, are not necessities that only a small fraction of wealthy merchants can buy.

Therefore, salt is easy to sell and profitable, prompting the ancient rich to sell salt

There is also the fact that salt is a consumable, and if you use a little, you will have to buy supplements, so the shopping mall of salt will not change, and it needs to be supplied for a long time. In ancient times, they were all self-sufficient small-scale peasant societies. Some of the necessities of life can be produced by themselves. <>

Just like crops, livestock and other food can be grown and raised by themselves. Water sources can also be obtained through hydraulic projects. But table salt can only be made by the sea, and there are also unique salt mines.

Only a part of the people can be self-sufficient, and there is a high level of cumbersome salt production in ancient times. It is precisely because of this that salt was a necessity for all people to buy in ancient times, so that the sale of salt in ancient times could make huge profits, and in ancient times, there was no need to worry about the demand for salt in the market, as long as there was no salt in the family, they would buy it, and someone would have a profit to buy it, and a profit would drive wealth. So, why did the ancient rich all sell salt?

It is precisely because salt was in circulation forever in the ancient market. The market occupies a huge and the profits brought are also very high, which is the reason.

Salt is a must-have item in every household like rice, and without salt, there is no taste in eating. "Salt and iron monopoly", salt has always been the monopoly of the government, and ** is also controlled by the government, so merchants sell salt with large profit margins.

Because in ancient times, salt was monopolized and private trafficking was not allowed, and the amount of salt mined was also small, resulting in relatively wealthy salt merchants.

Because in ancient times, the status of salt was equivalent to that of oil today. For more than 2,000 years, salt has been controlled by the government, and it is an essential item for the common people to eat three meals a day. Because the ancient salt mining technology is immature, there is relatively little salt, and the management right has always been in the hands of the government, so the salt is so expensive.

Because salt is a necessity for people's lives, the demand is large, although the ** is not high, but the market potential is large.

Because there were not many means of salt production in ancient times, and salt was a rigid necessity, the demand was large, and every family could not live without salt.

Salt is cheap. In ancient times, salt was not like this. Like many things, he belonged to the aristocracy.

In ancient times, would salt have been so expensive? First of all, because table salt is an official monopoly. Readers with a deeper understanding of history should know that a system was practiced in ancient times, that is, the official salt and iron works.

The system stipulates that only ** can sell salt consumer goods. For the public, this is also a state monopoly, prohibiting private salt. Old salt is ridiculously expensive.

As the saying goes: "three hundred meters of salt for one kilogram".

When salt was the most expensive, today it's equivalent to 200 yuan a kilogram. Why? For ordinary people, the ** of salt was objectively high in ancient times, and was maliciously hypnotized by some peddlers for huge profits.

According to Guanzi, Guan Zhong, the famous prime minister of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period, believed that "only official mountains and seas can be used", that is, the cost of going through state monopoly is higher. So, why did ancient China grab wealth, increase taxes, and keep the country running?

Salt is the most monopolistic livelihood and strategic necessity. The salt tax is one of the main ailments of the country's finances. The maintenance of state power requires significant financial support.

The main reason for the high salt in ancient times is that the demand for salt in ancient times is large, and the salt production areas are concentrated, which is convenient for tax control, so the salt tax is also very high. In ancient times, there were not many places where salt was produced. In addition to the Salt Industry Association, salt was a special substance in ancient times, monopolized and controlled by the state, which, combined with the influence of geographical location, was also very expensive to transport.

We all know that salt comes from the evaporation of seawater. In ancient times, when science and technology were not developed, because a large amount of ancient salt belonged to the most regulated industry, therefore, quality was not considered in mines and production. For example, during the Song Dynasty of Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, ** said in the memory that salt was mixed with sediment during transportation, and the taste was bitter but inedible, and the salt was high and of poor quality; Since the old salt belongs to the most controlled industry, the quality is not considered when extracting and producing.

For example, during the reign of Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the ** said on a monument that salt was mixed with sediment.

Mainly because in ancient times, the refining technology of salt was not developed, so the yield of salt was very low.

This is because the cost of manufacturing salt is relatively expensive, and salt is also an official item, the market demand is relatively high, the output is relatively low, and the relationship between supply and demand is not balanced, so it is very expensive.

Because in ancient times, the salt-making technology was not very mature, which would lead to a shortage of supply, and the imperial court would control it.

China copied the ancient salt and iron official camp, salt raiders were mostly lawbreakers, bypassing the government tax direct arbitrage, and salt is the foundation of people's livelihood, no one does not need it, so the salt merchant's trading is sure to make a profit, many celebrities in ancient times are smuggling salt to start, such as Cheng Biting Gold is to sell smuggled salt to start.

Salt is an indispensable necessity for people's lives. Since it is an indispensable necessity, in the case of only one firm selling, he can sell as high as he wants, the buyer has no bargaining ability, and the seller can calmly make huge profits, which is the salt merchant's sudden wealth.

The main method of ancient artificial salt is to evaporate the brine, and when the water is evaporated, the rest is the crystal of salt. In fact, the poor also eat salt, but it is very economical to eat, after all, if a person does not eat salt for too long, the body will not be able to bear it. It is said that if you are a person on the grassland, you will eat mutton instead of salt.

If you are poor in the interior, you should rely on hunting game instead of eating salt, which is also considered meat, and there is salt in it.

For people near the sea, it is relatively easier to make salt because there is a lot of salt in the sea. All they need to do is enclose the sea water into salt pans and bask in the sun. In ancient times, the conditions for salt production were not good, and it should be said that it was simple.

And because the transportation conditions are not good, transportation is also a problem, so salt in ancient times was very expensive. The average poor person will save money, for example, salt for only one meal out of three meals a day, or once a few days.

In the inland area, it mainly relies on evaporated salt lakes and brine lakes, and some do have underground natural brine, which can be refined from salt. It is also the use of these salt-containing raw materials, and then by boiling and evaporating the water to obtain salt. In ancient times, due to the lack of technology, most of them were coarse salt, with large particles, and even there were many impurities in it.

This kind of salt is not white refined salt, but yellowish-brown more.

And the people on the grassland will eat meat instead of salt, after all, mutton and sheep blood contain salt. But if you are poor in the Central Plains, you can also watch some game to replace salt. In ancient times, there was less pollution, there were many mountains and forests, and there were many wild animals in it, so you can hunt some small animals to eat, which can not only change the living conditions, but also replenish the salt.

Salt is a necessity for human beings, salt is a ubiquitous substance in the earth's crust, and because it is easily soluble in water, it is often carried by rainwater into rivers and then into the sea. In ancient times, there was also salt, but at that time, the sale of salt was controlled, so many people couldn't eat it.

Sea salt may be the earliest artificially mined salt in ancient times. According to ancient records, the Susha clan during the Yan Emperor pioneered the use of seawater to boil salt, which was known as "Susha as boiled salt" in history.

In ancient times, although the poor sometimes could not afford to buy salt, they usually ate very lightly and spared salt, otherwise not eating salt for a long time would be harmful to their health.

Sea salt, you can boil seawater, and after the seawater evaporates, you will get sea salt, and they will save salt, and if you don't eat salt, it is not good for your health.

Those near the sea can secretly boil seawater for salt, and hunt and drink animal blood. The most is vinegar cloth, and there is also buying private salt to eat, or rarely eating salt, and it is really not good to eat official salt.

In ancient times, the coastal areas mainly evaporated seawater to obtain salt, while the inland mainly relied on lake salt, well salt and other salt-producing places, and there were no salt-producing places, such as the grassland drinking animal blood to absorb salt.

In fact, there are many ways to obtain salt, salt water evaporation, or salt from food, generally meat has the highest salt content, and there is sea salt near the sea.

Salt can be said to be a necessity of life, and I think I can still afford to eat salt, but I may eat less, or I may use seawater to cook salt myself.

Of course, the ancients also had salt, but the method was different from the present, the ancients generally took salt water and put it in the sun, and then dried it to be salt.

Salt can be obtained by evaporating seawater, or salt can be obtained from food, and meat generally has the highest salt content.

In ancient history, salt was not allowed to be sold privately because those in power were afraid that someone would have ulterior motives to grasp the lifeblood of the country. In ancient times, salt was an indispensable daily necessities, and every common person had to use it, and to this day, salt is still an indispensable thing in the lives of ordinary people. In ancient times, it was a felony to sell salt without permission, and I think it is none other than these reasons:

Ancient rulers feared that someone would manipulate the economic lifeblood of the country. In history, for a long time, the rulers were the implementation of the commercial policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, and the status of merchants was very low, even if the merchants were wealthy, even rich and rivaled the country, in the social point of view, it was an inferior class, and it was a group of people ranked after the farmers and industry.

If salt is freely sold by merchants, of course, the merchants' pockets will bulge and they will earn a lot, but if the merchants have ulterior motives or even treasonous thoughts, it will threaten the fundamental foundation of the entire country. to the detriment of the stability of the ruler's regime. Once salt is manipulated by people with ulterior motives, the people's lives will be affected, the price of salt**, the most serious result is that the people are miserable, which will cause social turmoil and cause a crisis in the country, so the sale of illicit salt is not allowed.

One of the main ** of the treasury of the ancient rulers. In ancient times, if you want the people to live a stable life and have a place to live, the country must be strong, and there must be a strong military force to protect the country, so you must have money to develop military power, so the treasury is quite important. Naturally, salt became one of the important revenues of the country's treasury.

The common people need to eat salt, and the consumption of salt is very large, so the sale of salt is an important income of the treasury, and the ruler will certainly not give such a good thing to others to do, so others are not allowed to sell salt.

I think it's because at that time, salt was seriously controlled by the state, and salt was a very precious thing, whether it was purified or mined, etc., it was very difficult, so I didn't let salt be sold privately.

Salt as an important material, is indispensable in people's lives, in ancient times, the control of salt is equivalent to the control of the economic lifeline, and iron as a material, can be made of agricultural tools, but also can be made, but also an important material in ancient times. Therefore, the feudal dynasty monopolized these two things, one is to increase the country's income, and the other is to maintain social stability.

Salt is very common now, but it may not be the case in ancient times, ancient science and technology are backward, salt production is not very perfect, so salt is not affordable for everyone, it can be seen that salt is very precious, equivalent to the state control; Perhaps salt was in the same situation as oil today, and oil today cannot be sold privately.

Because salt occupies a very important position in people's daily life, and the output is high, the cost is low, it is an important resource for the state to pay taxes, and private sales are easy to lead to the loss of this important financial **.

Salt is an important commodity, and without salt the soldiers would have no strength to fight. And salt is a means of controlling the country and the economy, so the emperors have to control it firmly.

I think it's because salt in ancient history was very precious, and the imperial court would not allow such a precious salt to be smuggled, so of course it was not allowed to be smuggled privately.

At that time, the state was selling, which was equivalent to a monopoly. Moreover, there are officials in charge of salt, and there is also the construction of salt roads, in short, there is a lot of investment. It is normal for the sale of illicit salt to be punished with the death penalty because it touches the balance of the whole.

Salt is common now, but it was not the same in ancient times. Although the ancient salt cannot be said to be compared with **, the value of ** is about the same, and the right to sell salt can only be controlled by the state, and it was only in Hou Debang that this situation was broken.