Gao Shixin asked: "The government comes to collect salt, how to collect good salt? How to collect coarse salt?"

Zhang Zhan replied: "A load of good salt costs 100 cents per tumbler, and a load of coarse salt costs 30 cents per tumbler."

Just looking at the purchase price, the government's official price is indeed ridiculously low, but after seeing the salt, Gao Shixin felt that the government's price was actually quite fair.

Gao Shixin opened the cloth covered with salt load and saw that the coarse salt was just the most primitive salt, which contained a lot of impurities and had a yellow color on the surface, which was very ugly. He reached out and grabbed a handful of sea salt. It was astringent, with large particles and uneven. Such sea salt was obviously almost impossible to use for cooking, and he didn't know what it could be used for.

In the impression left by the owner of this body, Gao Shixin had never eaten this salt. He remembered that when he was a child, his mother used salt for him and Zhang Yong to cook for him and Zhang Yong. The salt used was similar to the coarse salt in his previous life. The particles were larger, but not that big, the color was impurity, and the black and yellow were all impurities. It was similar to the salt used in rural areas in the 1980s and 1990s, which was much better than these so-called coarse salts.

"There is good salt here," Zhang Zhan hurriedly walked aside and opened another cloth covered with a load and said, "Coarse salt is sun-dried salt, and good salt is salt we cooked in an iron pot."

Gao Shixin walked up and glanced at the salt in the load. The so-called good salt was also very disappointing, because these so-called good salts were not the fine, white, powdery salt he imagined, but were similar to the salt he ate when he was a child. The salt boiled in an iron pot was of this kind, which was very disappointing.

"How can the good salt cooked in an iron pot be like this?" asked Gao Shixin.

"This is already very good salt," Zhang Zhan replied, "Official, you must be used to using that kind of snowflake salt, right? The fine and white salt? We don't have that kind of salt here. Those salts are either the well salt from Shaanxi or the lake salt from Xihai (Qinghai). Only when the well water and lake water are pure can you boil good salt."

After Zhang Zhan's explanation, Gao Shixin realized that the fine and good salt used by the Ming Dynasty all came from deep wells in Shaanxi or Qinghai Lake in the northwest. The clean well water and lake water did not contain any impurities, so the salt produced was naturally fine. However, in Lianghuai Salt Field, the East China Sea (actually the Yellow Sea) faced by the Yellow River silt and sand flowed into the sea in large quantities, and the sea water was turbid yellow. The salt boiled by such sea water was very coarse and had a lot of impurities, not to mention the salt produced by drying.

"I heard that there are Fujian salt and Guangdong salt, which are much better than those here, right?" Gao Shixin asked again.

"It's almost the same, as long as it's sea salt, it's basically the same." Zhang Zhan replied.

Although the sea water along Guangdong and Fujian coastal areas is blue and looks very clean, it is actually not that pure. There are many rivers along Guangdong and Fujian coastal areas, and a small amount of mud and sand flow into the sea. Unless you can go to the Xisha Islands to get sea water to boil salt, the quality will be much better, but even the sea water in the depths of the South China Sea contains a lot of impurities. Not to mention the depths of the South China Sea, even if you go to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to get sea water, there will be impurities.

The reason why seawater is bitter and astringent is that it not only contains salt, but also other minerals, so sea salt in later generations also needs to be purified.

Gao Shixin asked, "If I could help you make that kind of fine and fine salt like snowflakes, then the government's purchase price would be higher, right?"

"That's natural!" Zhang Zhan nodded, "I heard that a tumble of good salt is as expensive as three taels of silver. Of course, the profits of salt merchants are higher. If they sell three taels of silver, they can sell them for six cents of silver at a small amount of salt. In fact, salt merchants still prefer to buy good salt, but we don't have one here."

One pound of salt is six cents of silver, and two pounds of salt is one or two cents of silver. One pound of silver is equivalent to the living expenses of a farmer in the year! Only wealthy families can afford this high-priced fine salt. This kind of good salt is used to brush teeth and rinse your mouth, not to cook. The salt used in restaurants and the salt used in wealthy families to cook are slightly worse in color. A pound of fine salt costs about 300 to 400 cents per pound, and that kind of salt is not affordable for ordinary people. Three pounds of salt costs one or two ounces of silver. How can ordinary people buy such expensive salt?

The profits of salt vendors selling such good salt are too high. The price they received from the government is a leeway of five taels of silver. After deducting the salt entries, they handled the upper and lower points, bribed officials, and were taken away by checkpoints such as military households on the way. After being transported to the destination, the cost price of a leeway of fine salt is about ten taels, and they can be sold for seventy taels of silver!

What's more, those salt merchants not only sell official salt, but also mix less expensive private salt into the official salt, which makes the profit even higher.

When a salt merchant buys those ordinary good salt, the purchase price of one tumbler from the government is 150 cents of copper plate. After being shipped to the destination, the selling price is about 30 cents per catty, and the selling price of one tumbler can reach 3600 cents! When buying the worst salt, the purchase price of the government is 50 cents per catty. After being shipped to the destination, the selling price is 8 cents per catty, and a tumbler can be sold for 960 cents.

It seems that if you buy bad salt to sell, the profit ratio of salt merchants is higher. In fact, it is not the case that poor salt requires more salt to earn money that a good salt can earn. With more quantity, the freight and the cost of passing various checkpoints on the road will be higher. Therefore, if salt merchants can get good salt, of course they like to sell fine salt, but there is not so much fine salt. The Ming Dynasty only produces fine salt, and sea salt is relatively rough. Guangdong and Fujian have better sea salt, but the journey is long and the cost is not low.

If the stove owners can make fine salt, the government will naturally have higher taxes, but the purchase price will be higher, and the lives of the stove owners will also be better.

It’s a pity that Gao Shixin didn’t know much about chemical engineering, so he couldn’t do it when he asked him to refine fine salt. So what he thought of was Zhang Yong.

"You go to Huai'an and call Eunuch Zhang." Gao Shixin gave an order to Wu Liuqi.

"No!" Wu Liuqi took the order, took four Jinyiwei and rushed to Huai'an in a fast boat.

Gao Shixin turned his head and smiled at Zhang Zhan, "Actually, I don't know how to refine fine salt, but I know my good brother, Eunuch Zhang, so I'll call him over to help you."

"Eunuch Zhang is here to help us?" Zhang Zhan was stunned.

Gao Shixin laughed: "Eunuch Zhang is very talented. If it weren't for the injury on the battlefield, he would have to go to the palace to be a father-in-law. With his talent, it would be no problem to pass the No. 1 pick in the exam."

The four Jinyiwei rowed desperately and arrived in Huai'an in just one day. Hearing that Zhang Yong was working with Xu Guangqi to help farmers and military households build a new imperial village on the edge of Hongze Lake upstream, Wu Liuqi and others rowed to the upper reaches early the next morning.

When Zhang Yong heard that his elder brother was calling, he took fifty Dongchang men without hesitation and took a big boat, and rushed to Yancheng.

Two days later, Zhang Yong arrived at the salt field by the sea.
Chapter completed!