What kind of yamen were the transfer envoys in the Huaidu and Lianghuai capitals during the Ming Dynasty?

It is said that during the Hongwu period of the Guo Dynasty, the imperial court "set up officials" in the salt-producing areas of the thirteen provinces of Beijing and Beijing. There were six capitals in the country including Lianghuai, Liangzhejiang, Changlu, Shandong, Fujian, and Hedong. The salt transfer envoy is in charge of the Yamen.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Transshipment Department of Huaidu and Huaidu was located in Yangzhou City, with three branches under its jurisdiction: Taizhou, Huai'an, and Tongzhou (today's Nantong). The Lianghuai Capital Transshipment Department also has two batch salt inspection offices, Yizhen and Huai'anba. The so-called batch inspection institute is a salt inspection agency established in each section from the salt-producing area to the salt industry.

There are 30 salt fields in the Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers between China and North Korea. The Salt Area Division also has a salt department stationed in each salt field, with an ambassador and a deputy envoy each.

The Huaidu Transfer Envoy Department has 11 inspection departments under its jurisdiction: Baitahe Inspection Department, Andongba Inspection Department, Xichang Inspection Department, Xixi Inspection Department, and Anfeng Inspection Department Department, Marine Security Inspection Department, Juegang Inspection Department, Shigang Inspection Department, Miaowan Inspection Department, Changle Inspection Department, Linxing Inspection Department. The main responsibility of the Inspection Department is to be responsible for the public security of each salt field and "to patrol and catch thieves and traitors."

In the Ming Dynasty, salt-producing areas implemented the zoning and zoning law. Officials ordered officials to sell salt, or ordered merchants to buy salt and sell it in designated areas.

Customized in the first year of Hongwu, every 400 kilograms of salt was made into one salt, later called "Da Yin Salt". During the Hongzhi period, the "Small Yin Yin" was changed to 200 kilograms per Yin.

It shows that there are strict regional boundaries for salt transportation. The areas where Huaiyan salt passes include Yingtian, Ningguo, Taiping, Yangzhou, Fengyang, Luzhou, Anqing, Chizhou, and Huaian in South Zhili Jiufu, Chu, and two prefectures, the administrative districts of Jiangxi and Huguang, and the three prefectures of Henan, Runing, Nanyang, and Chenzhou in Henan.

In orthodoxy, Guizhou also eats Huai salt. Songjiang, Suzhou, Zhenjiang and Changzhou in the south of the Yangtze River are mainly the two Zhejiang salt marketing areas, while Xuzhou, Pizhou and other places are the Shandong salt marketing areas.

The producers of salt in the Ming Dynasty were called "salt households" and "zao households". They had special household registrations, and their businesses were preserved for generations and could not be changed at will. The salt policy of the Ming Dynasty had the "Kai Zhong Law", also known as the "Chinese Salt Law". In order to solve the problem of food and salary for the northern border defense army, the Ming government stipulated that merchants importing a certain amount of rice and grain from the granaries in the northern border towns should be given a certain amount of salt, and the nanometers should be brought to the border and the salt should be brought to the interior. .

In the late Ming Dynasty, Huai salt gradually developed into sun salt, which was a major revolution in the history of Huai salt production technology.

During the Hongzhi period, Ye Qi, a native of Shanyang and the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, made a petition to change the law of Kaizhong and implement the system of transporting and receiving silver from Kaizhong, that is, convening merchants to introduce salt from Kaizhong and collecting silver and salt transport envoys. The class will be transferred to Taicang, the household department, for application. From then on, merchants only needed to pay silver to the place where the transportation department was located to win the salt.

Since the establishment of the capital in the Sui Dynasty, Yangzhou has become increasingly prosperous. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was very happy in Yangzhou and did not miss Shu, and was eventually killed by his generals in Jiangdu. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the prosperity of Yangzhou was even greater than in the past. The reason for the prosperity of Yangzhou lies in its superior geographical location. , it is located in the Jianghuai Plain, conveniently connected to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and is the intersection of the north and south water veins. (Xiong Zhaozheng, "Zhang Juzheng")

The canal is also called the Cao River. Yangzhou is close to the sea. Due to its convenient location, the people boiled the sea to make salt, which was very profitable.

The total annual salt production in the Ming Dynasty was about three million yin, and Yangzhou alone had 700,000 yin. Among the eight salt-inspecting imperial censors’ yamen, the leading one is the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Department, which opened its headquarters in Yangzhou.

The full name of the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Department is the "Lianghuai Salt Transportation Department". Since the Spring and Autumn Period, salt has been a government monopoly patent. This was still the case in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty established six major salt transportation envoys to take charge of national salt affairs. In terms of status, the Transportation Department is at the same level as the Chief Secretary and the Inspector General, and they are all directly responsible to the court.

“Among the six transportation departments in the world, the two Huaihe Transportation Departments are the most powerful. Among the three transportation departments in the country, the Taizhou branch is the most powerful, and Anfeng is also the giant place in Taizhou. Shangzao Yuansou, Salt Lee The wealth in the southeast is partly due to this.”

Both the Caohe River and the salt industry are the economic lifeline of the Ming Dynasty, and the Yamen in charge of the salt industry is located here. Yangzhou, and the Water Transport Governor's Palace of the Ming Dynasty was located in Huai'an, not far from Yangzhou.

"Yang Yi Yi Er" is a reflection of the prosperity of Yangzhou after the "An-Shi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty. As time went by, by the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou was even more prosperous than before.

The palaces and pavilions in Yangzhou are magnificent, Huizhou merchants who mainly rely on the salt industry are richest in the world, and Yangzhou's thin horses are famous throughout the country, becoming the best source of concubines for the literati and officials of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the city of Yangzhou was filled with extravagance, and it was a paradise for Ming Hui merchants.

References

1. Wang Zhenzhong's "The Salt Industry of the Two Huaihe Rivers and the Urban Culture of Yangzhou in the Ming and Qing Dynasties"

2. Wang Rigen and Lu Xiaoqin's "Analysis of the Salt Industry of the Two Huaihe Rivers in the Ming Dynasty" Institutional Factors of the Unsalted Salt Method》