Volume 80 Treatises 56: Finance and Economics 4

鹽法茶法

Salt Law and Tea Law

煮海之利，歷代皆官領之。太祖初起，即立鹽法，置局設官，令商人販鬻，二十取一，以資軍餉。既而倍徵之，用胡深言，復初制。丙午歲，始置兩淮鹽官。吳元年置兩浙。洪武初，諸產鹽地次第設官。都轉運鹽使司六：曰兩淮，曰兩浙，曰長蘆，曰山東，曰福建，曰河東。鹽課提舉司七：曰廣東，曰海北，曰四川，曰雲南；雲南提舉司凡四，曰黑鹽井，白鹽井，安寧鹽井，五井。又陝西靈州鹽課司一。

The revenue from sea-salt production had been a government monopoly in every dynasty. As soon as the founding emperor rose to power, he established a salt monopoly, set up offices and officials, and allowed merchants to retail salt on the condition that one part in twenty was levied to fund the army. The rate was soon doubled, but on the advice of Hu Shen the original levy was restored. In the bingwu year, salt officials for the Two Huai regions were first appointed. In the first year of the Wu reign, the Two Zhe salt administration was set up. Early in the Hongwu reign, officials were appointed one after another at every salt-producing district. There were six chief salt transport commissioner offices: Lianghuai, Liangzhe, Changlu, Shandong, Fujian, and Hedong. There were seven salt revenue intendant offices: Guangdong, Haibei, Sichuan, and Yunnan; Yunnan had four such offices, for Heiyan Well, Baiyan Well, Anning Salt Well, and Wujing. There was also one salt revenue office at Lingzhou in Shaanxi.

兩淮所轄分司三，曰泰州，曰淮安，曰通州；批驗所二，曰儀真，曰淮安；鹽場三十，各鹽課司一。洪武時，歲辦大引鹽三十五萬二千餘引。弘治時，改辦小引鹽，倍之。萬歷時同。鹽行直隸之應天、甯國、太平、揚州、鳳陽，廬州、安慶、池州、淮安九府，滁、和二州，江西、湖廣二布政司，河南之河南、汝寧、南陽三府及陳州。正統中，貴州亦食淮鹽。成化十八年，湖廣衡州、永州改行海北鹽。正德二年，江西贛州、南安、吉安改行廣東鹽。所輸邊，甘肅、延綏、寧夏、宣府、大同、遼東、固原、山西神池諸堡。上供光祿寺、神宮監、內官監。歲入太倉餘鹽銀六十萬兩。

Lianghuai had three branch offices, at Taizhou, Huai'an, and Tongzhou; two inspection stations, at Yizhen and Huai'an; thirty salt fields, each with its own salt revenue office. Under Hongwu, the annual quota was more than 352,000 large salt certificates. Under Hongzhi, the quota was reckoned in small certificates, which doubled the figure. The Wanli reign followed the same practice. Its salt was sold in the nine Zhili prefectures of Yingtian, Ningguo, Taiping, Yangzhou, Fengyang, Luzhou, Anqing, Chizhou, and Huai'an, in Chuzhou and Hezhou, throughout Jiangxi and Huguang, and in the Henan prefectures of Henan, Runing, and Nanyang, as well as Chenzhou. During the Zhengtong reign, Guizhou was also supplied with Lianghuai salt. In the eighteenth year of Chenghua, Hengzhou and Yongzhou in Huguang were switched to Haibei salt. In the second year of Zhengde, Ganzhou, Nan'an, and Ji'an in Jiangxi were switched to Guangdong salt. Salt was shipped to the frontier at Gansu, Yansui, Ningxia, Xuanfu, Datong, Liaodong, Guyuan, and the Shanxi forts including Shenchi. It was also supplied to the Court of Imperial Entertainments, the Directorate of Palace Ceremonial, and the Directorate of Palace Eunuchs. Surplus salt revenue remitted to the Taicang treasury came to 600,000 taels a year.

兩浙所轄分司四，曰嘉興，曰松江，曰寧、紹，曰溫、台；批驗所四，曰杭州，曰紹興，曰嘉興，曰溫州；鹽場三十五，各鹽課司一。洪武時，歲辦大引鹽二十二萬四百餘引。弘治時，改辦小引鹽，倍之。萬歷時同。鹽行浙江，直隸之松江、蘇州、常州、鎮江、微州五府及廣德州，江西之廣信府。所輸邊，甘肅、延綏、寧夏、固原、山西神池諸堡。歲入太倉餘鹽銀十四萬兩。

Liangzhe had four branch offices, at Jiaxing, Songjiang, Ningbo-Shaoxing, and Wenzhou-Taizhou; four inspection stations, at Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, and Wenzhou; thirty-five salt fields, each with its own salt revenue office. Under Hongwu, the annual quota was more than 220,400 large salt certificates. Under Hongzhi, the quota was reckoned in small certificates, which doubled the figure. The Wanli reign followed the same practice. Its salt was sold in Zhejiang, in the five Zhili prefectures of Songjiang, Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, and Huizhou, in Guangde prefecture, and in Guangxin prefecture in Jiangxi. Salt was shipped to the frontier at Gansu, Yansui, Ningxia, Guyuan, and the Shanxi forts including Shenchi. Surplus salt revenue remitted to the Taicang treasury came to 140,000 taels a year.

明初，置北平河間鹽運司，後改稱河間長蘆。所轄分司二，曰滄州，曰青州；批驗所二，曰長蘆，曰小直沽；鹽場二十四，各鹽課司一。洪武時，歲辦大引鹽六萬三幹一百餘引。弘治時，改辦小引鹽十八萬八百餘引。萬歷時同。鹽行北直隸，河南之彰德、衛輝二府。所輸邊，宣府、大同、薊州。上供郊廟百神祭祀、內府羞膳及給百官有司。歲入太倉餘鹽銀十二萬兩。

Early in the dynasty a salt transport office was set up at Hejian in Beiping, later renamed the Hejian-Changlu office. It had two branch offices, at Cangzhou and Qingzhou; two inspection stations, at Changlu and Xiaozhigu; twenty-four salt fields, each with its own salt revenue office. Under Hongwu, the annual quota was more than 63,100 large salt certificates. Under Hongzhi, the quota was more than 180,800 small salt certificates. The Wanli reign followed the same practice. Its salt was sold in northern Zhili and in the Henan prefectures of Zhangde and Weihui. Salt was shipped to the frontier at Xuanfu, Datong, and Jizhou. It was also supplied for suburban and temple sacrifices, for the palace kitchens, and for the use of officials throughout the government. Surplus salt revenue remitted to the Taicang treasury came to 120,000 taels a year.

山東所轄分司二，曰膠萊，曰濱樂；批驗所一，曰濼口；鹽場十九，各鹽課司一。洪武時，歲辦大引鹽十四萬三千三百餘引。弘治時，改辦小引鹽，倍之。萬歷時，九萬六千一百餘引。鹽行山東，直隸徐、邳、宿三州，河南開封府，後開封改食河東鹽。所輸邊，遼東及山西神池諸堡。歲入太倉餘鹽銀五萬兩。

Shandong had two branch offices, at Jiaolai and Binle; one inspection station, at Luokou; nineteen salt fields, each with its own salt revenue office. Under Hongwu, the annual quota was more than 143,300 large salt certificates. Under Hongzhi, the quota was reckoned in small certificates, which doubled the figure. Under Wanli the quota was more than 96,100 certificates. Its salt was sold in Shandong, in the Zhili prefectures of Xu, Pi, and Su, and in Kaifeng prefecture in Henan, though Kaifeng was later switched to Hedong salt. Salt was shipped to Liaodong and to the Shanxi forts including Shenchi. Surplus salt revenue remitted to the Taicang treasury came to 50,000 taels a year.

福建所轄鹽場七，各鹽課司一。洪武時，歲辦大引鹽十萬四千五百餘引。弘治時，增七百餘引。萬歷時，減千引。其引曰依山，曰附海。依山納折色。附海行本色，神宗時亦改折色。鹽行境內。歲入太倉銀二萬二千餘兩。

Fujian had seven salt fields, each with its own salt revenue office. Under Hongwu, the annual quota was more than 104,500 large salt certificates. Under Hongzhi the quota rose by more than 700 certificates. Under Wanli it was cut by 1,000 certificates. Its certificates were of two kinds, called "mountain-dependent" and "coast-attached." Mountain-dependent certificates were paid in commuted silver. Coast-attached certificates were delivered in kind until the Shenzong reign, when they too were commuted to silver. Its salt was sold only within the province. Revenue remitted to the Taicang treasury came to more than 22,000 taels a year.

河東所轄解鹽，初設東場分司於安邑，成祖時，增設西場於解州，尋復並於東。正統六年復置西場分司。弘治二年增置中場分司。洪武時，歲辦小引鹽三十萬四千引。弘治時，增入萬引。萬曆中，又增二十萬引。鹽行陝西之西安、漢中、延安、鳳翔四府，河南之歸德、懷慶、河南、汝寧、南陽五府及汝州，山西之平陽、潞安二府，澤、沁、遼三州。地有兩見者，鹽得兼行。隆慶中，延安改食靈州池鹽。崇禎中，鳳翔、漢中二府亦改食靈州鹽。歲入太倉銀四千餘兩，給宣府鎮及大同代府祿糧，抵補山西民糧銀，共十九萬兩有奇。

Hedong administered Jie salt. An eastern field branch was first set up at Anyi; under the Chengzu emperor a western field was added at Jiezhou, but it was soon merged back into the eastern field. In the sixth year of Zhengtong the western field branch was restored. In the second year of Hongzhi a central field branch was added. Under Hongwu the annual quota was 304,000 small salt certificates. Under Hongzhi 10,000 certificates were added to the quota. During the Wanli reign another 200,000 certificates were added. Its salt was sold in the four Shaanxi prefectures of Xi'an, Hanzhong, Yan'an, and Fengxiang; in the five Henan prefectures of Guide, Huaqing, Henan, Runing, and Nanyang, and in Ruzhou; and in the two Shanxi prefectures of Pingyang and Lu'an, together with Ze, Qin, and Liao prefectures. Where a district appeared on more than one list, salt from either source could be sold there. During the Longqing reign Yan'an was switched to salt from the Lingzhou pools. During the Chongzhen reign Fengxiang and Hanzhong were also switched to Lingzhou salt. Only a little more than 4,000 taels a year went to the Taicang treasury; the rest, totaling more than 190,000 taels, funded stipends for the Xuanfu garrison and the princely establishment at Datong and offset civilian grain payments in Shanxi.

陝西靈州有大小鹽池，又有漳縣鹽井、西和鹽井。洪武時，歲辦鹽，西和十三萬一千五百斤有奇，漳縣五十一萬五千六百斤有奇，靈州二百八十六萬七千四百斤有奇。弘治時同。萬歷時，三處共辦千二百五十三萬七千六百餘斤。鹽行陝西之鞏昌、臨洮二府及河州。歲解寧夏、延綏、固原餉銀三萬六千餘兩。

Lingzhou in Shaanxi had large and small salt pools, as well as salt wells in Zhang county and Xihe. Under Hongwu the annual output was more than 131,500 jin at Xihe, more than 515,600 jin at Zhang county, and more than 2,867,400 jin at Lingzhou. The Hongzhi reign kept the same quotas. Under Wanli the three sites together produced more than 12,537,600 jin. Its salt was sold in the Shaanxi prefectures of Gongchang and Lintao and in Hezhou. Each year more than 36,000 taels in frontier provisions were sent to Ningxia, Yansui, and Guyuan.

廣東所轄鹽場十四，海北所轄鹽場十五，各鹽課司一。洪武時，歲辦大引鹽，廣東四萬六千八百餘引，海北二萬七千餘引。弘治時，廣東如舊，海北萬九千四百餘引。萬歷時，廣東小引生鹽三萬二百餘引，小引熟鹽三萬四千六百餘引；海北小引正耗鹽一萬二千四百餘引。鹽有生有熟，熟貴生賤。廣東鹽行廣州、肇慶、惠州、韶州、南雄、潮州六府。海北鹽行廣東之雷州、高州、廉州、瓊州四府，湖廣之桂陽、郴二州，廣西之桂林、柳州、梧州、潯州、慶遠、南寧、平樂、太平、思明、鎮安十府，田、龍、泗城、奉議、利五州。歲入太倉鹽課銀萬一千餘兩。

Guangdong had fourteen salt fields and Haibei fifteen, each field with its own salt revenue office. Under Hongwu the annual quotas were more than 46,800 large certificates for Guangdong and more than 27,000 for Haibei. Under Hongzhi Guangdong remained unchanged, while Haibei was set at more than 19,400 certificates. Under Wanli Guangdong produced more than 30,200 small certificates of raw salt and more than 34,600 of cured salt; Haibei produced more than 12,400 small certificates counting standard and surplus salt together. Salt was classified as raw or cured, with cured salt priced higher than raw. Guangdong salt was sold in the six prefectures of Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Huizhou, Shaozhou, Nanxiong, and Chaozhou. Haibei salt was sold in the four Guangdong prefectures of Leizhou, Gaozhou, Lianzhou, and Qiongzhou; in Guiyang and Chen prefectures in Huguang; and in ten Guangxi prefectures—Guilin, Liuzhou, Wuzhou, Xunzhou, Qingyuan, Nanning, Pingle, Taiping, Siming, and Zhen'an—together with Tian, Long, Sicheng, Fengyi, and Li prefectures. Salt revenue remitted to the Taicang treasury came to more than 11,000 taels a year.

四川鹽井轄鹽課司十七。洪武時，歲辦鹽一千一十二萬七千餘斤。弘治時，辦二千一十七萬六千餘斤。萬曆中，九百八十六萬一千餘斤。鹽行四川之成都、敘州、順慶、保寧、夔州五府，潼川、嘉定、廣安、雅、廣元五州縣。歲解陝西鎮鹽課銀七萬一千餘兩。

Sichuan's salt wells were administered through seventeen salt revenue offices. Under Hongwu the annual output was more than 10,127,000 jin. Under Hongzhi the quota rose to more than 20,176,000 jin. During the Wanli reign output was more than 9,861,000 jin. Its salt was sold in the five Sichuan prefectures of Chengdu, Xuzhou, Shunqing, Baoning, and Kuizhou, and in Tongchuan, Jiading, Guang'an, Ya, and Guangyuan. Each year more than 71,000 taels in salt revenue were sent to the Shaanxi frontier garrison.

雲南黑鹽井轄鹽課司三，白鹽井、安寧鹽井各轄鹽課司一，五井轄鹽課司七。洪武時，歲辦大引鹽萬七千八百餘引。弘治時，各井多寡不一。萬歷時與洪武同。鹽行境內。歲入太倉鹽課銀三萬五千餘兩。

Heiyan Well in Yunnan had three salt revenue offices; Baiyan Well and Anning Salt Well each had one; and Wujing had seven. Under Hongwu the annual quota was more than 17,800 large salt certificates. Under Hongzhi the quotas differed from well to well. Under Wanli the totals matched those of Hongwu. Its salt was sold only within the province. Salt revenue remitted to the Taicang treasury came to more than 35,000 taels a year.

成祖時，嘗設交阯提舉司，其後交阯失，乃罷。遼東鹽場不設官，軍餘煎辦，召商易粟以給軍。凡大引四百斤，小引二百斤。

Under the Chengzu emperor an intendant office was once set up in Jiaozhi, but it was abolished after the province was lost. Liaodong salt fields had no government offices; military dependents produced the salt, and merchants were summoned to trade grain for it to supply the troops. A large certificate was for 400 jin and a small certificate for 200 jin.

鹽所產不同：解州之鹽風水所結，寧夏之鹽刮地得之，淮、浙之鹽熬波，川、滇之鹽汲井，閩、粵之鹽積鹵，淮南之鹽煎，淮北之鹽曬，山東之鹽有煎有曬，此其大較也。

Salt was produced in different ways: Jiezhou salt formed naturally from wind and water; Ningxia salt was scraped from the ground; Huai and Zhe salt was boiled from seawater; Sichuan and Yunnan salt was drawn from wells; Fujian and Guangdong salt came from accumulated brine; Huainan salt was boiled and Huaibei salt sun-dried; Shandong had both boiling and sun-drying—in broad outline, these were the methods.

有明鹽法，莫善於開中。洪武三年，山西行省言：「大同糧儲，自陵縣運至太和嶺，路遠費煩。請令商人於大同倉入米一石，太原倉入米一石三斗，給淮鹽一小引。商人鬻畢，即以原給引目赴所在官司繳之。如此則轉運費省而邊儲充。」帝從之。召商輸糧而與之鹽，謂之開中。其後各行省邊境，多召商中鹽以為軍儲。鹽法邊計，相輔而行。

Of all Ming salt policies, none worked better than the kaizhong system. In the third year of Hongwu the Shanxi provincial administration reported: "Grain for Datong is hauled from Ling county to Taihe Ridge, a long haul that is costly and burdensome. We ask that merchants who deliver one shi of rice to the Datong granary, or one shi and three dou to the Taiyuan granary, be granted one small Lianghuai salt certificate. After selling the salt, the merchant would return the original certificate to the local office. In this way transport costs would be saved and frontier granaries filled. The emperor approved the proposal. Summoning merchants to deliver grain in exchange for salt was called kaizhong. Thereafter frontier provinces widely used merchant tenders for salt to build up military grain reserves. Salt policy and frontier finance thus worked hand in hand.

四年定中鹽例，輸米臨濠、開封、陳橋、襄陽、安陸、荊州、歸州、大同、太原、孟津、北平、河南府、陳州、北通州諸倉，計道里近遠，自五石至一石有差。先後增減，則例不一，率視時緩急，米直高下，中納者利否。道遠地險，則減而輕之。編置勘合及底簿，發各布政司及都司、衛所。商納糧畢，書所納糧及應支鹽數，齎赴各轉運提舉司照數支鹽。轉運諸司亦有底簿比照，勘合相符，則如數給與。鬻鹽有定所，刊諸銅版，犯私鹽者罪至死，偽造引者如之，鹽與引離，即以私鹽論。

In the fourth year the salt-tender quotas were fixed for granaries at Linhao, Kaifeng, Chenqiao, Xiangyang, Anlu, Jingzhou, Guizhou, Datong, Taiyuan, Mengjin, Beiping, Henan prefecture, Chenzhou, and North Tongzhou, with required deliveries ranging from five shi to one shi according to distance. Rates were adjusted repeatedly, so the rules were never uniform and generally followed the urgency of the moment, grain prices, and whether tendering was profitable. Where routes were long and terrain difficult, the required delivery was reduced. Verification tallies and master registers were compiled and issued to provincial administrations, regional commands, and guard posts. After delivering grain, the merchant recorded the amount delivered and the salt due, then presented the document at the transport or intendant office to receive the allotted salt. The transport offices checked their master registers, and when the tally matched, salt was issued in full. Salt could be sold only at designated places, as engraved on bronze plates; private salt dealing was punishable by death, as was forging certificates, and salt sold without its certificate was treated as contraband.

仁宗立，以鈔法不通，議所以斂之之道。戶部尚書夏原吉請令有鈔之家中鹽，遂定各鹽司中鹽則例，滄州引三百貫，河東、山東半之，福建、廣東百貫。宣德元年停中鈔例。三年，原吉以北京官吏、軍、匠糧餉不支，條上預備策，言：「中鹽舊則太重，商賈少至，請更定之。」乃定每引自二斗五升至一斗五升有差，召商納米北京。戶部尚書郭敦言：「中鹽則例已減，而商來者少，請以十分為率，六分支與納米京倉者，四分支與遼東、永平、山海、甘肅、大同、宣府、萬全已納米者。他處中納悉停之。」又言：「洪武中，中鹽客商年久物故，代支者多虛冒，請按引給鈔十錠。」帝皆從之，而命倍給其鈔。甘肅、寧夏、大同、宣府、獨石、永平道險遠，趨中者少，許寓居官員及軍餘有糧之家納米豆中鹽。

When the Renzong emperor came to the throne, paper money had ceased to circulate, and officials debated how to recall it. Minister of Revenue Xia Yuanji proposed letting holders of paper notes tender for salt, and fixed the rates at 300 guan per certificate at Cangzhou, half that at Hedong and Shandong, and 100 guan at Fujian and Guangdong. In the first year of Xuande the paper-note tender was abolished. In the third year Yuanji reported that provisions for Beijing officials, troops, and artisans were running short and proposed emergency measures: "The old salt-tender rates are too high and merchants seldom come; we ask that they be revised. The rate was then set between two dou five sheng and one dou five sheng per certificate, and merchants were summoned to deliver rice to Beijing. Minister of Revenue Guo Dun said: "Although tender rates have been cut, few merchants are coming. We propose dividing salt ten ways: six parts for those delivering rice to Beijing granaries and four for those who have already delivered rice at Liaodong, Yongping, Shanhai, Gansu, Datong, Xuanfu, and Wansai. Tendering at all other locations should be suspended. He also said: "Under Hongwu, many merchants who tendered for salt have died over the years, and many substitute claims are fraudulent. We ask that ten ingots of paper money be paid per outstanding certificate." The emperor approved all these proposals and ordered double payment in paper money. Because Gansu, Ningxia, Datong, Xuanfu, Dushi, and Yongping were remote and hazardous, few merchants tendered there, so resident officials and military dependents with grain were allowed to deliver rice and beans in exchange for salt.

正統三年，寧夏總兵官史昭以邊軍缺馬，而延慶、平涼官吏軍民多養馬，乃奏請納馬中鹽。上馬一匹與鹽百引，次馬八十引。既而定邊諸衛遞增二十引。其後河州中納者，上馬二十五引，中減五引；松潘中納者，上馬三十五引，中減五引。久之，復如初制。中馬之始，驗馬乃掣鹽，既而納銀於官以市馬，銀入布政司，宗祿、屯糧、修邊、振濟輾轉支銷，銀盡而馬不至，而邊儲亦自此告匱矣。於是召商中淮、浙、長廬鹽以納之，令甘肅中鹽者，淮鹽十七，浙鹽十三。淮鹽惟納米麥，浙鹽兼收豌豆、青稞。因淮鹽直貴，商多趨之，故令淮、浙兼中也。

In the third year of Zhengtong, Ningxia commander Shi Zhao reported that frontier troops lacked horses while many were raised by officials, soldiers, and civilians in Yanqing and Pingliang, and asked that horses be accepted in exchange for salt. A top-grade horse earned 100 salt certificates and a second-grade horse 80. Guards in the Dingbian area soon received an additional 20 certificates per horse. Later at Hezhou a top-grade horse earned 25 certificates and a second-grade horse five fewer; at Songpan a top-grade horse earned 35 certificates and a second-grade horse five fewer. In time the original rates were restored. At first horses were inspected before salt was issued, but soon silver was paid to the government to buy horses instead. The silver passed through the provincial treasury and was spent on princely stipends, garrison grain, border repairs, and relief until it was gone, yet the horses never came—and frontier reserves were exhausted as well. Merchants were then summoned to tender Lianghuai, Liangzhe, and Changlu salt for delivery to Gansu, in a ratio of seventeen parts Huai salt to thirteen parts Zhe salt. Huai tenders accepted only rice and wheat, while Zhe tenders also accepted peas and highland barley. Because Huai salt was more valuable, merchants preferred it, so Huai and Zhe tenders were combined.

明初仍宋、元舊制，所以優恤灶戶者甚厚，給草場以供樵採，堪耕者許開墾，仍免其雜役，又給工本米，引一石。置倉於場，歲撥附近州縣倉儲及兌軍餘米以待給，兼支錢鈔，以米價為準。尋定鈔數，淮、浙引二貫五百文，河間、廣東、海北、山東、福建、四川引二貫。灶戶雜犯死罪以上止予杖，計日煎鹽以贖。後設總催，多朘削灶戶。至正統時，灶戶貧困，逋逃者多，松江所負課六十餘萬。民訴於朝，命直隸巡撫周忱兼理鹽課。忱條上鑄鐵釜、恤鹵丁、選總催、嚴私販四事，且請於每年正課外，帶徵逋課。帝從其請。命分逋課為六，以六載畢徵。

Early Ming followed Song and Yuan practice and treated salt-makers generously: they were given pasture for fuel, allowed to reclaim arable land, exempted from miscellaneous corvée, and granted one shi of production-cost rice per certificate. Granaries were set up at the salt fields, supplied each year from nearby county stores and surplus transport grain, with cash and paper notes paid according to the price of rice. Cash payments were then fixed at 2 guan 500 wen per certificate for Huai and Zhe and 2 guan for Hejian, Guangdong, Haibei, Shandong, Fujian, and Sichuan. Salt-makers guilty of capital crimes short of murder were punished only with beating and allowed to redeem the sentence by boiling salt for a set number of days. Later general collectors were appointed, and they often squeezed the salt-makers. By the Zhengtong reign salt-makers were impoverished, many fled, and the Songjiang office alone was more than 600,000 units in arrears. The people petitioned the throne, and Grand Coordinator Zhou Chen of Zhili was ordered to take charge of salt revenue as well. Chen proposed four measures—casting iron kettles, relief for brine workers, careful selection of collectors, and strict suppression of private trade—and asked that arrears be collected in addition to the annual quota. The emperor approved his request. Arrears were to be divided into six installments and collected over six years.

當是時，商人有自永樂中候支鹽，祖孫相代不得者。乃議仿洪武中例，而加鈔錠以償之，願守支者聽。又以商人守支年久，雖減輕開中，少有上納者，議他鹽司如舊制，而淮、浙、長蘆以十分為率，八分給守支商，曰常股，二分收貯於官，曰存積，遇邊警，始召商中納。常股、存積之名由此始。凡中常股者價輕，中存積者價重，然人甚苦守支，爭趨存積，而常股壅矣。景帝時，邊圉多故，存積增至六分。中納邊糧，兼納穀草、秋青草，秋青草三當穀草二。

At this time some merchants had been waiting for salt since the Yongle reign, with generations passing without ever receiving it. It was proposed to follow the Hongwu precedent of paying compensation in paper money, while those who preferred to keep waiting for salt could do so. Because merchants had waited so long that even reduced kaizhong rates drew few deliveries, other salt offices kept the old system, but for Huai, Zhe, and Changlu salt was divided ten ways: eight parts went to waiting merchants as the regular allotment, and two parts were held by the government as reserve stock to be tendered only when the frontier was threatened. The terms changgu and cunji date from this reform. Tendering for the regular allotment was cheap and for reserve stock expensive, but merchants hated the long wait and rushed to reserve stock, leaving the regular allotment unsold. Under the Jingdi emperor, with frequent frontier emergencies, the reserve share was raised to six tenths. Frontier tenders accepted grain, hay, and autumn grazing fodder, with three parts of autumn fodder counting as two of hay.

廣東之鹽，例不出境，商人率市守關吏，越市廣西。巡撫葉盛以為任之則廢法，禁之則病商，請令入米餉邊，乃許出境，公私交利焉。成化初，歲洊災，京儲不足，召商於淮、徐、德州水次倉中鹽。

Guangdong salt was not supposed to leave the province, but merchants usually bribed border guards and smuggled it into Guangxi. Grand Coordinator Ye Sheng argued that tolerating the trade would void the law but banning it would ruin merchants, and proposed allowing export if merchants delivered grain to the frontier—a compromise that benefited both state and trade. Early in Chenghua, after repeated crop failures left the capital short of grain, merchants were summoned to tender for salt at riverside granaries in Huai, Xu, and Dezhou.

舊例中鹽，戶部出榜召商，無徑奏者。富人呂銘等託勢要奏中兩淮存積鹽，中旨允之。戶部尚書馬昂不能執正，鹽法之壞自此始。勢豪多攙中，商人既失利，江南、北軍民因造遮洋大船，列械販鹽。乃為重法，私販、窩隱俱論死，家屬徙邊衛，夾帶越境者充軍。然不能遏止也。十九年頗減存積之數，常股七分，而存積三分。然商人樂有見鹽，報中存積者爭至，遂仍增至六分。淮、浙鹽猶不能給，乃配支長廬、山東以給之。一人兼支數處，道遠不及親赴，邊商輒貿引於近地富人。自是有邊商、內商之分。內商之鹽不能速獲，邊商之引又不賤售，報中寢怠，存積之滯遂與常股等。憲宗末年，閹宦竊勢，奏討淮、浙鹽無算，兩淮積欠至五百餘萬引，商引壅滯。

Under the old rules, the Ministry of Revenue posted public notices to summon merchants for salt tenders; no one was to petition directly. Wealthy men such as Lü Ming used powerful patrons to petition for Lianghuai reserve salt, and an imperial rescript approved. Minister of Revenue Ma Ang failed to uphold the rules, and the breakdown of salt policy began here. Powerful families crowded into tenders, merchants lost money, and troops and civilians in north and south built armed ocean-going ships to smuggle salt. Harsh penalties followed: private dealing and harboring were capital crimes, families were exiled to frontier guards, and smuggling across borders was punished by military service. Yet smuggling could not be stopped. In the nineteenth year the reserve share was cut so that the regular allotment was seven tenths and reserve stock three. Merchants preferred salt they could receive at once, however, and rushed to tender for reserve stock, so the reserve share was raised again to six tenths. Even Huai and Zhe salt could not meet demand, so Changlu and Shandong salt was allotted to make up the shortfall. When one merchant held certificates from several regions and could not travel to each in person, frontier merchants sold their certificates to local wealthy men. From this arose the distinction between frontier merchants and interior merchants. Interior merchants could not get salt quickly, frontier merchants would not sell certificates cheaply, tenders dwindled, and reserve stock piled up like the regular allotment. Late in the Xianzong reign eunuchs seized power and obtained limitless grants of Huai and Zhe salt; Lianghuai fell more than five million certificates in arrears and merchant certificates piled up unsold.

至孝宗時，而買補餘鹽之議興矣。餘鹽者，灶戶正課外所餘之鹽也。

Under the Xiaozong emperor the policy of purchasing surplus salt to supplement official quotas was introduced. Surplus salt was whatever salt-makers produced beyond their official quota.

洪武初制，商支鹽有定場，毋許越場買補；勤灶有餘鹽送場司，二百斤為一引，給米一石。其鹽召商開中，不拘資次給與。成化後，令商收買，而勸借米麥以振貧灶。至是清理兩淮鹽法，侍郎李嗣請令商人買餘鹽補官引，而免其勸借，且停各邊開中，俟逋課完日，官為賣鹽，三分價直，二充邊儲，而留其一以補商人未交鹽價。由是以餘鹽補充正課，而鹽法一小變。

Under the early Hongwu rules, merchants received salt only at designated fields and were forbidden to buy supplements elsewhere; diligent salt-makers who had surplus salt delivered it to the field office, 200 jin counting as one certificate, and received one shi of rice. That salt was opened to merchant tenders without regard to priority. After Chenghua merchants were required to buy it, and were urged to lend rice and wheat to relieve impoverished salt-makers. When Lianghuai salt policy was reformed, Vice Minister Li Si proposed that merchants buy surplus salt to fill official certificates, ending forced loans to salt-makers and suspending frontier kaizhong until arrears were cleared. The government would then sell salt, applying three parts of the proceeds: two for frontier stores and one to cover merchants' unpaid salt prices. Surplus salt thus supplemented the regular quota, marking a minor shift in salt policy.

明初，各邊開中商人，招民墾種，築臺堡自相保聚，邊方菽粟無甚貴之時。成化間，始有折納銀者，然未嘗著為令也。弘治五年，商人困守支，戶部尚書葉淇請召商納銀運司，類解太倉，分給各邊。每引輸銀三四錢有差，視國初中米直加倍，而商無守支之苦，一時太倉銀累至百餘萬。然赴邊開中之法廢，商屯撤業，菠粟翔貴，邊儲日虛矣。

Early in the dynasty frontier merchants who tendered for salt recruited settlers, built fortified farms, and kept grain cheap on the border. During Chenghua silver payments began to appear, but they were never formally codified. In the fifth year of Hongzhi, with merchants exhausted by long waits, Minister of Revenue Ye Qi proposed that they pay silver to transport offices, which would remit it to Taicang for distribution to the frontiers. Merchants paid three or four qian of silver per certificate—roughly double the early grain equivalent—and were freed from waiting, while Taicang silver reserves briefly exceeded one million taels. Yet frontier kaizhong was abandoned, merchant colonies were abandoned, grain prices soared, and frontier reserves dwindled daily.

武宗之初，以鹽法日壞，令大臣王瓊、張憲等分道清理，而慶雲侯周壽、壽甯侯張鶴各令家人奏買長蘆、兩淮鹽引。戶部尚書韓文執不可，中旨許之。織造太監崔杲又奏乞長蘆鹽一萬二千引，戶部以半予之。帝欲全予，大學士劉健等力爭，李東陽語尤切。帝不悅。健等復疏爭，乃從部議。權要開中既多，又許買餘鹽，一引有用至十餘年者。正德二年始申截舊引角之令，立限追繳，而每引增納紙價及振濟米麥。引價重而課壅如故矣。

Early in the Wuzong reign, as salt policy deteriorated, ministers Wang Qiong and Zhang Xian were sent to investigate by separate routes, while the Marquis of Qingyun Zhou Shou and the Marquis of Shouning Zhang He had their retainers petition to buy Changlu and Lianghuai salt certificates. Minister of Revenue Han Wen objected, but an imperial rescript approved the purchases. Weaving supervisor eunuch Cui Gao also petitioned for 12,000 Changlu certificates, and the ministry granted half. The emperor wanted to grant the full amount, but Grand Secretaries Liu Jian and others protested vigorously, Li Dongyang most sharply of all. The emperor was displeased. Liu Jian and the others protested again in memorials, and the emperor accepted the ministry's proposal. With powerful families dominating tenders and surplus salt sales allowed, a single certificate could remain in use for more than ten years. In the second year of Zhengde old certificates were ordered cut and recovered within a deadline, with added fees for paper costs and relief grain per certificate. Certificate fees rose, yet revenue remained blocked as before.

先是成化初，都御史韓雍於肇慶、梧州、清遠、南雄立抽鹽廠，官鹽一引，抽銀五分，許帶餘鹽四引，引抽銀一錢。都御史秦紘許增帶餘鹽六引，抽銀六錢。及是增至九錢，而不復抽官引。引目積滯，私鹽通行，乃用戶部郎中丁致祥請，復紘舊法。而他處商人夾帶餘鹽，掣割納價，惟多至三百斤者始罪之。

Earlier, early in Chenghua, Censor-in-Chief Han Yong set up salt levy stations at Zhaoqing, Wuzhou, Qingyuan, and Nanxiong: five fen of silver per official certificate and one qian per surplus certificate, with up to four surplus certificates allowed. Censor-in-Chief Qin Hong allowed six surplus certificates and a levy of six qian. The levy was now raised to nine qian, but official certificates were no longer taxed. Certificates piled up and private salt flourished, so on the proposal of Ministry Director Ding Zhixiang, Hong's old method was restored. Elsewhere merchants who carried surplus salt paid a cut fee, and only loads exceeding 300 jin were punished.

淮、浙、長蘆引鹽，常股四分，以給各邊主兵及工役振濟之需；存積六分，非國家大事，邊境有警，未嘗妄開。開必邊臣奏討，經部覆允，未有商人擅請及專請淮鹽者。弘治間，存積鹽甚多。正德時，權幸遂奏開殘鹽，改存積、常股皆為正課，且皆折銀。邊臣緩急無備，而勢要佔中賣窩，價增數倍。商人引納銀八錢，無所獲利，多不願中，課日耗絀。奸黠者夾帶影射，弊端百出。鹽臣承中璫風旨，復列零鹽、所鹽諸目以假之。世宗登極詔，首命裁革。未幾，商人逯俊等夤緣近幸，以增價為名，奏買殘餘等鹽。戶部尚書秦金執不允，帝特令中兩淮額鹽三十萬引於宣府。金言：「奸人佔中淮鹽，賣窩罔利，使山東、長蘆等鹽別無搭配，積之無用。虧國用，誤邊儲，莫此為甚。」御史高世魁亦爭之。詔減淮引十萬，分兩浙、長蘆鹽給之。金復言：「宣、大俱重鎮，不宜令奸商自擇便利，但中宣府。」帝可之。已而俊等請以十六人中宣府，十一人中大同，竟從其請。

For Huai, Zhe, and Changlu certificate salt, four tenths were the regular allotment, set aside to meet frontier garrison pay and relief for corvée labor. Six tenths were reserve stock, which was never opened without cause except for major state affairs or frontier alarms. Opening reserve stock required a frontier official's petition and ministry approval; merchants were never allowed to request tenders on their own or to demand Huai salt exclusively. During the Hongzhi reign, reserve stock salt accumulated in great quantities. Under Zhengde, court favorites memorialized to open remnant salt, reclassified both reserve stock and the regular allotment as standard quota, and converted all payments to silver. Frontier officials had no reserves for emergencies, while the powerful monopolized tenders and sold franchise rights at several times the normal price. Merchants paying eight qian per certificate made no profit, so many refused to tender, and revenue dwindled day by day. Crafty men smuggled salt by concealment and fraudulent reporting, and abuses multiplied on every side. Salt officials, acting on instructions from palace eunuchs, again invented categories such as remnant salt and office salt as pretexts for abuse. The Jiajing Emperor's accession edict ordered these practices abolished as its first reform. Before long, merchants such as Lu Jun curried favor with the Emperor's intimates and, under the pretext of raising prices, memorialized to purchase remnant and surplus salt. Minister of Revenue Qin Jin refused to approve, but the Emperor specially ordered three hundred thousand Lianghuai quota certificates tendered at Xuanfu. Qin Jin said, "Wicked men monopolize Huai salt tenders and sell franchise rights for profit, leaving Shandong and Changlu salt with no matching allotment and piling up unused. It drains state revenue and undermines frontier stores—nothing could be more damaging. Censor Gao Shikui also argued against the plan. An edict cut the Huai allocation by one hundred thousand certificates and made up the difference with Liangzhe and Changlu salt. Qin Jin again said, "Xuanfu and Datong are both major garrisons. Wicked merchants should not be allowed to choose whichever post suits them; tenders should go to Xuanfu alone. The Emperor approved. Before long, Lu Jun and his associates asked for one hundred sixty thousand certificates at Xuanfu and one hundred ten thousand at Datong, and in the end their request was granted.

嘉靖五年從給事中管律奏，乃復常股存積四六分之制。然是時餘鹽盛行，正鹽守支日久，願中者少；餘鹽第領勘合，即時支賣，願中者多。自弘治時以餘鹽補正課，初以償逋課，後令商人納價輸部濟邊。至嘉靖時，延綏用兵，遼左缺餉，盡發兩淮餘鹽七萬九千餘引於二邊開中。自是餘鹽行。其始尚無定額，未幾，兩淮增引一百四十餘萬，每引增餘鹽二百六十五斤。引價，淮南納銀一兩九錢，淮北一兩五錢，又設處置、科罰名色，以苛斂商財。於是正鹽未派，先估餘鹽，商灶俱困。奸黠者藉口官買餘鹽，夾販私煎。法禁無所施，鹽法大壞。

In the fifth year of Jiajing, on the memorial of Supervising Secretary Guan Lu, the four-six split between the regular allotment and reserve stock was restored. Yet by then surplus salt had become widespread: official salt required long waits for disbursement, and few merchants were willing to tender for it; surplus salt required only a tally for immediate disbursement and sale, and many merchants were eager to tender for it. Since Hongzhi, surplus salt had supplemented the official quota—first to repay arrears, and later by requiring merchants to pay a fee remitted to the ministry to support the frontier. By the Jiajing reign, campaigns in Yansui and pay shortages in Liaodong led the court to release all seventy-nine thousand-odd Lianghuai surplus certificates for kaizhong on both frontiers. From that point surplus salt became standard practice. At first there was still no fixed quota, but before long Lianghuai added more than 1.4 million certificates, with an extra 265 jin of surplus salt per certificate. Certificate fees were set at 1.9 liang of silver south of the Huai and 1.5 liang north of it, while new categories of administrative penalties and fines were imposed to squeeze merchants ever harder. Official salt had not yet been allocated when surplus salt was assessed first, leaving both merchants and salt-makers in distress. Crafty men used the official purchase of surplus salt as a cover to smuggle privately boiled salt. The law could no longer be enforced, and the salt system collapsed.

十三年，給事中管懷理言：「鹽法之壞，其弊有六。開中不時，米價騰貴，召糴之難也。勢豪大家，專擅利權，報中之難也。官司科罰，吏胥侵索，輸納之難也。下場挨掣，動以數年，守支之難也。定價太昂，息不償本，取贏之難也。私鹽四出，官鹽不行，市易之難也。有此六難，正課壅矣，而司計者因設餘鹽以佐之。餘鹽利厚，商固樂從，然不以開邊而以解部，雖歲入距萬，無益軍需。嘗考祖宗時，商人中鹽納價甚輕，而灶戶煎鹽工本甚厚，今鹽價十倍於前，而工本不能十一，何以禁私鹽使不行也？故欲通鹽法，必先處餘鹽，欲處餘鹽，必多減正價。大抵正鹽賤，則私販自息。今宜定價，每引正鹽銀五錢，餘鹽二錢五分，不必解赴太倉，俱令開中關支，餘鹽以盡收為度。正鹽價輕，既利於商；餘鹽收盡，又利於灶。未有商灶俱利，而國課不充者也。」事下所司，戶部覆，以為餘鹽銀仍解部如故，而邊餉益虛矣。至二十年，帝以變亂鹽法由餘鹽，敕罷之。淮、浙、長蘆悉復舊法，夾帶者割沒入官，應變賣者以時估為準。御史吳瓊又請各邊中鹽者皆輸本色。然令甫下，吏部尚書許訁贊即請復開餘鹽以足邊用。戶部覆從之，餘鹽復行矣。

In the thirteenth year, Supervising Secretary Guan Huaili said, "The salt system has broken down, and the abuses are six in number. Kaizhong was opened irregularly while grain prices soared, making it hard to summon grain deliveries. Powerful great families monopolized the profits, making it hard to report successful tenders. Official penalties and clerk extortion made payment difficult. Waiting at the salt yard for weighing often took years, making disbursement unbearably slow. Fixed prices were too high for profit to cover costs, so merchants could scarcely earn anything. Private salt flooded the market while official salt would not move, making trade impossible. Because of these six difficulties the official quota was blocked, so revenue officials introduced surplus salt to shore it up. Surplus salt was highly profitable and merchants were glad to buy it, yet it was remitted to the ministry rather than used for frontier kaizhong, so even revenues in the tens of thousands did nothing for military supply. I have looked back to the founding era, when merchants paid very little to tender for salt while salt-makers received generous production subsidies. Today salt prices are ten times what they were, yet production support is less than a tenth of what it was—how can private salt be kept off the market? To restore the salt system, surplus salt must be dealt with first; and to deal with surplus salt, the official price must be cut sharply. In general, when official salt is cheap, private smuggling dies away on its own. Prices should now be fixed at five qian of silver per official certificate and two qian five fen for surplus salt. Neither need be sent to Taicang; both should be disbursed through kaizhong at the frontier, with surplus salt collected in full. Lower official salt prices would benefit merchants; and collecting all surplus salt would benefit the salt-makers as well. When merchants and salt-makers both prosper, state revenue has never failed to be met. The proposal was referred to the responsible offices. The Ministry of Revenue replied that surplus salt silver should still be remitted to the ministry as before, and frontier pay grew ever more depleted. By the twentieth year, the Emperor held surplus salt responsible for wrecking the salt system and ordered it abolished. Huai, Zhe, and Changlu all returned to the old rules; smuggled salt was confiscated for the state, and salt slated for sale was priced by current market valuation. Censor Wu Qiong also requested that all frontier kaizhong tenderers deliver grain and fodder in kind. Hardly had the order been issued when Minister of Personnel Xu Zan asked to reopen surplus salt to meet frontier needs. The Ministry of Revenue agreed, and surplus salt was put back into circulation.

先是，十六年令兩浙僻邑，官商不行之處，山商每百斤納銀八分，給票行鹽。其後多侵奪正引，官商課缺，引壅二百萬，候掣必五六載。於是有預徵、執抵、季掣之法。預徵者，先期輸課，不得私為去留。執抵者，執現在運鹽水程，復持一引以抵一引。季掣，則以納課先後為序，春不得遲於夏，夏不得超於春也。然票商納稅即掣賣，預徵諸法徒厲引商而已。靈州鹽池，自史昭中馬之議行，邊餉虧缺，甘肅米直石銀五兩，戶部因奏停中馬，召商納米中鹽。

Earlier, in the sixteenth year, remote counties in Liangzhe where official merchants did not operate were allowed mountain merchants to pay eight fen of silver per hundred jin and receive tickets to sell salt. Later they encroached heavily on official certificates, official merchant revenue fell short, two million certificates piled up, and waiting for weighing took five or six years. Rules were therefore introduced for advance collection, offset holding, and seasonal weighing. Advance collection meant paying revenue ahead of schedule, with no private discretion over timing. Offset holding meant presenting the current salt transport permit and using one certificate to offset another. Seasonal weighing set the order by time of payment: spring could not be delayed into summer, nor summer advanced ahead of spring. Ticket merchants, however, paid tax and sold at once, so the advance-collection rules only burdened certificate merchants. At the Lingzhou salt ponds, after Shi Zhao's horse-tender proposal took effect frontier pay fell short and Gansu rice reached five liang of silver per shi. The Ministry therefore memorialized to stop horse tenders and summon merchants to deliver grain in exchange for salt certificates.

二十七年令開中者止納本色糧草。三十二年令河東以六十二萬引為額，合正餘鹽為一，而革餘鹽名。時都御史王紳、御史黃國用議：兩淮灶戶餘鹽，每引官給銀二錢，以充工本，增收三十五萬引，名為工本鹽。令商人中額鹽二引，帶中工本鹽一引，抵主兵年例十七萬六千兩有奇。從其請。

In the twenty-seventh year, kaizhong tenderers were ordered to deliver only grain and fodder in kind. In the thirty-second year, Hedong was given a quota of 620,000 certificates, official and surplus salt were merged into one category, and the surplus salt designation was abolished. Censor-in-Chief Wang Shen and Censor Huang Guoyong then proposed that for Lianghuai salt-makers' surplus salt the government pay two qian per certificate as production cost, and that 350,000 additional certificates be levied under the name production-cost salt. Merchants were to tender for two quota certificates and one production-cost certificate together, covering the standing army's annual quota of more than 176,000 liang. The request was granted.

初，淮鹽歲課七十萬五千引，開邊報中為正鹽，後益餘鹽納銀解部。至是通前額凡一百五萬引，額增三之一。行之數年，積滯無所售，鹽法壅不行。言事者屢陳工本為鹽贅疣。戶部以國用方絀，年例無所出，因之不變。江西故行淮鹽三十九萬引，後南安、贛州、吉安改行廣鹽，惟南昌諸府行淮鹽二十七萬引。既而私販盛行，袁州、臨江、瑞州則私食廣鹽，撫州、建昌私食福鹽。於是淮鹽僅行十六萬引。數年之間，國計大絀。巡撫馬森疏其害，請於峽江縣建橋設關，扼閩、廣要津，盡復淮鹽額，稍增至四十七萬引。未久橋毀，增額二十萬引復除矣。

Initially Huai salt yielded 705,000 certificates a year, with frontier kaizhong tenders counted as official salt; later surplus salt fees in silver were added and remitted to the ministry. The total quota now reached 1.5 million certificates including earlier allotments, an increase of one third. After several years salt piled up unsold and the system ceased to function. Memorialists repeatedly argued that production-cost salt was a useless growth on the salt system. The Ministry of Revenue, finding state revenue already strained and no other source for the annual quota, left the policy unchanged. Jiangxi had originally sold 390,000 Huai certificates, but later Nan'an, Ganzhou, and Ji'an switched to Guang salt, leaving only the Nanchang prefectures on 270,000 Huai certificates. Before long private trade flourished: Yuanzhou, Linjiang, and Ruizhou consumed Guang salt illicitly, while Fuzhou and Jianchang consumed Fu salt. Huai salt sales in the province fell to only 160,000 certificates. Within a few years state revenue suffered a major shortfall. Grand Coordinator Ma Sen memorialized the damage and asked to build a bridge and customs post at Xiajiang county to control the Fujian-Guangdong corridor, fully restore the Huai salt quota, and raise it slightly to 470,000 certificates. Before long the bridge was destroyed, and the added quota of 200,000 certificates was withdrawn.

三十九年，帝欲整鹽法，乃命副都御史鄢懋卿總理淮、浙、山東、長蘆鹽法。懋卿，嚴嵩黨也，苞苴無虛日。兩淮額鹽銀六十一萬有奇，自設工本鹽，增九十萬，懋卿復增之，遂滿百萬。半年一解。又蒐括四司殘鹽，共得銀幾二百萬，一時詡為奇功。乃立克限法，每卒一人，季限獲私鹽有定數；不及數，輒削其僱役錢。邏卒經歲有不得支一錢者，乃共為私販，以矣大利，甚至劫估舶，誣以鹽盜而執之，流毒遍海濱矣。嵩失勢，巡鹽御史徐爌言：「兩淮鹽法，曰常股，曰存積，曰水鄉，共七十萬引有奇。引二百斤，納銀八分。永樂以後，引納粟二斗五升，下場關支，四散發賣，商人之利亦什五焉。近年，正鹽之外，加以餘鹽；餘鹽之外，又加工本；工本不足，乃有添單；添單不足，又加添引。懋卿趨利目前，不顧其後，是誤國亂政之尤者。方今災荒疊告，鹽場淹沒，若欲取盈百萬，必至逃亡。弦急欲絕，不棘於此。」於是悉罷懋卿所增者。

In the thirty-ninth year, wishing to reform the salt system, the Emperor appointed Vice Censor-in-Chief Yan Maoqing to oversee salt policy in Huai, Zhe, Shandong, and Changlu. Maoqing was a member of Yan Song's faction and accepted bribes without a day's interruption. Lianghuai quota salt had yielded a little over 610,000 liang of silver; production-cost salt added 900,000, and Maoqing raised it further until the total reached one million. It was remitted to the capital every half year. He also seized remnant salt from the four salt offices, raising nearly two million liang of silver, which was briefly hailed as a remarkable achievement. He then imposed quota enforcement: each patrolman had a fixed amount of private salt to seize each season; and if he fell short, his hired-service pay was cut. Some patrolmen went a full year without receiving a single qian, then turned to smuggling together for great profit, even robbing merchant vessels and falsely arresting them as salt pirates, until the abuse spread along the entire coast. After Yan Song fell from power, salt censor Xu Huang said, "The Lianghuai salt system comprised the regular allotment, reserve stock, and water-district categories, totaling a little over 700,000 certificates. Each certificate was for 200 jin and required eight fen of silver. After Yongle, each certificate required 2.5 dou of grain, salt was disbursed at the yard and sold widely, and merchants still cleared a profit of about fifteen percent. In recent years surplus salt was added on top of official salt; on top of surplus salt came production-cost salt; when production-cost salt was not enough, there were supplementary tickets; and when supplementary tickets were not enough, still more certificates were added. Maoqing chased immediate profit without regard for consequences—the worst kind of policy that misleads the state and wrecks governance. Disasters and famine are reported one after another and salt fields are flooded; if the goal is still to collect a full million, people will flee. The bowstring is stretched to the breaking point—nothing is more urgent than this. All of Maoqing's increases were then abolished.

四十四年，巡鹽御史硃炳如奏罷兩淮工本鹽。自葉淇變法，邊儲多缺。嘉靖八年以後，稍復開中，邊商中引，內商守支。末年，工本鹽行，內商有數年不得掣者，於是不樂買引，而邊商困，因營求告掣河鹽。河鹽者，不上廩囷，在河逕自超掣，易支而獲利捷。河鹽行，則守支存積者愈久，而內商亦困，引價彌賤。於是奸人專以收買邊引為事，名曰囤戶，告掣河鹽，坐規厚利。時復議於正鹽外附帶餘鹽，以抵工本之數，囤戶因得賤賣餘鹽而貴售之，邊商與內商愈困矣。隆慶二年，屯鹽都御史龐尚鵬疏言：「邊商報中，內商守支，事本相須。但內商安坐，邊商遠輸，勞逸不均，故掣河鹽者以惠邊商也。然河鹽既行，淮鹽必滯，內商無所得利，則邊商之引不售。今宜停掣河鹽，但別邊商引價，自見引及起紙關引到司勘合，別為三等，定銀若干。邊商倉鈔已到，內商不得留難。蓋河鹽停則淮鹽速行，引價定則開中自多，邊商內商各得其願矣。」帝從之。四年，御史李學詩議罷官買餘鹽。報可。

In the forty-fourth year, salt censor Zhu Bingru memorialized to abolish Lianghuai production-cost salt. Since Ye Qi's reform, frontier stores had often run short. After the eighth year of Jiajing, kaizhong was partly restored: frontier merchants tendered for certificates and interior merchants waited to receive salt. In the late Jiajing years production-cost salt was in force; some interior merchants waited years without weighing, grew unwilling to buy certificates, and frontier merchants, hard pressed, petitioned to weigh Hedong salt instead. Hedong salt did not pass through granary stores but could be weighed and taken directly on the river route, making disbursement easy and profit swift. Once Hedong salt was in circulation, merchants waiting for reserve-stock disbursement waited even longer, interior merchants were squeezed harder, and certificate prices sank lower still. Schemers then made a specialty of buying up frontier certificates. Known as hoarders, they petitioned for the right to weigh Hedong salt, intending to reap large profits. Officials again debated allowing surplus salt to be bundled with regular salt to cover production costs. Hoarders could then sell surplus salt cheaply and regular salt at high prices, deepening the distress of frontier and interior merchants alike. In the second year of Longqing, salt censor Pang Shangpeng memorialized: "Frontier merchants tender certificates and interior merchants wait for disbursement; the two sides fundamentally depend on each other. Yet interior merchants sat at ease while frontier merchants hauled grain from afar, so the burden was uneven. Weighing Hedong salt was meant to favor frontier merchants. Yet once Hedong salt circulated, Huai salt was bound to pile up; if interior merchants saw no profit, frontier merchants could not sell their certificates. The court should now halt Hedong salt weighing and instead set separate prices for frontier certificates, graded in three tiers from presentation of the certificate through paper initiation, transport clearance, and office verification, each with a fixed silver rate. Once a frontier merchant's warehouse receipt had arrived, interior merchants must not delay disbursement. Stopping Hedong salt would let Huai salt move quickly again; fixing certificate prices would revive kaizhong tenders; frontier and interior merchants would each get what they wanted. The emperor approved the proposal. In the fourth year, censor Li Xueshi proposed abolishing the government purchase of surplus salt. Approval was granted.

是時廣西古田平，巡撫都御史殷正茂請官出資本買廣東鹽，至桂林發賣，七萬餘包可獲利二萬二千有奇。從之。

At this time Gutian in Guangxi had been pacified, and grand coordinator Yin Zhengmao proposed that the government invest capital to buy Guangdong salt and sell it at Guilin, yielding a profit of a little over twenty-two thousand taels on more than seventy thousand packages. The proposal was approved.

自嘉靖初，復常股四分，存積六分之制。後因各邊多故，常股、存積並開，淮額歲課七十萬五千餘引，又增各邊新引歲二十萬。萬歷時，以大工搜遠年違沒廢引六十餘萬，胥出課額之外，無正鹽，止令商買補餘鹽。餘鹽久盡，惟計引重科，加煎飛派而已。時兩淮引價餘銀百二十餘萬增至百四十五萬，新引日益，正引日壅。千戶尹英請配賣沒官鹽，可得銀六萬兩。大學士張位等爭之。二十六年，以鴻臚寺主簿田應璧奏，命中官魯保鬻兩淮沒官餘鹽。給事中包見捷極陳利害。不聽。保既視事，遂議開存積鹽。戶部尚書楊俊民言：「明旨核沒官鹽，而存積非沒官也。額外加增，必虧正課。保奏不可從。」御史馬從騁亦爭之。俱不聽。保乃開存積八萬引，引重五百七十斤，越次超掣，壓正鹽不行。商民大擾，而奸人蜂起。董璉、吳應麒等爭言鹽利。山西、福建諸稅監皆領鹽課矣。百戶高時夏奏浙、閩餘鹽歲可變價三十萬兩，巡撫金學會勘奏皆罔。疏入不省。於是福建解銀萬三千兩有奇，浙江解三萬七千兩有奇，借名苛斂，商困引壅。戶部尚書趙世卿指其害由保，因言：「額外多取一分，則正課少一分，而國計愈絀，請悉罷無名浮課。」不報。三十四年夏至明年春，正額逋百餘萬，保亦惶懼，請罷存積引鹽。保尋死。有旨罷之，而引斤不能減矣。

From the early Jiajing reign the four-six split between the regular allotment and reserve stock was restored. Later, with frequent emergencies on the frontiers, both the regular allotment and reserve stock were opened; the Huai quota stood at a little over 705,000 certificates a year, with another 200,000 new frontier certificates added annually. Under Wanli, major construction projects prompted a search that turned up more than 600,000 long-lapsed, confiscated, and voided certificates, all outside the official quota; with no regular salt available, merchants were told only to buy surplus salt to make up the shortfall. Once surplus salt was exhausted, the government merely levied by certificate weight, added extra boiling quotas, and imposed arbitrary surcharges. Lianghuai surplus silver on certificate prices rose from a little over 1.2 million taels to 1.45 million; new certificates multiplied while regular certificates piled up unsold. Company commander Yin Ying proposed selling off confiscated salt by allotment, which he said would yield 60,000 taels of silver. Grand Secretaries Zhang Wei and others objected. In the twenty-sixth year, on a memorial from Honglu Temple registrar Tian Yingbi, the emperor ordered the eunuch Lu Bao to sell Lianghuai's confiscated surplus salt. Supervising Secretary Bao Jianjie laid out the full costs and benefits in strong terms. The emperor refused to heed him. Once Lu Bao took up his post, he proposed opening reserve-stock salt. Minister of Revenue Yang Junmin said, "The clear imperial order was to audit confiscated salt, but reserve stock is not confiscated property. Any increase beyond the quota must come at the expense of regular revenue. Lu Bao's proposal should not be adopted. Censor Ma Congcheng objected as well. The emperor refused all objections. Lu Bao then opened 80,000 reserve-stock certificates of 570 jin each, weighed them out of turn ahead of regular stock, and blocked regular salt from circulating. Merchants and common people were thrown into turmoil, and schemers swarmed forth. Dong Lian, Wu Yingqi, and others competed to tout the profits to be made from salt. Tax commissioners in Shanxi and Fujian all took charge of salt revenues as well. Company commander Gao Shixia memorialized that surplus salt in Zhejiang and Fujian could be sold annually for 300,000 taels; grand coordinator Jin Xue investigated and reported that the claim was entirely false. The memorial was submitted but drew no response. Thereupon Fujian delivered a little over 13,000 taels and Zhejiang a little over 37,000, levied under pretexts of harsh exaction; merchants were hard pressed and certificates piled up unsold. Minister of Revenue Zhao Shiqing traced the harm to Lu Bao and said, "Every extra levy beyond the quota reduces regular revenue by the same amount and leaves the state treasury ever shorter; I ask that all unscheduled floating levies be abolished. No reply was given. From the summer of the thirty-fourth year to the following spring, arrears on the regular quota exceeded a million taels; Lu Bao, now alarmed, asked to abolish reserve-stock certificate salt. Lu Bao soon died. An edict abolished the practice, but the increased weight per certificate could not be rolled back.

李太后薨，帝用遺誥蠲各運司浮課，商困稍蘇，而舊引壅滯。戶部上鹽法十議，正行見引，附銷積引，以疏通之。巡鹽御史龍遇奇立鹽政綱法，以舊引附見引行，淮南編為十綱，淮北編為十四綱，計十餘年，則舊引盡行。從之。天啟時，言利者恣蒐括，務增引超掣。魏忠賢黨郭興治、崔呈秀等，巧立名目以取之，所入無算。論者比之絕流而漁。崇禎中，給事中黃承昊條上鹽政，頗欲有所釐革。是時兵餉方大絀，不能行也。

After Empress Dowager Li died, the emperor used her testamentary edict to remit the floating levies of every transport office; merchant distress eased somewhat, but old certificates remained blocked. The Ministry of Revenue submitted ten proposals on salt law: current certificates were to circulate first, with accumulated old certificates cleared alongside them, so as to unblock the system. Salt censor Long Yuqi established a gang system for salt administration, attaching old certificates to current ones for circulation: south of the Huai was organized into ten gangs and north of the Huai into fourteen, so that within a little over ten years all old certificates would be cleared. The proposal was approved. Under the Tianqi emperor, profit-seekers scraped and levied at will, striving to increase certificates and rush them through weighing out of turn. Wei Zhongxian's followers Guo Xingzhi, Cui Chengxiu, and others devised new pretexts to extract revenue, and the sums they collected were beyond reckoning. Commentators compared the practice to draining a stream to catch its fish. In the Chongzhen reign, supervising secretary Huang Chenghao submitted a detailed plan for salt administration and sought substantial reforms. Military pay was severely short at the time, and the reforms could not be carried out.

初，諸王府則就近地支鹽，官民戶口食鹽皆計口納鈔，自行關支。而官吏食鹽多冒增口數，有一官支二千餘斤，一吏支五百餘斤者。乃限吏典不得過十口，文武官不過三十口；大口鈔十二貫支鹽十二斤，小口半之。景泰三年始以鹽折給官吏俸糧，以百四十斤當米一石。京官歲遣吏下場，恣為奸利。錦衣吏益暴，率聯巨艦私販，有司不能詰。巡鹽御史乃定百司食鹽數，攟束以給吏，禁毋下場。納鈔、僦輓，費無所出，吏多亡。嘉靖中，吏部郎中陸光祖言於尚書嚴訥，疏請革之。自後百司停支食鹽，惟戶部及十三道御史歲支如故。軍民計口納鈔者，浙江月納米三升，賣鹽一斤，而商賈持鹽赴官，官為斂散，追徵之急過於租賦。正統時，從給事中鮑輝言，令民自買食鹽於商，罷納米令，且鬻十斤以下者勿以私鹽論，而鹽鈔不除。後條鞭法行，遂編入正賦。

At first, princely establishments drew salt from nearby depots, while officials and commoners paid paper notes per capita for household salt and collected it themselves. Officials and clerks often inflated their household counts; one official might draw more than 2,000 jin and one clerk more than 500. Limits were then set: clerical staff could claim no more than ten mouths, and civil and military officials no more than thirty; a large mouth received twelve jin of salt for twelve guan in paper notes, and a small mouth half that amount. In the third year of Jingtai, salt was first used in lieu of officials' grain salaries, with 140 jin taken as equivalent to one shi of rice. Capital officials sent clerks down to the salt fields every year to squeeze illicit profits. Clerks of the Brocade Guard were especially brazen, linking great ships to smuggle salt privately, and local officials could not stop them. The salt censor then fixed each office's salt allotment, bundled it for delivery to clerks, and forbade sending men down to the salt fields. With no way to cover the cost of paper notes and hired transport, many clerks simply disappeared. During Jiajing, Ministry of Personnel director Lu Guangzu spoke with Minister Yan Ne and memorialized to abolish the practice. Thereafter every office stopped drawing salt except the Ministry of Revenue and the censors of the thirteen circuits, who continued to receive their annual allotments as before. Where soldiers and civilians paid per capita in paper notes, Zhejiang required three sheng of rice a month and sold one jin of salt; yet when merchants brought salt to the government for distribution, collection was pursued more ruthlessly than land tax. In the Zhengtong reign, on the advice of supervising secretary Bao Hui, people were allowed to buy salt directly from merchants, the rice-payment order was abolished, and sales under ten jin were not treated as private salt, though salt paper notes were not abolished. Later, when the single-whip tax reform took effect, the charge was folded into the regular land tax.

巡鹽之官，洪、永時，嘗一再命御史視鹽課。正統元年始命侍郎何文淵、王佐，副都御史硃與言提督兩淮、長蘆、兩浙鹽課，命中官御史同往。未幾，以鹽法已清，下敕召還。後遂令御史視鹺，依巡按例，歲更代以為常。十一年以山東諸鹽場隸長蘆巡鹽御史。十四年命副都御史耿九疇清理兩淮鹽法。成化中，特遣中官王允中、僉都御史高明整治兩淮鹽法。明請增設副使一人，判官二人。孝宗初，鹽法壞，戶部尚書李敏請簡風憲大臣清理，乃命戶部侍郎李嗣於兩淮，刑部侍郎彭韶於兩浙，俱兼都御史，賜敕遣之。弘治十四年，僉都御史王璟督理兩淮鹽法。正德二年，兩淮則僉都御史王瓊，閩、浙則僉都御史張憲。後惟兩淮賦重，時遣大臣。十年，則刑部侍郎藍章。嘉靖七年，則副都御史黃臣。三十二年，則副都御史王紳。至三十九年，特命副都御史鄢懋卿總理四運司，事權尤重。自隆慶二年，副都御史龐尚鵬總理兩淮、長蘆、山東三運司後，遂無特遣大臣之事。

Salt inspectors: in the Hongwu and Yongle reigns, censors were once or twice ordered to oversee salt revenues. In the first year of Zhengtong, Vice Ministers He Wenyuan and Wang Zuo and Vice Censor-in-Chief Zhu Yuyan were first appointed to supervise salt revenues in Lianghuai, Changlu, and Liangzhe, with eunuchs and censors sent along with them. Before long, once the salt system had been straightened out, an edict recalled them. Censors were later put in charge of salt inspection on the model of circuit inspection, with annual rotation becoming the rule. In the eleventh year, Shandong's salt fields were placed under the Changlu salt censor. In the fourteenth year, Vice Censor-in-Chief Geng Jiuchou was ordered to rectify the Lianghuai salt system. During Chenghua, the eunuch Wang Yunzhong and Vice Censor-in-Chief Gao Ming were specially dispatched to reorganize Lianghuai salt policy. Gao Ming requested one additional vice commissioner and two magistrate assistants. Early in the Xiaozong reign the salt system had broken down; Minister of Revenue Li Min asked that a senior integrity official be chosen to set it right, and Vice Ministers Li Si and Peng Shao were sent to Lianghuai and Liangzhe respectively, each concurrently serving as censor-in-chief with an imperial commission. In the fourteenth year of Hongzhi, Vice Censor-in-Chief Wang Jing supervised Lianghuai salt policy. In the second year of Zhengde, Lianghuai was overseen by Vice Censor-in-Chief Wang Qiong and Fujian-Zhejiang by Vice Censor-in-Chief Zhang Xian. Later only Lianghuai bore a heavy levy, and senior ministers were periodically dispatched there. In the tenth year it was Vice Minister Lan Zhang. In the seventh year of Jiajing, Vice Censor-in-Chief Huang Chen. In the thirty-second year, Vice Censor-in-Chief Wang Shen. By the thirty-ninth year, Vice Censor-in-Chief Yan Maoqing was specially appointed to oversee all four transport offices, with authority heavier than ever. From the second year of Longqing, after Vice Censor-in-Chief Pang Shangpeng had overseen the three transport offices of Lianghuai, Changlu, and Shandong, no senior minister was specially dispatched again.

番人嗜乳酪，不得茶，則困以病。故唐、宋以來，行以茶易馬法，用制羌、戎，而明制尤密。有官茶，有商茶，皆貯邊易馬。官茶間徵課鈔，商茶輸課略如鹽制。

Frontier peoples lived on dairy foods, and without tea they grew sick with deprivation. From Tang and Song times onward the tea-for-horses system had been used to control the Qiang and Rong peoples, and under the Ming it was enforced with especial rigor. There was official tea and merchant tea, both stored on the frontier to be traded for horses. Official tea was occasionally taxed in paper notes, while merchant tea paid levies much like the salt system.

初，太祖令商人於產茶地買茶，納錢請引。引茶百斤，輸錢二百，不及引曰畸零，別置由帖給之。無由、引及茶引相離者，人得告捕。置茶局批驗所，稱較茶引不相當，即為私茶。凡犯私茶者，與私鹽同罪。私茶出境，與關隘不譏者，並論死。後又定茶引一道，輸錢千，照茶百斤；茶由一道，輸錢六百，照茶六十斤。既，又令納鈔，每引由一道，納鈔一貫。

At first the Taizu emperor ordered merchants to buy tea in producing regions, pay a fee, and obtain a certificate. A full certificate covered one hundred jin of tea for a payment of two hundred cash; amounts below a full certificate, called odd lots, were issued separate slips. Anyone lacking a slip or certificate, or carrying tea apart from its certificate, could be reported and arrested. Tea bureaus and inspection stations were set up; if the weighed tea did not match the certificate, it was treated as private tea. Violators of the private-tea ban were punished like private-salt smugglers. Smuggling private tea beyond the frontier, and pass officials who failed to inspect it, were both punishable by death. Later a tea certificate was fixed at one thousand cash for one hundred jin of tea; and a tea slip at six hundred cash for sixty jin. Payment was later changed to paper notes, one guan per certificate or slip.

洪武初，定令：凡賣茶之地，令宣課司三十取一。四年，戶部言：「陝西漢中、金州、石泉、漢陰、平利、西鄉諸縣，茶園四十五頃，茶八十六萬餘株。四川巴茶三百十五戶，茶二百三十八萬餘株。宜定令每十株官取其一。無主茶園，令軍士薅採，十取其八，以易番馬。」從之。於是諸產茶地設茶課司，定稅額，陝西二萬六千斤有奇，四川一百萬斤。設茶馬司於秦、洮、河、雅渚州，自碉門、黎、雅抵朵甘、烏思藏，行茶之地五千餘里。山後歸德諸州，西方諸部落，無不以馬售者。

Early in Hongwu a rule was set that wherever tea was sold, the local Revenue Promotion Office should take one part in thirty. In the fourth year the Ministry reported: "In Hanzhong, Jinzhou, Shiquan, Hanyin, Pingli, and Xixiang in Shaanxi there are forty-five qing of tea gardens with more than 860,000 tea plants. In Sichuan, 315 Ba-tea households tend more than 2.38 million plants. It is appropriate to fix a rule that the government take one plant in ten. In ownerless tea gardens, soldiers were to harvest the crop, keeping eight plants in ten to trade for frontier horses. The emperor approved the proposal. Tea Tax Offices were then established in every tea-producing region, with fixed quotas of a little over 26,000 jin for Shaanxi and one million jin for Sichuan. Tea and Horse Offices were set up at Qin, Tao, He, and Yazhu, and tea was carried more than five thousand li from Diaomen, Li, and Ya westward as far as Do-kham and U-Tsang. From the Guide prefectures beyond the mountains to the western tribes, all came to sell horses.

碉門、永寧、筠、連所產茶，名曰剪刀粗葉，惟西番用之，而商販未嘗出境。四川茶鹽都轉運使言：「宜別立茶局，徵其稅，易紅纓、氈衫、米、布、椒、蠟以資國用。而居民所收之茶，依江南給引販賣法，公私兩便。」於是永甯、成都、筠、連皆設茶局矣。

Tea from Diaomen, Yongning, Jun, and Lian, known as Scissors Coarse Leaf, was used only by western tribes, and merchants had never before exported it across the border. The Sichuan Commissioner of Tea and Salt reported: "Separate tea bureaus should be established to levy taxes and trade for red tassels, felt jackets, rice, cloth, pepper, and wax to supply state revenue. Tea gathered by local residents should be sold under the Jiangnan system of issued permits, benefiting both public revenue and private trade. Yongning, Chengdu, Jun, and Lian accordingly all gained tea bureaus.

川人故以茶易毛布、毛纓諸物以償茶課。自定課額，立倉收貯，專用以市馬，民不敢私採，課額每虧，民多賠納。四川布政司以為言，乃聽民採摘，與番易貨。又詔天全六番司民，免其徭役，專令蒸烏茶易馬。

Sichuan people had long traded tea for felt cloth, felt tassels, and the like to meet their tea tax obligations. Once quotas were fixed and warehouses set up to store tea solely for horse purchases, the people dared not pick tea privately; quotas were often unmet, and many had to pay make-up levies. When the Sichuan Provincial Administration Commission raised the matter, the people were allowed to harvest tea and trade with the frontier tribes. An edict also exempted the people of the Six Fan Offices of Tianquan from corvée and ordered them to devote themselves to steaming black tea for the horse trade.

初制，長河西等番商以馬入雅州易茶，由四川嚴州衛入黎州始達。茶馬司定價，馬一匹，茶千八百斤，於碉門茶課司給之。番商往復迂遠，而給茶太多。嚴州衛以為言，請置茶馬司於嚴州，而改貯碉門茶於其地，且驗馬高下以為茶數。詔茶馬司仍舊，而定上馬一匹，給茶百二十斤，中七十斤，駒五十斤。

Under the original arrangement, merchants from Chang River West and other tribes brought horses to Yazhou to trade for tea, entering Lizhou only after passing through Yanzhou Guard in Sichuan. The Tea and Horse Office set the rate at 1,800 jin of tea per horse, issued from the Diaomen Tea Tax Office. Tribal merchants had to travel a long roundabout route, and received far too much tea. Yanzhou Guard petitioned to place a Tea and Horse Office at Yanzhou, relocate the tea stored at Diaomen there, and set the tea allowance according to the quality of the horses. An edict kept the Tea and Horse Office where it was but set new rates: 120 jin for a superior horse, 70 for a medium one, and 50 for a foal.

三十年改設秦州茶馬司於西寧，敕右軍都督曰：「近者私茶出境，互市者少，馬日貴而茶日賤，啟番人玩侮之心。檄秦、蜀二府，發都司官軍於松潘、碉門、黎、雅、河州、臨洮及入西番關口外，巡禁私茶之出境者。」又遣駙馬都尉謝達諭蜀王椿曰：「國家榷茶，本資易馬。邊吏失譏，私販出境，惟易紅纓雜物。使番人坐收其利，而馬入中國者少，豈所以制戎狄哉！爾其諭布政司、都司，嚴為防禁，毋致失利。」

In the thirtieth year the Qinzhou Tea and Horse Office was moved to Xining. The emperor instructed the Right Military Governor: "Private tea has lately been smuggled across the border, few come to the official markets, horses grow costlier while tea grows cheaper, and this invites contempt from the frontier tribes. Send orders to the Qin and Shu regional commands to deploy troops to Songpan, Diaomen, Li, Ya, Hezhou, Lintao, and the passes into the western tribes to patrol and stop illicit tea from leaving the border. The Prince Consort Commandant Xie Da was also sent to admonish Prince Chun of Shu: "The state's tea monopoly exists chiefly to supply the horse trade. Border officials have failed to keep watch; smugglers send tea abroad only to trade for red tassels and petty goods. The tribes reap the profit effortlessly while few horses reach China — how can this restrain the frontier peoples! You must instruct the Provincial Administration Commission and Regional Command to enforce strict prohibitions and not allow the state to suffer this loss."

當是時，帝綢繆邊防，用茶易馬，固番人心，且以強中國。嘗謂戶部尚書鬱新：「用陝西漢中茶三百萬斤，可得馬三萬匹，四川松、茂茶如之。販鬻之禁，不可不嚴。」以故遣僉都御史鄧文鏗等察川、陝私茶；駙馬都尉歐陽倫以私茶坐死。又制金牌信符，命曹國公李景隆齎入番，與諸番要約，篆文上曰「皇帝聖旨」，左曰「合當差發」，右曰「不信者斬」。凡四十一面：洮州火把藏思囊日等族，牌四面，納馬三千五十匹；河州必裏衛西番二十九族，牌二十一面，納馬七千七百五匹；西寧曲先、阿端、罕東、安定四衛，巴哇、申中、申藏等族，牌十六面，納馬三千五十匹。下號金牌降諸番，上號藏內府以為契，三歲一遣官合符。其通道有二，一出河州，一出碉門，運茶五十餘萬斤，獲馬萬三千八百匹。太祖之馭番如此。

At this time the emperor was deeply attentive to frontier defense: trading tea for horses both won over the tribes and strengthened the realm. He once told Minister of Revenue Yu Xin: "Three million jin of Hanzhong tea in Shaanxi could bring thirty thousand horses; tea from Song and Mao in Sichuan would yield the same. The ban on private sale must be enforced without laxity. Accordingly he dispatched Assistant Censor-in-Chief Deng Wenkeng and others to investigate illicit tea in Sichuan and Shaanxi; Prince Consort Commandant Ouyang Lun was executed for smuggling tea. Gold credential plaques were also issued, and Duke of Cao Li Jinglong was ordered to carry them into the frontier and covenant with the tribes. The inscriptions read "By Imperial Decree" on the top, "Due Tribute Required" on the left, and "Disobedience Punished by Death" on the right. There were forty-one plaques in all: for the Huobacang, Sinangri, and other tribes of Taozhou, four plaques requiring 3,050 horses; for the twenty-nine western tribes of Bili Guard in Hezhou, twenty-one plaques requiring 7,755 horses; and for the four guards of Quxian, Aduan, Handong, and Anding at Xining, together with the Bawa, Shenzhong, Shencang, and other tribes, sixteen plaques requiring 3,050 horses. The lower halves were issued to the tribes and the upper halves kept in the palace as proof; every three years an official was sent to verify that the halves matched. There were two routes, one through Hezhou and one through Diaomen; more than 500,000 jin of tea were shipped, and 13,800 horses were obtained. Such was how Taizu managed the frontier tribes.

永樂中，帝懷柔遠人，遞增茶斤。由是市馬者多，而茶不足。茶禁亦稍馳，多私出境。碉門茶馬司至用茶八萬餘斤，僅易馬七十匹，又多瘦損。乃申嚴茶禁，設洮州茶馬司，又設甘肅茶馬司於陝西行都司地。十三年特遣三御史巡督陝西茶馬。

Under Yongle the emperor sought to conciliate distant peoples and repeatedly raised the amount of tea offered. More came to trade horses, but tea ran short. The tea ban also grew slack, and much tea was smuggled across the border. At the Diaomen Tea and Horse Office more than 80,000 jin of tea bought only seventy horses, many of them weak and emaciated. The tea ban was then tightened, a Tea and Horse Office was set up at Taozhou, and another at Gansu within the Shaanxi military region. In the thirteenth year three censors were specially sent to oversee the tea-and-horse trade in Shaanxi.

太祖之禁私茶也，自三月至九月，月遣行人四員，巡視河州、臨洮、碉門、黎、雅。半年以內，遣二十四員，往來旁午。宣德十年，乃定三月一遣。自永樂時停止金牌信符，至是復給。未幾，番人為北狄所侵掠，徙居內地，金牌散失。而茶司亦以茶少，止以漢中茶易馬，且不給金牌，聽其以馬入貢而已。

To stop private tea, Taizu from the third to the ninth month sent four envoys each month to inspect Hezhou, Lintao, Diaomen, Li, and Ya. Within half a year twenty-four envoys were sent back and forth in constant rotation. In the tenth year of Xuande this was fixed at one dispatch every third month. The gold plaques had been suspended since Yongle; they were now issued again. Before long the tribes, harried by northern raiders, moved inward and the plaques were scattered and lost. The Tea Office, finding tea scarce, traded only Hanzhong tea for horses, issued no plaques, and simply allowed the tribes to present horses as tribute.

先是，洪武末，置成都、重慶、保寧、播州茶倉四所，令商人納米中茶。宣德中，定官茶百斤，加耗什一。中茶者，自遣人赴甘州、西寧，而支鹽於淮、浙以償費。商人恃文憑恣私販，官課數年不完。正統初，都御史羅亨信言其弊，乃罷運茶支鹽例，令官運如故，以京官總理之。

Earlier, at the end of Hongwu, four tea warehouses were established at Chengdu, Chongqing, Baoning, and Bozhou, allowing merchants to pay grain for tea certificates. Under Xuande it was fixed that for every one hundred jin of official tea, a ten-percent allowance for wastage was added. Certificate holders sent their own men to Ganzhou and Xining and drew salt in Huai and Zhe to cover costs. Merchants used their documents to smuggle tea freely, and state revenue went uncollected for years. Early in Zhengtong, Censor-in-Chief Luo Hengxin described these abuses, and the rule allowing transport of tea in exchange for salt was abolished; official transport was restored under a capital official's supervision.

景泰中，罷遣行人。成化三年命御史巡茶陝西。番人不樂御史，馬至日少。乃取回御史，仍遣行人，且令按察司巡察。已而巡察不專，兵部言其害，乃復遣御史，歲一更，著為令。又以歲饑待振，復令商納粟中茶，且令茶百斤折銀五錢。商課折色自此始。

Under Jingtai the envoys were withdrawn. In the third year of Chenghua censors were ordered to inspect tea in Shaanxi. The tribes resented the censors, and fewer horses arrived each day. The censors were recalled, envoys were sent out again, and the Surveillance Commission was also ordered to inspect. When inspection became unfocused, the Ministry of War pointed out the harm, censors were sent again on annual rotation, and this was made permanent regulation. Famine relief also led to renewed merchant grain payments for tea certificates, with tea taxed at five qian of silver per hundred jin. From this date merchant taxes could be paid in silver instead of goods.

弘治三年，御史李鸞言：「茶馬司所積漸少，各邊馬耗，而陝西諸郡歲稔，無事易粟。請於西寧、河西、洮州三茶馬司召商中茶，每引不過百斤，每商不過三十引，官收其十之四，餘者始令貨賣，可得茶四十萬斤，易馬四千匹，數足而止。」從之。十二年，御史王憲又言：「自中茶禁開，遂令私茶莫遏，而易馬不利。請停糧茶之例。異時或兵荒，乃更圖之。」部覆從其請。四川茶課司舊徵數十萬斤易馬。永樂以後，番馬悉由陝西道，川茶多浥爛。乃令以三分為率，一分收本色，二分折銀，糧茶停二年。延綏饑，復召商納糧草，中四百萬斤。尋以御史王紹言，復禁止，並罷正額外召商開中之例。

In the third year of Hongzhi, Censor Li Luan reported: "Stores at the Tea and Horse Offices are dwindling, frontier horses are scarce, yet Shaanxi's prefectures enjoy good harvests and have no need to trade grain. He asked that merchants be summoned to the three offices at Xining, Hexi, and Taozhou to buy certificates — no more than one hundred jin per permit or thirty permits per merchant — with the state taking four-tenths and the remainder sold privately, yielding 400,000 jin of tea to buy four thousand horses, stopping when the quota was met. The emperor approved the proposal. In the twelfth year, Censor Wang Xian again reported: "Since the tea-certificate ban was relaxed, private tea has become unstoppable and the horse trade has suffered. He requested that the grain-for-tea regulation be suspended. If war or famine should arise later, the matter can be reconsidered then. The ministry replied and approved his request. The Sichuan Tea Tax Office had formerly levied several hundred thousand jin for horse trade. After Yongle, tribal horses all came via the Shaanxi route, and much Sichuan tea soaked and rotted. It was then ordered that of every three parts, one be collected in kind and two converted to silver; the grain-for-tea system was suspended for two years. When Yanbian suffered famine, merchants were again summoned to pay grain and fodder for certificates totaling four million jin. Soon, on Censor Wang Shao's recommendation, the practice was again prohibited, and the rule of summoning merchants beyond the regular quota for open certificates was abolished.

十六年取回御史，以督理馬政都御史楊一清兼理之。一清復議開中，言：「召商買茶，官貿其三之一，每歲茶五六十萬斤，可得馬萬匹。」帝從所請。正德元年，一清又建議，商人不願領價者，以半與商，令自賣。遂著為例永行焉。一清又言金牌信符之制當復，且請復設巡茶御史兼理馬政。乃復遣御史，而金牌以久廢。卒不能復。後武宗寵番僧，許西域人例外帶私茶。自是茶法遂壞。

In the sixteenth year the censor was recalled, and Censor-in-Chief Yang Yiqing, overseer of horse administration, was given concurrent charge of tea affairs. Yiqing again proposed reviving open certificates, saying: "Summon merchants to buy tea; the government shall purchase one-third. Each year five or six hundred thousand jin of tea could bring ten thousand horses. The emperor approved the request. In the first year of Zhengde, Yiqing proposed again that merchants unwilling to receive payment in cash be given half the tea to sell themselves. This was then fixed as a permanent regulation. Yiqing also said the gold-plaque credential system should be restored and requested that tea-patrol censors be reinstated with concurrent charge of horse administration. Censors were again dispatched, but the gold plaques had long been abandoned. In the end they could not be restored. Later, when Wuzong favored tribal monks, Western Regions people were permitted to carry private tea as an exception. From this the tea law collapsed.

番人之市馬也，不能辯權衡，止訂篦中馬。篦大，則官虧其直；小，則商病其繁。十年巡茶御史王汝舟酌為中制，每千斤為三百三十篦。

When tribes traded horses they could not use standard weights and measures, and fixed only the number of bamboo tea baskets per horse. If the baskets were large, the government lost on the exchange; if they were small, merchants suffered from the burden. In the tenth year Tea Patrol Censor Wang Ruzhou set a middle standard of three hundred thirty baskets per thousand jin.

嘉靖三年，御史陳講以商茶低偽，悉徵黑茶，地產有限，乃第茶為上中二品，印烙篦上，書商名而考之。旋定四川茶引五萬道，二萬六千道為腹引，二萬四千道為邊引。芽茶引三錢，葉茶引二錢。中茶至八十萬斤而止，不得太濫。

In the third year of Jiajing, Censor Chen Jiang, because merchant tea was inferior and spurious, levied only black tea; as local production was limited, tea was ranked in upper and middle grades, stamped on the baskets, with merchant names written for inspection. Sichuan tea permits were soon fixed at fifty thousand certificates: twenty-six thousand as interior permits and twenty-four thousand as border permits. Bud-tea permits cost three qian; leaf-tea permits cost two qian. Tea certificates were capped at eight hundred thousand jin and were not to be issued too freely.

十五年，御史劉良卿言：「律例：『私茶出境與關隘失察者，並淩遲處死。』蓋西陲籓籬，莫切於諸番。番人恃茶以生，故嚴法以禁之，易馬以酬之，以制番人之死命，壯中國之籓籬，斷匈奴之右臂，非可以常法論也。洪武初例，民間蓄茶不得過一月之用。弘治中，召商中茶，或以備振，或以儲邊，然未嘗禁內地之民使不得食茶也。今減通番之罪，止於充軍。禁內地之茶，使不得食，又使商私課茶，悉聚於三茶馬司。夫茶司與番為鄰，私販易通，而禁復嚴於內郡，是驅民為私販而授之資也。

In the fifteenth year, Censor Liu Liangqing said: "The statute reads: 'Those who smuggle private tea across the border and pass officials who fail to detect it shall both be executed by lingering death. For the western frontier barrier, nothing is more urgent than the frontier tribes. The tribes rely on tea to live; therefore strict laws prohibit it and horses are exchanged to reward them, to control the tribes' very livelihood, strengthen China's frontier barrier, and sever the Xiongnu's right arm — this cannot be judged by ordinary law. An early Hongwu regulation held that private tea storage must not exceed one month's supply. Under Hongzhi, merchants were summoned to buy tea certificates, sometimes for famine relief or frontier stores, yet the people of the interior were never forbidden to drink tea. Now the offense of trading with the tribes has been reduced to military exile alone. Tea in the interior is prohibited so people cannot consume it, and merchants' private duty tea is all gathered at the three Tea and Horse Offices. The tea offices border the tribes, so private trade passes easily, yet the ban is stricter than in interior commanderies — this drives the people into smuggling and hands them the means.

以故大奸闌出而漏網，小民負升鬥而罹法。今計三茶馬司所貯，洮河足三年，西寧足二年，而商、私、課茶又日益增，積久腐爛而無所用。茶法之弊如此。番地多馬而無所市，吾茶有禁而不得通，其勢必相求，而制之之機在我。今茶司居民，竊易番馬以待商販，歲無虛日，及官易時，而馬反耗矣。請敕三茶馬司，止留二年之用，每年易馬當發若干。正茶之外，分毫毋得夾帶。令茶價踴貴，番人受制，良馬將不可勝用。且多開商茶，通行內地，官榷其半以備軍餉，而河、蘭、階、岷諸近番地，禁賣如故，更重通番之刑如律例。洮、岷、河責邊備道，臨洮、蘭州責隴右分巡，西寧責兵備，各選官防守。失察者以罷軟論。」奏上，報可。於是茶法稍飭矣。

Thus great villains slip through and escape the net, while common people carrying sheng and dou of tea fall under the law. Counting stores at the three Tea and Horse Offices today: Tao-He has enough for three years, Xining for two, yet merchant, private, and duty tea keep increasing daily, piling up until they rot with no use. Such are the abuses of the tea law. The tribes have horses in abundance but no market for them, while our tea is barred from trade — inevitably the two sides will seek each other out, and the power to regulate that exchange rests in our hands. Today the residents around the tea offices quietly buy tribal horses in advance for private resale, keeping busy year-round — so that by the time the official exchange season arrives, the supply of horses has already been drained. He asked that the three Tea and Horse Offices be ordered to hold no more than a two-year reserve and to fix the number of horses traded each year. Nothing beyond the official quota tea may be included — not even the smallest amount. Let tea prices rise steeply so the tribes depend on us, and good horses will flow in beyond what we can use. At the same time, open up merchant tea for sale throughout the interior, with the government levying half the proceeds for military supplies, while places near the tribes — He, Lan, Jie, and Min — would remain under the old bans on tea sales and face even harsher penalties for unauthorized frontier trade. Tao, Min, and He would fall under the frontier defense circuit; Lintao and Lanzhou under the Longyou sub-circuit censor; and Xining under the military defense commissioner — each charged with posting officials to guard against smuggling. Officials who failed to detect violations would be dismissed for incompetence. The memorial was submitted and approved. The tea regulations were partly restored to order.

御史劉侖、總督尚書王以旂等，請復給諸番金牌信符。兵部議，番族變詐不常，北狄抄掠無已，金牌亟給亟失，殊損國體。番人納馬，意在得茶，嚴私販之禁，則番人自順，雖不給金牌，馬可集也。若私販盛行，吾無以系其心、制其命，雖給金牌，馬亦不至。乃定議發勘合予之。

Censor Liu Lun, Grand Coordinator Wang Yiqi, and others asked that the gold-plaque credentials be issued again to the frontier tribes. The Ministry of War argued that the tribes were treacherous and unpredictable, that northern raiders never stopped, and that gold plaques were lost as fast as they were issued — all of which shamed the state. The tribes brought horses because they wanted tea; tighten the ban on smuggling and they would come willingly — horses could be collected even without restoring the gold plaques. But if smuggling flourished, we would lose all leverage over them; even with gold plaques, no horses would come. In the end they agreed to issue verification tallies instead.

其後陝西歲饑，茶戶無所資，頗逋課額。三十六年，戶部以全陝災震，邊餉告急，國用大絀，上言：「先時，正額茶易馬之外，多開中以佐公家，有至五百萬斤者。近者御史劉良卿亦開百萬，後止開正額八十萬斤，並課茶、私茶通計僅九十餘萬。宜下巡茶御史議，召商多中。」御史楊美益言：「歲祲民貧，即正額尚多虧損，安有贏羨。今第宜守每年九十萬斤招番易馬之規。凡通內地以息私販，增開中以備振荒，悉從停罷，毋使與馬分利。」戶部以帑藏方匱，請如弘治六年例，易馬外仍開百萬斤，召納邊鎮以備軍餉。詔從之。末年，御史潘一桂言：「增中商茶頗壅滯，宜裁減十四五。」又言：「松潘與洮、河近，私茶往往闌出，宜停松潘引目，申嚴入番之禁。」皆報可。

Later, when famine struck Shaanxi, tea growers had no livelihood and fell far behind on their tax payments. In the thirty-sixth year the Ministry of Revenue reported that earthquakes and disaster had ravaged Shaanxi, frontier supplies were critically low, and the treasury was severely overextended: "In earlier times, besides the regular tea quota traded for horses, additional certificate openings had supplemented government revenues — in some years reaching five million jin. Recently Censor Liu Liangqing had opened certificates for another million jin, but the quota had since been cut to eight hundred thousand jin of regular tea, with duty and private tea bringing the total to barely nine hundred thousand jin. The ministry urged sending the matter to the tea-patrol censor and summoning merchants to tender for additional certificates. Censor Yang Meiyi replied: "In a famine year the people are destitute — even the regular quota falls short. Where is there any surplus? For now we should simply adhere to the rule of nine hundred thousand jin per year for trading with the tribes. Proposals to open interior trade to curb smuggling and to increase certificate openings for famine relief should all be dropped, so that tea revenue is not diverted from the horse trade. The Ministry of Revenue, citing the depleted treasury, asked that — following the Hongzhi sixth-year precedent — an additional million jin of certificates be opened beyond the horse-trade quota, with proceeds sent to frontier garrisons for military pay. The emperor approved. Near the end of the reign, Censor Pan Yigui reported that the expanded merchant tea certificates were backing up badly and should be cut by fourteen or fifteen percent. He also argued that because Songpan lay close to Tao and He, smuggled tea often leaked through there — Songpan's certificate quota should be suspended and the ban on tea entering tribal territory tightened. Both proposals were approved.

四川茶引之分邊腹也，邊茶少而易行，腹茶多而常滯。隆慶三年裁引萬二千，以三萬引屬黎、雅，四千引屬松潘諸邊，四千引留內地，稅銀共萬四千餘兩，解部濟邊以為常。

In Sichuan, tea certificates were split between frontier and interior regions — frontier allotments were small and sold readily, while interior allotments were large and often went unsold. In Longqing 3 the quota was cut by twelve thousand certificates: thirty thousand went to Li and Ya prefectures, four thousand to Songpan and other frontier posts, and four thousand to the interior — yielding over fourteen thousand taels of tax silver remitted annually to the ministry for frontier aid.

五年令甘州仿洮、河、西寧事例，歲以六月開中，兩月內中馬八百匹。立賞罰例，商引一二年銷完者賞有差，逾三年者罪之，沒其附帶茶。

In the fifth year Ganzhou was ordered to adopt the same system as Tao, He, and Xining — opening certificates each June and completing tenders for eight hundred horses within two months. Rewards and penalties were set: merchants who cleared their certificates within one or two years received graded rewards; those who took more than three years were penalized and any extra tea they carried was confiscated.

萬曆五年，俺答款塞，請開茶市。御史李時成言：「番以茶為命，北狄若得，藉以制番，番必從狄，貽患匪細。部議給百餘篦，而勿許其市易。自劉良卿馳內地之禁，楊美益以為非，其後復禁止。十三年，以西安、鳳翔、漢中不與番鄰，開其禁，招商給引，抽十三入官，餘聽自賣。御史鐘化民以私茶之闌出多也，請分任責成。陝之漢中，關南道督之，府佐一人專駐魚渡壩；川之保寧，川北道督之，府佐一人專駐雞猴壩。率州、縣官兵防守。」從之。

In Wanli 5 Altan Khan submitted to the dynasty and asked for a tea market to be opened. Censor Li Shicheng warned: "Tea is life itself for the tribes. If the northern steppe peoples gained access to it, they could use tea to dominate the tribes, who would then align with the northerners — the consequences would be grave. The ministry agreed to grant a little over a hundred baskets of tea as tribute but refused to allow open trading. After Liu Liangqing had rushed to ban interior tea sales, Yang Meiyi objected — and the ban was eventually reimposed. In the thirteenth year, because Xi'an, Fengxiang, and Hanzhong did not border tribal territory, the bans there were lifted — merchants were recruited, certificates issued, with one part in thirteen taken for the government and the rest free to sell. Censor Zhong Huamin, noting how much smuggled tea was getting through, asked that enforcement duties be divided and officials held accountable. In Shaanxi's Hanzhong, the Guannan circuit would oversee enforcement, with one assistant prefect permanently posted at Yuduba Pass; In Sichuan's Baoning, the Chuanbei circuit would take charge, with one assistant prefect stationed at Jihouba Pass. They would command local troops and officials to guard the passes. The proposal was approved.

中茶易馬，惟漢中、保寧，而湖南產茶，其直賤，商人率越境私販，中漢中、保寧者，僅一二十引。茶戶欲辦本課，輒私販出邊，番族利私茶之賤，因不肯納馬。二十三年，御史李楠請禁湖茶，言：「湖茶行，茶法、馬政兩弊，宜令巡茶御史召商給引，願報漢、興、保、夔者，準中。越境下湖南者，禁止。且湖南多假茶，食之刺口破腹，番人亦受其害。」既而御史徐僑言：「漢、川茶少而直高，湖南茶多而直下。湖茶之行，無妨漢中。漢茶味甘而薄，湖茶味苦，於酥酪為宜，亦利番也。但宜立法嚴核，以遏假茶。」戶部折衷其議，以漢茶為主，湖茶佐之。各商中引，先給漢、川畢，乃給湖南。如漢引不足，則補以湖引。報可。

Certificate tenders for tea-and-horse exchange were accepted only at Hanzhong and Baoning, but Hunan produced cheap tea and merchants routinely smuggled it across the border — so only ten or twenty certificates a year were tendered at Hanzhong and Baoning. Tea growers trying to meet their tax obligations smuggled tea to the frontier, where tribes favored the cheap contraband and stopped offering horses to the official markets. In the twenty-third year Censor Li Nan asked to ban Hunan tea, arguing that its spread was ruining both the tea monopoly and horse policy: the tea-patrol censor should summon merchants and issue certificates to those willing to trade through Hanzhong, Xing'an, Baoning, and Kuizhou. Anyone who crossed the border to sell in Hunan should be barred. Hunan also produced much adulterated tea that burned the mouth and upset the stomach — harming the tribes as well. Censor Xu Qiao countered: "Hanzhong and Sichuan teas are scarce and costly, while Hunan tea is abundant and cheap. Hunan tea posed no threat to Hanzhong's market. Han tea was sweet and mild, Hunan tea bitter — better suited to buttered tea and beneficial to the tribes as well. But strict inspection laws were needed to stop adulterated tea. The Ministry of Revenue split the difference, making Hanzhong tea primary and Hunan tea supplementary. Merchants tendering for certificates would receive Hanzhong and Sichuan allotments first; Hunan allotments came only after those were filled. If Hanzhong certificates ran short, Hunan certificates would make up the difference. The compromise was approved.

二十九年，陝西巡按御史畢三才言：「課茶徵輸，歲有定額。先因茶多餘積，園戶解納艱難，以此改折。今商人絕跡，五司茶空。請令漢中五州縣仍輸本色，每歲招商中五百引，可得馬萬一千九百餘匹。」部議，西寧、河、洮、岷、甘、莊浪六茶司共易馬九千六百匹，著為令。天啟時，增中馬二千四百匹。

In the twenty-ninth year Shaanxi touring censor Bi Sancai reported that duty tea payments were fixed at an annual quota. Because surplus tea had piled up and growers struggled to deliver their quotas in kind, the levy had been converted to cash payments. Now no merchants came at all, and the tea stores at the five offices stood empty. He asked that the five Hanzhong prefectures and counties resume delivery in kind, and that five hundred certificates be opened each year — enough to bring in over eleven thousand nine hundred horses. The ministry settled on nine thousand six hundred horses per year across the six tea offices at Xining, He, Tao, Min, Gan, and Zhuanglang, and made that the standing quota. During the Tianqi reign the horse quota was raised by another twenty-four hundred.

明初嚴禁私販，久而奸弊日生。洎乎末造，商人正引之外，多給賞由票，使得私行。番人上駟盡入奸商，茶司所市者乃其中下也。番得茶，叛服自由；而將吏又以私馬竄番馬，冒支上茶。茶法、馬政、邊防於是俱壞矣。

The dynasty had strictly banned smuggling at the outset, but abuses multiplied over the years. By the dynasty's final years, merchants received extra reward passes beyond their regular certificates, allowing them to trade tea privately. The finest tribal horses all went to corrupt private traders, leaving only mediocre stock for the official tea offices. Once the tribes had tea, they submitted or rebelled as they pleased; Officers and officials substituted their own horses for tribal horses and fraudulently claimed top-grade tea in exchange. The tea law, horse policy, and frontier defense all collapsed together.

其他產茶之地，南直隸常、盧、池、徽，浙江湖、嚴、衢、紹，江西南昌、饒州、南康、九江、吉安，湖廣武昌、荊州、長沙、寶慶，四川成都、重慶、嘉定、夔、瀘，商人中引則於應天、宜興、杭州三批驗所，徵茶課則於應天之江東瓜埠。自蘇、常、鎮、徽、廣德及浙江、河南、廣西、貴州皆徵鈔，雲南則徵銀。

Elsewhere, tea was grown in Nanzhili (Changzhou, Luzhou, Chizhou, Huizhou), Zhejiang (Huzhou, Yanzhou, Quzhou, Shaoxing), Jiangxi (Nanchang, Raozhou, Nankang, Jiujiang, Ji'an), Huguang (Wuchang, Jingzhou, Changsha, Baoqing), and Sichuan (Chengdu, Chongqing, Jiading, Kuizhou, Luzhou). Merchants tendered for certificates at inspection stations in Yingtian, Yixing, and Hangzhou, while tea duties were collected at Jiangdong Guabu in Yingtian. Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Huizhou, Guangde, Zhejiang, Henan, Guangxi, and Guizhou all collected duty in paper notes, while Yunnan collected silver.

其上供茶，天下貢額四千有奇，福建建甯所貢最為上品，有探春、先春、次春、紫筍及薦新等號。舊皆採而碾之，壓以銀板，為大小龍團。太祖以其勞民，罷造，惟令採茶芽以進，復上供戶五百家。凡貢茶，第按額以供，不具載。

Imperial tribute tea totaled a little over four thousand jin nationwide. The finest came from Jianning in Fujian, graded as Pluck-Spring, Prior-Spring, Next-Spring, Purple Bud, and Fresh Tribute, among other labels. Formerly the leaves were picked, ground, and pressed with silver plates into large and small "dragon" tea cakes. The founding emperor abolished cake-making as too burdensome and required only fresh tea buds as tribute, restoring five hundred dedicated tribute households. All other tribute teas were supplied according to their quotas and are not listed here in detail.

Cite this Chapter