| Salt taxation was an important income for the Revenue Ministry of Middle Ming Dynasty, so that the Revenue Ministry put much emphasis on salt administration. But some powerful person who were mainly eunuchs protected by the emperor often destroyed salt system, not only by monopolizing the right to transport and sell salt, but also many other aspects of salt system under the absence of the Revenue Ministry who was the real salt system administrator. The Revenue Ministry had to take measures to deal with this crisis, including allowing the salt merchants to pay silver salt tax instead of grain at the military borderlines or the local salt governmental departments, also permitting the salt merchants to buy additional salt by paying silver tax, and also salt producers to pay tax by using silver, etc. By following the adjusting measures from the Revenue Ministry, the local salt administrative departments promoted kinds of silver tax paying practice, including both merchants' and producers', or at the inner local government or at the military borderlines. This showed that the salt system had experienced big changes, and the important pusher of this transition was just the Revenue Ministry of Middle Ming Dynasty. |