The Sale Of Guangdong Salt In Jiangxi Province And "the Dispute Between The Two Huais And Guangdong" In The Ming Dynasty

In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Government stipulated that Guangdong salt was allowed to be sold only in Guangdong Province, while Jiangxi belonged to the Huai Salt selling area. But this situation began to change since the period of Tianshun. As the Two Guangs suffered sustained upheaval and in order to raise soldier's pay and provisions to pacify locality, the central government of the Ming Dynasty tacitly consented to the fact that Guangdong salt was on sale in the Prefecture of Nan'an and Ganzhou of Jiangxi Province, at the request of Chen Jun, a Langzhong of the Board of Revenue, and Ye Sheng, an imperial inspector of Guangdong Province. After this, the selling area of Guangdong salt in Jiangxi Province expanded to the Prefecture of Ji'an, Yuanzhou and Linjiang to meet the urgent need of the South Jiangxi area to raise soldier's pay and provisions. As Guangdong salt continued to permeate and extrude the Huai salt selling area, there was an uninterrupted escalation of dispute for interests between the Two Huais and Guangdong in the salt market of Jiangxi, thereby touched off "the dispute between the Two Huais and Guangdong" which began in the period of Tianshun and Chenghua, and up to the period between Tianqi and Chongzhen, lasting for more than a hundred years from beginning to end. This a-century-long dispute which focused on the South Jiangxi area reflected the market competition between Guangdong salt and Huai salt in Jiangxi Province, the contradiction and struggle between the Group of the Two Huais' businessmen and the Group of Guangdong and Jiangxi as well as the division of interests between the central government of the Ming Dynasty and the local governments of Guangdong and Jiangxi. In the process of "the dispute between the Two Huais and Guangdong", the success or failure and advancing or retreating of the Group of Guangdong and Jiangxi determined whether Guangdong salt sold well in Jiangxi Province, which directly affected the development of economy and the rising and declining of society of Guangdong and Jiangxi Province. This article reproduces the general situation of the sale of Guangdong salt in Jiangxi Province and "the dispute between the Two Huais and Guangdong" in the Ming Dynasty through the materials that the author could see, and on the basis of this, attempts to analyze the interest relations as well as the contradiction and struggle hiding behind "the dispute between the Two Huais and Guangdong", and delve further into the exact time when Guangdong salt began to be sold to Jiangxi Province, the selling routes and the influence of the sale on the society and economy of Guangdong and the South Jiangxi area.