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Salt Producers in the Ming
Salt production during China’s Ming period mainly took place in China’s coastal regions bordering the Pacific Ocean and salt lakes. Although there were different techniques to obtain salt, boiling seawater and evaporating seawater under the sun were the two popular methods of isolating salt. Both techniques of salt production required dry and sunny weather. During Ming times, boiling seawater was the most popular technique. Seawater was not boiled directly - but was first concentrated by laying down reeds and straws to absorb and concentrate the sea water, then boiled to isolate the salt grains. The latter technique was occasionally used in Fujian and was not commonly used across regions of China until the late Ming period. Saltern households were generally called yan hu (盐户), and specifically, those who boiled seawater were called zao hu (灶户). These other methods differed between regions. In Yunnan, salt was obtained through the mining of saline rocks. In Shansi, salt was gathered in the summer when the salt lake dried up. And in Sichuan, brine wells were dug and then the brine was boiled. Household that boiled brine also had to obtain fuel, in the form of natural gas or burning firewood and straw, in order to heat up their furnaces.

Some prisoners were forced to produce salt as part of their sentence, until they had served their prison terms. But the majority of salt producers in Ming times consisted of young men from saltern households, whom were government assigned. Salt production was passed on generationally within their households. The households would be registered under a regional distribution center, where they would receive a quota on the quantity of salt produced. Families that produced salt through boiling brine could receive tools from the state if they did not have that capital. In early Ming, salt producers would congregate under the supervision of salt patrols and boil the seawater in an officially provided iron plate. The government believed that this congregational salt production allowed the officials to conveniently control the amount of fuel, iron plates, and salt produced so that they were able to prevent the trade of contraband salt. However, in reality, salt producers would collude with salt patrols to gain profit from contraband salt. After Jiajing’s reign (1522-1566), the salt ministry became financially unable to provide iron plates due to the great cost of manufacture and replacement. As a result, the government reluctantly permitted merchants to provide cauldrons to the producers, although it was argued that cauldrons were the reason for contraband salt. The congregational salt production in turn collapsed into individual saltern household production.

The methods of payment from the government differed throughout the Ming period, but included grain, money, subsidies, and decreased or voided land tax. In the 16th century, salt producers were able to sell directly to licensed salt merchants who purchased a fixed amount of salt from the imperial government first. But the license had a limit on the amount of salt that merchants could purchase, until they would be taxed for the sales. Towards the end of the Ming period, the extra salt produced and sold became the main income source for salt producing families. Within the salt producing occupation, some producers were wealthier and purchased other saltern households, while providing them with the tools and capital to do their work. These wealthier producers could then benefit from the low land tax given by the government and could further rent out the extra farmland as another source of income. Those that kept salt producers under them could meet the salt quota, and therefore avoided the corvee work that the government asked of salt producers.

Throughout the Ming dynasty, the number of salt producers suffered a great decline, and one of the reasons is the corvee labor that salt producers had to take on. In Ming times, the corvee (called 杂役 in Ming period Chinese) assigned to salt producers included being enlisted as soldiers in the local army and navy, as servants for local government, or as criminal patrolmen, etc. For salt producers, the extra agricultural work contributed the most burden to them, as they had to plant and harvest as intensively as a farming household, all while collecting and drying salt. Although in 1384, the government had already exempted the salt-producing households from extra work, this policy was not effectively enforced throughout the country - because salt producers reported to both the salt ministry, who collected salt from them, and the local government, who collected the crops. This led to a large number of salt producers fleeing from their occupation, which caused a loss in the national salt industry and economy.