"Salt and Iron" is the record of a meeting. In 81 BC, the Grand Secretary Sang Hongyang, on behalf of Prime Minister Huo Guang and in the presence of the thirteen-year-old Emperor of China, Xiao, convenes the cabinet and sixty scholars and wise men from all over China.

The agenda is the question of whether to abolish the monopoly on salt and iron, which Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty had instituted to increase state revenues and combat the barbaric Xiongnu who were violating borders and plundering the country.

The social crisis and decline that China is experiencing during this period is so severe that the government, under public pressure, is forced to officially seek the opinions of the opposition, namely the Confucian scholars and sages, in order to find a way out of the deadlock.

In a moment of desperate honesty, the Vice President of the government, the Grand Secretary, will say: "We are living through the horror of the ferry caught in a storm in the middle of the river; we have lost our sleep and our appetite for food. But our colleagues seem not to be of good stock nor do they have serious political views to suggest structural reforms to us. Thus, we have placed all our hopes in you."

However, the timeliness of the issues and the depth with which they are approached and analyzed make the text of the dispute over salt and iron a modern political poem about the nature of humanity and power, the state and its role, the corruption of leaders and officials, but also the corruption of the people, the economy and development, institutions and reforms, taxes, legislation, and the criminal system, virtue, morality, and justice.

(from the preface by Karolos Papoulias)