The present paper,arguing against the past scholarship treating the management of surplus salt as merely an adjustment rather than as an institutional innovation and paying much less attention to salt-producing regions other than Lianghuai region,criticizes that the study of management system of surplus salt is far from being adequate and makes effort to shed revealing light on multiple reasons leading to this system,such as the rampant trade of illegal salt and the government's wish to consolidate the administration of sil-ver.