Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 033 Primitive Capital Accumulation (VIII)
After the villagers left with fear and hope, and expressed their gratitude, Zhu Youdong turned around and smiled at Wei Zhongxian: "Zhongxian, you have worked hard during this period. The transformation of Zhuangzi has been done very well, and I am very satisfied."
"I am willing to die of exhaustion as long as I have your approval."
"Hahaha, you can't be too exhausted. I still have a lot of things for you to do. Well, I got a message from my father saying that the two masters from Jingdezhen will be here soon. I will put them and other masters in the farm when the time comes. How is the house I asked you to build going? Don't let them have nowhere to stay when they come."
"Please rest assured, Master. I have already made all the arrangements. You can go and check it out in person later."
"Well, are there any difficulties in running Zhuangzi?"
"Uh... Young Master, when it comes to difficulties, it is a little bit."
"It's okay to speak frankly."
"Silver, young master. There are only more than 1,200 taels of silver in the manor now. This amount of money is enough to support the soap to go on the market, but if there is really a poor and ignorant person who breaks the two rules I just set, I will have to give him 1,000 taels of silver at once."
Speaking of which, Zhu Youdong is really generous with his money.
Wanli gave him 5,000 taels of silver as start-up capital. Before he could even get his hands warm, he gave 1,000 taels to Cao Huachun to go south. He then killed people and set fires to pay hard work fees to the guards, demolished wheat fields along the river to give high compensation to the villagers, etc. In addition to building factories and purchasing production materials, most of the 5,000 taels of silver were gone.
"Hahaha, I thought it was nothing. It's so simple. Zhang Shize and Li Shizhong."
"I am here."
"Go back and ask your elders whether you two families would like to invest in the production and sales of soap. I will give you two families 10% of the shares, and the price is 10,000 taels of silver!"
"Thank you, Grandson. We can make the decision on this matter. The share money will be delivered tomorrow at the latest."
"Look, Lao Wei, now you have money, don't you?"
Oh, my goodness, we have the money, but our shares have also been diluted. When it comes time to distribute profits and dividends, there will be much less.
But Lao Wei thought so in his heart, but he said happily: "Now I don't have to worry. Next, I will buy breeding pigs and build a breeding farm. I won't be short of money."
After all, people's hearts are hidden, and Zhu Youdong certainly didn't know what Wei Zhongxian was thinking at the moment. Even if he knew, he would only laugh at Wei's low vision: How could such a lucrative business last long without diluting the shares to bring in representatives of the military and nobles? With the current shares, he still felt that he had too much and had to dilute them again.
When he returned to Beijing, the first person he went to see was Zhu Changluo. After demonstrating the effects of the soap, Zhu Changluo's eyes began to light up, and he spoke directly: "Father, do you want to invest in my farm? I will give you dividends every year."
Specifically speaking of the Ming Dynasty, the Neo-Confucianism of this era had already encountered fierce challenges from the School of Mind. The atmosphere of discrimination against merchants in the whole society in the early Ming Dynasty had basically disappeared without a trace during the Wanli period. So when Zhu Youdong told Zhu Changluo about the investment, Zhu Changluo was not disgusted.
However, the prince was a kind-hearted man. Faced with such a huge temptation, he still said honestly: "Dong'er, of course your father is willing to invest. But your father does not have much money."
As mentioned above, although he became the crown prince one year earlier because of the birth of a time traveler, Wanli still felt uncomfortable. Therefore, Zhu Changluo was probably the weakest crown prince in the Ming Dynasty. He really didn't have much spare money.
But the less money he had, the more Zhu Changluo needed it: he was the crown prince, the second in command of the Ming Dynasty, so he had to be well-off. When Zhu Changluo was the eldest son of the emperor, his teachers had to bring their own meals to teach him. Although he was not so poor now, Zhu Changluo still had to spend money to give some gold and silver jewelry to his many wives.
Which man doesn't want to be generous in front of his woman? Not to mention that although Zhu Changluo was a weak prince, he knew that he needed to win over some ministers in this environment. But how to win them over? After being courteous to the wise and humble, there must be something practical. The weak prince has no say in personnel appointments and dismissals, so he can't promote others, so he always needs to give gifts - this also requires money.
"Father wants to invest, so you don't need to give me even a tael of silver. However, after all, the Duke of Ying and the Ningyuan Earl's Mansion both took cash, and it would be bad for father not to take anything. How about this, father, use salt as a stake. I don't want much, just give me 20 dan of refined salt from Honghe Village every year."
The prices in the Ming Dynasty are very different from those today. A later historian mentioned in a paper that the housing prices in the Ming Dynasty were very low: a house covering an area of 5 mu, with more than 30 houses, a garden and a pond, was sold for only 106 taels during the Wanli period, which was only more than 20,000 yuan according to the rice price. The price of salt during the Wanli period was 3 qian of silver per catty, and 48 taels of silver per stone of salt. Compared with today, the price of salt is ridiculously high.
This was of course due to the lack of other taxation in ancient times and the excessive reliance of national finances on salt taxes.
However, it is not yet Zhu Youdong's turn to worry about the difficulty of the Ming people in getting salt. What he is concerned about is the large amount of pork that will be produced in his farm every year.
There were no refrigerators or fast logistics in those days. Meat could only be preserved for a long time by being made into bacon. To make bacon, a lot of salt was needed. If salt could be obtained, at least the pork would not be wasted.
"Well, if it's just the salt permit, I can think of a way."
That's right, you are the prince after all, there are still officials willing to pay you to get close to you. It's not difficult to get 20 shi of salt permits.
After discussing this with Zhu Changluo, the next step, of course, was to go find Emperor Wanli.
As a typical example of someone who values money over shame, Wanli's eyes lit up as soon as he saw the demonstration of the effects of the soap.
"My dear grandson, how many shares are you going to give to Grandpa Huang?"
Dry shares?! How can you say that!
But Wanli also had reasons: Didn’t the imperial farm give you? Didn’t the five thousand taels of silver also give you?
"Well, okay, how about these be considered 10% of the shares?"
"Well, this is fair and reasonable. You just said that the Duke of Ying and the Earl of Ningyuan both paid 10,000 taels of silver to buy 10% of the shares. Then I will give you another 30,000 taels of silver to buy 30% of the shares?"
"No! Grandpa Huang, I need to save some money for other things."
" What does a kid need so much money for?"
" Hehe , Grandpa Huang, am I an ordinary child?"
"...Okay, I'll give you another 10,000 taels of silver, plus the 10% share you promised, so you can take two shares in total, okay?"
"Thank you, Grandpa Huang. Don't worry, by the end of the year you will know that this investment is absolutely worthwhile!"
After jumping out of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youdong rubbed his hands in a dark mood: Oh, my business is now stronger than ever. Which blind guy comes to provoke me, so that I can slap him in the face!
