Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 039: Making money must be noble
"Ma'am, would you like to come in and take a look and try some? We have just launched a new soap with various floral scents! It is very effective in removing dirt and scale, much better than those soaps and soap nuts you used before!"
"Hey! Sir, you have a good eye. This soap is made from peony flowers. After you use it to bathe, your whole body will be filled with the fragrance of peony flowers. It is especially suitable for a handsome guy like you!"
"Oh! Don't think it's expensive. One tael of silver is very cheap, right? Do you know how much this thing costs? Yes, it is much more expensive than soap and other things, but its ability to remove dirt is much stronger. Tell me, after wearing clothes washed with soap, can you still bear to wear clothes washed with soap? People don't know what's good these days, only money knows what's good. This soap is expensive for a reason. People, you only live for a few decades, why should you be hard on yourself?"
"Sir, think about it, if you buy ten or eight yuan and take it to Piaoxiangyuan to give to the girls there, won't the girls be happy and serve you desperately, and send you to heaven?"
"Oh, that's right. Ten bars of soap , wrapped for you, with a gift box as an extra. Ten taels of silver as a favor."
"Thank you, sir. Take care, and come again next time."
In May of 1605, the weather in Beijing gradually became hotter. At this time, Zhu Youdong, who had once again received investment, opened six grocery stores in the east, south and west of the imperial city of Beijing after stockpiling a certain amount of goods.
In the 21st century, it is a good thing for a head of state to personally promote his country's products. But in this era, Zhu Youdong couldn't even put his name on it, let alone sell it. So he adopted the common method used by high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the Ming Dynasty to do business: agent .
As a time traveler, although he did not fight in the business world in his previous life, he has seen pigs run even if he has not eaten pork. Therefore, Zhu Youdong introduced the competition system of later generations here.
Chen Ju, Wang An, the Duke of Yingguo's Mansion, the Earl of Ningyuan's Mansion, Wei Zhongxian, and the family of his mother, the Crown Princess Guo, each recommended one person to be the store manager. Then they made a promise: if all the stores could achieve a profit of more than 10,000 taels of silver within a year, it would be fine. If two or more stores failed to achieve this profit, then the store manager of the store with the worst performance would be fired.
Asking these six people to recommend a store manager was certainly not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but a necessity.
The people sent by Chen Ju were the representatives of Emperor Wanli, and Wang An was the representative of the crown prince. The Duke of Ying and the Earl of Ningyuan were shareholders, and they were also very important to Zhu Youdong. Old Wei was his own representative. No matter what, he had to take care of his grandfather's family in this life.
The introduction of the last-in-first-out system not only urges these guys to work hard, but also serves as a warning to the servants of these powerful people: Put away your arrogance as a seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister! The customer is God! No, it is the Yellow Emperor!
On May 10, six stores opened at the same time. Zhu Youdong's evil taste also came: he always sneaked out of the palace with a few guards on his days off and wandered outside his stores: It's not that I'm afraid of these guys' corruption - how much goods you took from Honghe Village, how much goods are in stock, and how much money you should have received is not clear at a glance? Besides, the store managers of these six stores are from this faction, so the accountants must be from another faction.
He was wandering here because he had read too many amateur novels on Qidian before he traveled through time: Shouldn't some blind idiot come to pick trouble with him and then offer his face to him for a slap?
Unfortunately, there are not so many real fools in this world.
Who was the largest organization in Beijing that collected protection fees from various shops? The Imperial Guards!
The Jinyiwei was omnipresent in their efforts to gather information. Although His Royal Highness did not put his portrait in front of the store as an image spokesperson, if the Jinyiwei did not even know who was behind these stores, then the commander would have been fired long ago.
Therefore, the Jinyiwei dared not to mess with the shops, and no one needed to explain it. Those hooligans who had a certain status in the underworld would naturally not mess with these shops. Even if there were really some ignorant young people who just debuted and wanted to make some money, not to mention Zhu Youdong, even Lao Wei did not need to be disturbed, the Jinyiwei would quickly handle it themselves.
But then again, even if the Jinyiwei didn't care, Zhu Youdong had no interest in this kind of little rascal: a slap in the face is only interesting if it's a significant slap. As the crown prince, how dare you take action against a little rascal?
So, more than a month had passed since the soap was launched in May of that year, and the business of the six stores had gradually gone from being calm to being crowded, but no one jumped out to find fault, which made Zhu Youdong feel very bored.
"Dong'er, why are you so listless?"
"Oh, Grandpa Emperor, it's nothing. It's just that this soap has been on the market for more than a month, and no one has come to cause trouble. It's really boring."
"Puchi~" Not only Wanli, but also Chen Ju who was standing next to him couldn't help laughing. Wanli even shook his head for a while and then let out a sigh: "Dong'er, you are like a child now."
After saying this, Wanli rubbed his hands in a mercenary manner: "Well, a month has passed. How many have you sold? How much silver have you earned?"
"Not very good. The six stores only sold more than 23,000 bars of soap in total. After deducting various costs, the actual net profit was less than 18,000 taels."
"so much?"
Is it a lot? I just think it’s not enough.
Zhu Youdong was feeling depressed, but Wanli had already done the math: "According to this calculation, the net profit for the year is probably more than 200,000 taels of silver, right? Well, doesn't this mean that I can get 40,000 taels of silver from your farm every year?"
When he thought of this, Wanli's eyes narrowed unconsciously: His Majesty the Emperor has been working hard for the country's financial balance over the years, and he would like any income.
"More than that. If everything goes well, I can give Grandpa the Emperor at least 100,000 taels of silver this year."
"What?!"
"Although there are many rich people in Beijing, it is only one city after all. My grandson has sent people to take the soap from the farm to Jiangnan, Huguang, Bashu and other places. If everything goes well, merchants from other provinces will gather in the capital in July or August this year. By then, my grandson will prepare to auction the regional distribution rights. As long as the supply of goods can keep up, this soap will soon be sold to the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. By then, the soap sold every year will be more than one million yuan, right?"
"Good! Very good! Um, that's not right, my dear grandson. If the profit is one million taels per year, then the emperor should get two hundred thousand taels."
How come you, old man, are so fast at settling accounts?
"Grandpa, let me tell you, to be honest, the price of this soap is a bit high. Currently, only the rich or the noble can use it. But if we want to increase the sales, the price will definitely come down. So in the end, the profit of each soap will not be too much. In addition, my grandson is also planning to differentiate this product."
"Product differentiation?"
Yes, soap made with pure lard is considered a fine product these days, but even if Honghe Village runs its own farm, it is impossible to produce lard that can be supplied to the whole country. However, in fact, saponification is just the reaction between fat and strong alkali. Animal oil can make it, and vegetable oil can make it too.
This batch of soaps can be further purified, salted out and alkali precipitated. Although Zhu Youdong only knows the general idea, he can let the craftsmen continue to explore in the actual production process and further improve product quality.
Going down, you can produce shoddy products on a large scale: this low-grade soap is not suitable for washing the body, but it can still beat soap and soap nuts when used to wash hands or clothes.
"Yes, Grandfather Emperor, we are the royal family, so we must care about the people of the world. It is our royal family's unshirkable responsibility to continuously improve our products, lower the prices, and make such good things enter thousands of households in our Ming Dynasty!"
