Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 73 Relocation is imperative
"Hmm~~Hmm~~Hmm~~~Okay! Okay! Dong'er, this thing is very good. Grandpa likes it very much."
"Haha, as long as Grandpa Huang likes it. But Grandpa Huang, there is mercury on the back of this thing. Although it has been placed in a box, it is still slightly toxic. So, this mirror can be used for daily reflection, but it cannot be placed in Grandpa's bedroom."
"Oh~~ Is mercury poisonous? Grandpa, why do I remember that when Emperor Sejong made elixirs when he was a child, he almost always added mercury?"
So Zhu Houcong died early. Well, no, he seemed to be almost 60 years old, which was already a long-lived emperor in the Ming Dynasty. Alas, it was a good thing that he ate so much mercury. If such an extremely selfish person had sat on the throne for a few more decades, I am afraid that the Ming Dynasty would have fallen before I came here.
"Uh...Grandpa, anyway, this mirror is not the final product yet. I will further improve it with the masters in the manor, and make a mirror with clearer images and better safety, and present it to you. Now, you can use this mirror first, but please don't put it in the bedroom."
There was no way. Zhu Youdong knew about the silver mirror reaction. But this poor student had graduated from high school many years before he traveled through time, and he had almost forgotten the specific operation process. Some time ago, he was ambitious to skip the initial stage of tin-mercury alloy for modern glass mirror imaging and directly plate silver onto the glass through the principle of silver mirror reaction. As a result, after more than a month of repeated efforts, he failed shamefully.
The failure of the experiment did not matter. What mattered was that the southwest and northeast both needed money to maintain their business. So Zhu Youdong, who was eager to launch the mirror to further raise money, had no choice but to hand over the silver mirror reaction to Xu Guangqi to continue research. The workshop here first used a tin-mercury alloy mirror - as for the aluminum mirror? Well, that's too high-end, let's talk about it later.
That's right, now I'll use a tin-mercury mirror, and then I'll use a silver-plated mirror. Selling the same thing twice, oh, I'm a genius!
"Is there a better mirror? Haha, Dong'er, this mirror is already very good! You have to know that in the past, the craftsmen had to polish the bronze mirrors countless times before they could barely see people's reflections. A mirror like this, so clear, hey, it's really a gift from heaven!"
"Haha, if Grandpa thinks it's good, then please give this mirror a name?"
"Well, originally, this is such a good mirror, and Grandpa was going to name it the Big Mirror. But you said there is something better... Grandpa will be a little bit unfair and call it the Wanli Mirror!"
"Yes, grandson thanks Grandpa for the name! This... please write the three characters of Wanlijing by hand..."
"Hmm? Hmm~~ Dong'er, this." Wanli rubbed his hands mercenarily: "Is this thing going to be put on the market?"
"Yes. My grandson is now in charge of part of the military pay in the southwest and northeast. How can we not go public to make money?"
"How are you going to price this?"
"Well, the one I gave to Grandpa Huang today can clearly reflect the whole person. I'm going to sell it for fifty taels of silver. The one that's the size of a palm is one tael of silver. The one that's half the size of a washbasin, which can clearly reflect the whole face, is ten taels of silver."
“No, no, no, no.” Wanli’s fat head shook rapidly: “Too cheap! It’s really too cheap!”
"Then Grandpa Huang, can you give me a price?"
"Well, a large mirror, which can reflect the whole body, costs one thousand taels of silver. A medium mirror, which can see the whole face, costs one hundred taels of silver. As for the palm-sized mirror, which is sold in large quantities, it is cheaper, ten taels of silver a piece."
"Uh...Grandpa Emperor, although the population of our Ming Dynasty is large, there are still not many people who can take out ten taels of silver at once."
"Not many, but at least tens of thousands. And think about it, if the mirror is priced too cheaply and ordinary middle-class families can buy it, what will those rich families think?"
"Hmm~~What Grandpa Huang said makes sense. Let's do as Grandpa said!"
After traveling through time for several years, Zhu Youdong deeply felt that although the Ming Dynasty had encountered various problems and the entire country was in a clear and unsustainable decline, thanks to the huge population base of the Ming Dynasty, his speed in developing new products to make money was definitely much better than that of other travelers!
Soaps, candles and other things have now entered the stage of small profits but quick turnover. But you can't stand the huge market of the Ming Dynasty. At present, soaps, candles and other things can bring Honghe Village no less than 50,000 taels of silver in net profit every month. Although Zhu Youdong only got more than 20,000 taels after the dividend , it is still more than 200,000 silver in a year. It is enough for Zhu Youdong to barely support the layout of the southwest and northeast.
The transparent glass that was listed some time ago also made money at an extremely alarming speed. Zhu Youdong was scared when he thought about the expression of Cao Sanxi, the general manager of Honghe Industry, when he just got the glass: it was okay to have shortness of breath, but the key point was that his eyes were bloodshot! He looked like a devil from hell.
What Zhu Youdong liked most about Manager Cao was that he came from a low-class family and did not have the arrogance of the eunuchs in the palace or the servants of the nobles. They would really put their faces on the ground just to pick up a copper coin.
After getting the glass, Mr. Cao personally led the team to visit every wealthy family in the capital: "Sir, this is the glass produced by our Honghe Village. Look, it is crystal clear. If it is installed on the window of your house, will the lighting be better? Ah? You ask how much is it? No money, no money. You have soap at home, right? Yes, that is our old customer of Honghe Industrial. In order to repay the old customer, we are now offering a big discount and installing this glass on a window of your home for free. You can experience it for free first.
As for you, after experiencing it, you feel that the window with the replaced glass has good lighting. Then you are not happy with the other windows with window paper, and you want to install glass in all the windows... Oh, the price, we have to talk about it.
Therefore, from the time glass was launched in April this year to the beginning of June , the glass alone has provided Zhu Youdong with nearly 100,000 taels of cash. Moreover, glass has too many other uses besides making windows. In addition, dealers from all over the country are on their way. By then, the entire Daming market will be opened up. What a profit! Tsk tsk tsk tsk…
Zhu Youdong roughly calculated that if mirrors were to be put on the market soon, plus the previous output of Honghe Manor, and then add the toothpaste (glycerin toothpaste is not far away) and toothbrushes (pig bristles are now plentiful in the manor), which are being tinkered with recently, the annual income would be close to three million taels if the current output remains unchanged.
(The inventor of the toothbrush is currently recognized by the world as Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youtang. But a key problem that prevented toothbrushes from becoming popular at that time was that the bristles were not bleached, and the appearance of using them directly to brush teeth was really bad.)
Of the three million taels of silver, Wanli got 20%, Ciqing Palace got 10%, Ningyuan Earl's Mansion and Yinggong Mansion each got 10%. In addition, the profits for Cining Palace, some teachers, and various costs accounted for about 20%. In this way, Zhu Youdong made a net profit of about 90 to 1 million a year.
Although this amount of money was considerable compared to the Ming Dynasty court's current annual cash income of more than five million taels of silver, Zhu Youdong still felt it was too little.
It just so happened that the North Korean craftsmen arrived during this period, and the orphans also arrived. Although the village used a lot of fertile land to build accommodation buildings, it still seemed a bit crowded. So now is the time to expand the territory and increase production capacity.
"Grandpa Emperor, that's roughly what the accounts show. By this calculation, my grandson should be able to replenish the inner treasury with 500,000 to 600,000 taels of silver this year."
"Well, good, good! My dear grandson, you can help Grandpa Huang relieve his worries much more than your father did."
"Grandpa Emperor, your grandson has a request."
"speak!"
"As for Honghe Manor, the number of workers that can be accommodated and the number of workshops that can be built have already reached their limit. Therefore, if we want to make more money, we must expand our territory."
"Hiss~~" Rubbing his hands excitedly, Wanli patted Zhu Youdong on the shoulder in a mercenary manner: "Grandpa, how about giving you all three, no, five imperial manors near Honghe Manor? Anyway, these manors only have an annual income of a few thousand taels of silver at most. With my Dong'er's ability , these manors will be in your hands, hehe~~~"
"Grandpa Emperor, your grandson doesn't want the manor anymore."
"Why is that?"
"There are two reasons. First, these manors are all good farmland. It's a pity to destroy them all to build factories. On the other hand, my grandson's industry will grow bigger and bigger, and the pollution will become more and more serious. Honghe Manor is located in Changping Prefecture, too close to Tianshou Mountain (the site of the Ming Dynasty Royal Cemetery)."
"Well, that's true. So you want to move farther away? Where do you want to move to?"
"If Grandpa Emperor allows, I want to move all the properties in the manor to Tianjin."
