Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 114 Monopoly
There are dozens of large and small salt shops in the capital city with a population of one million, and basically all of them have powerful and official backgrounds.

In the warehouse in the backyard of a salt store in Dongcheng, Zheng Laowu, the foreign steward of Duke Cheng's mansion, was instructing the staff in the store to work.

Cheng Guogong's government did not participate in the Salt Merchant Conference.Although Jin Yiwei also posted a message to the salt shop in the mansion, Zheng Lao Wu directly threw it in the corner after receiving it.

The dignified Duke's Mansion, the Zhu family, which has become the leader of the nobles, when will it obey the Jin Yiwei's assignment?I will sell whoever's salt I like, but I have to get salt from your Jinyiwei's door?Which onion is Jin Yiwei?

Zheng Laowu represented the thoughts of a small number of salt shop owners in the capital.Most of them are the stewards of the Duke's Mansion, and they have a big backer behind them. They usually don't interfere with Jin Yiwei, and they don't take Jin Yiwei's recent rise seriously.My family is a wealthy family that lives with the country, Jin Yiwei can talk to the emperor, and my master also has face in front of the emperor.

The rest of the salt shops with civil servant backgrounds, such as the distant relatives of the governor of Shuncheon, bought new snow-white salt with cash after receiving the owner's instructions.In fact, even if the owner doesn't order it, the new salt is much better than the original large-grain Huai salt with a bitter taste, no matter in terms of appearance, taste or cost.Although there is no salt guide, it is almost illegal salt, but I can open a salt shop, so I am afraid that people in the government will not be able to investigate illegal salt?

Zheng Laowu asked his staff to mix sand into the salt imported from the Lianghuai Salt Field.According to the rules, the salt shop is divided into regions, and the three salt shops of Cheng Guogong Mansion are all in Dongcheng.There is a saying in the capital that the east is rich, the west is rich, the south is poor, and the north is cheap, which refers to the approximate distribution of the population of the capital.There are many gentry and giant merchants in Dongcheng, and it is easiest to do business here to make money.

Let’s take salt as an example. Many big families here have hundreds or even hundreds of people. Every time they buy it, they count stones. It’s not like the poor ghosts in the northern and southern cities who buy a few catties at a time. Do business to make money?How many lifetimes can my master accumulate millions of assets?

Cheng Guogong's mansion took over three of the five salt shops in Dongcheng by relying on its own power, and the other two were given to Xiangcheng Bo's mansion. Who said that the two masters are as good as the same person?

Because he monopolized Dongcheng Yanshi, Zheng Laowu was still not satisfied despite his extremely high profits. He wanted to pay more silver taels to the Duke's Mansion.One is to win the favor of the father-in-law, which will be more beneficial when he is promoted in the future; second, Xiliu, the servant girl who has been missing the father-in-law's seventh concubine for a long time, paying more money means that he can be more greedy. As long as she gives Seventh Aunt 500 taels of silver, Xiliu can be her own concubine.Thinking of Xiliu's snow-white skin and soft waist, Zheng Laowu couldn't help feeling hot in his heart.

Near noon, the guys who mixed hundreds of rock salt with more than a dozen stones of sand had finished their work. Zheng Laowu supervised while drinking tea.After seeing the guys finished their work, Zheng Laowu went to the shop in front, where a guy in the shop was taking a nap.Zheng Laowu coughed loudly in dissatisfaction, the clerk shivered, and woke up from his doze. When he saw Zheng Laowu, the clerk quickly saluted.

After Zheng Laowu looked around, he reprimanded in a long voice: "Drowsing in broad daylight, if a thief enters the store and steals money, you don't know! If you do this again, I will report to the housekeeper to fire you!" "

The guy was suddenly frightened.Working as a clerk in a salt shop, although the monthly salary is only a few dollars, but the clerk is also light-hearted in managing a meal at noon.Most of the big customers who buy salt come once every half a month and buy several stones at a time.It doesn't matter if a few men just carry a few rock salts into the carriage, and they will take it back to the mansion and have their own servants to carry it.My family also relied on several layers of relationships before I found a steward in the Duke's Mansion and got this good job. If I lost my job because of a nap, my parents would have to beat me to death after returning home.

The man hurriedly knelt down on the ground, swearing that he would not do it again in the future, and Zheng Laowu let him get up with a snort.

Zheng Laowu sat on a chair in the store, and then asked: "How much is your income today? If it is the same as last month, the father-in-law must be very happy! Then there will be no rewards!"

The man lowered his head and muttered, Zheng Laowu said angrily: "You bastard! Loud!"

The clerk mustered up his courage and raised his head and said, "If you go back to Steward Zheng, it hasn't opened yet this morning!"

Zheng Laowu was stunned for a moment, then opened his eyes and continued to ask: "It hasn't opened yet? Is what you said true or false? It must be impossible!"

The clerk replied: "I'm telling the truth! Not only today, but also the whole day yesterday!"

Zheng Laowu stood up from his chair in a jerk, and said anxiously: "Yesterday, a single grain of salt was not sold? Why?"

The clerk nodded quickly and said, "Butler Zheng, if you don't believe me, you can ask someone else! We don't know why!"

Zheng Laowu reacted very quickly. He called out to the guys in the backyard, and went to the other two stores and the store in Xiangchengbo's Mansion separately to see if the situation was similar.

Sure enough, after a few guys came back one after another, they brought bad news: the salt shops in Guogong Mansion and Xiangcheng Bo Mansion have not sold a grain of salt since yesterday, not only the regular customers did not come, but even Not a single visitor was seen.

Zheng Laowu couldn't sit still anymore, he hurried to the mansion in a carriage, this was not a good sign, he had to report it to the housekeeper immediately.

After hearing Zheng Laowu's report, Zhu Gui, the chief steward of the Duke's Mansion, was also taken aback.He is the son of the Duke's family, and his ancestors sold themselves to become the Duke's mansion, and it has been several generations.He grew up with Zhu Chunchen since he was a child, because he is smart, studious, and calm and responsible, so he is quite loved by Zhu Chunchen.He was promoted from a close personal attendant all the way to the position of steward in the outer palace, until the death of the previous generation of Duke, Zhu Chunchen became the new Cheng Guogong, and he was promoted to the position of the chief steward of the Duke's mansion.

There are more than [-] people in Cheng Guogong's mansion, and there are more than [-] people in stewards, servants, maidservants, cooks, coachmen, and courtyard guards.

Not only to manage the food, clothing, housing and transportation of so many people, but also to coordinate various relations with the government, and deal with some private matters of the government, Zhu Gui is busy from morning to night, and he is always busy.

Because of this, Zhu Gui's power is very great, and with Zhu Chunchen's trust, Zhu Gui's status is quite high in the Duke's Mansion, except for several big and small masters of the Zhu family.

Even Zhu Chunchen's several concubines have to curry favor with the butler Zhu on weekdays.Zhu Gui holds the human and financial rights in the mansion, including the monthly money and daily expenses of Zhu Chunchen's concubines.If he accidentally offended him, all he had to do was say something, and the monthly bill for this month would be deducted, and the daily expenses would be cancelled.

After several instances like this happened, everyone in the Duke’s Mansion learned the methods of Butler Zhu. Since then, no one has dared to stroke the tiger’s beard lightly. People in the mansion are respectful when they see Zhu Gui, even more respectful than Zhu Chunchen .

At least Zhu Gui had time to rest in his room today, but Zheng Lao Wu's report made him unable to sit still.

Salt is a relatively important income for the government of the state.Not because of the high income, but because of the stability of selling salt.The three salt stores in Dongcheng can bring in tens of thousands of taels of income every year. This money is like picking up for nothing. The three stores only need less than ten employees, and one manager is enough. What kind of business can have such a high profit?

He opened his mouth and asked: "This matter is a bit strange, did any news come from before?"

Zheng Lao Wu hesitated for a long while before bowing and replying: "Returning to the housekeeper, Jin Yiwei posted a post to the salt store a few days ago, saying that there was some kind of conference held in Jingchun Building, selling high-quality salt, and the small ones were afraid of being sold." Our Duke's Mansion lost face, so we didn't go! Could it be related to this matter?"

Zhu Gui frowned and asked, "Jin Yiwei posted a post selling salt? What happened?"

Zheng Laowu lowered his head and replied: "I don't know how young I am, and Li Guanshi from the Xiangcheng uncle's mansion has never been there!"

Zhu Gui opened his mouth and ordered: "Come here! Ride a horse and go to the nearby salt shop to check and see if it suits you!"

The servants outside responded and left, Zhu Gui sat on the chair, closed his eyes slightly and remained silent.

Zheng Laowu was sweating profusely, and he was also very frustrated.

On the way back home, he had figured it out that this matter probably had something to do with Xinyan.

If this is the case, then I am dereliction of duty. Although there are good reasons and I did not lose face to the government, but I am afraid that it will affect the business of the salt shop, and that is not a small crime. Let alone Xiliu, I will not be able to secure my position in charge If you can keep it, you can say something.

A quarter of an hour later, the servant who inquired about the news rushed back, and after entering the house, he bowed and said: "Reporting to the housekeeper, I have seen it in several salt shops in the west city. There are many people buying salt in the shop, and they sell fine white as Xue's high-quality salt is priced at two and four cents per catty! One store has already sold out!"

(End of this chapter)