At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 394: Hu Hai's Financial Empire and Xu Fan's Political Lesson

On the seventeenth day of the eleventh month of the ninth year of the Han calendar, in Chang'an City, Qi Township.

Qixiang was originally a small town outside the city of Chang'an, but in recent years, as the whole world entered a period of prosperity, the small Qixiang also embarked on a path of rapid development.

Many scholars who failed the imperial examinations may have felt ashamed to face the people of Jiangdong, or they may have felt that there were more opportunities in Chang'an City, so they stayed in the small place of Qixiang.

The influx of a large number of outsiders, especially the influx of high-quality talents during the imperial examination period, has made Qixiang as prosperous as a county town.

The village husband Lu Shu proudly walked on the streets of Qi Township. Passers-by on the road would greet Lu Shu when they saw him, and Lu Shu would happily respond. When he saw the children of the village, he would touch the children's heads with a smile and say, "You should study more. Only by studying can you become a useful person."

The child's mother noticed that Lu Shu was in a very good mood, and asked curiously, "Mr. Lu Qiang, is there something good going on?"

Lu Shu's subordinates said proudly: "The outstanding Qiangfu of the court was selected by the Qiangfu. You should know that there are only a hundred Qiangfu in the whole world, and there are only 12 in Guanzhong. The next issue of the Dahan Monthly will publish this matter."

Some of the children's mothers said excitedly: "Mr. Lu Qiang, you are going to be on the Dahan Monthly! This is a great event for our Qi Township. I didn't expect that our township would have a big figure who could be on the Dahan Monthly."

When Lu Shu heard this, he almost laughed until his eyes disappeared, but he still waved his hand and said, "I am not a big shot. It is just the court's recognition of my work in recent years. I still have to serve the people."

But Lu Shu was so eager to use an iron loudspeaker to announce this matter to the entire Qi Township.

Being an outstanding husband is not only an honor, but also a stepping stone for his advancement. After this year, he will go to Chang'an Government Affairs College to study. After graduation, he can go one step further and become a county magistrate.

This was a qualitative leap for his official career. Qiangfu could only be considered a clerk, but the county magistrate and county head were officials. In the future, Lu Shu's descendants could also be called a family of officials.

At this time, on the galloping road in the distance, there were suddenly a lot of sounds of galloping horses.

Lu Shu looked in the direction of the sound and saw an extremely large carriage convoy heading towards them.

"Is this Hu Hai and his group?" If we talk about the hot topics among the people in Qi Township in recent years, it must be Hu Hai and the young people who followed him to conquer the world.

Every young man who followed Hu Hai would come back with big and small bags when he returned home. It could be said that they returned home in glory. Even if they did not come back, they would send tens of thousands of dollars home through agricultural banks every year. It could be said that every young man who followed Hu Hai made a fortune.

Zhaoli has become the richest village in the entire Qixiang. Everyone in the village has a two-story brick house and every household has an exquisite horse-drawn carriage. Its level of wealth even exceeds that of Chang'an City.

The villagers in the surrounding area were extremely envious. Zhaoli produced a capable person who not only made himself rich, but also made the entire village prosperous.

After returning home, these young men would tell their friends from all over the village about their business ventures, saying how they had invested in several cement plants in Handan and several textile plants in Yanmen. Their friends in Qi's hometown would be stunned by their stories, as if Hu Hai's business was everywhere in the world and that even the legendary Tao Zhugong was not that powerful.

Many people who heard this thought that this was bragging, but when they thought about it, everyone who followed Hu Hai could earn tens of thousands of money a year, and people like Zhuzi could earn more than 100,000 money a year.

How much wealth should Hu Hai, the boss of Zhuzi and others, have?
It should be possible to have tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars, right?
Thinking of this number, many villagers found it difficult to breathe, but each of them knew that a big man had appeared in their hometown.

The carriage soon arrived beside Lu Shu, and the villagers around could see the big words "Fei Hai Money House" printed on the carriage.

When the carriage approached Lu Shu, the door opened, and a young man wearing a cotton jacket, cotton clothes and cotton shoes, and a gold chain in the middle of winter, appeared beside Lu Shu and said, "Mr. Lu Qiang, have you eaten?"

Seeing this upstart young man, Lu Shu frowned and said, "What's wrong with you? Are you afraid that others don't know that you've made money? These are all your fellow villagers. Who are you showing off to?"

Because it was not only Zhuzi who was dressed like this in the team. Every other young man wore a big, glittering gold chain around his neck, which gave him an air of nouveau riche that made people feel uncomfortable.

In the past, Lu Shu might have envied these young people who followed Hu Hai to make money, but not now. No matter how much money Hu Hai could make, he was just a big businessman. He himself was an official, and his status was not on the same level as Hu Hai.

Zhuzi said: "There is nothing we can do about it. If you want others to trust you, you have to show your strength."

Zhuzi held the big gold chain around his neck and said, "This is the best way to show your strength. I will wait for him to go home and reunite with his family, and then meet with Lu Qiangfu next time."

After saying this, the man from Zhuzi continued on his way, while the young man who had a home in Qixiang drove the carriage back home.

Seeing the increasingly large convoy, Lu Shu was a little puzzled and asked, "Hu Hai's business is getting bigger and bigger. Is business in this world really so profitable?"

Hu Hai has always been a hot topic in Qixiang. When the old people get together to chat about gossip, they like to talk about Hu Hai. From the information revealed by the pillars, it can be seen that Hu Hai's business is boundless. He has business in the south, the north, the Central Plains, and Jianghuai. It seems that the entire Han Dynasty has his business. The old people are always skeptical about such things.

But the reality forced them to believe that there were more than 300 people following Hu Hai in Qixiang and the villages nearby, and the salaries and dividends Hu Hai gave to these people exceeded tens of millions of yuan every year.

Hu Hai supported so many people and spent so much money, it was very likely that he earned hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and this might be the minimum limit.

This made the elderly people in Qixiang feel unbelievable. A golden phoenix actually flew out from such a mountain village like theirs.

And Lu Shu's feeling was indeed correct. Hu Hai was just like his name, he became a pig in the wind, and they caught up with a golden age.

A great battle in Mobei injected 300 million gold into the people. Most of this money went into the hands of civilians and soldiers, who used it to build their own houses and improve their lives.

As a result, the demand for bricks, cement, tiles and various furniture among the entire Han people increased explosively.

The huge public demand has led to brick kilns, cement plants, and logging sites popping up all over the world like mushrooms after rain.

At the same time, after the desert was occupied by the Han Dynasty, cattle, horses, and wool from the desert poured into the Han Dynasty, and cloth, carriages, and various iron tools from the Han Dynasty also poured into the desert.

Dahan has gained a commodity market of more than 300 million people and a source of raw materials, especially the specialties of the desert, which are a necessary link in Dahan's industrial chain. Such bilateral trade is more sustainable and stable.

In particular, the restrictions on the Han Dynasty's textile industry were completely lifted. With sufficient wool from the desert and this raw material production area, they could also produce raw materials according to their needs.

The Han Dynasty's large textile factories no longer had a shortage of raw materials. In less than two years, the amount of wool imported from the desert to the Han Dynasty reached three times the previous amount. The Han Dynasty's large textile factories began to produce day and night, and small textile factories also sprang up like mushrooms after a rain.

The current situation in the Han Dynasty is that there are sufficient raw materials and sufficient market demand among the people. Only production is the weak link. As long as the goods can be produced, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell them.

As a result, the entire Han Dynasty was filled with people opening brick kilns, textile factories, flour mills, cement factories and other small light industrial enterprises. As long as they opened these workshops, they could make money. This business boom in turn led to more people joining in the entrepreneurial boom.

Hu Hai seized this opportunity and became the angel investor of this era.

The starting capital of these small workshops is not too high, probably tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of coins.
But ordinary people who want to start a business obviously cannot afford this money. They want to go to the money house for loans. The development money house does not look down on small projects like theirs. They do not want to spend their energy to make a small profit. A big prince is equivalent to thousands of such small entrepreneurs. They focus more on maintaining the exchanges between the princes of various parties. Agricultural money houses will not lend money to these entrepreneurs because it is not within their business scope.

Rather than making money, the owners of agricultural banks cared more about obeying the emperor's orders. The emperor told them that their mission was to help farmers, not merchants, so they naturally could not lend money to those who wanted to build workshops.

This is when Feihai Money House comes into play.

He lent money to these young entrepreneurs at an interest rate of 2.5%, or simply used the money as initial investment and took a certain share to help these young entrepreneurs solve the problem of start-up capital.

The business environment in the Han Dynasty at that time was a blue ocean. As long as you dared to start a business, there was a high probability of success.

Moreover, Hu Hai did not invest randomly. He would invest in Yanmen and other places for textile industry, Taiyuan County for cement and brick kiln factories, Guanzhong County, Sanchuan County, Chen County for flour and furniture factories. He would invest according to the specialty of each region.

As a result, Feihai Money House naturally made a fortune. Last year, more than 5% of Hu Hai's angel investments were successful, earning more than 000 million yuan. This year, the amount exceeded million yuan.

More importantly, these successful merchants became his economic allies. They would deposit their money into Fei Hai Money House, which brought the deposit amount of Fei Hai Money House to 10 billion coins. These funds became the guarantee for Hu Hai's foreign investment.

So during these two years, Hu Hai invested in hundreds of small workshops and became a shareholder of more than 20 small workshops.

Through the transactions of Feihai Money House, these hundreds of workshops formed an economic entity worth 3 billion. Hu Hai's business empire rose slowly with the prosperity of the Han Dynasty.

After Zhuzi and others returned to Zhaoli, the whole Zhaoli became a sea of ​​joy, and they reunited with their families one after another.

At night, all the villagers in Zhaoli set out table after table filled with sumptuous food and wine, including chicken, duck, fish and meat. The elders in all the villagers were celebrating the return of their children.

The chief villager, Jiang Tao, asked, "Why didn't Hu Hai come back with you?"

It has been two years since Hu Hai left Zhaoli with hundreds of young and strong men to make a living in the world. This made the elders of Zhaoli disappointed. They finally had a great man in their hometown, but they couldn't see him or bring him out to show off.

Zhuzi said, "Brother Hu Hai's business is getting bigger and bigger. We have workshops all over the world. We have to take care of all these things, so naturally we are getting busier and busier. Brother Hu Hai also said that as the family business grows bigger, we need to learn more. The emperor is going to give lessons to workshop owners all over the world in Chang'an City. Brother Hu Hai said this is a good opportunity to learn, so he stayed in Chang'an City and will come back after listening to the emperor's lessons."

Jiang Tao said: "Of course we can't miss the emperor's class."

Fusu was a little worried and asked, "The workshops you control are from Yanmen to Kuaiji County, and there are so many of them. Can you manage them all?"

Fusu always felt that it was not a good thing for Hu Hai's career to expand so quickly. When he left home three years ago, he only had a million dollars, but now it has exceeded hundreds of millions. With such an expansion, it is too easy to lose everything if the foundation is not stable. The Qin Dynasty swallowed up the six kingdoms, and the problem arose because of its unstable foundation.

Zhuzi said: "Each of us will follow a workshop and help Brother Hu Hai prevent those workshop owners from cheating Brother Hu Hai of his money. There will be no problem."

Another young man from Zhaoli said, "Now as long as you open a workshop, you can make money. The money is like the water in a river. As long as we dare to scoop it, the money will flow into our pockets. Brother Hu Hai has promised us that in ten years at most, we will all become millionaires."

Fusu frowned and said, "Nonsense, how can making money be easy? You should persuade Hu Hai to be more restrained and have a sense of crisis."

At this time, Jiang Tao, who had always stood on Fusu's side, retorted: "Master Zhao, it's really easy to make money in the past two years. Isn't that how our textile factory works? As long as the cloth is woven, it can be sold immediately. The money we made this year is already twice as much as the year before. The Han Monthly Report says that our Han has entered a prosperous era. Since it is a prosperous era, it is naturally easy to make money."

This made Fusu speechless. Although he knew there must be something wrong, he was powerless to refute it, because it was really easy to make a lot of money in the past two years, not only in Zhaoli, but also in other places in Qixiang. Other villages also followed Zhaoli's example, or built a brick kiln factory, a cement factory, a textile factory and other small workshops, and everyone made a lot of money.

But Fusu still felt that there was something wrong. If money was so easy to make, there wouldn't have been so many reforms since the Warring States period. But now the facts were in front of him, and he didn't know how to refute them. The world was too strange to him, and he couldn't understand some of it.

At the same time, Hu Hai was in Chang'an City, listening to the lectures of the emperor Xu Fan at Mozi Academy.

At this time, the largest lecture hall in Mozi Academy was already filled with densely packed people. Even the empty seats at the back were filled with people. These merchants came to Chang'an City for the Sages' Meeting. They should have left after the meeting, but in order to listen to the emperor's lectures, they stayed in Chang'an City for an extra month.

This lecture also became a place for these merchants to communicate. If it were not for the emperor's class, they would rarely gather together like this. For these merchants, companions can be regarded as a kind of resource. With this acquaintance, if there is any business in the future, they can make money together and exchange resources with each other.

Soon, when Xu Fan arrived at the lecture hall, he was also surprised by the large number of listeners.

He put down his manuscript and said with a smile: "I didn't expect so many people would come to listen to my lecture. I hope it will be helpful to you."

Someone below shouted, "We are where we are today because of Master Xu's lectures. Every one of Master Xu's lecture notes is like a bell to us. How could it be that they are not helpful?"

Obviously, these merchants who were attending the lecture knew Xu Fan very well and knew that Xu Fan cared more about his identity as a teacher than his identity as an emperor.

Sure enough, Xu Fan smiled and said, "I'm glad it helps. Now let's start the class."

"In recent years, the industry of our Han Dynasty has developed rapidly. Now half of the tax revenue of the imperial court comes from the wealth brought by the industry. The first lesson today is about what is a commodity?"

"Commodities?" All the merchants present were a little confused.

Talking about goods?
What's there to talk about!

“Commodities are products of labor that are intended to be exchanged.”

“This requires two definitions of commodities. One is that they must be the product of labor.”

"What is a labor product? For example, the crops grown by farmers are labor products, and craftsmen make farm tools, weapons and various furniture. Only those who put in labor can be called labor products."

"Master, use water as an example. The water in the river is not a product of labor because no labor has been done on it. But if someone scoops water out of the river with a bucket and carries it to Chang'an to sell, it becomes a product of labor because the journey from scooping water to Chang'an has cost labor, which changes the properties of the water."

"Of course, this is the case a lot in nature. Naturally grown trees are not products of labor, but if someone cuts down a tree and makes it into furniture or a boat, it is a product of labor."

“But not all products of labor are commodities. This requires them to satisfy the second attribute of commodities, which is that they must be used for exchange. Only when they are exchanged do they become commodities.”

"Let's continue with the example of water. If the man scooped water to drink himself, then it can only be considered a product of labor and not a commodity. However, if he sold the bucket of water to the people of Chang'an, in this transaction process, water would be a commodity.

Similarly, if you cut down wood and make furniture for yourself, it can only be considered a product of labor, but not a commodity. If you sell it to other people in Chang'an, it becomes a commodity after the transaction process. Therefore, any commodity must have the attribute of transaction. "

"Next, let's talk about what currency is~~~~~"

(End of this chapter)