Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 588 Listing Requirements
"Does Liubiju have chive sauce?"

Zhu Youjian asked those around him.

Zou Yi, the seal holder of the Imperial Kitchen, hurriedly looked at the pickles presented by Liubiju and replied:

"No."

“Liubiju doesn’t have chive sauce.”

“But other sauce factories make chive sauce.”

The custom of pairing mutton with chive sauce is said to be related to Kublai Khan. When the Mongols invaded the Central Plains, they naturally brought this custom with them.

Some of the sauce factories in the capital city make chive sauce.

Zhu Youjian tasted it and found it tasted OK, so he ordered:
"People on the grassland like this, so we can export more."

"Choose a few and give them to the meritorious officials in this battle. Listen to their opinions and adjust the taste."

"We must make sure that Prince Shunli, Prince Shunyi and other Shuntian nobles like Daming's chive sauce."

Thinking about the seasonings he would often use when eating hot pot in the future, Zhu Youjian asked:
“Do you have sesame paste or peanut butter?”

“Where’s the sesame oil, sesame oil, chili oil, and oyster sauce?”

Some of these things have already appeared, while others have no trace yet.

For example, peanut butter. Since American peanuts had only been introduced to the Ming Dynasty not long ago, naturally no one made peanut butter.

Oyster sauce, a condiment that appeared in the late Qing Dynasty, has disappeared without a trace.

As for chili oil, it was developed by some chefs because of the craze for spicy dishes that was set off during the selection of state banquet dishes some time ago.

There are also many spicy pickles, which appear in the pickle tribute selection this time.

Zhu Youjian was delighted to see that in addition to traditional pickles such as sweet cucumbers, Liubiju had also developed sweet and spicy cabbage and sweet and spicy dried radish, which were very similar to the spicy cabbage and spicy shredded radish he ate later.

This made him very happy:
"This sweet and spicy cabbage should be selected as a tribute and sent to Prince Ren."

"They, the North Koreans, should like this pickle."

He also ordered:

"North Korea is cold, which is suitable for growing cabbage."

"Select high-yield cabbage seeds and send them over to Dongjiang Territory and other places to plant them."

"The method of making spicy cabbage should also be passed on."

The plan is to make Koreans like to eat kimchi hundreds of years in advance.

He also ordered Xu Guangqi, who wrote the Complete Book of Agricultural Administration, to write an inscription and poem specifically for kimchi and give it to the owner of Liubiju.

When Guo Danian saw that the spicy cabbage carefully prepared by Liubiju was praised by the emperor, and was specially given to the vassal state and asked the cabinet minister to write an inscription, he was so happy that he expressed his gratitude repeatedly.

It was no wonder that he specially made sweet and spicy cabbage after learning that the emperor liked spicy food. Now it has become a hit.

He also kept in mind the sesame paste and chili oil mentioned by the emperor, and planned to spend time researching and producing them as tribute.

There are many people who share the same idea as him. The owners of the Beijing-based pickle factories all plan to focus on this new type of pickle.

They cannot compare with Liubiju in traditional sweet noodle sauce and sweet cucumber sauce, but they may not lose to others in this new type of pickles.

Some owners of sauce factories that originated from coastal areas even plan to open branches in their hometowns, specializing in the development of pickles made from seafood such as oyster sauce.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian's few casual words brought about great changes in the future seasoning industry of the Ming Dynasty. Various new pickles and new seasonings emerged one after another, enriching the taste buds of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Various cuisines have gradually improved with this rich seasoning. For example, Sichuan people developed bean paste and found the soul of Sichuan cuisine.

This selection was just a minor incident for Zhu Youjian. What he didn't expect was that there was an unexpected gain behind it.

“Liubiju wants to go public and sell shares on the stock exchange.”

"Did they ask for it, or did you force them?"

After asking about this matter carefully, Zhu Youjian became interested.

After the metal exchange became popular, because Han Yu proposed that Liaodong land certificates could be circulated and sold, he asked the Imperial Assets Committee to establish a stock exchange to trade salt permits, stocks and other regimes.

However, unlike the metal exchange, which was responsible for determining the exchange price of gold, silver and copper, salt merchants and dignitaries had their own traditional channels to exchange things like salt permits. At this time, stocks were more often sold to acquaintances and would not be sold to outsiders at will.

In addition, in order to protect the rights and interests of meritorious soldiers, Zhu Youjian set very strict regulations on the transaction of land certificates.

So the stock exchange now has no core trading products at all.

This also makes it somewhat lukewarm in the capital's financial market, far less popular than the metal exchange, which attracts attention from both the government and the public.

Zhu Youjian originally planned to issue stocks of subsidiaries of Beijing News Group and Dongning Group after the New Year, and use the profits from these companies to attract wealthy people in the Ming Dynasty.

Unexpectedly, Liubiju wanted to go public for some reason, which made him very interested:
"Liubiju is doing so well that several types of pickles were selected as tribute this time."

"If they need money, they can go to Shuntian Bank to borrow money. Why do they want to go public?"

Tu Wenfu, who was in charge of the Royal Assets Committee and responsible for capital operations, smiled and responded to the emperor:
"Liubiju is short of money, and they can't stand the pressure."

"Its reputation is so great that the Prince Consort Qi's family and Suzhou Shen's family are both interested in buying shares. If they reject all of them, it would be too offensive."

“So we wanted to go public on the stock exchange to raise funds to expand production.”

When Zhu Youjian heard the inside story, he frowned at the actions of the Qi and Shen families. They dared to do this in the capital, not to mention in the local areas.

This made him sigh inwardly:

"The business environment in Daming still needs to be improved!"

Instruct Tu Wenfu:

"Send someone to warn these families not to force sales."

“Also, special protection should be given to suppliers of the palace and companies listed on the stock exchanges under the Royal Assets Commission.”

"As long as anyone's property is legal, it cannot be violated."

This is something he had mentioned before and he emphasized it again now.

If we keep saying this year after year, the situation will improve.

Of course, he hoped that wealthy businessmen would donate their titles, so that the royal family would have more reason and motivation to protect them.

Regarding the matter of Liubiju, Zhu Youjian said:
"On the eighth day of the new year, I plan to list some of the properties that the inner court controls or has a stake in on the stock exchange."

"The idea of ​​Liubiju going public is a good one. We will try to select a few more companies to make a total of eight stocks."

"These stocks must be selected carefully, and we should try to make the stock exchange hot." As one of the most famous sauce factories in Beijing, Liubiju was obviously a high-quality stock, so Zhu Youjian allowed the stock to be listed.

However, Tu Wenfu had some concerns and said:

"Inner court companies such as Jingbao Group and Dongning Group all have a 10% bonus as bonus and insurance."

"Merchants like Liubiju don't have it. I'm worried that after the listing, it will be detrimental to the share prices of the inner court enterprises."

This is indeed possible. After all, if the 10% dividend is taken out, other shareholders can only share 90%. This is naturally quite unfavorable for the stock price.

Zhu Youjian listened to Tu Wenfu's thoughts, stared at this man and said:

"So, does Tu Qing mean to cancel the 10% dividend, or to let listed companies like Liubiju also distribute dividends in this way?"

"Don't you know the purpose of my business, Mr. Tu?"

Tu Wenfu certainly knew that the emperor ran a business not only to make money, but more importantly to gain influence.

For example, the Beijing Newspaper Group has given the royal family the upper hand in public opinion. Nowadays, everyone in Beijing praises the emperor as a wise ruler.

Not to mention the Dongning Group, which has brought the forces of Zheng Zhilong and others into it.

If we cancel the 10% dividend after distributing it, the pirates who share the profits will probably rebel.

So Tu Wenfu said:
"I think companies like Liubiju should also comply with this regulation."

“Incorporate the requirement that employees share 10% of dividends into the listing regulations.”

"This way, all listed companies are the same, so it won't affect the stock price."

"And when forcing them to pay insurance, they can also designate the inner court's insurance company."

Insurance, a new thing, was also invented by the current emperor. As more and more enterprises in the inner court were required to insure 5% of their dividends, specialized insurance companies naturally came into being.

Nowadays, all enterprises in the inner court deposit their corresponding funds in Shuntian Bank. An insurance company has been established under Shuntian Bank.

Tu Wen-fu wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of controlling the stock exchange to require listed companies to pay insurance.

In this way, the Royal Assets Commission can earn another sum of money in addition to the handling fees of the stock exchange. Using this money for lending or capital operation can bring a lot of benefits.

When Zhu Youjian heard that Tu Wenfu had such an advanced idea, he praised him very much. But he said with some concerns:

“Is it okay to force private companies to pay dividends?”

“Will they not go public because of this? Will they continue to trade shares privately in the future?”

Tu Wenfu said viciously:
"Then we should legislate to ban it. The government will not recognize any share transactions that are not traded on the stock exchange and have not paid stamp duty."

“If they want to trade stocks in the future, they can only come to the stock exchange.”

Zhu Youjian was completely impressed by Tu Wenfu and thought he was a real talent. No wonder it took only a little over a year to expand Yingtian Bank throughout Nanzhili. He transferred him back to Beijing because such bold and daring people were needed in the development period.

So he praised:
"Your idea is good."

"This policy can be tried out in Shuntian Prefecture and then extended to northern Zhili."

"If you don't pay taxes to the court, the court will naturally not protect you. Even if tax evasion is discovered, it will be punished according to the law."

"You need to discuss this with the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Industry and formulate a company charter."

“In the future, both private and listed companies will have to abide by certain norms.”

The board of directors, board of supervisors, financial statements, tax records, labor protection and other aspects are all included in the listing requirements.

In addition to the shareholders' meeting, a staff meeting is also held, with representatives of shareholders and employees serving as members of the supervisory board to strengthen their power in the company.

Zhu Youjian planned to use the power in his hands to distribute benefits and power to workers when capitalism was just beginning to develop, so as to ease the contradiction between labor and capital and use them to restrain the bourgeoisie.

This is to prevent the bourgeoisie from seeking more power after becoming rich and starting a revolution in the Ming Dynasty.
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When Guo Danian, the owner of Liubiju, heard that there were so many troubles in listing on the stock exchange, he became hesitant.

He had previously thought that selling shares on the stock exchange was safe and would not offend the powerful, but he had never thought that there were so many requirements for listing, which immediately made him retreat.

The Yuan family didn't really want to expand their shares in the first place. After hearing the requests from the board of directors, the board of supervisors, the shareholders' meeting, the staff meeting, etc., they were overwhelmed and objected:

"If these associations are established, who will have the final say in Liubiju in the future?"

"Why don't we just not go public and stick with the current business."

"There's a signboard for the palace supplier, and there's also Xu Xueshi's inscription. I wonder who would be so foolish as to come here."

Zhao Liren, the head of the Zhao family, is relatively young and has many ideas. He said:

"If we back down now, we will not only offend the dignitaries in the capital, but also the Imperial Assets Commission."

"That is the committee that manages the entire inner court's assets. It is as powerful as the four major cabinet committees."

"If we offend them too much, do we still want to continue to operate Liubiju in Beijing?"

The establishment of the Imperial Assets Committee was unknown to outsiders. It was not until the owners of Liubiju contacted the stock exchange to plan to go public that they learned about this giant crocodile hidden in the inner court.

Tu Wenfu didn't even do anything, but just by relying on his former status as the third-ranking figure in the eunuch party, he made them feel deeply in awe.

The head of the Yuan family was now speechless. He had previously thought that Liubiju had become a supplier for the imperial palace, and the emperor had even ordered the cabinet ministers to write inscriptions, so there was no need to worry about the powerful people in the capital forcibly buying shares.

However, if he offended the eunuch Tu Wenfu, it would not only be a matter of whether he could keep his status as an imperial merchant, but even his life might be in danger.

During the reign of Emperor Tianqi, Tu Wenfu was very arrogant. He overpowered the two departments of household and labor to establish the headquarters of household and labor, and forcibly bought the house of Li Chengen, a relative of his, to build a large government office.

Liubiju is a small business, how dare we offend this person?

Zhao Liren then said:

"In fact, going public is not without its advantages, that is, it can be changed into a limited liability company."

"Notice that the word 'limited' is missing. It stipulates that the company can go bankrupt and the shareholders only bear limited liability."

"That is to say, if Liubiju goes bankrupt in the future, we will only bear limited responsibility and we don't have to pay all our assets."

"We don't have to pay any money even if the case goes to court."

This caught the attention of both Guo and Yuan.

They had not paid attention to the small clauses in the listing requirements before, but now they have discovered that every word in it is not simple.

Limited liability companies and bankruptcy are great benefits to business people. They don't have to put all their assets into every business. If problems arise, the whole family will bear unlimited liability.

This made Guo Danian think it would be a good idea to change it into a limited liability company. The head of the original family was even thinking of cashing out part of the shares after the listing and investing in other industries. Even if Liubiju went bankrupt, it would not implicate the family.

The three major shareholders of Liubiju reached a consensus and planned to transform the stores into enterprises in accordance with listing requirements.

(End of this chapter)