Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The impact of the trial of the new calendar on industry and commerce was huge and immediate.

Liubiju, which was going to be listed after the new year, was notified by the stock exchange that it had to redo its financial statements in accordance with the new calendar formulated by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory.

The new financial statements are calculated entirely based on the new calendar year and twelve months.

It is not the case that the turnover suddenly increases because there is a leap month in a certain year, and then drops sharply the next year when there is no leap month.

Guo Danian and Zhao Liren did not understand why the new calendar was adopted at first, but after Tu Wenfu and his men explained it to them, they immediately understood:
This is to make them make their financial statements look good, preferably with annual growth, so that the fluctuations caused by the leap month will not affect the future stock price.

Being very realistic, they naturally welcomed the new calendar. However, there was a question raised by Guo Danian:

"The new calendar began in the first year of Chongzhen. Before that, it was the Datong calendar, and the new calendar was not adopted."

"Are we only counting the financial situation of the past two years and not counting the financial situation before that?"

Tu Wenfu, who presided over this matter, said with a smile:

"You old brands really have some background."

"Most of the companies listed this time were established after the emperor ascended the throne, and some of them can't even produce two years of financial statements."

"So the comparison table of the new and old calendars drawn up by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory was only used by our family for the past two years."

"If you need anything, take this note and ask for it in front."

He casually wrote a note and asked Guo Danian to go to the Imperial Observatory to ask the eunuch Lingtai for it.

However, there is a simpler method, which was proposed by Cao Huachun, who also served in the Imperial Assets Commission:
"Financial statements before the first year of Chongzhen actually don't need to be that detailed."

"The beginning of spring in the new calendar is always on the first day of the first lunar month. From the beginning of spring to the beginning of spring, it is exactly one year."

"You only need to determine the four solar terms of Beginning of Spring, Beginning of Summer, Beginning of Autumn, and Beginning of Winter, and you can calculate the financial statements for each quarter."

They don't need to calculate the finances of each previous month specifically, they only need to count the annual income and expenditure between the two Beginning of Spring.

If you want to be more specific, you can count each quarter. It is not necessary to count down to the month.

Guo Danian and Zhao Liren breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this. They thought they had to recalculate the date month by month, but they didn't expect there was such a simple method.

In this way, their workload will be much lighter and they can calculate the finances for more years.

In order to ensure that they could prepare new financial statements before the eighth day of the first lunar month, Tu Wenfu also arranged some eunuchs from the Imperial Assets Commission to help them with the accounting.

The same is true for Bianyifang, which is a time-honored brand like Liubiju, and even older, having been opened in the 14th year of Yongle.

In order to have eight listed companies, Tu Wenfu used both soft and hard tactics to force the owner of Bian Yi Fang to go public and sell its stocks.

After the emperor checked the list and learned about this matter, he specially designated a piece of land in Baiyangdian and rented it to Bianyifang to raise ducks as compensation.

In addition, the companies that have gone public are new companies that were established in the past two years.

There are Ming Pao Company supervised by Cao Huachun, Mingzhi Bookstore which is also a subsidiary of Jingbao Group, Shuntianfu Salt Company which obtained the monopoly of salt in northern Zhili, Suzhou Weaving Workshop under the Royal Weaving Group, Dongning Trading Company controlled by Yu Zigao and Xu Xinsu, and the most influential Ming Shipping Group.

These six companies will be listed together, and the smaller Ming Pao Company, Ming Zhi Bookstore, Bian Yi Fang and Liu Bi Ju will each issue a quarter of their shares.

The other four companies only issued one-tenth of the shares.

Even if the stocks cannot be sold or the stock price is not as expected, the Imperial Assets Committee will arrange for the securities company established by Shuntian Bank to back it up. Tu Wenfu has been busy with this matter.

As one of the directors of Ming Pao Company, Cao Huachun participated in the whole process. He was too close to the civil servants, and even betrayed Wang Chengen. He wanted to make up for his mistakes and was always busy.

Even when facing Tu Wenfu, a former eunuch, he could still humble himself and try to please him.

Tu Wenfu's attitude towards Cao Huachun was somewhat ambiguous, because he knew how many supporters this successor of Wang An had inside and outside the palace.

However, it is not necessarily true that he was very wary. After the period when Wei Zhongxian dominated everything, Wang An's so-called power had long been defeated and dispersed.

The current emperor uses Wang An and Cao Huachun because of their close relationship with the civil officials, but he arranges them outside the palace more often.

The emperor has always been extremely wary of civil officials interfering in the palace.

That's why Tu Wenfu was not worried about his past bad reputation, because it was not a big deal to the emperor.

On the contrary, the better Cao Huachun's reputation outside the palace, the more taboo the emperor would have towards him. In the future, he would at most be used to contact civil officials, but would not be appointed as a core member of the inner court.

Therefore, he was happy to have Cao Huachun do the work, since his credit could not be taken away by this man.

Cao Huachun also knew this vaguely, because after Wang Chengen was cheated by him, they had less contact for a period of time.

He also understood that his relationship with the civil servants was too close, which made the emperor uneasy.

But the reason he was appointed now was because of his good relationship with the civil servants. Without this advantage, he couldn't even hold the position of the Propaganda Committee Member of the Imperial Assets Commission.

So he could only maintain this advantage and contact the wealthy civil officials and scholars on the third day of the Lunar New Year to try to make the eight newly issued stocks popular as the emperor expected.

As a famous wealthy official, Qian Qianyi was naturally on his list of people to visit. And because Qian Qianyi had written an epitaph for Wang An, the two were very close.

Cao Huachun revealed to him:
"The eight companies listed this time were all carefully selected by the emperor."

“No matter which company it is, you won’t lose money if you buy its stocks.”

"Even a small business like Liubiju will be profitable in the future."

My goodness, in his words, Liubiju is considered a small enterprise.

Compared with the copying business and tailoring business, the pickle business used pickle jars, soybeans, salt and other materials, which were costly and profitable. Not to mention that after being allowed by the emperor to wholesale salt, the pickle business would become the second salt industry.

Qian Qianyi had heard that the newly appointed Privy Councilor Shen Yongmao sent someone with 5,000 taels of silver to buy shares in Liubiju, but was unsuccessful.

In the future, when Liubiju expands its scale, its total value will likely be calculated in tens of thousands.

This made him wonder:
"Liubiju is considered a small business, so are the other companies bigger than it?"

"Which stock is the most valuable? Is there any comment?"

Cao Huachun smiled slightly and explained to Qian Qianyi carefully:
"Which one is more famous, Bian Yi Fang or Liu Bi Ju? Everyone in Beijing should know it."

"What's more, the emperor allocated a piece of land in Baiyangdian to Bianyifang to expand its scale and rent it to Bianyifang to raise ducks and salt duck eggs."

"How much do you think this company will be worth after it goes public?"

This is a serious catering business. After the scale is expanded, it is not comparable to the pickle business. Qian Qianyi knew this very well and nodded slowly.

Then Cao Huachun mentioned Ming Pao Company again, and Qian Qianyi stopped him and said:
"There's no need to talk about Ming Pao. I run Datong Newspaper and I know this very well."

"What on earth is Zhang Tianru thinking? Instead of writing articles, he wants to go public and expand the scale?"

As one of the four major newspapers in Beijing, Ming Pao and Datong Daily have similar positioning, focusing on Confucian principles and current affairs commentary, and their readers are mostly scholars.

Comparing the two, Qian Qianyi was more famous and had fans all over the Ming Dynasty. Many of his issues were sold to other places and even reprinted.

Although Zhang Pu's reputation was not as good as his, his style was more daring. Especially since he was a student at the Imperial College, Ming Pao was quite popular among students.

The people of Beijing also liked their bold statements more, and the circulation of Ming Pao in Beijing often exceeded that of Datong Daily. The circulation of each issue of both was moving towards 100,000 copies, and it depended on which one would break through first.

Qian Qianyi felt a little pressured by this, so he knew better how much profit Ming Pao Company made.

This industry is in a period of rapid development and there is bound to be great potential for development.

You will never lose money if you buy Ming Pao Company's stocks.

However, this kind of listing practice is too obviously money-oriented, and his Datong Daily is unwilling to do it.

Seeing Qian Qianyi's words, Cao Huachun skipped the matter of Ming Pao Company and talked about Mingzhi Bookstore:

"You are more familiar with Mr. Qian of Mingzhi Bookstore, right?"

“There are still many newspapers looking for it to print.”

"Books officially compiled by the imperial court are also published by it."

"After the Yuefu plays, novels, and the proofreading of the Chongzhen Encyclopedia are published, what do you think will be its future?"

Qian Qianyi certainly knew this. Mingzhi Bookstore was located in Mingzhi Newspaper Park. It was separated from the Printing Institute of Wensiyuan of Shaofu Temple and is still responsible for printing for many newspapers.

Even if a certain issue of Datong Daily happens to be too popular, they will ask it to reprint. This is the largest printing workshop in Beijing now.

Mingzhi Bookstore's books are not well-known now, but with its technology, it must have great potential. Not to mention that it is a company of Shaofu Temple and has official channels.

These four relatively small companies are already so promising.

The other four companies made Qian Qianyi even more curious
Cao Huachun did not keep the secret and said directly to Qian Qianyi:

"Shuntianfu Salt Company has a profit of at least 50,000 yuan a year."

"The emperor believed that it would be a million-dollar enterprise in the future, so the issued shares were reduced to one-tenth."

"Do you think anyone would rush to buy such stocks?"

A company with an annual profit of at least 50,000 yuan will be worth a million yuan in the future. Although Qian Qianyi thinks the price is a bit high, he can understand it.

After all, the salt industry had huge profits and was very stable. As long as the monopoly was not lost, its stock would be a legacy that could be passed down from generation to generation.

But how is the profit of 50,000 calculated? Qian Qianyi needs to explain:
"The capital has hundreds of thousands of people, and Shuntian Prefecture has a population of over a million. There is no problem with this."

"But can the Shuntianfu Salt Company make all the people in Shuntianfu eat its salt?"

Cao Huachun chuckled and said:
"Although the Shuntianfu Salt Company is named Shuntianfu, it is actually allowed to sell salt to Yongpingfu and Hejianfu. It can even sell salt to other prefectures in Northern Zhili, but there are restrictions."

"Not to mention that there is a grassland to the north of Shuntian Prefecture. People on the grassland eat salt and pickles, and they all use salt from Shuntian Prefecture."

"With so many people and industries, can you expect to use 20 million kilograms of salt every year?"

"If you make two or three cents per pound of salt, you can make a profit of 50,000 taels."

This algorithm is not accurate because while Shuntianfu Salt Company can sell salt to other prefectures, it also faces competition from those salt companies.

In particular, the salt sales company under the Changlu Salt Field was allowed to sell a certain amount of salt at wholesale prices to people arriving at the salt field. The Shuntianfu Salt Company could not guarantee that it would occupy all the markets around Shuntianfu and the grasslands to the north.

However, Qian Qianyi thought about the 10% shares granted to Man Gui by the emperor, and felt that the value of this salt company must not be low, otherwise Man Gui, the newly appointed Earl of Dongping, might cause trouble.

Not to mention that with Man Gui's current prestige on the grassland, if he tries to find sales channels for the Shuntianfu Salt Company, those tribes will most likely give him face.

With Man Gui's support behind the scenes, Shuntianfu Salt Company will not easily lose its monopoly rights.

This made Qian Qianyi feel that if he bought stocks, he should give priority to buying shares of Shuntianfu Salt Company.

However, Cao Huachun's answer was not this. He believed that Dongning Trading Company had more potential than the Salt Company:

"Dongning Trading Company is engaged in maritime trade, and now mainly trades deerskin and sugar with Japan."

"Although its current profits are not as high as those of the salt company, its future development will be far better than that of the salt company."

"Trade on the ocean is truly extremely profitable!"

This was his sigh after seeing the financial statements of Dongning Trading Company.

In the large enterprise of Dongning Group, Dongning Trading Company is not very prominent. Xu Xinsu, who is in charge of its operation, is also the loser in the competition with Zheng Zhilong.

If it weren't for Yu Zigao's support, he wouldn't even be able to control the Dongning Trading Company.

However, this company, which was established less than two years ago, has already made a profit of 30,000 taels this year.

It will continue to grow next year as the number of deer hunted on Dongning Island increases.

On this point, the emperor and people like Huo Weihua who were in charge of the affairs of Dongning Island actually had differences of opinion.

According to the emperor's opinion, 50,000 households would be enough to settle in Dongning Island. The remaining land was difficult to develop, so it could be kept for the time being. When there was enough accumulation on Dongning Island in the future, the remaining soldiers in the garrison would be allowed to develop it.

In this way, the garrison system of Dongning Island can be maintained for a long time and will not collapse due to the private distribution of land by military households.

However, Huo Weihua, Xu Dahao and others believed that the more immigrants they recruited, the better, so that they would have enough manpower to enable them to make more achievements in Liaodong.

Especially after the harvest in summer and autumn, they were more confident. When the development of Nanyang was not going smoothly and they could not accept the original number of immigrants, they rushed to accept these people and strengthen the reclamation of Dongning Island.

The deer population on the island also suffered as a result. Their habitat was destroyed and they had to provide meat for the immigrants. The number of deerskins associated with this also increased dramatically.

In addition, the establishment of the Japan Free Trade Zone made trade between Ming and Japan much more convenient. Dongning Trading Company thus delivered a good answer.

This company was also selected as a listed company as a representative of the Dongning Group. (End of this chapter)