Eastern Jin Invincible Iron Army

Chapter 17 Profiteering Industry
"One hundred thousand stones?" Yu Xie was also taken aback when he heard that Lu Yonghua had the ability to produce one hundred thousand stones of refined salt per year.Today, the Huai salt production is the largest in the market, and almost 50 shi of coarse salt can be produced every year.However, the salt has been divided and dried up by the eight major salt merchants.Salt merchants have become a huge alliance of interests, and if they enter the salt industry rashly, they will be outraged.

Behind the eight major salt merchants in the Eastern Jin Dynasty were all major gentry families, and four of the salt merchants were Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang from the four major gentry families in Jiangzuo.The four big families who moved to the house turned out to be Wang, Xie, Xi, and Yu.After the death of Xi Shi, Xi Jian, his son Xi Yin didn't like people and contacts, while his second son, Xi Tan, was a miser, and Xi's family began to decline.The Huan family took advantage of the situation and became one of the four major families.But the Yu family and Yu Yi died one after another, and the Yu family declined.At this time, the Liu family of Pengcheng (Liu Jian, the father of Liu Lao, who started from General Fenwei and gradually became a vassal town) Liu family rose up and moved to the four major families after the Yu family. family.

Although the Yu family in Yixian County has been in business for generations and their family background is quite rich, they are still insignificant compared with the eight great gentry clans, and they don't have the strength and confidence to provoke the eight great clans.Once the eight big clans were angered, the eight big clans fought back, and the result was not something Yu could bear.

However, one organization must not be mentioned, that is Huizhou Merchants.The Huizhou Merchants Group, which is well-known at home and abroad, refers to the six counties of Huizhou, including She, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, Yi, and Jixi, namely the ancient Xin'an County.In fact, as early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Huizhou merchants began to rise.In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it became famous all over the world. In the Ming Dynasty, when Huizhou merchants flourished, even Zhu Yuanzhang borrowed military expenses from Huizhou merchants.However, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the reputation of Huizhou merchants was overshadowed by Shanxi merchants who made their fortunes by selling smuggled slaves.No matter how later generations of film and television dramas whitewash Shanxi merchants, it is difficult for Shanxi merchants to sell their national interests and stain their road to rise with the flesh and blood of tens of millions of compatriots.Unlike Shanxi merchants, Huizhou merchants treat people with sincerity and trust, and after becoming rich, they will not forget their blessings to the society.

The main reason for the formation of Huizhou merchants is that during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the northern people migrated to Xin'an County in order to avoid the chaos and war. , cannot pay tithes.Most of the small people practice skills, or those who sell their burdens and eat other counties, are often nineteen.

Of course, there is no shadow of Huizhou yet, but the business in Xin'an County has begun to take shape.Now the merchants in Xin'an County are doing business most prosperously with the Yu family in Yi County, the Hu family in Jixi, the Cheng family in Xiuning, and the Chen family in Qimen.

Yu Xie sent his confidant Kuaiqi to send the news home. Yu Qian, Yu Xie's father, was surprised when he learned that there was another huge source of salt industry.Then he negotiated with the Hu family in Jixi, the Cheng family in Xiuning, and the Chen family in Qimen.The four major merchants in Xin'an County held a meeting immediately, reached a resolution in a very short time, and finally agreed to "take the [-] stones of refined salt at any cost."

Salt and iron are the two most profitable pillar industries, and Xin'an Company had no chance to intervene in the past.Now it's hard to have an opportunity delivered to the door, if they don't grasp it, they will be sorry for the four words of generations of merchants.Although the Eastern Jin Dynasty's salt industry has long been controlled by the Jiangzuo gentry and the housewarming gentry from production to distribution, the 50 stone salt is more than 6000 million catties. If it is evenly distributed, it is basically enough for the population of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.However, in fact, because salt is expensive and the people are poor, only more than half of the people in the Eastern Jin Dynasty could afford salt, and the rest could not afford salt at all.In particular, the housewarming gentry smuggled salt to Qianyan and Diqin for profit, and the salt market was seriously short of salt.While salt owls fill some of the gap, millions of people still do not have access to or can afford to eat salt.

With the gap of [-] shi of refined salt, Xin'an merchants can not only make profits, but also greatly alleviate the plight of the folks lacking salt.

After receiving Yu Gan's summons, Yu Xie immediately found Lu Yonghua: "I want one hundred thousand stones of refined salt. It's a cash transaction, and I will never default on it."

"Okay, anyway, it's sold to anyone." Lu Yonghua said: "One hundred thousand refined salt, 1 yuan per stone. I need to charge half of the deposit first."

Receiving a deposit in advance is the rule of doing business.Although Lu Yonghua asked for half of the deposit, it didn't surprise Yu Bian. After all, refined salt is hugely profitable. If all the refined salt is sold to the Yu family, in case of accidents to the Yu family, Lu Yonghua's salt will be backlogged in his hands. Can't find another home either.What surprised Yu Bian was that the price Lu Yonghua asked for was not too high, but too low.Huai salt is coarse salt, not only a bit bitter, but also mixed with a lot of silt.However, the eight major noble clans wholesaled salt to the eight major salt merchants, and the price was definitely not lower than [-] yuan per stone.With the quality of Lu Yonghua's refined salt, thirty thousand yuan per stone is not too expensive for a large quantity purchase.

However, no one who does business will think that his money is biting his hand.The price of their purchases naturally hopes that the lower the better.Although Lu Yonghua's asking price has already exceeded Yu Bian's psychological bottom line, Yu Bian did not show any emotion on the surface, nodded lightly and said: "Yes, within three days, [-] gold (one gold is equal to [-] yuan) is worthless." few!"

Lu Yonghua said a little embarrassedly: "When we first opened the Salt Store, all kinds of supplies were extremely scarce, so we charged more deposits than the industry regulations. There is no way to do this. People are poor and short-sighted, and horses are thin and long-haired!"

"Understood, understood!" Yu Bian said with a smile: "I see that Mr. Lu purchased a lot of food, presumably your account should be scarce food?"

"We don't just lack food, we lack all kinds of materials!" Lu Yonghua said: "Don't tell lies in front of real people. We are ghosts and beggars. We lack food and clothing. Fortunately, we found a big salt mine. This is what God gave us. Poor man's gift. We need to buy a lot of food. Only with food can we recruit enough workers to expand the scale of salt production. We also need all kinds of weapons. Without enough weapons, we can't keep our salt mines. No Huai salt merchants do it, I'm afraid we can't even deal with the black hand of the salt owl."

Xin'an merchants were involved in a wide range of fields, including cloth, silk, grain, bamboo, wood, porcelain and other businesses.Lu Yonghua wanted to purchase a large amount of supplies, which was exactly what Yu Bian wanted.Yu Bian smiled and said, "Champa rice is three hundred dollars a stone, do you want it?"

"Three hundred yuan per shi?" Lu Yonghua was dumbfounded, and then he said ecstatically, "I want 20... no... 50 no, [-] shi for Zhancheng rice, directly deducted from the deposit!"

"No problem, the 50 shi Zhancheng rice totals [-] gold, and I only need to pay you another [-] gold!" Yu Bian was calm on the surface, but he was already smiling in his heart.

There are not many other things in Champa, except rice.Silk worth [-] yuan per head can be exchanged with those lazy natives for the best Champa rice.But this deal is not because Xin’an merchants cheated the natives of Champa, but because the output of Champa’s rice is so high that it hardly needs to be planted. When it is harvested, a little is left in the field, and the natural growth is enough for them to eat.These natives were delighted to find that the cheap rice was actually exchanged for rice with silk.This is a win-win situation. Silk is a high-end luxury item in Champa, and it can almost be traded with equivalent gold. In this way, there is also a purchase price and five dollars a bucket.Buying goods at a price of about [-] qian per stone, and reselling them to Lu Yonghua for [-] qian, in fact, he still made a huge profit, with a profit as high as [-] times, faster than later generations selling white powder.

　The Dragon Tower has been opened, friends who are interested in the characters in this book can leave a message, Lao Cheng will give priority to it, and the first book friend of the book will appear in the next chapter of the Dragon Tower.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)