Prodigal Son of the Ming Dynasty

  Chapter 1326 The time has come

   Fanatical emotions began to spread like a plague.

  The entire Franz machine, to a certain extent, is also in the age of just enlightenment, with a large amount of gold and silver pouring in, but the commodity economy is not prosperous, and it is difficult to give birth to new industries for the time being except for the wealth being used to realize luxury goods.

  The industrial revolution has not yet started, which means that most of people's investment is only in the relatively primitive hoarding of goods.

  When tulips became popular, they almost immediately became the target of all classes.

  There is something in the world that is not only noble, but also resistant to terrible inflation.

   While the price is constantly skyrocketing, Liu Wenshan is behind the scenes, planning the overall situation.

   Most of the Dutch and Spaniards who worked for him were Wang Xizuo. Wang Xizuo changed his face and turned into a Portuguese businessman who got rich from the Far East.

   And everyone he recruited had wishful thinking that he was just employed by an ordinary businessman.

  Their work is very detailed. Some people are only responsible for inquiring about the price of tulips in the northern province, and some are responsible for purchasing tulips at any time, or shipping and inventorying tulips. There is an exchange of bonds. Someone is responsible for guiding the boat.

  They are like workers at every station on the production line, who are only responsible for making the parts they have at hand, and they don't know much about how these parts are finally assembled and what machines they become.

Not only that, some people with energy have also become Wang Xizuo's friends. No one will notice that this man named Wang Xizuo once haunted the Spanish court, let alone a few years, it is enough to make a person become In another way, and for this era, the northern province is too far away from the Spanish court.

  Northern Province's finances are tied to tulips, which has spawned many lords and even the royal family to gather their targets here.

Because the price of tulips keeps rising, it is too late for people to trade goods. Smart people have begun to invent a new method. They directly sign sales contracts with merchants who have goods. Although the goods are still piled up in the warehouse, But in just a few days, the contract has been transferred to seven or eight people, and the price of the contract has increased several times.

  As for whether there are tulips in the warehouse, or how many tulips there are, no one cares anymore.

  The essence of the market is that in this world, anything can be secondary, but confidence is the most important. As long as everyone is convinced that this contract has value, then it is priceless.

   This is like a famous painting. When no one cares about it, it is just a doodle on paper, but once someone believes that it is valuable, then it is worthless.

  Of course, although tulips in history were sought after, their skyrocketing process lasted for decades.

   But at this time, behind this, there is an invisible hand, slowly pushing.

  Liu Wenshan hides in the room every day, constantly picking up a pen, checking something, he needs to maintain a myth of rising prices.

  In this myth, how to roughly calculate the demand in the market and at the same time determine how many tulip bulbs need to be produced is a very labor-intensive task.

  Every day at his desk, he had to wear extremely thick lenses. In his mind, he was constantly thinking, and his mind was full of numbers.

  …

  Dresden is the capital of Saxony.

  This is the center of the electorate of the Saxon Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

  The Wetina family has always ruled here.

  The Marquess of Alston is not young anymore, with a big belly.

  He has the old tradition of the Shinra nobles, even at this age, he still takes his knights to hunt.

only…

  Today, he was dressed in hunting attire, carrying a whip, and rushed into a banquet angrily.

  The vassals of the Marquis of Alston and their wives looked at the Marquis of Alston who broke in in surprise.

  The Marquis said angrily: "There are **** tulips everywhere, everywhere, you, your wives, farmers, even the drivers and soldiers, they are all talking about tulips."

  The vassals looked at the Marquis of Alston in panic.

  Marquis Alston said: "Tulips are destroying our traditions, this **** thing, this **** thing..."

  He actually took out a tulip bulb in front of everyone, then recklessly took out a knife, and cut the bulb in half.

   People seem more disturbed, this is... money, bulbs are money...

  The Marquis of Alston, like a mad lion, cut off a piece of tulip bulb in front of everyone, put it in his mouth, and began to chew.

   Ladies and ladies have already made exclamations.

  They couldn't understand that such a beautiful thing in this world would be treated so rudely.

The Marquis of Alston kept chewing, and said: "Taste it, it tastes not much better than garlic, this is what you treasure, it tastes the same as garlic, you have to taste it Do you want to taste it? And its **** flower, what is the value of this **** flower, you tell me, it can neither be eaten, nor can it be turned into a weapon, fight for us, let alone feed farmers, it At most, it can only be used to feed horses. They are not worth the price at all, you are all crazy, all of Europe, are crazy."

   The vassals frowned.

   Someone couldn't help but euphemistically said: "Your Excellency, if it is based on this, then there is nothing in this world that is valuable."

   Although people refute.

  But...many people felt thumping in their hearts.

  Is it really garlic?

  The cold water poured on them by the Marquis of Alston made them suspicious.

   This little episode spread quickly.

  Although almost everyone who owns tulips scoffs at this, thinking that this monarch from the German states is too reckless.

But…

Wang Xizuo hurriedly found Liu Wenshan: "It's not good, Mr. Liu, Mr. Liu...it's not so good. In the northern province, the price of bulbs began to drop slightly, and many people began to feel wavered, and some people began to sell bulbs. .”

  Liu Wenshan raised his head and looked at Wang Xizuo. He looked very calm and frowned slightly: "Really? Oh, I see."

   "Mr. Liu..."

"This is indeed a troublesome thing." Liu Wenshan subconsciously picked up the teacup, but unfortunately, there was only white water in the teacup, and he frowned again, and then said: "The price of tulip bulbs comes from people's constant appreciation of its price. People believe that as long as they buy this thing, they can not only sell it at any time, but even make a profit from it.”

  The implication is that once the price starts to fall, the panic will intensify, and at that time, the myth that has been established with countless efforts before will completely become a phantom.

  Liu Wenshan said with a smile: "You go and arrange, through our merchants, to buy a large number of bulbs, as many as you want, today at fifteen gold a catty, tomorrow at sixteen gold coins..."

"This..." Wang Xizuo looked at Liu Wenshan in surprise: "But, although we have sold many tulips before, the price at that time was not high. If people sell them like crazy, we...can we afford it? "

   Once you can’t afford it, it’s over.

Liu Wenshan said indifferently: "At the same time, the news was released that people in Daming highly respected this kind of bulbs. It is said that some people want to buy bulbs and send them to Luzon in the Far East. There will be smugglers from Daming willing to Buy them at sky-high prices. Well, go ahead."

  Wang Xizuo seemed very disturbed.

   With such a high price, the purchase of bulbs, the gold coins they have now, simply cannot last today.

  So, in the northern province, many businessmen began to buy bulbs at high prices.

  At the beginning, people who were a little panicked began to ship, and once their bulbs were sold on the market, they were sold out in a blink of an eye.

  By the next day, instead of falling, the bulbs began to rise.

   All of a sudden, the sell-off disappeared.

  People felt at ease about the previous gossip.

  After a few days, no one is willing to sell the bulbs on hand, and the bulbs on the market are still priceless.

  Afterwards, more people anxiously began to buy bulbs, and the prices were getting higher and higher.

In a blink of an eye, the Marquis of Alston became the joke of the whole of Europe. In countless salons and banquets, the nobles wantonly mocked that German country bumpkin, because almost every nobleman who owns bulbs is worth a lot. is rising day by day.

  In the countryside, dozens of farmers even united to buy a bulb and wait for the value to rise.

  The merchants racked their brains and looked for sources of goods everywhere.

   Shiploads of bulbs sold out quickly.

  Even the Habsburg family in Austria noticed this phenomenon.

People began to deeply believe that this thing not only has value, but also has become a sharp weapon against the continuous low price of precious metals, not only in Europe, but also in Ottoman, North Africa, and the Ming Dynasty in the Far East, the wealthy dynasty that defeated the Spanish expeditionary force, Also thirsty for this bulb.

  But at this time, it was precisely the time when Liu Wenshan was crazy about shipping.

  The ships that transported a large number of bulbs arrived at Franji in a steady stream, and warehouses of bulbs were sold at an astonishing price.

  People spend their life savings to buy these bulbs, but never circulate them in the market, but store them up, waiting for the day when its price will continue to rise.

  Everyone is calculating the latest price of the bulb, and then calculating how much their wealth has increased.

  But at this time, Liu Wenshan looked at the dazzling numbers on the wall, and the corner of his mouth slightly curled up: "It's time!"

  (end of this chapter)