Lou Jiangxi Pavilion.
The tasting will be held as scheduled.
It’s still a familiar scene and a familiar smell.
There was a group of wealthy businessmen sitting under the stage, including Wang Fuguang, Wang Wenxian and others.
They made a lot of money from the overseas goods sold at the last tasting session.
After all, things are rare and expensive, and the price difference is there. Coupled with the huge quantity, it is difficult for them not to make a profit.
Whether they make money or not is actually a trivial matter. Nine of them have successfully sent their clan members to the Imperial Academy to study and cultivate virtue.
Wang Fuguang occupied a quota and sent his youngest son to the Imperial College.
This child doesn’t like doing business and prefers to write and write. He is a natural scholar.
If he can succeed in his studies and even be recommended as an official, then the old Wang family will be completely transformed.
So when they heard that the second tasting meeting was held, Wang Fuguang and other wealthy businessmen rushed over immediately, bringing with them plenty of money!
Although they didn’t know what the Prince of Han was going to bid for this time, it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm for participating in the tasting at all.
If His Highness the King of Han is generous to the court and donates a few Imperial College prison quotas again, that will be something that is hard to find!
Thinking about it, I saw Qiu Guangde suddenly appear on the auction stage, holding a gavel in his hand.
‘Ahem, everyone is here, these are the familiar faces.’
‘You must have made a lot of money from those overseas goods last time, right？ Remember to give Lao Qiu a little bit of your saliva money!’
Hearing his deliberately ridiculing words, everyone burst into laughter, and the atmosphere instantly became more lively.
Then Qiu Guangde knocked the gavel in his hand, and the scene suddenly became quiet.
‘Stop talking nonsense, what we are auctioning at this tasting is the right to sell briquettes.’
Briquettes？
That new cheap and practical fuel？
When everyone heard this, some eyes flashed with gleams, while others were uninterested.
Wang Wenxian was not very interested, and was even slightly disappointed.
He thought His Highness the King of Han would auction some rare treasures, but it turned out to be nothing more than briquettes, which was quite disappointing.
Although briquettes are indeed cheap, practical and popular among Zhili people, they have their own limitations.
No matter how magical this briquette is, it still depends on the weather!
It’s the twelfth lunar month of winter, and people are shivering with the cold. That’s why honeycomb briquettes are selling so hotly, and almost every household in the vicinity of Zhili is buying them.
But when the cold winter months are over and the weather warms up, who else will buy this briquette？
The demand for briquettes has plummeted, and naturally the sales results will not be much better.
It’s amazing that rich people use it to boil water for cooking, but ordinary people will never have such luxury.
Therefore, briquettes have their own limitations. Once winter is over, they will be useless.
Wang Wenxian saw this clearly, so he was not ready to take action.
There were many merchants with the same idea, so the tasting session was a little quiet for a while, and the atmosphere gradually became awkward.
After all, those who can be invited to participate in the tasting are all the shrewdest businessmen in the entire Big Tomorrow. Otherwise, they would not be able to sit on the wealth and have been ruined by their peers long ago.
The specific fuel of briquettes does not make them feel excited.
If they have the time and energy to make the meager profits from briquettes, they might as well lie at home and count the money.
Qiu Guangde was a little embarrassed when he saw this, and began to introduce the various advantages of this briquette, and even pointed out that it would be auctioned by region.
Once he obtains the right to sell briquettes in the area, he will be protected by the imperial government and only he is allowed to sell briquettes in the area.
Of course, if the imperial government provides protection, it will naturally have to pay protection fees and deposits.
When the merchants heard this, they were in an uproar and talked a lot.
What’s the meaning？
Now you have to pay for bidding!
If you take the photo, you still have to pay!
If you sell it in the future, you’ll still be charged protection fees!
Could it be that Prince Han was crazy about money？
This crazy method of amassing money will make all the corrupt officials in the past dynasties shed tears!
Thinking about it, all the merchants backed down, but no one bid.
For a moment, the atmosphere was extremely awkward.
No matter how Qiu Guangde promoted and promoted the briquettes, no one responded.
Behind the beaded curtain, Zhu Gaoxu touched his chin and fell into deep thought.
Sitting next to him was a frail young man with a somewhat pale face. He was Liu Ruming, who was doing business to pay off his father’s debts and was expelled from the Imperial College.
This guy has a good business acumen. He took advantage of the seven-day free trade period to resell foreign goods and made a lot of profits.
But what is very sad is that he was caught on the spot by officials from the Ministry of Rites. Not only did his property be confiscated, but he was also almost killed in prison.
Zhu Gaoxu felt that this guy was a business talent and could be cultivated.
At the moment, Zhou Chen was following Xia Yuanji everywhere to make new salt, renovating the salt field according to the production process of the Han Dynasty Palace, and had no time to pay attention to these trivial matters.
‘Xiao Liuzi, do you understand？ This is the real businessman!’
After hearing this, Liu Ruming froze on the spot and shook his head with a confused look on his face.
‘Your Majesty, I… don’t quite understand.’
nonsense!
What can he understand？
‘Your Majesty, these merchants are obviously not very enthusiastic. The tasting party may not be able to be held…’
Zhu Gaoxu just smiled faintly and said in a deep voice, ‘Businessmen make a living by chasing profits. Although briquettes have a certain profit margin, these meager profits are not worth mentioning at all to the wealthy businessmen in front of us.’
‘Profits come first, favors come last. A real businessman only has interests in his eyes.’
Liu Ruming nodded as if he understood, and kept Prince Han’s words in mind.
‘My lord, what should we do now？’
‘It doesn’t matter, you go out and tell Lao Qiu, and appropriately reveal some news about the new salt law.’
Liu Ruming took the order and left, while Zhu Gaoxu pinched his eyebrows tiredly.
The auction of briquettes by region this time is just an attempt to explore the way for the new salt auction later.
The wealthy businessmen in front of them looked down upon the meager profits of briquettes, so they lacked interest and enthusiasm.
But if the briquettes were replaced with table salt, then they would probably go crazy and fight to the death.
Sure enough, upon hearing the news of the new salt law, the expressions of all the merchants on the scene changed drastically. Some were excited, while others were frightened.
The salt merchant giants such as Wang Wenxian and Wang Fuguang were even more shocked by this shocking news.
The imperial court wants to abolish the Kaizhong Law and replace it with the New Salt Law!
Bid for the right to sell new salt by region!
Thinking of this, Wang Wenxian’s eyes suddenly shone with frightening light, and his face turned red with excitement.
He doesn’t care about ‘franchise fees’, ‘deposits’, ‘agency fees’, etc.!
Wang Wenxian only cares about the right to sell new salt!
Gotta get it!
As long as you grab the right to sell this new salt, you will be like an imperial merchant, and your children and grandchildren will be prosperous and wealthy for a lifetime!
After all, that is table salt, not briquettes!
The common people may not burn coal for heating, but they cannot help but eat salt.
The terrifying profits hidden behind table salt are well known to salt merchant giants like Wang Wenxian!
If you really master the right to sell salt in a region, you can really make money while lying down, or a lot of money!
Seeing that everyone was restless, Qiu Guangde knocked on the gavel to signal them to quiet down.
‘The new salt law will be implemented soon. Before that, His Royal Highness the King of Han intends to inspect powerful wealthy merchants from various places and choose them to become Ming salt merchants…’
‘Everyone, this is all I have to say. There is no need to say more about the mystery.’
‘Now, the tasting party officially begins!’