I am Li Shen and Li Shimin, the free kings of the Tang Dynasty

The earliest glassmakers in the world were the ancient Egyptians. The appearance and use of glass in human life has a history of more than 4,000 years.

According to legend, more than 3,000 years ago, when the Phoenicians in Europe were sailing on the Pelops River along the Mediterranean coast, the merchant ship ran aground due to low tide, and the crew members went up to the beach one after another.

In order to cook, some crew members brought large pots, firewood, and used a few pieces of "natural soda" as supports for the pots and cooked on the beach.

After the crew finished their meal, the tide began to rise. As they were preparing to pack up and board the ship to continue sailing, someone suddenly shouted:

"Everyone, come and see, there are some bright, sparkling things on the sand under the pot!"

The crew took the glittering objects aboard and studied them carefully.

They found that the shiny things were stuck with some quartz sand and melted natural soda.

It turns out that these glittering things are natural soda that they use as a stand for the pot when cooking.

Under the action of flame, the quartz sand on the beach reacts chemically to produce the substance.

This is the earliest glass.

Later, the Phoenicians mixed quartz sand and natural soda together, melted them in a special furnace, and made glass balls, which made the Phoenicians a fortune.

This story was told to Li Shen by their physics teacher when they were in school, when he was talking about the physical changes of glass.

Although Li Shen is not a good student, he does have a deep memory for this useless knowledge.

Most of the products processed by Li Shen's Liuli Workshop are transparent crystal glassware.

Crystal is transparent, representing purity and gentleman.

He also didn't expect that the glass balls with impurities from the Arab Empire would be loved by the Tang Dynasty nobles.

"Are all the nobles in our Tang Dynasty lustful?"

Li Shen suddenly asked this question.

"what?"

No one in the room reacted, and they didn't understand why His Royal Highness Prince Ji asked this.

"I think it must be the case. Otherwise, why do they like colored glass instead of transparent glass?"

Li Shen said angrily.

"Well... Actually, our transparent colored glaze is quite popular. Merchants in the Western Regions all want our transparent colored glaze that is as transparent as crystal."

Wang Hongfu flattered.

"Does that mean that the nobles of our Tang Dynasty are not as tasteful as those of foreign countries?"

Li Shen made another shocking statement.

Everyone was speechless, but Prince Ji really dared to say anything.

If this gets out, all the nobles in the Tang Dynasty will be offended.

“Your Highness, that can’t be said. Scarcity makes things valuable. Even the nobles don’t think the things we produce are rare.

On the contrary, the nobles in the Western Regions think that our transparent crystal vessels are rare treasures.

Your Majesty, this is a truth.

Our porcelain, tea, and silk are all very cheap.

It can be sold at a sky-high price in the Western Regions."

Wang Hongfu has rich experience in the business world and has studied under Li Shen for many years. He understands a lot of things, especially what King Ji said about foreign monks being able to chant sutras.

"You have a point. The Tang Dynasty is vast and rich in resources. Many things are not available in other countries. Rare goods are valuable.

Things that we consider worthless are treasures to them.”

Li Shen nodded. When doing business, Chinese people always focus on ordinary people and never on the rich.

Cutting leeks one after another.

Otherwise, they will implement a monopoly, selling something worth one penny for one string of coins, and no one else has it.

“This won’t do. In our Tang Dynasty, people and things should be the most honorable.

We can’t let these barbarians take advantage.”

Li Shen was very dissatisfied with this. Silk and porcelain were China's unique culture, but foreigners bought them at such low prices in the Tang Dynasty and made huge profits when they returned.

"Your Majesty, the prices in the Tang Dynasty are just like this. We have no other options. If you raise the prices of goods,

We cannot just raise the prices of those Western Region merchants, we also have to raise the prices of domestic merchants as well.

If this happens, there will be problems in the market, and I'm afraid Your Majesty will not agree to it by then."

Prices were very stable during the Zhenguan period, and there was no such surge in prices as there was in the Later Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin required that the common people should be able to afford daily necessities, and at first millet was five cents a dou.

It was Li Shen who purchased them in large quantities over the years and the price rose to twenty wen per dou.

In ancient times, it was said that low grain prices would hurt farmers. It was not until Li Shen arrived in the Tang Dynasty that he understood this.

The Tang Dynasty had a population of tens of millions, and 80% of them were farmers.

These 80% people basically do not buy food.

In addition to paying taxes every year, they had plenty of food. Unless they encountered a disaster, they would even give away most of their food to exchange for daily necessities.

For example, salt, cloth, meat and so on.

The prerequisite is to leave enough food for a year.

Therefore, 80% of the people in the Tang Dynasty do not buy grain, and those who do buy grain are either in business or politics.

Either working in a workshop, the family is still relatively well-off.

Under such circumstances, the cheaper the food, the less people like to farm. In the past, people exchanged food for things at five cents a bucket, and they got nothing in return.

Now twenty cents for a dou of rice can at least be exchanged for some meat, and two dou of rice can be exchanged for a piece of cloth, so life will naturally be better.

As for those expensive items and products that ordinary people cannot afford, Li Shen believes that they should be priced higher.

Porcelain, silk, gold, silver and jewelry, anyway, they are all sold to rich people.

They wouldn't mind paying double the price.

But as Wang Hongfu said, if Li Shen set the price of silk and other items too high, he would definitely be impeached.

Those nobles who collect money for enjoying these things will collectively attack Li Shen, and then accuse him of extorting money from the people.

Li Shimin loved his people like his own children, so he would definitely not agree with Li Shen's behavior.

"No, my head hurts."

Li Shen frowned, feeling that he had run out of ideas.

After studying for a long time, I still haven't come up with a decent solution.

Wang Hongfu, Wang Xuance and others were also racking their brains to figure out how to achieve what King Ji required.

Lan Yuer reached out and rubbed Li Shen's temple.

Li Shen looked at the ceiling, thinking.

"Glass won't work, how about spices?"

Li Shen suddenly remembered that he also had a spice island.

There is an abundance of various spices. According to reports, many ripe spices were not picked in time and fell to the ground to feed the insects.

With such good resources, Li Shen would of course seize this opportunity.

At this time Wang Hongfu spoke again:

“Your Majesty, spices are also one of the important specialties that the Arabs brought to the Tang Dynasty.

Spices are like glass, and some spices are even more valuable than glass.

I think since they are local specialties, they shouldn't be as precious as ours, right?"