The Struggle History of the Fourteenth Qing Dynasty

Everyone's eyes were attracted to him.

"Everyone knows the purpose of coming today." Cao Yong made it clear as soon as he came up: "I brought some sea salt from the seaside. I know that everyone here is a big salt merchant, but my wave There is a lot of salt, and I can’t sell it or keep it for myself.”

The crowd burst into laughter.

One of the salt merchants turned the emerald balls in his hand: "Master Xiao Cao made it clear, then we are also welcome. We will buy as much salt as you have. Don't worry, money is not a problem."

"The problem is that I have a lot of them." Cao Yong said: "How much do you want, how much do you have!"

"As much as you have, we need as much as you want!" The big salt merchant has the confidence.

"1000 million catties, can you afford it?" Cao Yong raised a finger: "One batch, 1000 million catties."

(I originally wanted to write Shi, but I thought it was a bit awkward for everyone to read, so I just made it into a catty)

"1000 million catties?" The man frowned, "It's all."

"The first batch of 1000 million catties, the second batch, the third batch, and up to a dozen batches, can you eat it?" Cao Yong looked at them suspiciously: "The court said that it can't sell this salt. I have to find a way out by myself.”

The implication is very simple, if you can't eat the salt, then he can only find another salt merchant to share the sea salt.

There are only a dozen salt merchants here, but they control almost [-]% of the edible salt in the Qing Dynasty.

The rest is salt for daily use, such as green salt for mouthwash, which is more expensive.

"Two pennies a catty, 1000 million catties is 2 taels of silver." Cao Yong said, "What do you say?"

"One batch is only 1000 million catties, not much, just 2 taels of silver." The salt merchants are all wealthy people and don't care about the [-] taels of silver.

Cao Yong smiled: "The second batch, who will contract?"

Everyone was taken aback, the second batch?

"Cao Min wants it." Another big salt merchant nodded.

"There is no basis for what you say, come here, bring the purchase and sale contract!" Cao Yong has prepared everything, and in the name of the court, he will supply and sell sea salt to them. If he can't eat it, he has to eat it.

So I brought the contract and signed the contract on the spot.

The big salt merchants looked down on such a brat like Cao Yong. Although Fourteen Baylor had a noble status, but his age was there, there was nothing to guard against, so they nodded.

However, some people thought it was wrong, and one of the big salt merchants surnamed Yang made an opinion: "Master Xiao Cao, you say that, we signed this contract with you, if you don't have salt, what should we do? We don’t have anything to rely on for the imperial court to do business?”

"Then what does Boss Yang want?" Cao Yong looked at the old fox.

Boss Yang’s three generations of ancestors all started their business by selling private salt. Now the family of [-] or [-] people all rely on the salt industry for food.

His family's property is worth millions of taels of silver.

Earning three to five million taels of silver every year is a trivial matter, but he pays less than 50 taels of tax to the court every year, and it will be gone if there is more. The crying father and mother said that he has no money, and his eldest grandson has continued for ten years , all bought oirans from Yangzhou to be concubines, and the family called them "Ten Oirans".

Such a person, if he doesn't take his money, whose money will he take?

"We want to ask Fourteen Baylor to be a guarantor to ensure that you have the goods here, and we will pay the money to pick up the goods." Boss Yang said very cautiously: "Otherwise, we have paid the money and can't get the goods, so we can ask someone to uphold justice." ah?"

The buyer and seller must have a guarantor in the middle.

To do business with the imperial court, you have to find a middleman!

Fourteen Baylor, neither big nor small, neither fat nor thin, easy to coil up and easy to pull up.

So they fell in love with it.

The eighteenth elder brother is too young, and the nineteenth elder brother is just a suckling baby!

"No problem!" The Fourteenth Lord raised his hand: "My Lord will be your guarantor, not only to ensure that the court has salt for you, but also to ensure that you have money to give to the court. Once you have no money to buy salt, they will sell it to you." Yanba has found a second company, and the imperial court has no salt for you, so I asked them to give you all the production of the salt farm for the next ten years, as a compensation, how about it?"

In fact, the Fourteenth Lord knows that there is a lot of salt in the salt field!

What a batch of 1000 million catties, the salt is very heavy, Cao Yong has been supporting these salt merchants bit by bit since he was a child.

"The fourteenth master is proud!"

"Fourteen Baylor is enough."

Flatter him one by one.

The Fourteenth Master didn't bring his official seal with him when he went out, so they sent someone to Jiangning Weaving Mansion to get the Baylor seal.

Make it so formal.

Those salt merchants were happy, and the Fourteenth Master was even more happy. It would be justifiable to buy their property in the future. He is the guarantor and has the right to force them to pay with property.

But they said how much they have and how much they want.

In fact, Cao Yong prepared a thousand batches of sea salt on this day.

A batch of 2000, a thousand batches is [-] million taels of silver!

The annual tax of the Qing Dynasty is only 5000 million taels.

This transaction accounted for more than half of the tax revenue.

"Since we have signed the contract, we will go to buy the goods tomorrow. Remember, pay with one hand and deliver with the other!" Cao Yong made a final decision.

The next day, these people really sent people to fetch sea salt.

Sea salt is fine coarse salt particles, transparent salt without any sand.

But on the third day, Cao Yong called people to come to the banquet again, and this time the Fourteenth Lord was also brought by him: "Everyone, everybody, here is some sea salt again."

"Didn't you just finish pulling yesterday?"

"I have a large quantity here." Cao Yong said: "Do you want it? If you don't want it, just...."

"Yes!" These big salt merchants didn't take it seriously.

"This time we will go out in ten batches and ten batches." Cao Yong looked devastated: "I have no place to put it!"

"Row!"

Big salt merchants also want to hoard more, this is a big deal.

They ate it for two Wen a catty, sold it for four Wen a catty, and gave it to the salt merchants in the middle, who then sold it to the small salt merchants at a price of six Wen a catty.

The small salt merchants then sold it to salt dealers for ten Wen.

The salt dealers then sold it to the common people at prices ranging from twelve to fifteen yuan.

And after crossing the river and going to the north, the price can rise to 25 to [-] yuan.

If it is shipped to Mongolia and other places, the price can be increased to thirty or fifty yuan per catty.

These big salt merchants will transport salt to Mongolia in exchange for their horses. Cattle and sheep are useless, and furs are not considered. Of course, they will consider gold.

Gold is easier to carry.

The good fur here in the south can't be worn at all, it's hot!

This batch was sold for more than 2000 million taels of silver.

But Cao Yong also said: "If you don't have enough silver, you can use gold to pay the bill. I don't need to say more about the fineness of the money. This is money that needs to go into the treasury."

"That's it, that's it." The big salt merchants frowned and led their people away without saying anything else.

Cao Yong accompanied the fourteenth master to have an authentic Jiangning-style dinner: "Master, you are really good, these people are really rich!"

"Where is this going? They will desperately eat batch after batch of sea salt, and when they have no money, they will go bankrupt." Master Fourteen took a bite of the dish: "They have a contract, I'm the prince's elder brother, I can't lose justice."

If they didn't ask the Fourteenth Master to be their guarantor, there was still a chance of survival, and if they wanted to die, the Fourteenth Master would not give them a way to survive.

Three days later, Kangxi's holy car was still here, and Cao Yong called on these big salt merchants again: "A batch of sea salt arrived, this time is the sum of the last two times, can you eat it?"

Most of the big salt merchants have recovered some of their capital, so they decided to eat all the third batch of sea salt.

Three days later, Cao Yong called people to gather again: "A batch of sea salt arrived, the same amount as last time."

Boss Yang frowned: "Isn't this too fast?"

"Hurry up?" Cao Yong said, "If I can't eat, I'll find someone else."

"Eat it, eat it!" Boss Yang hurriedly said: "Master Xiao Cao knows our financial resources, this is just a little salt, it's nothing."

So, this batch of sea salt was swallowed by them all again.

That night, Fourteenth Lord accompanied Kangxi Lord to eat, and Cao Yong also accompanied him.

"Long Live Lord, they have eaten a lot of sea salt, and the money has also been sent." Cao Yong asked curiously: "With so much money, can they still have money?"

"Yes!" Kangxi said: "You are still too young. When I saw these big salt merchants for the first time, I was also very surprised. They are really rich, but they hide it and don't reveal it. Damn stingy! But after so many generations, there are unworthy descendants who have spent a lot of money, but they haven't lost much. The family is still very rich. Just wait, after three batches, they will tighten their money and spend everywhere. money."

"The servant is waiting!" Cao Yong gnawed a piece of steak: "The servant will not let go until their property is cleaned up. After so many years, I can finally clean them up."

Cao Yong's father, Cao Yin, was in Jiangning Weaving Mansion. In addition to managing weaving, he also supervised the salt tax in Jiangnan.

Sure enough, after the third batch, the expressions of these big salt merchants were not quite right.

When the fourth batch started, they hesitated.

"Master Xiao Cao, how much sea salt do you have?" Boss Yang turned dark.

"As I said, my sea salt is so huge!" Cao Yong spread his hands: "You told me how much you want, and you co-authored it for me to brag about it? What's the matter? Bragging about not paying taxes no?"

This is what the fourteenth master said to him last night, and he copied it.

"That's not true, your salt, we... buy it!" Boss Yang gritted his teeth: "We will send someone to pick up the goods immediately."

"It's not too bad." Master Xiao Cao was satisfied.

This meal was actually not happy at all, but Master Xiao Cao felt very fulfilled, he ate the best and most delicious meal, and drank two glasses of rice wine.

Turning around, he went back to Jiangning Weaving Mansion without hesitation. His wife didn't follow her back in Guangzhou. Because she was pregnant, his mother went to take care of his wife. There were only him and his father in the house.

Master Xiao Cao went back, but the [-] or [-] big salt merchants did not leave. Instead, they moved from the second floor to the third floor. The third floor was contracted by their people, and there were no outsiders at all.

This time, without outsiders around, they showed their true colors.

"Boss Yang, this amount is too big!" Boss Zhang said very unhappy, "All the money at home has been used to suppress the goods, and I don't know where the money for tomorrow's vegetables is!"

"Boss Zhang, your vegetable money costs 80 taels a day, which is better than what the emperor eats. Who doesn't know that once you stay in your family, you will keep the vegetable money for three years!" Boss Wang teased him: "You , stop crying poor with us."

"Who is crying poor? My family's cash is really low. If I want to eat sea salt again, I have to mortgage my property." Boss Zhang sat there drinking tea: "I don't know how much sea salt they have. Where did it come from?"

"Probably made by the navy? It's from the royal family, Haiyan, from the sea, right? But I don't know how much."

"Yeah, if we eat like this, we don't have much money left in our treasury."

"Don't worry, don't worry!" Boss Yang patted the desktop: "Everyone came here through wind and rain, how many times we have been in the same boat, we will sell sea salt to your salt merchants through channels, layer by layer distribution If you go on, you can get back your money, and you won’t be liquidated.”

There is so much sea salt in their warehouse, it is dangerous to store it. Once it rains and leaks, it will be miserable.

"If it doesn't work, just sell the property! The big deal is to earn back from the salt. Don't worry, everyone. How easy is it to produce sea salt? They probably saved it for several years, right? Master Xiao Cao is actually here to pay off the debt. Everyone knows that, He is so young and has been in office for too long, as long as we keep our position as the No. [-] salt merchant." Boss Yang said: "Persevere!"

They knew that their ability to keep the salt industry, the profitable business, and the hen that laid the golden eggs had something to do with their control over the purchase channels of the salt industry.

Especially transporting salt to the north is very profitable.

As a result, three days later, Cao Yong came to them again: "It's a good thing this time. There is a batch of fine salt for five Wen a catty. You can double the income."

He showed them fine salt.

In fact, it is refined salt, fine and white, like sand. When the soup is cooked, you can add salt to it yourself. If the salt is good, it will melt in water and taste good.

So, these big salt merchants gnashed their teeth and ate this batch of sea salt.

But three days later, Cao Yong came again!

The faces of the big salt merchants changed: "Is there any sea salt?"

"Yeah, this time it's all fine salt. If you don't want it, I'll find someone else. You said it at the beginning, and you want as much as you have."

That's what bragging usually says, who would have thought that there would be endless sea salt for them at this time.

When was sea salt so easy to get?

Besides, what they ate in the first few batches were coarse salt particles, but this fine salt is much better than coarse salt, only three pennies more expensive.

In addition, the price they usually give to middlemen is not low. Who needs coarse salt when there is fine salt?Their goods must not be thrown in the hands.

"Yes!" Boss Yang gritted his teeth: "But please give us a few days, let's clean up the warehouse. This fine salt is a good product that needs to be stored separately."

"No problem, I'll give you three days." Cao Yong followed suit.