Chapter 24 Civil officials know
The Royal Expo that Zhu Houzhao wants to open is not only for auctioning luxury handicrafts, but also for attracting investment.
After all, the original purpose of the historical International Expositions and later World Expositions was for trade. Zhu Houzhao opened the Royal Exposition to create trade relations between businessmen other than the Eight Tigers and the Royal Industrial Company.
Although the current main products of the Royal Industrial Company are soap, glass products, and toilet soap, Zhu Houzhao believes that these three products can establish a huge industrial scale in the Ming Dynasty and even the entire world, just like tea, porcelain, and silk. .
Zhu Houzhao felt that only in this way could he have more wealth and make Ming Dynasty a powerful empire.
Therefore, after the luxury handicrafts were over, Zhu Houzhao asked Liu Jin to announce that the next expo would enter the ordering phase for new products from the Royal Industrial Company.
And the first product is naturally soap!
Soap is now a well-known thing in the capital. Most people also know that the beauty of soap is that it not only makes clothes and body cleaner, but also is cheaper.
Many businessmen have actually long wanted to order soap in bulk to sell in other areas. Unfortunately, soap is made by the royal family, and the former supply is basically monopolized by eunuchs such as Wei Bin. Therefore, these businessmen suffer from the lack of order channels. After all, not everyone can do it. Contact a palace eunuch like Wei Bin.
The role of the Royal Expo is to provide a bridge for businessmen to communicate with the Royal Industry. Now Zhu Houzhao uses the Royal Expo to give businessmen an opportunity to order Royal Industrial Company products, because Zhu Houzhao gave soap the title of "Royal Industry" from the beginning. Such words also make many people believe that it is produced by Royal Industrial Company, although they do not yet know what the company is.
But with so many merchants gathered, only the one with the highest order price can win, that is, bidding.
Selling products in bulk through bidding is naturally more beneficial to Zhu Houzhao's Royal Industrial Company.
Although bidding is beneficial to the supplier Royal Industrial Company, businessmen are still motivated. As long as the price is not so high that they feel they will lose money if they bid, they can accept it. After all, Royal Industrial Company's products are cheap and Practicality is something that is not available on the market today.
Bahu's shop, Xu Jing and other businessmen all participated in the competition. Zhu Houzhao allowed Bahu to participate in the competition, but he did not allow them to open green channels for their stores because he was the founder of Royal Industrial Company. Bahu also had no objection. , after all, Royal Industrial Company is also their industry.
Because of this, the soap product alone received an order worth more than 20,000 taels of silver that day, and it will be calculated on a monthly basis in the future, which means that there will be orders of more than 20,000 taels every month.
In addition, there are also orders for glass products. Various glass products such as glass bowls, glass cups, glass plates, etc. are displayed one by one for merchants to place orders. Just the deposit for the glass products on the day is enough for Royal Industrial. The company earned more than 70,000 taels of silver.
Then there is soap. It is not difficult to make soap. It is nothing more than soap and spices. Therefore, the difference from soap in terms of price and cost is that the cost is higher and high-grade spices are used, so the price is naturally higher.
But after Liu Jin conducted an experiment and proved that the soap was indeed more fragrant after washing hands, there were still many merchants purchasing it, and the Royal Industrial Company received orders worth more than 20,000 taels of silver that day.
All in all, on the first day of the Royal Exposition, Zhu Houzhao's Royal Industrial Company received more than 500,000 taels of silver, while he himself received more than 300,000 taels. Even after deducting the cost, it was still 300,000 taels. The above is more than enough to pay the 200,000 taels of rice owed by the regiment and camp. Liu Jin and the other eight tigers were also very happy. After all, this time they all earned about ten thousand taels of silver. This was an income that took them several years to save before, but they didn't expect that they could earn it just by holding the Royal Expo in one day. Collect so much money.
"Your Majesty, it's a great deal to open this Royal Expo. How did you come up with it? If we open it every day, does that mean we have so much income every day?" Liu Jin couldn't help but ask.
"How is it possible? The people of the Ming Dynasty have limited purchasing power. Do they really think that money grows on trees? How can anyone spend tens of thousands to buy things every day! It is enough for the Royal Exposition to be held once a year. As long as the merchants participating in the Royal Exposition make money , naturally more businessmen will come next year, and the money we will earn by then More, the businessmen who cooperate with us should be polite and publicize them more. In addition, we must prepare in advance next year. By then, we will also recruit more businessmen from Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the West, so that we can Sell further and make more money.”
Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.
The Royal Expo is not over yet. According to Zhu Houzhao's intention, it will be held for three consecutive days. After all, more businessmen will hear the news and come to cooperate with the Royal Industrial Company.
What's more, a series of products such as glass goblets and glass bowls have to be exhibited. After all, it is an expo and people have to take a look.
However, before the first day of the Royal Exposition was over, Qin Dongyi, the censor of the city patrol, learned about the Royal Exposition held by His Majesty the Emperor at Qipan Street outside Daming Gate because of people's comments.
Although Qin Dongyi, the censor of the city patrol, did not know what the Royal Exposition was, he knew that if His Majesty the Emperor was on the street, it would be a very serious incident, and as the censor of the city patrol, he could not ignore it.
So Qin Dongyi hurriedly led his soldiers to Qipan Street that day, and saw Zhu Houzhao doing business with his own eyes, but he didn't squeeze in because there were too many people.
Qin Dongyi, the censor who patrolled the city, had to find a scholar to inquire about the reason, and found out that the emperor wanted to hold a royal fair to sell his royal treasures because he was poor, and also let the common people bid. For a moment, Qin Dongyi couldn't help but beat his hands and feet: < br>
"Isn't this nonsense? Now the Ming Dynasty is under the leadership of San Ge Lao. It can be said that the country is peaceful and the people are prosperous, but the emperor is forced to come out to sell goods. What does this mean? This is simply a disgrace to all the officials of the Ming Dynasty. Face! ”
After realizing the seriousness of the problem, Qin Dongyi, the censor of the city patrol, ordered people to strictly guard the area to prevent accidents. He rushed to the Yamen of the Ministry of War in person and informed the Minister of War, Xu Jin, about the incident. Xu Jin was naturally surprised when he heard about it. At the same time, he burst into tears:
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Why are you doing this? How embarrassing are you doing to us civil servants? The Emperor Daxing has been working hard for eighteen years, but how can he reach the point of asking you to sell off the imperial property! Take me to Wenyuan Pavilion quickly!"
Xu Jin, the Minister of War, and Qin Dongyi, the censor of the city patrol, both rushed to Wenyuan Pavilion. It happened that Han Wen, the Minister of Hubu, was also discussing matters here and was about to leave, but Xu Jin, the Minister of War, directly grabbed Han Wen, the Minister of Hubu:
"You happen to be here, so don't leave! How did you, the Minister of Household Affairs, ask me, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, to sell off royal items on the street! And it's just to marry the queen and bury Emperor Dahang! You are shameless, We still want shame!”
Xu Jin was so excited that he roared angrily at Han Wen, the Minister of Revenue. Han Wen, the Minister of Revenue, looked shocked. He didn't understand until Qin Dongyi, the censor of the city patrol, explained the whole story. He couldn't help but burst into tears for a moment: "This, this , This makes me feel so embarrassed, this makes me feel so embarrassed, doesn’t this make people say that I am incompetent for my position as the Minister of the Ministry of Finance!”
(End of chapter)