The county magistrate of Jinling County is currently concurrently held by Xun You, the governor of Danyang.

Xun You was a man with extremely high emotional intelligence, good at guessing people's hearts and good at pretending to be stupid. His kind personality and his ability to dance made him suitable for taking charge of Jinling, the core of Yangzhou, and even the future capital.

Jinling's Prefectural Mufu and the residences of other officials had long been repaired. Yuan Shu led his men to Jinling quickly, and quickly adapted to the place and started work.

Soon, the deadline mentioned by Yuan Shu came and all the businessmen went to the auction house, a landmark building built by Yuan Shu in the business district.

In this era where daily necessities are basically commodities, there is actually little market for transactions in the form of auction houses.

Because the precious items are not in the hands of merchants, but in the hands of many scholars or officials. They are not willing to do such a shameful thing, and they get what they want by giving or exchanging gifts with each other.

.

And Yuan Shu built this auction house not to auction goods, but to auction some other things.

For example, Yuan Shu now has the right to sell goods, the right to rent shops in prime locations, and the right to operate large farmland in the future.

These businessmen looked at this cylindrical building and felt it was very novel. After entering, they saw a hall similar to a modern auction house.

Everyone sat down one by one according to the seat numbers marked on the invitations they received.

There were only four people sitting in the first row, namely the four wealthy businessmen of the late Han Dynasty.

The Mi family in Xuzhou, the Wei family in Chenliu, the Wu family in Yizhou, and the Zhen family in Jizhou.

Since the Jizhou Zhen family divided half of it to Yangzhou and became the Yangzhou Zhen family, the top of the four wealthy merchants fell to the bottom.

The merchants who followed were arranged in rows according to their financial resources. The Zhang family of the Zhen family in Yangzhou stood at the center of the auction table.

Although Yuan Shu is the initiator of this auction, as the lord of a state and the direct son of the Yuan family, it is impossible for him to stand up anyway.

This is also the tacit understanding of all the aristocratic families in this era. Everyone needs money, but more importantly, they need face. How can you do business if you are full of copper stench?

I am from a wealthy family, how can I be like the humble businessmen? These wealthy families began to secretly support some businessmen as their backers, hiding behind the scenes and waiting to receive money.

Since ancient times, people have not fought with officials, and the status of businessmen is not as good as that of farmers. Naturally, they dare not fight with officials and aristocratic families. They all know how to use their own money-making machines, and hand over the money to the behind-the-scenes and local aristocratic families in proportion.

This was the miserable situation of merchants in the late Han Dynasty. It can be said that except for the four wealthy merchants who were somewhat able to protect themselves, the other merchants were just fat sheep slaughtered by aristocratic families.

That's why a relatively safe area like Yangzhou is so attractive to businessmen. You don't have to worry about local aristocratic families suddenly taking away your goods or even your money for various reasons.

Yuan Shu's various policies fully made the businessmen feel a long-lost respect and sense of security. This is also the reason why so many businessmen come to Yangzhou.

Otherwise, if it were just because of low commercial taxes, the number of merchants in Yangzhou would not have increased to this extent in such a short period of time.

However, although Yuan Shu was not able to go on stage, he was still secretly observing all this from the backstage of the auction house.

This auction is related to a large part of Yangzhou's future income, and there is no room for Yuan Shu to be nervous.

Ms. Zhang stood on the auction stage, looking at the many businessmen below the stage, and suddenly felt a sense of superiority.

In the past, my goal was just to sit in the last row below, but now I have jumped out of this circle and stood on the stage.

At this time, Mrs. Zhang deeply felt the great wisdom of her late husband.

What are some small benefits? As long as you follow the right person and stand in the right position, what kind of benefits can't be easily obtained?

Although the current wealth of the Jiangdong Zhen family is almost the same as that of the four wealthy merchants below, their status in the business circle is very high, and their monthly income far exceeds that of the four wealthy merchants. The ultimate reason is Yuan Shu

Even the support of the entire Jiangdong.

After calming down her mood, Mrs. Zhang slowly spoke: "Dear wealthy businessmen, this time, on behalf of the entire Yangzhou government, I would like to express my gratitude to you all for coming."

"This time, Master Zhou Mu asked me to hold an auction to find some dealers for some goods produced in Yangzhou. You can bid for the right to sell these goods."

"To be specific, the Yangzhou government is responsible for providing a certain number of goods every month. You can auction the quantity of these goods each month, and then these goods will be sold to you at the lowest price every month according to the quantity you buy. After that,

The sales price of these products in various places depends on your own ability."

"There are three items in this auction: wine, salt, and paper."

Speaking of this, even with Zhang's knowledge, his heart skipped a beat. The businessmen in the audience also couldn't help but feel shocked.

Wine is okay, if it is good wine, there will be a lot of profit and it will be easy to sell.

But salt and paper!

Since ancient times, salt has been considered an important material. Since there was no method of drying salt at this time, salt could only be obtained by cooking, so the output has never been large. And salt is still indispensable to people, so it is said that selling salt

Very profitable.

Among the four wealthy merchants, the Mi family and the Wei family both made their fortunes by selling salt. Salt also accounted for a small half of the business of the other two wealthy merchants.

Zhang actually said that she would auction the salt, which immediately aroused the thoughts of many people present.

And paper, not to mention.

Items that only rich people can afford. If you buy a ten-guan card, a lot of aristocratic families will rush to buy it.

These three items are basically huge profit-making products that don’t worry about not being sold, but only worry about insufficient production. They are even far more profitable than perfumes and mirrors.

Mrs. Zhang looked at the faces of the people in the audience, but she didn't have any intention of ridicule in her heart. Why wasn't she as shocked as they were when she heard the news for the first time? What's more, this was just the beginning, and the important point hadn't been explained yet.

"First of all, let me show you the wine we are going to auction this time."

As soon as he finished speaking, a group of graceful ladies came out from the backstage, carrying a plate with a wine bottle and ten small cups on it.

These ladies walked to each rich man, poured each of them a glass of wine, and then withdrew.

The businessmen picked up the wine glasses in their hands and drank it all in one gulp, then their expressions suddenly changed.

The sound of heavy breathing suddenly filled the entire auction house. I don't know whether he was excited by the strong drink or the discovery of the hidden benefits.

Looking at the excited faces of everyone in the audience, Yuan Shu in the background smiled slightly, hoping for this effect.

This is a high-concentration liquor secretly produced by someone specially arranged by Yuan Shu.

The technology of distillation is so common that even Yuan Shu knows it. Perfume has been produced, let alone spirits?

Zhang then said: "This wine can be provided to you thousands of jars every month, and each jar will be sold to you at a minimum price of one hundred guan. Next, we will auction the right to sell this wine every month, with one hundred jars each auctioned.

Monthly sales rights, the base price is 10,000 guan, please bid.”

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone below immediately started scrambling to bid.

In the end, the sales rights of these ten thousand jars of wine alone were sold for nearly three million yuan.
Chapter completed!