In other words, Muchuan did not intend to make money by selling these things.
After all, soy sauce, sugar and salt are similar, and they are both daily necessities.
Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, salt has been under official control and cannot be operated privately, and the price has been uniformly determined by the imperial court.
In the same way, the sugar and soy sauce sold by Muchuan were also similar, and they were all put under the control of the imperial court.
Fang Cheng was unhappy after hearing this: "So you don't make money selling these?
If you’re not making money, why sell it? Isn’t it just unnecessary?”
"This is how we look at things differently."
As a businessman, Fang Cheng only cares about making money.
Muchuan, as the Minister of Household Affairs, is more concerned about how to benefit the people and improve their quality of life than making money.
If basic cooking condiments can be popularized, it will definitely improve people's happiness in life.
In addition, there is another key point, which is to drive employment and create tax revenue!
Yes, the production of soy sauce, sugar, chili sauce, etc. requires a variety of crops, such as soybeans, sugar cane, peppers, etc. These crops must be grown by farmers.
Farmers harvest the crops after planting and sell them to the "Royal Workshop" in exchange for income.
The "royal workshops" then handed over the finished seasonings produced to "official merchants" such as Fang Cheng for sale, earning a small profit and collecting taxes in the process of commodity circulation and transactions.
This is simply a very profitable business deal.
After hearing this, Fang Cheng looked listless: "Your calculation is really loud, but I can't make any money at all."
"Who said you can't make money?"
"I only earn a penny from a pound of sugar, how do you think I can earn it?
The shop rent is deducted from the wages of the clerks, so we can’t make ends meet.”
“So what if it’s 10,000 pounds of sugar?
How much can you earn?”
"Ten thousand kilograms of white sugar is a lot. At least it costs a hundred taels of silver."
As he said this, Fang Cheng couldn't help but froze for a moment, as if he thought of something, "Hey... Muchuan, can you provide me with 10,000 kilograms of sugar?"
"certainly."
In fact, the processing of sugar, soy sauce, northern millet pepper and other agricultural products has already been completed. The reason why they have not been promoted to the market is entirely due to insufficient productivity.
After months of preparations and mobilization of many parties, the "Royal Workshop" has officially started construction and is continuously producing food condiments.
Calculated based on the maximum production capacity, a total of 10,000 kilograms of product can be provided every day.
At present, the supply of goods is enough, and the entire market is huge enough. The only difference is the channels! Fang Chengcheng is obviously such a channel, after all, his Fang's shops are open all over Chang'an City.
"So if there is no problem, you can find some guys to go to the royal workshop tomorrow to pick up the goods and officially sell them."
"I see!"
Fang Cheng held Muchuan's hand heavily and cried bitterly, "Mu Chuan is indeed my good brother. If I get rich, I will definitely not forget you!"
It seems that Fang Cheng has misunderstood something?
Could it be that he could make a fortune from this deal?
impossible!
Muchuan couldn't help but emphasize: "You must abide by the rules I set when selling these products."
"rule?"
"Yes, in addition to the ones I told you before, some other rules are written in this book."
Muchuan then threw out a book with a blue brocade cover.
The three words "Economic Laws of the Tang Dynasty" are clearly written on the book, which includes the prohibition of privately raising prices, prohibiting the use of rare goods, and limiting the number of purchases per person.
When Fang Cheng saw these dense words, he couldn't help but be confused: "Do you need to read all of them?"
"Of course, every official and businessman must read it!"
Since Muchuan was in charge of the economy, it was natural that he had to establish the economic order of the Tang Dynasty first, and for this purpose he had to promulgate laws.
Of course, this law was still in the drafting stage and had not been officially adopted, but to save trouble Muchuan took it out and showed it to these officials and businessmen.
Fang Cheng is just one of the officials and businessmen under Muchuan's jurisdiction. According to Muchuan's plan, thousands more officials and businessmen must be developed to form a "state-owned sales department" to take charge of the people's livelihood economy.
When Fang Cheng heard that Muchuan wanted to recruit thousands more officials and businessmen, he immediately slammed the table to stop him: "Hey, hey, if you recruit so many people, aren't you adding more competitors to me?"
The original profit is pitiful, but if you use this method, I really can’t make any money."
"What are you worried about?
This matter has not been advanced so quickly.”
The prerequisite for the development of so many official merchants is that the "royal workshops" produce enough condiments.
At present, the production volume of the "Royal Workshop" can only cover the entire "Gyeonggi Province" area including Chang'an City, and cannot cover other areas.
For this reason, Muchuan had to go to other places to establish state-run workshops to speed up the production of condiments. After the production caught up, he would develop "official merchants" to sell goods.
"So brother Fang, please calm down. Currently you are the only official businessman in Gyeonggi Province. You can make a lot of money and become rich."
"Hey, that's it! Muchuan is really my good brother!"
Fang Cheng smiled greedily, and the whole businessman's face was revealed.
However, Muchuan is not the kind of person who gives favors without receiving anything in return. Since Muchuan has handed over the sale of the condiments to Fang Cheng, he naturally needs some help from Fang Cheng.
Muchuan is forming an ambassador's caravan, hoping to imitate the route of "Zheng He's voyages to the West" and bring back tomatoes, potatoes, corn and other cash crops from Europe, America, South Asia and other regions.
Currently, the formation of the caravan is going smoothly, but Muchuan does not have so much energy to arrange the deployment, so he needs to hand it over to a trustworthy person, and Fang Cheng is such a person.
"Pineapple, durian, tomato..." Fang Cheng's ears twitched when he heard these unheard of things. He seemed to be able to smell the smell of money.
If we transport those rare things back to the Tang Dynasty, we might be able to make a lot of money!
Without even hesitating, Fang Cheng agreed directly: "Just leave this matter to me!"
Immediately afterwards, Muchuan began to talk in detail about the "Westward Route" with Fang Cheng. In fact, although he went abroad by imitating the route of "Zheng He's voyages to the West", Zheng He mainly went to the Indian Ocean.
This time, in addition to sending personnel to the Indian Ocean, Muchuan also needs to go to Europe, North and South America! The journey is very long!
You must know that ancient times are no better than modern times. In modern times, there are also airplanes, power ships and other means of transportation. No matter how long it takes, it will only take less than a month.
However, ancient wooden sailing ships were used to sail back and forth between Asia and the Americas in as little as a few months or as long as a year.
For this reason, Muchuan plans to form ten caravans to travel to five regions: South Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa.
After hearing this, Fang Cheng was dumbfounded: "Are you going to so many places?
