At the gate of the imperial palace in the capital, many ministers came here in four-wheeled carriages, preparing to wait for the morning court.
This is the last morning morning before the Chinese New Year.
After the morning service, the annual holiday officially begins. According to past practice, if nothing happens, everyone will not go to the morning service again until the eighth day of the first lunar month to start the work of the new year.
Thanks to the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, the prosperity of the country and the people, and the Haiqinghe Banquet, the ministers are also relaxed. They don't need to get up in the middle of the night to go to the morning court like before. They can sleep well and have breakfast at home before going to the court.
Early morning.
It was rare that Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Zhang Mao were all present. In the past, Zhang Mao rarely went to the morning court. He was in poor health and was taking care of himself at home.
Li Dongyang often asks for leave to see a doctor, and Liu Jian is also old and often asks for leave. But this is the last morning court before the Chinese New Year, which is a must, and the first morning morning after the Chinese New Year is also necessary.
"The current system is better, otherwise we would really suffer this morning."
Zhang Mao was wearing a mink coat, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, chatting with Liu Jian and Li Dongyang beside him.
"Yes, I used to have to get up in the middle of the night. In the middle of winter, the weather is freezing. It's really uncomfortable."
Liu Jian also sighed and nodded.
I have been an official all my life, which means my life is much better now.
Not only was there regular deadwood, but the morning court was postponed to a reasonable time, and more importantly, the officials' salaries were indeed quite adequate now.
As the chief minister of the cabinet and a first-grade official, he has many titles. He receives thousands of taels of silver a year, and he can buy several houses here in the capital.
Of course, at this point, a few thousand taels of silver is really nothing. What really makes money is the industry owned by one's own family, factories, workshops, firms, plantations, pastures, investment stocks, etc. These are the real money.
.
This has also become a common phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty. Everyone is keen on setting up factories, workshops, trading firms, etc., and they also have a large number of plantations, pastures, and farms overseas, and they are all established in the Tianjin Stock Exchange.
Few stocks.
After all, Emperor Hongzhi and the Crown Prince took the lead in doing this, and everyone can naturally follow suit. In this dynasty, from the cabinet ministers to the six ministers and ministers, to the ordinary officials, almost everyone is the same, enjoying the capital era and the colonial era.
Bonus, every little day is much more comfortable than before.
In the past, I always thought that if I had money and power, I would go to my hometown to occupy more land, and then lease the land to farmers, so that I could harvest more than half of the grain just by sitting.
The desperate ones colluded with some businessmen to engage in sales of salt, tea, cloth, grain, etc., and earned some shady money by hoarding and driving up market prices.
Not much money was seen, the imperial court was extremely poor, the Ming Dynasty was also plagued by internal and external troubles, and the people were even more impoverished. At the slightest disaster, war broke out and there were countless refugees.
At that time, officials were also poor, and corrupt officials were better off. No matter how poor you were, you couldn't be said to be as poor as corrupt officials. If you were an upright official, you might starve to death. Your salary was too low, and most of your salary was lost.
Treasure money for you.
Even a corrupt official can't compare with what he has now. Now he can easily earn ten thousand taels, one hundred thousand taels, or one million taels of legal income. How much money can that corrupt official get?
Even if everyone empties the treasury, they will not get much money.
When you check it, you may even lose your head.
Look now, the court is rich, the officials are rich, and the common people are also rich.
As for the fields in your hometown, they are now free for you to plant. People are not willing to plant them for you anymore, because there are large tracts of land overseas and outside the customs waiting for you to plant them. Once they are reclaimed, it will be your land. Who will provide you with it?
Do you farm?
But even if no one cultivates the land, Ming Dynasty still cannot finish the food, and the price of food is still very low, so there is no need to worry about food problems.
If you still want to hoard land as soon as you have money as before, I'm afraid you will soon become a pauper.
In addition to the value of land in big cities, land in the Ming Dynasty is already extremely cheap, and the price of food is even lower.
The traditional model of farming, reading and inheriting the family has completely collapsed.
If you want to be rich, you have to set up factories, business houses, and engage in overseas trade and colonization. These are the ways to make money quickly, and are more stable and sustainable.
These nobles and officials of the Ming Dynasty had already subtly become the earliest capitalists and colonialists of the Ming Dynasty.
"Dang~dang~"
At this time, a black Mercedes-Benz car slowly arrived at the gate of the palace, immediately attracting everyone's attention.
"Is this a car?"
"Yes, the prodigal son of my family spent more than 6,000 taels of silver to buy a car, and I gave him a good beating. More than 6,000 taels of silver is enough to buy several houses. If you put it in the bank, it will last a year.
The interest of nearly two hundred taels of silver was used to buy this car, a wasteful thing."
"My grandson also bought it, and he was scolded severely by me. What could he do with so much silver? Isn't this carriage uncomfortable? You can buy as many horses as you like with more than 6,000 taels of silver."
"Isn't that right? Besides, everyone still doesn't know what this car is like."
Seeing the black Mercedes-Benz car, many ministers also talked about it.
Soon, the car slowly stopped. The driver got out first, then opened the door at the back, and Liu Jin, dressed in crimson robes, walked out.
"Mr. Liu!"
"Mr. Liu!"
Seeing that it was Liu Jin, many officials also smiled and said hello.
"Morning~morning~"
With a smile on his face, Liu Jin also came to Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Zhang Mao and others.
"Liu Gong, Li Gong, Zhang Gong~"
"Good morning, Liu Jin."
"Liu Jin, you are really not interesting. You don't involve me in this car transaction."
Zhang Mao looked at Liu Jin and said nothing with great dissatisfaction.
A car costs more than 6,000 taels of silver. If 10,000 cars are sold this year, it will be a super big business of more than 60 million taels of silver. This is a big business that can easily earn tens of millions of taels of silver.
It's a pity that Liu Jin didn't take him with him. Thinking of this, Zhang Mao became angry.
"Mr. Zhang, didn't I tell you at the beginning that I asked you if you wanted to invest? You don't like it yourself, so don't blame me for not taking you."
Liu Jin was speechless. When Mercedes-Benz Bicycle was founded, he had given Zhang Mao a chance. He looked down on bicycles and felt that this bicycle had no future.
Not only was it difficult to ride, but there was no way to carry a heavy load. The key was that people had to pedal by themselves. There was no four-wheeled carriage that was comfortable and labor-saving, so Zhang Mao had no intention of investing in it.
Who would have known that bicycles would become popular later, and the bicycles produced by the Mercedes-Benz Bicycle Factory were sold all over the world. Zhang Mao regretted it again and quickly set up his own bicycle factory.
Now that I see the car, I start to get jealous again.
"You kid didn't tell me clearly. If you said this car could be very profitable, I would definitely invest in it."
Zhang Mao said helplessly, now he feels regretful that he missed another big project.
"Where can I find a profitable business?"
"Now you can also invest in building a car factory yourself. This car is definitely the future development trend. It can not only be used to carry people, but in the future, large cars that can carry a large amount of cargo will definitely be developed."
"It's not too late to invest now, and there's certainly plenty to do in the future."
Liu Jin had nothing to do with Zhang Mao. He was too much younger than him. Even though he was now a first-level cabinet minister, he still treated him like a kid. There was nothing he could do.
"Is it difficult to build a car?"
When Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Zhong Zhong and others heard this, they immediately became energetic and asked quickly.
"It's not difficult, it's not difficult~"
"It's just an engine and a few wheels. What's the problem? Just hire more technicians to study it."
Liu Jin quickly started cheating.
The rise of the automobile industry cannot rely on just one or two companies. This requires more people and more funds to invest in it. Only then can the automobile industry become more prosperous and the price of automobiles gradually increase.
decline, and eventually enter thousands of households, becoming a product that everyone can consume.
"real?"
Zhang Mao asked with some disbelief.
"Of course it's true~"
"I have already prepared to invest in the construction of three large automobile factories in Beijing, Tianjin, and Songhu. The investment capital will exceed 10 million taels of silver. By then, the annual production capacity of 100,000 automobiles will be achieved."
Liu Jin nodded solemnly and replied, and then said in a low voice: "Only when there are more and more cars, the oil in the Persian Gulf will be truly useful and can be sold at a high price."
"Do cars burn petroleum?"
When Li Dongyang heard this, he immediately became energetic. There is a colony of the Li family here in the Persian Gulf. He didn't know what it was used for before. After being deceived by Liu Jin and taking half of the shares, he finally knew about the underground treasures on this side of the Persian Gulf.
It's oil.
But this oil has never been found to have any great uses. Now that I heard about it, I immediately became energetic.
"Cars burn gasoline, but gasoline is smelted from petroleum. In the end, it is inseparable from petroleum. We don't have much petroleum in Ming Dynasty. From now on, we can just sit back and collect cash."
Liu Jin replied with a smile.
"Haha, that would be great."
After Li Dongyang heard this, he immediately laughed happily. There was finally hope that the investment in the Persian Gulf could be recovered.
"Will this car work?"
"Yeah, it doesn't look as comfortable as a carriage."
Others listened with their ears pricked up and asked questions quickly.
"Okay, don't you know how to buy one and give it a try?"
"You can only know whether this car is good or not by riding it in person, don't you think?"
Liu Jin looked at everyone and continued to fool around. If these ministers from the DPRK and China took the lead in buying it, the car would become even more popular.
