Chapter 455: The Salt Merchant Wants to Fight Back
"Hahaha, it's Brother Chen. Brother Guo has great foresight!" A fat salt merchant laughed loudly, stood up and praised the two people sitting in the seat.
He had always looked down on Zhang Fu, the son of a concubine, but he never expected that he would actually cause such a big stir.
The imperial examinations in Jiangnan will be completely controlled by Fushe, and Jiangnan is the largest gathering place of talents in the Ming Dynasty, taking care of most of the places in the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty.
It is conceivable that in the near future, officials at all levels in Ming Dynasty will all come from Fushe. Then who else will introduce some bullshit new policy to hinder everyone’s money-making plans. Even according to what Chen and Guo said, they can introduce
New policies that are beneficial to them and make more money.
The other big salt merchants in the hall on the second floor also stood up together with the fat salt merchant to show respect to Chen Liang and Guo Lun.
One of them even expressed his position loudly: "Brother Chen, Brother Guo, how much silver will Zhang Fu need in the future? Just ask, I will not be stingy if you can see benefits from spending it."
Chen Liang and Guo Lun just looked at these alliances with a smile. Some things can only become bigger if they join forces. Although they don't think highly of the intelligence of some alliances, they do need their money.
After a while, Chen Liang felt that it was almost done. He and Guo Lun looked at each other for a while, then he reached down and waved his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then said: "This salt policy and new policy are not too bad, but they cannot be controlled by
We just came here to eat alone. I want to ask, how is the exchange of warehouse money in everyone's hands going?"
"I don't have much cash left in my hand. What's wrong?" The fat salt merchant explained his situation and then asked a little strangely.
"Me too, almost done."
"I still have some."
"..."
Chen Liang did not immediately answer the fat salt merchant's words, and listened to everyone present reporting on his situation.
After everyone present had reported almost everything, he said: "As for salt, there were private salt collectors who competed with us in the past, but they were banned by the imperial court after all, so they did not dare to fight with us blatantly."
In fact, they, the big salt merchants, also sold private salt on a large scale and sold the private salt as official salt, making considerable profits.
However, neither Chen Liang nor the big salt merchants here would mention these things that everyone knew very well. They all just listened quietly to what their leader had to say.
"Now the imperial court's salt production has been increasing. Zhang Tongchang, the salt patrol censor, still lives in the Salt Envoy Department. He gets up early and returns late to inspect all aspects of salt production. In my opinion, the salt production will only increase in the future.
More and more. So..."
When Chen Liang said this, he looked around at the alliances present before continuing: "Everyone must change their past ideas, lower the price of salt, and severely crack down on those who want to take the opportunity to steal food from us.
."
"Brother Chen, do you mean small profits but quick turnover?" someone asked immediately.
Chen Liang nodded after hearing this. He was afraid that these alliances would still be stubborn about their previous high profits, so he reminded them. After all, he may not care about these people, but he has to care about the alliance's net worth no matter what. If they have no money, the alliance will also
got damage.
Sure enough, they were used to eating big fish and meat, and they were really not used to it when they were asked to eat only shredded pork. Most of them were silent.
When Chen Liang saw it, he smiled, then clapped his hands and said, "I have discussed it with Brother Guo. The profit from this salt has been reduced, but we can also expand another source of money."
After hearing what he said, the atmosphere in the hall became lively again, especially the fat salt merchant, who immediately shouted: "Brother Chen, please tell us, we listen to you."
"Yes, we listen to you." Other salt merchants also agreed.
Chen Liang smiled, cupped his fists and cupped his hands and said, "Domeng, if you guys can appreciate it, then I'll tell you."
The hall immediately fell silent, and everyone listened carefully to Chen Liang's next words.
"Everyone like me owns a bank. On the one hand, it facilitates the flow of our own money, and on the other hand, we can make a lot of other people's money. Now I have an idea, that is, all of us here are people who are advancing and retreating together, why not
Each other's banks will unite. In this way, the banknotes issued by our banks will have more places to withdraw silver, which will inevitably allow more merchants to hand over their money to our banks for safekeeping. You should know this
Won’t the profit be less?”
When Chen Liang saw these allies looking thoughtful, he knew that in order for them to share their money with each other, he had to add a beautiful prospect to explain: "Think about it, is there any bank in the Ming Dynasty that can match the scale of the Ming Dynasty?"
Compared with the banks that we unite salt merchants, even those maritime merchants can't do it. When all the money of Ming merchants is deposited in our banks, even if the current profits are reduced by half, how much will the total profits increase?"
If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't make profits from salt, Chen Liang and Guo Lun wouldn't have taken this step. After all, if the banks wanted to communicate with each other, it would be inconvenient in many aspects, and more benefits would be given to those with weaker capabilities.
alliance.
After hearing what Chen Liang said, the salt merchants in the hall became interested, but they still had many problems, so they asked Chen Liang on the spot how to deal with them.
Chen Liang and Guo Lun had already discussed it, so they immediately responded to the salt merchants who had questions to satisfy them.
Chen Liang is a good talker. He has a lotus tongue. With his impeccable tongue, he finally made the allies in the hall excited, as if they had seen the money rolling in from the bank.
But just when the atmosphere in the hall reached its peak, the door was pushed open and someone broke in, interrupting their high mood.
When Chen Liang saw that he was the foreign affairs liaison stationed in Jinling, he knew that something important was going on when he barged in without knowing the rules.
Sure enough, what this person reported was the bank reform, and stated that the Jinling Branch of the Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty was already being established, and posted a notice requiring verification of each bank's bank assets and the transfer of reserves.
This news was like a plate of cold water poured directly on the heads of these salt merchants who were enjoying themselves, making them look at each other in shock.
The fat, grumpy salt merchant got angry on the spot: "The imperial court has gone too far in bullying people. It is tolerable, but what is intolerable? Let's forget about the salt administration, and now we are dealing with the bank's affairs. Is this the end of the world?"
He cupped his hands to Chen Liang and said: "Brother Chen, since ancient times, there is no way to report to the court how much money you have, and you still have to pay them, there is no way. If we don't fight back once and let the court do whatever they want, in the future
I won’t be able to live my life anymore.”
"Yes, we can't let the court do this."
"Yes, let the court know how powerful we are."
"If the owner has kept a dog for such a long time and is bullied, he should let the dog out and bite him."
"..."
The crowd in the hall was filled with excitement, and most of the people had ferocious expressions on their faces, shouting that they couldn't bear it anymore.
These people had opinions during the salt policy reform, but they were suppressed by Chen Liang and Guo Lun.
Although they still made money in the end, they were not as comfortable as eating alone, so they felt suffocated in their hearts.
Now Chen Liang persuaded them to find another way to make a fortune. But a bolt from the blue, something that had never happened before in the history of the dynasties, directly hit their way to make a fortune, and all of a sudden the feeling they had been holding back in their hearts was wiped out.
Resentment was aroused.
Chen Liang and Guo Lun also don't look good, and they are not easy to mess with. They can be manipulated by others, otherwise they would not be able to arrange the two lines of Zhou Yanru and Zhang Fu.
Chen Liang and Guo Lun looked at each other, seeing the decision in each other's eyes, and nodded to each other.