Throughout the afternoon, there was an endless stream of people coming to visit Wang Xian. Wang Xian still treated them differently. He received all the businessmen, but only met a few of the gentry who were friendly to him, and most of them were turned away by Erhei.
In the evening, Wang Xian borrowed flowers to offer to Buddha, and asked Master Dong to cook a table of famous Jinling dishes, and entertained Yuan Wai Lu, Yuan Wai Hou, Yuan Wai Li and Boss Zhou.
Needless to say for the rest of the group, Yuan Li was really flattered that Wang Xian could invite him. He couldn't help but feel proud that he had seen the opportunity early and ran to Hangzhou to apologize to Wang Xian.
Take it in.
Li Yuanwai had already realized that Fuyang in the future would be dominated by this small group. Therefore, once Wang Xian personally invited him, this former gentry leader of the county became three points lighter and agreed without hesitation.
I went home and had tea and chatted with the Lu members in the backyard, waiting for the family dinner in the evening.
The first is to enhance the relationship, and the second is to understand more about the situation, so that when the time comes, I won’t understand what others say.
Before it got dark, Wang Xian came over. Several people stood up to greet him and said, "Thank you for your hard work, sir."
"It's so damn tiring to celebrate the New Year." Wang Xian sat down with a smile and said to Member Li, "You haven't left yet?"
"It's so easy for everyone to get together during the Chinese New Year," Mr. Li hurriedly leaned over and said with a smile, "You won't even ask me to leave."
Everyone thought that this guy was quite thick-skinned. Wang Xian smiled and waved his hand, signaling him to be polite and said, "Yeah, I'm usually busy, so we can't have a good chat during the Chinese New Year. By the way, what are we talking about?"
"Speaking of this year's market situation." Zhou Yang said: "Everyone is not very optimistic."
"How do you say it?" Wang Xian put on a listening posture.
"Let's talk about the grain account first. Last year's prosperity was due to a major disaster that had not happened in decades. This year, as the victims returned to their hometowns and production resumed in various places, a decline in sales is a foregone conclusion." Lu Yuan said: "You must be mentally prepared."
"Yeah." Wang Xian nodded and said, "I'm afraid the situation is worse than you think."
"How?" Now it was their turn to ask.
"I wonder if you have studied the supply and demand of grain in Zhejiang?" Wang Xian asked.
Everyone shook their heads. They did not have such an overall concept. They could only listen to Wang Xiandao: "I took the time to think about it last year and found that in fact, in terms of quantity alone, the province's grain output can feed the entire population."
"Then why is there always a shortage of food? What makes food prices the highest in the country?" the crowd asked.
"This is caused by imbalance," Wang Xiandao said: "You can't distribute all the food to everyone according to their needs. Some places have a surplus of food, and some places have a shortage of food. What the grain merchants want is not to exchange what they have, but to share what they have.
They will find ways to perpetuate this imbalance in order to make profits. Therefore, in places with a surplus of food, low prices hurt farmers. In places with a food shortage, food prices are high..."
"Your Majesty, what you mean is..." Lu Yuan and several others were experts, and they understood somewhat after hearing the words: "The shortage of food in this province is artificially caused by the grain merchants."
"Yes." Wang Xian nodded and said, "Because food cannot be distributed according to demand, food shortages always occur in places where food is scarce. Once a food shortage occurs in a certain place, it will cause panic in neighboring counties. The government will not allow food to leave the country, and the people will work hard to collect it.
Grain, as a result, the shortage of grain is even bigger." After a pause, he said: "This kind of psychology is called 'chasing the price increase,' when it is expected that the price will rise to ridiculous levels."
"The other side of 'chasing the rise' is 'killing the fall.'" Wang Xian took a sip of tea to moisten his throat and continued: "Of course, when people expect food prices to fall, food prices will continue to fall, far exceeding people's expectations.
Imagine.”
"What a man who chases the rise and kills the fall." Li Yuanwai learned a lot today. He finally knew that Wang Xian was able to manipulate the Fuyang officials and gentry at the palm of his hand, not by small cleverness, but by great wisdom.
"So, we continue to import grain from Huguang, and the impact on grain prices in Zhejiang is much greater than imagined." Several shareholders of grain accounts also understood, and their faces were very ugly: "If grain prices fall sharply,
, the profit is very thin.”
"It's not impossible to cut it in half." Wang Xian nodded slowly and said, "The huge profits in this industry have come to an end, so everyone should prepare for a rainy day."
"That's what your Excellency said." Lu Yuanwai agreed: "Nowadays, we are a big tree attracting wind. Anyone who catches us wants to take a bite. There are still people who want to drive us away. In fact, these days are not as beautiful as they seem." After a pause, he said
: “If even the profits are thin, we’d better change careers as soon as possible.”
In fact, these remarks were made to several shareholders. Although Wang Xian was angry beforehand, he had never had a direct conversation and was not clear about their attitude. Lu Yuanwai's task was to help him persuade everyone.
"Change..." Lianghao has brought countless wealth and honor to all shareholders. It has only been a year since its establishment and it has to change careers again. It is difficult for anyone to accept: "It's easier said than done."
"It's not easy but we have to change, otherwise we will be burdened by being controlled by others in the future." Wang Xian said solemnly: "What's more, we will definitely have a greater future."
"Which line of business should we switch to?" Zhou Liangshang was also in the know, so he asked favorably.
"Yunshe" Wang Xian said decisively: "You should know better than anyone else how much potential this industry has."
"Yeah." Everyone's eyes lit up and they nodded. Yes, the majority of their profits last year came from the freight earned from purchasing grain. At that time, Wang Xian insisted on renting and owning ships instead of hiring ships to buy grains from Huguang.
Moreover, the employment lasted for a year. At that time, they didn't understand it. They felt that it would not save money and waste energy. However, the things Wang Xian decided could not be questioned, so everyone had no choice but to do it.
Only later did they realize how heroic this decision was. After becoming officials and merchants to purchase grain in the province, they traveled between Huguang and Zhejiang many times a year. Later, they also brought goods to tea merchants, paper merchants, and silk merchants in the county, and settled at the end of the year.
, the freight income is as high as 200,000 taels. If a ship is hired, at least half of it must be distributed to the ship dealer.
The reason for huge profits in this business is very simple - merchants have urgent needs. Goods from various places are shipped to markets in other provinces for sale, and they often make several times or even ten times the profit. However, this business is particularly difficult to do.
Soldiers will pluck their feathers, and if their greed is not satisfied, they will create difficulties in many ways, ranging from delaying the ship to detaining the ship. There are also local snakes at the docks in various places who will make unreasonable troubles and extort money. This is only a land-based trouble.
There are also water bandits and robbers in the rivers and lakes, and if they encounter them, they may cause them to lose their fortunes, or more seriously, they may lose their lives.
Therefore, those who have been engaged in this industry since ancient times have always had high-ranking people as their backers. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties when commerce was developed, there were more than a dozen powerful shipping gangs active across the country, and there were countless smaller sports societies. But in the Ming Dynasty,
After forty years of focusing on agriculture and suppressing commerce, merchants and commerce have only recovered in recent years. Most of their business scope is still in this county, and most in neighboring counties. There are no decent sports organizations and boat gangs.
"We have accumulated a year of experience, and the conditions for establishing a sports association are already mature." Lu Yuanwai said solemnly: "We have the protection of the banner of the two Zhejiang Salt Transportation Departments. If we can't do it now, let's wait until when."
"Yes." All the members nodded in agreement. What is mature experience and conditions is another matter. Their confidence comes from the flag of Yang Tongzhi of the Salt Transportation Department.
On the bow of the ship, a big flag with the words "Ming Dynasty and Zhejiang Salt Transportation Department Tong Zhi Yang" was raised, and a magical thing happened. The customs tax card was respected, and the local gangsters never harassed them, not even river bandits.
Come on, can this business be possible?
Wang Xian felt that the reason why this flag could ward off evil was not only because of his advantageous brother's official position, but also for other reasons. But no matter what, he was a little person with a small nose and small eyes. He just had to pay the protection fee on time... In this world
There is no good thing that light can't come out. If this flag is to be used for a long time, it will naturally have to be paid tribute regularly. When Lu Yuanwai passed by Suzhou a few years ago, he followed Wang Xian's instructions and gave Yang Tongzhi twenty thousand taels of silver, and also gave him 20,000 taels of silver.
Let’s talk about wanting to set up a sports club.
Yang Tongzhi's eyes widened when he saw the money. The twenty thousand taels of silver made him smile from ear to ear. He had two flags. He only used one when traveling, and the other was left idle for a whole year. It would be great to use it to make money. I heard that this amount of income will be made in the future.
It can become a regular practice. Yang Tongzhi is more active than the land officers and assigns them to be surveyors from the Salt Transportation Department, so that they can meet more serious officials when they come on board for inspection.
With Yang Tongzhi's support, the shareholders naturally had the confidence to change careers and nodded in agreement.
Seeing that the matter was settled like this, Li Yuanwai finally couldn't help it and said with a calm face: "Do you count me as the winner?"
Everyone looked at Wang Xian, and Wang Xian said sharply: "Anyone who sees this should turn around and make a calculation, and let other members join in."
The shareholders naturally followed Wang Xian's lead, not to mention the Li family's background was of great benefit to Yunshe. This is probably why Wang Xian greeted him.
Seeing that they agreed to join, Yuan Li was overjoyed. Just as he had no words to thank, Erhei came in and said, "The county magistrate Jiang is here. He said it is a big deal, so I must let you see him."
Everyone looked at Wang Xian. Wang Xian pondered for a moment and stood up: "It's getting late, let's have a dinner." He stretched out his hands and said: "Everyone, please."
"Your Majesty, please." Everyone hurriedly stood up to make concessions, but they were a little uneasy in their hearts. After all, the man outside was the eldest boss of the county. How could Wang Xian keep him away?
No one dared to offend Wang Xian, so they all sat down at the table obediently, toasted and ate food, but the atmosphere was inevitably a bit dull. A few members of the party tried their best to tell jokes, and the dinner became more relaxed.
While they were enjoying each other, Erhei came in again, leaned behind Wang Xian and whispered: "The county magistrate Jiang said that if you don't go out, he will crash to death outside..."
"He hasn't left yet?" Everyone was a little surprised. They felt that Jiang Zhixian was rejected and must have been so angry that he went back home. They never thought that it had been more than half an hour and he still stayed here. They couldn't help but be secretly surprised...
What on earth did Magistrate Jiang commit? To scare him like this?
Wang Xian pondered for a moment, then stood up and said, "I'll see you sooner or later, let's see what he says." He then bowed his hands to everyone and said, "You drink slowly, I'll be right back."
"Excuse me, sir." Everyone stood up and watched Wang Xian go out.