Chapter 686 Old Man Sun, who is connected to the sky
Old Man Sun's business has been getting bigger and bigger in the past two years. Although the Sun family is not well-known, many people have never even heard of the Sun family, and the Sun family does not have a complete large-scale business, but the money they make every year makes their hands cramp!
The Sun family has never been an ordinary businessman. Strictly speaking, the Sun family is a smuggling trader. Their main job is to transport the goods from the Ming Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, and then transport the goods from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty. Purchases at both ends
As well as selling, they are actually the work of downstream merchants.
According to the investigation conducted by the Ministry of Commerce, Old Man Sun's smuggling business channels were not only spread throughout the Three Kingdoms within the Tang Dynasty, but also throughout the ruling areas of the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, the officials of the Tang Dynasty hated and liked the Sun family!
I like it because the Sun family can get a large amount of blockade supplies from the Ming Dynasty. Not only strategic supplies, but also craftsmen and other technical talents can be collected and sent in large quantities. Recently, they have even been engaged in food, from Jiangnan.
A large amount of grain was transported, which greatly alleviated the food crisis of the Tang Dynasty.
But what I hate is that Old Man Sun sometimes secretly sells some materials that are banned from export by the Tang Dynasty and urgently needed by the Ming Dynasty. Of course, this is not the point. The point is that the goods sold by Old Man Sun are all at high prices.
ah!
Recently, the Sun family has transported a large amount of grain, which is worth 1.5 times more than what is on the market. However, even so, the Tang Dynasty, which was short of food, had to buy it.
In fact, many people are thinking that if the Sun family is no longer needed that day, they will confiscate the Sun family and exterminate the entire family, not for the money of the Sun family, but just to vent their anger!
Damn it, Old Man Sun is the only businessman who dares to threaten the Tang Dynasty and make money from the Tang Dynasty, and makes such a ruthless profit.
But Old Man Sun also felt that he was wronged. How easy was it for me to transport so much grain from Jiangnan to Guangdong and Guangxi? How many Ming Dynasty officials had to be taken care of along the way? In order to escort this grain, I used thousands of armed guards.
Team, these people don’t want to eat or drink!
If it weren't for the disasters that occurred during the first half of the Tang Dynasty and the urgent shortage of food, your Ministry of Commerce came to him and asked if he could get food from the areas ruled by the Ming Dynasty. Would he have the right to engage in the food business?
This trip took several months of hard work, used a lot of connections, and cost an astronomical amount of money, but in the end it was just hard-earned money.
If it weren't for the purpose of easing the relationship with your Ministry of Commerce and even the entire Tang Dynasty, why would the Sun family have to go through such trouble? Their Sun family's business network has been laid out in the Tang Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty has almost bypassed it. In the Tang Dynasty, they can communicate with the emperor.
Li Xuan spoke directly. In Ming Dynasty, even the cabinet bosses could meet him!
As the saying goes, money can make all the difference. The reason why the Sun family has been able to expand their business in recent years has a lot to do with their willingness to spend money!
In the Ming Dynasty, money was thrown at them directly, regardless of whether they were shirts or local officials. Whether they were civil servants or military generals, they would throw money at anyone they could. If ten thousand taels were not enough, they would throw money at 20,000. If 20,000 taels were not enough, they would throw money at someone else. Officials
If there are too many people, who can you ask for help?
In the past two years, the Sun family's filial piety has been sent to the hands of the Ming Dynasty cabinet bosses!
On the side of the Tang Dynasty, bribery was done openly!
How to bribe!
The Sun family was secretly the largest taxpayer in the Tang Dynasty!
In the second year of Xuanping, the trading firm under the name of Old Man Sun paid a tax of more than 200,000 taels to the Tax Department of the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, it cooperated with the trading banks and factories invested by the major royal families, and delivered at least three
Net profit of more than one hundred thousand taels of silver.
Adding the two together, that’s five hundred thousand taels of silver!
And you have to know that what the Sun family is actually doing is a smuggling business, which is sneaky and shady. The purpose of the existence of those superficial trading houses is not to do business, but just to pay taxes and transfer profits to the Tang Dynasty royal family!
Having built up the smuggling business to this extent, Old Man Sun can be regarded as a tycoon of his generation. If it weren't for the special background of the rise of the Tang Dynasty, even if the Sun family tried hard, they wouldn't be able to do so.
But no matter how hard they try, the Sun family is just a businessman. Recently, they have seen the continuous rise of the Tang Dynasty and are constantly easing their relationship with the Tang Dynasty. This grain trade is actually a supplementary strategy!
But can this dispel the idea of Tang Dynasty officials to confiscate the Sun family and exterminate them?
cannot!
Especially the officials of the Ministry of Commerce, they dreamed of confiscating the Sun family and exterminating it!
So recently, the Sun family is actively taking the upper-level route, not only sending taxes to the tax department as performance, but also sending profits to the royal family. At least Empress Dowager Bai admires the Sun family very much, and feels that such businessmen are good businessmen.
Forget the royal family, there are so many good people!
Li Xuan also knows about the situation of the Sun family, but he doesn't care. The Sun family is still useful to the Tang Dynasty now. In the future, the Sun family will still be useful. The Sun family's smuggling talents can now be used between the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.
It can be used between Datang and other foreign countries in the future.
There are always some businesses that are not suitable for honest business and require the leadership of these smugglers, such as opium narcotics.
Li Xuan is very much looking forward to transporting opium one by one to Europe for sale in the future, and seeing if he can get a European jackal. If he can get it, it can be regarded as avenging the people of the original time and space who suffered so many disasters, and by the way, he will also return the money.
You can earn a lot of money, so why not do it!
At worst, there will be a continental version of the Opium War!
Of course, this is all for the future. Li Xuan only thinks about it occasionally. Now he is more concerned about the development of business and trade under the rule of the Tang Dynasty!
As the public security environment along the central and western coasts of Guangdong has greatly improved, and the news of Guangdong's opening of ports has spread in the past two years, Guangzhou and Lianzhou have begun to welcome a large number of maritime merchants.
Not only the maritime merchants who were originally active in East Asia, but also the Arabs and Europeans gradually arrived in large numbers, the most noteworthy of which were the Spanish.
Since the last batch of Spaniards came to Guangzhou, Datang's reputation for being willing to do business with Europeans has spread. The Spaniards who originally passed through Nanyang but did not come to Guangdong came to Guangzhou with the attitude of making whatever they could.
It would be a good thing if you don’t come here, as soon as you come, you will find business opportunities everywhere!
Porcelain, silk and other goods most needed by Europeans are all open for sale, and you can even find a large amount of Nanyang specialty spices here!
At this time, Guangzhou has become a trading port. Not only a large number of goods came from the Tang Dynasty, but also a large number of goods from the Ming Dynasty. Even the specialty goods of Japan and small countries in Southeast Asia can be purchased.
Found in the commercial port of Guangzhou.
Every merchant ship that comes to Guangzhou Port leaves with a full debt!
And this directly stimulated the development of industry and commerce in Datang!
Faced with such business opportunities, private businessmen are gearing up to build factories and workshops. This has become the first choice for many businessmen!
The prosperity of industry and commerce has also directly led to a large number of farmers, especially landless farmers, moving to cities to work.
Although factories these days are extremely exploitative, with long working hours and meager income, no matter what, it is no worse than being a tenant, and at least you can make a living!
Being able to have enough to eat is already the biggest pursuit of most people today!
And this leads to another result!
Although tenants began to move into cities, many rural areas close to Guangzhou, Lianzhou, Zhaoqing and other relatively busy industrial and commercial areas began to experience a "tenant shortage".
Those tenants who went to work in the city naturally couldn't farm. In addition, the rent-to-purchase policy issued by the Tang Dynasty meant that even if many tenants farmed, they still chose to rent government land. As a result, many landlords, especially those who collect rent,
The relatively high-ranking landowners can't find anyone to cultivate their land.
But those landowners can't find anyone to farm the fields. After the fields are abandoned, they still have to pay the agricultural tax!
In order to retain tenants, many landlords had to reduce land rent, from 70% or even 80% in the past to 50% or 60%.
Under this situation, land prices in a few areas under the Tang Dynasty actually experienced negative growth!
In general, the price of farmland will decrease when there is a disaster, and will rise when the wind and rain change, and there is no war in Guangdong and Guangxi now. Although there was a typhoon disaster in the first half of the year, it only affected the western part of Guangdong, but other places
But it has no impact, so according to tradition, the price of this field will increase.
But the increase was very small, and land prices in a few areas not only did not increase, but actually fell!
Of course, everyone knows that this situation is somewhat abnormal and cannot last for long, but it also puts a lot of pressure on the landowners who own large amounts of land.
When the income from land is not comparable to that of building workshops and factories, when even tenants cannot find land, and when these wastelands have to pay agricultural taxes, a handful of courageous landowners have already begun to sell their land.
The funds were then invested in industry and commerce.
Li Xuan was naturally supportive of this situation, and even issued a decree to provide guidance and tax incentives to these new businessmen who had just left their status as landlords and invested in industry and commerce.
In short, the current Tang Dynasty encourages landlords to divest their assets from the land and invest them in industry and commerce.
Various policy supports have also allowed many new businessmen to emerge, and some of them are doing pretty well!
For example, in Zhaoqing's private business community recently, the Chen family, a grain merchant, is one of them!
The Chen family was not a grain merchant in the past, but a traditional landowning gentry family. The family owned hundreds of acres of land and several shops. Such a landowning gentry family dominated the Guangdong and Guangxi areas, even if the Chen family was involved in the grain business.
, but he is just one of many grain merchants.
Why did it suddenly become so popular? It was naturally because it took advantage of Datang’s encouragement of industry and commerce!