People's ambitions continue to grow with changes in status and environment. When he was in Dingxiang, Li Mu planned to set the price of wine at five cents for a jar. This was considering the consumption level of the nearby counties in Dingxiang. This price
It's already the limit.
But after arriving in Chang'an, such a price would definitely not work. Not counting other things, the cost alone was unbearable. That day, when Li Mu was making wine at the martial arts venue of the Duke's Mansion, he casually asked about the price of grain in Chang'an, which surprised him.
In Dingxiang, a bucket of rice cost twenty coins. But in Chang'an, a bucket of rice cost two coins, which is two hundred coins. This is still the price of coarse rice, and selected rice is even more expensive. The most expensive one costs five coins a bucket.
.
A tenfold price difference!
Li Mu didn't quite understand, just like Li Bi asked for advice. After Li Bi's explanation, he understood the reason. There are two main reasons for this ten-fold price difference. One is the inconvenience of transportation, and the other is the distance between the border town and the capital.
The gap between rich and poor is too wide.
Material mobilization in the Tang Dynasty was a very laborious matter. Take grain as an example. No matter how cheap the grain was in Mayi, if it had to be transported to Chang'an, people would eat it, and the journey would be difficult, so at least half of it would be damaged.
.And you have to be wary of gangsters on the road. The risk is also very high. Few merchants will choose to do this kind of business. On the Western Region Road, merchants sell high-value luxury goods. I have never heard of anyone selling food.
, because only in this way can the profits be offset by the efforts and risks and be rewarded. Moreover, the food grown locally in Mayi has to be consumed by local people, and there is not much real surplus food.
Furthermore, Chang'an is rich, while Mayi is poor. The wealth gap is also very huge, which is like the "urban minimum wage standard" in later generations. It is more than 1,000 in third-tier cities, and 4,5,000 or even tens of thousands in municipalities. Consumption levels are also different in third-tier cities.
Beef noodles cost 5 yuan a bowl, but even if you eat 21 bowls of beef noodles from a municipality, you won’t see any minced meat. It’s the same reason.
While waiting for the wine to be delivered, Li Mu, Li Bi, Bai Naoer and Huang Qi took advantage of the break to discuss the price of the wine.
Huang Qi has been doing business in various places for many years and is good at calculating costs. He was the first to speak and said: "The current market price of grain is 2 cents per dou for coarse grain and 5 cents for polished rice. The quality of the grain we use to make wine is somewhere in between.
, counted as three qian per dou. When I just put in the ingredients, I counted them, and a total of sixty-seven dou of grain was put in, which means that one brewing costs 20 qian."
Li Mu nodded, looked at Li Bi, and asked: "Second uncle, I wonder how the wine in Chang'an City is priced?"
Li Bi said: "There are clear and turbid wines, turbid wine is cheap, and clear wine is expensive. Ordinary turbid wine, on the ground in Chang'an, costs about five yuan a bucket. Clear wine costs twice as much. Ordinary clear wine, with some impurities, costs eight yuan, always."
For a famous wine like Jiang Nanchun, two or three shots are required."
Li Mu said sheepishly: "Second uncle, I don't know much about measurement. I wonder how many altars can be filled with this fight?"
"With a wine jar as big as ours, one bucket is about three jars high and low."
Li Mu calculated in his mind that the best wine in Chang'an City could be sold for almost a jar. But those wines were obviously not as good as his own wine. If calculated according to the alcohol content, the three cups he brewed would be at least 65.
The alcohol content, even if it comes from a winery, is at least 50 degrees. The Jiangnanchun and others are only 20 degrees at most. If calculated based on the alcohol content, it is at least twice as expensive.
Li Mu was not in a hurry to set the price, and asked Li Bi again: "Second uncle, what do you think the price should be?"
Li Bi said: "Our wine is undoubtedly the best on the market in Chang'an now. There is no problem in setting the highest price for three cups and one bucket. With the same price and better quality, we can definitely capture a lot of the market and we will not worry about sales."
Li Mu looked at Huang Qi and Bai Nao'er, and they both nodded, obviously agreeing with the price.
Huang Qi said: "Calculated in this way, one jar is a constant amount of money. It can produce two hundred jars a day, which is 200 guan. After deducting the cost of 40 guan of grain and some operating expenses, the net profit is at least 130 guan.
The annual income will be 46,000 yuan, which is a considerable profit!"
Li Mu frowned and said, "But I heard from Siwen that the Zheng family in Jiangnanchun spends 20,000 yuan every year to honor their uncle's family!"
Li Bi smiled and said: "Siwen is just hearing about it. He only knows one thing but not the other. The total sales of the Zheng family's Jiangnanchun and around Chang'an only amount to about 30,000 to 40,000 guan a year. We give 20,000 guan to my uncle."
, in addition to business, it is also to gain access to the uncle's house, and the real profit is not much. My nephew, don't forget that there are noble families in Chang'an City, but there are not many businesses that can really make a net profit of tens of thousands of dollars a year.
, the net profit of 46,000 yuan is enough to make countless people jealous. And this is only the profit of this 'production line'. When the business starts, we will expand the scale and earn more!"
Li Mu waved his hand and said: "Second uncle, my thoughts are different from yours. In this winery business, I don't want to win by quantity, but by quality."
"Oh?" Li Bi saw Li Mu's different ideas and said, "I'd like to hear the details."
"Second Uncle, if we set the price to be the same as Jiang Nanchun, then it will not show that our wine is better than Jiang Nanchun. Others will only think that our wine is stronger Jiang Nanchun, and thus ignore it.
The fact that our wine is clearer and tastes better. That’s one, and the other two.”
"If we expand our production to a certain level, there will be no room for other wines on the market to survive. If our peers cannot survive, we will be the target of public criticism. You know, scarcity is the most valuable thing. If we produce more, we will
If you want to increase the price, you can’t. Now we are the only ones who have high-quality wine, so we have to make good use of this advantage!”
What Li Mu said was something that Li Bi and others had not thought of. It was difficult to digest it for a while, but he thought it was a good idea. Li Bi thought for a while and said: "Then according to your opinion, what is the appropriate price?
"One jar of three guans, one fight of ten thousand!"
"Three times?!" Li Bi lost his voice: "Will anyone buy it?"
Li Mu confidently said: "Second uncle, just imagine if our wine becomes a status symbol. Will the dignitaries in Chang'an not buy it because it costs three times the price? Trust me once, I will go all out to produce these days.
There is a way to keep our supply of wine in excess of demand!"
Huang Qi silently calculated, if it is true as Li Mu said, a jar of wine has three guans, and a dou of wine costs ten thousand guans. That would be a net profit of more than 130,000 guans per year! How much money is this! You must know the treasures unearthed in Dingxiang City
After the liquidation of Jieli's treasury, it only amounted to 250,000 yuan. That was Jieli's plundering proceeds for more than ten years! Huang Qi didn't believe it in his heart, but after all, he didn't have the final say in this transaction, so he had to
He held the words in his heart and did not say them out.
As for Bai Nao'er, he was dumbfounded by what he heard. He only had one thought in his mind right now. Fortunately, he wanted half a percent and didn't choose fifty strings. Otherwise, he would have regretted it and died!
Li Bi thought about it for a long time and said: "Okay, my dear nephew, I will set the price according to your instructions. Let's test it first. If the sales are not good, we will think about it again!"
Li Mu smiled and nodded, he already had a plan in mind.