"I'm just afraid I don't have time." Zhao Gui said bluntly.
As an official, especially an official at the Royal Camp Liangtai, he is also an official in the military, no more than ordinary local officials. Their time is more pressing, especially now it is still a time of war.
"I don't think we will be able to fight for a while. We have now restored the south of the Yangtze River. The Tatars have just suffered heavy losses and will not be able to go south again in a short time. We will not be able to make an expedition to the north for a while, so this stable life must last for a while.
"
Although I have settled down again in Zhejiang, I fled with nothing and had nothing, so it is not easy to build a new home.
Although I have bought some land in installments with low interest rates, I am still quite strapped for money. I have to buy everything, and everything is not cheap. I don’t even have a cow at home. When I came back from vacation, I had to help pull the plow every day, and I lost half of it.
Life.
I have a little free time now, and I still have to pick tea leaves, which makes my hands cramp, but I only have a little hard-earned money.
Zhao Gui is not so optimistic. He feels that with the current situation, the war will definitely have to continue.
But it was still a holiday after all. If he could collect some tea leaves and earn some money, it would be better than picking tea in the mountains. He didn't care whether he was an official or not. After all, he had nothing to show off as a ninth-grade official.
Everyone is trying to find ways to earn more income so that the family can save more money and food in troubled times.
"I've heard that the tea market in Pingshui is booming now, and Ningbo Port has a greater demand for tea. There is an urgent need for a large amount of tea leaves, and there is a greater demand for new tea. You see, in various tea-producing places, there are many tourists everywhere, and there are many burden-bearers.
Businessmen are all too busy, so if we just do whatever we want, we won't be any worse off."
Tea farmers grow tea, pick fresh leaves in season, and then generally carry out the simplest rough processing. Small tea farmers usually collect and process the tea themselves, while some large tea plantation owners will hire short-term workers to help with picking, finishing, etc. during this season.
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Refined processing such as roasting, reheating, screening, and sorting are handled by tea houses in various places. Even the exported tea will be further processed and packaged at tea shops in the port.
Pingshui, Shaoxing is a tea processing and collection center. There are many tea houses and tea houses. Most of the tea houses are only responsible for processing, while most of the tea houses are responsible for purchasing and transportation.
Generally, tea merchants send water customers (tea customers) to the countryside to buy tea. They open scales locally to collect tea, and also pass through local teahouses. Teahouses are usually local tea industry intermediaries, recruiting tea customers on behalf of them and introducing tea products.
To evaluate prices and broker deals, these teahouse intermediaries must register with the government and obtain business licenses. The government will also send people to supervise them. When tea merchants buy tea, they have to send people through the government to handle tea imports, and sometimes tea merchants.
They charge agency fees and there are also some agency fees, etc.
The tea shop is similar to the tea shop at the port, but the tea shop is mainly responsible for export trade, while the tea shop is an intermediary transaction between tea farmers and tea companies. It is an intermediary transaction of Maocha, and usually a commission of 23% is obtained. These
The local tea house will send people to accompany the tea merchants to the tea farmers to see and buy tea directly, which is very useful.
Of course, there are many small tea vendors in the local area, who generally collect tea by carrying loads. This is mainly because some tea production areas are relatively remote or the output is small. Some tea drinkers cannot go there, so they go to the tea area to collect tea and then pick it up.
Go to the teahouse and sell it to the tea customer who collects the tea.
This type of operation is a small-scale operation, but it requires a good experience and vision of tea, a certain amount of capital, and hardship to earn some hard-earned money.
Of course, there are also some who have more capital and good vision. They sometimes keep an eye on the market, buy at low prices, and stock up on tea for a short period of time. This kind of small tea dealer must be well-informed and diligent, and more importantly, they must have a good relationship with the tea farmers.
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Many tea shop owners started out as small tea vendors, selling tea on a ladle, and gradually became bigger and started long-distance commerce. Finally, they opened tea shops and became tea proprietors.
From tea sellers to tea customers, tea shops, tea shops, tea houses, and tea stores, there are layers of production, sales, processing, transportation and sales, and the tea is handled at every level, and each link is profitable.
If done well, it is more cost-effective than growing tea.
Even today, the newly built Imperial Household Office not only operates the Royal Bank, but also operates tea shops, tea houses, and tea houses. They have large capital and strong connections, so they naturally make a large profit from tea every year.
For example, Lao Zhao, who was unwilling to earn the hard-earned money from picking tea, decided to sell tea. The capital was small, so he became a small tea vendor. His three sons-in-law were also at home on vacation now, and he also had a son.
, with just a loan, the whole family can start the business without having to hire anyone.
Anyway, this tea business doesn't require any backlog of accounts or payments. He even thought about it. When collecting the tea, he would pay a little for the tea based on his connections, and then go back to the tea vendor after selling it to the tea customer.
The money is then paid to the tea farmers, which consumes less capital.
It means you have to work hard and have a good taste. The tea you receive must be of good quality, and you can't be tempted to pay a high price and accept poor quality tea.
Compared with Zhao Gui, who is still relatively young, he is still thinking about taking advantage of these troubled times to develop his career. This time he came back only to visit relatives and take a vacation. He came to the mountains to pick tea, and he just wanted to help support the family and even accompany his wife.
Son, he is considering whether to take out another loan while the situation is still chaotic, buy some mountain land at a low price, grow tea by himself and start a tea garden, or simply buy some tea gardens.
In fact, Lao Zhao has no ambitions for an official career. At this age, he is still just a migrant worker in Liangtai. He is satisfied with getting a good salary. He even thinks about resigning and returning to his hometown if he has the opportunity. After all, Liangtai
It is also a branch of the military, and fighting on the front line is still relatively dangerous.
He is getting older and now wants to settle down and enjoy happiness.
"Now the tea industry is doing well. If you work hard and earn some money, then you can borrow some money to buy a cow and raise it. You can not only help with farming, but also give birth to calves after raising them. One calf a year."
, after one year of raising it, it will become a big cow again,”
One calf is born a year, so Lao Zhao feels that it is definitely a good deal to bite the bullet and buy a cow. The cow can not only help cultivate the land, but also give birth to calves. As long as it is well-raised, it can even be rented out to help cultivate the land, which is also a profit.
Although his family has three sons-in-law and many sons, it is still very hard for someone to carry the plow on the small farmland at home. Nowadays, renting cattle is not only expensive but also difficult to rent.
It has to be said that as a small rich farmer, Lao Zhao was still very active in his thinking. Even if he fled to the south with nothing, he could still quickly think of a way to make a fortune.
When I was escaping, I could still think about hugging the imperial camp, marrying my daughter to the imperial soldiers, and even working in the grain platform myself. Now that I have settled on the rooftop again, I am thinking about how to make money with a small business, and then buy cattle and fields.
"We are all officials of the imperial camp, and our son-in-law is a non-commissioned officer of the imperial camp. Those tea merchants and tea guests don't dare to bully us."
Seeing that Zhao Gui didn't answer much, he asked, "Could it be that you can't let go of your identity, or do you look down on this small business?"
After several months in Liangtai, the tall Zhao Gui was no longer so thin and had regained the strength of a Shandong man. He rubbed his big hands and said, "How could I look down on small businesses, let alone our status? When we fled,
I still haven’t forgotten what happened. Although I was able to settle down on the rooftop thanks to the saint Honghou and paid off a loan to buy ten acres of land, the family finally has a foothold. However, the house is simple and there is not even a cow. Who can
The family is not completely poor, and if we can make a little more money, that is a good thing."
"Then what are you hesitating about?"
"I was thinking that the hard work of selling tea would be of no benefit, and after all, we all have jobs and can't stay at home for a long time, so I thought, why don't we just borrow more money and set up a tea workshop? I
I know that there used to be a small teahouse in our hometown, but the owner had fled to Guangdong long ago, but the teahouse is still there, and all the people in it are busy. I even know that some of the original teahouse masters and assistants are from our local area.
Most of the people are in the countryside. The tea house is closed now. We might as well pool the money to buy it and recruit those masters. We can run it on a small scale and collect the tea and process it ourselves. As long as the tea is processed well, we can directly transport the tea to
It's hard work to sell in Ningbo, but it's definitely better than being a burden seller.
Even if we don’t have time during the holidays, it should be feasible to hire a manager to manage it and keep an eye on the house during the day.”
Lao Zhao did not expect that his cousin had a bigger idea and actually wanted to invest in a tea house to run it.
"Firstly, we have no experience, and secondly, we have no capital. Furthermore, the tea house owner's family has gone to Guangdong, how can we buy it?"
"He still has clan members, and I heard that he was also entrusted with selling them out."
"Then why didn't anyone else buy it? Is there something wrong with it?"
"I asked, and there's no problem. It's just a small tea house in the countryside. Now it's war-torn. The price is okay, but it's not worth much. The key is to run it well. Just renovate it.
To open a business, the key is to hire a master and hire a waiter, all of which require capital. I think Zhejiang is now stable and there will be no more turmoil, so it is possible to make a profit, and there is no need to worry about not being able to open one day."
Lao Zhao handed a freshly roasted small crucian carp to his brother, "Let me tell you, you didn't pass the exam in vain as a child student. If it hadn't been for the war, you probably would have passed the exam. You have a smart mind."
"There is no way to study hard." Zhao Gui smiled. They were lucky enough to meet Wang Shi's imperial camp when they were fleeing. Not only did they get porridge relief, but they even found a job to do, which made them happy.
Family members can be sent to Jiangnan for refuge first.
Although they have worked hard in the food station in the past few months, they have no worries about food and drink, and even have a good salary. Among the countless refugees who have gone south, they are already among the group of people with the best luck and the best current situation.
The two settled down on the rooftop, and each family bought ten acres of land. This was the priority to purchase the land that they enjoyed due to their imperial status, and they even received low-interest loans in installments, so they did not have to pay directly.
Although the house is a simple house, a thatched house, with bamboo fences and mud walls, it can at least provide shelter from the wind and rain, not to mention a stable family. Although food prices are high in troubled times, their salary can still be sent to their families.
Buy food to get through these difficult days.
Even if we eat porridge, grains and wild vegetables every day, everyone is busy and hard every day, but we can still barely have enough food and clothing, and more importantly, we are safe, right?