Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 304 Will Liu Jin do a loss-making business?

On the square in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, after the morning court, the officials withdrew and walked together in twos and threes, chatting while walking outside the palace.

"His Royal Highness and Liu Jin want to build Qianqing Palace for free, what do you think about this matter?"

Liu Jian smiled and said to his colleagues that Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Zhou Jing, and Ma Wensheng were all cabinet ministers or six ministers by his side.

"It seems that His Royal Highness and Liu Jin really made a lot of money."

Xie Qian sighed with a smile.

"In fact, this is also a good thing. Since they are willing to pay for the construction of the Qianqing Palace, the treasury can still have a certain amount of expenses left."

Hubu Shangshu Zhou Jing was troubled when talking about money. He is not a good housekeeper, but this time he showed a rare smile, because the Qianqing Palace was burned, and it would definitely cost a lot of money to rebuild the Qianqing Palace. It is impossible to say that it all came from the internal funds of Emperor Hongzhi, and some of it came from the national treasury.

It is definitely a joy for him to be able to save a certain amount of expenses, not to mention the two million taels of silver paid by Liu Jin's bid for a private salt farm not long ago. The mice will not starve to death.

"What I'm worried about is whether the Qianqing Palace built with reinforced concrete is strong and safe. After all, this is the place where the emperor lives."

Li Dongyang thought for a while and said.

"There should be no need for us to worry about this aspect. He Liu Jin dared to build the Qianqing Palace. He must have considered this aspect. I am looking forward to what the Qianqing Palace will look like after it is completed."

Liu Jian smiled and said that he had already seen the design plan and drawings, and they were still very good, especially the new Qianqing Palace no longer uses wood to build, which can greatly save the construction period and also save money.

You must know that all the wood needed to build the palace in the past needs to be cut from the deep mountains and old forests in the Yunguichuan area. Just to prepare these woods, it takes a lot of manpower to cut in the deep mountains.

Then it will take a lot of manpower and material resources to transport these timbers to the capital. You must know that this is the Ming Dynasty, the transportation is inconvenient, and there is no machinery. Everything depends on manpower to transport a large amount of timber to the capital. One can imagine.

Building a palace for the emperor would have to be done at the level of the entire country, which is extremely costly, which is why every time the ancient emperor wanted to build a palace or build a garden, he was strongly opposed by his officials.

Without it, it is very costly.

Some people will say, why is this wood cut from the Yunguichuan area, and there are no trees in the mountains around the capital?
In fact, it is not that there are no trees, but that the requirements cannot be met. To build the emperor's palace, the huge wooden pillars in front of the palace alone have very high requirements, which cannot be done by ordinary trees.

Moreover, due to the early development in the north, after thousands of years of logging, it has been difficult to find wood that can be used to build the emperor's palace. Only the virgin forests in the Yunguichuan area can still find wood that meets the requirements.

Of course, the more important thing is that in order to show the dignity of the emperor, the wood for the construction of the Qianqing Palace must also be precious wood, the most important thing is the golden nanmu, which has always been the most ideal and most precious in civilized Chinese architecture. , The most advanced building materials are widely used in the construction of palace gardens and royal tombs.

The production area of ​​golden nanmu is only found in the southern region, and because the ancients liked to use it to build houses, the general area has been cut down long ago, and it can only be found in the virgin forest of Yunguichuan.

Now someone is building the Qianqing Palace for Emperor Hongzhi, which can greatly save human, financial and material resources. These ministers are also happy to see it, otherwise building a palace will inevitably cost people and money.

On the other side, a group of military generals and nobles, such as the British Duke Zhang Mao and Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu, also walked together, talking and laughing with each other.

"Old Zhang, what do you think of this?"

Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu asked Zhang Mao with a smile.

"I'm wondering if Liu Jin has too much money and no place to spend it. The cost of building the Qianqing Palace is not a small figure. If it is really necessary to use money to calculate everything, it is definitely an astronomical sum. "

Zhang Mao looked at Zhu Fu, thought for a while and said with a smile: "Liu Jin, this kid will do business at a loss?"

Hearing Zhang Mao's words, everyone was stunned for a moment, then thought for a while and said, "This is to build the Qianqing Palace for His Majesty for free, so he can still make money?"

"Even if you cut corners and used cement and steel bars to build the Qianqing Palace, the cost is not small. Since it is free, the imperial court will definitely not allocate a copper coin. Can he still make money?"

Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu said in a puzzled way.

"Liu Jin will cut corners?"

Zhang Mao smiled and shook his head and asked back.

"Based on Liu Jin's personality, he would never cut corners, and on the contrary, he built the palace to be extremely luxurious."

Xu Guangzuo knew Liu Jin very well, and said very confidently.

"Yes, since it is a palace built for His Majesty, it must be the best one. No matter how much money it costs, he will not frown."

British public Zhang Mao nodded with a smile and said.

"In that case, how does he make money?"

Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu said in a puzzled way.

"Hehe, I don't know, but everyone hastened to raise money after they go back, just keep an eye on Liu Jin, whatever he does, we do what he does, keep it and make money."

Zhang Mao smiled and said confidently.

He has already experienced Liu Jin's ability to make money. He can make a lot of money by doing whatever he wants. Zhang Mao's current investment philosophy is to follow Liu Jin and keep it safe.

"How about we talk to Liu Jin?"

Xu Guangzuo thought for a while and proposed.

"That's what I mean~"

"Go~go~"

Zhang Mao and Zhu Fu looked at each other, said with a smile, and also went straight to Liu Jin's residence.

In the study room of Liu Jin's mansion, Liu Jin is holding a pen and silently calculating the benefits he can get from helping Emperor Hongzhi build the Qianqing Palace.

In the words of the British public Zhang Mao, how could he, Liu Jin, do business at a loss?

"Working for the emperor really has many benefits. No wonder people in ancient and modern times, all over the world, like to flatter the superiors. Just a little favor from the superiors is enough for a lifetime."

Liu Jin silently calculated the benefits he could get from helping Emperor Hongzhi build the Qianqing Palace this time, and couldn't help but feel a burst of emotion in his heart.

"The matter of setting up the salt farm has been settled, and the next step is to find a place to dry the salt here in Bohai Bay. The area where the Changlu salt farm is located is very good."

"I didn't expect that Emperor Hongzhi, now that his brain has opened up, would even think of participating in it."

"It is easy to set up a salt farm, but how to sell the salt after it is produced is a difficult problem. To ensure that the sales price of this salt is lower than other salts, this means that I have to control the entire sales link. It seems that I still have to use The sales model of the Tianjin Cement Factory has changed, and the agent system is established.”

"Only by establishing an agent system can we firmly control the price of salt in our own hands. Otherwise, if it is just a very simple sales model, the salt produced will inevitably be at a high price in the hands of ordinary people."

Liu Jin took out a pen and silently wrote down this point on paper.

"A ceramic tile factory is definitely going to be built. After the palace is built for Emperor Hongzhi, this ceramic tile will definitely become popular, and then it will be the same as this glass and become the object of high-ranking people's pursuit."

"But ceramic tiles don't have much technical content. I can make them, and other kilns can make them even more. The key is quality and price. But it's almost enough to earn the first wave. You can quit when the Red Sea is full. .”

Looking at the Qianqing Palace on the design drawing, Liu Jin silently wrote down the tiles. This is also to arrange for people to do it. There are large and small porcelain kilns around the capital, but the things fired by the porcelain kilns here are very ordinary. , far inferior to the most famous Dehua Kiln in Fujian, Jingdezhen Porcelain in Jiangxi, Chuzhou in Zhejiang, and Yixing in Jiangsu, the most famous porcelain kilns in this era, and it is not as good as the Yongle official kiln.

But the technology is not bad, and it is definitely no problem to burn ceramic tiles. Ceramic tiles are not porcelain after all, and the requirements are much, much lower.

"The tile factory and the brick factory can be run together, or they can be put together, and the business can be done together."

"However, this weaving factory cannot be put together, it must be separated."

Soon, Liu Jin thought of the weaving factory again, which used a lot of glass windows, so curtains must be used.

Although the textile industry in the Ming Dynasty was very developed, the cloth produced every year was very large, but because the cloth was all handmade, the quality varied greatly. More importantly, the specifications of the cloth were limited, and there was no way to use them. It is used as curtain cloth for the glass windows of the Qianqing Palace in the design.

The Qianqing Palace under design is very majestic, with high floors and very wide windows. The curtain cloth also needs to be manufactured separately. Then at this opportunity, Liu Jin is also going to get out the big killer of the spinning jenny.

The salt merchants, grain merchants, and tea merchants in the Ming Dynasty made money. In fact, there was also a cloth merchant who also made a lot of money. Because cloth is related to people's clothing, food, housing and transportation, the market demand is very large, and the merchants who trade cloth are also quite strong.

Liu Jin took a pen and paper and wrote down the items. The construction of a huge palace requires too many materials, and the industries and fields involved are promising.

"The most important thing is the steel bars. If Emperor Hongzhi hadn't built the Qianqing Palace, he wouldn't have known about the year of the monkey if he wanted to get a permit to set up a steel factory. Now it's all good, and he can get it easily."

Looking at the more than a dozen industries that were about to be established on the paper, Liu Jin couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.

Salt and iron have always been monopolized by the imperial court, and no one can easily get involved in it. Now all of a sudden, the salt farm can be opened privately, and even the steelmaking license has been obtained.

Liu Jin has always wanted to build a steel factory and smelt steel by himself.

Because among the many industries under Liu Jin's command, there are too many places that need to use steel, especially in the real estate industry in Tianjin, almost all steel is indispensable.

However, the production of steel in this era is very small. The key is that the quality is extremely poor. Many of the iron purchased from various channels are very brittle, and they will be broken when hit with a big hammer.

Friends who have read chemistry know that this is because iron contains too much carbon, so iron is very brittle. This is why ancient iron has to be beaten repeatedly by blacksmiths to remove the carbon in it before it can be used.

The output of iron in the Ming Dynasty was low, and the output of steel was even lower. All steel was hammered by blacksmiths with one hammer, so the price of good iron was extremely expensive, and it was too expensive for building houses. I can't bear it at all.

Steel is also an extremely profitable industry in this era, because the demand for steel is so strong that weapons and armor, agricultural tools, kitchen knives, iron pans, etc., cannot be separated from iron.

Throughout the dynasties, iron and steel have been firmly in their hands. Although it can prevent people from rebelling by smelting weapons, it is more for the profiteering of steel.

It's just that the ancient smelting technology was limited, and the smelted steel was often not enough for the imperial court to use. Therefore, although the salt and iron franchise was said, there were still a large number of local gentry and aristocratic families in various places in Ming Dynasty to smelt steel for huge profits.

This is also the reason why Liu Jin was able to easily obtain the license to smelt steel, because one aspect was to help the emperor build a palace, and Emperor Hongzhi had to express it. The court didn't need to spend money or manpower, etc. Naturally, it didn't matter, anyway. Liu Jin is not the only one who smelts steel.

Another aspect is that the output of the government-run iron and steel smelting workshops of the imperial court is too low, and they all have their own tasks. There is simply no extra production capacity to meet Liu Jin's needs for building the Qianqing Palace.

"The iron and steel plant needs to be carefully planned and planned. It is best to choose a place closer to the iron ore production area, so that the freight can be greatly saved."

Thinking of the steel plant, Liu Jin took out a map again, which was made by Liu Jin with his golden fingers, and it showed in detail the distribution of mineral resources in various places.

"When Shougang in the later generations just started, the iron ore came from Miyun. Although the output of this Miyun iron mine cannot be compared with other large iron mines in the world, it is definitely enough to meet the current demand."

Soon, Liu Jin drew a circle here in Miyun near the capital. The Miyun Iron Mine is also well-known in later generations.

"Well, I'm going to be very busy in the future. There are so many industries to be managed at once, and there are running back and forth between Tianjin and the capital."

After careful calculation, Liu Jin also began to make a detailed plan for the next itinerary.

But before Liu Jin's plan was completed, a hearty voice came over.

"Stinky boy, brat, if you have a profitable business and don't tell Lao Zhang, it's too embarrassing."

Hearing this voice, Liu Jin quickly put away the paper on the desk.

　I checked, the management of smelting iron and steel in ancient times seems to be not as strict as that of salt, there are a lot of people smelting iron and steel~ but this salt is very strict, I don’t know why, probably because the production of steel is low, and everyone is very nervous Need this thing.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)