Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 89 What belongs to the public belongs to the world! (Subscribe)

Twilight.

Xia Zhibai came back exhausted.

He is very busy recently.

Almost never stopped.

He has been traveling between Chuzhou, Shouzhou and Yingtian Prefecture.

In the previous two months, he took a few people to Chuzhou and Shouzhou to recruit people, including experienced salt workers, other skilled and experienced workers, doctors, etc. In just two months, he had almost visited all the disaster areas.

The effect is also very good.

Basically all the local salt-making stoves were dug up.

With the addition of these salt-makers, his salt-making technology was greatly improved.

Although the price paid is not small.

It's money.

In two months, Xia Zhibai spent thousands of taels.

Counting based on a thousand workers, most people earned one or two taels of silver each within two months. The actual amount was of course not that much, but the least they earned was three or four hundred coins.

Xia Zhibai was very generous to the salt workers.

Anyone who can improve salt production efficiency, salt output, quality, salt production safety, or coal mining and transportation efficiency, without exception, as long as it can be proposed and recognized and improved by Zhou Ning and others, will be rewarded with money and grain.

Those who have the same desire will win.

Today, the Kyoto Salt Industry founded by Xia Zhibai has achieved the common desire of all the people.

They all go there to make money.

Working for Xia Zhibai can indeed earn money.

In the past, when these salt workers made salt themselves, they could only earn less than one tael and five cents a year, which was barely enough to make ends meet. But now, in less than two months, they have earned last year's harvest, so naturally they are very motivated.

In fact, they are now more worried than Xia Zhibai that Kyoto Salt Industry will go bankrupt.

Therefore, salt production almost continues day and night.

Fortunately, the 'steam engine' manufactured by Xia Zhibai at the Ministry of Industry could be considered an 'assembly line' machine, otherwise it would have been scrapped long ago. Even so, many steam engine parts were replaced again and again within these two months.

The results are obvious.

In just two months, more than 300,000 kilograms of salt were produced.

The efficiency of steam engines has been improved again and again, from less than half of human power in the beginning to 10% to 20% higher now. More importantly, the brine that steam engines can pump is deeper and more than that pumped manually, so the salt-making efficiency is also higher.

Because of this.

Xia Zhibai also had to curse the darkness of the old society.

It's really too dark.

He did not pay any 'salary', only the rewards that the people deserved.

Because the coal came from their own mines, they did not have to pay any fees, and the workers were entirely responsible for its transportation.

If this situation happened in later generations, it would be completely an act of exploiting the people for their blood.

even so.

The thousands of workers under his command were grateful to him.

Some even called him a great official.

He is currently "exploiting" the local people very much, but compared to the "exploitation" of the people by the government, he actually seems very "merciful" and "kind".

Because in the eyes of the government, the local people are not really human beings, but just animals that can be exploited to death at will.

Human life is cheaper than grass.

Human resources are worthless.

These people who worked under him were not only provided with food, but also paid.

The more you do, the more you produce, and the more money you get.

Because of this.

Kyoto Salt Industry is full of energy at the moment.

This made Xia Zhibai feel deeply ashamed and he also felt an increasing sense of responsibility.

Sitting on the chair, Xia Zhibai closed his eyes and rested for a while, then placed several "contracts" on the table.

This is his business result today.

At this time.

Heiwa came in with a basin of hot water.

Xia Zhibai stood up, took the hot water, wiped his face comfortably, pointed to the "contracts" on the table, and said: "Heiwa, send these "contracts" to Fang Mo and tell him to deliver salt to these restaurants on the 15th of every month."

“They are all our big customers.”

Heiwa nodded, stuffed the "contracts" into his arms, and then asked in confusion: "Brother Xia, isn't our salt very cheap? Why do you have to negotiate on your own? I haven't seen other salt merchants take the initiative to supply salt."

Heiwa was very confused.

During this period, Xia Zhibai has been running around, and all the places he visited were restaurants.

The salt produced by Kyoto Salt Industry is already the cheapest.

How could these restaurants not buy it?

Is it a waste of time?

Xia Zhibai laughed and said, "That's true, but you have to remember one thing, only when you take the initiative can there be follow-up."

"If you don't take the initiative, these people may not really choose our salt. Besides, these people are big customers. What I sell is refined salt, which costs more than fifty cents per pound."

"In these few days, I have negotiated dozens of deals."

"The monthly supply reaches several thousand kilograms."

"The profit for one month is as high as hundreds of taels."

"Yingtian Prefecture, as the capital of the Ming Dynasty, is the most prosperous place in the world today."

“There are countless rich people.”

"If you don't take the initiative, maybe someone will come to buy it, but if you take the initiative, you can quickly attract business and quickly monopolize the salt supply of the entire Yingtian Prefecture."

"Why not?"

"Now, most of the restaurants and food stores in Yingtian Prefecture that are of a certain scale have chosen to buy our salt. The monthly sales have reached tens of thousands of kilograms, and a lot of it is high-priced salt."

"For the common people, the Kyoto Salt Industry adopted the policy of small profits but quick turnover, but the common people did not have much money in their pockets."

“They are also very prudent with salt.”

“Many of them are one-time deals.”

"But these restaurants and food stores are different." "They consume a lot of salt every day."

"These are the guests and hosts of the long-term success of Kyoto's salt industry."

“It’s also a stable source of income for the salt shop.”

Xia Zhibai wiped his arms with a hot towel and then put them back into the hot water.

Many people in the Kyoto Salt Industry share the same idea as Heiwa. They all think it is completely unnecessary and a waste of effort.

But Xia Zhibai never thought so.

His goal was never to squeeze out other salt merchants, nor to really sell salt, but to gain market.

After monopolizing the market in Yingtian Prefecture, he will not stop but will continue to expand.

This is also the reason why he has been traveling to Shouzhou and Chuzhou in the past two months.

prepare in advance.

He did promise Zhu Biao to sell only Yingtian Prefecture.

But he never promised to expand the "Kyoto Salt Industry". He just occupied Shouzhou Prefecture and Chuzhou Prefecture in the form of "branches" and then expanded step by step to the entire north.

Finally, head south.

Completely monopolize the entire salt industry.

However, Xia Zhibai also discovered a problem.

It’s just that it’s really hard to make money.

In his past impression, salt was a highly profitable industry.

He thought so too when he first got involved, believing that he could easily earn tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of taels of silver, but in reality it was not the case at all.

Under this model of extreme exploitation of the people's blood, after deducting the salt tax and salt permit money, his actual profit per pound of salt was only five cents.

Sold 500,000 kilograms.

You can only get more than 2 million copper coins.

Converted into silver, it would be just over two thousand taels of silver.

At the end of the year, excluding the abnormal profit in the first month, the actual profit was only ten to twenty thousand.

This is the situation of complete monopoly of salt supply in Yingtian Prefecture.

If there are other salt merchants trying to seize the market, the profit will only be lower. Although it is still a huge profit, it is not the kind of easy income of tens of thousands a month or a million a year. However, Xia Zhibai is not in a hurry. The profit from Yingtian Prefecture alone is not enough.

But if it is the entire north, or even the entire world.

That's enough.

He had asked the Ministry of Revenue officials privately.

The Ming Dynasty currently produces 500 million jin of salt a year.

If he could occupy most of the market in the world, the net profit from salt production would reach two to three million taels a year.

Even if he wanted to, he could make a fortune by slightly raising the selling price, but this was not what Xia Zhibai wanted, so he had always been deliberately lowering the price, just because he did not want to go down the evil path of making money from "salt".

He wanted to break the existing salt administration system in the world.

At the same time, the means of steam-made salt will be gradually "sold".

Allowing public and private ownership to coexist and compete with each other for profits will ensure that salt is always in a state of oversupply and remain at a relatively low price.

Complete public monopoly is a double-edged sword.

He also worried about losing control.

The "Salt Branches" he will open in various places in the future will be used to ensure the bottom line and regulate the market.

It's not really about selling salt.

Heiwa nodded, thoughtfully.

He actually hadn't thought it through, but Brother Xia must have a plan for doing this.

He believed Xia Zhibai's words very much and firmly believed that Xia Zhibai would not make any mistakes.

Heiwa helped Xia Zhibai carry out the used hot water, and then ran quickly towards Yingtian Mansion to convey Xia Zhibai's instructions as soon as possible.

Xia Zhibai shook his head.

He didn't ask about today's sales.

There is no need to ask.

Even people in later generations couldn't withstand this business model, so how could contemporary people possibly resist it?
It gave some small shock to the contemporary generations.

What he needs to do next is to design a salary system. The era of motivating workers by rewarding them with innovation and improvement has passed. The methods and solutions that workers can think of are destined to become fewer and fewer.

Salary is the ultimate way to stability.

But Xia Zhibai was hesitating about one thing, which was whether to set up "personal income tax".

Xia Zhibai believes that personal income tax is very necessary.

It is also very necessary.

In the Ming Dynasty today, it is a big problem that officials and gentry do not pay taxes.

The system he wanted to establish was to use the "tax-paying" "working" class to gradually infiltrate the court, and eventually expel the "scholars" who did not pay taxes from the court, thereby changing the original tax situation and forcing all officials to pay taxes.

Xia Zhibai paced back and forth in the room.

Finally I made up my mind.

You still have to write down the tax payment.

The tax standard can be set very high, so that no worker in the salt industry can currently reach it, but it must exist.

You can, but not without.

In Xia Zhibai's mind, the current Kyoto Salt Industry is a testing ground for various systems. If it encounters too much opposition, it means that it is not applicable. If there is not much controversy, it can continue to be promoted.

The night is getting darker.

As Xia Zhibai was thinking, he fell asleep on the table.

He has been really tired lately.

In his mind, he was always thinking about when to establish a worker-peasant school, when to promote the steam engine, when to compile a set of systematic scientific teaching materials, and when to carry out a literacy campaign.
It is a crime to have a jade.

Xia Zhibai knew it a long time ago.

In fact, I have always been walking on the edge of life and death.

However, he also has a solution, which is to publicize the "jade" in his arms so that everyone in the world knows about it and can put it into practice. Only in this way can he always walk on the tightrope and promote the reform of the world step by step.

What belongs to the masses belongs to the world, and only that has a future.

(End of this chapter)