Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 182: The Qianqing Palace is full of money
Officials three, civilians four, and boatmen five.

This is a rule that has been spread since the Song Dynasty. Officials celebrate the Little New Year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, common people celebrate it on the 24th, and boatmen retain the old custom and celebrate it on the 25th.

Over time, people in the north have become accustomed to celebrating the Little New Year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.

Wang Xun, Zhang Zhizheng and Fan Yuanzhu entered the palace on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month. The emperor decreed that they should spend the New Year's Eve with their families first.

On this day, the three dukes in Beijing, Marquis Wuding Guo Dacheng, and many other meritorious officials and royal relatives of three generations also arrived at the Qianqing Palace.

There were quite a few people, including new meritorious officials such as Li Chengliang, Xiao Ruxun, Dayun, and Liu Jing.

In the central room of the main hall, there is a table with a charcoal basin in the middle.

After Wang Xun and the other two thanked the emperor and sat down, they saw palace maids including Wang Jiayue coming in one after another to bring cakes and tea.

His gaze did not linger on his daughter for long. Wang Jiayue just glanced at her father secretly, then lowered her head and continued working without saying a word.

"Don't be too restrained. Today, we are talking about good things." Zhu Changluo sat on the throne and pointed with a smile. "If you don't understand, you may not have eaten anything yet. Listen while you eat."

The annual summary report and share expansion "tea party" of Changminghao began.

Zhu Changluo was not polite either. He walked down from the throne and walked over to them. He picked up a piece of osmanthus cake from the table in front of Xu Wenbi, put it in his mouth, and then looked at Xu Wenbi.

"Duke Dingguo, are you feeling well?" Zhu Changluo saw that something seemed wrong with his face.

Xu Wenbi looked older, stood up and replied, "I was on behalf of the sacrifice a few days ago and caught a cold."

"...I was inconsiderate and relied too much on the old Duke." Zhu Changluo looked at Zhu Dingchen again, "How could Duke Cheng..."

"…Your Majesty, my health has not been very good."

Both the Duke, one old and one Chinese, looked like they didn't have much time left, and Zhu Changluo felt helpless.

Kilometers away from Beijing, young and healthy British citizen Zhang Weixian is now trying his luck in the Beijing camp.

Zhu Changluo could only sigh and look at Guo Dacheng and the other old marquises: "In the future, if there are any memorial services, you will have to take the responsibility."

"I will serve you."

Zhu Changluo walked around and asked about the recent situation of his family one by one, then walked back to the throne and said, "I am really pleased with the past year. The abuse and occupation of the Beijing camp have been cleared up, and you are all loyal and have disciplined your families."

The old officials repeatedly said they "dare not" and "should", but wasn't this because the emperor had conferred a new group of officials?
The court was in a difficult financial situation! Whoever took the lead would be taken away by the emperor and even punished.

The civil officials had too many things to deal with in the past year, and since the nobles and relatives of the emperor had not done anything excessive, it was difficult for them to focus their attention on them.

"I only invited a few of them last year." Zhu Changluo pointed at Xu Wenbi and the others, "For no other reason, I was afraid that you would worry that I was blackmailing you. You probably know what the Changminghao is like this year. I will invite you again this year. First, listen to Wang Xun and the others talk about how the Changminghao was run this year and what the results were."

Everyone's eyes were focused on Wang Xun and the other two.

Behind the emperor's throne on both sides, Wang Jiayue and other female officials of the Qianqing Palace and young eunuchs were also waiting for instructions.

She couldn't see her father from where she was now, but she could hear him thank her first and then speak.

"Thanks to your majesty's grace and the trust of the dukes, marquises, and earls, Changminghao, although just established, now has three businesses: grain business, foreign business, and salt business. In addition, the businesses of our ten families have now been reorganized under the Dong partnership system..."

The Donghuo system was first created by Shanxi merchants.

In Jiangnan, business guilds each have their own industries, and they form so-called business guilds through coordination and communication within guilds.

The Shanxi merchants only became prosperous later. Their basic strength was weaker and their resources were not as good as those of the Huizhou merchants and Zhejiang merchants in the south of the Yangtze River. Therefore, they could only innovate in their organizational form.

This partnership system is already in its embryonic stage of the joint-stock system, and it also has the professional manager-style approach of "big shopkeeper".

This is also one of the reasons why Zhu Changluo took a fancy to them.

Wang Xun first introduced the current structure of Changming.

Changminghao, in which the emperor and his noble relatives participated, was naturally the top-level controlling shareholder, and the grain companies, foreign companies, salt companies, etc. below them were specific business segments.

The past businesses of the ten Shanxi companies have not yet been completely sorted out, and only the most important ones have been sorted out into this "group".

In addition to investing in and controlling the Changminghao grain store, the Zhang family first acquired some grain business assets from other families, which were mainly managed by the Zhang family.

The Zhayang Company was owned by the Chang family, while the Yan Company was owned by the Fan family.

The concept that was easy for Wang Xun and others to understand was not so easy for other nobles to understand.

For example, Liu Jing was paying attention to these things for the first time, and he was overwhelmed. "To put it bluntly, we make money together." Zhu Changluo summed it up for him, "Before, we fought on our own. I have tributes from all over the world and financial resources managed by the eunuchs. You also have income based on your status and exemptions, but you are always suspected of usurping power and bullying others."

He pointed at Wang Xun and the others and said, "You are not as good as them in doing business. In this hall, you and I are like the owners, and they are both the owners and the managers. Wang Xun, tell me how the business is this year."

"...Yes. Then I will first talk about the general account, and then Chief Zhang and Chief Fan will talk about the detailed accounts of grain and salt."

Wang Xun looked at Zhu Changluo and said, "I am writing this report in compliance with your orders..."

"Liu Ruoyu, have them carry it over here."

There was another screen. Wang Xun saw that the emperor was well prepared, so he simply left his seat and walked over there.

After looking at the chart above, Wang Xun was also stunned: after all, what he presented were just numbers and words.

Zhu Changluo naturally taught Liu Ruoyu, a young eunuch who was easy to learn, what the total amount of the common capital was as agreed upon last year, and asked them to draw a pie chart.

The initial fixed capital was 1.8 million taels. The emperor contributed 1 million taels, the Palace of the Prince of Shu and the Palace of the Prince of Chu each contributed 500,000 taels, and the ten families in Shanxi contributed a total of 500,000 taels. The remaining 200,000 taels were shared by the 15 families of nobles and relatives that day, ranging from 5,000 taels to 20,000 taels.

Then, the current shareholding structure of the Grain Company, the Foreign Trade Company and the Salt Company is that Changming Hao holds 70% of them.

This fixed capital is naturally not enough to support their performance this year, so some sources of working capital and liquid resources are listed in detail.

He went on to talk about a lot of numbers, and finally ended with a few very concise sentences.

"This year, the total revenue from all the business, including the figures that should be collected but temporarily recorded in the account, is more than 3,679,327 taels; the total payment for goods, interest on loan, deed tax and labor is more than 2,766,598 taels, and the net profit of Changminghao should be 638,911 taels. If the profits are distributed in full according to the share capital, Your Majesty should get 354,950 taels, and the King of Shu should get..."

Judging from the figures reported by Wang Xun, even the smallest family, which only contributed 5,000 taels of silver at the beginning, can get 1,774 taels of silver this year.

Isn’t this huge profit?

Xu Wenbi couldn't help but look at the emperor: Zhayang Company hasn't started much business this year, and yet they spent 680,000 taels just to buy out Zhayang Company. Is money really that easy to make?
Zhu Changluo naturally didn't need to explain much to them. They were confused by the previous structure, so how could they understand accounts receivable, accounts payable, capital turnover cycle, current performance and the like?
Although Zhayanghang has not completed a full cycle this year, the newly added gold, silver, and grain in the first year of Taichang were naturally included in the financial report of the first year of Taichang.

The bulk of the profit comes from the salt trade and other inherent border trade businesses that have not yet been sorted out.

Wang Xun and his team simply reported all the figures according to the sorted results, and "according to the order" they deducted the invisible costs of the arrangements.

These are all within Zhu Changluo's control.

Next, Zhang Zhizheng reported on the grain business, emphasizing that after the grain price war in Beijing at the beginning of the year, Changming Grain's reputation improved and it occupied a large share of the grain market in Beijing, with small profits but quick turnover. The grain store in Tongzhou was sold at a fair price by Wu Dinghou, and later Wu Dinghou, Wu Qinghou and Zongrenlinghou Gongchen also invested some money in Changming Grain to hold a small stake.

Relying on the canal, they collected grain and sold it to the capital, Liaodong, and Xuanda. In the future, they could also sell it to Korea through Zhayanghang.

Fan Yuanzhu emphasized his gratitude to Duke Dingguo and other nobles who had centralized the salt permits and handed them over to Changming Salt Company for operation: "I am in Huai'an, and with the help of your Majesty's enthronement of the Consort Shu and other nobles, I have now become a new domestic merchant. Although it takes two or three years for the salt business to fully recover the money, the amount that should be collected will not be less, and the amount that should be paid will not be more. The amount is accurate."

Zhu Changluo nodded: "All the major domestic merchants are taking advantage of this situation."

He waved his hand and asked Liu Ruoyu and the others to move the screen away. "Later, I will have the inner study copy the performance report of the first year of Taichang to all of you who have joined the partnership. Today, we will first divide the profits. We have made more than 600,000 taels of profit, so of course we don't have to divide it all. Just keep 200,000 taels. I have prepared the silver. You can take it back after the afternoon banquet."

Of course, it was still the same way as rewarding the winners of the Beijing Camp on that day. Only 200,000 taels were left, and the emperor should get a large share of it. The remaining nearly 200,000 taels of silver were carried into the palace by Liu Ruoyu and others, and after opening the box, they were placed there in plain sight.

Li Chengliang felt mixed emotions: it was really rare for the emperor to bring members of the royal family and other noble families together to do business on such a large scale.

He also knew the purpose of the emperor summoning them to the palace for a banquet today.

"I know best and am most resolute about what the Ming Dynasty will look like in the future!" Zhu Changluo looked at them. "How much tax can be collected now? Rather than letting many local people make money and not pay taxes, I will lead you to make money and pay taxes. I might as well tell you clearly that the tax paid by Changminghao alone this year is nearly 100,000 taels. The Ministry of Revenue reported a few days ago that this less than 100,000 taels only accounts for nearly 10% of the tax collected by the Ming Dynasty this year!"

He raised his voice: "Has Changming already done nearly 10% of the business outside of Ming Dynasty's maritime trade? I'm afraid it's only 20% or 30%! I'm not saying that we should do all the business, but for the business related to the national economy and people's livelihood, how difficult is it for Changming to expand the business tenfold? If we can do tenfold, the profit of several million taels a year will not be a big deal! The nobles and relatives live together with the country, and it's no use using the old methods anymore."

Zhu Changluo looked at them one by one and said, "I summoned you here because we have achieved results. I will give wealth to those who seek it. If you focus on commanding my troops, I can also guarantee your wealth. Starting next year, Changming will speed up its pace. If you are willing to join, I will take you with me. If you are not willing to join, Changming will do business like your own small business, and you can't say anything when the time comes. Let's talk about increasing capital and expanding shares first, and then the shareholders' meeting of Changming. What to do next year and how to make more money, I will explain it one by one!"

Looking at the silver ingots in so many boxes, as long as the emperor really takes out money to distribute them every year, there is actually no need to worry about anything.

Even if there are still doubts, since they have been called here, they will naturally give out something.

The whole country belongs to the emperor. He can manage the business however he wants. Is it possible that Changming Hao cannot succeed?
After leaving 200,000 taels, the initial total share capital was 2 million taels. Then, the emperor planned to double the total share capital of Changminghao at one time.

This time, he took out another one million taels and demonstrated on the spot how to calculate the share dilution after the capital increase and stock expansion.

Because there are 200,000 taels of retained dividends, those who joined last year will naturally get a better share than those who came later when they put out the same amount of silver this time.

The emperor also took out some silver and calculated it together with everyone else in this matter, and he did not take a share for nothing just because he was the emperor.

The Qianqing Palace is filled with the smell of money.

Wang Jiayue was stunned as she listened from behind: How come Your Majesty seems to be more savvy than my father at business?
(End of this chapter)