I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 189 Preparing to draw a cake
"Your Majesty, you have come at the right time. I have something to show you." Zhu Houxuan collected his thoughts, found a booklet from the table and handed it to Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao took the booklet and asked casually, "What is this?"

"An overview of the Royal Group's income and expenditure in the past few months." Zhu Houxuan said lightly.

"Oh?" Zhu Houzhao's interest was aroused, and his attitude became serious. He opened the booklet and started reading.

His expression became more and more solemn as he flipped through the book.
"Pah!" Zhu Houzhao slammed the book shut, looked around and said, "I have something important to discuss with the King of Jing. All of you should leave. Do not come in and disturb me without my permission!"

"Yes!" The attendants around responded and left the room in an orderly manner.

After everyone left, Zhu Houzhao said impatiently: "Brother, is everything written in this book true? Royal Group has spent five or six million taels of silver in the past few months?"

Zhu Houxuan smiled calmly, "That's right, otherwise it wouldn't make such a big noise?"

Zhu Houzhao was stunned and muttered, "This is five or six million taels of silver. In the court, the officials would spend a long time discussing the expenditure of tens of thousands of taels of silver. You have so much silver that it is enough for me to train an elite cavalry of 60,000 to 70,000 people from scratch."

Zhu Houxun smiled and poured a cup of tea for Zhu Houzhao. "Don't be anxious, my brother. Drink some tea first. My brother, don't you trust me?"

Zhu Houzhao took the teacup, took a sip of tea and waited for Zhu Houxun to continue.

"My royal brother is right. This amount of silver is enough to train an elite cavalry of 60,000 to 70,000 people. It is more than enough for everything from war horses to armor to salaries. However, this cavalry can only last for one or two years before the money is spent. The cost of salaries and replenishing war horses and armor will not be low either. What should we do?" Zhu Houxuan said slowly.

Zhu Houzhao sat up straight and looked thoughtfully at Zhu Houxun who was talking. After all, he was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. After the initial shock, he gradually calmed down.
"The key to the problem is how to make so much money every year, and these five or six million taels of silver are the initial investment for establishing several industries that can make money continuously." Zhu Houxuan said.

"I understand this principle. You told me this before in Qizhou. But these are all expenses. When can we see the income?" Zhu Houzhao said, waving the booklet in his hand.

"This is the good news I want to tell my brother today. We have an industry that is going to start making money!"

"What industry?" Zhu Houzhao was overjoyed.

"Salt industry, it is estimated that the first batch of salt has been produced now"

"Salt industry? I heard that you built a dam on the seashore and planned to create salt fields?" Zhu Houzhao thought for a moment and said, "How much money can you make from the salt industry?"

"I don't know how much money I make, but the more than 4 mu of salt fields can produce 6 to million kilograms of crude salt every year." Zhu Houxun still reported a conservative number.

"4 to 6 million? Jin!" Zhu Houzhao couldn't figure out how big the number was for a moment.

"The official data of Ming Dynasty's salt production last year was 6 million jin," Zhu Houxuan said calmly.

Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhu Houxun with extremely shocked eyes, and after a while he said, "Brother, you are not kidding, are you? It's only been a few months, and you have created such a big industry?"

"I'm not kidding! Brother, don't you believe what your younger brother says?" Zhu Houxuan's mouth corners slightly raised.

"No. I just... just..." This matter was a bit beyond Zhu Houzhao's ability to accept. He was incoherent for a long time and simply asked directly: "Brother, how did you do it?"

Zhu Houxuan naturally did not hide anything and carefully explained the principle of salt production to Zhu Houzhao. The principle was not complicated at all. Zhu Houzhao was also a smart person. He quickly figured out the key and completely believed what Zhu Houxuan said.

"It's really amazing. With such determination and courage, my brother, you are born to do great things!" Zhu Houzhao exclaimed.

Zhu Houxun smiled but said nothing.

"Then how much money can we make from this?" This is what Zhu Houzhao was most concerned about.

"The construction investment of Nanbao Salt Field is 100 million taels of silver. The annual production and maintenance cost will be about to taels of silver. In other words, after deducting the construction cost, the cost of producing one kilogram of crude salt at Nanbao Salt Field will be less than one penny."

"One cent per pound? Is this cost high or low?" Zhu Houzhao asked in confusion. He had no idea about the current prices.

"Beijing is close to the sea, and the price of a pound of coarse salt is about fifty coins. The farther away from the sea, the more expensive it is."

"Wait!" Zhu Houzhao jumped up suddenly. This result was beyond his expectation. "Give me a pen and paper, or an abacus, so I can calculate how much money we can make!"

Zhu Houxuan grabbed the excited Zhu Houzhao and said quickly: "Don't count it, it's meaningless."

"Why is it meaningless? There's so much money!" Zhu Houzhao said anxiously.

"Anyway, it can't be sold for the price you calculated," said Zhu Houxuan.

Zhu Houzhao stopped moving and asked in astonishment, "Why?"

Zhu Houxuan had to simply explain some basic economic principles to Zhu Houzhao, and Zhu Houzhao understood what was going on as soon as he heard it.

"Since the large amount of sea salt entering the market will cause the price of salt to plummet, can't we just sell it at half the price? That would be a lot of profit!" Zhu Houzhao started to calculate again.

"It can't even be sold at half the price, because the current price of salt in the Ming Dynasty is artificially raised by salt merchants." Zhu Houxun told Zhu Houzhao about the current situation of the salt industry in the Ming Dynasty.

"Then we can also ask salt merchants to help us sell salt." Zhu Houzhao came up with another idea.

Zhu Houxuan smiled and shook his head. "If the salt merchants could really be used by the imperial court, then the salt tax received by the Ming Dynasty would not be only one million taels of silver every year."

Zhu Houzhao was silent for a moment, and then he sighed and said, "I also know how complicated the salt administration is. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, many famous officials have tried to reform the salt administration, but after so many changes, it has become like this. The salt administration is like a mess."

"The people of the Ming Dynasty have only so much money to buy salt every year, and now it has been squeezed to the extreme by those salt merchants. The stock market has been fixed. When our salt enters the salt market, it is actually taking food from their mouths. They will not help us." Zhu Houxuan added

Zhu Houzhao looked helpless. Although he was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, many things could not be solved by simply issuing an imperial edict. When he saw Zhu Houxun who was confident about what he had done, he punched him directly and rudely.

Then he raised his fist and threatened: "Alright! Stop keeping me in suspense! I know you've already thought of a solution, just tell me now."

(End of this chapter)