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

Chapter 240 The second round of confrontation

The salt merchants concealed the true situation from the downstream sellers, because at this time many salt merchants still believed that they would be the final winners. The salt merchants and the local big families were in a relationship of mutual game. The local big families were not easy to deal with, and the salt merchants did not want to show weakness in front of them.

The prices of salt sold by salt merchants in various places are the result of repeated bargaining with local big families. If they show weakness in front of the local big families, it will be unfavorable for bargaining for salt prices next year.

The salt merchants' promise undoubtedly gave everyone present a reassurance, reducing much of their anxiety.

"What should we do now?" Mr. Zhou asked everyone.

No one was willing to speak first. In fact, everyone understood that at this point, the most important thing they should do was to control the price of salt and prevent it from collapsing. However, taking out 120,000 taels of silver at once made everyone hesitate.

"What should we do, Brother Shen?" Mr. Zhou finally looked at Mr. Shen, because Mr. Shen had always been the backbone of the group.

Everyone also looked at Mr. Shen who was in deep thought.

"Actually, I've been thinking about the cost of selling salt in this imperial store recently." Master Shen said slowly, "I heard that this sea salt is produced by salt workers setting up a big pot on the beach, putting seawater in it, and then collecting firewood to make a fire and boil it. How much labor and firewood do you think it takes to make one pound of salt!"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Although they had been engaged in the salt industry for many years, they had lived in the inland for a long time and did not know much about the production of sea salt. So now they could only imagine the production cost of sea salt. In their imagination, the production cost of salt must be high. Anyway, that's what the salt merchants had told them before.

"The production cost of this sea salt is not low, and Shunde Prefecture is thousands of miles away from Changlu Salt Field. It costs a lot to transport so much salt here," Mr. Shen continued.

"Then the royal store should be able to save a lot of costs by transporting salt by rail," Mr. Zhou suddenly said.

Everyone nodded slowly after hearing this.

"I don't think so." Master Shen glanced at Master Zhou and said, "The rails are made of the finest refined iron. Everyone knows how much refined iron costs now, so the cost of building this railway must be high. Iron will rust, and it will be in a mess after being in the wild for a few years. In the end, when you calculate the cost of use, it's hard to say that it's cheaper than horse caravan transportation. It can only be said that it's much faster than horse caravans or something."

After listening to this, Mr. Zhou nodded in conviction.

"Therefore, I think that the Royal Store can't make much money at 20 cents per catty, so we will take these 6 million catties of salt at this price. We won't lose much money at this price. After all, people have to eat salt, and salt is easy to sell." Master Shen said in a deep voice.

Mr. Shen’s attitude is very clear.

"Then shall we consume these 600 million kilograms of salt?" Mr. Li said, looking around at everyone.

"Eat it. Let's keep the price of salt from collapsing. If the price of salt collapses, we'll be finished," said Mr. Zhou.

The lords of Shunde Prefecture made their decision. After the first round of confrontation, the salt merchants were in a dilemma. They were confused about Zhu Houzhao's attitude. They didn't know whether their offensive had worked, whether Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Houxun had a rift, or whether Zhu Houzhao did it on purpose.
But the salt merchants were already in a difficult situation.

Marx said in "Das Kapital": Once there is appropriate profit, capital becomes bold. If there is a 10% profit, it is guaranteed to be used everywhere; with a 20% profit, it becomes active; with a 50% profit, it takes risks; with a 100% profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; with a 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even at the risk of being hanged.

This is the case with salt merchants. The profits from monopolizing the salt trade are too huge. Maybe they don’t get 300% profit, but 100% profit is still easy.

No one was willing to give up the fat meat in their mouths so easily, not to mention that they had eaten this fat meat for many years. The salt merchants were unwilling to do so, the people behind the salt merchants were unwilling to do so, and the big families in the salt business in various places were unwilling to do so, so they launched a stronger offensive.
Nangong.

The largest conference room was packed with people, who kept coming in and out, bringing in new messages and sending out new instructions. Everyone in the conference room had a tired look on their face. They put a lot of tea leaves in the teapot and relied on the strong and bitter tea to stay awake.

Zhu Houxuan was somewhat thankful that tobacco was not popular in the Ming Dynasty at that time, otherwise the place would definitely be filled with smoke.

"This morning, the Imperial Censor Shen Hao impeached the group for building a railway, which affected the dragon vein of the Ming Dynasty. If it continues for a long time, it will affect the fate of the Ming Dynasty. I implore Your Majesty to stop the operation of the existing railway to protect the fate of the Ming Dynasty."

"The director of the Imperial Observatory reported that he had observed unusual celestial phenomena, including a meteor streaking across the night sky last night. He believed that this was a warning from heaven, and suggested that Your Majesty cultivate moral conduct and not engage in large-scale construction projects," Chen Hong said quickly.

"Humph! If we don't deal with the salt issue, nothing will happen. But if we deal with the salt issue, all kinds of monsters and demons will come out." Wu Liangshan said contemptuously.

"Yes, they dare to throw any dirty water at us!" Jiang Jianye said angrily.

"Don't interrupt. I have finished talking about the situation in the court. Is there any other situation?" Zhu Houxun said with his back to the crowd, looking at the densely drawn map on the wall.

"The branches of the Ming Royal Bank across the north have all suffered a certain degree of bank runs. Many people would rather not pay interest than withdraw their silver from the bank, and they also refuse to accept silver coins, which has caused us a certain amount of pressure. Fortunately, we have already made plans for this, and the group has recently sold more than 600 million kilograms of salt and earned more than million taels of silver, so the Royal Bank is not under great pressure to repay at present." Tian Cheng, who is in charge of banking business, said quickly.

"A large number of orders received by various factories have been canceled. Many cooperation projects signed in recent months have also been cancelled," said Jin Tong, who is now in charge of the affairs of the Tangshan industrial cluster.

"It seems that they have finally come to their senses and know how to put pressure on us." Zhu Houzhao pinched his chin and said, "All factories should maintain normal production and not reduce production. Don't be affected by this wave of events."

"Yes, sir!" said Jin Tong.

"The tax collectors from Shuntian Prefecture wanted to check taxes at Chongwenmen Station yesterday, but we stopped them. The Five Military Governor's Office has not been cooperating with us recently. Chongwenmen Station has been harassed by some ruffians, and the soldiers of the Five Military Governor's Office have turned a blind eye to it," said Wu Liangshan, who is in charge of the affairs of the capital.

(End of this chapter)