With the arrival of the Wei New Year, pigs and sheep are slaughtered in various places. The consumption of salt rises rapidly and the price of salt rises. Both Qi and Yue merchants began to send salt here for their own benefit. Taoyi acted as a transfer station for Qi salt to be transported to Daliang and made a lot of money.
Sea salt contains more impurities and its taste is quite different from that of pool salt. People in Daliang still prefer to use salt solution; as a result, the price of salt solution is higher. Merchants in Daliang purchased grain from farmers at high prices, exchanged it for salt in Anyi, and then transported it to Daliang to sell at high prices. As a result, the price of grain in Daliang City also increased, almost reaching the price during the previous lean period. What is unexpected is that the Shaofu also participated in the trade of grain for salt, transporting a large amount of rice in his hands to Anyi to exchange for salt, in order to make huge profits! The result of this is that when the annual salary is paid out, it is no longer all rice. Some of it is discounted at the market price and replaced with salt. Everyone actually thinks it is worth it!
Lord Xinling and Wei Qi were very worried about this, thinking that they might experience a huge food shortage in the coming spring, but Xu Jia didn't seem to care, thinking that as long as the trade routes were open, food would naturally come. Everyone went to report to the King of Wei, but the King of Wei did not come up with any accurate ideas and only let the monarch and his ministers decide on the strategy.
After the New Year, the negative consequences of rising food prices began to show. Except for salt reselling, other industries were very depressed and prices soared. The officials finally felt that something was not good and reported to Xinling Lord, Wei Qi and other senior officials. At first, they were just petty officials, so everyone didn't think anything was wrong; but later, even the young master felt that something was wrong. The prices of goods from other places were unaffordable, while the prices of local goods were low, and Lord Xinling and Wei Qi began to get nervous. At this time, spring plowing is almost over and early summer is about to enter.
Both Xinlingjun and Wei Qi knew that the key to this problem lay in Anyi's monopoly on salt, but they could not find a solution to the problem and could only bring Dr. Xu Jia to discuss it. Dr. Xu Jia had no choice but to go to Prince Qin again.
Prince Qin received Doctor Xu Jia in the post. After sitting down, Dr. Xu Jia said: "Looking at the sun in October, I am so humble that I am not allowed to meet the prince. It will last for several months."
The prince of Qin said: "I was invited by the doctor to meet in front of the king's hall in Xinling. How could I expect that Mr. Zhang and Mr. Yue are there, but the doctor has not arrived yet!"
Dr. Xu Jia was a little embarrassed and hurriedly changed the subject: "At the meeting in Wangri, your Majesty and the Crown Prince discussed the matter of converting grain into salt, and it cannot be postponed. May the Crown Prince be more considerate!"
Prince Qin said casually: "I asked my father to give me a request, and the king replied that there is little food in Anyi and the hungry people are sleeping on the road, so we have no choice but to wait for the harvest this autumn, so there is no limit."
Doctor Xu Jia said: "There may be a little hunger in Anyi, but after a few months, it may be solved. However, we must wait for the autumn harvest, and now it may be solved."
Prince Qin said: "I have been away for a long time and have not found out the truth. What I said to the doctor is actually true to the king. If the doctor wants to ask for something, you can go to Xianyang."
Doctor Xu Jia said: "I have heard for a long time that Qin valued farmers and despised merchants. Therefore, I did not dare to hear about the despicable things to the king. Unless the prince had been in Liang for a long time, I would not dare to hear about the prince. Now I take advantage of it and dare to do nothing. Of."
The prince of Qin smiled calmly and said: "The minister's entry into Liang was originally a matter of traveling between Taoyi and Xianyang. It is difficult for others to know. Maybe I heard that many people from Taoyi came to Liang for salt, is there anything wrong?"
Doctor Xu Jia said: "Yes."
Prince Qin said: "The salt of Qi enters Liang, and the products of Liang must enter the pottery. Tao dominates the world, and the things of Liang are widely distributed. Isn't that right?"
Dr. Xu Jia said: "Of all the salts in the world, salt salt is the cheapest and most abundant, and many people are accustomed to it. Now it is not only difficult for the people to get used to it, but also for business."
Prince Qin asked with great interest: "What's wrong with merchants?"
Dr. Xu Jia said: "Businessmen must buy goods from land A and sell goods from land B, buy goods from land B, and sell goods from land A. If you buy goods from land A and sell goods from land B, you will lose your profits." . If you get the goods from land C and sell them to land B, you will get the goods from land B and sell them to land A."
Prince Qin said: "I heard that goods are transported all over the world, and they must be made with gold. If you can get the gold, why worry about the goods being uneven?"
Dr. Jia made gestures with his hands and said: "There is a businessman. Therefore, when buying products in Liang, he will lose gold and gain goods; he must want to sell in Anyi, but he will lose gold and gain gold; and he will gain salt from Anyi. Liang and sell it. Although we have obtained the goods of Daliang, we can't get salt in Anyi, so it is not profitable. Either we sell it to Chen, or we sell it to Tao, but we can get the money and buy grain again and bring it to Anyi. It has many ways, its benefits are shallow, and its price is skyrocketing!"
Prince Qin listened patiently to Dr. Xu Jia's explanation of why merchants in Daliang could not make as much profit as before, but he did not understand. He asked: "In the past, when you entered Anyi, you must have a lot of things, whether they are selling or not, the profit is hard to know. . Now there is only one grain, if you exchange two grains for one, then you will definitely get something, and if you do it, you will definitely get something. Why is it so difficult?"
Dr. Xu Jia was also a little embarrassed and said: "In the past, non-businessmen could not know what Anyi needed, so they benefited from it. Today, everyone knows the merchants of Anyi, and they go to transport grain on their own, and merchants have no benefit."
Prince Qin laughed when he heard this and said, "The doctor was also harmed by it!"
Doctor Xu Jia said: "I follow the king's orders and do business in the world. If there is surplus to make up for the deficiency, the profits will be greater. However, the Shaofu must also be in Liang. Liang has few things and high prices, and the king's affairs will be abolished."
Prince Qin said: "The young manor has a field of rice, a skilled craftsman, mountains and rivers, and heaven and earth. How can I abolish the king's affairs?"
Dr. Xu Jia shook his head and said: "The king wants to build up his arsenal, so Duan Ziqian is in charge. All the people he recruits are craftsmen who are forging and casting, and all they do is for battle formations. They recruit many people, but there is no benefit."
Prince Qin said: "Qin's arsenal is quite large. All the craftsmen's fees are paid by the Shaofu..."
Dr. Xu Jia said: "In Anyi, grain is exchanged for salt, and the young mansions all take out their treasures, and salt is exchanged."
Prince Qin said: "But if you look at the advantages, the disadvantages are like this!"
Dr. Xu Jia didn't want to say much, and said: "The young man's house has little food now, so he only buys it with gold. However, the price of food has increased, and the income is small. Therefore, the king's affairs will be abolished."
Prince Qin asked, "Why did the doctor give this order to our city now?"
Dr. Xu Jia said: "As long as the disadvantages of the salt official can be eliminated, there will be no worries."
Prince Qin said: "Salt is sold at a low price. Why is it such a disadvantage that we must abolish it?"
Dr. Xu Jia said: "Exchanging salt for grain will return all the grain to Anyi!"
Prince Qin said: "I have never seen any disadvantages in this city."
Doctor Xu Jia said: "Qin's humble merchants buy and sell to the public, and grain is not allowed to come out of the territory, so there is no harm. All the countries in the Guandong region do not abolish the trade route. Merchants come and go, and they use what is left to make up for their shortcomings, which is their own benefit." The whole world is like that. However, Anyi wastes salt merchants and becomes officials, so that all the food in the world returns to Anyi, and the price of the remaining land is twice as high as before. The surplus land is exploited for profit, while the country with insufficient land will be exterminated."
Prince Qin said: "I only hope that all the people who govern the country will hear what the great officials say! In the past, Qin valued farmers and despised merchants, and the world thought it was inconvenient. Now that I hear what the great officials say, there will be more of them!"
Doctor Xu Jia said: "I once did not know how to govern, but only knew how to do business. How dare I make false claims about governing the country?"
The Prince of Qin said: "Those who can understand business should also govern the country. Business is like the four seasons. If you follow it, you will prosper, if you go against it, you will perish. Don't you be afraid!" He asked Dr. Xu Jia again: "Mr. How do merchants know whether goods are sufficient or not?"
Doctor Xu Jia said: "My husband, Shang, is just like the plans of Yi Yin and Lu Shang, Sun Wu used troops, and Shang Yang practiced law. Therefore, his wisdom is insufficient and adaptable, his courage is not enough to make decisions, his benevolence cannot be given, and his strength cannot be achieved." What you keep is not what you call it.”
Prince Qin said: "If you are a businessman in the world, how many can be praised?"
Dr. Xu Jia said: "If you are a businessman, your first priority is Guanzi. As a human being, if you see no benefit, don't accept it, and if you see no harm, don't avoid it. If you follow Guanzi, you can govern the country with benefit and harm. Which one? A businessman knows Gua, twice as much. If you travel along the road at the same time, if the night continues with the day, if you are not far away for a thousand miles, your advantage lies in the front. When a fisherman enters the sea, the sea is ten thousand feet deep, and he goes against the current to take advantage of dangers for hundreds of miles. If he stays overnight and does not come out, his advantage lies in the water. The advantage is in the water. Then the people will be happy and peaceful, not pushed away, not attracted, not annoyed or disturbed, and the people will be prosperous. Just like a bird covering its eggs, it is invisible and silent, but you can only see the results. Secondly, plan it and know it through preparation. Objects. Drought provides resources for boats, and water provides resources for carts. This is the principle of things. Farmers are sick at twenty, and farmers at ninety are at the end of the disease. If the upper level is no more than eighty, and the lower level is not less than thirty, then both farming and the end will benefit, and the level of farming will be equal to all things. There is no shortage of customs in the city, which is the way to govern the country. Accumulate principles, complete things, and have no interest coins. If you judge the surplus and deficiency, you will know the noble and the humble. If the noble is the highest, it will be low, and if the low is the lowest, it will be noble. The noble is like dung. Take it as cheaply as pearls and jade. Money and money will flow like running water. This is called the seven strategies of planning. With five of them, Yue has destroyed Wu. Tao Zhugong, boating in the rivers and lakes, used the strategies of planning to make his family rich. The second is There was Yidun Yan, who started his family as a herder, became rich with salt, and followed him with pearls and jade; the Yi family where he lived was on the side of Zheng'an City. There was Bai Guiyan, who was also from the Wei Dynasty, and he was in the camp of Heze. He said that if people abandon me, I will take it. People take what I have given them; they can eat sparingly, endure their cravings, be modest in their clothes, share the joys and sorrows of servants, and follow the times like the hair of ferocious beasts and birds. Those of these sons are all giants in business. They are heroes in the world, and they are not alone in business. Guanzi has nothing to do with it. If Tao Zhugong is an official, he will be a minister, and if he is rich, he will be rich. The weak will defeat the strong Wu. Bai Gui has been in charge of Wei Zheng for several years, and his performance is good! The rest have Duanmu The generations of the Lu family, the Lu family, and the Guo family are all great businessmen in the world."
Prince Qin said with emotion: "I never thought that the world's heroes could be like this. If my husband, the merchant, suppresses the merchants, he will lose a lot!"
Doctor Xu Jia said: "Although Qin suppressed merchants, Tao dominated the world, merchants gathered in large numbers, and now Ranghou is here, so merchants will not be abolished."
Prince Qin said: "How can we get Yi Yin and Sun Wu from Shang Dynasty?"
Doctor Xu Jia said: "The prince will definitely get it if he visits him!" The two chatted happily. But when it comes to exchanging grain for salt, neither side gives in! Doctor Xu Jia was helpless.
After Xu Jia left, the prince wrote down Xu Jia's idea of running the country through business on a piece of slippery slip. He also asked the scribe who was taking notes behind the screen to take out what he had written and excerpt one by one the giant merchants Xu Jia mentioned and their stories. Business philosophy, I feel like I have a new idea. He quietly thought that once he came to power, he would carry out a major reform and put business back into an important position.
He thought carefully about Hedong's approach to guarding Zhang Lu. In the short term, Zhang Lu undoubtedly benefited and accumulated a large amount of grain for Anyi. But if you look at the world, the food has not increased, it has just been transferred from these people to those people, but "those people" happen to be Qin people, so they feel that they have benefited.
