Before coming here, Tang Ping had learned that although Fuyi County may seem famous for only one artesian well and one Dagong well, the entire Fuyi County is actually a big salt factory.
There are many salt merchants, and the relationships inside are complicated.
This time he came to dig salt wells on behalf of the Tang government, because during the Zhenguan period, salt was not included in the monopoly.
Then the emergence of the salt wells owned by the stewards of the Tang Dynasty government would naturally have an impact on the major local salt merchants.
The Li family's business is large, but in Fuyi County, they are just one of the dozen or so salt merchants.
When Li Ke asked, Tang Ping didn't hide anything and admitted it directly.
He originally thought that these salt merchants would not be so stable, because the new methods of digging wells and boiling salt would have an impact on the past salt price.
They will inevitably ask for price bargaining. The cost of salt mined by salt merchants in the future will be low. If you ask them to lower the price, they will have no problem.
But the problem is that most of these salt merchants still have salt in their hands, and there is a lot of it.
These salts are produced based on past costs. If the price is reduced, it is a loss-making business, which is the same as cutting their flesh.
So once the Tang Dynasty officials started mining salt, they would definitely start to obstruct it.
The road to Shu is difficult and not suitable for management. Even the local government will be greatly constrained by the local gentry in implementing any policies.
If Tang Ping can't get rid of the salt merchants here, then even if the official salt well is drilled, it won't be that easy to mine salt safely.
Tang Ping originally thought that after arriving, he would first contact the local salt merchants, but Li Ke's appearance was an unexpected surprise.
"I heard that this new method of digging salt wells is more than ten times faster than before?"
Nowadays, the production of well salt involves a very detailed division of labor, from well digging, brine extraction, brine transportation to salt decoction, and the process is complicated and requires a lot of investment in engineering costs and equipment.
It usually takes one or two years to dig a well, and at most it takes more than ten years or even decades; the investment in drilling a well can range from a thousand taels for a shallow well to tens of thousands taels for a deep well, and can even cost as much as 30,000 to 40,000 taels. Those who don’t see merit.
As early as the end of the Warring States Period, Li Bing, the prefect of Qin Shu County, had dug salt wells in the Chengdu Plain to collect brine and fry salt.
But until the Tang Dynasty, technology did not make much progress. The real technological change would not occur until the Song Dynasty.
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, Zhuotong wells, also known as small-hole deep wells, appeared, but the technology is still an era behind Tang Ping's hand-pressure well technology.
Tang Ping did not answer Li Ke's question directly, but asked: "I wonder what Brother Li thinks about us opening a new salt well?"
Li Ke chuckled: "Pingguo Gong, you don't have to play riddles with me. Let me put it bluntly. In my life, this brat is what I like most. Now that he can learn from you, that's a big deal. Fortunately. It doesn’t matter even if you use up your family fortune, so I will definitely support you!”
This was half true and half false. Li Bai was in the limelight before Chunwei, and the news spread to the middle of Shu. Li Ke was indeed happy and held a banquet for three days to celebrate.
It is not false to say that he valued Li Bai the most, but he was able to express his full support for Tang Ping. Firstly, he usually exchanged letters with Li Bai and knew Tang Ping's personality and influence in the court.
Secondly, it was the Cui family's business. He was jealous. He didn't want to steal the Cui family's current business, but wanted to get on Tang Ping's boat and do other business.
Other salt merchants may focus on this corner of the world and calculate their own gains and losses.
But what Li Ke values is Tang Ping's future and the opportunity to make money elsewhere, so fighting for those things means giving up or offending the salt merchants in Shu. In his opinion, it is not considered a big deal. what's up.
Tang Ping didn't expect Li Ke to say this, but he was slightly stunned for a moment, and then he smiled: "Since Brother Li said it, I won't beat around the bush. The court is short of money, and the salt industry is very profitable. In fact, if the court itself Come dig a well to collect salt, and use my method to produce the best snowflake salt, and the cost is only one-tenth of that of the salt merchants in Shu."
The difference between well salt and sea salt is that sea salt can be sun-dried on a large scale, but Shu does not have such sunshine conditions. What is needed is boiling salt, and boiling salt requires fuel, so the cost goes up.
In addition, the level of salt production in this era was not high, and the salt produced was not only coarse, but also sandy.
Li Ke knew that Tang Ping was powerful, but he didn't expect it to be so powerful. Tang Ping could open well salt on behalf of the court, which shows that he must have sufficient skills.
But if the cost of a product can be reduced by one-tenth at once, it would be a very scary thing.
Tang Ping continued: "In fact, the government is mining salt on its own land. Who dares to say anything? But after all, Your Majesty is considerate of everyone, so he sent
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I am here just to make money with you through cooperation. "
Li Ke nodded: "I have already said that I support Duke Ping no matter what, but it may not be easy to convince others. I would like to ask what the cooperation method mentioned by the government is like?"
"As far as we know, although there are over a hundred small and large salt merchants in Shu, the main ones are the big salt merchants. Now, including the Turkic Protector's Office, there are eight salt merchants in the country. Every two salt merchants are responsible for the salt monopoly of one village. The imperial court system Salt is sold to each family at a uniform price, and then each family distributes it to its own lane. Of course, their selling prices must also be unified!"
To put it bluntly, Tang Ping planned to let the Tang government become the manufacturer and other salt merchants become dealers.
Each family collects salt from the government office and then sells it on their own land.
"This..." Li Ke thought for a moment: "The amount of salt consumed varies from place to place. If someone is assigned to an area with a poor population, the amount of salt that can be sold will be reduced, and I'm afraid he will feel unhappy."
Tang Ping chuckled: "So it will depend on who cooperates with the government first. Shouldn't those who join early get some preferential treatment?"
After finishing speaking, Tang Ping looked at Li Ke. The two looked at each other for a moment. Li Ke laughed loudly: "Ping Guo Gong is so clever! With your method, why do you need my help?"
As he said, some places must make more money, such as Guanzhong Road, where there is a super big city like Chang'an, and the consumption capacity for salt is far greater than that of areas with poor populations.
Salt merchants, now our salt is sold all over the country, each with its own channels, but the profit we get is only half a pound.
Who sells more this year and who sells less this year, they all have a strong balance in their minds.
And if whoever joins the government first and becomes a dealer for the government, then the money earned will widen the gap.
Don't think about selling salt yourself instead of getting salt from the government. The past salt production method was too expensive and could not compete with the government's salt in terms of price.
Not to mention the huge gap in quality.
Therefore, for their own benefit in the future, they will rush to join in.
Only those salt merchants assigned to barren areas would be dissatisfied, and Tang Ping naturally had a way to satisfy them.
(End of chapter)
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