After coming out of Concubine Yang's palace, Li Chengqian walked silently outside the palace. He seemed to have done nothing, but in the process he discovered that Li Ke had a very good relationship with his mother-in-law and even his own mother-in-law. .
Li Chengqian couldn't help but think that as a prince, he might have to consider the country, but in the process, had he neglected too many things? For example, filial piety? It wasn't that Li Chengqian was unfilial, but that he suddenly felt that what he had done was not adequate.
Li Ke may not think about as many things as him, and he doesn't need to do as many things as him, but isn't there his own problem in this?
In fact, thinking about it carefully, Li Chengqian knew that he still had a lot of time to come to the palace.
He not only ignored filial piety, but also ignored many people around him.
While Li Chengqian was thinking, Li Ke also held another meeting. This meeting was not considered a plenary meeting, but Li Daozong, Su Dingfang, and Pei Xingjian were all there. In addition, Lu Hai, Li Yan and others were also here.
"Today's meeting is related to our main financial pillar in Xizhou's future, so we have called everyone here for the meeting." Li Ke said.
"Your Highness, can't you just decide this business matter directly?" Li Daozong was a little confused.
"No, General Li, you have to get used to this kind of thing. There is no shame in doing business. The simplest thing is that the bigger our business is, the more people we can support here, so that these governments The better the military is, is it a shame? No shame!" Li Ke said, "And the entire national finance is actually a business in nature."
"Your Highness, it's not because I feel embarrassed about doing business, it's mainly because I'm not good at it either." Li Daozong said helplessly.
"So I want you to come and listen. The first batch of our salt has begun to be shipped to various places. Everyone should know the quality of our salt. However, as a commodity, its sales should have its own price. For example, the ones on the market now Table salt is about 1.5 Wen per pound, and at this price, many people cannot afford it, or at least one fifth of the people in the Tang Dynasty can only use vinegar cloth." Li Ke looked calm.
When Li Ke talked about salt with Li Shiji in Chang'an before, he once said that the lowest quality coarse salt costs 1.5 cents per pound and is eaten by ordinary people. But those ordinary people were the people around Chang'an City.
But in fact, in many poor places in the Tang Dynasty, there were many people who couldn't even afford salt.
"So, as the prince, I have the obligation to make the people of Tang Dynasty eat salt. Then we have to classify the salt in our hands, but this work cannot be done now. We have to force others to do it." Li Ke He spoke.
"How can we force this? We can't let them lower the price." Li Daozong was a little confused.
"Use the market to impact them." Li Ke said, "It's very simple. Our salt only sells for 1.5 cents per catty. Can other salt be sold? If they can't sell it, such as the current coarse salt, They can only sell it at a price of 1 penny or even lower. In fact, even so, they still make a profit."
"In that case, wouldn't we be able to make too much profit?" Li Daozong hesitated.
"No, you are all wrong. In fact, you cannot rely on the common people to make money. How much money do the common people have? The really rich ones are the wealthy families and the big businessmen. These are the rich people, so we have to make money from them. How to make this money? Grading our salt, Lu Hai will bring it up." Li Ke said.
Soon, Lu Hai had someone bring several things up, including a wooden box, a rough ceramic bottle, a delicate porcelain bottle, and a transparent glass-shaped glass bottle.
"Come on, let's take a look at these things. This is the classification I will prepare for our table salt next. The refined salt currently on the market is 15 cents per pound. Most rich people eat this, but it is still a little bitter. taste, and our salt doesn’t have it, so let’s talk about that first.”
Li Ke took out the glass bottle on the far left. From the perspective of future generations, this thing is much inferior to porcelain, but in this era! This is the most expensive!
"This is our finest table salt in Xizhou. It has been filtered through a total of 15 filtration processes to remove all impurities harmful to the human body. It is the most exquisite table salt and the most finely ground table salt! The price is 500 Wen per pound!" Li Ke said.
"Ah? Fifteen filtration processes? Are there any?" Li Daozong was stunned. He subconsciously looked at Jiang Feng.
"Why not? First, we need to introduce the water from the Red Sea into the evaporation pond. This is one, and then the crystallization pond..." Li Ke counted on his fingers. After hearing that Li Ke counted the bottling, everyone I am already speechless. Can this be considered filtering?
"When it is sold, the quantity of this salt is limited, and each purchase cannot exceed 2 kilograms, because it will also become a royal tribute." Li Ke said.
"This...if the purchase is restricted, will we sell less?" Li Daozong hesitated.
"We just said that the quantity is limited, 2 pounds per purchase, but don't we have the final say on how much?" Li Ke was speechless. Is Li Daozong a little too stupid? Without looking, Lu Hai had already begun to write down with a pen. He had obviously understood what Li Ke meant.
"Can it still be like this?" Li Daozong said blankly, is this a bit too much?
"Of course, let's talk about the second one next." Li Ke picked up the porcelain bottle and said, "This kind of porcelain bottle has gone through twelve filtration procedures. Although the three most expensive filtration procedures are missing, Most of the impurities harmful to the human body have been removed, so the price is 300 yuan!”
"And the pottery bottles here only have ten filtering procedures in total, and the price is 200 Wen per catty! The wooden box only has the five most superficial filtering procedures, which filter out the most harmful things to the human body, and the price is 50 Wen per catty. Our most common salt is not packaged or weighed, while other salts on the market don’t even have a filtration process!”
Li Ke set a price for all these different packages.
Li Daozong: "..." Your Highness, the most expensive filtration process you mentioned, is it the price of burning glass bottles?
"So, our table salt is actually the same?" Su Dingfang couldn't hold back and asked.
"Yes, our table salt is the same. You can't mix impurities into it just to distinguish it, right? That will increase the cost." Li Ke said matter-of-factly.
Everyone; "..."
"Okay, that's basically it. Don't look like this. In fact, my main purpose is not to make money at all! It's to provide employment opportunities!"
"If you think about it carefully, do we need to make a lot of wooden boxes, pottery bottles, porcelain bottles, and glass bottles when we do this? These all require labor, which means we can hire more workers to make these things! "
"This also means that more herdsmen will work for us in Xizhou. You have also understood that when funds flow, Xizhou will become more prosperous! This is to increase job opportunities! Through this whole process, think about it. , has all the money of the aristocratic families flowed into the hands of ordinary people?" Li Ke asked.
"It seems that more is flowing into your hands, third brother." Li Xin replied subconsciously.
"Ahem! Li Xin, speak up!" Li Daozong coughed dryly.
