The good news doesn't stop there. Zhang Siwei told Gao Pragmatic that his current monthly salary is calculated based on the close relatives of the Zhang family, which is twenty-five taels per month. In other words, next month he will save A full thousand taels of silver.
Gao Pinggong said sincerely that the Zhang family was indeed a wealthy family of salt merchants. The amount of monthly silver he received was more than three times what he had in the Gao family - he also had monthly silver in the Gao family, eight taels per month. Now adding up the two sides, his monthly salary is thirty-three taels, which is almost half of the official salary of the "Prince and Grand Master".
In fact, he is an eight-year-old child, and now he is with Gao Gong. He usually does not need to spend money at all, but the atmosphere in Ming Dynasty is like this now. Most of the children of wealthy families have money, and he is naturally no exception. Although the Gao family is quite contented from the perspective of an official family, Gao Gong has not purchased even an acre of land in his hometown in recent years. However, after all, the Gao family has been officials for several generations, and after decades of accumulation, they are considered a wealthy family in the local area, so how can they miss out on his share of the money?
But no matter what, in terms of wealth, the Gao family is far incomparable to the Zhang family, who was born into a wealthy salt merchant family, so it makes sense that the monthly allowance given by the Zhang family is exceptionally high. You know, the Zhang family has a very high status in the business world and almost monopolizes the famous Changlu Saltworks. Moreover, the Zhang family does not operate independently in the shopping mall, but operates collaboratively. It is a business cooperation alliance of the "three families" of Zhang, Wang, and Ma - the Zhang Siwei family, the Wang Chonggu family, and the Ma Ziqiang family. The combination of these three companies almost monopolized the salt market in the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty, and even occupied a huge share of the entire northern salt market.
From the point of view of Gao Pragmatic, a "latecomer", he is not particularly opposed to monopoly, because according to historical experience, "state monopoly capitalism" is a good way to make the country rich and powerful quickly. Although it also has some minor flaws, But until he traveled through it, he never saw any road without any problems. Therefore, monopoly in a certain degree and in a certain way is acceptable and even willing to be promoted by High Pragmatism.
However, this does not mean that the current Zhang Wangma Alliance is in line with a highly pragmatic view - a highly pragmatic view is actually very utilitarian in the final analysis: I don't care if you have a monopoly or not, I only care whether the country benefits from it.
If the result of your monopoly is that you become richest in the world but the country gets nothing, then a highly pragmatic person will definitely think that this kind of monopoly is undesirable. On the contrary, if the result of your monopoly is that although your own financial resources will increase, the country will also make a lot of profits. Then Gao Pragmatic will think that this monopoly is not bad.
After all, it is impossible for a businessman to work in vain for the country without any income. Gao Pragmatic believes that there is an unknown one-in-a-million chance that there will be an official who "serves the people wholeheartedly". After all, Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian are currently in Yingtian Mansion with Xu What is Huating doing? But he would never believe that there are businessmen who "serve the people wholeheartedly."
Businessmen always pursue profits. A businessman who does not pursue profits does not exist and cannot survive - unless he has other intentions.
The Zhang Wangma Alliance, in Gao Pragmatic's opinion, is a typical "self-enrichment" business alliance, in which the country can hardly gain any benefits - at least it should be said that the benefits obtained are not in the same league as the price paid. on the level of interests.
The so-called monopoly of salt works in the Ming Dynasty actually mainly focused on the monopoly of salt production. This issue involved a system that lasted for almost 150 years. In short, merchants transport grain to the frontier, and the government provides merchants with salt. The more merchants can ensure that the border troops eat and even partially store grain, the more likely they are to obtain large amounts of salt. According to the principle of wealth concentration, over time, these salt quotations will gradually gather in the hands of a very small number of people, forming a monopoly.
This method seems to have benefited the country a lot. At least the food supply for the border troops seems to have been well solved. However, from a highly pragmatic perspective, the salt merchants have made huge profits, while the country's profits are relatively small. It's just too much less, and it really can't be said to be a fair deal.
The Zhang family is a wealthy person in Puzhou, so naturally they are also members of Shanxi merchants. Gao Pragmatic was very wary of Shanxi merchants in the late Ming Dynasty, because historically they had actually become a traitorous business group - so after the Qing army seized the world, several of their major representatives became the so-called imperial merchants.
Therefore, in Gao Pragmatic's view, the big problem of Shanxi merchants is not domestic monopoly, but smuggling. In this regard, what Shanxi merchants are doing can be said to be digging the grave of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, he also knew that this issue was actually very complicated - for example, the border troops were in dire straits and had to rely on smuggling to make profits, which was like drinking poison to quench their thirst. And here, many generals of the border army are involved in seeking personal gains and so on.
All in all, just looking for reasons and accusing certain people is not comprehensive. In the final analysis, Gao Pragmatic believes that the current policies of the Ming Dynasty are completely backward and outdated, and only by changing the policies can a better solution be achieved - however, this point , Gao Pragmatic is definitely powerless at the moment.
He decided to proceed slowly according to the plan he had set a few years ago.
As for the Zhang family's extraordinary money, it was basically a windfall for Gao Pragmatic. This windfall made his plan seem to be slightly ahead of schedule. So the first thing to do now is to generate income and make money.
Of course, as a time-traveler who wants to make a difference, his method of making money is definitely not to take bribes in the name of being a high-profile person - this is too low-end, too suicidal, and simply insults the reputation of a time-traveler. Well!
At least he was also the person who presided over the government affairs of a town back then... Well, the layout of a town is a bit small, but as the saying goes, a sparrow is small but has all the internal organs. Even if it is just the government affairs of a town, under the general premise of modern society, it is enough to involve all aspects. After all, whether it is the development of agriculture, industry or various tertiary industries, as well as the coordination of relationships between various departments, enterprises and villages, etc., he needs to arrange, handle and even supervise.
As for making money specifically, as a modern person, there are actually many methods that can be used. However, when something is launched, it needs to be decided according to one's own situation. For example, Gao Pragmatic knew several important stages in the development of firearms, and also knew several key issues in the development of firearms in the Ming Dynasty. He even roughly knew where to start with the improvement and innovation of certain firearms, but he It is definitely impossible to do it now, and the reason is very simple - if you, an eight-year-old child, do this, not only will it be difficult to get support, but you may also be regarded as a monster. What's worse, you may lose the opportunity to promote the development of firearms. Therefore, good things must be launched at the right time.
Age, for now, is a constraint on his plans to make money, which determines that he cannot produce products that are too "high-end and sophisticated." But the trouble is that if a simple product is only creative, difficult to produce and has no monopoly effect, it will be difficult to make a lot of money because it will be imitated very quickly. Once a more powerful businessman or business gang takes a fancy to this business and intervenes forcefully, he, a former wave in the Yangtze River, will have no choice but to be slapped to death on the beach.
