Counting from July of the sixth year of Wanli, it has been one year since Gao pragmatically returned to his hometown. nbsp; It is now Yimao, the seventh year of Wanli, and the year of the rural examination has arrived.
During this year, everything went smoothly for Gao Pragmatic, especially the momentum of various business developments. I won’t mention the old ones. Just talking about the new deals is worthy of Gao Pragmatic laughing three times.
The two major events in the new business were the establishment of Jinghua Bank and its loan to Huguang for water conservancy projects. The second was the establishment of Jinghua Porcelain, and the official launch of the Jinghua Yu Kiln name to revitalize Beijing Porcelain.
The former took a lot of effort, but it was not mainly spent on raising funds, but on convincing the court and Huguang officials. Through high pragmatism or high-party operation, the Huguang Chief Administrative Office formally applied to the central government after the autumn of the fifth year of Wanli, requesting approval for the Huguang Chief Administrative Office and local yamen to provide loans to "those willing to borrow funds" from the private sector to build water conservancy projects.
Of course, the Chief Envoy of Huguang found a lot of reasons to prove that this approach was necessary. Under the strong support of Guo Pu and Zhang Siwei, the cabinet voted to "approve the request of the Secretary, but the interest on the borrowed money shall not be allowed." More than 10%.”
When Zhu Yijun came in, he wrote that "the construction of water conservancy can consolidate the agricultural foundation. It is indeed an important matter of the country, and the request of this department is approved."
However, shortly after the approval was issued, there was a memorial and remonstrance. The official came from Yingtianxunping. The official said that the government's dismantling of funds from the private sector was an insult to the dignity of the court, so please stop.
It stands to reason that Governor Ying Tianxun has nothing to do with Huguang's affairs, but everyone in the court knows that this matter is definitely not Ying Tianxun's personal opinion. I'm afraid Governor Ying Tian has the same attitude. The reason is not that Huguang's water conservancy construction is harmful to them, nor is it that Huguang's borrowing money has something to do with them, but that they have learned that Jinghua Bank loaned money to Huguang. One of the terms is that "Huguang can repay it with rice grains at a discount." The principal and interest should be paid.,"
How much money does Huguang need to borrow? One million taels of silver.
According to this amount, if the discount is enough to repay the principal and interest every year, Huguang will have to pay a large amount of rice grain to Jinghua Bank every year in the next ten years. How can a large amount of rice grain be converted into silver in most areas of Huguang, and one stone is only worth eight silver coins.
Even if interest is not included, Huguang still has to pay 125 shi of rice to Jinghua Bank based on the annual principal repayment of 100,000 taels. In fact, given the abundance of grain in Huguang, the impact of this amount cannot be said to be particularly huge. What is remarkable is that grain prices in Yingtianfu in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River have slightly increased.
But the problem is that another surcharge allows Jinghua Bank to purchase Huguang rice at fixed prices every year. The annual quota cannot exceed one million dan. If it cannot be purchased privately, the Huguang local government will make up for it with grain taxes.
1.25 million shi of rice can feed 50,000 to 60,000 people for a whole year. If it is 1 million shi, it can feed at least 400,000 people. If you add the two together and save a little more, you can feed about 600,000 people.
If we are only providing relief to possible disaster victims in Henan Province, this number should basically be enough. After all, it is still the beginning of the Little Ice Age, and the disaster is not as serious as it was in the late Ming Dynasty. Of course, this relief is by no means free, it must be work-for-relief, otherwise the highly pragmatic Jinghua Bank will go bankrupt in a few years.
But this will have an impact on Southern Zhili. Food prices will rise by at least 20%, or even 30%. Of course, Ying Tianfu and Ying Tianfu will have to speak out.
Wanli had received a secret report from Gao Gao, and he also knew that Henan and other northern provinces had been frequently hit by disasters in recent years and production had been reduced. However, South Zhili was at least not short of money, so spending more money to buy rice would not be a big problem, so he resolutely approved the Huguang water conservancy project. The matter of abolition is of great importance, and this department does not pursue vain claims, but pursues actual results, as it should. Needless to say, you should do your job as a patrol officer. "
From this, the matter was settled.
Although Henan did not suffer any major disasters in the fifth year of Wanli, in fact, this transaction was still a sure profit, because Gao Pragmatic was equivalent to being approved to buy rice in Huguang at a lower market price. Even if the market price rose, it was none of his business. If the price rises, don’t buy it privately, and go directly to the Chief Minister to use the grain tax deduction.
The price of grain in Henan is much more expensive than that in Huguang. If you follow the normal market price and add the transportation costs, you may not make much money. But since the purchase price is a low price, you can still make money even if you sell it on the Henan market. earn.
As for future disasters, food prices in Henan will definitely rise. If Gao Pragmatic hadn't meant to help the refugees, he would have made a lot of money by selling it directly. But for now, he can only help here. After all, his ability is limited. It would be good to relieve some pressure on Henan. Shanxi, Shaanxi and Beizhili, etc., there is really nothing that can be done for the moment.
We can only hope that the river embankment that Mr. He spent several years reinforcing with cement will not break as easily as before. By then, the disaster in Henan will be less severe. Maybe after the disaster in the neighboring province, there will be refugees coming to Henan. By then Gao pragmatism may If you can think of something else, try your best.
The second thing that went smoothly was the matter of Jinghua Yu Kiln.
Speaking of which, the smoothness of this matter was even a bit too high. Maybe Gao Pragmatic himself underestimated the current reputation and appeal of the Gao family in Xinzheng. Anyway, the Jinghua Yu Kiln had just been announced, and he just entrusted someone to work in Shilin. After bragging a lot, people started to come in within two months.
Almost all of the people who came here were porcelain craftsmen, and most of them were passed down from their ancestors. Their craftsmanship was different, and their skills varied greatly. However, Zhang quickly arranged them into categories with the help of the three master craftsmen, and then Start trial production.
The first batch of products were "mixed with good and bad" is an understatement. It should be said that most of them failed to meet Zhang's requirements. She finally selected only seven pieces of porcelain. For the other ones, she suggested that Gao Pragmatic not sell any of them, but rather distribute them directly to various factories and mines under his name for their own use.
Gao Pragmatic didn't care. He didn't think it was easy in the beginning, so he calmly asked the porcelain craftsmen to continue trial production. Don't be anxious and don't be afraid of losing money. Gao Pragmatic had already made a plan to lose money for five consecutive years, because he didn't care. , this matter of firing porcelain, you can't lose much money in terms of cost alone. The bulk of the money lost is actually just to support these craftsmen who have no income.
Perhaps it was the high pragmatism that encouraged the porcelain craftsmen, or perhaps it was the fact that although the northern porcelain industry was in decline, its heritage remained. Anyway, starting from the fourth batch of trial products, Jinghua Yu Kiln turned a profit
They trial-produced a batch of high-quality chicken blood black tea bowls, adhering to the characteristics of "Jun kiln is expensive". These batch of chicken blood black tea bowls with the inscription "Jinghua Yu Kiln Daya" on the bottom were sold to the Prince of Zhou's Mansion in Kaifeng, turning losses into profits in one fell swoop. Not to mention, the name has also been announced.
The main problem of Jinghua Porcelain now is that it is difficult to expand the scale at the moment. The people with the ability to invest in it are basically all there. Now if we want to expand the scale, we can only slowly cultivate professional talents ourselves. Porcelain making is a highly sophisticated craft in this era, and you can't even get started in it within three to five years, so you can't be in a hurry even if you are pragmatic.
Fortunately, Jun kiln has always been famous for its rarity. The low output here makes people think that "the authentic product from the place of origin is the authentic product from the place of origin. It is really slow enough." 11
