His Highness King of Han wanted to buy grain at market price? After this news was released, a group of merchants below began to calculate. Grain was a small profit but quick turnover.
Liu Mang's Yangzhou's grain price was controlled by the government. It was divided into several grades: coarse rice, fine rice, and unrefined rice.
Naturally, the price would be different. However, in conclusion, the price of grain was very suitable for the market. It was not to the extent that the people could not afford to eat. Naturally, the price of grain would not be high.
However, how much grain these merchants could buy from Fu Nan and Lin Hu was up to them.
For example, if Liu Mang's Yangzhou's grain price was between three hundred and four hundred copper coins per dan, then if they bought from Fu Nan and Lin Hu for two hundred copper coins per dan, then they would make a profit of one hundred copper coins. If they bought from Fu Nan and Lin Hu for a hundred copper coins per dan, then they would make a profit of two hundred copper coins. If the price was lower, then they would make more.
"Minister Mi!" The merchant surnamed Sun came out and respectfully greeted Mi Zhu. He was lucky. In the past, Mi Zhu would not appear in the Bureau of Commerce unless there was an important matter.
This time, it was Liu Mang's order. Even if there was an important matter, he would not be able to sit in the front row. Who was he? He was just a small merchant from a remote village in Jiao Province. It was his fortune to be able to enter the Bureau of Commerce, yet he wanted to sit in the front row? Wasn't that just daydreaming?
This time, because he was from the Jiao State and was familiar with Lin Hu, he had the opportunity to speak and walk to the front row.
The merchant surnamed Sun walked up to Mi Zhu, trembling with fear. Mi Zhu was a genius in the business world and was also a senior figure. Xu Banzhou wasn't joking when he said that.
Now, Mi Zhu held the position of Yangzhou's Minister of Revenue. This position was second only to one person.
It was even comparable to the Governor of Jiao Province.
How could a small merchant like him not be afraid?
"You're Sun Wen, right?" Mi Zhu smiled at the merchant surnamed Sun.
"Ah!" Merchant Sun was taken aback. Lord Mi Zhu Mi knew his name, but he actually knew who he was? All of a sudden, Merchant Sun was stunned. Then, he felt flattered.
"Yes, yes, yes! I am Sun Wen, I am Sun Wen! Fortunately, an official from the Ministry of Revenue had come with Mi Zhu to warn Sun Wen. Otherwise, Sun Wen would have made a fool of himself.
Even so, Sun Wen was still overjoyed. Minister Mi actually recognized him.
The crowd below also began to stir. Sun Wen was originally a nobody, but Lord Mi Zhu actually knew him! All of them were burning with jealousy. Who did Sun Wen think he was?
However, a smile soon appeared on their faces. Since Minister Mi Zhu remembered a small merchant like Sun Wen, there was no reason why he wouldn't remember big merchants like them.
If Lord Mi Zhu were to leave a deep impression on him, he wouldn't have to worry about money anymore.
"No need for formalities! "Mi Zhu said to the merchants below. He knew Sun Wen, but that didn't mean he knew everyone here.
The reason Mi Zhu knew Sun Wen was because Sun Wen came from Jiao Province. Although Liu Mang had taken over Jiangdong, Jiao Province hadn't completely submitted to him. The merchants there were still observing, but they were still very polite to Liu Mang. Thus, Liu Mang had no reason to attack them.
Liu Mang knew that if he won the war, the merchants would definitely submit to him. If he lost, there was no need to consider anything. They could just wash their necks and wait for death.
Because of this, Liu Mang wasn't in a hurry to take over Jiao Province. Jiao Province wasn't rich to begin with, so it was fine to keep it there. Liu Mang even treated merchants from Jiao Province as a friendly message to them.
Sun Wen naturally caught Mi Zhu's attention. In fact, Mi Zhu was also the reason why Sun Wen was able to enter the Bureau of Commerce as a small merchant.
"Minister Mi, I, I have something to say, but I don't know if I should say it!" Sun Wen asked cautiously.
"This is the Bureau of Commerce. As long as it's related to commerce, you can speak freely. There is no such thing as Minister Mi here. You can just treat me as a merchant!" Mi Zhu said with a smile. Mi Zhu was worthy of being a merchant. After being tempered in the bureaucracy, he became even more eloquent. His words brought everyone closer to each other.
When Sun Wen heard Mi Zhu's words, he calmed himself down and began to speak. "Minister Mi, this lowly one came from the Jiao Province. The transportation here is very difficult. Lin Hu's land originally belonged to the southern part of the South Yue Kingdom. It was originally owned by the local aboriginals and the South Yue Kingdom. It's not that this lowly one is looking down on Lin Hu, but compared to our Jiao Province, those barbarian lands are like Yangzhou. How can they transport grain out?" Sun Wen asked Mi Zhu.
Once Sun Wen's words left his mouth, everyone present nodded in agreement. Traffic was indeed a huge problem.
Since ancient times, there was a saying that if you want to get rich, you have to build roads first. The greatest contribution of the ancient people was to build roads and bridges.
Yangzhou's transportation could be said to be one of the most prosperous transportation routes in the Great Han Dynasty. This was because Liu Mang had opened up a lot of pipelines. They were no longer the same as before where they just flattened the ground. When it rained, the roads would be muddy.
Now, they were using cement to pave the roads. Therefore, the cement merchants were making a lot of money. It was easy to imagine how many roads there were in Yangzhou. Now, Jiangdong and Xuzhou were also paved with cement.
Jiao Province was still covered with mud. The land there was also not good. It was filled with deep mountains and dense forests. There was also miasma.
Jiao Province was already so dilapidated. Lin Hu was even more dilapidated than Jiao Province. Wasn't this a joke?
In the past, the southernmost part of the Great Han Dynasty was the South Yue Country, which was now Jiao Province. The southernmost part of Jiao Province was Lin Hu. It could be said to be the edge of the Great Han Dynasty.
If there was a road, the aristocratic families of Jiao Province would have sent troops to Lin Hu. They would have brought food from there and sold it to the Central Plains. Food was a hard currency. Wouldn't they have made a lot of money?
It was precisely because the road was difficult or there was no road at all that they couldn't make this connection.
"That's right!" Hearing Sun Wen's words, Mi Zhu nodded. "You're right. Lin Hu's land is even more dilapidated than Jiao Province. It's difficult to travel by land. But this time, we're not going to travel by land. We're going to take another route!"
"Another route?"
"Minister, what do you mean?" Some merchants seemed to have thought of something.
"Well, we're going to take the sea route. Along the coast of Jiao Province, we can directly reach Lin Hu and Fu Nan. As long as we reach these two countries, you can sell your goods and fill your ships with food!" Mi Zhu told them the news that Liu Neng had found. He even brought news that although Lin Hu and Fu Nan were poor, it meant that no matter how poor a country was, its rulers were still rich. Because of this, there was a saying that as long as you were an official, you would be able to eat and drink well wherever you go.
Sun Wen also nodded. Indeed, there were many rich people in Lin Hu's generation. The tribal chiefs were not only not poor, they were even richer than a country. This was because they more or less knew the location of some gold mines. Those mines were deep in the mountains and forests. No one was mining there. The gold was open-air nugget gold. Someone once brought it out.
However, because Lin Hu's tribe was superstitious, the Han people didn't have anything to trade with them. Therefore, they couldn't bring out the gold nugget. Not to mention enemies, even a mosquito or a spider could kill you if you went deep into the mountains and forests.
You might take a breath one second and be poisoned to death the next.
The reward was obviously not proportional, so many people did not connect the dots.
But now it's different. We can go by sea. We just need to go to the other side's port. As for the gold nuggets, those small tribes will take them out and we'll trade them at the port. This way, our safety will be greatly improved.
These businessmen were all born in the year of the dog. Their noses were extremely sensitive. Naturally, they could smell the business opportunity in this.
The first wave might be a little risky, but it was also a great opportunity. Mi Zhu said that the 8,000 strong navy would be coming with them. There was also a huge military warship. Their safety was guaranteed.
As for the possible storms on the sea, the Yangzhou Navy had already been to Funan and Lin Hu once, so the second time was naturally not a problem. The other risks were directly ignored. If there was no risk in doing anything, then everyone would be rich bosses.
But then a group of merchants cried. This was because they found a serious problem. This was a good plan, but they had to have a ship. They were going to take the sea route. It wasn't something that could be used with small boats. They had to have a large ship.
How could they transport without a ship?
It seems like His Highness King of Han also knew about this problem.
An official from the Ministry of Revenue stood up and told the merchants that His Highness King of Han would be responsible for renting the ships for the first wave of merchants.
These seagoing ships were naturally transformed from the Garen ships. There were also some turreted ships. Altogether, they could take out over a hundred ships.
All of a sudden, many merchants couldn't sit still. There were ships and trade routes. Why wouldn't they go there once?
Merchants were very adventurous. The opening of the Silk Road started with merchants.
However, although they were adventurous, they were still vigilant. Most of the merchants asked for three or four ships. Some of the smaller merchants only asked for one ship. There were even two merchants who asked for one ship, just in case. After all, no one knew what was going on at sea.
"Milord, these are the ships approved by the Commerce Bureau." Mi Zhu, the Minister of Revenue, went to Liu Mang and handed in the application.
"Oh!" Liu Mang nodded his head and looked at the already filled application form.
Liu Mang took out more than a hundred ships but there were still some empty ships. There were still twenty empty ships that no one wanted.
Liu Mang frowned. "These 20 ships, no one wants to rent them?"
"Yes, Milord. Those merchants still have a wait-and-see attitude." Mi Zhu was a little embarrassed. He had personally gone out, but in the end, there were still 20 Garen Ships that were not rented. This made Mi Zhu feel embarrassed.
"Forget it." Liu Mang waved his hand and snorted. "Write down the names of the merchants who rented the ships. The next time we go out, these merchants will have the priority to rent the ships. As for the rest, hmph. Write down the names of the Commerce Bureau. If the conditions are the same, they will be the last to rent!" Liu Mang was angry.
Liu Mang supported commerce, but that didn't mean that he would let these merchants take advantage of him. This trip wasn't just because Liu Mang supported commerce. There was another reason. Liu Mang wanted the merchants to help him buy food from Funan and Linhu to bring back to Yangzhou. This way, Yangzhou would have enough food. Liu Mang could compete with the Central Plains' Cao Cao.
Now, these merchants are only thinking about benefits. They are waiting to help Liu Mang. Isn't this just looking for trouble?
"Yes, I understand." Mi Zhu nodded. Even if Liu Mang didn't say it, he would have done it anyway. Power and duty always complemented each other. It was impossible to enjoy all the power and not fulfill the duty. This was the case with the people who were looking on.
"Mi Family's four ships?" Liu Mang looked at the name of the Mi Family on the application. He couldn't help but smile at Mi Zhu. Mi Zhu's family naturally wanted four Garen ships. Each ship weighed more than 200 tons and could carry about 350 tons when fully loaded.
This Mi Zhu knew how to make money. If this transaction was successful, then these four ships would be worth a lot of money. If the natives used dog head gold to make the transaction, then they would make even more money.
"Haha!" Mi Zhu blushed when he saw Liu Mang's playful smile. However, he quickly regained his composure. Mi Zhu was a businessman. So what if he only cared about profit? Not to mention, he did not steal or rob. It was perfectly justified.
Liu Mang shook his head and didn't care much about it. He could give these people some benefits. After all, he couldn't let a Prime Minister's family be so poor that they couldn't even afford meat.
"This Sun Trading Company?" Liu Mang was puzzled.
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