Ang Lee was very clear about the tricks of hype. He had also experienced a lot of hype. Since ancient times, many black-hearted businessmen were very keen on hype. All kinds of goods could be used for hype. Hype could actually be described in another word, that was hoarding. The essence of hype was to hoard a large number of scarce goods on the market, so as to make the goods more scarce, then push up the price of the goods, and then sell them out to make a huge profit.
For the hoarding behavior of the merchant group, the common people had been very hateful since ancient times, so they would label the merchants as profiteers. All profiteers referred to the unscrupulous behavior of the merchants who did not care about the interests of others and only cared about themselves. Hyping the goods that the common people needed was one of them.
Because the essence of hype was hoarding, and it must be the goods that the common people needed. In this way, the probability of success of hype would be the highest. In this way, it was destined that some goods could not be hyped.
For example, high-yield crops could not be hyped. One year, because of good weather, the output of apples doubled, and red apples were everywhere on the market. Therefore, only fools would hoard apples for hype because there were too many of these goods, and they were not scarce at all. The difficulty of hype was too high. Perhaps a large number of hype merchants needed to cooperate and buy all the apples together. This might cause the scarcity of apples, and thus increase the price of apples. However, such a huge hoarding quantity was not easy to do. The most important thing was that such a large number of apples could not be sold at a high price. Selling a part of the market would be saturated, and in the end, it would be a loss. The interests of a large number of merchants could not be coordinated. After hoarding, the first to sell could make a profit, and the second to sell would probably lose all their capital.
If the output of apples was halved because of a drought or a cold spring, the price of apples would definitely increase. The merchants who liked to hype would take advantage of this opportunity to arrive at the apple production area first and buy the scarce apples. Thus, the apples on the market would be almost invisible, and the price would naturally rise. Then, they would slowly sell them, and they would definitely make a lot of money.
Of course, some hype had a huge impact on the common people, and some hype had little impact on the common people. For example, some cultural items, antiques, and so on. Only the rich could afford them. Even if the price was hyped to the sky, it had no impact on the common people.
Ang Lee remembered that there was a kind of pecan that was hyped to be very expensive. This was originally a kind of food, and there was nothing special about it. However, some people felt that as long as the pecan looked good and could be made into a pair of identical ones, then these two pecans would be the best. The price would rise and even be hyped to hundreds of thousands, which was nearly a million times the actual pecan price. It was too expensive. Of course, pecans that looked exactly the same were not common. It was still very difficult to make a pair of identical pecans. This was also the rarer something was, the more expensive it was, so the more it was hyped, the more expensive it was.
But after all, this kind of thing grew on trees. Since it grew on trees, then it was completely possible to use the method of controlling the growth of the walnuts to let the walnuts grow according to people's wishes. After the walnuts ripened, they only needed to dig out the flesh, and the obtained walnuts would grow almost the same, and they would all have the best appearance. Because they were all controlled by the grinding tool, the probability of identical walnuts would also be greatly increased. It did not seem so difficult to make a pair of best quality walnuts.
As a result, the price of this kind of cultural walnut fell to the bottom almost overnight. The original pair of best quality walnuts that cost hundreds of thousands could only be sold for a few hundred yuan in the end. The price was reduced by a thousand times. The merchants who spent a high price to stock up lost a lot, and the people who bought it in the end lost a lot.
The people who still wanted to play these had a little bit of money. The general poor people could not afford this. Therefore, even if they lost a lot, it had nothing to do with the ordinary people. It did not have much impact on the stability of the entire society.
There was also a kind of guard dog from Tubo. It was originally a very ordinary animal, but it was hyped up by some people with ulterior motives to the price of millions of yuan, which was tens of thousands of times the original reasonable price. It had seriously deviated from the true price of this kind of dog, so it fell off the altar almost overnight. The price returned to the original reasonable price, which was tens of thousands of times higher and then tens of thousands of times lower. The merchants who spent a lot of money to set up breeding farms lost a lot of money. Some merchants were angry and sold all the equipment in the farms. As for the large number of dogs in the farms, they were directly discarded. The large number of dogs that were artificially raised suddenly lost their breeders, and the living difficulties they faced could be imagined. These selfish merchants directly abandoned a large number of dogs, causing a disaster of stray dogs in a certain area. Not only did it seriously damage the local ecological balance, but it also frequently attacked humans, which constituted a great disaster to the daily lives of ordinary people. Many timid and weak people did not dare to go out alone, which formed a very serious dog problem in the local area.
The casual abandonment of the merchants caused an extremely serious dog problem in a certain area, and the most direct way to control the dog problem was either to kill all these stray dogs or to adopt a mandatory shelter policy. Killing was the simplest and easiest way to do it, as long as weapons were taken out to surround and capture the stray dogs. However, because there were some so-called dog lovers who had nothing better to do, they tried their best to stop the imperial court's dog extermination plan with the love of the Virgin Mary, and even used violent means. As for these dogs hurting people and causing great trouble to people's lives, these disgusting people did not consider it at all. A few people died, as long as their beloved dogs were happy, it was fine.
Of course, there was another way, and that was to shelter all the dogs, but because these unscrupulous merchants released too many dogs, this caused great difficulties in the shelter work, and the resources of the imperial court were limited. Without enough kennels and sufficient funds, there was no way to achieve a large-scale shelter. Moreover, the breeding ability of dogs was very strong, and after the shelter, it would cause the number of dogs to increase, and the consumption would be even greater. If sterilization was performed, this problem could be solved, but it would also cost money. In short, large-scale shelter was a bottomless pit, and it was a continuous bleeding. Even the imperial court did not dare to be so wasteful.
Since the extermination was stopped and the shelter was not realistic, there was really no good way. The evil dogs were still everywhere, and no one could solve this problem. The people who were injured would always be the people.
Dog frying was the most disgusting and harmful kind of hype. Other hype was just pouring the milk and smashing the cabbage in the ground. It was not harmful to the ordinary people, but this dog frying merchant, after the hype failed, released a large number of dogs in a fit of anger, causing extremely heavy losses to the ecology and the safety of the people. It even caused the deaths of many innocent people, and the loss of property was incalculable.
Hype was also a kind of deception, but this kind of deception was more sophisticated, and it was not easy to be discovered by people. If it was operated well, it might not be destroyed for hundreds of years. Of course, if it could really be maintained for hundreds of years, then it was not a hype, and it could be considered the value of the product itself.
For example, a commodity like diamond was originally a carbon isotope. Because it was beautiful and hard enough, it was pushed to a very high price. Moreover, it had always been expensive for hundreds of years. It had never fallen in price, and there was even a trend of price increase.
In fact, diamonds were not scarce, but they were controlled by a few merchants. They would adjust the output according to the changes in the market and always maintain the relative scarcity of diamonds. Even if they did not sell all of them, they would never sell them at a low price. Moreover, through some kind of publicity, the value of this product was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so as to increase the sales volume step by step and expand their own market. A diamond lasts forever. Such a very simple advertising slogan made many people crazy, especially girls who loved to dream. They even regarded it as the standard of whether a man was sincere to them. As a result, it was difficult not to increase the sales volume, and even if the market demand suddenly became strong, the supply of diamonds had never been cut off. This was enough to show that this product was not actually out of stock, but someone had controlled it and always tried to maintain the output of this product. If the market demand was small, they would sell less. If the market expanded, they would dump all the inventory, thus maximizing the benefits.
In Ang Lee's view, diamonds were also a kind of hype, but the people who hyped them were too clever. From the beginning, they controlled most of the supply. Then, several merchants who had a large number of goods all joined forces to maintain the high value of this market. For their common interests, none of them were willing to expand the output at will. In this way, this myth was maintained for hundreds of years, and the merchants who did this business could always make a lot of money. Many people had to pay a lot of money to buy this useless material.
The people who speculated in diamonds were too bad. Of course, they were too clever. They were so clever that they did not spoil the diamonds for hundreds of years. This myth had never been broken, and in the foreseeable future, there was still a great possibility that it would not be broken. The poor people would always suffer because of it.
Ang Lee hated hype in his heart. In fact, when he thought about it carefully, he was also a master of hype. Glass and mirrors were very cheap products. Because others did not master them, Ang Lee's workshop would sell them at a very high price. The actual value of these products was not so much. Ang Lee sold glass products at a high price, which was completely making black money. What was the difference between him and those guys who speculated in real estate?
However, a house was a necessity, and the price was too high. The people could not bear it. The price of glass products such as mirrors was not much money even if they were sold at ten times the cost. Moreover, it did not matter if the family did not buy a mirror, but if there was no house, there was no place to live. Therefore, Ang Lee felt that the degree of harm to society by making black money was very small, far less than those who speculated in real estate.
Ang Lee's contribution to the Tang dynasty was too great. In this way, Ang Lee's overall contribution to the Tang dynasty was greater. Compared to Ang Lee's contribution, making a little black money was nothing at all.
Since he wanted to invent a rice husking machine, it was naturally better to go to the rice husking workshop in person to have a look. Only by seeing the hard work of the craftsmen could Ang Lee's motivation to invent the machine be greater.
At this time, it was very close to the spring plowing and the spring harvest, but there was almost no rice in Guanzhong. It took a long time for the rice harvested in Guangzhou to be transported to the capital, but many merchants' warehouses and grain growers' warehouses in the capital had a large amount of rice stored. Therefore, it was not difficult to see the rice husking scene. Such a scene could be seen every day in the capital all year round as long as one was willing to go to the rice husking workshop.
It was also very boring to stay in the R&D center all day, so Ang Lee would go around from time to time to look for inspiration. It was better than staying in one place all day, and he could better understand the situation, the needs of the people, the requirements of the workshop for the machine, and better understand the suffering of the people.
"Where is the largest rice husking workshop in the capital?"
Ang Lee asked the young official.
"The largest one in the capital? I really don't know. There are too many rice husking workshops in the capital. I only know a few dozen of them. Among them, the largest one is in the south of the city, only five miles away from here. "
The young official replied.
"Oh, only five miles. So close, then we must go and have a look. Go, prepare the car."
Ang Lee left as soon as he said that, not to mention how unrestrained he was.
It wouldn't take much time to walk five miles, let alone travel by car. It didn't take long for them to arrive at the rice husking workshop. Next to the workshop was a granary. There were more than a dozen granaries, and each granary could store hundreds of tons of food. With more than a dozen granaries, they could store at least a few thousand tons of food, or even more.
As soon as Ang Lee got out of the car, someone ran over, looking very enthusiastic. Obviously, he saw the luxury car and thought that a big deal was coming.
"Assistant Minister Li, this is the rice processing workshop of the Su family in Yangzhou. Twenty years ago, the Su family bought a house and many shops in the capital, specializing in selling rice and rice from their hometown. A few years ago, they bought a piece of land and built more than a dozen granaries. There is also this rice husking workshop in front of you. This person is a small housekeeper, also from Suzhou."
Suzhou in the Tang dynasty was a very developed prefecture, located in the Yangtze River Delta area of the later generations. The water network here was crisscrossed, and the agricultural development was very good. In addition, because it was close to the Yangtze River and the coast, the development of the fishing industry was also very good, and it was a good place that everyone envied.
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