Chapter 189 Sell sugar?

Author: Potato Sweet Potato Pie

Chapter 189 Sell sugar?

Forbidden City.

In the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, the rest of the people were screened out. Emperor Hongzhi sat behind the imperial desk and listened to Xiao Jing's report.

"According to my servant's investigation, the emperor's paperweight and inkstone were pawned by His Highness to Wansheng Yuandang in Dongcheng. He received 55,000 taels of silver and the redemption price was 70,000 taels."

Hearing the difference of 15,000 taels between the two numbers, Zhu Youtang immediately became unable to sit still. He opened his eyes wide and said: "How can the merchants in this capital be so black-hearted? They just go out and go in, and they make a lot of money." A profit of fifteen thousand taels?"

As he said this, he felt pain in his heart, and he couldn't help but feel angry, mixed with jealousy, "Ha, I finally understand why Taizu Taizu of the Ming Dynasty suppressed these businessmen. It's true that they are all evil. , it really made me realize.”

Xiao Jing said cautiously: "Your Majesty, these titles have always been like this, and they have always been so profitable. Not to mention that Wanshengyuan is the largest title in the capital. It is said that many ministers in the court have some connections with it."

"Is it collusion between government and businessmen again?"

"I don't dare to say that officials and businessmen collude, but there is some filial piety every year. This is also the norm, but the Wansheng Yuan will give more."

"Ah"

A sarcastic sneer appeared at the corner of Emperor Hongzhi's mouth, but it quickly faded away.

common practice?

So Bingjing and Carbonjing are not the so-called routines.

Oh, it's just accepting bribes in the name of routine.

"Your Majesty, can you go to Wanshengyuan's pawn shop to redeem the things?"

Hearing this, the corners of Zhu Youtang's eyes twitched twice. He also wanted to redeem it. After all, it was his beloved thing. He had used it for more than ten years and it had feelings.

But the problem is where did the money come from? There are only more than 100,000 taels left in the internal funds. So many people in the palace rely on this money to support themselves.

There was no question as to whether they could last until the summer. They spent 70,000 taels to redeem the inkstone and paperweight. How could so many people survive?

What's more, I don't even have the pawn tickets, and I still have the interest of fifteen thousand taels.

Xiao Jing glanced at Emperor Hongzhi, and then said cautiously: "If Dongchang and Jinyiwei are asked to come forward, there will be no need to pawn tickets, no interest, and perhaps even redemption of silver."

Halfway through the words, Zhu Youtang couldn't help but glare at him, "Jin Yiwei and Dongchang came forward. Fortunately, you can think of it, whether they think the matter is not big enough, or because they don't know outside the palace that the prince stole my things and pawned them." thing?"

"My slave said something wrong, and I should be punished."

With that said, Xiao Jing gave himself a hard fight and was about to do another one, but was stopped by Emperor Hongzhi, "That's it, tell me where the pawn ticket was hidden by the prince."

"."

Hearing this, Xiao Jing could not help but remain silent until Emperor Hongzhi became impatient, and then he spoke:

"According to what I found out, the prince went to Xima's house in the Economic Affairs Bureau on the night he pawned something, and handed over the pawn tickets and the silver deed to Xia Yuan. The two of them went to pick up the pawn tickets a few days ago. money, and then we started doing business as a partnership."

"."

Zhu Youtang also fell silent, and the scene of beating his son that night flashed through his mind. The traitor was hung under the beam of Ciqing Palace, and he beat him hard on the back with a bamboo stick.

There are only two purposes. One is to let him have a long memory and never steal again in the future, or even have such thoughts;

The second is to let this boy tell the truth and not to deceive him in front of his father.

But this traitor was very stubborn. No matter how hard he beat him, he refused to tell the truth. He cried hoarsely and swore that he had lost the pawn tickets and silver deeds, but promised to redeem them for him in the future.

In the end, he couldn't bear to fight anymore, threw away the bamboo stick in his hand, turned around and left angrily, and concluded that this traitor wanted money rather than his life.

result

Are you actually doing business in partnership, or with Xia Yuan?

After a long while, Zhu Youtang finally asked: "What kind of business are these two doing together that requires more than 50,000 taels of silver?"

"This slave didn't know much about it, but he guessed that the business might be related to sugar. More than ten miles east along the Tonghui River from Dongbianmen of the capital, they bought a large piece of land near the river with money.

Many people were hired to start building houses here, and a lot of the cheapest sugar on the market was purchased.

Moreover, they bought several shops in the capital. These shops are large in scale and located in prosperous areas of the capital. They must have spent a lot of money, and they also hired people to decorate them."

"."

Zhu Youtang fell into silence again, not knowing what to say for a while. Doing a business that seems to be related to sugar?

If the two of them opened a pawn shop together, he might be able to understand it. After all, with his new understanding of the pawn shop's profit-making, he already knew that the pawn shop was a treacherous shop that made huge profits, but could sugar make money?

Moreover, the sugar was not made by oneself but purchased from the market. What did these two people want to do, buy other people's sugar and then sell it at a higher price?

Yes, the land they purchased was close to the canal. Perhaps they wanted to use water transportation to buy sugar from the capital and then transport it to places where sugar was scarce.

Thinking of this, Emperor Hongzhi really couldn't think about it anymore, because the canal led to the south of the Yangtze River. Although he had lived in the palace for a long time, he also knew that sugar cane was not available in the north, east, west, and could only be grown in the south.

Every year, the sugar cane in the palace comes from the south.

Making sugar requires sugar cane, which means sugar is produced in the south.

Then the manufactured sugar would be transported from the south to the capital along the waterway, and the price would be raised to earn the price difference.

But these two people.

Zhu Youtang felt that his mind was a little confused, "Xiao Banban, what do they want to do? Is it possible that they really want to resell sugar?"

"I don't know this slave, but I guess it's not selling sugar, but it should be related to sugar, such as making cakes and other sweet things."

At this point, Xiao Jing couldn't go on. If he was making pastries, why would he need to buy land? Could it be that he wanted to make the pastries and then drive them to a shop in the capital to sell them?

This is just a waste of time. If you buy a few shops, hire a few pastry chefs to make them, and sell them directly, the sales volume will be better.

"Your Majesty, do you want to summon Xia Xima to the palace for questioning?"

Zhu Youtang couldn't help but ponder upon hearing this. At the moment, he had some thoughts of being an ostrich, and he didn't want to summon Xia Yuan to the palace, for fear that he would find out that it was really a sugar business.

If this is really the case, doesn't it mean that more than 50,000 taels of silver have been wasted, which makes me feel guilty just thinking about it.

Emperor Hongzhi, who was always frugal, felt sorry for money the most, especially during this period. He didn't dare to check the money in his bank account. Every time he saw the money reduced, he closed his eyes and couldn't bear to look at it again.

Not to mention fifty thousand taels, even five thousand taels was enough to make him feel distressed for a while.

But then I thought about it and realized that it was not necessarily reselling sugar.

And I may not be able to use up all the money in the past few days, maybe there will be some left...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youtang suddenly said: "Go and summon the prince and Xia Yuan into the palace quickly."
Chapter completed!