Author: Use your soul to aim

When the first salt well in Xiazhou was opened, another highly profitable product was added to Zhang Zongxian's business territory.

Although salt in the Ming Dynasty was much cheaper than in the Song Dynasty, it was still a monopoly commodity.

In Shaanxi, one pound of salt costs eight qian, which is 800 fen.

An adult normally eats two kilograms of salt a year. When doing heavy work, you need to supplement salt.

The salt in Shaanxi generally comes from two places, one is Zigong in Sichuan, and the other is the salt lake in Yuncheng, Shanxi.

The distance is not close, and the salt in Xiazhou is mined from rock salt and can be eaten directly.

The cost is basically nothing.

It was sold to the people of Shaanxi for only four cents per catty, which directly drove those private salt dealers to death.

As the briquette business expanded, private salt also entered various counties in Shaanxi.

Currently, it is not possible to capture the entire Shaanxi market due to production constraints. As production increases, there will be no problem in forcing out the salt from Sichuan and Shanxi.

It can even be sold back, and in the future not only Shaanxi and Shanxi, but the entire northern market will be occupied.

Cheap salt also makes it easier to preserve mutton brought back from the grasslands.

Mutton marinated with coarse salt has become popular in Jiazhou. If you don't hang a marinated lamb leg in your home, your neighbors will look down on you.

This kind of mutton marinated in coarse salt is shipped to Shanxi. When people buy it back and eat it, they cut it into two slices and put it in a bowl. It is much more cost-effective than buying salt directly.

At present, the output of the entire salt industry is less than 5,000 taels. As the output increases, it will soon exceed that of the woolen yarn workshop.

The profits from the above-mentioned industries are considerable, and any one of them can be as rich as the country.

However, the existence of Taiping's grain store and bank was Zhang Zongxian's real confidence.

Originally, Zhang Zongxian had already made preparations to subsidize the grain store. After all, if he wanted to develop the workshop, he had to ensure that the food supply could not fluctuate greatly.

In this feudal society with underdeveloped logistics, if grain prices are not fixed, all the money earned by factory workers will go into the pockets of grain merchants.

On the one hand, Tianping's grain warehouse has taken over all the official warehouses in Jiazhou.

On the other hand, all the grain taxes paid by the people also went into the hands of Taiping.

And because Taiping’s harvested grain was 10% higher than the market price, people were willing to sell grain to Taiping.

People in nearby states and counties were even willing to travel hundreds of miles to sell to Taiping.

For this reason, Taiping also set up a grain collection base near Jiazhou.

The people in Shanxi also wanted to sell grain to Taiping, but unfortunately the Yellow River blocked the bridge and the bridge had not been built. Otherwise, they would all go to Jiazhou to sell grain.

The price Taiping collects and sells to the people is 10% lower than normal retail prices, so it should not make any money.

However, Taiping was strong and not short of money, and Zhang Zongxian had always advocated the use of machinery, so he did not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to build water conservancy flour mills.

This is better than grinding with a donkey. The flour produced is extremely fine and can be sold at a high price. Ten buildings were built in one go, and thousands of kilograms of flour were ground every day.

Soon others followed suit, causing land prices along the Yellow River to rise.

In addition to the 100,000 shi of food as compensation, another 100,000 shi was later purchased from Yansui Town at 60% of the market price.

After calculation, the grain is worth 140,000 taels. In addition to the grain purchased from the private sector, the grain warehouse's current grain inventory has reached 300,000 taels.

Reclaiming this food in the Hetao in the future will be a guarantee.

The Taiping bank has expanded more rapidly than the grain store, with branches in Yulin, Yan'an, Xi'an, and Beijing.

The biggest factor limiting bank expansion is lack of manpower.

Although some outer sect disciples have entered the bank as an intern, they do not have the age and experience to become semicolon shopkeepers all of a sudden.

These shopkeepers have to be trained slowly, and their family members must be used as hostages before they can be released.

If you don't have a deposit at Taiping Bank when doing business in Jiazhou, no one will be willing to do business with him.

Moreover, the credit of Taiping Bank became even stronger after Zhang Zongxian killed the prefect.

Officials in Shaanxi knew that Zhang Zongxian was not easy to mess with and was a lunatic with no rules.

Naturally, no one will make it difficult for the bank's business.

Now, in addition to the properties under Zhang Zongxian's name, there are also government offices and the New Army uses bank notes to issue money.

All the major workshops in Xiazhou also deposit funds into banks, and employees are paid with bills issued by banks.

Notes are also used for transactions in the horse market. If you want to buy spirits, wool, etc., you must use notes.

This greatly facilitated the circulation of Taiping bills. At first, people did not trust the bills issued by Taiping.

After receiving their wages, people were eager to exchange their bills for copper coins and silver.

But soon people discovered that using bills to buy food and salt offered discounts, and bills were more convenient to use than copper coins and silver.

First of all, the bill paper is very special. Not only is it not easy to tear, it will not fall apart or be soaked when soaked in water.

This is paper made of cotton velvet by Zhang Zongxian, influenced by the TV series in his previous life.

Then use steel plate engraving technology to form a three-dimensional relief texture on the bill. Touching the gravure part with your hand will have a strong concave and convex feeling.

With these anti-counterfeiting technologies alone, people can easily identify authenticity and counterfeiting, and no longer need to carry scissors with them to cut money.

Not to mention carrying heavy copper coins for transactions.

Bills of one cent, ten cents, fifty cents, one hundred cents, and one tael quickly became popular in Jiazhou.

In Jiazhou, both the merchant houses and the salesmen on the street now only recognize receipts issued by the Taiping Hao.

When outsiders come, whether they are doing business or visiting relatives, they have to exchange the silver and copper coins they have with them into bills before they can spend their money.

Even people in surrounding counties recognize the value of these bills. Even Xi'an can use bills to buy things.

The original plan to issue small notes worth 500,000 taels of silver was quickly diluted.

As a last resort, another one million taels of notes were issued, but they still underestimated the people's desire for small amounts of money.

After it was put on the market, it didn’t even make waves soon.

At first, Zhang Zongxian thought someone was collecting bills and looking for an opportunity to run on the bank.

However, after Yunong's full investigation, it was discovered that these small-value bills had been circulated in big cities such as Xi'an, Taiyuan, and Lanzhou.

Not to mention the counties in Shaanxi, these bills would flow wherever the caravan went.

Zhang Zongxian saw that the people were so hungry for small amounts of money.

I thought that the inflow of silver from overseas was also inflationary, so I might as well let myself collect the seigniorage.

He gritted his teeth and issued another two million taels of small-denomination notes.

The entire Taiping Bank has less than one million taels of cash in cash, and a large part of it is money that people put in the bank to earn interest.

That's not all. With the spread of the influence of small-value notes, it is expected that another 200,000 taels of small-value notes will be issued every month in the future.

In order to increase the influence of the bills, Taiping Bank also built a bank in Qingjian County and minted a hundred silver winter melons for the people to visit.

Tell everyone that Taiping Bank is not short of money.

Zhang Zongxian is not short of money now, but he is short of qualified officers and trustworthy shopkeepers.

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