Chapter 19 There is no industry that can make money quickly
Under the leadership of the young eunuch, Chongzhen spent several mornings taking a quick look at some of the bureaus and factories under the control of the inner palace, and then he felt bad.
It's not because those places are so unpalatable, nor because the craftsman spirit inside is so weak. The real reason is that he hasn't found a way to make money quickly under the current situation in the past few days.
The so-called sugar, salt, soap, glass, wine, cement and other methods that travelers often use to make quick money. After looking around, he sadly found that none of them were suitable for his own use. White sugar and table salt are also in Beijing.
It is not the place of origin, and there is no advantage in raw materials. It can only be refined. Not only will you make a lot of money, but the key is that you can only go the high-end road. High-end products are not a way to make quick money. From product production to market
It takes at least two or three years to cultivate this thing, and it develops gradually. It is impossible to have a sudden sales situation. The same is true for soap and liquor, there is no user habit! You have to slowly cultivate and educate users, to put it bluntly
It doesn’t have the potential to be a hit. Cement needs to be developed first, and then time is spent on promotion! Glass products may become a hit, but I can’t make them in a short time, and I have to make them.
It also takes time to make finished products and mass-produce them.
What is lacking now is time. The best way right now is to create a big hit product that is a popular product. Once it is launched on the market, it will be accepted by the majority of consumers. This must be a replacement for the products that everyone uses every day.
It must have huge advantages in price and performance. Even if there is no advantage in price, it must at least have huge advantages in performance, and it must be able to be produced quickly with existing processes.
This requirement is too high, and Zhu Youjian is at a loss what to do.
"Daban, please remember to find a few craftsmen and assistants who are good at making iron, wood and copperware from the palace's factory, and then find a few craftsmen who can refine white sugar, and ask them to bring their tools and find them in Long Live Mountain.
Set up a house within three days and prepare all the raw materials they need. I will use them these days."
Not finding a hit item that he liked, Chongzhen had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and prepare to develop the centrifugal sugar processing technology first. Although sugar may not be a hit item, at least it will not result in loss of money. As the saying goes, it is good.
, if you don’t lose money, you will make a profit. Even if you produce too much and no one sells it, it doesn’t matter, because it still has great use.
After Wang Chengen became the Prime Minister of the Internal Affairs Hall and the Supervisor of the Expert Factory, he was very motivated to work and handled things with ridiculous efficiency. This guy finished the work that was supposed to be completed in three days in two days.
Early on the third day, Chongzhen saw the craftsmen he had found at Meishan. They had prepared everything and were waiting for the emperor's instructions.
"Masters, I came to you today because I want you to make an object. Where is the master carpenter?"
"The common people pay their respects to the Emperor." An old man came out tremblingly and knelt before the Emperor to answer.
"Okay, you listen to my instructions and make a wooden barrel. The barrel should be half a person's height and have a lid. Then dig a hole in the middle of the lid, and pass a half-inch thick stick through the hole.
Pass the stick through and make contact with the bottom of the barrel. There should be a bolt between the round stick and the bottom of the barrel. In short, I want a wooden stick that can rotate freely in the barrel. Nail a few paddles on this wooden stick, and fix it on the outside of the barrel.
Get a twist handle on the wooden stick. The formed object is a wooden barrel that allows people to twist the twist handle on the outside and stir up the water inside."
After talking to the carpenter for a long time, the carpenter finally understood what the emperor wanted. This thing sounded mysterious, but after he understood it, it was not difficult. The carpenter felt that the most difficult thing was communicating with the emperor.
After ordering the carpenters, coppersmiths, and blacksmiths to help make the centrifuge, Chongzhen ordered the sugarmakers to go through the existing sugar purification technology process.
After completing the process, it was almost noon. Li Zhenxin asked the eunuch to arrange for everyone to have a light meal before continuing.
In the afternoon, the carpenters finally made a simple centrifuge. Zhu Youjian tried it and could barely use it.
After getting the centrifuge, Chongzhen asked the sugarmaker to go through the process of purifying white sugar from yellow mud again. He stopped at the last few steps and poured the mixture of yellow mud and syrup into the centrifuge. Then he asked the strong blacksmith to
Stir vigorously.
After stirring for a long time, stop and let it settle for a while, then open the lid and scoop out the top stuff. Then let the sugar maker check the quality.
"Your Majesty! The white sugar made using this method is much better than the one we make. It also saves a lot of trouble and the sugar yield is also high."
"It seems to be usable. In that case, you guys will stay here for the next few days and discuss together to make this object more useful. After you make a suitable sample, let me know and I will come and accept it.
If you do a good job, I will reward you with a hundred taels of silver for a few of you! Remember, what I want is something that is practical, not something with carved patterns. This thing will be used when people actually make white sugar in the future.
It’s easy to make and convenient to use!”
After another long talk, Chongzhen led the people back to the palace to discuss business with Wang Chengen.
"Daban, do you think this method can be used to make white sugar?"
"Your Majesty is so smart that you can think of such an object to make white sugar. In the future, the palace will not have to buy sugar directly from outside. Let's buy brown sugar! This will save the palace a lot of money."
"My dear friend! Can't you think more broadly? Since we can make sugar better and faster than others, why would we use this method to build a factory to sell sugar to outsiders? No matter how much it is, there is always a profit, right?
?”
"This old slave is so stupid that he didn't expect this. He brought in low-priced brown sugar and made it into high-quality white sugar and then sold it. This is indeed a way to make money."
"The method is good, but you also need to be able to run it. After the craftsmen make suitable items, you can arrange for someone to take the sugar craftsmen to build a small factory first, and then see the sales situation before deciding whether to expand it.
Scale. This time the factory will be different from before, the purpose is to make money! So you first find the person in charge, and then ask him to make a budget, consider the factory, pay the workers, and how much total raw materials are needed.
How much money can he make for the palace in one year! Approval the money he wants in one go, and then arrange for someone to check the accounts every month, and evaluate his business performance every six months. If he fails to achieve the goal he promised, he will be held accountable and replaced.
.If he achieves his goal, 10% of his net profit will be awarded to him, and another 10% will be awarded to all the workers. The other 30% will be used to expand the factory's production, and the palace will only receive half of the net profit. Remember
The new factory established in the palace, your expert factory, and the money management bureau in the palace must be constantly supervised, and corruption will never be allowed to occur, and I will not give them any less of the reward they deserve."
Let’s start implementing the contract responsibility system from this small sugar factory. Otherwise, no matter how many profitable transactions we make, it will not be able to offset the losses caused by corruption. Any industry in the future must be operated using this method.