The earliest Modern Literature School, the later Ancient Literature School, then the eunuch group, landlords and other reactionary forces, and even the Zongwang Group, one after another, were all big buyers of Shu Brocade.
However, they were all killed by Liu Bei. The number of the carnivorous class was greatly reduced, and the strong purchasing power of this group of people was taken away by Liu Bei.
But if Liu Bei wants the money, he won't use it to buy Shu brocade. Instead, he will use it to develop people's livelihood and develop wilderness areas. He will scatter all the money to the poor and let them reclaim the wasteland to produce food. He doesn't care about Shu brocade at all.
sales issues.
Nowadays, apart from the surviving senior officials of the Liu Bei Group in both the government and the public, few people are willing to buy Shu Brocade. In fact, the Shu Brocade warehouse is constantly hoarding products. Warehouses are being built one after another. The Shu Brocade Bureau is asking whether to lower the price.
Yield.
Liu Ye felt that if Liu Bei continued to cut off high-level leeks at the same speed, in five or six years, Shu Brocade would no longer be able to sell at a high price, or it would simply become a mass consumer product.
Then won’t the Shaofu’s income be reduced by a large amount by then?
The income of the young master in his hands has been declining year after year. It is not nice to talk about this kind of thing.
Therefore, we must seize the opportunity, find more buyers, and sell the excess Shu brocade to balance the current Shu brocade dilemma.
Therefore, Liu Ye was very happy that Fazheng was able to find new buyers for the sales of Shu brocade. These big business owners didn't care about the price, they only cared about availability, so it was only natural to take this opportunity to kill them.
Thing?
But Zhen Yan has a different view on the sale of ironware.
"It is naturally a good thing that they want to buy an iron pot, but Your Majesty, I think that we must consider whether they want to use the iron obtained after melting the iron pot to forge weapons because of the excellent material of the iron pot.
a possibility.”
It can be said that Zhen Yan's suspicion shocked Liu Ye, and then he looked at Zhen Yan with some surprise and asked in a low voice: "Do you think they have evil intentions towards the big man?"
Zhen Yan nodded.
"When it comes to ironware, we have to be careful. Ironware can be used to forge iron pots to cook rice to fill people's stomachs. It can also be used to forge weapons and kill people. Therefore, I think that even if it is sold, it cannot be sold with high-quality iron pots.
Instead, a special batch should be made for sale to foreign nations.”
Liu Bei touched the beard on his chin.
"You mean, using defective products?"
"It does not necessarily mean that defective products with obvious flaws cannot be sold, so as not to ruin the reputation. In addition, the iron pot manufacturing bureau can be forced to use poor quality iron to forge iron pots, thus reducing the quality."
Zhen Yan nodded and said: "They can't tell what real high quality is and it's hard to tell. By doing this, we can avoid threatening the big man with weapons forged from high quality iron. Secondly, we can also earn more."
Third, the quality of the iron pot is limited. Once it is worn out, they will not be able to produce it and will have to buy it. In this way, they can expand their sales and earn more profits."
Saying this, a proud smile appeared on Zhen Yan's face.
To say that this guy is still evil-hearted, he is not satisfied with killing two birds with one stone. If he insists on adding another bird, he will not suffer any losses. He will take all the benefits. All the benefits must belong to him, and the other party has been sold.
She even helped him count the money with a smile.
However, Liu Bei thought about it carefully and felt that what Zhen Yan said made sense.
The steel of the Third Empire has undergone six technological improvements, and the current quality is qualitatively different from the steel before the first improvement in the early Liangzhou period.
It means that steel was still fried at that time, but now it has progressed to the Su Steel Method stage that evolved in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Even hot blast has been invented, the smelting temperature has been greatly increased, and the quality of steel has been greatly increased.
At that time, it could be regarded as a high-quality existence of hundreds of steelmaking, but now it is not worthy of entering a weapons forge. It can only be used for civilian purposes, or to produce simple iron tools that do not have too many requirements on materials.
For example, if the corners of a trough for raising livestock need to be covered with iron, use that kind of iron.
As for items such as kitchen knives and iron pots that are highly utilized by the public, the iron used for forging must be improved steel.
At that time, it was even considered a hard-to-find civilian iron, but now it seems that it is a complete failure. If any blacksmith produces that kind of goods, he will even be held accountable.
Therefore, the Han Empire can be regarded as a steel overlord at this stage. The quality of the ironware it uses ranks first in the world. Even the steel used in civilian iron pots is of higher quality than the military ironware of many countries.
Sending such high-quality iron pots to other countries, although I am not afraid that they will be able to develop the corresponding technology in a short period of time, is somewhat risky.
It doesn't need to be so high. It's almost enough to use iron from the era of low-level technological improvements to make iron pots.
So Liu Bei agreed with Zhen Yan's idea and decided to set up a special export agency in the steel forging department. All the iron products produced by this agency use the lowest configuration of iron pot technology and are not advanced at all.
Using this kind of iron pot for export can not only ensure safety, but also obtain higher frequency orders.
As Zhen Yan said, those guys have never used the best iron pots, so how do they know what the best quality iron pots look like?
It would be great to give it to them!
As for Shu brocade, of course it doesn't matter.
As far as Liu Bei knew, Shu brocade seemed to have been introduced to Rome very early. Caesar seemed to have worn clothes woven from Shu brocade, which caused a huge sensation in Rome at that time and prompted further exchanges between the Han Empire and the Roman Empire.
.
However, the distance between the two countries is indeed very far, land transportation is inconvenient, and sea transportation is limited to technical reasons, making it difficult to establish long-term and stable connections. Therefore, the Roman rulers should have wanted enough silk, but it was difficult to obtain it.
Liu Bei thought that if he could establish a stable maritime trade route and transport enough silk brocades to the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and further sell them to Central and Western Europe, then the profits from this business would be too high.
And as much as possible, Liu Bei doesn't want middlemen.
This money should be earned by the Han Empire alone. The middlemen are meaningless except to earn the price difference. They can also easily destroy the trade routes.
Therefore, Liu Bei wanted to build the Han Dynasty's ocean-going merchant fleet as soon as possible, cultivate the Han Empire's ocean-going trade genes, and strive to let people know that the golden route can really bring them gold.
So Liu Bei also allowed the foreign trade business in silk and Shu brocade, and asked Liu Ye to personally take the lead in going to Rinan County, Jiaozhou, to negotiate with Fazheng, and then to see the progress of Guan Yu and whether the sharp-bottomed sea ships had been
Get it out.
If possible, prepare an ocean-going merchant fleet as much as possible to carry various specialties from the Han Empire to the legendary Great Qin. Do direct business with Great Qin, and you may be able to earn high profits.
In addition, we should use Nichinan County as a base to actively explore the southern and western seas, find places where people live, find places suitable for people to live, explore unfamiliar regimes and countries, and strive to establish stable connections with them.
In addition, we should use Nichinan County as a base to actively explore the southern and western seas, find places where people live, find places suitable for people to live, explore unfamiliar regimes and countries, and strive to establish stable connections with them.
Doing this is not just to make money, it is an important means to broaden your horizons and find colonies. At the same time, it is also an advance preparation for possible deflation in the future.
With the successful promotion of the Tiantian Decree, the obstacles to the development of the Third Reich have been basically cleared. The remaining two or three kittens can no longer threaten the overall situation. There is no doubt that large-scale construction and development will be the mainstream in the future.
.
And as Liu Bei spends a lot of money on the construction of farms and reclamation of wasteland, the next ten, twenty or even thirty years will be an era of agricultural production explosion in the Han Empire. The population will increase and the food output will increase.
will increase greatly, and the material wealth of the Han Empire will rise steadily.
And by that time, an important question will arise.
deflation.
The Han Empire was a country lacking precious metals, a fact that Liu Bei was not unfamiliar with.
The Han Empire lacked gold, silver, and even low-value equivalents such as copper. Even because of the traditional concept of thick burials, the precious metals that were already lacking had to be taken underground and buried.
When the economic level is low, the country's mineral reserves are enough to cope with the situation. Once the economy develops, deflation is a high probability phenomenon.
In the next few decades, with the explosion of agricultural production, the monetary economy that Liu Bei wants to maintain will inevitably face the dilemma of lack of metal mineral deposits. Money will become more and more valuable, and goods will become less and less valuable. This situation is not good for economic development.
.
So at that time, it is inevitable to obtain enough metal deposits from the outside and initiate currency reform in the country. It is difficult to develop an economy that purely uses copper coins as the main currency. Copper is not that valuable after all.
You can have copper coins, but you must also have gold and silver coins.
The Han Empire is lacking, but there is no shortage in some places. In other words, their upper class is not lacking, and they are willing to spend a large amount of gold, silver and bronze to buy sufficient luxury goods from the Han Empire for their enjoyment. At this stage, Liu Bei
It can increase the precious metal reserves of the Han Empire.
With this idea in mind, Liu Bei ordered Zhen Yan and Liu Ye to act separately.
Zhen Yan immediately went to prepare the forging department for export. Liu Ye also sorted out the situation and headed towards the Yangzhou Shipbuilding Workshop with his entourage at high speed.
There are two shipbuilding workshops in Yangzhou.
The First Shipbuilding Workshop is headquartered in Wuchang, under Guan Yu's nose, and is mainly presided over by Guan Yu. It is mainly used to manufacture military river warships and serve Guan Yu's Jiangnan water network plan. Military purposes are the main purpose.
The Second Shipbuilding Workshop was located in Wu County and was under the supervision of Cheng Yu, the governor of Yangzhou. Its main purpose was to manufacture various types of transportation ships, undertake the transportation of materials from south to north, and also develop large-scale ships for navigation.
function.
According to some indicators and lists that Liu Bei gave to Cheng Yu, Cheng Yu quickly promoted the technological innovation of the craftsmen and built a sample of the pointed-bottomed sea-going ship according to Liu Bei's vision in a very short period of time. After a series of practical operations and modifications,
In early February of the second year of Zhenguan, the construction of the first pointed-bottomed sea-going ship was completed.
After the practical operation, the experienced sailors were very excited, thinking that this kind of sea-going ship has stronger resistance to wind and waves than flat-bottomed ships, and the possibility of rollover is greatly reduced. Even if it sails away from the coast for a period of time, it will
There won't be much risk.
After Cheng Yu received the report, he finally felt relieved and prepared to tell Liu Bei the good news. But before he could tell Liu Bei the good news, Liu Ye came.
Liu Ye was also a member of the Han clan, and was promoted by Liu Bei as a general. In terms of status, he was also one of Liu Bei's "Yingmeng Xianchen", so Cheng Yu was friendly to Liu Ye and took him to visit the water that had just been tested.
Big ocean ship.
"This is a sea-going ship built in accordance with His Majesty's request, featuring a pointed bottom and a keel. It has undergone three tests before, and the conclusion reached is indeed similar to what Your Majesty said before. This kind of pointed-bottomed sea-going ship can indeed withstand the
It has stronger resistance to wind and waves than a large flat-bottomed ship."
Cheng Yu pointed to the large ship anchored at the port and showed it to Liu Ye.
Liu Ye looked at it for a while and then asked if he could get on the boat to have a look. Cheng Yu took Liu Ye on the boat to have a look.
After looking around, the two got off the boat, returned to land, and talked about Liu Bei's purpose of letting Liu Ye go south this time.
"Your Majesty plans to organize a fleet to sail west as soon as possible, to inquire with the merchants and travelers in Rinan County, to find Da Qin, to establish direct contact with Da Qin, and to sell more silk to Da Qin.
, I will be the main one in this, and no one else will be allowed to handle it.
Not only that, His Majesty also hopes that more large ships will form a fleet, so that we can take the initiative to go to the home countries of those foreign merchants, not just them. His Majesty's request for this is very clear, and he hopes that we can take the initiative.
, to get more information."
Cheng Yu thought about the news about overseas countries that he had crammed some time ago.
"It is said that the Great Qin State had already had contacts with the Han Dynasty as early as the period of Emperor Xiaojing and Emperor Xiaowu. I heard that there had been official interviews and understandings, but because the two countries were too far apart and the road was difficult, there was no further contact.
By contact, does Your Majesty mean to establish contact with the Qin Kingdom by sea?"
"Yes, Your Majesty thinks this is necessary."
Liu Ye smiled: "Of course, I also think it is necessary. Cheng Shijun, you should also know that your Majesty has eliminated many sinners over the years. It is not a pity to die for these sinners, but they are indeed extravagant people like Shu Brocade."
They were the main buyers of Shu brocade. After their death, there were fewer people buying Shu brocade.
To tell you the truth, the current output of Shu brocade is three times greater than before, but the number of buyers is constantly decreasing. If things go on like this, Shu brocade may not be able to sell at a high price, and the income of the young manor will also be reduced. When the time comes, your majesty will ask
Can I blame this matter on His Majesty's fault?"
Cheng Yu looked at Liu Ye and smiled.
"Zi Yang, you can be regarded as an old man who follows His Majesty. Why don't you understand His Majesty so well? How could His Majesty blame you for such a thing? Your Majesty has never been an indiscriminate person. If you explain the problem clearly, Your Majesty can still
Am I wronging you?"
"I know that...but as a minister, you still can't blame your Majesty for your mistakes, right?"
Liu Ye whispered: "Your Majesty will not blame your Majesty. As ministers, shouldn't we take the initiative to share your worries?"
Cheng Yu pursed his lips and nodded slowly.
"It's not unreasonable to say this, but you have to know that today's emperor is broad-minded and generous, and he is not the emperor of the past. You should not worry too much and just do your own thing. Today's emperor is the most generous.
All you need is for your subordinates to do their jobs well.
Regarding the merchant fleet, I will concentrate my manpower here. The speed is still relatively slow now, but after the craftsmen sum up their experience and speed up, it is estimated that by the middle of the year, I can hand over to you twenty large ships like this.
The Merchant Marine Corps should be enough, right?"