Even in the modern world, sugar is an important commodity.
Here in the Tang Dynasty, that was even more true.
Although sugar cane is not an original product of China, it has been introduced into China as early as the Zhou Dynasty.
Later, the sugar production method was introduced along the Silk Road, and cultivation rapidly expanded, surpassing honey and becoming an important source of sugar.
Of course, in terms of productivity in the agricultural era, no matter how much we produce, it is not enough.
The quantity is small but the demand is huge, so the price is naturally high.
In Chang'an City, one penny can buy an egg. However, one tael of stone honey, which is rock sugar made from sucrose, costs fifty pence.
The price is so expensive that it is almost as high as the price of honey.
Of course, ordinary people can't afford it, so they can only eat some maltose made from maltose.
In ancient times, sweets were given to children during the Chinese New Year, not only because the children liked sweet taste, but also because the sweets were too expensive and they could not afford to eat them on weekdays.
Li Yunze actually used such expensive things to make wine. One can imagine Li Er's mood at this time.
The nobles were shocked when they heard this. This rum was actually made of sugar. How expensive would it have to be to make back the money?
"This is a pound of sugar and wine." Li Yunze picked up a bottle of rum and shook it. He gestured to the price on the wooden sign, "A bottle is only five hundred Wen."
"Five hundred coins?!"
The nobles were shocked, not that it felt expensive but that it felt too cheap.
One or two stones of honey costs fifty cents, and one kilogram costs eight hundred cents.
Although they don’t know much about the brewing process, everyone knows that one pound of wine is four pounds of grain, or even more. Otherwise, there would be no need to ban alcohol.
If you calculate it this way, the cost of this pound of sugar and wine would be at least three guans, but it would only cost 500 ren to sell it?
Cheng Yaojin immediately asked, "Is it watered down?"
Li Yunze smiled and did not respond. It was obvious that the Luzhou governor did not understand what industrial wine making was, not brewing but direct production, and he did not understand what real blending meant.
If he had the opportunity to visit the production workshop of a winery in the modern world, he would probably give up drinking immediately after returning.
Li Yunze didn't explain much and led everyone out of the drinking area and continued walking forward.
Further forward, we came to the seasoning area.
Salt, sugar, sauce, vinegar, tea, spices, etc. are filled with many counters.
"This salt is really white." Li Er stepped forward and reached out to grab a handful of white salt. It was so thin and white that it was pleasing to the eye.
At this time, Datang did not implement a monopoly on salt and iron, so it could only be traded privately.
"These are mineral salts that have undergone multiple filtrations." Li Yunze came up to discuss business. "The quality is still not good enough. I want to buy a seaside salt farm to produce high-quality sea salt. What do you think, Your Majesty?"
"Isn't this good?" Li Er was stunned, and then looked at Fang Xuanling, "Just discuss this with Fang Qing."
Fang Xuanling understood Li Er's eyes, he wanted to make a lot of money.
The things I sold to Li Yunze before included the land. I thought it was a huge profit at the time, but it wouldn't take long for me to realize that all the losses would go to my grandma's family.
This time we have to have a good talk and reap the full benefits.
Li Er looked at the price of salt and was shocked by how cheap it was.
"If Your Majesty is willing to sell the seaside salt farm to me." Li Yunze patted his chest and guaranteed, "It will definitely be cheaper than now."
Li Er, who was already moved, held back his words and walked to the place where the candy was sold.
Like table salt, it is both snow-white white sugar, and even rock sugar looks crystal clear and very beautiful.
Seeing the price, Li Er finally understood why the sugar and wine were sold so cheaply before.
In other shops, one or two stones of honey can be sold for as high as 50 coins, but here in Li Yunze, one pound is only 50 coins.
Li Er turned to look at Li Yunze, "You sell it so cheaply, do you have so many goods?"
"This year's sugarcane field produced 10,000 kilograms of sugar cane from one acre of land." Li Yunze said calmly, "The sugar mill used fifteen-axis iron rods for triple pressing, and the sugar yield rate was more than 10%. One acre of land produced 10,000 kilograms of sugar cane."
The amount of sugar exceeds one thousand kilograms, and a total of more than 20,000 acres of rented land have been planted.
.That’s more than 20 million kilograms.”
As soon as he said this, there was a sudden gasp from all around.
This is not over yet, Li Yunze added, "There is another severe drought in Guanzhong this year, but sugarcane likes the sun like cotton, and the ample sunshine increases the yield."
More than 20 million kilograms of sugar are enough for the people of Chang'an City to receive dozens of kilograms each.
Such an abundant supply of supplies really shocked everyone beyond words.
Wei Zheng shook his hands tremblingly, "In other words, you can earn two million yuan just by selling candy?!"
When this number came out, Li Er could no longer pretend.
The royal court's annual rent, tax, land tax, household tax, commercial tax, etc. are all added up, and the physical copper coins and silk cloth are all calculated at a discount.
threshold.
Among them, the total amount of copper coins, gold, silver and other currencies is only more than 2 million guan.
Li Yunze was able to sell so much just by selling sweets, and everyone from the emperor to the nobles became red-eyed.
"That's not how the accounts are calculated." Li Yunze is naturally not afraid of others' greedy eyes, but if he plays with force, then the world will be boring this time. "Does Mr. Wei think these things just fall from the sky and don't cost anything?"
?”
"It costs money to rent more than 20,000 acres of land." Li Yunze pointed at Cheng Yaojin and others. "They know best how much the rent is."
Cheng Yaojin and others looked away, obviously not wanting to dwell on this topic.
"Farming, planting, water collection, weeding, pest control, disease prevention and other processes all have expenses." Li Yunze spread his hands. "Everyone knows that Lijiazhuang is short of manpower, so they spend money to hire people from all over the place to do the work. Not only do they have to pay wages,
, and also have to take care of the food. These are all
Book."
"More." Li Yunze turned to Fang Xuanling. "When the sugar cane was in the fields, the government collected a tax once. After the sugar cane was made and transported to the city, another tax was collected. It was harvested, rolled, and transported until here.
Selling also requires hiring people to do the work, and they all need to be paid.
"
On the land of the Tang Dynasty, you had to pay taxes regardless of whether you cultivated it or not, and the market tax for goods entering the city was not less than a penny.
"Finally, there is a lot of sugar, but it is impossible to sell all of it." Li Yunze asked everyone, "Who thinks that the people of Chang'an City can eat twenty kilograms of sugar a year?"
Data speaks for itself. If the average annual sugar consumption per capita exceeds 20 kilograms, it is higher than the value in the modern world.
In the modern world, the per capita sugar consumption in China is about twenty kilograms, and that's still a kilogram in decimal form. The kilogram here in the Tang Dynasty is in hexadecimal system, one kilogram is sixteen taels, which is more than half.
That was modern China under industrialization, which was extremely rich in products. How could it be compared to the Tang Dynasty in the agricultural era?
Li Yunze sells 50 kilograms of sugar for a pound of sugar here. It seems cheap and inexpensive, but who among ordinary people would spend a lot of money to buy 20 kilograms of candy?
The income of the common people is not high, and their purchasing power is not that strong except for the nobles.
After Li Yunze's explanation, everyone felt a little relieved.
If you calculate here, most of the cost has been eliminated, and a large part cannot be sold, so the profit is not as terrible as previously imagined.
But there are still a lot of them, which really makes people jealous. Many nobles have secretly made up their minds not to rent out any of the fields this year, but to farm them themselves and make a lot of money.
After recovering, Li Er put his hands behind his back and asked, "What should I do if there are too many left and I can't sell them? It's better not to throw them away."
Qin Qiong, who was in poor health, coughed twice and said with a smile, "If you really want to throw it away, please tell me where to throw it."
"Hahahaha~~~"
Suddenly there was laughter all around.
Li Yunze, who had a slight smile on his face, was thinking, 'Smile, you are lucky enough to have met a good person like me who is not a capitalist. If it were a capitalist operating here, he would have destroyed your primitive mentality long ago.
The industry is completely controlled by the stockholders. Really
If there is overproduction, it will be burned down without giving you a chance to pick it up.’
He must be right, but the Guanlong Military Group is not a leek slave, and it will definitely start a war when that time comes.
"Your Majesty." Li Yunze looked at Li Er, "Does the imperial court want to take over the remaining supplies?"
Li Er shook his head subconsciously, "The court doesn't have that much money. Uh."
He paused before he finished speaking.
A pound of sugar only costs 50 coins. Chang'an City can't consume all of it, but what about the whole world? And there are so many Hu merchants on the Silk Road?
Before Li Er could speak, Fang Xuanling stepped out and took Li Yunze's arm to the side for discussion before the nobles could speak.
Seeing this scene, the nobles secretly expressed their pity.
The products in this big market are not only rich in variety and quantity, but also of excellent quality. More importantly, the prices are cheap.
You don’t need to do anything more, just buy it and resell it, and you will make a lot of money immediately.
It's a pity that Li Yunze's products are only sold in limited quantities, so it's the nobles and Hu businessmen like them who are on guard.
If you want to make large-scale purchases, you can only do it in the name of the imperial court.
After some debate, Fang Xuanling walked up to Li Er with a smile.
Everyone hurriedly pricked up their ears and vaguely heard words such as '20% off, large amount, tax exemption'.
At this time, even Wei Zheng did not come out to say anything.
He is upright and not a charlatan. He can legitimately increase the court's income. Of course he will not refuse such a good thing.
Everyone knows how to change a business or something.
In fact, if you didn't know that Li Yunze's strength was unfathomable and you couldn't figure out his background and connections, the most appropriate way would be to confiscate it directly.
The difference is that we don't know whether the consequences of confiscation can be tolerated.
After all, no one would believe that this strange man could silently bring out so many good things. If he had no ability to protect himself, no one would believe him. After all, this man did not look like a fool.
After saying this, everyone continued to visit.
In this large non-staple food area, many nobles even met their own servants who were responsible for purchasing.
Of course, no one will let their servants come over to pay tribute at this time, after all, the emperor is here.
"Soy sauce, real soybean soy sauce that has been cooked for 180 days."
"Vinegar, real grain vinegar, grain vinegar with sugar added, tastes more delicious."
"star anise."
"Cinnamon."
"Fragrant leaves."
Li Er glanced at the price on the wooden sign and looked a little confused. "Except for the peppercorns, star anise and vanilla, this price is not much cheaper than what Hu Shangyun brought."
"Yes." Li Yunze nodded immediately, "The main reason is that Guanzhong is not suitable for growing spices. It's not that we don't have the ability, but that the place is not suitable."
Having said this, Li Yunze grinned, "If Datang has a large fleet that can sail out to sea, I can give you a map to capture the Spice Islands."
"Spice Islands?"
"That's right, there are many, many islands that are densely covered with all kinds of wild spices. No formalities are required. You can just pick them directly after landing on the island."
As he was speaking, Li Yunze gestured to the many nobles who had gathered with their eyes shining brightly and said, "Break one off, and you will get a penny. When you go to the Spice Islands, you are not picking spices, you are picking money."