"Xin Zheng is just pragmatic and not talented. He is willing to borrow this money, and... he can borrow it."
As soon as this statement came out, Zhu Zaiyu was a little stunned.
Zhu Zaiyu also knows that he is pragmatic and wealthy. Although he is a person who devotes himself to studying knowledge and does not usually like luxury, he is the crown prince of Prince Zheng after all.
In this case, the Guo Shi soap from Jinghua Soap Factory is naturally his favorite. How could he not know Gao Pragmatic's net worth?
Moreover, the highly pragmatic Jinghua Cement Henan Branch is located near his home, Prince Zheng's Mansion, and many raw materials are produced from Huaiqing Mansion. How could Zhu Zaiyu not know whether these factories and mines are profitable? Not to mention a few years in advance.
The "300,000 Liang'an refugees" incident made Gao Pingshi famous all over the world for the first time.
Although the price ratio of gold and silver fluctuates from time to time, generally speaking, it is not a big problem if it is one to ten. So one hundred thousand gold is a full one million taels of silver, which is equivalent to one-fifth of the imperial court's income last year!
Of course, apart from the fact that the imperial court is really poor, there are actually many rich people in the world. Not to mention the big salt merchants, there are many rich people just including the princes and ministers.
Honorable ministers such as Duke Wei of Nanjing, half of the city of Nanjing can probably be regarded as his family's property. Now he may have too much money and no place to spend it, so he has to overhaul the gardens. West Garden, Fengtai Garden, Wei Gongnan Garden, Si Jinyi
Dongyuan, Wanzhuyuan, Sanjinyibeiyuan, Jinpanliyuan, Jiugongzi's Home, Mochou Lake Garden...and so on, there are sixteen famous gardens in Nanjing, ten of which were built by his family.
How expensive it is to build a garden. You can get a glimpse of it by thinking about Cixi's garden. Although the garden built by the Xu family cannot be compared with the Summer Palace, after generations of people have been building gardens, it can only be said that there is too much money and no space.
it took.
The nobles are powerful, and the vassal kings are not bad either. Although the most famous wealthy vassal king Fu Wang in the Ming Dynasty has not been born yet, other vassal kings with a longer inheritance, as long as the fiefdom position is not particularly bad, are relatively wealthy, compared with
The Duke of Wei and the Xu family are incomparable, but those who can take out one million taels and take out one million taels like Gao Jingshi said are at least ten or above.
Of course, only the vassal kings are rich, not some clansmen with distant bloodlines. Although the money and food spent every year to support the clan has long been a big burden to the court, the living conditions of those lower-level clansmen are actually quite bad.
, especially the clan members in the four provinces of Shanxi, Henan, Shandong and Shaanxi were so poor that it was almost impossible to open the pot. Historically, in the fifteenth year of Wanli, Zhu Yijun even had to use his own money to help these poor relatives.
them.
The issue of clan salaries has actually been exposed for a long time. As early as the Hongzhi period, the imperial court began to limit the number of wives that clan members could take. During the Jiajing period, the "Regulations on Duties and Vassals" were promulgated to further restrict clan clans.
During the Wanli period, although Gao Gong was busy with some reforms that he considered more important, he also took some measures on clan issues, mainly restricting the grassroots ranks of nobility.
However, Gao Pragmatic feels that this is not enough, and has always hoped to continue to "step by step" on this issue. For example, he can now consider the historical introduction of the salary lump sum system during the Tianqi period: no matter how many children your family has, the expenses are always lump sum.
As for the next steps, Gao Pangpang has also considered it, but how many steps should be taken and how far one step should go still depends on the actual situation at that time.
However, although there were many wealthy people in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zaiyu was certain that no one would be like Gao Pragmatic, who would lend one million taels to various yamen in Huguang, especially to
They went to build water conservancy projects!
This is not only a question of whether you have money or not, or even a question of "don't reveal your wealth", but what will the court think of how this money is used?
Isn't Gao Pragmatic afraid that the court will look at his wealth differently?
Zhu Zaiyu now really admires Gao Pangshi's ambition. In his opinion, this is simply destroying the family and saving the country! So the scientist prince who was moved asked Gao pragmatically this question in a roundabout way.
After Gao Pingshi listened, he smiled and said: "Mr. Jiu Feng misunderstood. This money was not lent by the student alone, but by many people."
Zhu Zaiyu was greatly surprised and asked: "Are there many people willing to do such good things?"
Gao Pragmatic blinked and said with a smile: "Why not? Isn't there a stable source of interest? Of course, 30% interest is too high. Students think that having 50% interest is great!"
Half percent? Zhu Zaiyu thought to himself: It is a bit rare for loan sharks to only pay half percent interest.
Gao Pragmatic seemed to have become a roundworm in Zhu Zaiyu's stomach, and smiled again: "Mr. Jiu Feng, do you think this half-percent interest is too little?"
"Uh..." Zhu Zaiyu didn't know how to answer. He was an honest man. He felt that for loan sharks, half-percent interest was indeed too little, but he couldn't say that he should charge more interest to cheat local government offices. He couldn't help but feel a little confused.
Difficult.
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "Let students ask this... If Mr. Jiu Feng now becomes a shareholder of Jinghua Cement Factory, Jinghua Cement Factory now needs this big business in Huguang, but the Huguang local government does not have that much money, unless
Let’s lend the money to Hu first... At this time, do you care that we only charge them half of the interest?”
"Oh, in that case, that's not the case. After all, this business is already very profitable, and all the interest is earned in vain." When Zhu Zaiyu said this, he suddenly opened his eyes wide: "Ah, you are
Those who said they were willing to lend them money are all shareholders of Jinghua Cement Factory?"
Gao Pragmatic nodded and smiled: "Yes, there are quite a few shareholders in Jinghua Cement Factory. The students have arranged to discuss with them before leaving Beijing, and they are all willing to borrow... Mr. Jiu Feng, once Prince Zheng's Mansion reaches cooperation with the students,
According to the agreement, they will also be the shareholders of Jinghua Cement Factory. Will Prince Zheng’s Mansion be willing to lend money to the local government in Huguang together with the students?”
"I don't care about the general affairs of the palace." Zhu Zaiyu shook his head slightly, and then nodded: "However, I think my father will agree. In addition, I heard that there are many shareholders in Jinghua Cement Factory, not only Youxun
It’s expensive, and..." He pointed at the top of his head: "Is there one in the palace too?"
Gao pragmatic smiled: "Although Mr. Jiu Feng doesn't ask about general affairs, he seems to be very well-informed. Yes, the palace also has shares, but Mr. Mister made a mistake... The palace took the shares of Jinghua Infrastructure, isn't that right?
It’s just Jinghua Cement Factory.”
Zhu Zaiyu pondered: "If the palace doesn't mind, my father will be very happy... But how to calculate this loan? With so many people's shares, just calculating the accounts is a bit troublesome, right?"
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "That's easy to handle, because we don't lend money to various yamen in Huguang in the name of Jinghua Infrastructure or Jinghua Cement Factory, but we lend it to them in another 'identity'."
"What identity?" Zhu Zaiyu frowned and asked, "Why do you have to make it so complicated?"
Gao pragmatic did not explain why it was so complicated, but just replied: "The identity of the people who lend money to various yamen in Huguang is called 'Jinghua Bank'."