Counting from July of the sixth year of Wanli, it has been one year since Gao pragmatically returned to his hometown.
It is now Yimao, the seventh year of Wanli, and the year of the rural examination has arrived.
During this year, everything went smoothly for Gao Jingjing, especially all businesses were developing very well. I won’t mention the old ones, but just talking about the new ones would make Gao Jingjing laugh three times.
The two major events in the new business were the establishment of Jinghua Bank and its loan to Huguang for water conservancy construction; the second was the establishment of Jinghua Porcelain and its official campaign to revitalize Beijing Porcelain with the name of "Jinghua Yu Kiln".
The former took a lot of effort, but it was not mainly spent on raising funds, but on persuading the court and Huguang officials. Through the operation of Gao pragmatism or Gao Party, the Chief Envoy of Huguang officially submitted the proposal to Huguang after the autumn of the fifth year of Wanli.
The Central Committee submitted an application, requesting approval for the Huguang Chief Envoy and local government agencies to provide loans to "those willing to borrow funds" from the private sector to build water conservancy projects.
Of course, the Huguang Chief Envoy found a lot of reasons to prove that this approach was necessary. Under the strong support of Guo Pu and Zhang Siwei, the cabinet voted to "approve the request of the Secretary, but the interest on the borrowed money shall not be allowed."
More than 10%.”
When Shu came in, Zhu Yijun's imperial pen wrote: "The construction of water conservancy can consolidate the agricultural foundation. It is indeed an important task of the country, and the request of this department is approved."
However, not long after this approval was issued, there was a memorial and remonstrance, which came from Yingtianxunmen. The official said: The government's dismantling of funds from the private sector is an insult to the majesty of the imperial court, so please stop it.
It stands to reason that Governor Ying Tianxun has nothing to do with Huguang's affairs, but everyone in the court knows that this matter is definitely not Ying Tianxun's personal opinion. I am afraid that Governor Yingtian has the same attitude. The reason is not that Huguang's water conservancy project is against them
Harmful, it is not that Huguang borrowed money from them, but that they have learned the inside story. One of the clauses in the transaction of Jinghua Bank's loan to Huguang is that "Huguang can repay the principal and interest with rice grains at a discount."
How much money does Huguang need to borrow? A full one million taels of silver!
According to this amount, if the discount is enough to repay the principal and interest every year, Huguang will have to pay a large amount of rice grains to Jinghua Bank every year in the next ten years! How to do this in large quantities? In most areas of Huguang, rice grains are converted into silver, and one stone is worth eight silver coins.
.
Even if interest is not included, Huguang will still have to pay 125,000 shi of rice to Jinghua Bank based on the annual principal repayment of 100,000 taels. In fact, given the abundance of food in Huguang, the impact of this amount cannot be said to be particularly huge. What is remarkable is that it allows the application of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Tianfu grain prices have only slightly increased.
But the problem lies in another additional clause: Jinghua Bank is allowed to purchase Huguang rice at fixed prices every year, and the annual quota shall not exceed one million dan. If it cannot be purchased from the private sector, the Huguang local government will use grain taxes (areas that have not yet implemented the one-whip law still have to pay
food) to replenish.
125,000 shi of rice can feed 50,000 to 60,000 people for a whole year. If it is 1 million shi, it can feed at least 400,000 people. If you add the two together and save a little more, you can feed about 600,000 people.
If we are only providing relief to possible disaster victims in Henan Province, this number should basically be enough. After all, it is still the beginning of the Little Ice Age, and the disaster is not as serious as it was in the late Ming Dynasty. Of course, this relief is by no means free, and must be done in exchange for work.
Relief, otherwise the highly pragmatic Jinghua Bank will go bankrupt in a few years.
But this will have an impact on Southern Zhili. Food prices will rise by at least 20%, or even 30%. Ying Tianfu, of course the two houses of Congress must stand up and speak out.
Wanli had received a secret report from Gao Gao. He also knew that Henan and other northern provinces had been frequently hit by disasters in recent years and production had been reduced. However, South Zhili was at least not short of money, so spending more money to buy rice would not be a big problem, so he resolutely approved: Huguang Water Conservancy
The ups and downs are of great importance. This department does not seek fame in vain, but strives for practical results, as it should be. It goes without saying that the inspectors should perform their duties and perform their duties."
From this, the matter was settled.
Although Henan did not suffer any major disasters in the fifth year of Wanli, in fact, this transaction was still a sure profit, because Gao Pragmatic was equivalent to being approved to buy rice in Huguang at a lower market price. Even if the market price rose, it was none of his business.
——If the price rises, don’t buy it privately. Go directly to the Chief Minister to use the grain tax deduction.
The price of grain in Henan is much more expensive than that in Huguang. If you follow the normal market price and add the transportation costs, you may not make much money. But since the purchase price is a low price, you can still make money even if you sell it on the market in Henan.
earn.
As for the price of food in Henan will definitely rise if there is a disaster in the future. If Gao Pragmatic hadn't meant to rescue (acquire) the refugees, he would have made a lot of money by selling it directly. But for now, he can only help here, after all, his ability is limited.
It would be good to reduce some pressure on Henan. There is really nothing we can do about Shanxi, Shaanxi and Beizhili at the moment.
We can only hope that the river embankment that Mr. He spent several years reinforcing with cement will not break as easily as before. By then, the disaster in Henan will be less severe. Maybe after the disaster in the neighboring province, there will be refugees coming to Henan. By then Gao pragmatism may
If you can think of something else, try your best.
The second thing that went smoothly was the matter of Jinghua Yu Kiln.
Speaking of which, the smoothness of this matter even exceeded Gao Jingshi's expectations. Perhaps Gao Jingshi himself underestimated the current reputation and appeal of the Gao family in Xinzheng. Anyway, the Jinghua Yu Kiln had just been announced, and he just entrusted someone to work in Shilin.
After bragging a lot, people started to come in to apply within two months.
Almost all of the people who came here were porcelain craftsmen, and most of them were passed down from their ancestors. Their craftsmanship was different, and their skills varied greatly. However, Zhang quickly arranged them into categories with the help of the three master craftsmen, and then
Start trial production.
The first batch of products were "mixed with good and bad" is an understatement. It should be said that most of them failed to meet Zhang's requirements. She finally selected only seven pieces of porcelain. For the other ones, she recommended Gao Pragmatic One.
Don't sell it, just distribute it directly to various factories and mines under your name for their own use.
Gao Jingshi didn't care. He didn't think it was easy in the beginning, so he calmly asked the porcelain craftsmen to continue trial production. Don't be anxious and don't be afraid of losing money - Gao Jingshi had already made a plan to lose money for five consecutive years, because
It doesn't matter to him. In terms of cost alone, you won't lose much money when it comes to firing porcelain. The bulk of the money lost is actually just supporting these craftsmen who have no income.
Maybe it was the porcelain craftsmen who were encouraged by their pragmatic attitude, or maybe it was the fact that although the northern porcelain industry was in decline, it still had great heritage. Anyway, starting from the fourth batch of trial products, Jinghua Yu Kiln turned a profit!
They trial-produced a batch of high-quality chicken blood black tea bowls, adhering to the characteristics of "Jun kiln is expensive". These batch of chicken blood black tea bowls with the inscription "Jinghua Yu Kiln Daya" on the bottom were sold to the Zhou Palace in Kaifeng, and they turned around in one fell swoop. Not to mention the profit, the reputation has also been established.
The main problem of Jinghua Porcelain now is that it is difficult to expand its scale for a while - the people who have the ability to join it are basically all here. Now if we want to expand our scale, we can only slowly cultivate professional talents ourselves. In this era of porcelain making, it is very difficult. This is a highly sophisticated craft, and you can't even get started in it within three to five years, so you can't be in a hurry even if you are very pragmatic.
Fortunately, Jun kiln has always been famous for its rarity. The low output here makes people think that "the authentic product from the place of origin is the authentic product from the place of origin. It is really slow..."