Last night, the people from the security department conducted an inspection on the island.
Today, both soldiers and civilians are prohibited from traveling along the holy drive's route.
Therefore, when a group of people came over, the island was very quiet.
The group went to Dongshan Island and arrived at the Orange Garden.
When he saw the pond with river mussel seedlings, the fourth elder brother understood why the ninth elder brother immediately wanted to start a pearl farm in Beihai.
Because when it comes to cultivating pearls, it’s not difficult to guess the secret by just walking around the pearl farm and digging out the relevant notes from the past.
This profit is too great.
There is no guarantee that others will also have this thought.
Even if you don't dare to cultivate pearls in the south of the Yangtze River, you can't avoid it in other remote lakes and waters.
Some people will also think of Haizhu.
Kangxi had seen the plan of the pearl field in Jiu Age's foldout before, but he did not expect it to be of such a scale.
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of river mussel seedlings purchased, and there are cages of clam ponds along the waterfront, covering more than ten acres of water.
20% of them had already planted bead seeds last autumn.
If it is cultivated for three years, the pearls harvested in one year will be measured in dendrobium.
Zhang Ying had read a lot of books, and when he saw the situation in front of him, he praised: "Jiu Ye is ingenious. When I was young, I also saw the record of Ye Jinyang's shelled pearl Buddha statue in Song Dynasty, but I just regarded it as an unofficial legend."
Kangxi hummed and said: "If you don't do your job properly, just worry about these trivial things."
The ninth elder brother and the fourth elder brother followed behind. After listening to this, they couldn't help but murmur to the fourth elder brother and said: "Fourth brother, we need to take this as a warning. When others praise our children in the future, we cannot belittle them. Being too modest is cheating."
.”
Fourth elder brother: "..."
Ma Qi and Zhang Yushu, two great scholars of the current dynasty, were also in front of the imperial court.
It's just that when it comes to princes, their reigning bachelors need to avoid suspicion.
Kangxi did not leave the two behind. He looked back at them and said, "What do you think of this pearl field? Can it become popular? Do you have any good suggestions?"
Ma Qi mused: "Since the emperor has given permission, and the pearl farm is of current scale, there is nothing wrong with it. It's just that there are many rivers and lakes in the south of the Yangtze River. Now that this pearl farm is being established, we need to prevent the secret method of cultivating pearls from being leaked. I think it is worse than this."
The emperor gave Jiu Beile a favor and allowed him to be posted in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In this way, he has become an official camp. If anyone peeps and cares about him, the Yamen can punish him."
Kangxi looked at Zhang Yushu again.
Zhang Yushu sighed in his heart.
Ma Qi could say these words, but it was difficult for him to say them, otherwise he would offend his ninth elder brother.
He considered it carefully and said: "Not invading fertile farmland and taking advantage of water conservancy is indeed a way to open up more resources. If it works, there is no need to stick to Taihu Lake."
Kangxi looked at Sang E and Ding Zaobao again.
Sang E said: "My servant sees that although the area is surrounded, the manpower on duty seems to be insufficient. Now that's all. If we are cultivating pearls, we must also prevent bandits from coming."
Ding Zaobao didn't expect that he would still have room to speak, so he said with a bit of restraint: "It involves secret skills, so the manpower must be carefully handled, and it is best to have people under the household."
Kangxi then looked at Brother Jiu and said, "Have you taken down all your suggestions?"
Brother Jiu nodded and said, "My son has taken note of it. It's just businessmen seeking profit. Even if we hide it for the past two years, when the pearls are cultivated and enter the market, they will attract attention. I'm afraid they won't be able to stop others from cultivating pearls."
It’s not good to formulate special laws and regulations just for this purpose.
If nothing else, let’s just say that illicit salt sales have been banned in all dynasties, but for thousands of years, there has been no shortage of illicit salt dealers.
The same is true for this dynasty’s ban on ginseng.
The profits are huge, so some people are desperate to take risks.
Kangxi raised his eyebrows and said, "Then how did you originally plan to deal with it?"
Brother Jiu thought for a while and said: "How about adding a pearl tax? Ordinary business tax is 1 for 15 and 1 for 10. These pearls are expensive goods and cannot be taxed as usual. You can pay 1 for 5..."
Kangxi frowned and said: "Things are rare and valuable. As you said, the price of pearls will drop."
Brother Jiu immediately said: "That's good. At that time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs can allocate a sum of money to purchase large pearls and sell them at the customs to earn foreign silver."
Kangxi looked at the fourth elder brother and said, "What do you think of what the ninth elder brother said?"
Si Age said: "In recent years, with the opening of the canal, more and more Western goods have arrived in the capital via waterways. Even ordinary Qiding families, who are living a better life, also wear Western pocket watches or use Nanyang snuff. The imperial court's
The silver shortage was partly caused by too many Western goods entering the Qing Dynasty..."
"There are all kinds of foreign goods coming in from the customs, but the goods going out are still silks, satins, porcelain and tea. There is no increase. If pearls and cashmere are added, there will be more goods going out, and the outflow of silver can be avoided..."
Kangxi nodded as he listened and looked at Si Age with admiration in his eyes.
Only when I was on duty in the Ministry of Household Affairs did I realize that the imperial court was always short of silver and copper.
From a small bead market, I can think of a long-term vision to curb the silver shortage.
Kangxi looked at Brother Ninth and said, "You paid over one hundred thousand taels of silver, didn't you want to earn private property for your son? If you can't keep it outside, you may not get back the capital, and the price of pearls will plummet."
Brother Jiu said: "As long as the noble clan members in the capital don't come forward, ordinary gentry people will not dare to offend their son. Then it will either be a ban or a ban. If there is someone really brave, then the son will send someone to come and collect a copy."
The secret skill is just money!"
Kangxi shook his head and said: "Zhang Ying also said it just now. It was not mentioned anywhere in the notes of predecessors. Why do you have the nerve to say it is your 'secret skill'?"
Brother Jiu raised his head and said: "Who told my son to take the lead? When my son's bead field came out, the outside world followed suit. Isn't that a secret? They didn't ask anyone to seal their place. They only asked someone to collect a share of money. It's also my son.
Be generous."
"It's too domineering. Be careful of criticism." Kangxi said.
Brother Jiu said: "If others don't worry about offending the prince, then why should my son worry about criticism? You can't confuse people with inferiority. If others lose their fear of the royal family, my son will have to restrain his hands and feet here!"
His words were partly intended for Kangxi, but mostly for the ministers and nobles such as his retinue.
He could tolerate profit-seeking businessmen who would follow suit in the pearl market after the pearls were put on the market; if those who followed the trend of cultivating pearls today dared to reach out, he would pursue them to the end.
Kangxi hummed: "Domineering..."
But he didn't mean to reprimand anymore.
The fourth elder brother looked at the people accompanying him today. In addition to the five civil servants, there were also two ministers leading the bodyguards.
They are all people who are highly valued by the emperor, so no one should lose a big thing because of greed.
That needs to be guarded against...
Instead, it was the Li family, a local gangster in Suzhou...
After only thirty-eight years of greeting and this year's greeting, Li Xu borrowed more than 100,000 taels of official silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Jiangning weaved Cao Yin, but also suffered a loss.
On the contrary, Sun Wencheng, a weaver from Hangzhou, because of his junior qualifications, even though he was a weaver, he did not prepare errands like Cao Yin and Li Xu.
Even if hundreds of guards came with him, it would be hard for the Holy Master to stay outside for too long.
After staying in the pearl field for half an hour, Shengjia left Dongshan Island.
Brother Ninth Brother did not leave in a hurry, but took a step behind and told Sun Jin: "I also thought about the shelled pearl Buddha statue that Master Zhang just mentioned, plant some Buddhist amulets, and use more Buddhist amulets from Fanjiao..."
All Mongolians are religious.
When this pearl Buddha amulet comes out, you don't have to think about it to know how popular it will be.
Sun Jin responded hurriedly and said: "The one that monks worship the most is Maitreya. I asked someone to prepare some Buddha cards of Maitreya."
Brother Jiu added, "Try using gold foil, sandalwood, white jade, whatever is expensive. Don't be afraid of spending money."
Sun Jin agreed.
The fourth elder brother was nearby and was amused.
Before he arrived at the Lifanyuan, he was still thinking about making money from Mongolia.
When the two brothers got on the carriage, the fourth brother said: "Didn't you say that we should distinguish between public and private? Why should we not distinguish between public and private again? Carefully talk about official impeachment..."
Brother Jiu said: "Cultivating pearls requires at least two summers and colds. I will definitely not be in the Lifan Academy by then. With so many departments and academies, a year and a half is almost enough in one place."
If you don't serve as an errand in the vassal council, there won't be any public or private matters.
The fourth elder brother looked at him and said, "If the ministry round is over, which yamen do you want to go to?"
Brother Jiu said: "I definitely won't go to the Ministry of War, because I don't understand; I won't go to the Ministry of Rites, because I'm impatient to understand; I won't go to the Ministry of Punishment, but I will look at the files all day long, and no one looks like a good person; if I don't go to the Ministry of Work, there will always be problems."
As a foreigner, Fifth Brother patrolled the river several times when he was walking in the Ministry of Works; but he didn’t go to the Ministry of Household Affairs. He felt uncomfortable looking at the money and couldn’t reach out freely..."
"The Lifan Courtyard is pretty good, but I'm occupying it and won't move. What will the fifth brother do? I'm not smart to begin with. I have many acquaintances in the Lifan Courtyard, so I don't dare to fool around easily. What if I go to other yamen and make mistakes?
…”
"Any of the remaining Xiao Jiuqing yamen will do. I have free time to do errands and just make up the numbers..."
Having said this, Brother Jiu smiled and said, "It would be great if it was the turn of the Imperial College and the Imperial Academy. Then I would open an economics class there to cultivate some economic talents..."