Liu Zhang raised his head with satisfaction and asked other clan leaders: "What do you mean?"
"We all support the state pastoral decree and will never disobey it."
"Yes." Liu Zhang nodded and said with a smile: "It seems that the wealthy families in the big places are knowledgeable, but I know that some of you are dissatisfied with me, but I don't mind. The four civil servant examinations have taken away your opportunities to serve as officials. The land order
It hinders your expansion of industry, and the price limit order makes you lose your dream of getting rich overnight. It's like the money you are about to take into your pocket has been robbed by others. If it were me, I wouldn't be happy either.
Isn’t that true?”
"The common people don't dare." "The common people don't dare."
The noble family members were obedient and scolded Liu Zhang for being shameless. He knew that he was robbing money, but he still did this, and now he still said these high-sounding and sarcastic words.
"However." Liu Zhang continued: "I am not someone who likes to take advantage. If I steal your money, I will give it back to you twice as much. It depends on whether you cooperate."
"Give it back to us?" The patriarchs of the world murmured to each other. They didn't know which song Liu Zhang was singing. Mr. Yan said, "Please let me know clearly."
Liu Zhang said: "Don't worry, before I say anything, I want to ask you a question first. I think you already know that the thing under you is called a chair, and the thing above you is called a sun umbrella. What do you think of these two things? Go back
Do you want to add one to your home later?”
The clan leaders nodded. Sitting on a chair is much more comfortable than sitting on a mat. And with a sun umbrella, you can set up a table in the courtyard to enjoy tea at any time in the future, instead of huddled in the room. These things only cost a few dollars.
Of course they wanted to buy more money, and they all responded, but these noble families were still confused and didn't know what Liu Zhang was going to say.
Liu Zhang smiled and said: "Since you all have this idea, wouldn't other wealthy households and ordinary people spend a hundred cents to buy a set? You are smart people, so you should understand the meaning of this, right?"
Which of these aristocratic families is not engaged in business? After learning about Liu Zhang, they suddenly realized that things like chairs are practical, cheap, and can be used for a long time. Every household can use them. Selling chairs has unlimited prospects. Many people have already started to fight.
After thinking about it, I went back to find a carpenter to make a chair.
Liu Zhang smiled and said: "You may have already started thinking about selling chairs, right? But don't blame me for pouring cold water on you. You will definitely not make any money by selling chairs."
"Why?" "Isn't it possible?" The patriarchs were puzzled.
Liu Zhang raised his head and shouted to the disciples from the aristocratic family behind him: "Which of you usually looks after the store, please come out."
The disciples of the family looked at me and I looked at you. In the end, the man surnamed Yin was brave and walked out.
The big man surnamed Yin was tall and tall. Liu Zhang hammered the big man surnamed Yin on his pectoralis and said, "Young man is very strong. What is your name?"
The big man surnamed Yin said loudly: "Sir, Yin Bai, a common man, my family has more than twenty stores, most of which deal in cloth, and now I am the one who looks after them."
"Yes, very good." Liu Zhang nodded: "Then let me ask you, according to your estimate, how much does a chair cost?"
Yin Bai thought for a while and said: "Although I have never sold this thing before, but the labor and wood are similar to two coffee tables, so it should be sold for two hundred yuan. Magistrate Wang just said one hundred yuan, which should be an affordable price for us.
"
With a smile, Liu Zhang patted Yin Bai on the shoulder and said: "Young man, you are being sold and you are helping to count the money. The selling price of my chair is seventy cents. Wang Fu sells you one hundred cents because of you."
I have money and want to blackmail you."
"Eighty cents?" Yin Bai was shocked: "This is impossible. The wood of this chair costs forty cents, and the labor cost should be more than one hundred cents. Plus the store, taxes, etc., it is impossible to sell it for only eight cents."
Ten articles."
Others who knew how to do business also nodded.
Liu Zhang said with a smile: "You are doing a good job, but you are counting on traditional craftsmanship. Now Honshu Mu has a method that can significantly reduce labor costs and shorten production time. It is called assembly line production, which means that making a chair is no longer a
It is done by one person, but many people work together to complete it. Cutting down trees, transporting wood, processing wood, assembling and nailing are all completed by dedicated personnel.
A ten-person workshop, with the help of cheap labor, can produce at least twenty chairs a day. The labor cost of a chair is less than twenty cents on average, and because of the unification of felling and transportation, the cost of wood will also be reduced.
A quarter, Yin Bai, don’t you think Honshu Mu’s chair can be sold for eighty cents?”
"This..." Yin Bai was confused for a moment.
Liu Zhang laughed: "It's empty talk. You will know the power of the workshop after seeing a real assembly line workshop. Old clan leaders have worked hard. If you don't want to move, please ask the younger members of the clan to do it for you. Let's go to Elm Street to see the shepherds.
How about the top ten workshops directly under the government?"
When the old patriarchs saw that the young people were eager to give it a try, they had no objection in their hearts. Some of the patriarchs even wanted to see with their own eyes the magical assembly line workshop that Liu Zhang mentioned. Unfortunately, there were so many old bones that they almost fainted from being exposed to the sun.
After being able to give instructions to his clan members, he got into the sedan chair and returned home.
Liu Zhang distributed war horses to the young people sent by the noble clan, and the group rode to Elm Street in Xicheng.
Chengdu was a prosperous city in the Han Dynasty, but its development was uneven. Dongcheng was connected to Mianzhu, Guanghan, Fucheng and other places and was the first place that foreign businessmen saw when they arrived in Chengdu, so it was much more developed than the other three cities.
Xicheng is the poorest place in Chengdu, with a large number of urban poor gathered. Elm Street is such a slum street.
Under Liu Zhang's order, Wang Fu turned Liu Zhang's drawings into real objects, plus porcelain, cloth, soap locust, etc., and opened a total of ten government-run workshops, all of which were built on Elm Street and named respectively Tianzi, Dizi, and Dizi.
Three words to cross.
We hired seventeen shopkeepers, more than two hundred craftsmen and embroiderers, and all the other helpers were from the poor people around Elm Street. When these poor people received a lot of money on the first day, they were all happy and scrambling for the first place.
Come to the workshop to work.
In a place like Elm Street, the children of these aristocratic families usually didn't even want to carry their feet in. This time when they came with Liu Zhang, some people kept frowning, but when they actually entered Elm Street, these people's eyes widened.
The houses are still those houses, a pile of mud houses that look like they are about to collapse, but there are a few large and simple wooden structures erected in the middle. The people are still the same people, wearing rags, but everyone seems to be very busy.
What really surprised the world was that there were simple sheds everywhere, with various raw materials piled inside. Strong men carried wood, and women gathered around dustpans to select cotton, and then transported it to the wooden house one by one.
It’s similar to when Emperor Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall, except that the people on Elm Street all had calm smiles on their faces.