OBS Chapter 740 Can business really be done this way?
Chapter 740 Can business really be done this way?
The fact that Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen were able to work together on a single task was not merely to remind Emperor Zhu of the hardships he faced when he started his reign; it also represented a reconciliation between the Huai-Xi noble group led by Li Shanchang and the Zhejiang-Eastern civil official group led by Liu Bowen.
It's good that they've reconciled. Reconciliation means they can think and act in the same direction.
Although, with the "help" of his good son-in-law, Liu Bowen and the Zhejiang East civil official group behind him had long seen through the nature and character of the Jiangnan gentry and had long given up the struggle with the Huaixi noble group, the two sides had been fighting for many years and had accumulated deep resentment. How could they be so easily reconciled?
Now that we have water pumps, and massive national projects like trains and railways, it's like giving the nobles of Huaixi and the civil officials of Zhejiang an opportunity and a reason to reconcile.
The more Emperor Zhu looked at his son-in-law, the more pleasing he became.
Besides always causing us trouble, besides always making things difficult for us and the officials, besides sleeping during the grand court assembly, besides taking away our two daughters, besides...
Emperor Zhu's mood suddenly turned sour again.
I get so angry just looking at that scoundrel's shifty eyes!
"By the way, Hai Jia Huihui presented a foreign incense called Alaji, saying that although this substance can cure heart ailments and can be mixed into powder for women's cosmetics, there are many Chinese medicines that can cure diseases. If it is used specifically for cosmetics, the price is very high. If we accept it, it will encourage extravagance. We plan to refuse it directly."
Emperor Zhu glanced at Yang Shaofeng, then waved the memorial in his hand and said, "But if this Araji can really cure heart disease, it is a truly good thing. I'll have the craftsmen's camp think about it and see if they can make a cheap and easy-to-use one."
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback and asked, "Araj?"
Seeing Yang Shaofeng's bewildered expression, Emperor Zhu simply ordered Chen Zhong to fetch a bottle of Araji.
Yang Shaofeng opened it, looked at it, dripped a drop onto the back of his hand, smelled it, and then looked up. "Isn't this just perfume?"
Can perfume cure heart disease?
Li Shanchang took Araji from Yang Shaofeng, looked at it, smelled it, and said, "Isn't this rose dew?"
Liu Bowen reached out and took it, examined it carefully, and then confirmed: "This is the rose dew that Immortal Jinhua wrote in 'A Playful Ode to Wax Plum Blossoms,' there's no mistake."
"The body is scented with musk and the skin is stained with rose dew."
This is a line from the second of two poems titled "Playfully Praising the Wax Plum" by Huang Jian of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Rose dew, to put it simply, is perfume made from the essence of rose petals through distillation.
Emperor Zhu was somewhat dumbfounded.
So you all know him, but I, the emperor, don't?
Emperor Zhu didn't care. Instead, he looked at Li Shanchang, Liu Bowen, and Yang Shaofeng and asked, "Can our Great Ming Dynasty produce cheap and easy-to-use rose dew?"
Liu Bowen shook his head slightly and replied, "Reporting to Your Excellency, making rose dew is not difficult, but it requires a large number of petals to be repeatedly distilled. This requires both land to grow flowers and firewood for distillation, which is why the price is difficult to lower."
Li Shanchang turned his head and glanced at Liu Bowen.
Old Liu is just too rigid and inflexible.
It's true that rose dew requires a lot of petals, and it's also true that it takes up land and firewood, but who said it has to take up land and firewood from the Ming Dynasty?
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Your Majesty, in my opinion, it would be better to purchase flower petals from the Dengzhou market."
"Or we could simply buy ready-made rose dew from the Dengzhou market."
“In the early days, the price could be higher, but when those merchants saw that rose dew was profitable, they would try to produce large quantities of rose dew. Once the quantity increased, the price would naturally decrease.”
"Anyway, there will always be one merchant who is willing to lower the price first."
At this point, Li Shanchang turned his gaze to Yang Shaofeng and said meaningfully, "What does Your Highness think?"
This is exactly what they want me to do behind the scenes, forcing a certain merchant to lower prices?
Yang Shaofeng glanced at Li Shanchang and said, "Not good."
Li Shanchang was stunned.
That's not right.
Rose dew is neither edible nor drinkable, and the key issue is its high price. If we can entice those vassal states to cultivate large quantities of roses to extract rose dew, coupled with Yang Dianfeng's underhanded manipulations, the price of rose dew can be driven down.
As for whether the barbarians can make money from rose dew, and whether people will starve to death if they plant less grain?
Anyway, Yang the Madman has never treated barbarians as human beings, and he doesn't care whether barbarians live or die.
Was he worried that if the barbarians planted less grain, it would affect the Ming Dynasty's food supply?
Just as Li Shanchang was wondering why Yang Shaofeng would refuse, Yang Shaofeng took the rose dew from Liu Bowen's hand and said, "This broken bottle looks very low-end. The rose dew inside is slightly impurity and the scent is a bit too strong."
Emperor Zhu immediately perked up.
Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen stared intently at Yang Shaofeng.
A broken bottle.
Contains impurities.
The aroma is slightly strong.
When these words are put together, the rose dew, which was originally worth ten strings of cash for a small bottle, is somehow devalued to the point of being worthless.
So, is Yang the Madman able to produce even better rose dew to make money off the barbarians?
Yang Shaofeng weighed the rose water in his hand and continued, "Have the glass workshops in Ningyang County think of a way to make some completely transparent glass bottles with slight patterns."
"Have the woodworking workshop make another batch of small boxes for packaging, lined with cotton padding sewn from silk, supplemented with wood shavings, and tied with red ribbons."
"The rose dew is distilled and then filtered again to remove impurities."
"Add alcohol and distilled water containing various flower petals and fruits."
"To make its aroma more mellow."
"Finally, add the title of royal tribute."
“This bottle of rose dew, weighing only one qian, would be a loss if it didn’t sell for 999 guan, but in order to make friends with the various vassal states, I’ll give it a discount and sell it for 99 guan.”
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Emperor Zhu was stunned once again, while Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen were completely dumbfounded.
Can business really be done this way?
A single qian (approximately 3 grams) of rose dew sells for 99 guan (approximately 1500 strings of cash), and that's after a discount?
Liu Bowen felt that Yang Shaofeng was bullying him to some extent.
“Your Highness, merchants in Zhejiang are already trading distilled floral liqueurs, and your price…”
Liu Bowen was too embarrassed to directly call Yang Shaofeng too unscrupulous, but Yang Shaofeng simply snorted and said, "This is royal tribute-grade rose dew. Its complex process and high cost are incomparable to ordinary flower dews from the common people."
Emperor Zhu tapped the table with his fingers: "Don't bring up the name of royal tribute in everything."
Yang Shaofeng's eyes darted around, and he said, "Fine, I won't bring it then—I had someone improve the rose dew to please Princess Funing and Princess Fuyang, is that alright?"
"As the saying goes, it's easy to find a thousand pieces of gold, but hard to find a loving man. It's not too much for me to name this thing 'Thousand Gold Dew,' is it?"
"The petals and fragrant fruits used in this product have very strict requirements for the soil and cannot be grown in just one place. Only those produced in Dengzhou Prefecture and Ningyang County are of the best quality, so the cost is too high and the price is also high. Is that unreasonable?"
Emperor Zhu remained bewildered, while Yang Shaofeng clearly had no intention of letting Old Deng off the hook.
"Moreover, there are definitely people willing to pay a high price to buy it at the Dengzhou border market."
"Perhaps they are merchants from the Ming Dynasty, or perhaps they are merchants from foreign vassal states."
"As for foreign merchants selling flowers to the Ming Dynasty, I can't stop them, can I?"
Besides, you old dummy, you can stop me from using the pretext of tribute, but can you stop me from showing respect to my mother-in-law?