Liu Jin accompanied Zhu Houzhao to walk, and walked very naturally to the port of Tianjin.

Now the port of Tianjin is becoming more and more prosperous, and from time to time you can see fishing boats returning from fishing, bringing back a boatload of sea fish, so that the whole port is wafting with the fishy smell of sea fish.

"It's so lively~"

Zhu Houzhao looked at this lively scene, and the whole person came to the spirit, and he also walked quickly to the port wharf, looking at a fishing boat that was unloading.

I saw baskets of sea fish constantly picking down from the fishing boat, and then here at the dock, there are special people to classify these catches, put different fish into different baskets, and then weigh them in a basket.

"A load of big yellow croaker, weighing one hundred and twenty pounds~"

"A load of small yellow croaker weighs 100 catties~"

"A load of fish, weighing one hundred and ten pounds~"

The person who weighed it would cry out loudly every time he weighed a load of fish, and at the same time someone next to him would write it all down, and then immediately a group of merchants would gather around, and one by one they would shout along.

"Xingguo Firm paid 350 Wen to buy a load of big yellow croaker~"

"The ocean firm paid 300 wen to buy a load of small yellow croaker~"

"The Dragon King Building in the capital paid five taels of silver to buy this tuna~"

Sometimes when encountering some rare and good goods, these merchants will continue to bid and compete, such as tuna and grouper are relatively sought-after goods, and the price is now getting higher and higher.

"Lao Liu, who are these people?"

Zhu Hou looked at these people who kept bidding, thought about it and asked Liu Jin beside him.

"These are all businessmen who come to buy fish, and it can be regarded as a new industry that has emerged in Tianjin, well, it is called the sea fish shop."

"We have a lot of fishing boats in Tianjin, and the fish caught at sea are very huge, and it is far from being digestible in Tianjin alone, so most of the marine fish are sold abroad, and the largest market is Beijing."

"Now that the famine is over, we no longer transport these fish to the capital to buy them, but sell them to these merchants and let them transport them to the capital to sell."

"So it slowly breeds this marine fish shop, these people are all businessmen who do marine fish trading, some are specialized in selling marine fish to various places to sell, and some are seafood restaurants in Beijing and Tianjin to buy some fish directly."

Liu Jin looked at the businessmen who were competing fiercely in front of him, and explained to Zhu Houzhao in great detail.

"Oh, I see, it seems that the price of this fish has also gone up a lot."

Zhu Houzhao immediately understood when he heard it.

"Of course, it used to be a special period when it was sold for a penny a catty, but now that the famine has passed, it is naturally back to normal, this sea fish is also meat, and it is nutritious, so it is naturally impossible to sell it for a penny a catty."

"However, because of the large production of marine fish, its price is still very low, much lower than other meat, generally in Tianjin port, they take the goods is about two or three yuan a catty, after being transported to the capital, it can be sold for four or five yuan a catty, the price is still very cheap, and the profit is also quite considerable."

"As for some expensive seafood, the price is even higher, and it is generally bought by restaurants in Beijing and Tianjin."

Liu Jin nodded and said, the appearance of this sea fish shop is also an inevitable phenomenon.

Because of the famine before, people in the Beijing-Tianjin area are living on this sea fish, so the people in the Beijing-Tianjin area have already liked to eat sea fish, and the market demand for sea fish is very huge.

Sea fish is delicious and nutritious, the key is that the price is very close to the people, ordinary people are naturally the favorite, especially in Tianjin, because of the sea, the price of this sea fish is very cheap, everyone has to eat sea fish for three meals a day.

While Liu Jin and Zhu Houzhao were chatting, a basket of sea fish that had just disembarked was quickly snapped up by these merchants, and behind each of them there were baskets of sea fish piled up.

Soon after, horse-drawn carriages came to the docks, all of which were four-wheeled carriages.

Because of the construction of the cement road in Beijing and Tianjin, it has greatly facilitated the traffic in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and the four-wheeled carriage is also rapidly becoming popular in Beijing and Tianjin.

The carriage was soon filled with a cart of sea fish, and immediately rushed towards the capital non-stop, now the weather is hot, the sea fish must be transported to the capital as soon as possible, the fresher the natural better it is to sell, and the price can be a little higher.

For these merchants who are in the fish business, time is money.

"Lao Liu, I remember that you were still drying dried fish last time I came, and now it seems that your dried fish business can't be done."

Looking at the empty dock, Zhu Houzhao seemed to think of something, and said to Liu Jin with a smile.

"I've been doing the business of drying fish, don't look at the current sales of these sea fish, after a while, when there are more fishing boats, this sea fish will not be easy to sell."

"When the time comes, I will continue to dry the dried fish, the fresh fish is easy to spoil, and the dried fish can be preserved, and after the dried fish, the dried fish can be sold to the inland areas, so that the people in the inland areas can also taste our Tianjin sea fish."

When Liu Jin heard this, he replied with a smile.

"Well, remember to dry more, especially this dried shrimp, used to make porridge, the taste is very delicious, last time my grandmother tasted it and said it was good."

Zhu Houzhao remembered some of the fish he brought back last time, including a lot of dried fish, and the Queen Mother liked it very much, and praised Zhu Houzhao for his filial piety, which made him remember it firmly, thinking that this time he would also bring a little more back.

"Your Highness, don't worry, I will tell you to go down, bask in more sun, and bring it back when His Highness returns to Beijing."

As soon as Liu Jin heard Zhu Houzhao's words, he immediately wrote them down.

"Yes, more sun."

Zhu Houzhao nodded again and again, he is also a foodie, and there are not too many delicious things.

"Speaking of this dried fish, Your Highness has something I want to discuss with you."

Liu Jin seemed to think of something, thought about it and said to Zhu Houzhao.

"What's the matter, say?"

Zhu Hou looked at Liu Jin's appearance, and he also knew that he must have something to help him with, otherwise, with Liu Jin's current energy, ordinary things would have been done a long time ago.

"Your Highness, this dried fish is a way to preserve sea fish, in fact, it is also salted fish, that is, a large amount of salt is used to preserve the fish, so I thought if we could build a salt farm here in Tianjin, make salt ourselves, and then use this salt to make salted dried fish."

Liu Jin wanted to get this salt out for a long time, but this salt has a lot to do with it, and the imperial court is a salt and iron franchise, so private individuals are not allowed to engage in salt and iron-related business at all.

In addition, this salt is also related to the interests of all aspects, salt merchants, ministers of the imperial court, etc., will not allow him Liu Jin to dry salt, because as soon as this salt drying method comes out, the output of salt will increase greatly, and the impact on the interests of those salt merchants will be very huge, and it will inevitably be strongly opposed.

So this matter still has to be done by Zhu Houzhao's side, and if he, the crown prince, comes forward, it will definitely be no problem to ask Emperor Hongzhi for a concession to run a salt farm.

Moreover, the recent big case has not been concluded until now, and as time goes by, more and more ministers have been investigated, and these ministers are all from the Jiangnan region.

This is tantamount to giving Jiangnan Shilin a heavy blow, so that the right to speak in the court has been greatly weakened, and Emperor Hongzhi has no intention of letting go, and has the intention of investigating to the end.

At this time, it is the right time to get this salt pan and the salt drying method out, and the opposition must be very small, and there is a great hope that it will be passed.

"Build your own salt works?"

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he immediately pondered, of course he knew that this salt and iron was a monopoly of the imperial court, and now that Liu Jin asked him to get the salt field, he had no way that Emperor Hongzhi could agree.

"Yes, dried salted fish needs a lot of salt, if we buy salt, it is obviously unrealistic, the salt from this salt field is very cheap, but after the price increase of these salt merchants, the price of this salt is very expensive."

"We have to build our own salt farm, and we can reduce the cost by making our own salt, otherwise no one will want this salted fish."

Liu Jin nodded solemnly and said, and then said in a very low voice: "This salt is very profitable, the richest people in the world are those salt merchants, they can make this money, and His Royal Highness can also make money." ”

Hearing Liu Jin say silver, Zhu Houzhao's little eyes couldn't help but turn, and after thinking about it, he nodded and said: "Leave this matter to me, I have long seen that those salt merchants are not pleasing to the eye, and many of the people who targeted us last time were actually salt merchants." ”