，

What's wrong?

Just before Shi Guangzu could figure out what was going on, he listened to the Yongnian Uncle who led the table, that is, the current Guozhang, said in surprise.

"Let's write down the number? How much money can this Western company earn, and how can this amount be written and written? ”

"That's it, how can this number come out of your mouth?"

……

For a while, the whole hall was in a commotion, and everyone was talking about it there, compared to them, Shi Yiwen seemed calm and sage, he had already said what he should say, and the rest was just for them to report a number.

Looking at Shi Yiwen's calm and virtuous appearance, Zhu Yingzhen sneered.

"Shi Langzhong, my father has a saying, I don't know whether to ask or not."

"The prince is polite."

Shi Yiwen hurriedly stood up, for him who was bent on using the lord to fight against the civil official, of course he would not take out the civil official's shelf.

"If there's something you can do, just say it."

"In that case, then I want the question, you just said let's estimate it ourselves, and then write it down, I want to know, why is this?"

"Guogong is a good question."

Shi Yiwen smiled, and then said to the full room of lords.

"Silver! The reason why everyone writes down that number is nothing more than to want to know, how much silver do you think you can earn from this trade with the West, of course, if you write tens of millions of taels, it is obviously not realistic, this number, how to say? ”

After a moment of silence, Shi Yiwen looked at them and said.

"It's how much silver you can earn a year if you are allowed to trade with the West. Tens of thousands of taels? Or a hundred thousand taels? I think, since everyone is interested in this, they naturally have a number in their hearts, right? ”

After saying this, Shi Yiwen said with a smile again.

"Of course, the reason why the lower officials asked the grandfathers, uncles, and marquis to write down this number naturally has the intention of the lower officials, and please write it down according to the truth, after all, this number will still be of great use in the next moment!"

Will it be useful for a while?

With a slight frown, Zhu Yingzhen looked at Shi Yiwen with a suspicious face, not knowing what he meant.

"What else does the Duke of Guo have to ask the lower officials?"

Stretching out his hand not to hit the smiling person, although he was extremely dissatisfied with Shi Yiwen's monopoly of the Western company, but in the face of his smile, Zhu Yingzhen could only smile, and then said.

"No other questions, but since you asked, I'll give you a number. 120,000 taels! ”

Staring at Shi Yiwen, Zhu Yingzhen did not put pen to paper, but directly said a number.

"Cheng Guogong was surprised, this trade with the West is to follow the season, but not to go if you want to, you can only go back and forth once or twice a year, relying on these two trips to earn 120,000 taels, I'm afraid it's unrealistic, I think it's still 80,000 taels reliable."

Zhang Rong retorted with a smile on the side. He had also been interested in trade with the West, and naturally he had also inquired about the profits that might be made after trade. In fact, it's only about 100,000 taels, and these 80,000 taels are just a conservative estimate.

"That's fine, you can go to a few more boats then. 120,000 taels, it's still about the same, besides, it's a trade between the East and the West, not just the West, I think the 120,000 taels are no problem at all! ”

When the two of them were talking one by one, most of the other people had a bottom in their hearts, not to mention those who were interested in Western companies, even those who were not interested in Wei Guoben and Shi Guangzu had a bottom, so they also wrote a figure of tens of thousands of taels, of course, there were also those who wrote ten thousand taels, or even several thousand taels, obviously, they had no interest in this matter at all, and they just had to deal with it.

Finally, when the numbers written by everyone gathered in front of Shi Yiwen, looking at the stack of papers in front of him, Shi Yiwen ordered someone to calculate it, and when the numbers came out, he took a look.

"A total of only 3,463,030,000 ......"

Dropping the piece of paper, looking at everyone, Shi Yiwen said again.

"That's it!"

These two words made everyone surprised, and they all looked at Shi Yiwen in surprise,

"More than three million taels of silver? Is it a lot? ”

Seeing the surprise on everyone's faces, Shi Yiwen walked to the middle of the hall and said.

"As far as I know, there are companies in the West that specialize in trading with the East, that is, with the Ming and India, and they sail between Europe and the Ming and India, and they import cotton, saltpeter, sugar, and silk and indigo, which are in short supply in the European market, and a small number of items such as copper, lead, and tin are exported to India. They have high returns on every voyage, sometimes with an overall profit margin of up to three times. In Europe, there are probably dozens of such companies, and each company makes a profit of no less than hundreds of thousands of taels every year! ”

Profit hundreds of thousands of taels!

Not to mention other people, it was Zhu Yingzhen, who was originally determined to win the Western company, after hearing this number, his eyes widened in surprise and said in surprise.

"How is this possible?"

"How is this impossible? The goods carried on a ship can sometimes reach more than 100,000 taels, and the profit may reach 200,000 taels for a round trip. ”

Shi Yiwen's explanation surprised Guo Dacheng, Marquis of Wuding.

"Then isn't this trade a million profits, a shipload of goods and a shipload of silver, this trade is really good!"

When he said this, he looked at Shi Yiwen's gaze and became even more jealous. Most of the others are the same, facing the jealousy in everyone's eyes, Shi Yiwen shook his head and said.

"Everyone will definitely say, now I am lucky, my Western company has this license, but everyone does not know, this voyage is extremely risky, it seems to make money, but if it is shipwrecked, not only the cargo is sunk, but also the crew and sailors are compensated, basically, the risk is half to half."

Seeing that everyone seemed to be a little skeptical, Shi Yiwen took himself as an example and said.

"Just like me, I encountered a shipwreck at that time, if it weren't for luck, I'm afraid even my life would be lost, this sea voyage is ever-changing, and the risk is always inevitable, otherwise, how can there be huge profits for the sea merchants?"

After emphasizing the risks at sea, Shi Yiwen continued.

"However, high risk means high reward, since Westerners can get millions or even tens of millions of windfall profits through navigation, then we can naturally too, I believe that as long as our sea ships sail far enough, they are bound to get rich returns, more than three million taels ......."

Smiling, Shi Yiwen's tone became extremely serious.

"It's really nothing, after all, there are too many possibilities at sea!"

"Shi Langzhong, what are you saying so much for?"

Faced with Cheng Guogong's question, Shi Yiwen smiled slightly.

"As I said, there are too many possibilities at sea!"