Early the next morning, Li Jing went to his grandfather, saying that he wanted to get acquainted with the family's business and asked his grandfather to match him with a few shopkeepers who were doing business. Grandpa didn't take it too seriously, it is estimated that the children were lively for three days, and it stopped after two days. But Li Jing is the eldest son and grandson after all, and he still has a lot of face in the old lady. So, he transferred to him Lao Wu, the shopkeeper who was currently at home because the goods were robbed by the bandits. Immediately wrote a warrant, asking him to take it to find Lao Wu, and to pay two hundred taels of silver in the account office.

Li Jing ordered all the people to take the scholar Bai Yu and the sword. Guarding Li Bao and Li An, they rushed to Lao Wu's house, showed the old lady's warrant, and took Lao Wu away directly. I found a small restaurant, ordered a few dishes, greeted them and sat down, and let the scholar Bai Yu record.

Lao Wu's real name is Wu Deyu, he is in his fifties, and he has three sons and two daughters, all of whom are on errands in the Li family. This person, thin and small, has a pair of triangular eyes on his sallow face, two big teeth leaking out of his mouth, his clothes are clean and neat, he looks like a chicken thief, and he looks treacherous at first glance. This old Wu is not a fuel-efficient lamp at first glance, but since he is a slave of the family, the whole family is alive in Taohuawu, and he can't run upside down, Li Jing eats him to death, and he is not afraid of what he does.

Lao Wu lost his goods and was squeezed out by the minions, so he didn't lose his errand and went home to gnaw old corn. When I saw that the young master of the big house came with the master's warrant, he was overjoyed, if he was to tie up with the little master, his children and grandchildren would be guaranteed, as for whether this master would mess around, whatever he cared about, as long as he served well, he would be meritorious. As for whether it will harm the family, the cannon at the door of the house will be shot inside, and the other young masters and masters will fight less.

Hey, Lao Tzu's eyes still recognize people, this is Lao Tzu's chance to turn over.

This master is the heir of the third order of the family, and he is not comparable to the other young masters.

Li Jing didn't talk nonsense, and went straight to the point, "Old Wu, this young master wants to get familiar with the business at home, it's best to actually operate it, what is the most profitable thing to do during this time now."

"Young master, if you want to make money, you can make money in any business."

"Well, isn't it your pastime Young Master Ben" Li Jing's often squinted left eye suddenly glanced at it.

Lao Wu was shocked into a cold sweat, and hurriedly arched his hand and said: "Young master, don't worry, there is a way to do any business, you can make money if you do it well, and you will lose money if you don't do it well." The higher the risk, the greater the profit. I don't know if the young master values risk or profit. ”

"This is like a human saying, this young master is a beginner, so he naturally has to be safe."

"Okay, just wait for the young master's words, and explain it to the old lady and the old slave. To be safe, the most profitable business in the world is four words."

"What four words can you say in detail?"

"It is the four words of clothing, food, housing and transportation, as long as it is a person, it is inseparable, especially food, there are goods that do not worry about customers, and goods do not die when they arrive on the ground, they can be sold there. Won't smash your hands. Seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, firewood is not good for centralized management, don't mention it, rice is a large quantity, small profits and quick turnover, playing is a large amount of silver, and the young master is estimated to not be able to take out such a big capital. Salt is a monopoly, and the water is so deep that the old lady doesn't dare to touch it, let alone us. The amount of vinegar is too small, many vinegar workshops have ancestral secret recipes, and the new workshop is not easy to gain a foothold, so don't mention it. The old slave will tell the young master about this oil."

"At present, it is the root of the year, now the rapeseed oil is the best to sell, the rapeseed is purchased from the upstream, the oil mill is the best to sell, there are thousands of villages in the upper reaches of Meixi, there is a vacant land in front of the house and behind the house, whether it is a corner or a corner, the place where there is soil on the mountain will grow rapeseed oil, and it is transported to the oil mill in various towns by boat in winter. Vegetable oil can be sold out in Chengxiang City. ”

"Lao Wu, how much profit is from this rapeseed oil, and what is the cost."

"Young master, thirty catties of rapeseed and one catty of water are made into a round blank one foot thick, steamed and fried to blacken, and then stacked horizontally while it is hot. Then a huge log was hung on the beams of the house, and seven or eight strong men were used to push and impact, just like the wood hitting the city gate during the siege, squeezing out the oil little by little. It is time-consuming and laborious, the labor cost is very high, the oil production is slow, and it generally takes a winter to process all the rapeseed harvested in autumn. Rapeseed itself is not expensive, and the cost of steaming and frying in a large pot is also very low, and half of the cost is in manpower. However, we have a lot of people here, but we have little land, so it's easy to hire people.

"What is the price of oil in Chengxiang, what is the price of oil in Chaozhou. The gap can be huge."

"The price of pork generally fluctuates around five catties and one tael of silver. Both vegetable oil and soybean oil prices are a little more expensive than pork, and they also fluctuate with pork prices, especially fatty pork. The young master does not know the people's suffering, vegetable oil is actually a luxury, the family below the middle household can not afford to eat, vegetable oil in Chengxiang County, at least one dollar eight or nine cents of silver a catty, if it is transported to Chaozhou Mansion, there are many large merchants in the city, vegetable oil can be bought for two dollars and five cents of silver, if it is transported to Nanjing by ship, it can be sold for at least three dollars of silver a catty. If it is transported to Beijing, it is estimated that it will be able to get five coins of silver. If you go to Liaodong, it is estimated that it will not be less than five taels of silver. ”

"What, Liaodong vegetable oil is so expensive"

"A load of rice in Liaodong can be sold for three taels and five dollars of silver, and it is strange that vegetable oil is less than five taels of silver. Liaodong's grain monopoly is in the hands of civil officials and generals, and there are many local soldiers and guards, and a regular soldier earns 14 taels of snowflake silver a year, which is enough to feed a family of seven and worry about food and clothing for a year according to the price of Beijing. However, the local civil officials and hereditary generals made their fortunes by monopoly, how can it be cheap. Of course, these are all retail prices, we can only wholesale, and we can only sell them at seven or eight percent of the price in Jiangnan. If you really want to transport it to Liaodong, you have to negotiate the price with the local big merchants, after all, people also know the cost of water transportation, the price of Jiangnan, and they rely on local forces to earn this silver. We may not be able to share that part of the profits, unless the bulk can share the profits. ”

"Lao Wu, tell me in detail about the cost of each step of the oil extraction process."

"Young master, I'll talk about this money first, let's talk about business, what do you think."