Jin Lisan was very worried about the construction of iron and steel plants, because the previous dynasties, including the Qing Dynasty, were monopolized by salt and iron, and private enterprises were not allowed, which is also the reason why there were no private iron and steel plants in China until now. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Qin Chuan didn't think about this problem, but his thoughts were different from Jin Lisan's.

It is true that all dynasties, including the current Qing Dynasty, have always implemented the monopoly of salt and iron.

The salt monopoly is because salt is related to people's livelihood, and the rulers of previous dynasties did not dare to take it lightly. Once liberalized, it is feared that illegal salt will overflow, and the most important thing is that there is one less important source of tax. Although he is a candidate in the Changlu Salt Transportation Bureau, Qin Chuan, a candidate official of the Qing Dynasty who "sells dog meat on the head of a sheep", does not know how much the national salt tax is in the Guangxu period, and even he has no idea about the tax revenue of the Yamen of the Changlu Salt Transportation Agency for a year. However, Qin Chuan knew that during the Daoguang period, the national salt tax was 12 million taels, and that was still when only a few copper plates were levied per catty of salt.

As for the prohibition of private ownership of iron tools, this concept has long been behind the times, and it is very unnecessary. For example, at this time, iron tools are not even allowed to be exported to the subject country of Korea, which is very unreasonable, and if it is not allowed to be exported to hostile countries, this is barely enough. You must know that this era is no longer the era of cold weapons, and it is impossible to endanger the safety of the community by exporting some iron that may make swords and weapons, not to mention the iron materials produced in the handicraft workshops of the Qing Dynasty that are not of good quality.

Regarding this point, Qin Chuan believes that those imperial relatives, eunuchs, and officials in the court are all well aware, but because of the ancestral system, no one wants to worry about it. Especially now that Beiyang has been doing foreign affairs for so long, these outdated concepts have long faded in the imperial court.

Qin Chuan told a few people what he thought, and after thinking about it, they also felt that what Qin Chuan said made sense.

In order to be foolproof, Jin Lisan suggested that Qin Chuan should first go to Zhang Shiheng and Li Jingfang, and ask them to come forward to mediate with Li Hongzhang, and Li Hongzhang would give the imperial court a discount, saying that the TJ Machinery Bureau was consuming stainless steel day by day, and there were no steel-making factories in Beiyang, and it was all based on the purchase of things from Western powers, and the consumption was very cloudy. Then it was explained that the steel produced by the steel plant in Aurora was not allowed to be sold privately except for the supply of surplus steel to the TJ Machinery Bureau, and it was only possible to sell it according to the documents of the direct subordinate and the Yamen. In this way, it is more secure to think about it.

After discussing this matter, Pan Sichi also took Zhou Shengji, Xu Xifang, and Ye Xi to leave, and even Rong Yaoyuan left under the pretext of leaving the living room, leaving only Li Mingfang and Jin Lisan in the living room.

Glory Yuan and Pan Sichi all knew that the remaining two people had to report to Qin Chuan for instructions, which was the most confidential thing for the Aurora Group. Although Jin Lisan's life with Qin Chuan was not very long, the errand given to him by Qin Chuan determined his status in the Aurora Group, and Jin Lisan was able to compete with Li Mingfang and become Qin Chuan's most trusted confidant together.

Seeing the others leaving, Li Mingfang couldn't wait to open the black bag he had been keeping by his side, and carefully took out a list full of handwriting from it.

"Boss, I really convinced you, if you hadn't advocated the establishment of this shipping company, there would have been no trip to Persia, and we would have missed this big fortune, we really made a lot of money this time."

Looking at Li Mingfang who was smiling, Qin Chuan couldn't wait to snatch the list from Li Mingfang's hand and look at it himself, but seeing Li Mingfang holding the list tightly with both hands, as if he was afraid that the list would fly away as soon as he let go, he still forcibly held back.

Qin Chuan picked up a glass of beer that had just been filled, leaned his back comfortably on the sofa, took a sip of the slightly bitter but full of rich malt flavor of beer, and looked at Li Mingfang with interest, showing his expression as plain as possible, and trying to show a kind of Taishan collapse in front of the two without being surprised.

Jin Lisan smiled and said, "Lao Li, you don't want to buy any more guanzi, let's talk quickly." ”

Under Jin Lisan's urging, Li Mingfang cleared his throat, and then reported to Qin Chuan in a voice that was slightly trembling because of excitement that Ning Xingpu had gained from their trip.

"The owner, Ning Xingpu and Gao Lin went out on this trip, and what they shipped out was our self-produced colored cloth, flour, canned food, soap, refined salt, pens and leather goods, but what they brought back was sparkling gold, pearls, and precious stones, this trip was really worth it。。。。。。"

Seeing that Li Mingfang was still verbose, Jin Lisan couldn't help but smile and urge.

"Okay, Lao Li, you still have to talk about the contents of this list."

Li Mingfang coughed heavily, and leaned over to Qin Chuan with a blushing face.

"Owner, this time our goods were sold out, and a total of 680,000 taels of gold were exchanged."

"Six hundred and eighty thousand taels of gold!"

The figures reported by Li Mingfang made Qin Chuan's heart tremble suddenly, a stream of blood rushed to the top of his head, and he could hear the beating of his heart clearly, and the beer in the wine glass in his hand almost spilled.

Even according to the current price of gold and silver, one tael of gold is exchanged for twenty taels of silver, which is a huge amount of money of 13.6 million taels.

Although tens of millions of silver is a lot, Qin Chuan has not seen it in the past six months, and the funds on his account now are far more than eight figures. It's just that the large amount of cash silver in Qin Chuan's hand, except for a small amount left to the mint to be reminted into Vermilion Bird Silver Dollars, most of it was exchanged for foreign exchange by Li Mingfang and Jin Lisan through foreign banks and foreign banks in the concession, and then secretly exchanged the exchanged foreign exchange into gold abroad through HSBC and shipped back. Now, in the underground vault of Aurora on the opposite side, there are millions of taels of gold, and millions of gold are not coming back on the way through HSBC's channels.

Despite this, this news still made Qin Chuan excited, because he didn't expect that his treasure was a bet, and the price of the goods sold in West Asia was much higher than the price he sold in TJ.

What's more, Qin Chuan couldn't be clearer, seeing that in a few months, the price of gold to silver was about to rush upward, how could Qin Chuan not be excited!

Qin Chuan's excited expression only caused Jin Lisan to glance at it with a smile, and Li Mingfang, who was even more excited than Qin Chuan, didn't notice the changes in Qin Chuan at all, and still whispered excitedly with a trembling voice.

"There are even more jewels of all kinds, and there are eight large boxes of precious stones the size of peanuts: most of the extremely precious boxes are pigeon's blood red and garnet red, and others are sapphires, emeralds, golden green cat's eyes, and turquoise; In addition, there are a large box of various colors of jadeite, three boxes of agate, a large box of amethyst, two large boxes of tortoiseshell, three large boxes of good Burmese jade, and more than a dozen corals more than one foot high. ”

The more Li Mingfang said, the more excited he became: "The owner, there are 856 pearls the size of a dragon's eye, of which eighteen walnut-sized night pearls are particularly precious, only these eighteen big beads, Lao Jin and I estimate that each can be worth more than 10,000 taels, if the eighteen are sold in one place, none of them can be taken away." ”

Li Mingfang reached out to the coffee table with a slightly trembling hand, apparently trying to take a cigarette from Qin Chuan's cigarette case.

Li Mingfang has never smoked, at this time, he thought that he was too excited, Qin Chuan hurriedly reached out and took out one for Li Mingfang and handed it to him, and Jin Lisan on the other side was even quicker, and with a "click" sound, he wiped a match and lit the cigarette that Li Mingfang had just put in his mouth.

If this was put in normal times, Li Mingfang, who has always been cautious, would never let Qin Chuan fetch him cigarettes, and would never let Jin Lisan light it for him.

It's just that Li Mingfang just subconsciously took a puff, and was choked and coughed loudly, and hurriedly reached out to snuff out the cigarette he had just lit in the ashtray.

"Ahem, owner."

Li Mingfang couldn't hide his excitement and reported: "Although Ning Xingpu and the others brought back fifty-three large boxes full of good Persian spices, this is nothing. ”

"Guess what's the rarity they've brought back?"