The first to speak was Fan Wucheng, the director of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, who coughed lightly twice and said: "Just now, the report of the Seventeenth Sister has made it very clear that the total income of the various industries under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade in the previous year was 460,000 yuan. Even if the income from salt and iron is added, the total is only 490,000 yuan. Although the growth rate is more than 22 percent compared with the 400,000 guan of the previous year, the brothers can tell everyone the bottom here, which is already the limit that the Ministry of Commerce and Trade can reach. Whether we can maintain such a growth rate in the next year, the brothers really dare not guarantee.

Because, at present, our profit growth point is mainly in the glass industry, and glass products are pure luxury goods in this era, and the saturation rate of its market is relatively much faster than that of other daily necessities. As things stand, it is difficult for its profits to sustain the same high growth rate as in the previous two years for a long time -- this can be seen from the fact that the Ministry of Commerce and Trade did not achieve the 30 percent profit growth rate set at the beginning of the previous year.

Although, according to the news from the starling brother, the Qi Nanhai Qi Yuanwai who sold to our 'Qingyuan' and 'Jingyuan' has already passed Kaifeng City and came all the way to Liangxiang, wanting to negotiate with us about the glass business in Nantang. But in the brother's view, even if the negotiations with Qi Yuanwai were successful and the two sides reached an agreement on the glass business, the profit growth it could bring to the team was limited.

On the one hand, although we did not have a large agent in Nantang before, there has always been no shortage of businessmen from Nantang to buy glass products from us and then bring them back to Nantang to sell. That is to say, although the quantity and delicacy of glass products in the market of Nantang are limited, it does not mean that there are no such products, but because the purchase quantity is small, and the price is slightly higher than that of the northern countries. This time, even if we negotiated a deal with Qi Yuanwai, it was just to provide him with a relatively preferential price, so as to increase his competitiveness in Nantang, but it may not be able to make the glass products we sell to Nantang have a big increase in quantity and profit.

On the other hand, according to the cooperation agreement reached between us and Cui Yuanwai, all franchise stores that specialize in selling glass products outside Liaoguo need to be jointly operated by both parties. This also limits our cooperation with Qi Yuanwai to the level of suppliers and distributors, and it is obviously impossible for us to jointly operate a glass store with Qi Yuanwai like Cui Yuanwai. In this way, we can only earn the profit between the wholesale price and the cost, but we cannot get the part of the profit between the wholesale price and the retail price. The latter part of the profit should account for more than 30% of the profit of the entire glass product. Even according to the calculation method of our seven-point account with Cui Yuanwai, we will earn 20% less.

Therefore, although the foreign members will bring us new profit growth points, the growth range is limited. The brother estimates that after this transaction is completed, at most, it will be able to earn the maintenance cost of the current 'Flying Dragon Army' for a year. If we continue to expand the 'Flying Dragon Army' in the past two years, and still equip and train according to the existing standards, I am afraid that it will not be possible for our annual surplus to reach the level of the previous year, that is, the six years that should be experienced, in addition to two more members. ”

"Yes," Hong Yan, who knew the actual amount of equipment and maintenance costs of the "Flying Dragon Army", answered beside her, "According to the accounting of the Finance Department,; The equipment cost of each ordinary infantry of the 'Flying Dragon Army' is at least 20 yuan, and the annual expenses of raising a soldier - including food, clothing, housing, military salary, training, etc. - also need about 20 yuan. In this way, it would take at least 64,000 to raise this 'Flying Dragon Army' every year. Moreover, this is still according to the cost of ordinary infantry. In fact, cavalry and artillery cost much more per soldier than infantry.

Basically, the cost of raising one cavalryman is equivalent to three infantrymen. Although the daily cost of raising an artillery soldier is about the same as that of an infantryman, the cost of its equipment is not half a bit. The cost of a '55' rifle is only about 20 strokes, while a 100-millimeter caliber gun requires more than 1,000 strokes. The cost of equipment for an artillery company is enough for half an infantry battalion. This is still the cost of the artillery used by the artillerymen on the basis of the relatively primitive kind of artillery that is loaded from the front, and once the artillery begins to equip the new artillery that the big brother is about to develop to successfully develop from the back, the production cost of this artillery will probably rise and turn upward. ”,

"This is also something that can't be helped" Li Junwu heard Hong Yan talk about the problem of the new artillery, and interjected, "The processing of rear-loading rifled guns is much more complicated than that of front-loading smoothbore guns, and the rise in production costs is inevitable." ”

"Therefore, we must quickly find a way to make more money so as not to fall into a financial crisis in two years. After all, we are only a small group, not a country, and there is no way to run a fiscal deficit. Hong Yan emphasized.

"Seventeenth sister is right, people in this era are only serious about gold, silver and copper coins, and we can't be like the U.S. government in the previous life, through continuous borrowing to maintain the operation of the country. Because when he has no money, he can pay off his debts by printing green tickets, but we can't. Wang Kunjun agreed.

As he spoke, he turned to Fan Wucheng and asked, "I don't know if the Ministry of Commerce and Trade has any good ways to deal with this." ”

Fan Wucheng asked, first pondered for a moment, and then replied: "As the Seventeenth Sister said just now, we are just a small group, not a government. Therefore, if you want to make sure that your team's income and expenditure are balanced, you must open up as many financial resources as possible to increase your own income. And if you want to make a lot of money in this era, according to the brothers, in addition to glass products, which are luxury goods, only salt and iron are the two most profitable trades. In particular, salt tax has always been an important source of tax revenue for the state in ancient China, accounting for a fairly high proportion of the country's fiscal revenue, and can be called one of the financial pillars of the imperial court. This can be seen from the crackdown on the sale of illicit salt in all dynasties. ”

"The fourteenth brother is right," Zhang Weixin continued, "The salt tax has always been an important source of revenue for the governments of various dynasties, and in addition to the grain tax, it is important. But because of this, all dynasties have been very strict about the sale and purchase of salt. Didn't we also work hard to get the qualification to run the salt and iron industry from Xiao Siwen? In a sense, Xiao Siwen's policy for us is already very generous, and on the premise that we supply salt to the salt and iron division on time and in quantity, he does not levy heavy taxes on the salt we sell ourselves. Therefore, I think it will be very difficult to get them to continue to make concessions in this regard. After all, this thing is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and no matter how confused and greedy he is, Xiao Siwen will not make mistakes on this issue. ”

"In that case, can we secretly increase the output of salt by adopting the method of producing more and reporting less, and find a way to bypass the government's supervision and sell the salt to make money?" Xie Tian gave his opinion.

"If we do what Brother Thirteen said, won't we become traffickers of illicit salt? Whether it is the Liao State or the Zhou State, and even all other countries, the punishment for the sale of illicit salt is very severe. If we really want to do according to the advice of the thirteenth brother, wouldn't that be tantamount to pushing us in the opposite direction of the Liao court, which will be very unfavorable to our future development in the Liao country. Fan Wucheng retorted.

Xie Tian waved his hand and said, "The fourteenth brother is too cautious. You must know that the sale of illicit salt has never been cut off in all dynasties, and the salt dealers who sell illicit salt are mainly poor people. Since even they can survive under the blows of the government, with our current strength, what is there to fear. Even if the Liao Imperial Court is overwhelmed, I believe that with the strength of the 'Flying Dragon Army', it will be enough to ensure our integrity. ”

Xie Tian's remarks resonated with many brothers, and several brothers in the military department also said that there was no problem in terms of security, and they had absolute confidence that they would repel any attempt to obstruct the team's salt trade, whether it was official or civil.

With the support of the brothers in the military department, Xie Tian's proposal was quickly endorsed by the majority of the participants. Moreover, the Committee agrees in principle with this proposal, although it has reservations in some respects. In this way, in the subsequent voting, Xie Tian's proposal was unsurprisingly approved by a large number of votes.

However, the proposal on the sale of illicit salt is only the first step in the implementation of this somewhat dangerous trade, and much remains to be done to complete it.

First of all, the "Tanggu Salt Farm" should appropriately increase its output to meet the needs of sales -- this matter needs to be handled by Xie Tian, who is in charge of the salt works, and Liu Wendong, an expert in chemistry. Secondly, it is necessary to make private contacts with other merchants and find partners who are willing to take risks to participate in the sale of illegal salt, so that they can sell the salt that passes through the group to various places - this requires the cooperation of Fan Wucheng, Zhao Dawei, and all the brothers in the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, including Xie Tian. Third, it is necessary to try to open up the official joints, so that the other party can turn a blind eye and close one eye on this matter, so as to reduce the risk factor of their own side - this requires the brothers of Youzhou, as well as Wang Kunjun, Zhang Weixin and others to come forward.

In addition, out of prudence, after accepting Xie Tian's suggestion, the committee decided that the brothers on the side of Youzhou should fully communicate with Feng Cheng and Xiao Siwen behind him, so that they could give more care to the crossing team in terms of salt and iron. For example, increasing the price of salt purchased by the government; Increase the proportion of the self-selling part of the crossing team, and so on. In a more secure way, the crossing team can increase the income of the salt trading team

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