Wealth?

Speaking of this, the gentry couldn't help but be a little excited and restless.

An Zaixu, a gentry from Changzhou, was the most anxious, "Your Highness, in my humble opinion, since this exchange is named a hundred industries, it must not only trade field rolls, but also the stocks you mentioned some time ago."

"Exactly." Zhao Mengqi nodded, and said eloquently, "As Gu Ye said before, the Taihu Lake Project will generate a huge amount of material demand, which is far from being met by relying on the existing workshops, so it is necessary to build a number of large-scale workshops, just like the Grange system to issue shares, all of which will be publicly traded here."

"Any industry that issues shares is equivalent to an industry shared by all shareholders, so it can be called a "company", and stocks, like ordinary commodities, can be freely traded in the market, referred to as "listed"."

"It's not just the isolated industries that can be listed, if necessary, private industries can also apply for IPO here, but they must go through a strict review before they can be approved, but after becoming a listed company, the operating conditions and financial information must be made public, and they must be subject to the supervision of the exchange and all shareholders."

When the gentry heard this, they pondered it one after another, and soon discovered the great advantage of it.

The industry and commerce of the Great Song Dynasty were very developed, but there were many industries in the private sector that could only be operated by their own accumulation, and the development was very slow, and at the same time, there were many rich people who had no reliable investment channels and could only hide their money.

If you want to make money with money, in addition to making your own industry, there are more usurious loans, although they are profitable, they are not stable, and their reputation is not good.

This stock seems to be a very good investment channel, and this exchange is made by Yanwang, and as long as these listed companies pay taxes normally, they will not have to suffer from additional exploitation by the government, which is also a major benefit.

Some people realized that the exchange itself was a promising industry, and they tried to ask, "Your Highness, can this exchange itself issue shares?" If you can, I'm going to buy 300,000 yuan!"

Zhao Mengqi shook his head with a smile, "The exchange is just a platform, communicating with both sides of the transaction, although it will charge some fees to maintain its operation, but it will not be for the purpose of making profits, so it is not profitable, the important thing is that the exchange must strictly ensure fairness and justice, if the shares are divided, it is easy to be affected by adverse effects, so it is only controlled by this king for the time being, and it is likely to become a direct subordinate to the royal family in the future, and has always maintained a neutral attitude."

"Your Highness is reasonable......," most of the gentry nodded in agreement.

Immediately, Wu Qian stood up and said, "The materials needed for the Taihu Lake project will be purchased by the Comprehensive Management Division, and in order to eliminate the drawbacks, all purchases will be made through public bidding on the exchange."

"What is tendering? That is, the comprehensive management department issued an announcement in advance, indicating the variety, quantity, requirements and other information that needs to be purchased, and then the seller will bid confidentially with the price and quality of their respective products, and finally make a unified public selection, win with high quality and low price, and put an end to the disadvantages of private giving and receiving and exploitation, so that buyers and sellers can win and benefit each other!"

"Moreover, from now on, the official procurement of the yamen under Pingjiang Prefecture will gradually adopt this method to replace "Hemai"!"

and buying, originally the meaning of wishful and fair trade, has gradually become a term for the government to purchase materials from the people since the pre-Qin period.

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the government directly purchased silk and other goods from the people at a price higher than the market price, not only removing the middlemen, but even paying for the goods in advance at the beginning of the year, so that the people did not have to borrow usury because of lack of funds.

However, the status of the government and the people is seriously unequal, and the government can change the rules and agreements at any time, and it is simply impossible to maintain the fairness of the transaction for a long time.

Later, it was completely reduced to a means for the government to extort private wealth, and it became a kind of compulsory taxation in disguise, especially at this time, it was the heaviest mountain on the people, and the officials often extorted the merchants and the people by buying and buying.

It is mainly because of the Hemai system that all walks of life in the Great Song Dynasty are gradually withering and depressed, and they are becoming more and more bleak.

This system, which has become the biggest civil hazard, has already formed a huge chain of interests, and it is really not something that ordinary people dare to touch easily, that is, Zhao Mengqi has more lice and is not itchy.

Of course, at this time, the tax converted from the purchase office was already more than twice the regular tax, and it became an important part of the imperial court's finances, and it was unrealistic to completely change it in the short term.

But this news still shocked the gentry, and their reactions were different, some appreciated and some disagreed, no matter what they thought in their hearts, they all realized that the real spring of industry and commerce was coming.

The reason why the gentry are very interested in investing in the Yanwang industry is that they think that the government will not exploit the head of Yanwang, and they will not worry about the market, and there is a guarantee of profit, but now they find that if they really bid fairly, they may earn more money by directly setting up the industry, so many people began to think about it in their hearts.

Seeing that everyone was in thought, Zhao Mengqi opened his mouth to break the silence, "Cough, in the future, the bulk goods trading of the private sector can actually use the exchange and adopt the method of bidding and auction, but this is not today's topic, and the financial road that I want to talk about has nothing to do with the Taihu Lake Project."

It has nothing to do with the Taihu Lake Project!?

This is a big project of 50 million yuan, is there a more profitable project than this?

In the stunned eyes of everyone, Zhao Mengqi raised his hand, and dozens of sergeants walked in, each carrying a large tray with small paper bags piled up.

"In this paper bag, it is the wealth that Lone brings to everyone, please take one bag from each of you."

With curiosity, the gentry took the paper bags one by one and put them in their hands to observe.

Very ordinary straw paper, even a little rough and inferior, and when opened, there is a small pinch of crystal clear particles inside, like snow and frost, it looks a bit like the refined salt that King Yan gave to the people of Gusu for free before, and the shape is different.

What is it? Also refined salt?

Speaking of which, such a high-quality refined salt is indeed a weapon to make money, but unfortunately most of the profits of the salt industry are in the imperial court, and there is nothing to do, is King Yan ready to let the imperial court let go of its monopoly?

"Don't guess, Lone will tell you, it's sugar."

Sugar?

How can it be!?

The gentry looked incredulous.

It is estimated that since the birth of human beings, there has been a special pursuit of sweetness, and most of the ancients regarded sweetness as the first of the five flavors.

Originally, people relied on the primitive methods of collecting wild fruits, honey, common plant solutions, etc. to obtain sugar.

In the pre-Qin period, starch sugar made from grains appeared, which was called "starch", which was as sweet as starch.

Although sugarcane spread to southern China in the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was only the original juice extraction, called "Zhe pulp", and only in the Han Dynasty did it have the word cane, which was originally called pole cane, and the rod of bamboo pole was later changed to sweet sweet.

By the time of the Tang Dynasty, it was only a thicker "cane pulp" after being exposed to the sun, but Tianzhu, one of the origins of sugarcane, had already produced a solid sugar called "stone honey" or "frosting".

After Tang Taizong Li Er found out, he sent an envoy to seek technology.

This envoy is Wang Xuance, who "broke one country with one person", and the "Magadha Empire" he conquered was the first country to produce sugar.

Tianzhu artificial candy uses the milk impurity removal method, after Wang Xuance brought back the technology, the milk production in Huaxia was small, so he changed to egg white to replace, and produced sand sugar.

Whether it is milk or egg white, the cost is very high, not ordinary people can afford to consume, ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty can still only use cane syrup, and most of this sugar and frosting are not white, but gray-brown, and the high quality is more like amber.

When the Song Dynasty came, sweets became more common, as evidenced by the recipes that were handed down to later generations, but the people could still buy syrup, although it was thicker, it was still liquid, and it was still reddish-brown, and the sugar sellers were all dressed in clay pots, as was the case in the Qingming Riverside Map.

In fact, this kind of sugar still exists in later generations, and Shangyou County, Jiangxi Province still retains such a traditional sugar-making method.

As for the solid frosting, at this time it was also called rock sugar, only a few places such as Suining will be produced, the output is still very touching, Emperor Song Huizong of the Daojun Emperor asked Suining to pay a tribute of thousands of catties of frosting every year, but nearly half of the local sugar farmers are bankrupt.

At this time, the Persians have used the alkaline ash refining method, because Quanzhou City Bosi and Dashi, Persian trade is very frequent, so the Song Dynasty also learned this method, but only a very small part of the solid sugar produced is white, the rest are brown sugar and brown sugar.

If it weren't for Zhao Mengqi's inconvenience, then Huaxia would have been discovered by the Ming Dynasty because of an accident, and even had the feeling of "before Jiajing, there was no white sugar in the world", so people at this time have really never seen such a crystal white sugar.

Although I don't know where Yan Wang got it from, after all, some places can indeed produce similar good salt, such as Xixia green salt.

How can sugar be so white?

I'm afraid that King Yan is not bluffing us as children.

Zhao Mengqi saw that these gentry all looked disbelieving, shrugged helplessly, took a paper bag and opened it, twisted a handful and put it in his mouth, and then smashed his mouth, "Don't you know if you taste it?"

Well, King Yan dares to eat it himself, it doesn't seem to be poisonous.

Hundreds of gentry tried it in disbelief, and then exploded.

"Sweet! Like honey, it's really sugar!"

"Mother, this is the real snow and frost, and those who used to be embarrassed to be called frosting!? So what's this called?"

"In the opinion of old age, this sugar can be called snow sugar!"

"Snow Sugar? It's a good name, both figurative and meaningful...... I wonder how much this snow candy should cost?"

"The sand sugar on the market is nearly 100 pounds, and this snow sugar should be 100 times that of it!"

"A hundred times is only ten pounds, if it is really at this price, I will buy as much as I want, and I will buy it all if I am bankrupt!"

"I don't think that even if the price is higher than gold, it will be ten times the profit, and it will be really beautiful for you."

"Brother Hua is reasonable, Zhou Yuanwai is really good at doing business, how can such beautiful things be sold to you alone......

The price sounds exaggerated compared to gold, but the so-called scarcity is expensive, during the Yuanfeng period, the Great Song Dynasty can produce more than 10,000 taels of gold a year, but this kind of snow sugar, the gentry all think that it must be extremely difficult to produce, and there are no 1,000 catties a year.

"Let's be quiet." Zhao Mengqi snapped his fingers, and after a while, he said, "Equivalent to gold? Will you buy it?"

"Buy, of course buy, even if the old decrepit family is not thick, a hundred and ten catties can still afford it!"

"That's right, there are a lot of people in the next family, and it takes forty or fifty pounds to barely get enough points......

"Your Highness, don't be suspicious, whether others buy it or not, you are not willing to buy all the remaining snow sugar!"

"I'll buy three hundred pounds!"

"Your Highness, Xiaomin has 100,000 yuan in cash, and he guarantees that he will deliver the goods with one hand and pay the money with the other......

Zhao Mengqi shook his head, "There's no need to fight, it's not a big problem to sell it to you, and the price doesn't have to be so high, but, did you misunderstand something, Gu is not trying to sell sugar to you, but let you participate in the white, well, snow sugar business together."

"Huh!?"

"Is Your Highness true?"

"Isn't this the same as giving me a mountain of gold!?"

"This ...... This snow sugar business also issues shares?"

The gentry were pleasantly surprised, but Zhao Mengqi was completely calm.

"That's right, I want to establish Da Song Sugar Company, issue 100,000 shares, 100 per share, and expect that when the company is on the right track, the annual income per share will not be less than 100 yuan!"