In the D District of Luoyang City, several wealthy merchants from the State of Qi, after leaving the royal palace, did not immediately return home. Instead, they gathered together to discuss whether or not to purchase these items.
"Bao Ping, Guan Yi, He Wen…
We are in big trouble, or rather, the State of Qi is in big trouble. The refined salt sold by the King of Zhou is far superior in quality to the salt sold by our State of Qi. It can be said that once his salt is introduced, anyone with a certain status will disdain our Qi salt and opt for this refined salt.
Do you think we should buy the refined salt to sell, or boycott it and refuse to buy?"
The State of Qi is coastal, and the salt industry has always been one of its pillar industries. For some of the vassal states that do not produce much salt, nearly half of their domestic salt supply comes from Qi, and the salt for the royal court of Zhou was entirely supplied by Qi.
The merchants from Qi present here were primarily engaged in the salt business, with other industries as secondary.
Therefore, compared to items like glass and toilet paper, refined salt undoubtedly had the greatest impact on them and was the most difficult for them to accept. After all, they all knew very well that if they disregarded national interests, selling anyone's salt would be profitable.
However, they could not ignore the fact that they were from Qi.
Helping to buy and sell the King of Zhou's refined salt would inevitably severely impact Qi's main salt industry and cause losses.
This indeed made An Ping find it difficult to make a decision.
"Brother An Ping, you are overthinking. If we don't buy, is it useless? Will others not buy? Will other countries not buy? In my opinion, we not only have to buy, but we have to buy more, and send the salt to the State of Qi as quickly as possible. This way, the King will know about this matter and think of countermeasures.
We cannot make decisions for the King.
We can only let the King know this news as soon as possible."
Bao Ping, without hesitation, directly expressed his opinion. He Wen then continued,
"Not just refined salt, but also that white sugar, which looks like white crystal, and the MSG that can make plain water incredibly sweet with just a little, as well as various other seasonings. These are undoubtedly things that can drive people wild and cause many nobles to compete for them.
After eating food cooked with those ingredients.
Who would still be able to eat bitter salt and inferior honey!
I can guarantee that as long as the nobles of various countries taste the deliciousness of those seasonings, there will be no one who is unwilling to buy.
It's the same for other items.
Let the King and his officials worry about the salt industry. What's the use of us thinking for them? Who will hear if we worry for them? Right now, let's discuss how much money each of us has, how much silk and cloth we can contribute, how to most reasonably purchase these goods, and how to transport them back to make a profit.
I plan to sell the residence I have in Luoyang.
To convert it into more currency, so I can buy more things…"
"Brother He Wen is right. The potential impact of refined salt should be left to the officials to worry about. As for where the King of Zhou got this refined salt and these rare items, we don't need to investigate further. After all, no matter where the goods come from, it's probably not something we can interfere with.
Buying more goods to take back and sell is the priority.
In my opinion, this time we should buy more seasonings. These seasonings have a long shelf life and are easy to transport. Unlike glass, which is very fragile, if a cartload is transported back to Qi, we don't know how many pieces will survive. While toilet paper is also quite good, it is light and takes up a lot of space, making transportation quite troublesome."
Guan Yi seconded the motion and directly stated his procurement opinions.
"I also think the scented soap for washing hands and the cream for moisturizing hands are quite good. Not only do they smell good, but their cleaning effect is also very good. I was shocked the first time I used them.
I never knew my hands were so dirty.
They are much better to use than soap beans.
I think any woman who loves cleanliness will like them and be willing to spend money to buy them. Even men who prefer to feel refreshed will not hesitate to buy them, after all, that feeling of being refreshed is truly comfortable."
Compared to most merchants who only wanted to pool money and goods to buy more products and sell them back home for a profit, some high-ranking nobles were much more avaricious. The moment they saw these good things, besides wanting to possess them, they also wanted to steal the secret recipes to monopolize the profits.
Even though they were well aware that these secret recipes were provided by Ding Yun, it did not diminish their greed.
This was because the royal court of Zhou was too weak.
So weak that the high-ranking nobles had no sense of awe.
They might not dare to rebel and destroy the state, but who would dare not try to steal some secret recipes?
The only fortunate thing was probably that they were not so bold as to directly enter the royal palace and force Ding Yun to hand over the secret recipes. Most of the high-ranking nobles who became greedy simply turned their attention to the workshops Ding Yun had built, and sent people overnight to gather information, or to find ways to steal the secret recipes.
Perhaps some even thought of kidnapping workers to extract the recipes.
However, Ding Yun had long foreseen that some nobles in this era might have no concept of law and order or moral constraints. The survival of the fittest, suppressed by the strictures of Zhou rituals, was already about to be openly displayed.
Therefore, she not only installed many traps and protective systems in her shell companies' workshops, but also provided basic training to the workers. As long as it was not a large army attacking the workshop, they could basically eliminate them one by one.
Most of them could even be captured alive.
It was a joke; things like chili oil and pepper spray, which were far beyond the era and the invaders' imagination, could easily incapacitate those who climbed over the wall to steal things, or even tried to kidnap people.
Even if the opponent dodged the chili oil and pepper spray.
There were still trap crossbows, anesthetics, and so on…
If Ding Yun had been willing to create more bloodshed, simply placing gunpowder in the traps could have sent them away directly.
And without complete remains.
Therefore, that night, although many great nobles sent people out, not a single one returned. And as soon as dawn broke the next morning, Ding Yun, based on the information she had gathered, sent back all the captured individuals, whether dead or alive, as a warning.
Regardless of what those great nobles thought, or whether they intended to give up stealing the secret recipes, for the short term, they had certainly become compliant. One by one, they obediently used currency, or silk and cloth that could be used as currency, to go to Ding Yun's shop to buy goods.
Before long, Ding Yun reaped a bountiful harvest.
Cartloads upon cartloads of copper coins, knife money, and even cowrie shells from various countries, or gold, silver, silk and cloth, were transported to the royal palace. And while Ding Yun ate meat, she did not forget to share some soup with her son. Not only did she send many of the products sold in her shop to King Jing of Zhou, but she also gave him one-third of the income to exchange for some wasteland on the outskirts of Luoyang City and some strong young slaves.
This was to expand the scale of her industry and her own influence.