In the garden, Qian Ruyi, the vice president of the West Lake Association, walked in front, followed by two big businessmen, namely Xie Sanhou of the Xie family in Yin County, Zhejiang, and Cai Xuming of the Cai family in Deqing, Zhejiang.

These people are now the richest people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and their current wealth is mainly because they accumulated a lot of wealth when they were in the previous dynasty.

Needless to say, the Qian family, Xie Sanbin, the elder brother of Xie Sanbin, was a Jinshi from the previous dynasty. He had been a high-ranking official for a brief period of time. Later, he was cleaned up from the bureaucratic ranks and executed by Gao Huan.

Cai Xuming's father was a Grand Secretary of the Hongguang Dynasty. After Gao Huan took over the Ming Dynasty, he left the political arena.

Although they were suppressed, they had a strong family background and had enough start-up capital to invest in business.

After leaving the officialdom, they devoted themselves to business and had the connections and relationships they had accumulated in the previous dynasty, so they were easier to succeed than ordinary people.

At this time, everyone was walking through the garden. Qian Ruyi smiled and said, "This garden was originally a salt merchant in Huizhou. I bought it for 30,000 taels. Not long ago, it increased to 100,000, but now it is only worth 80,000."

After the official salt and iron business, Yangzhou declined rapidly. Half a year ago, Qian Ruyi knew that the court wanted to open up the salt industry and allowed private merchants to enter, so he quietly bought a lot of Yangzhou real estate and shops.

After Huang Zongxi carried out the improvement of the official workshop and allowed private merchants to operate salt and iron, the land prices in Yangzhou rose rapidly.

However, many of the merchants who recently flocked to Yangzhou and wanted to get a share of the salt industry have withdrawn from Yangzhou because the salt industry is not profitable, resulting in a decline in land prices.

"President Qian, the salt price is so low now that many small businessmen have withdrawn." Xie Sanhou looked at the garden, "I see that this garden has to fall, so you should take action quickly."

Cai Xuming followed the two of them and said in a deep voice: "Yes! The salt industry is completely unprofitable now. If this continues, I will have to withdraw."

Qian Ruyi stopped when he heard the words, turned around, and looked at the few people, "Why, don't you want to invest so much money?"

Xie Sanhou understood and smiled and said, "If you invest money, we are not a good person, so we naturally want to make money. Listen to the president, is there a way for us to make money? We will advance and retreat together in West Lake, so the president should not be beautiful alone!"

"I can't forget you!" Qian Ruyi continued to move forward, "This time I asked you to come here to discuss the matter of the salt industry. Qin merchants, Shanxi merchants, Hui merchants, and relying on the salt industry, they all made a lot of money, and they were almost as rich as the country. There is no reason why our West Lake will enter the salt industry, but we have to lose money."

Cai Xuming said in a deep voice: "The shipping price of the official salt farm is so low, how can we make money?"

Qian Ruyi stopped for a moment and walked forward, saying, "The government's business method is completely destroying market rules and interfering with the operation of the market. They have now put prices so low, which undoubtedly has hit the merchants' enthusiasm for entering the salt industry. At that time, private funds will be completely withdrawn, and the business model of the official workshop will be difficult to continue. Like JAC Mining, when the operation cannot continue, no one will engage in the salt industry, and the court can only regret it. I think the price of salt should be determined by the market, and the government should not deliberately suppress it."

"President Gao Jian!" Xie Sanhou emphasized, "But His Majesty the Emperor will not listen to our voice!"

At this time, the group walked to a loft. Qian Ruyi immediately ordered his subordinates to guard outside and prevent outsiders from getting close. Then he smiled and said to the few people: "Let's talk inside!"

The group entered the attic and waited for the maid to serve tea. After Qian Ruyi waved his hand to ask them to retreat, he glanced at everyone and said in a deep voice: "After all, His Majesty the Emperor is from a corps and does not understand the economy. He is confused by Li Yan and others and cannot see the risks. Mr. Huang is in the Council Council and is willing to reform, but due to the power of the Tianwei, he dares not completely abolish the official workshops. He only dares to rectify those poorly managed official workshops."

"Yes!" Cai Xuming knew that Qian Ruyi must have a countermeasure, so he leaned towards him, "What can the President do?"

Qian Ruyi narrowed his eyes and glanced at everyone. Everyone was sitting there with trustworthy people.

West Lake Association is very cautious in selecting members. If you want to join the association, you need to conduct long-term observation and review. Moreover, since there are not many members and they are all familiar with each other, it is not easy to get involved in outsiders.

At the beginning of its establishment, the West Lake Association realized that once it was exposed, it would definitely be suppressed by the emperor, so they were very mysterious and outsiders did not know that there was such an organization.

Qian Ruyi said in a deep voice: "The business method of the official workshop cannot last long, and there will be problems sooner or later. I mean, we will take action to ignite their problems in advance and solve this hidden danger for the court."

Huang Zongxi had already explained that they would be more at ease, but everyone still wanted to listen to Qian Ruyi's plan.

Xie Sanhou lowered his voice, "I don't know what the president is going to do?"

Qian Ruyi also lowered his voice, "Now the income and expenditure of Lianghuai Salt Industry is just balanced. As long as we bet on the salt price, the official salt industry will lose money. In this way, we can lobby the Civic Party to sell the poorly managed official salt industry. At that time, we will acquire these official workshops and monopolize the salt industry, and then slowly raise the price to recover the cost."

Everyone's eyes lit up when they heard the words, but Xie Sanhou asked with some concern: "President, what if the court transfusions blood to the salt industry? Besides, what if our actions were discovered by the court and let His Majesty the Emperor know?"

Everyone always has fear for the emperor and is worried that something will happen.

Qian Ruyi had thought about it before. He had a lot of money and had several think tanks to give him some advice. Therefore, he said confidently: "You can rest assured that I have already made careful plans. First of all, the emperor built railways and fought wars, and the court was already in debt. Judging from what I understand, the tax repayment of the treasury has become a problem, and he has no money to support various official workshops. This is also the reason why the emperor allowed the Civic Party to rule and used Huang Ge Lao to reform."

Several people nodded slightly when they heard this, Qian Ruyi continued: "As for lowering the price of salt, it is easy to say. After the publicity of the newspaper, the government and the public now generally believe that our private companies are more competitive. Therefore, we can claim that we have reduced costs through management and production technology innovation, so the shipment price is lower than that of the official salt industry. This can make the court and the emperor feel that the reform is correct, and that we should give us more freedom and policies to private companies, and also give the Citizens a reason to sell the official salt farm."

Xie Sanhou's eyes lit up, but then he frowned and said, "Then how can we make money back?"

Qian Ruyi smiled and said, "This matter is simple. After the official salt farm is sold by the court, we will make excuses to slowly increase the salt price. For example, the salt storage warehouse is overturned by a typhoon or a factory fire, resulting in a decrease in salt production. Is it reasonable for us to raise the price at that time?"

Xie Sanhou and others looked at each other and laughed.

Cai Xuming exclaimed: "The president is really wise! This strategy is very good. In the future, even if someone is jealous and is attracted by the huge profits of the salt industry, we can still adopt this strategy. Whether the government or other chambers of commerce want to enter the salt industry, as soon as they come, we will suppress the price to death so that they can't survive. Once they leave, we will raise the price again."

"Yes! We have a lot of money anyway!" Qian Ruyi laughed and said, "If we don't meet West Lake in the future, no one can get involved in the salt industry!"
Chapter completed!