Wang Chengen walked into the emperor's laboratory cautiously with some heavy steps. The decoration style of this room is completely different from other rooms in the palace, no, it should be said that it is a room that is not similar to the decoration anywhere in Daming, and every time he walks here, he feels as if he has entered another world.

He cautiously walked away, and the white marble table full of glassware in the middle of the room, through the narrow passage between the table and the brick wall, walked to the emperor, who was immersed in the microscope.

In order to be able to have good light, Chongzhen did not choose a large room near the middle, which was relatively spacious, but chose this small room with good light.

Coupled with the partition wall built for fireproof masonry, this makes the whole room look smaller. After a few tables, bookshelves, and utility shelves, the whole room was crammed to the brim.

Wang Chengen glanced at the crystal clear glassware on the stone table, and quickly withdrew his gaze. These glassware, which look dazzling in the light, are no less than the most outstanding official kilns, if not shaped in such a strange way.

Although he felt extremely sorry for Chongzhen for being so violent, Wang Chengen, who grew up in the palace, knew that compared to the habits of previous emperors, Chongzhen's behavior was very normal and harmless.

Zhu Youzhen's eyes basically did not leave the microscope, but he was holding a piece of white paper in his hands and smearing, and Wang Chengen, who was standing, could clearly see that there were only some chaotic lines on the white paper, and he couldn't see what the emperor was drawing at all.

Before he could speak, Zhu Youzhen didn't raise his head and said, "What's wrong?" To break in in such a hurry. ”

Wang Chengen hurriedly lowered his head and said: "There seems to be something wrong with the stock exchange, and someone is buying a large number of shares of Xishan Glass Factory. ”

Zhu Youzhen finally raised his head, put down the pen and paper in his hand, he first rubbed his somewhat sour eyes, and then stretched his waist and said, "Xishan Glass Factory? How many shares are issued in this plant? ”

Wang Chengen quickly replied: "Based on 100 taels per share, a total of 1,000 shares were issued, totaling 100,000 taels of share capital. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while before asking, "How much have we actually invested in this factory?" ”

"No more than 15,000 taels."

"Well, who has such a good eye? Actually eyed the glass factory. ”

"It's a few Jin merchants."

Zhu Youzhen suddenly became serious, he turned his head to look at Wang Chengen, restrained his relaxed expression and said, "How many shares have they acquired?" ”

Wang Chengen thought for a while before saying: "290 shares, now the stock price of the glass factory has risen to 150 taels." ”

"How can they have so many glassworks in their hands? So how many more shares of the glass factory do we have in our hands? Zhu Youzhen said with some surprise.

"The nobles of the House of Lords asked for an exchange of the shares of the Taiwan Reclamation Company they held, and His Majesty agreed. Some of them replaced the shares of the West Hill Glass Factory, which was about 400 shares. ”

"So how many assets does Xishan Glass Factory have now?" Zhu Youzhen supported his chin with his hands and thought for a long time before asking.

Wang Chengen paused, and then said: "Please wait a moment, Your Majesty, the minister is going to go and look through the recent account books." ”

"Let the books come in." Zhu Youzhen said casually.

Wang Chengen looked through the account books sent by the attendant before he raised his head and said: "The profitability of Xishan Glass Factory is very good, all the products of this year have been booked, and the advance deposit alone has exceeded 25,000 taels.

The only thing that can limit the output of Xishan Glass Factory is the amount of soda ash available in the market, as well as the scale of the glass kiln. Now the actual value of the glass factory has exceeded 70,000 taels, and next month, the glass factory is preparing to expand three new glass kilns. ”

Zhu Youzhen asked thoughtfully: "Have you applied for a patent for the glass formula?" ”

"Uh..."

Seeing that Wang Chengen was speechless, Zhu Youzhen sighed and said: "I found someone to apply for a patent first, isn't the Ministry of Industry Patent Office already established."

The patent of the glass formula was placed in the name of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and the Imperial Horse Supervisor signed an agreement with the Xishan Glass Factory to pay 15% of the profit of the Imperial Horse Supervisor every year as a patent use fee. Then, go all out to acquire the shares of Xishan Glass Factory. ”

"Your Majesty, we own 60% of the shares, and there is no need to buy those worthless shares. And if you want to buy shares, you have to raise the price, if those Jin merchants take the opportunity to sell stocks, won't they make a lot of money? Wang Chengen hurriedly spoke out to dissuade him.

It's just a piece of printed paper, which can represent 100 taels of silver, and this kind of stock that can't be used to cash in silver taels can still be coaxed at a price higher than the face value, which makes Wang Chengen feel incredible.

According to Wang Chengen's idea, he should sell all the stocks in his hand now, and then use the money to rebuild the glass factory.

It only cost 50,000 taels to rebuild the glass factory at most, and the glass factory stock in the hands of the palace was sold for 90,000 taels, and as long as the imperial horse supervisor gave an order, the skilled craftsmen of the glass factory could be pulled away, which was really a lucrative business.

"It's worth it or not, it's up to us. The so-called stock exchange is actually similar to a casino. We need some capable stock traders, who can take a glass factory out to practice, which is still good for the future.

If it fails, it will only be tens of thousands of taels of silver. With the increase in stock prices, the following news is released, such as the annual production of glass lampshades has been booked, new glass kilns have been built, new products have been developed, and so on.

When the stock price is pushed up to more than three times the denomination, it starts to suppress the stock price, falls by about 15%, and then continues to rise, and so on and so forth, pulling the stock price down to 10 times the value, and then notifying me.

Whatever you do, you have to remember not to foul, at least not to let others know that you are fouling. Only if everyone thinks that the rules of the stock exchange can bind everyone, can this game be played for a long time..."Zhu Youzhen said to Wang Chengen face to face.

In the stock exchange in the Ten Princes' Mansion, in the central hall of this mansion, several rows of benches are neatly arranged, and in front of the benches are eight blackboards, on which the stock transactions are recorded.

There were five or six people sitting on the west bench, and Zhang Jinquan, a salt merchant from Huaiyang, was sitting in the middle of the bench, and he was carefully looking at the few ladies sitting across the aisle.

Sitting next to him were brothers Wang Xianwen and Wang Xiansheng, who were also born as salt merchants in Huaiyang, and the two said to him with some concern: "Jinquan, can we stop it, I see that the faces of Taining Hou are ugly." ”

Zhang Jinquan grabbed the back of the bench in front of him with both hands, took a deep breath of air, and said with some answers: "I like it here, haven't you noticed?" In this place, money is the most powerful. ”

Thinking of not to mention living in the same room with these powerful people in the past, even if it was the house slaves under these powerful people, they had to curry favor in a low voice, and people might not be treated with each other's eyes, Wang Xianwen and Wang Xiansheng couldn't help but agree with his thoughts in their hearts.

Taining Hou Chen Wenli looked at it with a gloomy face, and the stock of Xishan Glass Factory on the blackboard in front of him rose to 170 taels per share, but he had already thrown it at the price of 135 taels.

In the morning, Chen Wenli was still saying to the nobles around him that the people who spent 135 taels to buy these pieces of paper were either idiots or fools. Under his leadership, except for Cheng Anhou, other nobles who had glass factory stocks in their hands were all thrown out.

According to the old practice, after throwing off the stocks in their hands, these nobles should find a place to drink and play.

But the experience of staying in the stock exchange for several days has made them seem to have developed a habit of wanting to stay here and watch the stock price move even if they have already sold their stocks.

The nobles who did not leave suddenly saw the rising stocks they had thrown out. These nobles may not be heartbroken if they spend tens of thousands of taels on a famous prostitute. But for this kind of loss of money caused by a mistake in judgment, it makes them feel embarrassed.

Although the nobles around Taining Hou didn't say anything, from their silent expressions, Taining Hou knew that they must have complained about themselves in their hearts.

Cheng Anhou was boasting triumphantly that he had sold the shares of the Four Seas Commercial Bank and bought the shares of the glass factory at a discount. Now he has 110 shares in his hands, but he has earned nearly 7,000 taels.

looked at the triumphant Cheng Anhou and the several nobles surrounding Cheng Anhou. Taininghou suddenly felt that Cheng Anhou's laughter was a little harsh.

Taining Hou glanced at the Huaiyang salt merchants next door with malice, and it was these people who made him lose face. If it weren't for this place, he would definitely let these despicable salt merchants know what it would be like to dare to tease Xun Qi with money.

Zhang Jinquan and the other three are all Shanxi people, the Zhang family was originally a grain merchant in Shanxi, after the abolition of the Kaizhong Law, the Zhang family moved to Yangzhou to operate the salt industry, so far began to make a fortune.

Zhang Jinquan is the only son of three generations of the Zhang family, and after his father died three years ago, he had to take over the family business. But he was young and vigorous, and apparently not very accustomed to dealing with the officials who ran the salt industry.

Therefore, the Zhang family's family business is not as good as before, but even so, Zhang Jinquan's liquidity can use exceeds 300,000 taels.

Only a hundred years ago, when Yan Song talked to Jiajing about the world's richest people, he said that there would be no more than 17 people in the country with assets of more than 500,000 taels, and most of them were Shanyou and Xin'an people.

But today, at least among the salt merchants in Huaiyang, those with assets of more than 500,000 yuan are only the middle rich, and only those with more than one million taels are called huge rich.

More than 30 million taels of money circulate in the Huaiyang salt industry every year, while the publicly calculable profit exceeds 9 million taels.

Before Zhang Jinquan took over, the Zhang family used to be close to the standard of huge wealth, but now it has fallen to the level of middle wealth.

As for the two brothers, Wang Xianwen and Wang Xiansheng, they came from another Shanxi salt merchant family. Although the assets of the Wang family are not far from those of the Zhang family, the Wang family is a big family, and the assets that Wang Xianwen and Wang Xiansheng can use do not exceed 50,000 taels.