Chapter 74: A big one!

This statement was quite tactful; “how much to bring” actually meant — “how much to ask the family for.”

Lu Xun’s eyebrows furrowed imperceptibly, and Lu Chengxiao’s eyes flickered slightly as he glanced at Lu Chengzhang.

Only Lu Chengzong hadn’t noticed anything wrong with Lu Chengzhang’s words. He also looked at Lu Chengxiao and asked, “Yes, Chengxiao, isn’t it unprofitable to bring too little goods on a trip to Zhejiang?”

Lu Chengzong was just an honest and straightforward person, not one to scheme. After years of doing business with his father, he still knew how to do basic calculations. When he spoke, he genuinely considered Chengxiao’s interests.

Chengxiao smiled and said, “This first trading trip is just an experiment. It’s not about making a lot of money but rather exploring this path. Most of the family’s money is tied up in goods. I think bringing three hundred taels should be enough. If things don’t go well, it won’t affect the family’s foundation.”

Lu Chengzhang didn’t say anything further, but Lu Chengzong was somewhat astonished. “Won’t that be too little?”

Lu Chengzong had never been on a trading trip, but he dealt with the family’s fabric every day. Each fabric design consisted of at least five pieces, and the cost price of some mid-range fabrics was around one or two taels per piece. With one design having multiple colors, three hundred taels would be the cost price of about twenty fabrics in the shop. He was afraid that Chengxiao didn’t understand the situation in the shop. He said, “Most of the family’s silver is tied up in goods, but there are still five or eight hundred taels of cash available. Going so far, bringing five hundred taels of goods won’t affect the family’s foundation. The proceeds from the first batch of goods purchased next season can be sold in two months.”

Chengxiao’s eyes sparkled with a smile. “Thank you, Big Brother. Three hundred taels is enough. For this first trip, I just want to gain some experience. Once I’m familiar with the route, I can bring more goods next time.”

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Tlyakdt bkx pyu vbkp, Nw Ubldtgsdt eked’v pyu yduvbkdt xsal. Tl pxkzle yde pyke, “Zsw’hl yzoyup clld pxyavla vbyd xl. Rq usw vbkdj vball bwdeale vylzp kp xsal yrrasrakyvl, vbld vball bwdeale vylzp kv kp.”

Fllkdt vbl casvblap clkdt alprlnvqwz vs lynb svbla, Nw Dwd’p zkrp yzps nwahle pzktbvzu, qllzkdt iwkvl rzlyple. Mbl lzelpv casvbla xyu dsv cl yp nzlhla yde ypvwvl yp vbl plnsde casvbla, cwv bl bye y jkde yde bsdlpv dyvwal, obknb xyel bkx y tsse qaklde yde casvbla.

Ikdedlpp yde bsdlpvu olal iwyzkvklp vbyv Nw Dwd nsdpkelale qya xsal kxrsavydv vbyd nzlhladlpp.

Nw Dwd eked’v zssj yv Nw Ubldtgbydt ytykd cwv vwadle vs Ubldtmkys yde ypjle, “Tso yal usw tskdt? Gal usw tskdt yzsdl?”

Mbl osaze oypd’v ps rlynlqwz dsoyeyup. Rq Ubldtmkys olal tskdt yzsdl, Nw Dwd oswzed’v qllz yv lypl.

Ubldtmkys pbssj bkp blye. “R oyp fwpv ycswv vs vlzz usw. R’hl yaaydtle vs ts okvb Zydrkdt vbkp vkxl. R’zz yzps ypj Twyktldt yde Nkwgbydt kq vblu’al kdvlalpvle kd fskdkdt. Rq vblu yal, R’zz lkvbla ryu qsa vblka plahknlp sa, kq vblu’al okzzkdt, vblu nyd cakdt psxl tssep vs plzz vblal. R’zz nshla vbl lmrldplp qsa qsse, zsetkdt, yde vaydprsavyvksd. Mbl qlo sq wp yal yzz pjkzzle, ps kv pbswze cl pyql vs vayhlz vstlvbla.”

“Gzaktbv, usw’hl vbswtbv kv vbaswtb,” Nw Dwd pyke. Tlyakdt vbkp, bl eked’v byhl ydu zkdtlakdt osaaklp. Tl nsdvkdwle, “Zsw vyjl nyal sq kv. Rq vblu cakdt vss zkvvzl tssep, usw pwrrzlxldv vblx. Rv’p dsv qyka vs ypj vblx vs nsxl yzz vbl oyu vs Hblfkydt okvb fwpv y qlo vylzp sq rasqkv. Mbl nyrkvyz eslpd’v byhl vs cl alpvaknvle vs vball bwdeale vylzp. Plrldekdt sd vbl pkvwyvksd, tkhl vblx y zkvvzl lmvay tssep yde nshla vbl lmrldplp sd vbl asye. G rssa qyxkzu dllep y olyzvbu asye. Msxsaaso, R’zz tkhl usw qswa bwdeale vylzp.”

Ekvb vblpl qlo osaep, Nw Ubldtmkys’p vakr vs vayel qycakn kd Hblfkydt oyp plvvzle.

During the meal, Lu Chengzhang didn’t say anything further. But when he returned to his room at night, his face was as dark as a cloud with anger.

This time, he didn’t have the same understanding as when he relieved Zhou Qiongying’s envy of Lu Sanlang’s treatment. This time, without Zhou Qiongying saying anything, he felt a sense of imbalance in his heart. His parents were indeed biased.

“Four hundred taels, like saying forty taels, just let it go to train Sanlang¹third child‘s skills.”

“What does it matter if I spend a few years in the shop like a helper?”

“Sanlang is really something. He’s constantly using the family’s money to help the Liu family. Opening a shop isn’t enough. Now he wants to take his brother-in-law out for business. What about saying the road isn’t safe alone, so it’s safer to travel together?”

Lu Chengzhang was furious. He couldn’t sleep all night. Zhou Qiongying didn’t know how to console him for a while, but she felt sorry for him.

In Anyi County, Lu Chengzhang was seething with anger that he turned into a puffer Yu in the middle of the night.

~

Similarly, in the Liu family of Yangshan Village, Liu Yanping couldn’t sleep either.

He was overwhelmed with excitement and couldn’t sleep.

The sixty-five taels of silver given to him by Wei Shi and Liu Yu lay beside him. Liu Yanping was focused on how to do this business well. With the sixty-five taels, he could earn at least twenty taels.

Twenty taels plus sixty-five taels, would that be enough for his sister to open a shop in the county?

Not enough!

After truly visiting the Lu family fabric shop and seeing Liu Yu’s inventory list, he realized it wasn’t nearly enough.

Lu Chengzong had calculated the accounts earlier, and now, lying in bed, Liu Yanping recalled the day he saw the fabrics displayed in the three shopfronts of the Lu family fabric shop. He could roughly estimate. With five rolls of fabric per design, plus the shop, warehouse, and the one in Changfeng Town, the fabric inventory alone was worth over a thousand taels.

Liu Yu didn’t need such a big shop or have branches in town, but to open a shop that looked decent, not shabby, with a complete range of fabrics, it would cost at least three to four hundred taels.

To start off well, even if they tightened their belts, his sister needed at least two hundred taels to get the business off the ground.

Two hundred taels. Liu Yanping was eager to earn two hundred taels.

He was well aware that the marriage between the Lu and Liu families wouldn’t be delayed for too long. On the day he went to the Lu family fabric shop, not only did Wei Shi and Liu Yu notice the reaction of Lu Er, Liu Yanping also saw it with his own eyes.

The Lu family wasn’t as harmonious as they had initially thought. At least Lu Erlang and his wife didn’t seem magnanimous. If he wanted his sister to have a good life in her in-laws’ home, the best way was to provide her with a dowry that was decent enough and could continue to generate wealth.

The embroidery shop must be up and running and on the right track before Lu Chengxiao and Liu Yu got married. Yanping knew he didn’t have much time.

This trip to Zhejiang was the first major opportunity in his life. Yet he could only earn back twenty taels, and that was under the condition that he took all the capital saved up by his mother and sister.

Lying in bed, with his hand propped against his head, Yanping pondered other possibilities.

To make more money, he needed to bring enough goods. However, the silver in his hands was obviously not enough to buy much merchandise. Yanping thought of a possibility. In Yangshan Village, every household grew hemp. Most families were reluctant to sell hemp fiber for only three wen per jin. As long as the women in the households had the labor and skills, they would weave the cloth themselves. Was it possible to persuade villagers to give priority to selling their self-woven cloth to him on credit?

As if seeing a glimmer of hope, Yanping suddenly sat up.

How could he make the villagers resist the temptation of selling their cloth for cash to fabric merchants and instead sell it on credit to him?

Yanping’s mind worked quickly. Merchants pursued profit, and the common people also pursued profit. Otherwise, who would be willing to work day and night to weave hemp cloth for the whole family?

From what he knew, most families had children as young as four or five years old helping with the hemp spinning. Each person could only spin two or three taels of yarn a day. With one person weaving cloth, the women and children of the whole family could supply enough hemp to catch up with the fabric merchants when they came to collect the hemp and turn it into silver.

Why did families endure such hardship?

A piece of cloth required about forty-eight taels of yarn. If this forty-eight taels of hemp fiber were sold to hemp merchants, it would be one hundred and forty-four wen. However, if it was processed into raw cloth and sold to fabric merchants, depending on the quality of the fabric, it could fetch two hundred and seventy to three hundred wen per bolt.

All year round, relying on this meager output from their fields, every additional penny was precious. That’s what they were aiming for.

Money and profit were the fundamental factors.

Yanping suddenly realized that it wasn’t impossible to get the villagers to sell their raw cloth to him on credit. The key was to understand the villagers’ psychology and offer them what they wanted.

He became excited. What the villagers wanted was to sell their cloth at a better price. If he was willing to offer a higher price than the fabric merchants, enticing them with profit, the villagers would naturally be swayed.

If spring hemp produced raw cloth that fabric merchants bought for two hundred and seventy to three hundred wen per bolt, what if he offered three hundred to three hundred and thirty wen? An extra thirty wen per bolt was just the same price as getting raw cloth from the weaving workshop.

For someone like Lu Chengxiao who needed a large quantity of goods and was already getting goods from the weaving workshop, by offering this price to the villagers, he could still make at least thirty percent profit. Such a business would naturally be successful.

Yanping became more and more excited as he thought about it. However, after a moment, he calmed down.

He tried to think from the villagers’ perspective. While they might covet the thirty wen difference per bolt, they were probably more concerned about not being able to sell the cloth and get the money. Although their family had a good reputation in the village, even if they managed to get the cloth back, if they missed the time when the fabric merchants collected the cloth, they would end up with cloth but no money. The villagers probably wouldn’t be willing then.

What could he do to make the villagers willing to take the risk?

Yanping appreciated the pleasant surprise brought about by empathy and continued to think from the perspective of the villagers, revolving around money and profit.

His gaze fell on the plain cloth garments, and suddenly, a bright idea struck him, capturing something important.

Color, dyeing!

All the cloth he collected had to be sent to the dyeing workshop for coloring before being transported to Zhejiang to find buyers. From the villagers’ point of view, if the cloth couldn’t be sold, it would be returned to them. But instead of returning raw cloth, he could return cloth that had already been dyed.

Dyed cloth was much more valuable than raw cloth. In Yuanzhou, almost every household had several bolts of plain raw cloth, but colored cloth was scarce. Especially for families with less means, they typically wore clothes made from plain raw cloth.

If he promised to return dyed cloth if the fabric wasn’t sold, without charging an additional dyeing fee, considering it compensation for their time wasted, would anyone be tempted?

Yanping was so excited that he clenched his fists in exhilaration. Absolutely!

With dyed cloth, they wouldn’t need to rely on fabric merchants anymore. They could set up a stall in the market and sell retail. With the market price at five to six hundred wen per bolt, as long as they sold it at a discount compared to reputable fabric stores, they would still make a huge profit, doubling or even more. Who wouldn’t be tempted?

For him, being able to get a large amount of raw cloth on credit without spending money, if done well, this deal could earn enough for his sister’s dowry store in the county. If it didn’t go well, he would only lose the cost of dyeing the cloth.

Yanping turned to look at the wooden box by his pillow. If he collected a large amount of cloth, the cost of dyeing would probably be several dozen taels. Several dozen taels. He thought about his mother and sister laboring over needles and thread day after day, clenching and releasing their fists in indecision. Should he take this big gamble?

Sansukini: I really like Liu Yu’s paternal family. It would be mixed business, slice of life and romance from this point.

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