The Ming Dynasty’s Prodigal Son - Chapter 1397

[1397. Chapter 1326 The time has come]

Fanaticism began to spread like a plague.

The entire Franconia, to some extent, is also in a newly civilized era. A large amount of gold and silver are pouring in, but the commodity economy is not prosperous. Apart from being used to cash in luxury goods, it is difficult to spawn new industries for the time being.

The industrial revolution has not yet begun, which means that most of people’s investments are still in relatively primitive ways of hoarding goods.

When tulips began to become popular, almost immediately they became a sought-after object for all classes.

There is something in the world that is not only noble, but can also resist the terrible inflation.

While prices continued to skyrocket, Liu Wenshan was planning the overall situation behind the scenes.

Most of the Dutch and Spanish people who worked for him were represented by Wang Xizuo. Wang Xizuo changed his face and transformed into a Portuguese businessman who became rich from the Far East.

And everyone he recruited thought that they were just employed by an ordinary businessman.

Their work is very detailed. Some are only responsible for inquiring about tulip prices in the Northern Province, while others are responsible for purchasing tulips at any time, or shipping and inventorying tulips. Someone is exchanging the bonds. Someone is responsible for guiding the boats.

They are like workers at each station on a production line. They are only responsible for manufacturing the parts they have on hand. However, they don’t know much about how these parts are finally assembled and what kind of machine they become.

Not only that, some powerful people have also become friends of Wang Xizuo. No one will notice that this person named Wang Xizuo once haunted the Spanish court, not to mention a few years, which is enough to change a person. It has become a different look, and for this era, the Northern Province is too far away from the Spanish court.

The finances of the Northern Province are maintained on tulips, which has spawned many lords and even royal families to focus on this area.

Because the price of tulips continued to rise, it was too late for people to trade goods. Smart people began to invent a new method. They directly entered into sales contracts with merchants who had goods. Although the goods were still piled in the warehouse, However, in just a few days, the contract had been transferred to seven or eight people, and the price of the contract had increased several times.

As for whether there are tulips in the warehouse, or perhaps how many tulips there are, no one cares.

The essence of the market is that in this world, anything can be secondary, but confidence is the most important. As long as everyone firmly believes that the contract has value, then it is a priceless treasure.

This is like a famous painting. When no one cares about it, it is just a graffiti on paper. But once someone is convinced that it is valuable, then it is worth a fortune.

Of course, although tulips were popular throughout history, their surge lasted for decades.

But at this time, behind this, there was an invisible hand, slowly pushing.

Liu Wenshan hides in his room every day, constantly writing and checking something. He needs to maintain a myth of rising prices.

In this myth, how to roughly calculate the market demand and determine how many tulip bulbs are needed is a very labor-intensive matter.

Working at his desk every day forced him to wear extremely thick glasses. His mind was constantly thinking, and his mind was full of numbers.

………

Dresden is the capital of Saxony.

This is the center of the Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire.

The Vettina family has always ruled here.

The Marquis of Ouston is old and has a big belly.

He followed the old tradition of the Shinra nobles, even at such an age, he personally took his knights hunting.

But…

today, he was dressed in hunting attire, holding a whip, and rushed into a banquet angrily.

The vassals of the Marquis of Oston and their wives looked at the intruder of the Marquis of Oston in surprise.

The Marquis said angrily: “There are damn tulips everywhere. You, your wives, farmers, even the driver and the soldiers are all talking about tulips.”

The vassals were frightened .

He looked at the Marquis of Oston uneasily.

Marquis Oston said: “Tulips are destroying our tradition. This damn thing, damn thing…”

He actually took out a tulip bulb in front of everyone, and then recklessly took out a knife and cut the bulb. For both halves.

People seemed even more uneasy, this… is money, bulbs are money…

Like a mad lion, the Marquis of Ouston cut off a piece of tulip bulb in front of everyone, put it in his mouth, and started chewing it.

Madams and ladies were already screaming.

They couldn’t understand that such a beautiful thing in this world could be treated so rudely.

Marquis Oston kept chewing and said: “Try its taste. Its taste is not much better than garlic. This is what you regard as a treasure. It has the same taste as garlic. You have to taste it.” Do you want to try it? And its damn flower, what is the value of this damn flower? Tell me, it can neither be eaten nor turned into a weapon to fight for us, let alone feed the farmers. At most, it can only be used to feed horses. They are not worth the price at all. You are all crazy, and the whole of Europe is crazy.”

The vassals frowned.

Some people couldn’t help but euphemistically said: “Sir, if this is the case, then nothing in this world has value.”

Although people refuted it.

But………many people were upset.

Does it really smell like garlic?

The cold water poured on them by the Marquis of Oston made them suspicious.

This little episode spread quickly.

Although almost everyone who owned tulips scorned this, thinking that this monarch from the German states was too reckless.

But…

Wang Xizuo hurriedly found Liu Wenshan: “It’s not good, Mr. Liu, Mr. Liu… It’s not good. In the Northern Province, the price of bulbs began to drop slightly, and many people began to have wavering hearts. Some people began to waver. The bulbs are being sold.”

Liu Wenshan looked up and looked at Wang Xizuo. He looked calm and frowned slightly: “Really?”

“Mr. Liu…”

“This is indeed a troublesome matter. Liu Wenshan subconsciously picked up the tea cup, but unfortunately, there was only white water in the tea cup. He frowned again, and then said: “The price of tulip bulbs comes from people’s confidence in its rising price. People believe that as long as they buy this Not only can things be sold at any time, but you can even make profits from them. “

The implication is that once the price starts to fall, the panic will intensify. At that time, the myth that has been built up by countless efforts will also be lost. It completely turned into a phantom.

Liu Wenshan said with a smile: “You go and arrange, through our merchants, to purchase a large number of bulbs, as much as you want. Today, we will collect them for fifteen gold coins per catty, and tomorrow, we will pay sixteen gold coins…”

“This…” Wang Xizuo looked at Liu Wenshan in surprise: “But although we have sold a lot of tulips before, the prices we sold at that time were not high. If people sell like crazy, we… can we afford it?”

Once we do, we can’t afford it.

If you can’t afford it, it’s over.

Liu Wenshan said lightly: “At the same time, the news was released, saying that in the Ming Dynasty, people also highly praised such bulbs. It is said that some people want to purchase bulbs and send them to Luzon in the Far East. There will be smugglers from the Ming Dynasty who are willing to Acquire them at a sky-high price. Okay, go ahead.”

Wang Xizuo looked very uneasy.

Buying bulbs at such a high price, and with the gold coins they have on hand now, they simply cannot survive today.

As a result, many businessmen in the Northern Province began to purchase bulbs at high prices.

At first, people who were slightly panicked began to ship goods, and once their bulbs were put on the market, they were sold out in the blink of an eye.

By the next day, instead of falling, the bulbs began to rise.

All of a sudden, the sell-off disappeared.

People suddenly felt relieved about the previous rumors.

After a few days, no one was willing to sell the bulbs on hand. The bulbs on the market were still expensive but not available.

After that, more people began to buy bulbs anxiously, and the prices became higher and higher.

In the blink of an eye, the Marquis of Ouston became a joke throughout Europe. In countless salons and banquets, the nobles mocked the German country bumpkin wantonly, because almost every nobleman with a bulb was worth is rising day by day.

In the countryside, there are even cases where dozens of farmers join together to purchase a bulb and wait for the price to increase.

The merchants are even more diligent and looking for sources of goods everywhere.

Shiploads of bulbs were sold out quickly.

Even the Habsburg family in Austria noticed this phenomenon.

People began to deeply believe that this thing not only had value, but also became a weapon against the ever-lower prices of precious metals. Not only Europe, but also the Ottomans, the Ming Dynasty in North Africa and the Far East, the wealthy dynasty that defeated the Spanish expeditionary force, There is also a thirst for this bulb.

But at this moment, it was exactly when Liu Wenshan was crazy about shipping.

Ships transporting a large number of bulbs are arriving at Franji in a steady stream, and warehouses of bulbs are being sold at astonishing prices.

People spent their life savings to buy these bulbs, but they never circulated them on the market. Instead, they stored them and waited for the day when their prices would continue to rise.

Everyone is calculating the latest price of bulbs, and then calculating how much their wealth has increased.

At this moment, Liu Wenshan looked at the dazzling numbers on the wall, and slightly raised the corners of his mouth: “The time has come!”

(End of this chapter)