Chapter 1848: Chapter 592: The Coal Business and Xiang Yan (Part 2)

Upon hearing this, the young Xiang Yan’s face immediately broke into a smile.

It’s been over four years since the Martial Arts Competition in August of the ninth year of Great Xia. He is now 22 years old. Two years ago, he reached the limit of reshaping his skin membrane, realizing that no matter what, he couldn’t break through the 100,000 catty barrier. Although he was unwilling, he still decided to break through with an Intermediate Battle Body Talent under the persuasion of his elder brother, Xiang Liang.

Even an Intermediate Battle Body Talent, and his big brother Xiang Liang’s Superior Battle Body, are quite lacking in today’s Great Xia. So from the moment he chose to break through two years ago, Xiang Yan knew that relying on his strength to stand out in Great Xia was practically impossible.

Thus, he chose a different path, which was commerce!

Since the opening of Hongmen Port in the seventh year of Great Xia, the Camp Supply Department has outsourced some materials to Xian people who are interested in operating them. With the maturation of Hongmen City’s business model over the years, an emerging group called Xia Merchants has also begun to emerge.

Especially at the beginning of this year, with the formal push for silver monetization by the Camp Supply Department and the contact with Cai Qiu, the commercial demand of Great Xia expanded rapidly. Previously, the Camp Supply Department had only released basic materials such as food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. As of this month, refined salt, low-level beast meat, and beast blood, and even relatively low-level spirit pills like Beast Essence Pills, have all been released for trade.

Currently, Xia Merchants can be roughly divided into two kinds:

The first kind operates independently. For example, some people with considerable strength hunt and gather outside and sell the surplus after paying taxes. Or some with decent skills or exclusive recipes can do unique businesses themselves. These people are collectively known as civilian merchants, who only need to regularly pay a ten percent commercial tax based on their turnover to the Camp Supply Department and account for more than eighty percent of the entire Xia Merchant community, making up the vast majority.

The second kind is merchants directly under the Camp Supply Department. They first spend a lot of money to bid on a material’s operating rights for a term, and during this term, they can purchase goods at relatively low prices from the Camp Supply Department for resale. These people are collectively known as official merchants. Although the burden is higher for official merchants, as they have to pay a thirty percent commercial tax, everyone still scrambles for it.

It is obvious to anyone that the Camp Supply Department, being a financial institution controlling resources across Great Xia, outsourcing the operating rights of some materials is essentially a way to recruit a group of people to help with transactions. This ensures the normal supply of materials for the Xia people while maximizing the circulation of silver, thus continuously creating resources and wealth to feed back and develop the camp.

The enormous profits involved here are apparent to anyone not oblivious.

Take silk as an example; Xia Clothing Workshop currently produces many types of silk, with a particularly advanced one called Snow Jade Silk. Its main production material is Snow Bamboo Silk from Arrow Bamboo Forest, with a yearly production of only five hundred pieces. One hundred pieces are for the use of the Xia Palace, two hundred pieces are stored in the treasury, and the Camp Supply Department needs to keep one hundred pieces for their own garment operations, leaving only one hundred pieces available for circulation.

How to circulate them?

Through official merchants!

Snow Jade Silk garments sold by the Camp Supply Department can sell for 500 taels per set. A bolt of fabric is one hundred meters long, enough to make 30 sets of garments, and including some scraps, a bolt of Snow Jade Silk can ultimately be exchanged for 17,000 taels of silver, not counting the cost and labor.

The material prices in Great Xia are set by the Camp Supply Department. With prices this high, the one hundred bolts of Snow Jade Silk released to the public have a price of 200 taels per meter, equivalent to 20,000 taels per bolt.

This is just the raw material. After turning it into garments, even after paying a thirty percent commercial tax, the profit margin is still incredibly large.

And Snow Jade Silk is just one of many advanced silks produced by Xia Clothing Workshop; there are many more advanced than Snow Jade Silk.

Moreover, this is just silk, what about the others?

In the seventh year of Great Xia, when Hongmen Port first auctioned off the shop operation rights in Hongmen City, it marked the beginning stage for official merchants. At that time, many people were still watching, thinking it might not be profitable.

Looking back now, those who initially spent a lot of money to acquire the operating rights of Hongmen shops almost all accumulated substantial wealth. In recent years, as the Camp Supply Department has successively opened various material operating rights, those from Hongmen City who initially made the investment have amassed quite a lot.

As for Xiang Yan, he is now an official merchant too!

How did he become an official merchant? Naturally, it was thanks to his big brother Xiang Liang.

His big brother Xiang Liang is no longer just the Chief of Punishment in Hongmen City. At the beginning of the year, following the commendations after the Northern Expedition, he was promoted from a Ninth-Rank Xuanling Marquis to an Eighth-Rank Red Cloud Marquis for his military merit in Qing Valley, making him quite a figure within the Inner City.

Knowing he had commercial aspirations, his big brother Xiang Liang directly transferred a batch of contribution values from himself and exchanged it all for silver, handing it to him. He then contacted colleagues, including Li Longkai, the Military Preparation Envoy for the Hongmen Supply Department. With multiple maneuvers, he successfully bid for the exclusive franchise of coal stone in the South Sixth District of the Outer City of Xia Capital.

In today’s Outer City of Great Xia, each district has at least over 100,000 residents, consuming more than 10 million catties of coal stone daily. With a current unit price of 1 tael for 800 plus catties, his daily turnover is at least over 10,000, not to mention the bulk demands from large accounts like blacksmith shops and taverns. His actual daily turnover is approximately over 18,000 taels, sometimes more, averaging more than 600,000 taels per month.

Getting coal at a unit price of 1 tael for 1200 catties from the Camp Supply Department, after excluding all costs and subtracting the thirty percent commercial tax, he can earn about 20,000 taels monthly.

If converted to the past contribution value, it would be 200,000 points!

This income is undeniably substantial, even surpassing that of his brother Xiang Liang.

Of course, ever since the Camp Supply Department largely abolished the contribution value system earlier this year, retaining it only for high authorities and the military, silver and contribution values are no longer linked.

Anyone with keen insight can see that those eligible to continue using the contribution value system are the true core personnel of Great Xia. Future high-level cultivation resources and some extremely precious materials will surely be exchangeable only with contribution values.

Currently, there is a popular saying in Xia City: previously, it took 10 contribution points to exchange for 1 tael of silver. Now, even not to mention 10 taels for 1 contribution point, but even 100 taels for 1 point, many would willingly accept it.

"Of course, I can’t possibly compare with my brother. Although his monthly salary isn’t much, the end-of-year evaluation is the highlight. The rewards alone surpass my annual earnings, and every year he participates in the Cold Yuan Banquet with the right to meet the Lord. Whatever the Lord rewards him with is beyond my imagination in value.

The key is, if my brother wants to make money, he has far too many ways. Those advanced cultivation resources in the Camp Supply Department can only be bought with contribution values. As long as he buys them and sells them outside, he can effortlessly earn money beyond what I could ever dream of..."

Thinking of this, Xiang Yan suddenly felt a bit disheartened.

He now owns a coal company, riding the coal stone business, earning quite a lot each month. But it’s still incomparable to his brother Xiang Liang.

So, in the end, strength is still the deciding factor at Ice Abyss!

He let out a slight sigh, watching the five porters already pushing carts toward the entrance of Xia Palace, and hurriedly followed.

Today, he entered the Xia Palace to deliver coal.

The Camp Supply Department stipulated that coal companies from the seventy-two districts of the Outer City of Xia Capital must rotate every five days to transport coal to the Xia Palace, which is part of their responsibility in addition to the thirty percent commercial tax.

Even with these terms, all seventy-two districts eagerly vie for the duty, fearing the loss of this task.

After all, with so many people in Great Xia, not everyone has the qualification to enter the Inner City. Even Xiang Yan, who inherently lived in the Inner City, had never been inside the Xia Palace once.

Though it’s just a storage room on the side of the main entrance, setting foot into the Xia Palace for such an opportunity is certainly worthwhile!

"Sir, we are from the Great Yan Coal Company, please open the small gate!"

The six of them quickly arrived at the entrance of the Xia Palace, and Xiang Yan stepped forward to speak to the soldier on duty.

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