The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 433

Zhou Chu's proposal to do wool business piqued the interest of Zhu Xianrong and others. Zhu Xianrong had his steward carefully calculate the transportation costs, realizing that transporting large quantities of wool products from the grasslands to their fiefdom of the Chu King's Mansion would be very expensive.

If these items were simply sold to the people in their fiefdoms, there would be almost no profit to be made, and the price would be almost comparable to that of silk.

However, according to Zhou Chu, if these goods were exported overseas, that would be a different story. The pricing power for all goods exported overseas would be in their hands. Goods that could only be sold for one hundred coins in the Ming Dynasty could be sold for at least four or five hundred coins after going overseas.

Normally, maritime merchants don't make this much profit. Even when Jiangnan Group was smuggling goods, the profit margins on most of the goods weren't this high.

However, since the lifting of the maritime ban, all maritime merchants have had to pay 40% of their profits as taxes to the imperial court, which has driven up the prices of all goods shipped overseas.

Following Zhou Chu's instructions to Yan Song, Yan Song gathered all the merchants from Jiangnan who were going to sea and set a price for all their goods. This would prevent malicious competition and ensure that everyone could make a fortune from their goods.

At present, the main destination of Ming Dynasty merchants going to sea is still Japan, and the natives of Japan in the islands other than Honshu Island. Of course, there are also natives on Honshu Island, but the pricing power of all goods sold on Honshu Island is in Wang Zhi's hands.

Furthermore, given how ruthlessly Wang Zhi slaughtered the Japanese on the island of Honshu, it's unlikely that he'll be able to make money off the Japanese on the island in the short term.

We can only sell these goods to these Japanese people after they have recovered some of their strength.

This is also the fundamental reason why Zhou Chu had Wang Zhi and others cultivate Honshu Island. If all the Japanese were killed, who would buy the goods that the Ming Dynasty exported? The source of the Ming Dynasty's wealth was these Japanese. The Ming Dynasty could colonize and dump goods on Japan, but it could not kill them all.

Once they are all killed, without these overseas laborers and productive forces, the people of the Ming Dynasty will suffer even more. To put it bluntly, the labor provided by the Japanese is on behalf of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

As for Shijian Silver Mine, it is just a silver mine. Silver is always just currency. Without being based on physical commodities, currency will only experience unlimited inflation and has no real meaning.

Productivity is the foundation of everything.

The more labor force there is in overseas colonies, the less the people of the Ming Dynasty have to do; this is a balance.

Zhu Xianrong and others carefully calculated the costs and found that if these wool products were exported overseas, the profits would be considerable.

"Your Highness, there's something I don't understand."

The butler beside Zhu Xianrong hesitated for a moment.

"Speak up, why be so long-winded?"

Zhu Xianrong said with slight displeasure.

"If we go out to sea to do business, the profit margin of many goods is higher than that of wool products. The main problem is that the cost of transporting these things from the grasslands to the sea is too high."

The butler shared his thoughts.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xianrong fell into deep thought.

“Exporting wool products overseas is a must. Only in this way can our Great Ming occupy the grasslands for a long time and extract profits from them. Otherwise, without sufficient benefits, how easy is it to occupy such a vast grassland for a long time, just by wasting manpower and resources?”

Zhu Xianrong's vision and perspective were clearly far superior to those of some other princes and princesses; he immediately saw through Zhou Chu's true purpose in wanting to do business with them.

“If my Chu Prince’s Mansion doesn’t contribute to the expansion of the Ming Dynasty’s territory, it would be unacceptable. Besides, the wool business is profitable no matter what. Have you thought about it? Other goods can be sold overseas, but there is competition overseas. If there are too many of the same goods, they may become unsaleable. Wool products are different. At least apart from us, other merchants probably don’t want to do this business for the time being.”

Zhu Xianrong concluded.

In fact, quite a few people shared the same idea as Zhu Xianrong's steward, and many had given up. However, they wouldn't tell Zhou Chu directly, since Zhou Chu had also said that the wool business on the grasslands was open to anyone who wanted to do it, and there was no obligation to force anyone who didn't want to. It wasn't a partnership business to begin with.

All Zhou Chu had to do was inform these princely residences.

As for who is willing to contribute to the Ming Dynasty, the future rewards will certainly be extremely generous. Others may not know, but Zhou Chu knows very well that with the research speed of Hai Rui and others, the steam engine can be developed in one or two years at most.

After all, Zhou Chu had pointed out the general direction for them; all that was left was to work on the details.

Once the steam engine appears, trains will appear within five years at most. Once railway tracks are laid on the grasslands, transportation costs will be greatly reduced, and at that time, the profits of wool products will increase significantly.

However, by then, it would be too late for these princes to back out. After all, by then, the market would be mature, and it would be much harder for others to enter the market.

"Lord Zhou, I would like to stay and learn from you."

As the other princes and princesses left one after another, only a few were reluctant to leave, including Zhu Siying, Mu Yunping and Zhu Xianrong.

Everyone knew what Zhu Siying was thinking, but no one bothered to expose it. Both Zhu Xianrong and Mu Yunping knew very well that there was no possibility between Zhu Siying and Lord Zhou. Lord Zhou didn't even have eyes for this princess of the Prince of Dai's mansion.

However, they were all aware that as princes and princesses, they had certain privileges compared to children from ordinary families. It was fine for them to cause trouble when they were young, as long as they didn't do anything reckless.

In fact, it wasn't just Zhu Siying who stayed; two or three other princesses from other princely residences also stayed, with similar intentions to Zhu Siying.

As for Mu Yunping, she greatly admired Zhou Chu and Yun Jin's ability to lead troops. In Zhangjia Village these past few days, she had also gained a thorough understanding of Zhou Chu, and only then did she realize the great achievements of this Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard over the past year.

Zhou Chu single-handedly wiped out the Japanese pirates along the southeast coast in less than a year. When Mu Yunping learned of the terrifying casualty ratio of Zhou Chu's anti-Japanese campaign, she was completely stunned. Only then did she understand why General Lu was so demure in front of Lord Zhou.

No wonder General Lu said that his skills in leading troops were all taught by Lord Zhou. At this moment, Mu Yunping had no more doubts about Yun Jin's words.

The Mu family mansion was located in Lijiang, Yunnan, and guarded Yunnan. Among the chieftains in Yunnan, there were many women who led troops. Influenced by the customs of Yunnan, there were also occasional cases of women leading troops in the Mu family mansion.

Mu Yunping is indeed the most capable fighter among the current generation of the Mu family, but this is only in comparison to the others in the Mu family. Compared to Yun Jin, Mu Yunping's original pride has long since disappeared.

Therefore, she had always admired Yun Jin and wanted to become a female general like Yun Jin.

Once this idea took root, it continued to grow until she came here, met Zhou Chu, and learned about his military prowess. Mu Yunping was determined not to miss this opportunity.

"Lord Zhou, I would also like to learn military strategy from you."

Mu Yunping said with a respectful expression.