“How much?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, everyone was stunned.
Li Si's scalp also tingled!
Ten qian, thirteen qian, these prices were still quite reasonable for people who had never seen paper and didn't know the cost of making it.
But… thirty qian!
Thirty qian already surpassed the price of silk. What was this all about?
But with a little thought, Li Si understood!
Flattery!
This was flattery directed at him, the Prime Minister.
If this paper belonged to him, if anyone dared to flatter him so blatantly, Li Si would have immediately thrown him out.
But… this was paper sold to Ying Su. By raising the price now, when the paper appeared in large quantities in the future, it would be easier to set the price.
This would be beneficial for continuing to sell high-priced paper, so he simply smiled and said nothing. Then, he continued to wait for more people to offer higher prices!
With thirty qian as the highest price, the competition level suddenly dropped.
Yes, most people were still rational. A foot of silk cost how much? Only twenty qian.
A piece of paper was far smaller than a foot of silk. Even though it was softer and more convenient to carry than silk, its uses were too limited. Surpassing the price of silk would discourage anyone from buying it.
But there were still some people who wanted to use this opportunity to flatter Li Si.
And so… the price of a piece of paper was directly raised to fifty qian!
Finally, the price of fifty sheets of paper was settled at fifty qian!
At that moment, two thousand five hundred qian was given to Li Si. This paper-selling session finally ended.
But even though it was over, the crowd didn't disperse!
Many people could see the uses of paper.
Moreover, the price of fifty qian was definitely beyond Li Si's expectations.
Therefore, many people were asking Li Si all sorts of questions!
These questions, in essence, boiled down to two!
First, how much paper was there left?
Second, what would the price of the paper be? They desperately wanted to know how the paper would be priced!
For these questions, Li Si had only three words: I don't know!
He really didn't know how much paper there was!
Ying Su had only told him that the cost of making paper was very low, but never how much paper there was.
As for the price, although he already had a psychological price in mind, he still needed to discuss it with Ying Su!
What if Ying Su was unhappy if he set the price himself?
Therefore, he did not answer either question.
After the crowd dispersed, he directly took the two thousand five hundred qian to the palace and went to meet the new Emperor!
“Fifty qian a sheet? A total of two thousand five hundred qian?”
Inside the palace, when Ying Su learned of the price Li Si had sold it for, he was shocked on the spot!
After all, a foot of silk only cost twenty qian!
But this linen paper could reach fifty qian?
“There must be something wrong here. This isn’t the final price, right?”
Ying Su asked. He instinctively felt that something was off!
Paper, no matter how expensive it was, could not be more expensive than silk!
This was unreasonable, completely unreasonable!
When Li Si heard this, he couldn't help but admire Ying Su's sharp mind. He immediately told him about the situation with selling the paper.
After listening to everything, Ying Su nodded. He couldn't help but exclaim that he had used Li Si correctly.
Just this method of selling paper, anyone who saw it wouldn't help but shout out how brilliant it was?
But Ying Su still asked Li Si:
“Then, what do you think the final price of this paper should be, Prime Minister?”
Li Si pondered, “Eighteen qian. That's the chokehold price. Two qian less than silk. It's the limit that nobles and merchants can accept!”
He spoke, knowing this perfectly well!
Ying Su thought for a moment and said:
“Fifteen qian. Set the price at fifteen qian. After all… this thing still needs to be circulated through merchants. A profit of two qian is too low, not easy to sell. Give them five qian as profit margin. That way, more nobles will buy it!”
“This…”
Li Si was convinced and bowed deeply to Ying Su.
However, he was also curious about one question, which was how much paper was there.
After all… Ying Su had mentioned circulation. This meant that this thing wasn't just being sold in Xianyang City!
Instead, it would be sold nationwide!
Faced with Li Si's question, Ying Su smiled and didn't hesitate. He directly took him to a place!
The Qin Dynasty's Ministry of Finance and the Bureau of Engineering!
Under Cai Lun's guidance, they quickly arrived at the paper storage room!
“This… this… is all paper?”
At that moment, Li Si was amazed!
He looked at the entire room filled with linen paper, and was truly speechless!
He couldn't help but exclaim, how many pieces of paper were there!
Cai Lun walked in with a small notebook and said to Li Si, “There are a total of one hundred and eighty thousand sheets of linen paper, as well as fifty thousand sheets of grass paper and thirty thousand sheets of xuan paper.”
“One hundred and eighty thousand sheets of linen paper. That… that means… two million seven hundred thousand qian!”
Li Si was shocked!
But soon, he felt confused again, “Linen paper? Grass paper? Xuan paper?”
He was puzzled.
Ying Su directly pulled him aside and placed the three types of paper in front of him.
He introduced them separately: “Linen paper, grass paper, and xuan paper!”
“Linen paper? Grass paper? Xuan paper?”
He was shocked and looked at the three types of paper.
Among these three types of paper, the linen paper was the roughest, the grass paper was slightly better, and when it came to xuan paper, he couldn't believe it was paper.
It was so smooth, so white!
“How… how were these all made?”
Li Si was astounded.
But the next second, he wanted to slap himself. Was this the kind of question he should be asking?
You know, there was no paper in the world right now. Only Ying Su could make paper.
Shouldn’t this be Ying Su's core secret? Would he let him know?
Li Si regretted asking.
However, Ying Su didn’t hesitate at all. He directly took Li Si's hand and led him to the paper-making workshop!
And right under Li Si's eyes, Ying Su ordered people to filter some bark, weeds, and other debris, then sun-dry them to create paper.
Even in some places that Li Si didn't understand, Ying Su personally explained it to him.
And he also told Li Si why the xuan paper, grass paper, and linen paper were so different!
All this almost made Li Si cry with gratitude!
Yes!
He really cried!
What was this?
This was trust!
You know, this was paper!
Something that didn't exist in this era, and he dared to show it to him like this?
Wasn't he afraid that he would learn it by looking?
Yes, don't look at how amazing paper is. To be honest, it actually has almost no technological barriers!
Anyone who wants to make it can basically learn it just by watching once!
Even the best xuan paper, as long as you look at it a few times and practice it a few times, you can completely make it!
Li Si was truly moved to tears. In the Bureau of Engineering, in front of so many people, he knelt down to Ying Su with a thud: “Your Majesty!”
Ying Su smiled, said nothing, and helped him up!
After getting up, Li Si immediately made a suggestion to Ying Su: “Your Majesty, grass paper and xuan paper shouldn't appear now!”
“Oh?”
“Why?”
Ying Su asked with a smile.
Li Si said: “Although the price of linen paper is set at fifteen qian, as a consumable item, and moreover, a consumable item that lasts for a long time, to be honest, the price is set too high. At the beginning, people will buy it because of its novelty, but at most one year, they will be discouraged by the price. If we want to sell paper again, we will have to lower the price!”
“But when linen paper drops in price, if we take out grass paper, which is of better quality than linen paper, and continue to sell it for fifteen qian as an updated product, people can accept it!”
“Wait another year, take out xuan paper, and continue to sell it for fifteen qian, and lower the price of linen paper and grass paper. People will still accept it!”
“This way, our Great Qin Dynasty, just by selling paper, can guarantee that the Great Qin Treasury's annual tax revenue will exceed ten million qian. This is more than the tax revenue from the common people!”
Li Si shouted. At that moment, he was about to explode with excitement.
Annual tax revenue exceeding ten million qian! This was higher than the treasury tax revenue of any year during the reign of the First Emperor.
Just by selling paper, Ying Su could make a fortune!
He was extremely excited, while Ying Su nodded with a smile, “Okay!”
“Okay?”
Li Si was even more excited!
After all, this was Ying Su accepting his suggestion!
However, Ying Su’s next words were about to make Li Si excited to the point of going to heaven.
“Prime Minister, I’m going to give you more responsibility. From now on, this paper will be sold by you, either by setting up an office or establishing a store!”
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