Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 53 Owari Business Administration
"Ah, yes, I still have to sell it..."

Following Yuanye's questioning, Aman woke up from his happy reverie of taking a bath with fine wine. After all, soy sauce alone was useless, as it couldn't be used for taking a bath. He had to exchange it for money so that he could spend it on wine and women and start enjoying life.

Since it was related to her plan of enjoyment, she was willing to take the lead and patted her chest to indicate that she would take care of the matter and there would be no problem in selling it. However, even with her hand raised, she did not dare to put the pat down - this matter was completely different from what she had expected!
Yuanye had only asked her if she could sell any soy sauce she had, and as far as she was concerned, the soy sauce was only about three or five stone. She would look for her grandfather's business friends, and whether she sold it directly or on consignment, she would always be able to get rid of it.

But the situation now is obviously not the case. Yuanye can produce several stones in seven or eight days, and this is when the scale has just been formed. In the future, it will be easy to produce 100 stones per month, and the production can even be increased continuously, driving all other soy sauce workshops in Tokaido and even the whole world out of business.

She wouldn't be able to handle such a large amount, and she couldn't guarantee it.

The matter was of great importance. After hesitating for a moment, she scratched her face and said with embarrassment: "Sell it... The quantity is too large. I can't sell so much soy sauce. You need to find a way to find the old monk."

"Old monk?"

"Yes, you need to find an old monk! The four counties under Owari Province are all under the influence of Soto Zen. You need to find the old monk in Guanyin Temple, the kind of old monk whose words are final. Only with his permission can you dispose of so much soy sauce." Aman added, "You are definitely not just selling these few jars in front of you, are you? Are you planning to sell it for a long time?"

"Of course!" Yuanye was planning to renovate his new home. He had already designed the central air-conditioning system and was just waiting for enough money to start. Otherwise, it would be too hot in the summer, and he would not be able to complete the plan unless he sold three to five thousand jars of soy sauce. However, he did not expect that there was something about Guanyin Temple involved. He could not help but wonder, "What does this have to do with them? Don't you know any businessmen? Can't you just sell it to the businessmen?"

Ah Man shook his head without even thinking about it and said, "No, the quantity is too large! Three or five dan, or even more, it doesn't matter. If you sell it secretly to a merchant, no one will find out. Even if they are found out, no one will care. But if you sell dozens or hundreds of dan every month, you can't hide it at all. Without the old monk's permission, no merchant dares to accept your goods. If they do, his store will be raided by the monks, and he will not be able to be a merchant anymore. The loss will be huge. They are not that stupid!"

Yuan Ye was confused. How come the monk also worked part-time as the "Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau" and was responsible for managing the market? What was he talking about?

He said dissatisfiedly: "What is going on here? Explain it in detail! No one can understand this nonsense!"

His tone was not very good, and A-Man was not his slave, so he was immediately unhappy and retorted: "You have no common sense and you want to blame me? I have clearly said it!"

"I don't blame you, I don't blame you!" Yuan Ye couldn't leave her now. He knew the situation and was a wise man. His attitude softened immediately. He directly put the bowl of soup into her hand and began to respect her again. He humbly asked for advice, "But I really don't understand. Do monks still manage businessmen?"

A-man was satisfied and sipped a mouthful of the radish soy sauce soup. He felt that the soy sauce was indeed good. The dry radish that used to taste ugly became salty and fresh after being cooked in this way and started to taste a bit better.

After slurping two mouthfuls of carrot soup, she leaned over and said with some reserve, "It's a long story, it has to start from hundreds of years ago..."

"Then let's make it short and briefly mention the trivial things." Yuan Ye interrupted her directly, saying that some unimportant historical knowledge should be briefly mentioned. If those things were put in a novel, readers would not like to read it, and he was not very interested in it.

"Okay!" Ah Man was still eating his rice, so he was obedient. After thinking for a while, he said, "In the past, the government... you know what the government is, right? It's the royal family, nobles and officials in the court. Those people used to control the world, and everyone could share the benefits. Each family could monopolize one or several industries, and had the monopoly right to sell and exempt from taxation in the relevant industries.

For example, there was an incident in Kyoto before. A nobleman monopolized the right to sell fish. Not only did he open his own fish market, but all fish sellers in other places had to give him a share, otherwise he could prohibit that person from engaging in fish-related industries. Another nobleman monopolized the salt industry, and all salt sellers had to give him a share, otherwise they would not be able to do business.

Then one day, the nobleman who monopolized the salt industry found that salted fish were selling very well in the market and there were still salt grains on the salted fish. He announced that salted fish was considered salt and people had to pay for it in the future. This offended the person in charge of fish, who thought that salted fish was still fish and the money should still be paid to him.

The two sides argued fiercely, and neither won, so they called their samurai to fight in Kyoto. A lot of people died, and the impact was huge. In the end, the matter was brought before the Emperor.

Yuanye was speechless. He roughly understood the meaning, but this was too simplified. Even the times, names and official positions were omitted. It also sounded a bit fantastic. Is this how the Japanese court manages business? The more he listened, the more it sounded like playing house - the ancient Japanese court seemed like a huge makeshift team!
But since Ah Man had said so, he believed it for the time being and couldn't help asking, "So, who won in the end?"

"The one in charge of salt wins." Ah Man did not keep the secret, "He is the emperor's uncle, otherwise it would not be his turn to be in charge of salt, so now salted fish is not a fish, just like a rabbit is a bird."

Yuanye nodded, remembering that it seemed to be the same in modern Japan. Salted fish was a kind of seasoning, not really fish. He thought for a moment and motioned for Aman to continue, and Aman recalled and said, "Then the samurai came to power, and the government stepped aside and had no control over the whole country. This monopoly on sales was in name only, so they sold this power to the temple families. For example, the iron smelting rights were sold to Todaiji Temple at the beginning. Todaiji Temple began to monopolize iron smelting. If any blacksmith did not pay Todaiji Temple, Todaiji Temple could drive him out of the industry or even confiscate his shop."

Yuan Ye finally understood a little bit and nodded gently, "In other words, the monopoly rights of sales in all walks of life are now in the hands of monks?"

"They also have the right to exempt from taxation. They don't pay taxes, and at most they give the government a few cents a year." Aman's hatred of the rich flared up again. He felt more uncomfortable seeing others making money than losing money. He said unhappily, "The government has no power now, and can't afford to offend the samurai, and can't intervene in local affairs. But there are enough temple families, and they support a large group of monk soldiers and a group of brainless believers. The local shitty samurai dare not provoke them easily, let alone collect taxes from them. As a result, the monks have become richer and richer. They are all as fat as wild boars, and their shit is so oily!"

After a pause, she emphasized to make it more convincing: "There is a nursery rhyme that goes like this: Of the wealth in the world, one stone, the gods and Buddhas get nine dou, the military gets three dou, the emperor and the officials eat the leftovers, and half a dou of cold roast meat fills their mouths. This nursery rhyme is sung all over the world, and the gods and Buddhas in it refer to the temples of various sects in various places. So monks are in charge of merchants, this is common knowledge that everyone knows."

Yuanye nodded slightly to show that he understood, but immediately asked curiously: "Did I sing it wrong? Isn't this 1.25 jin?"

"And us!" Ah Man pointed at himself and said unhappily, "We are the lowly villains, not even as good as cattle and horses, and we owe them two and a half bushels!"

It has a modern flavor. Japan is quite advanced in this regard, having entered the society of cattle and horses paying debts 500 years in advance.

Yuanye complained in his heart and finally figured out what was going on. He also remembered that the old monk Haixin from Arashi Kannon Temple had said that most of the merchants in the four lower counties of Owari Province received their Kanho from him.

At that time he was still wondering what was going on, but now he sees that the old monk is really "one of the directors of the Owari Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau", or at least an "executive deputy director", who holds the monopoly sales rights in most industries. Merchants really need to go to him to obtain a "business license" and pay him a membership fee, and they dare not purchase bulk goods without his consent, for fear of causing unnecessary trouble.

And he finally understood that this was how Japan operated in the Middle Ages. The government officials controlled justice and status, the temple families managed industry and commerce, the samurai families were responsible for managing land, food, and various raw materials, and the rest of the common people, merchants, and villains were responsible for being slaves...

Surprisingly, there is a clear division of labor and mutual cooperation, which is somewhat reasonable and seems to run very smoothly!
After Yuanye figured it out, he was completely speechless: "In other words, if you want to sell soy sauce in large quantities, you can't avoid Guanyin Temple. You can only go to them to get a sales license and pay them a sum of money?"

Ah Man scratched his face, hesitated for a moment and said, "Based on some things that happened in the past, it's probably not a one-time payment. You have good stuff, Guanyin Temple will probably buy all your stuff, and then they will distribute it to merchants under their name for exclusive sale, or even resell it to other places to make money."

Yuanye was speechless. He had to be exploited by the monks before doing business, and by a group of shameless monks. Isn't this too frustrating?

He thought about it, somewhat unwillingly, and asked Aman again: "Is there no other way?"

Ah Man saw that Yuan Ye seemed to have some opinions about Guanyin Temple, and couldn't help but wonder: "Has Guanyin Temple ever offended you before? It is indeed a bit unpleasant to let them make a fortune, but there is nothing you can do about it, and it is not without benefits to be mixed with them. As long as you can help those monks make money, you will be considered as their people, and they will be happy to provide you with working capital, help you collect debts, and be willing to provide certain protection, and will not let anyone touch you easily."

Yuan Ye did not deny it and said directly: "Offended... not really offended, I just don't like them very much, so is there any other way?"

Ah Man didn't quite understand, but still said, "If you don't want to deal with the Guanyin Temple faction, then you can only go to the Zhengde Temple faction in the four counties."

"From the Zhengde Temple?"

"Yes, the overall strength of the Fahua Sect's temples is stronger than that of the Caodong Zen Guanyin Temple."

Yuanye nodded slightly. Perhaps the performance of Shengde Temple would be better than that of Guanyin Temple. It seemed that he could talk to them first. But before he could think it through, he suddenly heard a dull bell sound coming from outside, which made his heart jump and then sink.

Ah Man also heard it, and he jumped up with a start, asking in surprise: "Is it an alarm? Are there any enemies attacking?!"

(End of this chapter)