The First National Preceptor of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 29

"I've heard of and seen soap before. People have presented it as a gift to officials at various levels, and I've received one myself. It's said to be made from the essence of soap pods and is indeed very good for washing. Since you're saying this, could it be that this item is also related to you?" Zheng Zhuangyuan asked suspiciously.

It seems the Du family is quite shrewd. They presented the soap as a gift to officials, using it as advertising, and then sold it at a high price in the market as a luxury item.

There are naturally many wealthy people among the officials, and wealthy people who have used soap are naturally willing to spend a lot of money to buy it.

"That's right. The soap is one I developed before, specifically for cleaning. I won't go into the details of how it's made, but due to current production limitations, it's rarely seen on the market and is quite expensive."

One of the reasons I built this factory is to expand production capacity in the future, so that ordinary people can use high-quality, affordable soap.

"Then why don't you just publish the soap-making method to the public? Naturally, more families will start making soap, production will increase significantly, and ordinary people will be able to afford it."

"Now you don't have to expend any more energy, and you can focus your attention on the 'Three Character Classic' and 'Rhyming Dictionary'," said Scholar Zheng.

Hearing him say that, Xu Tian couldn't help but smile wryly: "Brother Zheng, you should think about it this way. I spent a lot of money and effort to develop this soap, and there were many risks involved. I failed many times before I finally succeeded."

Once it's developed, it naturally needs to be sold to recoup the money. If I let other companies manufacture and sell it, how will I make any money?

"I suppose you've been selling soap for a long time now. It's quite expensive, and the buyers are all wealthy and powerful. You should have already recouped your initial investment by now."

Once you've recouped your investment, you can reveal the method of production to the public." Scholar Zheng was quick-witted and thought of this.

"Brother Zheng, it's not that simple. This soap is just one item. In the future, I will also need to research and produce other items, which will require a lot of investment. I can't possibly use all my own money every time."

As I just mentioned, research and development is risky; success is not guaranteed. Whether it will succeed or not, I didn't know beforehand. And how much money will be invested in this process—no one knows until the very end.

Xu Tian took a sip of water and continued, "Generally speaking, there are more failures than successes."

If I develop three items and one is successful, I will naturally use the money from selling the successful item to make up for the cost of the two failed items, and then use that money to develop the next item.

Furthermore, the earlier parts are naturally easier to develop and cost less; the further you develop, the more difficult and expensive it becomes. This all requires substantial financial support. I'm sure you understand the reasoning behind this.

Zheng Xie shook his head: "I roughly understand what you mean, but I still don't understand. Since it's so difficult, why do you still focus on developing new products? Isn't it just a waste of money? We lived a normal life before we had soap."

On the contrary, after soap became available, some people were willing to pay exorbitant prices for it—more than ten times the price of soap pods and bath beans—while its effectiveness was by no means ten times greater. In this respect, it was actually less cost-effective.

Xu Tian felt it was necessary to clarify this issue today, as Zheng Xie was probably not the only one who thought this way, and others might have similar questions in the future.

"This is only the present, Brother Zheng. You should think about what the scene will be like in ten years or a hundred years."

As production expands, and given that other companies will inevitably learn this technique, the price of soap will naturally decrease gradually, eventually replacing soap pods and other similar products.

"Even if soap eventually replaces bath beans, it will only be slightly more effective at cleaning, with limited benefits," Zheng Xie continued to ask.