Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 460: Chapter 431 Excited Crown Prince_2

The Crown Prince looked at the Buddha statue and showed a surprised expression.

He had seen all sorts of ornaments before.

Porcelain, wood carving, stone carving, glaze, jade, bronze, and so on, he had seen many, and only the fine pieces caught his eye.

But he had never seen an ornament as bright as this glass piece before.

”Glass! Glaze?” exclaimed the Crown Prince in surprise.

Glaze and glass look very similar in appearance, but glaze is more complex in composition and its crafting techniques are cumbersome and delicate. In contrast, glass is much simpler to make and easier to produce.

Of course, glass also has its shortcomings compared to glaze. Glaze comes in a variety of colors and layers, while glass, due to its production process, has obvious stratification in its colors.

For example, that gold Buddha can clearly be seen to have layers.

Glaze can also be artificially fired, but the cost is extremely high. Therefore, in Da Rong, glaze is a precious ornament, especially large and intact glazed products, which are even more valuable than jade.

Compared to that, glass can only be described as cheap, so cheap that the Crown Prince doubts whether Yang Zhenshan is lying.

This is clearly glaze, how can it be glass?

The Crown Prince picked up Yang Zhenshan’s memorial again and read it through twice, very carefully word by word.

Once he finished, a shrewd light flashed in his eyes.

This isn’t just glass, this is a mountain of gold and silver!

The Crown Prince looked at the glass ornament in front of him as if it were a rare treasure.

With an appearance extremely similar to glaze, its manufacturing cost is less than one percent of that of glaze.

”If this glazed gold Buddha were to be sold, how much silver would it fetch?” the Crown Prince asked Nansheng, blinking.

Nansheng looked at the Buddha statue with a coveting gaze and said, ”Your Highness, this glazed gold Buddha is so translucent that it looks almost nonexistent, its inner golden light shining brightly. Placed in the sunlight, it is as if the Golden Buddha has descended to earth, unlike anything mundane!”

Alright, he also treated this glass Buddha statue as a glazed one, and even took what is a drawback of the glass statue as an advantage.

This is normal. Yang Zhenshan thinks it’s a flaw because he has clear knowledge of glass.

While Nansheng has no clue what glass is, and naturally regards the glass Buddha statue as being made of glaze, with an extraordinary craftsmanship, exquisitely beautiful.

”If it were sold, this statue could be worth a fortune!” Nansheng said with conviction.

He is fond of such precious items like glaze, jade, porcelain, and so on, so he is very familiar with the market price of glaze.

Therefore, when he talks about a fortune, he isn’t exaggerating – he means one thousand taels of gold.

One thousand taels of gold is ten thousand taels of silver.

”Ten thousand taels of silver!” the Crown Prince took a sharp breath, then looked down at the memorial in his hand, which clearly stated that the production cost of the Buddha statue was two taels of silver, while Yang Zhenshan planned to sell it for five hundred taels.

Actually, such a statue is not easy to make either, mainly because this Buddha statue is almost flawless.

Even if there were flaws, it would not be worthless.

Those with defects would be sold cheaper, and those without defects more expensive. As long as the flaws aren’t too big, they would still be considered a finished product. Thus, the yield of such glass Buddha statues is still high and won’t raise the cost due to low yield rates.

Yang Zhenshan said that the cost of the Buddha statue was two taels of silver, which isn’t quite accurate because the current glass workshop hasn’t produced glass Buddha statues on a large scale. If mass production begins, the cost could be reduced by another twenty percent.

The Crown Prince looked at the memorial and then at the Buddha statue, silently calculating in his heart.

According to what Yang Zhenshan said, how much silver could he earn!

Hundreds of thousands of taels?

Millions of taels?

Far more than that!

He might make several million taels in one year!

The market for glass ornaments is much bigger than that for telescopes. Every wealthy household has dozens of ornaments.

If the price of a glass ornament is a few thousand taels, the market might not be too big, because there wouldn’t be many families who could afford to spend thousands of taels of silver on a single ornament.

But what if it’s just a few hundred taels, or even a few dozen taels?

Any merchant could afford it, and even a slightly wealthier merchant could buy dozens of pieces to display at home without a problem.

This will be an immensely large market.

Not to mention display pieces, there are also a variety of vessels such as tea sets, wine sets, dinnerware, etc.

The Crown Prince felt his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

Who doesn’t like Silver?

The Crown Prince likes Silver, and the Emperor likes Silver as well.

The court has endless uses for Silver, and every time the Crown Prince sees a memorial that requires Silver, he gets a headache.

His Eastern Palace also needs Silver, and in the future when he ascends the throne, there will be even more places in the vast Imperial City that will require spending Silver.

”You~~” The Crown Prince was already impatient to make a lot of money according to Yang Zhenshan’s plan, but when he saw Nansheng’s eyes dripping with desire as he looked at the Buddha statue, the words at the tip of his tongue stopped short.

”You, go and call over Little An!” the Crown Prince ordered.

”Yes!”

Moments later, Nansheng had found Little An.

Little An was actually not so little; his real name was Wang An, and he was already over thirty years old now. Because he was an old servant from Prince Cheng’s Mansion, and had only been in his teens when he arrived, the Crown Prince was used to calling him Little An.

”Your Highness, may you be forever at peace!” Wang An bowed and saluted.

The Crown Prince sat at the writing desk, scribbled a few sentences on a memorial, and then handed it to Wang An, saying, ”Now, immediately take this memorial to Chongshan Pass. Once you arrive at Chongshan Pass, follow Marquis Jing’an’s arrangements for everything. Whatever he asks you to do, you do it, and whenever he asks you to bring people back, do exactly as he says. Understand?”

”This servant understands!” Wang An took the memorial and replied.

The Crown Prince still felt uneasy, so he took off the Jade Pendant at his waist and said, ”Go to the Imperial Stables and take three hundred soldiers of the personal army with you. Remember, on the way, seal the mouths of these three hundred soldiers for me. Tell them if anyone dares to leak even a hint of information, they will all be executed!”

Upon hearing this, Wang An’s mind sank, and his expression turned solemn, ”This servant will surely seal their mouths!”

Beside him, Nansheng was nodding with his head bowed, his eyes previously filled with the covetous longing for the glass gold Buddha now subdued.

”Hmm!” The Crown Prince thought it over and felt there should be no problems, then spoke, ”Go!”

Yang Zhenshan somewhat misjudged the Crown Prince’s emphasis on glass, or perhaps it should be said that he underestimated the Crown Prince’s regard for Silver.

He thought that the Crown Prince would surely support his plan for the sake of Silver, but he had overlooked the fact that the court was short on Silver, and also overlooked the fact that the Crown Prince himself was short on Silver.

The Da Rong Dynasty’s annual revenue was roughly twenty million shi (a unit of grain) of rice and wheat, plus ten million taels of Silver Coin, along with various silks and cottons that could be converted into another million taels of Silver Coin.

The price of rice and wheat varied with the market and differed by region. For instance, in Liaodong, the price of grain generally maintained around two taels of Silver per shi, while in Capital City, it was about three taels of Silver per shi.

In the event of natural disasters or man-made calamities, the price of grain could skyrocket, with increases of three to four times being normal.

Hence, it was difficult to convert grain into Silver Coin, and officials were mainly paid in a combination of grain and money, with grain as the primary form.

If grain had to be converted into Silver Coin, then Da Rong’s annual tax revenue was roughly between fifty million to seventy million taels.

This may seem like a lot, but for such a vast Dynasty, these funds and grain were simply not enough.

Why did the court previously refuse to allocate salary to Chongshan Town?

Wasn’t it because the Ministry of Revenue didn’t have enough Silver?

Liaoxi suffered a military disaster at the hands of the Wuliang Hu Clan, yet the court scraped together five hundred thousand taels of Silver from Yang Zhenshan to provide disaster relief to Liaoxi.

The court had too many places that needed Silver: the border army’s salary, the salaries of the royal family, nobles, and officials, government expenditures, river defense and irrigation, construction of palaces and government buildings, ceremonies and celebrations, disaster relief, public welfare, etc.

Moreover, over the past ten or so years, Da Rong had hardly been peaceful, with frequent natural disasters and unending warfare.

Take Yang Zhenshan’s experience over recent years for example: there was a severe drought in Chongshan Town, followed by several battles with the East Sea Hu Clan. After the destruction of the East Sea Hu Clan, Prince Qing rebelled, and the Wuliang Hu Clan invaded Liaoxi.

Each of these events required the court to spend massive amounts of money and grain.

And this was only Chongshan Town, which was just one of Da Rong’s nine military towns on the border.

Take Beiyuan Town for example; that was a true gold-consuming behemoth.

Therefore, it made sense that the court was lacking in Silver, and it was only natural for the Crown Prince to be eager to make Silver.