Chapter 28: Short on Money

Although she didn’t understand business, she had basic judgment. She was very convinced by Ye Yaming’s words, which were clearly much wiser than the old man’s bad ideas. So it wasn’t surprising that the old man had become like this.

Ye Chongming’s face quickly fell again.

He sighed deeply and said to Ye Yaming, “We don’t have much loose tea. If we want to make a large amount of osmanthus tea, we need money to buy osmanthus flowers and loose tea. Next year’s new tea needs to be pre-ordered after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even if we sell fields, land, and shops, it won’t be in time.”

Ye Chongming, who always paid attention to health and maintained himself well, didn’t show many wrinkles or age spots even at sixty. But now, his face showed the signs of an elderly man of his age.

He said, “Ming’er, I won’t hide it from you. Our family’s savings were all spent to cover the trouble caused by your fourth uncle, and we even used some of the money that was supposed to be paid to the Tea Bureau after the Mid-Autumn Festival to pre-order next year’s spring tea.”

“If your eldest uncle can successfully bring back the money in the next few days, we can scrape through by borrowing from here and there. But if not, we won’t have enough cash to pre-order next year’s spring tea. We really don’t have the money to buy loose tea to make osmanthus tea now.”

“Although selling osmanthus tea would bring higher profits and boost the reputation of our Ye Tea, if we miss the pre-order period for tea, no matter how much money we make later, it will be useless. Without next year’s spring tea, our tea factory, tea shop, and tea house will have no purpose. The decades of foundation of the Ye family will be destroyed.”

He looked up at Ye Yaming, “So, I have to ensure next year’s spring tea first. As for osmanthus tea, we can only wait until next autumn to produce it in large quantities.”

“Although we have fields and shops, selling them takes time. We are not only short of money but also short of time.”

Ye Yaming frowned.

The tea tax system of this era was really troublesome. Tea merchants had to pay the Tea Bureau to pre-order the next year’s spring tea by the Mid-Autumn Festival of the previous year. Additionally, they had to pay tea taxes and obtain tea permits.

The tea permit in the Great Jin Dynasty was equivalent to a business license and similar to “ration tickets” in historical novels. The amount of tea you could buy and the distance it could be transported determined the tea tax and the type of tea permit you received.

The tea production here was not high, and not everyone who paid taxes and pre-order fees could get a tea permit. Certain qualifications were required. For example, if the Tao family, who ran an inn, suddenly wanted to buy tea from the Tea Bureau to sell elsewhere, unless they had strong backing and the officials had informed the Tea Bureau, the Tea Bureau wouldn’t issue a tea permit to them.

Even with qualifications, paying money to the Tea Bureau wasn’t enough. The Tea Bureau handled so much rough tea that it was hard to know which was good and which was bad. To ensure tea quality, merchants had to connect with tea growers.

In other regions, there were “mountain heads” to ensure the tea was produced in specific mountains. The first pick, second pick, premium, and bulk pick distinguished the quality of tea. However, in Lin’an City, only the Tea Bureau collected tea from various places. Some were from the foot of the mountain, some from the top, some from flat land; some faced the sun, and some were shaded. The soil’s acidity and fertility varied. The rough tea from different places naturally had significant taste differences.

Even if you bribed the Tea Bureau, they couldn’t guarantee you would get the rough tea from the desired places.

So, tea merchants had to connect with tea growers and pay them to pre-order specific tea. They would manage the tea gardens according to the merchant’s requirements, pick the tea as required, and produce rough tea with guaranteed quality.

When it was time to deliver the tea in spring, both parties would go to the Tea Bureau together. The growers would deliver the tea, and the merchants would buy it simultaneously. Since neither party violated the court’s regulations, the tea price followed the Tea Bureau’s rates. As long as the money was sufficient, the Tea Bureau would turn a blind eye to such transactions.

In other words, to get next year’s spring tea, tea merchants had to pay money to the officials to get the tea permit, bribe the Tea Bureau for the transaction, pay the Tea Bureau to pre-order rough tea and pay taxes, and give money to the growers to get the desired tea.

The cost incurred by tea merchants would be recovered when selling the tea, along with a substantial profit. But every autumn, they had to advance a large sum of money. If the tea didn’t sell well or was overstocked, and the funds couldn’t be turned over, the business couldn’t continue.

The Ye family strictly controlled the quality of rough tea and had excellent tea-making skills, with a good reputation built over the years. Selling tea was not a problem. If there were no issues in several places simultaneously, the turnover would be fine. But now, the Ye family’s cash flow had problems, and they couldn’t continue investing in osmanthus tea.

Not producing osmanthus tea in large quantities was not a problem; it just meant the Ye family couldn’t make money from this project.

But Ye Yaming had a bad feeling that Ye Hongchang might be unable to return the money safely. If they couldn’t pre-order next year’s spring tea, as Ye Chongming said, the decades of foundation of the Ye family would be destroyed.

The Ye family’s industry was still in tea, and they preferred to buy tea gardens when they had money. So they didn’t have many fields and shops. Even if they sold them now, it wouldn’t fill the gap caused by the loss of two sums of money.

Moreover, selling fields and shops in a hurry wouldn’t fetch a good price and would spread rumors that the Ye family was going bankrupt. In business, this was the most taboo, as it meant partners and customers would no longer trust you.

She began to think about how the Ye family could overcome this crisis if Ye Hongchang couldn’t bring back the money.

She asked, “Grandfather, do you have a good relationship with the money shop?”

This topic was too abrupt, and Ye Chongming was a bit confused.

But he still said, “Yes. Don’t you remember? Your grandmother’s family runs a money shop.”

Ye Yaming looked at the old madam in surprise.

Old Madam Ye nodded, “Yes. But now my cousin is in charge. He only cares about money. If we ask him for a loan, he probably won’t agree.”

Ye Yaming frowned.

She then remembered that ancient money shops initially focused on currency exchange, solving the problem of carrying and securing precious metal currency. They didn’t lend money but made money from exchange fees. Historically, it wasn’t until the late Ming Dynasty that they started lending. The Great Jin Dynasty was equivalent to the late Song and early Ming, so the situation should be similar.