The birthday cake was on the "Datang Daily" and attracted the interest of many noble ladies.

Yongping pocket watches made the front page of the "Datang Daily", attracting the interests of countless merchants and nobles.

Although Lang Qing is fully coordinating the production capacity of several workshops, the production capacity of Yongping pocket watches is still less than ten per day.

How can this meet the huge demand of Chang'an City?

Many people have seen the business opportunities inside.

Wei Siren, who had just visited his aunt from the Daming Palace, was one of them.

"Wei Bao, how long do you think if our carriage shop in the south of the city will also arrange some craftsmen to make pocket watches?"

Wei Siren's most trusted subordinate was Wei Bao, the shopkeeper of the carriage shop in the south of the city, so the first thing he thought of was to discuss this matter with Wei Bao.

"Langjun, I originally suggested purchasing a patent for the clock from the royal patent of the Tang Dynasty, so that the carriage shop in the south of the city would also produce the clock. But do you think the patent fee for that clock is too high, and several workshops that can produce clock parts are all broken with the Chu King's Mansion. I am worried that they will be restrained by the other party at that time. Now the situation of this pocket watch is not better than the clock?"

"That's right, but one time and another. I had no confidence in the business rules set by Li Kuan back then, and I was always worried that he would take the opportunity to hack us. But judging from the situation in recent years, the people in the Chu Palace still abide by the business rules very much. As long as they are within the rules, they have no objection to playing with them.

The clock, Langqing Watch Workshop, has been made very maturely, and the output can meet the demand. If we enter again at this time, the significance will not be so great, and it will be difficult to make a lot of money, but pocket watches are different. Now it is hard to find a watch in Chang'an City.

Today I went to the palace to see my aunt, the entire Daming Palace, namely Your Majesty and Her, the Crown Prince, Princess Jinyang and the Queen of Chu Prince's Concubine. Even if the others are deeply favored by Your Majesty, they still don't have a pocket watch.

What does this mean? You are selling a pocket watch for 100 gold coins now, and some people are buying it. As for the patent fee you mentioned, it is a little more expensive. Each pocket watch has to pay a patent fee of five points, which is equivalent to making money while lying down.

But I found that there are also loopholes. After our pocket watches are produced in the workshop, they will be sold to the shop responsible for the sale at a relatively low price, and then sold to the customer at a high price. In this way, the actual patent fee will be greatly reduced."

Wei Siren found Wei Bao to discuss this matter, and obviously made some preparations.

It seems that there is a reason why the Wei family became a powerful family in the mid-Tang Dynasty.

"Langjun, the people from the Chu Prince's Mansion will soon notice this method? You can tell if there is a problem with the patent fee by simply calculating it."

Wei Bao felt that his husband was thinking too ideal. What he could think of wouldn’t be expected by the people from the Royal Patent Office of the Tang Dynasty? What would be expected by the people from the King of Chu?

"You are right. It is indeed easy to find the problem, but what does that matter? Is it a violation of the rules when we do this? The rules were formulated by the Chu Palace. We found loopholes in the rules and made some changes when the rules allow them. They can't say anything, right? At most, our price difference is so big, just don't stimulate them so much.

Wei Bao, you should stand a little higher. The Royal Patent Office of the Tang Dynasty may not be a tool used by the Chu Prince's Mansion to make money. I also thought deeply about what Li Kuan's layout is for. It is very likely that the height he stood was much higher than ours, so everyone misunderstood him before."

"Um?"

Wei Bao felt that his husband’s reaction today was a bit abnormal.

He has always had a deep prejudice towards the Chu Palace, but today he seems to highly respect Li Kuan.

"Think about it, since the establishment of the Royal Patent Office of the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the trouble of several people who are completely unruly, has it been troubled by any merchant that pays patent fees on time? Did these merchants really not do anything small? But the people in the King of Chu's palace turn a blind eye, as long as you pay the patent fees, no matter how much.

What does this mean? What the people in the Chu King’s Mansion care about is that everyone needs to have the concept of patent fees, and what they care about is that everyone needs to have the awareness of protecting craftsmen to innovate and invention, encourage more workshops to invent new technologies, and take out some special technologies to apply for patents so that more merchants can use them.

Otherwise, why did this Yongping pocket watch apply for a patent at the Royal Patent Office of the Tang Dynasty just launched? Any merchant can check the structural drawings of the Yongping pocket watch?"

Wei Siren was inspired by Concubine Wei today, and his perspective on the problem was one level higher.

Wei Bao next to him opened his mouth several times, not knowing what to say.

"So I think it is very likely to let Chengnan Horse Carriage produce pocket watches and launch a Chengnan pocket watch. As for you, you are worried that our workshop will not be able to produce most of the parts of the pocket watch, this has nothing to do with it. The parts of the Yongping pocket watch are basically purchased from outside.

We just need to go to the King of Chu’s glass workshop to find out if they are willing to sell glass mirrors. If they are unwilling to sell them, then the idea of ​​Chengnan pocket watches is just pretending that I have nothing to say; but if the other party can supply them openly, even if the price is more expensive, it means that my idea is completely correct. Our Wei family can get a share of the emerging industry of pocket watches."

Seeing Wei Bao's stunned reaction, Wei Siren felt very accomplished.

Although I usually linger with Pingkangfang and am a prodigal son in the eyes of the elders of the family, my brain is still very useful.

"Langjun, if all these are the same as you said, then I have a new concern."

"What worries?"

"Will other nobles follow the trend immediately and launch their own pocket watches?"

"This is inevitable! But what does this matter? Our Chengnan Pocket Watch is the second pocket watch launched by the Tang Dynasty. At that time, we will advertise in various newspapers in time to let everyone know Chengnan Pocket Watch with preconceptions. Are you still worried that you can't beat other businesses?"

Wei Siren had no confidence in dealing with the Chu Prince's Mansion.

But when dealing with other businesses, Wei Siren felt that there was nothing to be afraid of.

"Okay, then I'll make arrangements immediately to see if we can push out our pocket watch in the south of the city as soon as possible!"

Wei Bao naturally knew how much profit the Chengnan pocket watch could bring to the workshop if it could be launched.

So without further hesitation, he immediately started to do it resolutely.

...

There is no airtight wall in the world, especially when others have not deliberately hidden it.

Within a few days, many nobles and merchants who were watching the movements of the Tang Dynasty Royal Patent Office knew that Chengnan Horse Carriage Store had purchased the patent use rights of Yongping pocket watches and was preparing to produce their own pocket watches.

At this moment, the others could no longer sit still and started to act.

"Master, I just visited their shopkeeper Chen at the glass workshop of the King of Chu Mansion and expressed the meaning of our desire to buy the glass mirror used on the pocket watch. The shopkeeper Chen agreed without any hesitation, and said that we would have as much as we want, but the price of the mirror needs to be given in combination with our specific requirements."

A Hu man who looked obviously different from the people of the Tang Dynasty spoke fluent Tang language and was reporting the news to his master.

"Sarai, that shopkeeper Chen really said that?"

The person who spoke was Hamedi, the Persian maritime merchant, who has now settled in Wannian County, is considered a Tang Dynasty person in terms of household registration.

However, although the Tang Dynasty's maritime trade has developed very rapidly in recent years, the scale of its Persian maritime business has not only not increased, but has been shrinking.

Therefore, Hamedi urgently wanted to find a new industry and shift his development focus.

Because Persia has now been ruled by the Great Food Empire, Hamedi's business has no way to start in Persia; as for other maritime trades such as Nanyang, he has no advantage compared to the various nobles in Chang'an City.

Transformation is an imperative consideration.

So every day Hamedi is paying attention to the news in newspapers such as the Datang Daily, Chang'an Evening News, hoping to find business opportunities in it.

Sure enough, when the news of Yongping pocket watch appeared in the "Datang Daily", Hamedi's eyes lit up.

The clock is very profitable, but the Langqing clock has almost occupied the high-end, mid-end and low-end markets. If any company wants to enter again, it will directly compete with the Langqing clock.

Hamedi is not stupid, so he naturally won’t touch the stone with an egg.

But pocket watches are different. Nowadays, there are absolutely few people in Chang'an City who can buy pocket watches.

Of course, Hamedi also found out why Yongping’s pocket watches are so short, and knew that it was impossible for him to produce a pocket watch like Yongping’s pocket watch.

But as long as it is a pocket watch, even if it is twice as big as a Yongping pocket watch, it can still be carried with you, right?

Those who can't buy Yongping pocket watches will definitely be willing to buy such pocket watches, right?

As long as the size is enlarged, Hamedi feels that the number of parts that Water Supply Production and Changan Precision can produce every day will definitely increase by several times, even dozens of times, or hundreds of times.

After all, if the size is doubled, the processing difficulty is not easy to change.

Nowadays, the only eighth-level worker in the water supply warehouse can be processed.

However, according to Hamedi's plan, after the size is doubled, a fourth-level worker may be able to process pinion parts normally.

Even not just Shuejun Production, but some other workshops, such as Jintai Iron Workshop, which lost its Yongping Pocket Watch Order, should also produce such pinions?

The more Hamedi thinks about it, the brighter the future!

At that time, I will also call the pocket watch produced by myself the Hamedi pocket watch, which will definitely make the Hamedi family's glory rise again in the Tang Dynasty.

"Master, Zhang Guest Chen said so. I have also inquired about it. Although only the King of Chu Mansion can produce glass mirrors, the production capacity of Yongping pocket watches cannot be increased, not because of the glass workshop. Since the Wei family can buy the patent of Yongping pocket watches from the Royal Patent Office of the Tang Dynasty, it means that the King of Chu Mansion does not want to use the glass workshop to clamp everyone."

Although Sarai is just a servant, as a confidant of Hamedi, he has been dealing with business matters for so many years and has been trained in his vision and has a very good perspective on problems.

"Okay! Then you go and recruit a group of craftsmen, and directly enlarge it twice as much as the Yongping pocket watch style to design our Hamedi pocket watch. I will go to the patent office myself now and buy the patent right of Yongping pocket watch!"

The carriage in the south of the city was already ahead, and Hamedi felt that he was going to speed up.

In business, one step ahead is often the one step ahead. If the people behind want to catch up, they will need to spend a lot more energy.

Fortunately, Hamedi also has an idea in his mind. Even if Hamedi pocket watches cannot be sold in Chang'an City, they can also develop overseas markets immediately. They will definitely make a big profit and sweep away the haze in recent years.

...

"Prince, the most lively thing in the Chang'an City business district is to imitate Yongping pocket watches. In fact, if our watch workshop is willing, we can eat up this market."

In the Chu King’s Mansion, Wu Meiniang didn’t understand Li Kuan’s thoughts very much.

In her opinion, pocket watches are definitely a high-profit industry, and there is no need to share money with others to earn.

"Mei Niang, for our royal palace, there is no big difference between one hundred thousand guan a year and one hundred thousand guan apart. Nowadays, making money is just a means, not an end for us. There are many merchants in Chang'an City, so we need to make more aware that building workshops and producing various fresh utensils can really make a lot of money.

Pocket watches are just an attempt, and more things will emerge in the future. We can’t just get everything in a slight way and take all the money-making business of the Tang Dynasty into our arms, right? If this is true, sooner or later, other nobles and merchants will unite to deal with us. At that time, no one even needed to incite us, and everyone would naturally be in a clump.

Although this day has not come so soon, we must avoid this phenomenon. Of course, the most important thing is to make more Tang Dynasty merchants rise and make merchants an influence that cannot be ignored."

Until now, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce have not yet been able to truly compete with the nobles centered on "scholars".

The cognitive level of farmers has determined that they cannot make any sound on the political stage of the Tang Dynasty, so Li Kuan directly ignored them.

Of course, although farmers cannot be the protagonist, there is absolutely no problem to let them stand aside and shout.

At that time, the "Yang Benman" will bring back high-yield crops from America, and the Chu Palace will be a god-like existence in the hearts of farmers.

The remaining industry and commerce are the objects that Li Kuan has been supporting.

Whether it is the implementation of the craftsman hierarchy or the formulation of business rules, it is all for the purpose of allowing the forces in the two fields of industry and commerce to develop as soon as possible.

When one day, people living in various prefectures and cities in the Tang Dynasty were mainly craftsmen from various workshops, naturally no one dared to ignore the power of craftsmen.
To be continued...