Li Zhaoyu smiled at Li Su and said, "Even so, I still want to help Zhao Cheng as much as possible."

After experiencing the epidemic prevention in Xijin, Li Zhaoyu's mood has become very different. If presiding over the Eastern Alliance Conference made Li Zhaoyu stand out in politics, then Xijin's epidemic prevention is his entirely independent work achievement. Unconsciously, Li Zhaoyu has accomplished two major events for the empire.

On the contrary, although Li Zhaocheng had also won the rebellion in South America and gave high praise to all parties, it was only beneficial to South America, and it was only in the military field. The scope of influence was relatively small, and it did not increase Li Zhaocheng's reputation much, because for a long time, the empire's understanding of this second son was that he had certain military talents, and the facts were only proved time and time again, and did not give people much experience.

As for Li Zhaoyu, the Eastern Alliance Conference demonstrated his alliance at the diplomatic and strategic levels, while the Xijin epidemic prevention demonstrated his ability to deal with all levels of society and unite forces in all areas of society, and this is what an imperial emperor should do.

Emperor, just know the army, and it is not necessary to be good at using troops. After all, the empire has expanded to the forty-five years, and there is no longer much land in the world worth the empire to explore.

In the competition between the two brothers, Li Zhaoyu was already at the forefront. At least at this time, he was sure that he was more talented than his second brother when it came to being an emperor. As for the Xiaoqi, who was expected by the elders of the entire royal family, Li Zhaoyu didn't take it seriously. The two of them were very happy when they went to India and were in India for more than two months. At this time, his sense of responsibility as his brother was even more looking forward to showing.

"If you want to help the second young master, you still have to help you sincerely." Li Yongzhong reminded on the way back.

Li Zhaoyu asked with a smile: "Yongzhong, you don't think I'm not sincere, right?"

Li Yongzhong said: "At least I didn't see you being very attentive. What the second young master wants to do is not a trivial matter. In fact, it is best to cooperate with tobacco from European countries. This is best for people to be in Europe, but he is far away on the other side of the world. If you really want to help, you must be attentive, which will take a lot of time and energy."

Li Zhaoyu rubbed his face that was red from drinking and said, "Yes, maybe I was a little proud."

Li Yongzhong has always regarded Li Zhaoyu as a friend, and on the other hand, Li Zhaoyu is the same. Moreover, Li Zhaoyu regards Li Yongzhong as a friend. Perhaps the two have few intimate activities between ordinary friends in private, but at critical moments, Li Yongzhong can always give him opinions without avoiding suspicion, such as at this time.

Perhaps it was not just Li Yongzhong who said so. The next day, a representative of the Imperial Tobacco Corporation appeared in front of Li Zhaoyu. His name was Lou Huan, who was in his thirties and looked quite smart. This person was sent by Li Su. The reason was that Lou Huan was Li Su's brother-in-law, and the Lou family itself was also a nobleman, and had been in the Imperial Tobacco Corporation for many years.

Lou Huan was not here to help Li Zhaoyu make up his mind, nor did he want to change Li Zhaoyu's idea. He was just a consultant and provided some professional information to the eldest son.

In the whole world, Imperial Tobacco Corporation is a large number of enterprises and a giant in the world's tobacco industry. Its share accounts for 64% of the world's tobacco consumption, making it the largest monopoly enterprise in the empire.

Because the Empire's tobacco industry monopolizes and there are a large number of places suitable for growing tobacco in its territory, the Empire Tobacco Corporation accounts for more than half of the world's tobacco production and consumption.

According to Lou Huan, the layout of the imperial tobacco production areas is mainly based on two principles: poverty alleviation and overseas development. Although the main provinces of the Empire basically have a climate for growing tobacco, there are only a few tobacco production areas. The tobacco production areas based on poverty alleviation are mainly northwest areas such as Gansu and Shaanxi, and the production areas that emerged to promote overseas immigration are South America, the West Coast of the Americas and other places.

Of course, this is just a more official statement. The Imperial tobacco production area also needs to take care of all interests, especially the interests of nobles. For example, one-fifth of the tobacco in the Imperial tobacco is produced in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and these two places are tobacco cultivation areas themselves. However, over the years, the Imperial Tobacco Corporation has not adjusted its share, but the southwest region has been adjusted, mainly to protect the interests of nobles.

Unlike other provinces in the empire, the four provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangdong and Guangxi were formed by the merger of the Yongli regime of the Ming Dynasty to the empire. This was mainly led by King Rong Li Dingguo. Because it was an active merger, the nobles of the Ming Dynasty were also accepted by the empire. The two economic commodities of tobacco and tea in the southwest were mostly monopolized by these former Ming nobles. After the tobacco industry implemented a monopoly system, in order to eliminate resistance, the interests of the former Ming nobles were actively protected. This cake has never been passive.

In the world, the main competition with Imperial Tobacco is Spain's American colonies. The production models of the two sides are completely different. The Spanish colonies are tobacco plantations, which use a large number of black slaves. The imperial tobacco implements a model at home and abroad. The domestic tobacco is mainly contracted by individual self-cultivating farmers. Overseas, in addition to individual self-cultivating farmers, they will also cooperate with tobacco farms.

In terms of production costs, the cost of tobacco production contracted by individual self-cultivated farmers is much higher than that of tobacco plantations that use black slaves. However, those tobacco farms with huge scale overseas, especially in South America, have certain advantages in production costs compared with slave plantations because of the use of agricultural machinery, advanced seeds and processing technology, but this type of advantage is not obvious.

The biggest advantage of Imperial Tobacco Company is actually the mechanized production of cigarettes. Although European countries have begun to use machinery in the tobacco industry with industrialization, their efficiency and quality are still not as good as those of Imperial.

Imperial Tobacco not only monopolized the tobacco market in the Empire, but also had a very good market in Europe, and cheap cigarettes were sold in European countries. However, with the cooperation between Spain and the United Kingdom and France, the market share of Imperial Tobacco's products was declining.

France and Britain's colonies in West Africa are expanding and large-scale planting of tobacco, but this is not the most important. The most important thing is that the two countries have begun to invest on large-scale in Spanish colonies to develop tobacco plantations.

After the war of succession to the Spanish throne ended, Spain's main enemy was no longer Britain and the Netherlands, and it was no longer tied to France. The relationship between Britain and France was also eased due to competition with the empire, and Spain's main opponent became the Austrian Empire.

In order to win over European countries to support Spain in regaining the territory of Italy occupied by the Austrian Empire and to fight against the competition from the empire in the Americas, Spain opened its colonies to European countries on a large scale, with Britain and France making the most profits.

In fact, these actions in Spain were not directed at the empire, because the empire merchants also had equal status and equal rights and interests as European merchants such as Britain and France, but the final result was completely different.

From an economic perspective, the Spanish valued the capital and markets of other countries. Britain and France invested in Spanish colonies and used the resources of the Spanish colonies to supply their own countries. Once again, they would create a large amount of taxes for the Spanish royal family in the colonies. The empire was completely different from Britain and France.

The Empire had its own colonies and overseas territories. When the Empire merchants invested in Spanish colonies, the products they produced could not be sold back to their home countries because it would form the most direct competition for the Empire's commodities. European countries would not provide markets for these commodities, because the Empire could only watch as Britain and France borrowed chickens to lay eggs.

Due to the intervention of British and French capital, the tobacco planting area in Spanish colonies soared, and the cheap tobacco produced was sold in Europe, occupying a large number of markets that originally belonged to the empire. In fact, if the empire really cooperated with Prussia and Sweden tobacco, it would be beneficial to the empire.

But the problem is that benefiting the Empire, a country, does not mean benefiting the vested interests in the Empire's tobacco industry.

The reason is very simple. The imperial tobacco products on the European market have long been famous.

Since the Imperial era, Imperial Tobacco has been a monopoly sale, and the monopoly sale method is to strictly prohibit private tobacco from private cultivation and private sale of tobacco. From planting, processing to sales, it is all handled by tobacco companies. Only retail is the final link, and it is handed over to designated distributors.

Of course, this does not mean that all tobacco in the Imperial Tobacco market are products of Tobacco Corporation. In fact, in the vast rural areas, farmers are very common to grow some tobacco and smoke them by themselves, or even sell them in small quantities, but the only products sold are only unprocessed. To put it bluntly, the tobacco shredded in with pipes, pipes and pots are basically all private cigarettes. The Imperial Tobacco Corporation monopolizes the cigarette market.

In the domestic tobacco retail industry, the distribution rights are realized through auctions. As long as the conditions meet, everyone can theoretically obtain the distribution rights. But in terms of foreign trade, it is completely different. The external distribution rights of the products produced by Imperial Tobacco Company, especially the distribution rights in Europe, are actually monopolized by the noble class.

In other words, if the brothers Li Zhaoyu and Li Zhaocheng facilitated the cooperation between Imperial Tobacco and Prussian Tobacco, both parties benefited. The Prussian royal family obtained fiscal revenue and the Prussian people obtained stable and cheap tobacco, and the Empire's South America region would develop due to the injection of funds from Prussia.

The nobles related to the Prussian tobacco trade and Britain, France, which originally occupied the Prussian tobacco market, suffered losses.

When he heard Lou Huan explain the relationship between the nobles and the European tobacco market clearly, Li Zhaoyu thought for a moment that Lou Huan was sent by Li Su to be a lobbyist, or for those nobles. But Lou Huan explained his relationship with Li Su, and Li Zhaoyu wiped out these doubts.

"The eldest son, the second son proposed this plan is not impossible to do, but it just needs to be a different method." Lou Huan said actively.

Li Zhaoyu asked: "Is the other way you said? Is it the opinion of Brother Rong?"

Lou Huan shook his head: "No, it's my personal opinion." Seeing that Li Zhaoyu didn't believe it, Lou Huan said bluntly: "Young Master, not everyone has the opportunity to report to you. It was His Highness Rong who gave me this opportunity because he trusted me, but I not only wanted to gain the trust of His Highness Rong, but also wanted to contribute to you and this empire."

There are also good people in the capital family, and there are also some noble people with noble ambitions. This is a new feeling of Li Zhaoyu's presidency of the epidemic prevention in Xijin this time.

"Okay, let me tell you what you think." Li Zhaoyu said.

"I think we shouldn't want to take over the tobacco market in Prussia alone, so that Prussia will not be willing to do so, and the empire's nobles who have interests in this industry will not give up." Lou Huan said. Li Zhaoyu was stunned for a while, then nodded slightly, signaling him to continue speaking. Lou Huan said: "If someone touches someone's cake, they will always be targeted and scolded, but it may not necessarily be the one who cuts the cake. If Prussia can be punished for the two princes, I think the Prussian royal family is willing, after all, it is beneficial to them."

"What's specific?" Li Zhaoyu suddenly felt that what Lou Huan said was very reasonable.

Lou Huan continued to explain his views. The fact is that after he received this news from Li Su, he already had a preliminary idea. The method was that it was not that the imperial official proposed to cooperate with Prussia tobacco, but through the private relationship between the royal families of the two countries, Li Zhaoyu or Li Zhaocheng came forward privately to let the Prussian royal family know the interests, and then the Prussian royal family took the initiative to propose cooperation.

The Prussian royal family did not only cooperate with the empire. If they want to sell tobacco, they must have tobacco as the raw material. From the perspective of Prussia, the empire is the best choice because the relationship between the two countries is good, but the empire is not the only choice, as is Spain and Portugal.

After the new Portugal king ascended the throne, he has been committed to equal diplomacy and fair diplomacy. He has a good relationship with Prussia, an emerging European power. The Portuguese royal family also made a lot of investments in Prussia.

The relationship between Spain and Prussia is also good. The reason is that although the Prussian royal family was one of the seven electoral emperors of Shenluo, their relationship with Austria became increasingly tense with its rise. When the Great Northern War ended and Prussia swallowed up Polish territory, Austria stood together with Britain and France to control Prussia's appetite, but Spain chose to be neutral due to its tension with the Austrian Empire.

Therefore, Prussia can invest in Spanish and Portugal colonies to obtain relatively stable tobacco resources.

According to Lou Huan's plan, it is best for Prussia to choose Spain to cooperate first, resulting in the established fact that Prussian tobacco will inevitably sell, and the nobles will turn the pressure to Prussia. Based on this fact, the empire will take the initiative to propose cooperation and can cut a piece of the cake.
Chapter completed!