This 1000 people are basically not engaged in agricultural production, or are young ladies who have fun and spend money like water every day; Or maids and servants who get monthly money. How much does it cost to feed? However, Jia Zheng, the owner of Guo Rong Mansion, is only a foreign minister of the Ministry of Industry with five official positions. According to the salary standard of Qing officials, the five-grade official position is "80 taels of silver and 80 tons of rice", which is equivalent to 16000 yuan and 6400 Jin of rice, which is the annual salary. This little money and rice obviously can't support the huge Guo Rong Building. So, what income does Rong Guofu rely on to meet the expenses of thousands of people?

Let's talk about the ancestors of Rong Kunfu.

The ancestor of Guo Rongfu, namely Jia Zheng's grandfather, was named Jia Yuan. Jia Yuan was named lord protector by the Qing government because of his great contribution. In the official ranks of the Qing Dynasty, Rong Guogong was the first of the five classes of "Gong, Hou, Bo, Zi and Gong", and in the first class of "Gong", it also belonged to "First Class Gong". Simply put, it is "the first class in the first class", which is honorable enough! It is precisely because of this noble title that this huge Guo Rong Building has come into being.

As a first-class duke, the emperor's reward will be quite rich, including government, land, gold and silver jewelry, silk and satin, which should be indispensable. Jia Yuan, on the other hand, is a formidable figure. He can not only keep money, but also manage money and increase it. Finally, his wealth increased and passed on to the next generation after his death.

Jia Yuan's second eldest son was Jia Daishan, and Jia Daishan inherited the title and industry of Rong Guogong. Judging from the description in A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Daishan is also very good at managing wealth. About Jia Yuan's property has been turned over several times in his hands. Otherwise, why "Jia Jia is bad and White is golden horse"?

The next generation of Jia Daishan is Jia She and Jia Zheng. Note that in this third generation, the situation is different, with a separate title and industry inheritance. The eldest son Jia She inherited the title of Rong Guogong, and the second son Jia Zheng inherited Rong and related industries. Why is this?

According to the book, Jia She, the eldest son, is a black sheep because he doesn't study well and does nothing. Jia Daishan broke some sticks, but it didn't work, so he had to give up. The second son, Jia Zheng, studied hard, was quite talented and could take the right path. Therefore, Jia Daishan went to the emperor's table before his death, so there was a situation in which Jia She inherited the title and Jia Zheng inherited the industry, and he was given the position of "a foreign minister of the Ministry of Industry".

As you can imagine, Jia Daishan attached great importance to the industry of Rongguofu. He was afraid that it would be ruined if he left it to Jia She, so he wrote to the emperor and asked him for permission to pass on the estate to Jia Zheng. Because without the consent of the emperor, according to the principle of "eldest son inheritance system", the title and industry belong to Jia She, and Jia has to move out of the house and live elsewhere.

This incident shows that Rong left a lot of property, or he wouldn't have paid so much attention to it. It must have been left to Jia Zheng to stay in business.

Therefore, the first asset of Rongguo Mansion, that is, the largest asset, should be the legacy left by their grandfather Jia Yuan and father Jia Daishan.

Among these inherited industries, of course, the manor can be passed down from generation to generation. The Qing government still carried out the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce. What rich people like to do best is to buy land and manage it. Needless to say, from Jiayuan to Jia Daishan, in addition to managing the land raised by the emperor, they kept buying land.

There is direct evidence in A Dream of Red Mansions: a man named Wu helped Fu manage the grange. Before New Year's Eve, he sent 2,500 taels of silver. It can be seen that the government has a large number of granges every year, and the income is quite rich. Moreover, there should be more than one grange managed by Wu, and there should be many. If we carefully analyze the word "Wu", there is still the author's criticism, that is, this "Wu" did not "do his duty" at all, concealed his income and made 2,500 taels of silver, but the actual income may far exceed this figure.

The implication is that Jia Zheng's generation of Rong Guo Fu did a poor job in field management, which is also a factor in the decline of Jia Fu.

In addition to land rental income, the Jia family also lent usury, which was a common phenomenon at that time.

Because in feudal society, the income of the landlord class is mainly two items: land rent and usury. This is proved by Wang Anshi's implementation of the "Young Crop Law" during the political reform in the Northern Song Dynasty. Farmers will borrow usury when they buy relevant means of production. At this time, you can lend them money. Of course, there is evidence in A Dream of Red Mansions that Wang Xifeng is a typical usurer.

In addition, Jia Zheng is a minister of the Ministry of Industry, and this position can help the Jia family make money.

What does the Ministry of Industry of Qing Dynasty do? We generally think that it only does things like civil construction and water conservancy projects. As a result, I found that the Ministry of Industry of the Qing Dynasty also managed a series of military materials such as arms and weapons, mining and refining of mines, textiles, and even some financial and monetary businesses. ...

Will Jia Zheng take advantage of his convenience in the Ministry of Industry to do some business? There is no direct evidence in a dream of red mansions, so we can't say there is, but we can't say there isn't. Jia Jia, after all, is not a kind person. He has done everything in bribery and sabotage litigation.

In addition, it is also possible for Rong to learn from Xue family and open a shop to do business, because Xue family is the expert in this field, and Jia Fu naturally wants to learn from them. ...

(Jia Zheng)

However, it is undeniable that Jia Fu has declined in Jia Zheng's generation, and it is difficult for a small official with five products to run Guo Rongfu.