Fifty taels was already the shopkeeper's absolute limit.
In the shopkeeper's words, "It wasn't as if there was no toilet paper on the market. Even if yours was better to use, theirs was cheaper.
Ordinary folk only bought what was cheap. So what if it was a little rough?"
"So I can't sell it at a high price either. By weight, it can be no more than five wen per jin of paper. If I wholesale it to other merchants, it can be no more than three wen. I'd only earn one wen per jin." The shopkeeper took up his abacus and calculated for her. "At one wen per jin, I'd have to sell fifty thousand jin of paper just to recover the cost of buying this formula."
Not to mention using the technique as a stake in the business. Hmph, was paper really that difficult to make? Was toilet paper really so rare?
Who did not know that Yushan County's paper was as famous as Jingdezhen's porcelain?
Though Pan Yun's formula made toilet paper softer and more waterproof than what was currently available, it was not something that could not be figured out.
It was one thing if the shopkeeper had never seen it before. But now that he had, if he had his craftsmen study it carefully, they might not be unable to make it. It would merely take more effort.
That was why he was willing to spend fifty taels to save himself that effort. Anything more than that, and he might as well research it himself.
Pan Yun was someone who knew which way the wind blew. The moment she realized this, she decisively sold the formula.
Seeing that Miao Zhen and Miao He were somewhat disappointed, Pan Yun herself had already recovered and even brightened.