By trading on her familiarity with Qian Renxue, Chen Ming successfully obtained three special privileges.
First, Chen Ming gained the legal right to produce and sell salt. With this authority, he could openly mine salt deposits and distill sea salt, then sell it throughout the Heaven Dou Empire.
Second, Chen Ming gained the right to produce iron and conduct mining. He could openly manufacture ironware, negotiate with local officials to mine resources, or receive priority when purchasing metals from the Heaven Dou Empire's state-run mines.
Third was the right to supply imperial tribute. Given equal quality, items made by Chen Ming would be given priority by the Heaven Dou imperial family as exclusive royal supplies and tribute.
Aside from the third privilege, the right to supply imperial tribute, the first right to sell salt and the second right to produce iron were things that would get someone's head chopped off in a normal unified feudal empire.
After all, salt and iron had always been the lifeblood of feudal dynasties, especially salt. People could go without clothes, but they absolutely could not go without salt. Salt was essential to survival.
In a feudal world, no matter how close Chen Ming was to the crown prince, trying to privatize such powers would still get his head chopped off. But this was the Douluo World. This was the Heaven Dou Empire.
Royal centralization was weak to begin with in fantasy worlds, and the Heaven Dou Empire's ability to centralize power was especially poor. The rights to sell salt and produce iron were actually possessed by every duchy.
Even private salt trading, iron production, and the unauthorized manufacturing of iron armor—acts that would warrant execution or even the extermination of nine clans in feudal times—were not illegal anywhere on the Douluo Continent.
Even the