Chapter 2047

Zhangzhou is Xu Xinsu's hometown and the starting point of his fortune. Since he received the support of Haihan and successfully ascended to the throne, Zhangzhou's status has also increased, and it has gradually become the political, economic and cultural center of the entire coastal area of ​​Fujian. The tradition of one person achieving enlightenment, chickens and dogs ascending to heaven, has continued in

Zhangzhou also showed this vividly. Under the protection of Xu Xinsu, members of the Xu family poured into shopping malls and officialdom. In the past ten years, many people have been promoted and made fortunes, and they have gradually become the most wealthy family in Fujian.

The industries controlled directly or indirectly by members of the Xu family are spread all over Fujian, and many of them include projects that obtain huge profits through monopoly operations - for example, a large number of goods imported from Haihan every year are basically imported through

The trading channels under the name of the Xu family entered Fujian, and one can imagine how lucrative they were.

Controlling the most profitable businesses in all walks of life is the most common method currently used by the Xu family. Using the privileges in their hands to make money is not uncommon in official circles. Many officials with real power will have unclear reasons.

Unknown gray income. But it is still very rare in the Ming Dynasty to be able to control a province like the Xu family.

But even Xu Xinsu himself probably doesn’t fully know how many industries in Fujian are under the control of the Xu family and how many people are working for the Xu family. So when the Haihan people came to ask for help in investigating the relationship between Fujian and Spain

Xu Xinsu did not dare to immediately declare that this matter had nothing to do with her family business, but asked Xu Yuxing to conduct an internal investigation first to avoid risks, so as not to let the Haihan people take advantage of the situation.

This job is easy to say. After all, the circle of merchants doing cross-border trade in Fujian is so large. If we further narrow the scope according to their trade objects, and then make a list of suspicious persons and investigate them one by one, we will be able to find what the Haihan people want in all likelihood.

The target of tracking. But it is complicated. Most of these profitable transactions have various backers, and they may even be one of Xu Yuxing's uncles and brothers. Businessmen are all about profit, and Xu Yuxing wants to investigate their business. These

People may not be willing to cooperate.

This is one of the reasons why the Haihan people are unwilling to investigate on their own, but ask Xu Xinsu to provide assistance in the investigation. If the Haihan people investigate the matter, the resistance will only be greater, and it will easily arouse civil dissatisfaction.

, is far less effective than Xu Xinsu coming forward and saying something.

Although this job is not that easy to handle, Xu Yuxing has been appointed by Xu Xinsu, and he has no room for shirk. Even if he knows that he will offend someone, he can only go ahead and do it. However, after all, Xu Xinsu has the whole story, so he won't

What a big mess.

As the spy chief, Xu Yuxing usually has all kinds of information, and he quickly made specific arrangements on how to investigate the matter.

"Go and invite Shopkeeper Liang from Fu Mao Trading Company, Shopkeeper Qin from Hui Feng, and Shopkeeper Luo from Sihai Shipping Company. Tell them that I have something to ask." Xu Yuxing returned to his place and immediately gave the order.

There was a reason why he started investigating so eagerly. The Haihan people had already made it clear that they would follow up on the matter, so he had to complete the investigation of his own industry to avoid risks before the Haihan people intervened. The person he named

Several of them are self-owned properties under the name of Xu Xinsu, and they have trade channels in the South China Sea. These shopkeepers should also be relatively familiar with the sales of Nanhai products on the market. Asking them for relevant information will save a lot of time.

In addition to basic trade functions, the commercial organizations under Xu Xinsu's name have also been slowly following Haihan's model in recent years, allowing the foreign personnel of these organizations to take on the task of collecting intelligence information, or even simply letting Xu Yuxing's intelligence agency

Send personnel to complete these tasks as staff of commercial organizations. Therefore, outsiders may not know the true identity of Xu Sangong, but these business shopkeepers more or less know that Xu Yuxing is not an expert hermit who devotes himself to Taoism.

A secret intelligence officer with special powers.

The first person to report was Shopkeeper Luo from Sihai Boating. In fact, Sihai Boating is located on the bank of the Jiulong River outside Zhangzhou City, which is also the farthest place among the three people who received the notice. However, Shopkeeper Luo’s home is in

It's in Zhangzhou City, and it's just across the street from Xu Yuxing's office, so he was the first one to get the notice and rush over.

Sihai Shipping Co., Ltd. has hundreds of large and small merchant ships and cargo ships. It is regarded as a large shipping company in the whole of Fujian. Its trade scope is even larger than the area controlled by Haihan, and the Philippine Islands are naturally among them. And in charge of it

Shopkeeper Luo from Sihai Shipbuilding Company is no stranger. He married into the Xu family in his early years, and now he can be considered half of the Xu family. However, the house he married into is only a distant relative of Xu Xinsu, so shopkeeper Luo is in front of Xu Xinsu.

He could only treat himself as a subordinate and did not dare to show off his kinship.

Xu Yuxing did not tell the other party the specific matter he wanted to investigate. He only asked him whether Sihai Shipping Company had recently done business with the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands.

"Third Young Master, what are you singing about? The shipping company's business with the Spaniards stopped at the end of the year before last, and it has been more than a year! At that time, the master personally issued an order prohibiting our merchant ships from going to Manila anymore. Later, after

It took me a few months to find out that the war was over there." Shopkeeper Luo quickly explained the situation to him: "After the war, wouldn't the Manila area belong to the Haihan people? It is said that the Spaniards shrank further south.

, we purchased souvenirs from the local area and switched to doing business with the Haihan people. However, doing business with these two families has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it is difficult to distinguish between them."

"Oh? How do you say that?" Xu Yuxing was also very interested in information beyond his own knowledge, so he immediately asked shopkeeper Luo.

Shopkeeper Luo responded: "Haihan people are quick to do business, trustworthy, and easy to settle money and goods. Although the Spaniards are a bit difficult to deal with and like to procrastinate when paying, their prices for buying our goods are much higher than those of the Haihan people. Moreover,

The Haihan people have a developed shipping industry. They purchase goods from Fujian and transport them to Manila at a much lower cost than us shipping them there. Therefore, when our ships go to Manila these days, we often don’t have much to sell locally. This way

The income from trade routes is naturally much worse than before."

Xu Yuxing pondered for a while before continuing to ask: "Then do you know that there are other local businessmen quietly continuing to do business with the Spanish? Is there any way to avoid supervision?"

Shopkeeper Luo responded: "There should be people who secretly do business with the Spaniards. After all, the Spaniards can afford the price... If it weren't for the fact that the master has made a rule that we can't continue to do business with the Spaniards, then this villain would want to do it every time."

Earn more money and come back! As for avoiding supervision, you only need to load up the things the Spaniards want to buy when you go, go to the Spanish place to complete the transaction first, and then go to Manila to anchor for a few days on the return trip and buy some things locally.

Isn't it perfect? ​​This method is simple and easy. There must be others who can think of doing it like this, but who is actually doing it... The villain doesn't know. After all, the person doing it will definitely not take the initiative to show off this kind of thing.

A matter of punishment."

In order to cooperate with Haihan's material blockade against the Spanish colonial authorities, Xu Xinsu announced new rules to Fujian maritime merchants last year, which prohibited trade with the Spanish in the Philippine Islands, and violators would be punished for treason. After this rule came out,

It has indeed effectively suppressed related trade, but it may not be able to achieve the effect of a complete ban. The plan mentioned by Shopkeeper Luo can indeed effectively circumvent official and Haihan supervision. There will definitely be people who want to take advantage of the trade blockade to make a fortune.

The wealthy merchants continued to maintain trade relations with the Spaniards.

After seeing off Shopkeeper Luo, the second person to arrive was Shopkeeper Qin from Huifeng. Huifeng is actually a commercial institution with a bank as its main business project. It can provide gold and silver exchange, silver delivery and other services to the private sector. It is also a

Haihan Bank's main business partner in Zhangzhou. Haihan Bank has only one office in Zhangzhou, but Huifeng has multiple branch offices, and can deposit and cash checks issued by Haihan Bank, which is very important to local people engaged in cross-border trade.

It is extremely convenient for businessmen, which gives this local bank a relatively stable source of customers and business.

Although shopkeeper Qin is not from the Xu family, he is the nephew of Dong Yanyun, Xu Xinsu's number one staff member. He later married a woman from the Xu family, which can be regarded as a reliable marriage relationship. His status is higher than that of the Xu family member from Sihai Shipping Company.

Shopkeeper Luo is much higher. A considerable part of the Xu family's cash assets are always kept on the Huifeng as working capital, which shows that Xu Xinsu has great trust in them.

Shopkeeper Qin is a full round older than Xu Yuxing in terms of age, but they are of the same generation in terms of seniority, so

When the two met, they still treated each other as brothers, and they were much closer than Shopkeeper Luo before.

"Brother Qin is invited here today because he wants to know if any merchants have recently used large sums of Spanish silver coins to exchange for official silver?" After sitting down to watch tea, Xu Yuxing asked the question straight to the point.

In 1521, Spanish colonists occupied the Mexican region of North America and established the "Viceroyalty of New Spain" there in 1535. In the same year, they established the first mint in the Americas to produce and mint silver coins.

In the mid-16th century, the use of silver in Mexico accounted for one-third of the world's total silver consumption. A large number of silver coins were transported to various parts of the world through maritime trade routes for trade payment. Until Mexico became independent in the 19th century,

The silver coins produced locally are one of the currencies popular in Spain's overseas colonies.

Mexican silver coins with the "M" mark on the currency are also circulating in East Asia. The Spanish colonial authorities have used them as the main means of payment since the last century, and the maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty were also happy to accept this kind of craftsmanship and uniform quality.

The standard silver coins are much easier to use than the scattered silver coins of the Ming Dynasty that are of mixed quality and weight.

Starting from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a large amount of Spanish silver coins continued to flow into China through cross-border trade. Historically, it was not until the Qing government lost the first Opium War two hundred years later and signed the Treaty of Nanjing with the British that the treaty

The monetary unit of all compensation payments is still the Spanish silver coin called the silver dollar, which shows the far-reaching influence of this currency.

Of course, due to the emergence of Haihan in this time and space, the popularity of Spanish silver coins in East Asia may not be as smooth as it was in history. Although Haihan's currency is paper money, there is enough gold behind it as a credit guarantee

, and Haihan has been using trade methods to vigorously promote its own financial system, which has also led to the phenomenon of Spanish silver coins and Haihan banknotes being used interchangeably in some areas along the southeastern coast.

However, at this time, people in the Ming Dynasty still had concerns about how much Spanish silver coins they used. They had not been directly turned into currency and circulated on the market like in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, after the Spanish silver coins collected by maritime merchants from trade were brought home, they often needed to be transferred through some private channels.

It is exchanged into official silver, so that it can be used in some formal channels. As a bank, Huifenghao has this kind of business of exchanging Spanish silver coins into official silver among its business projects.

Of course, this kind of exchange is not free. Even if the Spanish silver coins are of good quality, there will be a certain fee charged in proportion to the exchange of Spanish silver coins into official silver. The big boss behind the Huifeng is Xu Xinsu. With his influence in Fujian, he wants to convert

Turning these Spanish silver coins recovered by the bank into official silver is nothing more than building a foundry, and the operating costs are extremely low.

Xu Yuxing believed that silver coins might be a breakthrough in the investigation, and as the operator of the Huifeng, Shopkeeper Qin would naturally have a better understanding of the circulation of silver coins on the market.

Shopkeeper Qin knew the meaning after hearing Xian Ge, and immediately responded: "Do you want to judge from this whether there are still merchants doing business with the Spaniards?"

"Brother Qin's prediction is good. I am currently investigating a case related to the Spanish. The person involved is most likely a Fujian businessman doing business with the Spaniards. I hope Brother Qin can help me and provide some valuable clues."

When Xu Yuxing saw the other party, he immediately guessed his intention and admitted it frankly.

Shopkeeper Qin did not immediately respond directly, but said to him: "Although Mr. Xu banned trade with the Spanish last year, he did not ban the circulation of Spanish silver coins in the market. Did you know that from the Wanli period to this time, there are several

Hundreds of thousands of Spanish silver coins flowed into the Ming Dynasty, and at least half of them were in Fujian. The number of silver coins circulating on the market is much more than you think, and there are always businessmen who will exchange silver coins for official silver. If only

It was the behavior of going to the Huifeng to exchange official banknotes. In fact, it is difficult to conclude that it was the result of trading with the Spanish."

Xu Yuxing said: "What Brother Qin said does make sense, but maybe we can filter out some special objects. For example, there is a certain regularity in the time interval between each exchange, the amount of each exchange is particularly large, and the

The industry I am engaged in happens to be maritime trade."
Chapter completed!