Chapter 2232

If we were to make a list of Haihan's business partners over the years based on their level of profit, the Li family, the operators of Guangzhou Furifeng Trading Company, would most likely be at the top.

As the first large businessman to launch commercial cooperation with Haihan in the Ming Dynasty, Furifeng has reaped many benefits from it over the years. I am afraid that even Li Jifeng, the patriarch of the Li family, cannot tell clearly, and the scale of the industry he operates is here.

It has been developing rapidly during this period.

Nowadays, the commercial sites under the name of Furifeng are not just in Guangzhou, but also all over the coastal states of Guangdong and Guangxi. With the expansion of Haihan, the industry has been extended overseas. As long as it is a place with the double-color flag of Haihan,

Almost all of them have property owned by the Li family.

As long as it is an area newly occupied by Haihan overseas, Fulifeng will definitely be among the first batch of merchants to arrive there to undertake infrastructure projects. Most of the colonial infrastructure supporting facilities such as farms, shipping, and transportation will have Fulifeng involved in the construction.

And management. Because of this, although Fulifeng is a business name of the Ming Dynasty, many people outside the Ming Dynasty who do not know the inside story will subconsciously think that Fulifeng is an official businessman with an official background from Haihan.

Although this is a misunderstanding, such an image can bring a lot of convenience to Furifeng's overseas operations, so the Li family never denies these rumors and acquiesces to its semi-official status in the eyes of the public. After all, this is

Special treatment that no other family can ask for is beneficial and harmless to the Li family, so they are naturally happy to see it happen.

A large part of the reason why the Li family and Fu Ruifeng were able to receive such high-standard treatment was because the Li family had a third young master, Li Nai, who was very close to the top management of Haihan.

From the moment Furifeng started to deal with Haihan, Li Nai was directly involved. After the initial contact, Li Nai was attracted by the talents of these overseas Han descendants, and then quickly became a member of Haihan culture.

of supporters.

At that time, Haihan had not yet established a stable foothold in Sanya, and needed to open a trade window in Ming Dynasty. The emergence of Furifeng and Li Nai just met Haihan's needs. However, Li Nai was also interested in the various benefits brought by the Crossing Group.

New things are full of curiosity, and Haihan just used him to try the effect of instilling consciousness, so the distance between the two parties quickly narrowed. In the process, Li Nai also gained the friendship of Haihan's senior management and won for Furifeng.

status of trading partners.

Later, in the various large-scale transnational business groups established under the leadership of Haihan officials, such as Qiong Lianfa, Nanhai Business Group, Guangdong and Guangxi Business Group, etc., Furifeng played the role of major shareholder in all of them, and also acted as the representative of Haihan.

spokesperson for Haihan's interests and firmly stood on Haihan's side when making some important decisions.

As trading partners, the two parties have been cooperating very happily over the years, and each has gained huge benefits from this relationship. Li Nai has probably visited Sanya more times than any other businessman in the Ming Dynasty. He even once lived in Sanya.

More than half a year.

It is worth mentioning that the Golden Shield Escort, which is now quite famous in the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, was originally a cooperation project led by Haihan executives and Li Nai. At first, neither party took it seriously.

It was a long-term business just to add some armed guards to the Haihan Office in Guangdong, and to help the Li family train some armed personnel, so that Li Nai, who was "idle" in the Li family at the time, could have something to do.

However, the business grew bigger and bigger later on, and now Golden Shield has become a big business across many countries. Haihan has also used this industry to place many retired soldiers. But few outsiders know that Li

Nye is also a senior figure in charge of the management rights of Golden Shield.

In recent years, because Furifeng's industry has grown bigger and bigger, and its fields and regions involved have become wider and wider, Li Nai, who is in charge of these affairs, does not have as much time to visit Sanya as he did in the early years. Therefore, Li Zhen has been studying abroad in Sanya for a long time.

It has been more than half a year, but I have only seen the famous Young Master Li San once or twice.

In Li Xie's eyes, although Li Nai is a businessman, his social status and influence are far beyond that of ordinary businessmen. If he can interact more with such people, it will definitely be beneficial to his future development. Tian Zheng is willing

Taking the initiative to make connections and arrange meetings was a good thing that Li Xie could only hope for.

Li Zhen responded: "Then I would like to thank Mr. Tian for his kindness! But before Mr. Li San comes to Sanya, do he have to say hello to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs first?"

"It's a trivial matter, nothing to worry about. As for Young Master Li San's itinerary, I don't always inform him in advance. It's just that this time the situation is special, so I sent a call to report the itinerary." Tian Zheng did not take credit for this.

In his opinion, it was indeed a trivial matter. Li Nai liked to make friends with people from all walks of life, and coming to Sanya was just like going back to his own home. He had no scruples about receiving guests. Given Tian Zheng's friendship with him, he had to arrange something like this

Meeting is not difficult.

Regarding Li Nai's itinerary, Tian Zheng already has relatively accurate information. Before Li Nai came to Sanya this time, the Li Nai Guangdong Office had already sent a telegram informing him of the itinerary, so Tian Zheng calculated the time as probably recently.

I arrived in Hong Kong in the past two days.

The reason why Li Nai sent a message to inform him of the itinerary in advance was not to ask Sanya to prepare a welcome ceremony, but because he was escorting a batch of important cargo when he was going south from Guangzhou this time, and he would arrange for immediate transfer after arriving in Sanya.

We are going to Nanyang, so we sent a telegram first to ask them to prepare ships and manpower to go to Nanyang, so as not to waste too much unnecessary time in the transshipment process.

The reason why this telegram was copied to the Foreign Affairs Department was because the owner of the cargo Li Nai escorted was a Dutch person, and the Dutch would also be involved in the transshipment process in Sanya. Therefore, Li Nai followed the rules and sent the telegram first.

Report it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to avoid any misunderstanding.

Re-export trade like this is actually not uncommon in Sanya, but some countries have always been on the official supervision list, and the Netherlands is one of them.

Due to the many armed conflicts with Heyhan in the early years, the relationship between the Netherlands and Heyhan has always been relatively delicate. The Dutch also knew that it was difficult for the East India Company's armed fleet alone to compete with Heyhan's growing navy, so in recent years

Lai also began to slowly try to accept and join Haihan's trading system, becoming a member of the trading circle led by Haihan.

Of course, such a transformation process is not easy for both parties. The Dutch East India Company cannot take the initiative to give up part of its existing interests like the Portuguese in exchange for the supply of goods and markets provided by Haihan. Therefore, they are within Haihan's sphere of influence.

All trading activities must be subject to the supervision of Haihan officials.

The Dutch have also thought of many ways to try to change this situation, such as seeking powerful third-party merchants to act as agents to purchase some restricted goods on their behalf, and then transport them to Batavia for trading. But this plan

There will still be disadvantages. Third-party merchants who are truly capable of operating this kind of re-export trade will basically lean towards Haihan and will not side with the Dutch simply for economic gains.

Therefore, the Dutch can only acquiesce to this status quo and agree with the agent's practice of reporting trade content to Haihan. Anyway, if you can buy a little bit of the in-demand goods, it will be much better than having nothing to gain by yourself.

The special items purchased by the Dutch from Guangzhou this time were a batch of fine steel produced in Foshan. Although the smelting workshops in Foshan are not Haihan's industry, Haihan had already warned several Western countries not to allow them to directly purchase steel from Guangzhou.

Foshan purchases steel in large quantities. This is to allow Haihan to monopolize the steel market for a long time. Secondly, it takes into account security factors to prevent these foreign devils from secretly mass-producing weapons in the colonies.

Originally, the Dutch East India Company had no such demand. There were also iron mines and smelting workshops near Batavia, which could produce the various iron products it needed. However, during the war with the Matalan Kingdom a few years ago, these

The facilities located in the outskirts of Batavia were either destroyed or simply occupied by the Matalan Kingdom, which basically completely cut off Batavia's ability to produce its own steel.

This is also one of the reasons why the Dutch came to Sanya to bid for weapons with Madalan in the past two years. On the one hand, they could not let their opponents purchase too many Haihan weapons and change the strength comparison between the two sides. On the other hand, Bada

Via also needs to replenish weapons to ensure its own safety, and Haihan is basically the only source of weapons during this period.

After all, it takes too long to transport weapons from distant Europe, and at this time, Europe is undergoing the Thirty Years War. Countries including the Netherlands are in a mess, and it is difficult to transport many weapons to the East to reinforce it.

The colonial arm of the Indian Company. The East India Company could only try to find resources nearby to solve the problem of weapons shortage.

Of course, due to Haihan's shrewd calculations, the process of bidding for weapons by Madalan and the East India Company in Haihan did not go smoothly, and they failed to achieve the results they expected. And the East India Company also knew that in Haihan

It is extremely difficult to order weapons, so you still have to try to collect steel from the outside world and make weapons yourself.

Because of the rules set by Haihan, the Dutch could not directly purchase large quantities of steel from Foshan, so they had to turn to agents to handle it. In the process, they had to bear transaction prices that were far higher than the market price. This

Naturally, most of the premium was taken away by the black-hearted Haihan people.

Therefore, the Dutch's procurement process not only has to bear high prices, but also is supervised by Haihan throughout the process, and there are still clear limits on the purchase volume. But even so, they can't be too picky, even if there are all kinds of troublesome links in the process

, that is still much easier than ordering weapons from Haihan.

The person who handled this matter for the Dutch was Furifeng. Although Haihan did not specify it directly, he clearly informed the Dutch that if the carrier was not Furifeng, then the steel products shipped to Sanya could not be guaranteed.

Can it be allowed to be transferred out?

So another strange chain of interests was formed. Haihan handed over the transaction to Furifeng, and obtained a benefit through a hard price increase. While making money, Furifeng also helped Haihan supervise the Dutch purchase of iron in Foshan.

The condition of the product to ensure that it does not exceed the limit specified by Haihan.

It’s not like the Dutch haven’t thought about buying steel produced in Changhua on Hainan Island, the quality of which is far better than that of Foshan. But unfortunately, even if they are willing to give money, Haihan officials will not agree to sell them in large quantities.

Steel produced in Changhua.

You can buy finished products such as iron pots, shovels, and kitchen knives, but if you want to buy back the molten iron to make other weapons, the cost is higher than buying Foshan goods from an agent. Moreover, these products are sold publicly on the market.

, if someone purchases a large amount, Haihan officials will of course find it easier.

Tian Zheng had nothing to do, so he explained to Li Nai the reason why Li Nai called to report the itinerary. In fact, these things are not considered confidential, and are basically semi-public information.

It's just that people like Li Zhen who are not involved in this industry have no idea what's going on.

Li Zhi's recent diplomacy course included an introduction to the international relations of the Nanyang countries, including the grudges between Haihan and the Netherlands. Now there were specific examples for analysis, and he listened with interest.

"Master Tian, ​​your country's methods are cruel! I saw on the chart that Batavia City is thousands of miles away from Sanya. They are forced to travel so far to buy high-priced iron. This business ability is really amazing.

Let me admire you!" Li Zhi couldn't help but sigh after hearing the end.

Tian Zheng smiled and shook his head and said: "The Dutch are not that stupid. They just had no choice but to do so. The waters around Batavia were surrounded by powerful enemies. They had no way to purchase a large amount of steel nearby, so they took advantage of the opportunity to engage in trading activities near the coast of Ming Dynasty.

, and by the way, purchase some through such special channels. They have not placed all their bets here. Southern countries such as Annam, Siam, Champa, and Johor are also their purchase targets. It is just the steel production capacity of those places.

Even smaller, the quantity they can buy is far from enough to meet their needs, so they give us a discount."

Li Zhen said thoughtfully: "But the Dutch must not be willing to be controlled by your country for a long time. If they one day produce enough weapons, they may still challenge your country's authority!"

"It's difficult!" Tian Zheng shook his head and said: "If they provoke our country, we don't have to go south to conquer Batavia. We only need to cut off their northern trade routes to make them surrender. These Dutch are just gold mining at sea. Customers, what they want to fight for is trade opportunities, not a life-and-death fight with my country, not to mention they know very well that they have no chance of winning."

When Li Zhi recalled the courses he had studied, he mentioned several armed conflicts between Haihan and the Netherlands, but the instructor mentioned them all in one sentence. He had not had time to go to the library to check the relevant war history reports. He must have also mentioned them at that time.

The Dutch have taught them a hard lesson, so now they obey the arrangements obediently.
Chapter completed!