Li Gong, president of the Imperial General Chamber of Commerce, convened imperial merchants at Wanfu Restaurant to discuss the current crisis.
There were more than a hundred people in the hall.
These people are all big shots who will shake up the empire's business world if they just stamp their feet.
Li Dagou, chairman of the board of directors of Longchang Automobile, looked at Chairman Li Gong who was sitting at the front seat and talking eloquently.
The current status of this big businessman who lived in the same era as his father-in-law has little to do with the industries under his command.
Li Gong had a good daughter who was the princess of the current prince.
He is the president of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce because of his father's status as daughter.
This position is not just a civil position.
For a person in this position, his words in the parliament have great weight, and he also has the right to apply for a face-to-face meeting.
This is a lowly and powerful position, and Li Daguo hopes that one day he can achieve this position.
Li Gong turned on the microphone in front of him, patted the microphone, and then said: "Everyone knows my identity.
Even if I cannot feed back the problems encountered by the business community to His Majesty the Emperor, I can still feed them back to His Majesty the Crown Prince.
But the key point is that everyone should unify their thinking and tell us what problems we are encountering now?
How should we solve the problem?
Now we should abandon some unimportant interests. The current environment is not good, and we should focus on survival."
Li Daggang listened to Chairman Li Gong's words. He thought that Chairman Li Gong's speech this time was extremely correct.
There were more than a hundred people present, and everyone had different interests and demands.
The court is not the nanny of businessmen like them.
If they cannot reach a consensus, it will be difficult for them to obtain policies to tide over the crisis from the court.
After President Li Gong said these words, he observed the participants and started to argue as they talked.
They quarreled for their own interests, and the court's policy favored a certain industry.
Companies in this industry have hope of survival.
It involves issues of life and death for the company under his name.
Even the most open-minded businessmen will show their bloodthirsty side at this moment.
Some businessmen who are now facing a crisis even yell loudly regardless of the occasion.
“We must save the stock market and bond market. After the New Year holiday, the stock market, bond market, and futures market simply plummeted.
But during this period, not only did Cao and Wei default on their debts, but Zhao also did not recognize the debts of those city-states.
The economy of the Song Dynasty in Europe is also not doing well, and the bonds related to the Song Dynasty have also begun to default. This is a bad sign.
The news had spread through newspapers.
In the already depressed stock and bond markets, the prices of stocks and bonds are bound to plummet.
All the wealth we have accumulated over the past ten years has evaporated in just a few days."
The man was stirring up emotion when a rough voice interrupted his painting.
"The stock market and the bond market are one big casino.
I am willing to admit defeat when I gamble, and I will be responsible for the decisions I make whether I win or lose.
How could the imperial court bear the cost of losing the bet?
If your investment fails, blame your own poor vision.
The problem I had, that was the real problem.
The machine tools I produce are all paid in installments.
The situation we are encountering now is that we cannot receive payment.
A good factory suddenly collapsed after working for a few days."
What the businessman said directly resonated with the businessmen present.
The situation that most businessmen encounter is that the payment for the production of goods cannot be recovered in time, and they still owe payment to the supplier.
Li Da was able to see that the quarrel among the businessmen had subsided slightly.
He then stood up and said: "The problem we are facing now, to put it simply, is the triangular debt problem.
We owe payment to upstream customers, and the payments to downstream sellers cannot be settled in time.
Selling on credit is a good sales method when the economic situation is good.
Now, due to the drag on the stock and bond markets, the performance of various companies is very poor.
However, some receivables cannot be recovered in time, which will not affect the company's fundamentals.
The most critical point is that the debt receivable cannot be recovered, and we still need to pay taxes based on the transaction amount.
If the court allows it, and the tax payment amount is based on the actual transaction, most of our companies will be able to weather the storm."
Li Daguo's statement was very provocative. As soon as he finished speaking, he won the support of many businessmen.
The court can really reduce taxes in disguise, which is good news for every businessman.
President Li Gong heard these businessmen, discussed and discussed, and actually came up with such a stupid solution.
Based on his experience in working in parliament, this stupid method will definitely not be approved by the court.
This method is too easy to exploit loopholes and will cause the court to lose a lot of tax revenue. No matter who the director of the State Administration of Taxation is, this policy will not be allowed to pass.
When President Li Gong saw the messy president, he banged the table and cursed angrily: "We are all people of status, don't act like a scoundrel in the market."
When Li Daguo saw Li Gong like this, he sneered in his heart.
Li Gong completely regarded himself as a member of the court, rather than as a businessman.
Businessmen like them don't dare to offend red-top businessmen like Li Gong too much.
Many policies issued by the imperial court will make these red-top businessmen known in advance.
Knowing this kind of information will help companies avoid many detours.
Li Da said with a smile but not a smile: "President Li Gong understands the attitude of the court better, and President Li Gong is also aware of the current environment.
What should we do to avoid the problems we are encountering now?"
When Chairman Li Gong heard Li Dagou, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Longchang Automobile, said this, he nodded slightly and was very satisfied with this attitude.
Such questions can highlight his special status.
Li Gong patted the microphone in front of him hard, coughed twice, and then said: "Yesterday, I specifically asked Professor Ding from the School of Economics of Huaxia University for advice on this issue.
Professor Ding said that the situation we are experiencing now is an economic crisis.
The cause of the economic crisis is that too many goods are produced, but the market cannot digest them, resulting in problems caused by the backlog of goods.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The failure of the two major vassal states of Cao and Wei to repay their debts is just an introduction to the economic crisis.
The real reason for the economic crisis was that Cao Wei and Cao Wei closed their markets, causing some companies to be unable to sell their goods.
These goods, which were originally sold overseas but cannot be sold now, can only be sold domestically, which ultimately leads to a price stampede.
To solve this problem, we can only proactively reduce production capacity and eliminate backward products."
When President Lee Gong communicated with the economics professor, the professor learned about the situation and he felt very relieved.
The empire's current economic crisis is simply a crisis caused by accumulation of debt and overproduction.
It mainly involves the industrial field, and the marketization of agricultural products is not complete enough.
Farmers grow their own products, which can be sold to merchants or purchased and sold by government-run companies controlled by officials.
It is precisely because of the existence of these government-owned companies that the supply of grain, sugar, cotton, pork and other indispensable commodities for the people has remained stable.
It is for this reason that this crisis only affected the business community.
The lives of the people at the lowest level have not been affected so far.
Lu Changli, President of the Shandong Chamber of Commerce, slapped his thigh and said excitedly: "President Li Gong said it well. This situation is often used by the companies I invest in.
We should write to the court and ask the court to find a way to open the market that has been blocked by the vassal country."
President Li Gong signaled Lu Changli not to say any more.
He said helplessly: "It's so easy, the imperial court has already solved this matter.
Cao Wei and Wei did not actively close the market, but passively closed the market.
When we trade with these two countries, we must accept their country's banknotes.
The value of the one-tael silver coins of these two countries on paper is equal to the one-tael silver coins of the empire.
But their actual price has been calculated in several hundred pennies.
The silver coins of these two countries have depreciated too fast. If we collect the banknotes of these two countries, we will suffer huge losses.
On the surface, the value of silver coins is the same. Even if the price of the goods we transport increases, it must be within a reasonable range.
If you sign a contract before, you must act according to the contract.
If the temporary price increase is too drastic now, the governments of both countries will come looking for it.
No merchant is willing to do business in Cao and Wei.
There are no closed markets in these two countries. If any businessman is willing to go, I will personally introduce them to them."
Many of the businessmen present are not specialized in foreign trade, and they do not understand the specific situation.
Now after hearing what Li Gong said, these businesses immediately judged that the business environment between Cao and Wei will be very miserable now.
Lu Changli said excitedly: "Of course I know this situation. Cao and Wei used this method to prevent our businessmen from doing business there.
The imperial court should provide banking services locally, so that we merchants can earn banknotes from both countries and immediately exchange them for imperial silver coins."
President Li Gong said disdainfully: "How could you be the first to think of such a good thing?
The Imperial Bank only guarantees the banknotes issued by itself, and its value can be exchanged for silver coins on a one-to-one basis.
Paper money issued by other vassal countries will have an exchange price, which is completely different from the exchange price of physical silver coins."
Lu Changli knew this situation himself, but he was exposed by Li Gong and felt very bad.
Chairman Li Gong looked at these businessmen. They were considering their own interests and did not realize that the economic crisis was getting worse.
At this meeting, no effective consensus was reached because representatives from all parties had widely divergent interests.
President Li Gong shook his head. He never had a high opinion of these people.
But I didn't expect that they still seemed unclear on such a big matter.
He reluctantly left the restaurant and took a car to wander on the streets of the capital.
The impact of the economic crisis has begun to spread from big businessmen like them to the bottom.
The business of the shops on both sides of the streets in Beijing is not as good as last year.
The faces of people riding bicycles on the road are also full of bitterness and sadness.
Chairman Li Gong knew that the economic crisis would only affect big businessmen like them, and the imperial court would choose to wait and see.
Once the economic crisis affects the bottom class, it will not be far from the government issuing policies.
Chairman Li Gong sighed. For the sake of the future development of the business world, he still had to go to the Prince's Mansion.
He didn't want to trouble Prince Su Shu. Prince Su Shu did not only have his daughter as a princess.
He can't give his daughter much help, but he definitely can't hold her back.
President Li Gong decided to discuss it with his daughter first, and now it was a bit abrupt to go into the palace to see the prince.
He went to the front door of the company where his daughter worked.
The guard guarding the door picked up the phone and reported to the company.
Li Gong was quickly taken into the conference room by his daughter Li Xiyue.
Li Xiyue asked curiously: "Dad, you usually don't disturb your daughter. Did something happen this time?"
When Li Gong saw his daughter's worried look, he quickly waved his hand and said, "Nothing happened to your father or me.
This time I summoned many businessmen to prepare a plan to deal with the economic crisis.
The result of this meeting was an unhappy one.
Xiyue manages the industry of the Prince's Mansion and must be aware of the current economic crisis."
When Li Xiyue heard her father say this, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh.
"Dad, the economic crisis, where did the economic crisis come from?
You don’t want to learn a new word and use it in every situation.”
Li Gong said in surprise: "This is the knowledge I learned from Professor Ding of Huaxia University.
The current business environment is so bad, isn’t it still considered an economic crisis?”
Li Xiyue shook her head and said: "What kind of economic crisis is this? This is just the normal fluctuation of the market before the economic crisis.
Dad, you big companies are just spring water duck prophets, sensing market fluctuations.
When a real economic crisis breaks out, at least half of these small factories will disappear.
Large factories with backward technology will not be spared."
When Li Gong heard his daughter recounting such a tragic situation, his eyes widened and he said in disbelief: "The economic crisis is really so destructive.
We feel something is wrong now, and it was just a market fluctuation that was not too serious before the economic crisis broke out."
Li Xiyue nodded seriously and said: "My husband has specialized in studying economic crises, and his standards are much better than those of unknown university professors.
No one has seen a real economic crisis now, and what is said is completely speculation.
Even if some people make irresponsible claims, they can't find conclusive evidence.
But I know that the destructive power of the economic crisis is definitely not so light.
My husband uses one word to describe the world after the economic crisis: the Great Depression."
When Li Gong heard the words "Great Depression", his eyes immediately tightened.
These three words very vividly illustrate the extent of the economic crisis.
Li Xiyue continued: “Only during the New Year did the stock and bond markets collapse.
It will take some time for the results of the stock and bond markets to be transmitted to the real industrial sector.
It’s only been three months now, so the transmission time is not that fast.”
After Li Gong listened to his daughter's story, he asked her for advice: "Xiyue, do you think I should continue to get involved in this kind of thing?"
He is retreating now. The Great Depression is really happening and it is too late to save his family's company. Why should he care about others?
Li Xiyue suggested: "Dad, you should wait a little longer and intervene in these matters after things become clear.
Some people are unwilling to give up their interests until they are in desperate situation."
Li Gong nodded and said, "Dad understands what should be done."