"Zhuang Master Xu, I haven't seen you for a long time, and I even miss you."
"Brother Xu, Brother Xu, I am Zeng Zhaoming, can you remember Zeng?"
Xu Yuangang stepped into the main hall.
Voices of greeting, compliments, and compliments came one after another, and all the businessmen were very polite.
Xu Yuan stood on the small platform above the main hall, glanced around, pressed his hands on them, smiled, and said: "You merchants have come from afar and worked hard. The environment of the manor here is simple and I have been neglecting you. I hope you will
Be considerate…”
After a few pleasantries, there was a chorus of "Where is that?"
"I won't say any more nonsense."
Xu Yuan got to the point and said loudly: "This year's agent bidding rules are the same as last year. The four states and fourteen prefectures in Southern Zhili are divided into 18 agency areas. The fourteen chief envoys and envoys except Southern Zhili are divided into 18 agency districts.
(province), is divided into 14 agency areas, with a total of 32 agency areas. A hidden bidding method is adopted. Each businessman can bid for one or more agency areas. The one with the highest bid will win. After winning the corresponding agency area, no one is allowed to cross the area.
Distributors who violate regulations will be disqualified as agents and stop supplying goods."
Finished introducing the rules.
Butler Zhao Jinde clapped his hands and asked his servants to bring in a bidding board, as well as paper, ballpoint pens and bidding boxes, and distributed the corresponding materials to the hands of the businessmen present.
Before making the final decision, there is a customary product display session.
There is white sugar as white as fine sand.
There are glass mirrors ranging from palm-sized to life-sized, transparent and round glass beads, myopia glasses and reading glasses for people with myopia.
There are soaps, shampoos, and shower gels that leave a scent on your body after bathing.
Mechanical watches and desk clocks with precise timing.
There are lightweight and easy-to-use lighters and matches.
There are penicillin pills that are effective in treating many terminal illnesses.
As well as pressed oil, canned lunch meat, canned fruit, canned fish with distiller's grains and other non-staple foods produced in Xujiazhuang.
From daily necessities to food, there are nearly a hundred varieties, which is dazzling.
All the businessmen were also very eager, ready to make a move, showing expressions of great desire.
Because these are all good things that customers are clamoring for, and they are also high-profit products.
Take white sugar as an example. The wholesale price is two taels of silver per pound, and the terminal selling price ranges from one tael to two or three taels of silver. The gross profit is at least ten times.
Glass mirrors are luxury goods among luxury goods. The wholesale price ranges from five taels to five hundred taels, and the terminal selling price can be as little as five times or more than ten times more. And due to the limited supply, there is a fixed number every year, so
The supply is always in short supply, so you don't have to worry about not being able to sell it.
Soon the bidding process will officially begin.
All the businessmen silently estimated the market size and profit prospects of the agent area, and then considered the situation of their competitors. They used ballpoint pens to write down the blocks and bidding prices they wanted to represent on white paper, then folded it up and put in the money.
in the box.
Xu Yuan asked his servants to make statistics, and then announced the winning bid results:
"Yingtianfu's winning bidder, Lin Hongzuo, bid 58,000 taels."
"The winning bidder of Fengyang Prefecture, Shen Junqi, bid 49,000 taels."
"The winning bidder in Nanjing, Xu Chang, bid 36,000 taels."
"The winning bidder from Yangzhou Prefecture, Qian Renyi, bid 210,000 taels."
"The winning bidder in Beizhili, Wang Chongli, bid 38,000 taels."
"..."
There are a total of 32 agency areas, and the winning bid prices range from thousands of taels to hundreds of thousands of taels. In total, Xu Yuan collected millions of taels in agency fees.
Of course, there are some tricks here. For example, in the agency area of Nanjing Prefecture, judging from the market size, the agency fee is at least one hundred thousand taels. But behind the businessman Xu Chang is the Xu family of Xu Guogong, who has a strong background. No businessman dares to compete with him.
competition, so we can win the bid at a low price.
Wang Chongli, a businessman from North Zhili, was in a similar situation, and his background was higher than that of the court.
Facing this kind of businessmen, Xu Yuan had nothing to do, let alone offend them. Instead, he had to treat them with care and treat them as honored guests.
"Qian Renyi! How did you know my price? Why is your price just ten thousand taels more than mine? How on earth did you guess my price, you treacherous villain?"
There was some commotion among the merchants. Luo Houping, a Yangzhou salt merchant who failed to bid, ran to Qian Renyi angrily, grabbed him by the collar, and loudly questioned him.
"Brother Luo, shopping malls are like battlefields. We are always wary of deceit. If you lose, you can't blame me for being treacherous. You can only blame yourself for not being a businessman. You should just do your sea salt business properly and don't come here to interfere."
Qian Renyi said with a victor's attitude.
"you--"
Luo Houping raised his fist, wanting to hit someone, but was stopped by others.
Soon, several strong guards from the manor also entered the hall, keeping the conflicting people away to prevent the trivial matter from becoming a big deal.
As the host, Xu Yuan also had to use a loudspeaker to persuade them to make money in harmony and not to quarrel. If they don't win the bid this year, they can come again next year. Besides special commodities, there are no pressed oils, canned products and high-yield crop seeds in Xujiazhuang.
Merchants who win the bid can also purchase a batch and take it back without being restricted by agency qualifications.
also!
Xujiazhuang also provides a silver-gold exchange business. Any merchant can bring gold and exchange the gold in their hands into finely minted silver coins at a reasonable exchange ratio. The fineness is sufficient and no loss is guaranteed. They can be exchanged at any time, and
From now on, ordinary commodities produced in Xujiazhuang will only be purchased with silver dollars, and no other silver will be accepted.
Hear these words.
The merchants who did not win the bid felt much better, and some said on the spot that they wanted to buy some canned food and improved seeds.
Even those businessmen who have won the bid have made purchase requests for wheat, potatoes, corn and other improved varieties that can significantly increase yields.
As for the business of exchanging gold for silver dollars, not many businessmen responded. Although they all like the silver dollars that ring as soon as they blow, gold is a high-value hard currency, which is convenient and easy to carry, and is conducive to large-scale transactions, unless you encounter financial difficulties.
Or there is a huge profit to be made, otherwise they will not easily exchange it for other currencies.
Xu Yuan was very eager for gold, because the ratio of gold to silver here in the late Ming Dynasty was about one to ten, while over at Blue Star, the price of 925 industrial silver was 3.5 yuan/gram, but the price of gold soared to nearly
500 yuan/gram, the price ratio exceeds 1:100.
If a large amount of the gold here in the late Ming Dynasty was replaced by Blue Star's silver, there would be more than ten times the profit margin.
However, gold was very scarce in ancient times. Rich people who really held a lot of gold did not care about the little silver they earned. Therefore, Xu Yuan's financial business has been in a tepid state for several years.
, and did not obtain a large amount of gold.
night.
Xu Yuan had people prepare a grand dinner, and while they were drinking and drinking, they announced the successful conclusion of this year's bidding fair.
Both the businessmen who won the bid and the businessmen who did not win the bid felt that it was quite rewarding. They were able to make a lot of money this year and were in a very good mood.
Sitting at the head of the banquet, Xu Yuan, as the host, looked at these well-dressed smart businessmen, as if he saw compradors one by one, who were destined to be dependent on themselves in the future.
Although some of these businessmen have great backgrounds and have arrogant attitudes in private, they asked Xu Yuan to "join" them and show sincerity. After being declined, they implicitly threatened Xu Yuan that these businesses would not last long and sooner or later they would be swallowed up.
Being eaten by a tiger is the path to self-destruction.
Others want to join in the cooperation and are willing to provide workshops and workers to expand the scale of production. However, the industrial products Xu Yuan presented are all finished products produced by modern factories. He did not provide technical information or the idea of building a factory here.
, because of the level of technical secrecy in ancient times and the ingenuity of craftsmen, it is feared that not long after glass, white sugar, soap and the like were mass-produced, workshops all over the world had secretly learned them, and there was no concept of patent protection at all.
If you want to continue these hugely profitable businesses for a long time, the best way is to purchase goods from Blue Star and never build a factory here.
Of course, oil press mills, furniture factories, brick kiln factories, canneries, rice mills and other workshops that greatly improve production efficiency can still be built. The scarcity of products is not high, and they are not seeking huge profits. It does not matter if they are copied.
all in all.
It is not necessary to do business in person. Xu Yuan's current idea is to use modern society as a production base, import a large number of industrial products that the ancients could not produce to Xujiazhuang, and then act as a businessman to attract comprador businessmen.
Come to buy goods and become an agent. Although the profit margin of this model has been reduced a lot, it is highly safe and stable. You can also sell more goods and actually earn more than before.