Judging from everyone's reactions, Wen Desi knew that the response to this proposal was not very enthusiastic. At this time, Mo Xiao'an spoke: "Mr. Wen, what you said is correct, but the mirror is now our flagship product and is for the common people.
It has left an image of luxury goods. If we rush to make cheap products, I'm afraid it will be detrimental to the high-end product line-"
Wen Desi replied: "Look, how many mirrors do you think people in the Ming Dynasty can buy?"
Mo Xiaoan said: "The Guangzhou Liaison Station sent news a few days ago that a batch of mirrors have been sent to the capital for sale after the New Year. It is said that even the shop was squeezed and several people were injured. The Gao family is urging the dispatch
As for the goods, tell me how much you need."
"How much does a mirror cost now?"
"Quotes in Guangzhou: The retail price of dark jade mirrors is between 80 and 120 taels, and the retail price of other colors is between 100 and 200 taels."
"Crocodile, how much income can the middle class earn in a place like Guangzhou?"
Yu Eshui said: "This range is very large. The average store clerk's salary is about one to two hundred taels per month. The big shopkeeper hired by the Guangzhou dispatch station used to earn two hundred and forty taels per year, which is considered a Ming Dynasty
of high-income earners.”
"Small citizens with a monthly income of one or two taels will definitely not be able to afford it. Even the 'high-end white-collar workers' of Ming Dynasty will probably have to grit their teeth to buy our mirrors. How many wealthy households are left who can just spend a few hundred taels casually? I guess it is a few hundred taels at most.
Thousands of households. So, among the quantity we shipped last month, there were more than 1,200 mirrors. The market will be saturated sooner or later."
"Some rich families only need one or two mirrors. Rich people have ten or eight wives, and no one can have one, otherwise women will get jealous and repay them. If you have more wives, you will also have more children. Daughters and daughters-in-law are not the same.
Do you need to buy some things?"
After hearing Mo Xiaoan's words, everyone laughed.
"There are also wealthy households around Guangzhou who come to buy." Mo Xiao'an said, "Including those from Fujian, I heard that businessmen from Jiangnan also come to contact Gaoji and ask for purchases. Once they start purchasing, they will do it all at once.
Thousands of them, right? It’s not necessarily possible to only look in a few mirrors.”
"Looking at the overall situation, the form is indeed very good, but the product line must have long-term considerations." Wen Desi wondered if Mo Xiao'an's business sense was average. He would have to replace him next time, but it was a pity that both professional salesmen were there.
Guangzhou... "The cost of mirrors to us is negligible. Expanding the user base is only good for us if we buy more. As for high-end products, this is left to the Guangzhou dispatch station to consider. They support so many jewelry craftsmen.
It’s easy to tinker with a rough mirror to make it more luxurious. My idea is to make mirrors accessible to as many people as possible.”
"Can't we consider selling mirrors to other places? For example, Southeast Asia?"
"It's okay, that's why we have to do Macau work, Liu Xiang work and Zhu Cailao work." Wen Desi explained, "Needless to say, Macau itself is a window, and the latter two have quite extensive overseas control.
trading network through which they can dump these products into Southeast Asia."
"We have direct experience ourselves, so why should we help them make a fortune?" Li Haiping was puzzled by this question. In his opinion, the Executive Committee had overestimated the power of these pirate leaders.
"Again, we should not make too many enemies at this stage. This is not an era of free trade. Being a maritime merchant still requires some skills." Wen Desi said.
It can be said that Chinese maritime merchants in 1629 were a high-risk and high-reward industry. They faced a crisis-ridden but hugely profitable space.
Zheng Zhilong, a combination of government, merchants and thieves, basically controls the route from Fujian to Japan. All trading ships passing through this area have to pay a toll, otherwise they will be robbed. Moreover, the Japanese shogunate only opened a small number of cities for foreign trade, and there were very few foreign trade objects. In some places, famous names
Trade can also be carried out at the port, but a trade fee of 1,000 taels of silver is also levied on each ship.
The Portuguese/British/Dutch merchant fleets were both traders and thieves. They had to pay taxes when they encountered tough ones like Zheng, and they robbed soft ones when they encountered them.
Spain was obsessed with colonization and slave trade in Southeast Asia, and basically controlled the Philippines and the Malay Archipelago. Although they relied heavily on China's maritime merchants to provide materials and manpower for the colonies, they were unable to join the trade with China, so they had to rely on Manila galleons to continuously sail from the Americas.
The colonies imported silver to lure Chinese maritime merchants to trade. Due to their over-reliance on Chinese merchants, the Spaniards developed a morbid fear of the Chinese and spared no effort to suppress and control the Chinese. Chinese merchants were greatly restricted.
The Netherlands has the most powerful maritime fleet in the China Sea, but as a latecomer, it does not have a good foothold. In order to seek new colonies, it attempted to control Taiwan and Penghu. It fought a war with the Zheng family for decades. Until 1661, Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan.
, and the Netherlands also failed in the Anglo-Dutch War and eventually declined.
The Northern and Southern Dynasties in Vietnam also had to pay 1,000 taels per year for port trade. The Southern Dynasties opened a city specifically for Chinese trade. Both the Northern and Southern Dynasties in Vietnam called themselves Little China, but each of the North and the South found foreigners to back them up: the Northern Dynasties received support from the Dutch,
The Southern Dynasties were Portuguese.
As a rising star, the British arrived late and have not found a foothold in this area, but they always want to enter this market.
Economic, political, religious, and national factors are all entangled together, turning the entire East and Southeast Asia waters into a Darwinian jungle.
Although the time travelers have strong ships and powerful guns, they are sparsely populated, especially lacking ships and sailors, and the geographical environment is not favorable. They are not yet qualified to participate in this sea carnival. They use the ready-made networks of powerful maritime business groups for sales.
became the only option.
"Chinese goods are very popular in Southeast Asia. They were originally an excellent way to make money, and we also need many specialties from Southeast Asia." Zhong Lizhi said with regret, "Now we can't export silk, tea and porcelain.
Quan, selling mirrors is not bad either. I remember that Chinese bronze mirrors used to be a traditional export commodity."
"There is so much talk about trade, import and export, but what about ships?" Li Haiping continued to question.
"The transportation capacity is insufficient." Wen Desi sighed.
The current situation of time travelers is a bit like Japan. Lingao itself produces very few industrial and mining raw materials. The goods sold by time travelers and important industrial raw materials all rely on the import and export of ships. Not only that, even the transportation of salt from Yanchang Village to Bairen City
——Although a simple road has been built between the two places through Chuanzhong, due to the lack of animal power and vehicles, large quantities of sea salt products are still transported to Bopu by boat for transshipment.
This makes Chuanchuan Group very dependent on ships. Since the attack on Baitu Village, the fleet of Chuanchuan Group has increased by leaps and bounds. At this time, it already has three 70-ton two-masted sea-going ships, namely the "boarding ship".
"Yingzhou", "Fubo", "Tongji", two 40-ton single-masted ships and a dozen small ships. Except for "Fubo", which is equipped as a battleship, the others are all equipped with warships.
Among the five large and medium-sized ships used as transport ships, except for Fubo, which is not suitable for entering Guangzhou Port because it is armed, all of them run the Guangzhou route and transport a large amount of materials urgently needed by the industrial sector. The problem is that the delivery speed still cannot keep up.
The needs of the industrial sector. The speed of sailing ships is slow and the carrying capacity is small. The Ministry of Maritime Power wants to expand the size of the fleet, but the problem of sailors has been bothering them - the prospect of several large maritime groups preparing for a decisive battle has caused an acute shortage of sailors, whether it is Liu
Xiang, Zheng Zhilong, Zhu Cailao, and even the local officials of the Ming Dynasty were recruiting coastal fishermen and people with experience at sea everywhere. The Crossing Group was obviously not favored by the common people.
"We still hope to build big ships, preferably ones with power." Li Haiping said, "Not to mention too big a ship, it has to be at least 200 to 300 tons of deadweight, right? If it has power, the speed will be much faster.
, and the need for sailors will be much less. Landing in Yingzhou is faster than other ships, if it weren’t for the fact that there is always no diesel-"
"President Wen, hasn't the Planning Commission approved the construction of a ketch? This kind of ship should be 200 tons, right? It only needs 10 sailors."
"Shipbuilding can't be so simple. Many equipments are missing. To build a ship, you must first complete the equipment of the shipyard." Wen Desi also had a headache about this matter: shipbuilding is not a model ship after all. It took nearly 10 years for the Swedes to copy the Gothenburg.
For ten years, most of the time was spent on researching the shipbuilding technology of the time. This was based on the premise that the Swedes had complete information.
"Let's hurry up on this matter and complete the shipyard facilities first. Make an order for what you need. We will have a separate meeting with the mechanical department to resolve it later."
"As for the engine problem," Wang Luobin said, "I think whether it is a steam engine or a homemade single-cylinder diesel engine, it is not a problem for our industrial capabilities. Especially the single-cylinder diesel engine can not only be used as a marine engine, but can also meet many aspects.
, for example, it can be used in agriculture to tow small agricultural machinery, pump water, or even be used as a prime mover for short-distance transportation. Fuel is also easy to solve. Even if there is no diesel, vegetable oil or gas will be enough."
The manufacturing technology of a single-cylinder diesel engine is the simplest among internal combustion engines. The earliest internal combustion engine was a diesel engine, and the early diesel engines burned vegetable oil instead of diesel.
Wu Nanhai immediately supported: "This is good. There are many small agricultural machinery here, but they cannot be used without power."
Wang Luobin continued: "Although the single-cylinder diesel engine we manufacture cannot be as powerful as diesel engines for the time being, it is generally sufficient for use. If the power is insufficient, industrial equipment can also be driven by this. Early factory equipment all used steam engines.
Or driven by other power engines. Considering the difficulty of producing self-produced electric motors, factories in the future may need to be driven by steam engines or diesel engines for a long time."