"It's not necessary now," Chang Shide said. "It would take too much time to explain. Print a passbook or something like that for them first and write down the amount. This will give the sugarcane farmers something to think about. Then we can call them for a meeting later."
It’s easier.”
Wen Tong smiled and said: "What a great idea, how did you come up with it?
"Look at those who sell health care products, they just rely on free physical examinations to attract people. If you don't give some small favors, who will listen to your nonsense?"
"But how should I print this passbook? It must be used multiple times and be able to write on it." Wen Tong hesitated, "Should we ask Lingao for help?"
Liao Daxing said: "This matter is not difficult to handle. It's just a matter of setting up a coupon for the sugarcane farmers. You can just find a paper shop to do it."
"?" Several time travelers looked at Liao Daxing in unison. Chang Shide asked: "Is there also a local passbook?"
Liao Daxing was a little confused and said: "Yes, every shop has a brochure." He took out a brochure from his sleeve and handed it over. Wen Tong opened it and took a look, and there were records in it in small regular script.
The date and amount of the transaction were stamped with the private seals of both parties.
"This is the food bank's account that brought us food."
"Okay, let's use this one." Wen Tong said happily, "Let's order three thousand copies first."
Liao Daxing was shocked. When he opened his mouth, there were three thousand copies. All the paper shops in Leizhou were turned upside down and there were not so many. He said hurriedly: "There are not so many goods. From my perspective, such a discount is too big. This is
Since we don’t need to use the folds all the time, we’d better order some right away. Just smaller ones are fine. It’s quick and the price is low.”
The matter was settled like this. Several people discussed various arrangements for the opening day together. The biggest problem for Wen Tong was the matter of mobilizing money. He had already found out that the sugar products exported here every year amounted to more than 200,000 shi.
It is estimated that most of the sugar will still be purchased by Haiyitang's sugar shop. I can collect about 20,000 shi. This requires almost 50,000 taels of silver. When the Guangzhou station arranged for the Qiwei Escort Bureau to set up a point in Leizhou,
He saved 10,000 taels of cash locally. Wen Tong came to Leizhou and brought another 3,000. However, this money was almost all spent on infrastructure construction, resettlement of immigrants, and making friends with the government. The only thing that could be used was a man from Guangzhou.
Ten thousand taels.
This amount is too far apart. Guangzhou Station is willing to give full support and says that it can allocate one hundred thousand taels of silver at any time, but there is no money exchange agency in Ming Dynasty, so the money has to be sent all the way, which feels really unsafe.
Several people thought for a long time but could not come up with a suitable solution. On this day, Chang Shide took Liao Daxing to the county town for shopping and relaxation. This was his only hobby besides training the female slaves: wearing a silk and satin straight dress, walking with a high head.
On the dusty streets, his unusual height, build and fair skin made people look aside in awe - it felt good to be a boss. Chang Shide soon discovered it while shopping.
A phenomenon - prices here in Xuwen are very high!
In the past, Liao Dahua procured grain for the immigrants, and when reimbursing the accounts, it was two liang and one stone. Chang Shide once thought that Liao Dahua was suspected of making profits, but after a few months, he found that although the price of grain fluctuated, it was never lower than
2 taels, and it is showing a gradually rising trend. Although there is only one Qiongzhou Strait between Lingao and Lingao, the food price in Lingao did not exceed 1, 25 taels at the highest point.
Except for food, the price of everything here is higher than that in Lingao, from firewood, ironware, cloth to ordinary pots and pans for daily life. This became more obvious when they carried out construction projects for the second time. Moreover,
There are very few copper coins in circulation here, and most of them are made of silver. Small payments use a kind of silver beans that seem to be specially cast. This phenomenon aroused great interest in Chang Shide. Although he did not study economics, basic
The principle of economics is still clear - the silver here will obviously depreciate compared to Lingao.
"Shopkeeper Liao," Chang Shide asked Liao Daxing, "Why is the price of rice in Xuwen so high?"
"You've got to ask the right person." This topic is scratching Liao Daxing's itch. "When I was young, I worked in a grain store. Not only Xuwen, but also Haikang, the price of rice was so high!"
Suixi is better. The reason is simple: growing sugar cane is very profitable. Everyone has destroyed the paddy fields to grow sugar cane. If there is not enough food to eat, it has to be transported from other places, and the price will naturally go up."
"That's right." Chang Shitong nodded.
"That's not it!" Liao Daxing said, "Sugar cane consumes water, fertilizer, and labor. Once sugar cane is planted, no one will be able to plant paddy fields again."
"Where does the food from other places come from?"
"It's more convenient to transport it by sea. It's more likely to come from the north. Things can happen at sea. If you encounter pirates or get caught in a storm, you'll suffer huge losses if it floats. Since it's not easy to transport it, it's naturally expensive.
Already."
Liao Daxing said that Chang Shide didn't have any comment. He licked his lips and said with a smile: "Actually, I still have an idea, but I don't know if it's right-"
"Tell me about it."
"I think the key is that Leizhou has too much money -"
Chang Shide stopped and glanced at him, feeling quite surprised - he thought the ancients didn't understand this truth and would directly equate precious metals with wealth itself.
"It makes sense!" Chang Shide suddenly looked at this former grain store clerk with a new eye.
"Yes," Liao Daxing saw the proprietor's expression full of approval, and quickly added a few words, "In Leizhou, more than 200,000 shi of sugar are shipped out every year, and the total amount of silver flowing in is four to five million taels.
"With too much money, department stores will naturally become more expensive."
"Yes, things are expensive, but sugar is something that everyone needs." Chang Shide pondered, and he seemed to see a solution in the dark.
"Shopkeeper Liao, what do you think of the income of the sugarcane farmers?"
"It's not bad. No matter what, it's much better than growing rice!"
"Hmm." Chang Shide asked another question, "Are there any ships here that go to Champa?"
"Why go to Champa?" Liao Daxing felt strange, "No one in the area is engaged in maritime trade."
The outline of the plan in Chang Shide's mind gradually became clear. He patted Liao Daxing on the shoulder with some excitement, "Let's go back."
That night, he really couldn't wait for the contact information to be sent to Guangzhou via carrier pigeon, so he wrote a superstitious letter directly, instructing Qiwei Escort: Take a boat to Lingao early the next morning. This matter requires the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Chang Shide’s plan is simple:
Since silver is worthless in Leizhou, using cash to purchase sugar is an unworthy business practice.
Because there is too much money in Leizhou, everything is expensive. It is a cost-effective business to use a commodity that everyone needs and the price is very high to get sugar. This kind of thing is rice.
If the rice is transported via the Guangdong North Road in the traditional way, the sea route will be too long and the risks will be great.
So his idea is to transport sugar from Leizhou to Vietnam for sale. Vietnam does not grow sugar cane, so the price of sugar will be very high, and the price of rice in Vietnam has always been cheap. The rice exchanged for sugar will be paid to the sugarcane farmers according to the rice price in Leizhou. The purchase price. This is equivalent to earning double profits.
But this involves trade issues with Vietnam. Chang Shide does not know Vietnam's trade rules, nor does he know the sea conditions along the coast of Vietnam, nor does he know the local rice and sugar prices in Vietnam. It is obviously a risk to rashly organize a ship to Vietnam. .
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not dare to neglect after receiving this letter, and quickly reported it to the Executive Committee. All departments immediately started functioning. The Intelligence Committee soon announced that this plan was feasible. The Portuguese sold Chinese sugar to Vietnam at that time. It was eight taels per stone! This price was twice as high as the British purchase price in Guangzhou! The huge profits from maritime trade made everyone unable to bear it any longer. They ordered the Executive Committee to immediately open the door to Vietnam trade.
"It's time, Vietnam's rich resources can no longer sleep." Fanatics incited at the enlarged meeting of the Executive Committee, "Let's turn it into our raw material base and market!"
"Expedition by force!"
"Wherever the artillery reaches, trade opens the way!"
"Let's put a few cannons on the coast of Vietnam and completely enslave a country!"
"It would be better to establish this trade route in Vietnam as soon as possible." Ma Qianzhu was not very interested in the trade of sugar and rice, but he had long coveted Hongji's coal.
In this way, the plan to open up trade with Vietnam was finalized. Considering that the political situation in Vietnam at this time was relatively chaotic, with the confrontation between the North and the South, and the Dutch and Portuguese behind it, the Jesuits also had a hand in it, and all aspects were involved. Since I have many interests, I finally decided to enter in a more low-key way.
The trade situation between the Northern and Southern Dynasties in Vietnam and China is as follows: to enter the ports of the Northern Dynasties, one has to pay a fee of one thousand taels per year. The Southern Dynasties opened a city specifically for Chinese trade. The place the crossing group chose to enter was Le Chao in the north, where not only rice is available, but also There is also coal, which is relatively close to Hainan and Leizhou Peninsula.
The ship that the Executive Committee sailed to Vietnam was the "Big Whale" transport ship that had been to Leizhou. Although the attempt to use it as a container ship failed, the advantages of the ship being wide and loaded with cargo are obvious to all, and it has a shallow draft.
The characteristics are more suitable for docks in this time and space that generally have shallow water depth and lack of port facilities. As for the slightly slower speed, it is not a big problem - to the Hon Gai area in Vietnam, the voyage by sailboat will not exceed two days.
The "Big Whale" came to Leizhou and loaded a thousand stones of brown sugar at Hai'an Port. In order to ensure the safety of the ship, it temporarily carried four 12-pound howitzers and an infantry platoon - serving as bodyguards and coolies. Command
The person responsible for this action was Chang Shide himself.
As for the necessary translation, neither Lingao nor Leizhou can solve it - although they are close, no one has ever been to Vietnam to do business. Guo Yi originally tried to find one among the maritime merchants in Guangzhou, but the maritime merchants
The familial and closed nature of the group made such recruitment completely ineffective. Finally, they thought of the Jesuits in Macau. This organization has many tentacles and goes everywhere. Zhang Xin rushed to Macau and found Lu Ruohua.
With the help of Lu Ruohua, Zhang Xin recruited a down-and-out pirate leader in Macau, named Zhang Dascara. This man was a fat black man with a big scar on his face, so he got this nickname. As for his real name, Lien
He himself couldn't remember it clearly. It turned out that after the failure of Yang Liu and Yang Qi, Zhang Dasila, who had a lot of savings, ran to Macau - he suffered many serious injuries, and the scars were faintly visible every rainy day.
The aching old pirate began to feel powerless and wanted to live in seclusion comfortably. Unexpectedly, he fell into a trap in Macau and all his money was wiped out. He had been a thief for many years and did not know how to make a living. Soon he was living on the streets, relying on
He lived with the help of the Jesuits. Later, he was baptized into the religion for two meals of porridge a day, and became a member of the church.
Although Zhang Dascara can no longer fight, he is still an old seal who has been around for many years. He is very familiar with the sea routes in various parts of Southeast Asia, and he is fluent in several languages, including Vietnamese and Malay.
Zhang Xin felt that this was a suitable candidate at first sight, and he hired him on the spot, saying that he did not need to be a life-and-death person, just a translator, and he would earn twelve Spanish silver dollars a month. Zhang Dascara, who drank porridge and drank like a bird, immediately hired him
Got on their pirate ship.
When the whale was leaving at the Hai'an Street Pier, Chang Shide told Wen Tong: "Old Wen, it will take at least ten days for me to leave. The house is almost built now, so don't wait any longer. You are here
Let’s arrange to buy sugar locally first. We have ten thousand taels of silver available, which should be enough to support me until I come back.”
"Okay," Wen Tong shook his hand tightly. What a good comrade. Not only did he come up with such a good idea, he also volunteered to go to the unfamiliar Vietnam to engage in trade and create a new situation. He turned around and looked,
I saw Axiu waiting to board the boat with a basket on her back, thinking that this person was really hopeless.
Chang Shide unceremoniously occupied a separate cabin and let Axiu arrange it into a small cozy home. Then he waited comfortably for the ship to arrive in Ha Long.
The ship sailed on the sea for two days, and finally-
be lost!
"where is this?"
"It should be in Halong Bay." Le Lin held the sextant and said hesitantly - he is the temporary captain of this ship.
"What do you mean you should!" Bei Kai finally broke out in the pain of seasickness. This person was selected into the trade delegation to Vietnam purely because he looked like a Vietnamese. The Great Whale has entered a comparison since yesterday.
It is a large bay with calm waves, and there are many small islands in the bay, which is a bit picturesque. But I just don’t know where to drive to Hongji.
Le Lin's calculations of longitude and latitude have always been in great swing, and the errors are so large that people cannot trust his measurements. Some people have long been muttering that a local helmsman should be hired instead of letting him, a second-hand man, command the ship.
"You come and take the helm." Master Chang Fude kicked Le Lin away for the last time and called Zhang Dasra to come and sail the boat.