In the cabin below the deck of the Guangding, Lin Baiguang leaned on his luggage and thought about several urgent tasks to be done after arriving in Qiongshan.
The first thing is to do Hai Shuzu's work. Originally, the Crossing Group wanted to lure him over by luring him to come to Gao to go through the formalities and take back the ship. However, Hai Shuzu obviously had doubts and hid in Qiongshan and refused to come to Lingao.
Of course, if I were him, I wouldn't dare to come here rashly. Lin Baiguang thought to himself, who knows what the Australians are planning? After all, Hai Shuzu is also a man of some wealth.
If he didn't come to Gao, it would be nice for the Crossing Group to get a large ship and a lot of goods for free, but in comparison, Hai Shuzu would be of much greater use to the Crossing Group - not that they wanted to use the fact that he was a descendant of Hai Rui to win over him.
The local gentry has a more practical use.
The Industrial Energy Commission has been sending reports to the Executive Committee, asking for ways to mine coal mines in Qiongshan. The coal mines in Haikou area are relatively good coal resources on Hainan Island, mainly lignite, which can be used for coking - after the development of Tiandu Iron Mine
, the use of coal for coking will become a big problem. Vietnam's Hong Kei Coal Mine produces high-quality anthracite coal that is not suitable for coking, and there are various difficulties in mining in foreign countries. It is also limited by shipping capacity. The Works and Energy Commission hopes
There is a nearby place to obtain stable coal resources.
However, in this time and space, the coal mines in Haikou have not yet been exploited on a large scale. Mining mines was a troublesome thing in ancient times. This is not because the procedures are difficult or the tax pressure is too heavy - but because the mining of minerals is often restricted by local forces.
Too much interference. Sometimes it is driven by economic interests, sometimes it is influenced by terms such as "Feng Shui" and "Line Veins", and sometimes it is suppressed by primitive environmental protection concepts - mining and smelting will inevitably destroy the local area.
environment, causing serious pollution.
The government has no standards for whether to allow mining, and it is very arbitrary. Generally speaking, local governments are not too enthusiastic about mining: there is no concept of resource tax in the Ming Dynasty. Except for the short-term mining tax collected by the Wanli Dynasty, mining is not suitable for mining.
There are no benefits to local finance. Although it can bring personal benefits to officials of all sizes in the county, mining will inevitably attract a large number of miners. Workers have always been an "unsettling factor" and often put strong pressure on the government to maintain stability.
There is no benefit and it is easy to cause trouble, so once a dispute occurs, the government will most likely adopt the approach of banning it.
If there are no powerful local figures to take charge of the overall situation or have a relationship with such people and use them as a protective umbrella, it will be difficult for this mine to open.
It is precisely because of these unfavorable factors that Chuanchuan Group did not rashly send agents, such as Lin Quan'an, to directly invest in mining. Instead, it hoped to induce local people to mine and acquire resources on its own, which is a safe way to collect resources. But mining is not
Coal can be produced overnight, and the investment is quite large. If the purchase price of Chuanchuan Group is too low, no one will be willing to open the mine; if the price is too high, the Planning Commission will feel that it cannot afford it.
So in the end, another method was changed: find a local agent to come forward, and let the Cross Group actually invest in the mining.
In the opinion of the executive committee, Hai Shuzu is an excellent agent. With the reputation of the Hai family, it is easy to deal with the government and local forces in the local area.
How can we convince Hai Shuzu? Lin Baiguang thought about it. Hai Shuzu was able to raise funds to buy ships and go to the ocean for trade, which shows that there is an adventurous element in his character and he is full of desire for money. With these two
The premise is that it should not be difficult for such a person to convince him to start a mine. And according to the intelligence collected by Chen Tong, the Hai family is now facing an extremely serious economic crisis. This is a good opportunity.
Lin Baiguang calculated over and over again on the floor of the cabin. Without further ado, the current coke oven uses coal bought from Guangdong. The amount is not large, and it can be dealt with. Waiting for the first batch of iron ore from Tiandu next year
Once it arrives, coke will immediately become a bottleneck for the steel industry.
After Lin Baiguang arrived in Qiongzhou, the shopkeeper and assistants transferred from Leizhou, and the escorts transferred from Guangdong also arrived one after another. The renovation of the house was in full swing.
During this gap, Lin Baiguang asked Chen Tong to step up his efforts to infiltrate the Hai family and keep abreast of first-hand information, while Gao Di was sent out to conduct a thorough investigation of the social situation.
After seven or eight days, the information obtained from various aspects was very good to Lin Baiguang: Hai Shuzu raised funds to buy a ship to trade in Xiaba City this time. A total of fifty-one households including his family contributed money or goods, a total of nine
Of the ten shares, Hai Shuzu himself occupied twenty-three shares. The structure of these fifty-one families is very complicated, including members of the same clan, relatives, friends, and local small businessmen of the Hai family. I heard that they can make a lot of money by going to the West.
There were even slaves from the Hai family and other families who came to invest. These slaves pooled their savings and collectively participated in the four shares.
There are quite a few such small shareholders in Jiushigu, and some even only have half a share. The failure of Hai Shuzu's venture was a fatal blow to these small shareholders - many of them came out to do this with their coffin books."
"Investment". Although these small shareholders with the worst ability to resist risks are ancient people, they will not be easily sent away to lick their wounds and jump off the building by the saying "sea trade is risky, and participation must be cautious". The ancients also did not understand what "
"Limited Liability", but gathered unceremoniously at the door of Hai's house, making a fuss every day, demanding Hai Shuzu pay back the money.
This is nothing less than a slap in the face to Hai Shuzu, who attaches great importance to the family's reputation. Originally, operating maritime trade was not a shameful thing among scholar-bureaucrats, but now that it is still causing such a fuss, one can imagine Hai Shuzu's current embarrassing situation.
Know.
His troubles don't stop there. In addition to equity participation, there is also borrowing money - otherwise he would not be able to build such a large ship. The borrowing will naturally have interest, which is not low. The creditor heard that the ship was robbed by pirates
After going there, people came to sit down and take a seat one after another.
Finally, there is a more dangerous group of people, those small traders who are neither shareholders nor creditors. They are passengers on the Haijia ship. Although most of them were rescued by the Crossing Group, they not only survived, but also saved the economy to some extent.
There were huge losses, but probably a lot of them were lost in life and property. The orphans and widows whose husbands and sons had died came to his door one by one with disheveled hair, asking him to "repay their lives."
"This is really hard to argue with." Lin Baiguang sighed, "It seems that this sea trade business is really difficult to do."
"Master, this is what the saying goes: you only see thieves eating meat, but you don't see thieves being beaten." Gao Di said aside, "There are many people who have lost their fortunes in sea trade. I often heard Master Gao mention this when I was working as an errand in Gao Ji's family.
Some of them died, some lost their entire fortune, and some lost their capital and were unable to return to their hometown and were living in foreign countries... Even Mr. Gao himself lost several cargoes, which totaled tens of thousands of taels of silver."
Lin Baiguang nodded. The unexpected risks of this sea trade are too great. What's even more terrifying is that the ancient business custom is "unlimited liability". All his public and private properties will be used to pay off debts. Once the business fails, the operator will be completely wiped out.
Once you are in a state of collapse, you will never be able to recover.
Of course, Hai Shuzu was also aware of this terrible consequence. Moreover, he was still a descendant of Hai Gong. If he fell to such an end, it would not only be a matter of personal gain and loss, but also a disgrace to the family.
Lin Baiguang could completely imagine Hai Shuzu's current mood.
After pondering over and over again, he asked Chen Tong: "How is the Hai family's property?"
"It's just an empty frame." Chen Tong said that apart from the 200 acres of sacrificial land shared by the clan, the Hai family only had less than 200 acres of land. As for chattels, there was no mention of it at all - Hai Rui was known for his honesty and integrity.
At that time, he could not even afford a decent coffin, so his descendants would not have much property.
Because the family had such a famous person who was known for his integrity, in order to protect the family's reputation, the Hai family never got involved in some of the crooked ways to make money that were commonly used by local gentry.
"It's not easy!" Lin Baiguang exclaimed, "He is worthy of being a descendant of Hai Gong."
"Who says it's not?" Chen Tongshen agreed, "Everyone is also talking about it, saying it's a doom."
"If the Hai family can survive this calamity, it will definitely prosper." Lin Baiguang said implicitly, "It depends on whether Hai Shuzu's understanding is enough."
Lin Baiguang told Gao Di: "Go and find out if the creditors who lent money to the Hai family are willing to change hands with the IOUs?"
Gao Di understood: "I understand, little one."
"Don't be too anxious to take action, but bargain hard." Lin Baiguang warned him, "Hai Shuzu's IOU is almost worthless."
If Hai Shuzu had no other financial resources and no financial support from outsiders, he would actually be bankrupt. He made a rough mental calculation and found that just repaying the debt and interest would be enough to bankrupt him.
"The matter of buying debts must be done covertly." Lin Baiguang told Gao Di.
Of course, he was not doing a good deed by buying the debt, but was preparing to use it as a blackmail. Once the news got out, it would be detrimental to both parties.
Hai Shuzu simply hid in Guangzhou now. He had nothing to do. He had not had a peaceful sleep since the ship was hijacked in the strait. People from the ship came back one after another, and only knew from their mouths that the ship was there.
The Qiongzhou Strait was robbed by pirates. Fortunately, they were rescued by the Australians in Lingao. Everyone escaped with their lives and did some business in Lingao. The five-masted ship was also towed to Lingao. Hai Shuzu
Because the steward he sent to accompany the ship died, he didn't dare to believe the words of these small traders and sailors who took the ship. It wasn't until the fire captain of the five-masted ship came back and brought letters and gifts from the Australians that he learned the exact news.
Hai Shuzu hesitated for a long time when he was asked to go to Lingao in person to retrieve the ships and goods. It wasn't that he didn't want to go. After all, there was still a glimmer of hope that he could recover part of his capital by going to Lingao. If he didn't go, he would just sit back and wait for death. However, his family and friends advised him against it.
He didn't want to go, saying that the Australians were not using this as a bait to let him fall into a trap and become a meat vote.