Xinshun 1730

Chapter 775 Businessman's Expectation

The war in Europe is coming to an end, but it is not over, and the final outcome is still uncertain.The final direction is still shrouded in fog. Even though Dashun is calculating, there will always be various accidents in European wars.

The war in Nanyang is not over yet, but the ending is already doomed. Unless their god personally comes forward to engage in mechanical descending, there will be no surprises in the final result.

As soon as summer comes, before all the Dutch castles in Sulawesi and other places have been captured, a large number of officials who have gone to Nanyang have begun to return to Beijing to return to their orders.

Those who went back with them were not only a large number of tribute envoys from small countries in Southeast Asia, but also some Dutch captives selected for offering captives to the Taimiao.

The mighty fleet did not go directly to Dagu Port in Tianjin to land, but stopped at Songjiang for a transit just as in the past to show off its wealth.

A large number of businessmen who had received the news in advance flocked to the pier to greet them.

In name, it is to celebrate the return of the Celestial Dynasty to Nanyang and the coming of all nations.

In fact, it was still to inquire about the imperial court's trade plans after going to Nanyang.

Songjiang's business development has been good in recent years. The wealthy merchants here have a keen sense of business. How can they not be aware of the business opportunities in such a big event as going to Nanyang?
Now it is the summer season for transporting grain to the north, and the provinces in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are experimenting with sea transportation. Hundreds of thousands of ships are gathering here, which is even more prosperous.

Now Nanyang has been captured, and there is no enemy force in the surrounding area that can threaten the grain shipping in a short period of time. I think this port will be even busier in the future.

With a [-]% tax-free discount, these ships transporting grain don't care about the transportation cost.Instead, a large number of duty-free goods can enter the northern market openly.

Compared with the interception and tax on the canal, a large number of goods are now transported by sea, which has basically squeezed out the sales of goods transported by the canal.

With Dashun setting up the "pigsty" in Songjiang Prefecture, some land commercial routes leading to Guangzhou gradually became decadent.

Porcelain from Jiangxi, for example, was originally exported from Guangzhou.Now that the Great Lakes and the Yangtze River have been transferred, some people who were in the transportation business had nothing to do. In recent years, the White Lotus Sect in the south of Jiangxi has flourished again.

The country is a whole. On the whole, the only market that Dashun has expanded in recent years is Japan.The expansion of the European market has not yet achieved any results. Songjiang Prefecture exports more goods, while Guangdong and Fujian exports less. It is a very simple reason.

In addition to the development of trade with Japan and North Korea, it also gave up the southern route and Ryukyu.Instead, choose to fly directly from Songjiang to Nagasaki, or Weihai to Pyongyang or Busan.

It was also as Liu Yu expected when he conquered Japan and criticized Ryukyu before.Ryukyu has lost the particularity of Sino-Japanese trade transit, and the country is small and the people are poor. In recent years, many people have chosen to go to sea to become pirates.

Originally, there was inherent trade between China and Japan, but Ryukyu was controlled by the Satsuma Domain, and trade was conducted in the name of tribute.The Satsuma domain eats meat, and Ryukyu can also drink some soup.

Now that Ryukyu's commercial geographical advantages have been completely lost, many people have taken risks and started business without capital.

In this way, on the contrary, it has further promoted the prosperity of the Songjiang-Nagasaki direct waterway.

Looking at the large number of grain ships docked on the ocean of Songjiang Mansion, and thinking about the imperial court's determination to abolish the water and change the sea, Liu Yu subconsciously looked at the envoy of the Sulu Kingdom who was surprised by the prosperity of the south of the Yangtze River.

I thought to myself that the Ryukyu pirates, Sulu pirates, and Vietnamese pirates, these three factors of instability at sea, are probably the key "care" targets of the navy within a few years.

When entering Beijing this time, it is still necessary to make it clear to the people in the court early.The so-called etiquette before soldiers, still have to warn Sulu Kingdom first.

It is estimated that the Sulu Kingdom will have difficulty controlling those pirates, but since it has been informed, it will be easy to say when it is encircled and suppressed in the future.

These envoys also came to the Celestial Dynasty for the first time, and the first time they settled down was in the most affluent area of ​​the Celestial Dynasty, they were dazzled.

After the official reception was over, the local officials followed the orders from above and let the envoys of these small countries walk around to see the prosperity of the Celestial Dynasty.

After Liu Yu had a short rest for two days, various merchants from Songjiang Mansion invited him to a banquet.

The place where the banquet was held was near the Japan Trading Company building, where there is now a stock exchange set up by the imperial court.The court is not for the convenience of transactions, but for the collection of stamp duty.

But with the imperial court as a guarantor, people are still more inclined to the official contract, even if they need to pay more money.

Originally, Jiangnan in Dashun had enough business atmosphere, not to mention the rice futures exchange that appeared early in Edo, Japan, but the embryonic form of futures markets such as soybeans in Liaodong had already appeared.

Now it's just formalizing this rudimentary transaction.On the one hand, it draws on the experience of the West, and on the other hand, it also learns from the experience of the Edo Rice Futures Exchange in Japan. On the whole, it is not bad, and there is no big merchant group that can beat the price of grain.

It may also be that these merchants have been in China for a long time, and they probably know that some things are best not to be messed with, such as food prices.Even if there is buying and selling hype, the price can basically be maintained within a relatively stable range.

From near the wharf to the stock exchange, there is supposed to be the earliest horse-drawn railway in the world, which was built only last year.

Dashun also determined the width of the rails in the future, depending on how wide Dashun's ass is.

After the completion, people in Songjiang Prefecture have gradually adapted to this simple means of public transportation.

It is said that some businessmen have already seen the business opportunities and are ready to invest money in joint ventures and build a few routes that are obviously profitable.

In addition to pulling people, the key is to pull goods.

As long as it is profitable, capital is of course willing to invest money.

The pier and the core area around the trading company also learned from Amsterdam in the Netherlands and repaired some street lights.

In the past few years, many new occupations have appeared in Songjiang Mansion, such as lamplighter, horse-drawn rail car driver, conductor, securities broker, full-time speculator...

On the way to the banquet, Liu Yu lifted the curtains of the carriage, looked at the street lights on both sides of the road, thoughtful.Xindao, you have all the preparations. Hanging street lights is indeed a little more "civilized" than beheading and hanging on the city wall.

When it was time for the banquet, a group of well-known businessmen who lined up in Songjiang Mansion were already waiting outside.

As soon as Liu Yu's carriage arrived, the rhythm of playing, playing and singing began.

Liu Yu can be considered to have experienced what flattery is like.

He was not worried about the emperor being suspicious, and felt that he was getting too close to the businessman.

Because after going to Nanyang, he had no more soldiers in his hands, and the chief general of the field troops stationed near Songjiang Mansion was not familiar with Liu Yu at all, and all the officers were not from the Qingzhou Army.

In the future, the emperor wanted to use him as a money bag, so he didn't dare hand it over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs with confidence, for he was afraid that he would have a lot of money in his hands.It is unlikely that the emperor will invest directly and openly, and some things still need to be covered up.

It is estimated that the businessmen who greeted him at this time are most concerned about the court's trade policy after going to Nanyang and whether the court is going to monopolize.

Human consciousness does not fall from the sky, it can only be understood from past history.The past history is related to Nanyang, that is, the Sanbao eunuch's voyage to the West.

That is actually a special monopoly franchise company, relying on administrative orders to prohibit private people from going to sea, but the official monopoly of the spice trade does make money.

These businessmen were a little worried about whether the imperial court would adopt such a policy.I even wonder if the imperial court will ban the sea again?Let the imperial court monopolize the profits of Nanyang trade?
Of course Liu Yu understands the worries and expectations of the emerging class.

After a flattery, he also cut straight to the point.

"If you invite me to a banquet today, if you say that it is just to congratulate the heavenly dynasty on going to Nanyang again, and the coming of all nations; or to congratulate me on making new achievements and great martial arts... Actually, I don't believe it."

"You guys are so familiar with me. Don't I know what you really care about? You know, the trade with Japanese... er, the trade with Japan is also handled by this official."

"These polite words will be avoided today."

As he spoke, he cupped his hands toward the north and said, "The Holy Son of Heaven sent me ashore from the Songjiang River, not just to let the envoys of those small countries see the prosperity and prosperity of the Celestial Dynasty. What you want to know, you should know today. The so-called scholars, farmers, businessmen, The four peoples are the foundation of the country, and you are a merchant, one of the four peoples, how can the Holy Son of Heaven not cherish it?"

"In addition to the expedition to Japan before and today's trip to Nanyang, you have also contributed a lot. Some provided ships, some transported food and grass, and some provided auxiliary ships. These imperial courts kept it in mind."

After the speech, outline the key points and directly hit the hearts of these emerging classes.

This is indeed what they are most concerned about.

Hearing Liu Yu talk about the contribution of the merchant class in the previous invasion of Japan and this trip to Nanyang, the merchants were overjoyed.

Since we talked about credit first, we must let everyone eat meat together.Even if you don't eat meat, you can still drink soup, right?
Nowadays, a large number of wealthy businessmen in Songjiang Mansion hold a sum of cash in their hands, and they are just waiting for the end of the war in Nanyang to see if they can seize the opportunity.

In the past few years, there have been many investment directions, many of which are dominated by the imperial court, and they are still profitable.

For example, the cultivation of Ezo and the buying of fish and shrimp, the mining of iron mines in Liaodong, the development of coal mines in Gyeonggi, I heard that in the past few years, I will be in charge of Tianbaofu's oil to develop a lamp oil that can replace high-quality whale oil...

But these, compared with Nanyang trade, seem to be worse after all.

We all know that Nanyang trade makes money. Thinking about it, we know that this Westerner traveled tens of thousands of miles and traveled to Nanyang across several major oceans. If it wasn't for huge profits, how could he be so addicted?
Although I don't know how the imperial court plans to engage in Nanyang trade, or even whether the imperial court is open to businessmen.

However, as long as the court does not expressly say that it is absolutely impossible, these people have a glimmer of hope.

With a glimmer of hope in mind, I prepared a large amount of cash early.In order not to have to borrow usury when the time comes to raise shares and have no cash in hand.The loan interest in Dashun is much higher than that in Amsterdam.

(End of this chapter)