Xinshun 1730

Chapter 943
If we say that the trade between West Africa and South America, these Dashun maritime merchants who have just begun to see the world have never thought of it.

Then, the trade in Persia, India, and Southeast Asia, where Dashun has received VOC, is an unexpected and reasonable high profit.

They had seen the ledgers of the Dutch East India Company before. In the Dutch company, the Southeast Asia, India and Persia trade made money, but the cost was also high.And it also involves 17 gentlemen from the central faction, seven provincial chambers of commerce; some fights with the local Batavian faction, so the accounts are very complicated.

So shareholders have never doubted that it can be profitable.

But when Liu Yu reported the profit amount, they were greatly surprised.However, after Liu Yu finished talking about these factors that are more profitable than the Dutch, he felt that it was indeed within reason.

Dashun Western Trading Company was able to obtain high profits after taking over the orders from the Dutch, which was unique to Dashun Trading.

When the Dutch dealt with it, they always faced a problem, that is, the shortage of silver.

For example, the Netherlands has to go to Surat, India to buy cotton cloth, and then use the Indian cotton cloth to transport it to the Spice Islands in exchange for various spices.

And why don't they use Songjiang cloth and Jinling cloth?
It is not because Songjiang cloth and Jinling cloth are inferior to those in Surat, nor is it because cotton cloth in Dashun is more expensive than cotton cloth in India.

It's because of... the silver problem.

In India, spices such as pepper can be used for turnover by comprador middlemen.

For example, comprador merchants in India can receive Dutch spices, groceries, hardware, needles, thread, etc., and calculate the price.

Then use the calculated price to pay the Dutch cotton cloth.

Among them, there is no need for silver turnover.

But if the Dutch want to buy cotton cloth from Dashun, they have to face a problem: how to buy it?
At this time, the whole world is facing a problem. With the warming of the climate and the exchange of new crops, the population begins to increase rapidly.In fact, meat consumption per capita in Europe has been declining since the 18th century.The decline in meat consumption has greatly affected the sales of spices.

The problem in Dashun is more serious than in Europe, with less meat per capita.

In rich areas, such as Yangzhou, Jiangnan and other places, the cuisine here does not like spices very much.This is an aesthetic issue. Yangzhou cuisine and Suzhou-Hangzhou cuisine are all elegant and elegant, and they don't like the strong taste of spices.

This made the Netherlands try to sell spices to Dashun in the early years, but the sales failed.

Furthermore, the smuggling in Dashun is more difficult to control than in the UK. There is no shortage of spices in Dashun, even if the Dutch monopolize it.

Henan's hot and spicy soup, even though the Dutch claim to have a monopoly on spices, they still haven't stopped.Where do spices like pepper come from?Naturally, those skilled smugglers from Dashun.

So the situation also appeared: the Dutch bought goods in Dashun, and in most cases they could only pay for silver and gold.

And after Liu Yu cut off the trade between the Netherlands and Japan, the problem of insufficient cash became more and more serious.

The Dutch had already started direct trade with Dashun, but they had to choose cotton cloth from India.

Because the small amount of silver needs to buy tea, porcelain, and raw silk that are irreplaceable and have higher profit margins.

The Dutch calculated that buying cloth for one dollar to exchange for spices in Southeast Asia, and buying tea for one dollar and selling it back to Europe, the latter would be more profitable.

Good steel should be used for the blade, and the few silver should be used for high-margin commodities.

At the same time, due to problems such as insufficient silver, the Netherlands had to choose some daily necessities in Europe, because they can also use bonds for turnover in Europe.

As we all know, capital seeks profit.

If European daily necessities and hardware products can really make a profit in China, then their trade will definitely be mixed with a large number of daily necessities, and there will be no such speech made by the British East India Company in Congress in 1820: In the past 23 years, textile and hardware products have been sold to China, which has brought losses of 160 million pounds to the company.

Therefore, it can be seen that daily necessities and hardware products in Dashun are definitely cheaper than those in Europe.

However, the Dutch East India Company is obviously closer to China, but because of the shortage of silver, they cannot use cheap Chinese goods to sell in Southeast Asia.

The limited silver should be used to buy goods with higher profit margins.This makes the small commodities they sell to India and Southeast Asia are relatively expensive European products.

At the same time, because of Batavia's special political status, all transactions must be transferred in Batavia.

The ship has to come to Batavia first, and after distribution and packaging, it goes to India, where cotton cloth is changed, and then it is distributed in Batavia and sent to various regions.

Sometimes we have to consider the problem of insufficient money and have to reduce the supply of goods.

Reducing the supply of goods while maintaining a monopoly will obviously lead to rampant smuggling-Spain has taught the Dutch several times, and they insist on monopolizing when they have insufficient goods. Isn’t this being smuggled?

Now that Dashun has taken over the orders from the Dutch, at least in terms of the supply of goods, it has eliminated the problems faced by the Netherlands.

In terms of supply, Dashun is absolutely confident.

Even the short-term watch industry in China, the British have lamented in history, sold high-priced watches and music boxes to China for 20 years, and the result was that 20 years later, the clockwork craftsmen in Birmingham hired more apprentices because of the prosperity of foreign trade for 20 years. Then 20 years later collective unemployment.

Another one, Batavia is worthless to Dashun.That was the "capital" of the Dutch East India Company, but to Dashun, Malacca meant more, and Batavia was nothing special.

Therefore, Dashun's cargo ships were directly distributed in Songjiang Prefecture, and after distribution, they were directly pulled to various cities and islands in Nanyang.

Silver has sufficient capital, and at the same time relies on paper money and the absolute dominance of handicraft products to establish paper money credit.

Pull, sell goods, collect money; buy spices, give money.

There is no need for compradors to add a layer of price, and there is no need for compradors to turn over silver, and directly adopt the warehouse model: the company builds its own warehouse, and the goods are received and sold in the warehouse.

This is also the difference between Dashun Capital and Dutch Capital.

The interest rate in the Netherlands was too low, so that the Dutch East India Company’s share capital was always small, and it issued bonds when it was short of money; It is much larger, because it is doomed to be unable to borrow money, and can only rely on the accumulation of equity and profits, and the working capital is more abundant.

Dashun does not need to face the "silver shortage" situation in the Netherlands.

Dashun’s trade really doesn’t know how to make a deficit, and the maritime merchants don’t want to do this—this is not even a good thing for the maritime merchants. When they go to Europe to fill up the goods, when they return, they are basically empty except for silver. This time, whether you buy and sell, or just sell and not sell, the difference in profit is huge. The problem is that the sea merchants have been thinking for a long time and don’t know what to bring when they come back—but the benefit of the reverse is that Dashun does not It is necessary to engage in that troublesome barter transaction, directly using money as an intermediary, rather than the comprador class as an intermediary.

Just for this point alone, Dashun's profit in Nanyang is much higher than that in Holland.

The profits from India and Persia should also be "thanks" to the pepper market opened by the Dutch in recent years.

Liu Yu has always said that the 17-member committee of the Dutch East India Company has caught up with the trend of the times and the era when pigs can go to heaven.

As far as decision-making ability is concerned, as long as there is some decision-making ability, it will not lead to Chinese resistance caused by the disorderly expansion of Batavia's sugar cane plantations.

The same goes for the pepper problem.

During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the supply of pepper in the European market was less than demand due to the pinch of the shipping route, and the price soared to 1.1 florins a catty.

The 17-member committee saw that the price was unrealistic, right?

So he ordered Batavia to stock up on pepper.

He never wondered why the price of pepper soared during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

If you say it's the first time, it's understandable.

In fact, a similar thing happened during the first Anglo-Dutch war. It was also the war that caused the supply of pepper to be less than the demand, and the price surged and then plummeted.

Even if it is a dog, the first time it rings the bell for food, and the second time it rings the bell for food, the dog should know that there is some connection between the bell and food when it rings the bell for the third time, right?
It is science that can summarize this connection into laws and make sense.

The group of 17 gentlemen lacked basic scientific literacy.

After the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Batavia was able to stock up on pepper, but it was hard to collect it.

In the years after the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, 1000 million catties of pepper were shipped to Europe every year.

Then he continued to expand the purchase volume without stopping, which finally caused the price of pepper to drop to the lowest point in history in 1680, from 1.1 at the peak to 0.19 at the lowest point. This is no longer a cut in half.

The 17-member gentleman group were not fools, but their reaction was a little slow, and when they came to their senses, they couldn't stop.

Ordinarily, in this case, it can be regarded as "unintentionally planting willows and willows into shade", and the price war has guaranteed the Netherlands' monopoly on pepper in the European market.

Now that a monopoly has been achieved, it is supposed to reduce the volume of transportation, create scarcity, and prepare to increase prices.

But at this time, the 17-member gentleman group was discouraged again, thinking that if the price was raised, the UK would not be jealous?Don't want to rob Southeast Asia?It can't beat the UK and is still facing the threat of France. Simply, let's maintain this low price.

As long as I'm cheap enough, then you won't be jealous, and you won't bother to be jealous.

With this attitude, the output resulting from the expansion of purchases in the past few years cannot be destroyed artificially like cloves. Isn't that tempting the British to snatch it?
What to do with such a large output?

Europe can't eat it, China doesn't want it, and Japan eats very little meat, and I haven't heard of salted fish with pepper. After looking around, I had to sell it to India and Persia.

In the first 40 years of Dashun’s journey to Nanyang, the Dutch East India Company greatly expanded the Indian market, and even made Indians prefer to eat various spices.

This is a kind of wedding clothes for others.

That's why Liu Yu said that the tangible assets of the Dutch East India Company didn't have much money.Be it equity capital, dilapidated company buildings, or warehouses everywhere, these tangible assets are worthless at all.

But VOC's intangible assets are really valuable.

Over the past few decades, a habit, a market, and a complete trading system have been cultivated. These are huge intangible assets, which have been given to Dashun in waves.

Different issues should be treated differently, some will rise and some will fall.

For example, cloves, with the competition from Brazilian lilac wood, Dashun must expand the plantation, with the advantage of low cost, destroy the Brazilian lilac plantation and regain the European market.

But there is no good substitute for pepper.

Dashun is not afraid of the envy of the British to snatch it, and there is no need to consider what to do with the envy of the British after the price increase.

Therefore, on the one hand, Dashun took over the Indian pepper market left by the Netherlands, and on the other hand, raised the selling price of pepper by 50%.

A price increase of 50% is not calculated by a 50% increase in profits.

If you sell something that costs one yuan, you can sell it for two yuan, and the profit rate is 100%; if you increase it by 50%, you can sell it for three yuan, and the profit rate is 200%.

This is a normal price.

The abnormal pricing is also due to the fact that Dashun went to Nanyang and went to war against the Netherlands, resulting in a serious shortage of spices in the world market within two years.

The short-term price surge, the profit is even more astonishing.

After all, Europeans are more proficient in hoarding goods, speculating, and hyping monopoly.The price of pepper has been very high in recent years.

In addition to spices, cotton trade.

In addition, Ceylon was seized by Dashun, and after Colombo was changed to Gaolang Port, it completed the monopoly of Ceylon gemstones, cinnamon, and betel nuts.

Ceylon betel nut is an important dye for dyeing cloth in India. Indians like the color of betel nut dyed.

Although the gems, cinnamon and betel nuts of Ceylon are all obtained from the emperor's exclusive monopoly of domestic funds, but because they have to find a trading company to sell them, the emperor and the company share [-]/[-].

Britain and France went to war in India, and Dashun went to war against the Netherlands, and Dashun quickly resolved the Nanyang issue, allowing Dashun to quickly complete the monopoly of the betel nut needed in the Indian market.

Britain and France did not want to offend Dashun on the Ceylon issue, and both sides tacitly withdrew their forces from Ceylon.They didn't have much power in the first place, just three or two cinnamon factories, so it wasn't worth offending Dashun.

During the war between Britain and France in India, they robbed each other's ships, which made Dashun seize the opportunity and make a fortune.Far beyond the profits of the era when the Dutch were operating.

Not to mention cinnamon.

For the remaining spices, due to the impact of new indulgences such as tobacco, tea, and coffee, sales have decreased.But cinnamon is just the opposite. Cinnamon is a spice that Europeans like to add to coffee, tea, wine, sugar and even tobacco.

The wide spread of the new indulgence contributed to the increase in sales of cinnamon.

For the most part, these situations can be regarded as the right timing, seizing the opportunity of the Austrian King's Succession War, and Liu Yulai, who specializes in seducing people, is a good start, and the profits are naturally ridiculously high.

(End of this chapter)