Fenghou

Chapter 1332 Construction Agency
Hundreds of people are moving heavy boxes from the big boats to the pier. There are already nearly a hundred large boxes on the pier, and each big box weighs two hundred catties.

Chao Kun ordered the soldiers to open a box. Inside were pieces of blackened silver ingots, each weighing up to ten catties, which seemed to be of relatively rough quality.

"Is it coarse silver?" Chen Qing frowned.

"Reporting to Your Highness, their silver refining skills are not good, they are all crude silver!"

"That's not actually 80 taels of silver?"

"no no!"

Chao Kun quickly waved his hand and said, "80 taels is the amount of fine silver. We have estimated that one catty of rough silver can be refined to about 14 taels of fine silver, and two taels are waste residue. The other party also admitted that, so the rough silver we got totaled There are 96 taels, a total of [-] catties."

"This business is doing well!"

Chen Qing was very satisfied, and exchanged pig iron for silver, and their piles of old soldiers were also sold.

"What's this?" Chen Qing walked to a dozen or so smaller boxes.

"This is gold, all of which are gold sand. There are a total of 3 taels. If there are a few big names who don't have enough silver, they will pay with gold sand. The ratio is one to three."

Chen Qing nodded, "And then? Besides silver and gold, did you buy any other goods?"

Chao Kun said with a wry smile: "Japan is still really poor, and there are no special products, or some worthless bamboo, wood, and poor quality cloth. The price of rice is more expensive than that of Jiangnan. The only useful thing is dried fish. They are very big, and there are also pearls, conchs, etc., but there are not many expensive ones, so the humble fleet had to come back with dried fish, one penny a piece, very cheap, and bought all the dried fish they had accumulated for two years .”

"Dried fish is also good. It can improve the soldiers' food. It's better than returning with an empty boat!"

Chen Qing asked again with a smile: "Where are the pirates? With so much silver and gold, aren't pirates greedy?"

"We have three warships escorting us. We tested an iron fire mine in the seaport of Hizen country, and it blew up an old ship. Over pirates."

Chen Qing couldn't help laughing, the pirates also knew that life was more important than silver.

Chao Kun waved his hand, and the soldiers brought up two smaller boxes, Chao Kun said: "This is some treasures presented to His Highness."

"What treasure?"

Chao Kun opened the box, and inside was a box of precious conch shells, and a small box. Chen Qing picked up the small box and opened it, and the treasure was shining brightly. Inside were twenty pearls the size of longan. thing.

"Where is this box?" Chen Qing pointed to another slightly larger box and asked.

"This is a treasure I got by accident. A fisherman sold it to us for only twenty pennies."

Opening the box, there were several large pieces of black-painted jelly, weighing a total of one hundred and fifty to sixty kilograms. Chen Qing sniffed it, crushed it a little bit, and shouted back, "Old Zhou, your baby is here!" Already!"

"What baby?"

Zhou Kuan was looking at the fineness of the gold sand, but his ears were pricked up. He hurried over, looked down at the colored jelly, and his expression changed, "Amberx!"

"That's right! I've never seen such a big ambergris!"

Zhou Kuan gasped, "It's rare to find ambergris weighing twenty catties. The largest piece weighs over a hundred catties. These pieces are not small. How much does it weigh?"

"Report to Counselor Zhou, a total of 160 four catties!"

Zhou Kuan likes spices, he rubbed his hands and smiled and said, "I don't want too much, just give me a catty and I'll be satisfied."

"You have your share!"

Chen Qing said to the soldiers: "Send it to Tianxiang Pavilion, let Tianxiang Pavilion cut it into small pieces, put it in a box by two, and then send it to my house."

"Your Highness wants to reward the officials?" Zhou Kuan came to his senses.

Chen Qing nodded, he took another largest conch and handed it to Zhou Kuan, "This is for your grandson!"

"Your Highness, I have two grandsons!" Zhou Kuan said with a cheeky smile.

Chen Qing had no choice but to take another big one for him.

"Let me cut another catty of ambergris, and I don't care about the rest."

Chen Qing picked up a palm-sized piece of ambergris from the bottom of the box and handed it to him, "This is enough, at least two catties!"

Zhou Kuan was overjoyed, and went to see his Jinsha again with ambergris and conch.

Chen Qing then asked his soldiers to carry the ambergris to Tianxiang Pavilion. Tianxiang Pavilion is a government-run shop that specializes in selling Nanyang spices, and also sells ambergris.

In the afternoon of that day, Chen Qing held a meeting in the Internal Affairs Hall. In the large courtyard of the Internal Affairs Hall, more than [-] large boxes filled the yard, and all the lids of the boxes were opened.

The counselors and the main officials of various departments also visited together. They heard that this was silver exchanged for 50 catties of pig iron and a batch of old soldiers. The officials were all amazed. A hoe weighing a few catties only costs a few hundred renminbi, including the blacksmith's wages.

Calculated from this trip to Japan, the huge profit is almost a hundred times, and there are 3 taels of gold sand. This trade is really cost-effective!
In the conference hall, five counselors discussed with Chen Qing the establishment of the Foreign Trade Administration. Chen Qing said to everyone: "Everyone has seen the huge profits from overseas trade. This is an important shortcut to solve our financial shortage. Let’s talk about the establishment of an overseas trade agency!”

Zhou Kuan said with a smile: "The Financial Secretary is firmly supportive. This time, the 5 catties of crude silver can be refined to more than 80 catties, which is equivalent to 400 taels of silver, and [-] million guan. We can do many things. The old man has never been so comfortable."

Jiang Yanxian also said with a smile: "Actually, we all agree with the establishment of the Overseas Trade Agency. There is no harm, but we have to think clearly about what can be sold and what is prohibited. We need to make a regulation and then continue to revise it according to practice. , and finally formed a law."

"Counselor Jiang is right!"

Zhang Miao also said: "The Ministry of Officials considers the staffing and how to select excellent talents. You can set up an overseas business department in the department to select outstanding talents, but the most urgent thing is to build a framework."

Chen Qing nodded, looked at Zhang Xiao again, and said with a smile: "Overseas trade, the military department is also on the scene!"

Zhang Xiaowei smiled and said: "Your Highness refers to the escort, there is no problem with that, but I have another idea!"

"Chan Zhang, please tell me!"

Zhang Xiao said calmly: "Overseas trade is actually a part of foreign trade. In addition, there is also land foreign trade. We have been doing it all the time, but it always feels relatively loose. There is no complete law or system to manage it. When the commercial tax was exempted in [-], the Sogdians and Hu merchants from the Western Regions were also exempted. They made a lot of profits.

What I mean is, take advantage of this opportunity to establish all kinds of foreign trade systems, not only official, but also private, how much tax should be collected, who will be responsible, etc., should be clarified together. "

Lu Qingshan also said slowly: "Counselor Zhang is right. I also think that a trade supervisor should be set up, with a domestic department, an overseas department, and a foreign land department. The Municipal Shipping Administration is enough, and in addition to promulgating the catalog of prohibited items, which strategic items are strictly prohibited from being exported to mainland and overseas, such as silkworm eggs, spinning wheels, textile craftsmen, porcelain craftsmen, etc. As for weapons, pig iron, etc., overseas You can go out, but not on land."

Lu Qingshan is worthy of being a minister of the court, and his views and thinking are higher. If he doesn't say it, everyone is unaware that the export of silkworm eggs should be strictly prohibited.

Chen Qing nodded, and said to Jiang Yanxian: "Counselor Jiang will take the lead in this matter. People from each department will form a preparatory team to prepare for the establishment of a trade supervisor."

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[Going online for a car inspection today, it took half a day, and there were only two updates]

(End of this chapter)