Cutting 1719

Chapter 538
The Guangzhou Wharf is bustling with people, the streets are full of shouts for goods, and the shops on the street are densely packed, and there are many Western faces mixed in the crowd. This scene is not strange, it seems to be commonplace.

In fact, since the Tang Dynasty, Guangzhou has been one of the most important commercial ports in our country, mainly for foreign trade. In the reign of Kangxi, a special organization such as the Thirteen Banks was born.

"The foreign ships are competing for government and merchants, and the cross gate is open to Sanyo. The five silk and eight silk silk are good, and the money is piled up in thirteen lines."

This poem describes the grand scene of Shisanhang’s overseas trade in the East, Southeast Asia, and the West, which shows the prosperity of Shisanhang at that time, and the appearance of Shisanhang has a lot to do with the special status of Guangzhou. , because in the 23rd year of Kangxi, the Qing court took the lead in releasing the sea ban in Guangzhou, Xiamen, Yuntaishan and Lianyungang, and also established four major customs.

The determination of the four customs made these places prosperous for a while, and the commercial atmosphere was very strong. At that time, during the foreign trade activities of Guangzhou merchants, the imperial court appointed a person as the foreign trade agent, who monopolized the entire foreign trade of Guangzhou. Later, the merchants started from their own interests. , jointly organized and established a guild group, the so-called "public line", the predecessor of the thirteen lines.

Of course, in this era, the thirteen lines have not achieved such a prosperous status in later generations, and they have already declared the end-because since Guangdong was occupied by the Fuhan Army, it has given great support to industry and commerce, and has given such a strong support to the thirteen lines. The hong merchants relying on the official monopoly position were restricted and cracked down.

In the "Jiangnan Industrial and Commercial Regulations" issued by Ning Chu, an all-round attack on abnormal business competition was carried out. Therefore, the thirteen lines that could not get the support of the imperial court naturally and quickly disappeared under the cruel competition of other big chambers of commerce. At the same time, a group of new-age merchants emerged in Guangzhou.

Since these merchants in the new era are all elites who have emerged from the brutally competitive business, they are naturally much stronger than the predecessors of the Thirteen Banks. With their efforts, Guangzhou today appears to be more prosperous.

"Guangdong Customs is indeed the largest commercial port in the south today. Judging from the number of merchant ship masts moored at the port, it is already very surprising."

A young man with a short beard stood in front of the port, with a slight sigh on his face. Obviously, under Ning Chu's governance, the scale of development of Guangdong Customs was getting bigger and bigger.

At this time, behind the young man, there was still a muscular young man, he said softly: "My lord, the officials of the Guangzhou Third Division are waiting now, do you want to see me?"

The so-called three local divisions are the highest local bureaucracy, namely, the chief minister, the inspector, and the capital inspector, who are in charge of civil affairs, judiciary, and supervisory power respectively. , which shows how powerful this young man is.

The young man's background is indeed great. He is Ning Qianqiu who just returned from Qinghai. After the Dayi Army entered Qinghai-Tibet, the relationship with Ning Chu became very clear, so Ning Yu arranged for another person to maintain the relationship with Ning Chu. The relationship with the Great Rebel Army, and then Ning Qianqiu was mobilized back.

After calling Ning Qianqiu back, Ning Yu had a detailed talk with him in person, the key content of which was to prepare for the war against the Netherlands in the future, in which Ning Qianqiu will become the shadow leader of the Nanyang region in the future and take full responsibility Conducting intelligence work in the Nanyang region, and his base camp is in Guangzhou.

Ning Qianqiu withdrew his thoughts, but now he is much more mature than in the past, and said lightly: "There is no need to meet, we are not people in the officialdom, so there is no need to pay attention to common etiquette, besides, what they respect is not Our shadows."

The young man nodded yes, and then went down to convey the order. After a while, the carriages began to leave along the rolling crowd, and some of them were watching this way. It was obvious that they hadn't completely Give up.

Ning Qianqiu didn't pay attention to these people, but walked towards the city of Guangzhou, where he will live and fight for a long time in the future. Compared with Nanjing and the Dayi Army, Guangzhou today is a bit more barbaric The breath of growth will not appear so bloody.

"Qianqiu, I have high expectations for you, not only because of your past achievements, but also hope that you can develop your full potential and help Da Chu completely lay the foundation for Nanyang's rule."

Ning Qianqiu walked silently, the words of the emperor were still in his ears, he had to think a little bit more, he knew the emperor very well, and he also understood that the emperor did not want to be just like the Dutch, the emperor needed to control Nanyang at a deeper level, Among them, economic, cultural and political binding will be very important.

Just like the Dutch, they seem to be majestic in Nanyang on the surface, but in fact the crisis is already deep. It seems that they have fought several battles with Java before, and the Dutch do not have much advantage. It almost acquiesced that Nanyang's local strength self-reproduction.

Such Southeast Asia can only be regarded as a colony for the Netherlands, and once there is any change in the future, it will not be far from collapse.

But for Da Chu, it is very important to completely digest Nanyang. Only after completely eating Nanyang can he further control Southeast Asia and even the undiscovered Australian land in the future.

"My lord, we have reached our territory ahead."

A guard's face was slightly excited. It was obvious that he had been exhausted from running around for a long time, and he really didn't want to follow Ning Qianqiu around.

Ning Qianqiu shook her head lightly, the expression on her face was as determined as if she had decided to go to the Dayi Army back then.

"Don't call me a master anymore. If you want to call me the shopkeeper, we will be the shopkeepers of this Changtai Chamber of Commerce in the future."

When Ning Chu's great spy arrived at the Guangzhou pier, two blond and blue-eyed Westerners also stood on the ground of the pier, looking at the bustling city of Guangzhou, they couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration.

"There are so many people here, you can't see these in the Port of London"

"But there's a lot more shit everywhere in the Port of London than here!"

The two laughed loudly, obviously complaining about the London environment has penetrated into their daily habits, and similar habits include complaining about London bureaucrats-they are all a pile of shit.

After the two laughed, one of them said again: "John, the company sent us here this time, but we hope that we can make some achievements, at least not make too many losses, right?"

The young man named John was obviously very confident, and said with a smile: "Lev, didn't we all have a lot of confidence before we came here? I believe that the fruits of British civilization will not disappoint this rich country. Not only do we have to sell the bulk goods that come in, but we also need to ship back a lot of goods, such as porcelain, tea and rhubarb.”

Li Wei shook his head and lamented: "You don't know that although the company has always been able to make profits in China's trade, it is only by shipping the goods from China back to Europe that these benefits can be obtained, but At that time, it was also based on the fact that the gold-silver ratio was different, but now the gold-silver ratio in Ningchu has been adjusted to be similar to that of the world—this means that our past operation methods may not be able to be re-realized."

With the gradual improvement of Ningchu's monetary policy, coupled with the emergence of a large number of new gold and silver currencies in the market, traditional currencies began to gradually disappear rapidly, especially copper coins have been completely replaced by copper coins with stable exchange rates, so this also makes the past use of Westerners who trade in exchange for silver have no way to continue playing this game.

Secondly, there is another point that Levi did not say, because in the Chinese society at this time, the small peasant economy has not been completely destroyed, which leads to the fact that the goods that have been transported at high cost have become cost-effective in front of local goods. Therefore, in simple terms, the trade between European countries and China is in a long-term huge deficit, and a large amount of gold and silver have flowed into China under this trade system.

It has to be said that for other European countries, it is not an easy matter to really recover the loss in trade. Even if they want to use force to solve it, it will be difficult for the vast land and the large population growth. In front of him, he lost the courage to use force to solve the problem.

Therefore, after European countries sent envoys to Nanjing, the British East India Company also started other attempts, sending a group of people including John and Levy to Guangdong Province, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Nanjing, hoping to find a new route. The road to riches.

John was silent for a while, and then he said firmly: "Even if other products can't make merit, but I believe that with it, the Chinese people will definitely spit out all their money in the future!"

(End of this chapter)