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Chapter 539 Shipyard Town 2
"Shopkeeper, what day is today? It's almost August 15th. Why is the street so deserted?"

In front of the Guanhai Building, the clown from the theater troupe wearing a bright red costume to welcome the guests restrained his figure, walked back to the counter listlessly, took the tea cup handed by the waiter and drank it in one gulp. After looking at the scattered diners in the building, and then at the clock on the counter, he made sure that the time was correct, and began to harass the second shopkeeper who was keeping accounts.

He really wasn't lazy today. He did somersaults and tricks and used all his clown skills, but not a single table of guests was brought in. Ask yourself, it’s not that your skills have deteriorated or your singing is too bad, it’s just that there aren’t many people on the street.

"The great craftsman who came to have dinner at noon said that this year the Southeast Asian countries had good weather and a bumper harvest, and the price of rice was low. The navy blocked more than a dozen ships of rice, and they have been docking in the port since the morning. So much rice needs to be unloaded, and the big ships have traveled a long way. It also needs maintenance, so they are probably all working overtime.”

The second shopkeeper didn't even raise his head, and answered the troupe's questions while fiddling with the thing in his hand. Even though Guanhailou is not the most stylish shop on the main street of Shangchang Town, and the girls and troupes in the building are not of the best quality, the business is no worse than those shops.

The reason is simple, it has the loudest name and the most advantageous geographical location. Since it was the first restaurant to settle here, not only did the early bird catch the worm, but it also had a close relationship with many stewards and craftsmen in the shipyard. As long as there was someone in the factory to entertain, nine times out of ten they would choose to watch the sea. building.

His mind was not on business at this time, but on this new thing called a calculator in his hand. It is square and about the size of two books, more than an inch thick, weighs three kilograms, has copper skin and copper bones, with five small dials exposed, and the hidden mechanism is extremely clever.

If you want to know what a number plus a number equals, you don’t need to memorize formulas or fiddle with an abacus. You just need to use a copper needle to dial the numbers on the dial into place. Choose whether to add or subtract, multiply or divide. After confirming that everything is correct, press the button next to it. Copper handle. With just a click, the numbers below the dial rotated on their own, giving the answer.

Is it accurate? The second shopkeeper has been doing the calculations for more than half an hour. He has gone through all the accounts for this month and there is no difference in any number. I had the intention to open the copper box to see what magical objects were hidden inside, but when I remembered the instructions to buy it from nowhere, I could only endure it no matter how curious I was.

Judging from the label on the copper box, this thing should be produced by Time Workshop. But there is really no such thing on the market, not to mention Shanghai County. I only went to the Time Workshop in Suzhou City last month, so there is absolutely no such thing.

If it hadn't been for four or five years of friendship and the reputation of Guanhailou, the master craftsman in the shipyard would not have pledged his meal partner to him for fifty taels of silver. It is estimated that in less than two months, people will have to use money to redeem it. Not only cannot it be dismantled, but it must also be kept carefully.

But once you get such a good treasure, you can't keep it for yourself, nor can you just let it go without generating any profits. You can't dismantle it, and you certainly can't copy it, but you can ask a familiar master where this thing is sold and how much it's worth.

As long as there is a place of origin and price, there is no need to worry about the supply of goods. With the name of Time Workshop and superb performance, it is easy to double the profit from resale.

It doesn’t take much, selling one or two every month is not less than the income from running a restaurant. There is no need to worry that no one will buy it because it is too expensive. There are many people who want to buy such a sophisticated gadget with such magical functions.

What? You can calculate it with an abacus! If you think about it this way, the situation will be small. No matter how superb you are at abacus, you still use the human brain. You need to recite a lot of formulas and practice for a long time.

But you don't need a calculator. As long as you know the words, you can learn it in half an hour by reading the manual. The calculation speed is not slower than that of a veteran who has used abacus for decades, and the results are not bad at all. Of course, calculators also have shortcomings, and they are quite large. It's too sophisticated, the price shouldn't be low, and most people will definitely not be able to use it. Moreover, if I hadn’t been in contact with the shipyard for several years, I wouldn’t have recognized this kind of Arabic numeral.

It's strange to say that Time Workshop can obviously use Chinese characters on watches and clocks, so why not make the calculator also have Chinese characters? It has to use these Arabic numerals that no one knows, which will affect sales too much.

But then again, most businessmen from Guangdong and Fujian know Arabic numerals. It is said that there are already local schools dedicated to teaching new knowledge, including the knowledge of using Arabic numerals for accounting.

The emperor is really wise, and he is more considerate than the common people think. It is definitely a good thing to be able to read and write, and you can be an official, but when you become such a big official, you are not very good at calculating accounts. If it is a little more complicated, you have to hire an accounting master. For this reason alone, the new policy is better than the old one.

"More than a dozen boats of rice... Oh my god, how much money do you need to make? It's easy for them to make money. They use so much good wood to build big boats and then drive the big boats to buy food. People don't want to get cheap. That’s not the case either.”

After listening to the explanation of the second shopkeeper, the guest of the opera troupe finally felt relieved, but he was worried about another thing. The price of rice in Nanyang was low, which was confirmed by the emperor in the fourth year of Jingyang, and many grain merchants in Suzhou and Hangzhou suffered a lot.

However, no one can do this obviously profitable business. Not to mention that the journey to the Southeast Asian countries is long and windy, and even when we get there, we can't deal with the local officials. Without their assistance, there is a high probability that food would not be purchased, but it would also attract bandits.

But the navy is not afraid. They have battleships and soldiers. It is said that they go sideways when they arrive in the Southeast Asia. Even the Francois who occupy Luzon Port have to go around the black sailboat when they see it. It is said that many people from Guangdong and Fujian have taken their families and followed the navy to Annan, where they rented land to plant trees and made a lot of money.

"Hey, can you please keep your voice down! What is this place? There are so many people coming and going. If someone from the navy hears it, every one of you in the troupe will have to dig rocks in the mines in the north. , I won’t close this restaurant.”

Although not all the customers who come to Shipchang Town are supporters of the New Deal, and the shipyard does not require merchants to control their speech and not speak ill of the New Deal, everyone still knows whose job they are holding.

In addition to having many rules and strict enforcement, the Navy has been really good to merchants in recent years. There are almost no additional fees other than the normal business tax, and there is no need to pay for it. There is no reason or position to complain behind your back.

"Okay, okay, I can't stop talking. Shopkeeper Qi, did the few Quanzhou merchants who came to the private room on the second floor last time plant trees and make a fortune in Annan? Why don't you tell me about the private land for tree planting? What is the specific charter? Can a past like mine be achieved? "

The theater troupe's receptionist didn't really blame the navy for making a fortune by relying on warships. He just saw people making a lot of money coming and going every day, but he couldn't find a suitable way to do it and felt anxious.

(End of this chapter)