Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 273: Finance and Dividends in the Seventh Year of Apocalypse
Zhu Yifeng almost cried after hearing this. Lin Hai saved him a lot of money.

There were more than 2,000 soldiers stationed in Penghu. In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, the monthly salary increased from nine coins to one tael and two taels, and the annual military salary required more than 30,000 taels. This did not include monthly rations or officers' expenses. In addition to the guerrillas, there were three captains and fourteen sentry officers on Penghu Island.

If Lin Hai's disarmament plan is followed, only one-tenth of the original troops stationed in Penghu will be retained, and the annual savings in food and wages will be at least 50,000, which is more than the annual customs duties paid by Yuegang.

If this plan is reported to the court, it goes without saying that the new emperor will be very happy. This is very important to Zhu Yifeng, after all, Wu Chunfu and others in the court are attacking him.

"Lin Yourong, do you have any conditions?" Zhu Yifeng asked after hesitating for a moment. As the governor of a province, he could easily control ordinary military generals, but Lin Hai was obviously an exception.

It can even be said that Zhu Yifeng could not afford to offend Lin Hai at all. After all, it was very easy for Lin Hai to kill him. He only needed to rebel against the court again, and then he, the governor who was in charge of recruiting the emperor, would be in trouble. However, Lin Hai could go overseas at any time. After all, he had done this once when he was the commander of a thousand households in Zhoushan.

"I dare not. But since my grandfather has said so, I will dare to raise one point. Ye Dajing, the former captain of the Penghu Guerrilla Banner, defected to Zheng Zhilong, and this position has been vacant. Can I let Shi Bi, the naval commander under me, take over? In addition, the captains of the left and right wings of Penghu are both unfit for duty. I request that they be dismissed or transferred and replaced by Yang Lu and Yang Ce."

"Okay, the governor has approved it!" Zhu Yifeng agreed readily. He also knew that the Penghu garrison would be equivalent to Lin Hai's private army. However, he could not care so much at the moment. At least Lin Hai himself was quite respectful to him, and the troops under his command were also strictly disciplined.

In fact, Lin Hai really didn't care about this army. His real purpose was mainly two points:
The first is to get an official position in the imperial court for my eldest brother-in-law, which is what Shibi has always dreamed of. It is also good for the company, as he can be transferred to serve as an official elsewhere in the future.

Second, as a Penghu guerrilla, Lin Hai could not leave his post without a transfer order. But in the next two years, he might be active in Southeast Asia for a long time, so he had to replace all the Penghu officers with his own people.

After meeting Zhu Yifeng, Lin Hai asked for leave from Zhu Yifeng on the grounds that his soldiers needed to be resettled. Then he led his army through Haitan Island and returned to Jinhe Kingdom with a long and windy ride.

With the upcoming expansion of the board of directors and the new situation facing the company's development, Lin Hai has been brewing a series of reform measures, and the organizational structure also needs to be adjusted to match them.

Lin Hai first convened a board meeting to determine the year-end dividends.

The financial income of Huiyou Company this year has tripled compared to last year, reaching more than 3 million taels. This is mainly due to the fact that the bulk of this year's income is not only from the Japanese trade, but also from the establishment of trade relations with the Spaniards. At the same time, it has also reaped a lot of benefits from the operations of raiding the nest of Wanggang and kidnapping Li Shi.

Expenditure also increased slightly. This year, the goods for overseas trade were actually purchased with real money, and the imports were more than last year. In addition, Jeju Island was almost purely invested, and it needed constant blood transfusions from the Kingdom of Jinhe.

At the same time, the staff size of the civil affairs department expanded rapidly, especially the Ship Bureau of the Construction Department. The Navy Department has built quite a few ships this year.

Fortunately, Lin Hai strictly controlled the establishment of the Army Department. According to the standards of Huiyou Company, for every additional person in the Army Department, the annual expenditure on food, equipment, training, etc. would have to increase by nearly 50 taels. This is the case when there is no war. If there is a war, it will be an even more bottomless pit. More importantly, this year's immigration work has been suspended for more than half a year, and at the same time, agriculture has a bumper harvest. Therefore, the loans issued by the Sihai Bank under the Finance Department have been greatly reduced, and at the same time, a large amount of repayments have been recovered.

In general, the increase in fiscal expenditure was far smaller than that in revenue, and at the end of this year, the company had nearly two million taels of cash in its account.

Lin Hai first asked everyone on the board of directors to speak. The result was unexpected. Except for Zheng Tingqiu, who mainly worked on ships overseas, almost everyone else said that the dividends should not be too much.

The most extreme of them was Wu Guoyi, who made an impassioned speech at the board meeting: "Now that Zheng Zhilong is dead, the company has no rivals at sea. From now on, we should focus on developing the army. The Jiannu are still wreaking havoc in Liaodong. The Army Department must expand the army to at least 50,000 before we can fight them. I think the company should suspend the dividend system until the Jiannu are wiped out."

As soon as this was said, Shibi objected immediately: "The Tartars in Liaodong are under the control of the imperial court. What does it have to do with the company? Do the Tartars hinder the company from making money? But I also think that the company should not distribute more dividends this year, because the Navy Department still needs to build more cruisers and recruit more sailors and gunners in order to gain more territory overseas."

Miguel agreed with this and chimed in, "That's right. The Navy Department is only strong enough to protect itself in the coastal waters. It is far from being a match for the Red Hair in the open seas. As the company's development continues to flourish, the Red Hair will go to war with us sooner or later. So I don't think it's appropriate to distribute more dividends before defeating the Red Hair. I heard that the Red Hair's company stipulates that no dividends will be distributed in the first ten years."

The Navy Department has three seats on the board of directors and is the undisputedly powerful department of Huiyou Company. Wu Guoyi was not a good speaker, and was speechless for a while after being interrupted by the two men.

At this time, Lin Hai came out to smooth things over: "First of all, I don't agree that the Tartars in Liaodong have nothing to do with the company. I think the Jiannu will sooner or later become the biggest obstacle to the company's development. In comparison, the red-haired people are nothing..."

Shibi and Miguel wanted to interrupt, but Lin Hai waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I also think that developing the navy is the top priority. Only if we completely defeat the red-haired people and gain maritime hegemony in the South China Sea, will we have the capital to fight a decisive battle with the Jiannu..."

He then looked at Wu Guoyi and said, "Deputy Commander Wu just said that we need 50,000 troops to fight the Jiannu. I agree with him, but the daily expenses of 50,000 soldiers alone will cost 2.5 million taels per year, not to mention the war. With the company's current business scope, we can't afford to support so many troops."

"The CEO is right. The company can make a profit of two million taels this year mainly because of a few windfalls. We cannot assume that there will be so much unplanned income next year..."

At this time, Zhu Niang also spoke up: "And everyone has overlooked one point. The company is about to start recruiting immigrants again, and the civil affairs expenses will also increase significantly next year. Compared with the expansion of the army, population is the long-term guarantee for the company's development."

She then changed the subject: "However, dividends are also related to the confidence of the company's employees. I suggest that we still distribute them this year. The total amount can be maintained at the same level as last year, and it would be best if it could increase slightly."

(End of this chapter)