Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 98 Japanese wealthy merchants
To the west of the main hall of Wuzhen Temple is a hall called Qinglian Hall. On both sides of the hall door are engraved a couplet of flying dragons and phoenixes. The upper couplet is "Walking through dangers like barbaric lands and remote lands with treasure rafts", and the second couplet is "Fengtian responds to all requests." The calmness of the waves entrusts Cihang."

The main deity enshrined in the Green Lotus Hall is Guanyin Bodhisattva, and his attendants are Shancai Tongzi, Dragon Girl, Wei Tuo and Tao Wen Tianwang.The hall is dedicated to both Tianfei and Guandi, and the attendants include Qianliyan, Shunfeng'er, Huye, Guanping, Zhoucang and Chituma.

This was originally a place where Tang people went to seek peace or wealth. Occasionally, Leghang Tang people were allowed to hold trade fairs here to distribute goods to residential Tang people.But today, a group of Japanese businessmen with moon-haired heads gathered in the courtyard in front of the palace. All of these Japanese were dressed in gorgeous Wu clothes, and some even had swords and wakizashi stuck in their waists.

This is mainly because what is on display here today is not southern goods, but northern goods, mainly ginseng and mink. Not only are the unit prices high, but most residential Tang people have no sales channels, so the only people invited are the richest people from the Japanese country. big businessman.

"My dear brother, this is Goto Shozaburo from Edo. My father had a close relationship with his father during his lifetime. He was a royal merchant of the shogunate. The general contracted the minting rights to his family. My dear brother, the gold on your ship needs to be sold. If you go out, you'll probably land on him."

"This is Chaya Shirojiro from Kyoto, and he is also the royal merchant of the shogunate. It is said that the first shogun ate the sea bream tempura donated by his father. He suffered from gastrointestinal discomfort and traveled westward."

"This is Konoike Zenemon from Osaka. He made his fortune in the wine business. He also works as a merchant and money banker. Many famous names in the Kinai have borrowed money from him."

"This is Sueji Heizo, acting official of Nagasaki. I told you before, my dear brother."

"This is Takagi Sakuemon, one of the four town residents of Nagasaki, and the person in charge of the shogunate's imperial supplies. Every year, he sends ships to Siam and other places to purchase items needed for the shogun's family."

"This is Sotaro Araki. He lives on the bank of the Urakami River, not far from here. He is the prince's consort of Annan Ruan. He had a close relationship with Uncle Ou back then. Nowadays, only the owner of the red seal ship in Japan is willing to go to sea in person. Him."

"This is Miura Anzhen. His foreign name is Joseph, and he is also the owner of the Zhuin Ship. His father is an Englishman. Back then, Duke Ieyasu sealed a 250-koku territory for his family near Edo..."

Zhang Jingquan, who was dressed in silk clothes, led Lin Hai to meet the invited Japanese wealthy businessmen one by one. Li Guozhu followed and introduced Lin Hai in turn in Chinese.

This fair was Lin Hai's idea. In addition to selling goods, the main purpose was to get to know these wealthy Japanese businessmen.Lin Hai didn't speak Japanese, so he just bowed one by one, and those wealthy Japanese businessmen also returned the courtesy: "This is our first meeting, please take care of me!"

Now is the season for Portuguese ships to enter the port. The silk-cutting talisman, composed of merchants from Edo, Osaka, Kyoto and other places, is gathered in Nagasaki. They are responsible for classifying the raw silk brought to the Portuguese, pricing them according to different grades, and then unifying them. Buy.

The Portuguese can only choose to sell or not to sell in this process, and have no power to participate in bargaining.In other words, as long as the price offered for cutting silk talismans is more cost-effective than shipping the raw silk back, the Portuguese can only accept it.This is the silk-cutting talisman system, which is currently only applicable to the Southern Barbarian trade with the Portuguese.

The Portuguese would ship about three thousand tons of raw silk every year during this season, which was not only large but also stable.This is a major annual trade event in Nagasaki. Countless overseas merchant ships will gather in Nagasaki at this time. Many businessmen with strong capital from Japan will also come to Nagasaki during this season to join in the fun.

It can be said that Nagasaki now has nearly half of the large-scale wealthy merchants in Japan.Lin Hai paid special attention to the few royal businessmen who could speak in front of the general, as well as the owners of the red seal ships who had close ties with overseas Southeast Asian regimes. These were all people worth making friends with, and today it was mainly about getting to know each other first.

These people were all invited by Zhang Jingquan, which shows that his reputation in the Japanese country is still not small.

After all, although Ishin Takaden was kicked out of the decision-making level of the shogunate, he was not completely defeated like Honda Masazumi.The general still built a temple for him in Kyoto and ordered him to take charge of Buddhist affairs as a shogunate monk. There was no telling whether he would return to the center of power one day.

Many people came here purely for Zhang Jingquan's sake. After all, they came to Nagasaki this season mainly for silk, porcelain and goods from the East and West, and their main focus was not on ginseng.

But when Lin Hai announced the list of goods for sale, everyone was shocked: tens of thousands of kilograms of ginseng, more than 3 mink skins, more than 1 taels of gold, and a considerable amount of other furs of various colors. , these goods are already worth millions of taels of silver at a rough calculation.

The wealthy Japanese businessmen looked at Lin Hai with a completely different look. This man's financial resources were really terrifying. It should be noted that the raw silk shipped by the Portuguese every year was worth only seven or eight million taels.Some people even secretly suspected in their hearts that this guy had robbed the annual ship sent by Tsushima to Korea, right?However, they soon gave up this idea. It was impossible for there to be so many ginseng minks on the ship. North Korea was quite reluctant to trade with Japan, and was particularly careful to restrict the export of ginseng.

Because of this, the supply of ginseng in Japan currently exceeds demand, and the price of ginseng in Edo remains around 70 taels all year round.The price quoted by Lin poster was 50 taels per catty, and all the Japanese businessmen present looked like red-eyed rabbits. This price was [-]% cheaper than the price of ginseng in Tsushima Island.

Lin Hai was not so generous when it came to furs and gold. His price was equivalent to about [-]% of the market price of Nagasaki.The main reason is that compared to ginseng, the quantity of the two is not large, and the impact on the market is relatively small. After all, Japan imports hundreds of thousands of deer skins from overseas every year.

But no matter how you say it, this price is quite sincere. Even considering that the influx of a large number of ginseng minks will cause the market price to fall, this transaction is still quite profitable.After all, Japan has mines, and the most important thing it lacks is purchasing power.

In just half a day, all the goods Lin Hai brought had been robbed.Of course, the main thing is to determine everyone's share. After all, no one will carry so much money with them, and the actual transaction will need to be completed in the next few days.

However, the total sales of Lin Hai's trip to Japan have been determined. Hirado is 23 taels, Nagasaki is 88 taels, and the total sales exceed 110 million taels.

In addition, there were more than [-] taels of silver lying on the Ganfu, which the two angels had worked hard to collect in North Korea.

According to the rules established in Chongming, the total of more than 120 million taels must be distributed as dividends based on the underlying stocks. The total dividend is [-]% of the total number, plus one ten thousandth of the nine-digit index.

In the afternoon of that day, Lin Hai distributed all the dividends and wages to everyone on the Ganfu in advance. There was a burst of joy on the ship. Many people had never seen so much money in their lives.

Xiao Zhou was so happy that he was holding five taels and one ingot of silver ingots. He put it in his arms and took it out to look at it.

Jiu Zhi smiled beside him and said, "You're a hopeless kid, and you can do this just for five taels of silver. I'll give you a dividend of 120, seven taels, eight cents, and six cents. What do you think? Do you accept it?"

Xiao Zhou reminded: "You still owe me more than 30 taels."

Jiu Zhi said indifferently: "Then I still have more than 90 taels. I won the bet in Chongming. This is how I gamble. I can lose dozens of taels at most and win at least a hundred taels. I will win tonight. Let me show you the big one again."

At this time, Skinny Monkey came over and said to Xiao Zhou: "Now that you have been paid, do you want to go out and play with Brother Monkey tonight?"

Xiao Zhou touched the silver ingot in his arms. He had just warmed it up, and suddenly he said with some reluctance: "You can go alone, I won't go."

Hearing this, Shouhou said to Waizui and the others beside him: "Tonight, we are the older ones, Mr. Chen can't say that."

The next day, Shouhou came back from Huayue Tower and boasted to Xiao Zhou about how he had endured the battle with the Eight-Nation Allied Forces last night. He talked for a long time, but saw Xiao Zhou's face full of grief and anger.

The thin monkey said with a smile: "Do you regret not going with us last night? In fact, it's okay not to go. The money in the Japanese country is really cheap. Brother Hou, I spent hundreds of taels in one night. I'd better keep the five taels of your wages and go back." Let’s talk about it later tomorrow.”

"Where do I have five taels left?" Xiao Zhou said on the verge of crying but without tears, "Damn it, Jiu Zhi, he was so angry at gambling last night that he forced me to lend him the money to make money, but in the end it was all in vain... "

The more Xiao Zhou said, the more ferocious his expression became, and in the end he almost gritted his teeth.He regretted it in his heart. If he had known that he would have gone with Shouhou last night, we couldn't afford the Eight-Nation Allied Forces, so we wouldn't have fought against the five-fingered girl?
(End of this chapter)