The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 45 Pier

These two days

Feng Guohui arranged for Lin Ada to lead a caravan of more than 30 mules and horses, escorting more than mules and horses to set off southbound to deliver urgently needed daily necessities to the southern villages.

Purpose of this trip

In addition to replenishing supplies for several Nanyang companies' daily necessities stores, they will also use mobile mules, horses and carts to go deep into the gathering points of indigenous tribes for transactions, which will become routine in the future.

Considering the Nanyang Company's reputation, and the fact that each mobile mule and horse cart is equipped with an armed force of more than 10 people, there shouldn't be any big trouble.

The Nanyang Company has troops deployed in major towns in the south. Even if something happens, it can be suppressed with force nearby.

Squad leader He Qiang guards Tianjia Town. He has about 320 troops under his command, and they are currently undergoing intensive military training.

With the help of more than a dozen veterans who stayed in the local area and went to Nanyang, these little brats can be trained well.

Wu Siwen has been promoted to captain, guarding Yanwang City, with more than 500 troops under his direct and indirect command, plus more than people under Wang Erzhu, the team leader guarding Bomoluo Town, and can unite with the local indigenous armed forces.

Once the southbound mule and horse caravan is maliciously besieged, they can call for help nearby, and the reinforcements can be guaranteed to arrive in half a day.

Feng Guohui really didn't believe that any indigenous tribe would be so blind as to do evil to his own people?

If there is... then let's do another bloody sweep. It will only take a little more effort on the left and right.

What may seem like a daunting task in other businesses is a trivial matter here in Feng Guohui.

Who dares to prevent Nanyang Company from making big money?

That is the sworn enemy of Nanyang Company, so let’s have a try and see whether these natives have a tough neck or Nanyang Company’s sword is sharper?

From now on, sort by

Every week, the backbone of the company at the level of squad leader will lead the caravan of mules and horses south, and carry out trade activities along the new trade routes that have been opened to earn profits for the company.

This time I spent about 3.37 silver coins to buy daily necessities, and it took about half a month to 20 days in one trip.

After resting for more than ten days, he prepared to lead the next caravan of mules and horses south, and so on.

A rough estimate is that the gross profit is between 5 and 5.5 silver coins, which is an astonishing profit.

Subtracting property damage, personnel expenses and other expenses, the net profit is about 4 silver coins.

This amount of money is probably the total management fee collected by Nanyang Company for operating Wilson Road and Collie Street in one year.

Why are the profits of these two streets so small?

In fact, the two are not the same concept

The southern trade routes were opened up by the Nanyang Company, and they were able to absorb the entire profits from beginning to end without having to share the profits with others. This was the huge profit of monopoly.

The Nanyang Company has hundreds of merchants, hundreds of prostitutes, and thousands of shop assistants, helpers, coolies, etc. in these two streets of Surabaya Town, all of whom need to make money to support their families.

What Nanyang Company charges is management fees, which is a very small amount. Of course, the two are not the same.

Surabaya pier side

The famous Hu family mansion in Surabaya City is located not far from the dock in the north of the city, at the east end of Wilson Road, on a north-south street.

This street is called "Ping An Street" and is about 300 meters long. The Hu family's mansion is on this street. The northernmost end of the street is the Surabaya Pier.

The largest number of trading houses on Ping'an Street are trading shops, which deal in bulk goods such as grain, oil, cotton, sisal, tobacco, timber, tea, and kapok. There are also shops selling canvas, ropes, anchors, raw lacquer, fisheries, etc. Mainly Chinese.

In fact, in the entire Nanyang region, the Chinese have basically monopolized the shipping trade in the near and far seas, from Java, Sumatra, Semarang, Penang, Singapore, Siam, Luzon and other important seaports to the coasts of Shenzhou, Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong, and to the five islands of Fusang , Hyogo, and routes from Zhangquan to Ryukyu are all dominated by Chinese businessmen.

After Kangxi opened the sea in the early Qing Dynasty, with the full development of trade routes in the East, Southeast and Southeast Asia, the overseas immigration activities of Chinese people were greatly promoted.

Such as Fuso Nagasaki on the Eastern Sea Route, Luzon on the Southeast Sea Route, Hoi An in Guangnan on the Southern Sea Route, Ayutthaya (Ayutthaya) in Siam, Malacca on the Malay Peninsula, and on Java Island Kalaba, Semarang, Batavia, Surabaya and other places have Chinese settlements of varying sizes.

This made trade and immigration activities go hand in hand and complement each other. The Chinatowns formed in Southeast Asia and East Asia played a great role in promoting the formation and development of overseas Chinese business trade networks.

This extended a mature route like a spider web, which was the basis for the large-scale overseas Chinese immigration in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.

During this period, more than 700 million Chinese people left their hometowns to seek a way to survive in Southeast Asia, including more than million indentured Chinese workers.

As early as 1695 (the th year of Kangxi reign), the Englishman Boiya recorded in a letter written to the Council of the British East India Company in Madras, India;

"All trade is run by the Chinese," including trade with China, Japan, Siam, Cambodia, Manila, Batavia and other places.

"There are at least ten to twelve Chinese ships trading here every year, and the shipbuilding industry is prosperous."

By the middle of this century

New multilateral trade routes from the southeastern coast of China to Southeast Asia and Fuso have become densely networked. The leaders are Chinese businessmen, and Chinese has become the common language in Nanyang commercial transactions.

Back to topic

Feng Guohui and Hu Zhenlei, the head of the Hu clan, stood under the shade of the grove, looking at the busy and bustling dock, with an inexplicable light shining in their eyes.

Regarding the appointment at this place, Hu Zhenlei could not help but murmur in his heart, but in order to maintain the calm demeanor of the older man, he refrained from mentioning it.

We chatted for a while, but didn't get to the point.

"Brother Hu, the prosperity of Surabaya Port is well-deserved. More than half of the sail cargo ships in this port belong to Chinese businessmen, right?"

Feng Guohui said "Brother Hu", which made Hu Zhenlei's face twitch. He thought that this little bastard didn't even call him "Shibo", but just called himself "Brother Hu".

In terms of age, I'm a few years older than your father, okay?

But then I thought about it

Nanyang Company is now in the limelight, and its subordinates now have a large presence of more than a thousand people. It can be said that they are equally matched.     If given time

They are no less inferior to the three major families in Surabaya City. Although the three major families of Qiao, Hu, and Lin have deep foundations, they cannot withstand Nanyang Company's daily profits and are catching up too fast.

No matter what kind of business you do, you can't stand the huge profits from monopolizing a trade route.

Thinking of this, Hu Zhenlei calmed down a lot. He could barely hear the "Brother Hu", but he still said it with a black face;

"What Brother Feng said is true. There are 13 cargo ships of various sizes in the harbor, and nine of them are owned by Chinese merchants. You see...the four ships over there are all ore ships loading goods for the Qiao family. The Qiao family owns this dock. A third of it.”

Following the direction of Hu Zhenlei's finger, Feng Guohui saw that on the other side of the Surabaya Port wharf was an ore wharf with a wooden trestle extending into the sea, and three sail cargo ships parked on both sides of the trestle.

There is also a loaded sail cargo ship anchored in the bay, probably waiting for other cargo ships to load up and leave together in formation.

The entire Surabaya Port pier is about 600 meters long, with two wooden trestles extending into the coast.

The Qiao family's ore wharf occupies 1/3, and there is also a trestle that belongs to the family. There are hundreds of coolies working on the wharf, pushing wheelbarrows loaded with yellow sulfur ore.

Java is an island with quite active volcanic activity. So far, there are more than a dozen active volcanoes, and there are many remains of extinct volcanoes in history.

The Qiao family has a large natural sulfur mine in a mountainous area more than ten kilometers northwest of Sishui City. Not far away, there is also a copper-zinc mine. That mountainous area belongs to the Qiao family's industry.

Every month, it can generate stable profits worth tens of thousands of silver coins.

The Qiao family was able to share about 40% of the profit, with a stable profit of 13,000 to 4,000 silver coins, which had lasted for 20 to 30 years.

From Feng Guohui's point of view, he certainly looked down upon this industry, and even complained a lot about Qiao's ore terminal.

After making so much money, a row of stone houses were built on the dock, only seven or eight in total, as well as a large straw shed. Under the straw shed, yellow sulfur ore was piled up.

There wasn't even a decent road, and the wooden planks on the trestle were in tatters, with each thick plank rotting over time, and the wheelbarrow loaded with ore made a "crunching" sound when pressed against it.

To put it bluntly, it's too damn stingy.

The Qiao family owns a large area of ​​mountain forest. It costs nothing to cut down trees. At most, it costs some labor or food.

Look at the pier here again. Except for the edge of the pier that is built with large rocks, the rest is an earth and stone square of gravel, uneven.

The goods shipped by cargo ships were piled on the earth and stone square and transported to the warehouses of various merchants.

It looks like a primitive indigenous style, everything is simple and simple, combined with the tattered clothes of the coolies working on the dock, and the vendors setting up stalls selling edible fruits, it is really eye-catching.

With such good harbor conditions, such a thing was created.

Feng Guohui shook his head with disdain and said a few derogatory words that made Hu Zhenlei vomit blood. He said;

"To be honest, Brother Hu, I have a straightforward personality and I say whatever I see.

You are more or less a senior in the business world, so you are more tolerant.

I think this pier is useless. It's a waste of a good place. It's like a refugee camp. It should be tidied up a long time ago.

Both Lao Hu's family and Lao Qiao's family took advantage of this precious land to take root and sprout. Nowadays, they are all towering trees with deep roots and luxuriant leaves. They should give back to the countryside to make this place look good.

Don't mention benefiting the country, at least this is a matter of people borrowing land to make a fortune, so we can't treat it so casually, right?

It's a typical example of the red ghost guys not to engage in construction and have no hope at all. Then we have to rely on our Chinese Chamber of Commerce to provide people, money and efforts. That is our unshirkable responsibility!

When I see Brother Yunnan the next day, I will tell him the same thing. "

"You... you are such a naughty boy, you are so angry with me. Don't you know that wealth should not be exposed?" Hu Zhenlei's old face turned red after being ridiculed by him, and he was almost ready to curse.

Unexpectedly, Feng Guohui did not accept this trick at all, and retorted with a sneer;

"Brother Zhenlei, calm down, I will suggest building a dock, and the red ghost guy won't become jealous after seeing it, and confiscate all our property.

If this is the case, the worst we can do is confront him. Who is afraid of whom?

The important thing is that our family can unite together, but don't start fighting among yourself first, that would be bad. "

Who is united with you?

"Sorry, my Hu family will not accompany me on this matter. Hu took the first step." Hu Zhenlei raised his hand and gave a fist, and the black-headed and black-faced man was about to leave.

Feng Guohui suddenly smiled and said, "Brother Hu, wait a minute, business cannot be done with justice, why should you get angry?

It’s okay if the Hu family doesn’t want to build the pier. I heard that the land past the pier belongs to the Hu family, so I’ll leave it alone. Are you willing to take action? "

"What do you mean..." Hu Zhenlei asked suspiciously.

Feng Guohui smiled cheerfully, pointed to the large area of ​​​​the bay and said: "Since you are not willing to work together, it happens that Nanyang Company has some spare money, so I plan to develop the wharf there alone. As long as the price is right, I will make a plan. Come down."

Develop a dock?

Hu Zhenlei was confused by what he said. The current wharf of Surabaya Port is fully sufficient. It can handle more than 20 cargo ships every month. What is it that is being developed?

The Hu family owns more than 10 sailing cargo ships, and they are able to contact the source of goods and operate stable routes. The loading and unloading of goods must be at their own dock.

Nanyang Company wants to build a terminal. Will there be so much cargo?

(End of this chapter)