The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 47: Have your own ocean-going fleet (Please give me monthly votes for the new book, recommendation votes, and collection.)

Further cooperation between the two parties was negotiated. Nanyang Company hopes to obtain more daily necessities from the Hu family channels and is willing to pay with agricultural products such as rice, cocoa, kapok and oil palm.

This is beneficial to both parties. The Hu family can use the sail cargo ship they control to transport a large amount of daily necessities, cement, ironware and other materials from Singapore to Surabaya, earning first-hand trading profits plus transportation costs.

Then we loaded rice, cocoa, kapok and other crops at the Surabaya Port and set sail for Singapore. We made a lot of money back and forth, and it was a good business.

In addition to British merchants, the Nanyang Company has opened up a new purchase channel. It can order daily necessities, even advanced steam engines, cement, muskets and other supplies according to its own needs.

Malacca is today the center port for material trading in the entire Southeast Asia. Under the relatively relaxed business environment of the British, you can buy any goods you need here.

Porcelain, silk, brocade, pen, ink, paper and inkstones from mainland China, Japanese knives or Nanyang sisters, flintlock muskets from Europe, clocks, Swiss gold watches or other rare things, and even Napoleon cannons.

Since the fall of the Napoleonic dynasty in France, the mountains of arms and supplies piled up in arsenals have slowly spread to all parts of the world, from the Near East to India, from North America to the Far East. Smart businessmen are trying to squeeze out the last bit of these war supplies. value.

Nanyang Company did not want to be led by the British businessmen and wanted to open up a new purchasing channel that it could lead. The Hu family was the best choice.

It is very frowned upon to buy goods from British merchants. The arrogant British are extremely difficult to deal with and will often just throw out a list of goods and attach the price.

Non-negotiable, non-optional, just like charity.

Feng Guohui didn't want to suffer from Gui Lao's arrogance, so Zheng Xiucai was usually responsible for purchasing goods, and he was extremely angry every time he came back.

Feng Guohui is quite self-aware. His words can scare Hu Zhenlei or the Chinese big guys in Surabaya City, but in front of the British, they are completely insufficient.

The deeper he gets into this era, the clearer Feng Guohui understands the faces of world powers such as Britain and France.

in this era

The world powers such as Britain and France are really powerful, and their aggressiveness is literally integrated into their bones. They launch colonial wars all over the world, killing and killing them everywhere.

Can you believe that... just because of the request of a British opium dealer, Britain brazenly launched an invasion war against a behemoth like the Qing Dynasty, and actually won the war?

This would have been unthinkable a hundred years later, but now it is actually happening.

Countries around the world that dared to explode thorns were basically beaten by the British. With Feng Guohui's little experience, it is better not to show off in front of the Angsa people.

After the two of them finished talking,

Hu Zhenlei left with a few members of the Hu clan who had unfailing expressions. The clan leader was restrained at every turn during the conversation. It was strange that their mood improved.

Feng Guohui was not in a hurry to leave. Surabaya Pier was still three or four kilometers away from the city, and it would take more than half an hour to get there on foot. How could he leave so early?

He was accompanied by more than twenty strong men, all of whom were skilled fighters, and more than half of them were equipped with revolvers to protect his safety.

Such a pomp made the people at the dock stay away, with a hint of fear in their eyes.

Feng Guohui didn't care what they were thinking. He led the people forward from the ore dock and stopped at a hill fifty or sixty meters high in front of them.

The section of road he had just walked was about 1,600 meters long. It was all in a primitive and undeveloped state, with beaches, swaths of coconut trees, and a few dozen thatched huts built on the seaside.

There are also several small wooden sampans on the beach, which are used by coastal fishermen to eat.

This small wooden sampan is different from the wooden boats along the coast of Shenzhou. The main hull is made of a tree trunk hollowed out in the middle, and there are several arm-thick wooden poles connected to the auxiliary hull on the other side.

The auxiliary hull is a tree trunk with an upturned front end, as thick as a thigh, nothing more.

Such a small sampan can resist wind and waves very well on the sea and will not capsize easily.

Of course, you can only fish along the coast.

Feng Guohui stood on the beach under the hill, looking up at the gentle hills covered by lush forests and shrubs. After these hills, there was a bay extending into the distance.

But it was even more desolate over there, and Feng Guohui had no plans to go over there and check it out.

Instead, he circled around these gentle hills several times until he had a clear understanding of the coastal terrain, and then he gave up.

Zheng Xiucai watched him turn around a few times and couldn't help but ask, "Master Ding, do you really plan to build a dock here?"

"What's wrong...it's not working?"

"It's not impossible. I just feel that there are ready-made docks available, so it's not necessary for the time being, and we don't have a ship. Even if we want to build a ship, it will have to be a year or two later."

"Hmph, it's hard for a short-sighted person to achieve great things." Feng Guohui snorted dissatisfied.

After Zheng Xiucai was complained about, he looked not ashamed but proud, and said with a slight compliment;

"Master, you are a very smart man. I know that I can't catch up with you even if you are a lowly person, so my efforts are in vain.

Whatever you say, we will do it.

Anyway, I can't go wrong by following you to eat the popular food and drink spicy food, so we'll live together. "

"You... you need to find a private school teacher to read more books in the future. In addition, you must at least be able to speak some foreign languages, so as not to be deceived by your subordinates." Feng Guohui's expression softened a lot as he said this. Of course, this kind of subordinate who is not too thoughtful and willing to obey must have Reused!

Therefore, he went on to say; “Nanyang Company’s business is getting bigger and bigger. After opening up a new trade route in the south, the number of goods handled will not be a small number.

Nowadays, in addition to the British, we have to rely more heavily on the channel of the Hu family, but we cannot be satisfied with this.

I hope that one day

It is very important for Nanyang Company to open a branch in Malacca, directly trade with foreigners from various countries and Chinese businessmen from all over Nanyang, and have first-hand sources of goods.

I don't look at the profits of short-sea transportation, but Nanyang Company must develop its own fleet, master reliable sources of large quantities of industrial products, and prepare for larger-scale development.

In the future, we will open up a new trade route on the west line and extend it to Bandung and Batavia to operate a real gold trade route, which will require an astonishing amount of goods.

That is a big market with millions of people. How can we allow the source of goods to be in the hands of others?

Scholar, I am now in a state of incompetence, and I lack a general capable of guarding one side.

I urge you to learn more new things, that's for your own good, I just hope you can share my worries in the future. "

Zheng Xiucai was so moved by these words that he straightened his waist and replied;

"Don't worry, Lord, I, Zheng Xiucai, will never let you down.

Last time, Lao Hu's family planned to give me a girl. I heard she was a white woman rescued from a merchant ship in trouble. I'm hesitating whether to do it or not?

Now that I have decided, I will take over this woman's house when I get back.

From now on, whenever I go home, I will learn a few sentences in foreign language. Are you worried that you won’t be able to learn it over time? "

"Yes, this idea is very novel, and Tiger and the others can learn from it." Feng Guohui couldn't help but praise.

As long as they are willing to learn, the method doesn't matter.

When Feng Guohui wanted to develop a marine transport fleet, he did not plan to build new ships at all. Instead, he planned to directly pay to buy ships, and the effect was immediate.

In Batavia and Malacca, there are sizable sailing ship trading markets.

The number of captains who are losing money, who plan to change careers, or who are preparing to return to Europe should not be too large.

Ocean shipping is a business with high risks, but the profits are not high. If you make a slight mistake, you will lose all your money, but not many can make big money.

Transporting grain from Siam to the southeast coast of China, and then transporting tea, porcelain and other bulk commodities from the southeast coast of China to Malacca, is a relatively abundant and busy route.

But running such a route is just earning hard money at best.

What are the routes that really make big money?

There were regular Spanish silver ships from Mexico to the Luzon Islands every year, opium ships from the Indian subcontinent to the mainland coast, spice ships from the Spice Islands to Europe, or smuggling ships transporting smuggled goods.

Without a strong background such as the Spanish royal family, the Dutch royal family, or the British East India Company, ordinary shipowners simply cannot get involved in these hugely profitable industries.

Among those European shipowners who hoped to make a fortune in Southeast Asia or East Asia, at least six or seven out of ten met with serious losses, two or three barely managed to maintain capital, and the remaining one was the lucky one who made a lot of money.

Therefore, there is no need to worry about cargo ships, and there are many Western sailors willing to be hired.

Feng Guohui looked up at these gentle hills again and began to make calculations in his mind.

If the mountains are dug to extract rocks, all the forests here will be cut down to be used for engineering and building houses.

In terms of manpower, it would have to be at least a thousand.

If you want to save construction costs, you can only make an idea with the Yusuf tribe in Yanwang City and forcibly enslave one or two thousand indigenous male coolies. It should be feasible to think of a way.

As for the local farmers and plantations, they can only let indigenous women work, and add some Chinese immigrants as appropriate.

This more than a month

There were about 100 newly arrived Chinese immigrants in Surabaya City, and Nanyang Company also recruited more than people from them, mainly for business, logistics and taking care of mules and horses.

After the new southern trade route was opened, four caravans of mules and horses went south each month, which required more than 4 people.

The southern trade route is the most important business of Nanyang Company at present, so priority must be given to ensuring manpower needs.

As a result, manual use is somewhat stretched.

Therefore, Feng Guohui plans to further recruit people. The number set this time is 500 people, with priority given to those who can read and write.

The plan to open a new trade route on the western front is not urgent at the moment and can wait for three or four months.

The stall suddenly became too big, and Feng Guohui couldn't take care of it for the time being, and he didn't have so much energy to deal with complicated affairs. He had to lay a solid foundation first.

(End of this chapter)