The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 7 Nanyang Company
  Surabaya City
  In the patrol room next to the church

Ma Ganqiang, who had just joined the job, came back from patrolling the streets. Before he could take a sip of water, he heard the sound of objects being smashed on the second floor, and the angry and angry voice of police chief Huang Renhe.

"Senior brother, which bad guy made the boss so angry that he demolished the house?" Ma Ganqiang, holding a cup of cold tea in his hand, approached the other senior police officers and asked.

"One more thing is worse than one less thing. It doesn't matter if I tell you! Last night, three bad guys died in the black forest on the outskirts of the city. I guess they were short-circuited and met a master. They made a lot of them and went to see the King of Hell. Among them... ..." The old patrolman tilted his mouth and continued in a lower voice;
  "The police chief's cousin Huang Renyi was among them. When passers-by found him in the morning, he was already dead. If you do too much evil, God will punish you."

"Oh, no wonder he threw something?"

"Drink your herbal tea and don't be troublesome. Anyone who dares to attack the Huang family in Surabaya City is either a foreigner or a fierce dragon crossing the river. You can't afford to offend them anyway."

"Senior brother pointed it out, and I took note of it." Ma Ganqiang responded with a smile, thinking about telling the commander about this and asking him to be careful not to hit the muzzle of the gun.

He got the news early in the morning;
  The long-awaited commander has taken action, planning to lead the brothers to do some serious business, and has now begun to prepare a supply of supplies.

The reason why I commanded you to go to the fishing village alone last night was for this matter.

Considering that Heilinzi is on the only road between the fishing village and Surabaya City, and the murder happened last night, is there any connection between the two?
  Ma Ganqiang was a smart person, and he had some vague guesses, so he walked around the patrol room with herbal tea in his hands and asked about the news.

He was playing two shots with dates but no dates. Anyway, it didn't take much effort, and it was just a matter of lip service.

In the shanty town
  Feng Guohui was really tired last night. He slept until dawn and woke up when he was hungry.

At this time, the sun had already risen high. Seeing that it was getting late, he simply made a fire to cook, and then went out for a walk when he was full.

For this breakfast and lunch, most of the pot of rice was simmered, and the remaining half of the bacon was also simmered. The rich aroma of the rice meat came out again, seducing the surrounding poor residents who were so greedy that they drooled and cursed in their hearts.

Eat rice and stewed meat every meal, what kind of shantytown do you live in?
  Truly unworthy of a son of man.

Naturally, there was a lot of commotion in the surrounding shacks. Children were crying, adults were scolding, and the restlessness lasted for a long time before it stopped.

Feng Guohui left after eating and drinking. There were about two kilograms of rice left in the rice bag at home, which he stuffed under the bed.

This is actually unnecessary. There is more than a 90% chance that this little rice will be gone when we come back.

Beside the vegetable market
  Zheng Xiucai had been waiting here with more than a dozen strong men. Since Mr. Feng had not arrived, they spread out and contacted many mule and horse sellers, leading more than 20 big green mules and donkeys. Wait aside.

The vegetable market here is also on the edge of the shantytown. Many residents of the shantytown are vegetable farmers. The fruits and vegetables picked are sold at the door of the house, and the cries of hawking are heard one after another.

There are all kinds of people making breakfast, grinding tofu, selling fish and shrimps, polishing shoes and shaving hair, and there is a strong atmosphere of fireworks in the city life.

Zheng Xiucai's group of people stood out because there were no stalls specifically selling large animals in the market in Surabaya City. When buying and selling large animals, you need to notify the seller and bring the animal over to negotiate the price.

There were so many at once, it would be strange if no one noticed them.

When Feng Guohui strode here, Zheng Xiucai hurriedly greeted him, saluted with a smile on his face, and said in a low voice and quickly;

"Master Feng, we have made a bit of a fuss. People from the patrol room and the Anxi Club are here. What are the rules?"

"It doesn't matter, we are open for business, are you afraid that people will know?" Feng Guohui waved his hand, then walked over with Zheng Xiucai, laughing and saying with his hands bowed;

"Hahaha……

Dear fellow villagers, officers of the patrol room.

I, Feng Guohui, took my brothers who are living here and opened Nanyang Company to engage in the business of goods circulation. From now on, I will have to rely on your help. I am being polite.

Nanyang Company undertakes transportation work in various parts of East Java Province. We bought some mules and horses for transportation needs. Please help publicize and attract some business.

Our Nanyang company has reasonable prices and guaranteed safety. It undertakes the transportation of various mountain products, salted fish and aquatic products, tea, oil and salt, daily necessities and other goods. All customers come to our door.

Please support me and spread the word. I, Feng Guohui, and my brothers are very grateful. "

"Okay...Brother Feng is courageous."

"It's not easy to run a mule and horse caravan these days. You have to abide by the rules of the escort agency. There are too many thieves cutting corners on the road."

"More than just petty thieves, the indigenous villagers and local forces are not good at all, and the red ghost guys never pay attention to them. It's really frustrating."

"Brother Chen is forbidden to speak. This statement will offend a large number of people. Red ghosts have the rules of red ghosts. This is their territory."

"Hmph, a land of barbarians who don't accept the king's authority." The people watching the excitement around were talking a lot. The sellers with the mules and horses were already anxious. They gathered around and talked to Feng Guohui, and they couldn't hear anything clearly. .

"Okay, okay, come one by one. Zheng Xiucai gathered the mule sellers together. The others will maintain order, and those who buy donkeys will wait for a while." Feng Guohui impatiently pushed away the sellers around him and handed over to his people. Start doing things.

A dozen strong men worked together and quickly isolated these people selling mules, horses and livestock, and then started talking about the transaction.

There were 13 big mules in the market, including green mules, black mules, and flower mules. They all gathered together to negotiate the price.

Older mules and sicker mules are priced lower, while larger, stronger mules are priced higher.

Because the transaction was in cash in pounds, the price was generally about 22% lower than the market price. The transaction was quickly negotiated for 5 pounds and 5 shillings, plus the two pounds and 13 pence transaction deed tax paid, and these big mules became the property of Owned by Nanyang Company.

There were nine strong donkeys left, and Nanyang Company paid 5 pounds and 2 shillings to buy them all, forming a large team of mules and horses.

In tropical areas like Southeast Asia, horses were not originally produced, and there were no horses for sale in trading markets.

The delicate Western horses are prone to illness and cannot adapt to the humid and hot environment in the area. The horses raised by a small number of white Dutch are mostly Palouse horses traded from the Spaniards in the Luzon Islands.

The Palouse horse originated from the Indian territory of the Nez Perce people in North America. It was bred from wild horses, and these wild horses are descendants of Spanish horses brought by Spanish explorers. They have strong adaptability to tropical climates.

However, horses are extremely expensive in Java and are a symbol of identity and status. Ordinary white Dutch plantation families cannot afford them, let alone the Nanyang Company used for transportation.

After trading the mules and horses, Feng Guohui led everyone to the large rented yard by the dock.

There are two rows of bungalows in this large yard, each row of bungalows is 42 meters long. There is also a large open space with grass in front, covering an area of ​​thousands of square meters.

This was originally a warehouse built by Spanish merchants. The Spanish merchants wanted to get involved in the spice trade, but they were faced with various difficulties and restrictions. It has never been able to operate normally, so it has been abandoned to this day.

Feng Guohui rented it from an agency, and paid 12 pounds for three months' rent. This money can buy 7 big mules, which is a lot of money.

If it weren't for the money extorted from the unlucky first mate Mills and bosun Ferguson of the "Miss Peggy", he would really not be able to pay the high rent.

The purchasing power of the British pound in this era was truly astonishing. A group of people moved into this large yard that had been abandoned for a long time, and immediately purchased a large amount of fodder and beans.

In a row of bungalows at the back of the yard, everyone set up several rows of corrals with wood. The fodder and soybean meal were piled outside the corrals so that they could not get wet from the rain and were not afraid of rotting or deterioration.

The bungalows in the front row are reserved as dormitories. The easternmost one is occupied by Feng Guohui, the two westernmost bungalows are used as kitchens, and the others live in the middle Datong bungalows.

Datongpu bought wooden boards and nailed them into bed boards by myself.

The bed boards were raised with stones about ten centimeters high, and they were arranged one after another, with the bed boards about one meter apart.

There are a row of 63 beds in the south and a row in the north. The aisle in the middle is reserved for group activities. When eating, just sit on the beds with a rice bowl.

This arrangement is very much like a military camp style.

No matter what, everyone finally has such a stable home in Surabaya City, and that is Nanyang Company.

After all this trouble, almost all the money in Feng Guohui's hands was used up, leaving only two small yellow croakers that have not been used.

this age
  The purchasing power of pounds and gold is extremely strong. In the Dutch East Indies, pounds, francs and Spanish silver coins are commonly used. You can also use copper coins from mainland China, and inferior lead coins privately minted by Chinese merchants in Fujian or Guangdong and Guangdong.

Among them, the value of the pound franc was the strongest, and the inferior lead coins cast privately by Chinese businessmen were the least popular. These inferior lead coins had a hole in the middle and could be strung together with a rope.

It broke into pieces when dropped on the ground. It was worth about 1400 to 1500 lead coins, which is equivalent to copper coins.

One copper coin can be exchanged for three Dutch guilders or 1.25 Spanish silver coins, and six copper coins can be exchanged for one pound, which means that one pound can be exchanged for five Spanish silver coins.

Because Spanish silver coins are worth 4 shillings, ordinary merchants would rather have pounds than Spanish silver coins, because pound coins are well-cast, have high silver content, and their currency value is stable and reliable. It is a hard currency that can be used all over the world.

There are two types of Spanish currency in circulation: Luzon silver coins and Mexican silver coins. These two silver coins have different weights and are relatively poorly minted, so they are naturally unpopular.

In this era, British farmers could only earn more than ten pounds a year through hard work. Textile factory workers work hard for more than ten hours a day and earn between 20 and 30 pounds a year.

Therefore, the more than forty pounds that Feng Guohui received was a considerable amount of money, which helped him build up the Nanyang Company and solve a big problem.

(End of this chapter)