Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 276 Sweet Hong Kong Situation - Rice Price and Sugar Price

"I don't need it now." Chang Shide said, "It takes too much time to explain. First, print a passbook or something like that, and write down the amount, so that the sugarcane farmers can think about it, and then call them for a meeting later. Easy."

Wen Tong smiled and said, "Good idea, how did you come up with it?

"Look at those who sell health care products, they rely on free medical examinations to attract people. If you don't give me some small favors, who will listen to your nonsense?"

"However, how should I print this passbook? It has to be used many times, and I can write on it." Wen Tong hesitated, "Do you want to ask Lingao for help?"

Liao Daxing said: "It's not difficult to do, it's nothing more than making a note for the sugarcane farmers. You can find a paper shop to do it."

"?" Several time travelers looked at Liao Daxing in unison.Chang Shide asked: "Do you have passbooks locally?"

Liao Daxing was a little puzzled, and said: "Yes, every shop has brochures." As he spoke, he took out a brochure from his sleeve and handed it over. Wen Tong opened it and saw that it was recorded in small letters The date and amount of the transaction are also stamped with the private seals of both parties.

"This is the booklet for the food business that brought us food."

"Okay, just use this." Wen Tong said happily, "Let's order [-] copies first."

Liao Daxing was taken aback. The first thing he said was [-] copies. All the paper shops in Leizhou were turned upside down, and there were not so many.He hurriedly said: "There are not so many goods. From a small point of view, such a booklet is too big. It is not necessary to use this booklet frequently. It is better to order some right away. Smaller sizes are fine. It is quick to do so and the price is cheap." Also low."

That's how things settled down.Several people discussed the various arrangements for the opening day together.Wen Tong's biggest concern is the mobilization of money.He had already found out that there are 10,000+ stones of sugar exported here every year.It is estimated that most of the sugar will still be bought by Haiyitang's sugar shop, and I can collect about 5 shi on my side.This requires almost 1 taels of silver.When the Guangzhou Station arranged for Wei Escort to go to Leizhou, it deposited 1 taels of cash locally.Wen Tong came to Leizhou with another three thousand.But almost all of this money was spent on infrastructure construction, resettlement of immigrants, and making friends with the government.The only thing that can be used is the [-] taels in Guangzhou.

The difference between this amount is too far.The Guangzhou station was willing to fully support it, saying that 10 taels of silver could be transferred at any time, but there was no exchange agency in Daming, and the silver had to be sent thousands of miles away, which felt really unsafe.

Several people thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a suitable solution. This day, Chang Shide took Liao Daxing to the county town to go shopping and relax.This was his only hobby besides training female slaves: wearing silk and satin straight embroidered clothes, he walked with his head held high on the dirt-splattered streets.His unusual height, build, and fair skin all stood aside in awe—it was nice to be the boss.When Chang Shide was shopping, he quickly discovered a phenomenon - Xu Wen's prices here are very high!

In the past, when Liao Dahua purchased the food for the immigrants, he paid two taels for one stone when repaying the account.Chang Shide once thought that Liao Dahua was suspected of being a middleman for profit, but after several months he found that although the price of grain fluctuated, it had never been lower than two taels, and it was showing a gradual upward trend.Although there is only one Qiongzhou Strait with Lingao, the price of food in Lingao did not exceed one tael or five yuan at the highest point.

Except for food, the price of everything here is higher than that in Lingao, from firewood, ironware, cloth to general daily life pots and pans.It became more obvious when they carried out construction projects for the second time.Moreover, there are very few copper coins in circulation here, and most of them are made of silver. For small payments, a kind of silver bean that seems to be specially minted is used. This phenomenon has aroused Chang Shide's great interest.Although he didn't study economics, he understood the basic principles of economics - the silver here obviously depreciated compared to Lingao.

"Master Liao," Chang Shide asked Liao Daxing, "Why is Xu Wen's rice price so high?"

"You've got to ask the right person." This topic is poking at Liao Daxing's itch, "I used to work in the grain store, not only this Xu Wen, but also Haikang, the price of rice is frighteningly high! Suixi is better. The reason is simple: growing sugarcane is profitable. Everyone destroys paddy fields to plant sugarcane. If there is not enough food to eat, they have to transport it from other places, and the price will naturally go up.”

"That's right." Chang Shitong nodded.

"That's not the case!" Liao Daxing said, "Sugar cane is a waste of water, fertilizer, and labor. Once sugar cane is planted, no one has the ability to plant paddy fields."

"Where does the food in other places come from?"

"If you ship by sea, the north route is more. Things on the sea are not guaranteed. If you encounter pirates or encounter a storm, you will lose a lot if you don't get up. Since it is not easy to transport it, it is naturally expensive. gone."

Liao Daxing didn't say anything about Chang Shide, licked his lower lip, and said with a smile: "Actually, I have another idea, I just don't know if it's right—"

"Tell me about it."

"I think the key is that Leizhou has too much money—"

Chang Shide stood still and glanced at him, feeling quite surprised - he thought that the ancients did not understand this truth and would directly equate precious metals with wealth itself.

"It makes sense!" Chang Shide immediately looked at this former grain shop guy differently.

"Yes," Liao Daxing saw the proprietor's expression of approval, and quickly added a few more words, "This Leizhou has 10,000+ shi of sugar to be shipped out every year, and the total amount of silver that flows in is 50 million taels. There are too many, and department stores are naturally expensive.”

"Yes, things are expensive, but sugar is something everyone wants." Chang Shide mused, and he seemed to see a solution in the dark.

"Shopkeeper Liao, what do you think about the income of sugarcane farmers?"

"It's not bad. Anyway, it's much better than growing rice!"

"Hmm." Chang Shide asked another question, "Have any boats been to Champa?"

"Why go to Champa?" Liao Daxing wondered, "There is no one in the area doing maritime trade business."

The outline of the plan in Chang Shide's mind gradually became clear, and he patted Liao Daxing's shoulder excitedly, "Go, go back."

That night, he really couldn't wait for the contact information to be transmitted to Guangzhou through the carrier pigeon, so he directly wrote a superstitious letter and ordered Wei Escort: Take a boat to Lingao early the next morning.This matter requires the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Chang Shide's plan is simple:

Since silver is worthless in Leizhou, buying sugar with cash is not a worthwhile business practice.

Because there is too much silver in Leizhou, everything is expensive.It is a kind of profitable business to use a commodity that everyone needs and the price is still high to get sugar.This kind of thing is rice.

If the rice is transported from Guangdong North Road in the traditional way, the sea route is too long and there are many risk factors.

So his idea is: transport sugar from Leizhou to Vietnam for sale.Vietnam does not grow sugar cane, so the price of sugar will be high, while the price of rice in Vietnam has always been cheap.The rice exchanged for sugar will be paid to the sugarcane farmers according to the rice price in Leizhou as the purchase price.This is tantamount to earning a double profit,

However, it involves trade issues with Vietnam. Chang Shide is not clear about the trade rules of Vietnam, the sea conditions along the coast of Vietnam, and the local rice and sugar prices in Vietnam. It is obviously risky to organize a ship to go to Vietnam rashly. .

The Foreign Affairs Department didn't dare to neglect this letter, and hurriedly reported it to the executive committee, and all departments immediately started to operate.The intelligence committee soon announced that this plan was feasible. The Portuguese sold Chinese sugar to Vietnam at a price of eight taels per stone!This market price is twice as high as the purchase price of the British in Guangzhou!The huge profits of maritime trade made everyone unable to hold back.Instruct the Executive Committee to immediately open the door to Vietnam's trade.

"It's time, Vietnam's rich resources can no longer sleep." Fanatics incited at the enlarged meeting of the Executive Committee, "Let's turn it into our raw material base and market!"

"A military expedition!"

"Where the cannon goes, trade opens the way!"

"Let's set up a few cannons on the coast of Vietnam and enslave a country completely!"

"It is better to establish the Vietnam trade route as soon as possible." Ma Qianju is not very interested in the trade of sugar and rice, but he has long coveted Hongji's coal.

In this way, the plan to open up trade in Vietnam was decided.Considering that the political situation in Vietnam is relatively chaotic at this time, the Northern and Southern Dynasties are confronting each other, and the Dutch and Portuguese are behind them. Enter in an unobtrusive manner.

The trade situation between the Northern and Southern Dynasties of Vietnam and China is: to enter the ports of the Northern Dynasties to pay an annual fee of 1000 taels.The Southern Dynasties opened a city exclusively for Chinese trade.The place that the Traveling Group chose to enter is the Li Dynasty in the north. Not only rice, but also coal are available here. Relatively speaking, it is relatively close to Hainan and Leizhou Peninsula.

The ship that the executive committee sailed to Vietnam was the "Big Whale" transport ship that had been to Leizhou. Although the attempt to use it as a container ship failed, the advantages of a large hull and a large amount of cargo are obvious to all, and the draft is shallow. It is more suitable for wharves with shallow water depth and lack of port facilities in this time and space.As for the slower speed, it's not too much of a problem—the sailing trip to Vietnam's Hongji area will not exceed two days.

The "Big Whale" came to Leizhou and loaded a thousand stones of brown sugar at Hai'an Port. In order to ensure the safety of the ship, four 12-pound howitzers and an infantry platoon were temporarily installed on the ship-both bodyguards and coolies.It was Chang Shide himself who directed this operation.

As for the necessary translation, neither Lingao nor Leizhou can handle it—although they are close, no one has ever been to Vietnam for business.Guo Yi originally tried to find one among the maritime merchants in Guangzhou, but the family and closed nature of the maritime merchant group made such recruitment completely ineffective.Finally, they thought of the Jesuits in Macau. This organization has many tentacles and goes everywhere.Zhang Xin rushed to Macau to find Lu Ruohua.

With Lu Ruohua's help, Zhang Xin recruited a down-and-out pirate leader in Macau, Zhang Dascara. He was a black fat man with a big scar on his face, so he got this nickname. He himself can't remember clearly.It was originally under the hands of Yang Liu and Yang Qi. After the two failures, Zhang Dascar, who had a lot of savings, ran to Macau—the old pirate who had suffered many serious injuries, and his scars ached every rainy day began to feel powerless. So I lived in seclusion comfortably, but I didn't expect that my money would be swept away by the way of flying white pigeons in Macau.He had been a thief for many years and didn't know how to make a living. He soon lived on the streets and lived on the relief of the Jesuits.Later, he was baptized into the church simply for the two meals of gruel every day, and he was considered a member of the church.

Although Zhang Dasara is no longer able to fight and kill, but after all, he is an old sea dog who has been around for many years. He is very familiar with the sea routes in various parts of Nanyang, and he can speak several languages, including Vietnamese and Malay.

Zhang Xin felt that this was a suitable candidate, so he hired him on the spot, saying that he didn't need to go through life and death, just a translator, and he paid twelve Spanish silver dollars per month.Zhang Dabao, who was fading from the porridge, immediately boarded their thief boat.

When the big whale was leaving at the wharf on Hai'an Street, Chang Shide took care of Wen Tong: "Old Wen, it will take at least ten days for me to go. Now the house is almost built, don't wait any longer. You are here Let’s arrange to buy sugar locally first. We have 1 taels of silver available, and it should be enough to support me when I come back.”

"Okay," Wen Tong shook his hand tightly. What a good comrade, not only did he come up with such a good idea, but he also took the initiative to invite Ying to do business in the unfamiliar Vietnam, creating a new situation.Turning his head to look, he saw Axiu was waiting to board the boat with a basket on his back, thinking that this person was really hopeless.

Chang Shide unceremoniously occupied a single cabin, making it a small comfort zone for Axiu.Then I waited comfortably for the boat to arrive at Halong.

After sailing on the sea for two days, the ship finally——

be lost!

"where is this?"

"It should be in Halong Bay." Le Lin held the sextant and said falteringly - he is the temporary captain of the ship.

"What should it be?" Bei Kai finally broke out in the pain of seasickness. This person was selected for the trade delegation to Vietnam purely because he looked like a Vietnamese.The Big Whale has entered a relatively calm bay since yesterday, and there are many small islands in the bay, which is a bit picturesque.But I just don't know where Hongji should drive.

Lelin's latitude and longitude calculations have been fluctuating greatly, and the error is so great that people can't believe his measurements.Some people have long been muttering that a local helmsman should be invited instead of letting him, the second knife, command the ship.

"You take the helm." Master Chang kicked Lelin away with one last kick, and called Zhang Dabao to set off the boat.

(End of this chapter)