Smuggling Daming

Next, Sanniang gave Zhou Zhong a detailed account of the financial situation of the chamber of commerce. In fact, Zhou Zhong had expected it beforehand. Zhou Hai even borrowed money from his family, and it was impossible for the chamber of commerce not to be in debt.

In fact, this is indeed the case. When Zhou Hai went to sea for the last time, the fleet he mobilized was quite large and loaded with a lot of goods. Many of the goods were mortgaged by the reputation of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and the payment was not settled with the owner. As a result, after Zhou Hai's accident, those consignors came to ask for debts one after another. Fortunately, Sanniang and the others tried their best to raise money, and the three of them took out all their personal money, and finally repaid some urgent debts. The rest are regular customers of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and there is no rush to urge them because of their past affection.

"Now the chamber of commerce is still burdened with nearly 2 taels of debt. In the past, Uncle Tuo and Sun Tong and I each shared some. With the current situation of the chamber of commerce, I am afraid it will be difficult to pay off these debts in a short time." San Niang Finally, she said that she not only manages the shipyard of the chamber of commerce, but also manages the finance of the chamber of commerce.

Hearing this, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but feel very headache. If the making method of soap belongs to him completely, then he is still sure to pay off the debt in a short time. It is probably not an easy task to make up 2 taels of silver with this business.

"Sanniang, what are the main profit points of the chamber of commerce?" Zhou Zhong felt that if he wanted to pay off the debts of the chamber of commerce, he still had to rely on the profits generated by the chamber of commerce, so he wanted to hear about the operation method of the chamber of commerce and see if there was any where you can improve.

"To my young master, there are three incomes of the chamber of commerce now, the first is the profit from smuggling, but with the death of the master, most of the fleet of the chamber of commerce has gone, leaving only the little fleet in Sun Tong's hands. I can only do some odd jobs, and there is also a shipyard. Originally, this shipyard was mainly used to repair the ships of the Chamber of Commerce, and usually build some small boats, but with the decline of the fleet of the Chamber of Commerce, the business of the shipyard has also been greatly affected. "

When talking about this, Sanniang couldn't help showing a somewhat lonely look on her face, but then she forced herself to say: "The last major income is the port, which is currently the most profitable industry of the chamber of commerce. One of the ports is controlled by our Nanyang Chamber of Commerce. Usually, not only will the ships charge fees, but also supplies such as fresh water and other supplies for these ships, which also need to be purchased from our Chamber of Commerce. At least tens of thousands of taels of silver are earned every year. .”

When Zhou Zhong heard the last port income, his frown finally relaxed a bit, but he soon thought that although the port income is rich, this income is almost dead, and there is little room for further growth, unless he has The strength can take back all the other two-thirds of the ports, but this is obviously impossible.

Then besides the port, there is no need to think about the shipyard. This factory was originally attached to the Chamber of Commerce. Now that the Chamber of Commerce has no ships and no money, the shipyard naturally has no business. effectiveness.So Zhou Zhong thought about it, and finally felt that if he wanted to pay off his debts, he had to rely on smuggling.

But when Zhou Zhong was thinking about how to make money, Sanniang next to him showed some hesitation on his face, and finally he gritted his teeth and said, "Young Master, Sanniang has a few words, I don't know if I should say it or not?"

Zhou Zhong raised his head in surprise after hearing this, but then smiled and said: "San Niang, you are welcome, just say what you have to say. Besides, San Niang, you are my elder, so don't always call me Young Master in the future, it sounds awkward , or just call me by my name Zhou Zhong, or call me by my word Wenda."

Hearing what Zhou Zhong said, Sanniang smiled in relief and said, "Okay, Sanniang, I'll call you Wenda." He said solemnly, "Wen Da, you have been admitted as a scholar at a young age. You can say that you have a bright future. In contrast, smuggling at sea is very risky. If you are not careful, you may die. Your father is a living example. So from my point of view, Wenda, you'd better stop meddling with the chamber of commerce, go back and study hard, and wait until a few years later to be named on the gold list, that's what your father wants to see the most!"

Sanniang wanted to say these words to Zhou Zhong for a long time, but after a quick meeting the day before yesterday, she raided the Quanluo Chamber of Commerce last night. Not much to say, now I finally have the opportunity to speak out.

After Zhou Zhong took over the chamber of commerce, Sanniang and Uncle Tuo had less power in their hands, so Sanniang's words to persuade Zhou Zhong to leave could easily cause misunderstandings.Fortunately, Zhou Zhong knew that Sanniang had an unusual relationship with his father Zhou Hai, and that she really cared about him. This kind of concern was similar to that of Aunt Wang, without any utilitarian overtones.

Zhou Zhong smiled at Sanniang after hearing this, then stood up and poured a cup of tea for her, and then said: "Sanniang, I know you are doing it for my own good, as a junior, today I Let me tell you a few words from my heart!"

Zhou Zhong sat back in his seat at this point, then sipped his tea and said, "In the eyes of the world, the imperial examination is indeed a right way to get promoted, but Sanniang, have you ever thought about the imperial examination every three years, every time There are hundreds of thousands of students participating, but the best candidates for the gold list are only 300-[-] people. It is no exaggeration to say that the imperial examination is a single-plank bridge with thousands of troops.”

"But……"

Sanniang had already heard the meaning of Zhou Zhong's words, and was about to refute, but was interrupted by Zhou Zhong: "I know what Sanniang you want to master, it's nothing more than I have little talent, and I passed the exam at a young age Is it a scholar?"

Hearing Zhou Zhong speak out what was in his heart, Sanniang had no choice but to shut up and nodded.

But Zhou Zhong shook his head with a smile and said: "San Niang, you are thinking too simply. The officialdom is far darker than our smuggling. Talent and learning alone are not enough. For example, there are two talented celebrities in Suzhou. One is Tang Yin Tang Jieyuan, who was very energetic when he took part in the imperial examination, and became Jieyuan in one fell swoop in the provincial examination, but because of the struggle in the officialdom, he was innocently involved in it, and his life was ruined. The second is Tang Jieyuan’s friend Mr. Zhishan, who is also a talented For my generation, I was younger than me when I was a scholar, but what's the use of it, I'm almost 50 years old since I was a child, and I'm still just a juren, staying at home depressed."

Sanniang is from Ningbo, not far from Suzhou, so she has also heard of Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan, and she was speechless for a while when Zhou Zhong used them as an example, but in the end she insisted on defending herself: "Tang Jieyuan Mr. Hezhishan is just unlucky, maybe you, Wenda, will win the first place in the imperial examination next time."

Seeing that Sanniang still didn't give up, Zhou Zhong had no choice but to say again: "Sanniang, you admit that the imperial examination is also a matter of luck, and Tang Jieyuan and Mr. Zhishan's luck is not good, but who can be sure that my luck must be better than Are they better? And in terms of talent and learning, I think I am far from the two of them, so naturally I have no confidence in the imperial examination."

"But...but..." Although Sanniang felt that what Zhou Zhong said made sense at this time, she always felt a little unwilling.

At this time, Zhou Zhong had no choice but to take out his final trump card and said: "Okay, Sanniang, you don't have to worry too much. I have to wait for three years to participate in the imperial examination, so I have to wait at least five years. For a while, I will try my best to get the business of the Chamber of Commerce on the right track, and it will not be too late to study hard."

Hearing what Zhou Zhong said, Sanniang could only nod her head.At this time, Zhou Zhong also hurriedly changed the subject, asking how the Chamber of Commerce's smuggling business was carried out. He wanted to figure out the process, and then thought about whether there was a way to speed up the profit from smuggling.

Although Sanniang was not in charge of the smuggling fleet, she was in charge of the chamber of commerce's financial power after all, so she was very clear about the smuggling process. After her detailed explanation, Zhou Zhong finally understood how the smuggling in the Ming Dynasty was carried out.

Speaking of which, the smuggling in the Ming Dynasty originated in the early Ming Dynasty. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang banned the sea, and even the fishermen banned fishing in the sea. In the end, the life of the people along the coast was miserable, and there were even many uprisings, but they were all quickly suppressed. The suppression went down.

Although the uprising was suppressed, the poverty of the coastal people could not be solved. In the end, under such circumstances, many coastal people had to brave the ban and go to sea, driving small boats carrying some simple goods, and the Japanese people who came to the coast of Daming, Nanyang people and others trade in exchange for some silver coins.Later, with the relaxation of the imperial government's policy on sea bans, the scale of smuggling became larger and larger. It was not until the early years of Zhengde that this kind of smuggling finally reached a peak.

Although the smuggling along the coast of Daming has been developed for many years, the smuggling pattern has not changed much. First of all, some merchants along the coast of Daming have a large amount of commodities in their hands. These commodities cannot be absorbed by Daming alone, so these people They will contact smugglers like the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce and sell their goods to them.

After the smugglers negotiate the price of the goods with those merchants on land, they will send a fleet to the place designated by the seller to pick up the goods. The merchant will not pay the money to the other party until the goods are delivered to the ship, and then the goods are completely It belongs to the chamber of commerce and has nothing to do with the original owner of the goods. All risks are borne by the smugglers themselves.After that, the smugglers will use their own fleets to transport the goods, such as Nanyang, Japan, North Korea and other places, in order to make huge profits. This is the general process of smuggling.

But generally speaking, a smuggler will collect a lot of goods, and these goods cannot be sold at once. This requires a place to store the goods. In addition, the fleet of smugglers also needs a place to stay and repair, so Shuangyu Smuggling bases such as Hong Kong also appeared.

It is also because of the emergence of smuggling bases that smuggling has become more and more diverse. For example, some merchants on land will directly organize their own small fleet, and then transport the goods to Shuangyu Port for sale, so that the price will be higher than that on land. a lot of.And this also provides convenience for some overseas smugglers, such as the Japanese and Koreans. They don't have the network foundation like the smugglers in Ming Dynasty. It can be bought directly and transported to the country for huge profits, which also attracts more Japanese and Koreans to take risks to participate in smuggling.

Originally, this smuggling model has been going on for many years without any problems. However, after Zhou Zhong thought about this model several times, and compared it with the sales model he knew in later generations, he suddenly had an idea. In a flash, he thought of a shortcut that might allow the chamber of commerce to develop rapidly.

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