I want to be emperor

Chapter 584
Liu Jiaquan, this name was put on the coast of western Guangdong seven or eight years ago, and he was considered a well-known pirate.

Liu Jiaquan traveled the seas with his uncle in the early years, followed Liu Xiang, later followed Zheng Zhilong, and later took hundreds of brothers under his command and went alone with a few sea boats.

Went to the coast of western Guangdong and even Vietnam, and did some maritime trade on weekdays, and grabbed a ticket when they had the opportunity. They belonged to the most typical maritime merchants/pirates in this year.

During the few years spent in the coastal areas of western Guangdong, the Liu family had earned quite a reputation, which once caused headaches for the sailors of the local guards.

However, this kind of unrestrained life did not last for a few years. After the Great Chu Empire took control of Guangdong and recovered a little active pirate Zhao Xinhou's troops along the coast of Guangdong, the ability to control the coast of Guangdong was greatly strengthened.

After that, the Great Chu Empire also extensively built coastal defense forts and built a fleet. Naturally, Liu Jiaquan would not foolishly come here to offend the name of the Great Chu Empire Navy.

But if you let him submit to the Great Chu Empire, and then become a small officer in the Chu Navy, he is not interested either.

Liu Jiaquan didn't want to be under too much restraint, besides, he had no interest in being an official, he just wanted to make money, and he made money freely.

So Liu Jiaquan simply ran to the coast of Vietnam with his subordinates. Later, when he heard that the Great Chu Empire opened up maritime trade, he ran back again.

But it's still not to submit to the Great Chu Empire, it's purely for business!
Now that the Great Chu Empire opened up the sea ban and allowed various sea ships to do business, he naturally would not let it go, and immediately went to Guangzhou to register a maritime trading company called Liuhe Trading Company, which was taken from its hometown Liuhe Village.

After the establishment of Liuhe Trading Company, with an aboveboard status, Liu Jiaquan found it easier to do business overseas.

As long as you don't foolishly do trouble in the offshore waters of the Great Chu Empire or in the East Ocean, or on a few fixed Nanyang routes escorted by the Great Chu Empire Navy, then the Great Chu Empire Navy basically doesn't care about you.

Even if you go to other routes in Nanyang to stealthily plunder, as long as things are kept secret, no matter how strong the Chu Empire Navy is, they will not be able to find out.

Of course, this kind of looting of the Liu family has been rarely done.

Because you can earn a lot of money by going to the sea for trade, and the safety is also high, but if you go to a remote route to plunder, on the one hand, it depends on your luck. After all, the sea is so big and you are on a remote route. If you meet a ship, you can meet it.

Even if they meet... it's hard to say who is the fat sheep.

These days, those who dare to break away from the escort of the official navies of various countries and go to remote routes are either powerful or not afraid of death.

For example, the trading companies directly under the three major industrial ministries of the Great Chu Empire and the merchant fleets of European countries, mainly the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The company's situation to trade.

No matter which company is mentioned above, their merchant fleets are large in scale and have strong armed forces. When conducting ocean-going trade, they always drive armed merchant ships, and their armed merchant ships are often equipped with a large number of artillery.

The Great Chu Empire Nanyang Trading Company now uses a new type of armed merchant ship that has a displacement of more than 800 tons and can carry more than 20 artillery pieces. Its combat effectiveness is stronger than the main battleships of many backward countries...

Only these powerful large trading companies can trade in remote routes, because they can guarantee their own safety.

Liu Jiaquan and the others are ordinary private trading companies, the merchant ships under their hands are not very good, there are not many guns, and there are only a few people. If they go there, let alone rob others, they may even be robbed by others!

Although Liu Jiaquan was born as a pirate, he was not stupid enough to die, so in the past few years he has been honestly flying safe routes, mainly between Guangzhou and Batavia.

A large amount of cotton cloth, industrial iron products (including weapons), silk, tea, porcelain, etc. of the Great Chu Empire were transported from Guangzhou to Batavia, and then sold to local merchants, and then purchased spices, pepper, amber, linen, and cotton , tin, lead, precious wood and many other Southeast Asian regions or goods from India, West Asia, Africa and even Europe were transported back to Guangzhou for sale.

This trade route seems to be simple, and the profit per unit price is not high, but in fact, it is still quite profitable to go back and forth.

Especially in the past two years, all kinds of export commodities of the Great Chu Empire, especially industrial iron products and cheap cotton cloth, have become extremely popular commodities and have made considerable profits.

Because these Southeast Asian islands and even the peninsula are very popular, and they are also very popular in India.

Everyone wants cheap and easy-to-use things, because the cotton cloth of the Great Chu Empire sells well, and the handmade cotton cloth from India has no market in Southeast Asia. The difference in quality and price is too great, and it cannot compete with the Great Chu Empire cotton.

Not to mention competing with the Great Chu Empire in Southeast Asia, even in India, Indian civil engineering faced the cheap machine cloth of the Great Chu Empire, and it was losing ground!

With the industrial rise of the Great Chu Empire, the demand for various industrial raw materials is also very large, especially the demand for cotton is almost endless!

Although there was a wave of extensive cotton planting in the Great Chu Empire, the cotton cloth industry developed so fast that it required a large amount of imports.

During this process, a large amount of cotton from various places, especially India, was transported to the Great Chu Empire by merchants, and the Great Chu Empire received almost as much as it received, and the purchase price was not low.

The Nanyang route has become a cornucopia for many maritime merchants in the Great Chu Empire, and they have made a lot of profits.

Not only the Great Chu Empire, but even many merchant fleets in other countries also ran like this.

But there is an exception, that is, other countries on the Eastern Sea Route cannot get involved. This is the private land of the Great Chu Empire.

Due to their own needs, the Fusang Islands took measures to prohibit merchants from the Dutch and other countries from coming to trade, that is, to close the country and only allow merchants from the Ming Dynasty and Korea to trade.

After the Ming Dynasty was replaced by the Great Chu Empire, only the Chu Dynasty and the Li Dynasty of Korea were allowed to trade.

After the Li Dynasty of Korea also perished, only the Great Chu Empire could go to Fusang for trade.

Back then, in order to preserve this exclusive route, the Great Chu Empire and the Dutch secretly fought several times in the name of pirate attacks.

The Dutch were unable to win the battle, and the Fusang people themselves were unwilling to deal with barbarians like the Dutch, so they were forced to give up the Fusang route completely in the end.

As a result, the Fusang route, that is, the Dongyang route has completely become the exclusive route of the Great Chu Empire, and in order to maintain the normal operation of the route, avoid malicious competition and maritime merchants messing around and destroying the market, the Great Chu Empire requested to go to Fusang for trade. Maritime merchants must apply for an oriental trade license.

Of course, this is not for the purpose of restricting, but for regulating the market. As long as the trade is carried out honestly and the trade of the empire is not disrupted, it will basically be approved.

This Eastern route has brought great benefits to the Great Chu Empire!

Not only can it bring a lot of trade profits to the Great Chu Empire, but there is a large local population, and these people are all customers of the industrial products of the Great Chu Empire. Whether the industrial products are good or not is important, but more important Still the market.

There is no market, and no one will buy even the best things.

For the enterprise itself, this may be an issue of product competitiveness, and for a country, this may be a political or even military issue.

And this is also a typical feature of post-industrialized countries, that is, most of the country's political and military power is to provide protection for its industrial system.

When the products of your own company cannot be sold in a certain area, especially when they are blocked by some non-commercial factors in the local market, then you need battleships and artillery to support the company.

The current Fusang market is undoubtedly the exclusive market of the trading companies of the Great Chu Empire. In order to monopolize this market, the Great Chu Empire did not hesitate to fight several times with the Dutch before.

Although they were all under the banner of pirates, there were a lot of naval battles.

It was just because of the overall situation of maritime trade that both sides did not tear their faces. In the end, because the Dutch gained great benefits in the trade with Chu, it ended with the Dutch completely giving in.

A sign of its complete retreat, that is, last year, the last colony on Dayuan Island under the control of the Dutch East India Company was handed over to the Great Chu Empire in an all-round and unconditional manner, declaring that the Dutch forces had completely withdrawn from the Fusang route.

And the Great Chu Empire, which monopolized the Fusang trade, naturally gained great benefits from it. Needless to say, exports, and imports also gained a lot of benefits from Fusang.

Fusang is rich in gold and silver, especially silver. In addition, there are also specialties such as sulfur, which are also needed by the Great Chu Empire.

The Great Chu Empire had almost unlimited demand for sulfur, saltpeter, cotton, even wool, shipbuilding timber, and other industrial raw materials.

It is not only imported in large quantities from Fusang, but also imported in large quantities from Nanyang.

At this very moment, Liu Jiaquan is leading his two merchant ships all the way from Nanyang to Guangzhou.

This is actually not the most suitable season for returning from south to north, because the monsoon to Nanyang is in winter around November, when the monsoon blows south, and around spring, summer and April, the monsoon starts to blow from south to north .

In ancient times, many ships sailed while taking advantage of the monsoon, which was faster.

However, this is just a general situation. If there is a need, the ship can also sail against the monsoon and sail against the wind.

It is not that sailing ships cannot sail against the wind, but sailing against the wind is more troublesome, slower and takes longer.

In the past, the trade between the Huaxia region and the Nanyang region was relatively limited in scale, so the sailing time followed the monsoon. However, when the Great Chu Empire opened the sea ban and encouraged maritime trade, the trade volume between the Great Chu Empire and the Nanyang region increased greatly.

At the same time, market demand will not decrease because the monsoon is not suitable. On the contrary, because the monsoon is not suitable, the corresponding material prices will be higher, and thus the profit will be higher.

Therefore, in recent years, many captains have simply gone to sea against the monsoon in order to obtain higher profits.

This has also led to the trade between several ports in Huaxia and Nanyang, with ships sailing all year round.

Liu Jiaquan was one of them, and relying on his own and his subordinates' higher navigation skills, he was engaged in anti-monsoon sailing.

Although it takes longer, it is more troublesome, and even the risk is higher, but the corresponding profit is also higher.

Liu Jiaquan stood on the corridor outside the captain, leaning on the railing, looking at the empty sea around him, and then at the sailors who were busy adjusting the sails.

But in his heart, he was already thinking about how much money he could make on this voyage.

After a little calculation, he silently calculated again.

The profits from these several voyages, plus the money I saved in the previous few years, should be enough for my trading company to order a real big ship.

It's not a medium-sized lucky ship that can only carry two to three hundred tons of cargo, but a new type of large-scale ship that can carry thousands of tons of cargo.

The two Fuchuan he owns are still a bit smaller, and the goods they carry are not too much. In addition, in order to avoid risks and cost problems, the goods he trades are not high-value goods, but ordinary bulk goods. goods.

In this way of trade, the amount of cargo is critical.

The combined loading capacity of my two ships is just over [-] tons.

But if there is a new type of big ship that can carry thousands of tons of cargo in one trip, the profit will naturally be higher.

He had already heard from his peers that there was a new shipyard in Guangzhou that could build and sell thousand-ton large ships. Although he hadn't seen them in stock yet, he heard that the technical specifications were not much worse than those of the government-run Guangzhou shipyard.

The new type of large sea ship built by the Guangzhou Shipyard is a good thing. It has a lot of cargo, does not run slowly, and is equipped with strong firepower.

Although there are not many superstructures and the captain's living space is not good, if it is attacked by pirates, it is not reliable to play gang battles.

But there are more artillery, and the ships can carry more crews.

When there are many artillery pieces, if you encounter a pirate ship, you can shoot the opponent down in a few salvos. Even if the opponent dares to approach, but your own crew is large and equipped with a large number of muskets. There were heavy casualties.

This new type of sea ship has advantages and disadvantages, but overall the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

It's just that the supply of new large-scale large-scale ships in Guangzhou Shipyard is in short supply. The large-scale large-scale ships produced in recent years have basically been covered by the three major government-run trading companies, and there are no other ordinary trading companies at all.

Trading companies like Liu Jiaquan either use old ships, or they can only order some blessing ships, and some medium-sized Galen ships.

But now there is another Li's shipyard in Guangzhou that can build this new type of big ship, so the Liu family is naturally tempted.

Not only was Liu Jiaquan tempted, but he really did it.

When the two Fuchuan under his command had just arrived in Guangzhou, before the goods could be sold, he hurriedly found Li's Shipyard and proposed to order a new type of large ship that could carry thousands of tons of cargo.

But what made him dumbfounded was... he was still late after all, there were not only one sea merchant who had the same idea as him, but a large number of them!

Although Li's Shipyard does not refuse orders, its production capacity is limited. There are only so many dry docks that can build thousand-ton ships, and the number of orders far exceeds its production capacity.

His order just needs to be in line... and it's four years away!
Four years... the cucumber dishes are cold, who knows what will happen to the world after four years.

At this time, Li's Shipyard also proposed a solution: they expect a new dock to be put into use in a month's time, and they can arrange a small number of orders for priority production.

However, more than half of the deposit must be paid, and the selling price is partly higher than the normal queued order. The more urgent you want, the more you will add.

As long as you can afford the money, they can even urgently start building your ship orders starting this month. There is no dock, and they can directly recruit people to temporarily build a dry dock.

As long as you have money, the shipyard can actually be built very quickly. At worst, you can directly use human sea tactics to construct it day and night!
Workers and materials can also be swapped.

The premise is that you have to pay for the increased expenses caused by these expedited work!
The Li's Shipyard is a serious private shipyard, and the Li's family is wholly-owned, and they entered the shipbuilding industry for money.

When they found that thousand-ton large-scale ships were very popular and the orders were full, on the one hand, they took ordinary orders in a normal queue for production.

For some customers who are in a hurry, a special expedited service has also been launched, which can jump in the queue, and even build a new dock for your order.

After hearing this, Liu Jiaquan's face was all black!

Nima, as a person who runs the sea, he claims to be ruthless. When he meets a fat sheep at sea, he has the opportunity to do things cleanly. If he doesn't follow the wind, he will not hesitate to do it.

But in the Li family, Nima didn't use a knife or gun, didn't even shout, and just lay down and robbed... Nima also acted like I would not give you the distinguished service that I specially provided for your own good!

Darker than my heart!
Nima, if you meet them in the sea, the Liu family will insist on letting the Li family know why the flowers are so popular.

It's a pity that the Li family doesn't go overseas!

In the end, Liu Jiaquan walked out of the office yard of Li's Shipyard with some helplessness, and no order was negotiated at all.

He would be taken advantage of for an urgent order, and he was unwilling to do such a stupid thing.

For the orders that are normally queued up, the start time will be four years at the earliest, and the delivery will take five years.

Moreover, Li Jiaming said that this five-year delivery takes into account the increase in production capacity of Li's shipbuilding in the next few years. If the increase in production capacity does not go well, the delivery time may be delayed to six years or even longer.

For this reason, the latest delivery time specified in the contract is eight years later!

What a fucking nonsense, he, Liu Jiaquan, may not be able to live to that time eight years later.

Just as Liu Jiaquan came out, a middle-aged man wearing a scholar's robe and holding a folding fan quickly walked out of the teahouse on the side of the street, and went directly to Liu Jiaquan.

(End of this chapter)