I want to be emperor

Chapter 585 Complicated and Dangerous Maritime Trade
Liu Jiaquan looked at this middle-aged scribe who was walking forward quickly, but he didn't have a good face.

He is not a person who is ignorant of the world, and when he saw this middle-aged man coming over, many thoughts had already flashed through his mind.

It's either a salesman or a liar, there is absolutely no third possibility.

Because he came out of Li's Shipyard, and he still went to Li's Shipyard to discuss new ship orders, and this person was obviously squatting outside the door, and his purpose was already clear at a glance.

Sure enough, the first sentence of the middle-aged scribe who came forward was: "Brother, please stop. I am the outreach manager of Luohua Shipyard. I heard that your company wants to order a new type of seagoing ship. Would you like to consider our new type of seagoing ship?" Boat?"

It was obviously not the first time for the visitor to do this kind of thing, and he directly stated his purpose of coming without even waiting for Liu Jiaquan.

Simple, crisp, and no mystery!

Liu Jiaquan stopped in his tracks and took a closer look at this person. He didn't look good, and he was dressed in ordinary clothes. At first glance, he knew that he was not a big shot, but just a solicitor...

As for Luo Hua Shipyard, I have never heard of it.

It seems that he regards himself as a small ship owner, and then pulls himself to sell those small broken ships.

This is normal when you think about it. Li’s shipyard is full of orders, and not every ship owner will be like himself, asking for a thousand-ton large ship. For most shipping companies or trading companies that go to sea, Laishui can A ship with a cargo of three or four hundred tons is a big ship.

If it is a shipping company running offshore or river routes, their ships are even smaller, carrying dozens of tons of cargo, and the main ships are one or two hundred tons.

If these shipowners cannot order ships in Li's Shipyard, they will naturally choose other shipyards, so it is normal for people from other shipyards to wait here.

However, his Liu family is completely different!

Although his Liuhe trading company is not too large, it is a company that has obtained an ocean trade license, and there are so many shipping companies or trading companies in the empire that can obtain an ocean trade license. Then there are dozens of them.

This ocean-going trade license is not so easy to get. In order to regulate ocean-going trade and ensure the safety of ships going out to sea, the Great Chu Empire has relatively high requirements for the examination of ocean-going trade licenses.

First of all, there must be a merchant ship that must carry at least several hundred tons of cargo. The ship is too small to go to sea and the risk is too great.

Secondly, this ship cannot be an ordinary merchant ship, it must be an armed merchant ship!
Large armed merchant ships, this is a hard condition, so as to avoid the danger of wind and waves and the danger of piracy encountered in the ocean.

Secondly, the crew is also a big cost!
Because the sailors who run the ocean are said to be sailors, but in fact most of them are armed personnel... They must be able to control artillery, and they must also be able to control firearms to fight. There is no such thing as an armed force of tens or hundreds of people in the civilian population on land.

The Great Chu Empire has continued to suppress all kinds of bandits, landlords and other illegal armed forces for many years. It can be seen that the Great Chu Empire has high-handed control over civilian armed forces.

But maritime trade is different. Going to sea without guns is death. At the same time, in order to open the sea ban and develop a larger overseas market, it is impossible for the Great Chu Empire to control ocean trade purely with official capital. More private capital must be allowed to Get involved.

Therefore, under such special circumstances, the Great Chu Empire formulated special laws related to ocean trade, requiring all armed personnel of ocean trade companies and their equipped naval guns, muskets and other weapons to be registered in the register, and at the same time pass the review of the military , and is regularly inspected by the military.

At the same time, a high security deposit must be paid.

If you mess around, then the security deposit will be confiscated or even the company will be shut down.

In order to avoid the armed personnel under their hands, these trading companies naturally cannot find people randomly, they can only hire and support them for a long time, and at the same time they must receive regular naval training and ideological training.

More importantly, the armed crew of these ocean-going trading companies must also be included in the naval reserve for management. Once the navy is recruited, they must obey the recruitment unconditionally. Of course, the empire will give certain compensation during the recruitment period, and they will not let them do it for nothing. live.

But even so, it has virtually increased the personnel costs of trading companies.

After all, if you are directly recruited by the navy when you are running the ship, even if the navy will give compensation, it will not be able to make up for the large losses caused by the inability to conduct maritime trade.

A large armed merchant ship, with a group of armed personnel, has to be recruited by the navy at any time, and a large amount of deposit must be paid.

With such a complete set alone, the demand for funds is very huge.

A sea with insufficient strength cannot afford ocean-going trade.

That's all, without counting the various risks encountered after going to sea, it is very dangerous to go to sea these days, all kinds of natural disasters and man-made disasters, after the sea ship goes to sea, God knows if it will come back.

In the past year, at least a dozen ocean-going trade vessels registered on the side of the Great Chu Empire have never returned. A few of them were clearly in danger due to natural disasters, but more than half of them had no news at all. When it came back, life and death were unknown, and whereabouts were unknown.

God knows what happened to them, maybe it was a natural disaster, maybe they encountered pirates, or they went to other indigenous countries and were killed.

And these are costs.

Liu Jiaquan, who has been a pirate for more than 200 years, and owns two big fortune ships and more than [-] seagoing ships, is able to do this business.

So, despite the fact that Liu Jiaquan only has two two- to three-hundred-ton Fuchuan, he is really rich, at least richer than most of the so-called rich men in Guangzhou.

In this way, he doesn't look at Fuchuan, Guangzhou Chuan, Sand Chuan and the like at all. He only wants those new large ships with thousands of tons.

If he could have such a new type of large armed merchant ship, he would dare to run some relatively remote Southeast Asia routes, or even run to India routes.

The ships of the Great Chu Empire were also able to go to ports in other countries in India and even further afield for trade.

Because according to the relevant trade treaties signed between the Great Chu Empire and Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, several ports are open to each other for trade.

It cannot be said that your ships can come to the ports of the Great Chu Empire for trade, but the ships of the Great Chu Empire cannot go to your ports for trade.

What is important is a trade reciprocity.

It's just that although there is such a treaty, many sea areas or ports are still not allowed to go.

Because the situation of pirates and sea merchants acting as guest pirates is extremely serious, if they let you go, it does not mean that you can arrive safely.

At present, only the three major trading companies directly under the Ministry of Industry of the Great Chu Empire have the strength to send a small number of ships to India for trade, but the overall scale is not large.

It is said to be for trade, but it is more like to explore the way.

It is worth noting that during this process, the English most welcomed the Great Chu Empire to trade in India, and they even directly opened Mumbai, their core colony in India.

This is also related to the special business model of the English in India.

The East India Company of the English, part of their business in India relied on monopolizing the British trade in India, and part of it relied on taxation.

And now the English have discovered that the tax revenue from colonial operations is more than direct trade.

In addition, because the English do not have any colonies in Southeast Asia, and they have formed direct competition with the Dutch, Spaniards, and Portuguese in Southeast Asia, because it is very difficult for English ships to go to the Great Chu Empire for trade.

It is extremely difficult to find a port to rest and replenish supplies on the way, let alone encounter frequent attacks by so-called pirates.

Under such circumstances, they also hope that the merchant ships of the Great Chu Empire will ship a large amount of Chinese specialties to India and trade with them directly.

After all, the ships of the Great Chu Empire would not be obstructed by the Dutch or the Spaniards when sailing in the South Seas. Even after the ships of the Great Chu Empire entered the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca, the forces of these countries did not dare to openly intercept them.

The safety is much greater than the British going to the Great Chu Empire by themselves.

Maritime trade these days is very complicated, and because of the different policies of each country, there are great differences.

The Great Chu Empire adopts a completely open model. No matter what ships come, as long as they come to the Great Chu Empire to purchase goods and pay taxes honestly, the Great Chu Empire welcomes them.

What the Great Chu Empire wanted was not the profit of maritime trade itself, but the market and raw materials.

But other countries are not.

The Netherlands, Portugal and even Spain, their maritime trade model is for the profit of maritime trade itself.Therefore, they are very obsessed with monopolizing routes, and their own ports basically do not allow competitors, especially European competitors, to enter.

The ship of the Great Chu Empire is an exception!
What... In Southeast Asia and even India's maritime trade, the Great Chu Empire is an indispensable part. Taking the Dutch as an example, what is their trade model?
He imported industrial products such as cotton cloth and ironware from the Great Chu Empire, and then sold them to the indigenous areas in Southeast Asia and India under his control, bought spices from all over Southeast Asia, and purchased raw materials such as cotton from India and sold them to merchants in the Great Chu Empire.

At the same time, traditional goods such as silk and porcelain will be imported from the Great Chu Empire and shipped back to Europe for sale.

The trade pattern of the Portuguese is also similar to that of the Dutch. They basically buy goods from the colonies in Southeast Asia and India, then sell them to the Great Chu Empire, and then sell the goods of the Great Chu Empire to these natives, and then make profits.

In the end, it was inevitable to transport some high-value goods from the Great Chu Empire, such as silk and porcelain, back to Europe for sale.

As for the Spaniards, in recent years, their trade in Southeast Asia has been simpler and more straightforward. They directly transported a large amount of high-value materials such as gold, silver, and saltpeter from the Americas, and sold the goods across the Pacific Ocean to the Great Chu Empire, and then bought them from the Great Chu Empire. Silk, porcelain and other goods were shipped back to Europe for sale, and a global route was made.

Here, the British are more tragic!
In fact, because they had no foothold in Southeast Asia and were rejected by the other three countries, it was very difficult to go directly to trade with the Great Chu Empire.

So I can only go to Southeast Asia and trade with the merchants of the Great Chu Empire through the hands of the Dutch, so that the Dutch can make a profit from it.

This is also the biggest contradiction between the British and the Dutch in the trade in India and Southeast Asia.

If it weren't for the British still in the civil war, it is estimated that they would have launched a war to seize Malacca long ago.

Similarly, the contradiction between the Dutch and the Portuguese is also super big!

Not all countries, like the Great Chu Empire, want to engage in open trade!

The Dutch, Portuguese, British, and Spaniards, their colonial business model is still in its very early stages, with the goal of monopolizing the profits of trade itself.

Under such circumstances, in fact, even if the Great Chu Empire tried to allow them to open their ports through a fair trade model, the restrictions were relatively large.

Whether it is the Dutch, the Portuguese, or the British, although their colonies in India are also open to the merchant ships of the Great Chu Empire, they are only limited to a few special ports, and after the goods arrive, they cannot communicate with other countries. To conduct transactions, the company must trade with the local East India Companies of various countries.

Well, speaking of it, we have to mention the East India Companies of various countries.

Today in India and Southeast Asia, there are four East India companies active, namely the British East India Company, the Portuguese East India Company, the Dutch East India Company, and the Danish East India Company.

As for the Spaniards, they didn't engage in the East India Company. They directly played official trade, and the treasure ships on their round-the-world routes directly belonged to the Spanish government.

On the whole, in fact, the trade between these countries and the Great Chu Empire was carried out by the East India Company or official forces.

Countries did not have a large number of private trading companies participating in it like the Great Chu Empire.

On the contrary, many small countries in Southeast Asia, and even countries in India, West Asia and other places, will have some private ships to trade with the Great Chu Empire.

This kind of trading environment is very different from the later generations!
In particular, the competition between countries is full of gunpowder. Although it will not directly tear the face, it is very common to directly shoot the pirate flag.

This also caused the ships of the Great Chu Empire to be more dangerous if they went to some remote and unprotected routes in the Southeast Asia region and traded in India.

In the past, the three most powerful trading companies had the ability to pass through unimpeded, but now, Liu Jiaquan also wants to participate in it.

The premise is that there must be at least one large new sea ship!

Not only do you need to load more cargo, but you also need to carry more crew and more artillery to protect yourself during the dangerous voyage and dispel the robbery attempts of real or fake pirates.

As for such a large-scale new sea-going ship, currently in the Great Chu Empire, only Songjiang Naval Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard, the two royal naval shipyards, and the newly emerging Li's Shipyard can provide it.

Liu Jiaquan didn't think that Luohua Shipyard, which popped up suddenly, could provide such ships.

But since the other party came to him and also said the word "new sea boat", Liu Jiaquan would not just leave without saying a word.

So he said: "What I want is a new type of sea-going ship with a cargo capacity of at least a thousand tons. Can you build it?"

However, what Liu Jiaquan didn't expect was that the middle-aged scribe said in a very positive tone: "We can!"

Liu Jiaquan listened, not surprised, but laughed: "If you can build such a new type of big ship, how can you stay here to guard customers!"

Then he said with a serious face: "If you can really build this new sea-going ship, the orders from the three major trading companies have already filled your desks. How could you come to me!"

The middle-aged scribe listened to his ridicule, but he didn't mean to be angry or ashamed, but said: "Because our shipyard has not been built yet, they naturally won't place an order in advance!"

When Liu Jiaquan heard this, he didn't want to speak anymore. Nima hasn't even built a shipyard yet, and then you come here to sell it. What do you want to do with empty hands?
The middle-aged scribe immediately took out a document and said: "It's normal for everyone to have doubts, but our Luohua Shipyard really has the technical ability to build this thousand-ton new ship!"

"We at Luohua Shipyard came out of the Songjiang Naval Shipyard to work hard on our own. The core shipbuilding team has more than 30 people. Let alone new sea ships, even large warships have been built!"

"In addition to the technical team, we are also recruiting a large number of ordinary workers, and we have also commissioned a relationship to order a large amount of equipment, and the shipyard is scheduled to be located at the mouth of the Liaohe River, where there is a large amount of cheap wood."

"All our preparations are in place, now, we only owe the launch order!"

Liu Jiaquan was even more speechless when he heard this, well, he really wanted to be an empty-handed white wolf.

When you start an order, you can tell from the name that you want to ask yourself to pay the deposit first, and then let them build the shipyard before building the ship.

In the past few years, the industrial and commercial environment has exploded, and there are countless similar deception methods. Liu Jiaquan is not a three-year-old child, so naturally he will not believe it easily.

Not to mention the total price of a thousand-ton armed merchant ship, the initial deposit alone can be tens of thousands!

There is no visible and tangible shipyard, and there is not enough guarantee, so the devil will give you a deposit of tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Tens of thousands of taels, the total income of ordinary people in ten lifetimes is not so much!

After the middle-aged scribe talked a lot, he took out a file bag and handed it to Liu Jiaquan: "I know that your company is a powerful trading company, and it is precisely because of this that I came here to find you, because only you can do it. With strength, there is also this big sea ship that needs a thousand tons!"

"This is our information, Brother Liu, why not take a look!"

"In addition, in terms of the current shipbuilding industry in the empire, our Luohua Shipyard is the second private shipyard that has the ability to build new thousand-ton large-scale ships, and the third will appear in a short time!"

"Because there are only so many top teams in the shipbuilding industry. The team from Li's Shipyard was recruited from Li's Shipyard, and our team came from Songjiang Naval Shipyard. In a short time, there will be no outsiders. The third team!"

Liu Jiaquan didn't read the document bag when he got it, but just nodded slightly and said, "I will read it later!"

Then he said goodbye and left.

Regardless of whether it is a liar or a whimsical person, there is no need to speak too much, anyway, Liu Jiaquan himself will not shed a single hair.

And watching Liu Jiaquan leave, the middle-aged scribe also sighed a little!

Starting a business is really hard!
Especially in a business that requires a large amount of capital investment in the early stage of shipbuilding!

(End of this chapter)