The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 568 The First General Agent

Zhao Dashan usually likes to learn from Ding Yi the most, and has always regarded himself as Ding Yi's chief apprentice.

I feel that in the entire Dongjiang Town, except for Ding Yi, he is the smartest.

In fact, he was the one who established the Early Intelligence Department of Dongjiang Town, and Yuan Tian (Yuan Gui) was also selected by him.

After deciding to make iron pots, he wondered how to make money.

It's not a big deal for a senior officer to lose money every year. Now Mr. Ding is spending money everywhere. How can he train soldiers without money, and how can he conquer the world without soldiers?
I, Zhao Dashan, still want to be a founding hero.

Zhao Dashan quickly thought of a way.

On the side of the reward task bar at the port, it is written in Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Persian, Japanese, Korean, etc., all the foreign languages ​​​​that the officials have encountered.

It is written on the task column that the senior staff opened an iron pot foundry, with an annual output of 25 large and small iron pots.

This figure is slightly exaggerated. In fact, according to the iron ore output that Song Qiwen found, even a three-jin iron pot can't make so much.

But he believed that Song Qiwen could still find other mines, and he could purchase iron ore from Fujian, and Ruan Siqing would also transport ore from Japan.

So he said higher up.

Then he said, now to attract investment from all over the world, each country and region has only one general agent.

The general agent signs a contract with us and submits the deposit. I guarantee that according to your needs, how many iron pots will be provided throughout the year.

Well, white sugar is also fine. Iron pots and white sugar go together. The more iron pots you buy, the more white soup you can match.

Of course, Ding Yi told him about these tricks, but how to do it, let him discuss with Zhu Xiangyang, Yao Xinhan and others here.

Not long after his bounty mission or investment invitation came out, a Spanish ship arrived.

It was their old acquaintance, the commander of the Spanish garrison at Jilong Port in the north of Dayuan, Dole Gonzalez.

Dole originally wanted to come over and ask for a gun.

Last time he lent a cannon to the Ming army, hoping that the Ming army and the Dutch would lose both sides.

Unexpectedly, he heard the news later that the Ming army defeated the Dutch and wiped out the entire Dutch fleet.

This is terrible. Zheng Zhilong fought the Dutch several times back then, and every time he won, he had to let the main force of the Dutch fleet escape.

Ding Yi's navy was not as good as Zheng Zhilong's, but it actually wiped out the entire Dutch army.

Then Huatis, the special envoy of Emperor Shinra, also went to Jilonggang. Both of them are allies, and they both regard the Netherlands as their greatest enemy.

Wattis said that he saw the Ming army infantry battalion and naval division on the top of the army. They are very elite and very scary. You must win a good relationship with them. Maybe they can be used to deal with the Netherlands in the future. Of course, if it is not necessary, I will I feel that such a terrible army should not be led to Europe.

After Dole waited for Wattis to leave, he immediately wanted to come over and ask for cannons and matchlock guns.

But it is easy for Zhao Dashan to take it in, but it is difficult to spit it out.

As soon as Zhao Dashan met him, he cried and said, "Oh, Brother Dole, I'm so sorry, the boat with your cannon and arquebus was sunk by the damn Dutch."

"..." The corner of Dole's mouth twitched slightly. When I entered the port, I saw our 36-pound gun with a telescope, and you put it on the fort. You can't be so shameless.

He decided to expose Zhao Dashan's lies, because as a noble Spanish royal knight, he would not say such lies.

Before he could ask for it, Zhao Dashan directly took out a bag from behind: "Brother, I can't return the cannon and matchlock gun. A little bit of kindness here can be regarded as compensation for your personal loss."

"I think the artillery belongs to the Kingdom of Spain, but the friendship is between our two brothers." Zhao Dashan smiled.

Dole took the bag and felt that it was so heavy. He was very angry, who did he treat me?Want to buy me with money?

He opened the bag heavily, trying to pour all the money in front of Zhao Dashan.

Such a heavy silver is only a few dozen taels.

"Well, wait a minute." Dole saw all the gold coins at a glance.

God, it's not silver but gold.

Dole quickly took the bag back, his heart beating uncontrollably.

"What did General Zhao just say?" He asked, blushing.

"The cannon belongs to the Kingdom of Spain, and it belongs to you Brother Dole." Zhao Dashan smiled: "Brother Dole, you can't possibly work for the Kingdom of Spain all your life. What will you do if you retire in the future? I will open the door for you at any time, and you are welcome to come." Help, we need elites from all over the world."

Dole understood that the losses belonged to the collective and the country, and the gains belonged to me personally.

Artillery is none of my business, I supported the Ming army to fight against the Netherlands, and was sunk by the Dutch.

Dole seemed to lose his memory immediately, and he didn't remember anything about the artillery.

The two sides once again became harmonious and happy.

Then Dole mentioned the iron pot agent he saw at the port.

That's right, even he knows that iron pots are very popular in all the countries in Luzon, including Europe.

Spain's own colony in Luzon alone has a lot of demand.

Historically, in 1603, the tragic Dalun Mountain Massacre occurred in Luzon, killing almost all the local Chinese.

After decades of development, there are now [-] to [-] Chinese in Luzon again.

The Chinese over there are not allowed to touch iron ore and ironware business.

All the iron pots were shipped by the Spaniards for sale, and the price was very expensive, one tael per catty.

That is, a one-jin small pot sells for one tael, a two-jin pot sells for two taels, and a three-jin pot sells for three taels. The larger the pot, the more expensive it is.

Compared with Daming's price, it's like stealing money. Of course, Dole would not dare to tell Zhao Dashan about this kind of thing. It's a pity that he didn't know, and Ding Yi had already taken it to heart.

In addition, there are tens of millions of indigenous people in Luzon, which is also a huge market.

Spain has only conquered northern Luzon so far, and the south has been resisting.

So Dole immediately saw a huge market and interest.

He immediately said that if he wanted to become the general agent of the Kingdom of Spain, he would need at least [-] pots per year, and the size of the pots could range from three catties to five catties.

It has to be said that Dole has a good business vision. Europe even came to China desperately during the Yongzheng period, buying hundreds of thousands or even millions of iron pots every year, which shows how short they are there.

Europe during this period may have been immersed in the 30 Years War, and all steel resources were used to fight the war.

Before the first industrial revolution, to be precise, the combined steel production in Europe at this time was not as high as the peak of the Ming Dynasty, which accounted for more than half of the world's steel production.

As a commander who traveled between Asia and Europe, and often went to Luzon, Dole keenly grasped this point of making money.

Zhao Dashan waited for him to finish speaking, and immediately looked at him with the eyes of a beggar, as if wondering if he had so much money.

Swipe, Dole felt the contempt from Zhao Dashan's eyes, and his face flushed suddenly, ashamed and angry.

"It's not far from here to Luzon. As long as you can give me the pot, I can bring you a lot of silver and pesos (Spanish silver pesos, 1 peso is about 0.7 taels of silver) when I come back." Dole promised, patted his chest .

"Dor, my good brother, you know that the senior officer does not belong to me, but belongs to our honorable General Ding."

Zhao Dashan couldn't help: "This is the rule set by General Ding. If you want to get the position of general agent, you must have one-tenth of the down payment and three-tenths of the deposit."

Before Zhao Dashan sold the pot, he charged [-]% first, which guaranteed the profit.

"There is one more important point. The honorable identity can match the identity of the general agent. There is only one in each country and region." Zhao Dashan sighed: "Brother, your identity is enough, but——" The funds seem to be have some problem.

Dole gritted his teeth and asked, "How much pressure and deposit do you need for [-] pots?"

"See how many catties you want? You can convert it into catties and calculate."

"Assuming it weighs [-] catties, five cents per catty."

A three-jin pot costs one to two five yuan, which is half the price of selling it in Japan.

It is also more expensive than Fujian.

But the big staff has a lot of quantity, and when Dole is sold to Luzon, it can be doubled and turned into three taels.

Dole understood what Zhao Dashan meant. Ten thousand pots weighed three catties, five catties, one catty, or even ten catties.

Anyway, no matter how big the pot is, it counts.

Fifty thousand catties weighs five cents per catty, which is 5000 taels of silver.

1% deposit, [-]% deposit, [-]% [-] taels.

According to the current iron ore here, the cost of a 600-jin iron pot is about 800-[-] taels, and only the deposit and deposit have been paid back.

Of course, if Dole also paid the balance, it would directly be dozens of times the profit.

And the labor here is cheap for the big staff, whether it is raw or familiar, the labor cost is much cheaper than Lushun. After deducting the cost of mining and smelting, and deducting the wages of craftsmen, there is at least [-] times the net profit.

That is, a large amount of money needs to be invested in the early stage of building the Dajian Furnace.

So selling pots is very profitable.

As for Dole, he paid 5000 taels, and if he sold it to Luzon, he could double it and get 5 taels. After deducting transportation, labor and taxes, he must have made a lot of money.

"Done." Dole quickly decided to fight for the Spanish general agent, but what should he do if he doesn't have so much money?
Find a partner.

Dole ran to Luzon and found Coquila, then Governor of the Philippines. (At this time, the Chinese were called the Spanish Luzon, and the Filipino Little Luzon).

Governor Coquera took a share, and together with Dole, became the first general agent of Dayuan, the general agent in Spain.

They decided that at least [-] catties of iron pots would be needed every year.

So not long after Ding Yi left, Zhao Dashan slowly opened up the source of income for the senior staff, further reducing the expenditure of the senior staff.

(End of this chapter)