Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 353 I still have to ask an expert

What is the art of speaking?It is to speak to people's hearts.

Lao Liu used Xiao Ma's classic lines on these two former bosses who were in similar situations, and it was a lore.

Sure enough, the two of them no longer refused, and both kowtowed to express their willingness to join the Shibo Division.

"Haha, good!" Zhu Zhen stood up happily, pulled the two of them up personally and said, "From today onwards, the two of you are the shipping committee members of the Shipping Department. I only have one request for you, and that is to make the Shipping Department bigger." Be stronger! Believe me, as long as you can do this, the two of you will be able to regain their former glory."

"Yes." The two naturally answered whatever he said.

"Come on, sit down and talk." Zhu Zhen finally beckoned them to sit down.Before, they had been standing and talking.

He briefly introduced the current situation, emphasizing the upcoming Zhenjiang Conference.Then he pointed to Han Yike and said:

"But to be honest, my brother and I are both laymen. If you two experts have any ideas, you can speak freely without any worries."

"..." The two looked at each other, knowing that His Highness was testing their level.How dare you not show some real skills?

After pondering for a while, Gu Yuanchen spoke first: "Forgive me for speaking bluntly, Your Highness calling a meeting of big households in the south of the Yangtze River will definitely be useful, but don't expect too much."

"How?" King Chu asked calmly.

"Because sea trade is different from land trade. The more people involved in road trade, the better. But in sea trade, the fewer people involved, the better." Gu Yuanchen said in a deep voice: "The most ideal state is that there is only one company at sea. At this time, profits can be maximized, costs can be minimized, and everything can be done with the most efficiency.”

"Oh..." Zhu Zhen suddenly said with interest: "This statement is new, and it's the first time I've heard it."

"Your Highness, what Old Gu said is reasonable." Shen Rong on the side also echoed: "Because maritime trade is based on huge profits. The sea is dangerous and the ship will capsize. There are also miasma, pirates, Fanyi...will kill people at any time. If there is no huge profit, who is willing to take many risks and travel across the ocean?"

"It makes sense." Zhu Zhen nodded and smiled, "I'm not afraid of your jokes. I only know that maritime trade makes money, but until now I don't know how much money it makes."

"Take Japan as an example." Shen Rong said quickly: "That island country lacks everything, but is rich in gold and silver. So the Han family used to specialize in Japanese business.

"During the Tang Dynasty, they learned how to weave silk and brocade from our country, but they didn't know how to make raw silk. If the sea was blocked, there would be no silk to weave. Therefore, the price per hundred catties was five or six hundred taels of silver..."

"How much?" Han Yike cried out in shock, and hurriedly apologized to His Highness.

"Exaggerated?" Zhu Zhen asked him.

"It's an exaggeration." Han Yike said: "In the south of the Yangtze River, the most expensive thing is lake silk, and every hundred catties will not exceed 100 taels of silver."

"Fuck..." Zhu Zhen couldn't help but swear, what did he say?

With 50.00% profit, it will take risks; for 100% profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; with [-]% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even risk hanging its head?
That's pretty much what it means.

But in Daming, smuggling can earn a profit of 5.00%... What crazy things can they do, just let go!

~~
"But this is a situation where my family has a monopoly. If there are two together, my family's profits will definitely be affected. Because compared with domestic mass production, the overseas market is much smaller after all. Then the opponent will seize my share in order to sell more goods. The market will take the initiative to lower prices.

"Those shrewd Japanese daimyos will also take advantage of their opponents to lower prices to me. In the end, I can only follow up and lower prices. This is still the case of only two sellers. The more sellers, the more serious this kind of self-killing situation, and the huge profits will not come. will no longer exist." Shen Rong continued: "Without huge profits, overseas trade will also lose its existence value."

"Moreover, there are pirates, Japanese pirates, and unfriendly barbarian countries on the sea, all of which need to be settled at a huge cost. The number of participating families is too large, and each family is unwilling to pay high costs. They all hope to sit back and enjoy the benefits. As a result It's just..." Shen Rong paused, thinking about how to describe it.

"The three monks have no water to eat?" Zhu Zhen answered.

"Yes, that's what it means." Shen Rong hurriedly nodded and said: "In short, the more people share a share, the more chaotic the sea will be, and the less profitable the sea trade will be."

"So in the past, the sea merchants have always remained at the six companies." Gu Yuanchen said: "Any latecomers who want to join will be rejected by the six companies."

"Good guy, get in the car and weld the door." Zhu Zhen's understanding of this phenomenon is far better than the two expected.

He remembered reading in a book that when only the Portuguese were able to transport pepper from Asia back to Europe, the price of pepper remained high for nearly a hundred years, and the Portuguese made a lot of money for generations.

But when the Dutch and the British broke through the Portuguese blockade one after another, came to Asia, and began to sell pepper to Europe, the price of this expensive spice quickly continued to plummet, and it fell to a par price in a few years, making 90.00 More than five percent of the 'East India Company' went bankrupt...

It seems that the rules of the game for maritime trade have nothing to do with free trade.

~~
"In fact, the six companies are too many." Shen Rong said lightly: "It takes a lot of energy every year to divide the routes, share the expenses, and coordinate interests. But problems still emerge one after another, and the internal friction is very huge."

"Yeah." Zhu Zhen nodded.

"So you mean, it's better to eat alone?" Han Yike frowned and asked the two.

"It's not eating alone, but our family's boat at sea." The two hurriedly explained to their future bosses: "The big households and people in Jiangnan can supply us with goods, and they can also sell goods for us in China. If they want to It’s okay to do maritime trade, but you must take our ships, use our ships to transport goods, and buy and sell according to the prices we set, and you can’t break the rules.”

"It makes sense." Zhu Zhen nodded.

"Isn't this the official ship of the Yuan Dynasty?" Robben, who had been silent all this time, suddenly cut in: "How can you guarantee that you will not repeat the mistakes of the Yuan Dynasty?"

As mentioned earlier, the "official own ship" system means that overseas trade is monopolized by the government, and the government-business joint venture model is implemented.Among them, the ship and capital are provided by the government, and the government selects merchants to operate, and the profits from going to sea are [-] to [-].

"Well, it seems that the capable people in the Yuan Dynasty also realized that the sea trade should be monopolized by the government." Zhu Zhen nodded and said: "And there is already a very mature method. But the result is not only unsuccessful, but also let Shibo The company is completely devastated."

"There is no problem with the official ship system itself. The main reason is that the people who implement it are too poor. The officials sent here only want to exploit the merchants and fill their own pockets. There is no monopoly on maritime trade at all." Shen Rong replied.

"Although the Yuan court issued repeated orders and repeated orders to prohibit private going to sea, there were several sea bans for this reason. But the local civil and military corruption is extremely corrupt, as long as you give money, you can smuggle at will. Private businessmen can go to sea at will, how can the official ship be an opponent?" Gu Yuanchen also said.

He is actually the best example. He himself served as the deputy Wanhu of Kaidao Wanhu Mansion, but the Gu family has a huge smuggling fleet...

(End of this chapter)