The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 214 Osaka Businessman
On September 1729, 9, autumn began to set in.

As rice is coming on the market, Osaka has also ushered in the busiest season of the year. Countless vassal fleets and grain ships have begun to continuously import bags of rice into Osaka, or sell them at market prices in exchange for much-needed money. Or using Lumi to repay a debt owed to a loan shark.

The whole city is filled with the fragrance of rice, and countless gold, silver and copper coins are also flowing.

Yoshida Kobei from Yoshida House got off the carriage and subconsciously looked up at the huge signboard above the building, "Oriental United Bank". The powerful Chinese characters made people feel a sense of inexplicable safety and... awe.

"Jun Yoshida, I have been waiting here for a long time!" Chen Shuyi, the director of the Osaka Branch of Qi Guo Oriental United Bank, smiled and came out with several clerks and armed guards. While saying hello, he glanced slightly with his peripheral vision. Look at that carriage.

Several powerful ronin were struggling to lift several large boxes from the carriage. Then they looked around vigilantly, and then looked at the owner, waiting for the next instruction.

"Okay, let's talk inside." Yoshida Kobei bowed slightly and waved to his men to carry the box into the bank.

Yukibei Yoshida is a famous raw silk merchant in Osaka and even the Gyeonggi region. His ancestors were rich farmers in Yamada County, Ueno Province. After the end of the Sino-Japanese War, the Treaty of Edo was signed, requiring Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya, and Kamisou Province (Chiba City) to be treaty ports. Osaka immediately rose to become Japan's largest international trade port. Yoshida Kobei's father came to Osaka with hundreds of taels of capital, built a Yoshida house, and began to engage in the raw silk export trade. After decades, he eventually became a giant and almost monopolized nearly 20% of the Osaka area. Raw silk export trade, annual income of hundreds of thousands of gold.

Since the opening of the port, raw silk has always occupied the top spot in Japan's export commodities, accounting for 50% to 60% of total exports at the end of the last century. With the expansion of Japan's cotton planting industry, raw silk has gradually fallen to second place in the past decade.

Businessmen who sell raw silk, which ranks among the top export commodities, to foreign trading companies are called "adventurous speculators." At the beginning of the opening of the port, there were more than 200 salesmen. However, after decades of fierce competition, as of now, there are only 22 households left in the entire Osaka City. There are also no businessmen known as "big salesmen". It was reduced to nine households, forming a monopoly pattern of Osaka trading merchants.

The currency exchangers that came into being charged small handling fees to exchange money for people and provide transaction convenience. As merchants and townsfolk interacted more and more frequently, there were more and more money exchange businesses, and wealth was accumulated. There are more and more.

However, the exchange rate is often changing according to actual conditions. Especially in recent decades, the shogunate has frequently recast currency, making currency exchange more complicated and making calculations for purchases particularly troublesome.

However, there are policies from above and countermeasures from below. Foreign businessmen usually prepay huge amounts of money and entrust comprador merchants to purchase directly from the place of origin in order to bypass too many transaction links and achieve the purpose of saving transaction costs. The owner of Yoshida House, Yoshida Yukibei, is the largest intermediary comprador businessman here. With the commercial network channel established by his father and son for decades, he continuously transports raw silk to Osaka and then delivers it to Qi merchants, earning a lot of money. The price difference between the two ends has accumulated a fortune of tens of thousands.

The early salesmen relied on the investment and co-delivery of many wealthy farmers and local merchants in the countryside, and then contacted foreigners through the ports to resell the raw silk that was gradually collected. For those businessmen in the countryside, trade is a "lucky harvest" and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

银的单位为贯、タ、分。跟金子用一枚衡量不同，银子用重量衡量。银10分=1タ(3.75g)，10000タ=1贯(3.75kg)。

Soon, after taking control of the sales channels, raw silk salesmen obtained preferential purchasing rights from the daimyo and shogunate who adopted a monopoly system for trading raw silk, and borrowed large sums of funds from wealthy merchants such as Kouchiya and Mitsui, or from banks established by Qi State at the port. Gradually monopolized the entire import and export channels of raw silk and made huge profits.

"Mr. Chen, tell me the truth. Did you, the Qi State, intervene in the dispute between the shogunate and the Choshu clan?" After drinking a few cups of tea and exchanging simple greetings, Yoshida Yukibei put down the teacup gently and spoke. Face asked with concern.

During this period, Japan's monetary system was divided into three types: gold, silver, and copper (copper coins). The unit of gold is "liang", "fen" and "zhu", four gold pieces per zhu = one cent of gold, four gold pieces per cent = one liang of gold (one liang of gold is a small coin often seen in later Japanese dramas).

When I came to Oriental Union Bank today, Yoshida Kobei brought three boxes of gold and silver, worth more than 375 pounds of silver (about 1.2 kilograms, or taels). In addition to part of the money having to be exchanged for drafts at the bank and used to pay for goods to cooperating Qi import merchants - yes, in addition to exporting raw silk, Yoshidaya also serves as a trade agent for various Qi imported goods. Part of the profits earned in recent months were deposited in this bank established by Qi State to ensure the safety of his funds.

The exchange rate set by the shogunate was 1 ryang of gold = 60 タ of silver = 4000 mon coins (4 kuen coins).

Japan is not like the mainland Qin State. Qi people can basically walk in the hinterland without hindrance. According to the provisions of the trade treaty, foreigners (mainly Qi people) are not allowed to trade outside the treaty ports. This makes most people The transaction of Japanese goods is completed through Japanese comprador merchants.

When buying things at high prices, Edo people were accustomed to using gold, while merchants and people in Kyoto and Osaka mostly used silver. This requires frequent currency exchange in Japanese business activities.

In addition to actively carrying out currency exchange business, Qiguo Bank established in Osaka has also launched a variety of businesses such as deposits, loans, commercial bills, bill acceptance, commodity pledges, etc., which stunned Japanese currency exchangers who had no knowledge. As his business was being taken away bit by bit, he did not take any countermeasures.

When those Qi merchants who come to Osaka do business with local comprador merchants in Japan, they will also actively require their partners to open accounts in Qi banks, deposit cash, and then conduct commodity transactions through bank drafts instead of like The traditional domestic model in Japan uses huge amounts of cash.

In fact, before the opening of the Osaka port, Japan had a large number of money changers (loan sharks) who were engaged in the storage and lending business of currency. Many merchants with idle funds on hand and local feudal lords entrusted these "skilled" merchants Lend money on your behalf and get some financial income. However, after the Qi people poured in, they established several banks one after another. With their abundant funds and their more professional and diversified service methods, they gradually gained the favor of many Japanese businessmen and robbed many of them. Customers of money changers.

To be honest, as one of Osaka's largest raw silk salesmen, Yoshida Yukibei really enjoys dealing with Saiguo Bank. Not only are they strong in strength and have diverse businesses, but they can also bring you and match up a lot of profitable business through their massive customer resources and sensitive information channels, and they are warm and considerate.

After decades of habit formation, not only many comprador merchants accepted this transaction method and deposited large amounts of cash in banks established by Qi State, but also some rice merchants, cloth merchants, and merchants also followed suit, making several The business of Kaishikuni Bank suddenly expanded by more than ten times. Not only did it gain a firm foothold, but it also tended to replace local currency exchangers, which once aroused the suspicion and panic of currency merchants such as Mitsui Echigoya.

"How can we, the merchants of my generation, easily participate in military and state affairs?" Chen Shuyi smiled slightly, shook his head and said, "Whether our Qi State is involved in the war of the chief minister, I am afraid that the information I have obtained here is the same as Mr. Yoshida's. I don’t know!”

"..." Yoshida Yukibei looked at Chen Shuyi blankly, feeling unhappy in his heart.

Are you mistaken? It is said that one of the shareholders of your Oriental United Bank is the Ryukyu Governor-General. How come you don’t know anything about whether to intervene in the dispute between the governors?
"However, this war is not good news after all." Seeing the gloomy expression of the other party, Chen Shuyi said quickly: "If the war continues, it will have some impact on the import and export trade. Think about it, what does a war rely on? It’s nothing more than money, food, and military supplies and equipment.” “Of course I know these situations.” Yoshida Yukibei nodded and said: “A few days ago, news came from China (western Honshu Island) that the shogunate’s forwards were at Shitamatsu. We were ambushed by the Choshu clan and lost nearly a thousand people. This has caused the price of rice in Osaka to rise, and it has also driven up the price of rice in the entire Gyeonggi region and even the Kanto region. All of us businessmen are worried about this and don't know how to deal with it. !”

How could the Choshu clan with its own strength resist the shogunate's thunderous attack?
It is reported that the shogunate's vanguard force is a well-trained all-firearms "big gun" force with more than 2,000 people. Together with thousands of local vassal troops recruited, the strength reaches more than 4,000. However, they did not expect that when Xiasong just entered the territory of Zhou Fang Kingdom, they were attacked head-on by the Changshu clan, losing more than a thousand troops.

Is this something that the Choshu Domain can do on its own?
"The Choshu clan fought back in anger under the oppression of the shogunate for the sake of the reputation of the samurai family and the inheritance of the family. Although they were not strong enough, their courage was commendable!" Chen Shuyi said: "We have an old Chinese saying, the rabbit dies and the fox is sad, everything hurts its own kind. .What happened to the Mori clan of the Choshu clan today, how can I know that it will not befall the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma clan or the Date clan of the Sendai clan in the future? If I don’t mourn for me today, who will be able to mourn for me in the future?”

"What Chief Chen means is..." Yoshida Yukibei's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Over the years, the Satsuma Domain Shimazu clan has successively purchased many merchant ships from Ryukyu and Luzon." Chen Shuyi said meaningfully: "Although these ships are not many, only seven or eight, if they are used to transport people, they can be transported at once. It can also carry more than a thousand people.”

"Is the Satsuma clan going to participate in the war between the chiefs and fall together?"

"Who knows?" Chen Shuyi blinked.

"If the Satsuma Domain takes action, will the Date clan of the Sendai Domain in the northeast also..."

If the shogunate went all out to attack the Choshu clan but failed to guard against the Sendai clan behind them, wouldn't they be stabbed severely by the opponent!

Once the shogunate shows its defeat, the daimyo of the feudal states with weird thoughts will inevitably be ready to take action.

The consequences are probably... the world will be in turmoil, and the Warring States Period will rise again!

"Jun Yoshida, do you need our bank to issue more commercial drafts to you so that you can stockpile more goods and supplies?" Chen Shuyi asked enthusiastically: "The war continues, and the raw silk trade industry will be greatly affected. By then, Yoshida-kun may take the opportunity to lower the price and make a large purchase. In this case, I would like to wish you good luck in advance, and the wealth will come rolling in!"

Hearing this, Yoshida Kobei immediately showed a knowing smile.

This time the battle between the shogunate, oh, no, should be expanded to a battle between the shogunate and several powerful vassals. Although the people of Qi will not intervene in it in a big way, they will definitely intervene in a limited way by secretly aiding the vassal. .

So, I am afraid that this conflict will not end in a short time.

War is not only a stage for heroes, but also a great opportunity for businessmen like me!
Weapons, grain, cloth, sucrose, medicinal materials, and many other war materials are bound to be in extremely high demand. Due to the impact of the war, goods and materials in inland areas will not be able or difficult to be transported out of the country for sale. So, in this way, These businessmen with powerful energy will have a feast and make a war fortune.

With the arrival of the Qi people, they brought machinery, hardware, glass, soap, tobacco, crystal, mead, weapons, spices, furs, etc. They also brought silver, raw silk, cotton, saltpeter, etc. from Japan. Lacquerware, paper screens, etc.

Of course, the most important thing is silver. Others are not easy to sell. The people of Qi seem to be short of everything.

There is also an unexpected product, which is Japanese slave girls.

As early as more than a hundred years ago, after Portugal and Japan became friendly, they engaged in slave trading for a period of time. The Portuguese purchased a large number of Japanese female slaves in Japan and brought them to Portugal for service in technical institutes. A very few were kept as lovers (concubines) in Japan or for business. However, later the Portuguese felt that the female slave trade was too big. It was gradually banned if it damaged the country's image (do they have an image?).

Later, the Qi people kicked open the door to Japan. In addition to selling their goods and earning Japanese gold and silver, they also continued to recruit wandering warriors and purchase Japanese slave women.

Needless to say, the purpose of recruiting wandering warriors is to serve as cannon fodder and fight for Qi's overseas interests.

As for the female slave trade - oh, by the way, Qi people call it "female worker recruitment", it is to balance the imbalance between men and women in Qi's mainland and many overseas territories. It recruits people to "freely" choose and like them. Get married and live a better life together in the future.

Occasionally, Qi people also work part-time for Didi, running other routes and transporting people to Beiming, Dongdan, and Bohai, three countries that have failed to obtain Japanese trade rights, to earn some hard-earned "introduction fees."

Many Qi people who are making a lot of money from Qi's trade will choose to settle in Osaka, Kobe, Nagasaki, and Hengguan, bringing huge benefits to the local area. Local comprador businessmen, underworld leaders, pimps, etc. Many groups also benefited from it, and they also fought fiercely with the people of Qi.

After Japan has experienced a hundred years of peace, as the war between the chief ministers evolves, the world situation may collapse as a result.

So, as businessmen, what should we do?

(End of this chapter)