Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2151 Ishinomaki Port

"I'm really tired..." Han Feichun stretched his limbs, leaned on a grand teacher's chair, and moaned softly.

As the eldest son of Han Jin, a middle-level cadre of the Bank of Taiwan, Han Feichun had good living conditions when he was young.Snacks such as chocolate, cream biscuits, coconut flour, malted milk, etc. that other children can't eat-or can't eat very often-he can often eat.As an adult, he often consumes Virginia premium cut tobacco, Xiangshan dry red, Cuban coffee beans, and Hejian yerba mate tea, which are not commonly seen in the Far East.The reason is mainly due to the fact that the Bank of Taiwan, which accounts for the largest share of import and export trade, is so aggressive that its internal staff can also share a share of the profits.

As an adult, Han Feichun applied for the famous Yantai University and was successfully admitted.After the three-year study period expired, he did not follow his father's arrangement to enter the Bank of Taiwan, but joined its competitor, Dongan Japan Company, and was then dispatched by the company to Ishinomaki Port in Sendai, Japan, to work in a Dong-funded enterprise. Work.

The Dong-funded enterprise is called Hashiguchi House, which was established by two brothers Hashiguchi Junnosuke and Hashiguchi Ya, Japanese-born businessmen from the East. It mainly includes two parts, one is catering and entertainment, and the other is department store sales.Han Feichun is currently working in the catering department, mainly engaged in East Coast cuisine, and also has a part of Japanese cuisine, which is positioned as high-end and expensive. He mainly entertains well-known local businessmen or senior warriors, and sometimes even officials from the Sendai feudal clan.The commodities sold in department stores are also mainly from abroad, such as high-grade furs, silk woolens, whale products, hardware tools, tobacco, wine, sugar and tea, spices and jewelry, etc., which are very popular in Japan and the sales volume is very good.

Han Feichun has worked here for several years, and is currently the head of the catering department, but he rarely sees the two brothers Qiaokou, the nominal owners of Qiaokou House.On the contrary, most of the people sitting in the boss's office are serious-faced intelligence officers wearing woolen overcoats and smoking big pipes.These guys are used to using Hashiguchiya as their base, making friends with merchants and samurai in the Sendai Domain, and cultivating pro-Eastern forces.Han Feichun generally keeps these people at arm's length, and he doesn't even want to have much contact with them unless necessary for work.But he also understands that these people are all serving the interests of the company and the country, but the departments are different and the means are different.

Today Han Feichun personally entertained a group of big businessmen from the local area.The two sides talked about business while eating and drinking, and finally reached a package of import agreements including war horses, weapons, hardware, and leather, as well as export businesses such as rice, seafood, handicrafts, sulfur, and copper nuggets. This is a typical win-win agreement.In fact, many of the above commodities rarely appear on the product windows or shelves of Hashiguchiya, but they are the main source of profit of Hashiguchiya, which is also very interesting to say.

Of course, normal business cannot be neglected.The height of Sendai feudal stones exceeded one million, and commerce was prosperous. Ishinomaki Port was its main commercial port. The city had a large population. There were too many samurai and townspeople to live in. There were so many consumers that business could be done.On the other level, the catering and department store business is also a kind of cover-up. Although the high-level officials of the Sendai domain all vaguely know the real function of Hashiguchiya, it is different whether there is a cover-up. At least you can’t let the shogunate catch it It's the handle, isn't it?Although the Sendai clan is very powerful, it is still necessary to give the shogunate face when it is time to give it.

"Manager, someone from the shogunate came to ask for an interview today." Just stretched comfortably and was about to make a cup of coffee for himself, a subordinate immediately came to report.

"What? People from the public office? What level?" Han Feichun shook his hands, and asked in surprise, "Why are they looking for me? Why don't they go to the old Cheng at the department store?"

"Did you forget? Manager Cheng went to Dabo Port to discuss matters." The subordinate smiled and began to make coffee beans for Han Feichun, and at the same time continued to report: "He has been around for a long time, but he only came to you? Inside The gang of black skins in the office always gather together to plan conspiracies and tricks, but they have disappeared in the past few days, which is really strange."

"What's so strange? They're all trying to find a way to recruit people. India, Brunei, and Timor have been complaining about the lack of people all day long, and they've tried everything they can to get people. They're also under a lot of pressure. They probably all went to activities." There are still a lot of people in the town who have nothing to do now, so it should not be difficult to recruit some to go to sea." Han Feichun waved his hand and said: "Forget it, let's not talk about this, let's talk about other things. Well, since the people from the shogunate came to the door Come on, I don’t want to see you, let’s arrange it tomorrow. The relationship between the shogunate and us has been very good in the past two years, so this time it shouldn’t be a bad thing. Well, maybe the shogunate also wants to do business with us.”

In fact, as Han Feichun said just now, the relationship between the Tokugawa shogunate and the East Bank has been undergoing positive changes in the past two years.The business between the East Coast Japan Company and the feudal lords in the Okushiwa area is getting bigger and bigger, and the amount of goods flowing into Japan through this opening is already very large. The shogunate really can't turn a blind eye to it anymore.In particular, the Sendai Fan, a powerful clan in the Northeast, purchases weapons, armor, and war horses every year, greatly increasing its military strength. At the same time, it has obtained huge commercial profits through entrepot trade and exporting fake money.

The first to rise to express concern to the shogunate was the business group in Osaka.They envied the Northeast merchants to make a lot of profits, so they proposed to simply let go of the control, so that the East Coast merchants can also legally join in the trade with Japan, instead of going through the ridiculous "Shandan trade".The shogunate was very slow to respond to this at first, and it also resisted a little, because it was inconsistent with their main purpose of closing the country.However, as the scale of this so-called Shandan trade became larger and larger, the shogunate finally couldn't sit still, and began to contact Japanese companies on the east coast a few years ago.It's just that due to interference from various factors and the delay in the pace of negotiations between the two parties, progress has been slow.However, during the negotiation period, people on the east bank also felt the change in the attitude of the shogunate, and believed that things were likely to develop in a positive direction.

In all fairness, East Coast Japan Company is very much looking forward to the Tokugawa shogunate adding them to its "supplier list", because this means an extremely huge market.Moreover, the financial system of this country is still very chaotic. The output of precious metals such as gold, silver and copper is very large.

East Coast Japan Co., Ltd. has done serious research and believes that there are still many products that they can sell to Japan.In addition to the routine horses, armor, and weapons, metal farm tools, tools, common draft animals, leather products, tobacco, alcohol, sugar and tea, silk cloth, clocks, jewelry, and even machinery and equipment are all urgently needed by Japanese society.

Especially since the peace of Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate has issued several orders to persuade farmers to restrain the power of landlords and rich farmers. Yield, but also pretty good too.

The rapid increase in food production has brought about the overall development of the social economy.A large number of people were liberated and began to engage in handicrafts.The development of the handicraft industry also drove the planting of cash crops in a disguised form, which caused the feudal small-scale peasant economy of the entire Japanese society to be impacted, and the meaning of the commodity economy became stronger and stronger.

Although the lords and lords everywhere try their best to maintain a self-sufficient economic model and do not allow farmers to grow crops other than annual tribute (grain), there are some things that are difficult for them to control.Historically, at the beginning of the 18th century, many specialty crop areas were established throughout Japan. For example, in 1706, 62.8% of the land in Osaka Prefecture and Hyogo Prefecture was planted with cotton; the main sericulture production areas were concentrated in Kanto and Higashiyama In the 17th century, silk production doubled compared with the 16th century. By the 18th century, Japan was basically self-sufficient in domestic consumption and did not need to import too much; rapeseed and wax tree were mainly produced in the central region; soybeans were abundant in the northeast of Honshu.

The big names from all over the world are worried about this. They are emotionally unwilling to accept this kind of commodity economy society, but after obtaining huge financial revenue, they have to shout "really fragrant".The annual tribute of the lords, the shogunate, and the royal family has also been changed from almost all food to the "one-third silver payment system". Tax payments have been fully monetized.

In this time and space on the east coast, the development speed of the Japanese commodity economy is ahead of the same period in history. The Japanese company on the east coast deduced it again and found that if it fully enters the Japanese market, it can obtain huge profits beyond imagination. The premise is that the shogunate Party permission, and at the same time, the business group in Osaka also cooperated.

In particular, the relationship between the East Coast and the Shun Kingdom will be cold, and the import of some commodities will drop sharply. However, the mainland will impose many restrictions on the feudal vassals of the Far East. War is not an option, so the only way to balance it is to choose another source of raw materials. down.North Korea has been transformed by the people on the east coast to integrate into the Far East economic system. If Japan, which has three times the population of North Korea and richer products, gold and silver, can also be included in this system, then the financial improvement of the Far East will be greatly improved. beneficial.

Han Feichun has worked in Japan for many years, and he is quite clear about the company's idea, and he himself is very supportive of it.Therefore, after hearing that someone from the shogunate came to the door, he paid great attention to it, and planned to contact them first to see what it meant.And if the shogunate has figured it out and wants to conduct comprehensive trade cooperation with the east coast, which is even better than the Dutch East India Company, then that would be really great!

(End of this chapter)