Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 686 Expo ([-])

The exhibition area of ​​the huge expo hall was a little empty.Most of the domestic companies that should come have come, but they only occupy a part of the venue. The representatives they sent brought some samples produced by the factory and put them in the exhibition area for the visiting merchants to watch.In fact, the situation at some well-known regular fairs in Europe at this time is similar, but the people on the east coast have made this process more standardized.Of course, the most important thing is that their products are more distinctive.

Captain Couette met John Hill and George Hampton unexpectedly at the entrance. They still had some impressions of each other, so they greeted each other politely.

Captain Couette watched the two fish-smelling Englishmen walk towards the booths, shrugged, and then took a quick look.He doesn't have much money on him, but he has deposits of more than 4000 pesos in the Commercial Clearing Bank, but that is his pension money, which is not ready to be used yet.In addition, he still has several money orders from the Amsterdam Exchange Bank worth more than 5000 East Bank dollars, but he believes that these money orders are useless here—he must first try to find a rich merchant to exchange them, Even if you lose a little handling fee for this, you will not hesitate, but unfortunately this does not seem to be easy.

Today's weather is good, the sun shines on the body warm and very comfortable.At this time, there were more and more people in the exhibition area of ​​the Expo Hall. Captain Couette looked around and saw that there were about 100 people, but it seemed that only 20 of them were real businessmen, and the rest were followers.Some of these people stopped in front of the booth of Pingan Iron and Steel Factory, watching the standard-sized steel bars they exhibited and whispering; Not interested, but directly asked about the price and stock quantity of aspirin - the efficacy of this stuff has been noticed by some people now, if it is brought back to the Old Continent for sale, I believe there should be a big market.

Of course, more people gathered at the textile booth.People from the east coast have launched many new products, such as twill khaki cloth, etc., and the colors of dyes are also richer.The merchants from the Old World couldn’t take their eyes off those brightly colored cloths. This is much better than the things they dyed with vegetable dyes. They are not afraid of exposure to the sun, they don’t need to be washed with rubbing, and they are hard to fade. There is no more ideal cloth than this up.

Captain Couette also lingered among the cloth. In fact, cloth and grain have always been the two commodities with the most stable profits and the two best-selling commodities.He is now a chartered merchant of the Dutch West India Company, that is, he bought the franchise from the West India Company to sell certain goods in certain areas-in fact, the West India Company rarely does some less profitable businesses by itself now. After the business is over, they mainly sell the franchise.Captain Couette can sell steel bars, cotton cloth, metal products and grain on the east coast in the Caribbean Sea, West Africa (Gold Coast, Grain Coast, Slave Coast, etc.) and the Dutch colonies in North America. He is one, but in general the market is not saturated, and the competition is not fierce.

Food is not sold at high prices in these areas, but cloth or metal products are indeed in great demand and the profits are high.The local Dutch merchants like to use these goods to trade with the Indians, and collect their skins or other good things.Just as they used Indian cotton cloth and Thai rice to buy spices from the local natives in the East Indies, they were natural merchants who were good at earning high profits through trade among all parties.

Captain Couette looked at the assortment of goods, then at the bank draft in his pocket, and sighed deeply: We can only wait.And while Captain Couette was waiting helplessly, in a corner of the exhibition area, John Hill and George Hampton had already discussed it. They decided to purchase a large amount of cotton cloth from the East Coasters, and at the same time buy some Metal farming implements and a small amount of medicine.

Cotton cloth is naturally not white cotton cloth, but dyed cloth and printed cloth.The white cotton cloth market in the UK at this time was not very big. Common people in the UK mainly wore linen—imported from the Silesian region of Germany, while the wealthy wore woolen cloth.As for the Indian cotton cloth shipped back by the East India Company, it was mainly sold to foreign markets-this business accounted for about 15% of the East India Company's profits.

But the fact that calico is out of business doesn't mean that dyed and printed cloth is out of business too.The cotton cloth woven by the East Coasters is very dense, and some varieties are also very thick, which is very suitable for wearing in the British climate.Coupled with the bright and eye-catching colors, the two of Hill think it is still very marketable.Especially now that the situation in the UK is quite chaotic, local protectionism is gone, and they can easily sell these goods.

Of course, metal farm tools are also urgently needed in Britain. Some areas that have just ended the war are resuming agricultural production, and there is a great demand for high-quality metal farm tools.As for medicines, they are an inexhaustible source of money.In the humid and cold climate of the UK, there are not too many people with rheumatism. If aspirin is as effective as people say, then there will be a big market in the UK. Hill is very confident about this, and this is also the case. The reason why he bought some in small quantities and went back to try to sell them.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, several Ottoman businessmen wearing flower hats entered the venue, which attracted people's attention even more.These two were representatives sent by the Hornician family. Although the people on the east bank regarded the Ottoman Empire market as their own land and planned to operate it alone, since they came to purchase by themselves, they couldn't stop them.Besides, this is also a good thing, and it also reduces the risk of shipping for people on the east coast.

The object of Ottoman attention is always the latest soap from the East Coast.There are high-grade soaps and low-grade soaps. The high-grade soaps are obviously made of whale oil or seal oil, while the raw materials of the low-grade soaps are ordinary tallow (tallow).The Christian world in this era is undoubtedly more civilized. Well, at least they wash more frequently than people in the Christian world. The Syrian region of the Ottoman Empire is the traditional place of soap production.

However, the soaps of the Ottoman Empire were produced by hand using traditional methods. They had many impurities, poor effect, and some had a peculiar smell. Naturally, they were not as strong as the soap produced by the Northern Chemical Factory.Therefore, they are going to purchase a large number of them and bring them home for sale. With the Hornician family's sales network, it shouldn't be difficult to sell them and make a fortune.In addition to soap, the Ottomans are also planning to purchase some steel bars, textiles, dyed leather goods, etc. All the goods will be transported back to the port of Smyrna by the first flute-shaped merchant ships delivered to the Ottoman government this year.

The trade fair continued in this way. When one-third of the time passed, on May 5, Captain Couette's son finally brought two merchant ships to dock in Qingdao Port under the dispatch of the pilot ship. Captain Couette breathed a sigh of relief.He has been wandering around the expo hall for a long time, and he has taken a fancy to many products, and some prices have been negotiated, and now he is waiting to pay the money and pick up the goods.

Outside the warehouse where the goods were picked up, the merchants' entourages or servants took the bills of lading and counted the goods they purchased on the horse-drawn rail trucks one by one, and then followed these trucks to the dock for loading. The order was busy and orderly.

“十天就已经销售出去了12万匹各式纺织品、7000多根钢条、100箱阿司匹林、4500箱肥皂、10000余件皮具、金属农具6000余件、五金工具2500多件、85辆载重货车，以及一大批军火器械，真是赚翻了。”青岛港码头上，镇长明辉正笑眯眯地说道。

"The total value has exceeded 70 yuan, and the profit is conservatively estimated to be around 50 yuan, which is really amazing." Qiang Quansheng, who came to Qingdao Port to inspect the financial system, also said in a slightly amazed tone, " It has only been about ten days, and there may be some businessmen coming in the future. I hope they can do more to make the turnover of our expo reach the peak of 150 million yuan. I personally don’t think it will be very difficult. And this In addition to selling a large number of commodities this time, we also took the opportunity to launch some new products, which can effectively share the risk of our product structure being too single, such as aspirin, soap, refined flour, soybean oil, etc. In addition, our three alcoholic beverages also Let foreigners get acquainted with it, and there should be a certain market in the future.”

"It shouldn't be difficult to achieve sales of 150 million yuan. We have done a lot of work in the early stage, and we have emphasized this matter to almost every businessman who has come to the east coast to trade, and promised to give certain discounts. Now it seems that the effect It is still very remarkable. In the past ten months, 37 businessmen have opened current accounts in the Commercial Clearing Bank or Banco de la Plata, and more than 50 businessmen have promised to participate in the Qingdao Autumn Commodity Trade Fair. It has been promoted, in short, this fair is well-run and worthwhile!" Qiang Quansheng continued to praise.

"Maybe the only obstacle now is the exclusive monopoly agreement we signed with the Dutch and the Genoese?" Having said that, Minghui obviously lowered his voice, and then said: "But these businessmen are also smart enough. When we ask them When asking where the goods are sold, the answers are all outside the scope of the franchise, so there is no problem. After all, we can’t check them one by one. We can only warn them not to sell to the franchise scope of the Dutch West India Company and the Genoese. As for How to prevent foreign goods from entering their exclusive scope, let the Dutch and Genoese supervise, after all, that is their own business and has nothing to do with us."

(End of this chapter)