Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 397
At this time, the Spaniards and Portuguese in the West obtained a large amount of silver in the Americas. A large part of the silver was shipped from the Americas to Asia to buy goods from the East and then shipped them back to the West.

Wang Yan is completely ignorant of these situations, and now he just has a keen sense of the crisis.

Chen Yonghua sighed slightly, "The current situation is actually easy to solve. Spend the money, buy a large amount of supplies from the Qing court, and store grain and salt, which are related to people's livelihood, in large warehouses to keep down the price. Prices, silk and porcelain were resold to Nanyang and Xiyi, so that not only my Ming Dynasty could obtain materials, but also the Qing court’s materials were scarce, and the price difference could be earned from it.”

Wang Yan's eyes lit up, he was playing with a gold coin from Xiyi and said: "The governor also thought about this question, silver money is something that people can't eat when they are hungry, and can't be worn when they are cold, so why do people flock to it. Now Jing Fufu said that Dao seems to understand that the function of money lies in its purchasing power. If he does not use his ability, he is a dead thing. But at present, the financial resources of the Qing court are far superior to mine. What if the Qing government buys our supplies instead?"

Chen Yonghua said with a smile: "This really has to be guarded against. The Duke can ask the imperial court to issue an explicit order to prohibit the trafficking of grain, salt and iron to the Qing court. If the Qing court also blocks us, we will buy from Nanyang. Don't worry about the rest. Right now Prices in Guangnan are relatively high, and the Qing government had no plans to do sea trade at all, and because the economy was destroyed and merchants were looking for profit, they would definitely be willing to sell supplies to Guangnan.”

Wang Yan nodded, thought for a moment and said: "What Fufu means is that for salt, iron and grain, we need to build a large number of warehouses and buy the supplies from others. With enough supplies, we can support the army and lower prices. For such materials as silk, porcelain, and tea, we try our best to export them and raise their prices so that merchants in the areas ruled by the Qing court trade with us, and we earn the price difference from it.”

In fact, the reason is very simple. Although the Qing court now occupies a large area of ​​territory, it has no foreign trade capabilities. First, the rulers of the Qing court do not understand overseas trade at all. Can't get out of the sea either.

Such a situation made the supply of materials in Guangzhou, an external port, in short supply, while the goods on the side of the Qing court had no market.

Profit-seeking is the nature of businessmen. They will definitely buy porcelain, cloth, and tea from Jiangnan where the price is low, and transfer them to Guangnan where the price is high.

Of course, these transactions will definitely be stopped by the Qing government, but it doesn't matter, there are smuggling groups in the Ming Dynasty, and there must be smuggling groups in the Qing Dynasty.

Chen Yonghua expressed his amazement at Wang Yan's ability to understand. He learned some truths from watching his family trade with overseas and managing tea gardens since he was a child.

"In addition, the imperial court should also mint money to alleviate the embarrassment of insufficient copper coins after commercial development."

Wang Yan deeply agreed, "The imperial court also minted a batch of money in Fujian, but because of the lack of copper, not much was minted, and the quality was very poor, so the people basically didn't buy it. In fact, the current financial crisis of the imperial court, the first thing that His Majesty and the Ministry of Households thought of was to cast money. It’s just that Guangnan doesn’t have any copper reserves, so let’s give up.”

This is outside the study room, and a servant suddenly reported, "Duke, according to your order, Mr. Feng from Jingyuan Company, and representatives from various companies in Guangnan have come here."

Wang Yan smiled slightly when he heard the sound, "Today I had a long talk with Fufu, but I gained a lot. With Fufu's talent, it would be a waste of talent to only study in the Imperial College. Why don't you hang up the name of a shogunate counselor, and prepare for the exam while doing your studies. Make suggestions for the Governor. How about it?"

Chen Yonghua stood up and saluted, "Wan Sheng dare not obey his orders!"

Wang Yan nodded in satisfaction, and then ordered the servants outside: "Take Mr. Feng and the others to the side hall first, and the governor will come later."

"Fufu also went with me to listen to the ideas of many companies."

Wang Yan's subordinates have already gathered many scholars, but most of them are traditional scholar-bureaucrats. Even if they have a special talent, they will not deviate too far from the values ​​​​of traditional scholar-bureaucrats. They have knowledge of military affairs and logistics. , understand firearms, understand manufacturing, understand Western learning, but there is no existence that understands business.

Chen Yonghua's views on the function of money and how to adjust it made Wang Yan feel like a treasure.

They left the study and came to the side hall, where there were more than a dozen representatives of the company sitting in the hall.

They said they were representatives, but in fact, the owner of the firm came here in person. After all, they were invited by Chu Guogong, and none of them dared to lose face.

"I'll wait to see the Duke~"

When a group of people saw Wang Yan coming in, they quickly saluted. Wang Yan waved his hands, "Sit down."

At this time, Wang Yan sat down on the right seat, let Chen Yonghua sit on the top left, and said to everyone with a smile: "The governor invited you here today, just to tell you about the reform of the imperial court's commercial taxation. The governor has already written to Mr. Feng of Jingyuan Company, asking him to reveal to you the news that the imperial court will reform. Formulate a strategy and promulgate it. Before that, the governor wants to hear your ideas. Which one of you will speak first?"

To be honest, many businessmen are not used to it. The way they speak now, they only dare to sit on half of their buttocks, which looks like a minister who was given a seat by the emperor.

In the past, how could the imperial court ask merchants for their opinions on what policy to implement? All the merchants desperately found agents in the imperial court to speak for their interests. Now that Wang Yan came directly to them, they were a little uncomfortable.

After Wang Yan finished asking, there was silence in the side hall, although this was not the first time Wang Yan invited them, they had secretly communicated with Mrs Zheng a year ago, and they also met Wang Yan once.

Most businessmen know that the Duke of Chu in front of him is different from most of the bureaucrats in Ming Dynasty, but how can he dare to raise opinions with the increasingly majestic Duke of Chu after he has lost the rear of his car for thousands of years?

Seeing that the atmosphere fell into silence, Wang Yan immediately glanced at Feng Yingchang, and the old man immediately understood, stood up and said, "The imperial court's strategy of reforming commercial taxation, the grassroots fully agree with it, the current scale of trade is so large, and the imperial court has canceled many checkpoints. The goods will not be exploited during the transportation, and the tax of [-] per cent will be changed to [-] per cent, and everyone will earn no less than before."

A group of people from the company, seeing Feng Yingchang standing up, knew that this old man must talk about Wang Yan, and their faces were a little ugly.

Wang Yan smiled slightly, and nodded approvingly, "Old Feng's words are very reasonable. The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River used to fight with the court for a small tax. Now that the court has lost, have they got it right? Two months ago, You have also seen that the Qing soldiers killed and injured more than 30 people in Guangnan. If you don’t pay taxes, the imperial court cannot recruit soldiers to fight. If the Qing soldiers take Guangzhou, you will have to follow in the footsteps of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. If you are robbed, even your life will be in danger. You merchants are well-informed about how many cities the Qing soldiers slaughtered. You don’t need to tell the governor. If you don’t make money, you should take a long-term view. The governor has already proposed to abolish the decree that merchants can only wear common clothes during the Taizu period. Although no one has followed it for a long time, this is a signal. In the future, the governor will have many benefits. For commercial measures, if you think about it in the long run, you should know how to do it!"

(End of this chapter)