open sea

Chapter 339 Gathering and Distributing
July.

After inspecting the warships entering the port on the coast of the bay, Chen Mu felt a little nervous.

It is much easier for the small shark boat to enter the port. Although the shape of the boat is the same, it is not beyond the reach of manpower. It only needs to use some strength to lay down and push the mast onto the beach, and then take some careful protective measures to fix it.

Big ships are not enough. There are mud docks left by the Spaniards in Manila, but the number is too small, and only Chihai, ironclad ships and some big shark ships can be put in.More than half of the shark boats could not be docked in the dock, so they had to drop all four or five heavy iron anchors on their boats and stop on the shore near the cliff to let fate.

Chen Mu is ready to lose the warship.

When the monsoon changes, even the most seasoned helmsman can't tell where the wind and waves will blow.This has brought great difficulties to the lucky boats transporting luggage from Nanyang Port to Manila. In just one month, two lucky boats have had accidents at sea.

A ship barely landed on Luzon Island after three days off course, and bypassed Chen Lai Island, which was supplemented with water and rested. Because it was stipulated that they could only get food from the expeditionary army's luggage if they were out of food for more than three days, the ship The craftsman had been hungry for two days, so it was safe and sound.

The other lucky boat was not so lucky. After going out to sea, it deviated from its course and was blown to a submerged reef by the sea wind at night. The whole ship was smashed to pieces with [-] shi of luggage. A dozen sailors rowed against the small boat. When they arrived in Macau, there were only six survivors left, which enriched their charts.

Two batches of luggage were transported through Nanyangwei, allowing Manila and Pansiran City to store a huge amount of food and armaments. At the same time, the sulfur trading led by Li Yuxi completed the first transaction on Taiwan Island. Seventeen ships of sulfur and silver were paid in exchange for There were 7 taels of silver, of which 4 taels were sent directly to the capital with letters from Nanyang ministers.

At the same time, 16 taels of war profits from Haojing's sale were also transported by water, a total of 20.In fact, this is only one-tenth of the sale of the property on the San Pablo. There are too many goods. Although the Portuguese can eat them, they don't have enough silver to buy them. backlog.

However, Chen Mu is not someone who insists on silver. He sent someone to Haojing Huang Cheng to send a bill of goods, including gold, silver, copper and iron, various types of wood, Western horses and precious artifacts, and even cotton from India and rice from Vietnam. All can be exchanged, nothing more than a very fair and just price.

Because he knew that the Portuguese did not own as much silver as the Spaniards, and if he insisted on buying with silver, the Portuguese merchants would probably be killed.

It was also during this commercial activity that Chen Mu suddenly found that he had inadvertently attacked the original customs on the southern coast of the Ming Dynasty. Because of the transactions he led, the court did not collect taxes.

The function of the Minister of Nanyang is not clear. Southern officials believe that all matters related to the sea belong to the Minister of Nanyang. Some local officials even sent a letter to the local governor to ask him what he meant. Chen Mu always treated Zhao Shizhen Talking about these things bored him.

But what Zhao Shizhen saw was that Chen Dashuai was always happy to reply to instructions from local officials, especially those from Guangdong.

In Chen Mu's letter to the cabinet, he recommended Li Tao, who was the prefect of Hengyang at the time, to be the governor of Luzon. In fact, Zhou Xing, the prefect of Guangzhou, is a better principle, but Li Tao has lived in Fujian for a long time and is very experienced in governing Fujian people. , most of the Ming people in Luzon are Fujian people, which can provide him with convenience in governing the region.

At the same time, in his letter to Yin Zhengmao, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Chen Mu mentioned his plan for Guangdong, headed by the official Guangdong capital, recruiting local merchants to recruit people to set up spinning factories, using Suzhou weaving technology to purchase raw silk internally and cotton externally, Develop Xiangshan County into a major textile county.

In addition to textiles, Nanhai County, which has the distribution center of Guangzhou Railway, Foshan Town, is iron and steel, and Xinhui, including Nanyang Port, is ships. After all, there is one purpose, to give directions, and to make Guangzhou Prefecture fully operational.

Hexingsheng is a great force. Fujian-Guangzhou Hexingsheng selected seventeen merchant leaders to arrive in Manila on invitation in July. They used to do business in Manila, but they were not even considered guests at that time. They are now guests. .

"There are more than 170 local Han households in Manila, and [-] households in Luzon. It is not this city, but it spreads from the castle to far away places. Counting all the villages under its jurisdiction, the entire Luzon There are not many people in the Song Dynasty, so maybe they can be as good as a Guangzhou mansion."

"But everything is missing." Chen Mu said to the businessman: "Business is to make money. I allow you to sell everything in Luzon except raw materials. For example, you can buy cotton cloth and cloth shoes from Guangzhou. Go here. Come here to sell, but not here to sell cotton. You can bring silk and satin, but not here to sell raw silk.”

"All the tribes in the Luzon Kingdom will come to Manila to sell things in spring and autumn. They exchange porcelain, ironware, cooking utensils, textiles, and musical instruments for wood, grain, gold, copper, and medicinal materials. You bring your things to sell and exchange goods. , and then sell it back to Guangzhou Mansion. The rules are like this, after going back to discuss, whoever wants this cargo route, I need [-] big blessing boats to run twice a year."

The current state of Luzon has a small market for the joint prosperity of merchants from Fujian and Guangzhou. The land acres and population of the entire Luzon island have not yet been settled, but Chen Mu estimates that the population is only a few hundred thousand households. No matter what the demand is, Not even big.

The profits that freight can bring to maritime merchants are naturally not as much as in the past.In the past, the Spaniards had a huge market, but Luzon itself did not. The property also needs to be continuously developed after the establishment of the Luzon Metropolitan Government. For now, the commercial potential is very low.

It can be said that in the past, Luzon’s geographical location was important as a bridge between Daming and Spain. Now that this bridge has been destroyed, it has no value left.

"Chen Shuai, can we buy in Fujian, or sell our own things in Luzon?"

Chen Mu knew that merchants would raise this point, and they knew more about where the profits were. Simple freight transportation obviously didn’t make much money, so he waved his hands and said with a smile: “I know, the war with Xiyi will ruin your business, but it’s okay, as a Compensating Chen will allow you to do business with Puyi in Haojing, but there is one condition."

He pressed his hand on the tea table and said: "If you want to do business in Haojing, you need to have your own factories near Guangzhou, such as textile or iron factories. In the future, Guangzhou will become the cheapest raw material distribution place. Yi will transport the cotton there, and opening a textile factory there will never lose money, don’t worry, the market will become bigger in a few years, and Chen will make each of you rich.”

At this moment, a guard walked quickly from outside the hall, bowed his head and whispered a few words to Chen Mu, he got up and served tea to the merchants in the hall: "Everyone can take a good stroll in Manila in the next few days, maybe this place will be restored in the future." I will change my name, but it won’t hurt to know more about it, Chen Mu has something else to do, so I’m sorry for now.”

After finishing speaking, he quickly walked out of the castle hall, and asked Long Junxiong who was standing outside: "Is there someone holding a white flag?"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)