Chapter 67: Sweet Harbor - Pirates of the Gu Family
Section 67 Sweet Harbor Storm - Pirates of the Gu Family
This small group of pirates who both fish and steal, there are several in the surrounding area, and the Gu family is somewhat powerful. This small group of pirates is a serious problem for Leizhou, but it is not a problem for Haiyi Tang.
What? Haiyitang organizes its own group training. Every time the sugar boat goes to sea, there are groups of sailors. There are hundreds of sailors in the group training. It is not something that such a small group of pirates can chew. Not only can they not chew it, but they also have broken teeth.
danger.
What Hai Yitang is taboo on is naturally the big gangs like Liu Xiang and Zhu Cai Lao, so they bribe heavily to buy a safe place. But such small groups of pirates can't help but embellish things to avoid harassment. Otherwise, they can't help but embellish things.
No matter how much team training you do, you will still be exhausted.
However, the so-called embellishments are also very limited, because although small groups of pirates operate at sea, they inevitably have to go ashore to rest, repair ships, buy rice, and place the wounded and sick. They must have a reliable home on the shore. Therefore, for coastal areas
There is also a need to make friends with local powerful people.
Zhu Sanye took advantage of this, using both soft and hard tactics, and reached an agreement with several nearby small maritime forces. The other parties promised not to rob the sugar boats sailing out of Hai'an and not to disturb Hai'an Street. In return: Haiyi Tang
These young pirates provide convenience for activities on the shore of Xuwen. This kind of entertainment does not cost a lot of money, and sometimes they can be used for some purposes.
Over time, although the small groups of pirates nearby have risen and fallen, sometimes being suppressed, sometimes being appeased, sometimes disbanding, and their ups and downs are uncertain, Haiyi Tang and these small forces around it have always maintained a good relationship. Reliable
It's about everyone getting what they need.
As the leader of the gang, Gu Dachun was very loyal. Although his relationship with Hai Yitang was just mutual use, one time Zhu Sanye led his fleet to encounter a storm at sea. He happened to be sheltered from the wind on the shore and insisted on
Regardless of the risk, he sailed out to sea and guided most of the sugar boats to the shore to shelter from the wind. Mr. Zhu felt that this man was trustworthy and a very exploitable target, so he befriended him and became brothers of the opposite sex.
After getting along for many years, their friendship gradually deepened, so Gu Dachun married his newly widowed sister to Master Zhu and became his sixth concubine.
In a sense, this is a political marriage. Mr. Zhu originally had this idea: firstly, the bride is a remarriage; secondly, she is from a fisherman's family, how beautiful she can be. I think it makes my brother feel distressed.
Sister, just give her a stable home. Marry her, arrange a place to live, and take care of her without any worries about food and clothing.
I didn’t expect that this was not the case for being married. Although the sixth aunt was born into a fisherman’s family, her appearance was pretty good and she didn’t look like someone from the sea at all. It was rare that she was considerate when serving people, and the female worker was good at cooking. I asked
Only then did I find out that this girl had been sold to a local wealthy family many years ago and worked as a maid to take over the house. She was evicted after the death of the owner of the house because he could no longer tolerate the eldest wife. However, Mr. Zhu, who was over fifty years old, was able to serve him comfortably.
Since there is Gu Dachun's line, why not just use it? It will be of great benefit to himself and others. He made up his mind: give strong medicine!
If you continue to use this powerful medicine, you will naturally become compliant immediately. In his words, it will be a drain on the pot. No matter how much strength South China has, it will be trapped alive in Leizhou.
"Qiu Han!" he shouted. This name was the name of the sixth aunt when she was a maid. In the old days, women had no names, so the name was passed down even when she was a maid.
"What's the matter, sir?" the woman responded.
"How is your brother doing?"
Qiu Han was a little surprised. The master rarely mentioned her brother in front of her because what he did was against the law. In order to avoid getting into trouble, she never mentioned that she had a brother in front of others.
"Okay. Master forgot, someone came to deliver something a few days ago."
"Well, well, yes." Zhu Sanye thought about it.
"How are you doing, brothers?"
"It's not good or bad! It's just a life." When talking about his own family, Qiu Han couldn't help but sigh a little. The so-called pirates are very different from big gangs to small gangs. Like the pirates of the Gu family, they can't even take refuge.
No one wants to join a large group of joint ventures - three or four single-masted boats without even door guns. It is said to be robbery along the coast. The limited strength can only harm some small shipowners sailing along the coast. Of course, they can't rob anything.
nice one.
"Right now, there is a way to make money. I wonder if your brother is willing to take it?"
"Really?" Qiu Han was pleasantly surprised. Although Mr. Zhu took great care of his family, this was the first time he said such words.
"When did I ever lie to you?" Mr. Zhu said with a smile.
"Thank you, Master." Qiu Han was blessed.
"Kanmo——" I was just about to write a letter, but I felt it was inappropriate. Once this letter fell into the hands of outsiders, it would be a big trouble. It would be better to have someone say it in person.
"Go back to your parents' house -" Mr. Zhu whispered, "tell your brother that there has been a lot of money near Hai'an Street recently." He then told the South China Factory that a sugar ship would leave the port recently.
"Hai Yi Tang will not have any ships leaving the port recently. Tell your brother, just look at the name of Huanan and just do it!"
"Is there such a good thing?" Qiu Han said in surprise, while lighting his silver hookah,
"That's right. I'll buy all the candy after I get it! He won't have to worry about it."
"Thank you for your grace!" Qiu Han was blessed again, and this time he was absolutely beaming with joy.
"Who calls him my brother-in-law? If you don't help him, who can I help him?" He smiled and touched Qiu Han's face, but he made a plan in his mind. The bulk goods stolen by the pirates were difficult to transport and store, so they were sold at extremely high prices.
It's cheap. One stone is probably worth less than two or three pieces of silver. This is a huge fortune.
"However," Zhu Sanye changed the topic, "these ships are not vegetarian. Your brother may not be able to eat a lot of people. If you ask him to recruit more people to work together, this fortune will be huge! Don't be stingy."
"Yes, I know this. I will go back early tomorrow morning!"
"Don't worry, just wait a few days." He stroked Qiu Han's hand, "There might be a ship carrying silver from Guangzhou! However, this matter needs to be discussed in the long run..."
The South China Factory received 50,000 taels of silver to turn around, but Haiyitang had other plans. Undercurrents were surging in the small Xuwen County, and all parties were preparing for a huge bet. The bet was on the South China Sugar, which cost 4 to 50,000 taels of silver per year.
.At this moment, Guangzhou and Lingao, the two important bases of the Crossing Group, are also making intensive arrangements.
After Wu De rushed back to Lingao, he asked for an executive committee meeting to be convened immediately. At the meeting, the proposal put forward by the Guangzhou Station to absorb retail deposits was passed - this time the Leizhou Sugar Industry incident made them deeply understand that "cash is king"
Meaning. Without large amounts of cash, there will be many similar troubles in expanding the market in the future.
Cheng Dong suggested that it would be better to simply set up a financial institution in Guangzhou to be responsible for absorbing deposits, raising commercial working capital, and conducting exchange business to conduct financial penetration into the Ming Dynasty.
"Do you mean to open a bank in Guangzhou?" Ma Qianzhu became nervous.
"Yes, a bank." Cheng Dong nodded, "Of course, the one we open can only be regarded as a bank or a bank account in the strict sense, and it cannot be called a bank."
"How to do it?" Everyone was a little excited. After all, the word "bank" was more impressive than the nondescript "grain bank".
"According to the survey at Guangzhou Station, there is no such financial institution in this time and space," Cheng Dong said calmly and took out a rough "Holy Ship" brand notebook, "There are only money shops.
, that is, a shop that operates money exchange. According to the investigation of the intelligence department, it was learned that in addition to exchange, this kind of money pile shop also involves small-scale lending business, but it does not accept deposits and basically relies on the rise and fall of money to make profits.
The overall scale of capital is not large.”
What the Finance Committee is interested in is the exchange business. Simple exchange business also exists in Ming Dynasty, mainly in order to reduce the trouble of cash transportation, various shops carry out joint-number remote exchange, but the scale is not large enough to meet the needs of
Our own shop mainly focuses on the needs of this industry. An industry that specializes in invoice exchange business has not yet appeared. Therefore, this area is blank and has great potential.
"The focus of our bank is on remittance, which is similar to bill number business. After a few years of doing this, we can establish credit and bank bills can be remitted all over the world."
Ma Qianzhu shook his head: "The Ming Dynasty doesn't seem to have a big demand for exchange!" According to what they saw and heard, this is what the Ming Dynasty's commodity economy was like. Although it was not very primitive, it was not very sophisticated either.
, the so-called entering the primary stage of capitalism is far from that.
"Otherwise, although the scale of capital flow is not large, it still exists. Leizhou's sugar is an example. We believe that at least it exists in products such as Songjiang's cloth, Jiangxi's tea and porcelain, Jiangnan's silk, and Fujian's indigo.
There is a large-scale flow of money." He took a breath and said, "Actually, for Hainan, a borderland, according to the investigation of the Ministry of Intelligence, the annual trade of betel nut and copra is worth tens of thousands of taels. This
In terms of scale, it’s not small.”
Most of the products he listed are very seasonal, and the products are often produced in scattered ways. Therefore, every time they are in season, trafficking merchants need a large amount of funds to purchase them. There will be a huge demand for capital circulation.
The exchange business: firstly, you can earn exchange fees, which is the handling fee; secondly, you can obtain discounted profits based on the rise and fall of silver prices in various places and the tightness of the currency. As long as the cash can be turned around, there are many tricks in it.
, making money out of nothing.
As for the other purpose of the Finance Committee to set up a bank, it is to establish its bank credit as soon as possible. In the future, numerous economic, political and military activities will be spread across the country. No matter whether it is the army, businessmen or intelligence personnel, they cannot carry it on their backs.
A lot of money travels all over the world. As for the Lingao circulation coupons, they are based on the rice standard. It is only a short-term transition. It is neither possible nor necessary to establish credit throughout the country for circulation. In contrast, banknotes are very convenient to carry and use.
.
"Isn't this equivalent to issuing a new currency?" Someone questioned, "With the Lingao circulation coupons, it would be too troublesome to issue a new kind of banknote."
"This is a misunderstanding. A silver note is not currency. It can only be regarded as a money order at most. Although in the late Qing Dynasty, people often used banknotes for direct circulation, but like in movies and TV shows, they often took out a handful of silver notes to pay the bill.
Absolutely not."
Because banknotes have different levels of credit. They are different from copper coins and silver ingots. The former is the credit of the government, while the latter is real precious metal. Can banknotes be strong in the market and to what extent can they be valid?
To a large extent, it depends on the strength and creditworthiness of the bank that issued the invoice. Therefore, some banknotes can only be circulated in one place, while others can be remitted to all directions. There are many tricks here, and Cheng Dong will not explain them one by one.
He also pointed out that if the credit of bank notes can be established, it will be of great benefit in mobilizing and raising funds in the future.
Wu Nanhai still objected: "The Central Plains will soon be in chaos. The exchange of ticket numbers will definitely involve the issue of setting up a layout. If a large amount of money and manpower are invested, all will be destroyed in the war."
"No need," Yan Ming said, "we are not running a modern bank. There is no need to set up branches everywhere. Just choose a few places where business is prosperous and where officials gather. If necessary, we can also establish exchange links with powerful local shops.
Number."
The idea of laying out points is to open up a few key lines. The southwest, northwest, and central plains may be barren, or there will be unrest in the future, so naturally they are not places to set up points. The most important thing is the north-south line. Especially from the capital to Jiangnan.
Everyone knows this truth: in the more than ten years of the late Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan was the richest and most peaceful place. Officials in the capital would inevitably transport large sums of money to this blessed land for storage in preparation for future blessings.
This place is also a major producer of cloth, silk, and tea, and has frequent commercial activities.
"The specific cities to be deployed are, first of all, Nanzhili." Yan Ming said, "Nanjing, Suzhou, and Songjiang will be distributed from south to north to Qingjiangpu and Beijing after they are stabilized."
Suzhou and Songjiang are the most prosperous in southern Zhili, and the northern and southern capitals are capitals. Officials gather there, so they naturally have to be given priority. As for Qingjiangpu, although it was just a small and unknown county in the 20th century, it was a small and unknown county in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
It is a large wharf where traffic from the north to the south gathers.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was difficult to cross the locks of the North-South Canal, and boating on the Yellow River was dangerous. Therefore, except for grain-carrying boats, most pedestrians traveling from south to north had to abandon their boats and land at Qingjiangpu, and headed north via the "Nine Provinces Thoroughfare Wharf"
, crossed the Yellow River to Wangjiaying and took a horse or hired a car to go north. This place is a transportation hub between the north and the south, and business is naturally extremely prosperous. There are also warehouses under the management of the Ministry of Household Affairs and a shipyard under the management of the Ministry of Industry. Nanhe is stationed there.
There are many important officials such as the governor. Every year, the imperial court spends a large amount of money to control the river. The number of officials on the river is famous all over the world. The more officials there are and the more merchants there are, the more money flows. It is a geomantic treasure land for exchange business.