In Tianjin Shili Trading Company, Emperor Hongzhi and Liu Jin were wearing ordinary clothes and holding fans in their hands, just like literati, walking very casually on this most famous street in Tianjin.
Shili Commercial Bank is the place with the largest concentration of commercial banks in Tianjin. On both sides of the street, buildings stand one after another, and each building is a commercial bank.
Here you can find almost all famous trading firms in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty. As long as they are powerful trading firms, they will almost set up an office here.
Not only the merchant houses of the Ming Dynasty, but also large merchant houses of vassal states such as Japan, Korea, and Siam also opened branches here. Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, Egypt, etc. also had offices here, including Ningguo and Chu.
, Western United Trading Company, South African Colony and other vassal states and colonies also set up offices here.
It can be said that in this street, you can find almost all the powerful trading houses in the world. Here, you can find any kind of goods from any region in the world.
The daily transactions here are calculated in terms of 100 million taels of silver.
From the perspective of future generations, this place is equivalent to the economic and financial center of the Ming Dynasty and even the world. Thanks to the breakthrough of wireless technology, the sales and transactions between merchants here have become more convenient.
It is very likely that the slave trade in the Mediterranean was negotiated between the two parties here; for the naval battle in West Africa, the food, cloth, etc. needed by both sides were also negotiated and purchased here.
This place almost controls the economic center of the Ming Dynasty, and even the economic center of the world. Almost all large-scale transactions and sales around the world are negotiated here.
Times are changing.
The past era of having to bring goods face-to-face to discuss gold and silver sales has gradually gone away. Set up an office here or simply set up the headquarters here.
You can negotiate any business with any buyer or seller around the world, and you don’t even need to bring gold or silver to negotiate, because the First Bank of Ming Dynasty has a large branch here that specializes in providing services to major commercial banks.
Provide transfer services.
The transfer service of Daming First Bank is fast and convenient for fund transfers. The key is that it is very safe. Money and gold and silver are not exposed, which greatly facilitates business transactions.
"Tsk tsk, this is the world-famous Shili Trading Company. It really deserves its name. All the people coming and going here are cars, and they are all Mercedes-Benz cars. They are really rich!"
Emperor Hongzhi looked at the Shili Trading Store in front of him. This street was very long. When he said Shili, he did not mean to exaggerate at all. It was really ten miles, stretching to the end of his field of vision.
The road is very spacious, with a two-way sixteen-lane design, which is extremely spacious. The buildings on both sides of the road are also extremely magnificently decorated, and the panoramic glass shines dazzlingly in the sunlight.
At the door of each building, the cards are bigger than the last, with a big lion sitting in charge, and two rows of greeting clerks standing upright, wearing uniforms, standing upright. Whenever a car comes, their faces are full of joy.
He went forward to greet him with a smile.
There are eye-catching signs on the walls of each building, allowing people to know at a glance that it is a certain trading house. At the same time, it inherits the tradition of the sea, and there are many flags erected high on the top of the building.
The dragon flag of the Ming Empire, the flag of the trading house, the family emblem of the owner of the trading house, or the symbols and flags of some vassal states or colonies.
People can tell at a glance what kind of trading firm this is, which family it belongs to, or which vassal state or vassal state it is.
When I stood in Shili Trading Company and looked at it, it felt very different. Flags could be seen everywhere, as well as the huge words of each trading company, vehicles coming and going, and businessmen, capitalists, and factories in extraordinary clothes coming and going.
Lord and the like.
"Your Majesty, these Shili Trading Banks are home to almost the most powerful trading houses, factories and offices in the world. Any business can be negotiated here."
"It can be said that this is the economic and financial center of the Ming Dynasty and even the world. The amount of transactions done here every day is estimated to be calculated in hundreds of millions of taels of silver."
Liu Jin said with a smile: "The number of these commercial banks listed on the Tianjin Stock Exchange exceeds 500, and most of them have a market value of more than 10 million taels of silver."
"There are more than a dozen commercial banks with a market value of more than 100 million taels of silver. There are also a large number of commercial banks that are not listed at all, but their own strength is very strong."
"My Ming Dynasty receives more than 100 million taels of silver in taxes here every year!"
"Tsk, tsk, it seems that my Ming Dynasty is really rich. It can reach hundreds of millions of taels of silver. In the past, the national treasury only had 3 million taels of silver a year."
After hearing this, Emperor Hongzhi also sighed with a smile.
Thinking about the past days, it was really not the life of an emperor. The national treasury only had 3 million taels of silver a year. If it were to be allocated to the entire huge empire, it would be a drizzle, a drop in the bucket, and it would not even be enough to play house.
Look now, just this Shili Trading Bank can receive hundreds of millions of taels of silver every year, which was unimaginable before.
"Let's go and have a look at Tianjin Port."
Emperor Hongzhi shook his head slightly, Ming Dynasty's business developed really fast.
After thinking about it, I decided to visit Tianjin Port. There are several places that you must visit when you come to Tianjin, including Tianjin Port, Tianjin Stock Exchange, Shili Commercial Bank, and Tianjin Industrial Zone.
These places are the most representative places in Tianjin and the places that best represent the Ming Dynasty today.
After getting in the car, Emperor Hongzhi and Liu Jin soon arrived at Tianjin Port.
Today's Tianjin Port is no longer the original Tianjin Port. After repeated expansions, the port has stretched for more than ten miles along the coastline.
But these are no longer able to meet the demand for ports and terminals in Tianjin. Many sub-ports and terminals have been built in other places to divert traffic to meet market demand.
Standing at a high point in the port and looking over, the entire Tianjin port is very prosperous and busy. Ocean-going ships are moored at every wharf.
Traditional sailing ships, steamships, and new internal combustion engine ships are all berthed at every pier here.
Here at the dock, workers loading and unloading goods are busy. Ships of goods have just arrived here, and they are unloaded immediately, and then immediately transported away by four-wheeled carriages and trucks.
At the same time, at the docks here, you can see a large amount of goods being piled up. As soon as the cargo ships arrive, they start loading immediately. The loaded ships also leave the port very quickly, giving up their positions.
, because there are still a large number of ships waiting in the nearby sea area.
too busy.
The Beijing-Tianjin area is currently the most concentrated industrial area in the Ming Dynasty, with a large number of factories, workshops and consultations. It is also the largest consumer market in the Ming Dynasty and even in the world.
The demand for raw materials is very huge. The amount of cotton and wool required every day alone is astronomical, and these need to be transported from all over the world.
Most of the industrial products produced here, such as cloth, glass, cement, ports, clothes, shoes, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, wine, flour, steel, arms and weapons, etc., also rely on this port in front of them for transportation.
The industrial products produced by factories, workshops, and trading houses in the Beijing-Tianjin area accounted for more than 60% of the entire Ming Dynasty. All kinds of commodities, large and small, were produced here, and from the beginning, the capital of the Ming Dynasty
The doctrines are all oriented globally, not just for the local market of Ming Dynasty.
Its market has been oriented to the global world from the beginning, obtaining raw materials from around the world and selling its own products.
The combination of capitalism and colonialism is a characteristic of the development of Ming Dynasty Capital and an important reason for its rapid development because it has sufficient markets and raw materials.
The Beijing-Tianjin region is also the region with the highest income in the world. The per capita income in the Beijing-Tianjin region now exceeds 6 taels of silver a month.
The combined population of the two cities exceeds 20 million. Such a huge population and such a high income naturally form a huge consumer market in the Beijing-Tianjin area.
The number of cattle, sheep, and pigs eaten here every year exceeds 15 million, and a large amount of marine products are consumed, all of which need to be imported from outside.
A large part of the large number of commodities produced around the world has arrived here in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and has been turned into raw materials for factories or meals on the tables of young and old men in the Beijing-Tianjin area.
The two cities of Beijing and Tianjin are like super behemoths, handling massive amounts of goods and commodities, and the port in front of them is responsible for a large part of the transportation import and export tasks.
“The number one port in the world really deserves its reputation!”
"Back then it was just a small fishing port. In a blink of an eye, it became the largest port in Ming Dynasty."
"With all the ships coming and going, we can no longer see the small boats. Each ship is bigger than the last."
Emperor Hongzhi looked at the prosperous and busy Tianjin Port and sighed with emotion. It has changed too much.