Chapter 280: Continue to Open Source and Navigate the Road
Is China considered a seafaring nation?
Many people will blurt it out.
Not counting! China is a continental nation.
Jia Lan does not deny that the Chinese nation is a land-based nation, but firmly opposes those who describe the Chinese nation as a mere "land" nation.
If it were just a land nation, how could the great victory at Baijiangkou come about, how could the great naval battle on Tangdao come about, and how could the Southern Song Dynasty be able to live in peace for a hundred years?
Since ancient times, China has long possessed world-class navigation technology.
The earliest recorded wooden boat with a mortise and tenon structure was unearthed in the Guanzhong hometown. Similar ancient boats were also unearthed in the Yongding River Basin on the boundary of the ancient Yan Kingdom. Carbon 14 dating was 2205 years ago.
In the early Ming Dynasty, there were even more feats of the Three Treasures Eunuch's seven voyages to the West. Even the publication of the United States admitted that "the Chinese navy in the 15th century was undoubtedly the most powerful navy in the world at that time... The technology of the Chinese navy was probably the most advanced in the world."
, its shipbuilding technology is 100 years ahead of Europe."
We rely on mountains to eat mountains, and we rely on water to drink water. The world is so big, there are people who make a living by farming, and naturally there are also people who make a living by going to the sea. Today, the government bans the sea but it is difficult to control people's livelihood. Many people on the southeast coast still have to make a living by going to the sea. Jia Lan asked Leng Zixing about the overseas business.
Sea trade, this was the next step he decided to include after careful consideration, and it was also a step to fundamentally turn around the finances of the Rongguo Mansion.
It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality.
If we look at it from an overall perspective, after removing Jia Lan's private subsidies, the Rongguo Mansion's finances are still on the verge of collapse.
To sum up, there are three points: the operating expenses are too high, the income is small, and the company is in deficit every year.
In order to be just and right, Sister Feng's housekeeper always relied on established rules and followed the rules in the hands of her ancestors. In the original book, Tan Chunli's family paid money according to the old rules when Zhao Guoji, the brother of Aunt Zhao, passed away.
However, Sister Feng overlooked one thing: the Rongguo Mansion she was in charge of was no longer the Rongguo Mansion when Jia Daishan was the first Rongguo.
Jia Daishan was the head of the military officials. With his title, salary, annual rent, rewards from the palace, and some legal gray income, the annual income of Rongguo Mansion at that time was at least one hundred thousand taels.
By now, this annual income is probably only one-twelfth. This is the result of Jia Lan sending Jia Qiang to rectify Liaodong Zhuangzi. Otherwise, since Yuan Fei's marriage, he has spent a huge amount of money to build the Rongguo Mansion of the Grand View Garden.
The finances have collapsed long ago.
Sister Feng also talked to Jia Lan about this matter, either openly or secretly. Her original intention was to make a fortune by building the garden, and the second was to strengthen the financial power of the government, but she did not expect to make money in the end.
It is far from being able to cover the future expenses. If Jia Lan hadn't caught up in the end, Sister Feng, who had tasted the sweetness after taking power in Tiekan Temple, would have fallen further and further into the abyss of arranged litigation.
Seeing that the income of Liaodong Zhuangzi had increased, Jia Lan used the income from selling wine at Zui Qionglou to subsidize some of it, and then reached a consensus with Sister Feng to get rid of some greedy servants, basically maintaining the daily life of Rongguo Mansion. p>
The only remaining option is to continue to open source.
Participating in maritime trade is Jia Lan’s next step.
He has even thought about what to sell.
Porcelain.
In ancient times, although Guangnan was not the largest producer of ceramics, it was the largest exporter of ceramics. Although Guangnan did not produce high-end porcelain locally, there was a large demand for coarse porcelain in Southeast Asia and other countries, so it was produced locally.
The porcelain from Jiangyou can also be exported in large quantities. At the same time, the precious porcelain from Jiangyou can be exported through water and land transportation, forming a new economic model that combines production and sales and fully serves export sales.
Years ago, Jia Lan asked the pair Jia Qiang and Master Zhao to go south to inspect the porcelain production in Southern Province and asked them to look for opportunities to acquire a mid-to-high-end porcelain workshop.
It's not going very well.
Generally, high-end workshops are inherited by families and are deeply tied to the local area. They can no longer be regarded as a simple workshop. Many of them have gone to great lengths to connect with local wealthy families, or they have invested in several officials from the same place of origin as backers.
No one is willing to take action.
You can't buy it, even if the deal is real, it's just a case of being taken advantage of.
Jia Qiang and his party have encountered the evil gang more than once. If Jia Qiang hadn't been smart, Master Zhao was old-fashioned, and had a group of entourage, they would have fallen into the trap.
Unexpectedly, the opportunity to break the situation came from Liang Yong, just like the saying "fate happens by chance, everything happens by chance".
The maritime merchant who intended to add fuel to the flames and harm Liang Yong paid a large sum of money in order to escape. Liang Yong was unwilling to accept it, so he gave it all to Jia Lan, who divided it into ten shares and bought one share for land settlement.
The remaining nine shares of Liang Yong's family were used as principal, and they summoned Jia Qiang and Master Zhao, who were still in Jiangyou, to Guangnan and opened a shop with the intention of doing sea trade business.
Among the maritime merchants' compensation, money was only part of it. There was also a rough porcelain workshop, and the most important thing was a ship.
A centipede boat.
A big feature of ancient Chinese ships is that their names are quite confusing. Even the same ship type has many names. For example, the Guangzhou ship is also called Wu Cao, and there are Haicang, Cangshan, Kailang, Tongansuo, etc. under the Fu ship.
.But there is only one centipede boat, there is no other semicolon.
However, later generations of academic circles also had a lot of debates about the shape of the centipede boat. The reason is very simple. After the centipede boat was imitated in the Ming Dynasty, it was quickly abolished.
Because the centipede boat is a type of galley, some people think it is an imitation of the Portuguese Calais-type warship.
However, after research, it was found that the Portuguese fleet actually only had two Calais ships. It is difficult to imagine that this type of ship, which is not suitable for ocean-going, would be deployed in East Asia. Therefore, it is generally believed that the so-called centipede ships should be the Lankan galleys that were popular in the Southeast Asia generation. This is a galley with a watertight compartment structure, 32 oars, two masts, and a lookout. This is a warship.
According to the maritime merchant, it was mortgaged by a businessman from Dashi, along with a shipload of sailors.
Now that there were ships and porcelain goods, Jia Lan immediately decided to open his own shop.
Seeing that people from the Rongguo Mansion actually opened a shop in Guangnan after taking the money, the maritime merchant who lost money was not only surprised, but also had something else in mind.
How can sea trade be so easy to play?
Even if you have a boat, but you don’t even have a nautical chart, how can you go to sea? Who can you rely on to go to sea?
On board the ship is no different than on the road. Many people who go to sea to make a living in the southeast area are family-owned. The captain is usually the elected strongman of the clan. From the captain onwards, many positions are held by people of the same clan, followed by people from the same country.
Then there are those who share the same faith.
The rights and obligations between captains, bosuns, and sailors include not only clan relationships, but also contractual relationships, which are very complicated.
Jia Lan only has one boat in hand, and he doesn’t even have a professional captain. How can he go to sea?
If someone is randomly assigned to board the ship, there is a risk that the crew will rebel and seize the ship as soon as it leaves the port.
Even the local government sent people privately to persuade Jialan not to go to sea easily.