After the auction, Wang Rende's business alliance and several other business alliances that accounted for a large share of other goods smiled tacitly.
Of course, apart from this kind of tacit understanding, another business alliance that also deals in raw silk naturally has a bad attitude towards them. Although the Zhao family in Huzhou and the Li family in Suzhou are stronger, they cannot dominate the local area, and they still have
There is the Su family in Hangzhou Prefecture, a large silk producer that can be compared with the Zhao and Li families.
The business alliance headed by the Su family in Hangzhou accounted for nine of the thirty stores, which was far inferior to them. Naturally, they were not in a good mood. But there was nothing they could do.
Although the Su family bribed two thousand households in Shanghu County, Han Guang and Wei Huo, to favor them, and they also married a girl as a concubine to Han Guang, who was said to have made great achievements in suppressing pirates and was about to be promoted to command Qianshi, but Han Guang
Wei Huo and Wei Huo would not stand up for them and go against the Wang family.
As for using gangsters and bandits, not to mention there are desperadoes over there; even if they are weak in this area, they dare not do it casually. The government is not a vegetarian, and it has also violated the collective taboo of the businessmen.
You should still be cautious until you dare not offend anyone.
So Su Ying, the representative of the Su family, gave them a cold look and led the people away. Although the Zhao family in Huzhou and the Li family in Suzhou originally felt that there were too few shops, they became happy when they saw the faces of the Su family.
He happily wanted to have a drink at night to congratulate him.
Naturally, Wang Rende couldn't lose his interest and entertained them with a big drink that night.
The next day, I naturally put my own goods into the store in Nanshi. Fortunately, there are many people in Shanghu County, and it is the summer harvest season and the labor force is abundant, so one day is enough to move most of the goods.
Went in.
Then came July 26th, the day when the sea officially opened.
Early in the morning, all the merchants, whether they were merchants from the Ming Dynasty or merchants from the "Fan Kingdom", gathered at the Shibosi Yamen located between the northern and southern cities.
Officials from the Municipal Shipping Department, officials from Shanghu County, and officials from Songjiang Prefecture also came, although Shanghu County was about to be officially transferred to Yingtian Prefecture.
Zhang Yanfang also had to socialize with the prefect and the magistrate of Songjiang Prefecture.
Waiting for the auspicious time calculated by the local City God Temple master, Zhang Yanfang and other officials walked out of the house.
Zhang Yanfang was really impatient with these red tapes, so he hurriedly announced the official opening of the sea and hurried back. However, he still ordered the junior officials he believed to be reliable to patrol the market to see the situation. He also went there after resting for a while.
The two cities in the north and south looked at each other in casual clothes.
But no one cared about them, the court officials, after Zhang Yanfang announced the official opening of the market.
Local merchants from the Ming Dynasty, as well as merchants from Korea, Fusang, Ryukyu, Luzon, Siam, Champa, Chenla, Annan and other places flocked in and entered the northern and southern cities.
Countless people were walking around in the market, checking the samples of goods over and over again. The receptionist did not dare to neglect them at all. Who knows which pirate the strong-muscled, casually-clothed man was? Even if they didn’t dare,
It is not a good thing to cause trouble in Ming Dynasty and lose a business.
Not much business is transacted on a daily basis, so everyone mainly wants to take a look.
However, there were also a few very popular goods that were sold on the same day, such as some porcelain produced in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, which was said to have been fired together with the tributes to the imperial palace. One of them was sold for more than 60,000 yuan. Such a thing
Only wealthy families or monarchs of foreign countries can collect them.
But most of the goods are just for looking at.
Then something happened that Yun Xi had not expected before, that is, foreign businessmen in Beishi were trading with each other.
Maritime trade in this era was still very dangerous, and even businessmen who were doing serious business did not mind appearing as pirates occasionally. Merchants from Southeast Asia had almost no possibility of direct trade with Korea, Fuso, Ryukyu and other places before.
However, after the Ming Dynasty established the Shanghai Shipping Department, it became possible for them to conduct direct trade. Many foreign merchants who rented shops in Beishi traded with each other.
This is a good thing for Ming Dynasty's influence. At this time, only Ming Dynasty has the strength to maintain a fair trade intermediary location east of Malacca and west of Mariana. Businessmen from various countries only believe that Ming Dynasty has this ability. In the future, Ming Dynasty's shipping department will become the Eastern Shipping Company.
trade center.
Even the scale of trade six hundred years ago was enough to make the place where Shibosi was located very wealthy, and it would also spread the influence of the Ming Dynasty to further places.
However, the direct trade between foreign merchants in the North City was also bad for the Ming Dynasty, that is, some tariffs would be lost. Merchants without shops in the North City must leave the market before dark, and goods cannot stay overnight; however,
Foreign merchants who have stores can put goods in their stores and then take them out as if they are unsold goods.
The officials and servants of the Municipal Shipping Department are not very discerning, and most of them don't know much about the types of goods. If the difference is too big, they can still spot it, but on the surface, it seems that the difference is not big, and it will be passed through many times.
However, at this time, the Ming Dynasty imposed relatively low taxes on trade between mainland merchants, and the main cost of long-distance trade at this time was transportation costs. It was not cost-effective for Zhejiang merchants to purchase goods from Huguang on the shipping company, so Nan
There aren't many things like this in the city.
At this time in Bei City, several people were laughing at Ming Dynasty's missteps. A dark-skinned young man, who looked like a man who had been wandering at sea all year round, said: "Haha, in order to collect more taxes, the Ming court set a
There are so many rules, but in the end, there are still people who don’t have to pay them.”
A pretty little girl said: "Please keep your voice down so that others don't hear you."
The man said: "Sister, these shops in Bei City are most likely rented by pirates like us, so what's the big deal?"
This time in the North City, it is true that more than two-thirds of the so-called foreign businessmen are scum, scum, and losers of domestic political struggles from many countries, just like the first people who came to North America were bandits, hooligans, and Puritans.
Same. Less than 30% of businessmen are actually engaged in serious business.
The little girl said: "That won't work either!"
When the young man heard her talking like this, he didn't want to argue with her. He chuckled and said, "Just do what you say."
When the little girl saw that it was the same as before, she immediately became angry. They didn't argue with themselves, but it wasn't because they agreed with what they said, but because they just didn't want to argue.
This little girl is the pirate Li Shaer who appeared before, and the young man is Hua Xiong. Although they were losers in the political struggle, they have made a lot of money after being pirates for many years.
Although several people led by Li Jiqian opposed doing business in Shibosi because he thought it was like surrendering to the Ming Dynasty: although most people in the team are not willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, they still hope to do something that is not dangerous.
Good business, happy birthday in a few days.
Li Jiqian couldn't control everyone, so he had to agree. Because Li Jiqian was a well-known pirate leader on the list, he couldn't risk letting him enter Shanghu County, and he himself didn't want to, so he asked Hua Xiong and another man named Xu Qiang to lead the way.
Because adding a little girl would make everyone think they were serious businessmen, I brought along Li Shaer who also wanted to come.
Of course Zhang Yanfang would not agree to pirates doing business, but the guards in this area and the officers in Shanghu County all know that more than half of the so-called foreign merchants are pirates, regardless of whether they are listed in the Ming Dynasty's book
.
Therefore, they all turned a blind eye to pirates acting as merchants from a foreign country, as long as they could produce proof of a certain foreign country that paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
Li Sha'er and her group finally won a store. Because the goods from overseas countries are all kinds of weird, there is only one total number of stores, there is no classification, and the competition is fierce. It would be great to win one store.
Just when Li Sha'er was still angry, a customer looking at the goods said: "Hey, your fish oil is pretty good, how do you sell it?"
Hua Xiong went up and said: "..."
Li Jiqian and his group usually run the Ryukyu and Fuso lines, basically selling things from the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty has very little demand for goods from Ryukyu and Fuso. Basically, they only sell sulfur, samurai swords, folding fans and other finishing products.
can be sold, but the demand is not large, and the rest can be sold very little.
Li Jiqian and the others finally found fish oil, a commodity that could be sold in bulk. However, fish oil was not for eating at this time, and basically no one except the Fuso people would eat it.
Fish oil is used to light lamps. I don’t know why, but the oil in fish is consumed slowly after being ignited. The same amount of fish oil can last longer, so many wealthy families buy fish oil to light long-lasting lamps.
Hua Xiong bargained with the customer for a long time, and finally reached a deal. However, the customer did not leave immediately after buying the things, but looked inside.
Hua Xiong knew that he was looking at Li Shaer, so he said angrily: "Go, go, look again, just..."
He didn't say the next words, but looking at his expression and looking at the half scabbard coming out of his clothes, even a fool knew what he meant. Thinking about it, more than two-thirds of the merchants in the country were pirates.
The guest officer left wisely.
When Hua Xiong came back, Li Shaer said with a smile: "It doesn't matter if I let people take a few glances at me. I'm not a lady from an official family."
Hua Xiong answered the question and said, "No matter what, I will protect you."
Li Shaer knew that he liked her, so she smiled and stopped talking. She didn't like Hua Xiong.
Seeing that Li Sha'er didn't respond, Hua Xiong knew that his words had no effect. He sighed and continued to look at the stall.