Zhang Yanfang looked at the report in front of him and laughed. Although there were fewer merchants renting shops in Baoan Shipping Company this time than when Shanghai Shipping Company opened its doors, the rent received exceeded the rent of Shanghai Shipping Company that year. One-third of the total amount, while Shanghai Shipping Company leased it for five years, here it only leased for one year.
He said to the two deputy assistants beside him: "Now, including the tariffs imposed by the Shipping Department of Bao'an City this year, it is estimated that the commercial tax this year will exceed the agricultural tax."
One of the deputy leaders said: "It's a good thing that the country has increased taxes so much without raising taxes on farmers."
But the other person's expression remained unchanged.
Of course, Zhang Yanfang noticed the different expressions of the two men. Both of them were sent to Guangdong after graduating from the Imperial College last year. Zhang Yanfang personally selected these two people from dozens of people to serve as deputy promoters.
But after months of actual observation, he found that neither of them fully met his requirements. The man who spoke before was named Yu Kuikuan, a Bashu native. On the surface, he accepted Zhang Yanfang's rhetoric, but in his heart, he actually He disagreed and just echoed; the man who didn't say anything was named Zhang Guanglin. He accepted Zhang Yanfang's rhetoric and believed that it was appropriate to increase taxes on businessmen to support the country. His unhappy expression just now was not directed at Zhang Yanfang, but at himself. I hate businessmen very much, but today I have to come into contact with many businessmen, so I am not happy.
Neither of these two people particularly met Zhang Yanfang's requirements, which gave him a headache. He relied on his own intuition that it would not be a good thing to return to Beijing now and did not want to go back to Beijing - he had heard about the political struggle in Beijing before, perhaps because he was a bystander. He believed that the civil servants who were demoted in the Di newspaper were all related to this, and Fang Xiaoru's departure from the capital was considered by him to be a very important matter.
But the emperor could not say for certain what day he would be allowed to return to the capital. He needed to select a suitable successor in advance to save him from the chaos.
Because neither of these two people particularly met Zhang Yanfang's requirements, he wanted to apply to the imperial court this year for a group of graduates from the Imperial College to fill the official offices of the Shipping Department of Bao'an City and select suitable talents from them.
'But before that, we can only use the two of them.' Zhang Yanfang thought.
"With your promotion as deputy, the maintenance of order in the Municipal Shipping Department will be left to you. The first, third, and fifth police teams of the Baoan City Shipping Department are allowed to be mobilized. You must maintain order here and prevent chaos." Zhang Yanfang ordered. road.
"Yes, sir." Yu Kuikuan agreed.
"Deputy Zhang, it is estimated that there will be business transactions tomorrow. You and the rest of the policemen will guard the exits of the North and South City. Be sure to check the bills carefully to make sure you don't miss any taxes." Zhang Yanfang ordered again.
Zhang Yanfang gave a few more instructions, and finally said: "Since everyone has come to Bao'an City as an official in the Shipping Department, you must manage this place well. I will not hesitate to ask for your credit."
…
…
The next day, the sixth day of February, the Li family's shop in Bosi, Bao'an City, opened. The guys put all the goods into Shibosi's shop overnight, and put some tea leaves on the counter for passing merchants. Check it out.
Because it is difficult to escape the taxes imposed by the shipping department in Baoan City, the goods here are naturally more expensive than in Guangzhou City. Therefore, even if merchants from the Ming Dynasty are interested in tea or porcelain, they will not buy here. business.
The Li family already had several fan merchants from Laojiaoqing, so of course they would take care of Laojiaoqing's business first. As soon as his store opened, several brown-skinned fan merchants that Li Guangrui had seen before, and they spoke fluent Chinese, gathered around Come up, check the quality of the tea leaves and ask about the price.
Li Guangrui and Bai Jingyi invited the two merchants with the "deepest friendship" (the largest smuggling trade volume) into the backyard to discuss the price of tea and undisplayed porcelain.
The two merchants requested a huge amount of goods, especially since they had not received goods from Guangdong for more than half a year. Li Guangrui took Bai Jingyi's hint and made certain concessions on the price. Both parties were happy.
Several medium-sized merchants were very envious of the Li family's bustling shops, but there were too many shops worthy of their envy. Business in Guangdong was normal when the sea was restricted, and smuggling was used when the sea was restricted. Many merchants have old friends with merchants. He doesn't buy goods too cautiously, so unlike Shanghai, where the first day of business was mainly about looking and there was very little buying and selling, here many shops opened on the first day, and Zhang Guanglin was very busy from the beginning.
Zhang Yanfang didn't understand the reason for this. After seeing the tariff bill that night, he thought he could maintain this amount and was very happy.
In the past few days, Li Guangrui has been carefully inspecting all the shops during the day. In the evening, he and Bai Jingyi humbly learned how to manage the store: how to arrange work appropriately, how to make the clerks obey, how to negotiate business with different merchants, and learn how to manage the store before closing every day. The goods can be put into the warehouse better, etc. Because he is busy day and night, he has lost a lot of weight.
By February 12th, the Li family's tea and porcelain businesses were on the right track, and the jewelry store they rented half of the shop from the Liang family in Foshan had also opened. Li Guangrui handed over the affairs here to Uncle Bai. He returned to Guangzhou with his servant and two assistants.
On February 14th, he returned to Guangzhou and immediately returned to his family's mansion despite the fatigue of the journey.
As usual, Li Xianming did not come out to meet him, but his father Li Jihu spoke to him.
After Li Guangrui saluted his father and told him what happened in Bao'an these days, Li Jihu smiled, praised his son, and asked him to retreat to his yard; but he immediately went to Li Xianming's yard.
After seeing him, Li Xianming listened to him repeating Li Guangrui's words. After listening, he said: "I just met a guy who came back with Ruier, and it is exactly the same as what you said."
"Dad, is this really true?" Li Jihu asked.
"Of course it's true, why did I lie to you!" Li Xian understood him and said.
"This is really great." Li Jihu said.
Although he praised his son just now, he did not fully believe his son's words: in his mind, Li Guangrui should still be learning from the big shopkeeper. It is impossible for him to take on such a thing alone without making mistakes. . But he didn't expect that his son really didn't have any big problems.
"Actually, that's all. What I'm most satisfied with is that Rui'er is so respectful to Bai Jingyi." Li Xianming said with a smile.
Although Li Guangrui knew that Li Xianming and Li Jihu were inspecting him this time, he missed one aspect of the inspection: whether he could listen to the opinions of the elderly in his family.
People like Bai Jingyi have served the Li family for at least three lifetimes. They have rich experience in traveling all over the country and are a rare asset to the family. However, although some younger generations are very respectful to them on the surface - because they have followed their ancestors - - But in fact, I don't think so. I feel that when they did business, it was the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, but now it is different in the Ming Dynasty, and their experience is of no use.
But Li Guangrui had no such thing. He was very respectful to Bai Jingyi and studied diligently, which made Li Xianming very happy.
"Let Li Guangrui manage the route to Bao'an City. It would be better for him to personally manage the trade route he opened up." Li Xianming continued.
Li Jihu certainly understood what his father meant. The merchants in Guangdong and Yongjian are different from other places. The merchants in these two provinces mainly focus on foreign trade, supplemented by internal trade, and internal trade mainly serves foreign trade. .
In the future, Bao'an Shipping Division will definitely be the main place for businessmen from the two provinces, and will become the family's main source of wealth. Controlling the business of Bao'an Shipping Division will control most of the entire family's financial resources.
Although Li Xianming has always emphasized family unity, he also knows that unity is not that easy. If he wants the family to be united, he must let the head family control most of the financial resources, so that other families cannot compete with the head family.
As long as Li Guangrui controls the line from Guangzhou to Baoan, he will control most of the financial resources of the entire Li family. Except for the third room in charge of smuggling iron, the other rooms cannot compete with the big room, and the only remaining third room cannot compete with the big room. He will not open his eyes to fight with the big house. This way the whole family can ensure unity.
"But, Dad, Li Guangrui is only twenty-five years old now and has only three children. It is not easy to have more children after living abroad all year round." Li Jihu considered the problem from the perspective of an heir and said.
"That's true," Li Xianming said after thinking for a while, "I'll let Ming'er help Rui'er."
"Besides, Bao'an is so close to Guangzhou, so there is no need for Rui'er to travel back and forth. If he wants to stay in Bosi, Bao'an for a few more days, he can take his wife Hui there with him," Li Xianming added.
"Then who will take care of the house?" Li Jihu asked again.
"You ask me such a thing? You are in charge of the house now." Li Xianming said.
Seeing that his father was a little angry, Li Jihu didn't dare to ask any more questions and hurriedly left.
…
…
Yang Ren was very happy when he received the report from Zhang Yanfang. Not only did they collect a lot of rent on the fifth day of the new year, but they also collected a lot of tariffs in the first few days of opening. It can be said that they have made a good start.
The credit for this cannot be attributed entirely to Zhang Yanfang, Yang Ren also deserves credit. Without his supervision and pressure on the Guangzhou Prefecture and Dongguan County, they would not have been able to open the sea so quickly.
And although Guangdong Zuobuzheng was also a high-ranking official and was more prestigious than in the capital, he still wanted to return to the capital and become an official. He also knew that Yunxi valued merit, so he was extremely enthusiastic about things that could increase his own merit.
Zhang Yanfang also understood the thoughts of his close friend, so this time he asked him to jointly submit a letter with him to report the success of the sea opening.
Yang Ren was very happy, and then he personally wrote a memorial to the emperor reporting on the opening of the sea by the Shipping Department of Bao'an City. He stamped his seal and had it sent to Bao'an for Zhang Yanfang to review.
‘I hope His Majesty will be in a good mood when the memorial is delivered to the capital.’ Yang Ren thought to himself.
