Chapter 1465 The predicament of Datang Western Trading Company
Contemporary maritime merchants have many enemies, such as pirates.
Nowadays, a large group of pirates are active in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. In the early years, the famous pirate leader He Ding was destroyed by the Tang Empire and the Portuguese.
However, after the disintegration of the pirate gang "Fourth Fleet" under his command, it did not disappear. Instead, it dispersed into numerous factions of pirate gangs, which continued to be active in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, playing hide and seek with the Portuguese and the Tang Dynasty's navy.
, plunder all merchant ships they see!
These pirates from the Fourth Fleet do not mean people from a certain country or region. These pirates come from all over the world. The Fourth Fleet in the early years was mainly Chinese people, that is, the former Ming army that retreated from Myanmar. In the past,
The Ming general He Ding was the leader.
But later they quickly absorbed many pirates from other regions, including natives from Southeast Asia, India, West Asia and North Africa, as well as Europeans and even black Africans.
Many pirates even came from the Caribbean Sea.
The Fourth Fleet in the early years was very famous, and it also posed a huge threat to Portugal and the Tang Empire, as well as all the merchants from various countries who were doing business in the Indian Ocean and the South Ocean.
In targeting this pirate gang, the Tang Empire had an unprecedented deep cooperation with the Portuguese people in the early years. In the end, this huge pirate gang was gradually wiped out, and their home base on the coast of Myanmar was found and defeated in one fell swoop.
However, after He Ding's death, a large number of pirate leaders under him were still active in the Indian Ocean and South Ocean waters with their scattered pirate ships. Although the momentum was not as great as before, the level of harm was still the same.
These pirates have always been the great enemies of the trading companies of the Tang Empire, but when it comes to the real enemies, mere pirates are nothing. The biggest enemy of these trading ships is nature!
The ubiquitous storms in the sea are their real enemies.
For example, in the past two years, the American routes have emerged in China. These ships running the American routes are not considered safe.
The most famous one is that last year, three domestic overseas trading companies helped each other to avoid risks during navigation, so they formed a joint fleet to go to sea together. As a result, this fleet, fully loaded with cargo, left Shanghai with ten ships.
In the end, only five of the two merchant ships successfully returned to Shanghai, and all the others were lost due to various accidents encountered during the voyage.
Because they encountered a huge storm not long after they left the Fuso Sea and penetrated into the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Six ships were unable to withstand the storm and sank on the spot.
The remaining ships finally survived the storm, but because many ships were damaged by the storm, when they passed an island along the way and were preparing to temporarily repair the ships, because they did not understand the local hydrological conditions, another ship hit a reef and sank...
In the end, only five ships were left to successfully reach America. There were no accidents when they returned, and they all returned safely.
This accident was also the most costly navigation accident in the Tang Empire's overseas trade for many years!
Directly led to the bankruptcy of three ocean trading companies...
Of course, even if these trading companies go bankrupt, their ocean trading licenses are still very valuable, so naturally someone will take over this mess.
This is because the Tang Empire has not issued new ocean trade licenses in recent years. Even if it is issued occasionally, there are a lot of conditions and it is very difficult to apply. Investors who want to get involved in overseas trade should take over existing trading companies.
, or investing in some trading companies is the best and only way.
This is also the reason why the Tang Empire has more than 100 ocean trading companies for more than ten years, and has always only had more than 100 ocean trading companies.
Aboriginals, pirates, and storms were all the enemies of the Tang Empire's overseas trading companies. These enemies also led to the Tang Dynasty's ocean-going trading companies, which have always been high-risk industries.
Of course, the profits are also very high.
As long as they are allowed to trade with the Indian Ocean coast, the Portuguese blockade is nothing.
You have to know that if all the armed merchant ships of these overseas trading companies in China were added up, even the Tang Dynasty Navy would have to give up three points!
Well, yes, these overseas trading companies are so awesome!
The overseas trading companies of the Tang Empire were estimated to have only one or two ships if they were weaker. One armed merchant ship was all a company owned.
However, there are also some strong trading companies, which often own three or four merchant ships, and even some large-scale trading companies own seven, eight or even more than ten ocean-going merchant ships.
The tonnage of these merchant ships is basically three hundred tons and above, many of which are five to six hundred tons, and a few are large merchant ships of eight, nine hundred or even thousands of tons.
As for these ships, except for a few ships running the Fuso route that are unarmed, the rest are all armed merchant ships!
There were more than 130 overseas trading companies in the Tang Empire, and the total number of armed merchant ships owned by these companies totaled more than 500.
Although these armed merchant ships are relatively poorly armed, the artillery they are equipped with are generally five-pound or nine-pound cannons for self-defense. Only a few are equipped with fourteen-pound or eighteen-pound cannons, and the number of cannons they are equipped with is not large.
Although the strength of a single armed merchant ship does not look very good and cannot be compared with professional warships, it cannot stand up to the large number!
The navy of the Tang Dynasty felt numb when they saw so many armed merchant ships!
Nowadays, most of these large numbers of merchant ships are running the Southeast Asia route, a small part are running the American route, and some, namely the ships of the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company, are running the India, West Asia, and Africa routes.
However, today's South Ocean routes are already saturated, and the American routes are too risky, and the returns are not high at present. As for the Indian Ocean routes west of Malacca, many trading companies are watching helplessly because the Western trade permit
The monopoly power of the certificate is that only Datang Western Trading Company can run this route.
Now, Chen Lifu proposes to open the door appropriately and allow other trading companies to participate to increase their competitiveness in the Indian Ocean market.
In this way, not only can it solve the problem of the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company's lack of strength and inability to maintain Indian Ocean trade, but it can also find a new trade market for the huge domestic overseas trading companies, thereby boosting the import and export trade of the entire empire.
In the import and export trade of the Tang Empire, Guangdong accounted for at least half of the share, especially in the Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean trade. Basically, Guangdong relied on its geographical advantages and accounted for more than 80% of the share.
In other words, developing overseas trade means developing Guangdong's economy.
This is a new solution proposed by Chen Lifu, and in Li Xuan's opinion, this solution is still very operable!
The only problem is that this will involve the Western trade monopoly of Datang Western Trading Company.
The Western Trade License issued to Datang Western Trading Company back then had monopoly rights, and the markets in India, West Asia, and North Africa were also the company's main sources of profit.
If we let go, it will be equivalent to abolishing this monopoly, which will inevitably cause heavy damage to Datang Western Trading Company.
Currently, the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company, for the benefit of the empire and their own profits, is cooperating with the navy in India, Burma, West Asia, North Africa and the Portuguese on the Indian Ocean coast.
If their monopoly rights were suddenly revoked at this time in China, it would be equivalent to directly draining wages from the bottom of the cauldron, which would cause a devastating blow to the company.
Without the profits brought by these monopoly routes, how could the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company maintain a force of more than 20,000 people to wage war with the Portuguese along the entire Indian Ocean coast.
War costs money, right?
Therefore, although he was very interested in the new ideas proposed by Chen Lifu, Li Xuan was still very cautious and did not express anything. He just bypassed the problem in a few words.
Then we come to the issue of Nanyang trade. After all, the Portuguese have been driven away by the Tang Empire. The entire Nanyang region is the back garden of the Tang Dynasty. It is the time for large-scale development of Nanyang, and the resulting huge overseas
The trade market cannot be ignored either.
However, although Li Xuan avoided the topic on his own, he was really moved by Chen Lifu's proposal.
When he established Datang Western Trading Company, it was not for the company's profits, nor for the royal family's profits. Although the Datang Royal Family Assets Department still owns more than 30% of the company's equity.
, and more than 60% of the total voting rights.
However, the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company was never a pure trading company, but a colonial tool specially created by Li Xuan.
Over the years, Datang Western Trade has also fulfilled the responsibilities that Li Xuan gave them. They have made troubles along the Indian Ocean coast and have laid down dozens of colonial strongholds. Now in the Indian Ocean coast, the company has become a
The Portuguese East India Trading Company was no different.
But now that the representatives of the official power of the Tang Dynasty, that is, the Datang Navy and the Datang Army have officially entered the Indian Ocean, this company's historical mission can also be completed.
Of course, direct cancellation is impossible, as this will cause a huge backlash.
If nothing else, there may be huge trouble in the stock market alone.
Because this company is the company with the highest market value on the Datang Stock Market, with a market value of more than 200 million!
Nowadays, Datang's annual financial revenue is not as high as the company's market value...
The company's high market value is based on its monopoly on Western trade. If Li Xuan wants to cancel this monopoly, it goes without saying that the company's market value will eventually plummet.
If the market value is just fictitious, then considering the company's huge administrative and military expenses, after the monopoly rights are cancelled, the company will definitely be unable to make ends meet, and bankruptcy will be a matter of minutes.
Faced with this situation, Li Xuan had to be cautious.
However, despite being cautious, it does not mean that Li Xuan does not intend to do this. Monopolizing trade was just a helpless move back then. Li Xuan never intended for the company to continue to be a monopoly.
Now, it's time to break this monopoly.
However, Li Xuan needs to carefully consider how to break this monopoly.