Chapter 1502 Chen Lifu, who is showing off his skills
Such measures go hand in hand. Although many shareholders of Datang Western Trading Company are crying and cursing, saying that the government does not pay attention to credit and so on, there is no other way. If you don't want to exchange treasury bonds for stocks, you can continue to keep the stocks.
Anyway, Datang Western Trading Company still retains many industries, as well as the tax and dividend rights of various colonies in the area east of Malacca. The volume is still very large. Even if it shrinks by half, there is no problem in maintaining a market value of hundreds of millions.
of.
Of course, some people are happy and some are sad. The investors of Datang Western Trading Company were very unhappy, but more than a hundred other overseas trading companies and domestic industrial companies were overjoyed.
Because after the monopoly of Western trade is released, they can go directly to India and even West Asia, and even go to Europe for trade in the future. This new route will require a high price to purchase a Western trade license.
Certificate, but it will still bring countless benefits to trading companies like them and many domestic factories.
For a time, many domestic overseas trading companies and factories were busy trying to get a share of the new route and make a fortune.
This situation also made Chen Lifu, who was in Guangdong, overjoyed!
He has been waiting for the empire to cancel the trade monopoly of Datang Western Trading Company and open up the markets in India, West Asia, Africa, and Europe for a long time.
When Chen Lifu took office as governor of Guangdong, he hoped that the Holy Emperor would open up the Indian trade route, and then he would take advantage of the trend to vigorously develop the industrial export economy. However, earlier, the Holy Emperor had not taken any action, and he could only actively work in Guangdong.
Prepare, build railways, build official roads, dredge rivers, and then encourage trading companies to go deep into Nanyang and expand the Nanyang market.
The Datang Western Trading Company, which now hangs over the heads of many overseas trading companies, has finally been moved away by the Emperor Sheng. Then it is time to launch a large-scale overseas trade.
Although the previous Nanyang trade was good, the market was close to saturation after all. Although it was possible to make money by maintaining it, it was not feasible for an official pursuing economic growth rate.
Chen Lifu urgently needs a new direction of economic growth to demonstrate his governance capabilities.
Now that Western trade has been opened up, it is the best opportunity.
Guangdong was originally the largest import and export province in the empire, accounting for more than half of the annual export trade volume.
Now that the Indian route has been opened, Guangdong, the imperial coastal province closest to India, will naturally benefit the most.
Even though many overseas trading companies have their corporate headquarters in Shanghai, it doesn't matter. There are also many overseas trading companies in Guangzhou.
And the most important thing is that what Chen Lifu values is not only the tax revenue and employment brought by these trading companies themselves, but what he values even more is the take-off of Guangdong's manufacturing industry brought about by large amounts of exports.
Guangdong is close to India, which has an advantage in transportation costs. However, this advantage is not very obvious. For trading companies that want to run Indian routes, the most economical way is to buy shipments in Guangzhou, then go to India, and then ship them to India.
Sell goods and purchase Indian specialties, such as cotton, which is urgently needed in the country.
Then it will be shipped back to the country, and if it is shipped back to the country, it will be shipped close to Guangzhou.
This back and forth made Guangzhou the most important area for the empire's trade with India, even West Asia, and Europe. What we are talking about here is not just import and export trade, but more importantly, this model can make the Pearl River Delta region
The industry brings enough raw materials and markets.
There are abundant raw materials, a vast market, and Guangdong itself is relatively developed in industry and commerce. If this cannot be promoted to another level, then Chen Lifu does not need to be the governor of Guangdong.
In order to seize the opportunity in the upcoming wave of Indian trade, Chen Lifu specially ordered the Guangzhou Trade Zone Yamen to hold an import and export expo to allow overseas traders to showcase Guangdong's strong manufacturing power.
Among them are traditional export goods, such as porcelain and so on.
But what is more important are various industrial products, such as glass, matches, cotton, woolen cloth, various cold weapons, and even matchlocks, shotguns, ships, etc.
Of course, some items that are expressly prohibited from export are impossible to appear, such as various types of mechanical equipment, large-caliber long-barreled artillery, steam engines, and even springs, which are strictly prohibited from export.
Basically, the goods that Datang can produce and are allowed to export can be found in Guangzhou's trade zone.
After all, the Guangzhou Trade Zone is the first large-scale trade zone in the country. Although it was later surpassed by the Shanghai Trade Zone, it is still the second largest in the country and has strong strength.
In July, after the empire's reform of the Western Trading Company of the Tang Dynasty was settled, the first batch of overseas trading companies that spent a lot of money to apply for a Western trading license were eager to purchase various types of goods in Guangzhou.
The exported goods are then shipped to India.
The reformed Datang Western Trading Company was also re-listed, but its market value has shrunk by 40%. The remaining market value of more than 100 million is mainly due to its huge industry, colonial tax dividend rights and
The Western trade of the Tang Dynasty was maintained by its huge merchant fleet.
Before re-listing, Datang Western Trading Company has been suspended for three months. During these three months, the investment institution specially established by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises will use treasury bonds to buy back all the company's shares, including the Royal Assets Technology Co., Ltd.
Stocks owned by enterprises under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, stocks owned by private investment institutions and individuals.
All stocks will be converted into equivalent treasury bonds. Of course, the interest rate of this special treasury bond is very low. It basically only ensures that their principal will not be lost and the interest will be very small.
Because before the suspension, the company's stock price plummeted by more than ten percentage points due to various rumors, and its market value was only over 180 million.
For the entire buyback plan, the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises used special government bonds worth 180 million yuan.
As a result, Datang Western Trading Company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises.
After the completion of nationalization, Datang Western Trading Company was re-listed, but when it was listed again, its issuance market value was only 100 million.
To put it bluntly, the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises nominally suffered a direct loss of 80 million, but the 60 million obviously would not come out of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises' pockets, but would come out of future trade license income and taxes from Western trade.
After the re-listing, there were still many investment institutions buying stocks, and soon the market value increased from more than 100 million when it was re-listed to 120 million.
However, the suspension, stock buyback and re-listing of Datang Western Trading Company have nothing to do with Chen Lifu. He does not care about the life or death of the investors of this company.
He personally took the lead and met with many heads of overseas trading companies, and even found connections on his own to ask the navy to help escort these merchant fleets.
The navy also paid more attention to this first large-scale private merchant fleet heading to India for trade, and agreed to send warships to escort it all the way from Malacca to Gohe Prefecture.
As a result, in the history of the Tang Empire, the first Indian trading fleet not owned by the Tang Western Trading Company officially set sail from the port of Guangzhou.
The first batch of fleets was not large in size, with only a dozen merchant ships, and a total of five overseas trading companies participated. For safety reasons, these merchant ships were all armed merchant ships, and they were all equipped with steam engines.
Although the steam engines of these private merchant ships cannot be like those of the navy's warships, they do not care about price for performance, so they use parallel-bar steam engines that are relatively cheap, have mature and stable performance, and the power is not very good. At most, they are used as auxiliary power, but with added
These ships equipped with steam engines still outclass other traditional sailboats in terms of maneuverability.
These more than ten merchant ships left Guangzhou loaded with goods, then headed south along the coastline of the Nanyang Peninsula, and then arrived in Malacca. After resting and replenishing there, they would cross the Strait of Malacca, then enter the Indian Ocean, all the way to Myanmar and various major cities in India.
Colonial port under Tang control.
Their final destination was Gehe Prefecture, which was Datang's largest colonial city in India and Datang's largest commercial port on the east coast of India. Basically, Datang sold all kinds of industrial products to India.
, more than 80% of them pass through this port and then enter the hinterland of India through inland rivers and land transportation.
Because they use steam engines as power, these merchant ships can sail very fast, mainly because they do not need to specially adapt to monsoon winds and ocean currents. Under certain circumstances, they can directly cross windless seas, shortening the overall route.
But even if the speed is fast, it will probably take several months before they come back.
It is obviously impossible for domestic businessmen to wait for them to return before organizing a second batch of fleets.
In fact, there is no need for the government to promote the organization. Those overseas trading companies have already pounced on India one after another like sharks smelling the smell of blood. Most of them are preparing to go to Myanmar and the eastern coast of India. Some are brave.
, and even directly intend to trade with the western coast of India and even West Asia.
By September, at least 80 of the more than 100 domestic overseas trading companies had applied for Western trade licenses and participated in Indian trade.
This situation made Chen Lifu, who was in charge of Guangdong, quite excited.
Because when these trading companies run routes to India, they almost always use Guangzhou as their departure port and purchase large quantities of export goods in the Guangzhou trade zone.
In just three months after the India route was launched, Guangdong's export volume increased by at least 300% compared to the same period last year.
This was a threefold increase. Chen Lifu himself was stunned when he saw it.