Although Emil and Luke were shocked by the prosperity of the trade area, they were also amazed by the expensive consumption in the trade area, but they were still very competent.
After settling down for the day, I ran directly to the trading floor in the center of the trading area.
They have been in the port of South Africa for more than a month. Although they have always stayed in the port area and have never been to the trade area before, they still have an understanding of the overall situation in South Africa after staying for so long, let alone the famous ones.
South African trading floor.
It's just that this trading floor is set up in the trade area. Although they can still contact the intermediaries in the trading floor in the port area, they can use the trading floor to complete transactions.
But I have never seen the trading floor with my own eyes.
However, even so, it does not prevent them from understanding some basic conditions of the trading floor. They know that almost all the information on various goods and merchants coming to South Africa will be gathered in the trading floor, whether they are those from the Tang Dynasty,
Or are they businessmen from Europe, North Africa and other regions like Emir and others, they are all different.
When their pirate ships came to the South African port, they also brought some of the goods to the South African port, and registered the relevant cargo information and relevant price intentions in the trading hall.
However, the trading floor is actually just an information service platform. Even the so-called matching of transactions actually only provides corresponding information.
This can be seen from the fact that the fees in the trading floor are not charged based on whether the transaction is successfully matched, but based on how much information you request.
Basically it is a process like this. Whether you need to sell goods or buy goods, then go to the trading hall to register. Then they will provide a series of information about merchants who have such goods or need such goods. You only need to pay a certain amount.
fee, then they can arrange a meeting between the two parties.
As for whether a deal can be concluded after the meeting, the trading floor doesn't care.
This information fee is actually not expensive. For these businessmen running overseas, it is just a drop in the bucket.
In fact, the trading floor is just a place launched by the government to facilitate merchants to conduct transactions. The official has never thought of making money through this.
Therefore, in the trading hall, they also allow merchants to hang relevant business information in the trading hall after paying a certain advertising fee, and even have small booths for sale.
These are all designed to allow merchants to conduct better transactions.
In fact, this measure is only a temporary measure. The trade area is more willing to see merchants directly set up business stations here and then trade on their own.
It was just that Datang had not long captured South Africa City, and the construction time of South Africa City was also very short. Most of the human and financial resources in the early stage were spent on the construction of ports and other infrastructure.
At the same time, it is only the first time for those businessmen to come to South Africa. It is still a bit difficult for them to open a permanent business here for the first time.
After all, transportation is inconvenient now. It takes several months to get from Spain to South Africa City. This trip, plus the time spent in South Africa Port and the time spent in ports along the way, means that a year is short.
Transportation is inconvenient, and there is no telegraph or other means for long-distance communication, so it is still quite difficult to set up a permanent trading house in distant South Africa.
Similarly, this situation also existed among merchants in the Tang Dynasty. The long distance and long time made them lose their patience.
In addition, this is also related to the strength of these businessmen. If you want to set up a business in distant South Africa and keep this business operating normally, you need to invest a lot of money and manpower. More importantly, you must also have
To ensure that trade is not interrupted, not to mention ships arriving every month, but there must be several merchant ships arriving in South Africa for trade every year.
In this case, it is necessary to send permanent personnel to station here with a large amount of money and goods.
But the vast majority of maritime merchants do not have this strength.
Most maritime merchants actually only have one or two ships. It is good to come once a year, and some even come only once every few years.
Even for the Azure Overseas Trading Company of the Tang Dynasty where Lu Zhenjiang worked, their company only had five merchant ships, and four of them were of relatively low tonnage. They could only run the Nanyang and Oriental routes, at most.
Along the coastline, take a cautious trip to Go River State in India.
If you let these small-tonnage ships cross the Indian Ocean and then run to South Africa, it would be too reluctant and they would be easily capsized by wind and waves.
Apart from these four ships, Azure Overseas Trading Company actually only has one large-tonnage merchant ship, the Shuilan, that can run the South African route.
There is only such a ship, and the journey is far away. It would be great to be able to visit South Africa once in two years!
Under such circumstances, there is no need for them to set up a permanent office in South Africa City.
Those who have the strength, and also the need, to set up commercial banks and other permanent offices in South Africa City are actually only a few large and powerful trading companies.
For example, Datang Western Trading Company has an extremely large fleet. Even though the navy has handed over all the warships, it still retains a large armed merchant fleet and unarmed merchant fleet.
Well, in fact, they still retain a large number of official ships. This is not only because they still retain the right to assist government affairs in parts of India and Africa, but also because in fact, all the port cities of the Tang Empire in India and Africa,
Its ownership belongs to their company, and the city belongs to their company, so the port and terminal naturally belong to them.
Let’s not talk about this, let’s just talk about their merchant fleet. Currently, the company still owns about 70 armed merchant ships, and there are more than 30 unarmed merchant ships.
In total, there are nearly a hundred merchant ships traveling between China, India and Africa, which ensures that there are enough ships traveling between South Africa and the city.
Therefore, the Western Trading Company set up a large branch here to handle trade matters.
In addition, a few other relatively powerful trading companies in the country have also set up branches here, such as the Nanyang Trading Company with an official background, and the Indian Ocean Trading Company jointly established by the Dongyang Trading Company and the domestic Yangtze River Shipping Company.
Then there is Shengguang Trading Company, which was formed from the merger and reorganization of three private trading companies in the early years. These trading companies are relatively strong and own many ships, so they will set up branches.
As for foreign merchants, there are currently only two. One is the Spanish Oriental Trading Company. This Oriental Trading Company was jointly funded by the Spanish royal family and their domestic dignitaries, and was specifically used to trade with the Tang Dynasty.
The other one is the Portuguese East India Trading Company. This East India Trading Company is an old friend of the Tang Dynasty. The two parties have been trading with each other for more than ten years, and they have also been fighting each other for more than ten years.
Now, the war is over, and the East India Trading Company has lost all its colonies in the Indian Ocean and coastal waters of the South China Sea.
But even if the colony was lost, business still had to be done.
Except for the branches of the above-mentioned less than ten trading companies, no other trading companies have set up branches in South Africa for the time being.
Of course, Royal Bank does not count!
The Royal Bank's footprints are all over every corner of the Tang Dynasty. When they open a branch in a place, they don't consider whether they can make money, but as long as it is the territory of the Datang Empire, regardless of whether it is the mainland, overseas, or overseas territory.
As long as there is land in Datang, they will open branches, no matter how big or small they are.
Therefore, the Royal Bank can be seen in both domestic and overseas territories. To a certain extent, wherever there are official institutions of Datang, there is the Royal Bank.
However, the Royal Bank's opening of a branch in South Africa is not a political mission, but a real business need and the pursuit of their own interests.
Because South Africa is the intersection of China and the West, it is conceivable that the scale of trade is huge. Such huge trade naturally requires the support of financial institutions.
When the Royal Bank opened a branch here, it was a guaranteed profit, and it was a huge profit. Naturally, it opened a branch here as soon as possible.
Not only the Royal Bank, but several other powerful banks in the country also saw the potential of South Africa and wanted to open branches in South Africa, but they were a few steps behind the Royal Bank.
So no other bank has opened a branch in South Africa so far.
There are many reasons for the delay, but the most important point is that among the many banks in Datang, except for the Royal Bank, most of them do not conduct overseas business.
Even the Imperial Development Bank, which is directly controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and is second only to the Royal Bank in size, their business is limited to the mainland of the empire. Although they are also expanding overseas, they are currently only planning to go to Beihai Province, Banten Province and so on.
Branches are only opened in the four overseas mainland regions of the empire, Luzon Province and Malacca State.
As for those overseas territories, whether in India, Africa, or the Americas, they have not opened branches.
Other banks, such as the Zhili Textile Bank, the third largest bank in the country, although they are also eager to make profits in South Africa, their current business focus is still on the country. While consolidating the market share in the Yangtze River Delta region, they are also looking to
Enter the southern market represented by the Pearl River Delta and the northern market represented by Tianjin.
They still have work to do in China, so how can they have the energy to open a branch in South Africa, which is thousands of miles away?
So although they all saw the potential of South Africa City and wanted to open a branch in South Africa, they really couldn't do it for a while!
Therefore, in South Africa's financial industry, Royal Bank is the dominant player, monopolizing the market with absolute and undisputed advantages.
And monopolizing the market naturally brings about some very interesting special policies.
For example, the currency exchange policy they launched for foreign businessmen in South Africa caused a large number of foreign businessmen to shout that Datang Bank was really evil!