After all, risk is directly proportional to profit. Many businessmen dare to take the risk of feeding fish and go out to sea for trade in small fishing boats for profit.
So, the next day, a bold businessman directly hired a small sampan boat with only five or six tons at a high price to carry the goods out to sea!
And it’s the kind that’s fully loaded with cargo!
God knows if this ship can make it to Baku...
After the first bold one came, the second bold one came, and then the third one...
Within a few days, more than a dozen small boats had set sail for Baku, and this was the only civilian ship that could be found in Kuri that could barely carry cargo and sail out to sea.
This situation was naturally noticed by General Manager Chen of Xihai Trading Company who stayed behind in Curry, and made him extremely anxious.
So many people swarming over will definitely increase local competition and lower profits. The only thing that makes him feel at ease is that they won the Shengyuan No. in advance and almost monopolized half of the tonnage of freight.
After all, these dozen or so small boats, not to mention the risks of navigation, even if they are all fully loaded with cargo, the cargo they carry is only about a hundred tons at most, which is less than half of the cargo carried by the Shengyuan.
Even if the profits will be smaller by then, we should be able to maintain several waves of high-profit trade. In this case, at least we will have to wait until the Curry Shipyard builds other new ships, and they must be ships that are put into the West Sea transportation.
get changed.
Of course, if the navy's ships also join directly, then there will be nothing to say.
Although the total tonnage of the Navy's West Sea Fleet is only a few hundred tons, it is not that small.
Zuo Chengsheng and the others knew all of this. They were already sailing on the Western Sea.
According to the speed of the Shengyuan, it will take about three days to get from Curry to Baku with a smooth wind and current, provided that the wind is favorable and the sails can be fully utilized.
If there is no favorable wind and we only rely on steam engines, then this time will be extended to more than four days.
But in any case, a voyage of just a few days is already a very short time compared to the ocean trade that can take more than half a month or even several months.
After Zuo Chengsheng and the others went to sea, they did not encounter any dangers on the road. Although the wind was not favorable at times, they could continue to move forward relying on the steam engine.
Three days later, they appeared in Baku again.
At this time, Baku still looked empty. There were only about a hundred Marines of the Navy stationed on the shore, and there was also a Navy Class C gunboat of more than 80 tons stationed here.
However, in addition to the people of the Tang Dynasty, there are also about hundreds of indigenous laborers. These indigenous workers were provided by the Ottomans to help the Tang Dynasty build docks and port facilities. As for the city, I can't take care of it for a while.
When the Shengyuan arrived in Baku, it not only brought goods from the Xihai Trading Company, but also officials from the Tang Dynasty and some official supplies.
Although the official sold the ship to Xihai Trading Company, it also made an agreement at that time. When the official needs it, Xihai Trading Company needs to provide transportation services for the official, and the charges must be cheap.
Otherwise, the official would not sell the boat.
After the formally appointed officials arrived, it was announced that Baku was officially included in the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and it still belonged to the local area.
The Tang Dynasty established Baku Town here, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the Kuri Prefecture Yamen. According to the rules, there was a town mayor and other institutions that should be there. However, there were few people and most of the institutions were ineffective.
Therefore, the total number of administrative officials here is now only about ten.
As for ordinary people, they are only the employees of Xihai Trading Company, and there are no others.
As for those indigenous workers, they were not from the Tang Dynasty, and they were not even employed by the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty people only signed a labor service agreement with the Ottomans and asked the Ottomans to organize the construction work.
When the construction is completed, these people will leave.
The arrival of the Shengyuan brought officials, changing the place from military control to ordinary administrative rule. Although there were not many people for them to rule, the framework had already been established.
What excited the local Ottomans was that this time the ships from the Tang Dynasty arrived and brought a large amount of goods.
There were nearly two hundred tons of goods, ranging from embroidery needles to plate armor. Cloth, woolen cloth, perfume, soap, porcelain, and silk were basically among the goods exported by the Tang Dynasty.
, both.
It’s just that the amounts of each are not large.
These Ottomans are also welcome to come, and these Ottoman merchants have also seized this precious opportunity to make a fortune. The last time the goods were transported to Baku, they made huge profits, and this time they will also
in this way.
As soon as these goods were moved off the ship, they were immediately bought directly by the Ottomans who were wealthy or blinded by profits, and then they would organize their own manpower to transport them and sell them.
Once again, these goods were all bought up in one go, which made Zuo Chengsheng, who was planning to stay here for a long time, sigh: The indigenous people make so much money!
A huge profit of 300%!
Just two trips, his net worth has skyrocketed from a few hundred yuan to several thousand yuan.
This huge profit scene made even the experienced Captain Xu unable to sit still. He used to do the Nanyang trade, which was a bloody profit. Sometimes if he was lucky, he would make several times the profit, but at that time
When he traveled to Southeast Asia for trade, he still used sailboats. When conducting overseas trade, it depends on the weather. It is good to make a round trip this year. If the monsoon is missed, sometimes it may even take two years to make a round trip.
But now, if we maintain our extreme condition, we can make a round trip in half a month.
The profit is tripled in half a month, and even if it decreases in the future, it will be doubled or doubled. How much profit should I make this year?
Even if there is competition in the future, it must be at least ten times higher!
Make a lot of money, make a lot of money!
So Captain Xu couldn't help it. As soon as he completed the unloading operation, he sailed back to the warehouse to prepare for the next cargo transportation.
As for Zuo Chengsheng, he stayed in Baku with two followers, found the newly established Baku Town Yamen to open an office, and then continued to keep in touch with the Ottoman merchants and accept their orders.
He wants to open up and stabilize sales channels in the Baku area. Once the goods are transported, they have to be sold.
Establish sales channels first, and when your competitors come to Baku, you will be in an invincible position.
But his good mood did not last for a few days before it deteriorated.
Because a ship came to Baku!
That shabby little sampan could only carry four or five tons of cargo at most. It was doubtful how a ship like this could cross the West Sea and reach Baku.
But here it comes!
Although the goods were scarce, this did not hinder the hugely profitable trade that Xihai Trading Company had just begun.
The most direct impact is that fewer Ottoman merchants consult and place orders.
However, in the following days, more and more bad news came. It turned out that more than a dozen small boats came to Baku and disappeared all the goods. And the Ottomans were not stupid. They saw that there were more goods and more choices.
, and started to lower the price.
The results were good, the profit was no longer 300%, it dropped directly to about 200%, and some products even dropped to 100%.
This is not going to work. Zuo Chengsheng started looking for people to try to establish a price unification alliance or something like that. However, in the face of the Ottomans' price reduction, there will always be people who want to lower the price and sell, and then take the money and leave, striving for more.
Make a few trips.
Of course, everyone is actually afraid of the Xihai Trading Company causing harm. After all, the Xihai Trading Company is very inconspicuous in the entire empire, but in a small place like the Xihai, it is the largest trading company, and they are also
It has the only large-tonnage civilian ship that can sail on the Western Sea.
What if we first deceive them and then slowly squeeze them out?
As the saying goes, you must not have the intention to harm others, and you must have the intention to guard against others. These businessmen who thought they were extremely smart decisively chose to let Zuo Chengsheng get out.
Since the price alliance could not be established, Zuo Chengsheng could only collect orders from the Ottomans as much as possible and establish a solid sales channel.
Anyway, the current huge profits are abnormal. It will return to normal levels within a few months at most. At that time, it will be time for everyone to fight for their strength.
The success of Xihai Trading Company in Baku is simply a typical example of getting rich overnight for the small and medium-sized businessmen in Baku. I don’t know how many people are envious of them.
But this amount of trade is nothing in the eyes of really big companies.
At least Datang Petroleum Company has no interest in the so-called West Sea trade. They are not interested in trade in the first place, and to be honest, the trade volume here is not large. For Datang Petroleum Company, the capital was very small when it was established.
Counting millions of large enterprises, it’s just a drop in the bucket.
The only thing they value is Baku’s oil!
In fact, Datang Petroleum Company has taken more actions than Xihai Trading Company.
As soon as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed the Baku Agreement with the Ottomans, representatives of Datang Petroleum Company turned around and signed a cooperation agreement with the Kuri Prefecture Yamen to develop Baku's oil resources.
According to the traditional mineral development agreement plan, the Kuri State Finance invested in the oil exploration and mining rights of the entire Baku area, and Datang Petroleum Company invested in capital and technology to jointly establish the Baku Petroleum Company to survey and develop the Baku area.
of petroleum resources.
At the same time, there is an ancillary agreement, that is, Datang Petroleum Company will also set up a refinery in Kuli.
After the cooperation agreement between the two parties was signed, it was quickly reported to the headquarters of Datang Petroleum Company. Now Datang Petroleum Company is preparing to transfer technical backbones from other places in the country and order equipment to be shipped to Baku.
Of course, these things are not something a small businessman like Zuo Chengsheng can know.
What’s more, we don’t know what role Datang Petroleum Company played in the process of Datang taking Baku and operating it directly as a local company.
The only thing he knew was that Datang Petroleum Company was preparing to exploit oil in Baku!