1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1003 Founding Ceremony ([-])
Although these congratulatory speeches that were paid to be published in the Haihan Times are very official in style, under the careful scrutiny of this old fox like Van Diemen, some unnoticed information can indeed be discovered from them.In addition to the closeness of each country to Haihan, which can be seen from the congratulatory message, Van Diemen also noticed that the pages of newspapers occupied by overseas colonies are also different.

For example, the Guangdong Office and the Fujian Office, which are rich and powerful, each occupy half of the page, which is much larger than the pages of many small countries, and the ports in Annan are correspondingly more reserved.Fan Diemen believes that this is also a reflection of the political status and economic status of the overseas colonies in the Haihan Kingdom, and it also shows that the conditions of the colonies operated by Haihan on the coast of Daming should be much better than those of several areas on the coastline of the Indochina Peninsula.And this current situation also reflects the difference in the scale of trade between Haihan, Daming, and Annan. The resources and markets that Daming, with its vast land and resources, can provide Haihan are obviously better than Annan.

In addition to these official congratulations, various congratulations from the people also occupied a large number of pages in the newspaper. These seemingly advertisement-like words also aroused Van Diemen's interest.

Fan Dimen had heard of some of these non-governmental business organizations, such as the well-known Qiongzhou United Development Company, Guangdong Business Alliance, Fujian Maritime Association, Nanhai Chamber of Commerce, and so on.These commercial organizations have countless commercial firms, car dealers, boat dealers, bodyguard companies, and upstream production units. They basically integrate production, supply and marketing, and have strong transnational trade capabilities. They not only have strong economic strength, but also have many channels. There is almost nothing that the folks can't do, and it can be regarded as one of the biggest boosters for Haihan to carry out cross-border trade.

But these so-called non-governmental commercial organizations actually have Haihan officials participating in the form of shares. For example, Qiong Lianfa, a large commercial organization that has cooperated closely with Haihan in the early days, is actually behind the scenes. Ministry of Commerce.Some of the operating measures of these commercial organizations can actually be understood as a manifestation of the official will of Haihan in terms of international trade.The performance of these organizations during the Haihan founding ceremony can also partially reflect their strength and their status in the Haihan trade system.

In addition to these commercial organizations, there are also congratulatory content published by some powerful and wealthy businessmen in their own names. Needless to say, these people are naturally vested interests attached to Haihan.However, Fan Dimen did not study Haihan's international relations thoroughly, so his knowledge of these people was limited, and he only had some impressions of the names of Li Jifeng, Zhan Gui and others.

This kind of advertisement published in newspapers is just a fun for ordinary people to watch, but professionals like Van Diemen can naturally see some tricks from it.Fan Diemen has secretly made a decision that he must order a copy of the various newspapers published by Haihan, and send them back to Batavia regularly in the future, as a reference for the company's planning.

During Fan Dimen's inspection tour around the island with Ning Qi, Su Keyi also published an official congratulatory letter in the name of the Dutch East India Company.Although the layout is not as good as other companies, at least it can be regarded as showing his face on Haihan's official media.Van Diemen saw the palm-sized page in the newspaper, and asked casually, "How much did it cost us?"

"It's about [-] guilders." Su Keyi reported a figure that surprised Fan Dimen.

"So expensive? These damned businessmen are extorting!" Fan Diemen shouted dissatisfied.

The exchange rate between Dutch guilder silver coins and Haihan yuan is about three to one, which is [-] Haihan yuan, and this price is enough to buy a complete set of Sanya blue and white porcelain sanitary ware in the market. Maybe you can bargain with the boss You can also get a set of glass tableware as a gift.If it was in Batavia, the money could buy fifteen to twenty healthy young male slaves, or fifty sacks full of Nanyang spices.But here, they can only exchange for a palm-sized page on the "Haihan Times", which seems to be a bit too low price-performance ratio.

However, Fan Diemen calmed down quickly. He had never seen the propaganda power of this kind of media before, but now that he has stayed in Haihan's territory for so long, he naturally realized the importance of its role.Is this price expensive?Of course it was expensive, but considering the influence of Haihan's official media, [-] guilders could make the existence of the East India Company not limited to Haihan's multi-national dignitaries aware of the existence of the East India Company, this money is still a good deal.If you calculate the value of the information collected from this newspaper, the price is actually not expensive at all. The East India Company spends more than four figures on collecting and inquiring about Haihan every year. The return may not be more than the information that such a newspaper can provide.

Fan Dimen quickly figured out the cause and effect, and he didn't lose his temper about the expense. After all, Su Keyi's matter was not only necessary, but also not really a disadvantage, after all, other families also paid for it. There is nothing psychologically unbalanced about posting notices.Moreover, if Su Keyi thought it was too expensive and didn’t pay to post the notice, it would put the East India Company in a passive position—the Haihan Executive Committee may not remember all of the people who posted the notice, but whoever didn’t, then Very conspicuous.

"You did a good job." After calming down, Fan Diemen still praised Su Keyi: "This kind of newspaper in Haihan can be regarded as a channel for us to understand the social situation of Haihan, and there may be similar newspapers in the future. Such a need to spend money to publish notices.”

"Your Excellency, it's not a possibility, it's a certainty." Su Keyi took another newspaper from the table and handed it to Fan Dimen: "This is another newspaper "Haihan Business Daily" published today, every seven days. The content published above is news worthy of attention for any businessman."

Fan Dimen glanced at it, but he didn't understand the dense small characters on it, so he had to ask Su Keyi to explain it to him.

"My lord, apart from Haihan's official latest trade policies and measures, the other pages of this newspaper are full of information on the supply and purchase of various commodities." Su Keyi happily introduced this latest discovery to Fan Dimen: "With this newspaper, we are equivalent to having a shrewd market guide. Even if we don't know the Haihan market, we can purchase goods at reasonable prices in Haihan according to the information in this newspaper."

Van Diemen said: "But there are so many ports in Haihan, such a newspaper will definitely not be able to cover them."

"That's right, so the Haihan people have run a similar newspaper in every large trading port." Su Keyi nodded, and handed over another newspaper called "Sanya Business Daily": "The business in this newspaper All the information comes from Sanya. There are not only the official products sold by Haihan, but also the goods shipped here by merchants from other countries. The merchants will also post the goods and prices they want to buy...My lord, I It has to be said that the initiative of the Haihan people has made international trade easier."

"I don't think it may be very convenient. The prerequisite for being able to understand the content of this newspaper is to master Haihan's characters." Fan Dimen knew that this was not a fatal shortcoming, even if he was from a non-Han Merchants in the area can hire brokers who are familiar with Haihan's trade rules at the port, and they can interpret the contents of these newspapers on their behalf.But Fan Diemen still wanted to step on Haihan forcefully, otherwise he would have a sour feeling in his heart, just like the feeling he felt during the inspection process a few days ago.

Su Keyi probably also guessed what Fan Dimen was thinking, so he didn't refute at the moment, but continued to introduce him: "My lord, this kind of official newspaper is not just for looking at product quotations, as long as it is operated properly, it is easy to can affect market conditions.”

As the head of the East India Company, Fan Dimen immediately understood what Su Keyi meant when he heard that he was under the rule.Businessmen who maintain a relatively stable trade relationship with Haihan will definitely pay attention to this kind of business newspaper, and Haihan only needs to blow the news in the official name of the newspaper, and it is easy to cause the market fluctuations that the official wants to see.

For example, if a hurricane hit a certain area in a newspaper, the oil crop plantations were severely damaged, and the output of this year is expected to decrease by a certain amount. Then the market-sensitive businessmen will immediately realize the price increase of oil crops. It is just around the corner, and then reduce the supply of related products and increase the price to obtain more profits.However, if another kind of news is released, such as the news that there is a bumper harvest of [-] mu of oil plantations in a certain place, the opposite effect may be obtained.

Of course, this kind of fake news that is easy to be exposed is definitely not a common method used by Haihan Society, but with the official credibility of Haihan, coupled with the pertinence of this newspaper and the speed of news dissemination, it is necessary to gain the trust and reaction of the market, and then affect The direction of the market will be very easy to do.Now that Haihan is taking the lead in establishing the South China Sea Trade Alliance, it is not unimaginable to use some commercial propaganda methods to influence the form of international trade in the future.

"These Haihan people... are really difficult to deal with!" Fan Dimen thought about it, but couldn't think of a way to deal with it for a while, so he could only sigh.

Su Keyi added: "The Haihan people have always mastered a method of communicating across thousands of miles, so this kind of newspaper will not only have local business information, but also occasionally news from other places. For example, here is the official Haihan newspaper. In the news of purchasing grain at Kaohsiung Port, Taiwan, 20 catties of rice were urgently purchased at a purchase price that was [-]% higher than the market price. Starting from April, the purchase period was [-] days. They have mastered this wonderful method, and they can naturally Understand the price difference of commodities in various regions, know the commodity demand in various regions, and then easily realize buying low and selling high.”

"That is to say, they have both the tools to influence the market price trend and the means to know the market conditions thousands of miles away..." Van Diemen sighed: "The role we play in this situation is simply It's like an unarmed child going against an adult."

As sea coachmen who carry out maritime trade all over the world, the Dutch naturally value the right to speak and influence in this kind of international trade. If they can effectively influence or control the market of certain commodities in a certain area, it means that With huge profits.And Haihan's method in this regard is obviously more clever than the violent conquest used by the East India Company. Even Van Diemen will pay more attention to newspapers like this, let alone the reactions of ordinary businessmen.

Haihan people have a way to know the market conditions thousands of miles away, and then use this kind of commercial newspaper to lead the rhythm and try to widen the price difference between the two places. This profitable business is simply not easy to do.Thinking about it further, it is not difficult to think that Haihan can use this to suppress the production resources they need to buy, raise the price of deep-processed products, and easily obtain higher profits.

The countries that have joined the South China Sea Trade Alliance will open up their markets to varying degrees, so basically no one can stop Haihan from entering the markets of other countries through trade means.How much financial power and resources Haihan can mobilize, Van Diemen has already witnessed it in his previous inspections around the island. He is sure that, except for a few relatively large countries, many countries in this trade alliance are in Haihan. Han’s economic means have no resistance at all, and soon, like Guangdong, Guangxi and Annan, will be reduced to Haihan’s resource supply and commodity sales market, and even politics, military, culture, finance, etc. will also be affected. Gradually influenced and controlled by Haihan.

The worst thing is that even if he knows the methods of the Hai Han people, Van Diemen can't think of a way to deal with or delay this trend.The means of the Haihan people are on the bright side. Anyone with a little vision can understand what's going on, but they just can't compete with it.This is indeed a very passive situation for the East India Company, which wants to control the international trade market in the Far East.

Fan Dimen suddenly remembered that during the round-the-island inspection, he once asked Ning Qi, where did the basis for the various major decisions Haihan made in the past come from, and why he was able to have the confidence to implement them, which made Haihan invest a lot of resources and even Ning Qi gave him the answer for all the measures of wealth, that what Haihan did was in line with the trend of social and productive development, and anyone who tried to stop or go against the trend would be crushed by the wheel of history , This is not an interest dispute between countries, but an irreversible kingly way.

Van Diemen said at the time that he could not understand this kind of rhetoric, and Ning Qi simply explained it as destiny, but this destiny is not a certain person or even a certain country, but the driving force for the objective development of society.The appearance of the Haihan people only artificially accelerated this development process.The history of social development that originally took hundreds of years to complete has been accelerated to a hundred times.Risky decisions may appear to the outside world, but to Haihan, they are often just the most concise and efficient way to solve a certain problem. Between the status quo and the preset result, Haihan will choose the shortest path to achieve it.

(End of this chapter)