1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 244 Textile Trading

Taxation has always been an issue that merchants attach great importance to. Although most of the Shibo Departments in the late Ming Dynasty have adopted the tax package system of dental agencies, the taxes that maritime merchants have to pay have not been reduced because of this.For example, "Yongfeng Cloth Line" transports fabrics from Jiangsu, Zhejiang or Fujian to Guangzhou. Each ship must pay the rate of ten taels of silver per foot to the Guangzhou Shipping Department according to the width of the ship. The taxes to be paid are all above 200 taels.A big cloth merchant like "Yongfeng Cloth Shop" pays almost [-] taels of silver every year, which is really not a small figure.

You must know that this is only the rate collected by the Shibo Department and not the tax on the sale of goods. According to the commercial tax regulations of the Ming Dynasty, "Yongfeng Cloth" sold these goods in Guangzhou, and it must be paid at the rate of one thirty taxes. business tax.Calculated in this way, the tax burden of transporting a shipment of textiles from other provinces to Guangzhou is quite considerable.

For the cloth merchants, this part of the tax loss must be passed on to the price of the goods sold, and the ultimate bearers are the public or consumer groups such as the Crossing Group.As a group that has a huge demand for textiles, it is natural that they will not be willing to pay for blood transfusions to Daming's treasury in a disguised form. If they can try to attract cloth merchants to Victory Port, it will be very beneficial to both parties.

Schneider seized the opportunity to explain to the treasurer of the horse that the cloth merchants did not need to pay any fees, land rates and additional rates when they transported the cloth to Shengli Port, and because these textiles were collectively purchased by the Haihan Executive Committee, they did not need to pay any fees. There will be no transaction tax incurred.Of course, this kind of generous treatment is not just enjoyed, and the price of these textiles sold to Haihan after they arrive at Shengli Port, the cloth merchant should also give an appropriate reduction.

The shopkeeper blinked and asked, "If taxes can be saved, then the price can be negotiated. But if there are too many cloths to be shipped to your port, and you can't buy them all, what should I do?"

Schneider said: "This is easy to handle. Let's agree on a rough trading volume first. How much cloth, how much yarn, how much silk, and the upper and lower limits of the trading volume will be fine. As long as the goods you provide us are within this If it is within the trading volume, we will accept all orders."

The horse shopkeeper thought for a while, and felt that what Schneider said was reasonable, so he asked again: "Then what kind of fabrics do you need every month, and how much?"

Schneider smiled and said, "It's not urgent, because some of the fabrics we need are quite special. I want to ask the horse shopkeeper to see if I can make them later."

Because there are still technical details to be discussed later, Schneider and He Xi did not deliberately attack the shopkeeper Ma at the wine table.Satisfied with wine and food, the three of them moved to the study room, and the various Haihan glass stationery lined up here almost blinded the shopkeeper's eyes. There are many types that have never been seen on the market— —This is the latest batch of samples sent from Shengli Port. Because of the exclusive agency agreement with "Furuifeng", the technical department has specially designed some new models and is preparing to sell them to businessmen outside of Guangdong. Promote.

Seeing shopkeeper Ma's sluggish expression, He Xi presented a gift that had been prepared in a timely manner - a set of Haihan glass carved stationery.Such a set of things is worth at least a hundred taels of silver in the current Guangzhou market, which is quite a lot as a gift. The shopkeeper Ma pretended to decline a few words, and then accepted the gift with a smile on his face.

For the Guangzhou Office, using glass products as a gift is undoubtedly an excellent means of public relations. The cost of this thing is low and the selling price is high. I don’t feel bad when I send it out, and the other party is also happy. By the way, it also promotes Haihan’s culture.The Guangzhou Office has put forward a suggestion to the base camp to specially develop glass gift series. The output does not need to be large, but it must have a unique shape, because only non-quantitative products can have higher value and are more suitable for gift recipients to take back for collection Or pretend.

Schneider clapped his hands and asked the servants to serve tea, and brought in the fabric samples by the way.

The first sample that the shopkeeper saw was gauze. This kind of fabric with sparse warp and weft does not have any technical difficulties in production. The required width means that it can be customized.According to the technical standards proposed by the executive committee, Schneider subdivided the gauze into several different types, and each of them placed orders ranging from ten to more than a hundred horses per month to the horse shopkeeper.

The gauze customized by the Transit Group is mainly used in three aspects. One is medical gauze, mainly bandages.Although there are still some of these items in stock, their shelf life is limited, usually two to three years. The relevant departments don't want to wait until they need to use a lot in the future to find out that the stock has expired. It is always wrong to start relevant preparations in advance. will be wrong.However, what "Yongfeng Cloth Shop" can provide to the Transit Group is only ordinary pure cotton gauze. Degreasing gauze must not be counted on in the short term—they have to import cotton from the mainland to make it themselves.However, the kapok produced locally in Hainan has short and soft fibers, poor spinnability, and is not easily soaked by water, so it must not be used in this area.

The second use is in the production of masks.Now due to the gradual commissioning of various industrial projects, the physical protection of industrial workers is slowly attracting the attention of the Executive Committee.During Tao Donglai's inspection visit to Heitu Port last time, Gu Kai once suggested to him that labor protection measures for workers need to be strengthened to prevent large-scale occupational diseases in the future.At that time, Tao Donglai did not agree to Gu Kai's request. One of the reasons was that the Traveling Group did not have the ability to manufacture fabrics, and even simple labor protection equipment such as masks and gloves could not be manufactured by itself.However, as more and more industrial projects in Shengli Port need to be protected, the requirements for labor protection tools have also been put on the agenda of the Executive Committee, and the procurement of raw materials has been handed over to the Guangzhou Office.

A final use is for making mosquito nets.Due to the high temperature and high humidity in the Sanya area, there are many mosquitoes, which are a very deadly source of infection.In addition to stepping up the work of pest control and epidemic prevention, the medical and health department also made a request to the executive committee that it is necessary to purchase mosquito nets and gauze on a large scale, and install screens on the doors and windows of houses to isolate them as much as possible. Mosquitoes - If possible it is best to have mosquito nets available to all local residents.After research, the executive committee thinks that although the amount of work is relatively large, the raw materials are cheap. Given the current good economic situation, it is not a problem to spend a sum of money for the health protection of local residents, as long as it can effectively reduce the The morbidity caused by mosquito bites, then this cost can actually save a considerable part of the daily medical expenses.

Although shopkeeper Ma didn't quite understand why the Haihan people ordered so many gauzes every month, but with the current interests, he would definitely not refuse this kind of door-to-door business.As for where these gauzes are going to be used, since the Haihan people are unwilling to take the initiative to say, the shopkeeper Ma naturally won't ask too much.Although the price of gauze is very cheap, it can sell hundreds of pieces per month, and the total amount in a year is quite considerable. At least based on the current order quantity, the amount of gauze needed by the Haihan people has even exceeded that of Guangzhou. gauze sales.

The second sample of fabric that Shopkeeper Ma saw was the most urgently needed canvas at the time.Canvas, a fabric that has appeared in the West for a long time, has been widely used in the production of sails and tents since ancient Rome. In the 13th century, the production process of Western-style canvas had been introduced to China, but unlike the West, this thick and wear-resistant fabric has not been widely used in China, and it is basically not sold in the market.However, shopkeeper Ma is also a professional who has been in the industry for many years. When he saw the fabric sample, he told its origin.

Schneider is not interested in listening to Shopkeeper Ma slowly analyzing the current situation of the domestic textile market in Daming. He only cares about one thing: "Can we weave the same fabric?"

"Yes!" Shopkeeper Ma promised, and then said: "But this kind of fabric requires a lot of materials and man-hours, and the price may be more than twice as expensive as ordinary Songjiang cotton cloth."

"The price is not a problem, as long as you can produce the finished product as soon as possible, and the material can basically meet the specifications of this product." Schneider immediately decided to finalize the matter after hearing the answer from the shopkeeper Ma. Price is not the primary consideration for the Transit Group The current situation is that you can't buy goods with cash, so it's not the time to bargain.

Shopkeeper Ma picked up the samples again after hearing the words and looked at them: "Only these two kinds, right? I don't know what your standard of measurement is?"

There are two kinds of canvas samples that Schneider showed him. The first is the thick canvas used in sailboats, which can also be used to make cover cloths and tents.The second type, which is slightly thinner, is used to make labor insurance clothing, backpacks, shoes, etc., and can be directly used as denim after dyeing a color.

Schneider explained: "It is based on the yarn count, weight, and width. We will not set a transaction upper limit for this kind of canvas for the time being. As long as your finished products meet these standards, how many can be shipped to Victory Port?" , we will buy as much as we want!"

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up and said, "Do these fabrics need to be dyed?"

"No, we will handle the dyeing ourselves. As long as you ship the finished product to Shengli Port, you will get cash immediately!" Schneider said with certainty.The chemical department has already produced a variety of dye formulas, and the cost of dyeing cloth on a large scale is definitely much lower than that of these mainland cloth merchants. There is really no need to pay such a waste of money.

Shopkeeper Ma has already made up his mind. It will take about ten days to pass the news back to Hangzhou, and it will take another five days to adjust the loom to make trial fabrics. The time it takes for a weaver to weave a bolt is probably three times that of Songjiang cloth. It will be about a month before the first shipment of finished cloth comes out of Hangzhou.

After reading the fabric samples prepared by the Guangzhou Office, the treasurer Ma also ordered his attendants to present the fabric samples he had brought.Shopkeeper Ma didn’t come here empty-handed. Before that, he also worked hard to inquire about the news about the Haihan people. Only then did he find out that this group of people had already purchased a lot of bulk goods in Guangzhou, no matter what they bought. It was a large purchase, and even [-] sea-going ships have been ordered for six or seven ships, both new and old. The personnel picked up samples from two large wooden boxes.But he didn't expect the Haihan people to place an order for custom-made fabrics before he showed the samples, and the quantity was huge.

One box of hatchback samples brought by the horse shopkeeper is cotton fabrics, and the other box is silk fabrics.Cotton fabrics are mainly cotton cloth produced in Songjiang Prefecture. This Songjiang cotton cloth is not just ordinary homespun cloth, but is divided into standard cloth, buckle cloth, sparse cloth, fan cloth, Rongban cloth, medium machine, small cloth, and three shuttle cloth. , Long mop cloth, cloud cloth, flying cloth, sizing cloth and many other varieties.The imperial clothes worn by the emperor were made of Sanshuo cloth produced in Songjiang Prefecture. Its price was nearly ten times higher than that of ordinary cotton cloth, and the unit price of each piece reached about three taels of silver.During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, even one piece of this kind of three-suo cloth could be converted into grain by 30 shi. It was once used by the imperial court to pay officials' salaries.

The samples of silk fabrics are also rich and colorful, all kinds of brocade, gauze, velvet, silk satin, makeup, etc., covered the floor of the study in a short while.Although Schneider and He Xi have been to the cloth shop several times, they have never seen so many samples listed one by one, and it took a while to see them.

The time-traveling group currently treats the naturalized people with full coverage of food, clothing, housing and transportation. There has always been a big gap in the required fabrics, but it seems that there is hope that this gap can be plugged in the near future.If the amount of thin canvas provided by "Yongfeng Cloth Shop" is large enough in the future, the civil affairs department can even use this fabric to make all the clothing distributed to the naturalized people, and directly unify life clothing and labor insurance clothing.

However, Schneider and He Xi were not very interested in the dazzling array of silk fabrics. They just asked the shopkeeper to leave a small sample of each silk fabric and decide the type and quantity to order after their own research.For the current time-traveling group, silk fabrics do not have much practical effect, and the purpose of asking the shopkeeper to leave samples is only to let the military and police department use the samples for combustion tests later to see which type of silk fabrics burn It is most fully covered with the least residue, and is most suitable for use as a wrapping for artillery's fixed charges.

At this time, the sky was dark and the gate of the city was closed, and the shopkeeper Ma would definitely not be able to return to the city, so Schneider took advantage of the opportunity to stay overnight and asked Yu Xiaobao to take him to the guest room to rest, and arranged the shopkeeper Ma's entourage by the way.Of course, Yu Xiaobao, who has already been trained, will enthusiastically show the high-tech Haihan bathroom equipment to Shopkeeper Ma, and let him know that Haihan people's emphasis on quality of life is not only reflected on the dining table and in the study.

After sending the horse shopkeeper to rest, Schneider called several other cross-travelers from the Guangzhou Office to the study, and informed them of the results of today's negotiations with "Yongfeng Cloth".Everyone was very excited about this surprise, especially You Yihan from the Ministry of Shipping. Once the canvas supply problem was solved, the shipbuilding plan that had plagued the Ministry of Shipping for a long time could finally be implemented.Chen Tianqi recorded the agreements reached by the two parties one by one, and then took the briefing to the confidential room for filing, and sent a telegram to inform the headquarters of the good news.

Xiao Liang and Yu Yao took the silk fabrics and were about to find a place outside the yard to burn them to see the effect, but they were stopped by Sister Ma Yuma: "You are not in a hurry at this moment, let me first Pick and choose!"

No one could refute Ma Yu's love of beauty. After all, she was the only female member of the Guangzhou Office, and she was also the oldest in the Guangzhou Office.So the two had no choice but to hand over all the samples of silk fabrics to her, and let her make gestures on her body, not knowing what kind of clothes they made up in their brains.

Sha Xi, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said at this time: "Since this 'Yongfeng Cloth Company' has been able to transport the fabrics from Songjiang Prefecture and Hangzhou Prefecture to Guangzhou for sale for many years, it means that they have a way of shipping? "

"[-]% of the protection fees paid to the 'Eighteen Zhi' in the waters of Fujian." Xiao Liang guessed: "Most of the ships that can safely pass through the Taiwan Strait at this time have paid the road money, otherwise they will be caught by the 'Ten If Bazhi's people catch it, then the ship and the goods will be served in one pot."

Sha Xi shook his head and said, "Whether they paid to 'Eighteen Zhi' is not the point I want to talk about, the key is this channel, do you understand?"

"You mean, a safe sea channel from Guangzhou to Jiangsu and Zhejiang?" You Yihan grasped the meaning of Sha Xi's words very keenly.

"According to what we know now, the safe route of 'Furuifeng' only goes to Quanzhou Prefecture, and they have no security at all if they go north. Now that this line has emerged, it can just supplement the north of Quanzhou A part of the voyage." Sha Xi explained concisely: "When they return, they can take our goods and sell them to the north."

Schneider nodded and said: "Your idea is good, but at present, it has little practical effect on us."

Sha Xi stared, "Why?"

"We don't have so many commodities to sell." Schneider shrugged: "The problem we are facing now is not sales, but production capacity. Whether it is arms, glass, or other chemical products, agricultural products, all have insufficient production capacity. The market in Guangdong Province is no longer enough to sell, and it is not practical for us to stretch the front line too long."

"But if you sell it to the north, you can sell it at a higher price!" Sha Xi insisted.

Schneider glanced at Sha Xi like an idiot: "Now we can't transport it to the north to sell by ourselves, how high can the price be for the agent? If it is really raised too much, they might as well just go to 'Fu Ruifeng' 'Orders are made. The most we can do now is to explore this way first, and when the time is right, we will send the ship to the north by ourselves!"

(End of this chapter)