1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3966

The fleet will stay in Sanya for a longer period than it did at Kowloon Port, because at least half of the cargo ships' holds are reserved for loading goods there.

Today, most of Haihan's industrial products originate from Hainan Island, and Sanya Shengli Port serves as the distribution center for these products shipped out of the island. Some small but highly valued industrial products are favorites of foreign trade companies like Furuifeng, and they sell very well overseas.

Silver-plated glass mirrors based on silver nitrate coating technology, and copper lighters that use kerosene as fuel, are successful examples of Haihan's advanced industrial technology being transformed into huge commercial profits.

A full-length mirror can sell for hundreds of times the price of a mirror sold domestically in China. Meanwhile, highly practical lighters, along with safety matches, have become some of the most popular items overseas.

Of course, when talking about Hainan's specialties, one cannot forget its renowned cigarettes and fine wines.

The Ministry of Agriculture initially tried to guide tobacco cultivation on Hainan Island, but later found that the quality of the tobacco produced was not ideal. Nowadays, the tobacco raw materials used by cigarette factories mainly come from Ninghua, Qingliu, Changting, Liancheng, Nanjing, Pinghe and other places in Fujian. These places have a humid climate and fertile soil, and the quality of their tobacco is far superior to that produced on Hainan Island.

From its inception, this industry was managed more strictly than traditional trades like salt, iron, tea, and sugar. The government established a special tobacco bureau to manage the entire process from tobacco cultivation to cigarette production. Merchants and peddlers could only purchase products from the tobacco bureau for sale, and sales within the country were subject to extremely high taxes.

Even with such strict control measures, cigarette sales continue to reach new highs year after year, almost catching up with alcohol, a traditional major consumer item. Exports overseas are growing at an astonishing rate, doubling on average every year.

Alcoholic beverages are also one of the most profitable categories of exported goods. Sanya Special Brew, which started with fruit wines, now has dozens of different varieties of products and has even become a well-known brand representing the South China Sea region.

During periods when grain production capacity was insufficient, fruit wine was undoubtedly the best brewing material, and its cost was much lower than that of grain wine.

This is also thanks to Haihan's decades-long, tireless promotion. Sanya Special Brew is an indispensable part of any reception hosted by Haihan for dignitaries from various countries. Over time, some neighboring countries have come to regard it as a symbol of high-end quality and style, making Sanya Special Brew a must-have for their own royal banquets, which in turn has spurred widespread consumption among the general public.

Today, Sanya Special Brewing's breweries are no longer limited to Sanya. In addition to owning five breweries on Hainan Island, they also have breweries in Xuwen, Guangdong, Chongzuo, Guangxi, and Tainan Plain, Taiwan, all of which are famous for sugarcane production.

Sanya Special Brewing was originally established with joint investment from Haihan Agriculture and Qionglianfa, so it can be considered a semi-government-run enterprise. It not only has an official background but also has strong financial resources, so the plan to open a new brewery is constantly being promoted.

According to Li Yuande, it has been confirmed that a new winery will be built in three locations: Sing Tao, Hue in Annam, and Manila City in Luzon, to meet local consumer demand.

Tobacco and alcohol constituted the bulk of Furuifeng's export trade. On this particular trip, during the stop at Sanya Port for loading, the purchase amount for tobacco and alcohol alone reached a staggering one million yuan, filling seven or eight ships to capacity. Although the newly arrived sons of salt merchants hadn't planned ahead, seeing the scale of Li Yuande's purchases, they knew these goods would be highly profitable overseas, and thus followed suit, buying quite a bit themselves.

However, most of their ships were already loaded with local specialties from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions when they headed south, leaving little room for cargo. Some ships had limited space available, so they had to cram newly purchased goods into the living quarters.

Some of the bolder ones even contacted Chen Pingliao to inquire whether there were any spare cabins on these warships belonging to the North Sea Fleet, which they were willing to rent for a hefty sum.

Chen Pingliao wasn't particularly interested in doing business, but he did enjoy listening to Li Yuande recount various anecdotes and interesting stories related to it. After all, Li Yuande had traveled back and forth between the South China Sea and other places more than a dozen times in recent years, and his understanding of local customs and his views on the maritime trade industry far surpassed those of Chen Pingliao, an outsider.

Having such a trusted expert who could provide detailed information saved Chen Pingliao a great deal of time and energy.

However, after arriving in Sanya, Li Yuande's social engagements were significantly more numerous than during his stopover in Kowloon Port. Moreover, this time, it wasn't local officials who proactively sought him out, but rather a multitude of business peers.

Currently, only Li Yuande's fleet operates trade routes to the Indian Ocean within Haihan. Even those merchants who established offices there after accompanying Shi Diwen on a trip last year still rely on Li Yuande's fleet for transportation services.

This wasn't a question of whether they had their own ships or not; rather, this ocean route was developed by the Special Forces Division and authorized to Li Yuande for commercial operation.

Originally, Sing Tao, as a partner of the Special Operations Division, also had an ocean-going fleet qualified to reach Fubo Port directly. However, Sing Tao's own ocean-going transportation capacity was limited, while the development of the Southern New World required more maritime transport capacity. Therefore, Roger transferred this fleet to the route to the Southern New World, which essentially enabled the Frye Feng fleet to achieve a near-monopoly in the Indian Ocean.

Other merchant ships could certainly enter the Indian Ocean, but they would either have to slowly navigate along the coastline, taking several times longer than usual, or they would have to enter unfamiliar waters far from the coastline, risking getting lost to cross the Indian Ocean—a vast ocean twenty times larger than the South China Sea, and the risks were immense.

Therefore, other merchant ships that want to navigate safely in the Indian Ocean can only temporarily join the ocean-going fleet of Fleetsea. Of course, such fleets are not always available. For example, there are only four fleets departing from Sanya Port and bound for Fubo Port in the Persian Gulf each year, with an average of one trip every three months. If you miss one, you have to wait another three months.

Of course, if you miss it, it's not a big deal. You don't have to wait in Sanya Port. If you have enough time, you can try running some established shipping routes in the South China Sea, such as the route south along the Indochina Peninsula to Sing Tao. There are many ports along the way, which is relatively safe and makes it easier to get cargo business.

If time permits after arriving at Sing Tao, you can make one or two more round-trip trips between Sing Tao and the Dutch-owned Batavia port, and then wait at Sing Tao to join the next Frye Feng ocean-going fleet sailing from the South China Sea into the Strait of Malacca.