1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 533
new plan?What kind of new money-making plan is this? This is simply a rebellion!
Occupying this Qiongzhou city is not the same as occupying the wasteland in Sanya. Qiongnan Mountain is high and the emperor is far away, and the Guangdong government can't control so much, but Qiongzhou city is the core area of ​​the island. How can the government easily let the sea Han people control the local situation?
Among the attendees below, some people have already started to secretly regret in their hearts. If they knew that the Haihan people would play such a big game, they should find a reason not to attend this shareholders' meeting.If you step into this muddy water, I'm afraid that before you make any money, you will get into trouble first!

Although these participants have somewhat invested in Qiongzhou Island, their foundations are almost all in the mainland. It is said that the monks cannot escape the temple. What will happen to the people?
Of course the government cannot afford to offend, but neither can the other party. In terms of force alone, Haihan's strength in its area of ​​activity has even surpassed that of the Ming government. At least no one dares to disobey him on Qiongzhou Island. .Not cooperating with the Haihan people would be tantamount to giving up all their interests on Qiongzhou Island, a loss not everyone could bear.

Of course, money is second to none. When it comes to life and death, it is not something that cannot be given up.The question is, if you offend the Haihan people, will your own cargo and ships go out to sea safely in the future?Now the Haihan people have built two ports in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary, where warships are stationed all year round. For partners, they are an indestructible umbrella, but for those who are unwilling to cooperate, the existence of those Haihan warships may It is a great threat.

The location of the Pearl River Estuary is extremely critical. The outlets of several major commercial and trade areas in Guangdong, Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Huizhou, are located here. Controlling this area is equivalent to controlling more than half of the waterways along the coastline of Guangdong.Before that, everyone believed that the measures of the Haihan people were very popular, and they could provide excellent protection for insecure maritime merchants. Merchant ships and civilian ships traveling between Guangdong and the South China Sea no longer need to worry about the rampant waters of the Pearl River Estuary in previous years. pirates.

However, the treatment is directly linked to the position you are in. Of course, you can get protection if you cooperate with the Haihan people, but if you don't cooperate, what will happen?
After Schneider asked this sentence, no one in the audience responded immediately, and everyone was waiting for him to make further explanations.

Schneider saw all the expressions below. After the discussion in the crowd stopped, he continued: "Everyone, before reading the next project, I have another news to announce..."

The hearts of everyone in the audience immediately rose to their throats, lest Schneider would say something outrageous in the next sentence.However, Schneider said with a relaxed face: "In the next year, we will further open the trade lanes in the direction of Annan and the South China Sea. For merchants who are not capable of ocean shipping, they can also rent the cargo hold of our Haihan merchant ship to transport goods. At that time We will launch a new commercial organization for this purpose. As long as you become a member of this organization, we will provide a full range of services, such as the delivery, collection and storage of goods at overseas ports, transfer of funds and loans, and armed escort during the voyage , and even communicate with the local government, you can get our help."

As soon as this remark came out, there was another uproar in the audience. Even the Li family father and son were shocked by the news, because when Schneider visited the house a few days ago, he didn't mention such a thing.

The shipping lanes from Guangdong to Annan and Batavia and Managa in the South China Sea are nothing new. All sea merchants know that they can get great profits by selling various Ming specialties from the mainland to the local area.But for these sea merchants present, not every one has the ability to transport goods from Guangdong to the local area for sale. Many sea merchants have sailboats that can only sail in the offshore, and cannot go thousands of miles at all. On the other side of the ocean, the huge profits of ocean trade can only be sighed at the sea.

And what Schneider said is obviously a great boon to this part of the maritime merchants with limited strength.Even if they do not have ships that can reach the southern overseas ports in the future, they can still take the big ship Haihan and lay their business network to places that were beyond their reach before.

For those maritime merchants who already had the ability to go to distant ports, they immediately paid attention to several key words-commercial organization, armed escort, and communication with local officials.There is no doubt that this is the Haihan people intending to copy the set of strategies they are currently implementing on the coast of the mainland to the South China Sea. They want to gradually integrate these capable maritime merchants together to unify foreign trade in the form of commercial organizations, and For this purpose, assistance in transportation, finance, etc. will be provided, as well as the military protection that businessmen most desire.

Of course, compared to those small maritime merchants who only think of the huge profits of ocean trade at the first time, these powerful merchants consider whether this policy of Haihan will have an impact on their own business, and what Schneider said Whether the new business organization of the company will be extremely exclusive.

Sure enough, Schneider went on to say: "...Of course, there are no barriers to obtaining our services. First, you must become a member of the new business organization I mentioned just now—let me call it the South China Sea Business Alliance. Only after entering this organization can you be eligible to enjoy the corresponding treatment. As for the entry threshold of this organization is also very low, as long as there are merchants who have invested more than 2 taels of silver on Qiongzhou Island, they can sign up to join."

For the merchants who can sit here and participate in this meeting, 2 taels is not a big number. At least half of them have reached or exceeded this number, and the rest of them have to do it if they want to reach this goal. It's not difficult, even if you can't afford the money for the time being, you can borrow a sum of money from Haihan Bank, which is open for twelve hours, as an emergency.Smart people have already thought that the purpose of Haihan setting up this entry threshold is obviously not to keep the people present outside, but to force the sea merchants to stand in line.

To enter the next stage of the new game, you have to follow Haihan's game rules and arrangements to continue playing, and those who want to draw a clear relationship with Haihan will basically not be eligible to enter the new game.Previously, many people were silently weighing the pros and cons, considering whether to give up their interests in Qiongzhou Island, but once Schneider drew this big pie, many people could no longer maintain their composure.

The various investment projects hosted by Haihan people on Qiongzhou Island certainly have good profit prospects, but the cycle is often relatively long, ranging from a few months to as long as the sericulture breeding project in Qiongzhong, which may take several years to produce results. Naturally, it doesn't matter to big merchants with strong capital, because the purpose of many people throwing money into these long-term projects is not only for profit, but also to maintain the trading partnership with Haihan.For those merchants with low capital and weak strength, they value short-term profits more, and they can collect money once when they take a boat trip. This traditional trading method is more welcomed by them.

And Haihan's plan to open the route between Annan and South China Sea is also in line with the interests of these small businesses. As long as a ship of goods can be transported there, or even the amount of a cargo hold, they can actually receive a sum of money , which can be much faster than smashing long-term projects.Of course, the premise is that their buttocks have to be moved from Daming to Haihan in the future.

After Li Jifeng was shocked, he naturally thought of the information disclosed in private before contacting Schneider. The purpose of the Haihan people was to force the richest and most powerful people in the Guangdong business community to continue the trade cooperation between the two parties. , and the scale will be larger than in previous years, and the degree will be more in-depth.

Li Jifeng has to admire the means of the Haihan people. If they use the threat of force at this stage, they will probably be able to force most of the people here to submit. At least when Li Jifeng visited the Haihan warship at the dock, he thought that the Haihan people had such a purpose .However, the Haihan people are obviously playing a better game, and they have adopted smarter methods to lure these businessmen, including himself, to voluntarily enter the game, and those who can resist the temptation of huge benefits and stick to their positions, Li Jifeng thinks that the proportion of the group of people present may be less It was frighteningly low - even he himself could hardly resist such a temptation.

"Furuifeng" is naturally capable of ocean trade, but since Haihan controlled the coastline of Annan, the maritime trade of Annan has actually been monopolized by Haihan.Even if a merchant like "Furuifeng" has a good relationship with Haihan, if he wants to go to the Annan coast for trade, he must first report to the Haihan Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Shipping, and follow the prescribed route at the specified time. at the port, and trade with Annan merchants designated by Haihan.As for those merchants who tried to go to Annan to do sea trade on their own, they all came back after being stunned—almost all commercial ports on the Annan coastline are under the control of Haihan, and the largest commercial firms in Annan are all Officials and businessmen with aristocratic backgrounds have long been in cahoots with Haihan people, so naturally they would not offend Haihan, a big backer, for the sake of one or two retail investors from Ming Dynasty.

What's more terrible is that after the end of the Annan civil war, the Annan court also handed over several major ports in the south to the Haihan people for management, while the Hoi An port, which had the best foundation, had been destroyed in the previous civil war. In order to escape the war, the Daming maritime merchants who were in Annan at that time had almost all moved away from the local area, completely losing their foundation in Annan.Therefore, after the war, the coastline in the southern part of Annan was also controlled by the Haihan people, and almost all ships from the South China waters to Malaga and Batavia had to seek a supply point in the southern part of Annan. If there were no Haihan people Nodding, it is estimated that the sea merchants will be deprived of the opportunity to supply fresh water on that section of the coast in the future.

The plan mentioned by Schneider seems to be open to the sea routes to Annan and Southeast Asia, but from another perspective, it is choking the necks of a small number of large merchants who are currently capable of running such ocean routes.If you don't stand on the same front as the Haihan people, you may lose not only the business in Qiongzhou Island, but also the qualification to trade in Annan and more distant overseas ports in the future.And the long-term benefits of these sea trade exchanges may not be able to survive tens of thousands of taels of silver.

"The Haihan people's tricks are both soft and hard!" After Li Jifeng figured out the cause and effect in his heart, he could only praise the serial tactics of the Haihan people.

Whether it's a specially dispatched warship to show up, or announcing the conditional opening of the South China Sea route, the Haihan people have made sufficient preparations. If they cooperate obediently, then everything Schneider said will help maritime merchants earn more. The help of a lot of money.But if you want to part ways with Haihan at this juncture and draw a clear line, then be ready to quit the maritime business world. Even if you barely stay, you will never want to play in this circle in the future-the Haihan people have at least a hundred ways. , Drive those maritime merchants who are unwilling to cooperate out of their sphere of influence.

Unless there is an extremely low-probability event like the Ming government army annihilating the Haihan militia in one fell swoop, no one can change the current situation where Haihan is the only one in the South China Sea by itself.For such a situation, the sea merchants probably have no other choice except to say "convince" with one voice.

When Li Jifeng was sighing, he suddenly felt Schneider's eyes on the stage cast towards him. Their eyes met, and Li Jifeng clearly felt that Schneider was signaling to him.

Of course Li Jifeng understood the purpose of Schneider's signal to him at this time-it was agreed beforehand to be a trustee, and now it's time to go to work.Li Jifeng made some calculations in his mind, and immediately stood up.

"Mr. Shi, can I ask you a question?" As soon as Li Jifeng opened his mouth, the whispering crowd immediately fell silent.Everyone knew about Li Jifeng's relationship with the Haihan people, and the questions he would ask the Haihan people must not be missed.

Schneider smiled and nodded, "Boss Li, please ask."

Li Jifeng took a deep breath and said, "I would like to know, if you cause some official troubles because of your business cooperation in the future, will you come forward to solve it?"

Schneider did not immediately answer Li Jifeng's question, but glanced at the people present and said, "I believe that most of you here have the same question in your mind? I would like to make a special point that the South China Sea Business Alliance I mentioned just now is very important to Haihan. It is not just an alliance in the field of commerce and trade. All members who join this alliance, their family and property safety, are also protected by the Executive Committee just like the regions under Haihan's rule. Any external party that harms the interests of the business alliance Forces, will become the target of the Haihan militia. This is not my personal explanation, this is the promise made by the Haihan Executive Committee to everyone."

(End of this chapter)