Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 479, South Sea Route

Guanhai Building in Tianjin New Town.

The Guanhai Tower in Tianjin and the Wangyue Tower in Beijing are both famous restaurants in the Beijing-Tianjin area. The Guanhai Tower is located in a very good location, in the core area of ​​Tianjin New City.

The Guanhai Building is constructed of reinforced concrete, with eight floors and a total height of more than ten feet. All of them are decorated with the most fashionable all-glass windows. You can enjoy delicious food on the upper floor while overlooking the prosperity of Tianjin New City. It can be regarded as the landmark of Tianjin. architecture.

A meal in Guanhai Tower costs at least a few tens of taels of silver, and only the real rich and powerful can enjoy it here. Generally, small landlords and old fortunes in the countryside are reluctant to come here to spend once.

At this time, on the top two floors of Guanhai Building, the entire eighth and seventh floors were occupied by people. Big figures from the Beijing and Tianjin areas kept coming in and out, and at the same time there were some big businessmen from the southern area, Representatives of the big families also came here one after another.

The seventh floor is very lively here, big businessmen wearing brocade clothes, wealthy businessmen, emerging capitalists, representatives of the rich and powerful from the capital, etc. gathered together, talking and laughing with each other, chatting, and at the same time checking the pass from time to time. The stairs to the eighth floor seemed to be waiting for something.

Among these people were representatives of Huizhou merchants from the Jiangnan area, Zhu Benduan, Feng Xiang, Ye Li, etc. It was not easy for them to find out a piece of news this time.

That is, Tianjin Ocean Trading Co., Ltd. will organize a fleet to go to the Nanyang region and open up the Nanyang route. If conditions permit, they will even go to South Asia's Tianzhu and Arabian regions.

As soon as this news came out, the dignitaries, capitalists, and businessmen in the entire Beijing-Tianjin area were extremely excited. At the same time, as the news spread, even Zhu Benduan, Feng Xiang, and Ye Li, the big businessmen, big families, and big gentlemen in the south, all knew about it. , is also in a hurry, and rushed to Tianjin side by starry night.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that Tianjin Ocean Trading Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Liu Jin, specializing in ocean trade. Nowadays, Tianjin Ocean Trading Co. is the one that goes to North Korea and Japan the most.

It would be nice for other businessmen to go there once a month. This Tianjin Ocean Trading Company is the largest since it was the first to eat crabs and has extremely strong capital. In addition, it also has the support of Tianjin Shipyard and Tianjin Maritime Academy. The ocean trading company has hundreds of merchant ships going to North Korea and Japan every month, earning a steady stream of white money.

Now Tianjin Ocean Trading Co., Ltd. is going to open a new route, the route to the Nanyang region. People who know the news are very excited, and flock to Tianjin to inquire about the specific news.

Of course, the most important thing is to see if we can set foot on the giant ship Tianjin Ocean Trading Co., and go to the Nanyang region to make a fortune together.

There are so many merchant ships going to Tianjin and Wa, that the profits going to Wa and North Korea are plummeting now.

At the beginning, it was no problem to go to Japan and North Korea and earn millions of taels of silver casually, but now.

With the frequent trade exchanges, the people of Japan and North Korea are not fools, and their own people compete with each other. The profit of a trip to Japan and North Korea is now less than [-] taels of silver.

But this ocean-going ship is very expensive, plus crew expenses, cost expenses, etc. are very high, and everyone urgently needs to open up new routes and open up new markets to meet the growing demand and meet the capital's desire for profit. the chase.

Going to the Golden Island is a craze, but the time to go to the Golden Island is after the beginning of spring, and it is safer to start in the summer.

What's more important is that the fleet going to the Golden Isle needs to be very strong. Most people can't do it at all. Without enough funds, you can't even afford a boat, not to mention hiring crew and preparing various materials. and many more.

Now that the Nanyang route is opened, the Nanyang area is much closer than the Golden Continent, and everyone is more familiar with it. After all, Annan, Siam, Luzon, etc. in the Nanyang area also had contacts with Daming in history, and they were still under the Ming Dynasty in the past. country, and would often come to Daming to pay tribute.

This is especially true for Annan, deeply influenced by Chinese civilization, the king of Annan Kingdom needs to be canonized by the Ming emperor to be considered a true legal king.

Going to the Nanyang region, in everyone's opinion, has small risks and great profits. The Nanyang region is very large and has many countries. If you can reach Tianzhu, Ceylon and other places in South Asia through the Nanyang region, the profits will be even more considerable.

In addition, everyone is smart and wants to be the first to eat crabs.

Because Tianjin Ocean Trading Company was the first to eat crabs, it has established long-term trade relations with many local powers in North Korea and Japan. The business is stable and the profits are guaranteed. Your latecomers want to intervene here Business is not so easy.

The same goes for going to the Nanyang region. Those who go first can take advantage of the pits and opportunities, and when the routes mature, they can have a steady stream of wealth.

"Do you think this Liu Jin will take everyone to Nanyang?"

Zhu Benduan had a sip of tea and said to Feng Xiang and Ye Li beside him.

"I didn't see all the respectable people from the Beijing-Tianjin area coming here. Everyone just got wind of it, so they came to this party. Otherwise, if everyone is full, they will come here to suffer in this winter."

Ye Li smiled and said affirmatively.

"Then I don't understand. What kind of medicine does this Liu Jin sell in his gourd? I don't want this good gold and silver mountain by myself, so I have to drag everyone to share it?"

Zhu Benduan felt very confused.

In his opinion, this route to Japan and North Korea is a golden route. If Tianjin Ocean Trading Co., Ltd. eats it for itself, it will definitely be full.

However, Liu Jin is very generous here, not only giving up this route, but also encouraging everyone to make a fortune. It is really incomprehensible that there are such people in the world.

It is also now, and the opening of the Nanyang route is actually willing to take everyone to the Nanyang region to make a fortune, instead of choosing to open the Nanyang route alone, and then the family will eat alone.

These businessmen from the south are very clear about this. Once one person eats any of these things, it will definitely be enough to eat.

Just like the salt in the past, all of these salt merchants are rich and powerful. Apart from them, there is no way for anyone else to intervene in the salt business.

Supporting the sea ban is also because the big businessmen, big families, and big gentry in the Jiangnan area want to monopolize the huge profits of this sea trade and want to eat alone.

But Liu Jin is different, he just does it the other way around, if there is something to make money, everyone will do it together, wishing that everyone in the world would know and make money.

All the routes to gold were announced, how many gold mines were discovered along the way, where are the locations, there is a country of descendants of the Shang Dynasty in the Golden Island, and you can exchange for gold with glass balls, etc. Let everyone in Ming Dynasty know the richness of the Golden Continent.

In Zhu Benduan's view, Liu Jin is like a fool.

Why do you have to announce such a flight route? If you travel by yourself every year, it’s not worth tens of millions of taels.

Once this is announced, how many people will go to Huangjinzhou, and will still have their own food by then?

I didn't see that the rich people from the whole of Ming Dynasty gathered here in Tianjin. Everyone is buying ships and recruiting people. They are preparing to go to Huangjinzhou to dig gold.

"I can't figure it out either, but this Liu Jin, he has always done this."

Feng Xiang smiled and said.

Last year he competed with Changlu Salt Field in the northern market, and he suffered a crushing defeat. After that, he calmed down and studied carefully, and also studied Liu Jin.

After studying Liu Jin, he discovered a very strange thing.

That is Liu Jin, as long as there is any profitable business, he would like everyone to do it together.

In the fishing industry, ocean trade, textile industry, cement, briquette, etc., it seems that except for glass, as long as it is a profitable business, Liu Jin will selflessly announce it, and lead many people to do it together, and everyone will follow to make money.

Now the capitalists in the entire Beijing-Tianjin area are so strong that there is now the phrase "North Factory and South Huizhou Merchants", which refers to the emerging capitalists in the north and the big businessmen in the south.

"Perhaps this is his real brilliance. Let more people come to his boat and make the boat bigger and bigger. In the end, everyone will earn money together, and he will naturally earn the most."

Ye Li pondered for a while, then thought for a while and said.

The more you study Liu Jin, the more you admire him.

"Don't worry about it too much. If you can really earn money by following him, nothing else matters."

Zhu Benduan nodded, then smiled and shook his head.

His words also made other people around him nod their heads. In the final analysis, everyone is still for money.

Compared with the seventh floor, the eighth floor is much deserted. There are very few people, only more than [-] people, each of whom is the real dignitaries of Ming Dynasty, emerging powerful capitalists, big businessmen, and big landlords.

Among them are Cui Wenjin, the general manager of Tianjin Ocean Trading Co., who represents His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Liu Jin, and Zhang Fen from Sangong Ocean Trading Co., Ltd., who represents Ding Guogong, Ying Gong, and Cheng Guogong. Xungui Group.

In addition, the two brothers Shou Ninghou and Jian Changbo from Tianjin also came here in person, and they were sitting carelessly on the most important seats, drinking tea and listening leisurely.

In addition, there is also Xu Long from Nanjing who represents Wei Guogong. With the huge trade profits of Sino-Ocean, Wei Guogong in Nanjing can't sit still. This time he also sent someone over.

Of course, Xu Long not only represented Wei Guogong, but also represented the big businessmen, gentry, big families and big landlords in the Jiangnan area.

With the rise of capitalists in the Beijing-Tianjin area and the development of ocean-going trade in the past few years, these southerners have not shared their own cake, which is extremely unbalanced in their hearts.

At the beginning, I was thinking of restricting the imperial power through means, and suppressing the development of these emerging capitalists and ocean-going industries in the north. However, Emperor Hongzhi’s subsequent theft of official warehouses, the case of Li Guang, and the case involving the army gave Jiangnan Shilin a heavy blow. hit.

In the past, officials from the Jiangnan area accounted for half of the imperial court, but after these three cases, the number of officials from the Jiangnan area decreased significantly.

Those who were killed were killed, those who were demoted were demoted, and those who were exiled, the rest of them were all terrified, not daring to act rashly, for fear that they would also suffer disaster.

Even Xie Qian, one of the three elders in the cabinet, no longer has much say in the court. In many cases, he only watches and listens to matters big and small, and does not express his own opinions.

Such a huge change also made the people in the Jiangnan area understand one thing, that they cannot fight against the imperial power, especially now that Emperor Hongzhi has money and soldiers, and he is still holding your pigtail in his hands.

If you fight hard with Emperor Hongzhi, you will die even worse in custody.

Since you can’t force yourself, what should you do if you want to eat meat?
Of course, we can only keep up with the trend and actively cooperate.

So not only Zhu Benduan, Feng Xiang, and Ye Li, Huizhou merchants, and big salt merchants came to Tianjin, preparing for the fleet to the Golden Island, but also wanting to make a fortune in the Nanyang region.

Even a top wealthy family like Wei Guogong couldn't sit still, and they also sent people here to Tianjin, wanting to share the fruits of ocean trade.

"Cui Wenjin, what does Liu Jin mean?"

"There are rumors coming out here. No one will come for such an important matter."

Uncle Jianchang Zhang Heling said to Cui Wenjin slightly dissatisfied.

"That's right, Liu Jin, at least someone should come here."

Xu Long also said that Xu Long was an offshoot of Wei Guogong, not a direct descendant, but he was obviously an extremely important person to be sent here.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry~"

"Everyone also knows that Mr. Liu has been busy with the new army recently. He is really busy. With the emperor's order, there is nothing he can do."

Cui Wenjin immediately explained to everyone with a smile on his face.

In fact, Liu Jin is in Tianjin, and there is still plenty of time, but Liu Jin is now a fifth-rank official anyway, and it is really inconvenient to come out in person if there are things, and just leave it to the subordinates to do it.

"Well, if I knew it earlier, I would go directly to Liu Jin, save trouble, and there will be a messenger in the middle."

Zhang Heling nodded slightly.

"The people are almost all here, and there are still many people waiting downstairs. Please tell me what kind of regulations the opening of the Nanyang route is. If this is the case, everyone should make preparations as soon as possible."

Shouning Marquis Zhang Yanling was relatively more patient, looked at the crowd, thought for a while and said, here, he is the most important, the brother-in-law of Emperor Hongzhi, and the uncle of Prince Zhu Houzhao.

　Two in one~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)