The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 844 Win-win cooperation
"Is what Lord Rong said true?"

In the quiet study, Zhou Yanru, who was over fifty years old, had a sharp glint in his old eyes.

His Zhou family, starting with his grandfather, were salt merchants appointed by the imperial court.

Through the efforts of three generations, the Zhou family had reached its peak under his leadership, and the wealth he controlled could no longer be measured in terms of vehicles and boats.

But he knew that wealth without power could not last, so through his best efforts, he managed to get in touch with the crown prince.

Unlike the Wang family, the salt merchants who were wiped out by Jia Lian, who simply sent silver to the Crown Prince's residence.

He was personally received by the Crown Prince.

Since meeting the Crown Prince and being treated with courtesy, he has been given money and food whenever he asked, hoping to gain merit by following the emperor's lead!

Everything was going smoothly until about two weeks ago, when he was sitting at home, he suddenly heard that "the crown prince plotted a rebellion, was defeated and killed in battle," and he was almost scared to death on the spot.

Still uneasy after making numerous inquiries, he finally made arrangements to personally travel to the capital to investigate the situation.

"Why would I lie to you?" Jia Lian said, his expression slightly displeased.

Zhou Yanru hurriedly said, "Please forgive me, Lord Rong. The inside story is too shocking. I couldn't keep my composure for a moment. I hope you won't take offense."

Jia Lian waved his hand.

Ordinary big merchants might not be worth Jia Lian's time to talk to, but the Zhou family, being of such a large scale, is of great use.

Seeing that he was very respectful to him, Jia Lian suddenly remembered an important matter he was handling and asked, "I wonder what Chairman Zhou thinks about the maritime ban?"

"This……"

Zhou Yanru was momentarily confused about Jia Lian's intentions.

The maritime ban is a national policy. Could it be that the imperial court knows that these wealthy merchants are secretly sending ships out to sea, so it wants to crack down on them?

"Your Excellency Rong, the maritime ban is a strict decree of our dynasty. It can effectively prevent the rampant spread of Japanese pirates and also prevent coastal residents from going to sea to trade extensively, thus maintaining stable agriculture. It is truly a national policy that benefits the country and its people..."

Zhou Yanru spoke very conservatively. As for the idea that blocking communication between the common people and foreign countries would benefit the ruling class, he dared not make such a statement.

"As a great merchant, your short-sightedness is very disappointing to me."

Jia Lian seemed oblivious to Zhou Yanru's concealment of his abilities, and after giving him a reprimand, he said:

"To be honest, His Majesty intends to open up the seas and strengthen exchanges and development with overseas countries."

"By His Majesty's grace, I was ordered two years ago to construct a new naval port in Tianjin, oversee the building of new warships, reform the navy, and enhance its naval combat capabilities, in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of our fishermen and merchants engaged in maritime business after the seas open."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yanru, like the others, showed surprise.

But his heart was in turmoil more intense than anyone else's.

As a prominent merchant in Jiangnan, few people in the world understood better than him how enormous the interests overseas were!
If the imperial court were to officially lift the sea ban, he could almost imagine how frantic those wealthy merchants along the coast would become in their quest for overseas profits.

Although Zhou Yanru didn't speak, Jia Lian could tell from his face that this merchant knew the benefits of opening up the sea.

He continued, "I built a shipyard in Tianjin and hired thousands of laborers to build warships day and night."

Today, the Tianjin naval force has hundreds of warships of various sizes, both new and old.

But my goal is not just that.

What I desire is that, in the near future, my Great Wei navy will reign supreme at sea, commanding the submission of all foreign nations.

Jia Lian spoke calmly, but Zhou Yanru was deeply moved.

If the imperial court can become powerful enough to subdue the foreign countries, one can imagine how eager the merchants of the Great Wei will be to go out to trade!
At the same time, he began to wonder why Jia Lian was saying all this to him out of the blue.
Jia Lian didn't keep him waiting too long and immediately said, "Now that the political situation has been stabilized, the national treasury is temporarily unable to support my large-scale development of the navy."

Therefore, I contacted many wealthy merchants in Tianjin and asked them to invest in and support the development of the Tianjin Shipyard.

I gave them two choices.

The first one is purely an investment.

In the name of the imperial court, I will borrow funds from them for a period of ten years, promising to pay them 10% interest annually thereafter.

Ten years later, all principal and interest will be repaid in full.

The second option is to invest in and acquire shares.

This official allowed them to invest their assets in the Tianjin Shipyard, and to jointly hold shares with the imperial court according to their investment.

Furthermore, starting next year, ships built by the Tianjin Shipyard will no longer be supplied to the imperial court or the navy free of charge, but will be sold to the imperial court and the public.

At that time, the profits earned will be distributed annually to all shareholders according to their shareholdings.

Commerce was already quite developed in this era, and many private merchants would partner up to do business.

Therefore, most businessmen understand the concept of dividing shares and distributing dividends based on shares in such a simple way.

As expected, Zhou Yanru frowned upon hearing Jia Lian's words, clearly pondering the pros and cons and the gains and losses involved.

Jia Lian did not urge him.

Emperor Ningkang reduced his financial support for him because he was short of money, but at the same time, he also gave him enough autonomy.

It can be said that as long as he didn't ask for money, Emperor Ningkang would agree to any policy support he proposed that wasn't excessive.

After a while, Zhou Yanru looked up and said, "It is our duty to invest funds to support the construction and development of our dynasty's navy."

I am merely curious, why did Duke Rong set a ten-year limit?

Jia Lian said calmly, "Ten years from now, the imperial court will certainly not be short of money, and there will be no need to borrow funds from the people at such high interest rates."

Zhou Yanru clicked his tongue in amazement.

He said that the annual interest rate of 10% was too high. For example, if he invested one million now, it would not only double in ten years, but if the investment period was indefinite, his one million taels would generate 100,000 taels of pure interest every year.

As long as the imperial court does not fall, wouldn't that guarantee wealth and honor for generations to come?
After thinking for a moment, he stood up and said, "Reporting to Lord Rong, my family has been in the salt business for three generations and we have accumulated some wealth."

If what Lord Rong says is true, I am willing to invest 500,000 taels of silver in the Tianjin Shipyard to support the development of the Imperial Navy!

Zhou Yanru made the decision to invest so easily not for the sake of making money, but for the sake of Jia Lian.

To be honest, his purpose in coming to the capital was to see if he could switch allegiances and join the Third Prince's faction.

Like everyone else, he believed that if the Crown Prince died, the Third Prince would surely ascend to the throne.

However, after arriving in the capital, he discovered that the Third Prince had been imprisoned by the Emperor in his palace.

In his surprise and doubt, he inquired carefully and learned some secrets, which immediately made him break out in a cold sweat.

Having learned his lesson, he dared not place bets carelessly again.

During this time, he also learned a lot about Jia Lian, including that he was the grandson of the retired emperor and a participant in the Iron Net Mountain Incident.

It just so happened that he had some "friendship" with Jia Lian, which is why he came to visit with generous gifts.

Now that Jia Lian has brought this up, he obviously has something to ask for, so he is naturally willing to show some attitude.

and……

Jia Lian was slightly surprised that Zhou Yanru agreed so readily and said, "Oh, are you sure it's an investment and not a loan? You know, most of the merchants in Tianjin choose to lend money to the imperial court."

Zhou Yanru smiled and said, "I trust the court, but I trust Rong Gong even more."

Jia Lian said nothing more. In an era when the wealthy preferred to bury their silver underground, and depositing money in banks usually yielded no interest and even incurred storage fees, a simple interest rate of ten percent per year was indeed very high.

But this was nothing more than spending a fortune to buy a horse's bones.

The biggest problem with the imperial court lending money to merchants was the issue of trust.

After all, merchants are in a weak position. If the court cheats or reneges on its promises, merchants will suffer in silence and lose everything.

This is also why many businessmen are hesitant to lend money to the government.

Jia Lian wanted to change this situation.

As long as he pays interest on time and in the future, and gains the trust of the merchants, then when he does other things in the future, a large number of merchants will rush to invest.

"In addition, I have a request."

"Oh? You said."

Zhou Yanru's expression became serious and cautious: "After all, I am the head of the Yangzhou Salt Guild, and my family's foundation is all in Jiangnan."

However, after hearing Rong Gong's words, I felt that there were huge profits to be made overseas in the future.

Therefore, I dare to suggest that, upon returning, I should unite with the major merchants of Jiangnan to build a shipyard similar to the Tianjin Shipyard in the south..."

Jia Lian smiled and said, "If you can accomplish this, it will be a good thing for both the imperial court and the entire Great Wei."

Zhou Yanru breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said, "In that case, I wonder if Lord Rong would allow me to send someone to the Tianjin Shipyard to learn some shipbuilding techniques and technologies?"

As if afraid that Jia Lian would misunderstand, he continued, "After all, I also want to do my part for the court, and I also hope that our shipyard will have the ability to build ships for the court."

In this way, if the court needs us in the future, we can serve the court.

Jia Lian waved his hand to interrupt Zhou Yanru's explanation and said directly, "Of course it's possible."

As he said in the Southern Study, one person's strength is ultimately limited.

No matter how powerful he is, it's impossible for him to make the naval power of the Great Wei Dynasty so strong that it becomes invincible in a short period of time.

If Zhou Yanru were to set an example and attract a large amount of private capital to participate in this endeavor, the time required would be greatly shortened.

His future goal must be to enter the central leadership and take charge of the overall situation; it's impossible for him to keep fighting on the front line forever.

"Not only will I allow you to take people to the Tianjin Shipyard to inspect the technology, but I can also take the initiative to donate some ordinary warship construction technology to you free of charge."

If you wish, I can even write a petition on your behalf to gain the support of the imperial court, so that you can legitimately build large warships in the name of the court in the future.

However, you should also be prepared that the imperial court will definitely invest in the matter.

Zhou Yanru was overjoyed and immediately bowed, saying, "In that case, thank you very much, Lord Rong."

He started wanting to build a shipyard simply because he heard Jia Lian say that the sea ban would definitely be lifted in the future.

He sensed a huge business opportunity in it.

After the seas open, a large number of merchants will inevitably go out to sea to make a profit.

If you want to go to sea, you must have a large ship that can withstand the wind and waves.

By making plans in advance, he can make a fortune just from selling ships!
But he also knew that things were not peaceful overseas.

They cannot rely entirely on the protection of the imperial court; they must have their own maritime self-defense force.

Therefore, even if it is not possible to build large warships like those of the imperial court, some smaller warships must still be equipped in merchant fleets going out to sea.

Now that Jia Lian is willing to step forward and get official endorsement, he is even more confident in recruiting others to join him.

As for the imperial court investing, he would be more than happy to accept it as long as it wasn't too excessive.

In that way, he could legitimately build large warships and wouldn't even need to risk going to sea anymore; he could simply sell ships at home and reap enough profits after the seas opened up.

After discussing the relevant matters for half an hour, seeing that Jia Lian looked tired, Zhou Yanru finally agreed on a date to go to Tianjin and then got up to take his leave.

(End of this chapter)