The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 98: There will be land and capital! (Chapter )
"Long-lasting wealth? Your Highness, are you planning to give our brothers in the Tiandihui hereditary positions and rewards?"

Jiao Hong took up Luo Yaoguo's question with an expectant look on his face.

Luo Yaoguo smiled but did not answer. He just cast his eyes on a fat middle-aged man sitting there: "Ruxiao, tell me, what kind of business is the most profitable in the world today?"

This middle-aged man named "Ruxiao" was originally a white paper fan in Guangyi Hall, that is, a subordinate of Su Sanniang. His surname was Wu, and his name was Wu Ruxiao. In addition to being a white paper fan in Guangyi Hall, he was also an accountant in Tongfuhang, one of the Thirteen Hongs. Because Tongfuhang was closed down, he ran to Guangxi to rebel with the big sister Su Sanniang.

Although he had started a promising career as a rebel, Wu Ruxiao had not forgotten his original profession. He certainly knew the best way to make money in today's world.

"Of course it's trade!" Wu Ruxiao gave the answer without thinking, "Think about the Thirteen Hongs in Guangzhou back then. Every owner was very wealthy. A few million taels of silver was nothing to them. There were also many people with assets worth tens of millions of taels of silver!"

As he spoke, Accountant Wu's face was full of envy.

"That's in the past. All the Thirteen Hongs are now closed down!"

Immediately, a big shot from the Tiandihui pointed out that what Wu Ruxiao said was not true.

Wu Ruxiao smiled bitterly and said, "That's because after the opening of the five ports to trade, foreigners no longer have to go through the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou to buy our silk and tea, but can purchase directly from Shanghai at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Silk and tea produced in the south of the Yangtze River can be transported directly to Shanghai via the Yangtze River, Wusong River, and the Grand Canal, and then loaded onto foreign ships and shipped out to sea. There is no need for the Thirteen Hongs to take a cut of the profits. How can the Thirteen Hongs' business not be frivolous? But this does not mean that there is no profit in foreign trade! "

Luo Yaoguo nodded and smiled, "Yes, Ruxiao is right. The reason why the Thirteen Hongs went bankrupt is not because trade is difficult, but because they can't control the source of silk. The best silk is produced in Jiangnan, around Taihu Lake, called Lake Silk. How convenient is it for Lake Silk to go to Shanghai by water? How difficult is it to go to Guangzhou? In the past, when there was only one port for trade, foreigners could only purchase goods in Guangzhou, which made the idiots in the Thirteen Hongs make a lot of money.

Now that Shanghai has opened a port, foreigners are going there to buy goods. What else is the Thirteen Hong doing? Of course it went bankrupt!

Ruxiao, tell me, if we can take over Huzhou and Shanghai, and control the production area and ports of Huzhou silk, and we replace the Thirteen Hongs and the foreigners in the Huzhou silk business, will there be any profit?"

"Of course there is!" Wu Ruxiao said with a smile, "We can make more money than the Thirteenth Line!"

"More than Thirteen Lines?" Su Sanniang blinked. "Why do you think so?"

Wu Ruxiao laughed and said, "The Thirteen Hongs had to travel thousands of miles to get the goods from Jiangnan to Guangzhou. How much did it cost along the way? Moreover, the Thirteen Hongs only did imports and exports, and they just sat in Guangzhou waiting for the business to come to them. They didn't go out to sea to find customers or sources of goods, nor did they run a business in Guangzhou, and they made all the money that the foreign visitors spent on food, drink and entertainment."

"There's more!" Luo Yaoguo added, "The Thirteen Hongs don't know how to improve their products or develop new ones, so their business is getting smaller and smaller. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, China still had porcelain, tea, silk, and sugar, four major export products that made money. But now only silk is still selling, and tea is gradually becoming difficult to sell.

Moreover, there are people competing with us for the remaining silk!

To be honest, the Thirteen Hongs are not very smart in their business! When we take over Huzhou and Shanghai, we can’t be so stupid. We must make Huzhou silk better and better, develop the Shanghai market, and punish the Japanese silk that is competing with us for business!
If we kill the Japanese silk, we will be the only one in the market and have the pricing power. With the pricing power, we can ensure that we can make millions of dollars a year! Only by following our brothers in the Tiandihui can we have a good life and drink spicy drinks. Do you think this angel's business philosophy is good?"

This Luo Tianshi not only knows the Bible and the Anti-Bible, but also the Business Sutra!
Isn’t delivering food also a business?
Isn’t it that the platform can make money because it has the power to set prices after squeezing out its competitors? Can it suppress merchants and couriers?

The reason why China's industrialization path was particularly difficult after the late Qing Dynasty was that, in addition to the sharp internal contradictions between people and land and repeated "explosions", there was no flagship product that could earn large amounts of foreign exchange.

China's porcelain was not as good as Europe's, its tea business was taken away by India, and its white sugar was also defeated by industrial sugar production. The only thing it had was Hu silk, which was also fiercely competed with by Japanese silk. First, it lost its pricing power for silk - it could not sell at a high price. Then, Japanese silk took away all the foreign trade market, and it could not sell at all.

Finally, due to the continuous payment of indemnities and the trade deficit, silver continued to flow out of China, and the price of silver gradually collapsed. The exchange rate with gold fell from more than ten to one, all the way to dozens to one or even lower - this is equivalent to washing away the accumulation brought by China's hundreds of years of trade surplus. Without the foreign trade surplus, there would be no hundreds of years of accumulation, and the most important "capital" of capitalism would be gone.

Without "capital", it would be very difficult to achieve industrialization!

If we want to seize more capital necessary for industrialization, we must control the production area and export ports of Hu silk.

The people who could help Luo Yaoguo accomplish these two great tasks were none other than the members of the "Green and Red Gangs".

Poor peasants like Wang Yan and Zhu Ba who had risen from poverty could not do this, as they belonged to the lower class in rural areas. In the late Qing Dynasty, the industrial and commercial transportation industries were actually controlled by gangsters such as the "Qinghong Gang".

The Tiandihui is the "Red Gang" in the "Green Gang", also known as the Hongmen. The "Green Gang" is also known as the Cao Gang, which is a major force entrenched along the Grand Canal and controlled the canal's water transportation.

"Great!" Guangyi Hall's white paper fan Wu Ruxiao had already helped cheer, "Not to mention how lucrative the export of Hu silk is, just Suzhou, Huzhou, Songjiang and other places are already extremely rich. In the Ming Dynasty, it was said that Suzhou and Songjiang controlled half of the world! If we can seize Suzhou, Huzhou, Songjiang, and then control the Shanghai port and the Hu silk trade, we will be rich!"

"Not only will I be rich," Luo Yaoguo said with a smile, "I can also arrange many tasks for you! There are five prefectures and one state in that area, including Songjiang Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, Huzhou Prefecture, Jiaxing Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, and Taicang Prefecture. Shanghai is also a port, so there is a lot of room for development. We can set up a customs office and an office for foreign exchanges there, and we can also rely on the financial resources of these five prefectures and one state to set up a navy. With a navy, we can also take Taiwan Prefecture and the Ryukyu Kingdom by water.

In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can also send ministers and consuls to foreign countries, and the God Worshipping Society can also rely on the port of Shanghai to send branches to Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea. How many assignments can be assigned?

Although you all have hereditary positions in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this position is actually a title. If you are not assigned, you will only have to earn a few hundred taels of silver a year to support yourself. How can you be as happy as controlling six prefectures, a state, and a country, managing diplomacy, running the navy, and spreading the worship of God?"

Luo Yaoguo's pie was so big and beautiful that he almost portrayed himself as the "Angel of Westernization" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Minister of Commerce in Nanyang.

"Your Highness," Jiao Hong, the leader of the Tiandihui in Hunan, asked, "What can we give to our brothers right now? There are still many miners in Chenzhou who want to join us. Also, when can these six prefectures, one state, and one country, both diplomacy and navy, be realized?"

Su Sanniang took over the topic and said with a smile: "It is definitely meaningless to distribute land to the brothers of the Tiandihui in Hunan. After joining the Tiandihui, who would want to go back to farming? How about issuing everyone a Shanghai Shangshi real estate certificate and giving each person half an acre of residential land first?"

Wu Ruxiao nodded: "Although Shanghai has just developed, its future prospects are no less than Guangzhou! If you have half an acre of residential land near the Tianzi Wharf in Guangzhou, it is better than owning dozens of acres of fertile land in the countryside!"

Jiao Hong, Xu Yuegui, Xu Xianggui and other leaders of the Tiandihui had all seen the world and knew that the rent of a few dozen acres of land in the countryside would at most be a few dozen taels a year. There was a small shop near the Tianzi Wharf in Guangzhou, which could easily earn a few dozen taels a year.

Moreover, if you have some rental properties in Guangzhou and Shanghai, you don’t need much energy to manage them. You can still work there and earn another source of income. It’s great!

But, this is still just empty talk!
Seeing that Jiao Hong, Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui were silent, Luo Yaoguo smiled and held up three fingers: "Brothers who participated in the battle of Daozhou will be rewarded with three taels of silver each. This money can be distributed today!
As for the brothers who will join us in Chenzhou and Changsha in the future, give them this amount! If you want more, I can’t give it to you.

As for the hereditary official positions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the houses in Shanghai, and the jobs in the southeast, we will calculate them later. I swear to the God of Heaven that everyone will have a share. How do you think? "

There are both current benefits and promises for the future, and the oaths are full of sincerity!
"That's good!" Jiao Hong said with a satisfied smile, "With your words, I and the brothers below can explain it."

Xu Yuegui also smiled and said, "The big guys in Chenzhou and Changsha, Brother Jiao and I have something to say, Your Highness Angel, when will you march to Chenzhou and Changsha? We can mobilize the brothers of the Tiandihui to act as internal support!"

Luo Yaoguo said in a deep voice: "In two months, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's upper army will be fully assembled and ready to go!"

(End of this chapter)