A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

Chapter 195: Where is the Sugar Industry Heading?
soon.

When Chen Guangliang started to study "Huaxia Sugar Industry", in addition to consulting various materials, he also consulted Yu Qiaqing, Fang Jiaobo, Zhang Yuanji and other shareholders of the former "National Sugar Company".

The "National Sugar Company" was a sugar refinery established in Shanghai in 1924. At that time, the total investment exceeded 240 million oceans. However, after only two years, it collapsed due to various reasons such as the siege of foreign sugar companies and the disagreements among many shareholders.

The company's core founder, Ma Yushan, also declared bankruptcy. He traveled to Southeast Asia to try to regroup and rebuild. He traveled extensively in mainland China and abroad to raise funds, but tragically died of illness while traveling there in October 1929. Ma Yushan's failure was not only a personal tragedy for him, but also a tragedy for Chinese industry.

After summarizing the reasons for the failure of the "National Sugar Company", Chen Guangliang came to the Oriental Newspaper.

He went straight to his office, picked up his pen and began to write:

Where is China's sugar industry headed?
"In 1929, the total import value of foreign sugar was 1 million yuan, accounting for 13% of annual revenue. In 1930, the world economy was in the Great Depression. Yangtang continued to increase imports by dumping. What should China's sugar industry do?"

“工业生产白糖有三个优点：1、榨出糖汁高达92%。2、以二氧化硫熏制漂白，砂糖如雪。3、结晶时间只有2到4天。”

“Now, it is a crisis but also an opportunity.”

"If Huaxia Sugar wants to compete with Yangtang, it needs to do three things."

"First, we should control our own tariffs, increase the tax rate on imports from Yangtang, and protect the competitiveness of the local sugar industry."

"Secondly, we need to address the raw material issue. Sugar production relies on sugarcane and sugar beets. To address this raw material issue, Europe and the US opted for sugar beets as a substitute. However, the Guangdong and Guangxi regions of China are located in the subtropics, sharing a climate similar to Southeast Asia. We can import high-quality sugarcane varieties from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia and cultivate them extensively. This crop is far more valuable than grain."

"Third, introduce modern machinery to improve production efficiency. During the global economic recession, some sugar companies were on the verge of bankruptcy due to a lack of orders. Some sugar machinery and equipment factories were also in urgent need of orders. Whoever had better, cheaper, and newer equipment had a chance to win the bid. This was Huaxia Sugar's opportunity."

"If the above three points are achieved, Huaxia Sugar Industry can become self-reliant within three years. Of course, Huaxia Sugar Industry looks to Guangzhou."

Chen Guangliang was very satisfied after writing an article of several thousand words.

Although it is just talk, this is definitely the only chance for China's sugar industry to rise.

If there were no railway between Shanghai and Guangzhou, and it could only be transported by sea, which would take five days, Chen Guangliang might have made the trip in person.

That’s right, he doesn’t necessarily have to invest his own money!
Guangdong Province was the territory of warlord Chen Jitang. Although he governed Guangdong Province for eight years and received mostly positive reviews, he was still a warlord after all.

If Chen Guangliang rashly invests millions of dollars, he might end up doing harm to others, so he doesn't want to gamble.

But it concerns the development of China's sugar industry, and Yangtang "earns" hundreds of millions of dollars from the country every year. As a Chinese, how can he remain indifferent?

After a while.

General Manager Huang Chunsun, Editor-in-Chief Zhang Jinglu, and Chief Editor Feng Ziming all came to his office.

"Please help me publish this article on the main pages of Oriental Daily and Capital."

Zhang Jinglu quickly and happily took the article. Their boss was very capable, and the chief writer in the business field had the largest audience.

After picking up the article, Zhang Jinglu couldn't help but take a sneak peek.

Chen Guangliang and Huang Chunsun discussed newspaper matters: "I want to publish the Oriental Daily News in Hong Kong. What do you think?"

Currently, Oriental Daily operates locally in six cities: Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing, Chongqing, and Guangzhou. National and international content continues to be distributed via wire services and telegrams. However, Oriental Daily has always prioritized local news, and therefore maintains a strong presence in all six cities.

Now, it’s time to add Hong Kong, making it a seven-city issuance.

Huang Chunsun immediately said, "Hong Kong has strong local newspaper competition, but local newspaper management is relatively lax. Hong Kong's market importance isn't as significant as that of mainland cities, after all. Why not wait and see?"

Hong Kong, at this time, is still just a rural area, unworthy of Shanghai. Whether it's HSBC or major hotel groups, they all prioritize Shanghai over their business. Shanghai, on the other hand, is now truly comparable to London and New York.

Chen Guangliang said: "There is no need to wait. Hong Kong is strategically important and can be developed slowly."

"Okay, I'll arrange it!"

For many industries, Chen Guangliang would consider arranging the "transfer" in advance.

"Boss, the Nanjing government should use your article as a reference document. You don't know that the Nanjing government was deeply shocked and helpless about the Yangtang import incident last year." Zhang Jinglu said excitedly.

Later, Feng Ziming and Huang Chunsun followed suit.

Chen Guangliang said, "It's just empty talk. This matter involves local warlords, and I don't know if there is any chance."

Zhang Jinglu immediately asked, "Boss, are you talking about Chen Jitang?"

Chen Guangliang nodded and said, "He may be the real helmsman of Guangdong Province because he has his own troops. How can the provincial chairman Chen Mingshu defeat him?"

Zhang Jinglu sighed, "The warlords' chaos is arguably the greatest obstacle to the rise of the Chinese nation."

Afterwards, the three of them were very excited and walked out of the office with Chen Guangliang's article.

No matter what, the future of China Sugar Industry has been found!
In fact, Chen Guangliang had considered investing three or four million dollars to take a gamble in Guangzhou. After all, Chen Jitang was considered an expert in economic management. But Chen Guangliang also considered the many difficulties involved:

First, if he made money in Guangdong Province, Chen Jitang would be jealous. At that time, taking a share of the pie would be the least of his worries, and it would not be impossible for him to take everything away from him.

Second, Chen Guangliang has no children yet and doesn’t want to travel around frequently. After all, traveling is risky.

Just these two points made Chen Guangliang decide to throw out some ideas first and see if there is any chance!
The current sales volume of Oriental Daily has exceeded 100,000 copies, and it is still the third largest newspaper. Its readers are mostly business people, and it is mainly attracted by its authoritative current affairs news and business economics.

The latest issue of Oriental Daily immediately attracted a lot of attention.

Tang Yulu hurried into Song Ziwen's office and said, "Minister, please read this article!"

As a master of economics from Harvard University, he saw the importance of this article at a glance.

Song Zaiwen knew that Tang Yulou, as his confidential secretary, knew that he was very busy every day and would not let him read the newspaper right away for no reason.

So Song Zaiwen didn't waste any time and started reading directly.

Song Zaiwen then said happily: "Great! If this is feasible, the country won't have to spend a huge amount of money."

Tang Yulu nodded and said, "More than that. In the past three years, you have reclaimed tariff autonomy through negotiations, giving China the right to determine tariff rates and supervise taxation. This is the right time. Guangdong and Guangxi are subtropical, allowing us to import high-quality sugarcane from Southeast Asia. This is the right place. The world economic depression, although there is dumping of sugarcane from Yangtang, has also led to the import of better and cheaper sugar-making equipment. This is the right people. With the right time, place, and people, China's sugar-making prospects are promising for regaining the market."

His words not only showed his appreciation for Chen Guangliang's article, but also his admiration for Song Zaiwen. Between 1928 and 1930, Song Zaiwen regained tariff autonomy through negotiations, giving China the right to determine tariff rates and supervise taxation.

In other words, China now has the right to impose high tariffs on Yangtang to protect local industries. In fact, Western countries are also doing this now, imposing high tariffs on foreign products to protect local industries because of the poor economy.

Then, Song Ziwen said solemnly, "Do you know why Chen Guangliang didn't invest himself, but instead generously wrote about it in the newspaper?"

Tang Yulu didn't have to think twice before speaking clearly, "Chen Guangliang is a businessman. Logically, given such a positive reaction, he should have invested in it himself. He's writing this out so generously, apparently hoping that Guangdong officials will adopt his suggestions. Ultimately, he's worried about Guangdong's business environment."

Song Zaiwen nodded and said, "That's right. Otherwise, businessmen chasing profit would never miss such an opportunity. Take this article to the Ministry of Industry and then forward it to the Guangdong Province."

"Ok"

The Ministry of Industry, which was originally the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture and Mining, was merged this year, and the Minister was Kong Xiangxi.

After the article "Where is China's Sugar Industry Going?" was published, former shareholders of the "National Sugar Company" such as Yu Qiaqing, Fang Jiaobo, Zhang Yuanji and others called Chen Guangliang to ask whether he was interested in launching a new sugar-making enterprise and investing in Guangdong Province.

What everyone meant was that if Chen Guangliang was willing to initiate it, they would be willing to invest.

Obviously, everyone sees the huge profits and the possibility of success!
The "National Sugar Company" was not initially initiated by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortium. Its shareholders were very complex, and the founder Ma Yushan was also from Guangdong Province. After several twists and turns, it was controlled by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortium until it finally went bankrupt.

Faced with everyone's encouragement, Chen Guangliang remained unmoved and did not intend to take the initiative to invest.

He is waiting for an opportunity!
In fact, Chen Guangliang’s current career has also reached a bottleneck.

There were no new real estate projects for the time being, and the financial sector had also begun to shrink. Yet, it was precisely these two sectors that generated 90% of his wealth, or tens of millions in "cash flow."

Holding a huge amount of cash is certainly not a good thing, after all, this is a chaotic era.

If you are not careful, you might be targeted.

This is also the reason why Chen Guangliang purchased a total of 400 Chevrolet cars in batches, because he wanted to convert part of the cash into physical assets, but at the same time prevent it from depreciating.

Nowadays, you can no longer buy a Chevrolet car for 5000 yuan, it costs at least 8000 yuan or more.

The US dollar is still rising, and it is expected that a car will be worth more than 10000 US dollars.

In the morning, Chen Guangliang had breakfast at home, then dialed number 40000 and asked them to send a car to pick him up near his home.

In that era, there was no caller ID, and even calls needed to be transferred. Chen Guangliang's usual trick was to use a fake surname. Therefore, the dispatcher of the Yangtze River Taxi did not suspect anything, nor did he actively suspect anything.

Afterwards, Chen Guangliang came to the lane next to Sunshine Home, stood at the intersection waiting for the Changjiang Taxi, and timed himself with his watch.

'Arrival within ten minutes' is Changjiang Taxi's promise to its customers.

To achieve this, Changjiang Taxi already has 15 branches and 220 vehicles.

five minutes later.

The 'blue and white' Changjiang Taxi came in front of Chen Guangliang.

A driver wearing a suit, bow tie and white gloves got out of the car and respectfully came to Chen Guangliang and others.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Wu?"

"Well, take me to the Yangtze River Taxi Head Office."

"Yes, please!"

It is normal that the new driver does not know Chen Guangliang.

Even among the more than 600 employees of Changjiang Taxi, half did not know Chen Guangliang.

The development was so fast. We started preparing for expansion in November last year. In less than ten months, the number of cars increased from 11 to , and the number of employees increased from to more than .

Many drivers are trained by Changjiang Taxi, which pays for them to take driving tests and provides them with various trainings.

Fortunately, cars in this era were very slow, and people were generally very dedicated, so they learned quickly. Of course, becoming a driver wasn't easy either; you had to have at least a few years of private schooling to be able to fill out paperwork and communicate.

Sitting in the back seat, Chen Guangliang observed the public sentiment: "How much do you taxi drivers earn?"

The driver in the front seat was driving very attentively. After hearing this, he said with a well-trained attitude, "It's not bad. It's all thanks to the customers. We get a 10% service fee, and the company also gives us some basic security. So, the more work we do, the more we earn. It's usually not less than fifty dollars."

Today, Changjiang Taxi’s business is not very busy, after all, the fleet was established only recently.

The driver said fifty dollars, but it was real, because Changjiang Taxi now also provides some benefits such as guaranteed minimum wages and full attendance.

At the same time, Changjiang Taxi also provides everyone with various "promotion prospects" - that is, as the business grows, everyone's income will continue to grow.

In this way, everyone is a community of interests tied in the same boat.

All drivers and staff also understand that Changjiang Taxi's business is growing very fast, and it is not inferior to foreign-funded taxis in competition, and has a bright future.

When they arrived at the Yangtze River Taxi Head Office on Fuzhou Road, Lin Feng, who was sitting in the passenger seat, got out of the car and immediately opened the door for Chen Guangliang.

The driver also got out of the car and saw this scene. He said in a well-trained manner: "Boss, take care."

Lin Feng came up to him with a smile and said, "How much is your boss's salary?"

The driver was stunned. He knew this boss was no ordinary person; it turned out to be his boss. Along the way, he cautiously mentioned that a car was following them, and the head bodyguard in the passenger seat didn't seem to care. Now that he thought about it, it was actually his boss secretly checking in. Fortunately, he had been attentive.

“Here’s the bill.”

“The rest is your tip.”

Lin Feng readily gave him an extra yuan and followed him into the head office.

"Oh my god, I really met the boss. This is enough for me to brag about for a while!" The driver muttered after getting in the car.

In their circle of drivers, perhaps they have never seen the boss.

But in Shanghai, who doesn’t know the name of Chen Guangliang?
Perhaps Chen Guangliang is not as powerful as Du Yuesheng and Huang Jinrong, but in terms of fame, Chen Guangliang may be even more famous. A young self-made tycoon is just that famous.

(End of this chapter)