Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 356 Monopoly, Competition

The rent is paid every year, and the food is all in kind. But in the ninth year of Chongzhen, almost half of the land in Huaihe River and Huaihe River was paid in silver. After all, life is important, and few Li Chang Liang Chang dare to abide by the dead rules , Didn’t the landlord stipulate that he had to pay grain?

Every year, Huizhou merchants collect almost all the grain. This year, almost all the grain in Jianghuai was taken away by Shanxi merchants. The shells were given to them. Instead of going down the Yangtze River and entering the dotted towns in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River as in previous years, the food went upstream to Anqing, where they transferred their carriages and went straight along the main line built by the beggar army in the Dabie Mountains. He ~ Nanxin County, from where it entered the northern market.

There are a few key factors here. The first is Song Qingshu, the chief soldier. In order to prevent thieves along the river to the south, food is not allowed to enter, but Song Qingshu is an official army, and he is under observation. Thanks to the efforts of Shangshan merchants, 500 million dans of grain entered the northern market.

Another important factor is the ticket number!
Anhui merchants intentionally delayed grain collection. It was one thing to lower the price of grain. On the other hand, they did need time to raise funds. After all, Yangzhou merchants had money, but the money was rolling in the business. It took time to get it out, and a bag of RMB Dead and dead, let alone silver of precious metals.

But there is money in the bank of Shanxi Merchants, because Song Qingshu insisted that the loan must be mortgaged. The money happened to be invested in the Lianghuai grain market. Together, the profits will be at least two to three million, or even more.

In the past, these were the dishes of Huizhou merchants, and Shanxi merchants could only smell them. This year, it was the turn of Huizhou merchants to pick up the scum.

But money is not so easy to earn, and Song Qingshu ate another piece of the cake. The big businessmen in Yangzhou really went crazy. The memorial of impeaching Song Qingshu for hoarding almost filled half of the cabinet. However, if there is impeachment, there is Song Qingshu Yes, the imperial censor in the north also desperately wrote a letter to impeach those guys in the south as if he didn't want money. And this time, a very powerful boss in the court spoke for Song Qingshu.

Minister of the Ministry of War Yang Sichang!
Although Song Qingshu used his name to bluff and cheat, and even stole his manuscripts, he hated his teeth, but politics is like this, there is food in the north, and Yang Sichang's military plan to be launched next year will undoubtedly be even more powerful, and 20 taels of land reclamation Silver, 20 dans of various types of reclamation grain, will also be transported to the capital along with the big ship of water transport in September. These money and grain will become the main military grain, so Yang Sichang still has to rely on Song Qingshu in many places.

Moreover, Emperor Chongzhen laughed off the news that Song Qingshu was hoarding strange books. He was greedy for money, lustful, and had no ambitions. He also offended southern scholars. Such people are not easy to control.

The impact of the food incident in the ninth year of Chongzhen was not limited to this. In this year, the amount of grain shipped to Jiangnan decreased, and the price of food in Jiangnan suddenly rose a lot. A great family from the south of Shaojiang.

With the development of urbanization, many places cannot be self-sufficient, and food must be purchased. It is funny to say that Spain and Portugal in the New World did not complete the bourgeois revolution because they spent all the wealth in the New World on luxury goods and transferred them to Britain and France. Other countries have completed capital accumulation for them. Spain and Portugal spent a lot of money and failed to accomplish anything. On the contrary, Ming Dynasty did not complete asset accumulation because it was too stingy. Until later generations, Chinese consumption concepts are very different from foreign countries. Saving money, foreigners can't wait to spend tomorrow's money.

After sharing the wealth of the New World, a large part of the silver was buried by the aristocratic family and hoarded in the silver cellar, and did not circulate in the market. Therefore, the silver imports from the Americas decreased, and the huge Jiangnan silk weaving industry, which was originally developed, immediately declined. It is sluggish, and there is money, but there is not enough domestic demand to meet it. Once the export is unfavorable, it will naturally starve to death.

It is very tragic that the silver brought in by these foreigners was taken back by foreigners in a series of tragic war treaties such as the Opium War in history, especially the indemnity of the Sino-Japanese War, which greatly stimulated the development of Japan. The silver buried by the ancestors instead feeds this insatiable enemy.

However, since the Jiangnan grain incident, Song Qingshu began to take out this part of the silver deposits little by little. After all, there are definitely a lot of people in the local aristocratic families. In order to buy food, they can only take out the silver one after another.

Moreover, the lessons of this incident sounded a wake-up call for Huizhou merchants who have always been lazy and lacked business awareness by relying on official and business privileges. They also dug out the buried silver and began to invest in the market. At least September The food was disastrous, and in November of the ninth year of Chongzhen, the first ticket office of Huizhou merchants also opened.

"Hmph, Tairi Tianpiaohao, why isn't he called Wanglaoji?"

Upstairs, holding the information copied by his subordinates, Song Qingshu muttered lazily, while Qu Botao, the shopkeeper next to him, twitched his face and said sadly.

"Boss, you are always in the mood to be happy! Their business has already taken over from us! As soon as the head office of Yangzhou Tairitian opened, the semicolons of Luoyang, Kaifeng, and even Taiyuan and Xi'an also followed suit. , and people don’t say as much as we do, as long as you have enough reputation, you can give loans. This month, the loan business in the north has cooled down a lot. The major shareholders of the Zhang family, the Wang family, and the Cao family are all waiting for your decision. !"

"Make up your mind? What's your mind?"

"Luoyang and other places are our one-acre three-point land! You always give the order, and the big guys will work together, and you can drive them out no matter what!"

"Then let them repeat the old trick and drive out our bank in Jiangnan?"

When Song Qingshu asked back, Qu Botao was speechless when he asked the question. To be honest, the strength of the two major merchant gangs is almost the same. Going on, the two sides fight for money, and in the end, neither of them can make money, and the money is used to support corrupt officials.

"Then, then you can't just watch those Huizhou guys rob business!" After a while, Qu Botao cried out sadly, but Song Qingshu became serious when he heard it.

"You go back and send a letter to our shareholders. How our Shanxi merchants started their business depends on hard work. With this enterprising spirit, in terms of business, we can't even defeat the group of salt merchants who raise pigs in Yangzhou. The decline of the Shang Dynasty will be just around the corner! This time we can’t rely on the court, we have to rely on ourselves! Improve management, innovate ideas, and defeat the Nan Laos! As a human being, you just can’t be too comfortable!”

Qu Botao was dumbfounded again when he said this, and after a while, this Shanxi old Xier suddenly seemed refreshed, and bowed to Song Qingshu.

"Big shopkeeper, be taught!"

Seeing Qu Botao turned his head and was about to leave, Song Qingshu hurriedly stopped him with a smile: "Don't worry, there are countermeasures. I thought about it too. Send people to the Yangzhou Huishang Guild Hall to negotiate. If those salt merchants are willing to open In Wuxi, Ningbo, Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places, even if they open the ticket number to Dai County, we will never use means to compete with them on a fair basis, and we don’t have to worry about drawing money if we have money in our hands, and we can invest if we can’t make loans. , finance can easily turn into a bubble, and only the manufacturing industry is eternal! Now the silk industry in Suzhou is dying, and I plan to invest in it!"

"Tell those stocks that as long as people still need to wear clothes, we will not lose our jobs!"

For an enterprise, having a goal is more important than anything else. Song Qingshu even planned the next step, and Qu Botao immediately became more energetic.

"My boss, don't worry, I'll do it right away!"

After sending away Qu Botao, looking at the bill on the table, Song Qingshu felt even happier. He earned 20 taels of silver from the food payment sent back in advance, and it is estimated that the total of those who came back one after another could be 80 taels. Moreover, this year, because of the coordination of agriculture and overall planning of cultivation, the Yinghuo Mountain District also achieved a bumper harvest, and turned over 20 dans of grain to the imperial court. He also hoarded 100 million dans of various grains in Tiantangzhai, Huaniaozhai, Yingshan, and Qianshan. There is no problem in feeding the soldiers and civilians in this area, and there is still a lot of surplus.

The begging army finally reached the state of food and clothing, and began to live in a well-off life. Song Qingshu couldn't help being unhappy.

Warm and full, wanting to be obscene, very domineering, the president reviewed the things Sun Chuanting and Beibei Scarface sent today. Seeing that it was still early, Song Qingshu couldn't help thinking, Emperor Chongzhen wanted him to be lustful a while ago, he Planning to go out to fight in the field, the car has not shaken yet, and I just have time today, so it's time to appease the three sisters in his family.

Thinking about it, Song Qingshu walked down from the group headquarters office in Yushulou, called Shi Lang to prepare a carriage, and planned to go back to Zijin Mountain, but things seemed to be entangled with him, so he didn't wait to get in the car, and the two big-character posters were posted There was a noise coming from the Yingtian main account of Duobao Bank.

"Nimma, what is this called!"

As the chairman of the board, it's impossible to let him go when he meets him. In desperation, Song Qingshu got out of the car again and strolled over. As soon as he entered, he happened to see the big shopkeeper scolding the young man.

"Employees are not scolded, but encouraged. What's wrong?"

In his previous life, he worked as a salesman for a while, and he was often scolded by the business manager. Sometimes he even took his red envelopes and tricked him into treating guests. Fish eat small fish, and the shopkeeper of the ticket shop, who was still majestic just now, immediately changed a bitter face.

"Boss, the small one is useless, there is a bad debt on the account."

Immediately, he pointed at the unlucky boy with lingering anger: "It's all my useless son. I didn't find out after investigation. The bastard who loaned us money ran away with money. He left a The broken shipyard is not worth a few silver coins, and in the end, those ship craftsmen actually want to pay for our ticket number!"

Shipyard?

This term made Song Qingshu's heart skip a beat...

(End of this chapter)