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Chapter 1030 – 1026【China’S “India Company”】

Chapter 1030 1026【China’s “India Company”】

Tin-zinc alloy is used to weld cans. Naturally, some people thought of inventing white iron, that is, galvanized iron.

Maybe one day in the future, copper cans will be replaced by tin cans.

But that’s a later story. Let’s pull the timeline of this book back to before Jiang Liu developed copper cans. At this moment, Zhao Han returned to the Forbidden City after finishing the five-day autumn hunting.

Zheng Sen, the left chief minister of Guangdong, suddenly sent a secret letter: In Guangzhou, a private stock exchange has appeared!

The big coastal merchants are not short of money, and even have too much silver.

Due to the inability to buy land freely and inflation, wealthy businessmen are unwilling to depreciate their silver in the cellar. The most common way is to open money houses, pawnshops, etc., which are allowed by the imperial court. There are also some businessmen who deposit their silver in banks or banks to earn interest.

But there are also some ruthless characters, relying on their wealth and strength, to start playing mergers and monopolies.

They often use their hometown as a link to form a fellow country chamber of commerce for maritime trade. A few or more than a dozen large companies in a province jointly manipulate the market, forcing their counterparts in the same province to go bankrupt, and take the opportunity to brandish banknotes for mergers.

Or making troubles overseas, such as a number of business firms teaming up to bribe the Sultan of Brunei to jointly obtain the right to purchase spices across Brunei. The rest of the maritime merchants are all excluded, and there are often weak maritime trading companies that are forced to go bankrupt due to various reasons.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance, and so is business competition.

A Chenghai businessman named Huang Qichong secretly contacted 18 small and medium-sized maritime merchants in Guangdong to form a business alliance in Guangzhou…

a year ago.

A certain theater in Guangzhou was taken over, and the actors were driven away after only two plays were sung.

Huang Qichong stepped onto the stage by himself, and said impassionedly: “My colleagues, those big trading companies are too deceitful. They drive up the supply prices of the land merchants, so that the land merchants sell their goods to them. They have plenty of money, even if the goods are backlogged in the warehouse, they would rather Losing money will also overwhelm us! They are still in Coconut City and Palembang, lowering the shipping price at will, so that foreign businessmen buy their things. Everyone here, do you often run out of stock? Do you send the goods out, but Rotten in Coconut City, Palembang can’t get rid of it?”

As soon as this remark was made, more than a dozen maritime merchants felt the same way.

“Who says no? I have four ships under my name, but I only bought goods for three ships last year. The remaining ship is vacant for a year, and ordinary sailors can be temporarily dismissed. But sailors and senior bosuns can’t be changed. Even if they don’t run the ship, they have to be well supported. No matter where the empty ship is parked, there is a berthing fee. The maintenance of the ship also requires money. How can our small business be delayed? rise?”

“My five boats are all full. But half of them are cotton cloth, and now only cotton cloth is not out of stock. But after transporting to Coconut City, there are too many cotton cloths sold there, and the price is pressed down by foreign merchants. !”

“I used to receive goods in Siam, but those **** big trading companies paid off Siam officials. They were some kind of Greeks who were in charge of Siam’s sea trade business. They have colluded with officials and businessmen and have manipulated several commodities. Ordinary merchants can’t even buy it.”

“Ji Mie (Cambodia) is similar, with dozens of local products, more than half of which are controlled by big trading companies.”

“…”

The stage was humming, humming, chattering indignantly.

Huang Qichong stood on the stage and waited for the scene to calm down before continuing: “Marine business today is not as easy as it used to be. We small maritime merchants can no longer fight alone, we have to stick together to have a way out.”

A sea merchant named Chen Fujun said: “What can Boss Huang do?”

Huang Qichong stated: “I often come into contact with the Dutch and the British. They are all employees of the East India Trading Company. These two East India Trading Companies are both formed by joint ventures of many businessmen. Why can’t we form a partnership?”

“When you do business in partnership, you have to set a good charter,” said another sea merchant named Tao Chengbi. “In recent years, there have been many joint-stock trading companies that have done well in business, but when they were confused, they broke up and went to the government to fight bullshit. .”

Huang Qichong said: “The charter must be determined. According to the number of shares, each company will send representatives to form a meeting. What rules to change and what decisions to make need to be discussed at the meeting. The big shopkeeper, accountant, manager, etc. are also discussed by the meeting. will be voted on.”

“We hold a general meeting of shareholders every three years, and the board of directors is also voted by the general meeting of shareholders. Whoever does not do well will be replaced. Part of the annual profit will be used for dividends, and part of it will be put in the business company to strengthen its power.”

“The ships, stores, and personnel of all trading companies will be managed in a unified manner after the joint stock. Anyone who has an objection can raise it at the general meeting of shareholders. Once the general meeting of shareholders and the meeting pass, no one can change their minds, nor can they arbitrarily install cronies.”

“All of us are losing money, and we can’t afford much money. We can learn from the Dutch and issue stocks to the people. Those ordinary people who have spare money in their hands will always have a few courageous people who will take risks to buy our stocks. One tael for you, two taels for him, the accumulation of small amount becomes more, that is tens of thousands of taels of silver…”

Maritime merchants nodded repeatedly, and another person asked: “Our difficulty now is that it is not easy to receive goods in China, and it is difficult to sell goods overseas. Can these problems be solved after the joint venture?”

“It can’t be solved, but it can be bypassed,” Huang Qi said with a confident smile, “I would like to ask everyone, what is the most indispensable commodity now?”

“Cotton, of course!”

Everyone answered with one voice.

Huang Qichong clapped his hands and said: “Then we are mainly engaged in the cotton cloth trade! The cotton cloth business is highly competitive in the east of Malacca, and we can ship it directly to India. I have already inquired about it. Cotton cloth is very easy to sell in India. We sell it in Palembang, The lower prices in Coconut City were deliberately provoked by those big trading companies. The British, Dutch, Persians, Indians, and Han Chinese in Palembang and Coconut City transshipped cotton cloth to India, but they made a lot of money. Full.”

“When we sell cotton cloth to India, we are competing with those transshipment companies you mentioned,” Chen Fujun asked. “How can we guarantee that we can survive the competition if we are not familiar with the place?”

“Of course cooperate with the Portuguese!”

Huang Qichong said with a smile: “The east coast of India has been occupied by the Netherlands. As long as the Portuguese merchant ships dare to cross the east coast, they will be robbed by the Dutch when they meet them. Nowadays, Portuguese merchant ships almost no longer come here. They can only take India The goods from the west coast are shipped back to Europe. We simply run away and ship the cotton cloth to the west coast, sell some to Indian land merchants, and sell some to Portugal for shipment back to Europe.”

“It’s too far away.” Everyone was quite worried.

They are all small sea merchants with only a few ships, some even have only one ship. Even on the east coast of India, they feel that it is too risky to go too far, let alone go to the west coast for trade.

Huang Qichong said: “This is the benefit of partnerships. In the past, we didn’t dare to go too far, because we couldn’t afford it in case the ship sank. In the future, we will do business together. There will be dozens of sea-going ships, and a few will sink in a storm.” I can hold it too.”

“In addition, our joint-stock trading company can also go to the Americas to do business. Two-thirds of the ships go to India, and one-third of the ships go to the Americas. The main business is cotton cloth, and it also deals in other goods. I have also inquired about American trade, Li Mister has been running for many years and only sank one boat, so it is not as dangerous as we thought.”

“My colleagues, if you are willing to join forces, please stand on the stage. Let’s sing a good show and show it to those big trading companies!”

A few sea merchants walked onto the stage without thinking too much.

The rest were hesitant, but most of them agreed in the end. Only one sea merchant quietly quit the theater.

Including Huang Qichong, there are exactly 18 shareholders, and they named it “India Trading Company”.

It took them two months to integrate the original funds, ships, goods, manpower, and shops. Organized more than 30 sea-going ships, sailed away from Guangzhou, stopped for supplies along the way, and crossed the Strait of Malacca to India.

Among the fleet, 60% of the cargo is cotton.

The production of cotton cloth is too large, no one can control the market, as long as you want to buy it, you can definitely buy it. Another 20% are iron products. Guangzhou is backed by Foshan, using steam engines to smelt, and the steel output is huge, so there is no need to worry about the supply of goods.

They rounded the southernmost tip of India and sailed to the Portuguese port of Cochin.

Because the Netherlands blocked the waterway, the Portuguese in Cochin Port could only buy Chinese goods through Indian merchants. And Indian merchants buy and transship goods in Yecheng and Palembang, where the goods are sold by merchants from Guangdong. In the middle of handover, entering and leaving the port, loading and unloading, the cost increases rapidly.

Huang Qichong’s “India Business Company” now opens a direct route, which makes the Portuguese very happy.

The Port of Cochin could not hold dozens of shipments of goods, so they continued to go north, and finally sold out all the goods in Goa.

In addition to selling to the Portuguese, they also sold a lot to the Indians.

There is the territory of the rebel Sivaji, whose strength has expanded rapidly in recent years, and he is fighting against Mughal and Bijapur at the same time.

Hearing that the Chinese brought in a large amount of goods, Sivaji personally met them and asked, “Can you get guns and cannons? As long as it is firearms, I will buy as much as you bring. If there is not enough gold and silver, I will exchange goods. “

The person in charge of this trade is Chen Shichun, with a look of embarrassment: “Unfortunately, muskets and cannons are contraband in China.”

Sivaji was rather disappointed, and asked again: “What about the sword and armor?”

Chen Shichun said: “The trade of swords and armor needs to be reported to the government, and a small amount can be shipped to India.”

The Datong court strictly prohibited the private manufacture, transportation, and sale of firearms, but the management of swords and armor was less strict.

First of all, the standard weapons and armor of the Datong Army are absolutely prohibited among the people. Even when farmers and soldiers practice, they can only use approximate substitutes.

Secondly, the manufacture and sales of scribe swords, leather armor, etc. can be opened.

Third, cotton armor, iron armor, crossbows, and some powerful swords can apply to the government for manufacturing, transportation, and sales. Moreover, it is divided into north and south, and the north is explicitly prohibited to prevent the flow of soldiers to the grassland. The South can apply to ship overseas, but there are regulations on the quantity, and every shipment must be reported, and the end of illegal trade will be miserable.

Sivaji took out a machete: “Can this kind of knife be customized?”

Chen Shichun nodded and said, “Yes, but only three hundred can be shipped every year. No matter how many there are, I’m afraid we won’t be able to go to sea.”

“Only three hundred?” Sivaji thought it was too little.

Chen Shichun glanced at Shivaji’s soldiers, and found that a few soldiers were still wearing leather armor. He immediately had an idea: “That kind of leather armor can be sold open, and there will also be a breastplate on the chest. The tip of the spear , sell you 3,000 sticks every year.”

“Great!” Sivaji was overjoyed.

Chen Shichun said: “I need cotton.”

Sivaji said: “I will sell all the cotton in my field to you in the future, as long as you can provide me with armor!”

One-third of Sivaji’s territory belongs to the cotton-producing area, and it is the highest-quality cotton-producing area in India.

(Thank you Wangyunshan for your reward.)

(end of this chapter)