Zhuang Wenjing sighed inwardly and shook his head, "There are two more friends who will arrive soon, Brother Lu and Brother Gu haven't arrived yet?" ”

This time to intervene in the sea trade, the south of Zhili can only come out of the four or five, compared with the two Zhejiang and Fujian, much inferior, but Fujian and Zhejiang have always been important places for sea trade, coastal maritime merchants are as many as cattle hair, and the south of Zhili is mainly concentrated in Songjiang and Suzhou.

The Gu family is a Suzhou gentry family, and they have not been involved in sea trade in the past, but this time they also want to set foot in sea trade, and they have also attracted a group of small maritime merchants who have taken the initiative to take refuge.

"It's almost, Brother Zhuang, by now, I'm afraid that our families in Nanzhili also need to give up their prejudices, as far as I know, the number of families from Zhejiang and Fujian is more than ten, far beyond our Nanzhili, and the imperial court is afraid that it will not allow too many families, so it is even more difficult to manage,......"

Zhuang Wenjing knew that compared with these old gentry families, his own families were far inferior in terms of connections.

People can casually catch the line of the six Shangshu Shilang, and even go to the cabinet to the princes, and their own group of people have to take care of it even when they see the prefect, this is the gap.

Of course, his own side also has advantages, but at least for now, gentry and noble families with deep backgrounds like the Lu family and the Gu family are not comparable to their own merchant families who are rooted in the sea.

With a pang in his heart, Zhuang Wenjing couldn't care less reserved, "Brother Lu, doesn't it mean that as long as the conditions required by the imperial court are met, no matter how many imperial courts can agree?" It's all about paying the concession fee anyway,......"

"Do you believe that?" Lu Yanchong smiled contemptuously, "If you don't control and restrain it, and hundreds of families come at once, how can the imperial court manage it?" The city has been abandoned for decades, and now that it has been rebuilt, how can there be so many people in the imperial court to manage it? If everyone avoids Ningbo and Quanzhou, and chooses that remote place to trade ashore, how will the sea tax be calculated? The imperial court is still counting on this sea tax mortgage to borrow debts, do you think those salt merchants in Yangzhou are fools? They are all those who don't see rabbits and don't scatter eagles, and they don't know how much sea tax can be collected every year, so they can willingly buy this so-called open sea bond? ”

Before Feng Ziying arrived in Yangzhou, she had already arranged for people to start building momentum.

For example, set the number of merchants participating in maritime trade.

This is also a forced arrangement, if the number is laissez-faire, then the city and the sailor will be much more difficult to supervise, or even difficult to take into account, and this may lead to the evasion of sea taxes, which is directly related to the ability to repay the debt.

Therefore, in the early stage, the number of households can only be limited, and everyone is encouraged to jointly bid, so that the imperial court and the city can only have a large number of households, and if they really want to catch the evaders, they can be severely punished.

Naturally, these large players who have obtained relatively monopoly trade power should also cherish this power, and will do their best to supervise the behavior of other people who intend to evade to ensure that their own interests are not infringed.

For example, a debt will be sold in the name of open sea bonds, and the bonds will have interest, which is also the first time in the world.

In the past, the imperial court did not borrow money from merchants temporarily, but it never said that there was interest.

The court borrowed money from the merchants, that is, it can afford you, even if it is a donation, there is nothing that can be said.

Now the imperial court has turned such temporary loans into more formal-looking loans, issuing them in the name of bonds, setting up the collateral as a sea tax, and paying interest, of course, the interest rate is relatively low, much lower than ordinary private loans.

According to Feng Ziying's assumption, the fixed amount of bonds starts from 10,000 taels, and is divided into five denominations: 5,000 taels, 10,000 taels, 20,000 taels, 50,000 taels, and 100,000 taels.

At the same time, Feng Ziying is also considering that when this kind of bond is less than a year away from maturity and redemption, it can be rigidly redeemed by the future Haitong Yinzhuang.

In other words, this kind of bond, which may be three-year, five-year, or even ten-year, can be redeemed directly in Yinzhuang after two years at the earliest, and of course there will be a discount for payment.

These situations were also spread by Feng Ziying through a variety of channels, such as Wang Wenyan's side, and the imperial court's household department and Zhongshuke's side, and even revealed one or two through the mouth of King Zhongshun.

In the end, Feng Ziying even had some tacit understanding with Emperor Yonglong, and this kind of news was more or less circulated in the palace.

After all, the harem has something to do with the outside world, especially the mothers of some concubines, who are either involved in Shangjia, or have a relationship with Wuxun, and even include concubines who have children.

The number of sea trade concessionaires determines the ability of the imperial court, the amount of sea tax revenue, and the number of open sea bonds.

Lu Yanchong's words made Zhuang Wenjing suddenly realize.

It is no wonder that a large group of small and medium-sized maritime merchants began to join forces, or directly took refuge in gentry like the Lu family who had no experience in maritime trade, which was also forced to be helpless.

If the imperial court determined that only three or five of the southern Zhili could carry out sea trade, then if the other small and medium-sized maritime merchants could not find a way, they could only starve to death.

"Brother Lu, if this is the case, wouldn't there be a lot more places in Fujian and Zhejiang than in our Nanzhili?" Zhuang Wenjing couldn't help but ask.

He also thought of this problem, there are not many big households in Nanzhili that are really engaged in sea trade, but Fujian and Zhejiang are much stronger, which is also the reason why Songjiang has not been considered to be included in the establishment of the Kaihai City Shipping Division.

At this point, even Lu Yanchong was helpless, it was clear that Fujian and Zhejiang were stronger than Nanzhi, and they could only fight on the basis of reason in the negotiations with this Lord Feng.

But then again, as long as you can secure your own place, the fewer people who can squeeze in, the better, so that there will be less pressure in the future competition.

"Look, isn't this Lord Feng summoning us today to talk about these things? The two Guangxi should be listed separately, but our Nanzhili, Fujian and Zhejiang are combined, so we have to give us an explanation, right? ”

Lu Yanchong sighed.

The surname Feng is a Beidi scholar, and the official Yingzhen who is in charge of presiding over the affairs of opening the sea is a native of Huguang, and the imperial court is clearly leaving the Jiangnan scholars aside to prevent bias towards the Jiangnan gentry, which can be described as deliberate.

I don't know what Ye and Fang think about the elders, they actually let this situation go.

A lot of carriages came one after another, and the street itself was lively, next to the two Huai to transport salt to make the Yamen, but today the side courtyard next to it is more lively than the salt transportation next door.

Zhuang Wenjing and Lu Yanchong both greeted the visitors separately, some knew and some didn't, but as long as they introduced themselves, everyone understood.

Nanzhi, Fujian, Zhejiang, from the three provinces directly interested in competing for the maritime trade concessions, this look, there are actually more than 50 people, more than imagined.

Lu Yanchong glanced at it roughly, Nan Zhili alone exceeded his estimate, he thought it was only five or six households, but seven or eight households came, two of which were unexpected, and they should be representatives of some small and medium-sized maritime merchants.

It is estimated that Fujian and Zhejiang are similar, which greatly exceeds the initial expectations.

Feng Ziying didn't care.

Ningbo and Quanzhou two cities, 50 or so households are not much, but we must compress and eliminate some, otherwise this concession is too worthless, and it is not too late to expand the scale of maritime trade after three or five years.

Wang Wenyan did not come forward this time.

There are many people here who know that Wang Wenyan is Lin Ruhai's staff, which is too explicit.

There was no one available under his hands, so he could only put Jia Lian and Duan Xigui to use.

For Jia Lian, this is simply a flying "blessing".

Although he doesn't have much ability, he is also a special person in Jia's family who is otherwise entertained externally, and he has seen a lot of people in the world, and he even has a false title and identity.

Feng Ziying suddenly gave him such an opportunity, which made him like it so much that he didn't sleep well for two or three days.

Even the thoughts that had been indulged in and Gui Rong's pomegranate skirt were much lighter, and he pondered how to do this well all day long.

The people who came were all gentry and giants from Nanzhi, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces, and it can be said that each one has a very strong background and network resources behind it.

Even Jia Lian can be regarded as the queen of the nobles in Beijing, but in front of these people, in terms of financial resources, the difference of thousands of miles, and the background, almost all of them here can climb the officials in Beijing or Nanjing, in comparison, Jia Lian's confidence is not enough at all.

The same is true for Duan Xigui.

In the eyes of others before, he was a hillbilly turtle from Datong, Feng Runxiang's little belongings were changed, and there were still people looking at him elsewhere, but in front of these people, it was not enough at all.

If it weren't for the relationship with his cousin, he wouldn't even be qualified to step into this door.

Seeing that the guests came to the door one after another, Jia Lian and Duan Xigui had already been assigned.

The Jia family is also a veteran family in Jinling, although it is now a branch to Beijing, but Nanzhi is still a little heeled, and the two Zhejiang and Nanzhi have always been the same thing, so the gentry and businessmen of Nanzhi and the two Zhejiang are mainly Jia Lian to receive entertainment, and the visitors from Fujian are mainly Duan Xigui to entertain.

The two of them have also been prepared, and the name post has been prepared for a long time, and when the name post is sent, the two will also take the initiative to respond.

Seeing the endless stream of guests, Ruixiang and a few servants called by the Lin family were busy flying.

Jia Lian and Duan Xigui kept bringing the guests back and forth into the hall specially set aside in the outer courtyard, even if this section of the road was only a few zhang, but everyone had to climb and talk for a while, in just half an hour, the hearts of the two were extremely explosive and full.

There were more and more people in the hall, and most of the chairs in the three rows on the left and right of the hall were already full, and there were still a few seats with their names on them.

It's time to arrive.

Seeing that Jia Lian and Duan Xigui were already standing on both sides of the center chair, the hall suddenly fell silent.

"Cultivator-sama has arrived!"

Ruixiang, who had been practicing for a few days, heard in a suppressed voice, accompanied by a sound of footsteps turning from the back hall, and the cyan figure of the negative hand who was about to decide the future livelihood of everyone present suddenly entered.

Almost subconsciously, everyone in the hall stood up, accompanied by a sparse rattle of chairs and stools, although the voices were different and chaotic, but the formation was awe-inspiring.