In the history of mankind, great deeds can often begin with extremely ordinary, even unmentionable, causes.

Last year, due to the insignificant fifteen cents, Jiangbei once again devoted itself to large-scale overseas trade activities, and unlike the overseas trade carried out spontaneously by the people in the past, this time it was started with the full support of the government.

Even before this, for Zhu Mingzhong, who was the envoy of Jianghuai, he had already made up his mind to engage in this cause, but it was undeniable that it was this insignificant amount of money that further accelerated the steps of Jiangbei to the sea again. It stimulated the recovery of Jiangbei's overseas trade.

At that time, Zheng's five major maritime merchants, namely "gold, wood, water, fire, and earth", monopolized the trade with Japan, because the firearms of the Jiangbei Zhongyi Army led to a rapid increase in the demand for gunpowder, and the production of the arsenal urgently needed a large amount of sulfur, and Jiangbei did not have a sulfur production area, and even in China, the production of sulfur was very limited, and often had to rely on imports from Japan.

At this time, trade with Japan was monopolized by the Zheng family. The Zhengjia firm, which monopolized the sulfur trade, did not give preferential prices in the face of the rapidly increasing orders in Jiangbei. Even because they were the only supplier, they categorically decided to increase the price of sulfur by fifteen cents per catty.

Sulfur is a necessary product for the manufacture of gunpowder, and for Jiangbei, which has already decided to promote firearms, this seemingly worthless fifteen wen will pose a serious threat to Jiangbei's future.

If you can raise the price now, then you can cut off the supply in the future. As long as the supply of sulfur is in the hands of others, it will be a threat to the security of Jiangbei.

In the face of the security threat brought about by such price increases, Zhu Mingzhong resolutely decided to resume Jiangbei's trade with Japan; after visiting several Jiangbei maritime merchants, on 27 October last year, more than 10 Jiangbei businessmen held a meeting in the Shanxi Guild Hall in Qinghe County.

The purpose of the meeting was to establish a maritime traders' chamber of commerce, with an initial capital of 256,000 taels and as many as 29 shareholders to sponsor it. The sole purpose of this chamber of commerce, called the "Qinghe Chamber of Commerce", was to open up shipping routes to Japan and solve the supply of copper and sulfur and other materials.

And in this process, the government will give them full support. Even a warship under construction was directly transferred as the first ocean-going vessel of the Chamber of Commerce.

Three days later, in the morning, Zhu Mingzhong, who was the Jianghuai Economic Envoy, issued the first concession certificate in Chinese history, officially approving the operation of the "Qinghe Chamber of Commerce" and allowing it to trade with Japan and North Korea. A month later, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, just after the New Year, on the day of the traditional "Welcoming God of Wealth", a three-masted schooner "Shunfeng" sailed out of Haizhou Port loaded with various commodities. Twenty-three days later, he arrived at the port of Nagasaki, where he anchored without a seal issued by the shogunate, but they finally arrived in Japan.

Because there was no chartered seal, Liang Tianyou, who was on board, had to carefully communicate with the Japanese officials in Nagasaki. Then, with a lot of twists and turns, he was able to go ashore, and finally, with some of his family's old connections in Nagasaki, Liang Tianyou obtained permission to enter the port to trade.

As the trade representative of Jiangbei, he was given the opportunity to meet with the officials of the shogunate, and that meeting made it worthwhile for him to receive a seal issued by the shogunate, thus gaining the right to trade directly. This meant that Jiangbei broke the Zheng family's monopoly on Japanese trade.

It is also thanks to this that the Chamber of Commerce quickly grabbed huge profits by exporting various commodities such as raw silk and iron to Japan, and exchanged for copper bars and silver ingots from Japan, and met the needs of Jiangbei for sulfur and copper bars. In order to meet the needs of trade, the Chamber of Commerce opened a trading house in Nagasaki. Immediately afterwards, the Chamber of Commerce quickly developed with its monopoly on trade with Japan and Korea. Since then, two ships have arrived in Nagasaki every month, unloading mountains of sugar, raw silk, silk, wax, and cotton on the docks, and leaving the docks laden with copper and silver from Japan. Although Jiangbei no longer relied on Japanese sulfur with the production of Keelung sulfur, the trade with Japan did not stop because of this, but gradually prospered.

Relying on the monopoly on trade, although the scale of Jiangbei's trade with Japan was still inferior to that of the Zheng family, it was because of the government's large purchases, especially the demand for materials such as copper bars. So that there are still endless huge profits from it, coupled with North Korea's timber, iron sand, and golden sand, which also makes the chamber of commerce very profitable. In the summer, the Chamber's ships appeared not only in Korea and Japan, but also on the coast of Annam, such as Hoi An.

"Our goal is to open up as many overseas trade routes as possible!"

As the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Ryazan told the shareholders more than once that with huge overseas profits and trade monopoly, the current Qinghe Chamber of Commerce is expanding day by day.

Fifteen cents!

This is the reason for the founding of the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce. It can be said that it is not worth mentioning, a reason that is negligible. But it was the humble 15 cents that started it all.

As the initiator of all this, in the president's room of the Chamber of Commerce, while lamenting the impermanence of the world, Zhu Mingzhong quietly listened to Ryazan's report,

Perhaps, Ryazan is the president of the Chamber of Commerce, but he is the largest shareholder of the Chamber of Commerce. The Qinghe Chamber of Commerce is not a government-run enterprise, its shareholders are all private, and the vast majority of the initial share capital is provided by him personally.

It is the most basic principle to dilute the official color of the Chamber of Commerce, and only by diluting the official color can they achieve better development, which is an "advanced experience" of European countries in developing colonial companies.

The reason why it is considered "advanced experience" could not be simpler, because businessmen are more greedy. They are more eager for wealth, and the thirst for wealth will die, and they continue to open up outwards and expand the colonial cause, so as to seek as many benefits as possible.

Of course, the reason for doing this, Zhu Mingzhong also has his selfish intentions, in his opinion, this enterprise is his own, no matter how it develops in the future, no matter where he is in the future, it will not affect this "private enterprise" because of other factors.

“…… Compared to Annam, Cochin and other places in Siam produce a lot of rice, and due to its superior geographical environment, a Mekong River runs through the entire territory of Siam, providing abundant water resources for rice cultivation in the country. According to the Chamber of Commerce's merchant ship in Siam, "the country's rice is worth two or three cents per stone", and even in a good year, the mainland costs one or two or two cents, and in case of drought and flood, it rises to one tael, five or six cents, or even more. Because rice is easy to come by, the price of Siamese rice is much lower than in other countries. ”

Now as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Ryazan is no longer as secluded at home as in the past, perhaps now the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce is not famous in Qinghe, but he believes that in a few years at most, the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce will become a chamber of commerce that attracts the attention of the whole country, and the reason for this is not because of the monopoly of the Chamber of Commerce on trade.

As a businessman, he is also greedy, which can be said to be a minimum characteristic of a businessman. He was not satisfied with the current monopoly on trade with Japan and Korea, he also hoped to further develop overseas trade, further expand the southern shipping routes, and, more importantly, obtain trade concessions.

Maybe in the past, he didn't know what a trade concession meant? But now through trade concessions. The Chamber of Commerce has reaped quite a wealth of benefits. That's why he hopes to get more trade concessions. for more lucrative benefits.

"After our calculations, if it is loaded...... 500, tons. Yes, it is a 500-ton schooner transporting Siamese rice, and when the rice arrives in Haizhou or Qinghe, if it is sold to the government for six cents per stone, it can also guarantee the profit of the chamber of commerce, and the government can sell one tael per stone to rice merchants or serve as rice, and with the help of milit, it can make a profit of no less than hundreds of thousands of taels. ”

Even though a long time has passed, Ryazan still does not adapt to the "ton" as a unit of measurement, which is a completely new unit of measurement.

A few months ago, in order to facilitate the calculation, Jinglu not only required the use of Western numbers as account records, but also introduced a new unit of measurement - tons, each ton is equal to 2,000 catties, which is 20 times larger than the quintal. It is more suitable for large-scale trade calculations, but for a while, this new unit will always need to be slowly adapted. What's more, this is still invented by Jingluo, whether you can adapt to it or not, you still have to adapt to it in the end.

However, for him who is engaged in trade, he can also appreciate the convenience of using this new unit.

Zhu Mingzhong only nodded occasionally when Ryazan mentioned the rice trade, and more often than not, he would target this room. This used to be the Shanxi Guild Hall, after the Shanxi merchants escaped from Qinghe, the guild hall was confiscated by the government, handed over to the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce for use, and became the headquarters of the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce, but the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce did not give the government even one or two silver.

It can be said that since the day the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce was founded, the government has been giving them a lot of support, and even sparing no effort to support them, but what is the result of the support?

Now the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce has developed, with forty-six merchant ships, its sea routes are constantly expanding, and almost every day, there will be a new sea ship put into use, at most by next year, they will become a large chamber of commerce on a scale comparable to the "Five Maritime Merchants", and compared to Zheng Chenggong's Chamber of Commerce, as a partner of the Trade Bureau, they can obtain cheaper goods.

Compared with Zheng Chenggong's five major business owners and hosts, they are satisfied with the huge profits brought by trade with Japan. Ryazan's gaze was undoubtedly more far-reaching, and he even set his sights on the South Seas, on Siam, and even the most ordinary rice, and not just on traditional commodities such as spices, tin, wood, etc.

Profiting from imported rice is an attempt to normalize trade, because trade in copper bars and raw silk alone will not sustain the trade route for a long time. Even now, they import rice from Japan and North Korea to ensure the profits of the Chamber of Commerce.

"Now, what is the situation with our trade with Japan?"

Regarding the rice trade mentioned by Ryazan, Zhu Mingzhong did not answer, but directly diverted the topic.

"Back to the scriptures, Japan needs a lot of kinds of goods, and in Japan can not produce goods for example, when the lake silk is in Haizhou to the sea, the trade bureau gives the price of 108 yuan, and the price in Nagasaki is 200-230 taels, the profit is about double, and the price of silk is higher, each horse is worth 2 taels of silver, flower silk is worth 34 taels of silver, and the red silk wind is as high as 78 taels, and the length of each horse is less than 3 zhang, but because the price is expensive, it is not easy for ordinary people to use and ......."

Then Ryazan mentioned the export of various commodities, including sugar, brown sugar, iron, wax, and mercury, and when he reported the profits of these commodities one by one, Zhu Mingzhong's heart basically had a low heart, and unlike the exaggeration of the literati saying that "the profits of the sea can be obtained a hundred times", the profit of a single trip to Japan was only 80% after deducting expenses, and this profit was even less than the profit obtained by European merchant ships traveling between China and Europe, and of course this did not include the profits obtained from the purchase of copper bars and silver bars from Japan. It's just that when you return, the profit you get is limited, after all, this is probably the official office of the capital. At most, it is double the profit.

According to the information we have obtained through the Japanese side, there were 61 Chinese merchant ships that entered the port last year, of which 56 were owned by firms with the surname of the country, and these ships were loaded with no less than 200,000 catties of raw silk, and as for the Dutch ships, there were also 17 ships, although there were few ships, but the Dutch ships carried a large capacity, and the raw silk they carried was no less than 200,000 catties......

For the competition of maritime trade, Zhu Mingzhong naturally did not feel surprised, there is business and competition, this is an inevitable thing, not to mention, Jiangbei is still a latecomer, if you want to gain the market, you naturally need to go through some competition.

"Dutch? 200,000 catties of raw silk, isn't it 200,000 taels? This definitely won't work, we can't let them take our raw silk to earn our silver, we can't squeeze the market over there, we have to find a way to control the Dutch, this silver can be earned by the country's surname, we can earn, but the Dutch can't! ”

The fact that the Dutch, as a coachman at sea, made a lot of profit from the trade with Japan did not surprise Zhu Mingzhong, but he was not prepared to share the market with the Dutch. After all, the competition in the Japanese market was directly related to his relationship with Nanjing, and after all, Zheng Chenggong also needed the profits obtained from the sea trade to sustain his army of hundreds of thousands.