When Andre's post carriage had just left the capital, he was unexpectedly stopped by a carriage parked in the middle of the official road. Andrei, who had something in his heart, couldn't help but stick his head out of the window and asked the coachman in front of him in stiff Chinese: "What happened to the carriage in front?" Do they need help? ”

Li Bo'an, who was sitting next to him, grabbed him with a strange expression and said, "Mr. Andre doesn't have to be like this, let's wait a little longer, maybe we'll know." ”

André turned his head and glanced at his companion in some surprise, then sat back quietly. He knew that there were many things he didn't know about in this country. In the face of this situation, it is better for him to accept the advice of his companions.

Sure enough, after a while, the coachman in the carriage in front of him came up, knocked on the door of the carriage, and respectfully begged the two men to sit in the carriage in front of them, and his master wanted to talk to them.

Li Boan agreed without thinking, and Andre naturally followed the companion to the carriage in front. After Andrei got into the carriage, he found that the carriage, which looked simple on the outside, was not only spacious on the inside, but also very richly decorated. In addition to the soft damask cushions on the seats, there is a small foldable table that opens to create a small wine cabinet. Apparently this is a carriage that allows one to travel long distances comfortably.

After a brief look at the interior of the carriage, he looked at the master who had invited him over for a conversation. Andrei, who had been in the capital for almost three months, immediately realized that perhaps this gorgeously dressed young man was a rich man, but he would never be a nobleman.

And the self-introduction of the owner sitting in the carriage also confirmed his suspicion, "... It would be rude to invite Mr. Andre to meet here in such a presumptuous manner, but considering that Mr. Andre is like an arrow, Yu will see him off by the way..."

The young man introduced himself as Su Yue and was the nephew of a director of the Four Seas Trading Company. The name Sihai Trading Company is a household name in the capital, and even outsiders like Andre often go to the supermarket under the name of Sihai Trading Company to shop.

Compared with the cramped space, dim light, and single variety of goods in the capital, the new shopping mall called the supermarket not only provides a large number of goods to choose and compare, but also has a wide field and sufficient heating, which has become a public place for ordinary citizens with little entertainment to heat up and chat in winter.

It is said that by order of the emperor, some shopping malls maintained heating in some areas after they closed for homeless beggars or poor families who were so embarrassed that they could not afford to heat themselves to survive the winter. Therefore, the reputation of the Four Seas Trading Company in the capital has always been very good.

Of course, for a foreigner like Andrei, he doesn't care much about the good reputation of the company. What he cared about was that this trading company had shares in His Majesty the Emperor, and the capital of this trading company was said to have exceeded 7 million yuan.

Therefore, the director of such a company must be a person who can speak in front of the Ming Emperor, and this young man who claimed to be a relative of a company director stopped him, obviously not wanting to know him.

Unlike the Dutch East India Company, the British East India Company at this time claimed to be a company, but it was not in fact a corporate organization in the strict sense of the word.

According to the rules of the British East India Company system, the capital invested by the partners was for one voyage, and after each voyage, the profits and principal were distributed to the investors, and then the shares were subscribed for on the next voyage.

As a result of this form of organization, the British East India Company did not have any clear plans for trade development at this time, but was a loose confederation of profit-seeking merchants and the new aristocracy. This type of trade also determined that the British East India Company expanded overseas at a rate far less than the Dutch East India Company, which concentrated a large amount of capital.

Even the Dutch East India Company, which is now the most rapidly growing in Southeast Asia, was unknown in the capital of the country a year ago, and even a few people who knew some overseas affairs often confused the Dutch, Spaniards, and Portuguese, not to mention the British and Danes, who were not well-known in the first place.

Unlike the British East India Company, the Four Seas Trading Company was a true trading company, with not only a board of directors, an executive management, but also fixed capital and property. The annual report of the Four Seas Trading Company issued in the Securities Exchange last year alone showed that the company's assets had exceeded that of the British East India Company by several times.

Therefore, Andre would not mistakenly believe that the relatives of the directors of such a company would take the initiative to get to know him, and it is obvious that the other party has a plan.

He racked his brain to recall the little information about the poor Four Seas Trading Company in his head, trying to figure out why one of the directors had sent his nephew to stop him.

But soon the other party solved the doubts in his heart, and after Su Yue poured a glass of wine for the two, he looked at Andre enthusiastically and said: "Mr. Andre may be very strange, what is the reason for stopping you here, in fact, it is not a big deal." It was only after I heard that Mr. Andrei had proposed to His Majesty about the construction of a railway on the Mara Peninsula, and I was very interested in it, and I wanted to talk to Mr. André about this plan. ”

Andre immediately put down the wine glass that was almost to his lips, looked at the young man opposite with wide eyes, and said, "Hasn't this plan been shelved by His Majesty the Emperor of your country?" Why would you be interested in this program? ”

Su Yue maintained a gentle smile and said calmly: "Your Majesty shelved this plan for reasons Your Majesty considered, but Your Majesty did not prevent people from participating in this plan. Some of the directors of the company were very interested in hearing of this plan, and appointed them to consult with Mr. André as a representative..."

Andrei, who was already hopeless about the Mara Peninsula railway plan, naturally did not refuse this good opportunity that suddenly fell from the sky. What's more, almost instantly, it occurred to him that if he could cooperate with these businessmen close to the emperor, even if his identity as a special envoy of the British crown was exposed in the future, there would still be some room for maneuver.

So Andre officially introduced the railway plan he envisioned to Su Yue. In fact, this railway plan was heard by a merchant when he was chatting with people in the local area. The merchant had heard the idea from an adventurer friend of his who had traveled across the Mara Peninsula.

After six months of exploring the jungles of the Mara Peninsula, the unknown adventurer decided that a canal could be dug in the narrowest part of the Mara Peninsula to connect the Andaman Sea with the Siam Sea, thus avoiding the Strait of Malacca, which was controlled by the Portuguese.

This crazy tax evasion plan was regarded as a strange talk by the businessman, who talked to André about the plan to dig the canal after dinner. André originally thought it was just a joke, but when he saw the railroad in China's capital, he realized that it would not be a joke if he turned a canal into a railway, which cost a lot of money.

Due to the direction of the wind, galleons must wait when passing through the Strait of Malacca, otherwise they can easily run into accidents when sailing in the narrow Strait of Malacca. The location of Malacca City means that it is best for ships to wait for the wind to change in this port.

This is why, when the Portuguese occupied the city of Malacca and extorted the passing ships, these ships from various countries in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia still silently endured the exploitation of the Portuguese. Both the Kingdom of Johor, which had lost the city of Malacca, and the Kingdom of Aceh on the other side, wanted to seize the city of Malacca instead of building a new port.

However, if Kedah Port and Songkhla Lake are connected by rail, not only will the two new ports prosper, but it will also reduce the risk of shipping and the distance traveled. After all, the current volume of sailing ships is not large, enough to be transported by rail.

Andre spoke very carefully, and Su Yue also listened very carefully. When the Four Seas Trading Company was established a year ago, the greatest hope of the merchants who were forced to buy shares was to recover the emperor's debts.

However, when the Sihai Trading Company monopolized the circulation industry in the capital, Beizhili, and western Liaoning, and intervened in the military supplies business of the border army and the new army, these merchants immediately began to think seriously and operated the Sihai Trading Company as a real industry.

To be honest, if it weren't for the high profits of overseas trade, the directors of Yotsukai Trading Co., Ltd. would still be very satisfied with the annual income of 225%. Although it seems that the profits of this business are not as strong as those of the previous royal procurement, the scale of this business is also not comparable to the scale of the previous royal procurement, and there is no need to worry about being extorted by officials and not being able to collect the arrears.

However, in the face of last year's 256% profit from the Japanese trading fleet, the profits of the main business of the Four Seas Trading Company were suddenly nothing. The profit of selling Daming's goods to Japan is about 100-300%, and the profit of shipping Japanese goods to China is also 25%-90%.

The profit of the fleet for a round trip minus the expenditure of the fleet is a super high return of 256%. With such high returns, who cares what the main business of the company is.

If it weren't for the fleet strength in the hands of Zheng Zhilong and the others, these merchants would have suggested that Chongzhen recall the pirate group in Zhao'an, and let the Four Seas Trading Company monopolize the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty.

Where Chongzhen has no time to pay attention, some of the directors of the Sihai Trading Company have begun to unite and want to expand the company's share of overseas trade.

Unlike Zheng Zhilong and other maritime merchants who understand the current situation in Southeast Asia, and of course, they cannot be compared with Chongzhen, who has a vision of later generations, the directors of Sihai Trading Company do not know much about the situation outside the Ming Dynasty.

Their understanding of the surrounding countries of the Ming Dynasty is that the Houjin in the Northeast is a country established by the Northeast savages, who defeated the Ming Dynasty several times and occupied most of the Northeast. But no matter how he can fight, he is also a barbarian, and when Daming recovers, he will be able to clean him up.

The northwest and west are Mongolian Tatars, and they have been entangled with the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years, and no one can help anyone. The Qinghai-Tibet region in the southwest is the vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, a poor place where birds don't poop.

Separated from the Ming Dynasty by a place of Houjin is the Kingdom of Korea, which is the obedient vassal state of my Ming Dynasty, and Japan, which is separated by a sea from Korea, is a place where the Japanese are out, and they have been beaten by General Qi and the Emperor Wanli, so there is nothing to fear. The sea below Japan is the Ryukyus, and it was a vassal state that was deferential to the Ming Dynasty.

Burma and Annam, who are slightly more famous in the south, are still vassal states that are subject to the Ming Dynasty, although they often do some tricks on the border. Further south, whether it is Sulu, Bo Ni, Cambodia, Siam or some unknown small countries, they are all the vassal states of my Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in the eyes of these merchants, as long as they do not provoke the Mongol Tatars and Jurchen Tatars, there is no country that the Ming Dynasty cannot afford to provoke other vassal states adjacent to the Ming Dynasty. As for the merchants from far away Europe, they could not believe that these merchants could compete with those merchants who were backed by the Ming Dynasty.

Because of ignorance, they are fearless, not to mention that the benefits of overseas trade are so high, and the risks do not seem to be great, which makes these merchants even more excited. What they had learned about overseas trade was that half of the ships that sailed would not return home, despite the high profits.

But last year, not even a single ship to and from Japan had an accident, apparently confirming that the rumor was a lie. What's more, with such a gain, it is profitable to lose half of the ships. So their interest in overseas trade was overwhelmed, and their interest in other businesses was overwhelming.

Chongzhen was afraid that his involvement in the situation on the Mara Peninsula would cause hostility between the Dutch and the Portuguese, so he took a different idea of concentrating on Northeast Asia for the time being. The merchants of the Four Seas Trading Company were obviously much bolder, and they were obviously eager to encircle a piece of territory in the Malay Peninsula.