"Oh, it's Brother Gao, no wonder Brother Gao doesn't know, they were originally a group of small merchants, and they followed this strait company last year to say that they went to a big food country, and when they came back, they all got rich, and they are going again this year." This maritime merchant, known as Brother Wu, is the head of one of the largest local maritime guilds in Guangzhou, the head of Ruyunzuo, that is, the president of the guild.

He heard the news a few days ago, saying that he was going to sell a new boat here at the dock today, and he originally wanted to come and see it, and if the boat was of good quality, he would pay for it and use it. It's a pity that I didn't know until I came that people have to join the club first to sell boats. In fact, even if he didn't ask for membership, he wouldn't buy it, not because these two boats didn't fit into his eyes, but because his boatmen couldn't play with this kind of boat, just looking at the spider web-like rigging on the three masts, he was already dizzy.

He also knew about the affairs of the Strait Company for a long time, and they were all mixed in the same city, and it was difficult to think clearly about who made a fortune and who was unlucky. Although he is not a member of the guild, he usually goes to a restaurant or teahouse to drink, and when he meets for tea, he will also talk about buying and selling. He still hasn't figured out what this company is, but he knows it's an organization similar to a guild anyway. He had never heard of the head of the company. Hong Tao? Who is it? However, he was very interested in the fact that the Straits Company could go to the Great Food Country. Who doesn't know the truth that the farther you run, the greater the profit, but unfortunately the voyage is too dangerous, even if you find a boatman who knows the route over there, and has no ability to fight for his life, no one dares to go. Savages, cannibals, and storms are not a joke, and every maritime merchant has an account in his heart, which risk he has the capital to take, and which risk he does not have the ability to take.

But this little-known strait company actually ran back safely. also took a group of small maritime merchants who were originally not ranked and made a real profit. That's a lot of profit. The quantity and variety of those goods were in the eyes of him, a million-dollar sea merchant chief. I was so hungry that I sucked my saliva. But he can't let go of his body to tie up with the head of the strait company like those small maritime merchants, the problem is that he can't find the main owner if he wants to tie the knot, that Hong Tao Hong is said to be not from the Great Song Dynasty, and he is not usually in Guangzhou, and he has to go to Luo Youde, the concubine of the Luo family in Qiongzhou, to discuss anything, and you can't even see Luo Youde, only his housekeeper Luo Dacai often appears in Guangzhou City.

The Luo family is an outsider, and they were not welcomed in Guangzhou. It's just that because his family is also an official eunuch, he hasn't been too excluded, and he honestly operates some seafood transactions that are not too competitive and not very profitable. The Luojia Chamber of Commerce has been in Guangzhou for a long time, and it can be regarded as a well-known chamber of commerce, and there are so many small merchants who are also from Qiongzhou gathered under their hands, playing their own games, which is quite down-to-earth. However, in Wu Zuotou's eyes, they are not qualified to talk about business with themselves at all, and now let themselves go to the door to ask for advice, which will definitely not work.

"Brother Wu. It's not that I don't know about this strait company, and many Pu families in Quanzhou City have enmity with them. It is said that this head eats the rice of the sea. The attack was also very vicious, and the entire fleet of the Pu family was wiped out at once the year before last. Those Pu family members don't need me to say, Brother Wu also knows their details, which one is easy to get along with? But this thing is strange, the Pu family has only been tossing for less than half a year, and since this summer, it is rare to see their sea ships come to Quanzhou. My younger brother, I specialize in the jewelry business, and if they don't come, the way this gem comes from will be cut off by more than half. I heard that there are people in Guangzhou who have a lot of inventory in their hands, so I wanted to come and see the market, but I didn't expect to really meet this strait company, Brother Wu knows what I saw when I entered the port? "The surname Gao is not a local maritime merchant in Guangzhou, or he is not a maritime merchant at all, but a maritime merchant's descendant. But he knew better about the Straits Company than the Wu Zuotou, and the source was none other than the Pu family in Quanzhou, that is, those Arab businessmen.

"Shhh...... Pujia! I remember! Let Brother Gao say this, it seems that there is such a thing. This summer, there are also significantly fewer boats for the Pu family here in Guangzhou. I thought they were nostalgic for the prosperity of this place and didn't want to go home and continue selling goods, so that's what happened! In this way, could this strait company give the route to Da Shi ...... Brother Gao saw the escort fleet of the Strait Company? Wu Zuotou is an old maritime businessman, and after listening to only a few words, he roughly judged an overview, and then took a breath. Because he knows what kind of profit it is to dominate a route, it is too big to be counted! At the same time, he also knows better what kind of ability is needed to dominate a route, even when the Pu family was at its peak, he didn't dare to say the word monopoly, but now this strait company actually did it.

"Yes! They stopped outside the mouth of the Pearl River, a total of five ships! The jeweler from Quanzhou is also a joker, and he doesn't finish a sentence, so he has to keep a button and wait for others to untie it. In fact, his mood is not as anxious as Wu Zuotou, he doesn't have to go to the sea, as long as there is a merchant who can sell the gems back, he doesn't care what the other party's surname is. Changing suppliers is not a bad thing for him, maybe there is still a bargain in quality and price.

"There are only five of them...... Counting these two, there are only seven ships, which is not much, right? "It's not that Wu Zuotou hasn't seen the ships in Jinhewan, and it's not the first time they've come to the Pearl River Estuary, but they haven't paid much attention to it before. As far as he could remember, the ships were of average size, and there was nothing remarkable about them except for the fact that they had more sails.

"Brother Wu, let's go out and have a look by myself, the younger brother happens to have a car and boat here, why don't you go together?" Boss Gao didn't plan to untie this buckle yet, so he had to surprise Wu Zuotou.

“…… Brother Gao, there are still some things at home for my brother, why don't you go back first? With the car and boat, it didn't take long to come to the mouth of the Pearl River, and when Wu Zuo saw the Jinhe for the first time, his face instantly turned iron-blue, and he pursed his lips with a serious expression. The car and ship circled around the Golden River for half a circle, and there were many local ships in the circle with them, and everyone may have never seen such a large ship, especially the three towering masts, as if they had been inserted into the sky.

"Brother Wu, can this big ship have ten thousand things?" Boss Gao estimated that he didn't have a deep friendship with this Wu Zuotou, and he obviously saw that the other party's face was not good-looking, so he still nagged on the side and refused to stop.

"More than expected, for my brother I got on the ship at the age of sixteen, and I have never seen such a big ship, I am afraid that this strait company is not good!" Wu Zuotou couldn't help but look back at the Jinhe again, the light flashing in his eyes was very complicated, and he couldn't understand what kind of mood he was in.

I am afraid that there are many people who are in the same mood as Wu Zuotou, and the maritime merchants who participated in the last voyage and later applied to join the Strait Company are not even a fraction of the maritime merchants in Guangzhou. Although they made a lot of money last time, it was still not worth mentioning compared to those hundred-year-old families who made their fortunes by the sea. The auction on the wharf was very lively, except for a small number of small maritime merchants who saw the wind and made the rudder in the hope of taking a boat with a tailwind, most of the maritime merchants with guilds were cold bystanders, and some guilds were gritting their teeth, such as the Pu family.

According to the trade law of the Great Song Dynasty, these people had no way to take the fleet of the Strait Company. Merchants of the Great Song Dynasty also need to go to the city to get a license to go to sea for foreign trade trading, but for foreign maritime merchants, the preferential system given by the Great Song Dynasty is very relaxed, as long as the merchant ships come, they pay taxes in accordance with the regulations, regardless of the source and source, all are allowed! Not only that, but the imperial court also sent officials every year to attract investment in the ports of countries where there was trade, publicized the preferential system of various ports in the Great Song Dynasty, and called on maritime merchants from various countries to trade in the ports of the Great Song Dynasty.

Hong Tao knew this very clearly, because he had an expert by his side, Wen Nan. He was a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Southern Song Dynasty, and his job was to go to various countries to attract investment, a bit like the trade delegation organized by the state in later generations. Therefore, Hong Tao is not afraid that the Southern Song Dynasty court will embarrass himself, this is a system formulated by themselves, even if they see something wrong, it will take a long time to change it, and the traffic in this era restricts the speed of policy formulation.

Hong Tao has studied this problem for a long time, and he does not think that these maritime merchants have the ability to deal with him, at least not for the time being. What about later? There should be none, because there are more and more maritime chambers of commerce that join the strait company, and the grade will become higher and higher, and it is no longer the bottom maritime merchants who are willing to go to sea with them to do business, and some medium-sized maritime merchants have also changed their courts, quit the original guild organization, and joined the strait company. Again, at the commercial level, Hong Tao is not afraid of anyone, the thing of profit is always the first pursuit of businessmen, who has interests in their hands, they will follow whom.

Of course, in the end, there will always be opponents who compete with him, and those sea merchants and the Pu family are potential enemies, which Hong Tao also sees very clearly. The intrusion of the Straits Company has destroyed the inherent commercial structure of the port city of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the interests that were originally controlled by certain people are now in danger of disappearing. In addition to the fact that businessmen dare to pursue profits, they also dare to break the rules, and whoever threatens their interests is their mortal enemy and must be eliminated in order to be happy. Moreover, once the merchants are ruthless, they are more ruthless than any other class, and they do everything they can. They will use tricks that you can think of and can't think of, don't talk to them about any reason, the bottom limit, there is no such thing at all.

Hong Tao is not afraid in this regard, as long as the Southern Song Dynasty court does not interfere, he can go through all the trade ports on the southeast coast, and whoever disobeys will let everyone die, this is a war that cannot see the smoke of gunpowder, sometimes more cruel than war. In this war, he was in an absolutely active position, with the fleet of the security company and the supply points along the way, even the Southern Song Dynasty court dared to shake it, even if these maritime merchants were united, they were still not opponents, and they were destroyed in minutes. (To be continued.) )