In the past few years, in the vast sea area north of Luzon, there are almost no merchant ships that dare to trade privately, and merchant ships from various countries can only go to Manila to concentrate on trading. Occasionally, a few merchant ships that take risks often end up tragically.

All merchant ships going to Manila had to pay a certain amount of silver every year, and then they would fly the flag of passage issued by the Far East. Only merchant ships with flags can sail safely. Moreover, when they trade in Manila, they not only have to pay various service fees for entering the port, but also pay a large transaction tax to the Far East after the transaction is completed.

Every year, the Far Eastern Company does not count the silver earned by commodity exchanges, and the various fees collected in Manila alone can already be described as making money every day. Moreover, merchant ships from all over the world came to the East and would sail directly to Manila for trading.

Because although there are such and such fees, they can trade any goods they want there, and they don't have to go around at all, which also virtually reduces costs and saves a lot of time.

It was a distribution center for oriental goods, with things they dreamed of, such as silk, tea, cotton, porcelain, Persian carpets, sugar, deerskin, venison, antlers and various rattan products from Taiwan, embroidery, pearls, wood carvings from the Philippines, perfume from Malacca, cloves from Java, cinnamon from Ceylon, and pepper from India. Siamese spices, wood, ebonywood, sulfur from Japan, copper, fans, swords, lacquerware, and folding screens.

What's more, there are Far Eastern goods that cannot be bought anywhere in the world. High-end such as powder boxes, eyebrow pencil sets, lipstick sets, colored soaps, eyeshadow boxes, makeup mirrors, alabasters, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, bracelets, ornaments, artificial crystal ornaments, pendants, artificial gemstones, zircon rhinestones, artificial pearls, acrylic jewelry, jewelry boxes and so on.

Medium and low-end such as storage boxes, shampoos, beautiful parasols, low-grade perfumes of various flavors, colored bead packets, delicate sewing boxes, cosmetic bags, artificial silk handkerchiefs, artificial crystal cups, aluminum products, music boxes, glass oil lamps, stainless steel tableware, pewter ornaments, delicate lighters, matches, soaps, mosquito coils, umbrellas, eye paste toothbrushes, sanitary napkins, low-grade paper towels, disposable lighters, glasses, small hardware tools and so on.

Although the goods of the Far East are ridiculously expensive, and often a very small thing can be added to the sky-high price of the Far East, merchants from all over the world still flock to it. I bought some of them and took them back for sale.

What are you afraid of? These precious things from the Far East will definitely be loved by the aristocracy when they return to Europe. Do you know what it means to be an aristocracy? The aristocracy buys the most expensive everything, not the best, not the best, but the most expensive!

The continuous expansion of the port. The influx of merchant ships and a large number of commodities from various countries led to the large-scale construction of Manila by the Luzon Management Committee. Manila has been re-planned, with several new characteristic urban areas such as port area, storage area, commercial area, living area, leisure and entertainment area.

The port area is located next to the port of Manila, and when merchant ships from various countries arrive in Manila, the Far East Company takes over everything and issues them a temporary residence permit. The merchant shipowners would go ashore and go to the port area to rest. The port area is full of all kinds of standard inns and high-end hotels. Maritime merchants and Ming merchants from various countries will choose according to their own circumstances. However, check-in is only possible with a temporary residence permit.

The next day, the port staff will go to the hotel where they are located and deliver various formalities to the merchants of various countries, depending on the situation of the merchants of various countries who have registered with their temporary residence permits in the hotels. These formalities include the loading and unloading of cargo on board, the location of storage, and the various fees that need to be paid.

If the ship needs to be maintained and replenished with various supplies, there will also be a detailed price list, which can be selected by the shipowner and merchant. In any case, there is no need for ship owners and merchants to worry about the formalities, and there will be absolutely no mistakes in all the work, let alone the loss or detention of goods.

Other than that. Various institutions have also been established in the port area to serve merchants from various countries. For example, the Far East Ping An Insurance Company, merchant ships often cross the ocean. If the cargo is plundered by pirates or the ship is wrecked in a storm, a certain amount of compensation will be paid as long as the insurance is paid. Of course, the higher the insurance premium, the higher the standard of compensation.

However, the area where the accident occurred was limited to all seas in the South Seas, as well as from Manila to Goa, India. The sea area of these two voyages from Manila to Acapulco, Mexico, will be compensated by Far East Ping An Insurance Company.

When it started. All the merchants did not take this seriously, only that it was something that the Far East had done in order to deceive everyone of money. But there was really a Persian merchant who was idle and paid a minimum amount of insurance. As a result of his ship. As soon as he left Malacca, he was robbed by pirates, and even the ship and goods were robbed.

Thrown to fend for himself in a small boat by pirates, the Persian merchant was lucky enough to be rescued by a passing ship and returned to Manila. He took the insurance policy and tried to try his luck with the Far East Ping An Insurance Company, but less than ten days later, the intelligence officers of the Far East in Malacca investigated and found that the maritime merchant had indeed been hijacked by pirates.

So, the next morning after the telegram was sent, the Persian merchant, who had nothing left, received a payment from the Far Eastern Ping An Insurance Company. The Persian merchant was stupid at the time, and he didn't expect to give the silver.

This news immediately caused a sensation in Manila, and the Far Eastern Ping An Insurance Company was instantly overwhelmed by a large number of businessmen. The maximum amount of insurance paid by Far Eastern Ping An Insurance Company is only a few percent of the total value of the goods, which is not a matter for maritime merchants with extremely high profits.

If the shipowner is transporting a commodity of very high value, they will pay the full amount of the insurance, and the general merchant will pay the minimum compensation standard insurance, so that they should buy peace and feel more at ease. But there are many shipowners and merchants who can't afford to pay the bond.

Of course, the vast majority of the merchants who come here to handle insurance business are from Southeast Asia, Persia and the Ming Dynasty. It was relatively cost-effective for them to pay the insurance premium, but the Western shipowners and businessmen had to cross the ocean to return to Europe, and the Far East Ping An Insurance Company could not verify the shipowners' losses and could not guarantee their losses, so they felt that it was not cost-effective.

Two months after the Persian merchant was robbed, Far Eastern intelligence officers detected the location of the pirates in Malacca, and the Far Eastern Coast Guard Fleet in Luzon sent a note to Batavia, and then sent a fleet of two sailing ships and four sailing ships to cross Malacca, annihilating a group of pirates entrenched there, not only finding the merchant ship of the Persian merchant, but also seizing a large amount of stolen goods and several sea ships.

Hundreds of pirates were taken back to Manila and hanged in public, and the proceeds were auctioned. This incident caused another sensation in Manila. After this compensation incident, the reputation of Far Eastern Ping An Insurance Company was an instant hit, and the business gradually developed.

In addition to the Far East Ping An Insurance Company, the port area has also established the Far East Finance Company for exchange, financing, mortgage and loans for businessmen from all over the world, and the Far East Business Service Company that provides intermediary, information exchange, agency and other services for businessmen from all over the world.

In addition, there is a major feature of the port area, that is, there are many business clubs here, including silk business clubs, porcelain business clubs, spice business clubs, etc.

Of course, the club must adopt a membership system, so if you want to become a member of each business club, you must spend a lot of money to become a member and obtain the qualification to enter the club. At first, all the merchants scoffed at this, thinking that they would spend the money of the big head unless someone was sick.

But after the opening of these clubs, blackboards were placed outside the doors of the clubs, and all kinds of product information they needed were listed on them. Because the merchants in the port area are engaged in the trading of bulk commodities, it usually takes a long time to sell the goods in their hands. Most Western merchants carried a whole shipload of silver and a single commodity, so market information was particularly important.

Merchants are not allowed to erect signs or post information about their product needs in all parts of Manila, and the Manila city government will charge a sky-high advertising fee to merchants who violate the law. Merchant shipowners from various countries who want to publish the required product information must go to the business hall of the business district.

But it was crowded with small traders and boat owners, all from the Ming Dynasty and other Southeast Asian countries around Manila, and the scene was extremely chaotic, and it was very difficult to find the product information you needed. And the shipowners and merchants who trade these large amounts of goods are most concerned about the short-term and fast, and the sooner the goods are sold or purchased, the better.

They saw all kinds of information they wanted to know outside the guild hall, but this information could only be negotiated inside the guild hall, which could sting the merchants from the West.

In the end, someone couldn't resist the temptation and walked into the hall to get a valuable membership card. The rest of the people gathered outside to watch, and after a long time, the man walked out of the hall with a red face, and then hurriedly ran to the storage area, and everyone followed curiously, and found that the guy had emptied the goods in his hand.

This made those big businessmen who traded in large quantities excited, and they hurriedly rushed to those clubs and applied for membership cards one after another. Moreover, the membership card is also hierarchical, divided into three types: ordinary member, gold member and diamond member, each of which is worth a lot of money, and the membership fee is paid every year.

But these big businessmen who traded in large quantities quickly found the information they needed in the guild hall and quickly emptied the goods in their hands. At present, the merchants of bulk commodities in the port area choose to trade in major business clubs. (To be continued)

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