Billy Zhou took out a cigarette and lit it, and said lightly: "Albert, you have made great achievements in Manila during this time, and the company is very satisfied with your watch. The Ministry of Intelligence has decided to send you to Europe and the New World to set up intelligence stations. Of course, this is not an order, we are just asking for your opinion, and if you have reservations, we will reconsider the candidate. ”

Without the slightest hesitation, Albert immediately straightened up and said sternly: "Please rest assured that the company will complete the task!" ”

Ding Xinghao nodded with satisfaction and said: "We are now talking to you formally on behalf of the company, from now on, you will participate in the company's top-secret plan, and you must be fully mentally prepared." ”

When Albert heard this, his heart suddenly became excited, since he joined the Ministry of Intelligence, he has liked this job, and now two important people in the Ministry of Intelligence are talking to him, which means that the Ministry of Intelligence has recognized him. Although he was born into a noble family, the inheritance of his father's generation has gradually declined to his generation. And he has turned his back on his homeland, and now only by clinging to the powerful Far Eastern Company can he have a chance to regain the glory of his ancestors.

Billy Zhou glanced at Albert with a solemn face, which made the other party suddenly nervous. In the Ministry of Intelligence, Albert's biggest fear was Billy Zhou. Don't look at him smiling every day, looking easy-going, but I don't know why, as long as the other party looks at him casually, it can make him cold, as if he has been seen through inside and out.

"Albert, you will form an intelligence team with three + first-line intelligence officers and fifteen second-line intelligence officers, and you, as the head of the intelligence team, will be responsible for the work of the future intelligence station in Europe and the New World. The company will send several sailing ships to form a trading fleet to send you and the French merchant Lucien to Quebec in the New World. Establish a steady trade route in Europe and the New World.

You should pay attention to using Lucien's status to establish a safe and stable trade route in the shortest possible time. The main work of the European and New World Intelligence Station in the future. It will be dominated by trade. The Ministry of Intelligence is going to launch a top-secret plan that only the three of us know about at the moment, and the trade routes you have established in Europe and the New World are important to this plan. ”

After Billy Zhou and Ding Xinghao sent the excited Albert away, the two sat quietly in the room and smoked, making the room full of smoke.

"Old Zhou. What is the stage of the company's research on narcotics? ”

Zhou Billy took a deep breath of cigarette, and then said lightly: "I haven't paid attention to it for a long time, and it is not so practical to deal with the European turtles of this era, it is almost enough." As long as we can reduce the cost, it is our main goal to make all white skins acceptable. Hehe...... Now that we're in this era, there's nothing wrong with turning those white-skinned people into addicts. ”

Ding Xinghao sneered and said: "When our sales network is established in Europe and the New World, we can call them the sick man of Europe in the future, haha...... and all that is owed to us shall be repaid in double. If only they dared to stab. Paralyzed, we also unleash a "new opium war". ”

Billy Zhou shook his head and said: "It's not so strict, in the past few thousand years, opium has been regarded as a panacea by people most of the time, and even regarded as a divine object. Moreover, opium has been discovered and used in the West for a much longer history than in China, and its influence is much greater. Studies have shown that Europe is the homeland of the opium poppy. The first cultivated opium poppy also appeared in Europe.

According to historical records, mothers or nannies in Europe still gave opium to unquiet babies until modern times. Many mothers of British weavers do the same because they work very hard during the day in order to get enough rest at night. In addition, opium also has the function of suppressing appetite, and children from poor families can reduce hunger and save food expenses after taking opium.

Until the beginning of the 19th century. Opium is still not considered a drug. Many countries in Europe have previously issued anti-alcohol laws, but there is no ban on opium, and people still hold the concept that "opium is harmless". Some scholars even believe that the emergence of European Romantic literature in the late 18th and early 19th centuries had a great deal to do with opium, without which opium was not available. Some of the best works may not be born.

Opium consumption is by no means confined to the general population, but is also consumed in large quantities in the military of many countries, with permission from the government. The armies of both sides of the American Civil War were inseparable from opium, because in the harsh and harsh war environment, taking opium can effectively treat and prevent epidemic dysentery and diarrhea, and can also temporarily relieve the pain caused by homesickness or loss of loved ones. In the federal army, opium was rationed by the government and distributed regularly to the soldiers. Among the armies of European countries, opium was probably the most popular item after alcohol. ”

Ding Xinghao was also stunned when he heard it, and he said with a smile: "The cost of the company's narcotics has been reduced, and it is a bestseller in Europe." It's just that the profit is probably a lot lower, we should form the product into a series, there are high, medium and low-end ones, and the money of the noble royal family has to be earned. It is best to have the Department of Commerce do a detailed marketing plan. ”

Billy Zhou nodded and said: "I do have this idea, professional things can only be done by the most professional people to form the best results." The central task of marketing in modern society is to actively promote and vigorously promote products to induce consumers to buy products. The specific expression is: "What I sell, I try to get people to buy".

Before the product is launched, it is necessary to carry out all-round publicity through various channels, brainwash consumers in a pervasive manner, and even change their traditional concepts. But in this day and age, it's hard to do that because there aren't so many mediums. Therefore, I think it is necessary to take the high-end route first, and only when the European upper class is recognized, will the concept of a good commodity be formed in the middle and lower classes. At that time, we launched products that were suitable for the middle and low consumption groups at the right time and quickly occupied the market. ”

Ding Xinghao thought for a while and said: "Can we cooperate with the nobles and magnates of European countries to form a huge interest group in Europe, then this business can continue for a long time, even if it will lose some profits temporarily, but it is better in the long run, and it will inevitably achieve rich returns after ten years and a hundred years."

Anyway, the supply is in our hands, and the price is not what we say in the future. After all, this business is not glamorous, I think the company should try to stand behind the scenes, as much as possible to find agents in Europe, even if someone looks for accounts after a few hundred years, they can't find the head of the Far East company. ”

The two studied for most of the night, and the more they talked, the more excited they became, so they came up with a detailed plan to submit to the board of directors for discussion when they returned to Vladivostok. With the development prospects of this plan, it will definitely win the approval of the vast majority of the members.

Without knowing whether the earth is square or round, Huaxia Shenzhou was dragged into the first real globalization process in a daze. Western colonists traded spices and silver for Chinese goods, and Chinese silk and porcelain were commodities of interest to them, and later tea. Compared with their strong demand for Chinese goods, the Chinese have little interest in their imported goods, except for a few such as clocks and watches, woolen wool.

For quite a long time, the Chinese were interested in only one thing of theirs - silver, and only silver could be unhindered in the Chinese market. Some scholars estimate that from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the first half of the 19th century, one-third of the world's silver production flowed into China, leading to silver shortages in many parts of Europe.

At the same time, European traders were ecstatic to find that the Chinese were increasingly interested in opium, and in many places it was even the equivalent of hard currency. Thus, the famous evil triangle trade in world history appeared, European goods were exported to India and other countries, and then opium was bought in India, and Indian opium was sold to China, and then goods such as silk, porcelain, and tea were bought from China and shipped to Europe.

Later, the amount of opium smuggled and imported into China increased dramatically, and the traditional commodities were far from being able to pay for opium, but only silver, so a large amount of silver began to flow back in China. Driven by profits, Europeans smuggled and exported opium to China in large quantities, and the quantity of opium increased dramatically, the price dropped, and the number of smokers rose rapidly.

from the coast to the hinterland, from the hinterland to the border; From the city to the countryside, from the yamen to the imperial palace, it has almost formed a grand scene that the whole people can absorb. By the late 19th century, more than 4 million Chinese were smoking according to conservative estimates (some estimate more than 10 million).

Since then, China has been dubbed the "sick man of East Asia", which is also the beginning of a century of humiliation for the Chinese nation in modern times. As long as the descendants of China should not forget the history of humiliation, now that the Far East has come to this era, if you don't return this humiliation a hundredfold and a thousand times, it will be too much to say.

In fact, from the day Billy Zhou entered the Intelligence Department, he was working on this plan. Recently, he discussed this plan with Ding Xinghao and Qian Bing, and received strong support from the two. Taking advantage of the intelligence department's preparation to send intelligence personnel to the New World, he took advantage of the trade routes between Europe, the New World and the Ming Dynasty in this era to sell things to the European continent and the New World.

In order to achieve this plan as soon as possible, Zhou Billy also put forward requirements to the company's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and now some products have been produced, which have been used in several operations of the Ministry of Intelligence, and some have also been put into the grasslands of Liaodong and Mongolia, and the results are quite good.

At present, the Ministry of Chemical Industry is further reducing costs, striving to establish stable trade routes for the Ministry of Intelligence, and then begin to launch them to Europe and the New World one after another.

Ding Xinghao took a puff of cigarette and a grim smile appeared on his face. "A hundred years of national shame, hum...... We all have to pay it back, and none of them can run ......" (to be continued...... R1292