New Shun 1730

The merchants were intoxicated by the future described by Liu Yu, and they had no doubts. This lack of doubt came from the accumulation of prestige of nearly twenty years of correctness, victory, victory and victory.

Liu Yu said that this was profitable, and he explained everything clearly, which solved the many hesitations in these people's hearts.

They had no hesitation about the investment itself, and they had been used to it over the years.

But whether the investment choice can make a profit, they must hesitate, which is normal.

For some words, Liu Yu only needs to stop at the point. This does not mean that these merchants do not understand the hidden meaning in the words.

People in later generations may find it difficult to understand the mood of these big merchants in this era - looking at the silver in their warehouses, worrying.

The reason for worry is that they still know what is going on in the court and roughly know the court's attitude towards merchants.

They are also worried that their huge amount of silver will eventually become wedding clothes for others.

But this kind of worry is distorted.

Since you are worried, donate or give the money. If you don't have money, you won't worry, right? However, they refused.

They thought that this was using suicide to protect themselves from being killed by others.

Liu Yu's Nanyang development plan was an outlet for their silver.

It was converted into various industries, not pure silver, which seemed safer.

Industries, however, could not be immediately converted into silver.

Just think of it as a legacy for their children and grandchildren. They worked hard all their lives and knew that they only needed three feet of land after their death. Isn't it for their family's children and grandchildren?

Liu Yu said that you can't "go against the will of heaven" when doing things in the Celestial Empire. They also understood that what he meant was "you need to know where the court wants you to spend your money."

It's obvious that the court doesn't want you to buy land and make mergers crazily in the country, but you have to buy land crazily. That's blind.

The court has to kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

They have a lot of contact with Westerners, so they naturally envy the board model of the British East India Company. The British court has no regulatory power at all. Even the governor, the army, and the laws are formulated and selected by themselves.

They envied the Dutch East India Company even more. They didn't even have to make their accounts public. The 17-member board of directors arranged everything in their small room. The Dutch government was not allowed to check the accounts. Even the selection of the Governor of Nanyang, which was larger than the Netherlands, had to depend on the board of directors.

But Dashun couldn't do that. They naturally felt that the court was not so "reasonable".

And they felt that Liu Yu had just performed what "false accusation" was in Macau. If the court really wanted to make trouble, there would always be a reason.

Now that the court intends to encourage them not to invest money in domestic land, but to invest in Nanyang, this has been said so clearly, but they still don't know the depth and have to hold on to the money and hoard land during the disaster. That is simply because they think their family has too much money.

Fortunately, everyone has reached a consensus in recent years that following the Duke of Xingguo will definitely have meat to eat. Whether he makes a profit or a loss, it is made clear in advance.

Now that the long-term return rate of Nanyang investment is more than 10%, and the sales prospects of several large plantation products have been clearly explained, what is there to hesitate about?

After they had given up their hesitation, Liu Yu's final "elevated" words gave them a special "sacredness" and made them feel more at ease.

"Since Emperor Wu of Han, all dynasties, except the Mongols, have never been so lenient to merchants and businessmen. The Mongols were incompetent. Governing a country requires technology, but they don't have it, so they can only be rough. This dynasty is not incapable, but unwilling to do it."

"Why?"

"Emperor Wu has the intention to expand the border."

"The Celestial Empire should stick to the middle, no matter the southeast, northwest, and northwest."

"Emperor Wu has the intention to expand the border, but he is worried about the population reduction and the war. Therefore, we should learn from the Westerners."

"Northwest, southwest, you will definitely not pay. Then we can only mobilize the financial power of the court."

"Whale Sea and South Ocean are profitable. The court finances don't have to pay, and you can make a profit."

"This is the general strategy of the country. You will also have the merit of expanding the territory and expelling the barbarians in the future."

"In short, you don't make money but have to spend money. ”

“You pay for places that can make money and open up new frontiers.”

“You pay for places that make money but endanger the stability of the country… You’d better not invest there. If you are really unconvinced and want to try and say that I invested, what can I do? Then you can try. Right?”

“Why do we have to set up a company? Why do we have to let you guys take the wind? In a word, it’s easy to manage.”

“Hundreds of thousands of gentry, the court will definitely not be able to investigate their encroachment on land and seize land, and be very discerning.”

“Hundreds of merchants, at most a few hundred, the children’s army can still keep an eye on them. What do you think, right?”

“In fact, this can be regarded as cultivating a group of chaebols…”

A group of businessmen didn’t care about the last few words Liu Yu said. This was a basic fact, and they didn’t need to sigh. Instead, Liu Yu gave them a reputation of “expanding the land and expelling the barbarians”, which was very worthy of sighing.

This is called fame and fortune.

If this is really the national strategy, at least before the emperor dies, there seems to be no need to worry too much.

As for the future... let's talk about the future later.

In this world, apart from the Kong family in Qufu, is there any great family that has not fallen for two hundred years?

"Don't worry, Duke. As the saying goes, there are 360 ​​professions and every profession has its top talent. People like us who have made a fortune of a few million are also considered "Jinshi" among merchants. We still have the necessary brains."

"We have thought about it. If we really "go against the will of heaven", our property may be donated one day. Now we can make money and do our part to help Emperor Wu expand the border. Why not? We are also people who know how to appreciate it."

Liu Yu smiled and said, "This is the best. It also saves a lot of trouble. The court is also reasonable, but it is not the kind of reasoning of the British East India Company. In short, let the money move, and your money will be safe."

"I brought you to Nanyang, and this is also the emperor's Meaning. Your Majesty is going to visit Songjiang Prefecture. Do you think you have to pay for the reception? Even if Your Majesty is not the kind of extravagant person, and the officials do not share the expenses, do you think you can pay for it yourself? "

"Your Majesty means that the money earned by the Yangzhou salt merchants is from the people. The merchants in Songjiang Prefecture earn money from Japan and the Western barbarians. The difference must be clearly distinguished. In this case, it is better to move more people to Southeast Asia with the money for the reception."

"As the saying goes, emergency relief does not help the poor. Donating a few dollars, exemptions, and relief are for emergency relief; while moving them to Southeast Asia is for poverty relief."

When the merchants heard this, they hurriedly cried and thanked the north and shouted long live.

After going through the process, the merchants felt at ease.

They knew that they and the salt merchants in Lianghuai could not pee in the same pot, and the court treated them and the salt merchants in Lianghuai differently.

In history, salt merchants must have been rich. Originally, in the history, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, for sixty years, according to the estimated statistics, the net profit of Lianghuai salt merchants, including salt field merchants and transport merchants, was estimated at 500 million taels at the highest and 220 million taels at the lowest. On average, there was a net profit of six or seven million taels of silver a year.

According to estimates, the annual operating cost is about 16 million taels of silver, and the lowest estimated profit return rate is also about 40% per year.

The population of Dashun grew more, and the income of salt merchants was only higher, not lower.

This kind of industry, which is subject to official consumption tax, must be closely related to the government, and ordinary people have no chance to do this. Dashun learned the lessons of the vassal kings of the previous dynasty and managed the salt permit issue more strictly, so that salt merchants did make more money.

But they made a lot of money, and this kind of money belonged to the court to make you, which inevitably led to the need for salt merchants to "serve the country" regularly.

Voluntary, involuntary, conscious and forced to voluntarily... In short, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were obtained every year.

If it happens to be a disaster year or a water conservancy project, more will be paid.

This is a non-negotiable matter.

These merchants in Songjiang Prefecture are nouveau riche compared to the Lianghuai salt merchants. They have suddenly emerged in recent years.

Of course, there was foreign trade before, but it did not form such a monopoly scale. In addition, after the Ostend incident, including the Netherlands, large-scale trading houses were opened on the shore and direct trade was developed.

It took only 20 to 30 years.

As soon as it started to rise, Liu Yu used the form of a joint-stock system to quickly eat up the small fish, basically completing the "non-administrative authorization" and "full free competition" monopoly of foreign trade.

Many merchants who started with Liu Yu are now worth more than one million, but 20 years ago they were only worth tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of taels.

They rose too quickly and too suddenly, and Liu Yu had been matchmaking in the court, so the court tried to change its thinking from the beginning.

Instead of taking advantage of the situation, the emperor also allowed Liu Yu to try to guide these nouveau riche to use it for border expansion.

Normally, if Liu Yu hadn't been messing around for these years, basically these foreign trade merchants would eventually become salt merchants.

Either they would become the treasury of the court, or they would need to pay tribute to the country on time every year.

Now Liu Yu brought up the salt merchants as a comparison, and brought up the issue of the emperor's southern tour, just hoping that the merchants would be more clear-headed.

Anyway, the court is going to Southeast Asia.

The court has no money, but you have money.

If you don't go to Southeast Asia, the court will insist on going to Southeast Asia, and the court is short of money, but the court has guns.

Liu Yu is also scaring them, because in a sense, this kind of development itself violates the historical inertia and common sense of Dashun.

Facing Western countries, the Thirteen Hongs model of sitting on the ground and collecting money is the most likely management and control method to be adopted by the court under the inertia.

Liu Yu hopes that these merchants can understand that it is not easy to get to this point today. If they don't want to be salt merchants who are fleeced by the court all day, then do something that makes the court feel that you are still useful.

The emperor doesn't like money and has no interest in money. It's just that many things that the emperor wants to do need money to promote. These merchants need to understand that if the emperor can use money to do what he wants to do, the emperor may not have to take off his pants and fart to do unnecessary things, put the money into the treasury and the government treasury, and then spend it.

If you want to maintain this state of profit that is more profitable than the salt merchants, but the court does not treat the emerging class of Songjiang Prefecture like the salt merchants, you must do something.

The development of Nanyang is a kind of gentleman's agreement between the emerging class and the emperor that cannot be stated explicitly: Your Majesty does not need to take off his pants and fart to put the money into the treasury and then distribute it to do things, we will "consciously" do what Your Majesty wants to do, and it will be more efficient.

The emperor allowed them to go to Nanyang during his southern tour, which was the emperor's statement.

The Weihaiwei and Tianjin Fleet, which had 20,000 field troops stationed in the Songjiang Prefecture camp and merchants had no right to interfere with, were the supervisors of this agreement.

Of course, the final right of interpretation of this gentleman's agreement belonged to the emperor.