New Shun 1730

Perhaps it is because ten thousand sermons are not as good as one practical action; or perhaps it is caused by the thousands of years of tradition that emphasizes agriculture and suppresses business in favor of business and the need to cooperate with officials.

There were some things that Liu Yu didn't expect, such as "investigating the market, setting prices according to consumer groups, and expanding trade volume". These people are really far behind and lack awareness.

However, "collusion with the government", "state interference", "court support" and other "crooked ways" can be solved with just a click or even without a click.

In fact, it is true when you think about it, just like the "carving a boat and asking for a sword" incident when Ryukyu paid tribute.

So many merchants who accompanied the tribute envoys had never examined the impact of the policy on trade, nor had they considered that the lifting of the maritime ban would lead to the disappearance of Ryukyu's special transit status. They did not think about the relationship between supply and demand, so they brought a wave of food that the Ryukyu King could not eat at all. goods.

However, committing riots and setting fire to Shuri Castle, bribing tribute ministers, and using the power of the Celestial Empire to force the King of Ryukyu to eat the goods were all instincts that came easily and did not need to be taught.

The current situation is almost similar.

For the demand inspection and pricing inspection of the European market, Liu Yu needs to teach them what they should do and what they should do.

However, in the pamphlet on the spice issue, there is a subtle mention of state interference in trade. Nowadays, in fact, countries use force as the backing to determine whether trade flourishes. These people did not need Liu Yu to explain, they all understood it.

It is really the traditional relationship between government and business that makes these principles easy to understand.

After the time for discussion has passed, Liu Yugang wants to talk about the pricing of spices in the Netherlands. In today's era, the strength of the country is the pillar of "freedom" of trade. Without the strength of the country, even if the country has a monopoly to raise prices, it has to be afraid of wolves and tigers behind. hour.

I don't want these businessmen to make generous speeches consciously.

"My lord, how come we don't understand these principles?"

"That is, who wants to do big business without dealing with the government? In China, I am from this state, so I have to rely on the relationship between the state and the government; he is from another state, so he has to rely on the relationship between other states and other governments. "

"In international terms, this government is the imperial court of each country, there is no difference."

Not only can I understand it to this extent, but I can also explain it from my own experience.

Some people talk about the smuggling incident with Japan, some people talk about the feat of forcing the King of Ryukyu to eat all the goods in Shuri Castle, and some people talk about the tragedy of being detained in Batavia and forced to reduce the price.

I really listened to the cry of imperialism. The Ryukyu country was weak, so it was bullied; the Netherlands was strong, so it was able to bully others; Japan was able to have its own tariffs before, so it had a trade credit card system; Dashun conquered Nanyang, cooperation With the loss of Ruihe, we can increase taxes on Danish businesses.

These principles are much simpler than studying the market, supply and demand, pricing, profits and other principles yesterday.

Who hasn’t come here like this before? Before the cooperation and monopoly, didn't every internal business war involve court officials for help?

Listening to the self-conscious speeches of these businessmen, Liu Yu was speechless for a while, not knowing what to say.

He originally thought that the difficulty was to make these businessmen understand that free trade was a utopia at this time, and that trade between countries was actually a competition of national power.

As for some business logic, market research, and pricing decisions, they are actually solid principles and universally applicable truths, which are easier for these people to accept.

I never thought it would be completely the other way around.

"Well...that's exactly what I want to say. If the pricing of this spice is only calculated in business terms, it's easy to say. What I mainly want to say is...but I think there is no need to say this, you guys I understand. It saves me a lot of time.”

"It seems that you have too much power from the yamen. It makes perfect sense to slightly transform the yamen into a country."

The businessmen below were all laughing, and someone said: "What the Duke said, this foreign government office is no longer a government office? Then when we were in Nagasaki, didn't we also have to give gifts to Nagasaki? Another example is this British government office, As for the cotton ban mentioned by the Duke, I think it can be changed even if the money is enough."

"Is it possible that there are businessmen from other countries who understand the principles of the Yamen better than we do?"

After that, someone else laughed and said: "Yes, we have seen it a lot, as the Duke said, that Dutch spices do not dare to increase the price. In some transactions, we really do not dare to show too much profit, otherwise Mr. Wang , Mr. Li’s relatives are coming to seize this property. Isn’t this the same thing?”

"Master Wang and Master Li are replaced by the British, and those who have gained too much and are afraid are replaced by the Dutch. There is no difference. What does the government rely on? Isn't it relying on the government officials and the army?"

Liu Yu was stunned for a long time, then he said with a helpless smile: "Well, I don't have to worry about it anymore. I don't know that this dynasty has its own national conditions. You are quite familiar with this kind of thing."

"That being the case, I said so. Now that the spices are in hand, we have the final say whether to raise or lower the price. But the prerequisite for us to have the final say is that the imperial court's garrison in Nanyang is strong enough."

"I said before that we need to spend money to build ships. As for the dividends, in addition to leaving enough money to receive goods next year, we also need to save some more for accumulation. Including garrisons, fortresses, warships, and the navy. Of course, it won't be all-encompassing, but it won't be enough. It’s possible to deduct the total gross profit, minus shipping costs, and purchase costs, and get it all as dividends.”

"That's a reason."

"On the other hand, this dynasty is also very different from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom."

"If companies in the Netherlands or the United Kingdom are short of money, they can borrow money or issue bonds and give them an annual interest rate of 5%. This is not possible in this country, because with an annual interest rate of 5%, they cannot borrow a penny. arrive."

"So, the companies of this dynasty must either expand financing and issue new shares."

"Or, they can only increase accumulation from dividends, otherwise the capital will not be enough."

"Choose one of the two, you choose one."

This time, the merchants really didn't even think about it, and shouted: "Of course, choose the second one."

"That's right, we choose the second one, don't issue new shares. If you are short of money, just invest more in dividends. Besides, how can people elsewhere have so much money?"

Some people even shouted: "Why don't you go to the court and talk to the court about the tariffs that the court imposes on Danish companies for every year? We will pay the interest on the Huaihe River water conservancy debt borrowed from the Dutch for one year! If the court can close down the British East India Company, take back Macau, close down the trading houses of various countries, or increase taxes on them, we will pay twice the loss of the court's tariffs! "

"7% interest a year, and only 400,000 taels of interest a year. Just closing the Danish trading house, not to mention other things, but the profit from the zinc block and brass trade, is more than that a year. And tea and porcelain? Don't you think so? "

Such an "outrageous" idea, as if it is a power-for-money transaction with the court policy, also made the surrounding people cheer.

Liu Yu hurriedly said a few polite words, saying that the court increased taxes on the Danish trading house because Denmark had disrespectful words, so don't talk nonsense. The previous closure of the British trading house was also because the British trading house smuggled opium. The Celestial Empire is reasonable and handles official affairs impartially. It is not for the interests of the company as you think.

After a lot of polite words, those who understand understand, thinking who doesn't understand what's going on?

But after the ceremonial words, it was really done. It was the first time that the court contributed to foreign trade competition, which made these sea merchants and financial capital unions feel the court's attention to them.

Ordinarily, at this time, Liu Yu should strike while the iron is hot and talk about the unification of rights and obligations.

At the very least, the principle of who develops, who protects; who pollutes, who governs, is also a reasonable principle for the change of the trade focus of Dashun.

The change of the traditional trade route in Lingnan has caused about 15 unemployed and nearly one million labor families to be affected. Ordinarily, the people who benefited from it, such as Songjiang Prefecture, should pay for this.

After all, Dashun's current tax model is so incompetent. The national tax revenue can't collect much money. The local government has to make money on its own. Guangdong must be very dissatisfied with this.

The same was true in the era of compradors in history. Originally, Guangdong had an exclusive monopoly on the comprador industry. As a result, the five ports were opened to trade during the Opium War, Shanghai was opened to the outside world, and Fuzhou transported tea, which caused the comprador economic system in Guangdong to collapse directly.

This is probably one of the reasons for the historical phenomenon that the Guangdong people led the revolution and the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang paid.

The national tax reform in Dashun is now only being promoted in several prefectures in southern Jiangsu. The unemployment wave in Guangdong caused by the change of the trade center has not been paid by the court, or it can be said that there is no money. The surplus money has been invested in Lianghuai. Logically speaking, the resettlement of these hundreds of thousands of unemployed people should be paid by the beneficiary classes in Songjiang Prefecture.

But Liu Yu pretended not to know the root cause of this matter and did not mention it at all.

These businessmen may have heard about it, but if Liu Yu did not say it, how could they take the initiative to pay?

This is not the same as their choice to support external expansion.

External expansion can make them benefit.

And they can't make a penny by helping the poor people in Lingnan.

Besides, Liu Yu hopes to use their capital to engage in immigration, and now the people who are being relocated are also the people of Lianghuai. Now they can only suffer the people of Dayuling trade route first.

After all, the people of Lingnan still have the opportunity to go to Southeast Asia spontaneously, and Lianghuai has no such spontaneous opportunity at all.

Thinking darkly, it is possible that the imperial court also understood it, but just pretended not to know.

The emperor probably calculated that if the unemployed people in Lingnan revolted, it would be much cheaper to kill them all and suppress them than to spend money to resettle them, especially after the military reform.

The emperor did not mention it, and the imperial court did not mention it. It was naturally impossible for Liu Yu to take the initiative to take the blame at this time.

Not only did they not say that the suffering of the people in Lingnan was their responsibility, but these merchants also consciously understood that "the imperial court's external expansion was highly consistent with their interests" because of the special environment. Today, Liu Yu's discussion meeting on the spice issue, which was supposed to be a lesson in imperialism for them, went smoothly in a harmonious and cheerful atmosphere.