Peerless Pirates

The battle between Jiangnan Everyone and Huitong Trading Company lasted for nearly three months, almost from the twelfth lunar month of last year to mid-March of this year, with a break for more than half a month during the New Year. This kind of economy Although the battle was thrilling, to outsiders, it didn't seem like much. Although Kodama was in charge of Youji, although he received a little bit of information, he couldn't help much. Besides, Kodama and others focused on military and political figures. Therefore, when Cai Yong reported to Song Zheng, he did not mention this matter at all.

When Huitong Trading House was founded, each group only scooped up one-tenth of the goods for trading in the trading house. After the Ji family was killed, the volume of goods increased to about 30%. When Daqi entered Guanzhong last year, the trading house helped The purchase and transshipment of military supplies not only expanded the branches opened by trading houses in Luoyang, Kaifeng and other places, but also caused a large number of goods from Jiangnan people to enter the trading houses, accounting for more than half of them.

After Pang Hui's death, everyone in Jiangnan tried to control the volume of goods and use this to blackmail the shares of Huitong Trading Company, but Lu Chun and others refused. Therefore, everyone in Jiangnan united and reduced the supply of goods by 20%.

To everyone's surprise in Jiangnan, most merchants from all over the country still purchase goods from trading houses. Even if they are more expensive, they do not go to the guilds controlled by everyone in Jiangnan to do business. The key is that doing business in trading houses is too worry-free, and there are escorts. It is escorted and very safe.

Taking raw silk as an example, the usual price of raw silk is about eighty taels and thirty cents per load. After everyone in Jiangnan stocked up, the price rose to nearly ten taels of silver. Even so, the silk merchants still waited for the goods at the trading house, making little money. I made a bit of money, but considering the "scooping orders" from local governments during transportation, it was still profitable.

The reason for this is that the brand of Huitong Trading Company is too loud and the backend is solid. It turns out that there are some local officials who are not open-minded, and they will reach out when they see the goods escorted by Zhenfeng Escort. But the Prime Minister's Office immediately cooperated with the action and took the blame lightly. Warning, or in severe cases dismissal from office. After bringing down one magistrate and two county magistrates, no one dared to raise a hand again.

The reason why Song Zheng roped in Huang Yue as a shareholder and tried so hard to get the little emperor to name his name was for this reason. The combination of government and business was naturally unfavorable. So much so that later, when some local officials saw the goods escorted by the escort, they even paid normal tariffs I don’t dare to accept it anymore.

Returning to the topic, everyone in Jiangnan saw that stocking up was not an option, and the prices on the market were rising. Everyone in Jiangnan was jealous, so they all shipped goods through the guilds they controlled. The shipping price of each load of raw silk was only eight taels. I thought All of a sudden, the business of the trading house was destroyed.

Unfortunately, everyone in Jiangnan got the wrong target. The trading house itself is just a trading platform, not an economic entity. Everyone in Jiangnan does not trade in the trading house, but small and medium-sized cargo owners still unite and sell in the trading house. The role of the trading house is to unite Small and medium-sized cargo owners are fighting against everyone in Jiangnan.

The price reduction actions of everyone in Jiangnan have indeed caused some merchants to flock to various guilds. The trading volume of the trading house has dropped significantly, and the income has also dropped a lot. Huang Yue and Xu Mingxuan are a little bit overwhelmed, because the expansion of branches in various places is exactly the use of When it comes to money.

The two of them asked Lu Dafu to discuss whether they should discuss with everyone in Jiangnan to share some shares and give everyone in Jiangnan a little sweetness. Lu Dafu, who had a big belly, finally showed his tyranny at this time. Don't look at Lu Dafu's usual behavior. He can express his opinions, but after all, he is the largest shareholder, so what he says can still make the boss of the trading house.

Lu Dafu’s original words were, “When our trading house was founded, we wanted to attract people from Jiangnan to become shareholders, but they looked down upon them. Not only did they refuse to take shares, they even didn’t want to trade goods through the trading house. Later, the Ji family was killed. They had to give in. Even if they wanted to buy shares at that time, we had the brands of Shengshang and Xiangfu, and Prince Pang Hui also vaguely supported it, so uncle Daguo and Mingxuan did not agree. Now that our trading company is getting stronger, why not Go back and ask them to buy shares?"

Huang Yueqi turned out to be much more mature and no longer cared about face so much. But Lu Dafu wanted to save face, "Even if they want to buy shares, they have to come to us, and all the people in Jiangnan combined, including raw silk, cotton, grain, etc., cannot exceed One percent.”

Lu Dafu became stubborn, and Xu Mingxuan and Huang Yue had nothing to do. Soon after, everyone in Jiangnan sent people to negotiate, but as soon as the trading house mentioned the conditions, the people who came walked away. 10% of the shares? What about the beggars?

Huang Yue and Xu Mingxuan were about to worry, so they approached Lu Dafu again. Unexpectedly, Lu Dafu was very confident, "It would be better if they don't talk about it. In two days, we won't even give them 10%. The Queen will read the whole book."

The fact is as Lu Dafu expected. As soon as the guilds controlled by everyone in Jiangnan lowered their prices, the prices of the goods traded in the trading houses also quickly dropped. This is how the market is. Let's take raw silk as an example. The Xu family and the Wei family are mainly engaged in the raw silk business. They first stocked up on goods, and the price of raw silk went up. When they released the goods at a low price, the market was affected, and the price naturally dropped.

During this period, Bei Leye returned to Jiangning once. Bei Leye was the most thoughtful. When he learned that various trade houses would ship goods at low prices, he immediately collected the working capital of trading houses, entrusted merchants to purchase goods from various trade houses, and then listed them with trading houses at high prices. Sell ​​and earn the difference. In this way, the market balance will be faster.

In the end, instead of losing money, the trading house made a small profit, which made Huang Yue and others smile from ear to ear and feel completely relieved.

Everyone in Jiangnan was stocking up and releasing goods, and those who were most affected were the small and medium-sized cargo owners. However, Lu Dafu quickly introduced a policy of reducing or reducing transaction tax rates to help small and medium-sized cargo owners tide over the difficulties.

Although everyone in Jiangnan has a large business, it is not an exclusive monopoly after all. It would be good if the Xu family and Wei family can account for a quarter of Daqi's total raw silk production. Of the remaining three-quarters, less than half is a free market The other half of those who trade are concentrated in trading houses to do transactions. Overall, the trading houses have the advantage.

This war was equivalent to a battle between the Jiangnan people and various small and medium-sized cargo owners. The result can be imagined. The Jiangnan people suffered a lot, and the small and medium-sized cargo owners also suffered heavy losses. In contrast, the trading house had almost no losses. It is the traveling businessmen who make the big profits.

After more than ten days, everyone in Jiangnan couldn't stand it anymore, so they had to restore the prices to normal levels. When the prices became normal, the merchants who originally went to various guilds to purchase goods returned to the trading house. The trading house did not make things difficult for them, but followed the instructions The consistent principle is that whether you come or go, you are free to do so. In this way, the trading house has gained the trust of merchants.

This was the first confrontation, and it was conducted intermittently three times after that. On one occasion, everyone in Jiangnan ignored the original agreement with the trading house and almost cut off the supply of goods from the trading house. And this time they learned their lesson and their requirements for merchants were not to be ignored. The incoming goods are scooped up to the trading house for trading.

Unfortunately, although the Jiangnan people were powerful, they could not control all the merchants. After purchasing goods from various guilds, many merchants secretly moved to the north where the Jiangnan people were weaker, and sold more than 20 merchants in Licheng, Kaifeng and Luoyang trading houses. Days later, these goods circulated to Jiangnan again, and the market price returned to equilibrium.

During this period, the branches of Huitong Trading Co., Ltd. in Jiangnan were greatly affected. However, under the coordination of Lu Dafu, they quickly made up for the losses and made a small surplus by earning price differences through the back-and-forth transshipment of goods.

This continuous economic war lasted for nearly three months and ended with a resounding victory for Huitong Trading House. The only people who were not satisfied were the merchants from all over the country. They wished that such wars would happen again so that they could earn more.

Also affected were the various guilds controlled by everyone in Jiangnan. Originally, due to the development of Huitong Trading House, the control of each guild was greatly reduced. As a result, after the war, after experiencing a short-term prosperity, each guild quickly fell apart, as if returning to the past. .Now, the various guilds are tending to disintegrate. They are just held on by everyone in Jiangnan and have not been clearly disbanded.

Everyone in Jiangnan was devastated and had to approach Huitong Trading Company several times to negotiate and buy shares. However, after this first experience, Huitong Trading Company was so confident that they refused to give up even half of their shares.

It has to be said that everyone in Jiangnan has a lot of energy, and they want to set up a trading house on their own to compete with Huitong. Originally, they had this idea. However, Huang Yuandu rejected it, and seriously warned everyone in Jiangnan that if they stand on their own Trading houses will not be protected by the government.

This time, with the upper-level offensive against Huang Yuandu, everyone in Jiangnan wanted to take this idea again. Under his entrustment, Pangtong bypassed Huang Yuandu and reported the matter directly to the little emperor, and hinted that he could give more cadres to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, the little emperor vetoed the matter. He knew that Huitong Trading Company was a business led by Song Zheng and Huang Yue behind the scenes. He originally sent Song Zheng to Western Shu, and the little emperor felt very guilty. Now he supported others and Song It's too unreasonable to fight against each other. Not to mention that everyone in Jiangnan gave 30% of the shares, even 60%, the little emperor would not do such a thing.

Therefore, in another sense, Huang Yuandu sent Song Zheng to Western Shu, which indirectly protected the trading house.

Everyone in Jiangnan failed in the economic war, and the upper-level route was blocked. There was no choice but to use the Duke's Mansion to work together with Kaibao, Datong and other forces to suppress the trading house through abnormal means. He designed a trap for Ruifeng Bank to frame Lu Qiu. It's one of them.

As Lu Chun explained the situation in detail, Song Zheng finally understood the inside story behind it and thought hard about how to deal with it.

"Xiao Lang, look, what should we do?" Lu Chun asked anxiously, now is indeed an urgent time.

Song Zheng hesitated for a moment, "It's easy to say to Lu Qiu. As long as we find the person behind it, we won't have to deal with it."

Lu Chun nodded. He also vaguely guessed that Song Zheng wanted to do things through Yousi, the Imperial City Secretary, but he would not ask anything. Lu Chun didn't want to provoke a yamen like Yousi, and only Song Zheng could do it himself. Handle this matter.

"As for everyone in Jiangnan, I have a way to deal with it. I can even destroy Datong Bank directly and cut off their roots. But..." Song Zheng sighed and said, "But I need time, and I don't have more than three months. I’m afraid it won’t be easy to prepare.”

"Three months?" Lu Chun said with a bitter smile, "But the time required by the Ministry of Punishment is only half a month. To be precise, there are still eleven days. If we can't raise 280,000 taels of silver in these eleven days, Ruifeng will

The bank will be completely sealed."

"Eleven days is indeed too little." Song Zheng tightened his lips.

"The worse is yet to come." Lv Chun sighed, "Datong and Kaibao have already spread the word and are demanding loan recovery in the name of setting up Huilian. I have calculated that Huitong owes the two major banks a total of 314,000.

One thousand five hundred taels of silver. This is simply life-threatening."

"Hmph! They are trying to force us to death. They want to swallow Huitong in one bite. They are not afraid of breaking their teeth." Song Zheng's face showed a cold light.

Lu Chun sighed

, everyone can say harsh words, but how to solve the current dilemma?