Reborn Industrial Tycoon

After returning to Qinghe, Li Weidong didn't rest. He went home, picked up the cashier's check, and immediately got on the bus heading south to Shanghai.

After more than ten hours of bumpy travel, Li Weidong finally arrived in Shanghai.

As the central city of finance and trade in China, Shanghai has many specialized foreign trade companies.

These foreign trade companies are also state-owned enterprises, and some are special state-owned enterprises that have certain foreign trade autonomy and foreign exchange autonomy. Such enterprises will set up special foreign trade subsidiaries, firstly to facilitate themselves, and secondly, through foreign trade business

Make a fortune. For example, the petroleum system, mining system, aviation system, shipping system, and military industry system all have their own foreign trade companies.

Another type is companies that specialize in foreign trade. These companies are not large in scale and are not affiliated with heavyweight state-owned enterprises, but they have an amazing network of relationships and a strong background. They can do some business that others cannot. Sometimes foreign trade

These foreign trade companies can buy things that the department cannot buy in large quantities.

For foreign trade companies with this kind of ability, the fathers of the people at the helm are often the kind of big shots who are known by their names. To put it another way, without a strong background, how could it be possible to engage in foreign trade in China in the 1980s.

What Li Weidong is looking for is, of course, the second type of foreign trade company.

…

In front of the door of Mintai Foreign Trade Company, a large group of people were crowding around, making it a bit chaotic.

Seeing this scene, Li Weidong couldn't help but think of the scene when he went to the Red Star Factory to return goods. At that time, a large group of people gathered at the door of the Red Star Factory's sales office.

Li Weidong observed for a moment and found a talkative older brother, so he walked up to him, took out two cigarettes, handed one to the other person, and said at the same time: "Comrade, please lend me a fire."

Seeing that someone was so particular about lending a fire and offering a cigarette, the talkative brother took the cigarette with a smile, then took out the lighter from his arms and lit it for Li Weidong himself.

Li Weidong took a puff of his cigarette and asked, "Comrade, you have so many people around here, what big deal are you trying to make?"

"This little comrade, your accent sounds like a foreigner!" the talkative brother asked in Mandarin with a Shanghainese accent.

"Yes, from Handong." Li Weidong nodded.

"Oh, no wonder you are so tall!" The talkative brother nodded, and then said: "We are all here to sign the order."

"What order are you signing?" Li Weidong asked.

"Of course it's a list of imported goods. This is a foreign trade company. We have imported goods in hand. After signing the order here, you can go to the dock to pick up the goods and just pull back a few boxes of imported goods. You can make a lot of money.

Enough to last half a lifetime." The talkative brother said.

Li Weidong looked at his talkative brother and then asked: "Comrade, looking at your appearance, you don't look like a self-employed person."

"Who is self-employed! I have an employer!" the talkative brother said.

"Are everyone else like you?" Li Weidong asked next.

The talkative brother nodded: "Basically, there should be no individual here."

At this time, Li Weidong had already understood that these people were "officers".

In the early days of reform and opening up, a large number of "traitors" emerged in China. At that time, the country implemented a dual-track price system, and planned and unplanned prices were different. The traitors took advantage of this and made profits from it.

Later, there was a crackdown on speculative fraud in China, and the fraudsters suffered a major blow at home, so they turned their attention to foreign countries. The famous exchange of cans for airplanes is a classic case of international fraudsters.

The business of trespassing is also divided into public and private. The trespassing among the people is called "private trespassing", while the trespassing among officials is called "official trespassing". The latter is of course more powerful. Official trespassing is often powerful and can be passed through.

Find connections, approve notes, use backdoors, etc. to obtain more resources and make profits from them.

Li Weidong's "transportation and sales" is actually a kind of "official corruption" behavior. When the transportation company goes to Yankuang, it will ask for 5,000 tons of coal a month. If it is not enough, it will have to add more. This is actually a back door.

If you change it to "privately dumping", Yankuang will not pay attention to you even if you are willing to offer a back door!

Among all trades, import and export trade is obviously the most profitable.

In China in the 1980s, no matter what kind of imported goods could be shipped to the country, you could definitely make money by selling them. How could you not be tempted by such a profitable thing?

This Mintai Foreign Trade Company probably just received a batch of imported goods. The group of people in front of them were holding various approval slips, hoping to get a batch of goods and then resell them to make money.

Just as the talkative brother said, if you get a few boxes of in-demand imported goods and change hands like this, you can make enough money for an ordinary person to live for half a lifetime.

There were too many people blocking the door of Mintai Foreign Trade Company, and everyone was queuing up. Li Weidong couldn't get in for a while, so he simply stood at the door and waited.

After a while, the door of the foreign trade company opened, and someone walked out with a frustrated look.

"What's in store this time? Is there a refrigerator and a TV?"

"Television sets no longer make money, and palm-sized tape recorders are now popular, and one can be sold for hundreds."

"What a tape recorder? That's what I'm saying! It's in English, do you understand?"

"You can't be slow, but I can be fast!"

"Old Wang, it's not a good thing to go too fast! You have to eat some kidneys to replenish your health."

This unexpected kick on the accelerator made everyone burst into laughter, and even Li Weidong also laughed.

The popular Walkman at that time, also known as the Walkman in later generations, reached the mouth of this group of people and became a driving topic.

The man who came out of the foreign trade company didn't pay attention to everyone's jokes. He said, "It said inside that we don't accept notes in RMB."

"What? Don't accept RMB?"

"How can this be? Foreign exchange is money, but RMB is not money?"

"These notes in my hand are all RMB notes, what should I do?"

The crowd immediately became a mess.

These traders all carry notes in their hands, but the notes are of all kinds. Many of them come with RMB notes to pick up goods, intending to use RMB to buy imported goods.

A company like Mintai Foreign Trade that does import and export business basically does not do original foreign trade orders. To put it bluntly, it is a big purchasing agent who earns the price difference. Others give you RMB and buy imported goods from you, allowing you to earn a price difference. This is

The profit model of foreign trade companies.

Nowadays, Mintai Foreign Trade says that it does not accept notes in RMB. This is the same as purchasing on behalf of you and asking you for foreign exchange.

This behavior of foreign trade companies is also normal. In the 1980s, domestic foreign exchange was tight and imported products were in short supply. So many dealers came to pick up the goods with notes, which obviously became a seller's market. It is normal for foreign trade companies not to accept RMB.

Mintai Foreign Trade does not accept RMB notes. Two-thirds of the dealers outside were immediately disappointed. The remaining one-third were very happy that what they had in their hands was not RMB notes.

After a while, another person came out of the foreign trade company, and everyone immediately gathered around him, asking what goods they could get this time.

"There is good news and there is bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" the man asked.

"Good news!" someone shouted immediately.

"The good news is that the goods imported by Mintai Foreign Trade this time include cameras, stereos, record players and walkmans!" the man replied.

Everyone suddenly looked happy, but those holding RMB notes in their hands had expressions of frustration, as if they had lost 100 million due to rounding off.

Although imported cameras, stereos, record players and walkmans are not as popular as household appliances such as televisions and washing machines, they are all scarce commodities with high profits.

Household appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines can already be produced domestically. Although the quality is not as good as imported goods, they can be used for a while.

But for things like cameras, stereos, and record players, the gap between domestic and foreign countries is relatively large.

Although the Seagull camera is very famous, it is still far inferior to foreign brands, and the effect of domestic speakers is far inferior to foreign speakers. As for the Walkman, which is the most popular among young people, it can only be produced abroad.

This type of product is considered a luxury product in China, and the profit generated is several times that of traditional home appliances such as televisions and refrigerators.

However, at this time, someone asked loudly: "What is the bad news?"

"The bad news is that they don't want foreign exchange coupons, they just want foreign exchange!"

Among the one-third who were originally happy, the expressions of two-thirds of the people changed from sunny to gloomy. It was obvious that they all had foreign exchange coupons, and they had just lost 100 million with four-color and five-yuan income.

Foreign exchange certificates are more valuable than RMB to the Chinese people, but for foreign trade companies, they are dispensable.

The biggest function of the foreign exchange coupon is that you can go to the Friendship Store to buy imported goods. However, foreign trade companies can also buy imported goods without going to the Friendship Store, so the foreign exchange coupons are naturally useless.

Among the original large group of people, only one-ninth are still eligible to get goods from Mintai Foreign Trade.

After a while, another person came out from inside.

"The people inside said that if you want a cash transfer, the kind of note that takes a long time to settle, people won't accept it because it takes too long!"

The difficulty has instantly increased a lot. Where can I find large sums of cash these days?

After a while, the fourth person came out and his first sentence was:

"They don't want rubles!"

Foreign exchange is also divided into three, six and nine grades. The Soviet ruble is obviously not high-grade foreign exchange in the eyes of foreign trade companies.

In the crowd, a few people's expressions suddenly became very ugly. They were the people holding ruble foreign exchange slips, and several people holding other foreign exchanges immediately asked: "Besides the ruble, what other foreign exchange do you don't want?"

"I don't want Korean won, Iranian rial, or Indian rupee!" the man replied.

"Mark? German Mark?" someone immediately asked.

"West Germany wants the Mark, but East Germany doesn't want it!"

"They are all Marks, why should we want West German Marks instead of East German Marks?" The man shouted excitedly. It was obvious that the foreign currency he had in hand was East German Marks.

After eliminating various conditions, few people were still qualified to enter the gate of Mintai Foreign Trade Company. People who had been queuing up dispersed, and the gate that was blocked by the crowd finally got out of the way.

The talkative brother had a disappointed expression on his face: "I didn't expect that there are so many rules and regulations. It seems that I came here today in vain. Everyone should leave! Little comrade, you should leave quickly. There is no excitement here.

.”

"You go first!" Li Weidong said with a smile.

"Why, are you planning to watch the excitement again? It's foreign exchange, and it's spot currency, and you won't be charged for this or that. I'm afraid there aren't many people here who can meet the conditions." The talkative brother continued to persuade.

"I'm not here to watch the fun!" Li Weidong said, extinguishing the cigarette in his hand, and then said: "I really meet all those conditions!"

After Li Weidong finished speaking, he walked into the door of the foreign trade company with envious and jealous eyes.