Valley Emperor

Zuo Chengsheng had a plan in mind when he learned that Datang Oil Company was going to drill for oil in Baku.

Although the main target of trade in the West Sea is the Ottomans, and the profits are also very rich, Zuo Chengsheng knows that the competition in the future will definitely increase.

Where there is profit, there will always be no shortage of people seeking opportunities to make a fortune.

This time, the West Sea Trading Company's actions can be said to be very fast, but there are still a large number of businessmen flocking here. Without a large ship, everyone dares to take a small sampan and cross the voyage for several days to Baku for trade.

People who want money but don't want to die have gone too many these years.

And the market in Ottoman is not unlimited. On the contrary, the market in this indigenous country is very limited.

Although there are a lot of them, there are not many people with spending power, especially the main export commodities of Datang are not cheap except for cloth. For example, soap, perfume, porcelain, and silk are all veritable luxury accessories that ordinary indigenous people cannot afford.

In addition, Ottoman is not only Baku that can import Tang goods. On the contrary, Baku is just a supplement, and more Tang goods are imported from Basra, Egypt and other places.

Don't look at Curry's proximity to Baku, but it is far from the core Ottoman ruling area and the main consumer market, but it is in the southwestern Balkans, especially in the area of ​​Constantinople and Asia Minor.

In addition, Curry and even the entire Haidong Province are not the industrial production areas of the Datang Empire. In fact, there are not many people in this broken place, not to mention any factories. Basically, all industrial products in Haidong Province are even now. Most of the agricultural products and living materials were transported by rail from the central and eastern regions of the empire.

Rail transport is much more expensive than sea transport.

Even in the age of sailing, sea transportation was cheaper and cheaper than rail transportation, and now it is even cheaper in the age of steel steam.

At present, the cargo ships of Datang for ocean-going operations all start at 1,000 tons. At present, merchant ships with two or three thousand tons are already the mainstream. .

In addition, at present, the merchant ships of Datang generally adopt sail power.

The existence of its steam engine can effectively shorten the sea voyage and reach the destination faster. In the past, the sailboat only traveled to the South China Sea, and it took a year to go back and forth. Because of the existence of the monsoon, these ships could not go to sea when they wanted to go to sea. You have to wait for the monsoon to go south or north.

However, the advent of steam engines allowed Datang's merchant ships to go out to sea whenever they wanted.

In this way, it means that a ship can make multiple round trips between the mainland and Nanyang within a year, and the ship has depreciation costs. It can only run once a year and can run three or four times a year. There is a big difference. go.

This is why steam ships have been sought after by businessmen as soon as they appeared. Even though steam engines need to consume coal, they run fast and are not affected by monsoons. The benefits this brings far exceed the cost of mere coal.

At the same time, they did not abandon the sails. Nowadays, small and medium tonnage ships, whether military ships or civilian ships, generally still retain sails, which are still very useful when the wind is down.

As for the manpower cost of more sailors brought by sailing, this problem has been initially solved, that is, the use of mechanical equipment and hydraulic power to replace part of the manpower.

Therefore, the ships of these years are actually very flexible when sailing. When the wind is down, they usually turn off the steam engine directly, and then use the sail alone to sail. This is the frigate and cruiser of the Datang Navy. It is particularly obvious on the body. Basically, these warships under three or four thousand tons use sails alone for more than 70% of the time when they are not on combat missions.

This is especially true on various ocean-going merchant ships.

The only exceptions are large tonnage ships, such as those naval warships of more than 4,000 to 5,000 tons, such as Guangdong, or the flagship luxury large passenger ships of major shipping companies. They all have no sails and only use steam engines as power.

Then there are inland ships. Nowadays, inland ships basically do not use sails, because the heading of inland ships is fixed, and there is no way to zigzag like ocean-going ships.

Coupled with the reverse current, inland river ships rely more on steam engines. Relatively speaking, the role of sails has declined rapidly. Therefore, many new inland river ships, especially tugboats dedicated to inland rivers, are all powered by steam engines and have no sails. .

The development of sea transportation and river transportation in Datang is not as good as railway transportation at all, and even exceeds the role of railway transportation.

And their biggest means of competition is cheapness.

Datang shipping is cheap, even if it is transported all the way from the eastern coastal ports of the empire to Egypt, the CIF price of the goods will not be much more expensive than the Ottomans directly purchasing the goods in Baku.

Because Baku's goods also need to be transported by rail from the eastern provinces of the empire to Curry, and then transported to Baku through the West Sea.

Currently, the transportation costs of these two trade routes are similar.

The Egyptian route, which is easier to transport to Constantinople, is undoubtedly more price-competitive when transport costs are similar.

Therefore, in the future West Sea trade, if you continue to purchase goods from the eastern part of the empire, then this business will definitely become more and more difficult to do in the future. At most, it will only maintain the market in the Caucasus.

Although Zuo Chengsheng did not specialize in transportation, it did not prevent him from making such a judgment.

So Zuo Chengsheng just thought that since the cost of railway transportation is high, he will directly build a factory in Kuli, or even go to Baku, so that he can directly save more than half of the transportation cost.

It's just that the problems of workers and raw materials are not easy to solve, and the time will come when the time is right.

Before that, he was preparing to open up the local market in Baku.

Note that it is not the market of the Ottomans, but the market of Baku itself. There is only one reason for him to make such a decision, that is, Datang Oil Company is going to develop oil fields here.

At that time, there will definitely be a large number of employees of Datang Oil Company working here, and these people's spending power is much stronger than that of the Ottomans.

Speaking of the consumer market, the current domestic consumer market of the Datang Empire is the big one. Whether it is agricultural products or industrial products, the local market of the empire is the big one.

As for the overseas market, although there are also some, it is only for some special export-oriented goods. Many things cannot be exported, or those indigenous people do not want it, or cannot afford it, etc.

The employees of Datang Oil Company and other people supporting the oil company, Zuo Chengsheng estimated that the population of this Bakuli may reach more than 10,000 people in the next few years.

And these tens of thousands of people eat, drink and sleep, but it means a huge consumer market.

Thinking of this, he no longer cares about those Ottomans.

Anyway, these Ottomans can't run away, and their spending power is limited. After several batches of goods are transported in a row, it is estimated that the market in the Caucasus area will be full.

So Zuo Chengsheng is thinking of grabbing the consumer market of Datang Oil Company first.

To this end, he specifically found the Baku branch of Datang Oil Company and tried to find opportunities for cooperation.

Naturally, this kind of cooperation cannot be cooperation on oil, but cooperation in other aspects, such as logistics material supply.

And the people of Datang Oil's Baku branch are also worried.

People from their company have already started to enter Baku one after another, but now Baku is poor and empty, and there is not much to ask for, not even a few people.

Hundreds or even thousands of people from Datang Oil Company will come here in the future. It is not easy for so many people to eat, drink and sleep.

Zuo Chengsheng came to the door and said that he could provide logistical services. The two sides hit it off.

Immediately, a contract for the supply of a batch of materials was signed.

Holding the signed contract, Zuo Chengsheng smiled.

To be honest, this list doesn't make much money. When it is fully calculated, its gross profit is only about 20%, which is far from being compared with several times the profit of the Ottomans' trade.

But this is the advantage of stability, and through this list, he has already opened up the Baku branch of Datang Oil Company. As long as this order is completed, there will definitely be more orders in the future.

In addition, their company can also establish a firm foothold here, and then open up the personal consumption market.

When Zuo Chengsheng arrived in Baku, it was the first time he knew what it was like to have gold everywhere.

In Baku now, it can be said that you can make money by doing anything.

In addition to their trade, there are many things that can be done.

Relying on the oil development of Datang Oil Company here and the trade with the Ottomans, at least thousands or even tens of thousands of jobs can be provided.

A job means a market, a business, and making money.

When Zuo Chengsheng was developing the market in Baku, Curry in the back, General Manager Chen, the major shareholder of Xihai Company, was sitting in Curry, busy accepting goods from all over the country~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and arranging dispatching and loading, etc. .

And Captain Xu is also thinking of making a comeback. He stays on the Shengyuan all day long, busy with maintenance, loading, transportation, unloading and so on.

The other two shareholders got on the train directly and went to major cities along the railway line to look for freight.

When the West Sea Trading Company grew rapidly and became a well-known trading company in the West Sea in a short period of time, others were not far behind.

The trade with the Ottomans in Baku will be preempted by the West Sea Trading Company for a while, and the profits will not be so high if they squeeze in, but there is still a Safi dynasty in the south!

You must know that Qazvin, the capital of the Safi Dynasty, is not far from the Caspian Sea. In addition, several other important cities of the Safi Dynasty, such as Tabriz, are also located in the inland area of ​​the Safi Dynasty, far from the Persian Gulf.

At the same time, the relationship between the Safi Dynasty and the Ottomans has not been very good recently. The two sides are still in conflict over the Azerbaijan and Armenia regions, so don't expect the Ottomans and the Persians to do business.

It also meant that it was profitable to open a Kuri to Safi trade route in the West Sea.

Those who thought about it a little, also didn't bother to compete with the West Sea Trading Company, they directly engaged in ships, and then went to the Safi Dynasty to trade.

For a time, because of the trade with the Ottomans and Persians, and the development of oil by the Datang Oil Company in Baku, the once calm West Sea became lively in an instant.

And this is also the only shipyard for the empire in the entire West Sea region. The Curry Shipyard is a mix of joy and sorrow!

The good news is that there are many orders for ships.

Sadly, their current production capacity is nowhere near enough to fulfill so many boat orders!

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