In a sense, Liujiagang is not a seaport, but an inland port connected to the East China Sea. However, it is included in the seaport because of its distance to the sea.
But in terms of scale, Liujiagang handles 3 million feet of silk and nearly 1.8 million boxes of tea every year. Together with the same amount of porcelain, Liujiagang's various trade volume in a year is close to 2,000 square feet. Ten thousand taels.
This does not include the large quantities of Jiaozhou rice, gray sugar, jewelry and other goods landed from Liujiagang.
In the Ming Dynasty, Suzhou Prefecture relied on Liujiagang, and its annual tax revenue reached 37.8 million taels. This amount far exceeded the Wu Dynasty's tax revenue from the entire Bingzhou area, and was equivalent to the Wu Dynasty's previous fiscal revenue from the eight major cities. .
What’s even more frightening is that under the Ming Dynasty, there were five similar ports in Wenzhou, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Penghu, and Guangzhou. There were also a number of small and medium-sized garrison ports overseas such as Mancajia and Klang. In the hands of the regiment, that is, under the command of the navy, relying on these seaports alone, the Ming Dynasty can support its finances even if it does not collect internal taxes.
"Throughput is just an indicator. The key is market cultivation. Compared with ordinary raw materials, we value the future of your country more. For example..." Song Jia picked up the tea cup in her hand and swayed the milky white brewed milk in it, " Milk powder, this is simply a miracle in my opinion!”
"The demand for milk powder is huge. How can this be a mouthful of milk? Is this a blessing?"
What are the benefits of milk?
No data or indicators are needed. Just compare the physiques of Cao Man and Wu Ren, and the life span of Wu Ren and Akito. Anyone will understand where the gap comes from.
Don't mention eating meat... There are many kinds of meat in the North, but there are also many in the South. River delicacies are already in the menu of southerners. The development of maritime trade has brought seafood. Seafood has been included in the menu of the Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years.
In terms of social structure, warriors and Akito of the same class consume about the same amount of meat each year.
But there is still a gap in physique, and in Akito's understanding, this gap is just a mouthful of milk.
It's not that Akito doesn't want to breastfeed, but he doesn't have the environment or the ability. Now that milk powder appears, it's a perfect supplement.
The key is that milk powder is not very expensive!
If not for the low output this time, all the merchant ships on the return trip would have filled their cabins with milk powder.
"Don't worry, there will be no problem with the supply of milk powder!" Xia Dachuan said with a smile.
Milk powder, if you like it, that's fine.
Before the advent of milk powder, the amount of milk powder dumped in the northern grasslands every year was enough for Ming Dynasty people to drink.
At present, a thirty-liter bucket of milk costs only ten copper coins, and a kilogram of processed milk powder costs only twenty coppers, which can be sold. However, a kilogram of milk powder can be purchased for three hundred coppers, a full fifteen times profit. .
The maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty wanted to fill the cabins, and the warriors wanted even more, because it was all money!
Unfortunately, there was not enough preparation this year.
In order to collect 10,000 kilograms of milk powder, Nian Run has already brought over all the inventory under the names of Zhongshan Xia's, Hejian merchants, Guangchang Li's, and Fang Fang.
The household department made no money from it, but each family received six to seven hundred taels of silver.
Judging from the current situation, if we want to meet the needs of Mingren, the current grain production will not be enough.
"That's it for this year, but we hope that next year the amount of milk powder can reach 100,000 jins and 30,000 jins of butter. Otherwise, the current consumption will only last a month!"
Zhang Gaodong suggested.
When the people are rich, they will have more children. The process of overseas expansion requires strong Akito. In order to feed the children, Akito is very willing to pay for it.
Ten thousand kilograms of milk powder is not enough to feed ten thousand children for a month.
Even though the market has not yet been tested, the high-ranking officials and maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty who are extremely sensitive to the commercial market have long cared about this. They do not need to ship overseas. The annual output is less than 500,000 jins. The Ming Dynasty can internally Carry out digestion.
Without this understanding, it would be impossible to put milk powder out in the open in today's negotiations.
"We are determined to provide milk powder, but we hope your country can understand that the milk powder itself..."
"We can sign a contract first, one hundred thousand catties, two hundred and fifty cents per catty, and it will be paid before August next year. Once the contract is signed, my Shen family can pay it all!"
Shen Qingtian, who was sitting behind Zhang Gaodong, stood up and shouted to Wu Chaoyang.
"The same goes for my Yan family!"
"Seconded!"
The six representatives from the Ming Dynasty Chamber of Commerce shouted.
The number of one hundred thousand catties sounds very big, but in fact it is only twenty-five thousand taels. This amount of money is nothing at all to maritime merchants who conduct large transactions all year round. They use it for their own fleet. This is the amount of money that is needed for ballast.
The sum total of the six families is only 150,000 taels.
Faced with such a grand gesture, the Wu Dynasty was in chaos. Nian Run and Xia Dachuan looked at each other, then turned to look at the Ming Dynasty, "Okay!"
Summer is the regular milk season, and there is an abundance of milk, but it does not mean that the cattle and sheep are short of milk in the other three seasons. At worst, you can still make up this amount by drinking less.
And with these 150,000 taels, the Ministry of Revenue can take away at least 60%, which is 90,000 taels.
Ninety thousand taels is not much, it is not a lot, but the problem is in vain.
The sale of milk powder was settled, and the conversation was back on track. Shen's Trading Company, as the main body responsible for the terminal operation in the future, began to give information to the Ming Dynasty Court and introduce the specific project plan.
Time passed little by little, night fell, the lights started to turn on, the small door opened and closed more than a dozen times, but no one stopped. Everyone's attention was devoted to it, even the details were deduced in every possible way, for fear of losing their own money.
Dang Dang Dang...
Late at night, the clock struck.
Zhang Gaodong and Xia Dachuan looked at each other and raised their brushes, "I signed it!"
"me too!"
As soon as the pen hit the paper, the new round of contracts was quickly completed under the watchful eyes of dozens of big guys from both parties.
…
"Finally we have settled one side. We will finish the Kingdom of Jin the day after tomorrow and we can have a peaceful sleep!"
The old man took a short nap and missed the best time to fall asleep. Even though his body is exhausted, Xia Dachuan still doesn't feel sleepy at all. "I'm old. It's better to stay young for such long gatherings from now on!"
"It's a must. Without Mr. Xia and Mr. Zhang Ge, how could this matter have been dragged on for four or five more times, with more than four million taels of investment coming and going? To be honest, I am convinced by Mingren!"
When I think about the 1.8 million taels of dock construction costs, there is no need to go through the accounts of the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Accounts and the inner treasury. Several large chambers of commerce will cover it all, and they are willing to wait for more than ten years for it.
The amount of wealth the other party controlled gave Wu Dynasty a solid moment.
The wealth gap here is really incomparable.
"The gap between our two dynasties is there. You don't need to think too much. Mingren is not a fool. If we want the other party to put all the investment in place, how much more do we need to do? The Wu dynasty is poor, but we must not go astray. I have a hunch that the Wu dynasty is poor. If the DPRK wants to develop, there will be a lot of such cross-border cooperation in the future. Don’t lose the overall situation just for a few sesame seeds!”
"I understand how the Song Dynasty's model of transporting goods to Kyushu came about. I know very well that although the process was frustrating and a bit of a mistake, in terms of results, the Song people were undoubtedly the winners. The Ming Dynasty's financial resources have also developed over the years. Extremely, how could it go so smoothly this time? It’s because Mingren wanted to break the bottleneck of development!”
Nian Run gave his own opinion.
