, In the cabin below the deck of Erlong Liuding, Lin Yi first relied on his luggage roll to save a few urgent things to do after arriving in Qiongshan. [No pop-up novel website]
The first thing is to do the work of Hai Shuzu.
Originally, the Traveling Group wanted to use the opportunity to lure him to come to Gao to go through the formalities and take back the ship. But Hai Shuzu obviously had doubts and hid in Qiongshan and refused to come to Lingao.
Of course, if it were me, I wouldn't dare to come here rashly. Lin Yiguang thought to himself, who knows what the Australians are planning? After all, Hai Shuzu was a man of some wealth.
If he didn't come to Gao, it would be nice for the Crossing Group to get a large ship and a lot of goods for free, but in comparison, Hai Shuzu would be of much greater use to the Crossing Group. It was not because he wanted to use the fact that he was a descendant of Hai Rui to win over the local people. Zhu Shen, but has a more practical use.
The Industrial Energy Commission has been sending reports to the Executive Committee, asking for ways to mine coal mines in Qiongshan. The coal mines in Haikou area are relatively good coal resources on Hainan Island. They are mainly lignite and can be used for coking. After the opening of Lite Mine, the use of coal for coking will become a big problem. Vietnam's Hung Chi Mining Mine produces high-quality anthracite coal that is not suitable for coking, and there are various difficulties in mining it. It is also limited by shipping capacity. The Works Energy Commission hopes to have a nearby place to obtain stable butterfly mineral resources.
However, in this time and space, the coal mines in Haikou have not yet been exploited on a large scale. Mining mines was a troublesome thing in ancient times. This was not because the procedures were difficult or the tax pressure was too heavy, but because the mining of minerals often suffered too much interference from local forces. Sometimes it is driven by economic interests, sometimes it is influenced by sayings such as "Feng Shui Geomai", and sometimes it is suppressed by primitive environmental protection concepts. Mining and smelting will inevitably destroy the local environment and cause serious pollution.
The government has no standards for whether to allow mining, and it is very arbitrary. Generally speaking, local governments are not too enthusiastic about mining: there is no concept of resource tax in the Ming Dynasty. Except for the Wanli Dynasty that briefly collected mineral taxes, mining has little impact on local finances. Although the benefits can bring personal benefits to officials of all sizes in the county, mining will inevitably attract a large number of miners. Workers have always been a "factor of instability" and often put strong pressure on the government to maintain stability. There is no benefit and it is easy to cause trouble, so once a dispute arises, the government will most likely adopt the approach of banning it.
If there is no powerful local figure to take charge of the overall situation or a relationship with such a person as a protective umbrella, it will be difficult to open this mine. It is precisely because of these unfavorable factors. Chuanchuan Group did not rush to send agents, such as Lin Quan'an, to directly invest in mining locally. Instead, they hope to induce local people to mine and acquire such a safe way to collect resources. However, mining does not produce coal overnight, and the investment is quite large. If the purchase price of Chuanchuan Group is too low, no one will be willing to open the mine; if the price is too high, the Planning Commission will feel that it cannot afford to do so.
So in the end, another method was changed: find a local agent to come forward, and let the Cross Group actually invest in mining.
In the opinion of the executive committee, Hai Shuzu is an excellent agent. With the reputation of the Hai family, it is easy to deal with the government and local forces in the local area.
How can we convince Hai Shuzu? Lin Baiguang thought about it, Hai Shuzu could raise funds to buy a boat. The act of going to the ocean for trade shows that there is an adventurous element in his character and he is full of desire for money. With these two premises, it shouldn't be difficult for such a person to convince him to open a mine. And according to the intelligence gathered by Chen Tong, the Hai family is now facing an extremely serious economic crisis. This is a good opportunity.
Lin Yiguang thought over and over again on the floor of the cabin. Without further ado, the current coke ovens use coal bought from Guangdong. The amount is not large and can be used. Once the first batch of iron ore arrives from Tiandu next year, coke will immediately become a bottleneck in the steel industry. .
After Lin Qiaoguang arrived in Qiongzhou, the shopkeepers and waiters transferred from Leizhou and the escorts transferred from Guangdong also arrived one after another. House renovation is in full swing.
During this gap, Lin Zhouguang asked Chen Tong to step up his penetration of the Hai family and keep abreast of first-hand information, while Gao Di was sent out to conduct a thorough investigation of the social situation.
After seven or eight days, the information obtained from various aspects was very good to Lin Qiaoguang: Hai Shuzu raised funds to buy a ship to trade in Xiaba City, and a total of fifty-one families including his family contributed money or goods. There were ninety shares in total, and Hai Shuzu himself occupied twenty-three shares. The structure of these fifty-one families is very complicated. They include members of the same clan, relatives, and friends of the Hai family, as well as local small businessmen. I heard that they can make a lot of money by going to the West to invest, and there are even slaves from the Hai family and other families. , these slaves pooled their savings and collectively participated in the four shares.
There are quite a few such small shareholders in the 90 shares, and some even only have half a share. The failure of Hai Shuzu's venture was such a blow to these small shareholders that many people made this "investment" with a coffin book. This shows that although the small shareholders with the weakest ability in Yongjiu Second Insurance are ancient people, they will not be exposed to risks and must be cautious when participating. They will easily hit themselves and jump off the building. The ancients did not understand what "limited liability" is. They gathered unceremoniously at the door of Hai's house and made a fuss every day, demanding that Hai Shuzu pay back the money.
For Hai Shuzu, who valued his family's reputation very much, this was nothing less than a slap in the face in public. Originally, operating maritime trade was not a shameful thing among scholar-bureaucrats, but now it is still causing such a fuss. You can imagine Hai Shuzu's current embarrassing situation.
His troubles don't stop there. In addition to equity participation, there is also borrowing, otherwise it would not be possible to build such a large sea-going ship. The borrowing will naturally have interest. The interest rate is not low. When creditors heard that the ship had been hijacked by pirates, they also came to pay for it.
Finally, there is a more dangerous group of people, those small traders who are neither shareholders nor creditors. They are passengers on the Haijia ship. Although most of them were rescued by the Time Travel Group, they not only survived, but also recovered some financial losses. But perhaps many of them are wasted in both human and financial resources. The orphans and widows whose husbands and sons had died came to his door one by one with disheveled hair, asking him to "come back with their lives"
"This is really hard to argue with." Lin Heguang sighed, "It seems that this sea trade business is really difficult to do."
"Master, as the saying goes, you only see thieves eating meat, but you don't see thieves being beaten." Gao Di said from the sidelines. "There are so many people who have gone bankrupt in sea trade. I often heard Master Gao mention this when I was working as an errand in Gao Ji's family. Some people are buried in fish belly, some are bankrupt, and there are also people who have lost their capital and cannot return to their hometown and are living in foreign countries. , even Mr. Gao himself has lost several cargoes, totaling tens of thousands of taels of silver."
Lin Zhiguang nodded. The unexpected risks of this maritime trade were too great. What was even more terrifying was that the ancient business custom was "unlimited liability." All his public and private properties would be used to pay off debts. One business failure can completely derail the operator and never make a comeback.
Of course Hai Shuzu was also aware of this terrible consequence. And after all, he is still a descendant of Hai Gong. If he ends up like this, it will not only be a matter of personal gain and loss, but also an insult to the family.
Lin Zhiguang could completely imagine Hai Shuzu's current mood.
After thinking for a while, he asked Chen Tong: "How is the Hai family's property?"
"It's just an empty frame." Chen Tong said that apart from the 200 acres of sacrificial land shared by the clan, the Hai family only had less than 200 acres of land. As for chattels, that's not to mention Hai Rui's reputation for integrity. He couldn't even afford a decent coffin when he died, and his descendants naturally wouldn't have much property.
Because the family had such a famous person who was known for his integrity, in order to protect the family's reputation, the Hai family never got involved in some of the evil ways to make money that were commonly used by local officials.
"It's not easy!" Lin Yiguang praised, "He is worthy of being a descendant of Hai Gong."
"Who says it's not?" Chen Tongshen agreed, "Everyone is also talking about it, saying it's a doom."
"If the Hai family can survive this crisis, it will definitely prosper." Lin Guangguang said implicitly, "It depends on whether Hai Shuzu's understanding is enough."
Lin Baiguang told Gao Di: "Go and inquire about the creditors who lent money to the Hai family. Are they willing to transfer the IOUs?"
Gao Di understood: Xiao Xiao understands. "Don't be too anxious to take action, but bargain hard." Lin Guangguang told him, "Hai Shuzu's IOU is almost worthless." "
If Hai Shuzu had no other financial resources and no financial support from outsiders, he would actually be bankrupt. He did a rough mental calculation and found that just paying back the debt and interest would be enough to bankrupt him.
"The matter of buying debts must be done covertly." Lin Shangguang told Gao Di.
Of course, he was not doing a good deed by buying the debt, but was preparing to use it as a blackmail. Once the news got out, it would be detrimental to both parties.
Hai Shuzu simply hid in Guangzhou now. There was nothing he could do. He hadn't had a peaceful night's sleep since the ship was robbed in the strait. The people on the ship later came back one after another, and only learned from their mouths that the ship had been robbed by pirates in the Qiongzhou Strait. Fortunately, he got Lingao's help. Thanks to the help of the Australians, everyone escaped with their lives, and to some extent they also did some business in Lingao. The five-masted ship was also towed and rescued to Lingao. Hai Shuzu couldn't believe the words of these small traders and sailors because the steward he sent to accompany the ship died. It was not until the fire chief of the five-masted ship came back with letters and gifts from the Australians that we learned the exact news.
Asking him to go to Lingao to retrieve the ships and goods in person, Hai Shuzu hesitated for a long time. It was because he didn't want to go. After all, there was still a glimmer of hope to recover part of the capital by going to Lingao. If he didn't go, he would just sit back and wait for death. However, his family and friends advised him not to go, saying that the Australians were not using this as a bait to make him fall into a trap and become a human being. ! ~!
