In the history of Guan Ning's army's logistics supply, there was a phenomenon that once attracted Zhao Yingong's attention, and that was Guan Ning's obsession with cash. [No pop-up novel website]
As an armed group with more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians, food is a priority in supply. However, in terms of specific transportation and supplies, it is not uncommon for food to be transported in different colors, and some people value silver more than food.
The biggest benefit of transporting less grain and more silver is to reduce transportation costs. Transporting silver is much cheaper than transporting grain of the same value. After the silver is transported, purchasing grain locally will invigorate the local area from a modern perspective. market, stimulating local economic development.
But when it comes to Guan Ningjun, this is simply a bad idea.
The Guanning Army was located in the bitterly cold Liaodong. After the Ming Dynasty lost Shenyang, all it actually retained was a series of camp corridors from Jinzhou to Shanhaiguan. Although military households continued to farm, the frost-free period in Liaodong lasted only less than two months. Under the harsh climate environment, the food self-sufficiency rate is very low. Depends on food supply within the customs.
Under such circumstances, transporting a large amount of silver for local transfer is tantamount to artificially creating inflation. Since it is impossible for Liaodong to supply enough food, it can only rely on food shipped in from merchants in the pass as a supplement. The grain within the customs has traveled thousands of miles, traveled across mountains and rivers, and been exploited at all levels to be transported to Liaodong. High freight costs and losses were added to the price of the grain.
Originally, the local currency stock was too much, and the grain imported at a large cost could not meet the needs, so Guanning Town fell into a kind of inflation, and the price of each stone was as high as more than ten taels, or even more than twenty taels.
Such a high price is an extremely heavy price for local ordinary soldiers, military households and people. Although on the surface every regular soldier receives a monthly salary of three to four taels of silver, in fact, except for a few elite servants and private soldiers, most people rarely receive their pay on time and in amount. It’s hard to make ends meet even if you spend all your money on food, and you can barely survive.
But this kind of red expansion is the best environment for the generals who control the distribution of resources to make a fortune. Through embezzlement of military pay and grain sales. Guan Ning's generals accumulated wealth that their predecessors could not imagine.
Zhao Yingong believes that to solve the problem, we must make a fuss about food.
"In my opinion, we still have to transport rice. The price of grain in Liaodong is extremely high. If you transport 50,000 shi of rice, even if you can buy it for three liang and one shi, you can at least double the profit by selling it! After delivery, It’s more than enough to drop the fees.”
Shen Tingyang's eyes lit up, and then he shook his head: "How can we tolerate such calmness! Not to mention that it takes a lot of effort to raise 50,000 shi of grain. When it is shipped to Liaodong, it is not easy to find someone to buy the 50,000 shi of grain. Easy thing——"
Even at the price of six taels of silver per stone, the total price of this batch of grain was three hundred thousand taels. Shen Tingyang really couldn't imagine that anyone could afford such a huge sum of money to buy it.
If they are sold piecemeal in batches, it will be very serious if the shipping date is delayed - although this time it is just a trial, the deadline is set very loosely. But if the time drags on too long, there is no guarantee that General Guan Ning will use this as an excuse to deliberately create difficulties to extort additional benefits.
"This is not difficult. I guarantee that someone can afford the money to buy it." Zhao Yingong was very sure.
Shen Tingyang looked at him with suspicion, although everyone knew that Zhao Yingong had a mysterious background. Not only did he have a strong sense of being a "thief", but he might also have a powerful official from Guangdong behind him. But he can be so sure about the business situation in Liaodong, which everyone regards as a daunting prospect, which makes people suspicious.
But Zhao Yingong was so confident. He is not a big talker - after experiencing the last trade with Japan, Zhao Yingong's credibility in the Jiangnan business circle is so good that he will not use big words to deceive him.
Shen Tingyang thought for a while and said immediately: "In this case, Brother Lao Xian must be involved. Brother Lao Xian means that the China Merchants Bureau will come forward to handle this transportation matter."
Zhao Yingong immediately understood what he meant: Shen Tingyang's family owns a large ship, and they don't need many sand ships to go to Liaodong. There is no need to let the joint venture investment agency do it. Shen Tingyang was testing him - if Zhao Yingong was telling lies, he would never dare to take risks with China Merchants Bureau, his "own daughter". If he dared to take it, it meant that he was confident enough in this method.
Zhao Yingong looked "surprised" and hurriedly expressed that this was inappropriate.
"There is no such reason," Zhao Yiggong shook his head repeatedly, "This is Brother Shen's career."
"If that's the case, China Merchants Group also has Brother Yu's shares."
"In that case, I will obey." Zhao Yiggong no longer refused. He wanted to get involved in this transaction.
Shen Tingyang didn't refuse when he saw him, knowing that he was definitely not bragging. I couldn't help but feel relieved: "It's just a matter of raising 50,000 shi of food. It won't be easy for a while."
The key here is to find a large grain merchant who can supply such a huge amount of grain. The quality of the grain does not have to be good, because what is exchanged is silver and the grain is sold on the market - in Liaodong now, as long as it is grain, there is no need to worry about selling it.
It is not easy to find a grain merchant who can provide 50,000 shi of grain. The scope of grain circulation in this era was very small. Although some grain distribution markets had been formed, the scope of radiation was limited.
Moreover, there were disasters of different sizes in various places in Nanchang last year, and grain production was greatly reduced. After the grain was transported by water, the remaining grain reserves in the local area were limited. To raise 50,000 shi of grain, we had to find many grain stores.
With such frequent and large purchases of grain, prices will inevitably rise sharply - the current market is already going up. Moreover, it is difficult to buy all the grain in one place and requires a long time of transportation. Shen Tingyang estimated that even if he purchased grain from grain dealers all over the South China Sea through the commercial network, the average cost of shipping each stone of grain when it finally arrived in Shanghai would probably be more than three taels.
"It's not that busy." Zhao Yingong said calmly, "I'm here to help find a solution for the food. But I still have to get the silver as soon as possible. I have to ask Brother Ji Ming to run around for this matter."
This kind of silver is not so easy to come by. Every procedure involves expenses. Zhao Yingong still understands this very well - even in the old days of democracy and rule of law, embellishments were indispensable for Party B to settle accounts with Party A in business cooperation, not to mention This is an era in which bad rules are brought to the fore.
"That's what it's meant to be."
Zhao Yingong immediately got busy. There were ready-made large-scale merchants in Liaodong: Li Luoyou's Liaohai Bank had both strength and sales network. It is not a problem for his trading company to buy the 50,000 shi of grain.
Although the price sold to Li Luoyou cannot be too high, the price of one stone and six taels is still no problem. He does not have to pay the full amount of 300,000 taels of silver in cash. He only needs to pay 100,000 taels to deliver it to Guanning Town. The Foreign Intelligence Bureau learned from the intelligence that Li Luoyou's Liaohai Bank used working capital in Liaodong. It is three to four hundred thousand taels all year round, so paying one hundred thousand taels in cash is not a problem. The rest of the money, according to the exchange agreement between them and Li Luoyou, can be used to offset withdrawals from branches in the customs or directly purchase goods.
In Liaodong, grain is the most sought-after and most profitable commodity. Whether it is sold to the Guan Ning Army, the Dongjiang Army, or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it can be sold at a high price. This depends on the choice of the Liaodong shopkeeper of Liaohai Bank, not to do anything with him, Zhao Yingong.
Letting Liao Haixing be a large-scale businessman also had another consideration for Zhao Yingong. Neither the Senate nor Shen Tingyang have much to do with each other on the ground in Liaodong. If we directly transport 50,000 shi of grain to Liaodong and sell it recklessly, not to mention that there are several merchants in Liaodong who can have this strength, all the grain may be stolen by the officers and soldiers, and not even a penny of silver can be obtained - Engagement in Denglai area Many businessmen in Liaodong went bankrupt because of this.
Li Luoyou has been operating in Liaodong for many years and has a deep foundation. He has deep collusion with local generals and officials. Naturally, the Liaohai Bank under his name has no such concerns - to be honest, only a powerful person like him dares to do so. You can still make a lot of money by doing business on the ground.
What remains is the crucial question, where does the brown rice come from? Food in the south of the Yangtze River is in the stage of scarcity. Large households that have food in their hands must be willing to sell at a high price. The price of food will fall back only after the summer grain comes on the market. Shen Tingyang obviously can't wait any longer.
Zhao Yingong's confidence was not as strong as when he promised Shen Tingyang. He originally planned to ship Siamese brown rice from Lingao. Siamese brown rice from Lingao has a sufficient price advantage. Even if it is shipped to Shanghai, the CIF price per stone will not exceed one tael. However, the arrival of Siamese rice is still limited by insufficient transportation capacity and the influx of a large number of immigrants. Until now, Lingao's grain is still a first-level controlled material directly controlled by the Planning Institute for import, export and distribution. If you want to transport 50,000 dan from Lingao in one go, even if you can earn several times the profit, the Planning Institute will probably not approve it. Although he has written a report to the Planning Institute, he feels that there is little hope.
As for Taiwan and Jeju, although agriculture has been developed to a certain extent, they still have to bear a large amount of refugee transfer work. In addition to Jeju Island barely being self-sufficient, Taiwan's food still needs to be transferred from Lingao, and it is impossible to expect them to transfer food. Moreover, a large amount of the food reserves in these two places consist of relief rations and potatoes, which may be difficult to realize in Liaodong.
It seems that food needs to be found elsewhere. Zhao Yingong considered several locations. The Li Dynasty of North Korea was a poor country. It would make the Li Dynasty complain if they spent several thousand dan of grain. It was unrealistic to buy grain from them. Although Japan's grain output was considerable by the standards of the time, what could be taken out was very limited - grain had never been their export product.
Zhao Yingong thought about it over and over, but couldn't come up with any clever ideas. To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation. Please go to m. to read.
Fast updates, no pop-ups, plain text
