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Section 7 Trade Discussion 3
Judging from everyone's reactions, Wen Desi knew that the response to this proposal was not very enthusiastic. At this time, Mo Xiao'an spoke: "Mr. Wen, what you said is correct, but mirrors are now our flagship product and have left an image of luxury goods to the people. If we rashly make cheap products, I'm afraid It’s not good for high-end product lines——”
Wen Desi replied: "Look, how many mirrors do you think people in the Ming Dynasty can buy?"
Mo Xiao'an said: "The Guangzhou Liaison Station sent news a few days ago. A batch of mirrors have been sent to the capital for sale after the new year. It is said that even the shop was squeezed and several people were injured. The Gao family is urging the dispatch As for the goods, tell me how much you need."
"How much does a mirror cost now?"
"Quotes in Guangzhou: The retail price of dark jade mirrors is between 80 and 120 taels, and the retail price of other colors is between 100 and 200 taels."
"Crocodile, how much income can the middle class earn in a place like Guangzhou?"
Yu Eshui said: "This range is very large. The average store clerk's salary is about one to two hundred taels per month. The big shopkeeper hired by the Guangzhou dispatch station used to earn 240 taels per year, which is considered a Ming Dynasty high-income earners."
"The ordinary people with a monthly income of one or two taels will definitely not be able to afford it. Even the high-end white-collar workers in Ming Dynasty will probably have to grit their teeth to buy our mirrors. How many wealthy households are left who can spend a few hundred taels casually? I guess it is a few thousand households at most. . So, among the number of mirrors we shipped last month, there were more than 1,200 mirrors. The market will be saturated sooner or later."
"Some rich families don't just need one or two mirrors. Rich people have ten or eight wives, and no one can have one, otherwise women will get jealous and repay them. If you have more wives, you will also have more children. Daughters and daughter-in-laws are not allowed to have one mirror. Everything needs to be done.”
After hearing Mo Xiaoan's words, everyone laughed.
"There are also wealthy households around Guangzhou who come to buy." Mo Xiao'an said, "Including those from Fujian, I heard that businessmen from Jiangnan also come to contact Gaoji and ask for purchases. Once they start purchasing, they will do it all at once. There are thousands of faces, but it’s not always possible to see only a few mirrors.”
"Looking at the overall situation, the form is indeed very good, but the product line must have long-term considerations." Wen Desi wondered if Mo Xiao'an's business sense was average. He would have to replace him next time, but it was a pity that both professional salesmen were there. Guangzhou "The cost of mirrors to us is negligible. Expanding the user base is only good for us if we buy more. As for high-end products, this is left to the Guangzhou dispatch station to consider. They support so many jewelry craftsmen and put mirrors It’s easy to tinker with the raw material to make it more luxurious. My idea is also to make the mirror accessible to as many people as possible.”
"Can't we consider selling mirrors to other places, such as Southeast Asia?"
"It's okay, that's why we have to do Macau work, Liu Xiang work and Zhu Cai Lao work." Wen Desi explained, "Needless to say, Macau itself is a window, and the latter two have quite extensive overseas control. Trading networks through which they can dump these products into Southeast Asia.”
"We have direct experience ourselves, so why should we help them make a fortune?" Li Haiping was puzzled by this issue. In his opinion, the Executive Committee had overestimated the power of these pirate leaders.
"Again, we should not make too many enemies at this stage. This is not an era of free trade. Being a maritime merchant still requires some skills." Wen Desi said.
It can be said that China's maritime trade in 1629 was a high-risk and high-reward industry. What they are facing is a space full of risks but huge profits.
Zheng Zhilong, a combination of government officials, merchants and thieves, basically controlled the route from Fujian to Japan. All trading ships passing through this area had to pay to buy the route, otherwise they would be robbed. Moreover, the Japanese shogunate only opened a few cities for foreign trade, with very few foreign trade objects. Trade could also be carried out at daimyo ports in some places, but a trade fee of 1,000 taels was also levied on each ship.
The Portuguese, British, and Dutch merchant fleets were both traders and thieves. They had to pay taxes when they encountered tough ones like Zheng, and robbed soft ones when they encountered them.
Spain was obsessed with colonization and slave trade in Southeast Asia, and basically controlled the Philippines and the Malay Archipelago. Although they relied heavily on Chinese maritime merchants to provide materials and manpower for the colonies, they were unable to join the trade with China. They had to rely on Manila galleons to continuously transport silver from the American colonies to lure Chinese maritime merchants to trade. Due to their over-reliance on Chinese businessmen, the Spaniards developed a morbid fear of the Chinese and spared no effort to suppress and control the Chinese. Chinese businessmen were greatly restricted.
The Netherlands has the most powerful maritime fleet in the China Sea, but as a latecomer, it does not have a good foothold. In order to seek new colonies, they attempted to control Taiwan and Penghu. There has been a war with the Zheng family for decades. It was not until 1661 that Zheng Chenggong regained Taiwan, and the Netherlands also failed in the Anglo-Dutch War and eventually declined.
Vietnam, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Northern Dynasties also need to pay 1,000 taels per year for port trade. The Southern Dynasties opened a city specifically for Chinese trade. Both the Northern and Southern Dynasties of Vietnam called themselves Little China, but they each found foreigners as their backers: the Northern Dynasties were supported by the Dutch, and the Southern Dynasties were supported by the Portuguese.
As a rising star, the British arrived late and have not found a foothold in this area, but they always want to enter this market.
Economic, political, religious, and ethnic factors are all entangled together, turning the entire East and Southeast Asia into a Darwinian jungle.
Although the time traveler has a strong ship and powerful guns, the population is sparse, especially the lack of ships and sailors, and the geographical environment is not favorable. For the time being, he is not qualified to participate in this sea carnival. Using the ready-made networks of those powerful maritime groups for sales has become the only option.
"Chinese goods are very popular in Southeast Asia. They were originally an excellent way to make money, and we also need many specialties from Southeast Asia." Zhong Lizhi said with regret, "Now we can't export silk, tea and porcelain. Quan, selling mirrors is not bad either. I remember that Chinese bronze mirrors used to be a traditional export commodity."
"The trade talks are so lively, about imports and exports, but what about ships?" Li Haiping continued to question.
"The transportation capacity is insufficient." Wen Desi sighed.
The current situation of the traversers is a bit like Japan. Lingao itself produces very few industrial and mining raw materials. The goods and important industrial raw materials sold by the traversers all rely on the import and export of ships. Not only that, even for the transportation of salt from Yanchang Village to Bairencheng - although a simple road has been built between the two places through Zhongzhong, due to the lack of animal power and vehicles, large quantities of sea salt products are still transported to Bopu by boat. transport.
This makes the fleet highly dependent on ships. Since the attack on Baitu Village, the fleet holdings of the Crossing Group has increased by leaps and bounds. At this time, there were already three 70-ton two-masted sea-going ships, namely "Dengyingzhou", "Fubo" and "Tongji", two 40-ton single-masted ships and a dozen small ships. Except for "Fu Bo", which is equipped as a battleship, the rest of these ships are used as transport ships. Among the five large and medium-sized ships, except for Fubo, who was not suitable to enter Guangzhou Port because he was armed, all of them ran the Guangzhou route and transported a large amount of materials urgently needed by the industrial sector. The problem is that the speed of delivery still cannot keep up with the demand of the industrial sector. Sailboats are slow and their carrying capacity is small. The Ministry of Maritime Power wants to expand the size of the fleet, but the problem of sailors has been troubling them - the prospect of several large maritime groups preparing for a decisive battle has caused a shortage of sailors, whether it is Liu Xiang, Zheng Zhilong, Zhu Cailao, or even the local officials of the Ming Dynasty, everywhere They are recruiting coastal fishermen and people with experience at sea. The Time Travel Group is obviously not favored by the common people.
"We still hope to build big ships, preferably ones with power." Li Haiping said, "Not to mention too big a ship, it must be at least two to three hundred deadweight tons. If it has power, the speed will be much faster. And there will be much less need for sailors. Landing on Yingzhou is faster than other ships, if it weren’t for the fact that there is always no diesel—"
"Mr. Wen, hasn't the Planning Commission approved the construction of a ketch? This kind of ship should be 200 tons. It only needs 10 sailors."
"Shipbuilding can't be that simple. Many of the equipment are missing. To build a ship, you must first complete the equipment in the shipyard." Wen Desi also had a headache about this matter: shipbuilding is not model shipbuilding after all. Back then, the Swedes copied the Gothenburg and it took nearly For more than ten years, most of the time was spent examining the shipbuilding technology of the time. This is under the premise that the Swedish people have complete information.
"Let's hurry up and complete the shipyard facilities first. Make an order for what you need, and we'll have a separate meeting with the mechanical department to resolve it later."
"As for the engine problem," Wang Luobin said, "I think whether it is a steam engine or a homemade single-cylinder diesel engine, it is not a problem for our industrial capabilities. Especially the single-cylinder diesel engine can not only be used as a marine engine, but also meet many aspects. , For example, it can be used in agriculture to tow small agricultural machinery, pump water, or even be used as a prime mover for short-distance transportation. Fuel is also easy to solve. Even if there is no diesel, vegetable oil or gas will be enough."
The manufacturing technology of single-cylinder diesel engine is the simplest among internal combustion engines. The earliest internal combustion engine that came out was a diesel engine, and the early diesel engines burned vegetable oil instead of diesel.
Wu Nanhai immediately supported: "This is good. There are many small agricultural machinery here, but they cannot be used without power."
Wang Luobin continued: "Although the single-cylinder diesel engine we manufacture cannot be as powerful as diesel engines for the time being, it is generally sufficient for use. If the power is insufficient, industrial equipment can also be driven by this. Early factory equipment all used steam engines. Or driven by other power machines. Considering the difficulty of producing self-produced electric motors, factories in the future may need to be driven by steam engines or diesel engines for a long time.",.
