The last stop of Xu Yanliang's trip to Sanya was the trading station of Southeast Asian companies. Southeast Asian companies have very few ships with Sanya as their home port. There is almost no business in winter, so only a dozen staff members stay behind to guard the warehouses, ships and offices. Business activities have basically come to a standstill. Most of the staff have been temporarily transferred to other places.
This Southeast Asian company's expense management is quite strict. Xu Yanliang thought.
The person in charge who stayed at the trading station was named Tang Zheng. He is neither a captain nor a shareholder, but a genuine "cadre" appointed by the Senate. Xu Yanliang knew that the naturalized cadres working in such companies were not just "one of their own", they were probably also hidden cadres of the Political Security Bureau. He can be trusted completely.
After briefly asking about the company's operations, he asked seemingly casually: "Where is your hometown?"
"My hometown is Gaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong." Tang Zheng said, "That year when I went to Nanyang to do business, I was attacked by pirates in the Qiongzhou Strait. Fortunately, I was rescued by the Senate. But I lost my capital and couldn't do business, so I simply left behind."
"No wonder you came to work here. It turns out you were also a businessman who went to Southeast Asia."
"The chief is laughing. A businessman like me can only carry a few bags of goods, and the business is extremely small. Going to Nanyang is a small profit but a big profit. As long as nothing happens, one trip can feed the whole family for a year. But If there is a natural or man-made disaster, the family will be ruined immediately. This is how I stay in Lingao." Tang Zheng was quite emotional. He originally went to Nanyang with the Hai family's ship, but was robbed by pirates before leaving the Qiongzhou Strait. Although he was rescued in the end and picked up A small life was saved, but the cargo was flooded and seriously damaged.
"So that's it." Xu Yanliang nodded, "How many times have you been to Nanyang? What kind of goods do you sell? Silk?"
"About five or six times. Silk goods are too expensive, so what I sell is food and daily necessities. There is a shortage of everything there, and a penny item can be sold for twenty or thirty pence."
Tang Zheng was a small businessman, so the place he went to was not the big ports in Southeast Asia that Xu Yanliang often heard about, such as Manila and Batavia, but some ports that were unfamiliar to him. Compared with the large ports where merchants gather, the more remote small and medium-sized ports have better business and higher profits. The disadvantage is that it is less safe.
He is a businessman and is very talkative. Xu Yanliang originally knew very little about sea trade and basically got the information from reading books and materials. Now listening to him talk about practical practices and examples is lively and interesting. We talked for a long time. He also talked about the current operating conditions of Southeast Asian companies.
Xu Yanliang knows that the operations of Southeast Asian companies are similar to taxi companies in the old time and space. The company does not manage specific operations, but is only responsible for management, taxation, personnel and logistics. The captain is responsible for specific operations. The captain is either employed by the shareholder or is a shareholder himself.
He asked about the operation status of the Southeast Asian company's ships and how the operating costs were reasonable. Tang Zheng said that Southeast Asian companies now use the route license system. If the ships affiliated to the company are engaged in trade and are not acting as carriers, they need to apply for a license from the company.
"Is it the command flag from the past?"
"Yes, it is also called that - it is indeed a flag." Tang Zheng said that this kind of license has two calculation methods: annual and voyage. The annual package is expensive, but it has no limit on sailings, so it is suitable for routes that are run all year round; buying the sailings individually is cheaper, and is suitable for routes that are not run often.
"I remember that most of the merchant ships going to Nanyang can only make one round trip a year. How many times can they make it?"
"That was the old imperial calendar." Tang Zheng said, "Now there are special navigation charts. The captain only needs to follow the navigation charts and take different routes according to the wind direction and currents in each season. There is no need to wait at the dock for half a year before the monsoon starts. Let’s set sail. Besides, this sail rig has also been improved, and you can sail against the wind, but at a slower speed. The problem now is that there are not enough competent navigators, and most captains cannot learn new navigation techniques..."
So that’s it, Xu Yanliang thought to himself, the new technology brought by the Senate has greatly promoted the traditional maritime trade. He has been in the office for a long time and has no idea about these advancements - he is still hanging out in the big sailing club...
Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a slight fever on my face. Asked again:
"What about the price of this flag? If it's a year-round subscription."
"It turned out that the big ship to the South Seas was worth two thousand taels of silver, the medium ship was worth one thousand, and the small ship was worth five hundred. After the silver coins were changed, they were calculated in circles."
"That's a lot of money!" Xu Yanliang was a little surprised. According to the data provided by Wang You, there are currently forty-three trading ships operating on the Nanyang route. Even if all calculations are based on the median, the annual income from "license fees" alone is 43,000 yuan. In fact, there are very few small ships running the Southeast Asian trade, and most of them are large ships. Southeast Asian companies can earn almost 60,000 to 70,000 yuan from this alone.
With so much money, the net profit is only 27,000 yuan, and more than 10,000 yuan is distributed to shareholders. This planning institute is really quite good.
"The money does not belong to the company." Seeing his surprise, Tang Zheng explained that the proceeds from the shipping license must be turned over to the finance and taxation department, "...our company can withdraw 20% of it."
"So that's it." Xu Yanliang thought that's pretty much it! Otherwise, the heart is too dark! He asked: "What about other income?"
"That's a lot, and it's all bits and pieces." Tang Zheng knew all the treasures. In addition to various bits and pieces, another important income was the shipping license fee paid by the captain as a carrier. This is much cheaper, calculated on an annual basis. It also includes the "vehicle and vessel tax" collected on behalf of the company. It takes about tens of thousands of yuan a year. The company's commission is 50%.
Xu Yanliang added and subtracted in his mind, knowing that the net profit on the Southeast Asian company's report was normal, and there were not many ambushes. He felt a little disappointed - he had originally planned to fight with the finance and taxation department to see if he could keep more money. Now it seems that this is not possible.
"That's all the income. Are there any channels through which we can tap our potential?" Xu Yanliang asked.
Tang Zheng smiled and said: "Chief, when it comes to tapping potential, you can still tap it. Those ship owners can earn tens of millions from a business trip to Nanyang. If you really want to make more money, do something ingenious. It's just a chargeable item. However, the former department head said that the company was originally used by "Huairouyuanren". As long as they don't lose money in business, don't be so picky that everything costs money - they earn more. , let the Finance and Taxation Bureau go to them to collect income tax."
"The department chief is right." Xu Yanliang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I think your words are quite relaxing! Indeed, the Finance and Taxation Bureau has a hundred thousand ways to "regulate revenue," and he has no doubt that the Senate can obtain a large amount of tax revenue from these people every year. The problem is that this money cannot reach the pockets of Southeast Asian companies.
However, this also reminded him that there is currently not much potential to be tapped on the Senate's Nanyang route. It would be difficult to make the newly established Nanyang Company prosperous by relying solely on traditional China-Nanyang trade, and it would have to find another way. Not just the routes, but also the merchandise.
He thought of bone china, which had been proposed for export since its development. However, export kilns in Fujian and other places had sufficient supply of goods. Both foreign trade companies and the investment promotion bureaus established later lacked sufficient interest in this new product. After all, the production cost of bone china is much higher, and the output is not high enough. Except for a small amount of high-grade porcelain exported, it does not account for a large share of exports.
However, Engineer Qi has recently developed a new process for bone china, which should be able to significantly increase production and reduce costs. Nanyang Company can make this product its main product in the future.
Another product that came to mind was "ice cubes." This business is not unique, but an old business from the past. In the 19th century, European and American merchant ships coming to East Asia for trade had little cargo to transport, so they were often stuffed with sawdust for insulation. They transported European and American ice cubes to India, East Asia, and Southeast Asia for sale, and reaped huge benefits.
In May 1833, the American businessman Tudor sent the "Tuscany" carrying 180 tons of ice from Boston, sailed directly to Calcutta, and crossed the equator twice all the way. The ice carried would not melt for four months. Just fine. As expected, the Tuscany arrived at its destination. People there regarded natural ice as rare and delicacies. Therefore, the first ship of ice made a huge profit, which also made Tudor's reputation rise, and the gap between Boston and the Far East The ice transport business also developed rapidly. Based on the experience gained in the Caribbean, Tudor built an icehouse in Calcutta and encouraged the local Anglo-Indian people to buy household refrigerators, drink coolers and the like; he took out the apples, butter, and cheese that had been well refrigerated on the ship. Come and share the food with others in an attempt to influence their eating habits.
Soon, Boston's ice was reaching all directions. In 1846, Boston shipped 65,000 tons of ice. Ten years later, the total amount more than doubled, with 400 ships dispatched. It is sold in more than 50 places in the United States, the Caribbean, South America, and the East in India, China, the Philippines, and Australia. Ice became an important commodity and New England's bulk cargo in the world market.
Guangzhou, China's external port at that time, was also an important sales place for European and American ice. Now it is not Nanyang Company's turn to do business in Guangdong, but in places like India and Southeast Asia, the ice business is still completely blank.
Thinking of this, he suddenly seemed to have discovered a new continent and asked: "Is there a cold storage here?"
"Yes. How many are there?" Tang Zheng was stunned and wanted to ask the chief what the cold storage was for. This is only used by fishery cooperatives and food processing plants. They only buy some ice in summer to cool down. "The chief wants ice cubes. I will Then send someone to buy it..."
"No need, you just need to send someone to each icehouse to ask what their maximum output is and what the local demand is."
