In the conference room on the Thor, Zhao Xin and the six-person security team were talking about bullet production equipment. But this time it was just a briefing where everyone gathered to chat, not a formal meeting.
Zhao Xin took a few sips of tea and then said: "I mentioned it to Andrew when I was placing the order. As a result, he told me the next day that a company could no longer sustain itself and planned to close down. Some equipment was ready for auction. He asked me if I wanted it. I agreed without even thinking about it."
Wang Yuanfang asked while eating the snacks Zhao Xin brought back, "What's the price? Is it expensive?"
Liu Sheng said: "Squad leader, it would be great to have it. Why do you care about the price?"
Zhao Liang said: "I took the time to reload a few of the shell casings you used on Bear Island last time and tried them. The effect was pretty good."
"Don't worry, the quantity I ordered from Andrew this time is enough to last for a while." Zhao Xin tore open another pack of snacks and distributed them to everyone, and then said: "In addition, the road connecting both sides of the Xila River Things are going to speed up, I’ll talk to Lao Chen about this later.”
"You mean building the bridge?" Liu Sheng said vaguely, chewing something in his mouth.
"No, what I mean is to open the ferries on both sides of the strait first." Zhao Xin shook his head and said: "Building bridges is too professional. I think the third-rate carpenters we have are quite embarrassing."
Ding Guofeng asked: "Now that the people on the Thor have almost left, when do you plan to leave? You have to ask me to go with you this time."
"It's only been a few days. Don't worry, this time you and Wu Siyu will go over and see each other." Zhao Xin smiled and reached out to pat Ding Guofeng on the shoulder. .
Deng Fei interrupted: "Don't worry, after everyone gets off the ship, you still have to clean the cargo hold."
No one here has an opinion on this matter. It is worth mentioning the smell of thousands of people eating, drinking and eating in two cargo holds.
Zhao Xin took out a pack of cigarettes and spread them around. After Ding Guofeng ordered it for him and took a few puffs, he said: "After picking up people this time, I plan to go to Hokkaido first and then to Nagasaki. We can't just stay here behind closed doors, we have to start trade."
Wu Siyu asked: "Do you know the situation over there?"
"I don't know much about it. I just need to see how it goes. The purpose of going this time is to get in touch with the Ezo people first, and then we can figure out what to do."
"Who are the Ezo people?" Wang Yuanfang asked.
"They are also called Ainu. The full name of the general in the shogunate of the island country is 'General Zhengyi', and the 'yi' refers to the Ainu. Speaking of which, these people are the aborigines of Hokkaido."
After hearing Zhao Xin's explanation, Ding Guofeng asked curiously: "Why are you looking for those people?"
Zhao Xin glanced at everyone and continued to explain: "Father goods. Those Ezo people have a lot of leather goods. We will exchange fur goods from them first, and then go to Nagasaki to trade with Qing Dynasty merchants. Do you understand?"
He said he was going to Nagasaki for trade, but Zhao Xin didn't have a letter card, and he couldn't get anything like a letter card. This is a bit difficult to handle.
The origin of the letter plate actually begins in the 54th year of Kangxi reign (in 1715, when the eighth shogun of the shogunate reigned).
In order to prevent the increasing outflow of gold, silver and copper resources, the shogunate set an annual limit of thirty Chinese merchant ships to trade with Japan, namely twenty-one ships from Nanjing, Fuzhou, and Ningbo, and others such as Xiamen, Taiwan, Guangdong, Cochin, Siam, and There are nine ships in total.
The total trade volume of all Chinese merchant ships is limited to 6,000 guan, with an average of about 191 guan per ship; every year, the copper (zhao, four tones, used for rowing, the short one is called ji, and the long one is called 湣). Island merchants The total output of refined copper smelted into the shape of a paddle) shall not exceed three million kilograms; Chinese merchant ships within the quota shall be subject to number management, and a letter plate will be issued according to the number every year. Only those with letter plates and consistent numbers are allowed to enter the port for trade. Otherwise, just go back and forth.
This is the famous "New Order of Zhengde".
(Those who frequently describe running to Nagasaki for human trafficking are all nonsense, not to mention that the shogunate does not allow citizens to go to sea at all. First of all, you can't even enter the port. Unless you come up and start a fight, it's hard to say what the outcome will be.)
Due to trade restrictions and the need to pass a letter card to trade in Nagasaki Port, the "Xinpai Storm" was triggered in the Qing Dynasty.
After the new Zhengde order was implemented, the 42 ships that received the letter plaques that year were mainly merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. After they returned to China, a group of Fujian gang captains who did not receive the letter plaque sued the magistrate of Yin County, Ningbo Prefecture, and sued the Jiangzhe Gang captain group for accepting a letter plaque with a Japanese era name. Disobey the imperial court.
To put it bluntly, it is pure envy, jealousy and hatred. I can't get it, and I can't let you get it.
The case was handed over to Xu Yuanmeng, the governor of Zhejiang at the time. Xu Yuanmeng believed that the Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchant gangs "used Chinese merchant ships to accept the Nagasaki local license.
Therefore, all forty-two letter cards belonging to Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants were confiscated by Zhejiang Customs supervision, and the nine ministers of the Qing Dynasty were also prepared to discuss the conviction.
However, Kangxi was quite clear at the time. He said in his edict: "This stamp is just a token of mutual trade, and it is not a document for local officials in our country... Our customs officials only gave stamps to foreign ships. For the purpose of verification, it is not comparable to the seals and decrees in the ministry.”
Kangxi meant that the governor of Zhejiang and the various imperial ministries did not understand the internal affairs of the trade and made a fuss about it, which would inevitably affect the merchants' trade, so he ordered that the original bills be returned to the merchants of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and trade would continue as usual.
In fact, the reason why Kangxi did this was because the Qing court was extremely short of copper at that time, and the number of copper coins minted was very short. Therefore, the copper from the island country must be transported in through these merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
(The Shen Jingdan mentioned above belongs to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchant gangs)
Therefore, if the Thor reaches Nagasaki, it will have to do it if it wants to trade.
Even if Zhao Xin finds some new and weird things to give to the shogunate (such as giving elephants to generals, someone has actually done this), in exchange for a "commendation letter", he will have to wait until the second year to enter Hong Kong.
He doesn't have this time! There's no other way. If you don't give me a letter, I'll give you free shells.
Zhao Xin thought about it and started to twist the building.
He then thought about the next question, what kind of trade could he do with Qing Dynasty merchants after going to Nagasaki?
In the seventeenth century, the main trading commodity of Tang Ship was refined gold sand or gold ingots. The Zheng family fleet, which is responsible for transportation, transports the gold to the Coromandel coast of India for trading, and can earn 20% to 40% profit. But when the Qing Dynasty completed its unification, especially after it captured Taiwan Island and exterminated the Zheng family, the shogunate immediately stopped the export of gold ingots.
For the Tang people who now go to Japan for trade, what attracts them most is copper.
The exporter responsible for processing copper in the island country was called "Izumiya", which was later known as "Sumitomo Trading Company"; in addition, there was Echigoya, which was engaged in textile import trade, which was later known as "Mitsui Trading Company".
As for the figurines, they are nothing more than shark fins, abalone and sea cucumbers, plus a small amount of handicrafts and samurai swords.
Zhao Xin didn't want to get too involved in the copper trade. Because even if the price of copper in another time and space was very cheap, merchants in the Qing Dynasty would not trade with gold at all.
During this era, the most common commodities shipped to Nagasaki by Qing Dynasty merchants were mainly raw silk, textiles, medicinal materials, sugar, as well as a small amount of minerals used for dyeing and miscellaneous books and papers.
Generally speaking, this was still an era of barter.
Maybe... Zhao Xin suddenly thought that maybe the glass thing could be done.
The Qing court had a glass factory under the Naijiao Prefecture Manufacturing Office, which used the color materials, formulas and techniques introduced by early European missionaries and Western merchants to develop and produce glassware for the palace.
These glasswares include transparent and smooth flat glass, richly colored single-color glass, multi-color and colored glass, glass body enamel, glass paintings, and multi-faceted cut and mosaic glass. They were mainly used in palace doors and windows, carriages and carriages, eating utensils, stationery, and even body ornaments; the most famous of which is the snuff bottle.
How much does a glass snuff bottle from another time and space cost? It seems to be only a few dozen yuan. The more he thought about it, the more he realized there was something wrong with it.
The matter of the Qing Dynasty merchants was finally settled. So besides people and gold, what else does the island country need?
Zhao Xin's eyes turned to the conference table, and a bag of black melon seeds caught his attention.
Black... black..., I'll strangle you! It's coal!
To be precise, it is coal from Hokkaido, and it is also high-quality thermal coal.
There are actually coal mines near Beihai Town, but they are all low-quality lignite. Lignite is highly chemically reactive and easily weathered, making it difficult to store and transport. It causes serious air pollution when burned and produces a large amount of black ash.
However, the mined lignite is indeed a very good fertilizer after being crushed.
With coal, coupled with steam motors, there was electricity, and a large fleet of motor boats was possible.
Since there will be a conflict with the Tokugawa shogunate sooner or later, let's start with Hokkaido.
Thinking of this, Zhao Xin slapped the table and said loudly: "I changed my mind, take Hokkaido first!"
The meeting room of the Thor was silent, with no one responding.
"I'll go, when did these guys leave? They didn't say a word." Zhao Xin looked at the empty room and said helplessly.
Liu Sheng and the others had already escaped.
Originally, they were listening to Zhao Xin talking about "Ezo" and "Nagasaki", but as he was talking, Zhao Xin became silent and lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking about.
If that's all it is. But Liu Sheng and the others saw Zhao Xin's face gritting his teeth for a while, and then grinning wickedly; at the same time, he was still mumbling something.
So Liu Sheng winked at the others, and the six of them quietly got up and went to the deck, standing on the side of the ship and chatting. .
Ding Guofeng said to the other five people: "I said, Mr. Zhao is thinking about who to trick again, right?"
"Why do you say again?" Wang Yuanfang asked strangely: "Who has he tricked?"
"The Qing soldiers in Hunchun, and the Sendai clan." Ding Guofeng said as if he knew Zhao Xin very well.
"This is not a guarantee. I saw that he was talking about Nagasaki and stopped talking about it. He was probably plotting against someone." Liu Sheng crossed his arms, looking very authoritative.
"Do you think he is preparing to go to war with the shogunate?" Zhao Liang asked.
"That's not true. By the way, we just signed an agreement with the Sendai Clan. Are we falling out in less than two days?" Wu Siyu said uncertainly.
"You don't know this. Let me tell you, the Sendai clan and the shogunate are not on the same side." Ding Guofeng said proudly.
"Stop guessing. You will know when you need to know." Wang Yuanfang advised.
Wu Siyu inadvertently looked up and saw Zhao Xin walking out of the cabin.
"Look, he's out."
The six of them saw Zhao Xin slowly walking up to them, lighting up a cigarette, and after taking a few puffs, he said slowly: "Continue recruiting. When the next batch of refugees arrives, we will expand the team to at least 1,500 people." "
Liu Sheng and others were stunned. Last week, this man said not to expand the scale of conscription easily. Why did he change his mind now?
"Give me a reason." Liu Sheng asked, staring at Zhao Xin.
“Take the open-pit coal mine in Hokkaido!”
(End of chapter)
