Chapter 1 Jinghai Company
This time, He Xi took the post by sea. Take advantage of the last period of the southeast monsoon. This is also the fastest. No more than eleven or twelve days.
However, He Xi did not take the grain ship this time.
Because the war is imminent, transportation of grain will be very heavy. Zhang He will not wait for He Xi. He Xi learned from the Ministry of Household Affairs that Zhang He's task this year was to transport one million stones of grain to Liaodong. An increase of more than 200,000 from before. Although Zhang He added some new ships. However, there is still some difficulty in reaching this goal.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that He Xi was also on a grain ship.
Because the lowest cabin of the ship He Xi was on was filled with food. The higher-ups arranged for He Xi and He Xi's bodyguards.
This ship belongs to Jinghai Company.
Jinghai Trading Company was an idle thought of He Xi. He didn't pay much attention to it himself and left it to Princess Anqing to manage. It can be regarded as an extra income for the family. As for the rest, I didn’t think much about it. But she never expected that Princess Anqing would be pregnant, and she didn't bother to care about outside matters.
The world is big and no child is important.
Therefore, everything about Jinghai Company belongs to Yang Zhen.
Princess Anqing just sent someone to check the accounts.
But I never expected that Yang Zhen's talent seemed to be discovered just now.
In just over a year, the size of the entire Jinghai Company has increased by more than ten times. Even though there are many cross-river dragons involved in sea trade, some of the original shareholders of Jinghai Company have even formed new relationships. Yes, that's right. The one is Lu Zhongheng. Lu someone.
He established his own business in Nanyang, and it cannot be said that he will not bring Jinghai Company to play with him. It's just that he wants to eat Nanyang's unique food.
Even under such circumstances, Jinghai Company is still number one at sea. Even more than double the second place.
Of course, due to rapid expansion, there are also some minor problems with profitability and equity.
Princess Anqing didn't care and let Yang Zhen take care of it. But there were many things that Yang Zhen didn't dare to do, even if he did. It is also necessary to make amends after the fact. When He Xi was in Nanyang, Yang Zhen intended to go to Nanyang to report the situation to He Xi.
It's just that Jinghai Company didn't have no business in Nanyang. But the focus of Jinghai Company is still on the coast of Ming Dynasty. It is impossible for Yang Zhen to leave his hometown and go to Nanyang.
When He Xi came back, Yang Zhen immediately returned to Nanjing.
But He Xi is so busy in Nanjing. Even Princess Anqing has less time to accompany her, let alone Yang Zhen.
However, from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Lushunkou. At least ten days. So Yang Zhen accompanied He Xi on the boat. It took me ten days to report in detail.
He Xi didn't have any other time on the ship to take a look at Jinghai Company's information.
I really didn’t know it until I saw it, and I was shocked when I saw it. He Xi opened the first page and was startled and said, "Jinghai Company already has more than a hundred ships. Why so many?"
Yang Zhen said: "This is about to be reported to your lord. The company established a shipyard in Jingjiang. In the past year, more than 50 ships have been built. They have been added to the fleet."
He Xi said: "What to do with the wood? I know there are large trees in Taiwan. But if the wood is not dried in the shade, the ship will probably be damaged if it is not more than ten years old. Where did you find so much wood?"
Yang Zhen said: "Instead of using shade-dried wood, we found a way to dry the wood with fire."
He Xi frowned immediately after hearing this.
Because he knows that this won't work.
Because fire roasting will cause the wood to heat unevenly. causing the wood material to be affected. Even though it was burnt on the outside, it was still moist on the inside. It's not like He Xi hasn't tried it before. Historically, it was after the invention of the steam engine that steam heating was used to shorten the processing time of wood.
This is not possible today.
Yang Zhen said; "We asked experts to make inferences. It is estimated that a ship treated in this way can only last a dozen years. Even if there are problems with the workmanship, it may not be able to last even ten years. But I have also estimated that now Maritime trade is a huge profit. A ship can make money after one year. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is that the imperial court has just opened the sea and there is a shortage of ships at sea. The second reason is Nanyang was opened by the imperial court, and Ming merchant ships ran almost unimpeded from here to the West. Therefore, there was more demand for ships. But this situation will not last forever. In particular, Liaodong Wood Market, Jingjiang Wood Market, and Timber yards all over Southeast Asia are being built one after another. After the wood has been dried for three years, in about five or six years, there will be more and more ships on the sea. The freight price will drop. It will be one-half or one-third of the current level. One, or even one-tenth. So, I decided to work first, even if it can be used for more than ten years. I will earn back the shipping money in the first year, and the rest will be net profits. And when the freight drops. Our A new ship can also be used as a replacement.”
He Xi sighed secretly after hearing this. The talent of ancient people in business was no worse than that of foreigners.
After hearing what Yang Zhen said, He Xi remembered some of the battles in the shipping industry in later generations. The shipping industry is a highly cyclical industry. Many successful businessmen rely on the trough period to squeeze out their opponents. Persist until the peak profit period and monopolize money.
Today, Yang Zhen's approach almost coincides with that of later generations of businessmen.
With this move alone, He Xi no longer worried about Yang Zhen losing money.
He Xi said, "Not bad." Then he looked at the information in his hand. After a slight pause, he said: "Wei Guogong and several consorts have already invested in the shares? Why is there still Zhu Xiongying?"
Yang Zhen said; "This is all the palace's intention."
Originally, the He family controlled 50% of the shares in the palace, but after bringing in so many powerful people, the He family controlled only 30% of the shares. Of course, He Xi also knew that Princess Anqing borrowed the name of his father, but she didn't give her father a single coin.
Ouchi was not even shown the ledger.
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care about this either.
After all, she is one of the only legitimate daughters. Still a little girl. Almost the apple of my eye.
As long as you don't break the law or violate the court's laws, there is almost no problem with other things.
Three becomes 30%. Even if it is only 30% now, it is still more than 300,000 taels. And He Xi could see it. This is still expanding at a rapid pace. As Yang Zhen said, maritime trade is not yet saturated, and it is estimated that it will take several years before it reaches the saturation stage. By then, Jinghai Company will have more than 10 million taels in total, so He Xi will not be surprised.
After all, when Zheng Zhilong was in his prime, he had assets of 30 to 40 million yuan. Now the Ming Dynasty has officially lifted the ban, and Nanyang has also been merged into the Ming Dynasty's market. The whole plate is just bigger than during Zheng Zhilong's time. It’s just that there are a lot of strong dragons on this plate. Although Jinghai Company was powerful, it was impossible to capture them all. So with only 10% or 20% of the market share, more than 10 million taels would be a lot.
Of course, the annual dividends won't be that big. But there are still hundreds of thousands taels, or even more.
It is estimated that Zhu Yuanzhang will think of this money at that time.
He Xi didn't care about this either. He didn't care much about money. In other words, what he cares about is the money he can mobilize. It's not about how much money he personally has. After all, for He Xi, no matter how much money he has, it's just a few zeros.
It won't have any impact on his own life.
Adhering to this idea, He Xi took a cursory look, put it aside and said, "Tell me, what exactly is Jinghai Company doing now?"
"Yes." Yang Zhen said: "Jinghai Company is divided into three parts. The first part is trade. It operates the water routes from the Ming Dynasty to Xinzhou, from the Ming Dynasty to the Southeast Asian countries, from the Ming Dynasty to the West, and from the Ming Dynasty to Korea. Among them, the West is only After taking one boat, it is still in the exploratory stage and losing money, but everything else is making money. This is also the most profitable part of the business."
He Xi was stunned and said: "There are still people who are running against Goryeo? Isn't Goryeo hostile to our country?"
actually. Historically, Goryeo has always been on the fence, perhaps because Zhu Yuanzhang was attracted to Goryeo. Therefore, this year's Goryeo tribute horse was directly rejected. He also issued an edict to rebuke. The relationship between Goryeo and Ming Dynasty cooled rapidly.
Yang Zhen said: "The Korean people can refuse the Ming Dynasty. The Korean dignitaries cannot refuse the Ming Dynasty's products. And the Korean navy cannot refuse the cannons on our ships."
The goods of Ming Dynasty are the top luxury goods of this era, and the upper class nobles in the whole world cannot refuse them. As for the Goryeo Navy, it was naturally impossible to confront the Ming Dynasty's quasi-naval force.
