Liu Jiaquan looked at the middle-aged scribe who walked forward quickly, but he had no good expression.
He was not someone ignorant of the world. As soon as he saw this middle-aged man coming over, many thoughts had already passed through his mind.
It's either a salesperson or a liar, there is absolutely no third possibility.
Because he came from Li's Shipyard, and he went to Li's Shipyard to negotiate a new ship order, and this man was obviously squatting outside the door, and his purpose was clear at a glance.
Sure enough, the first words of the middle-aged scribe who came forward were: "Brother, please stay. I am the external relations manager of Luohua Shipyard. I heard that your company wants to order a new type of sea-going ship. Do you want to consider our factory's new-type sea-going ship?" Boat?"
It was obviously not the first time that this person had done something like this. He didn't even wait for Liu Jiaquan before he directly stated his intention.
Simple, straightforward, and no pretentiousness!
Liu Jiaquan stopped and took a look at this person. He didn't look good and was dressed in ordinary clothes. At a glance, he could tell that he was not a big shot, just a businessman...
And I have never heard of Luohua Shipyard.
It seemed that he thought he was some kind of small ship owner, and then he was pulling himself to sell those small broken boats.
Think about it, this is normal. Li's shipyard is full of orders, and not every ship owner is like me, asking for a thousand-ton large-scale ship. For most shipping companies or trading companies in Laishui, they can A ship carrying three to four hundred tons of cargo is considered a big ship.
If it is a shipping company that runs offshore or river routes, their ships will be smaller, carrying dozens of tons of cargo, and those with one to two hundred tons are the main ships.
If these shipowners cannot order ships from Lee Shipyard, they will naturally choose other shipyards. It is normal for people from other shipyards to wait and see.
However, his Liu family is completely different!
Although his Liuhe Trading Company is not too big in scale, it is still a company that has obtained an ocean trade license. With so many shipping companies or trading companies in the empire, there are only a few companies that can obtain an ocean trade license. Just dozens of them.
This ocean trade license is not that easy to obtain. In order to regulate ocean trade and ensure the safety of ships going out to sea, the Chu Empire has relatively high review conditions for ocean trade licenses.
The first choice is to have a merchant ship that can carry at least several hundred tons of cargo. The risk of going to sea is too high if the ship is too small.
Secondly, this ship cannot be an ordinary merchant ship, it must be an armed merchant ship!
This is a hard condition for a large armed merchant ship, so that it can avoid the danger of wind and waves and the danger of piracy encountered when traveling across the ocean.
Secondly, the crew is also a big cost!
Because the sailors who go to sea are said to be sailors, but in fact most of them are armed personnel... They must be able to control artillery and musket combat, and the Dachu Empire has always been very strict in controlling armed personnel. There is no such thing as an armed force of dozens or hundreds of people allowed to appear on land.
The Da Chu Empire's continuous suppression of various bandits, landlords' armed forces and other illegal armed forces over the past many years can be seen from the Da Chu Empire's high-pressure control of civilian armed forces.
But sea trade is different. Going to sea without guns and cannons means you will die. At the same time, in order to open up the sea ban and develop larger overseas markets, the Chu Empire cannot control ocean trade purely with official capital. It must let more private capital Get involved.
Therefore, under this special situation, the Dachu Empire formulated special laws related to ocean trade, requiring that all armed personnel of ocean trading companies and their equipped naval guns, muskets and other weapons must be registered and pass military review. , and undergo regular inspections by the military.
At the same time, a hefty security deposit must be paid.
If you mess around, the deposit will be confiscated or even the company will be seized.
In order to avoid having armed personnel under their command, these trading companies naturally cannot find people randomly. They can only hire and maintain them for a long time. At the same time, they must receive regular naval training and ideological training.
More importantly, the armed crews of these ocean-going trading companies must also be included in the naval reserve for management. Once the navy recruits them, they must obey the recruitment unconditionally. Of course, the empire will provide certain compensation during the recruitment period and will not let them work in vain. live.
But even so, it will virtually increase the personnel costs of trading companies.
After all, if you are directly recruited by the navy when you are running a good ship, even if the navy will compensate you, it will not make up for the huge loss of being unable to conduct sea trade.
Large armed merchant ships maintain a group of armed personnel and must be drafted by the navy at any time. In addition, they must pay a large amount of deposits.
Just for such a complete set, the demand for funds is very huge.
A sea without sufficient strength cannot afford ocean-going trade.
That's it, not counting the various risks encountered after going to sea. Going to sea these days is very dangerous, with all kinds of natural and man-made disasters. After a ship goes to sea, God knows whether it can come back.
In the past year, at least a dozen of the ocean-going trading ships registered in the Chu Empire have never returned. A few of them were clearly informed of natural disasters and man-made dangers, but more than half of them had no information at all. The news came back that his life and death were unknown, and his whereabouts were unknown.
God knows what they encountered. Maybe it was a natural disaster, maybe they encountered pirates, or maybe they went to other indigenous countries and were killed.
And these are all costs.
Liu Jiaquan, who has been a pirate for more than 20 years, and owns two big fortune ships and more than 200 sailors, is able to do this business.
Therefore, even though Liu Jiaquan only has two two- to three-hundred-ton fortune ships at his disposal, he is really rich, at least richer than most of the so-called rich people in Guangzhou.
In this way, he simply doesn't like Fuzhou, Guangzhou, or Shachuan. He just wants those new large-scale ships with thousands of tons.
If he could have such a new large-scale armed merchant ship, he would dare to run some relatively remote routes to the South Seas and even routes to India.
The ships of the Chu Empire were also able to trade with ports in India and even further afield.
Because according to the relevant trade treaties signed between the Dachu Empire and the four countries of Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and England, several ports were opened to each other for trade.
It cannot be said that your ships can come to the ports of the Great Chu Empire for trade, but the ships of the Great Chu Empire cannot go to your ports for trade.
What matters is trade reciprocity.
But even though there is such a treaty, many sea areas or ports are still inaccessible.
Because the situation of pirates and merchants being pirates is extremely serious, just because someone asks you to go does not mean that you will arrive safely.
At present, only the three major trading companies directly under the Ministry of Industry of the Dachu Empire have the strength to send a small number of ships to trial trade with India, but the overall scale is not large.
It is said that it is to trade, but it is better to say that it is to explore the road.
It is worth noting that during this process, the English were the most welcoming to the Chu Empire to trade in India, and they even directly opened Bombay, their core colony in India.
This is also related to the rather special business model of the English in India.
The English East India Company operated partly by monopolizing British trade in India, and partly by taxation.
And now the English have discovered that the tax revenue from colonial operations is more than direct trade.
In addition, because the English did not have any colonies in Southeast Asia, and they had direct competition with the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese in Southeast Asia, it was very difficult for English ships to go to the Chu Empire for trade.
It is extremely difficult to find a port to rest and replenish supplies on the way, not to mention that you will often encounter so-called pirate attacks.
Under such circumstances, they also hoped that the merchant ships of the Chu Empire would transport large quantities of Chinese specialties to India and trade with them directly.
After all, the ships of the Chu Empire would not be obstructed by the Dutch or Spanish when sailing in the South Ocean. Even after the ships of the Chu Empire entered the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca, the forces of these countries did not dare to openly intercept them.
The security is much greater than if the British went to the Chu Empire on their own.
Maritime trade these days is very complex, and due to different policies of different countries, there are great differences.
The Great Chu Empire adopts a completely open model. No matter what kind of ship comes, as long as it comes to the Great Chu Empire to purchase goods and pay taxes honestly, then the Great Chu Empire welcomes them.
What the Dachu Empire actually wanted was not the profits from maritime trade itself, but the market and raw materials.
But the same cannot be said for other countries.
The Netherlands, Portugal and even Spain, their maritime trade model is for the profit of maritime trade itself. Therefore, they are very determined to monopolize routes, and their own ports basically do not allow ships from competitors, especially European competitors, to enter.
The ships of the Dachu Empire are an exception!
What... In Southeast Asia and even India's maritime trade, the Chu Empire was an indispensable part. Taking the Dutch as an example, what was their trade model like?
He imported cotton cloth, ironware and other industrial products from the Chu Empire, and then sold them to the indigenous areas in Southeast Asia and India under his control. He then purchased spices from all over Southeast Asia, and purchased cotton and other raw materials from India and sold them to merchants in the Chu Empire.
At the same time, traditional goods such as silk and porcelain will be imported from the Chu Empire and shipped back to Europe for sale.
The Portuguese's trade model was similar to that of the Dutch. They basically purchased goods from colonies in Southeast Asia and India, then sold them to the Chu Empire, and then sold the goods from the Chu Empire to these indigenous people, and then made profits.
In the end, it was inevitable to transport some high-value goods from the Chu Empire, such as silk and porcelain, back to Europe for sale.
As for the Spaniards, their trade in Southeast Asia has been simpler and more straightforward in recent years. They directly transported large quantities of gold, silver, saltpeter and other high-value materials from the Americas, sold the goods across the Pacific to the Da Chu Empire, and then purchased them from the Da Chu Empire. Silk, porcelain and other goods were shipped back to Europe for sale on a global route.
Here, the British are more tragic!
In fact, because they had no foothold in Southeast Asia and were excluded by the other three countries, it was difficult to directly trade with the Chu Empire.
So they could only go to Southeast Asia and trade with the merchants of the Chu Empire through the hands of the Dutch. In this way, the Dutch made a profit from it.
This is also the biggest contradiction between the British and the Dutch in trade in India and Southeast Asia.
If the British were not still in a civil war, they would probably have launched a war to capture Malacca.
Similarly, the contradiction between the Dutch and the Portuguese is also huge!
Not all countries want to engage in open trade like the Chu Empire!
The Dutch, Portuguese, British and Spanish were still in their early stages of colonial management, aiming to monopolize the profits of trade itself.
Under such circumstances, in fact, even if the Chu Empire tried to allow them to open their ports under a fair trade model, the restrictions would be relatively large.
Whether it is the Dutch, the Portuguese or the British, although their colonies in India are also open to merchant ships from the Chu Empire, they are only limited to a few special ports, and after the goods arrive, they cannot be exchanged with other For the company to trade, it must trade with the local East India Company of various countries.
Well, speaking of it, I have to mention the East India Company in various countries.
Today, there are four East India companies active in India and Southeast Asia, namely the British East India Company, the Portuguese East India Company, the Dutch East India Company, and the Danish East India Company.
As for the Spaniards, they did not engage in the East India Company. They directly engaged in official trade. The treasure ships on their global routes directly belonged to the Spanish government.
Generally speaking, in fact, the trade between these countries and the Chu Empire was carried out by the East India Company or official forces.
Countries do not have a large number of private trading companies participating in it like the Chu Empire.
However, many small countries in Southeast Asia, and even countries in India, West Asia and other places, will have some private ships to trade with the Chu Empire.
This kind of trading environment is very different from that of later generations!
In particular, the competition between countries is full of gunpowder. Although it is not a direct confrontation, it is very common to scrape off the pirate flag and shoot it directly.
This also made it more dangerous for the ships of the Chu Empire to go to some remote, unprotected routes in the Southeast Asian region or to trade with India.
In the past, the three powerful trading companies had the ability to move through the market unimpeded, but now, Liu Jiaquan also wants to participate.
The premise is that there must be at least one large new sea ship!
Not only must it be loaded with more cargo, but it must also carry more crew members and more artillery to protect itself during dangerous voyages and to discourage plundering attempts by real or fake pirates.
Currently, in the Chu Empire, only the two royal naval shipyards, Songjiang Naval Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard, as well as the newly emerged Li's Shipyard, can provide such large new sea-going ships.
Liu Jiaquan did not think that Luohua Shipyard, which suddenly appeared, could provide such ships.
But since the other party came to the door and said the word "new type of sea ship", Liu Jiaquan would not just leave without saying a word.
So he said: "What I want is a new sea-going ship that can carry at least a thousand tons of cargo. Can you build it?"
However, what the Liu family did not expect was that the middle-aged scribe said with an extremely certain tone: "We can do it!"
All the Liu family members were not surprised when they heard this. Instead, they laughed: "If you can build such a new type of large-scale ship, how can you be here to keep customers?"
Then he said with a serious face: "If you can really build this kind of new sea-going ship, orders from the three major trading companies have already been piled on your desk. How could you come to me!"
The middle-aged scribe listened to his ridicule, but he didn't feel angry or ashamed at all. Instead, he said: "Because our shipyard has not been built yet, they will naturally not place an order in advance!"
When Liu Jiaquan heard this, he didn't want to say anything. You haven't even built a shipyard yet, and then you come to sell it. Do you want to be a free hand or something like that?
The middle-aged scribe immediately pulled out a document and said: "It's normal for everyone to have doubts, but our Luohua Shipyard really has the technical capabilities to build this kind of new thousand-ton ship!"
"Our Luohua Shipyard was built independently from the Songjiang Naval Shipyard. The core shipbuilding team has more than 30 people. Not to mention new sea-going ships, even large warships have been built!"
"In addition to the technical team, we are also recruiting a large number of ordinary workers, and we have also entrusted relationships to order a large amount of equipment. The shipyard is scheduled to be at the mouth of the Liaohe River, where there is a large amount of cheap wood."
"All our preparations are in place, now we just need to start the order!"
Everyone in the Liu family was even more speechless when they heard this. Well, they really wanted to be free.
When you start the order, you can tell from the name that you want to make a deposit first, and then let them build the ship after they build the shipyard.
In the past few years, the industrial and commercial environment has exploded, and there have been countless similar deceptions. Liu Jiaquan is not a three-year-old child, so naturally he will not believe it easily.
Not to mention the total price of a thousand-ton armed merchant ship, the upfront deposit alone easily costs tens of thousands!
There is no visible and tangible shipyard, and there is not enough guarantee. You only need tens of thousands of taels of silver as a deposit.
It’s tens of thousands taels. The total income of ordinary people in ten lifetimes is not that much!
After the middle-aged scribe said a lot, he took out a document bag and handed it to Liu Jiaquan: "I know that your company is a powerful trading company. It is precisely because of this that I came to you specifically, because only you can It has the strength, and it also has this large ship that requires thousands of tons!”
"This is our information, Brother Liu might as well take a look!"
"In addition, based on the current shipbuilding industry in the empire, our Luohua Shipyard is the second private shipyard capable of building new large-scale ships of 1,000 tons, and there will be a third one in a short time!"
"Because there are only so many top teams in the shipbuilding industry. The team at Lee's Shipyard was recruited from Lee's Shipyard. Our team came from Songjiang Naval Shipyard. In a short period of time, the outside world will not appear. The third team!”
Liu Jiaquan finished the document bag and did not read it on the spot. He just nodded slightly and said, "I will read it later!"
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Then he said goodbye and left.
Regardless of whether he is a liar or a fanciful person, there is no need to be too serious about what he said. Anyway, Liu Jiaquan himself will not lose a hair.
And watching the Liu family leave, the middle-aged scribe also sighed slightly!
Starting a business is really difficult!
Especially in a business like shipbuilding that requires a large amount of capital investment in the early stage!
