Liu Jiaquan's proposal made it difficult for people at Luohua Shipyard to make a decision for a while.
In fact, it was not that no one wanted to invest in them before, but they were ordinary businessmen who saw opportunities and wanted to enter the shipbuilding industry. The money was not too much, and the most important thing was that they had few resources. In the end They were all rejected by Luo Qixiong and the others.
The money is not much, and it has nothing to do with shipbuilding, so it cannot bring essential benefits to Luohua Shipyard. They come to participate in the stock market just to hug Luo Qixiong and others, and want to pick up bargains. Under such circumstances, how can Luo Qixiong and others easily promise.
It's not like Luo Qixiong doesn't know that people like him are valuable.
Why did the Finance Bank provide them with an unsecured low-interest loan of ten thousand taels of silver? It wasn't because their technical team was awesome enough. The loan was provided for the sake of their technical team.
In addition, there are some really powerful big bosses who want to invest, but these big bosses are not easy to deal with either!
Some of them have nothing to offer except money...and this kind of investment is actually of little use to many truly capable and ambitious entrepreneurial teams. To attract investment, they not only need money, but also investors. various connections and channels.
Just giving money and wanting shares in a start-up company that can be seen growing... is a beautiful thought.
In addition to having money, you must also come up with something that can help the company grow faster, whether it is contacts, channels, technology, or cooperation. In short, you must have something other than funds.
Luo Qixiong and his colleagues, Luohua Shipyard, are serious people in the industry. They are also a good project with great potential and will skyrocket as soon as the wind blows.
Therefore, just having money and wanting to participate is not enough.
In addition, there are some big bosses who have money and resources who also want to invest, but they want most of the shares with just one mouthful.
It's said to be an investment, but it's more like hiring someone... no matter what, it's like an acquisition.
How to put it this way, these people are basically the same as the Li family. If they want to enter the shipyard, they cannot simply participate in a share. It is as simple as a small dividend. They want to build a shipyard that belongs to them, so control is a must. of.
Without control, they would rather build a rudimentary shipyard themselves and then slowly make it bigger and stronger than use their own funds and connections to make wedding dresses for others.
In order to enter the shipbuilding industry, the Li family directly purchased a medium-sized shipyard, then invested heavily in technology upgrades, poached people, purchased equipment, etc., and spent money to build a Li family shipyard.
Most of the other businessmen who have a lot of capital and want to enter the shipyard also have this idea.
But Luo Qixiong would be damned if he could agree to it.
The reason why Luo Qixiong started his own business was, on the one hand, for glory and wealth, but on the other hand, he also wanted to be independent and be the master of his own business, without having to look at his boss's face.
Those people want to be his boss... nonsense!
So to a certain extent, Luohua Shipyard is short of money, but it is not short of money. As long as Luo Qixiong gives up his ambitions and gives up control of the shipyard, he can find a large amount of investment in minutes.
But Luo Qixiong doesn’t want to!
Therefore, the current situation of Luohua Shipyard is rather embarrassing.
At this time, Liu Jiaquan appeared 1
money? Liuhe Trading Company dare not say too much, but a dozen or two hundred thousand taels of silver is nothing. Even though Liuhe Trading Company is inconspicuous, they are really rich.
Liu Jiaquan naturally doesn’t have any connections other than money in the shipbuilding industry, but he has orders... First of all, it’s Liuhe Trading Company’s own orders. Liu Jiaquan has great ambitions in overseas trade. , he has long wanted to build a few large-scale armed merchant ships that can really travel across the ocean. As long as he has money, he dares to shoot some remote routes in Southeast Asia, and even dares to venture into the Indian Ocean.
Looking at the dozens of trading companies in the Chu Empire that have ocean trade licenses, so far, only three major trading companies have dared to run the Indian Ocean route. Even so, it is only an initial attempt. There is no fixed route, and they have not even been there. The west coast of the Indian peninsula only goes around the east coast of the Indian peninsula and Myanmar.
If they have a thousand-ton large-scale ship, the Liu family will all plan to go to the west coast of India, and even West Asia and North Africa.
If we can successfully open up new routes, the profits will be more than just money!
Under such circumstances, Liuhe Trading Company is very urgent for new large-scale ships. If possible, it is best to order two or even three ships.
In addition to Liuhe Trading Company's own orders, Liu Jiaquan is also confident that he can get a batch of orders for new large-scale ships from other trading companies.
There are many shipping companies that want new large-scale ships, but they have basically not been able to get them now, because there are only three shipyards in the country that can build large-scale ships, and the orders are basically filled by orders from the three major trading companies affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and the Navy. , unable to squeeze out production capacity for other private trading companies.
As for other shipyards, although they also want this cake, but they lack the strength and have no successful precedent, it is difficult for other trading companies to believe them.
You don’t even have a technical team, a large shipyard, or any successful experience. You’re just a small shipyard, and you want me to place an order? It’s really not money!
In addition to these conditions, Liu Jiaquan also stated that he would not seek to take control of Luohua Shipyard, and the shares did not need to be large, only 30%.
For this 30% share, Liuhe Trading Company can invest 30,000 taels. After taking the stake, the total share capital of Luohua Shipyard reaches 100,000 taels. Luo Qixiong and his technical team hold 70% of the shares, and Liuhe Trading Company holds 30%.
This means that Liu Jiaquan has positioned the value of their technical team at tens of thousands of taels of silver. As for the small workshops outside the technical team, they are not worth much.
At the same time, he promised that as long as he invested, he would immediately send start-up orders for at least two large-scale ships, and provide a deposit of 50,000 taels of silver for each order.
Two orders, a total deposit of one hundred thousand taels of silver!
As long as Luo Qixiong agrees to Liu Jiaquan's conditions, then Luohua Shipyard will be able to obtain 130,000 taels of silver in cash at one time.
With this 130,000 yuan, Luohua Shipyard can be truly established. With such sufficient funds, the speed of its production will not be much worse than that of the original Li's Shipyard during its expansion.
Of course, in addition to the shares, Liu Jiaquan also has another condition, which is to obtain order priority from this shipyard. Of course, this priority is if the prices are equal.
Luo Qixiong and the others didn't have any objections to this. Once Liu Jiaquan became a shareholder, he would become a shareholder. As a shareholder, it would be reasonable to have priority in obtaining orders at the same price.
After comprehensive consideration, Luo Qixiong and the others finally agreed.
How can I put it, except for Liu Jiaquan, there is really no other person who does not want control. He can spend more than 100,000 taels of silver to accompany them to play shipbuilding, even if 100,000 taels of silver are in the form of a deposit. .
This deposit is not safe. If Luohua Shipyard is not built in the end and becomes insolvent, let alone liquidated damages, this deposit will not be recovered...
After the two parties negotiated the detailed conditions, they quickly signed the contract formally and registered the equity conversion with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, legally confirming the investment transaction.
As a result, Liuhe Trading Company became the second largest shareholder of Luohua Shipyard.
The largest shareholder is Songjiang Shipbuilding Trading Company, which was established separately by Luo Qixiong and his technical team, and the second largest shareholder is Liuhe Trading Company.
Songjiang Shipbuilding and Trading Company was created by Luo Qixiong and his technical team in order to avoid losing control. In this trading company, Luo Qixiong occupies more than half of the shares, so he has control.
After having this control, and then investing in Luohua Shipyard in the name of Songjiang Shipbuilding and Trading Company, we can avoid Liu Jiaquan or others from changing the management rights in the future by acquiring other people's shares.
Luo Qixiong has a strong obsession with being the master of the family and has been on guard from the beginning.
Liu Jiaquan naturally had no objection to this. He only wanted 30% of the shares, plus order priority. As for management rights, he didn't know much about shipbuilding.
As long as Luohua Shipyard makes money for him and at the same time continuously provides him with more and better new ships when needed, then it will be enough.
Why are the three major trading companies directly under the Ministry of Industry able to run the Indian Ocean route now and occupy a dominant position in Southeast Asia and the East? In addition to their abundant funds and many people, they are also closely related to the two major companies behind them. Government-run large-scale shipyards have a great relationship.
Now only they can obtain new large-tonnage large-scale ships, other trading companies cannot.
Even after Li's Shipyard emerged, they directly spent a lot of money to cover all the Li's Shipyard's production capacity in the next four to five years...
With the new large-scale ships, they can create more profits than other trading companies.
The routes that a small fortune ship carrying two to three hundred tons of cargo can run are completely different from the routes that a new sea-going ship carrying seven to eight hundred tons of cargo can run, or even a large-scale ship carrying thousands of tons of cargo, and the profits it can bring are completely different!
And just when Liu Jiaquan and Luo Qixiong reached a cooperation, they were investing in shipbuilding and grabbing money while hoping to get involved in new and more profitable routes next year, especially the Indian Ocean route.
The fleet sent by the Nanyang Trading Company directly under the Ministry of Industry to trade in the Indian Ocean has officially set sail from Songjiang Shanghai Port in the monsoon from north to south in late autumn.
This time the Nanyang Trading Company sent a fleet to the Indian Ocean for trade for the second time, and its target was not only Myanmar and the east coast of the Indian peninsula.
In addition, we are also preparing to go to the west coast of the Indian Ocean and even West Asia and even East Africa.
Trade is secondary, the main purpose is to explore paths.
Circumventing the Indian peninsula and heading to the west coast of the Indian peninsula was a new challenge for the Nanyang trading companies. They needed to face unfamiliar waters.
Without nautical charts and unfamiliar with the routes along the way, this meant risks for sailing in the age of sail... Although the Chu Empire had reached corresponding trade opening agreements with the British, Portuguese and Dutch.
But they only allow you to trade at a number of ports designated by them, and promise not to directly send warships to attack the merchant ships of the Chu Empire.
I won't be kind enough to give you all the nautical charts, and I can't control or acquiesce in some private sea attacks.
In addition, the Chu Empire has not yet reached any official trade agreements with Persia, Ottoman and other countries in West Asia. It is still unknown whether its own ships will be able to dock smoothly and trade after this.
Therefore, the unknown risks of going to the Indian Ocean for trade this time are huge. Therefore, the Nanyang Trading Company is also extremely cautious. The smallest ship sailing is a new large-scale ship with a full load displacement of more than 700 tons.
The largest is a large new sea-going ship manufactured by Songjiang Naval Shipyard and just delivered to Nanyang Trading Company. Its full load displacement reaches more than 1,500 tons. This tonnage is comparable to the Jinling-class battleship.
Of course, although the tonnage is sufficient, the difference between armed merchant ships and warships is still quite big. In order to carry more cargo, the firepower of armed merchant ships is far from being comparable to that of warships.
However, even if the firepower of such a large armed merchant ship cannot be compared with that of a professional warship, it is not far behind. Ordinary pirates would have to go around it.
A 1,500-ton flagship Shenghe, two armed merchant ships with a displacement of 1,000 tons, and three armed merchant ships with a displacement of more than 700 tons.
The entire fleet consists of six ships!
There are more than 200 long-barreled naval guns of various types on board, and the total number of ordinary and armed crew members is more than 2,000.
Ordinary pirates would have to take a detour when seeing an armed trade fleet of this size. Even if they encounter the main fleet of some countries, they are still capable of fighting.
What's more, the Da Chu Empire Navy also sent a fleet to escort in the name of escort and training.
After all, Nanyang Trading Company's trading fleet this time, not to mention the ships and personnel themselves, just the various goods carried on it are also very valuable.
Among the thousands of tons of various trade supplies, in addition to the three traditional trade goods of silk, porcelain, and tea, there are also various types of fine iron products such as cloth, plate armor, cold weapons, hardware, and more recently, in the imperial industry Glass, soap, perfume and other emerging industrial products have recently appeared.
And these goods are worth millions!
Most of them were purchased by Nanyang Trading Company on credit or loans. If you ask Nanyang Trading Company to pay for it directly, it won't be worth so much if you sell their entire company.
If something happens to this fleet, Nanyang Trading Company will go bankrupt in minutes, and it will also implicate a lot of downstream manufacturers and financial institutions that provide loan support.
In order to ensure the absolute safety of this expensive trade fleet, the Dachu Empire Navy will send a fleet to escort it!
This squadron will consist of two Jinling-class battleships, two cruisers and four frigates.
It is quite powerful, at least in the South Ocean waters, even if the Dutch see it, they have to treat it with caution.
Of course, in order to avoid misunderstandings from other countries, especially the Dutch and Portuguese who have been preventing the official forces of the Chu Empire from entering the Indian Ocean in the past year, this squadron will also notify the Dutch, Portuguese and Filipinos before setting sail. The Spanish also informed the English.
Make it clear that this naval fleet is heading to the Indian Ocean to escort the merchant fleet and does not intend to change the current trade status in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Don't be nervous, let alone cause trouble!
The proactive notification is not only to eliminate misunderstandings, but also to use the colonial ports controlled by these countries for supplies.
Ships travel across the ocean. Although sailboats can theoretically have unlimited power, the food and water supplies on the ship are limited.
Even if you can carry a large amount of canned food to sea, you can ensure that the food will not rot for a long time, but the quantity is limited, and it will be eaten over time.
What's more, compared to food, drinking water is more troublesome.
Dan water is not easy to store. Over time, it will deteriorate due to various microorganisms and bacteria in the air, plus necessary consumption.
Due to the restrictions on food and fresh water, replenishment after the ship goes to sea is very important.
Then if you encounter wind and waves after going out to sea, the boat, especially the sail rig, may be damaged.
In this way, it has become necessary to seek ports in other countries for supplements and even repairs.
Of course, in fact, it is okay for these European colonial countries not to cooperate. The coastlines of Southeast Asia and India are so long, not all places are controlled by them, and most of them are actually the territory of the indigenous people.
When needed, the Chu Empire's fleet can directly go to the ports under the control of the natives for replenishment or repair.
Even if there is no port, you can just find a place to anchor, and then row a boat ashore to collect some fresh water and food or make emergency repairs.
These are all necessary technologies for ocean navigation in the Age of Discovery.
Huge merchant fleets loaded with goods worth millions set sail one after another under the escort of the naval fleet, forming a large fleet with a total of dozens of large ships.
Then, taking advantage of the early winter monsoon, they headed south, carried out the last supply and rest in Guangzhou, and loaded some trade goods in Guangzhou.
The fleet left Guangzhou and headed south all the way to the Strait of Malacca!
