Song Siyuan looked at Yue Guanchao: "This Huasheng Trading Company is considered a time-honored brand in Yueyang. It was probably around 1905 when Yueyang opened its port that it established a trading firm here. At the time of registration, its main business was book publishing, map surveying, and artwork. The business happened to be the company that the Yueyang authorities hired to survey and map the Cao Canal."
"In the past twenty years, their income from their main business has been almost negligible. How can they insist on not leaving for twenty years when they cannot obtain stable profits? These situations either mean that Huasheng Commercial Bank has concealed its profits. Or it means that there are other gray profits supporting Huasheng Commercial Bank."
"Think about it. In this case, they have to control Huihetang. It can be seen that Huihetang must be related to interests." She paused and her tone became mysterious: "Luo Shiniang once stayed in the Golden Rat Club. If she knows the inside story of Guanyin, I am afraid that she also knows everything about the treasure ships of the Southern Song Dynasty. If these foreigners are interested in this, they can also explain why they want to control Huihetang."
"Are you saying that these foreigners are selling sheep's heads and selling dog meat? They pretend to be law-abiding on the surface, but in fact they are stealing ancient tombs and reselling antiques?" Yue Guanchao slowly narrowed his eyes as he wanted to understand what she was saying.
"This is impossible. How could Miss Luo be colluding with foreigners? Maybe she didn't know that Huasheng Trading Company was reselling antiques. Although she is filled with hatred, she is not someone who does all kinds of bad things." Yue Qingshan obviously didn't want to believe this. A little, retorted.
Song Siyuan said: "Second uncle, if Huihetang has no interest at all, how can Huasheng Company control it for twenty years? The other way around is the same. Senior Luo can cooperate with Huasheng Company for twenty years, so he must also want to take control of Huasheng Company." What do you get from the company?"
"According to the report above, the stuffed things on these corpses are a kind of laboratory mycelium, which cannot be obtained by ordinary people. If there is no Huasheng Trading Company, what ability can Huihetang, a folk theater troupe, have to obtain it?" to these things.”
"If you think about it again, the Golden Rats will set up camp on Yugou Island. It is estimated that they are rushing for official silver or even the treasure ships of the Southern Song Dynasty." Every word of explanation cannot clarify the relationship between Luo Shiniang and Huasheng Trading Company. , Yue Qingshan no longer wanted to believe these speculations, and could only accept reality in the face of conclusive evidence.
Yue Qingshan's brows were full of doubts: "But I don't understand. If she wants to take revenge, she will take revenge. Why should she cooperate with foreigners? Even if she digs graves, she can keep it all for herself, so why let foreigners get involved."
"Probably, there is some kind of deal with the foreigners, right? If Senior Luo doesn't love money, but she wants to dig a grave, does it mean that there are other things she needs in the tomb? After cooperating with the foreigners, the treasure was swallowed by the foreigners. She wants to get what belongs to her?" This situation is not impossible. Foreigners are very familiar with doing these things.
At the end of the previous dynasty, the country was poor and weak, so foreigners opened the country with strong ships and cannons. At the beginning, it was only open to shipping and trade. With the disastrous defeats of the previous government's major and minor battles, the territory opened for trade was also expanding, first along the Yangtze River, then along the Pearl River, and finally spread throughout Jiangnan, Southwest, Lingnan, and even In order to please the foreigners, the imperial court even opened inland river shipping for them.
Since then, foreigners from various Western countries have entered the country with their respective embassies. They have set up factories here, opened foreign trade firms, engaged in business and missionary work, been dispatched to practice, stayed and ventured, taught and researched, and exchanged culture. It can be said that the people south of the river have In this region, foreigners have spread all over the major towns.
Looking at the purpose of these foreigners coming to China, they come here all the way for fame and fortune, whether they come for money or for fame. If they come to do business, their purpose can be considered legitimate. There are just some people who don't want to do serious business, but they just fall in love with antiques.
Because of "The Travels of Marco Polo", foreigners have long felt that the East is a rich and mysterious world. Foreigners in the age of navigation were quite adventurous. When the former government was forced to open the country, naturally some foreigners came to China for adventure. .
When these people arrive in the country, they like to walk to places such as the northwest and northeast, the grassland plateau and the Hexi Corridor. The farthest ones can even go from the Hexi Corridor to Central Asia. During the long adventure, they took photos and wrote notes along the way. Recording the customs, customs and geographical evolution along the way, accumulated a lot of precious information.
Of course, they are also very interested in these mysterious cultural relics from the Eastern world. As long as they encounter antiques, they will either buy and sell them or plunder them. In short, they must get them.
Because oriental antiques are so valuable, so valuable that An Ansheng can make huge profits dozens of times from doing business.
When the British and French allied forces raided the Old Summer Palace, they took away many royal treasures. These royal treasures were used for royal purposes. They were all complex, exquisite and top-grade products with superb craftsmanship. Foreigners had never seen such good things before. As long as these treasures were auctioned , it will definitely fetch a high price, making the auction house a lot of money.
As mentioned earlier, foreigners are extremely pragmatic. In business, since antiques are profitable, it also means that the antique business is also easy to do. For a time, antique dealers in the Western world smelled the sweet smell of oriental cultural relics and already knew the antique business. There is much to be done.
However, although they completed the industrialization of civilization earlier than the East, they are just younger brothers in front of the 5,000-year-old Eastern civilization. Even if these antique merchants open art trading houses in China, they will still face a very serious problem.
They know nothing about oriental cultural relics, and domestic antiques vary in quality. If they forcefully collect the antiques, they will suffer losses because they do not understand the market.
At this time, most antique dealers will find a knowledgeable antique dealer in the local area to check for them.
Those who collect antiques to sell them in this way are considered honest, but those who are even more dishonest must be foreigners who personally go to graves to dig up antiques.
These foreigners will entangle with tomb robbers, provide equipment for the tomb robbers, and ask the tomb robbers to go to the tomb to bring up the antiques. As long as they take action, the tomb robbers can share the profits. At the same time, because the foreign trading firms have preferential treatment in the country, they can also provide Temporarily shelter the tomb robbers, or even directly turn them into business clerks to hide their eyes from others.
When Song Siyuan was studying abroad in the West, some businessmen were interested in her status and asked her to work as a cultural relic agent in China. However, she did not have this ambition and refused.
One thing is certain, in the West, there are no owners for Eastern antiques. Whoever digs them up belongs to them. They are not shy about talking about the antique business. As long as there is profit, they can form a team to come to China at any time.
Song Siyuan looked at everyone: "In my opinion, Huasheng Foreign Company is mostly engaged in tomb robbing under the guise of business activities. In order to let people check for them, they just cooperated with Luo Shiniang."
