Dominate the Country

Chapter 918: Changes in China

Hengtai County, Zibo, Qilu.

Huang Youtian put down his chopsticks, returned to his room and quickly packed his luggage. He had been in Hengtai County for five days, and he had seen everything he should see. He also had a good idea whether the future business could be carried out here. He was going to carry his luggage and continue to head south, towards Zibo Prefecture.

The public horse carriage from Hengtai to Zibo was a long-distance horse carriage, but it was different from the county public horse carriage in Hengtai County. There were only five trips that day. Now it was almost two o'clock, and he had to catch the three-thirty train.

After meeting his half-brother Zhang Laifu, Huang Youtian's fate changed, and now they are considered a complete family.

During the winter vacation last year, Huang Youtian's son Huang Dan met his own grandmother for the first time. Naturally, Huang Dan, who became a college student, made his father not show any fear in front of his second and third uncles, although the Huang family was really poor compared to Zhang Jinlai and Zhang Youfu. When the two sides talked about the future, Huang Youtian had planned to buy a small store in Yantai with the support of his "brothers" and continue his small business. This little money is not worth mentioning for Zhang Jinlai and Zhang Laifu.

Now that Huang Youtian, the elder brother, has given birth to a good child like Huang Dan, no matter how much family affection they have left, even for Huang Dan's sake, Zhang Jinlai and Zhang Laifu will not let Huang Youtian continue to be a peddler from village to village. Huang Dan is also very grateful to his two cheap uncles. Zhang Jinlai and Zhang Laifu really helped the Huang family.

The Zhang brothers also planned to buy a few stores in the provincial capital of Jinan, invest in real estate, and live on rent.

But at this time Huang Dan put forward a different opinion. He felt that since his two new uncles had money in their hands, it would be better to invest in a carriage and horse business instead of buying a store in Jinan.

Huang Dan, who is at Hanlin Academy University, is not from the School of Economics, but he has heard and seen a lot, and his "strategic" vision is much better than that of bumpkins like Zhang Jinlai and Zhang Laifu.

"Just look at the price of horses in recent years to know how popular the domestic carriage and horse business is. But it is still far from market saturation."

"What is the true market saturation? The prices of similar goods in villages and towns and cities, the same quality goods, cannot be said to be completely the same, but at least they are not that different." Huang Dan raised a can of coconut sugar in his hand. He did not buy this thing in Yantai, but brought it back from Nanjing.

The retail price of canned coconut sugar in Yantai is 50 cents higher than that in Nanjing, which can be regarded as the difference in freight. In fact, canned coconut sugar is very durable and not large in size. The cost price of shipping to Nanjing and Yantai is distributed to each can, which is almost zero.

But what about the price of coconut sugar in Dan County, their hometown? No, not Dan County. Just Zibo.

Gaoqing in the north of Zibo is close to the Daqing River. When the Yellow River failed to take over the Daqing River and flow into the sea, the Daqing River was a very important waterway in Shandong. The area of ​​Zibo Prefecture is long and narrow. It is probably about 200 miles from Gaoqing, the northernmost end, to the city of Zibo Prefecture. There is also the Xiaoqing River in between. In this case, the price of a can of coconut sugar in Zibo will still be 30 to 50 cents higher than that of Yantai Port.

As for the intersection of the Daqing River and the Grand Canal, the price of coconut sugar there is roughly the same as that in Zibo, and it may even be a few cents lower.

There are also cans of coconut sugar sold in Dan County. It should be more expensive than the intersection, but Dan County is close to the Grand Canal after all - more than 100 miles south of the intersection, although it is farther from the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Daqing River. But in fact, the price of coconut sugar is not higher than that of Zibo, because Dan County is only about 30 miles away from the canal. The canned coconut sugar here mainly comes from the Grand Canal, which is transported from south to north, rather than from the sea. But the price of coconut sugar in Dan County is also very stable, unlike Zibo, where the high and low can vary by two cents. The price of coconut sugar in Dan County has always been very stable!

A can of coconut sugar worth three yuan in Nanjing is three yuan and a half in Yantai, and four yuan in Dan County. Inland river transportation is not advantageous over sea transportation. But the price difference is even greater when it is transferred from the sea to the inland.

Huang Dan said: "Shandong's land transportation has not reached saturation at all. Those large docks already have strong and well-established carriage and horse companies. But what about small docks? Instead of investing money in real estate in Jinan, it is better to set up carriage and horse companies." Who knows when the real estate industry in Jinan will usher in the next wave of crazy growth. In recent years, the real estate industry in major cities across the country has been developing rapidly, and the price of land has been rising day by day, but when the price rises to a certain level, it will enter a stable period.

Huang Dan convinced his two new uncles, or he convinced his two new uncles with his identity as a college student.

In Nanjing and Shanghai, college students are not uncommon. But in Yantai and Jinan, college students are the treasures of various units and departments. In Shanxian, college students are even more superior.

Huang Youtian also got a new job because of his son's suggestion - investigator. Go to the field and take a look.

Although this job is more difficult, the carriage and horse business has been built, and Huang Youtian can get a 10% share. According to the initial investment of 50,000 yuan, 10% of the shares is also 5,000 yuan. Huang Youtian has to work for two years without eating or drinking to get so much.

Before taking the bus to the next destination, Huang Youtian still needs to visit an old acquaintance of his in Wangdian Town in the south of the city - a small trader who used to travel around Yantai with him. This small trader was a clerk in a cloth shop in his early years. After he had capital, he returned to his hometown to start a cloth shop business. Now his life is not so prosperous, but it is also enjoyable.

Let's not talk about anything else, just say that the store that this person sold that year was sold at three times the price.

Huang Youtian was supposed to stay in Hengtai for ten days, but it was because of the help of his old friend that Huang Youtian had a plan in his mind in just five days. Although they haven't seen each other for ten years, they haven't changed much [except that they are older]. The two sides recognized each other instantly when they looked at each other.

Huang Youtian and this person have been friends for no less than three years, but Huang Youtian separated from him more than ten years ago because he already had a horse and two large baskets at that time. At that time, Huang Youtian needed to save money to buy a house, and he couldn't keep up with the man's "pace", so the two separated.

The last time they met before was about ten years ago. At that time, Huang Youtian had just bought a batch of donkeys, and the man's "equipment" had been upgraded to a small horse-drawn truck, and his business had reached a new level.

Huang Youtian never saw this man again after that. He only heard that he returned to his hometown and opened a cloth shop. Now in Hengtai County, this man not only has a cloth shop, but also a department store specializing in selling groceries - such as sugar, knives, scissors, needles and thread, bamboo utensils, small wooden utensils, as well as alcoholic snacks, candles, whale oil, and oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, etc. But he also owed a considerable debt!

Because this person did not rent the store to open a department store, but bought it.

This person can be said to be the first person in their group to enter the physical store sequence. To be honest, Huang Youtian is still quite envious.

The topic has gone too far.

Huang Youtian's friend's department store business is pretty good. But it is far less than the flow of state-owned stores. After all, the categories of state-owned stores are much richer than those of private department stores. Ordinary people can buy all the things they need at one time here, which is much more convenient. And some things of state-owned stores are actually "exclusive monopolies" - the people can't get those goods at all. Therefore, state-owned stores sell at a low profit but high volume, and not only will they not lose money every year, but they will also make a good profit.

Moreover, the number of state-owned stores is limited, and many things still need bills [refer to the supply and marketing cooperatives in the previous article]. Many things are placed on the counter, but they will not be sold to ordinary people in unlimited quantities, and will not impact the economic market on a large scale.

Speaking of this, I have to say a little more. Since the tenth year of Chengtian, the construction of state-owned stores and supply and marketing cooperatives in various county governments has stopped. The latter was even more eliminated in the following ten years, and a considerable part of the former has also become private.

Now another five years have passed, and this state-owned department store is merging with the salt company, otherwise, this thing will disappear sooner or later.

As long as there is time - queuing, and there are tickets in hand, everyone is willing to buy things in state-owned stores with good quality and low prices. The most obvious point is watches and military uniforms. The prices of state-owned stores are definitely cheaper than the market prices outside, and the quality is excellent. The watches even have a warranty period. And the service attitude is also very good. In the early years, the service attitude of state-owned stores once became very bad, and the court was severely rectified. Now everyone is friendly.

Huang Youtian held the gift in one hand, and two boxes of snacks and two small jars of wine in the other hand, and then walked forward along the street.

This is the hottest place in Hengtai County. A stone bridge spans the two sides of the river. The river in the city is so small, you can go there by yourself. On the other side of the bridge is a huge market, a comprehensive market.

Area A is the original farmers' market, and Area B is the department store built later, which has everything. Huang Youtian's friend's new store is here. Then there is the station of Hengtai County in Area C. Outside Area C is a street of food, drink and entertainment in Hengtai County. The prices are even higher. Huang Youtian is reluctant to live here.

The bustle of the comprehensive market cannot be compared with Yantai. This is just a small county town, but the nature of businessmen is the same. The owners of each store are searching for every potential customer in the crowd with their gleaming eyes, trying to get everyone who comes in to buy the goods in their store.

The means of competition are nothing more than cheap and high-quality competition and various empty promises. Of course, in this process, it is inevitable to blacken competitors. These are all expected. Huang Youtian has long been accustomed to it. Many stores here are ordinary decorations, but some stores are very grand. The windows are all glass window cabinets. The walls of the store are even covered with wallpaper or have been specially decorated.

Unlike industrialized goods such as cloth and standard ironware, many shops in the market also sell goods shipped from various places such as whale meat, salted fish, dried fruits, tobacco, tobacco and alcohol. The original farmers' market opposite sells all kinds of seasonal vegetables, fresh meat, fish, seafood, poultry eggs, soy products, etc.

When Chen Han was first established, this was just a vegetable market. Farmers around the county would regularly bring their own goods to the market to sell. Whether it was chickens, ducks, eggs, poultry, or fruits and vegetables, there was no sign of organization. But now here, you can't see any disorganization, fighting alone.

They sell vegetables and fruits, and the words on their chests and backs indicate which farm or agricultural trade company they are from. In a word, there are fewer direct producers here, and more merchants/commercial organizations that go to the countryside to buy farmers' goods and resell them. This trend is changing very slowly, far less rapidly and drastically than the industrial product market, but more than 20 years have also changed a lot.

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