Fight the Giants

  Chapter 257 Contraband

   "My boss."

   "Shopkeeper Shen?" Seeing Shen Qianzhong in the shop, Huo Xi and Yang Fu were a little surprised. This person is really careless, he just talked about it yesterday, but he saw it today.

   "Boss, I'm late."

   "It's okay. It's good to be back, it's been hard work. Is everything going well?" Huo Xi looked him up and down, and saw that he was fine except for being a little tired. Let go of your heart.

Shen Qian nodded: "It went smoothly when we arrived in Beiping. It's just that the emperor ordered people to dredge the north-south canal, repair gates, renovate dams, and widen the river. The boat traveled slowly all the way. Waiting to cross the hurdles and dams It took a lot of time, and I paid a lot of money. Fortunately, all the goods we shipped were durable goods, and many merchant ships sold the goods halfway, and they didn't even reach Peiping."

   Dredging the canal all the way? It seems that the emperor is very determined. This is to use the canal to transport a large amount of food and supplies to the north.

  This is a good thing for merchants. The north-south canal is dredged and the river channel is widened, so the transportation of materials to the north will be smoother.

  Shen Qianzhong handed Huo Xi a box: "Here is the deed of the house, and the deeds of the servants."

  Huo Xi took it and flipped through it.

  Shen Qianzhong took 10,000 taels of silver and went north, and bought two large shops with warehouses on the main street of Beiping City. I bought three more Zhuangzi, with a total of 1,050 mu, and also bought a yard with five entrances in the city. And three servants.

   There are also some deeds signed by the tenants in the box, the deeds of the shopkeeper's buddy.

   "Ten thousand taels of silver is enough?" The land and real estate in Shuntian Prefecture are quite cheap.

"The field on Zhuangzi is only seven taels of silver per mu. The shop is much cheaper than the capital. The three shipments received a total of 5,600 taels of goods, and I decided to invest another 2,000 taels in. Along the way, I collected some from the north. The goods, about 1,300 taels left, have been recorded in the account."

  Huo Xi feels at ease, if the business loses money in the future, with these real estate properties, he can cash them back to the young master of the Mu family.

  Said something hard to Shen Qianzhong: "Are both shops open?"

"It's opened. Although Beiping City is not as good as the capital, but as a place of Longxing, its popularity is not bad. The shopkeeper and the accountants are all recruited, so I will decide to open the shop. I will put the unsold goods in the shop , let them sell slowly.”

   "You arranged it very well."

  When the shop is opened, it will be alive, and there is no need to be idle. Even if the cost will not be recovered for a while, it is enough to just manage a reputation. Slowly collect some goods from the north and return to the south to earn back the salaries of the shopkeepers.

   I didn't expect the house to be cheap, Wujin's yard only cost less than one thousand taels. Huo Xi thought that if he had money, he would buy more properties in the north.

"I think the land over there is cheaper than ours. I also bought a small village of about 100 mu. It can be regarded as an advance purchase for Luoer. In the future, it would be best if he has the ability to pass the imperial examination and become an official. As a guy, he has a piece of land, and he won't be hungry."

   "Shopkeeper Shen is quite capable of planning."

  Yang Fu smiled: "I think Shen Luo's academic performance is often praised by the master, and I am afraid that he will really be able to enter the imperial examination."

  Shen Qianzhong smiled: "There are many talents in the capital, and he is still considered top-notch in his academy. I don't have much hope. If you can do it, you can do it. If you can't do it, as long as you work hard, you won't be hungry."

   "Shen Zhang is right. How can the imperial examination be so easy to be the number one scholar? Thousands of troops and horses cross the single-plank bridge, and they don't have to be crowded. How can a person live a lifetime?"

  Huo Xi agrees with Shen Qianzhong's attitude very much, unlike some scholars in Qionghua Lane, who take the exam every year, and the whole family, even the whole family, accompany the exam.

   It's a bit too persistent.

  Shen Qianzhong agreed very much, and they chatted a few gossips, and then talked about business matters.

   "Boss, I stayed in Huai'an for a few days, and saw that the shop in Huai'an was taken care of by the Gong family, and the business has become more prosperous than before. Do you think we should expand our presence in Huai'an, or set up another shop in the city?"

"Master, you don't know that the Huai'an wharf is crowded with boats going from south to north every day, and there are all kinds of goods. I also shipped a cargo in Huai'an, and I also brought in a boat of hemp and bamboo materials from the south to be transported to the north. , I didn't expect it to be very easy to sell. Huai'an is really prosperous."

  Huai'an is a transfer station, the Department of Salt Transportation and the Department of Water Transportation are located in Huai'an, how could Huo Xi not know the importance of Huai'an's business.

   It’s just that Huai’an hides a dragon and crouching tiger. Even if Guangfeng Shui has been doing business in Huai’an for several years, it’s just a familiar face. Compared with other shops, they still don't have much say, and Guangfengshui can't pick the goods that are in short supply.

   It's better to be like this now, not to show the mountains and not to show the water. Even if Guangfeng Shui was under the protection of the Gong family, he didn't have much background.

   "Don't open the shop, but you can recruit more guys and arrange them to guard the pier every day, buy and sell goods, and inquire about news. If you have a lot of money in your account, you can buy another warehouse."

   If you don't attract people's attention, you won't be suppressed by big companies. It's good if you don't show off.

   Shen Qianzhong felt a little pity, but still nodded in response.

He also heard Huo Xi's instructions: "You send the candied pears, jujubes, furs, etc. that you brought back this time, and send them to two shops by category, and you have to tell the shopkeeper and the clerk, and pay attention to see which one sells well, and you have to make a record. Write to the guy in Peking to take delivery."

   "Don't worry, my boss, I will make arrangements." Shen Qian nodded in agreement.

He said again: "By the way, my boss, I met a few merchants from the northwest in Huai'an, and they brought a lot of sulfur and pyrotechnics. Last time, I heard my boss say that the foreign merchants from the Japanese country seem to like the sulfur and sulphur. I didn't **** the brimstone, but I bought all the other party's flame nitrate. There are nearly half of the ship."

  Sulphur, flame nitrate?

  The last time in Songjiang, Huo Xi got to know a lot of foreign merchants through Nock, and he had a pretty good idea of ​​what some foreign merchants were looking for. Knowing that the Japanese country likes books, sugar, medicinal materials, silk and other things from our dynasty.

  Although my court imposed a sea ban, not all goods are allowed to be sold privately. For example, military supplies, copper and iron, and some silk with a small output can only be used to reward officials and rebates to neighboring countries, and private transactions are not allowed.

  If smuggling people or military supplies, twist. If you sell contraband privately, you will be rode a hundred or exiled into the army. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, private sales of pepper, iron wood and other materials urgently needed by the Ming Dynasty were prohibited. Can only be sold by the imperial court.

  Like the middle and late Ming Dynasty, sulfur and flame nitrate were clearly set as contraband, and it was strictly forbidden to flow into Japan and other places. But many businessmen secretly smuggled them to the Japanese country, doubled their fortunes, and became rich.

  Huo Xi pondered for a while: "Sulphur, flame and nitrate are important military supplies. Even if there is no explicit regulation of these two items as contraband, we can't sell them outside. No matter how big the profit is, we can't sell them to foreign merchants."

  And if there is any new regulation on Shibosi when it is sold, I am afraid that it will be punished.

   And~

  (end of this chapter)