The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

Lin Zhichao came to the wharf of Wharf. This is Hong Kong's deep-water port. Large global shipping ships can unload and load cargo at the deep-water port, and they can only rent the warehouse of Wharf.

Because many goods are registered in advance for transportation, these goods will be put into the warehouse at the terminal, and the shipping company will need to pay rent to the owner of the warehouse, calculated on a daily basis.

Jardine Matheson relies on the Wharf's large number of docks and warehouses to earn a large amount of money every year.

There is a saying: "Whoever owns Wharf controls most of Hong Kong's cargo handling, storage and transportation, and cross-harbour ferries."

This statement is true. Wharf was the largest wharf in Hong Kong at this time, and its industry covered most of the wharves, warehouses, trams, ferries and other high-quality industries in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, the New Territories, and Hong Kong Island.

Wharf Wharf alone has a large ferry terminal, five cargo ship terminals, and a large number of warehouses on the shore.

Lin Zhichao asked: "Has Wharf deliberately targeted the unloading time of our cargo ships?"

Gao Qiqiang was in charge of the business. After thinking about it, he said, "That's not true! The price of the warehouse is a bit more expensive, but the prices are similar. Everyone is saying in private that the fees charged by Jardine Matheson are too expensive."

This is the tradition of Jardine Matheson, which is to absorb the blood of Hong Kong and then obtain overseas investment. In the future, Jardine Matheson will only become more and more excessive (charges are expensive), until Wharf offends all Hong Kong shipowners, and even the Hong Kong government cannot stand it.

The reason why Lin Zhichao asked the question just now was that he was also worried about being deliberately targeted by Wheelock \u0026 Co. Although the possibility of this was very small, he had to be vigilant. Once the unloading time is delayed by the terminal and the warehouse rental price is particularly expensive, it will obviously be very troublesome.

Of course, that's not happening right now. And the chances of this kind of thing happening are not high. The first is that Madden can’t control Jardines, and Wheelock is still only a medium-sized foreign firm; the second is that Jardines will not make a fuss. is the purpose.

After the Jin'an docked, Lin Zhichao also boarded the cargo ship.

"boss"

The sailors greeted each other.

Lin Zhichao smiled and asked: "How is life on this ship?"

A sailor immediately replied: "The environment on board the Jinan is much better than that on the shore of Hong Kong. It has everything you need. This ship built by Americans is rich."

Everyone laughed!

But Lin Zhichao said: "Don't be too happy, the crew of each ship will not be fixed in the future, but will need to be rotated. There are ships with good conditions, and naturally there are ships with poor conditions."

"We are not afraid. We will be ready when we come out to run the boat. Don't worry, boss!"

"That is, no matter how difficult the conditions are, we can do it."

For a while, these sailors responded easily.

It can be seen from them that they are fundamentally different from employees of other shipping companies.

It's like the difference between one being a regular army and the other being a miscellaneous army.

It seems that the courses of Global Maritime Academy can still change some people.

Later, Lin Zhichao visited the crew's living area, conference room, library, etc. and put forward some suggestions for correction.

"Captain Li, bring the ship's management to the company for a meeting tomorrow!" Lin Zhichao finally said.

What kind of meeting is held is naturally a summary meeting.

Li Donglai nodded. He knows that there are many rules in global shipping, but it happens that the salary is a little higher (double pay at the end of the year, and benefits on holidays), and the treatment on board is better (food).

The seafarers on board are all trained by Global Maritime Academy, and everyone is accustomed to some company rules and regulations.

"Okay, boss!"

After staying on the boat for a long time, Lin Zhichao reluctantly left because he found that standing on the boat felt a bit like standing on a yacht.

If he buys a new boat in the future, he wonders whether he should ride on it once to experience the feeling of sailing on the sea;

Of course, the voyage is only within ten days, such as Japan to Hong Kong.

The direct flight from Japan to Hong Kong to South Africa arrived at the Hong Kong terminal. Tang Zhongyuan had already received the news and drove to pick up the goods in person as soon as possible.

He is the commander-in-chief of this rush. He must complete 700 dozen shirts perfectly within three days.

With the arrival of man-made fiber cloth in Hong Kong, Tang Zhongyuan felt that the first step had been completed.

He believed that if this order did not require fabrics purchased from Japan, there might be garment factories willing to cooperate, and then they would not have anything to worry about.

When the cloth arrives at the Yangtze Garment Factory, the first step is to cut it.

Generally speaking, many garment factories do not have this link. They can only process and cut the goods outside, and then take them back to the factory for sewing.

The Yangtze River Garment Factory has an area of ​​nearly 20,000, all kinds of equipment are available, and there are more than 200 workers. It already has the conditions to be promoted to a medium-sized garment factory, and it only needs orders.

In Hong Kong, there are no large-scale garment factories. Medium-sized garment factories are already the largest ones at present, and there are still only a handful of them.

Soon, Tang Zhongyuan had begun to direct production, and the workers began to concentrate on their work.

Everyone knew beforehand that a batch of goods needed to be rushed, and everyone needed to work all night to complete the task.

As for whether there are rewards, these workers will naturally not ask, and the boss will not give them. This is a habit in the industry.

There is no such thing as overtime pay in Hong Kong, and everyone keeps hearing about it.

Some factories work for 16 hours, and some factories work for 12 hours. If you can't work, just leave.

The fact is that currently, every job out there that pays 50 yuan per month is a hot-selling position in the market.

The salary may not make you full, but it will certainly not make you starve to death.

This is the fighting spirit of this era!

On the afternoon of the third day, Lin Zhichao came to the Yangtze River Garment Factory.

"Zhichao, we have packed it and finished it 20 hours ahead of schedule!" Tang Zhongyuan said happily with dark circles under his eyes.

"Thank you for your hard work, father-in-law! With this experience, you don't need to be nervous next time." Lin Zhichao said with a smile.

Although the two are cooperating in the Yangtze River Garment Factory, their division of labor is very clear. Lin Zhichao only serves as a consultant, while Tang Zhongyuan actually participates in the operation. In the past three days, Tang Zhongyuan had to take care of three textile and dyeing factories, so naturally he didn't return home.

Doing business is so hard, and everyone has experienced it this way!

"Yes, the workers have really worked hard this time. Many workers only sleep two or three hours a day." Tang Zhongyuan also sighed.

Capitalists are not all harsh. Lin Zhichao and Tang Zhongyuan are both bosses who attach great importance to employee welfare. Although no overtime pay will be given for this kind of overtime work, Yangtze Garment Factory itself has wages that are 20% higher than those in the industry. Coupled with double pay at the end of the year and holiday benefits, it is already a model of a good boss.

So, what’s the problem if you work overtime occasionally and you don’t work overtime often?

"Thank you for your hard work, everyone, but if the company develops, their salary will naturally increase. We are not stingy bosses." Lin Zhichao said calmly.

Tang Zhongyuan nodded.

Later, Lin Zhishenxiao wanted to go among the masses, after all, he was the boss.

When we walked into the workshop, we saw that the workers were still working on other orders. They had not slept well for two days, but today they could finally get off work early and go home for a good night's sleep.

"Boss Lin" was greeted by a worker.

Lin Zhichao nodded. There were both male and female workers in the factory, with men accounting for almost 70%. To be honest, men can really do any job. Let’s just say sewing machines. Most of them are better than female workers.

"Thank you for your hard work, everyone! When we win orders from South Africa in the future, the company will develop even bigger, and the benefits of you old employees will definitely increase."

Painting cakes is a must!

Of course, this is not a cake. The most important thing is that the company developed by Lin Zhichao will definitely become an industry benchmark and will be at the advanced level of the industry in all aspects.

If you do poorly in this industry and struggle for a while, you have to take the initiative to shut down.

"Thank you, Boss Lin!" the workers said in an "innocent and simple" way.

What a great worker!

Seeing these workers, Lin Zhichao couldn't help but think, Hong Kong still has thirty years of "cheap and high-quality labor", and he must do more industries to make full use of these workers.

Otherwise, he will have a bad conscience!

The next day.

700 dozen shirts were loaded onto the freighter heading directly to South Africa on time. Lin Zhichao and Tang Zhongyuan breathed a sigh of relief. After all, it was their first time to take an order from South Africa, and they were still unfamiliar with everything.

Now, I can finally have a peaceful sleep.

When the bosses of the garment factories in Sham Shui Po heard that the Yangtze River Garment Factory had taken on Scott's order, they immediately started talking about it.

"This Yangtze River Garment Factory even accepts orders from Africa, so it's not afraid that we won't be able to get the payment!"

"Boss Lin is rich and powerful, it doesn't matter if you lose money!"

"I heard that there are 700 dozen shirts in this order, which must be at least 100,000 Hong Kong dollars in sales! As far as I know, the Yangtze River Garment Factory only has a scale of more than 100 people (Old Huangli). Can it make 100,000 Hong Kong dollars a year? ? If you lose money all at once, it’s better not to do it.”

Colleagues are still not optimistic about the orders from Africa, and they are very prejudiced, and even plan to see the joke of the Yangtze River Garment Factory.

As for the ownership of Changjiang Garment Factory, everyone naturally thinks it is Lin Zhichao's property.

Of course, this industry was originally Lin Zhichao's industry; even in the future, he will have a 50-50 split with the Tang family at most.

Lin Baixin of Lixin Garment Factory also heard about the ownership of the South African order, and immediately regretted it. If this order is used as an opportunity to enter the products into South Africa, then Lixin Garment Factory will no longer be limited to the Hong Kong and Southeast Asian markets.

At the same time, Lin Baixin hoped that Changjiang Garment Factory would screw things up, so that he could get a chance.

"I want to take the initiative to seek orders from South Africa, and I can't sit still!"

It was another spring (1950), and greenery can be seen everywhere on Hong Kong Island. Even Central in this era is half green, not like a concrete (concrete) forest where buildings are built next to each other in later generations.

It turns out that there is still a large amount of undeveloped land in Central. No development does not mean no owners. For example, How Tung's family owns a 16,000-square-foot high-quality land on Des Voeux Road (the former Hang Seng Bank's head office).

And Tsuen Wan is even more so, a green place.

However, as the impact of the "Hong Kong Island Crisis" weakened, many business owners began to come here to seek to open factories.

Naturally, the land here has also begun to recover.

Lin Zhichao is sitting in the office of Cheung Kong Industrial, working.

Cheung Kong is his biggest cash cow, with a monthly profit of more than 400,000 Hong Kong dollars, and more and more orders from Europe and the United States.

Last year, after he withdrew 3 million Hong Kong dollars from Cheung Kong Industries, the debt was only 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars. This is equivalent to providing Lin Zhichao with a net profit of HK$1.5 million last year.

However, with the investment in Yangtze Plastics and Yangtze Garment Factory, the two transactions totaled HK$700,000, equivalent to the loss of most of the profits in January and February this year.

Lin Zhichao no longer dares to invest the funds of Yangtze River Industrial this year because Yangtze River Industrial has to consider the impact of the 'trade ban crisis'. The most important thing is to purchase a large amount of raw materials in time for the first half of the year.

Although the factory in Singapore has been put into production, who knows if the Yankees will target that factory; fortunately, Lin Zhichao has no plans to engage in "smuggling" business, so theoretically he will not be targeted.

Even in terms of shipping business, Lin Zhichao and Dong Chuanwang are the same people, but Dong Chuanwang transports military supplies for Taiwan Island and the United States, while Lin Zhichao charters ships to Japanese shipping companies for a long time at most.

Tao Derong, general manager of Changjiang Plastic Factory, came to Lin Zhichao's office and gave a work report.

"Boss, Yangtze Plastic Factory has now been able to make a small profit, occupy a lot of market share, and has opened up sales channels in Southeast Asia."

Lin Zhichao was more pleased to hear that, as long as Cheung Kong can make money, the total investment of 350,000 Hong Kong dollars was originally for accumulating experience; but now he can make a small profit and pay back the capital in a year or two, so why not do it.

"What is the wholesale price of plastic in the Hong Kong market now?" Lin Zhichao asked with concern.

As the saying goes, there is no business without profiteers, so he is naturally eager to be the champion and occupy a larger market. However, if it is a normal method, it will inevitably be impossible, or both sides will suffer.

At this time, Lin Zhichao thought of two cases for his reference:

1. He once saw a TV series in which Jian Pengcheng bought all the printers when the main character was re-opening, and then there was a storm at sea, so he was the only one who had the printers in his hands, and he took the opportunity to sell them at a high price.

2. Ma Bufang, the warlord who has occupied Qinghai for 40 years, bought all the sewing machines on the market after fleeing to Dubai, so all the expatriates (those with the surname Jiao) can only buy machines from him at high prices.

This case shows that once the market monopoly is achieved, the price is not your final decision.

Tao Derong replied: "One pound (450G) is 1.4~1.5 Hong Kong dollars. In fact, the profit of plastic products is quite high. If it is processed into a ballpoint pen and a refill is added, the wholesale price can be several yuan, and the market price is even higher. One twenty one, although you can’t sell an imported ballpoint pen for 100 Hong Kong dollars, the profit is also very high!”

The refills are imported, and Hong Kong can only produce pen cases.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said, "Although ball pens are highly profitable, we still mainly focus on toys and daily necessities."

"OK!"

In fact, the purpose of Lin Zhichao asking this question is that he intends to purchase a large amount of plastics before the United States blocks Hong Kong trade; moreover, the cost price of plastics imported by Yangtze River Trade is only 1.2 Hong Kong dollars per pound, or even lower.

In the second half of the year, Changjiang Plastic Factory can purchase a large amount of plastic raw materials from the market, resulting in scarce raw materials in the market, so as to achieve the point of controlling the raw materials in the market. At that time, Changjiang Plastic Factory will be able to "advance and retreat freely" and become the overlord of the industry in one fell swoop.

After Tao Derong left, Lin Zhichao leaned on his chair and thought.

The next three years will be both an opportunity and a trouble for him. The trouble is the unknown of his zipper industry, but there are many opportunities, such as shipping and real estate.

As for the trouble, he has already planned for a rainy day, and only hopes to minimize the loss.

Right now, we are trying to scrape together 3 million Hong Kong dollars around mid-April, which will be used to purchase aluminum alloy, copper, and plastic in the United States, so as to avoid the embarrassment of not having raw materials at that time. For the Singapore factory, of course we have the greatest hope, but it is not the only hope.

"Dong dong"

"Come in"

Wang Dongshan raised his head and saw that it was Li Jiacheng, his face was a little displeased, because the performance of Wanhe Plastic Factory has dropped rapidly recently, and this general manager has an unshirkable responsibility.

Li Jiacheng also understands what his boss thinks of him, but no matter how smart he is, he has no choice but to face the impact of "high quality and low price" from the Yangtze River Plastic Factory.

What worries him even more is that he is about to quit his job and start a business, and the competition in this market is so fierce now, how to survive.

But he has to resign. People cannot work part-time all their lives. He has been in society for six years, and now it is time to start a business. He thought about it seriously, assuming he opened a plastic factory, he must make full use of the workers and produce day-to-day to reduce costs, so as to survive and survive.

As for these workers, he can recruit from those who have just come out of the farmland (Cantonese asylum), which can save a lot of salary.

Saving is the most important thing!

As for which workers have been wronged, he doesn't think there is anything wrong. How many people are unemployed now, and they need to queue up to apply for even a job worth 30 or 40 Hong Kong dollars.

The big deal is that after I make money, I will give everyone salary increases and benefits.

"Manager Li, the recent decline in performance has been serious! Why don't you think of ways?" Wang Dongshan asked.

He always felt that there was something wrong with this number one officer recently, and he was going to beat him today. After all, the general manager's salary is not low.

Li Jiacheng was embarrassed for a moment, knowing that he was wrong.

However, he quickly adjusted his mood and said: "Boss, I'm sorry, the market competition is really fierce now. Also... I actually came to resign from you!"

Wang Dongshan was immediately surprised and said with a somewhat excited expression: "Manager Li, I know you are under a lot of pressure, but there is no need to resign! There were so many big storms in the past, but we have overcome them, and now there is one more big player!"

He still attaches great importance to the talent of Li Jiacheng, and it is even difficult to find such an excellent general manager.

Li Jiacheng gritted his teeth and said: "That's not the reason! At the end of last year, I had already considered quitting my job and starting a business. I can't work for others all my life. I also have the ideal to become an entrepreneur like you."

Wang Dongshan suddenly turned pale and said unhappily: "Manager Li, if you want to raise your salary, I will agree without saying a word. You are our general manager of Wanhe. How many customers will you take with you when you leave?"

Li Jiacheng waved his hand quickly and said: "Don't worry, Boss Wang, I will never poach any of the company's customers. Even if they come to me, I will not do business with them. This is moral."

Wang Dongshan immediately understood that Li Jiacheng had already decided to leave, and no further persuasion would help.

He still said unwillingly: "It's really not a wise decision for you to choose to resign and start a business despite knowing that competition is fierce now."

Li Jiacheng could only say: "My factory is small, I can hold multiple jobs by myself, and the expenses are much smaller. So it is easier to survive!"

Wang Dongshan had no choice but to keep Li Jiacheng for a month, waiting for him to handle the company's affairs before leaving. Li Jiacheng wanted to have a beginning and an end, so he agreed.

Little did he know that a towering hand had already come under dark clouds. It was mainly targeting him, and the opponent was a person he had never met before.