Lu Ming

Page 234

"Regarding this matter, it is my brother who has taken action."

Zong Ben began to explain: "My brother got news from the capital a few days ago. After the investigation in Beijing this autumn, he is probably expected to be promoted. Therefore, I sent a letter from my family, asking the family to raise one or two..."

What Zong Ben said was to Mr. Niu Xijian.

As a professional broker, Mr. Niu undoubtedly acted as a temporary employee of the church today, so there is no need for Zong Ben to explain a lot here.How to translate his words is the job of the translator.

As a native Ming businessman, Master Niu naturally understood the information contained in Zongben's words in seconds.So he turned his head and expressed the matter in a foreign language vocabulary that the foreign guests could understand.

Foreign guests soon understood, isn't it just spending money to buy an official?Didn't I have this tradition when I was in the Holy Roman Empire?

In fact, in the period of the seventeenth century, and even longer, buying officials was a tradition, both in China and abroad, but the means of expression were somewhat different.

The Ming Empire had an open collection of donations, not to mention the Qing Dynasty, which was behind it, and donations were everywhere.But here in Europe, aristocratic families spend money to find a public office for their children, or a monk spends money to get the title of bishop in a rich area for himself. Those kings and grand dukes themselves are good at selling public positions. How did the position of taxpayer come about?

So when Mr. Niu gave such an explanation, the foreign guests quickly understood.Immediately afterwards, Brother Garcia, who thought he had figured out the situation, nodded, with a friendly smile on his face: "Dear Zong, first of all, please allow me to congratulate Lord Zongmao. His promotion means a lot to all of us. It's all good news."

Zongben's elder brother, Zong Mao, is a Daoist in Shanxi. He is currently the highest-ranking official in the Zongfu, and he will be used as a signboard by his children.Zongben wanted to gain a firm foothold in a place like Macau surrounded by tigers and wolves, so he naturally did not make much publicity, so the Jesuits knew that there was such a number one person.

"Thank you for your love, thank you very much."

After a few words of politeness, Zong Ben added: "It's not easy to say that the matter will be completed now. This matter will take time, and secondly, it will cost a lot of money. Therefore, Zong has made today's move."

Brother Garcia nodded: "Then, let's discuss the price of the product."

So far, today's meeting has entered the formal negotiation stage.

……

The process of formal negotiations can be said to be uneventful.The reason is simple: Zongben, the seller, put on an attitude of needing money urgently and willing to cooperate, and then offered a reasonable price for the resources at hand.In this way, the most difficult part of the negotiation will not exist.

And Zongben quickly figured out the internal reality of the trio from the dialogue between the two parties.

In the three-person acquisition group, the one with the most pure purpose was Captain Martinez.This Portuguese gentleman with a big beard is the owner of the three-masted sailing ship "Coimbra" moored in Macau's inner harbor at the moment.

Martinez's purpose is simple: to acquire all the Ming country's spot goods in Zongben's hands, because he will sail to India soon.

Zongben complied with the captain's request without any hesitation.Including the goods in the firm and the inventory in the port warehouse, Zongben charged the captain a reasonable price for everything—since this bearded gentleman was specially brought by Brother Garcia to "pick up leaks", there is no doubt that their There must have been a deep personal relationship between them.

Zongben is an old Jianghu, and it is common to see this kind of business affairs intertwined with personal affairs, so he will naturally not make a mistake in the way of coping.

When Zongben and Captain Martinez first reached an agreement, not only the bearded captain raised the corners of his lips, but Brother Garcia also nodded and smiled.

Next is Boss Niu.Only at this time did Zong Ben realize that Niu Translator was more deeply involved in this matter than he had imagined.Originally, the business firm he had planned was acquired by the Jesuits, but now Brother Garcia intends to let Mr. Niu run it as a white glove.

In this way, Niu Xijian is bound to occupy a stake in the future firm.

Zongben doesn't matter.Now that he has figured out that he wants to sell this hard-earned foundation, it has nothing to do with him who will own the shares.

So he naturally agreed to Master Niu's request to sell all the storefronts of the firm and the port warehouse.

However, at this time, Brother Garcia raised an objection.From the monk's point of view, Zongben has not only these tangible assets, but also the intangible assets such as the purchasing and sales channels of the Ming Dynasty that he has established over the years, and the Zongfu's signboard are also very valuable.

So Garcia proposed to reserve 20.00% of the shares for Zongben to maintain the business channels behind him.The remaining [-]% is digested internally by the Jesuit Wagyu Master.

Zongben laughed and agreed to the proposal, and assured that the business channels behind him would still play a role in the future.

Zongben must guarantee this.Otherwise, let the other party feel that he is determined to take the money and leave, then the reason I said earlier seems a bit far-fetched.

However, Zongben also made a request when he nodded his head: [-]% of his own shares must be mortgaged to someone present on the spot, and it should be treated as a loan.

Zong Ben's request is not a big deal, neither the Jesuits nor Boss Niu are the ones who are short of money.In addition, he was very happy to facilitate Captain Martinez just now, so Brother Garcia decided to use the public funds of the Jesuits to mortgage the [-]% of the shares to Zongben.

So far, Master Zong only took half a day to sell out the firm he had worked hard for ten years, and there was no hair left... Oh yes, he still wants to take away a group of old people under his command.

Later that day, when everything was settled, Master Zong received nearly 8 taels of gold and silver coins from various countries.Adding these money and Zongben's own savings, he scraped together a total of 10 taels of cash.

Early the next morning, he brought all his men and escorted the silver boat to the pier in the new district.

Chapter 541

Macau is very close to Guangzhou, and the straight-line distance is less than 200 miles.Even if it was going up the river, after Zongben set off the day before, he even took the boat to the pier in the new area the next day.

Once here, everything is easy to handle.Zong Ben and a group of his subordinates swaggered and carried a few boxes full of money, without worrying about safety issues, they hired a carriage and set off on the spot.

What the traversers brought to this world is not only iron guns and cannons, but also many concepts of public management.

The wharf in the new area is now extremely prosperous and full of people.It attracted countless Ming people from the surrounding areas of Guangzhou, and even the whole province of Guangdong and Fujian to come to discuss life.However, even if the crowd gathers at this scale, the order here is well-organized, and everyone has a gentle smile on their face, which has reached the fantasy level of not picking up lost things on the road.

To be honest, the law and order of the wharf in the new area is much better than that of the later Guangzhou Railway Station.

The reason is simple: cost.Not to mention the number of police officers needed to catch a thief who stole a mobile phone, even if he is caught, the police uncle of later generations will usually be sentenced to a few months and a year. In other words, it consumes far more judicial resources than mobile phones.

In fact, in many cases, due to the relatively high judicial costs, many petty thefts will not go to jail at all: Reporting also requires a good amount, even in poor areas, you have to steal 1000 yuan to be eligible to enter the police station.

This kind of situation has led to the criminals who refuse to change after repeated admonitions-don't talk about going in, even if you go in, you will come out. I am still a good guy, and if I don't make it, I have also ordered car stealing skill points in it to upgrade to a professional with technical content.

The above public management problems of later generations certainly do not exist here.

If you steal a penny, you will go to the construction site in the new district to work in the first half of the year; if you steal ten pennies, you will be supported by the construction site of the Yizhou Reservoir;

The above-mentioned procedures do not require cumbersome procedures, only the "Gongmen" people in the new district wearing blue security uniforms will carry the thief to the wharf police station, and the director will record and fill in the form, and then stamp it. Board the passenger ship.

Therefore, from the moment the new district was established, the law and order was at the MAX level.Ming people may not have the habit of observing order before, but when all the thieves, thieves, swindlers, loan sharks, beggars, bullies, idlers and other "social idlers" who disembarked at the pier and planned to get a ticket were all dismissed by the first order. After being "handled" for a while, all Ming people became gentle and courteous overnight.

With a good social order, even if it is partial, it is enough to make most ordinary people who really come to make a living feel safe.With a sense of security, people will have a sense of belonging, and they will use the energy and property originally spent on security on how to produce and improve their lives.Step by step in this way, the prototype of a modern society with efficient division of labor has emerged.

……

Zongben and his party hired three donkey carts that were specially used to pull goods at the wharf, along with their money, and along the motorway of Xinqu Avenue, they arrived at the gate of Nanyang Development Corporation in a smooth way.

Speaking of going to Southeast Asia, according to the tradition of this era, it is natural to set up a southeast, northwest India company, and the time travel is no exception.Gein involves the issue of the executive body: the government cannot directly come forward to manage and develop a certain project, otherwise, who will own the plantation in the future, the Minister of Agriculture?

So there is the main body of Nanyang Development Corporation.

The general manager of Nanyang Development Corporation is Tang Xiaoqiao, who took office in a hurry a few days ago.

In the past, the position of general manager of Nanyang, due to its high position and authority, coupled with the romantic/exploratory/exotic legend that some dicks like, so under the current general trend that everyone has an official position, there is actually a little competition.

In the end, after a lot of delay, the 27-year-old Tang Xiaoqiao was able to defeat the others.

Tang Xiaoqiao works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.He had been a negotiator on a Dutch trading ship before, and then used a headset to direct Italian guns to blast a Dutch sailing ship into the bottom of the sea.

Considering that going to Nanyang requires dealing with many foreign forces including the Spaniards and the Dutch, Tang Xiaoqiao was the winner in the end.How about knowing that knowledge can change one's destiny? This man's proficiency in three foreign languages ​​is the biggest bonus.

Due to the issue of honesty, the newly opened Nanyang head office is located in a very conspicuous location, right next to the "Hui"-shaped second-floor building of the New District Government. It is also a Hui-shaped building, and the small building encloses an open space in the middle.

When Tang Xiaoqiao, who was working, received a report from the guard that someone had sent 10 taels of gold, to be honest, Tang Xiaoqiao was a little surprised.So he hurried out of the building with his subordinates to welcome him out - Zong Ben was the first Ming person to bring cash to buy shares after the China Merchants Association.

You must know that the China Merchants Fair has only passed three or four days.According to the normal rhythm of the seventeenth century, at this time, some participants from remote areas have not yet arrived home, let alone mobilized such a large sum of money to send it.

Even if it is the dictator of the family, with such a large investment, there is a huge "policy" risk outside, not to mention people of the Ming Dynasty, even modern people, they always have to wait and see, discuss and deliberate before making a decision.

So according to Tang Xiaoqiao and Ding Liqiu's estimate, it will take ten days and a half months after the meeting before the matter of buying shares will start slowly.

Who would have imagined that Zong Ben, a small businessman who was originally inconspicuous at the meeting, would just appear in front of the door with a cash box.

While Tang Xiaoqiao was going downstairs, the subordinates at the scene got Zongben's brief information.Of course, this does not affect his next performance.As soon as he stepped out of the building, General Manager Tang laughed and stretched out his arms: "Hahaha, boss of Macau Zong, you are brave enough to take the lead! Welcome!"

When Zong Ben saw Tang Xiaoqiao wearing a "weird undershirt", he couldn't help but feel refreshed.

Yes, even in the eyes of smart people who have silently accepted the new style of clothing, Mr. Tang's outfit can be regarded as weird: orange-yellow Korean-style slim-fit shirt, pink plaid tie, pea-green trousers, black and white leather shoes... This kind of clothing color matching that ordinary people would not dare to wear in later generations, coupled with the outline of the muscle lines, is not used to even a smart person.

But Zongben didn't dare to underestimate this parrot-like young man in a "skin-fitting little jacket".

When the business promotion meeting was held before, Tang Xiaoqiao didn't stand out too much because he had just taken office for only two days.But no matter what, he is also the default boss of Nanyang Headquarters, and he still said a few words at the end of the meeting.After this speech, many people in the audience understood: This is the current management! ?

So after seeing Mr. Tang personally greet him today, Zong Ben was shocked.Although he hadn't figured out the situation yet, after hearing the word "leader", he probably understood it.

Overjoyed, Zong Ben hurried forward a few steps, stretched out his arms a little clumsily, imitated each other's movements and shook hands with each other, with a smile on his face: "You Laotang..., um, the general manager Yuanying, Zong Flattered, ashamed, ashamed!"

Chapter 542 Become a Shareholder

The arrival of Zongben made Tang Xiaoqiao feel extremely comfortable.

The arrival of Zongben represents the support of the indigenous Ming people for the previous plan to travel across the South Seas.More importantly, this means that at least some of the indigenous elites have recognized the superior system of the Traversing Congregation, and are willing to spend real money and formally bet the future of the family on the warlord Cao Chuan.

The seventeenth century was the age of unlimited liability.According to the tradition for thousands of years, once they fail in this level of struggle, they can invest with their family assets and follow Cao Chuan with their entire family.

"Haha, Boss Zong, you are quite supportive of brother's work, you must be treated with dignity!"

While patting the Zong boss's arm vigorously, Tang Xiaoqiao let the visitor into the building: "Go ahead and have a cup of coffee, let's have a good chat today."

Drinking coffee is the second time, but doing formalities is the main thing.No matter what the investment situation is, you must first verify the capital before discussing the business, right?

So the next thing to do is capital verification first.

Due to the sudden incident, the head office was not prepared, so Tang Xiaoqiao urgently sent someone to the bank for help.Fortunately, the newly opened seventeenth-century version of the People's Bank of China, the National Reserve Bank, is not far from the company, and they are all on the same street, so when the coffee is ready, people come.

The following is the large-scale gold distribution activities that are very common in this era.

In the infield of the head office surrounded by small buildings, the staff moved tables and chairs, opened the three boxes brought by Zongben, and took out the precious metals inside, weighing and registering them one by one.

The composition of the money brought by Zongben is very complicated.Among them are not only gold and silver bars of various finenesses, but also a large number of silver ingots from the Ming Dynasty, as well as foreign gold and silver coins such as Spanish Pistor, Rial, and Dutch Guilders.

All these precious metals must first be classified according to the currency, and secondly, the fineness must be checked.

Master Zong was sitting on a chair, holding coffee in his hand, talking to Manager Tang while looking curiously at the strange measuring tools on the table.

He understands the scale, and there are things with the same shape in the Ming Dynasty, but they are much rougher.But he didn't recognize the metal hydrometer brought by the bank staff.

The hydrometer made according to the principle of Archimedes buoyancy has an electronic screen and a transparent water tank, which must be incomprehensible to ordinary people.

Soon, the hydrometer detected several pieces of fake silver.

Not to mention the simplicity of the ancients, fakes were as rampant as in the Ming Dynasty.

After the Wanli Year of the Ming Dynasty, the social economy gradually developed, and counterfeit silver emerged in an endless stream. The government repeatedly prohibited it, which caused great damage to commodity trade and folk life.Among them, there are not only treacherous people who counterfeit silver, but also merchants such as silk dealers, gold and silver pawnshops.

By the late Ming Dynasty, counterfeit silver had developed into an industrial chain. There were dozens of types of counterfeit silver, such as paper cover, tripod silver, hanging copper, lead filling, 筅白, burnt, shaking silk, double green, and Feibai. as much.

Not only that.In addition to fake silver, in the economically developed Suzhou and Hangzhou areas of the Ming Dynasty, wine was mixed with ash, chickens were stuffed with sand, geese and sheep were blown, fish were filled with water, red bayberry was painted with purple and black dye, old hens inserted long tails to pretend to be pheasants... There are also fake silver coins. Milk, fake rat poison, fake antiques, fake books and so on and so forth.

The above are all self-recorded by Ming people, and there are many Ming people's poems and stories that mocked the fakes in Suzhou and Hangzhou at that time.Therefore, the counterfeit and shoddy products of later generations are actually the leftovers of the ancients.In addition to having fewer types of commodities, the ancients really did not lose to later generations in other aspects.

……

A group of employees from the National Reserve Bank quickly sorted the silver money brought by Mr. Zong, then appraised the quality, weighed it, and picked out a small pile of fake silver by the way.

As for the counterfeit silver, Master Zong could only admit that he was unlucky this time.When he does business and delivers silver taels on weekdays, he must check carefully.This time, the main reason is that the time is too tight to avoid long nights and dreams, and the amount of money is too large, so the proportion of fake money received is slightly higher.

After all the precious metals were weighed and converted according to the exchange table publicly given by the bank, the total value of the precious metals brought by Master Zong was [-] yuan.The yuan here is calculated based on the one-yuan banknotes/Cao Datou issued by Transit.

After learning the total amount of money, Tang Xiaoqiao stood up, took Master Zong's hand, and led him to his office on the second floor.

On the concrete floor, in a simple office with whitewashed walls, on a rosewood desk, there is a shareholding agreement lying quietly.

Immediately, Master Zong enjoyed the treatment of the boss of Nanyang Company personally explaining the contract payment.During this process, he nodded frequently and did not raise any objections to the contract.

The reason is simple: no matter ancient or modern, the so-called contract will only be effective when the strength of both parties is equal.In the barbaric environment of the seventeenth century, Zongben did not have the support of the legal environment of later generations.He could think with his feet, whether the contract could be implemented, and to what extent it could be implemented, was all at the other party's thought, and he himself had no bargaining power.

In this case, what is written in the contract is not important to him who has already bet everything, so let's study it slowly when he goes back.

Slowly stretching out his hand, Zong Ben took the writing brush on the table.At this moment, his expression finally became serious.Finally, after thinking about it, he sighed and signed his name on the contract.

"In this way, Zong will entrust his wealth to Mr. Tang and Mr. Cao. I hope you will take care of him in the future!"

According to the system, for a person like Zongben who appeared suddenly, the head office would definitely conduct a background check on him afterwards.But Tang Xiaoqiao didn't need a background check today, and he knew that the person who came here was betting his entire fortune: because Zongben hadn't appeared on the key invitation list of the China Merchants Association before.

So Tang Xiaoqiao was still a little touched at this moment: This man can come to him today, and I don't know how many resources were used behind it, and it must be a lot of pressure!You know, this is 10 taels of silver, which can be taken out by idlers wherever they can.

"Treasurer Zong, please don't worry." Tang Xiaoqiao's face was serious at this time: "I can now promise you on behalf of Mr. Cao that no matter what happens in the future, your money will never be wasted!"

From the moment Tang Xiaoqiao finished speaking, Zongben became the first bright shareholder of the Nanyang Development Corporation.

And just at this time, someone came outside to report: Bai Shenming understands that Xiaolian has also come to the company to donate money to buy shares!

General manager Tang Xiaoqiao had double happiness today, and he couldn't help laughing again when he heard the words.

……

If it is said that Zong Ben has achieved the achievements of "revolutionary masses who are willing to get closer" in the time-traveling organization today, then Bai Juren was already an "old friend of the time-traveling people" before this, belonging to "a local backbone force that can be relied on, a revolutionary activist" ".

That's why Bai Juren came into the head office with big swagger today, bringing old shopkeeper Wu and money.

With Bai Juren's arrival, the scene became even more lively.After learning that this old master Zong was actually ahead of him, Bai Juren couldn't help but give Zong Ben a high look.After that, the two big speculators quickly chatted together. After all, everyone is now a grasshopper on the same line, sharing the same pursuit and taking the same risks.

Like Zongben, Master Bai's share capital is not too much, which happens to be 10 taels of silver.The 10 taels of cash also took Master Bai's life: he not only sold the farmland in the countryside, but also emptied almost all the cash in the commercial system under his banner, and even the gold buried in the house. Take some debt.

After Tang Xiaoqiao learned of these situations, he dealt with the matter decisively.When foreign businessmen come to invest in later generations, the local area also needs to provide some supporting funds plus bank loans.The same is true in the seventeenth century. Shareholders cannot be allowed to drink northwest wind after investing.

So Tang Xiaoqiao colluded with the bank on the spot and gave Master Bai a sum of money for emergency.Immediately afterwards, he contacted a batch of in-demand industrial products and approved them to two shareholders of Xinke, allowing them to use them to maintain their own sales network.

Master Bai is really grateful for this.He never expected that after taking 10 taels of silver from him, they not only returned part of it to him at a low interest rate, but also gave him a batch of goods.