Steel Dynasty - Chapter 49

[Chapter 49 Trading Company]

The day after Li San came back, the silver taels given by the court arrived in Qingzhou. With the deposit from the concubines in the harem, Xiao Ming had 500,000 taels of silver in his hand to mobilize.

This amount of money can be said to be a huge amount of money in Qingzhou, but it is just a drop in the bucket for Xiao Ming’s development plan.

Moreover, 200,000 taels of it was the deposit for the perfume that the concubines needed, and he also needed to purchase spices to make perfume to send to the concubines. It can be said that the 200,000 taels still had to be discounted.

Regarding perfume, Xiao Ming is not prepared to give it to others. Part of the business he is doing is to paralyze and divide the wealthy families in Qingzhou, but there are some businesses that he needs to keep for himself, so that he can make more money.

Especially in the prosperous south, commerce is developed and trade is prosperous. Compared with his technological advantages, the fastest way to make money is through commerce, so he has been planning his own business.

The ultimate purpose of letting Zhang Liang build ships was for trade, because countless facts have proved that only commerce can rejuvenate a country.

“Li Kaiyuan, the captain of Guogan School, has met His Highness.” In the main hall of Prince Qi’s Mansion, Li Kaiyuan stood at the bottom and bowed to Xiao Ming.

With money in hand, Xiao Ming’s idea of establishing a trading company became more intense, but he had been hesitant as the head of the trading company, and it was not until the past two days that he decided to use Li Kaiyuan.

The people Xiao Ming now relies on such as Qian Dafu, Chen Wenlong and his son, one is his cronies, the other has no roots in Qingzhou and has nothing to do with the Qingzhou wealthy family.

He asked Qian Dafu to investigate this Li Kaiyuan, and he didn’t have any special background. Moreover, Li Kaiyuan’s personality was extroverted and very slippery, so he was obviously suitable to be a businessman, not a general.

He said: “Get up. This time I have come to you to give you an important task.”

“Your Highness, please tell me that I will die with dedication.” Li Kaiyuan said with a smile.

It can be said that Xiao Ming knew Li Kaiyuan’s character very well, and he didn’t take it seriously. He said, “I am planning to build a trading company, and I want you to be the shopkeeper.”

“Your Highness…” Li Kaiyuan’s face turned pale. He trembled and said: “Your Highness, I have already reflected on myself about what happened to the barbarians last time…”

Xiao Ming waved his hand, “I am not punishing you, and I did not blame you for what happened last time. You are in the army.” Your position will remain, but you will have to take on the business of the business alone. If I guess correctly, your father Li Shengji was once a businessman in Qingzhou,”

Li Kaiyuan said with a sad face. The country of Chongqing still had a traditional emphasis on agriculture and suppressed business. The stable environment over the past century has slightly improved the status of merchants, but merchants in general are still looked down upon.

The reason why he was able to become a captain in the army was not because of merit, but because his father spent a lot of money to buy it from Xiao Ming.

It is precisely because of this that Lu Fei always looks down on him.

Now that Xiao Ming asked him not to be a general, but to be a merchant, I can imagine how he felt at this time, but Xiao Ming said that he would retain his position, which made him feel a little more relaxed.

“Back to Your Highness, it’s true. Before my father went west, he had been traveling around the states selling cloth.” Li Kaiyuan said.

Seeing that Li Kaiyuan still had some unhappy emotions on his face, Xiao Ming said: “I know you are unhappy, but you have to understand that this business is an official merchant. Although it is also a businessman, it actually works for the government and is still an official. , if you insist on staying in the army, it doesn’t matter. I will just find someone else. It’s just that Colonel Lu Fei came to report a few days ago. The heavy snow seems to have frozen many cattle and sheep on the grassland. It’s hard to say whether it will be winter this year. The barbarians are going south to plunder in large numbers again…”

“Your Highness, I am willing.” Li Kaiyuan was shocked. He was the only child in the family. Although he was looked down upon and killed in the war with the barbarians, he still chose the former.

Xiao Ming smiled evilly and nodded at him, “That’s right, make the best use of everything and make the best use of people’s talents. You are not suitable for the army. Come, I will tell you how to prepare for the establishment of a trading company.”

Li Kaiyuan looked helpless. I had to step forward and listen carefully.

This time, the trading company that Xiao Ming planned to build carried the name of Prince Qi’s Mansion. This was also to ensure that the trading company could have access to various places and avoid blackmail by local officials.

The name of the trading bank is Wantong Trading Bank. Xiao Ming will spend 50,000 taels of silver to buy five small merchant ships and ten horse teams on land. This scale is currently only a small trading firm, but everything is difficult at the beginning. Just grow stronger.

In addition to the specific management methods of the commercial bank, Xiao Ming also instilled many advanced business concepts into Li Kaiyuan, which Li Kaiyuan understood quickly under the influence of the technology crystal.

His family is a businessman and he knows a lot about business. This matter can be said to have cleared up the clouds.

“This first batch of products is perfume. You only need to go through the water and transport it directly to the southern states.” Xiao Ming finally said.

At this time, Li Kaiyuan was still shocked by the new knowledge. This knowledge made him somewhat ambitious. He said: “Your Highness, I still have a few more trustworthy brothers in the army. I will feel more at ease with them.”

“No problem, you can take whoever you want with you, except Lu Fei.” Xiao Ming joked.

Li Kaiyuan nodded, resigned, turned around and left Prince Qi’s Mansion, and started to prepare for the business.

As soon as Li Kaiyuan left, Liang Dahai arrived at the main hall under the guidance of Qian Dafu.

Xiao Ming asked: “Liang Dahai, what happened to the slaves I asked you to buy?”

“Your Highness, the common people spent a lot of time to find all the brothers they could find. This time, they found a total of 950 for Your Highness.” “When the snow on the roads in various states melts, the common people will prepare to go north to buy more slaves for His Highness,” Liang Dahai said.

Nine hundred and fifty slaves were still too few, basically a drop in the bucket, but they had to eat one at a time. It seemed that he had to focus on shipbuilding, and overseas trade was the focus of commodity exchange.

“Yes, continue to buy slaves, I will not treat you badly.” Xiao Ming gestured to Qian Dafu.

At this time, Qian Dafu gave the 20,000 taels of silver notes to Liang Dahai.

“Your Highness, this is a bit much.” Liang Dahai said in surprise, he had never done such a smooth business.

“Leave the extra for the next slave trade.” Xiao Ming said, “Where are these slaves?”

“They are all on the dock in the north of Qingzhou City.” Liang Dahai happily accepted the money and waited for half a day in Dongshi. There was only one buyer, and now such a large transaction made him truly appreciate the benefits of cooperating with Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming said to Qian Dafu: “Steward Qian, you call Colonel Lu and temporarily place the slaves outside the city in the military camp in the east of the city. The king will go to see them tomorrow.”

Qian Dafu nodded and said, Liang Dahai left.

Now that he has plenty of money on hand, Xiao Ming is eager to use the money to get on the fast track. What he just said to scare Li Kaiyuan was not nonsense. A large number of barbarian scouts did appear outside Cangzhou City.

(End of chapter)