There was silence in the boat, with only the sound of the lake breeze blowing by and rolling up the curtain floating in the cabin. After a long time, a crisp sound of the cup lid hitting the bowl broke the silence. When everyone looked at it, the fat man sitting in the middle, facing south and facing north, calmly picked up the tea cup and took a sip carefully, "Good tea. , Wuyi Dahongpao is really wonderful, Boss Xie, you can also give me a few taels anytime, how about it?"
"Master Liao, what's going on now, are you still interested in talking about the tea ceremony? When we get over this difficulty, let alone a few taels, what if I wrap up all the tea trees on the cliff and give them to you?" At this time, I heard that the fat man was still talking about the tea ceremony with interest. The middle-aged gentleman beside him was laughing and laughing, but he couldn't help but didn't answer. He could only agree with a wry smile, "I'm afraid, as Mr. Qian said, our family will be able to survive by then." How many are left?"
Shaking his head lightly, the fat man put down the tea cup, smacked his lips and said: "Don't be so pessimistic. Don't you all just want to discuss a solution now? Although the current situation is changing rapidly, it remains true to the original principles of Jiangnan. This land still needs someone to carry the banner, and we can’t fight without food and clothing, right?”
"Master Liao, how do you know our plight. Take my Xie family as an example. Our Xie family started with river transportation. Quanzhou Prefecture is the base of our Xie family. Now we have river-sea combined transportation. The transportation industry is the foundation of our Xie family. But now the East China Sea Due to the war, Jinling, the most important wharf, has fallen into the hands of His Highness, and the taxes of Yanyun and Donghai counties in the north have doubled. Moreover, due to the tense situation, the public security situation has become increasingly severe. My fleet has been suspended twice in a row. After being robbed, the amount of compensation my family received has exceeded 500,000 gold coins; to the south, the Milanese fleet was escorted and patrolled by the Royal Fleet of Milan, so it was safe and sound. Merchants gradually switched to the fleet of Milanese merchants, which greatly affected my Xie family's business. ; The five lakes in the west are equally unstable. The empire and the Maci Khans alternately control Wenning, while the control of Anqing and Yueyang changes hands between the Sixth and Third Highnesses. The transit tariffs are astonishingly high, and Jiujiang falls into a peaceful state. In the hands of the remnant, the situation is better than that of other houses. The Xie family is now struggling to support itself. Not to mention that His Highness the Sixth Prince is still asking for donations. Even if he doesn't want it, I don't think this business can last long." said the middle-aged gentleman. After finishing, he shook his head and sighed.
"Yes, Mr. Liao, the situation of our Zhou family is similar to what Brother Xie said. Everyone knows that I, Zhou Chuannan, only do one business, and that is salt. Where does the salt come from? Isn't it from the seaside salt field? Now Donghai County The salt fields in the territory have been detained by His Highness. I sent people to negotiate, but there was no response. The five lakes were in war and the Heshuo road was blocked. The price of salt shipped from Guanxi has increased by 80%; the inventory in Weiyang's warehouse has been exhausted. , I urgently transported a batch of goods from Jinhua, but I was stopped by the newly established tax inspection department of the Chu Palace on the way. They insisted on drawing some wartime money according to the 100-10 draw. I was transferring between warehouses. Whether there is a transaction or not, how come you have to draw a cent? This is simply a strange story through the ages, but everyone listens to you. Just draw it. Before arriving at Weiyang, I received a notice from the newly established Monopoly Commodity Management Office of the Prince of Chu. All products are managed by the Monopoly Office of the Prince of Chu. All the original monopoly licenses issued by the county magistrate's office are revoked and need to be reapplied. Not to mention that the three-year monopoly rights I purchased were invalidated in less than a year, and the new monopoly rights price The price has doubled compared to what I originally bought at the Sheriff's Mansion. Do you want anyone to do business?" A man surnamed Zhou with his head wrapped in a white scarf and clothed in linen clothes said sadly, "My Zhou family has been through four generations since it was passed down from my great-grandfather. Dai, are you going to lose at the hands of me, Zhou Jianan?!"
"Who says it's not the case?" Seeing everyone speaking angrily, the short and thin man named Murong was not willing to be left alone, looking filled with righteous indignation: "Although our Murong family's main business is the slave business, this is also allowed by the imperial law, but in In the eyes of others, we always seem to be inferior to others. The first stop for the tax department is our home. Needless to say, the first place for the audit department is also our Murong family. Franchise license, hey, boss Zhou has doubled, but we have doubled. Three times more! You said business is good, let’s not talk about anything else. But look at business, now that food prices have skyrocketed, who in the average family is willing to add more people? It’s not easy to do any business, and it’s all in recession, who will? Come to buy your goods? I finally saw the Japanese defeating the Duodun people. I thought I could take this opportunity to make a fortune, but I never expected that the navy would not allow the Japanese ships to enter the port. The Japanese were so angry that they took all the slaves at once. Sold to Milan and Nanyang, isn't this intentional to force people into despair?"
Everyone was chatting and making noise. It seemed that they had been holding grudges for a long time and finally found an opportunity to vent their anger.
"Okay, everyone, now is not the time to complain. This is what has happened. We have to face the reality and think about how to overcome this difficulty. The situation is currently chaotic, and we are short-sighted and it is difficult to see clearly the current development. Mr. Liao has lived in the court for a long time and has seen a lot. He must have something to teach us. Why don't we ask Mr. Liao to clear up the clouds for us and get a glimpse of the avenue." The middle-aged gentleman with fair skin and green beard who had been sitting at the head finally spoke. As soon as the words were heard, the cabin suddenly became quiet.
As the leader of the Wen family, the head of the seven major families in the south of the Yangtze River, the cultural revolution's knowledge and vision are far beyond those of the other businessmen who only know how to run business all day long. To run a business, you need to make friends with the local government, and you also need to maintain contact with the surrounding forces. It is necessary to contact Jiangnan, but Jiangnan has been at peace for a long time. It is an important financial and taxation center of the empire. No matter who is in charge of the empire, it will not easily shake the foundation of Jiangnan. This is the unanimous consensus of both the government and the opposition. As merchants from the Seven Prefectures in the South of the Yangtze River, while constantly expanding their own business, they are also more or less connected with various forces in the imperial court. However, as their nature of profit-seeking, they are not willing to be too involved with the ever-changing court. The nobles and nobles got too close, especially in the late period of Situ Mingyue's administration. Frequent power adjustments and official consolidations left businessmen at a loss as to what to do. They often spent countless money and manpower to climb the line, and they might become prisoners within a few days. There was even a possibility of suffering a disaster, so the merchants in the later period became more and more cautious. In addition to Liao Qichang, who was firmly close to the audience, they even united and made friends with the middle and upper-level officials of the local garrison and navy. On the contrary, It's because he has much less contact with the high officials in the imperial capital who are far away in the imperial capital. Of course, he still shows no lack of financial filial piety.
Long before the change in the throne of the empire, Liao Qichang, as the governor of Jiangnan County, was keenly aware that the storm the empire was about to face was far from the ups and downs it had experienced in the past. He once reminded the seven families in Jiangnan that people should be cunning. Diversify the various assets and investments concentrated in the three eastern counties of the empire, do not put your eggs in one basket, and point out that the relatively barren and backward northwest and northern Luzon may be a good choice.
Although this suggestion once caused a wave of funds from Jiangnan to the northwest and northern Luzon, the calm situation in the three southeastern counties has made major businessmen reluctant to transfer their investments in the three counties. Only the Wen family, the head of the seven major families, The Cultural Revolution, the head of the family, valued Liao Qichang's views very much, and began to gradually shift the focus of investment from the East China Sea and the Five Lakes to the northwest and northern Luzon, and began to diversify the investment direction. From the financial industry to plantations to the mining industry, the Wen family’s investments in Northwest and Northern Luzon have exceeded twice the combined investment of the other six companies. In particular, the investment in the acquisition of Northwest Datong Bank, which was originally controlled by the imperial capital's business forces, was renamed the northwest branch of Jiangnan Bank, which suddenly accelerated the transfer of funds and assets of the Wen family. After the Northwest Bank, the Wen family became the second bank in Beilu. The Song Dynasty was granted permission to open banks and banks even before Jinling Bank and Wanfeng Bank entered the northwest with the Wen family. Now they are trying their best to obtain permission to enter the financial markets of the Western Region countries and the Kansai region.
After seeing that Tiannan was brought under Li Wufeng's control, he was the first to send a representative to congratulate Li Wufeng, and proposed to acquire the Southern Bank, which was originally controlled by the pro-Lang family (due to a run on the verge of bankruptcy and liquidation due to the collapse of the Lang family). He stabilized people's hearts and was highly praised by Wu Feng. His positive performance not only won the friendship of senior northwest officials Xiao Tang, James and Yang Zhengbin, but also provided a strong guarantee for the safety of his funds. Therefore, in this matter, he has always been very grateful to Liao Qichang, thanking him for pointing out the direction and guiding him, which made him feel much more relaxed at this time than other companies.
As early as Liao Qichang's invitation to Wu Feng to march eastward to Wuhu and Jiangnan was rejected, Liao Qichang had already relied on his keen sense of smell in his political career for many years to feel that the three southeastern counties were likely to encounter a war and chaos unprecedented in hundreds of years. Of course, He didn't know that the drought would be a powerful catalyst for this war, but the strong rise of Situ Biao behind Qiankun Dao, Situ Tai's ambition for a county in the East China Sea and even Jiangnan, the crazy expansion of the Japanese at sea, and the Milan people's ambition behind Situ Yuan The greedy appetites, two talented politicians of Machi Khan, and the scattered forces of various empires, all these are likely to plunge the entire three southeastern counties into catastrophe. However, his early predictions and guidance can only be regarded as unparalleled during the Cultural Revolution. I listened to it without hesitation, but the Wen family's too huge assets could not be completely transferred in just one or two years, and those in the Wen family who had a fluke mentality were also delaying the progress of the asset transfer, either openly or covertly.
Until the Japanese army became more active and Situ Tai's army marched south, he saw that the early predictions came true step by step. Due to the sudden financial tightness caused by frequent wars, all this slowly began to be passed on to the merchants who were the newly wealthy forces in the south of the Yangtze River. They have really woken up, but isn't it too late now