New Shun 1730

Although these two thanks, in Liu Yu's mouth, sounded glib and playful.

But for these merchants who tried to develop direct trade with Europe, these two thanks were sincere.

Those who planted trees before, and those who came after enjoyed the shade.

Just like the fact that coffee could not be sold in Dashun.

If it were to start from scratch, it would probably take more than a hundred years for this tea to be sold so well and popularized in Europe.

If it is said that the trees planted by the ancestors were the seeds planted by the Portuguese.

Then the most important subsequent watering was really done by the Ostend Company, which was short-lived a few years ago.

Not only because of the vicious competition, a swallow flew into the homes of ordinary people in the old days, which made the sales volume of tea in Europe rise from hundreds of thousands of catties to the current 10 or 20 million catties.

Moreover, because of the birth of a daughter, Britain has not yet abolished the tea tax. This is the Western Trade Company, and even the cornerstone of the cooperation between Dashun and Sweden to take the first step towards European trade.

The people present knew very well that the Swedes were smuggling tea to North America to make money, which was why they were easily blocked by Dashun and had to cooperate with Dashun by splitting shares. These people knew how big the Blue Flag Country was and how many people it had. That small population bought so much tea, unless the people of the Blue Flag Country used tea as cabbage and radish.

In fact, the value of cooperating with Sweden is not just making money.

It was also the route that caused hundreds of Swedes to die and many ships to sink, and Dashun got it without spending a penny or losing a single person.

From all these, the businessmen present felt that Liu Yu's two joking "thanks" should actually be "thanked" to the Habsburg family.

After this joke, Liu Yu said: "Now we are enjoying the coolness of the trees planted by our predecessors. Let's not talk about other things, just talking about tea. In fact, our company is fully capable of monopolizing."

"Monopoly? In most cases, there are only two types."

"One is free competition, spending money, lowering prices, driving the other party bankrupt, and then monopolizing."

"The other is called administrative intervention."

"Our ancestors have a saying, give someone a taste of their own medicine. Since Britain can intervene administratively to grant monopoly rights, the Netherlands can, France can, Sweden can, Denmark can, Prussia can, Portugal and Spain can, why can't this dynasty intervene administratively to authorize monopoly?"

"Whether it is used or not is another matter."

"Even if there is no monopoly with administrative intervention, we can still win by spending money and capital to compete for who has more blood."

"So, assuming we get the monopoly, do you think the price of tea should continue to drop? Or should the price increase after monopoly?"

Price reduction?

Price increase?

It seems that this is a very simple question.

However, everyone present knew that this was actually a test.

As a regulator, Liu Yu actually has absolute right to make recommendations on the appointment of future board members. Although the supervision of the court will not last too long, according to previous statements, there will still be supervision after getting on track, but it will not be as strict as it is now, so that even what goods to import, how much to sell, how to load, etc. must be reviewed and managed.

However, once the supervision is not so strict in the future, who will be the head?

Who will be the chairman?

In theory, the board members are elected, but if the court does not nod, this will be difficult to do.

It seems that whether the price increases or decreases, just answer whether it increases or decreases.

However, this is not something that can be said in vain.

The merchants thought about the tea past that Liu Yu had just talked about, and thought that there was a lot of foreshadowing, which is to remind us: whether it is rising or falling, it is necessary to grasp the truth.

Only by grasping the truth and finding the truth of doing such a large-scale business and macro perspective can we decide whether the company will develop well or not in the future.

The people present have heard Liu Yu talk about the Dutch East India Company more than once, and he talked about it as a "negative teaching material".

From the quota of spices, to the blind price increase that led to the substitution of Brazilian clove wood, to the crisis of the disorderly expansion of the sugarcane industry, to the company's operation by issuing bonds instead of expanding its equity, etc., they are all negative examples.

The scapegoats for these negative examples are the 17-member gentleman group of the VOC, that is, the real executive directors of the board of directors.

Their decisions led to the company's operating difficulties. Although there are multiple factors, at least a few issues are absolutely unavoidable responsibilities.

Whether the price of tea rises or falls, once the wrong step is taken, it may seriously affect the profits of the Western Trading Company.

After all, this is a large-scale business of several million taels.

The people at the table discussed for a while, and soon they had different opinions.

Some people stood up to express their views. Liu Yu did not look happy, but just let everyone comment.

Some said it should rise, some said it should fall, and some said it should not rise or fall.

Rise or fall, that's just a matter of talking.

What really matters is "why" it should rise? Or "why" it should fall?

After a long discussion, a young businessman in his twenties stood up and bowed to Liu Yu, saying, "My Lord, please forgive my stupidity. I cannot answer your question. I guess you did it on purpose."

"I have also learned geometry. Your question is like a triangle. If one side is 1 and the other side is also 1, how long is the third side?"

"The conditions you gave me are insufficient. I feel that I cannot answer it."

The businessmen next to him were startled, and those in the distance turned their heads to look at the young man. This young man's surname is Xu, given name is Heng, and given name is Jiesheng. He is the youngest son in the family.

His father was engaged in Japanese business in the early years. His eldest brother went to Kokura for smuggling and was bombed to death by the Japanese. When Dashun conquered Japan, his father also followed him to Japan to perform legal proceedings for his son. During the war, During this period, he was also responsible for military logistics.

Now that he is old, he looked at his sons and chose his younger son who had received a new education to take over. He was afraid that the other sons would be dissatisfied and the brothers would be at odds with each other, so the old man stayed behind the scenes and only let this son do the work in front of the stage.

Among this group of businessmen, Xu Heng belongs to the "Japanese Trade Department". Although he is young, with the foundation accumulated by his family and his early embrace of Liu Yu, he relied on his support during the war with Japan. They made a fortune by assisting military supplies and supplies, and they were among the merchants who had the closest relationship with the imperial court.

Everyone also knew Liu Yu's temperament and didn't care much about red tape. So when Xu Heng said that Liu Yu's conditions were not enough to answer, they were not worried about him. They just didn't know what he was going to say because his words were shocking.

This is a bit like a teacher giving a lecture on the podium, but a student below says there is something wrong with the teacher's question, which naturally attracts the attention of "the whole class".

Soon, these people all turned their heads and looked at Liu Yu, thinking to themselves, what did the Duke say?

Liu Yu just smiled and said, "Tell me, what does it mean to have sufficient conditions?"

Although Xu Heng was young, he was chosen as the heir by his father despite the pressure from the other brothers, which showed his courage. At this time, he said calmly: "I have read an article written by the Duke when he was in Wendeng. It is about the issue of permanent tenancy and mu tax."

"At that time, Master Mubai of Wendeng Prefecture wanted to reform the poll tax, so he sent people to conduct an inspection and wrote the "Inspection Report on Land and Mu Tax in Wendeng Prefecture"."

"It uses detailed figures to describe Wendeng Prefecture's total acres, total taxes, head tax, and mu tax. The number of acres per person, the number of corvees, the price of grain, the average debt, etc."

"From this, we can calculate who supports and who opposes the reform of the mu tax and head tax, who benefits and who loses."

"After reading the following, I realized that the truth lies only in these numbers. Therefore, whether the price of tea rises or falls, it is not based on talking about it."

"It's about getting various numbers of European people."

"Who are the people who drink tea now? How much money do they make in a month? How much of their money does tea consumption account for?"

"How much does a worker in Europe earn in a month? How much does a farmer earn in a month?"

"How many people are working? How many are farming? How many are doing business? How many are serving as officials?"

"Do workers drink tea?"

“If they don’t drink it, to what extent will the price drop so they can drink it?”

“Do farmers drink tea?”

"If they don't drink it, to what extent will the price drop to a point where the rich among them will drink it? And to what extent will the price drop to a point where the less wealthy will buy some during the holidays?"

“To what extent can the price be reduced and how many goods can be sold?”

"Will the profits from these goods sold at reduced prices be higher than before?"

"I don't know any of these things."

"What's the difference between this and some people sitting around talking about Taoism, talking about Taoism, the universe, Tai Chi, etc. without even knowing how to use a telescope?"

When Xu Heng said this, Liu Yu nodded frequently.

The businessman next to him saw Liu Yu nodding frequently and looking happy, and he couldn't help but said "Oh!"

Especially those who are specifically thinking about "something good can come from above", they are suddenly enlightened - it is not the case for those who are suddenly enlightened.

Instead, they specially bought a steam engine, used it like a stone lion, and placed it as a nondescript ornament in their garden.

Sometimes when entertaining Liu Yu for dinner, he would boil the steam engine and let it lift water. Some people even rumored that the Duke liked the smell of gunpowder smoke because he had been in the battlefield for a long time. The Duke liked the smell of coal smoke.

In addition to the most bizarre sights in the world at this time - the best of the beautiful Jiangnan gardens, often with chimneys emitting thick smoke among the blue waves of the rockery and bamboo forest - there are also other things such as changing the servant system in the home to hired labor. To return to its original name; to set aside land in expensive gardens instead of planting flowers and plants but to deliberately grow food or exotic plants; to go out in a carriage instead of taking a sedan chair... There are even weird bluestone roads in good gardens that have to be paved with rails and allowed to rust. .

Secretly, Liu Yu mocked this strange situation as "a strange version of the [Westernization Movement] with the slim waist of the King of Chu."

These "Westernization Movement" enthusiasts who "had something good to do" heard Xu Heng talk about reading the pamphlet written by Liu Yu, which made Liu Yu nod frequently. How could they not feel regretful?

I thought to myself, it turns out that not only do I need to put a steam engine in the forest to make smoke, but I also need to read more of the newly learned books... Moreover, it seems that reading is more important than buying a machine.