Chapter 905 Huaxia Shipping Group (1/18)
June 24th, Shanhai City.
The aftermath of the Battle of Feishui gradually dissipated, and Ouyang Shuo started to get busy again.
It was mid-afternoon at this moment, and the scorching sun had just crossed the mid-heaven, but the temperature did not drop. The front yard of the Royal Study Room is lush with green trees, but it is very shady, and even the annoying cicadas in summer have disappeared here.
In the corner of the imperial study room, basins of ice cubes are placed to drive away heat waves and bring coolness.
At three o'clock, a group of special visitors suddenly came to the quiet Imperial Study Room. The Vice Minister of Finance, Cui Yingyou, walked in the front, and the three who followed were all the well-known Great Xia Imperial Merchant, that is, Bai Xue, the treasurer of [Bai's Trading Company], [Song's Chamber of Commerce] chief treasurer Song Tianxiong and [Cui's Chamber of Commerce] chief treasurer Cui Shouren.
There is no doubt that this is a special meeting.
According to the regulations, although the three of them had some relationship with the royal family, they were not eligible to enter the imperial study.
Walking into the solemn imperial study room, a strong breath of power rushed over. The three imperial merchants are the existence of calling the wind and rain outside, and often a small action can cause huge waves in the business world.
But after entering the Imperial Study Room, the power center of the Great Xia Dynasty, Song Tianxiong, Ouyang Shuo's father-in-law, not to mention Bai Xue and Cui Shouren's two juniors, felt a little nervous.
This meeting was not a temporary idea, and the notification was in place yesterday.
Before coming here, Cui Shouren had asked his younger sister Yingyou about her words, but she never thought that this younger sister would be tight-lipped and did not reveal anything. On the contrary, his father found out and severely reprimanded Cui Shouren.
It is a taboo of the dynasty for foreign relatives to interfere in politics.
"Your Majesty, Lord Cui and the others are here." Tsing Yi reminded Ouyang Shuo who was reviewing the memorial.
Ouyang Shuo was startled, put down the ink brush, raised his head and said, "Here we come, give me a seat!"
The smile on the face makes people feel like spring breeze.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Song Tianxiong and the others did not dare to be negligent, they saluted respectfully and sat down one by one just now.
Looking at the young emperor on the opposite side, Song Tianxiong was in a trance. It was really difficult for him to match the emperor in front of him with the young man in reality, they looked like two different people.
Apart from his appearance, Song Tianxiong couldn't find a single point of resemblance. It is conceivable what kind of unforgettable training this young man has gone through in order to get to the high position he is today.
It is enough for Song Tianxiong to be pleased that the children of the Song family can have one-tenth of him.
It was not only Song Tianxiong who was emotional, Cui Shouren was also full of thoughts, he remembered the first contact with the king, it was three years ago, the Cui family had just received the news that Yingyou had survived.
As the representative of the Cui family, Cui Shouren reached the first transaction with Shanhai City through the super trading platform.
At that time, the cooperation between the Cui family and Shanhai City was in a condescending attitude, and they didn't think about making any profit, but just to repay Shanhai City's life-saving grace to Yingyou.
In just three years, it is almost like a sea of water.
In three years, Cui Shouren has gradually stepped into the family center from an ordinary kid who was not very favored by the family, and then took charge of the [Cui's Chamber of Commerce]. He can be described as a winner in life.
Cui Shouren was able to have such a chance and stand out from the outstanding children of the family. Apart from his own ability, he was more afraid because he played the role of liaison between the family and Shanhai City from the beginning.
This alone greatly adds points to Cui Shouren.
There is no other reason, but Cui Shouren is the only one in the family who can get acquainted with the king.
It can be seen that the wonder of life encounters.
[Cui's Chamber of Commerce] also because of that inconspicuous business back then, it went to a fork in fate, and it developed and grew like a snowball, becoming a giant in the business world in one fell swoop.
Not long ago, several shopkeepers from the [Cui's Chamber of Commerce] in Dali Royal City came to Shanhai City to pay tribute to Cui Shouren, just to take care of them in the ocean trade.
The difference between the two is already like clouds and mud, and the ups and downs are reversed.
Among the three imperial merchants, Bai Xue was probably the only one whose heart was as calm as water, and there was no disturbance.
There is an old saying: no desire is strong.
Her husband, Wei Yang, is at the center, and her father, Bai Gui, is in charge of the business school. Bai Xue really doesn't have much desire to pursue wealth, and what she enjoys is just playing games in the business world.
Not long ago, Bai Xue donated 500,000 gold coins to the imperial court in the name of [Bai's Trading Company] to build schools in various counties and counties, which became the largest donation since the founding of the Great Xia.
This incident even alarmed Ouyang Shuo, who personally bestowed [Bai's Trading Company] with a plaque of "Benevolent Merchant".
The three emperors had different thoughts, but Ouyang Shuo was very insightful. He started to practice the "Huang Ting Jing Jing" in the past few days. While trying to break through the middle dantian, his spiritual sense became more and more acute.
Ouyang Shuo can basically guess what ordinary people think.
Fortunately, Ouyang Shuo didn't pry into other people's hobbies, so he turned to Yingyou and said, "Master Cui, please explain the establishment of [Huaxia Shipping Group] in detail."
"No!" Yingyou was desperate, and just announced the answer to the meeting.
As the dynasty's ocean-going trade became more and more prosperous, and trade income became the financial pillar of the dynasty, Ouyang Shuo had been thinking about how to upgrade the entire trading system.
Previously, the Four Seas Bank was ordered to launch marine insurance business, but it was just a small test.
The key to ocean trade lies in the channel, and the channel is mainly composed of ports and routes. The port is a point, which is the key to the import and export of commodities; the route is a line, which is the lifeline connecting ports.
The focus of Ouyang Shuo's transformation is on these two sections.
As for the ports, Ouyang Shuo has ordered the Ministry of Finance to study and formulate a separate Customs Department under the Taxation Office to be responsible for leading the import and export management of commodities.
Of course, the responsibilities of the Customs Department go far beyond simple import and export supervision. In addition, the department also shoulders important responsibilities such as cracking down on smuggling, compiling statistics, and collecting tariffs.
For a dynasty like the Great Xia Dynasty, which had a large proportion of ocean-going trade, the importance of the Customs Department was self-evident. It is only a new establishment at the moment, and when the time is right, the Customs Department will be independent from the Inland Revenue Department.
In terms of routes, what Ouyang Shuo needs to do is to integrate, and it is an unprecedented super integration.
As mentioned earlier, ocean trade is also risky, and the risk is not small. In addition to rare encounters with wars, there are also unpredictable dangers such as storms, tsunamis, shipwrecks, and pirates.
No matter how powerful the Great Xia Dynasty's navy was, it could not clear the entire waterway and ensure the safety of any ship passing through it. Even the federal navy in reality cannot guarantee this, let alone the ancient times when navigation technology and communication technology are very backward.
For the three imperial merchants, their family has a big business, and they can afford one or two losses, so naturally there is nothing to worry about; but for the small and medium-sized chambers of commerce, a shipwreck may bankrupt them.
This has greatly restricted the enthusiasm of small and medium-sized chambers of commerce to carry out ocean trade.
The current routine for small and medium-sized chambers of commerce is to take the convenience boats of the three major imperial merchants or other super chambers of commerce, pay a certain commission, and ask the big chambers of commerce to help transport the goods.
Or dozens of fleets travel together to jointly resist maritime risks.
Because of the non-standard operation, the profit margins of small and medium-sized chambers of commerce have been greatly squeezed. Moreover, in order to assemble a joint fleet, there is often a delay for a period of time, which is also a cost.
As a ruler, what Ouyang Shuo has to do is to reshape this, to reshuffle the cards thoroughly, and in the process it will inevitably hurt the interests of the three imperial merchants.
It is reported that just collecting commissions from small and medium-sized guilds has allowed the three imperial merchants to make huge profits.
Right now, Ouyang Shuo is about to lose his job. He plans to integrate the fleets of the three imperial merchants, plus the fleet owned by the Commerce Department, to form a super shipping group.
That is the [Huaxia Shipping Group] mentioned above.
There are three main businesses of the group, namely wharf, shipping and shipbuilding and repairing.
One, the pier.
There are only fifteen commercial ports in the dynasty, and dozens of large and small commercial ports have been established, which are specially used for transshipment of goods, which is an important part of ocean trade.
Depending on the size of these terminals, they are under the jurisdiction of the Commercial Department or the local government.
In this integration, the use rights and management rights of all terminals are packaged as a whole, and all of them are merged into [Huaxia Shipping Group], which is managed and operated by the group.
As for the commercial department and the local yamen, only the supervision and ownership are reserved.
This alone is enough for [Huaxia Shipping Group] to occupy a monopoly position in ocean trade.
Second, shipping.
The integration of the fleet is not simply brought together, but a systematic upgrade. After integration, the entire fleet will be subdivided according to shipping routes, and each fleet will travel to and from fixed routes.
Even the sailing time should be fixed as much as possible.
For this reason, Ouyang Shuo asked the naval command to provide professional navigators and captains for the fleet, and at the same time set up a sea escort team with certain combat effectiveness, equipped with firecrackers and cannons.
In this way, the safety of the fleet can be greatly enhanced and the risk of navigation can be reduced.
The integrated fleet will provide ocean transportation services to all chambers of commerce, and the transportation price will be open and transparent, so as to activate the enthusiasm of small and medium-sized chambers of commerce to participate in ocean trade.
Third, shipbuilding and maintenance.
A long time ago, the manufacture of merchant ships and warships had been separated. For this integration, Ouyang Shuo is going to divest all the commercial shipyards and related maintenance plants under the Shipping Department and integrate them into [Huaxia Shipping Group].
In this way, the group has the ability to independently manufacture merchant ships. Ouyang Shuo even planned to transfer a group of shipbuilders from the Shipping Department to strengthen [Huaxia Shipping Group]'s merchant ship research and development capabilities.
This divestiture is not only to reduce the size of the shipbuilding department, but also to achieve a new level of profit in the merchant ship manufacturing and repair business through the commercial operation of the group.
With these three points, it is enough for the newly established [Huaxia Shipping Group] to become a giant shipping group with a scale exceeding 5 million in one fell swoop, and it is a real commercial aircraft carrier.
After the integration is completed, the group will play an important role in Wangcheng Ocean Trading.
It even goes so far as to say that Ouyang Shuo is planning to transfer all the coal transportation business between Dynasty, Xichu and Wanshi City to [Huaxia Shipping Group], and the group will operate it in a unified manner.