Chapter 318 IPO
According to the arrangements of the executive committee and relevant units, there will be several product promotion meetings with different contents on this day. In addition to the flagship product promotion meetings arranged every quarter and jointly organized by various production departments and commercial and trade authorities, this time there is also an additional promotion meeting for school-age children's education courses organized by the education department and specifically targeted at trade objects, as well as The arms product exhibition held by the newly established "Haihan Military Industry" - of course, this is only a special promotion meeting for individual customers, not everyone can go. In addition, there is the "Qiong Lianfa" development project briefing that is the most eye-catching but has set up entry barriers.
When "Qiong Lianfa" was being prepared for establishment in Guangzhou, it had already caused quite a stir in the local business district. There has never been such a precedent in the past for so many wealthy businessmen to be organized together to establish a large trading firm with business scope across provinces. Of course, many outsiders don't know that the investment direction of "Qiong Lianfa" is not in the two provinces of Fuzhou and Guangzhou in the mainland, but in the isolated overseas Qiongzhou Island. Moreover, the level of investment will be unprecedented in history.
In a specially arranged conference room, the twelve shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" sat around the strip conference table and stared at the two huge maps that Tao Donglai and Schneider had just hung on the wall.
The map of Qiongzhou Island on the left is easy to recognize. It clearly marks all the major towns on Qiongzhou Island, including Victory Port where everyone is now. The map on the right is relatively unfamiliar to many people. On this map, which covers almost the entire Southeast Asia, Qiongzhou Island is just a small piece of land in the center of the map, stretching from Songjiang Prefecture in the north to Songjiang Prefecture in the east. The Philippine Archipelago extends from Java Island in the south to the Indian subcontinent in the west. The area depicted on this map has exceeded the cognitive scope of these people present - the farthest place among them has been, which is Baja on Java Island. Davia (now Jakarta). As for the places west of the Strait of Malacca, for those present, there is only fragmentary information obtained from various rumors.
Although the great eunuch Zheng He made seven voyages to the West during the Yongle period, he had already visited places more distant than this map. The place where Zheng He died in the eighth year of Xuande was even as far away as the west coast of India, but for the Ming people two hundred years later , that is already an unreachable world.
"Everyone, you have seen some of the local infrastructure facilities in the past two days, and I believe you have a preliminary understanding of Victory Port. But I think many people may not quite understand why we want to move the investment area of 'Qiong Lianfa' It is set in Qiongzhou Island, not in the mainland where the development situation is better." Tao Donglai raised his hand and pointed to the map behind him: "I believe everyone is familiar with these two maps. Today I want to combine the maps to give you an overview. Explain the future development ideas of 'Qiong Lianfa'."
"All of you here are maritime merchants who have been trading at sea for many years. First of all, I would like to remind everyone of a question. Where does the largest volume of trade with the Ming Dynasty come from?" Before anyone could answer, Tao Donglai announced the answer himself: " They come from countries in the Western European continent. They traveled thousands of miles and took risks to come to the Ming Dynasty to buy back the specialties of the Ming Dynasty and transport them back to their own countries to make huge profits. From the perspective of making money, in fact, the Western maritime merchants have nothing to do with you here. The difference is that everyone is working hard just for money.”
"As you can see from this map, if Western merchants want to reach the Ming Dynasty, there are two waterways after leaving the Strait of Malacca. One is through Annan Kingdom and Qiongzhou Island to Guangzhou, and the other is through Borneo, Palawan Island and Manila are detoured like this. It can be said that no matter which shipping route it is, it is full of dangers and hardships for maritime merchants. If we can now move the trading center from Guangzhou to Qiongzhou, or let me put it more bluntly. Be whiter and move to Port Victory, then we can see what happens.”
As Tao Donglai spoke, he marked the routes and voyages of each section on the map with a pen: "You can do the calculations for yourself. If we can turn Victory Port into a trading center between the Ming Dynasty and Western countries, then Western maritime merchants will After leaving the Strait of Malacca, the voyage will be shortened by at least one-third! If a merchant ship needs to go around Manila and then go to Guangzhou or Fujian, the voyage will be almost doubled! What does this mean even if it is just from Qiongzhou Island to Guangzhou? It takes about ten days for a round trip. You all have maritime business. Just imagine if there was such a trading port nearby that could meet all your trading needs, would you still be willing to risk it on the sea? The risk of going further away to buy goods of the same quality but more expensive? ”
Tao Donglai's last sentence naturally refers to the zero-tariff policy currently implemented by Victory Port. With the guarantee of this policy, the selling price of Daming products can indeed remain lower than that of foreign trade ports such as Guangzhou and Quanzhou, and it will naturally be more attractive to Western businessmen. But so far, Port of Victory has not opened its doors to Western maritime merchants. Those who come here to trade are basically Daming maritime merchants, transporting various raw materials or primary processed products, and then buying various industrial products produced locally.
If Western merchants also start to enter Victory Port, then the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants will most likely abandon the distant Batavia and Manila and directly transport the goods to Victory Port to trade with Western merchants - after all, it does not matter whether it is shipped to Manila or Bata Via, are also inevitably subject to commercial taxes levied by the local government, but Victory Port does not have this drawback that is most hated by businessmen.
Tao Donglai looked around at everyone present and said: "Perhaps some people will say that the conditions on Qiongzhou Island cannot be compared with those on the mainland. Most of the things that Western merchants want to buy are not produced on Qiongzhou Island. This is true. The former Qiongzhou Island It is true that there is nothing produced, and Yazhou is just a place where prisoners are exiled. Qiongzhou Island is surrounded by the sea, but there is not even enough salt to eat, and some of it has to be shipped from the mainland every year. It can be said that there is nothing to do here, so there are no people. Run this place as a trading port.”
"But that was something in the past. After we came here, or after 'Qiong Lianfa' started operating, this situation will soon change." Tao Donglai stopped here. Schneider hung a list on the wall nearby.
"This is the main export goods of the Ming Dynasty in the near future. Can you confirm whether it is true." Tao Donglai pointed to the list and read: "Silk fabrics, porcelain, books, cotton cloth, sucrose, medicinal materials..."
Everyone here saw that the list included more than a dozen common export commodities, which were basically areas that various shareholders were involved in, and they were not just made up by Haihan people.
Tao Donglai continued: "These commodities that Western businessmen are interested in can actually be produced on Qiongzhou Island, but no one has organized the production before. I believe that we Haihan were not the first to think of this method. But we are definitely the first to take this step! The various projects that 'Qiong Lianfa' will operate are to make Qiongzhou Island a maritime trade center between the East and the West, and a distribution center for East and West commodities. . You are all veterans of business for many years. I think you all know how much profit there will be when things are done. I believe you are willing to invest your money because of this wonderful prospect. .”
A business representative asked: "That's all. How can silk fabrics, porcelain, and cotton cloth be produced on Qiongzhou Island? Is Mr. Tao trying to fool us into not knowing the people of Qiongzhou?"
Tao Donglai responded: "It is true that there was no such thing before, but in fact, except for cotton, everything else is available. Please turn to the fourth page of the information you have in your hands now."
In front of each representative is a bound project manual. In order to take care of Akito's reading habits, the business department specially found a few talented people to spend several days transcribing it. Everyone opened it to the fourth page as instructed, and saw the content of "Qiongzhou Island Sericulture Base and Silk Fabric Production Plan." This plan will take two to three years to build a sericulture breeding base on Qiongzhou Island, cultivate sericulture varieties suitable for the local climate, and strive to start producing silk fabrics within five years.
The plan details the implementation steps, including how to collect silkworm seeds and mulberry seeds suitable for Qiongzhou's climate from Fujian and other places, how to plant mulberry in enclosed areas on Qiongzhou Island, how to screen silkworm seeds, and how to introduce skilled weavers and craftsmen, etc. While everyone was reading carefully, they heard Tao Donglai say: "Page 8 is the porcelain production plan. You can take a look first."
Although Hainan was not famous for the production of porcelain in history, in fact Hainan Island has excellent natural resources - Qionghai and Wanning on the east coast of Hainan Island both have kaolin mines. The so-called kaolin is a kind of clay mineral named after Kaoling Village in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province. It can basically be regarded as a synonym for china clay. With this, basic raw materials are guaranteed to develop the local porcelain industry, and the remaining work is to build kilns and introduce skilled workers. In addition to making ceramics, kaolin can also be used in papermaking, refractory materials, coatings, cement raw materials, etc., and has a wide range of uses.
As for the origin of kaolin clay that is still outside the current control range of the Cross-Trade Group, the executive committee is not worried at all. It is nothing more than money to clear the way - using real money to buy clay that is worthless in the local area. Could it be that the officials and people there would not cooperate?
As for other export products, it is even less difficult for Chuan Chuan Group to realize them. Papermaking and printing have now begun to enter the trial operation stage. Mass production of publications will probably be achieved within the year. By then, Guangzhou's "Haihan Bookstore" will no longer need to purchase goods from other booksellers. The publicity department hopes that The long-established newspaper and magazine media will also begin to be put into practical use. Sugar cane has been planted on a large scale in Yalong Bay, and there are further large-scale planting plans in Yazhou. Harvesting cane sugar is also one of the goals that can be achieved in the near future.
As for the planting of medicinal materials, tea leaves, etc., that's out of the question. The people from the Ministry of Agriculture have never been idle since time travel. They have been planting all kinds of things. There are at least a dozen tea trees planted on trial. variety. Although the large-scale export of tea to the West was a trend that only emerged during the Qing Dynasty, the Executive Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture believe that many marketing techniques from later generations can be learned from, and gradually cultivate consumption habits in potential markets, just like the production of tea in the Guangdong market this year. The glass products trend is the same. As long as the means are in place, I believe it is not impossible to drive the tea drinking trend in Western countries a century or two ahead of schedule.
In addition to these commodities exported by Ming Dynasty to the West, Chuanchuan Group also has a huge advantage - most of the commodities imported by Ming Dynasty from the West and Southeast Asia can also be produced locally. For example, various spices, precious woods, glass products, and even Western arms that are in high domestic demand are all produced in Victory Port, and there is also a supplier in North Vietnam who can provide some specialty products that are not available in Hainan Island. Most of the Western commodities that originally had to be purchased across the sea to Manila or even distant Batavia can now be purchased directly in Port Victory.
Speaking of this, Tao Donglai has clearly demonstrated the advantages of "Qiong Lianfa". With its innate geographical advantages, if it can locally produce various commodities needed by the East and the West, and add With the relaxed environment of local trade policies and the strong guarantee of military defense, it is only a matter of time before Victory Port and even Qiongzhou Island evolve into the commercial center of the South China Sea. In the process of the evolution of regional functions, "Qiong Lianfa" will play a great guiding role - at least on the surface, "Qiong Lianfa" will lead the investment direction and business projects. As for the income that will be generated in this process, all the big merchants here can weigh it. It cannot be measured by tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
Although shareholders had participated in several symposiums before, after coming to Shengli Port this time, combined with the various facts they saw with their own eyes, and after listening to Tao Donglai's explanation, everyone felt that "Qiong Qiong" Lianfa has more confidence in its development prospects.
Judging from what everyone has seen with their own eyes, at least in Yazhou, south of Qiongzhou Island, there is no longer any force that can compete with the Haihan people. After "Qiong Lianfa" starts operating projects locally, its influence is probably second only to the Haihan Executive Committee, and it should still be above the Yazhou government, which has basically become a decoration. What excited them the most was that the piece of cake drawn by the Haihan people was not just a small matter of reclaiming wasteland and setting up a few plantations, but was all aimed at a specific goal, to build a local community. Various industries that can make a lot of money. Such a large-scale layout was something that these shareholders, who claimed to be top wealthy businessmen, had never even thought of before.
After giving this group of people enough encouragement, the next step was for Schneider to take charge and begin to explain the specific operation process of the project to everyone, and launch a public offering to raise operating funds for the project.
According to the originally negotiated shareholding ratio, Haihanfang will, as the largest shareholder, automatically hold 51% of the shares in each project, while the remaining 49% will be raised from 12 shareholders. Considering that some projects may not be favorable to shareholders, if there is insufficient funds required for the plan after the offering is completed, Haihan will be responsible for making up for it. In addition, in order to avoid shareholders from competing for certain popular projects, the 49% of the external shares will be equally distributed according to the number of investors in the project. If someone thinks that the quota exceeds the number they are willing to subscribe for, the excess will be allocated Take it out and distribute it to other shareholders who are willing to subscribe.
There are a total of seven fundraising projects prepared by the commercial department for "Qiong Lianfa" this time, and the contents are all in the "Project Description" in everyone's hands. Among them are long-term investments such as the development of the sericulture industry in Qiongzhou Island, and plans for the ceramics industry that will yield relatively quick results; there are very practical infrastructure projects such as the "Sanya Inland River Port Development Plan", and there are also some projects that shareholders find more mysterious. For example, the "Scheduled Passenger and Cargo Flight Plan from Victory Port to Guangzhou".
Even the ceramic industry, which has the smallest project planning funds, has issued an offering of 50,000 taels of silver, of which 25,500 taels are funded by Haihanfang, and the remaining 24,500 taels are funded by twelve shareholders. Competition, the minimum entry threshold is as high as one thousand taels. Although the cost is high, as a project with obvious benefits, twelve shareholders expressed their willingness to invest in the project, so it only took two minutes to complete the fundraising for this project, and the average share was only a little over two thousand taels per company. , it’s not really a burden.
The project investment period indicated in the plan is half a year. During this period, "Qiong Lianfa" will organize the construction of porcelain kilns locally, hire technicians from the mainland, complete the production and development of porcelain, and find export channels.
From the 16th to the 18th century, Western maritime merchants led by the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch purchased large quantities of porcelain from the Ming Dynasty and shipped them to Europe. In 1603, the Dutch armed fleet intercepted a Portuguese merchant ship, the Santa Catarina, in the Strait of Malacca. There were more than 100,000 pieces of porcelain on board, weighing 60 tons in total. As the Netherlands replaced Portugal and Spain as maritime hegemons in the Far East in the 17th century, the number of porcelain shipped to Europe by the Dutch East India Company increased dramatically. According to the remaining archive statistics of the East India Company, in the first half of the 17th century, through its At least more than 3 million pieces of porcelain were shipped to Europe by merchant ships. In the entire 17th century, more than 20 million pieces of Chinese porcelain were trafficked to Europe.
No matter whether they are Eastern or Western businessmen, they will never ignore the very profitable business of porcelain. Since the Haihan people can find a way to run the porcelain industry in Qiongzhou Island, of course the shareholders will not miss this opportunity to make money in vain. If everything goes well, the money invested can be recovered exponentially within the year.
After the project's stock offering ended, someone immediately sent the agreement for shareholders to sign and pledge. As for collecting the money, there is no rush. Anyway, there are many projects later, so you can collect them all after the negotiation. This agreement requires a receipt of the investment fee to be effective, so there is no need to worry about anyone being able to evade the payment.
(End of chapter)