Chapter 1536 Division of Interests
The local transportation operators present include ordinary businessmen, spokespersons like He Li who run errands for big figures in the officialdom, and there are also senior military attachés such as the commander of the guard station. But in general, those who can receive Haihan's invitation Everyone sitting here participating in the negotiations all has an official background, either overt or covert. Naturally, a considerable part of the profits they earned from the transportation industry flowed into the pockets of people in the officialdom. Therefore, Shi Diwen's joke was not just a random joke, but it appropriately reflected this. Current status of the industry.
Haihan's business operations in the Ming Dynasty were never a one-man operation. Instead, he would actively involve local officials to make a fortune together - to put it harshly, he would actually drag them into the water. Of course, after tasting the sweetness, the local officials did not think Haihan had any malicious intent in doing this. Instead, they thought Haihan's approach of making money together was very good. Therefore, regarding the industry integration led by Haihan this time, the officials behind various businesses, after receiving promises that their profits would only increase in the future, gave the green light and acquiesced to Haihan's radical business methods.
The transportation industry is the most basic link in Haihan's business system, and it is also an industry that is relatively easier to integrate, because Haihan has already supported a group of merchants with strength, background and willingness to cooperate through several investment promotion activities before. Designated carrier. It can be said that Haihan has been making plans in the transportation industry for a long time before this meeting. By this time, there are no big obstacles to integrating the industry.
Most of the matters have been settled long ago, and the nature of today's meeting is to gather everyone to share the cake. Haihan's two main ports in coastal Zhejiang, Shipu Port and Zhoushan Dinghai Port, are both under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture. In other words, no matter how Haihan integrates the transportation industry in Zhejiang's coastal state capital, local practitioners in Ningbo will definitely Get the biggest piece of cake from it. Therefore, during the meeting, the atmosphere was quite harmonious, and no one expressed any objection to the plan proposed by Haihan.
The talks lasted until noon. After Shi Diwen invited everyone to have a simple meal in the courtyard, they continued to discuss the details. The connection and scheduling between merchants are undoubtedly the most difficult technical problems to solve. Haihan has formulated a set of special operating rules to ensure good connection and efficient operation among merchants.
This is also designed to address the issue of industry standardization, such as the weighing, loading, unloading and pricing methods of dry bulk cargoes, which must be standardized among all merchants. For goods that need to be packed and transported, the size of the container will also be promoted and implemented according to the container size made by Haihan, so that various local businesses in the industry can more easily unify the standards. Merchants in this era may not be aware of the significance of mastering the standard setting of an industry, but Haihan will definitely make full use of this opportunity to firmly hold this special power in his own hands.
"Mencius said, without rules, there can be no circle. The industry standardization proposed by our country is also to facilitate everyone's business. In the future, it will be gradually promoted in the Ming Dynasty. The more places that adopt this set of standards, the benefits will gradually increase. It shows." Shi Diwen also has a deep understanding of this set of operating methods, and spared no effort to introduce to the audience what industry standardization is. Of course, how much you can understand and absorb depends on your nature. Those who can really understand what Shi Diwen said will naturally understand where this benefit comes from. By then, if they implement it faster in their own business, they will be able to take advantage of the market opportunities.
By dinner time, many issues regarding the transportation industry had already been discussed. Shi Diwen asked someone to present the printed text of the agreement and let everyone read it and then sign it. This was considered to be the completion of the meeting.
Seeing everyone signing their names on the text, Shi Diwen also breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that he had finally taken the first step in his mission. Logically speaking, this kind of errand should be handled by officials in charge of commerce and trade like Schneider. However, the Ministry of Commerce has recently been busy formulating a series of trade agreements for the South China Sea Commercial Alliance. Schneider is touring various countries in the South China Sea and cannot get away to come to Ming Dynasty. Therefore, This errand can only be done temporarily by Shi Diwen. Fortunately, Shi Diwen has been involved in military, political and business affairs for more than a year and has dealt with all aspects of affairs, so he is basically qualified for this task.
The promotion of Haihan in Ningbo is equivalent to a pilot project. The achievements and experience gained here will be subsequently implemented in the entire Zhejiang region. By then, with Ningbo as a standard model, similar industry talks will be organized with other state capitals. Relatively much easier. And when Haihan integrates the transportation industry in Zhejiang to a certain extent, its status as the industry standard setter will be enough for Haihan to firmly sit in the position of controller.
However, this plan sounds simple, but there are still many specific problems that need to be solved slowly during implementation. Even if these operators are willing to comply with the industry standardization plan launched by Haihan, there will still be cost and time issues in actual implementation. Similar situations will probably occur in every industry that will be discussed next. This can be regarded as a series of tests for Shi Diwen.
That night, Shi Diwen held a banquet in this house to entertain everyone. Several chefs he specially brought from Zhoushan Island performed to a very high level, and the two banquet tables he arranged made everyone full of praise - of course, this must be There is also an element of flattering him. However, Shi Diwen did not dare to drink more during the banquet, for fear of delaying the business of the next day.
After the banquet ended, the participants took their leave one after another knowingly. The last guest to stay was He Li. The reason why he stayed was because of Shi Diwen's wishes.
"Boss He, I heard that you went to Liaodong some time ago and already bought property there. It seems you are very determined!" After Shi Diwen invited He Li to sit down in the study, he took the initiative to chat about Liaodong.
He Li responded quickly: "This is all because of the care of the leaders of your country. The villain just pledged his money to two plantations in Liaodong. It is not a big business, which made General Shi laugh."
Shi Diwen waved his hand and said: "Boss He, you're welcome. The development of Liaodong requires the participation of bold and careful investors like you. The news coming back from Liaodong spoke highly of you, so I specially stayed here today. You came down here to ask if you are interested in investing more energy in the shipping industry.”
He Li didn't know what he meant, so he quickly raised his hands and said: "You are stupid, I would like to hear the details and ask the general for advice."
Shi Diwen said: "When Boss He went to Liaodong before, we generally knew what the situation of the shipping company you ran was like. To be honest, with Boss He's current business scale, it would be a bit difficult to run a long-distance route from Zhejiang to Liaodong. , but considering that you two brothers are relatively familiar with Mr. Qu, we still give you the qualification to be a northern route carrier. If Boss He wants to operate well in this industry, then we will consider providing you with a low-interest loan from our country. The shipyard ordered large cargo sailing ships. ”
Of course, He Li knew that a large part of the reason why he was favored by the Haihan people in the first place was because his brother He Xiao was a close confidant around the prefect Qu Yutong. The Haihan people were actually paying their respects to Qu Yutong by handing over the carrier to him. Demonstrates a mutual trust. After he went to Liaodong and saw Haihan's local investment, he naturally realized that the few carrier fleets in Zhejiang alone were far from meeting Haihan's requirements for passenger and freight transport capacity from the south to the local area. The freight rates Haihan offered for the carriers were indeed not low. Of course, he also thought about expanding the business scale of the shipping company and building several large-scale ships to specifically run the northern route. However, he had limited funds on hand and invested in plantations in Liaodong. He wanted to It’s not enough to buy another boat. Shi Diwen obviously understood his situation very well and took the initiative to leave him behind and made such a suggestion. He Li knew something about low-interest loans. As the official financial institution of Haihan State, Haihan Bank would indeed issue low-interest loans to some of Haihan's business partners to help them overcome financial difficulties. However, He Li had never thought of borrowing money from Haihan to expand the business scale of the boat shop before this. Even if Shi Diwen spoke in person at this time, he did not agree immediately.
Shi Diwen continued: "If Boss He has any plans in this regard, then I can help him arrange this matter. As for the interest, it will be calculated based on five cents per year. You will not be able to find such a low interest in the market. Is there any bank that can do it? ”
He Lixin said goodbye to the 5-cent interest rate. Even if it doubled, no bank would be willing to lend the money. There was really nothing wrong with the interest rate Shi Diwen said. If we buy a few ships from Haihan at this interest rate, then based on the current freight standards, we may be able to earn back our capital with interest in at most two years. As long as you don't encounter a shipwreck, it's basically a sure-fire business. But he is not a brainless person. Of course, he understands that Shi Diwen's initiative to propose such conditions must have a certain purpose. Otherwise, there are so many carriers on the northern route, and their strength is not bad. Why would they insist on such a condition? Promote good things to yourself?
As if he had guessed what He Li was thinking, Shi Diwen took the initiative and asked: "If Boss He has any doubts, you might as well ask directly. We are all our own people and there is no need to guess and play riddles."
After hearing what he said, He Li couldn't ask too directly, so he thought of a more tactful way to ask: "I heard that Sanya Shipyard's order schedule is quite long, and it may take a year to order a ship." Delivery can only be launched after half a year, how should the interest rate be calculated during this period? ”
The meaning of He Li's words was to imply to Shi Diwen that if he had to wait a year and a half to receive the ship after placing the order, then the low-interest loan would be of little significance.
Shi Diwen responded: "You don't have to worry about this. The ship you ordered is a civilian ship. You don't need to wait for the ship date at the Sanya Victory Port Shipyard. Zhoushan can build it."
He Li said in astonishment: "Can Zhoushan Shipyard accept private orders?"
"It wasn't possible in the past, but it is possible now." Shi Diwen nodded and replied affirmatively.
In fact, soon after Haihan occupied the Zhoushan Islands, the shipyard project was carried out almost simultaneously with the port construction of Dinghai Port. Zhang Qianxiang, the second son of Zhang Tiangui, a senior engineer at the Ministry of Shipping and technical director of Sanya Shipyard, was appointed director of Zhoushan Shipyard early on. However, due to the limitations of technical strength and shipyard scale, and the fact that Haihan is the only large shipyard on the coasts of East and North China, the maintenance and repair tasks shouldered by Zhoushan Shipyard are very heavy, and it is unable to fulfill its main duty of "shipbuilding". .
At present, most of the maintenance and repair work for the dozens of warships of the Haihan Navy's East China Sea Fleet and Northern Fleet can only be completed at the Zhoushan Shipyard, although a shipbuilding facility dedicated to serving the Northern Fleet is already being built at Port Arthur. However, given that many infrastructure projects in Liaodong are lacking manpower, it is estimated that the shipyard will be completed and put into use next year, and it is not expected for a while. Northern Fleet ships can still only return to Zhoushan to complete more complex maintenance and repairs through guard changes every other month.
Under such circumstances, the two docks of Zhoushan Shipyard rarely have free time, and it is difficult for the shipwrights to free up their hands to build new ships. They basically do not accept external orders for the construction of civilian ships, and only work intermittently for the military. Fang built several warships. It was not until the first half of this year that the situation finally improved, with the completion of two new docks and the construction of cargo sailing ships for the Ministry of Shipping.
Of course, Shi Diwen will not stop here. He hopes that the business scale and technical level of Zhoushan Shipyard can catch up with Sanya as soon as possible, so that the Navy can complete the construction of large warships in Zhoushan in the future without having to wait any longer. The schedule for Victory Port is now up.
Of course, such a plan will definitely require increased investment in expanding the shipyard, and the executive committee has put forward more specific requirements to allow Zhoushan Shipyard to achieve profitability by receiving shipbuilding orders before considering additional investment in expansion.
Of course, this kind of request did not trouble Shi Diwen. He quickly thought of a way. As long as he got Daming Shipping to place an order with Zhoushan Shipyard and proved that the shipyard was capable of taking care of its own profits and losses, the executive committee would have no reason to refuse additional investment. . As for which maritime merchants are trustworthy and worthy of Haihan's resources to support, of course they are the recently recruited northern route carriers.
Shi Diwen has also considered the strongest shipping companies, but he believes that these shipping companies are not so urgent to expand their business scale. Instead, they are small shipping companies headed by He Li that were built together by several small shareholders. There is definitely a more urgent need for increased transport capacity. So he specifically took this opportunity to keep He Li and try to persuade him to accept Haihan's arrangement. He would use Haihan to provide low-interest loans to place orders for several ships at the Zhoushan Shipyard so that the shipyard's new dock could Put it to use immediately.
(End of chapter)