Chapter 1540 The situation is stronger than the people
Haihan's strategy of integrating the local financial industry is not that novel. It is just an old-fashioned method of dividing rival camps and adding coercion and inducement. It may not have such good results in the environment of other industries. But because Haihan's strength in the financial field is really strong, it is big enough that the local bank bosses can't think of a head-on confrontation. In addition, Cai Jinmei is the first to take the lead, and He Tinggui is the internal agent's timely help. This would make this group of people remain silent, and they could only keep their dissatisfaction and doubts in their hearts and not dare to express them in front of Cai Jinmei.
He Tinggui has blatantly sided with the Haihan camp and followed Cai Jinmei to sign a cooperation agreement. The remaining people in the room looked at each other, and finally all looked at the local industry leader, Jin Mingfa, the owner of Xinlong Bank, waiting for him to give everyone an idea.
Jin Mingfa felt miserable. If he had known that He Tinggui had quietly defected to Haihan, why would he have stood up and acted as a negative example before? Just now, I was thinking that I wanted to gain some favorable conditions for local colleagues and at the same time solidify my image as the leader in the industry, so I came forward to bargain with the Haihan people. But once a traitor appears in this fragile offensive and defensive alliance, it will be in an irreparable situation. He Tinggui acted in such a way that he was taken out, but Jin Mingfa was deceived. He knew without asking that his image in Cai Jinmei's mind must be extremely negative.
Personal image is a small matter, but if it affects Xinlonghao's future business prospects, this possibility will make Jin Mingfa very nervous. What he wants to strive for is better and more stable cooperation conditions, not a situation that the Haihan people regard as against them. He also knew that he didn't have enough money to compete with Haihan Bank. If it was really seen as a stumbling block, Xinlong would have no choice but to ask for blessings.
In a short period of time, Jin Mingfa filtered through the backers he could contact in his mind and found that they were probably not very useful. Haihan's eldest son in Zhejiang is related by marriage to Qu Yutong, the magistrate of Ningbo. This is a matter that everyone knows. However, the power that Jin Mingfa can draw on in the government has not yet reached Qu Yutong's level. It is possible to use this relationship. It will make the problem more serious.
Jin Mingfa sighed and said: "Everyone, this situation now... I'm afraid it's out of control. I think we should just follow the wishes of the Haihan people and do what they say!"
After Jin Mingfa thought about it, his desire for survival finally prevailed. If you follow the Haihan people's wishes, you can at least survive for a while. During this buffer period, you can think of ways to find other ways to solve the problem. But if he continues to disobey Haihan, he will not be able to catch the opponent's next moves, and he will die in a matter of minutes.
Everyone was so frustrated when they saw Jin Mingfa. Even if they still had any objections, they knew that it would be difficult for them to find companions to fight Haihan's plan. At that moment, Jin Mingfa called the waiter outside the door and asked him to inform Cai Jinmei that he had figured it out. From now on, the local bank would follow Haihan Bank's lead.
Cai Jinmei and Shi Diwen were drinking tea in another courtyard at this time. Regarding the various reactions that local bank operators might have, Cai Jinmei had already made a very clear judgment. These bank bosses who regard wealth as life must be reluctant to The operational control is left to Haihan, but in order to survive their bank, they will eventually choose to compromise.
"If someone still stiffens his neck and refuses to submit, then I might as well send someone to chop off his head. Sometimes it's better to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys. It's more effective than saying 10,000 good words." Shi Di Wen tapped his fingers lightly on the table and used a very calm tone to persuade Cai Jinmei not to be stubborn and use a relatively gentle method to force these bank bosses to submit.
Although Cai Jinmei is a woman, she is also a very confident and independent person. If not, Schneider would not have supported her to her current high position in charge of Haihan's financial affairs. Regarding Shi Diwen's persuasion, Cai Jinmei still insisted on her own opinion: "If Haihan's Ministry of Finance also uses the means of killing and killing, how is it different from the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of National Defense? I don't think it's appropriate, General Shi There’s no need to persuade them any more. If you can’t even get rid of the bank bosses like Ningbo Prefecture, then there’s no point in integrating industry standards. Even if they refuse to comply, I have a way to deal with them without using a knife or a gun.”
Shi Diwen shrugged and said: "Well, you are the expert in this field, so of course I will listen to you. If you need my cooperation in anything, please tell me directly."
The two chatted for a while, and then someone came to report that the bank bosses had surrendered and expressed their willingness to sign a cooperation agreement with Haihan Bank. Cai Jinmei winked at Shi Diwen proudly, and Shi Diwen also generously raised his hand to express his admiration. After all, there is no way to use force. Since Cai Jinmei's method can be used to subdue these people, then Shi Diwen is not a murderous person. What's more, each of these bank bosses has a large amount of public money in their hands. If something goes wrong, it will definitely make people angry. The chaos in Ningbo is not what Haihan expected to see.
The social order of the Ming Dynasty was stable, which for Haihan also meant the stability of the sales market and raw material supply places, and the stability of the financial market was one of the necessary conditions for maintaining social stability. What Cai Jinmei said to the bank bosses before was actually somewhat exaggerated. However, these people were so guilty that they were not in the mood to slowly consider whether the Haihan people could really take some more radical measures from their standpoint. Measures to unify industry operating standards.
Cai Jinmei only came to Ningbo for half a day and managed the local financial industry. This speed was even shorter than the time it took Shi Diwen to meet with transportation operators a few days ago. Although there are some specific differences between the conditions of the two industries, Shi Diwen still expressed his admiration for Cai Jinmei's professional ability and accurate judgment. He had to admit that Cai Jinmei, as one of the few high-ranking female officials in Haihan officialdom, was indeed outstanding in her profession.
However, the process of signing a cooperation agreement is not simple. Due to the special nature of the financial industry, this cooperation agreement has very detailed provisions on details, so that the entire agreement contains tens of thousands of words. The bank bosses, who were already suspicious of this form of cooperation, naturally would not sign their names casually. It was already the next day after they slowly finished interpreting the agreement. After Haihan Bank unifies its operating standards with local banks, in addition to the deposit and redemption business of Daming Official Bank and Haihan banknotes in the future, these banks will gradually follow Haihan Bank and open various financial services. Cai Jinmei originally intended to promote high-end businesses such as securities and futures in Ming Dynasty, but Schneider believed that Ming Dynasty's financial market was far from mature and standardized, and rashly promoting these businesses would have certain operational risks, so he still refused. Cai Jinmei’s proposal.
But in general, Haihan Bank's operation in Ningbo was quite successful. It encountered almost no decent resistance and made all these banks bow their heads. When the results here are reported back to Sanya, Cai Jinmei will definitely be credited with a meritorious service.
In this process, He Tinggui, who has made meritorious service within Haihan, will naturally receive corresponding awards. Since the second day of the meeting, Hexinghao Bank, which he runs, has put up a sign in the store as "Haihan Bank's designated cooperative bank" and has begun to provide deposits and withdrawals to all customers who hold Haihan banknotes or checks. business. In terms of getting started, he was at least one or two months faster than his local counterparts. As for how much operational advantage this lead time can give him, it depends on the individual's ability.
Haihan met with leading figures in various industries in Ningbo Mansion with great fanfare. Naturally, this kind of thing cannot be hidden from the eyes of interested people. Coupled with the fact that the participants intentionally or unintentionally leaked information to the outside world, the impending establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries was finally brought to the forefront. Haihan, of course, doesn't mind if this matter is made public some time in advance when his own layout is almost in place.
When the news came out that Ming Dynasty and Haihan were about to establish diplomatic relations and open up trade in coastal states, the biggest impact would be on the merchants and workshops that produced various Haihan products for export. The prominent businessmen in Ningbo Prefecture have already received the news in advance and have reached certain agreements with Haihan, but ordinary small businessmen do not have such sensitive information channels. When this news appears on the market, new The right to speak in the industry has been controlled by a few large players, and even directly by Haihan. And these merchants with smaller operations can basically just follow the market trend, and even the pricing power of the products is not in their own hands.
For example, the shipping costs from Zhoushan Port to various state capitals in Zhejiang have begun to change from the different quotations of different shipping lines in the past to the standardization that is being promoted now. For dry bulk cargo, containerized cargo, and passenger transport, the price standards set by Haihan have begun to be implemented. And those small shipowners who still went their own way suddenly discovered that several large local shipping companies and horse racing companies seemed to have made an agreement, and they all sent goods according to unified price standards, while transporters that were not within this system , the cost of water and land transportation is significantly higher. If you want to reduce transportation costs, you can only join the Ningbo Transportation Industry Guild led by Haihan.
Haihan's management of guilds will naturally not completely continue the dross of feudal guilds. Instead, he will add a large number of management methods for enterprises and institutions, and treat guilds as a serious industry, and will regularly organize guilds. Conduct assessments and reviews to eliminate unqualified operators. The industry standards formulated by Haihan are also promoted to various merchants in the industry through guilds like this.
Although this form seems a bit old-fashioned, after adding the fresh ideas brought by Haihan, the role that the guild can play is very significant. For those who have not joined the guild, the coercive effect of the guild is also very effective, especially in the financial industry. As long as Hexinghao and his family express their intention to follow Haihan, if one point is broken, it means that the entire industry is broken. All banks can only follow up, otherwise they will be stepped on by Hexinghao.
Although the rumors have spread among the public, the Ningbo government has not made any statement on the rumors, nor has it clarified or investigated the source of the rumors. Many people took this attitude of the government as acquiescence, so more and more people confirmed that the two countries were about to establish diplomatic relations, and many people realized the business opportunities. A few days ago, industry business standards that were wary of or even contradicted by large businesses quickly became the target of imitation after the news spread.
Some merchants with relatively small business scales see very clearly that it will be difficult for them to gain any advantage in the market if they compete with those large merchants who control the voice and even the pricing power for the opportunity to trade with Haihan. But if they can follow Haihan's footsteps, perhaps the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries will be an opportunity for them to squeeze into this trade circle.
Regarding this situation, Haihan is naturally very encouraging. The competition among merchants in the Ming Dynasty is fierce, so that Haihan can have more choices and lower operating costs. Moreover, after the scope of members of the trading circle is expanded, Haihan can also select more suitable targets for support and train them to be Haihan's spokespersons for the interests of Ming Dynasty at all levels.
"According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, the number of merchant ships arriving at Zhoushan Dinghai Port in July increased by 63 from last month and 140 more than last year. The import trade volume of Zhoushan Port in July was more than 427,000 yuan , the export trade volume was more than 714,000 yuan, and the trade surplus increased by 52% compared with the same period last year..."
While Shi Diwen was listening to the secretary read the report, he was also writing and drawing on the paper with a pen in one hand. He is actually not sensitive to these data, so he needs to listen and write at the same time to deepen his memory. The operating conditions of Zhoushan Port have improved significantly in the past year. Part of the reason is that Shi Diwen is getting better at his job, and part of the reason is that Haihan has increased the scale of material procurement and commodity sales in Zhejiang. , resulting in a significant increase in trade volume. Recently, the good news of the establishment of a trade link between the two countries has been added, so the data on paper looks quite promising.
But Shi Diwen was not dazzled by these beautiful figures on paper. As a pragmatic local official, he knew very well that although the trade volume in Zhejiang was not small, there were still various problems. The two ports of Dinghai and Shipu have not yet completed all port construction projects, and Haihan's self-production ability in Zhejiang is still an obvious flaw. There is almost no manufacturing industry except shipbuilding. This is why Shi Diwen has been Problems to be solved.
(End of chapter)