Chapter 1541 Industrial Upgrading
Haihan's direct control area in Zhejiang is the Zhoushan Islands plus Shipu Port. The land area is limited. It is difficult to carry out long-term industrial projects such as plantations like other larger colonies. Even basic food production is very difficult. It is difficult to achieve complete self-sufficiency. Although the trade situation is excellent, and the import and export figures of goods are showing an upward trend month by month, Shi Diwen is a time traveler from later generations and knows that a prosperous market must be based on real industries. If there is no local In terms of physical industry, all goods can only be shipped from Haihan and other colonies. The Zhejiang Colonial Zone, which is purely an entrepot trade port, actually does not have very high profits.
It is precisely because of this current situation that the financial situation of the Zhejiang colony is completely different from its apparent prosperity. It seems to be prosperous, but its accounts are tight, and there is not much funds available for local construction and redevelopment. Therefore, there is an embarrassing situation where Zhoushan Shipyard is determined to expand its production scale, but must rely on Sanya's funding to launch the project. In fact, Shi Diwen still has many ambitious construction plans, but if there is no money, they will all be in vain. Applying for funds from Fort Victory will have many cumbersome procedures in terms of procedures, cycles, and fund allocation, so Shi Diwen has always hoped Some manufacturing projects can be gradually built in the areas under the rule to realize the self-hematopoietic function of the Zhejiang colony.
The Executive Committee is actually very supportive of his idea. If overseas colonies can operate some local specialty industries to earn income, and then bear the funds needed for daily operations and even development and construction, it will also be a burden reduction for the national finance. . If the Zhejiang colony can develop some real industries on its own, especially manufacturing, then the Executive Committee will of course be happy to see it happen. However, what the Executive Committee can provide to Zhejiang is mainly supportive policies. As for funds, the situation is relatively tight, as can be seen from the situation of Zhoushan Shipyard.
Since the land area of the two ports is relatively limited, they can only mainly develop industries such as port terminals and shipbuilding that have certain requirements for natural conditions. However, Shi Diwen has more ideas. He hopes to use the help of the two countries Build transportation and business opportunities, expand and promote Haihan's influence in various industries in Zhejiang, master the right to speak in some of these industries, and become an industry standard setter. In this way, we can make full use of the land, manpower, upstream and downstream industrial chains and other conditions in Daming to develop some industrial workshops whose property rights are completely in the hands of Haihan.
In terms of cost, the labor and land costs in Daming are lower than those in Haihan, and some manufacturing industries with low technical content will not be too difficult to operate in Zhejiang, such as transportation, mining, weaving, In industries such as deep processing of agricultural products, Shi Diwen felt that he could give it a try. A few days ago, there was a small disturbance in Hangzhou surrounding Haihan's backdoor entry into the weaving industry. This was the disturbance caused by the implementation of the plan formulated by Shi Diwen.
Shi Diwen was not entirely sure whether this backdoor approach would be successful, but since Wang Yuan, a related person in Hangzhou, expressed his willingness to give it a try, Shi Diwen naturally did not want to miss such an opportunity. Although some situations arose during the process due to the intervention of He Guanzhi, the prefect of Hangzhou, fortunately, it was not out of Haihan's control, and the problem was eventually resolved relatively peacefully. Although there were inevitably a few unlucky people who paid the price, for the overall situation, the fate of these little people was not at all considered by Shi Diwen.
After Ningbo Government held a series of meetings with major operators in several industries, news of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Daming and Haihan gradually spread in a timely manner, which in turn promoted the pace of Haihan's industry integration in Ningbo. Except for the grain industry, which still has no good way to force grain merchants to submit, several other industries have basically been implemented step by step according to the plan under the operation of Haihan. Small businessmen who had no direct trade relations with Haihan sensed the business opportunities and began to take the initiative to join forces, hoping to get the opportunity to cooperate with Haihan.
Of course, Shi Diwen would not miss such an opportunity. He asked the Ministry of Commerce's Zhejiang agency to send almost all personnel to various places in Ningbo to contact these small businessmen and select those who could be used by Haihan. In particular, those businessmen who own land or real estate of a certain size near towns are the targets that need to be inspected. Because these places have relatively convenient transportation and the land prices are not too expensive, they are just suitable for building facilities such as factories.
For the sake of caution, Haihan will not buy these real estate properties. Instead, it will adopt a cooperative operation method as much as possible, allowing partners to exchange real estate properties for shares. This makes it easier to avoid certain unfavorable policies. If the Ming Dynasty imposes any restrictions on Haihan's industries in coastal areas in the future, the related industries will suddenly become the property of the Ming Dynasty citizens.
An unremarkable ship arrived at Ningbo Xiangshan Port today, but the red and blue flag on the top of the mast showed that the owner of the ship was from Haihan. When the ship docked, several people waiting on the shore rushed forward to greet it. They watched helplessly as the sailor put down the gangplank. After a while, the real owner finally appeared.
"Special Envoy Yang!" "Master Yang!" "Director Yang!"
Everyone was greeting each other, but they were all talking to the same person, a middle-aged man who was walking down the gangway at this time. Although this man still has the common bun on his head, he is dressed in a Haihan-style cardigan and straight trousers, which looks a bit nondescript. But in the eyes of this group of people on the shore, they don’t think so. They spent a lot of effort and found many connections to invite this God of Wealth. This dress is a symbol of status in their eyes. How can they be distinguished by it? Underestimating the other party.
Yang Yunchao nodded slightly and said "Thank you for your hard work", and everyone responded quickly. Yang Yun was one of the first batch of immigrant cadres to take up the post after the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce, and he can be regarded as an old man in the ministry. He was initially assigned to serve as the director of the Penghu Office. After Haihan took control of the Zhoushan Islands, he was immediately transferred to Zhoushan to serve as the director of the East China Sea Office of the Ministry of Commerce. Although his position seemed to be the same as in the Penghu period, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas were the places where the richest man was in the Ming Dynasty. Yang Yun's position and authority here were much greater than in Penghu.
Although Shi Diwen was in charge of Zhejiang's military, civil affairs and business affairs in theory, he still focused more on military matters when dealing with actual affairs, while civil affairs and business affairs only made decisions, and specific matters were basically handled by the officials below. . As the main person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Yang Yuan is naturally responsible for most of the affairs.
Similar to how Shi Diwen met with bigwigs from all walks of life in Ningbo City a few days ago, it was Yang Yun who made arrangements and formulated the content strategy and schedule of each meeting, which finally allowed Shi Diwen to pass the short-term meeting. Most of the original goals were achieved in just a few days of negotiations. When it comes to the heroes behind the scenes who have made contributions in this process, Yang Yun is probably the number one one.
However, although Yang Yun's contribution is not small, whether it is a promotion or a salary increase, it is not a reward that can be cashed immediately, so he still has to continue to act as Shi Diwen's arm when handling business, wherever he goes. After several wealthy people in Xiangshan County heard the rumors about Ningbo Prefecture a few days ago, they felt that there was something wrong here, so they asked someone to bring a message to Shi Diwen, saying that they were willing to free up a hundred acres of land in Xiangshan County and join the sea. Han and Han run a business together. As for what to do specifically, the wealthy people did not have a clear idea, and they probably still looked to the Haihan people, who were known for their good business skills, to come up with ideas.
Shi Diwen didn't pay special attention to this news when he first got it. Although a hundred acres of land is not a small area, 70% of Xiangshan's territory is composed of mountains, hills and slopes. There are not many plain areas suitable for agricultural development and human settlement. , if these hundred acres of land were located in the mountains, it would basically be considered useless. Therefore, he instructed the Ministry of Commerce to contact the other party to obtain more information and then study it.
After Yang Yun contacted this place again, he found that the hundred acres of land that the other party was willing to offer turned out to be a good flat land near the seaside of Xiangshan Port. He suddenly felt that this could be regarded as a business opportunity, and quickly reported it to Shi Diwen, and attached his some ideas. Shi Diwen felt that Yang Yun's idea made some sense, so he sent him over to have a look in person to confirm whether the local situation was suitable for cooperation with these wealthy locals. Although the arranged date had been notified to the other party in advance, Yang Yun did not expect that these wealthy people would be so active and even went to the dock to greet him, which showed that he had great expectations for this cooperation. After disembarking from the ship, the rich men had already prepared a sedan and a carriage, and wanted to invite Yang Yun to Xiangshan County for a meal first - they had specifically inquired about it, as the Haihan people liked to talk business at the dinner table.
Naturally, Yang Yun could not refuse their kind invitation, so he followed them into Xiangshan County and came to the largest restaurant in the area. Several rich men had already booked private rooms and banquets here. After sitting down, they had not even had two sips of hot tea when the dishes were being passed on one after another.
"Master Yang, Xiangshan County is a small place, not as prosperous as Ningbo City. This is already the best restaurant in the local area. Please don't blame me for not taking good care of it."
The rich man who spoke was named Gu Qufei, and he had the reputation of being a scholar. He was a little more educated than his other companions, so he became the spokesman for these rich men. Although Gu Qufei is a scholar, his family business is fishing business. He has dozens of large and small fishing boats under his name, and hundreds of sailors work for him. He can be regarded as one of the richest people with relatively strong financial resources.
Yang Yun responded with a smile: "You are so polite. We have good friends here who have good wine and good food. If Yang still finds fault with others, isn't he being disrespectful?"
Seeing that Yang Yun was easy to talk to, Gu Qufei felt relieved at the moment, and then continued: "Since Mr. Yang is so complimentary, I will be brave enough to propose a toast to you first. You are free to do it, I will do it first as a token of respect."
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Gu Qufei opened his mouth, and the other people at the table naturally followed suit and immediately raised their glasses to invite him. Then, regardless of whether Yang Yun drank or not, he raised his head and poured all the wine in the glass down his throat. Say it again.
Yang Yun had never dealt with these rich people before, so he would not drink unscrupulously in front of strangers. When a round of wine was offered to him, he only tasted it briefly. He really achieved what the toasters called "casual". As the saying goes, character is reflected in the quality of wine, and Yang Yun also wanted to take this opportunity to see if the character displayed by these wealthy men at the wine table was reliable.
Xiangshan County is said to be a small place, but it has three major fishing grounds: Damu Yang, Maotou Yang, and Yushan. The fishery resources are very rich and there are many types of seafood. The main ingredients of various dishes at this banquet are also mainly seafood. , supplemented by mountain delicacies. Although the cooking method is different from that of Haihan, the fresh seafood is delicious even if it is boiled in white water. Yang Yun praised it while eating it, which also made the rich people feel bright and proud, thinking about it. Later, when you pay the bill, give a little more money to the restaurant cook.
After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Gu Qufei saw that Yang Yun was in a good mood, and then he cautiously brought up the business: "Master Yang, we are all locals in Xiangshan, and we have a little wealth. I heard that Haihan was in various counties recently. I want to try to recruit partners who are willing to invest in land. If it is convenient for Master Yang, I will stay in the county tonight. The place has been arranged, and I will arrange for you to go and see it tomorrow."
Yang Yun responded: "No, why wait until tomorrow? After this meal is finished, we can have a drink and rest, and we can go see it in the afternoon."
Gu Qufei didn't expect Yang Yun to be so active, so he nodded quickly and said, "Then I'll do as you wish and go later."
Taking advantage of the relaxed atmosphere at the wine table, Yang Yun also had a general understanding of the status of the wealthy people present during the chat. Except for Gu Qufei, the other people are all serious landlords. The land under their names is basically used for planting and breeding. Although agricultural profits are not high, the long-term income is stable and they cannot make big profits. Wealth will not be starved to death. Of course, these landowners also have their own ambitions and are not willing to just be country rich people, otherwise they would not unite to discuss cooperation with Haihan.
When Yang Yun was in Zhoushan, he had encountered some examples of people approaching Haihan proactively like this. However, in the past, those who could approach Haihan to discuss cooperation were either industry leaders with a business scale that qualified him to negotiate terms with Haihan, or people with relatively solid officialdom. Background, when doing business together, there will be government protection and convenience. The highest-ranking official these guys know is the Qipin County Magistrate. All the industries they operate are in Xiangshan County. In the past, they would definitely not have been the subject of inspections that required Yang Yun's personal intervention.
(End of chapter)