Chapter 1691 Monopoly Management
For businessmen, being able to achieve a monopoly in a certain industry or region is undoubtedly the most profitable business model, but it is not easy to achieve this. In addition to reaching a certain level of business scale and operational level, it also needs some other objective conditions, such as support and assistance from the government.
Of course, no matter what the considerations are, the interim management committee chaired by senior officials of Haihan cannot support local businessmen to carry out monopoly operations. Large merchants in Haihan that have passed the test of time are the partners that the official can trust. These merchants are familiar with the laws and regulations of Haihan and can cooperate well with the authorities overseas, so they naturally receive more special care.
For example, Zhan's Shipping Company, which ranks at the forefront of the shipping industry, has been cooperating with the authorities since the preparations for Haihan's expedition to the west, using its own transportation capacity to transport personnel and materials for the military. During the Haihan Fleet's expedition to Manila, Zhan's Shipping Company also dispatched dozens of sailing ships to accompany them and take on the task of providing heavy logistics.
Of course, this kind of contribution of money and effort is not in vain. When it comes time to divide the cake after the war, James Shipping, which has contributed the most to logistics and shipping, will naturally receive more care. All of the shipping company's business activities in Manila are officially endorsed, and its reliability is naturally far better than that of ordinary private shipping companies. Therefore, it won a certain share of the local shipping market in a short period of time after the war. However, local businesses with Spanish backgrounds like Ding's Boat Company have suffered significant losses in their original market share, and have had to adjust their business direction to avoid the competition from Haihan's peers.
Ding Feng's observation of the situation is still very clear. Although most of the Haihan merchants who entered the Manila area after the war were strong and had official support, there were still some business areas that they would find difficult to enter in a short period of time. For example, Haihan merchants are relatively unfamiliar with the living needs of the local Hispanic people, and it will be difficult to meet this specific ethnic group in the short term. This is the advantage of the Ding family.
The Ding family has been rooted in Manila for several generations. They have lived with Hispanics for many years, and they are naturally familiar with their daily needs. In the past, they did not do business in this field, mainly because the Spaniards had the condescending sense of superiority of the rulers, so the Ding family had to use the middleman Francis Jr. to complete the transaction. However, after thirty years of Hedong and thirty years of Hexi, Hispanics are now the most humble ethnic group in the local area. Many Han people even do not want to have any contact with Hispanics at all in order to avoid suspicion. Many Hispanic people are in a situation of lack of food and clothing. With the Ding family willing to provide them with daily necessities, there is no room for choice.
Of course, Ding Feng is not the only smart person in Manila. Naturally, there are other people who are aware of this business opportunity and don't care about keeping a distance from Hispanics. They hope to take advantage of the post-war period to rebuild social order. During the period, it will occupy the daily necessities market in the Hispanic community. But these competitors lack one extremely important condition compared to the Ding family, and that is official support.
The official support of the Ding family is naturally the Western Management Bureau. According to the functions of the Western Management Bureau, all affairs in the Hispanic settlement area are within its jurisdiction, which naturally includes the supply of daily necessities. Shops that sell various daily necessities to the public in these areas must first be registered with the Western Management Bureau, and can only be implemented after being approved. Although the affairs that Francis is in charge of are not related to business and trade, some Hispanic personnel specially recruited by the Western Management Bureau are responsible for such affairs. As long as Francis spreads the news, it will not be so easy for others to do business. .
The Western Management Bureau will not explicitly reject the applications of other merchants, but as long as it delays for a little longer, the Ding family can go in first and start the business. Once they have established a foothold in the market, it will be difficult for latecomers to squeeze in again.
Food, medicinal materials, cloth, wine, salt, iron products, etc., these things are inaccessible necessities of life for the Hispanic people, and the quantity and quality provided by the Ding family through their shops are far superior to those of street vendors, and soon They occupied most of the Hispanic areas in the city. The Western Management Bureau does not need any additional measures to favor the Ding family. As long as the business starts to take off, the Ding family will naturally occupy the market and achieve a monopoly.
However, what makes Ding Feng a little unhappy is that it seems that he is not the only one with local business background. There is another Daming business firm called "Chaosheng Merchant Store" in the south of the city, which seems to be very good at this.
There are many strange local rumors about this trading company. It is said that the shopkeeper of this firm was favored by the Spanish priest before the war, and he also made friends with many powerful people in the Manila authorities. However, during the war, the firm somehow managed to get into Haihan's lap, and its shop was still there. It was requisitioned by the Haihan Army as a temporary command post during the siege. Perhaps it was for this reason that after the war, the firm was safe and sound, and its business was even greater than before. There is news that even the Haihan Army's logistical supplies have been taken over by this trading firm.
Some people say that the owner of this trading house has an old relationship with Haihan, so he received special care during and after the war, but no one can explain clearly what this old relationship means. It is also said that this trading house sold out to the Spaniards during the war in exchange for Haihan's respect. However, not many people believe this theory, because this trading house is located outside the city, and during the war, it was separated by a high The city wall has no idea about the situation of the Spaniards in the city, so how can they betray it?
Ding Feng had also heard of the name of this business before the war. It was said that the shopkeeper named Ran was very capable and had a good personal relationship with Father Blanco of the Manila Cathedral. But this was not a big deal in his opinion. After all, the Ding family's marriage partner was the city defense commander at the time. This method was much better than befriending a priest. But after the war, the business situation of Chaosheng Store seemed to have taken another leap forward. Not only did the store outside the city expand its business scale, but it also opened several new shops in the Hispanic areas in the city. It also happens to overlap with the Ding family.
Of course, Ding Feng would not sit back and ignore such a competitor. On this day, he specially invited Francis and Qin Huacheng to discuss whether some means could be used to curb the development of this opponent.
"Chaosheng Merchant Inn? I've heard of it." After hearing Ding Feng explain the whole story, Qin Huacheng nodded and said, "Shopkeeper Ran of this store is quite capable. Recently, I have heard many people praise him for his broad approach. Able to achieve things that ordinary people cannot do. ”
"Oh? Does this person have any special deeds?" Ding Feng asked.
Qin Huacheng said: "I don't know much about what happened before the war, but there are a few things related to this person recently, which I think are worth mentioning."
There are two main deeds that Qin Huacheng said were "noteworthy". First, Han immigrants have recently begun to move across the sea from the Ming Dynasty to Manila. The purpose of this measure is to increase the local Han population and thereby consolidate Haihan's rule over the local area. The reason why it takes a lot of effort to immigrate from the Ming Dynasty is mainly because there is a large gap in the population demand of Haihan State itself. The cost of recruiting immigrants from the Ming Dynasty is much lower than that of migrating from Haihan country. As we all know, this event was officially organized by Haihan, but it was Chaosheng Merchant Store that was specifically responsible for this matter.
It doesn’t sound like a big deal. After all, in the past, the immigration affairs from Ming Dynasty to Manila were handled by some local dental shops in Ming Dynasty. But now, things are different. After the Haihan people came to rule Manila, the migration of the population has changed. Entry and exit controls are much stricter than in the past. Ordinary dental shops can no longer handle matters like immigration. Only commercial firms like Chaosheng Commercial Store that are officially recognized by Haihan are qualified to continue operating in this industry. At present, the only private institution in Manila that has this qualification is Chaosheng Commercial Store. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is officially designated. Ordinary people may not quite understand what this means, but Qin Huacheng has been working in the public security police office for some time, so he naturally has a deeper understanding of this: "Haihan people attach great importance to household registration management, which can make the tide rise. Taking over the immigration affairs shows that he has great trust in him. I don’t know what the manager’s ability is that makes him so favored by the Provisional Management Committee.”
Only then did Francis speak: "I have met the man you are talking about several times, and even sent a whole team of soldiers to his store during the city defense battle, but that team may have been attacked by Haihan. After being ambushed by the army, he disappeared without a trace... He was indeed a very good person, and he was one of the few Han people who often went to the city church to pray before the war. However, the Han people who had close contact with us after the war. Most of them were suppressed, but he was able to survive, perhaps because of his social skills. ”
Francis recalled some things that happened during the battle with the Haihan Army in the south of the city, but he could not remember some details clearly, otherwise he might be able to recall that he had sent troops to Chaosheng Commercial Inn more than once that night.
"Or maybe he paid a lot of money to the Haihan people in exchange for their trust during the war. Who knows?" Qin Huacheng hesitated, skipped this guessing link with no standard answer, and then began to tell the second thing he knew. thing.
This second thing is relatively secretive, and not many people outside the world know about it. If Qin Huacheng hadn't been in this business, he probably wouldn't have heard about it at all.
"It is said that the Spanish Church in the city transported a batch of things out of the city before the war, and they were stored in Chaosheng Commercial Inn." Qin Huacheng said mysteriously: "But after the war, no one outside the world knew where these things went. , Father Blanco also kept silent about this. Some people said that Ran Tianlu, the shopkeeper of Chaosheng Merchant Store, had embezzled these things, while others said that he gave them to the Haihan people in exchange for the special treatment he received now. "
"Things from the church?" Francis raised his eyebrows and said, "That's probably a huge fortune! You may not know it well, but in the past, the biggest rich man in Manila was not a businessman or an official, but the church! Compared with the church Get up, we are all considered poor.”
"Then since the church has so much money, why doesn't it handle it on its own instead of handing it over to a Ming Dynasty businessman?" Qin Huacheng was puzzled by this.
"Perhaps the priest thinks that Ran Tianlu's identity can help the church hide this batch of things and escape the search of the Han people." Ding Feng guessed casually. However, he didn't know that his guess was actually infinitely close to the truth, and he was just a little bit close to getting to the truth.
"How is that possible?"
Francis and Qin Huacheng both shook their heads in disbelief at this speculation. In their opinion, this possibility is too ridiculous. Neither the church, Ran Tianlu nor the Haihan people would accept such an arrangement. But the strange thing is that Father Blanco also took a fancy to this possibility at that time, and did the opposite, transporting the things to Chaosheng Merchant Warehouse for custody. To be honest, if Ran Tianlu didn't have another identity, this trick might have concealed the Haihan Army. After all, the Haihan Army's attention was focused on the Spaniards at the time, and they had no plans to conduct house raids door to door, not to mention that the targets were Ming merchants.
"Yes, how is that possible?" Ding Feng immediately rejected his idea, shook his head and drove the thought out of his mind: "Perhaps it was when the Haihan Army requisitioned Chaosheng Commercial Store as a headquarters. , discovered what the church had stored there, and Ran Tianlu took advantage of the opportunity to take the credit for himself, thus gaining Haihan's trust."
Ding Feng's idea is much more reasonable. With Ran Tianlu's social skills, he might be able to convince the Haihan people in that environment that he had obtained these things from the Spanish church in the city. In this way, it seems to make sense for the Haihan people to trust him.
"This man is so lucky!" Qin Huacheng also felt that Ding Feng's guess was reasonable, and immediately lamented the unfair fate: "If it had been me, I would have become the head of the Manila Public Security Police by now!"
"If it were you, you might have died several times!" Ding Feng mocked mercilessly: "After seeing such a large amount of money, do you still plan to hand it over? I'm afraid you have to swallow it yourself if you don't risk your life. ! ”
Qin Huacheng chuckled, but did not deny Ding Feng's statement. Although he is not greedy for petty profits, if he really has the big money described by Francis, he will definitely not let it go.
"Okay, let's get down to business!" Francis didn't want to waste time chatting about useless topics, and brought up Ding Feng's intention of inviting them out again: "Since this Ran Tianlu has official support, do you still plan to deal with him? I suggest Don’t take risks before finding out his details, lest you get yourself into trouble.”
(End of chapter)