Chapter 1693 The upstart in the business world
If one were to make a list of the upstarts who rose to prominence in Manila after the war, the two brothers Ran Tianlu and Ran Tiancheng would definitely be among them. Although Ran Tianlu had maintained a good relationship with the colonial authorities in Manila before the war and received official protection and support to a certain extent, there was still a clear gap between the business scale of Chaosheng Commercial Store at that time and now. At most, it can be regarded as one of the Ming Dynasty trading houses with better operating conditions in the local area.
For a long time, since the Ming Dynasty organized immigrants to move across the sea and settle in the Manila area, it has been a lucrative business project for operators, and the dental industry undertaking this has therefore become a very competitive industry. Before the war, there were about four or five Ming Dynasty trading houses engaged in immigration business. In normal years, they could send two to three thousand Han immigrants here every year. Some of the Han people will be sent to settle in other colonies in the Philippine Islands, and about half of them will stay in Manila.
After the war, among the local immigration businesses, Chaosheng Merchant Store was suddenly the only one left. This was not due to poor management of other businesses, but because only Chaosheng Merchant Store received the order issued by the new ruler. The special industry business license has squeezed out other peers from this industry. This kind of special treatment given by the government has never appeared in the Manila area before, and many people have noticed the Chaosheng Store and its operators, the Ran brothers.
No one knew why Chaosheng Merchant Store received special treatment, but soon someone discovered that Chaosheng Merchant Store's business projects were not limited to immigration. This store dealt with almost all businesses involving import and export. It has a lot of experience, and its transaction volume is much higher than that of its local counterparts. Some Chinese medicinal materials produced in the Ming Dynasty, as well as matches, soap, sugarcane wine and other products produced in the Haihan Kingdom, Chaosheng Commercial Store even exclusively supplied them locally. God knows how they got in touch with these products immediately after the war. supply.
Of course, not everyone will get to the bottom of the source of these in-demand goods. The first thing most people who get the news think of is to make money together with Chaosheng. After all, in post-war Manila, the only people who had a way to get in-demand goods were the uncles, and having a supply of goods meant making a lot of money. If the tide rises and you make a lot of money, those who start a new business will also make huge profits. Therefore, after the war, Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse quickly became a major goods distribution center in the south of the city. In order to facilitate operations, Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse even spent money to purchase all the 100-meter-long street-facing shops outside the commercial warehouse, and built another store nearby. Two yards were purchased and converted into temporary warehouses.
If Qin Huacheng was more sensitive to business news, he might have noticed that many of the goods recently unloaded in the Manila port area were shipped to this business warehouse in the south of the city. Some of these goods will be distributed to some retailers in the Manila area at Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse, while the rest will be sold by Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse itself. Several shops recently opened in the city have taken on this function.
Of course, even if Qin Huacheng knew this, it would be difficult for him to understand how Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse, in addition to its exclusive supply of goods, defeated its local counterparts and quickly occupied the local business share after the war by relying on its advantages in logistics efficiency and distribution model. Everyone knows that Haihan is good at doing business, but few people can really understand why it is better than its counterparts in other countries.
Qin Huacheng did not rush into Chaosheng Merchant Inn to check out the location. Instead, he sat down in a small tea shop across the street, intending to wait and see for a while and see if he could get some additional information from here. All the people coming and going here are businessmen and horse dealers. Many people will stop in this tea shop to talk about business-related matters. Qin Huacheng listened to the conversations around him while drinking tea. Sure enough, he learned something from it. harvested.
The people sitting at the table to his left were all Han men in their thirties and forties, and each of them had a horsewhip in hand for driving a cart. It looked like they were all handlebar style. One of them was talking about what he saw at the port yesterday: "...the number of Han Chinese that arrived in that boat was probably three to four hundred. When they got to the dock and got down to the pier, security police came and surrounded them. As usual, Immigration ships like this are not always delivered to the dock. Money can only be used to let people go ashore, but yesterday I saw the steward of Chaosheng Commercial Store came forward to call the security police and let them go. It is said that these people will be resettled on the north bank of the Pasig River to open up wasteland and farmland. Build a farm ”
Qin Huacheng secretly thought that since no immigration ships appeared in his jurisdiction yesterday, what the coachman was talking about probably happened in another neighboring jurisdiction. It is said that the detachment leader over there sent a lot of benefits to the police headquarters to open up connections, and wanted all immigration ships to dock at the dock in his jurisdiction. But according to what the driver said, the local immigrants brought to Chaosheng Commercial Store did not seem to need to pay tribute to the security police. Of course, there might be other settlement methods. For example, some wealthy merchants in Qin Huacheng's jurisdiction would send him benefits on a regular basis on a monthly basis, so there would be no need to negotiate prices individually every time they deal with each other.
Sure enough, another coachman next to him questioned his statement: "Guo Laoer, how do you know you didn't pay? Maybe Chaosheng Merchant Store paid the money in advance before the ship even docked!"< br>
The coachman known as Guo Laoer shook his head repeatedly and said: "I had this idea before, but then I realized it was wrong. After the boat of immigrants landed and left, the security police leader kept cursing, saying that he was in Chaosheng Commercial Inn. There is no money to be made, and if you have given money, you will not be able to curse. It seems that the backstage is too tough to offend. Otherwise, if the security police want to make things difficult for Chaosheng Commercial Store, can they just watch the immigrants leave? "< br>
Qin Huacheng thought that it was not a question of whether Chaosheng Commercial Inn paid according to the rules, but that the security police did not dare to accept the other party's money. This situation is actually not unusual. Everyone should be aware that there is a backer behind Chaosheng Commercial Store, but no one knows which senior official this backer is. However, they think that the detachment leader in the next jurisdiction will be better than they know. There are more situations, so I will find time to ask for advice and see if I can dig out some information from him.
Another older coachman at the same table also joined the discussion: "Guo Laoer said this is true. Before I brought goods to Chaosheng Commercial Store, I encountered garrison checkpoints in several places. The goods from other stores were You have to check one truck at a time, but Chaosheng’s goods can be passed directly without inspection. This Chaosheng shopkeeper is really good!”
"Speaking of which, Chaosheng's prices are quite good. I think they are 10% higher than others!" A driver facing Qin Huacheng noticed the security police uniform on his body and took the initiative to change the subject. To avoid causing unnecessary trouble.
"Moreover, you forgot that it rained a few days ago. Chaosheng directly increased the price by 30% and asked us to go to Pasay Town to pick up the goods and send them to the north of the city..."
The coachmen talk about these topics just to have fun. What they really care about is whether doing business with Chaosheng Commercial Store is profitable, whether freight arrangements, cargo handover, and freight settlement are convenient. As for why Chaosheng Commercial Store can get official Asylum, that's not the question they really want to know the answer to. Of course, for Qin Huacheng, who was eavesdropping on the conversation, this information had a different meaning. A business inn run by a Ming merchant was able to receive so much care from the officials in the Haihan colony, and it was not an exaggeration to say it had privileges. What did Ran Tianlu do? There are so many rumors like this that Qin Huacheng no longer needs to doubt their authenticity. The biggest doubt in his mind now is why Haihan officials provide so many conveniences to Chaosheng Commercial Store.
Qin Huacheng looked at the gate of Chaosheng Store across the road. The flow of people coming in and out seemed to have never been interrupted. Obviously, the government's support for Chaosheng Commercial Store cannot be free, so what is the return? The business of Chaosheng Store is so good, how much percentage of the income must be turned over to the government in exchange for such treatment? Is the relationship between Chaosheng Commercial Store and the government really just purely about money?
Qin Huacheng had a lot of questions in his mind, but he couldn't find a clue to solve them. This is not because his brain is not strong enough, but because the information collected is too little to make more accurate inferences. If possible, he would really like to meet Ran Tianlu to see what is special about this person, but he is wearing a uniform at the moment, so it would be a bit rash to just ask for a meeting.
At this time, Ran Tianlu didn't know that there was a security policeman across the street who was trying to investigate his background. He had been so busy recently that he didn't even have time to do his own job. Since the end of the war, he has almost left security intelligence work, and most of his energy has been invested in the operation of the business store.
This is not that the Ministry of Security no longer needs him, but that the temporary management committee directly issued an order to him, requiring him to let Chaosheng Commercial Store master the main local business resources in the shortest possible time, so as to cooperate with the official Cleanup of local business establishments.
After Haihan took over Manila, the local commercial institutions originally run by the Spanish were almost wiped out. Most of the assets of these institutions were confiscated and confiscated by Haihan's army in the name of trophies. This is also Haihan's deliberate method. In addition to making money, he also wants to gradually eliminate the Spanish influence in the local area. Naturally, the Interim Management Committee will support a group of latecomers to fill the market share vacated by this.
Haihan's main support targets are still large-scale domestic commercial institutions. Commercial institutions like James Shipping Company do not need to worry about their loyalty. Officials are more assured that they control an important industry such as shipping. The second is to support the local pro-Han forces. Whether they are Han, indigenous or Hispanic, at this stage they all have a certain chance to win official recognition and support.
However, the situation of Chaosheng Commercial Store is quite special. Officials hope that it can control some key industries related to local people's livelihood, such as immigrants from Ming Dynasty, local people's daily material needs, etc. Even if some industries cannot achieve monopoly operations, they must at least occupy a share sufficient to influence the market direction.
To achieve this goal, it is not just one department that provides support to Chaosheng Commercial Store. Commerce, shipping, civil affairs, public security, and even the garrison troops are all involved in the support. It is precisely because of this all-round care that Chaosheng Commercial Store quickly became the largest commercial institution in the local area in just over a month after the war.
The main reason why the Interim Management Committee chose Chaosheng Commercial Store instead of building a separate commercial organization was because of Ran Tianlu's understanding of the local commercial market. Moreover, Chaosheng Commercial Store was still nominally a commercial organization affiliated with Daming. Even though it has received a lot of official support, few people can imagine that this business store is actually an extension of the Haihan official, covered with a layer of Ming's skin.
Ran Tianlu originally thought that after the war was over, he would be rewarded for his great contributions during this period, and then be transferred back to Sanya to become an official. But he never thought that the use of him by the superiors did not end here, and he had to continue to play the role of a Ming businessman. Of course, now that he has official support, Ran Tianlu no longer has to live as cautiously as he did during the Western Unification. Now what the government wants is to make him a representative of Ming merchants and Han people who are influential in the local area, so they give him and Chaosheng Merchant many privileges in a high-profile manner, in order to package him as a "Manila official merchant" image.
After a brief period of unhappiness, Ran Tianlu quickly adapted to this new role. In fact, he himself knows very well that in terms of personal treatment, being a wealthy businessman in Manila with all the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, housing and transportation, is far better than returning to Sanya to stay in the cold security department as an official dealing with piles of documents every day. And now the Ministry of Security's order is to temporarily obey the arrangements of the temporary management committee, so now he can only peacefully be a rich man here.
Of course, Ran Tianlu doesn't have to do anything. In fact, there are many things that need to be handled by him every day. Now that the business scale of Chaosheng Commercial Store has expanded, there are many more things that require Ran Tianlu's decision. He spends a lot of time every day meeting with all kinds of people, listening to their reports and suggestions, and then making the most beneficial decisions.
Although many businesses have received official care, the business process still needs to be completed by Ran Tianlu. At his busiest time, his daily sleeping time was even compressed to two hours. He couldn't go to bed until midnight, and he was urged to get up and start working again before the rooster crowed. Fortunately, his net worth has increased a lot now. He takes ginseng tea and various tonics in rotation every day. Instead of losing weight, he has gained a lot of weight compared to before the war.
(End of chapter)