Chapter 2166
Compared with other countries of this era, Haihan invested much more in administrative agencies at all levels, especially providing phased refresher training for officials at all levels, which is a means that other countries do not have. In addition, the institutionalization of management functions of administrative agencies at all levels is also far ahead of contemporaneous countries.
Although some drawbacks of the bureaucracy are still unavoidable, compared with other countries, the efficiency of Haihan's administrative agencies is already quite high, and the governing concept of officials at all levels is not just to seek "peace in the world", but The purpose is to develop the economic level of the areas under his rule as much as possible while in office. A governance style like "protecting people's livelihood and promoting growth" can be said to be the basic requirement of the Executive Committee for every grassroots official.
Therefore, even in island colonial areas like Zhoushan, which have a weak industrial foundation and can only rely on re-export trade to drive the economy most of the time, officials at all levels are still doing their best to discover and organize characteristic industries for each region to boost the local economy. level of development.
Small villages like Gaoxie Village, Fuqiang Village, and even the entire Baiquan Town, relative to the economic scale of Zhoushan Colonial Area, their output and foreign trade are only a small amount, but if compared with the neighboring Ming Dynasty, the situation is much worse. A level better.
Officials at the town level may not fully understand why their superiors ask them to do this, let alone concepts such as "land ownership," "production relations," and "collective economy," but they know that implementing these systems is indeed Being able to change the local economic situation and people's living standards at a visible speed makes you know that you are doing the right thing.
As a newcomer to this system, Xiunian obviously has difficulty understanding the purpose and significance of these systems in the short term, but by visiting local villages in Zhoushan, he can intuitively feel Haihan's system. Advantages. If you go back and read this Code of Practice, some of its contents will become easier to understand.
Of course, if all villages could operate like Gaoxie Village and Fuqiang Village, the town office would indeed be much easier. Maybe even Xiu Nianlai could get by as the mayor. But the actual situation is not that simple. The two villages Xiunian visited are above the horizontal line, and the management and management conditions of most villages are actually not comparable to them.
After all, there are only a few village chiefs with the qualities of Wang Dagui and Ren Song, and phenomena such as limited abilities, conservative ideas, and family control of the village are the norm in reality. The collective economy promoted by Haihan cannot be supported by everyone. There are still many people who think that such a system is poisonous, but they are unable to resist under Haihan's strong rule. However, such people are often unwilling to cooperate with the government honestly, and will even rely on their influence in the countryside to secretly confront the government. The town office has to face these resistances from the people head-on.
What is written in the work code is not only how to develop the economy, but also how to deal with those who follow the old ways or even disobey instructions. Xiunian has had an excellent start in Baiquan Town, but this does not mean that his work here will be smooth sailing. Perhaps after he visits the ten villages in Baiquan Town, he will have a clearer understanding of this. know.
Yin Changxing, a North Korean who arrived in Zhoushan on the same day as Xiunian, had a less smooth experience there than Xiunian.
Since he was unfamiliar with Zhoushan, Yin Changxing restrained himself and did not rush to set up his own business. Instead, he continued to run errands for Ming Dynasty businessman Yu Chengli. He used this job to gradually become familiar with the local situation and then slowly find a business that suited him.
There is nothing wrong with this idea. Yu Chengli also agrees with his approach and is willing to provide him with some help within his ability, such as temporarily retaining him so that he does not need to spend a lot of extra money on food and accommodation.
However, since he is working for others, Yin Changxing cannot put his own affairs above his work. Yu Chengli was so busy these days that Yin Changxing naturally had no time to take care of his own affairs.
Yu Chengli's main business is textiles, but almost all the goods in his store are purchased in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and then transported to Hirado Port by sea. This time, Hirado Port suffered a disaster, although the Haihan Army allowed him to transfer his goods to Hirado Port. The goods were shipped from Hirado, but after such a round trip, the cost of these goods also increased, and there was no advantage at all in the Zhoushan market.
Yu Chengli became aware of this disadvantageous situation after visiting several local cloth shops. Because almost all local textile merchants source their goods from the nearby Suzhou and Hangzhou areas, transportation costs alone have a great advantage, and some merchants themselves are producers, so their operating costs can be lowered. Compared with these merchants, Yu Chengli found it difficult to compete with others in price even if he sold the goods he shipped back from Hirado at a loss.
But having these goods in the warehouse means that Yu Chengli's large amount of funds will be backlogged, which is by no means good news for a businessman.
When Yu Chengli withdrew to Zhoushan with the East China Sea Fleet, he still had the intention to open a business store here for long-term operation. However, if he invested a large amount of money to build a business store and the funds in his hand could not flow to generate benefits during this period, there would still be problems. relatively high economic pressure.
For Yu Chengli, the wisest thing to do is to trade in your goods as soon as possible. Even if you lose a small amount, there are more benefits in converting it into cash. First, it is easier to store, and you don’t have to worry about insects, rats or water or fire disasters. secondly, it can save the cost of long-term renting a warehouse; thirdly, it can flexibly use this part of the funds to make new investments, and there is an opportunity to earn back the loss of selling goods at a discount in a short period of time.
But who to sell these goods to and how to sell them is not a simple matter in practice. Yu Chengli was not familiar with the market conditions in Zhoushan. He could only understand the market conditions through constant visits and judge how to proceed in the best interests of himself.
As one of Yu Chengli's followers, Yin Changxing could only follow him everywhere. Yu Chengli could sit in the soft sedan and take a leisurely stroll, but he could only rely on his own two legs to keep up.
After a few days, Yin Changxing was very tired, but he still gained some achievements. At least he had an understanding of the textile market in Zhoushan, and he also learned to identify dozens of fabrics produced in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Yin Changxing recalled that when he was a fisherman in Seogwipo, he would wear his coarse clothes for three to five years until they were worn out and could not be repaired before making a new one. He could not imagine that one day he would study these advanced clothes in a foreign country. Fabrics, listening to the bosses talking about big deals worth tens of thousands of taels of silver around him, made him feel like he was in a dream.
But Yin Changxing is also very self-aware. With the little capital he has in Haihan Bank, he will definitely not be able to do high-end textile business in Zhoushan. The price of this piece of high-quality fabric ranges from a few taels to dozens of taels, or hundreds of taels. With his little capital, he simply cannot enter this industry. A slight price fluctuation in the market can make him vomit blood.
So even though he learned a lot about the textile business, for Yin Changxing, who has neither enough capital nor operational experience, this is more like a useless dragon-slaying skill. His current situation is not suitable for entering the industry. .
Yin Changxing was afraid that he was not knowledgeable enough, so he took the opportunity to ask Yu Chengli for advice, but Yu Chengli's answer also disappointed him. He believed that his situation was not suitable for dealing in bulk goods such as textiles. Even if he wanted to enter the industry, it would be best to After Yu Chengli opened a business in Zhoushan, he had to work in the store for a year and a half to become truly familiar with the operation of the business before he considered setting up his own business.
The advice given by Yu Chengli was very benevolent. Even though he knew that Yin Changxing's purpose in coming to Zhoushan was to be able to stand on his own one day, he was still willing to give him a hand.
"The threshold for this kind of large-scale transactions is extremely high, and it requires connections and channels. You won't be able to do it for a while. Otherwise, you can change your profession, start with small transactions, and do what you can." Yu Chengli kindly reminded him not to be too aggressive. Yin Changxing thanked Yu Chengli, but he still had no idea where to start the "small business".
What he had seen in the urban areas near Dinghai Port these days was that most of the businesses in the market were large-scale businesses with open shops. Most of the so-called small businesses were setting up stalls to sell food and drinks, but Yin Changxing had no cooking skills. I'm afraid you'll have to lose even more money in this business.
This is actually Zhoushan's special trading environment. More than 80% of the businessmen who come here to do business are engaged in cross-border trade, so the scale of business is naturally not too small. Having said that, it is difficult to maintain a business that mainly relies on retail sales for a long time in a place like Dinghai Port where land is at a premium.
Although Zhoushan Dinghai Port is more prosperous than Yin Changxing imagined, it is not easy to find a business that can be entered into, and it is even more difficult than he expected.
In addition, foreigners like Yin Changxing will inevitably have some discomfort in the local living conditions. The society here is full of all kinds of strange rules, many of which Yin Changxing cannot understand. For example, why carriages, sedans, and rickshaws all drive on the right side by default on the road, and why large-value transactions must use banknotes issued by Haihan Bank. To settle the matter, why there is a threshold for joining Haihan nationality, etc.
There are some questions that he can find the answers to on his own, but there are more questions that bother him, and since he has no relatives in the local area, it is difficult to find anyone who can answer these questions for him.
Yin Changxing couldn't help but think of Xiunian, a monk he met in Seogwipo. He didn't have time to say goodbye to Xiunian when he disembarked at Dinghai Port, so he didn't know his specific whereabouts. But he knew that the Japanese refugees brought to Zhoushan were all sent to immigration camps, and they would definitely want to be naturalized as Haihan in the future. If he had the chance to meet Xiunian, he might be able to get answers to some questions from him.
Although Yin Changxing only thought of Xiunian as a friend when he was free, the chance to see Xiunian again came sooner than Yin Changxing imagined.
After Yu Chengli walked around the city for a few days, he basically gave up on selling the inventory on his own. He put some samples on consignment in several stores, and if he sold them, he would give the store a commission. In this way, the store does not have to spend a lot of money to buy Yu Chengli's goods, but it will still get a profit if it helps him sell it, which is also a win-win operation.
Of course, the store is only responsible for helping Yu Chengli negotiate the deal, but the delivery and settlement are still completed by Yu Chengli himself. On this day, a cloth shop notified Yu Chengli that they had sold twelve pieces of silk cloth and asked him to deliver the goods and collect the money.
Although it's not a big deal, considering Yu Chengli's current situation, it's good to be able to recover his health as soon as possible. Moreover, the store told him that the buyer was a town office on the island, which was equivalent to doing business with the government. This business was very safe.
Yu Chengli did not dare to be careless because of this. Based on his experience in doing business in Hirado, how could the government money be so easy to collect? It might end up being paid tribute to a certain official. However, the silk fabric ordered by the buyer was not considered high-end goods, and he could not afford the money. Yu Chengli had nothing to do, so he decided to make a trip in person, deliver the goods, and get to know the buyer at the same time.
Yu Chengli hired a large truck to pick up the goods from the warehouse, and took Yin Changxing with him before leaving.
The destination was only a few miles away from the city and connected by official roads. They arrived at the delivery location quickly.
Yin Changxing jumped off the carriage and saw a familiar figure at a glance. He couldn't help but say hello: "Master Xiunian?"
Xiunian didn't expect to meet an old acquaintance at the door of the town office, and hurried over to meet Yin Changxing and Yu Chengli.
"Why is Master Xiunian here?" Yin Changxing asked in surprise.
"I will be on duty here." Xiunian pointed to the door of the town hall, and then asked: "Why are you two here?"
"Are you on duty here? That's great." After hearing what Xiunian said, Yu Chengli suddenly felt a lot more relaxed, and pointed to the carriageway: "Baiquan has calmed down a batch of silk cloth, and I will transport it here. ”
"So that's what happened!" Xiunian nodded to show that he knew: "Then put the goods in the car temporarily, and you two will follow me in to go through the formalities."
This batch of silk cloth was indeed ordered by the town government, but it was not for private use, but part of the town government's labor plan. There are twelve families in Baiquan Town who have children serving in the East China Sea Fleet and participating in this expedition. After discussing with everyone, Jiang Zian decided to give some physical rewards to these twelve families. The batch of silk cloth ordered from the city was also part of the physical rewards.
During the meeting and discussion, Xiunian was listening on the sidelines, so she also knew about the arrangement of the town office. However, she did not expect that the person who took over the business would be an old acquaintance, and she could see them at the town office.
"I've been looking at each other with admiration for three days, but I didn't expect that Master Xiunian, who I haven't seen for a few days, is already working as an errand in the government!" Yu Chengli sighed repeatedly, thinking that Xiunian really encountered an excellent opportunity.
(End of chapter)