Chapter 2830
Tobacco is native to the Americas and was later spread around the world by Western colonists. It was introduced into China around the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. Portuguese traders took the lead in bringing this new gadget to southern China, and later introduced it to Japan and North Korea.
After the time travelers came to this time and space, they discovered that a certain size of tobacco consumer group had formed in southern China, and there were farmers in Fujian who specialized in growing tobacco.
Of course, the time travelers are very clear about how much money they can make when the tobacco business expands, and they will definitely not let go of this easy-to-get cornucopia. But the first thing they did was not to promote tobacco cultivation, but to ban smoking. But what is prohibited is not the sale, but the cultivation. To be precise, it is the prohibition of private cultivation of tobacco.
The purpose of this is, of course, to monopolize the tobacco industry and bring the entire industry chain under the control of the state. In the areas under Haihan, only farmers with official authorization can grow tobacco, a special economic crop, and the harvest can only be supplied to official tobacco factories, and dealers can only obtain goods through tobacco factories, basically blocking the private sector. large-scale sales channels.
There are many smokers in Huanzhongli, and with the technical support of the Ministry of Agriculture, the entire tobacco production and sales process was quickly opened up.
However, tobacco cultivation has certain requirements on environmental conditions and cannot be grown everywhere. Therefore, the planting areas under Haihan were mainly concentrated in Nanping, Sanming, and Longyan in Fujian, as well as in the Kaohsiung area of Taiwan Island. Later, with the expansion of territory, large-scale tobacco cultivation began to be organized and promoted in Luzon Island and the Qingzhou and Laizhou areas of Shandong.
Tobacco cultivation, production and sales in Shandong are all operated by the Northern Region. This thing was highly profitable, so it naturally appeared on the list of goods sold to the Qing Dynasty.
However, tobacco is not a new thing to the Manchus. As early as the Later Jin Dynasty, Korean businessmen had introduced this stuff to Liaodong, and many nobles such as Dorgon and Daishan were addicted to smoking. The amount of tobacco flowing in from North Korea is small and the price is high. A pound of tobacco leaves can be sold for three coins, which is comparable to luxury goods.
Seeing that a large amount of money was flowing out of the country, Huang Taiji once explicitly prohibited officials from growing and smoking tobacco. Those who violated the prohibition would be whipped and fined. But the interests involved in this thing were too great. The ban was only implemented for two years before Huang Taiji took the initiative to stop it. Then he changed the method and allowed planting for personal use, but it was strictly prohibited to buy from abroad. To prevent the loss of money.
So by the time Haihan established a foothold in Liaodong, Manchu tobacco consumption had actually formed a certain market size and had a rudimentary industrial chain. But in the face of Haihan's mature business operation routines and industrialized production methods, it was almost defenseless. The "Bohai" brand paper-packed cigarettes produced in Shandong quickly entered the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, and occupied the country in a short period of time. most of the market.
Compared with the original pipe smoking method, cigarettes are undoubtedly more convenient and easier to store, transport and sell. Although the price is much higher than that of bulk tobacco, Haihan strives to promote it as a civilized and high-end consumption method that is linked to status. In addition, products at various price points have been launched to widen the consumption spectrum. However, those privately produced tobaccos do not have corresponding competitive strategies, so naturally they can only be squeezed to the bottom.
Bai Letong heard this and asked: "Ping Liao, didn't you say before that the Manchu Qing Emperor banned the purchase of tobacco from abroad, so why can the cigarettes produced in our country be sold?"
Chen Pingliao said with a smile: "This is not simple. Just hand over the exclusive rights of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties to the royal family. When they realize the considerable profits from running this business, they will definitely not refuse to become agents. ”
Bai Letong was stunned for a moment, then clapped his hands and praised: "Wonderful!"
According to the supply price and retail guide price set by Haihan, the revenue that Manchu officials can obtain from the sales process has far exceeded the tax collected on bulk tobacco transactions in the past. As long as the sales volume can reach Haihan's expected number, the income from this business alone will exceed the income from the traditional salt, iron, sugar, tea, cloth and other businesses combined! This account is not complicated, and Haihan has provided a mature operating model. As long as you follow the example, you can get the expected benefits. No one can resist this temptation.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty also quickly made another revision to the tobacco ban, following Haihan's example and bringing all tobacco cultivation and sales within the country to the officialdom.
After a year of operating in this way, the profits gained from this business have completely extinguished the opposition within the Qing Dynasty. The two sides even signed a supplementary agreement on tobacco trade. The Manchu and Qing Dynasties will provide Haihan with self-produced tobacco, which will be processed into cigarettes and then sold back.
Bai Letong had another problem when he heard this: "If we do this, won't we just earn a processing fee? Can this be more profitable than selling them the finished product directly?"
Chen Pingliao said: "If the Manchus wanted to get more profits from the tobacco business, they had to increase the proportion of self-produced tobacco leaves. This can only be achieved by expanding the scale of planting. And the income from growing tobacco is higher than that of food, so farmers are certainly more willing To grow tobacco, the Qing Dynasty has limited manpower, which will inevitably reduce food production capacity, and they will not be able to send troops to grab food as before. Who can they buy food from? "
Bai Letong suddenly said: "If even food depends on our country's supply, the impact will be much greater than that of tobacco!"
Chen Pingliao nodded slowly and said: "That's exactly it."
The series of impacts mentioned by Chen Pingliao have actually begun to bear fruit.
After tasting the sweetness, Huangzhuang, under the name of the Manchu royal family, began to plant tobacco on a large scale. After simple roasting, it was sent to Haihan for deep processing. After being made into cigarettes, it was shipped back to the country for sale. The income from this was higher than before. Grain planting has doubled or tripled. Seeing that this approach was feasible, the nobles of the Eight Banners began to follow suit and converted the fields under their names to tobacco.
However, most of the arable land owned by the imperial estates and nobles was high-quality land with fertile soil. The conversion to tobacco cultivation led to a large reduction in grain production. The market supply was insufficient, and the price of grain rose rapidly. The government had to contact Haihan to purchase grain. as a supplement.
However, if we only look at the financial revenue and expenditure, even if the cost of purchasing grain from Haihan is deducted, the income from switching to tobacco is still very considerable. Therefore, even if someone is aware of the crisis, it will be difficult for the profit-minded nobles to give up this This is a way to make money, and then convert the fields back to growing grain.
Haihan did not take advantage of this opportunity to increase the price of grain. Instead, he increased the supply of affordable grain to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the price was even lower than that of locally produced grain. Affected by such a reverse impact, the Manchus in the Qing Dynasty changed their fields to tobacco cultivation. Even ordinary farmers used various channels to transfer their fields to the names of nobles with tobacco planting qualifications, and began to secretly switch to tobacco cultivation.
(End of chapter)