After returning to Qinghe, Li Weidong did not rest, went home to get the cashier's check, and immediately got on the bus to go south to Shanghai.

After more than ten hours of bumpy travel, Li Weidong finally arrived in Shanghai.

As the center of China's finance and trade, Shanghai has many specialized foreign trade companies.

These foreign trade companies are also state-owned enterprises, some are some special state-owned enterprises, with a certain degree of foreign trade autonomy and foreign exchange autonomy, this kind of enterprises will set up special foreign trade subsidiaries, one is to facilitate themselves, and the other is to make a fortune through foreign trade business. For example, the oil system, the mining system, the aviation system, the shipping system, and the military system all have their own foreign trade companies.

There is another kind of company specializing in foreign trade, these companies are not large, and they are not the vests of heavyweight state-owned enterprises, but they have an amazing network and a strong background, and can do some business that others can't do.

In a foreign trade company with this ability, the fathers at the helm are often the kind of big people who can be named. To put it another way, without a strong background, how could it be possible to engage in foreign trade in China in the 80s.

What Li Weidong is looking for is, of course, the second foreign trade company.

......

In front of Mintai Foreign Trade Company, a large group of people were gathered there, crowded and muttering.

Looking at this scene, Li Weidong couldn't help but think of the scene when he went to the Red Star Factory to return the goods, and a large group of people gathered at the door of the sales office of the Red Star Factory.

Li Weidong observed for a while, and found a more talkative eldest brother, so he leaned up, took out two cigarettes, handed one to the other party, and said at the same time: "Comrade, borrow a fire." ”

Seeing that someone was so particular about it, he borrowed the fire and handed over a cigarette, so he took the cigarette with a smile on his face, then took out a lighter from his arms and lit it for Li Weidong himself.

Li Weidong took a puff of his cigarette and asked, "Comrade, there are so many people here, what kind of big deal are you going to do?"

"This little comrade, listen to your accent is a foreigner!" the talkative brother asked in Shanghainese Mandarin.

"Yes, Handong is here. Li Weidong nodded.

"Oh, no wonder you're so tall!" The talkative brother nodded, and then said, "We are all here to sign the list." ”

"What kind of order to sign?" Li Weidong asked.

"Of course, it's a list of imported goods, here is a foreign trade company, there are imported goods in hand, sign a list here, you can go to the dock to pick up the goods, and casually pull back a few boxes of imported goods, but make a lot of money, enough to eat half a lifetime." The talkative brother spoke.

Li Weidong looked at the talkative brother, and then asked: "Comrade, looking at your dress, you don't look like a self-employed person. ”

"Who is self-employed! I have a unit!" said the talkative brother.

"Are everyone else like you?" Li Weidong then asked.

The talkative brother nodded: "Basically, there should be no individual here." ”

At this time, Li Weidong had already understood that these people were all "officials".

In the early days of reform and opening up, China gave birth to a large number of "inverted masters", when the country implemented a dual-track price system, the planned and unplanned prices were different, and the inverted masters took advantage of this to make profits.

Later, the domestic crackdown on speculation was reversed, and the fallen master suffered a major blow in the country, so he turned his attention to foreign countries, and the famous canned food for airplanes is a classic case of the international reversal.

There is also a distinction between public and private, the folk master is called "private", and the official is called "official", the latter is of course more powerful. Officials are often powerful and powerful, and they can obtain more resources and profits by finding connections, approving slips, and going through the back door.

Li Weidong's "consignment sales" is actually a kind of "official downfall" behavior, and when the transportation company goes to Yankuang, one mouth is 5,000 tons of coal a month, and if it is not enough, it has to be added, which is actually a backdoor.

If it is replaced by "private fall", even if you are willing to offer the back door, Yankuang will not care about you!

Of all trade, import and export trade is obviously the most lucrative.

In China in the 80s, no matter what imported goods can be transported to the country, they can definitely make money as soon as they turn their hands.

This Mintai foreign trade company has probably just arrived at a batch of imported goods, and the group of people in front of them is holding all kinds of approvals, hoping to get a batch of goods, and then resell them to make money.

As the talkative brother said, he got a few boxes of imported goods that were in demand, and after such a change of hands, he made enough money for ordinary people to live half of their lives.

There were too many people blocking the door of Mintai Foreign Trade Company, everyone was queuing, and Li Weidong couldn't get in for a while, so he simply stood at the door and waited.

After a while, the door of the foreign trade company opened, and someone walked out with a depressed face.

"What are you going to do this time?" Do you have a refrigerator and a TV?"

"Television sets are no longer profitable, and now the popular ones are palm-sized tape recorders, which sell for hundreds of dollars each. ”

"What kind of tape recorder, that's slow! It's English, do you understand?"

"Why are you slow, but I can be fast!"

"Lao Wang, it's not a good thing to be too fast! you have to eat some kidneys to make up for it. ”

This sudden kick of the accelerator made everyone laugh, and even Li Weidong laughed along.

The popular Walkman at that time, which later came to be known as the Walkman, became the topic of driving in the mouths of these people.

The man who came out of the foreign trade company didn't bother to pay attention to everyone's jokes, he said: "It says inside, there is no note for accepting RMB." ”

"What?

"How can this be! Foreign exchange is money, and the renminbi is not money?"

"These are all RMB slips in my hand, what can I do!"

The crowd immediately became a mess.

These inverted masters are carrying strips in their hands, but the strips are varied, and many of them are holding RMB strips to pick up goods, that is, they plan to use RMB to buy imported goods.

Mintai Foreign Trade, a company that does import and export business, basically does not do foreign trade original orders, to put it bluntly, it is a big purchasing agent to make the difference. Someone else gives you RMB, buys imported goods from you, and makes you earn a price difference, which is the profit model of a foreign trade company.

Now Mintai Foreign Trade says that it does not accept RMB, which is the same as purchasing agents and asking you for foreign exchange.

In the 80s, the domestic foreign exchange was tight, and the supply of imported products exceeded demand.

Mintai foreign trade does not accept RMB strips, and the outsiders are instantly cold by two-thirds, and the remaining one-third of the dumps are very glad that they are not RMB strips in their hands.

After a while, someone came out of the foreign trade company, and everyone immediately surrounded them, asking what goods they could get this time.

"There's good news and bad news, which one do you want to hear first?" the man asked.

"Good news!" immediately someone shouted.

"The good news is that the goods imported by Mintai Foreign Trade this time include cameras, stereos, record players, and Walkmans!" the man replied.

Everyone suddenly looked happy, and those who held the RMB slip in their hands were full of frustrated expressions, as if they had lost 100 million yuan by rounding up.

Imported cameras, stereos, record players, and Walkmans are not as popular as household appliances such as televisions and washing machines, but they are all scarce goods with high profits.

Household appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines can already be produced in China, and although the quality is not as good as that of imported goods, they can be used immediately.

Cameras, stereos, and record players are the only things that have a big gap between home and abroad.

Although the Seagull camera is very famous, compared with foreign brands, it is still much worse, and the effect of domestic audio is far inferior to foreign audio. As for the Walkman, which is the most popular among young people, it can only be produced overseas.

This kind of goods is a luxury product in China, and the profits are several times that of traditional household appliances such as TVs and refrigerators.

However, at this time, someone asked in a loud voice, "What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that people don't want foreign exchange coupons, just foreign exchange!"

Among the one-third who were originally happy, two-thirds of the people's expressions turned from sunny to cloudy, obviously they were all holding foreign exchange coupon lists, and they had just lost 100 million yuan.

Foreign exchange coupons are more precious than RMB for the Chinese people, but they are dispensable for foreign trade companies.

The biggest function of foreign exchange coupons is that you can go to the friendship store to buy imported goods, while foreign trade companies can buy imported goods without going to the friendship store, so foreign exchange coupons are naturally useless.

Originally, among a large group of people, only one-ninth was still eligible to get goods from Mintai Foreign Trade.

After another moment, another man came out of it.

"The people inside said that if you want to pay for cash, the kind of note that still needs a long time to settle, people don't accept it for a long time!"

The difficulty has increased a lot in an instant, where to find a large amount of cash this year!

After a while, the fourth man came out, and the first thing he said was:

"They don't even want rubles!"

Foreign exchange is also divided into three, six, nine and so on, and the ruble of the Soviet Union, in the eyes of foreign trade companies, is obviously not a high-grade foreign exchange.

In the crowd, the expressions of several people became quite ugly in an instant, they were people holding ruble foreign exchange slips, and several people holding other foreign currency immediately asked: "What foreign exchange is there that you don't want besides rubles?"

"The Korean won, the Iranian rial, the Indian rupee, neither!" replied the man.

"Mark or Germany?" was immediately asked.

"Mark in West Germany wants it, but Don't in East Germany!"

"It's all Mark, why do you want West Germany, not East Germany!" the man shouted excitedly, it was obvious that he had foreign exchange in his hand, it was East German Mark.

After excluding all kinds of conditions, few people are still qualified to enter the gate of Mintai Foreign Trade Company, and the original queue of people has dispersed, and the gate blocked by the crowd has finally flashed a truth.

The talkative eldest brother had a lost expression on his face: "I didn't expect that there are so many rules and regulations, it seems that I came in vain today." Let's all disperse! Little comrade, you should also hurry up, there is no excitement to see here. ”

"You go first!" Li Weidong said with a smile.

"What, do you plan to see it lively again? It's foreign exchange, it's spot exchange, and I don't accept this and that, I'm afraid there are few people here who can meet the conditions." The talkative brother continued.

"I'm not here to see the excitement!" Li Weidong said, snuffing out the cigarette in his hand, and then said: "I really meet those conditions!"

After Li Weidong finished speaking, he walked into the gate of the foreign trade company with a look of envy, jealousy and hatred.