Wells Jr. was a very shrewd young man. He looked to be in his twenties, with a small round face, blue eyes, and white skin, without the large freckles that were common on the faces of his brothers. He was tall and wore a flowery shirt and long coat and leggings typical of the British, his calves were strangled like table legs, and he wore pointed-toe heeled leather shoes. The heel elongates the proportions of his legs, making him appear a little taller than he actually is.

His new wife, Jenny, also had a small round face, a little double chin, beautiful features, turquoise eyes, and curly blonde hair. Although Gwyneth is also blonde, she always combs her beautiful hair into a low-key and dignified bun, and wears black, gray, and dark blue dresses every day, and almost no jewelry, always guarding the identity of the deceased. Jenny is different, she will comb her blonde hair into a beautiful hairstyle, like the women of the Great Chu Dynasty, insert beautiful gold and gemstone hairpins into her hair, and even the clothes she wears are made of the best silk of this dynasty, bright colors, and exquisite embroidery on it, although it is a British style, but everywhere shows oriental characteristics. She even followed the local customs and put on a pair of normal-sized embroidered shoes on her feet, which were almost the same style as the big girls in the second room of the Zhao family wore on weekdays, only the soles were slightly different.

This young couple talks and walks with a happy atmosphere, which makes people feel full of vitality. But if you think that they are young and inexperienced, easy to cajole, you are wrong. Wells Jr. is a member of his family, very shrewd, always able to judge whether a business is worth doing in a short time, and is also good at reading faces and accurately guessing the bottom line of negotiation in your heart.

Whether Jenny has a talent in business, Zhao Xiu does not know. However, she is obviously very good at talking, and this is the first time she has gone to the door of the Zhao family, but just a few words of greeting can already make people have a good impression of their husband and wife. Zhao Xiu could detect it. The other party inquired about his preferences in advance, and specially learned a little Da Chu official dialect, or the official dialect with a slight Jiangnan accent, and consciously learned the tone and rhetoric of the businessman's wife of this dynasty. I also pay attention to her micro-expressions when talking. If she shows the slightest displeasure, the other party will immediately change her position; On the contrary, if she exudes a hint of pleasure, the other person will immediately go deeper into the topic; If she didn't understand a word or a sentence, she only looked a little puzzled. She would immediately slow down and repeat the sentence again, which couldn't be more intimate.

Zhao Xiu chatted happily with Little Wells and Jenny. The young couple is really good at likable. They prepared gifts for the ancestors and grandchildren of the Zhao family, and what they gave to Zhao Xiu was a large box of Western books, which contained everything from poetry, drama scripts, picture albums, religious readings, philosophical works to university textbooks on economics and finance, and four small bottles of perfume in beautiful crystal bottles; For Zhang's is a complete set of tortoiseshell inlaid sterling silver dressing utensils, including 12 combs of various sizes, a set of four fat powder boxes and two hand mirrors; For Zhao Wei was a gift of a completely different style: a dagger with an ivory handle, a globe and a pair of telescopes with brass shells. Zhao Xiu always felt that Zhao Weide's gift seemed to have some kind of unspeakable metaphor. I wonder if the little Wells know this.

didn't mention the greeting process, and when the atmosphere became a little more harmonious, Zhao Xiu began to ask Little Wells about the purpose of his request. According to Wang Fulai, since the beginning of the year, Little Wells has come to the door four or five times, and he has asked someone to deliver the message five or six times, and he seems to be very anxious to see her, or other people in the second room of the Zhao family, it is likely that there is something important to inquire about. Zhao Xiu was a little worried about whether the business of the foreign bank would be affected. Think of the shape of Nanhui Port in recent days. She felt that there was every reason for this to happen.

But Little Wells's answer was unexpected. Far from being affected, the business of foreign banks has become more and more prosperous. Last year's net profit, just the shares of Jiannan Houfu, the dividend income exceeded 10,000 taels of silver. That's at least a 30% increase from the previous year. This is probably because after Zhao Wei won the title of Marquis of Jiannan, he has always been favored by the new monarch, and even benefited a lot from foreign companies. In addition, the Jiannan Hou Mansion pulled the strings from it, so that the foreign bank and the comprador of the Internal Affairs Office started business directly, and this part of the income was more profitable than selling bulk goods. A royal family. When did you miss the money?

However, there are also pros and cons to taking the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs may be a steady and generous client, but at the same time, it has a distinctly official overtone. Xinjun's interest in Western luxury goods was far less than that of the first emperor, and he was more interested in other things: grain, wood, spices, and medicinal herbs...... He was even more interested in the goods that Wales & Co. shipped from the South Seas**. Little Wells noticed this and was very happy to satisfy his **.

Transporting luxury goods such as gemstones, perfumes, wool textiles, clocks and watches from Europe to Dachulai is at most one or two times a year, although you can make huge profits, but the risks are also extremely high. Thousands of miles away, there are countless winds and rains on the way, if you are unlucky and capsize, you will have no return. In contrast, transporting expensive spices, timber, ivory and other items from Nanyang to Dachu is much shorter, you can run several round trips a year, and it is more convenient to sell them - because the Ministry of Internal Affairs has almost all of them, they can't eat, and there are a lot of dignitaries in the capital waiting to buy them.

Watches, gemstones, perfumes, etc., if you buy them once, you don't necessarily need to buy them a second time, and some people are specially studying imitations. However, spices, timber and other things will always be needed, and they can be bought again, especially wood, which is bought in large quantities, and the whole ship is counted as a whole ship, and there are never scattered small transactions. Not to mention food. Last year, in order to relieve the disaster in Linfen, Shanxi, the imperial court urgently allocated grain, and grain was suddenly in short supply in various places, and grain prices soared for a while. The emperor once ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to look for Western and Nanyang merchant ships, and urgently brought more than a dozen ships of grain from Nanyang to deal with it. Perhaps it was from that time that the Ministry of Internal Affairs changed its mind and signaled the Western trading houses to switch to Nanyang business. Wells Jr. was very happy to cooperate, so he came to ask the partner what he meant.

After listening to Little Wells's introduction, Zhao Xiu thought about it again and again. Anyway, it's the same to make money, and there is a chance to earn more, and it will be more helpful to the people's livelihood in this dynasty, and she has no reason to object. Besides, since the Internal Affairs Office has such a plan, the emperor must know about it, maybe it was his idea. It was useless for her to object. Nowadays, there are more people doing Western goods business in China, why is the Wells family's foreign firm unique and favored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs? It's not because when the emperor was still the crown prince. In distress in the south of the Yangtze River, did they send people to the north, did they make a contribution? The royal thighs are so thick, how can they give up lightly? The Zhao family has huge interests in foreign banks. There's no reason to get along with money.

Zhao Xiu readily agreed to Little Wells's construction, but he was a little reluctant to make huge profits from Western goods. The emperor is not good at luxury, it does not mean that this market has shrunk, and foreign goods are still very popular in China today. Little Wells smiled happily: "We won't give up, we just give up on shipping our own goods." ”

It turned out that he had already made a wishful thinking. It is planned to open a branch of the foreign bank in Guangzhou. There are many Western merchant ships over there, and the price of goods is relatively cheap, but there are many scattered foreign merchants who have no way to do so in Dachu, and there is no other sales channel except for selling the goods in their hands to the transit merchants in Dachu at a relatively cheap price - of course, for them, this kind of price can already bring them huge profits. Little Wells planned to take advantage of the friendly relationship between his trading house and the royal family of Great Chu to purchase all kinds of Western goods in Guangzhou, and then ship them to the capital to sell them to the Ministry of Internal Affairs or other dignitaries. Although the profit is relatively diluted. But the risk is much less, because the biggest risk – the storms and waves that can be encountered during a long journey at sea – has already been borne by others.

He also planned to set up a branch in the port of Tianjin as a distributor for the comptoir in the north. Because foreign merchants could not enter Beijing without being called, they could only reach Tianjin at most, where they could trade with people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or find another partner to transport goods into the capital for sale. Wells Jr. was ambitious, and also thought of setting up branches in various large and medium-sized ports on the southeast coast, so that the goods he purchased in Guangzhou could be transported to Tianjin by sea. Even the fleet of ships carrying goods to the South Seas did not worry about supplies on the way.

This is a big project, it is impossible to achieve in just a few years, and the cost will be high. But Zhao Xiu still admires his enterprising spirit. As long as he didn't want to harm the interests of the Zhao family. The more shrewd and capable he is, the more the Zhao family will benefit. Zhao Xiu naturally hopes that the more shrewd the partner, the better. But now, the food has to be eaten bite by bite, and the road has to be walked step by step. She advised Little Wells not to be in a hurry, and the ports were now quite prosperous, and the fleet was docked. I don't have to worry about finding supplies.

Wells Jr. modestly accepted Zhao Xiu's proposal and decided to build branches in Tianjin and Guangzhou first. As for the commercial banks in Nanhui, I am afraid that they can only be used as a transit place in the future. He believes that the commercial banks in Tianjin and Guangzhou are more qualified to develop into head offices.

Zhao Xiu was noncommittal about this, discussed some details with him, and sent the guests off with tea - Little Wells and Jenny even knew this etiquette. She returned to the back house and told her grandmother Zhang what Little Wells had said, and Zhang frowned: "The business of the foreign bank is booming, and the income is really amazing. I looked at the account books, and I was a little frightened. But if you accept it, I feel a pity. The little prince of the Wei family suddenly mentioned such a building, would he have other intentions? Now that they have caught up with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they don't need our family to escort them. ”

Zhao Xiu smiled: "They are not so short-sighted. There are more Western businessmen who have come to Dachu, why does the Internal Affairs Office value them? If they talk about the merits of the year, they didn't take the initiative to help the emperor, but they just agreed so happily to repay the revenge. If they are so quick to break their promises, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will not tolerate them. We seldom interfere in their business, and we have always cooperated happily, but what good is it for them to offend us? I think that little Wells is very clever and would not do such a stupid thing. ”

"I hope so." Zhang sighed, "You can decide these things, if you can't make up your mind, you can ask your brother." It just so happens that you are planning to sell your house in Nanhui, and their family will move the head office elsewhere, which can be regarded as coincidental with you. ”

Zhao Xiu smiled, and was about to say something, when suddenly a mother-in-law came over to pass the word: "The prince of Guangping sent the ink pool in front of him to deliver the letter, and he was waiting to see the girl outside." ”

Zhao Xiu was suddenly startled: "Is something wrong?" (To be continued.) )

PS: I had a stomach fuss all night, what did I eat wrong......