Guangzhou Wharf, at this time is bustling, the street is full of shouts for the sale of goods, the shops on the street are even denser, and in the endless flow of people, there are also many Westerner faces, but ordinary people do not seem to be surprised by this scene, as if it is commonplace.

In fact, since the Tang Dynasty, Guangzhou has been one of the most important commercial ports in China, mainly for foreign trade, and in the Kangxi period, there was also a special organization such as the Thirteen Lines.

"The foreign ships are competing for officials and businessmen, and the cross gate opens to Sanyo. Five silk and eight silk satin are good, and the silver money is piled up in thirteen rows. ”

This poem describes the prosperity of the Thirteen Lines to carry out overseas Oriental, South and Western trade, which shows the strength of the Thirteen Lines in those years, and the appearance of the Thirteen Lines has a lot to do with the special status of Guangzhou, because in the 23rd year of Kangxi, the Qing court took the lead in lifting the sea ban in Guangzhou, Xiamen, Yuntai Mountain and Lianyungang, and also set up four major customs.

The determination of the four major customs, so that these places flourished for a while, the commercial atmosphere was very strong, and at that time, in the foreign trade activities of the merchants in Guangzhou, a person designated by the imperial court as the person in charge of foreign trade, monopolized the entire foreign trade of Guangzhou, and later the merchants from their own interests, jointly organized together, and established a guild group, that is, the so-called "public bank", that is, the predecessor of the thirteen lines.

Of course, in this era, the Thirteen Lines had not yet achieved the same prosperous status as later generations, and it had already come to an end, because since Guangdong was occupied by the Fu Han Army, industry and commerce were vigorously supported, and merchants who relied on official monopoly positions such as the Thirteen Lines were restricted and cracked down.

In the "Jiangnan Industry and Commerce Regulations" issued by Ning Chu, an all-round crackdown was carried out on abnormal commercial competition, so the thirteen lines that could not obtain the support of the imperial court were naturally and quickly wiped out under the cruel competition of other large chambers of commerce, and a number of merchants in the new era also emerged in Guangzhou at the same time.

Because these merchants in the new era are elites who stand out from the fiercely competitive business, they are naturally much stronger than the predecessors of the Thirteen Lines, and with their efforts, Guangzhou is now more prosperous.

"Guangdong Customs is indeed the largest commercial port in the south today, and it is already very surprising from the number of merchant ship masts berthed in the port."

A young man with a short beard stood in front of the port, with a slight sigh on his face, it was obvious that under Ning Chu's governance, the scale of development of Guangdong Customs was getting bigger and bigger.

At this time, behind the young man, there was a sturdy young man, and he said softly: "My lord, the officials of the three divisions in Guangzhou are waiting now, do you want to meet ......?"

The so-called three local divisions are the highest local bureaucratic bodies, namely the political envoy department, the inspection envoy department, and the metropolitan inspection envoy department, which are respectively in charge of civil affairs, justice, and supervision.

The young man's origin is indeed very big, he is Ning Qianqiu, who has just returned from Qinghai, after the Great Righteous Army entered Qinghai-Tibet, the relationship with Ning Chu became very clear, so Ning Yu arranged for another person to maintain the relationship with the Great Righteous Army, and then mobilized Ning Qianqiu back.

After mobilizing Ning Qianqiu back, Ning Yu personally talked with him in detail, the key content of which is to prepare for the Dutch War in the future, in which Ning Qianqiu will become the shadow head of the future Nanyang region, fully responsible for intelligence work in the Nanyang region, and his base camp is in Guangzhou.

Ning Qianqiu retracted his thoughts, but now he is much more mature than in the past, and said lightly: "There is no need to meet, we are not people in the officialdom, so there is no need to pay attention to vulgar etiquette, and besides, they are not our shadows." ”

The young man nodded in agreement, and then went down to give the order, only to see a moment later the carriages then began to depart along the rolling crowd, some of whom were looking in this direction, and it was clear that they were not completely dead.

Ning Qianqiu didn't pay attention to these people, but walked towards the city of Guangzhou, which will be the place where he will survive and fight for a long time in the future, compared to Nanjing and the Great Righteous Army, Guangzhou now has a little more of a savage atmosphere, but it will not look so bloody.

"Qianqiu, I have high expectations for you, not just because of your past achievements, but because I hope you can realize all your potential and help Da Chu completely lay the foundation for the rule of Nanyang."

Ning Qianqiu walked silently, the emperor's words were still in his ears, and he had to let him think a little more, he knew the emperor very well, and he also understood that the emperor was unwilling to be just an existence similar to the Dutch, and the emperor needed to control Nanyang at a deeper level, in which economic, cultural and political binding would be very important.

Just like the Dutch, who are now majestic in the South Seas on the surface, but in fact the crisis is already very deep, like they have fought a few battles with Java before, and the Dutch do not occupy too many advantages, and they are almost acquiescing to the local strength of the South Seas to reproduce themselves.

Such Southeast Asia can only be regarded as a colony for the Netherlands, and once something happens in the future, it will not be far from collapse.

However, for Da Chu, it is a very important thing to completely digest the South Seas, and only by completely eating the South Seas can he further control Southeast Asia in the future, and even the undiscovered Australian land.

"My lord, we're on our territory."

One of the guards' faces was slightly excited, it was obvious that the long-term running had made him a little exhausted, and he really didn't want to follow Ning Qianqiu around blindly.

Ning Qianqiu shook his head slightly, and the look on his face was as decisive as when he decided to go to the Great Righteous Army.

"Don't call me an adult anymore, you want to call me the shopkeeper, we will be the shopkeeper of this Changtai Chamber of Commerce in the future......"

........

When Ning Chu's big spy arrived at the Guangzhou dock, there were two blond-haired and blue-eyed Westerners who also stood on the ground of the dock, looking at the bustling Guangzhou City, and couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration.

"There are so many people here, you can't see them in the port of London......."

"But there is a lot more poop everywhere in London Harbour than here!"

The two laughed out loud, and it was clear that the complaints about the London environment had become so ingrained in their daily habits, and similar habits were complaints about the London bureaucrats, who were all a piece of.

After the two of them laughed, one of them then spoke: "John, the company sent us here this time, but I hope we can make some achievements, at least not too many losses, right?" ”

The young man named John was obviously very confident, and said with a smile: "Levi, didn't we all have a lot of confidence before we came?" I believe that the fruits of the British civilization will not disappoint this rich country, and we will not only need to sell the bulk goods that have been shipped, but also a large number of goods, such as porcelain, tea and rhubarb......"

Livi shook his head and lamented: "Don't you know, although the company has always been able to make profits in Huaxia's trade, it is only by transporting goods from Huaxia back to Europe that these benefits can be had, but at that time, it was also established in a state of different gold and silver prices, but now Ning Chu's gold and silver prices have been adjusted to be similar to the international - this means that our past operation methods may not be able to be re-realized." ”

With the gradual improvement of Ningchu's monetary policy, coupled with the emergence of a large number of new gold and silver currencies in the market, the traditional currency began to die out gradually and rapidly, especially the copper coins have been completely replaced by copper coins with stable exchange rates, so this also makes the Westerners who used to exchange silver in the past have no way to continue to play this game.

Secondly, there is another point, Livi did not say it, because in the Chinese society at this time, the small peasant economy was not completely destroyed, which led to the goods transported at high costs became cost-effective in front of local goods, and often fell into a trap where no one cared about, so to put it simply, the trade of European countries with China was in a long-term huge deficit, and a large amount of gold and silver flowed into China under this trade system.

It has to be said that for the rest of Europe, it is not a simple matter to really recover the loss in trade, and even if they want to solve it by force, they will lose the courage to solve it by force in the face of the vast land and the huge growth of the population.

Therefore, after the European countries sent envoys to Nanjing, the British East India Company also began other attempts, sending a group of people such as John and Levi to Canton, Shanghai, and Nanjing, hoping to find a new way to make a fortune.

John was slightly silent, and then said firmly: "Even if other commodities can't make a contribution, I believe that with it, the Huaxia people will definitely spit out their silver in the future!" ”