There is a good saying: opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared.

When the tide of the times comes, whoever has worked hard in advance will get the opportunity. Those who work hard do not necessarily guarantee success, but those who do not work hard will definitely not succeed.

In the early days of the later generations, whoever practiced English in advance could change their lives overnight. You can go abroad to study and further your studies, and if you are a foreigner, you can't get along there, and when you come back, at least you will be treated as a turtle; Retirement can also be a translator, do international trade, do public concerns, smuggling, open classes, and teach all kinds of 666.

In short, this is a brisk life that can say goodbye to the masses, to be laid off and to repair the earth.

The same was true in the 17th century.

Take Zheng Zhilong, the original historical success, for example, who not only had a hot fight with the Portuguese, but was also baptized into the foreign religion and became the spokesman of the Spanish Portuguese forces. Zheng Zhilong's behavior has brought great benefits to his future development. It was an extremely successful speculation, both in terms of business and military struggle.

Zong Ben, an unknown little person in history, is actually no different from Zheng Zhilong in essence. Everyone is a trendsetter who "responds to the wave of internationalization in the 17th century". It's just that the former is much smaller in scale. Zheng Zhilong did a full set, and Zongben just learned a foreign language.

In the past ten years since he came to Haojing Ao, Zong Benzhi has changed from a rookie to a successful foreign trader, which is inseparable from his conformity with the trend. Macau is a city built by the Portuguese, and in fact, it is the Portuguese who are in charge, so Zongben has worked hard to learn Spanish before.

In the colonies of this era, Latin was spoken among the aristocracy, while Spanish was spoken among the common people, even in Portuguese cities. The reason is simple, colonies are places where scum from all over the world gather, so Spanish has become the lingua franca of the colonial boss. As for the Portuguese language...... In the seventeenth century, it was more of a Catalan dialect than a lingua franca.

Even if Zongben is not as radical as Zheng Zhilong, he only learned a foreign language, but it also brought him endless benefits. Over the years, Zongben has relied on the convenience of communication and the business channels behind him to establish a very strong business relationship with the Society of Jesus in Macau, and there has been a lot of cooperation between the two sides.

Today, the three-person group who came to the business to negotiate business with the business of the business was ignored by the translator Master Niu, and Brother Garcia was an important person.

Garcia's title is the assistant priest of the Jesus Branch of Macau. This person may not seem to be of high rank, but he is the first executor of the Jesuit Society of Macau in charge of business evaluation and specific business plans, somewhat similar to the district manager of later generations.

For a businessman like Zongben, Garcia was a key figure in dealing with the Jesuits, a behemoth of cultural aggression and commercial trade.

"If the price is right, then my firm is at your disposal. Of course, I can also accept a stake in the form of a capital injection. ”

Time is pressing, and Zong Ben must now take advantage of information asymmetry to sell the business, so after he met and exchanged pleasantries, he went straight to the point.

The acquisition of the trio naturally understood the meaning of Zongben's words, but they didn't come yet. Since receiving the message from the sect last night, to be honest, Brother Garcia still attaches great importance to it. This can be seen in the fact that he hired a cow interpreter overnight and contacted Captain Martinez.

Garcia's assistant priest has brown hair, and his eyes are pure blue. Although the tall bridge of the nose that is customary in southern Europe makes his appearance look more vicious, as soon as he speaks, he has been professionally trained in the ministry, and his voice is quite gentle, and it sounds very sacred: "Zong, you are a long-term partner of the Church. I actually care more about the reasons behind this than about buying your firm. ”

Recently, the atmosphere in the city of Macau has been very depressing. Both the city council and the Jesuit hierarchy were very anxious about the tremendous pressure from the Ming Kingdom (in fact, it was the Crossing Force).

In this situation, any information about the Ming side will attract the attention of the Macao side. For Garcia, the reason behind the change of his important suppliers at this point in time must be clarified.

Zong Ben smiled when he heard this: "It's a good thing." ”

The climate in East Asia is not suitable for Europeans. In other words, any low- and medium-dimensional area where mosquitoes are everywhere is not suitable for Europeans. Even if the Jesuit monks are mixed with God, the attrition situation here is also very serious, so Garcia is already the third business manager that Zongben has dealt with - he is now very aware of what these white-skinned exotic visitors are worried about, and he immediately reassures the other party.

"Regarding this matter, it is my brother who has made a move."

Zongben began to explain: "The clan brother got the news from the capital a few days ago, and after the Beijing inspection this autumn, it is about expected to be promoted. Therefore, I brought a letter from my family and raised a ...... or two at home."

Zongben's words were said to Master Niu Xijianniu.

As a professional broker, Master Niu is undoubtedly acting as a temporary employee of the church today, so there is no need to explain much here. How to translate his words is the job of the translator.

As a native of the Ming Kingdom, Master Niu naturally understands the information contained in Zongben's sentence in seconds. So he turned his head and expressed the matter in a foreign language that the foreign guests could understand.

Foreign guests quickly understood, isn't it just spending money to buy officials? When I was the Great Holy Roman Empire, didn't have this tradition?

In fact, at this time in the seventeenth century, and even longer, buying officials was a tradition, both in China and abroad, but the means of expression were a little different.

The Ming Empire had public donations, not to mention the Qing Dynasty, which was relayed behind, and donations were everywhere. And here in Europe, the aristocratic family spends money to get a public office for their children, or a monk spends money to get the title of bishop of a rich region for himself, which can be discussed openly on a daily basis, and will not be investigated by the Discipline Inspection Commission at all...... The kings and dukes of Europe are themselves good at selling public positions, how did the position of tax collector come about?

So when Master Niu explained like this, the foreign guests quickly understood. Immediately afterward, Brother Garcia, who thought he had figured out the situation, nodded, and a kind smile appeared on his face: "Dear Zong, first of all, please allow me to congratulate Master Zongmao. His promotion is good news for all of us. ”

Zongben's brother Zong Mao is a Taoist in Shanxi, which is the highest public official in the sect at the moment, and will be used as a signboard by his disciples. Zong Ben wanted to gain a firm foothold in a place like Macau, which was surrounded by tigers and wolves, and naturally did not lack publicity in normal times, so the Jesuits knew that there was such a number one person.

"Thank you for your love."

After a few polite sentences, Zongben added: "It's not good to say that it will happen now." This will take time and money. Therefore, Zong's party has today's actions. ”

Brother Garcia nodded, "So, let's discuss the price of the goods." ”

At this point, today's meeting can be regarded as entering the stage of formal negotiations.

....................................

The process of formal negotiations can be described as uneventful. The reason is very simple: Zongben, the seller, put on an attitude of being in a hurry to use money and willing to cooperate, and then offered a reasonable price for the resources at hand. In this way, the hardest part of the negotiation is gone.

And Zongben quickly figured out the internal reality of this trio from the dialogue between the two sides.

In the three-person acquisition team, the purest goal is Captain Martinez. This bearded Portuguese gentleman is the owner of the three-masted galleon "Coimbra", which is anchored in the inner harbour of Macau.

Martinez's goal was simple: to buy all the Ming stock commodities in Zongben's hands, because he would soon set sail for India.

Somoto didn't stumble and met Mr. Captain's request. Including the goods in the trading house and the inventory in the port warehouse, Zongben offered the captain a reasonable price - since the bearded gentleman had been specially brought by Brother Garcia to "pick up the leaks", there was no doubt that there must have been a deep personal relationship between them.

Zong Ben is an old Jianghu, and he has seen a lot of private affairs in this kind of official affairs, so he naturally won't make a mistake in dealing with it.

When Somoto and Captain Martinez reached an agreement first, not only the bearded captain curled the corners of his mouth, but Brother Garcia also nodded his head again and again, smiling all over his face.

Next up is Boss Niu. It was only at this time that Zongben discovered that Translator Niu was more deeply involved in this matter than he had imagined. Originally, the business house he planned to be bought by the Jesuits, but now it seems that Brother Garcia intends to let Master Niu run it as a white glove.

In this way, Niu Xijian is bound to occupy a stake in the future business bank.

It doesn't matter. Now that he has figured out that he wants to sell this hard-earned foundation, it has nothing to do with him who will take the shares.

So he naturally agreed to Mr. Niu's request to sell all the storefronts and port warehouses of the trading house.

At this time, however, Brother Garcia objected. In the monk's view, Zongben had not only these tangible assets at hand, but also the intangible assets such as the purchase and sales channels of the Ming Kingdom that he had established over the years, as well as the signboard of the Zongfu, were also very valuable.

So Garcia offered to keep 20% of the shares to Zongben to maintain the business channel behind him. The remaining 80% is digested internally by the Jesuits and the cow lords.

Somoto laughed and agreed to the offer, assuring that the business channels behind him would still play a role in the days to come.

The supra must be so assured. Otherwise, let the other party feel that he is bent on taking the money and leaving, and the reason he said earlier seems a bit far-fetched.

However, Zong Ben also made a request when he nodded his head: his own two percent of the shares must be mortgaged to someone present on the spot, and he will be treated as a loan.

Zongben's request is not a big deal, whether it is the Jesuits or the cattle boss, they are not the masters who lack cash. In addition, he had just made it easy for Captain Martinez to make it easy for him, so Brother Garcia took charge and mortgaged the twenty percent of the shares to Zongben with Jesuit funds.

So far, it only took half a day for Master Zong to sell the business house he had worked hard for ten years, and there was no hair left...... Oh yes, he's still going to take a bunch of old men with him.

Later that day, when everything was settled, Master Zong received nearly 80,000 taels of gold and silver coins from various countries. With this money and Zongben's own savings, he scraped together a total of 100,000 taels of silver.

Early the next morning, he took all his men and escorted the silver boat to the wharf of the new district.