What is a Trade Bureau?

For people in many places, the trade bureau is undoubtedly unfamiliar, and they don't know that the government can also do business.

The government does business!

In the eyes of others, this is undoubtedly suspected of competing with the people, but for Jiangbei, the trade bureau is a necessity, whether it is according to the economic development of Jiangbei, or the actual needs, it is necessary to set up a trade bureau to ensure the purchase and sale of various materials.

Of course, outsiders do not understand this, and for Liu Bin, who is the general office of the Trade Bureau, he already knew the responsibilities of the Trade Bureau from Jing Lu before he took up his post at the Trade Bureau.

The responsibility of the trade bureau is to purchase and sell all kinds of materials, and the simplest way to say it is to purchase the materials needed by Jiangbei and sell the goods produced in Jiangbei to other places. and profit for the government.

At the beginning, what did Jiangbei need?

Fire, sulfur, leather, horses, wood, etc., are mostly related to military supplies. And at that time, what did Jiangbei produce?

Salt!

When the Bureau of Trade was first established, the only commodities at its disposal were salt, and in addition to that, silver, which could only be exchanged for supplies urgently needed by the army.

But all that, after this winter, has changed. Compared with the initial single product, after a period of development, the Trade Bureau can now provide a variety of products, and the goods provided are not limited to Jiangbei. In the list of goods provided by the Trade Bureau, in addition to industrial products such as mirrors and soap produced in Qinghe, there are more than ten kinds of cotton cloth. There are both Nantong cloth in Jiangbei, Songjiang cloth in Jiangnan, as for raw silk, there are Jiangbei silk, there are also high-quality lake silk, of course, there are porcelain in Jingdezhen, Huizhou and Wuyuan and other places tea, in short, the current trade bureau, by virtue of its relationship between the north and south traffic arteries, underwrites the goods of the north and south, so as to obtain a lot of profits. The profits it paid even once accounted for about 5% of the expenses of the government office, and it can be said that now the Trade Bureau has become the most important open source institution in Jiangbei, and with the increase of commodity types, it has paid more and more profits.

As a newly established organization, it has been able to achieve the results it has achieved now. In addition to special commodities, Liu Bin, as the general office, naturally has made great contributions, and is always under his hands. The Trade Bureau has developed today. And now, in the public room, he looked at the cyan tea bricks on the table and asked.

"How's it going, how does this tea taste?"

This green tea brick was trial-produced by a little bit of an order, saying that it was to facilitate transportation and open up the tea road. This green brick tea is made from fresh tea leaves from Luzhou, Anqing, Chizhou and Huizhou, and is made by high temperature autoclaving after a long period of unique fermentation. At first, the pressing tool was made of wooden clamps, and then it was pressed by a hydraulic machine and pressed into a brick-shaped tea, each weighing 5 catties. Compared with loose basket tea, it is large in weight and small in size, making it easy to transport. This kind of tea brick will be the main product of Jiangbei tea in the future.

"Back to the general office, this green brick tea tea soup is clear red and bright, strong and fragrant, pure taste, although not as famous tea, but it is also a high-quality tea, if they are sold in Mongolia, it is naturally more appropriate, after all, those Mongolians have nothing to pay attention to? At that time, we can also mix some old leaves in it, so that the profit is estimated to be increased by another 10%. ”

As the head of the Soil and Miscellaneous Section, Zhang Mingju has been responsible for collecting information on local goods, and tea is also a local product, and this newly made tea brick is the latest product launched by the tea factory. Because the bureau values this kind of tea brick very much, he will naturally report it as soon as possible.

"No matter how appropriate, it's our own statement, the key is to see if we can sell it, this is the most critical! As for adulteration, let's wait for the future, and when the market opens, how to play is our business, but now, do the current things well, and sell this tea first. ”

As the general office of the Trade Bureau, Liu Bin directly explained that the key to trade is whether the goods can be sold, and only the goods that can be sold are good goods, and the rest is not important.

Just like the glass mirrors produced in Qinghe now, not only can they be sold in China, but even those foreign merchants have bought them, and the reason why this is so is simple - cheap! Qinghe's glass mirrors are cheaper than Western ones, and even the flat glass mounted on the windows is popular with foreign merchants because of its low price.

However, after all, not all products are flat glass. For other goods, there is always some competition. Of course, ordinary merchants are not capable of competing with the Trade Bureau. Not to mention the other, that is, the scale of the purchase and sale of goods, the Trade Bureau is not comparable to ordinary merchants, it is precisely because of the large-scale purchase and sale of goods, so that the Trade Bureau can purchase materials at a lower price and sell materials at a more favorable price.

"I understand that I have ordered some vendors to do business in Mongolia, and the key is that most of those traders have no experience in doing business in Mongolia, so there is no news for the time being......

As soon as Zhang Mingju's words fell, Liu Bin rewrapped the tea brick and said while wrapping the tea brick.

"You don't have to think about this vendor for the time being, the Trade Department has found a suitable candidate!"

Who is the right person?

Liu Bin didn't know, but he knew very well that as long as there was enough profit, even if there was a sea of swords and fires, there would be businessmen willing to go.

The reason why they opened up the Mongolian trade was not only because the loyal army needed horses from Mongolia, but also because Mongolia was an arm of the Manchus, and as long as they removed this arm, their Manchu strength could be greatly weakened.

"In the eyes of our Han people, this is Mongolia, but I don't know that this Mongolia has become several places, and the alliance with the Manchus for the Mongolian Eight Banners is mainly based on the Chahar Department and the Horqin Department. That is, Monan Mongolia, and in addition to Monan Mongolia, there is also Mobei Mongolia, that is, Mobei Khalkha Department, although this Khalkha Department is ostensibly a subject to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but in fact, they are not convinced......"

Sitting in the private room on the third floor of the Linhuang Building, Sun Laohei at this time no longer had the nervousness when he first came here, he looked at the extremely young Ming official in front of him, and knew that if he couldn't convince the other party, this business would naturally not be negotiable, and he would naturally say what he asked, that is, what to say.

"Therefore, unlike the Mongolian princes of the inner domain, who only do business with the eight imperial merchants, the Khalkha tribes never refuse the Han merchants in the interior, no matter whether there is a dragon ticket or not, as long as the Han merchants can send the goods over, they are naturally willing to exchange horses and sheep for goods, for them, the more Han people go, the cheaper they can be. You can buy a wide variety of goods. Of course, those Han merchants themselves have to bring the goods back, just like the horses brought by the villain this time, they were sold from there......"

Sun Laohei naturally wouldn't say that the horses he brought were not exchanged for them by himself, but that there were traders who specialized in this kind of business to help him change the horses back from outside the customs. But if this business can be negotiated, he naturally doesn't mind going to Mobei to open up trade routes. Exchange for more horses from outside the gates.

"You mean, the Khalkha Ministry has a gap with the Manchus?"

As a southerner, Wang Wenbai naturally does not know much about everything outside the Guan, even if there are occasional officials in Nanjing who know about the Mongolian departments outside the Guanwai, and they have not been in contact with them for more than ten years, they naturally do not know what the situation of the Khalkha Ministry is now.

On the surface, Wang Wenbai is an official of the Trade Bureau, but in fact, he is the military official of the Military Division, and the reason why he serves in the Trade Bureau is to obtain information from the mouths of those traders.

After Sun Laohei mentioned that he had a doorway to enter Monti to change horses, this person attracted his attention, after all, as we all know, the eight imperial merchants monopolized the trade with Monti, if it weren't for the information brought by Sun Laohei, they naturally didn't know that there were also Mongols in Monti who actually didn't really submit to the Manchu Qing.

Compared to the war horse, perhaps this is the most important information. Almost subconsciously, a thought emerged in Wang Wenbai's heart - to get in touch with the Khalkha Ministry and conspire against the Qing Dynasty.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend!

This is a minimum of common sense.

The military officials of the military department have never been ordinary soldiers, most of them have been scholars, although many of them have never had fame, but the experience of reading makes them fundamentally different from ordinary soldiers to look at problems. In Wang Wenbai's view, this Khalkha Ministry can completely become a help for the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, after all, it is located in Mobei and can threaten the hinterland of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Beijing Division at any time.

After getting this information, in the next nearly half an hour, Wang Wenbai was a little absent-minded, but despite this, he basically agreed to Sun Laohei's request, agreed to provide him with some goods, and was even willing to give him the treatment of a trading house - that is, he could pay on credit. However, the reason why he agreed to do this, Wang Wenbai naturally had his own considerations. After leaving Linhe Tower, he returned directly to the Military Division.

"You mean to borrow troops from Khalkha?"

Faced with Wang Wenbai's suggestion, Shi Lei was surprised, put the pencil on the table, looked at him and asked.

"You should know what you're talking about!"

This rhetorical question is actually based on one reason: "If it is not my race, its heart will be different", the Manchu Qing Dynasty is a foreign race, and the Khalkha are also a foreign race, and borrowing troops from other races is itself a taboo.

Moreover, in history, the two Song Dynasty perished because they became allies with more powerful enemies. Their relatively stupid actions led directly to the demise of the country.

With this lesson from the past, how could anyone still agree to form an alliance with those barbarians.

"Hui Zhengcheng did not borrow troops, but provoked a gap between the two sides and lured them to attack the Beijing Division, thus putting the Manchus in the predicament of being attacked by the enemy."

Wang Wenbai looked at Jun Zhengcheng in front of him and explained seriously.

"Now the main forces of the Manchu Qing are in Shandong, Henan and other places, and its Beijing division can be described as extremely empty, if you can send personnel to get in touch with the Khalkha Department and induce it to send troops to the Beijing Division, you will definitely be able to set the Manchu Qing Dynasty but the chaos will be great, and no matter whether the Khalkha Department captures the Beijing Division, as long as it threatens the capital, the Manchu Qing will definitely not be able to go south with all its might, so that the pressure on our side can naturally be reduced."

Wang Wenbai, as a military official, has already conceived a basic strategy in his mind in the past hour, in his opinion, all that is needed now is the consent of Junzhengcheng, as long as he obtains consent, he can go to the Khalkha Ministry to carry out some work. Instigating the people there, like the Manchu Qing Dynasty drawing a knife against each other.

"Then you should also know that whether it is the Manchus or the Mongols, in the final analysis, they are our enemies!"

Looking at Wang Wenbai, Shi Lei revealed a fact.

"The Qing are the enemies of our Han people, and the Mongols are also a threat to the Han people, and in the past few hundred years, the threat posed by the Mongols to the north has never disappeared!"

Rising from Mongolia in Mobei, it destroyed Jin, Western Xia, and Song, and enslaved China for nearly a hundred years, and Emperor Gao relied on the expulsion of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, but in the Ming generation, the Mongolian threat to the Central Plains has never disappeared. Now, in an alliance with the Mongols, if this matter spreads, I don't know what kind of uproar it will cause. It is even very likely to lead to internal turmoil in Jiangbei.

"It is precisely because they are also our enemies that we need to understand them now, because now we have a common enemy with them, for the Mongols, the Han people are not their threat now, the biggest threat to them is the Qing, what we need is to borrow the hands of the Mongols to fight the Qing, of course, what we need is not to make them stronger. It's about inciting them as much as possible. It was they who provoked them, and it was they who attacked the more powerful Manchus. And in the process, the power of those Mongols will also be weakened, and of course, we will have the opportunity to get to know them and prepare for the defeat of them in the future......"

Wang Wenbai's answer made Shi Lei's brows jump slightly, he first pondered for a moment, and then looked at Wang Wenbai and said.

"Looks like you've already figured it out, haven't you? You should be aware of the risks you may face. ”

"Yes, Zhengcheng, I've already thought about it!"

For Wang Wenbai, who has already made up his mind in his heart, he has naturally figured out everything, and as for the risks, of course, he is also in his expectations.

The risk is not just his trip to Mongolia. There are still a lot of internal risks, and if he is a little careless, he may affect himself, and someone will definitely take the old things of the two songs. Attack him, and by that time, no one will be able to save him. Not even a single person will speak for him.

He already knew the risks. However, a sense of responsibility in his heart drove him to do it.

"It's nothing more than death, but if this matter is successful, it will definitely be the two enemies of my China!"