John. Hill sold all the cotton he brought to the Commodity Trading Center in Luocha Port, and harvested about 25,000 yuan in cash. Now the price of cotton has fallen from the highest price of 175 yuan/ton on the east coast, and the purchase price given by the east coast people when he sells it today is only more than 140 yuan, although the profit is still good, but he is still a little disappointed.

However, this price is still too high and unbearable for the old countries such as the Netherlands, France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom that are trying to develop their own cotton textile industry, and they can only tolerate the price of cotton within 100 yuan/ton, and any cotton purchase price higher than this price will lead them to lose money because the cost is too high. And that's exactly what explains John. There is no other reason why Hill, an English plantation owner in Virginia, would sell the cotton harvested on his estate to the East Coast instead of selling it to nearby producers, but because the purchase price offered by the East Coast is high enough!

At the beginning, in order to avoid risks, John. Hill didn't have anything like his old friend George. Mr. Hampton devoted all his possessions to cotton farming, and Mr. Hill's industry was more dispersed, and he retained some of the shipbuilding and fishing industries in the Massachusetts colony, and grew much tobacco on the plantations in Virginia. The mainstream export of tobacco is England, but a considerable part of it is exported to the East Coast, because many consumers here recognize the tobacco produced in Virginia, which is said to be because of the special local soil and climate, which makes the taste of the tobacco here very special, and the tobacco grown elsewhere cannot change this preference of the East Coast people.

However, he encountered some minor problems when he tried to sell the tobacco leaves, because the East Coast officials in the port of Rocha sued him. Now all small quantities of goods have been temporarily moved to Qingdao Port for trading. There are some wooden trestles where you can moor boats and unload their cargo. Hill didn't hesitate when he heard it. He instructed one of his captains to load bricks, lime and other building materials at the port of Luoqia, and then he personally drove another ship along the current to the port of Qingdao to trade.

On August 25th, while the Genoese were still in final negotiations with the East Coasters, John Brown of Virginia. Mr. Hill brought 40,000 pounds of tobacco to the free trade berth in the port of Qingdao, and then traded with the trade officials of the East Coast. 40,000 pounds of Virginia tobacco were sold for about 30,000 yuan, and after paying about 5,000 yuan in customs duties at the customs office, John Virginia. Hill found himself suddenly in cash with about fifty thousand East Coast silver dollars. What to do with this money made him scratch his head a little.

It's definitely not okay to bring cash back. But it's not very suitable to buy goods. Because the current amount of money is really large, no matter what goods are bought, it will be massive, if it is shipped back to Virginia, it will definitely not be digestible, even if it is shipped back to Massachusetts, which has a large population and strong spending power, I am afraid it is still difficult to digest. John. Hill was a little hesitant, and now that the local shape was unknown, he was worried that he would lose money if he couldn't sell the large amount of goods he had brought back.

But in any case, let's buy some daily necessities first, and now Virginia, Massachusetts and other places are quite short of all kinds of materials. Although some local and Dutch smugglers bring some daily necessities from time to time, the quality is inferior and the price is high. And the number is also difficult to fill the gap, making the English who have moved to the area quite helpless. No, Mr. Hill decided to purchase a shipload of lime, red bricks and other building materials on the East Coast back to Virginia to build his new estate and warehouse. There is no way, now the homeland is a pot of porridge, except for a lot of war-weary immigrants who have slipped over, the officials have no time to care about the affairs of the colony.

Leather goods, soybean oil (butter is extremely scarce in North America), farm implements, hardware, high-quality steel, textiles, wine, soap, and other goods are purchased in large quantities, making themselves like grocers. John. After Hill made an account on the trading market, the trader told him that the total price was $29,670. Mr. Hill agrees with the price of the goods, but when he asks the sailors to move out of the cash box to pay, he refuses. The trader pointed to a brick building next door and said, "We only accept checks, drafts or cashier's checks from the Commercial Clearing Bank, not cash." You first need to open a current account with the bank and then trade with our corporate bank transfer. ”

Mr. Hill understands bank transfers, because even in England this type of cashless transaction is quite popular. It's just that he's used to cash transactions in the New World and has gradually forgotten about it, but now the people of the East Coast have also established a clearing bank specifically for port trade, which is a big step forward.

In John. Captain Hill seems to have allowed the Easterners to take a considerable advantage in the trade surplus by centralizing all non-bulk import and export trade into a single port, and then forcing all merchants involved in the transaction to use the commercial clearing banking system set up by the Easterners, for not all merchants would demand a withdrawal of the trade surplus; Second, it also greatly facilitates everyone's trading process.

For example, everyone comes from various countries or regions, and the currencies they hold are different, at this time, you first need to go to the commercial clearing bank to exchange currencies, and then everyone uses a standard currency for transactions (bill transactions), and after the transaction is completed, you can withdraw according to the situation. This kind of commercial clearing bank actually undertakes several functions such as currency exchange and account transfer transactions. Of course, the Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank, which was opened by the East Coast people, also undertakes foreign currency deposits and foreign currency acquisition business (there are certain types and quotas for foreign trade imports), but it does not provide credit support to customers, that is, the current accounts they open are not allowed to be overdrawn.

After figuring out the situation, John. Hill shrugged, then ordered the sailors to move 30,000 East Coast silver dollars in cash to the Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank, opened an account on the spot, and deposited the 30,000 yuan. However, there are two numbers in his account, one of which is "30,000 yuan" (East Coast silver dollar), and the other is marked "27,322.40 yuan".

Captain Hill is no stranger to two numbers in one account, because anyone who has a little involvement in international trade knows that banks generally record two numbers when taking deposits, one is the number of the account in circulation and the other is the number of the account account in the account of the bookkeeping currency, and there may be a certain premium or discount between the two accounts due to changes in the external market. And this so-called "circle" should be the bookkeeping currency launched by Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank, and its value should also be fixed.

To this end, Captain Hill questioned the bank's employees at the counter, and the answer he received confirmed his suspicions. The bank employee explained to him that the "yuan" was a newly introduced unit of account with a fixed value of 2 grams of gold. Because it is denominated in gold, the "yuan" is also called "golden yuan" or "gold yuan".

As for the goods purchased by Captain Hill on the East Coast, since all of them are produced by the factories on the East Coast, he can trade them using "Yuan", and of course, he can also trade them with Gold Round. The total amount of money that Captain Hill needed to pay was 29,670 yuan, and the bank staff wrote more than ten checks for him, each of which corresponded to the payment for a commodity. As for the remaining 330 yuan, Captain Hill asked the bank to issue him a one-year acceptance bill with a face value of 300.55 gold yuan (because it is denominated in gold, according to the relevant policies of the East Coast, gold yuan cannot issue demand bills or checks, but can only issue usance bills).

The bank staff who handled the business for him also reminded Captain Hill that the Ministry of Trade of the East Coast Republic and other units will hold the first Qingdao Autumn Commodity Fair in Qingdao Port in May next year, and every factory in the East Coast will send representatives to set up an exhibition point in the exhibition hall (under construction) to have face-to-face exchanges with the merchants who come to participate in the Expo, and at the same time sign commercial contracts.

Of course, merchants from all over the world who come to trade can also trade with each other, they can first convert the currency they bring into gold yuan, and then settle through various commercial papers issued by Guò Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank. The bank also undertakes the functions of foreign currency deposits and foreign exchange markets, and can provide the most convenient exchange services for every merchant who comes to the expo, provided that you open a special account in Qingdao Commercial Bank. This means that businessmen who do not have an account with the Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank are not eligible to participate in the large-scale autumn commodity fair to be held in May next year. Regarding the pros and cons of this, I believe that every businessman will have his own judgment.

At present, Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank is said to have reached a package of cooperation agreements with Banco de San George/Comptiral, Banco de Palermo, Banco de São Paulo and the soon-to-be-established Banco de la Plata, in which they will recognize each other's acceptances issued by their respective banks. In other words, if a person comes to the port of Qingdao with an acceptance draft of 10,000 lira issued by the Banco de San Giorgio de Genoa and has an account with the Bank of Commercial Clearing, the Bank of Commercial Clearing of Qingdao must recognize that the bill of exchange issued by the Bank of San Giorgio has the legal effect of circulation.

After figuring out these circumstances, John. Captain Hill took the news of the first Qingdao Autumn Commodity Fair to heart. He decided to wait until he returned to Virginia and Massachusetts to inform his friend George of the news. Mr. Hampton, and then you're all coming together next May for this so-called trade fair. Captain Hill had a vague feeling that if he did come, he might get some untold benefits. (To be continued......)