In late October 1649, before he could deal with the affairs of the Merchant Post of Florence, he sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to the port of Bordeaux in France on an old Dutch ship purchased by the Merchant of Smyrna. Kang Ding, who served as the head of the commercial station, quickly welcomed Mo San in, and then the two sides began a secret discussion behind closed doors.

France's brazen tariff hike this time has a very far-reaching impact. Perhaps their main target was the Dutch, and the east coast just happened to be swept away by the typhoon. But who made the east coast weak in its own body, and the typhoon on the periphery is not so comfortable, and a bad one will hurt the muscles and bones.

Moreover, the French took a bad head this time, and many countries in Central and Western Europe followed suit. For a time, trade barriers between countries increased dramatically, free trade became an empty word (although it never really became a reality), countries strictly guarded against the outflow of silver, and scholars and merchants who usually advocated mercantilism became the guests of honor of officials and dignitaries in various places.

This trend is undoubtedly extremely unfavorable for a country like the East Coast, which relies on foreign trade as its lifeline. You know, what kind of immigration, construction, and army raising on the East Coast don't cost a huge amount of money? If foreign trade is unfavorable and the profits paid by state-owned enterprises are greatly reduced, that enterprise tax and local tax revenue alone can be used for nothing! At that time, the country's financial capacity will decline, the ability to do big things will decline, and the economic situation will deteriorate, not only will many construction projects be cut, but even immigration affairs may be affected, so how can Mo San not be anxious?

The only way to do this is to open up new markets and minimize the negative impact of the French. But this is not easy to say, last year (1648) for a whole year. In total, the Eastern Coast Republic received a huge trade income of more than 2.5 million yuan in Europe. Among them, the Ottoman market is the most profitable. almost 900,000, accounting for 36%; the second in the French market, accounting for about 32%; Thanks to the assistance of the Genoese, the Greater Spanish market (including Spain, Naples, Sicily, South Netherlands, Palma, etc.) sprung up, providing more than 400,000 yuan in profits for the East Coast Republic of China, accounting for 16%.

In addition to these three markets, the trading posts in Florence, Riga, and Danzig were not well managed and never provided sufficient profits. And among these three trading stations. The Danzig trading station, which had the largest investment in the early stage and had the most promising future prospects, was forced to close due to the sudden deterioration of diplomatic relations between the east coast and Poland. As for the Riga commercial station, the operation has not improved for many years, and it provides a profit of more than 100,000 yuan every year, and it has always grown weakly; The profit of the Florentine merchant station has been declining year after year, and last year it was only more than 24,000 yuan. Combined, the profits of these three trading posts account for only about 5% of the European trade map on the east coast, which is really a lot of money.

As for the remaining 11% of foreign trade revenue, it was mainly provided by the Dutch West India Company and the Hanseatic Business Alliance, which, as agents of goods on the East Coast, provided less than 300,000 yuan in profits for the East Coast. It can be seen how ineffective they are in developing the market, and their minds can be said to have not been put on this at all. Otherwise, on their terms, how could it be?

Of course, the trade income of the Eastern Republic is not all on this. The income of the autumn commodity trade fair held in Qingdao port is now becoming more and more stable, and the annual profit of five or six hundred thousand yuan cannot be run. Coupled with some individual trade on the east coast before and after the fair, Qingdao Port has no problem providing more than 800,000 yuan of profits for the Ministry of Finance throughout the year, which is equivalent to another French market.

From these figures, it is clear that the importance of the trade revenues of the French market in the finances of the East Coast cannot be overstated. Once this market collapses, more than 800,000 yuan of financial revenue will be lost every year, and many projects on the east coast will be greatly affected: such as the investment in the Northwest Special Steel Base, such as the construction of the Northwest Railway, such as the second phase of the technical transformation project of the Northern Iron and Steel Plant, such as the financial subsidies to the Southern Railway Company, such as the construction of new settlements, such as the continuous introduction of Ottoman female slaves, and so on.

The importance of these projects to the Republic of the East Bank is self-evident, and it is not wrong to say that they are related to the foundations of the East Bank. It was already the second half of 1649, a full year had passed since the Thirty Years' War, and the order of production in Europe had gradually been restored, leaving less and less time for the East Coast, and the pressure of competition would be greater and greater in the future. At this time, if you don't grab the time to bury your head in the construction, and when you are bullied by others, you will regret it too late. Therefore, anything that might slow down the development of the East Coast is now intolerable in the eyes of the Executive Committee. And the French tariff incident is just such a heavy event that is enough to shake the foundation of the East Coast!

We have to find a way to make up for this shortfall!

Mo San and a group of people from the Bordeaux trading station studied behind closed doors for several days, and finally came to the conclusion that they still had to go to Paris for a walk. Whether it works or not, a dead horse has to go around and tell the French to remind them, protest, or even an ultimatum, in short, to get the news of us and let them know about our anger. Only then can we carry out the next steps. As for the candidates to negotiate in Paris, Mo San sadly found that it seemed that he was the only one, and the others were not suitable or qualified. Before that, however, there are a few other things that need to be clarified on the East Coast.

"We must open up new markets, and we must also tap the potential of existing old markets and try our best to make up for the deficit in the French market." Mo San's words set the tone for the next activities of the East Coast's diplomatic and business personnel in Europe.

"The Greater Spanish market has come from behind, and thanks to the Genoese channels, we have a very fast distribution of goods, which are now present in Cadiz, Madrid, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Cartagena, Messina, Palermo, Parma, Naples, Antwerp and other cities. And the sales are also looking good, because our products have a fairly outstanding advantage in terms of value for money and scarcity. Mo San continued, "In the next step, we must do a greater job to arouse the enthusiasm of the Genoese people, so that they can increase the publicity and promotion of East Coast goods, and put our products on the shelves more often." For this. Even if they are given a certain amount of profit, it is not unacceptable. ”

The Dutch West India Company did the same. Most of their energy is currently focused on fighting the Brazilians. It's not good. We need to liaise with the local community. If necessary, we even tried to find a way to get the Dutch to turn their attention to Europe, to help us sell our goods. The Dutch are a business-savvy people, their talent for business is unquestionable, and there is no doubt that their potential is completely untapped at the moment. It's really boring to compete with Brazilians for sugar and tobacco plantations all day long. We'll have to find a way to let them know that being a good agent of our East Coast commodities might be more promising than competing for a few more sugar cane plantations or sugar mills. Mo Sankou said with a smile on his face. The whole body is as full of energy as clockwork, "If the Osman wants to continue to consolidate, he must invest money where he should spend money, and he can only make big money if he is willing to make a small amount of money." Uh, well, don't worry about the Ottoman market, I'll take care of it myself. ”

"Where did you just go? Yes, tap into the potential of the inherent market. Mo San picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, and then looked at the people who were shortwriting in their notebooks left and right. He raised his voice and said, "In addition to this, it is urgent to open up new markets. ”

When Mo San talked about this. His secretary duly opened a hand-drawn map of Europe. Mo San poked his finger at it and said, "Where is the market with great prospects in the future?" Here, right, Moscow and Poland! These two countries are vast and populous, with Poland having 11 million people (about 7 million after the loss of Ukraine and Northern Livonia) and Moscow having 16 million (more than Astrakhan). Although the majority of the population of these two countries are serfs, in some major cities, there are still quite a lot of people with purchasing power, after all, their population base is placed here, even if only 1% or 2% of the population is willing to buy our goods, it is a huge market for us. Even better, neither of these countries has yet been overly involved by commercial powers such as the Netherlands, and in terms of markets, they are completely virgin territories that deserve our heavy investment, and if done well, they can make up for the huge hole in the French market. ”

"Mr. Special Envoy, we have offended the Polish government, and the Danzig merchant post has even been ordered to close, how can we get our goods into the Polish market?" Contin, the stationmaster of the Bordeaux trading station, raised his hand at this time and asked suspiciously.

"Find an agent!" Mo San said succinctly, "Whether it's the Hanseatic League or the Dutch merchants, whoever has the ability to do it will find whomever they want!" Of course, our trading station in Riga can also give full play to the subjective initiative and enter the Polish market through Prussia, Courland and other places. Ladies and gentlemen, the Polish crown territory has a population of three million, more than 20% of whom are so-called nobles. Well, we don't care if these people are qualified to be called nobles or not, but at least they have the financial strength to buy our goods. Catch these people, and our market will not be small. ”

"As for Moscow, the Arkhangelsk trading post will open this year. By next year at the latest, the distribution will start and the search for suitable agents will be carried out in Russia. There are only a handful of Dutch and English merchants operating in this country, and they are very weak, and they are almost at the same starting line as us, so we have to muster up the courage to compete with them. When is it, don't be afraid to stiffen the relationship, how to do it. Of course, I will tell Schneider, the stationmaster, that you just need to understand the spirit. Mo San took a sip of tea and said.

After finishing speaking, he looked at the crowd, and after seeing that they had almost digested what they had said earlier, he finally threw out a bombshell: "Contin, you are also the patriarch of my Eastern Republic in Europe, tell me, if we engage in smuggling in the French market, is it a big problem?" ”

Kangding was originally looking down to record something, but when he heard Mo San ask himself, he only thought for a while, and then said: "There are not many ships in the French Navy, and the danger of smuggling ships at sea is not great, the problem is the trouble after the goods land. The generations of Richelieu and Mazarin had worked hard to remove trade, economic and cultural barriers between a considerable number of French provinces, and the central authorities were so powerful and uniform in their decrees that it was difficult for smuggled goods to circulate in these areas. However, in some provinces and regions in the east, south and northwest, the authority of the central government is still very weak, and the power of the local aristocracy is still very strong. We may be able to take advantage of this and find some bold and powerful French businessmen, and it is okay to give them some profits, after all, we don't have to make some places and share profits with large wholesalers, and the profit margin is still very large. These merchants can find a way to disembark our goods in remote ports and then distribute them to sale through their own channels, believing that if they are lucky, they will still be very profitable, and this will undoubtedly stimulate more French speculators to act as our agents. ”

"You can do that!" Mo San nodded in affirmation, "Stationmaster Kang, you will find the personnel, and then report the detailed plan to me." (To be continued......)