"By the way, why don't we set up a soybean wholesalers' guild?" One day, when he was having a banquet in Matthias, Mo San suddenly opened his mind and mentioned yì to him.

"It's hard to predict the market outlook for this thing." Matthias shook the Italian red wine in the glass, shook his head and said: "The Genoese have sold these things in Amsterdam, and the sales situation is not very ideal, so it can only be said that they do not lose money, and it is difficult to make a big profit at present." ”

"The Genoese can sell soybeans in Amsterdam, but how do they sell them? Grain? Mo San was also not very clear about how the Genoese operated the wholesale sales of these goods, so he asked.

"It was supposed to be sold as a coarse grain along with corn in central Italy, and they were so deeply rooted in the region that many bankers and wholesalers in Amsterdam could find Italian ancestry if they went back two or three generations. Coupled with the fact that these grains were all new, and there were no monopoly guilds, the Genoese were of course able to sell them freely. Matthias thought for a moment and said.

"Wouldn't it be a wonderful idea that we could unite with the Genoese to form a soybean wholesalers' guild and sell soybeans from the East Coast?" Mo San suddenly became excited and asked.

"The theory is that it can be so." Matthias said disapprehantly, "And both Genoese and our trading houses can join, but you can't. ”

Which one is stronger to read novels on mobile phones? "Why?" Is it because we are foreigners? Mo San asked.

"To be precise, you're not citizens of Amsterdam." Matthias said: "Let's put it this way, you first have to live in Amsterdam for a long time and then apply for citizenship. Then pay a hefty fee. Finally, you can become a citizen of Amsterdam. But it's a pity. You are not from Germany or Flanders, but an Oriental, and you are not a citizen of the Reformed Lord, so with all due respect, you have little chance of becoming a citizen of Amsterdam. Becoming a citizen of the city is a prerequisite for serving as a councilor, a government official, and joining various guilds, so you can see what I mean. ”

Mo San nodded knowingly. He lived in Amsterdam for a short time. He was not a Protestant, and he was a glamorous yellow race, so he could not have been admitted to the city of Amsterdam - in many Dutch cities, Jews were repeatedly denied citizenship. However, they have money, have lived in Europe for a long time, and have a lot of influence, so although many people are not religious, it is still possible to take a little path to become honorary citizens. But the East Coasters seem to have a harder time going down this path, and the biggest difficulty seems to be because they are not white.

"Bullshit citizen qualifications, pretending to be like this. It's like a fool! Mo San commented on Matthias's words with a sour mind, and finally gave up the idea of leading the establishment of a soybean wholesalers' guild.

"Don't think about the soybean wholesalers' guild anymore. Come with me to Gothenburg and see what Tripp has to do in Sweden, and we may have more possibilities for cooperation. Matthias suddenly extended an invitation to Mo San.

"To the Kingdom of Sweden?" Mo San asked with some surprise. In fact, he himself recently wanted to go to Riga or Arkhangel to see how the work was progressing there, although Zheng Yong has been writing detailed work to him regularly, but he always goes to see it, otherwise how do you know that the people below are not fooling you? This time, Matthias suddenly issued an invitation to go to Sweden, and Mo San suddenly felt like dozing off and meeting a pillow, which was too coincidental.

"Trypp's reputation is almost universally known in Sweden." Mathias. "A considerable part of Sweden's iron and copper mines are mortgaged to us, and we have set up numerous ironworks, iron foundries, copper smelters, and even a weapons factory. So, take a look with me, maybe you can find some possibilities for cooperation. ”

Mo San had also heard that this Tripp Comptoir had originally made its fortune in the arms trade and iron and copper products, and had opened a number of trading firms or factories in Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as commercial outlets abroad—for example, they had imported a large amount of gunpowder from Germany and a large number of iron cannons from Britain (of course, they were now trying to make their own cannons), and the power of this firm in the weapons world was so great that it once delivered a small fleet to a certain state in the Italian region, which is jaw-dropping.

Matthias invited Mo San to Sweden this time, probably because he wanted to cooperate with the East Coast in terms of technology and equipment. After all, the amount of machinery used in the mining, smelting and casting of iron ore and copper ore is still quite large, and most of these machines were previously purchased from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and the quality and performance were often unsatisfactory. I heard that the metallurgy, casting, and forging technology on the east coast is quite advanced, and the processed parts are relatively high in terms of durability, versatility and precision, although the price is slightly too expensive, but it is still more cost-effective for long-term use.

In the afternoon of the same day, Mo San took a few retinues on board the ships of the Deherre family, and then set sail from Horen and headed east through the Sunder Strait into the Baltic Sea, finally stopping at Gothenburg.

After disembarking from Gothenburg, they changed to horse-drawn carriages and, accompanied by employees of the Tripp firm, visited the firm's iron and copper mines and factories in the Kingdom of Sweden over the course of a month. Judging from the experience of visiting, Mo San felt that the technology of these mines and processing plants of Tripp Commercial Company was not out of this era, and they still used the general technology of the old continent, at most they were a little ahead of Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and other countries in terms of the popularization range and novelty of their design.

Moreover, the quality of their machine parts is really poor, the accuracy is not high, and some parts even need to be polished and reprocessed by themselves after they are bought, which is incredible. Even, due to the relationship between processing accuracy, many machines must be made by hand on site, unlike the factories on the east coast that process parts separately and then assemble and debug, which greatly increases the cost of equipment - no wonder the pace of popularization of machine products is so slow, it turns out that it is all cost!

However, Mo San also saw some positive factors in the Dutch's machine, such as the introduction of the concept of standardized processing of parts and components that were "learned" from the East Coast (or stolen) into the machinery industry - in fact, even if the Dutch did not introduce this concept from the East Coast, they would have historically explicitly put forward this concept in the shipbuilding industry in the 50s of the 17th century, which led many wood processing factories to start processing standard ship boards, which greatly reduced the inventory of various shipyards and reduced their financial pressure.

"In the past, at least half of our machines or parts were sourced from the UK and France, but now it's clear that this is no longer possible." Matthias did not hide the problems faced by Tripp Comptoir, but told the truth: "So we are going to import some high-quality parts from your country. ”

"Our country is very willing to export all kinds of commodities to the Tripp comptoir." Mo San said happily: "But I really think about entrusting the East Coast to produce iron ore, copper ore and the equipment needed for each factory, because it will cost less, the quality is better, the life will be longer, and more importantly, at least more than half of the parts can be interchanged, which will greatly improve your production efficiency, and this often means money." ”

Then, with his incorruptible tongue, Mo San constantly instilled in Matthias the benefits of the East Coast - and indeed - that the Dutch would save a lot of money on it. In the end, Matthias also recognized it, so the old man, who was responsible for supervising the Swedish business of Tripp Comprising for many years, decided to set more than ten sets of mining equipment (crushing hammers, ramming hammers and their auxiliary transmission equipment, driven by water or animal power), factory processing equipment, etc., with a total amount of more than 20,000 yuan. Moreover, Matthias promised that if the equipment that had been processed and produced by the people of the East Coast at the request of the Tripp Company was in good condition, the firm would order some additional equipment from the East Coast and recommend it to other merchant families or friends.

"If it feels good, these devices in use will be scrapped in the future, and they will all be eliminated and your equipment will be used instead." Matthias said, "I think it's a good deal, it's good for both you and me. ”

"There's no doubt that Tripp Comptoir will make a lot of money for it." Mo San also touted vigorously.

After both sides had no objections, the two simply signed another trade agreement, which was valid for five years. During the validity period of the agreement, the East Coasters produced and processed the specified number of mining machines and processing machines in accordance with the requirements of the Tripp Company, and transported them to Gothenburg by Dutch ships. At the same time, the agreement also included a number of East Coast purchase contracts, whereby Tripp would sell some of its minerals in Sweden and Poland to East Coasters (mainly lead, followed by copper and sulphur) to balance the trade deficit between the two sides - but this was not a bad thing for the East Coast, so the agreement was reached.

After negotiating this last deal, Mo San arrived at the port of Riga on a Dutch ship, ready to inspect the work here. As for the Arkhangel Commercial Station, he didn't plan to go there yet, because it was already early autumn, and he might not be able to come back this year if he went there, and Mo San was busy with official business, so it was impossible to stay in one place for a long time, so he dispelled this idea.

After inspecting the Riga Trading Station, Mo San will return to Amsterdam on a second-hand ship in the trading station, and after a short stop, he will enter the Mediterranean Sea and return to the Ottoman Empire. (To be continued......) R1292