Trade profits are shrinking, especially with large imports of cotton cloth. Li Kui of the Wei State once said, 'Today, one husband will take five people and govern a hundred acres of land,...... Clothing, the rate of people is 300, and the five people use 1,500 all year round. 'A family of five, each of whom spends three hundred dollars a year on clothing.

Yunmeng Qin Jian's "Golden Cloth Law" says: 'The ministers and the government have no (無) wives and the city dan, the winter people are 110 yuan, and the summer is 55 money; The youngest one is seventy-seven dollars in winter and forty-four dollars in summer. 'One hundred and sixty-five dollars for adults in winter and summer, and one hundred and twenty-one dollars for villains in winter and summer. It was cheaper than a family of five, but it was the brown coat worn by the prisoners, seven liters of coarse linen.

In order to accumulate millet, the state of Chu planted corn and wheat without planting or less silk and hemp, and three million people, each person spent an average of 300 yuan, and the annual cost of buying clothes was more than 93,700 gold, plus the crown and shoes, and the annual cost of wearing was no less than 100,000 gold. Subtracting a small amount of kudzu hemp, it still costs 70,000 or 80,000 gold to import cloth every year.

This money must be offset by exports. Silk and armor were originally major export items, but in order to suppress the Qin State, the former's profits have become very low, and the latter's market will eventually be saturated. Cold weapons are not hot weapons, and a pair of armor is not a problem to use for decades.

Among the remaining porcelain, lacquerware, luli, tea, spices, ironware, paper, and cement, the market for porcelain and lacquerware is still being cultivated, and gold and silver ware and glassware are used in West Asia and Southeast Europe; Lu Li is glass, compared with those workshops in Egypt and Syria that have a long history of glass production, Lu Li of Chu State only has crystal mirrors, but crystal mirrors are quickly counterfeited, and profits have plummeted. In fact, glass is not expensive in West Asia, but it is extremely expensive to ship to East Asia.

Tea has never been popularized in East Asia, let alone exported; Spices or frankincense, pepper, and myrrh account for the majority, and the export of cinnamon, pepper, and can't make much money, and in the end can only rely on iron and paper to support the scene.

A two-kilogram axe was sold for two drachmas in Greece, or eighty-four cents, and the cost of making such an axe did not exceed twenty cents. The 400-ton glutton-class can carry 200,000 iron axes, which are sold for 40 yuan each, and the sales of a shipload should be 833 gold. Sales of other iron tools and iron farming tools are not far from this.

Forty sheets of paper per kilogram can be transported by one ship. The Egyptian papyrus sold for two drachmas is about 30 centimeters wide, and a roll is made up of 20 sheets of paper and is about 5.5 meters long. The price of Chu paper is extremely low, the price of nine pieces of Chu paper is only nine coins, only one-tenth of the papyrus, not to mention that Chu paper can be written on both sides, and the papyrus can only be written on one side, and the other side cannot be written.

But that's the price a few years ago. In the past, where Chu paper was sold, two drachmas could not sell a roll of papyrus, but as a trade commodity monopolized by the state, during the opening of Egypt before the monopoly, one drachma could buy four to five rolls of papyrus, and its price was not much different from Chu paper. Faced with the competition of Chu paper, Egyptian papyrus had to continuously reduce the price.

The result of the competition is that the price of Chu paper in Hong Kong is still one penny per sheet, and forty yuan per kilogram. Sixteen million pieces of Chu paper can be sold for 1,660 gold. This is incomparable to ironware, but unfortunately paper is only used by the court, officials, and the wealthy, and the sales volume is very small, and it cannot be compared with the consumption of ironware. The real bulk of trade exports is still ironware, with an annual export volume of about 50,000 gold.

At the beginning, silk and armor were sold, and the annual output exceeded 100,000 gold, but after five years, the excess decreased, and there was even a trend of entering the court. The Great War had begun, and the state of Chu in the war needed a large amount of cloth, grain, and merchant ships, which could only be obtained through overseas trade.

forced Pandia and Zhero to submit and control the pepper trade; then force the myrrh-rich region of East Africa to submit and control the myrrh trade; Finally, the Boswellia producing region, the later Yemeni region, was forced to submit and control the frankincense trade.

As previously planned, the profits from the spice trade were not sent directly back to the country, but were harvested in the Goa region and merchant ships were built in the Mongara or in the area – the second important reason why the later grape people chose to set up a port in Goa: the Goa region was rich in teak and could build merchant ships directly there.

Trade, starting from Sinha, Pandia, and Zhera, passed through the Yemen region of later generations, then passed through Somalia in East Africa, and finally sailed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean coast around the Cape of Good Hope; The gold and silver obtained from the Mediterranean coast were transported back to India to build merchant ships to buy goods, and finally transported to East Asia, which was the trade cycle that Xiong Jing had always wanted to establish.

Red Mo set sail with such a plan, and he and Ou Zhe will be responsible for completing the entire plan. And the main force to complete the plan, in addition to the six gunboats of Chaos, is the 8,000 mercenaries. Ou Zhe was a little puzzled, why didn't the Chu State send troops alone, but the twelve clans of the great merchants paid to hire soldiers?

He also had doubts, and asked Xiong Jing face to face, at this time, seeing Ou Zhe's doubts, Hong Zhen said: "King Yan, such a big thing, is it feasible for me to be a country in Chu?" ”

"What's so hard about that?" Ou Zhe was still puzzled. "My Chu country has the power of artillery, and the strength of the armor ......"

Seeing that Ou Zhe's reaction was the same as when he was alone in Yingdu, Hongzhu smiled bitterly, "Definitely." The king's meaning is that you and I don't understand the art of business. The world's big businessmen are all in Qi, Wei and Zheng, and the three places are especially Zheng people. How to trade spices, they are all involved, and we do not intervene. Only the benefits of trade, I have more, and they have less. ”

Ou Zhe understands a little, and he doesn't understand a little. He actually didn't understand, but it was precisely because he didn't understand that he didn't object again. Hongmu pondered for more than a month, and knew better than him: first, merchants were lowly industries, and the royal court did not want to directly meddle in the spice trade; Second, there are few big businessmen and magnates in the Chu State, who can conquer cities and conquer cities, intercept ships and dominate ports, and the Chu army can do it, but they don't know anything about building and operating a spice trade system. With the world's most powerful maritime force and the world's most astute merchants, this is the guarantee of the success of the plan.

In the Yi Ling Mansion, the red man imagined this, but the merchant who didn't know the complete plan already had other ideas.

"The Bing family has 10,000 gold, and the king is rich, but the Chu State has not changed the law, and it has been restricted, and its strength is weak. If the world is tilted, Bing's fields are all obtained by the Qin people; And the loan of the son's money, the Qin people only do Qin money, Chu money is not good, if the world is tilted, the mother and the son will die......"

The military discussion is only a discussion with the generals, and the businessmen are only observers, and do not intervene in the actual battle. After the military discussion, Zhou Wen, who returned to his residence, admonished Bing Le. Although Bing Le is not the head of the clan, he can sail with everyone and has a lot of influence in the Bing clan.

"What the gentleman said is that he wants me to take a city and make myself the lord of the city?" Bingle laughed. Bing is not the only strategist of Zhou Wen, there are other strategists. India is rich, and as soon as the Peacock King dies, the country will fall apart, saying that the merchants have no intention of seizing the city and occupying the land, which is of course a lie, you must know that the cotton cloth is a huge profit-

The common people of the world like thick cotton cloth, and thick cotton cloth is wear-resistant. The density of this thick cotton cloth is about 0.7 tons per cubic meter and 300 grams per square meter. A gluttonous cargo ship can carry 280 tons of cotton cloth, or 200,000 horses. Even if each horse only earns fifty dollars, a boat will have a thousand gold net profits.

The cost of clothing is second only to food. India already had farms specializing in growing cotton, and the merchants who sold cotton cloth for profit all came up with an idea: why not take advantage of the chaos in their country to seize a piece of land by the Ganges River, and buy some slaves to grow cotton?

This is impossible under heaven. The people of the world don't know how to grow cotton, and they don't know how to weave cotton; In addition, Indian slaves are cheap, which cannot be compared to the world, and cotton is planted in the Central Plains, and the profit will definitely be much less.

Everyone has this in mind, but they are all waiting and seeing, waiting to see where the situation in India goes. If there is really a change, they will definitely follow Ou Zhe's practice and directly declare themselves as the protectors of such and such a city. If there is resistance, then fight a battle, move the local Brahmin nobles or kill them altogether, and then you can rule the city yourself.

The world has been attacking for hundreds of years, this is the standard process of destroying the country, even if it is a businessman, it is also learned. As for rule, it's even simpler, and a strategist like Zhou Wen specializes in this kind of thing. In the past, these people had high vision and looked down on businessmen, but now the world is different, and more and more strategists take the initiative to lobby. They understand the law of rule - a hundred schools of thought contend, isn't it precisely how to rule a country?

Bing Le thought so, but Zhou Wen smiled. His laughter is different from Bing Le, Bing Le is a businessman, laughter is laughter, peaceful and tight, but Zhou Wen's laughter is full of the pride of scholars, Bing Le hurriedly paused: "Please sir teach me!" ”

The Magi have a backbone, and the more capable they are, the more they have a backbone. Zhou Wen saw Bing Le's respectfulness and said, "How dare you speak up, it's just a whimsical idea of a bad person." Bing Le still maintained a pause posture, Zhou Wen said that he hurriedly helped him up, and waited for him to sit down before he continued: "Today's Chu State, with martial arts as respect, selects courtiers, and relies solely on the number of armor soldiers. Since the Bing family is rich with the king, why don't they spend 5,000 gold to enter the dynasty, discuss national politics, and stand together with the surnames of Mi? ”

"Five thousand gold?!" Five thousand gold is not a small amount, it is a large amount, so big that the Bing family can't afford it.

"Yes." Zhou Wen nodded. "If the Bing clan can stand in the right dynasty, it is natural that they can lobby the right dynasty to benefit the Bing clan."

"This ......" Bing Le, who had put aside the five thousand gold, still felt incredible, and he was puzzled: "The Bing family is a lowly businessman, how can he be in the same dynasty with the nobles?!" Sir ridiculous? ”

"No, no, no." Zhou's bra is a success. "With the Chu State Ao system, only the number of Jiashi is recognized, how can the household registration be noble and cheap? Zhu Yue with more than a thousand, hundreds of soldiers can stand in the Zheng Dynasty and the doctor to agree on the government, if the Bing family can have a division, why can't it stand in the Zheng Dynasty and negotiate the government with the doctors? ”

"Huh?!" Bing seemed to think of something, but his brain was dizzy when he was excited, and he only looked dumbfounded.