The day after the ball, Zhou Lang officially entered the headquarters of the East India Company, his position is accounting, but unfortunately, he is not in charge of any core business, not even the trade business between the East India Company and China that he once envisioned, obviously the British do not have it at present, and it is impossible to regard him as a core staff, on the other hand, it also shows that the trade with China has considerable weight, second only to the trade with India in the East.

Zhou Lang's work is very low-end, he is responsible for the East India Company and several surrounding Indian markets to clean up the accounts, this is a thankless business, the business volume is not large, the profit is meager, but it is very cumbersome, the goods involved are some low-value goods such as needles and threads, but there are hundreds of commodity categories, and it is extremely easy to make mistakes.

This is a business that is handed over to newcomers and is used to suppress newcomers, but Zhou Lang did it clearly, he did not complain at all and all the work could be completed on time, for which he took the initiative to work overtime many times, which made his boss very satisfied, of course, only limited to the boss of his department, as for the higher-level boss, it is impossible to pay attention to him as a small staff member at present.

Zhou Lang's department is very small, it is in charge of the local trade in Kolkata, not including the port entrepot trade, so there are only seven people, including the manager, and one of them is a secretary. The manager is a Scottish commoner, and when he mixes up to his level as a commoner, he basically ends up, in a state of desirelessness. The secretary is from Ireland and is said to have worked as a maid, and what she does now is probably the same as before, the most important job is to make tea and coffee for the manager.

In addition, there are two pick-up clerks, a data clerk and a warehouse manager, so it can be said that the sparrow is small and has all kinds of organs.

Except for Zhou Lang, they are all white people from the United Kingdom, different from the upper class, all of them are civilians, and they are all doing tedious but not difficult work, but it is worth mentioning that the salary they receive is extremely rich, Zhou Lang is almost certain that the income generated by this department is definitely not worth the salary they receive, because even Zhou Lang, who has just entered the company, receives a salary of two hundred pounds a year, which is higher than the serious salary of a county order in the Manchu Qing Dynasty at this time.

However, this is nothing to the East India Company, because an ordinary clerk at the headquarters in London also earns about three hundred pounds a year, and there is a considerable allowance when he comes to work in India, while the annual salary of an ordinary British worker at this time is difficult to reach fifty pounds.

In fact, at this time, the East India Company, engaged in ocean trade, is similar to the nature of the Silicon Valley high-tech companies in the future, they are all in the pioneer field, high wages correspond to high revenue and low level of employees, and there are only more than 100 employees in the London headquarters of the East India Company, with an annual revenue of nearly five million pounds, so the income created by a single employee is huge.

Although the number of employees in India is larger, most of them are not regular employees, the vast majority are military personnel, only a small number are European mercenaries, and the income level is higher than that of regular employees, and most of them are Indian local mercenaries with low salaries, commonly known as Indian native soldiers.

Probably for the sake of the priest's face, or because the nature of the work he is engaged in is more technical, or because things are scarce and expensive, Mr. Lu Xun felt that he was treated favorably when he studied in Japan, and as a Chinese in India in this era, Zhou Lang probably also received this preferential treatment, and as a result, Zhou Lang's salary standard was the same as that of a white man, and after working for one year, he would receive an annual salary of four hundred pounds.

However, Zhou Lang couldn't wait that long, he didn't come to the East India Company to make a fortune, not to mention that receiving a decent salary could not be called a fortune, he wanted to join the East India Company in the hope of using this powerful organization as a springboard to realize his plan through here.

His plans are big, he is ambitious, he wants to change the world, he wants to change history, but he has to settle down now.

On the first day of work, he advanced a month's salary, and he had to find a place to live, and it was impossible for him to live in the church all the time.

Living in Kolkata with the salary of the East India Company is as comfortable as living in China with an American salary in the future, Zhou Lang can live a good life here, but for him who does not have any savings at present, it is not too luxurious, at least living in the core rich area of Kolkata can only be imagined.

Calcutta is a large city, built by the British very well, along the Hooghly River, with stone streets lined with European buildings, and because it is the capital of the British Indian territory, there are quite a lot of administrators and public officials here, in fact, if you remove tens of thousands of soldiers, the population here is less than 50,000.

The predecessor of Calcutta was three Indian villages, which were purchased by the British from the Indian government, and the shadow of the three villages can still be seen at this time, and now there are three Indian settlements, Kolkata has no walls, and the fortifications are one of the castles, such as Fort William, which was built in 1700, and the other is a ditch around the perimeter, called the Maratha Ditch, which is for the defense of the Marata people, and now this ditch is the border of Calcutta.

In any case, Kolkata, built by the British, is far superior to the Portuguese-run Macau, both in size and appearance. Macau had been in the hands of the Portuguese for more than 200 years, and Calcutta was effectively controlled by the British, at best, for only half a century, and until thirty years ago, the British were still weak here, and the French and Dutch trading posts on the other side of the Hooghly River often posed a threat to Calcutta, and the Mughal dynasty in India was more powerful, and in 1756, even because the British built fortifications in Calcutta, the Indians could directly occupy Calcutta and throw all the British into prison. But in 1757 the British recaptured it, won the war against the Indians, and then occupied all of Bengal, and the British were able to fully control Calcutta.

Therefore, the time when the British built Calcutta is actually the last thirty or forty years, especially after Calcutta was designated as the capital of British India in 1772, the British began to build it vigorously. It took the British twenty years to develop Kolkata into a large city with a population of more than 100,000, far more than Macau at this time.

On the one hand, this is a reflection of the strength of the two empires of Britain and Portugal, the old and the new, and on the other hand, it is also a matter of their own importance, Macau is just an ordinary stronghold of the Portuguese's global trade, although because of the lucrative trade with China, it may be a little more special, but the Portuguese have never been able to fully control Macau. The British, on the other hand, are really building Kolkata with the mentality of building a capital.

However, this construction was confined to the British settlement, and the East India Company had no interest in improving the environment of the Indian settlement, which objectively led to the formation of two distinct places in Calcutta, the British and the Indian. The East India Company raised the floor of the English area to avoid regular flooding, built a drainage system, and brought in a whole British public system around the church, including a post office, a police station, a government agency, and so on.

The British area was home to spectacular public buildings, while the Indian area was left to the Indian slums. As a result, the English quarter of Kolkata is known as the City of Palaces, while the Indian quarter is called the Black Town.

The core area of the British Quarter, such as the river-view house near the river, or the area near the Governor's Palace and the church, mansions abound, Zhou Lang is not able to live in it at present, but he at least has to live in the white quarter, at least he can enjoy clean water supply here, not that he is indulging in pleasure, in fact, for him, even the living conditions in the white quarter are not attractive, and the later generations can never be compared, the advantage of living in the white quarter is that he can be closer to the white upper class, closer to the power center of the East India Company, And this is indispensable for him to realize his plan.

It's not so easy to find a house, although there are agents who specialize in real estate business, but there are not many suitable ones, and most of them are for sale, and Zhou Lang can't afford it, he just wants to rent, unless he is willing to go to the slum to buy a shack.

After several twists and turns, a week later, he found a house that he was slightly satisfied with. A two-story western-style building on the edge of the White Quarter, owned by an East India Company captain, was originally owned by a Dutch merchant who went bankrupt in debt and gave the house to the captain.

However, because it was too close to the slums to be sold, the captain himself only made a short stay in Kolkata every year, and if he could not sell, he could accept the rent. There is still a problem, that is, Zhou Lang cannot prepay the rent for the whole year at one time, and the captain cannot collect the rent on a monthly basis. In the end, after three tedious negotiations, the matter was settled after Zhou Lang promised the captain that the next time he came to Kolkata, he would pay all the rent in one lump sum, and at the same time, the captain entrusted a local broker to collect rent from Zhou Lang on a monthly basis.

The captain had lived in the house before, so he could move in directly, and Zhou Lang couldn't wait to move in, he was worried that staying in the church for a long time would soon make the priest lose his patience, and once he lost this religious bond, it would be very detrimental to his foothold in Calcutta. It was not impossible for him to convert, but he was always afraid that if he became involved in religion, he would be in trouble, and he would not let go unless he could see the benefits that went far beyond this trouble. But he would go back to church, every week, because on Sundays the East India Company would go to the top of the company.

The captain's mansion was a two-storey fourteen house, with a small courtyard with a balcony facing the Hooghly River, and to the north of the house was a ditch, and on one side of the ditch was a cluttered slum, which was said to have been an Indian village in the past, separated by a ditch, but two worlds.

With such a big house, one person can't live in it, and just tidying it up is enough to give him a headache, so Zhou Lang also hired a person, an Indian, who was Vimula who saved his life. He promised to give Vimura three pounds a month, and Vimura was satisfied with the "high-paying" job, but even more with the nature of the work, and the servant was much higher than the corpse collector.

Hiring a servant is very necessary, not just a status symbol, but a practical need, because Zhou Lang is really busy. The tedious work of the day did not require much energy to be wasted, he had obtained a certificate in advanced accounting, and the reverse current from the Ganges to this world brought him some unusual changes, one of the first things he found was that he was sure that he had become younger, and it was easy to tell this from his appearance, his skin became like that of a young man of twenty years, at first he thought it was because he had been soaking in the river for a long time, and then he was convinced that he was really younger, and he was very energetic.

What really makes Zhou Langpo work hard is the private work he does overtime at night, he has always had a plan, but it is just a concept, to turn the concept into a real plan, he needs to make a detailed plan, and he must write it, because the plan is not only used for implementation, but also for people to see, for investors to see.

Zhou Lang needs investors, because he can't be ashamed to change the world with one shoulder and one head, that is what the second middle school teenager did, and now Zhou Lang is himself at best, plus an Indian servant, this is obviously not the composition of people who change the world, so he needs to pull investment and form a reasonable organization.

An organization similar to that of the East India Company, a powerful institution based on commerce with military, judicial, and executive power.

The idea of building your own East India Company is too whimsical, but it is also very storytelling, and as long as your plan is done well, I believe it can move some people. You must know that in this era, Britain is in the best stage of its rise, and the British people at this stage are full of dreams and imagination, as long as they are given a good story, they can boldly press their all.

The problem is that the British already have an East India Company of their own, why would they invest in another organization, so Zhou Lang must find his own unique advantages, the East India Company does not have and cannot have advantages, and he also needs a great opportunity.

Zhou Lang is not purely boring to make up a plan, business to his level, can even be said to a certain extent has jumped out of the business itself, more business resources, the most important resource is actually network resources, which is why Chinese business giants are keen to drill circles, Westerners are the same, but they call it social, Westerners attach importance to socialization, even more than the enthusiasm of Chinese to drill circles.

Therefore, another activity of Zhou Lang is to communicate with colleagues outside of work.

In the first month, he was confined to his own department, and he didn't rush to do anything, occasionally going to the beer hall for drinks and the like. Slowly people began to invite him, his Chinese identity is a good topic at the wine table, plus he can speak well, and is good at observing words and looking at his favor, and soon Zhou Lang has become a well-like, gentle and interesting person among colleagues.

Zhou Lang's ability is not innate, but the ability that he slowly exercised during his study abroad. This ability, which had previously helped him build a complex network of contacts, was now also beginning to take effect, and his connections began to slowly accumulate at the bottom of the East India Company. First with his colleagues, then with his colleagues' friends, and British staff from other departments, the network was very complicated, and he even knew a few mercenary officers.

In addition to social activities with the East India Company at the same time, when there are no activities, Zhou Lang also goes to the tavern every day to drink, not to relieve boredom, not to kill time, he is not boring, his time is also precious, he came here to communicate with those sailors who have never known each other, especially those who have been to China, the most important thing is those sailors who have just returned from China, every time he learns that a ship has returned from China, Zhou Lang will even decline the invitation of his colleagues.

He needed to know from these sailors about the recent situation in China, which would provide the most realistic material for his proposal, so that his proposal would not seem so vain.

After more than two months of polishing, Zhou Lang's plan has been quite detailed, and the organizational structure is based on the East India Company, with the East India Company's Guiyu in front, which is easier for British investors to accept, but his plan still lacks the most core advantages.

He positioned the company as an auxiliary to the East India Company, and was committed to providing the East India Company with sufficient Chinese goods, mainly for trade from China to India. The short-term vision was to establish close trading relations with Chinese merchants, but this was achieved by the East India Company and even some British merchants, that is, the trading houses of Hong Kong merchants, and there was no absolute competitiveness; The medium-term vision is to obtain a fixed trading base in China, similar to Macau of the Portuguese, and the East India Company has always wanted to obtain such a trading base, but the East India Company can't do much, why does Zhou Lang do it? The long-term vision was for the Chinese government to give a trade concession to the Chinese government, to make a "Chinese East India Company" similar to the British East India Company, and to obtain a trade concession to India from the Chinese emperor. This is quite different from the East India Company's operation, and it is still a space when it is used as an advantage.

Therefore, Zhou Lang never put out his plan until three months later, he met a person, explained his plan for the first time, and invited this person to join.

This is a merchant sailor from Europe he met in the tavern, but this sailor's identity is extremely special, he is like Zhou Lang, he is actually a Chinese.

This Chinese sailor's name is Xie Qinggao!