Feng Yunshan secretly calculated, the number Pan Wentao said seemed terrifying, but it actually did not exceed his expectations, so he was not too surprised. If you vigorously develop trade for five or six years, and in the end you don't even make this profit, then you will inevitably lose the face of a big country. After all, although the Manchu Qing Dynasty is not in a thousand ways, the foundation left behind will be quite thick. It's not that the Manchu court has a lot of money, but the Manchu and Mongolian nobles, as well as the Manchu gentry from all over the country, are too rich. After calling himself the emperor, although there are still many local squires who have contributed a lot of wealth in order to avoid disasters and cater to the imperial court, they have not directly copied their homes and land. Although the treasury is rich, it can't sit back and eat empty, Feng Yunshan thinks of a way to develop trade and earn wealth.

In history, after the Manchu Qing Dynasty defeated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the annual foreign trade volume reached 60 or 70 million taels of silver, and occasionally it could make a profit of 2 or 3 million taels a year. At that time, there were no big companies to integrate, and the coastal defense was poor, and smuggling was rampant. Now he has made great efforts to make the country prosperous, invested heavily in the establishment of three major trading companies, monopolized most of the main goods of foreign trade, such as tea, raw silk, porcelain, agricultural products and textiles, controlled the selling price, and maximized profits. It would be strange if it wasn't profitable. You must know that in this era, trade is 50% profit at every turn.

But Feng Yunshan knew from the bottom of his heart that this was just the beginning, and it was still far from the old Western powers. Although the trade volume of these three companies is not the whole of the entire Chinese Empire, it accounts for at least half of it. But Feng Yunshan remembered that when he was bored and looked at historical materials, the British East India Company owned a huge amount of 15 million pounds in movable property fifty years ago, equivalent to 66 million holy dollars. Although the East India Company is now in decline, the tax collected from India every year is quite large, and the wealth accumulated for hundreds of years must have been transferred to Britain itself, and as the world's largest power, the trade in industrial goods alone has made Britain a windfall, not to mention others.

Not to mention Britain, France, which ranked second, can be inferred from the original records of the Franco-Prussian War reparations. More than 10 years later, France lost the Franco-Prussian War and needed to compensate Germany 5 billion francs, which is equivalent to 720 million taels of silver and 1.03 billion holy dollars. But France, which was later called the "usury empire", only took more than 2 years to lose money, compared with the Xinchou Treaty 30 years later, the Manchu Qing Dynasty compensated more than 400 million taels of silver to the Eight-Nation Alliance, and it took 39 years to pay it off, this French wealth is really amazing. Moreover, in order to pay off the reparations as soon as possible, the government issued three national bonds to the private citizens and was ready to raise 5 billion francs, but as a result, millions of French people rushed to subscribe for the reparations, and the total amount subscribed reached 45 billion francs, which was enough to pay off the nine reparations. It can be seen from this that the private capital of this "usury empire" is so abundant!

"Pan Aiqing, in addition to these three major foreign trade companies, what is the business of the rest of the foreign trade companies? By the way, there is also domestic trade, and I am more interested in domestic commercial circulation. Feng Yunshan asked.

Pan Wentao had already been prepared, and when he saw the emperor asking, he opened his mouth and came: "Your Majesty, in addition to Sanyo Company, there are also dozens of large local chambers of commerce and hundreds of trading companies set up by tens of thousands of merchants, and these companies operate both inside and outside. Among them, the foreign business is mainly goods outside the business scope of Sanyang Company, which has developed very well in recent years, and has increased year by year, and the total trade volume last year also reached nearly 40 million Shengyuan. In terms of internal trade, because the three major companies are not directly involved, they all wholesale imported goods directly to the supply and marketing cooperatives under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce, and then transfer them to various supply and marketing cooperatives in various places. In addition, there are many private businessmen, the large ones are the commercial houses and trading houses set up by the local chambers of commerce and consortia, and the small ones are the consignment stores and even small traders who pull business from the supply and marketing cooperatives. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Finance and Taxation last year, the total circulation of goods in the country last year was 2,156.8 billion s.h.e.g., equivalent to nearly 5 s.h.e. dollars per capita. Of course, the 2,156,800,000 s.a. dollars only reflect the part of the commercial tax that has been collected, and there are nearly three or four percent of the other businesses that have not yet collected the commercial tax in order to encourage circulation, and there are also some that have not collected the tax money because of the manpower problems of the local tax collectors, and it is estimated that the total circulation of goods in the country is nearly 4 billion s.r.l. ”

Feng Yunshan asked the ministers: "It seems that the role of supply and marketing cooperatives and consignment stores is still quite large, what about the Ministry of Agriculture, Wu Aiqing, you can talk about it!" ”

Wu Tang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, hurriedly replied: "Your Majesty Shengming! At that time, the Ministry of Commerce set up a supply and marketing organization in accordance with His Majesty's decree. From the supply and marketing branches of the provinces, to the supply and marketing branches of the provinces, to the supply and marketing cooperatives of the counties, and finally to the consignment stores of the towns and even villages, after the establishment of this set of supply and marketing system, not only can all kinds of goods allocated by the imperial court be transferred to the counties and townships in a timely manner, making great contributions to the country's commerce, but also providing great help to our country's agriculture, especially the countryside. In the past, because the amount of holy fertilizer and good seeds is very small, it was directly handed over to the government offices, county offices and town offices for sale, and the sales situation was also to lend the goods first and then collect the money, and now a large number of phosphate fertilizer factories around the country have been put into production, and the holy fertilizer and seeds have been supplied in large quantities, and the yamen at all levels can no longer help with the consignment, at this time, the establishment of this supply and marketing cooperative, to ensure the smooth supply of holy fertilizer and seeds, in addition, there are some other basic goods, such as oil and salt, rice vinegar, medicine, tea, soap, matches, cloth, enamel basins and cups, paper, etc., They are all sold in the supply and marketing cooperatives of various counties and the consignment stores in the townships, which greatly facilitates the purchase of daily necessities by the villagers. And not only the sale of goods, the supply and marketing cooperatives also regularly purchase the villagers' surplus grain, cured meat, medicinal materials, fruits and vegetables, wood, carvings and so on all kinds of goods, as long as they can be sold, the supply and marketing cooperatives are purchased on behalf of the company, and then delivered to the three major foreign trade companies or other commercial houses in a unified manner, so that the villagers also have some spare money, not only more effectively promote the circulation of goods in various places, but also let many people get rid of poverty and become rich. ”

Feng Yunshan nodded, quite complacent. The set of supply and marketing cooperatives-consignment stores was naturally made at his suggestion. For this childhood memory, he felt that although those supply and marketing cooperatives and consignment stores had their shortcomings, it was for the time when it was close to the 21st century, in fact, in the current era of the 19th century, he was even worried about whether this supply and marketing system would be too advanced.

However, after a year and a half of trial, it was fully launched, and after two years of operation, although there are some places in place, it is still quite good overall, even better than he expected.

Through the supply and marketing cooperatives and consignment stores, the townships and towns that could only be engaged in trading transactions by relying on the bazaars naturally formed over the years were all brought under the rule of the entire Chinese Empire. Even, there are many villagers who dig up medicinal materials in the mountains, even if the price is lower, they have to go to the consignment stores or supply and marketing cooperatives in groups to sell, after all, the consignment stores and supply and marketing cooperatives are not far from their homes, and they are open every day, and they are not like the bazaar, which only opens once every three or five days.

Therefore, Feng Yunshan thinks that the supply and marketing cooperative-consignment store model is one of the great good things he has brought to this era.