At the beginning of October, it was the day when the maritime merchants of the Southern Song Dynasty began to go to the South Seas, and all the maritime merchants who were ready to go to the South to do business would begin to prepare ships and goods, and some of them were anxious to take advantage of the monsoon to set off in advance. From this time until the winter solstice, the coastal ports in the south will become very lively, not only the maritime merchants are busy, but the inland merchants will also run over with goods. On the surface, going down to the South Seas is just a maritime businessman, but in fact, there are two complete industrial chains hidden behind it. The maritime merchants who go to the South Seas with goods to fight for their lives are only one end and one tail of these two industrial chains, and they are the tail at this time, and when they come back next year, they will be the head.

Guangzhou and Quanzhou were the main ports for southbound maritime merchants, and it is definitely not an exaggeration to describe their current ports as full of sails. This year's Guangzhou Port is a little different from previous years, because two strange-looking ships are docked in the port, and a copper coin flag is hung on the mast. What is a copper coin flag? It is a banner embroidered with a big copper coin, which does not have any dynasty year name, only four Chinese characters, and attracts wealth and treasure!

Needless to ask, this thing was made by Hong Tao again, he couldn't get any tall objects, when he thought of getting a flag for the merchant ships of the Strait Company, others came up with all the auspicious beasts such as pythons, tigers, Dapeng, and unicorns, and the last were sharks and whales, but he first thought of those trademarks in later generations. The Chamber of Commerce, make it so tall and useful, the literati regard money as dung, why should businessmen learn from them? We are not so false, if we like money, we will say it generously, and the copper coin flag is our voice, adding an auspicious word that has been used in later generations, which is enough. You don't need to ask anyone's opinion for this kind of gadget, the board of directors of Jinhe Company doesn't worry about everything, and the board of directors of Strait Company won't go to fight with Hong Tao, the god of wealth, because of this trivial matter, so the copper coin flag is so decided!

These two ships were specially built by Hong Tao for the maritime merchants of the Southern Song Dynasty. It is a cargo ship based on the design of the Jiaosha-class battleship, removing the main keel, thickened ship plates, and ribs, adding five auxiliary keels, seven partition plates, and raising the stern. At present, only two salmon-class ships have been built, and if the construction is fully started, the Jinhewan shipyard can build about six ships in a year.

However, Hong Tao did not intend to waste the energy of good timber and shipwrights to build this thing too much, he only wanted to get a few samples for the Southern Song Dynasty maritime merchants. And then let them build the shipyard at their own expense and find out how to build it themselves. Only by passing this technique to the maritime merchants of the Southern Song Dynasty could they gain wings to sail all over the world's oceans. Relying on oneself to build for them will not only delay their work arrangement, but also develop their inertia. As the saying goes, it is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish, and this is the truth.

This kind of cargo ship, named salmon-class by Hong Tao, is more suitable for deep-sea voyages than the Cantonese ships, fortune ships, bird ships, and sand ships at this time, not only with a large enough cargo capacity, but also at a speed of about seven knots. It is perfectly capable of keeping up with the speed of the escort battleship. If it can be equipped with a few guns in the future, it will be a standard armed merchant ship, but it will be engaged in low-intensity, small-scale naval battles. But it also has a big limitation, that is, it uses a soft sail, which the Song people basically can't play, and they need to learn it from scratch. And the cost of this kind of ship is much higher than that of the same type of Canton ship, Fu ship and bird ship? That's about three times as much.

I checked a lot of books on the cost of ships in the Song Dynasty, and I turned over books such as "Song Hui Yao", "Song Hui Yao Manuscript", and "Wujing General Essentials". There are no particularly detailed records, and some say how much money is allocated. How many ships were built, but it was not said how big the ships were, so it was impossible to measure the unit price of ships in the Song Dynasty. In the end, only a little record was found in the first volume of Lu You's "Notes on Lao Xue'an": in August of the third year of Gaozong Jianyan (1129), the imperial court ordered the Pingjiangfu (Suzhou) shipyard to build four sea falcon ships, five zhang long, and the cost of a single ship was 327 guan. Two multi-oared warships. It is eight feet long and three feet long, two feet wide, with a load of 800 materials, and a unit price of 1,600 and 700 yuan.

If you calculate, the salmon grade is nearly ten zhang long, and the displacement is more than 7,000 materials. There is also a whole set of sail gear, which is not an exaggeration to sell for 4,000 runs, right? I think 5,000 yuan is worth it, because high-tech is always highly profitable.

Are these Southern Song Dynasty maritime merchants willing to pay three or four times the price to buy a sea ship with the same carrying capacity? The answer is that the maritime merchants of the Southern Song Dynasty were not stupid at all, they not only wanted to buy, but also rushed to buy. Because this time Hong Tao let Luo Youde pass the word, this year's voyage fleet does not bring any Southern Song Dynasty merchant ships, not to force everyone to buy ships, but the Southern Song Dynasty ships are too slow and too poor in seaworthiness, and they can't keep up with the speed of the escort fleet, which is a drag!

If this truth were told to other maritime merchants, they would definitely scoff at it, but the maritime merchants who sailed with Hong Tao last time all nodded yes, it was slow and dangerous! Especially when crossing the Indian Ocean, if it is not for the good weather, it is a question of whether everyone will be able to come back. Although it is important to make money, when everyone has money in their pockets, it is time to think about how to make money steadily. Fighting for life is just to get start-up capital, who has nothing to do with fighting every day, fighting for their lives every day, that's not a businessman, that's a madman!

It doesn't matter how expensive the boat is, as long as you can earn it back, it's a good thing. No matter how cheap it is, it's useless to buy it, and it's a waste! Merchants are the best at calculating this account, the ship is expensive but the performance is good, and the most important thing is that if you buy a boat, you will get a ticket to the voyage profiteering, and if you don't buy a boat, people will not take you to play at all. To put it bluntly, people don't buy all boats, but buy confidence in Hong Tao.

Luo Youde was not polite, he bought these two ships in accordance with the practice of the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty, and all of them were secretly bidding, each maritime merchant could only bid once, and only the directors of the Strait Company had the right to bid, and others did not have the right to buy it. What is it called? This is called privileged consumption, just like going to a high-end club, people don't sell tickets, there is no minimum consumption, people ask for membership cards. You said I had money in my pocket, I'm sorry, but I still won't let you in. Want to get in? Hurry up and buy a membership card, pay a one-year membership fee in vain, and then you will have the right to go in and continue to spend.

In the end, the two salmon-class merchant ships were sold at a price of nearly 5,000 yuan, and Luo Youde's mouth couldn't be closed, that is, Hong Tao insisted on refusing to enter the Pearl River estuary, and if Hong Tao was present, he even wanted to encourage Hong Tao to sell next year's six ships in advance. Empty gloves white wolf, holding someone else's reservation for a year for nothing, what is this like?

However, Hong Tao was still very benevolent, and the maritime merchants who had not bought the ship and had not partnered with the leader of the gang who bought the ship, as long as they were the directors of the Straits Company, could bring a new maritime merchant to join the voyage trade fleet. Their cargo can be loaded onto the Jinhe, and at present, this big guy is parked outside the mouth of the Pearl River, and the cargo capacity of one ship is as high as five or six salmon-class ships, and other escort ships can also be loaded with some cargo in a small amount. In short, the maritime merchants who have contributed to the strait company will not forget you organizationally! Make a fortune together!

"Brother Wu, dare to ask which sea ship this is, the flag on it is so strange, it is actually a copper coin, this is in line with the identity, but it is also a little too ostentatious!" Luo Youde and the maritime merchants of the Strait Company are tossing and turning on the dock, and it is impossible for no one to see it. These two strange ships were already very eye-catching, and they held such a lively auction, and it was impossible to attract attention, and soon other maritime merchants began to inquire about each other.

The group of maritime merchants is not too closely organized, the Song Dynasty was a very, very relaxed society, and the people would make countless guilds, and a few people would make a weaving promotion meeting or something. Hong Tao had seen countless guilds in Guangzhou City and Lin'an City, and he couldn't count them. If you see a signboard that says jade, gold and silver, lacquer, nail hinge, oil, wood, etc., then this shop has joined the guild, and the people of the Song Dynasty called the guild. In fact, there are very few merchants who do not have a guild mark on the signboard, and almost all of them join a guild. Luo Youde once introduced to him that there are more than 600 guilds in Lin'an City, and there are 414 subdivided industries, and each industry has more than one guild organization. There is also a guild organization with a signboard with the word "righteousness" in front of it, which is not called because it is of a public welfare nature, does not make money, and is a bit like an organization such as volunteers in later generations.

These guilds did not listen to the government, as later generations of trade unions did, and the government did not care about them, and they had no obligations to the government. They publish their own industry standards, which they use to demonstrate to consumers their high standards and compete as a means of competition. Whoever has an industry standard that can not only satisfy customers, but also satisfy the merchants who join, will have more guild members, and at the same time have more voice in the industry. It is precisely because of the constraints of these guilds that all kinds of vicious competition, the production and sale of counterfeit goods, and the discreditworthiness of the market can be reduced. Because before you can deceive people, the guild will remove you first, and without the collective behavior of the guild, you will not survive in the harsh market competition, and consumers will not buy your account.

When Luo Youde first sold whale oil, the reason why he didn't dare to sell it at a low price in Guangzhou was because he was an outsider, and he had not joined any guild for the first time. If his behavior is too arrogant, it will cause a common boycott from the guilds of the same industry, which will not only affect the choice of consumers, but also start from your suppliers and sellers, making you a loner, and it is impossible for anyone to live on their own. Therefore, although Luo Youde was not worried about the supply of goods, he still did not dare to excessively stimulate those guild organizations. (To be continued.) )