Indian tea has a good foundation, a strong development space, and an infinitely better future...... These all stimulated Hu Chuyuan fiercely.

Unable to come up with a comprehensive response, he decided not to talk about it lightly for the time being.

The trip to Assam made everyone's hearts sink, and each other seemed to have a bad premonition.

The threat is simply too great.

Looking at the current situation of Indian tea with their own eyes, Miao Quansun, Hua Yufang and others are a little shocked.

On September 20, Hu Chuyuan's team returned to Chittagong and set off for the Suez Canal again.

The speed of the voyage is still not fast, and it will stop every few days to buy along the coast or visit the local area.

It was only in early October that the Taichang sailed into the Mediterranean.

Hu Chuyuan made stops in Italy, Spain and Marseille, France, visiting their shipyards, and it was not until mid-October that the Taichang finally arrived at its destination, the port of Newcastle, England.

Hu Chuyuan and RS Butterfield made an appointment to meet here.

At this time, Newcastle was a new British heavy industry city and one of the largest shipbuilding bases in the United Kingdom, where the greatest military industrial enterprise in British history, Armstrong, was located.

When the ship was about to dock, everyone walked aisle on the deck, and those towering giant chimneys continued to emit black smoke, covering the sky above the city, as if it was the dark cloud of the god of thunder, which shocked Yan Shizhang and others.

On the port, factories are crowded together, and on the wharf, large cranes and cranes are also full of novelties.

Even though there were many similar experiences in Marseille, the people were shocked and unacceptable from the bottom of their hearts when they saw all this again.

Because he had already sent a telegram to Mr. R.S. Butterfield when he was in Marseille, confirming that he had arrived at the port today, R.S. Butterfield, who did not dare to slack off, hired ten four-wheeled carriages to wait on the docks early in the morning.

At this time, he was having lunch in a restaurant near the port, drinking a cup of tea by the way, and sorting out the various materials and reports he wanted to submit to "Hu Shao".

After hearing the news of the arrival of the Taichang, RS Butterfield couldn't wait to run out with his hired workers to meet Hu Chuyuan, and in order to show Hu Chuyuan's unique identity, he also rented a very luxurious silver-white carriage inlaid with silver foil.

Seeing RS Butterfield waving on the port, Hu Chuyuan also waved his hand, and then walked off the board with his team.

After nearly two months, the two met again, and each other's hearts were very happy.

Businessmen are by and large a very peculiar kind of people, who value friendship more than anyone else, but are also more likely to abandon it.

After meeting and shaking hands, RS Butterfield smiled happily with Hu Chuyuan: "Welcome to the British Empire, my friend!" ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and introduced Ye Fu and others for him.

After getting to know each other, Butterfield brought the most extravagant carriage over, and invited Hu Chuyuan and Miss Wu Shuzhen to get on the carriage first, and the others also made good arrangements, and there were four other carriages to pull the luggage and goods.

After getting into the car, RS Butterfield first introduced the current situation in Newcastle, and soon talked about the existing several military shipyards in Newcastle.

Due to the completely different characteristics of the design and manufacture of warships and merchant ships, even in the United Kingdom, only some shipyards can manufacture warships, and at present, there are three military shipyards in Newcastle, namely Swan-Hunt Shipyard, Wym-Richardson Shipyard and Armstrong Shipyard.

Unlike the Swan-Hunter shipyard and the Richardson shipyard, they mainly rely on the Armstrong Arsenal and only build warships, and the most well-known product in recent times is the so-called mosquito boat.

They were the inventors and the main manufacturers of mosquito boats, and all the mosquito boats of the Qing court were purchased here.

Richardson Shipyard is the oldest, but Swan Hunt Shipyard has recently supplied the Royal Navy with the largest number of warships, and the most advanced.

After a brief introduction, RS Butterfield couldn't wait to recommend to Hu Chuyuan: "You came in time, if you want to buy two ironclad ships as quickly as possible, the Samudabros shipyard in London is the best choice, they are building two ironclad ships with a displacement tonnage of 3777 tons, which belong to the sail hybrid." Originally, it was to be sold to Turkey, but with the outbreak of the Turkish-Russian War, this contract was terminated. Therefore, these two warships have been owned by the British Navy, but the Navy does not want it very much, and still intends to sell it to other countries. ”

Hu Chuyuan knew the general situation of these two warships, which belonged to the relatively old-fashioned second-class waist gun room ironclad ships, and it was inconvenient for him to make a final conclusion on whether they had practical value or not.

Such a thing will be handed over to Hua Yufang, Rawls, Wu Dezhang, and Ye Fu and others to judge.

He only thought about it for a moment, and then said to RS Butterfield: "There is no rush to think about these things for the time being...... I'd like to ask you about tea, especially between Chinese and Indian tea! ”

"So......?" RS Butterfield was a little surprised, but after a while, he said: "I know you will ask this question, since I heard that your Jiangnan Commercial Bank acquired a number of tea shops of Mr. Xu Run, I knew that Jiangnan Commercial Bank would be involved in Chinese tea on a large scale. Interestingly, before I became a partner at Swire & Co., I had been running my own foreign house in Hong Kong, mainly making tea, and last year, we also invested in a small tea plantation in Assam, India, so I should be a qualified speaker on this issue! ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded silently and asked, "Then what do you think is the main problem of Chinese tea at present?" ”

RS Butterfield replied without thinking: "Profit, my friend!! The average price of a pound of black tea in the UK is currently four shillings, the on-site wholesale price of Indian black tea is only two shillings, and the cost of Chinese tea in London is already as high as three shillings. For any local merchant in the UK, anyone would like to sell Indian tea, even if they are still not very easy to sell, but it doesn't matter, the huge profit is enough for all merchants to recommend Indian black tea, and the big dealers will advertise it in the newspapers. ”

Hu Chuyuan was speechless for a while.

During his time in Fuzhou, he also paid attention to the price of Min black tea, and the price of the high-quality Min Nan black tea purchased by Jiangnan Commercial Bank was about 4 yuan and 5 cents per catty, and the selling price was 5 yuan and 8 cents to 6 cents per catty.

The cost price of 0.45 taels of silver per catty, in southern Fujian, exports are subject to taxes, plus tariffs, about 0.5 taels of silver can be shipped, plus about 0.1 taels of silver transportation costs, the CIF price is 0.6 taels of silver, after the levy of 8% tariff, it is about 0.65 taels of silver landing.

Tea wholesalers in Britain took a spin and sold it to shops for about three shillings per pound, making a profit of less than one shilling for retailers and a gross profit margin of 25 percent.

As the general manager of Jiangnan Commercial Bank, Hu Chuyuan knows very well in his heart that if the gross profit margin is only 25% after counting all kinds of taxes, labor and rent, there is actually not much profit.

Indian black tea is different, it has a gross profit margin of up to 50%.

In contrast, who wouldn't want to sell Indian black tea?

With a lot of fanfare from small merchants, and a lot of advertising from big businessmen, it was only a matter of time before Indian black tea completely defeated Chinese black tea in the British market!

No matter how capable and influential Hu Chuyuan is, things that violate the principles of market operation are not something he can do.

What to take to save Chinese black tea?

This has become the most tangled problem in Hu Chuyuan's heart, and he has been thinking about it all this time.

Butterfield rented a small manor house on the outskirts of Newcastle Town for Hu Chuyuan and others to live in.

After settling here, Hu Chuyuan hurriedly brought Ye Fu, Hua Yufang and others over to discuss the purchase of warships, and handed over the matter to Ye Fu and Hua Yufang, who were the main responsible persons and had a preliminary contact with the shipyards in Newcastle.

The focus is, of course, on the Armstrong shipyard, which has already had many transaction records with the Qing court.

The purchase of warships for the Fujian Navy Division, while important, was far less than the problem of China's tea industry.

Hu Chuyuan also asked RS Butterfield to do a favor and asked him to send as many people as possible to collect tea sales information in the British market, although it was an unplanned thing, RS Butterfield still agreed.

A few days later, RS Butterfield got the first copy of the information, including the main tea distribution, the price of tea in various parts of the UK, and the current taste and price needs of mainstream consumers, and immediately brought it to Hu Chuyuan for a look.

The number of materials is still a lot, so Hu Chuyuan called Wu Shuzhen and Zheng Xitai together, and everyone took the time to read it carefully.

After they also watched it, Hu Chuyuancai and RS Butterfield asked, "Have you also seen it?" ”

RS Butterfield smiled: "Yes, Hu Shao, I attach great importance to this. ”

Hu Chuyuan asked him: "Then if you are asked to measure, what do you think you need to do to maintain the market share of Chinese tea?" ”

RS Butterfield thought for a moment and said with a bit of embarrassment: "There is no doubt that you have to find a way to reduce their cost price and provide more profits for dealers." Another aspect is also very important, which is to try to change the process according to the taste needs of the British market, although you are producing tea, but the real consumer is British, so you can't just consider your habits and tastes. I have said something similar to that of many Chinese tea traders, you can't just respect your own ideas and want to sell us tea. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded, but said, "It's still not enough to reverse this situation." ”

RS Butterfield said: "In fact, the Chinese tea business is becoming more and more difficult to do, the cost is high, and the British distributors do not want it, and Swire is currently gradually withdrawing from the Chinese tea market. If there are no surprises, I will buy a new tea plantation in Sri Lanka. I think that there is a new change in the tea trade now, that is, the integration of production, transportation and sales, which is no longer exploited by other merchants and goes directly to the market at the lowest price. If you want to change the situation of tea in China, you have to make a fuss about it. ”

Hu Chuyuan fell silent.

All of this that Butterfield had thought about when he was on the Taichang, but it wasn't enough to solve the problem.

Seeing that Hu Chuyuan didn't seem to be very satisfied, RS Butterfield couldn't help but continue: "Hu Shao, there is actually only one problem in all, that is, the British political axe wants to support Indian tea and attack Chinese tea. If you can't solve this problem, at least in the UK market, Indian tea will always have an advantage that is hard to ignore. ”

These words hit Hu Chuyuan's heart, and they were also the places where he really felt a headache.

He smiled bitterly and said, "It's true, if you want to ensure the future of Chinese tea, you must first break through this obstacle." ”

RS Butterfield smiled awkwardly, it was no longer convenient for him to say anything about this, unless Hu Chuyuan could give him special benefits in the tea industry.

He stood up, made an excuse with Hu Chuyuan to say goodbye, and left the room first.

There were only three people left in the room, Hu Chuyuan, Zheng Xitai and Wu Shuzhen, who continued to face this problem that they had been thinking about for more than half a month.

However, Hu Chuyuan felt as if he was about to find the answer.

R.S. Butterfield's words inadvertently reminded him.

Britain has always been very hostile to China and dreams of dividing China into small states, so that Britain can also make China a colony.

On the other hand, in the development of the South Seas and the Indochina Peninsula, Britain was actually most afraid of China, even if China lacked sufficient military strength.

It cannot be denied that, at least in 1879, and for the rest of the present period, China lacked modern military power, but not economic power, unlike India, Dutch India, Burma, and Vietnam.

China's silk and tea industries are a traditional advantageous industry that is extremely difficult to catch up, and both monopolize ninety percent of the world's market share, bringing China a trade surplus of nearly 70 million taels of silver every year.

One year is 70 million taels of silver, and ten years is 700 million taels of silver.

Once China wakes up and carries out reforms like the one it did, the threat to Western countries is enormous.

Therefore, Britain wanted to eradicate China's two traditional advantages no matter what, and the first place he started was tea, and in fact he finally succeeded.

China has neither military strength nor financial resources, so what is there to fear?

That's just the second India.

Hu Chuyuan believed that the key to solving the problem was the "British threat theory", and only by holding high this banner at home could the Qing court give special support to the tea industry in the whole policy, as well as a more relaxed policy.

(To be continued)