In the second year of the Apocalypse, the number of merchant ships traveling to and from the north began to increase, because Tianjin Dagu was officially opened to trade, and at the same time, there was also the operation of the Royal Shipping Company and the joint venture shipping company opened by Qian Wanyuan, which soon led many private merchant ships to join the ranks of transportation.

In other words, it is to go to Beizhili to traffic goods. At this time, among the goods of North Zhili, there are still many that can be sold in the southern market. Among them, steel products are the best-selling, at this time, the steel smelted by the Royal Iron and Steel Company is really quickly famous, with good quality, word of mouth quickly spread throughout the provinces.

There are also a variety of glass products, which are also very popular in the south. In addition to special steel products and glass products, Beizhili has also begun to produce a variety of bronze and porcelain, and even cotton cloth. It's just that the porcelain and textiles of Beizhili are obviously not very popular in other provinces, mainly because there is a gap in quality or cost.

Therefore, the porcelain and cotton cloth of Beizhili are not very good in export. However, under the protection of tariffs, porcelain and cotton cloth still sold very well in the province of Beizhili. When porcelain and cotton cloth from other provinces came in, they were charged tariffs, and the prices were uncompetitive.

On the Dagu wharf, you can see a busy scene every day. Many porters are constantly loading and unloading merchant ships on the docks.

The largest commodities are grain shipped from the south and coal exported from the north.

The southern provinces are relatively short of coal, so coal is also a relatively large export product. Although there is no shortage of firewood in the south, but for those in large cities. The cost of dismantling and transporting it back into the city for sale is obviously not lower than that of coal. After all, the process of cutting firewood is more troublesome than coal mining. Shipped up. It's also not as convenient as coal. In terms of transportation, the coal from Beizhili is transported to the south by large ships, and the cost is still acceptable. It's just that the honeycomb coal in Beizhili obviously can't completely replace firewood.

The porter on the dock is definitely a manual job, and ordinary people can't bear it. But the pay is also relatively high, and I work hard for a month. You can make four or five silver dollars.

Over time, the number of merchant ships owned by the royal capital gradually increased, and by May of the second year of the Apocalypse. The number of merchant ships has reached 87, all of which are large ships of 3,000 materials, and they can transport nearly 4,000 stones of grain at a time, and the owners of those private shipyards are all smiling. In addition to these merchant ships. They also received more orders.

Sun Changbo was a Jiangsu maritime merchant with two large ships in his hands. This time, I went to sea from Songjiang to Tianjin Dagu Wharf, and only walked for nine days on the way. This was his second trip to Tianjin, and the route he took was determined by the Royal Shipping Company, and he took the charts drawn by the Royal Shipping Company, and saw many guiding lighthouses along the way, which is very important for the East China Sea, which is often foggy. These lighthouses are definitely a work of conscience.

This route is obviously extremely safe. No pirates have yet set their sights on this route, and the voyage is relatively short. The goods shipped by Sun Changbo this time, as long as they are grain, horns, and tendons, are all duty-free goods. Horns and tendons are strategic items used to make bows and arrows.

The ship docked at Dagu Wharf, and while Sun Changbo unloaded the goods on the ship, he was also selecting the goods to be transported back to Songjiang and other places.

This time, Sun Changbo found that the price of porcelain and cotton cloth has dropped among the export goods on the Dagu wharf, and then take a closer look at the quality, although the quality of porcelain is not as exquisite as the kiln fired in Jingdezhen, but compared with the same grade of porcelain, the price is nearly two percent lower. The quality of cotton cloth is not much different from that of Songjiang, but in terms of price, it is slightly lower than that of Songjiang.

"Why are the prices of porcelain and cotton so low now?" Sun Changbo asked about the procurement of Tianjin Dagu in confusion. These procurement offices are full-time intermediaries who declare customs for these merchant ships and liaise with the import and export of goods, and have a great understanding of the market.

"Just a few days ago, the imperial court introduced a new policy, porcelain and cotton cloth exports, can enjoy tax rebate subsidies and export subsidies. Not only is the export tariff exempt, as long as it can be sold to other provinces, the imperial court will subsidize part of the price difference. Now the kilns and textile factories in Beizhili have received a large number of export orders, and if you don't hurry up, you may not have goods tomorrow. The procurement office said to Sun Changbo.

"What about cotton and porcelain? What else is good? Sun Changbo asked.

"Yes, official salt." The procurement office replied. Sun Changbo couldn't help laughing after hearing this, and said, "Don't be joking, what kind of good thing is official salt!" ”

"It is indeed a good product, 15 Wen a catty, there is a national general salt introduction just issued by the imperial court, as long as it goes out of Beizhili, wherever you sell it, you can sell it for as much as you sell a catty, all of it is not mixed with sediment." Procurement said with a smile.

"Is this reliable?" Sun Changbo asked with some uncertainty.

"If it is said to be sold to Fujian, it is definitely not reliable. Even Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces are not necessarily reliable. But it is absolutely reliable to sell it to Shandong, and I heard that Jingying has cracked down on illegal salt in Shandong. If the private salt is gone, can't you only eat official salt? And now the official salt of Beizhili is not expensive, and it can also get the general salt of all provinces across the country, and the government can't find fault wherever it goes. Those provinces other than Shandong may not be reliable, after all, there are so many big salt merchants, maybe they will play black. Procurement said.

"Hey, that's good. Give me a half-boat first! Do you know the size of my ship? ”

"I know, I know, I handled it last time, how can I not remember." The procurement said with a smile, and he could get a draw again. Although the commission is relatively low, it can't resist the large amount!

"Get me another boatload of porcelain and half a boat of cotton." Sun Changbo quickly determined that the goods trafficked this time, after the price of porcelain and cotton cloth fell, it was still very competitive in the southern provinces. This trip back and forth, although the money earned is not as lucrative as going to Japan and the South Seas, but the key is to be safe. Japan and the South Seas are obviously not something that ordinary maritime merchants can go to. There were not only local pirates on the road, but also very rampant Dutch, and it was obviously not a good business. And the trade on the Japanese side is even more difficult to do. The Japanese shogunate only did business with robbers, and only the merchant ships under the great pirate Li Dan and the merchant ships of the Dutch could trade in Japan.

From Matsue to North Naoli. Obviously, there is no need to worry about being threatened by these pirates. The Denlai Navy Division has warships to patrol, and it is obviously unlikely that homegrown pirates will appear. The Dutch are also not eyeing this sea route at the moment.

The main reason why local pirates could not threaten this northern shipping route was because of the traditional way of raiding native pirates. They did not have naval guns. To dare to run to the northern route to plunder is to seek death, and it is absolutely impossible to be the opponent of the Denglai Sailors. In addition, along the route of this route, there are not many suitable places for pirates to stay, and there are no supply points, so those pirates naturally can't make trouble.

The Dutch may come to fight the autumn wind, after all, the Dutch have naval guns, and if they do a ticket and run. Denglai sailors don't necessarily have a way. But it was impossible for the Dutch to invade on a large scale. Although the Denglai Navy Division said that there were no naval guns, there were still quite a few warships.

Naval artillery and this kind of thing. It was the patent of Europeans in this era. Because the Chinese ships are V-shaped similar to the ships of later generations, the higher they are, the wider the area. It is even possible to build a multi-storey building on the ship. In terms of living comfort, as well as carrying capacity, it is better than the ships of the Europeans.

In contrast, the ships of the Europeans are somewhat like monsters born of force, taking the shape of (), with the widest waterline. So much so that the sailing ships of the Europeans could place a large number of naval guns at the waterline without fear of an unstable center of gravity.

China's sailing ships are because of the type of boat. There was no way to place naval guns at the waterline. There is no way to place rows of naval guns on the upper deck, if you force it. After a salvo, the ship easily capsized. Therefore, at this time, the Denglai Navy Division was equipped with some naval guns, but only one naval gun could be installed in the bow and stern. These two places can withstand the force of shelling.

But a large ship, with only two guns, was clearly much inferior to the European gunboats in long-range firepower. It's just that in terms of hand-to-hand combat, the Chinese sailors are completely intimidating to the Europeans. Because of the comfort and carrying capacity of the ships, Chinese ships can carry a large number of sailors.

So even if the Dutch came to fight the autumn wind, the Denglai sailor did not coax it. Therefore, the northern route is very safe.

There is another big difference between Chinese and European sailboats, that is, the material of the sail. The Chinese use hard sails, and the Europeans use soft sails. In terms of efficiency, it is naturally better and more economical to have a hard sail. The sailing ships of later generations all used hard sails.

Although Chinese ships are more scientific, there are not so many industrial synthetic materials in this era, and if the hard sail is too big, people may not be able to lift and lift, and it is not easy to replace. So soft sails in this era, for the manufacture of larger tonnage ships, there is still something to do. In many cases, Chinese ships are not small to build, but are limited by the factor of sails.

But in general, Chinese ships are easier to use as merchant ships than Westerners, and the watertight compartment technology of Chinese ships is also more resistant to wind and waves at sea at the same tonnage.

Because of the safety of navigation, this sea route connecting the north and the south is rapidly moving towards prosperity. Many businessmen saw the business opportunities here and invested in the construction of merchant ships.

It was at this time that the Royal Shipping Company opened up a maritime trade route with North Korea.

As a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty at this time, North Korea was not a problem in trade. Koreans also wanted to get all kinds of luxury goods from the Ming Dynasty, such as silk and satin, as well as various rouge gouache and other things.

North Korea doesn't have much of a valuable thing, and if there are more valuable things, it's leather goods and ginseng. The price of ginseng in the late Ming Dynasty was very high, firstly, the Shangdang ginseng in China's Guannai was dug up and extinct at the end of the Ming Dynasty and could only be replaced by Northeast ginseng, and secondly, under the development of capital, these precious medicinal materials were naturally sought after. Moreover, now the Northeast is occupied by wild boar skins, and the price has risen a lot.

But it is not that there is no Northeast ginseng flowing into the Ming Dynasty, and there are a lot of Jin merchants in their hands, and at this time Jin merchants are still engaged in border smuggling trade with wild boar skins.

However, North Korea still became a good trade partner at this time, mainly because after the loss of the Northeast, land trade with North Korea was cut off.

Trade with Korea was soon monopolized by royal capital. In the first month alone, the Royal Shipping Company made a profit of more than 500,000 taels through maritime trade with Korea, but in the second month, it dropped to 300,000 taels, and began to stabilize within this value. Throughout the year, there was also a net income of three or four million taels.

When the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty began to move around in the Bohai Bay, the wild boar skin did not let people live in peace, and after nearly half a year of hard work, the wild boar skin finally made a sailor in Zhenjiang. (To be continued......)