The "Zhonghua" steamship of the Beiyang Steamship Company is a passenger and cargo ship with a displacement of no more than 1,500 tons, and this second-hand old ship was purchased by the Beiyang Steamship Company in installments from a British shipbuilder in Singapore, and it is also the only steel-hulled steam steamer among the Beiyang Steamship Company with only four ships, and the other three ships are only Western-style steam sailboats.

At this time, the 1,000-ton merchant ship was moored at the berth, and there were not many passengers on board, but the cargo hold was full of more than 3,000 goods, including matches, semi-finished leather products, and other simple industrial or semi-industrial products. Although there are not many goods exported at present, this is a good start for the Special Economic Zone.

"Toot ......"

With the sound of a whistle, the steamship "Zhonghua" slowly left the pier of the Incheon Special Zone and sailed into the depths of the sea. Tang Rongjun was still standing on the deck, looking at the sea and the waves by the railing, and he didn't move for a long time.

As the general manager of the Bank of Korea, this trip to Shanghai is by no means just to establish bank branches in Shanghai and Hubei, but also has a plan in his heart, to establish a stock exchange in Shanghai that belongs to the Chinese, and to establish a stock exchange that does not rely on the government and is not manipulated by banks in various countries, and can operate independently and develop freely. How easy is it to say?

At present, banks from all over the world are concentrated in Shanghai, which can be described as deep and densely forested.

In the Shanghai Concession alone, there are more than a dozen banks with strong funds. In such an environment. It is necessary to carve out a path. How feasible is it to develop a North Korean bank? Is the prospect of development impressive or worrisome?

Moreover, for Tang Rongjun, there is a lack of abundant funds, which are necessary conditions for opening a bank. He was almost empty-handed. The DPRK Bank, which ostensibly has a registered capital of only one million yuan, is now unable to even come up with 200,000 yuan, so it wants to open up a world there and set up a stock exchange to raise funds for the construction of the special zone. Wouldn't it be easy?

So, what to use to make up for the lack of funding?

When Tang Rongjun fell into thought, there was another person on this ship who fell into similar thoughts -- Zhang Jing, with a cigarette in his mouth, standing silently on the side of the ship, as the manager of the Beiyang Trading Company, his mission to Shanghai this time was also simple - to promote the goods of the Special Economic Zone and North Korea, unlike many other companies that received huge investment from the company after its establishment, the Beiyang Trading Company was established in response to the foreign trade call of the unified supervision office.

Originally, whether it was studying at Tongbunkan or going to North Korea, it was an opportunity for him. After all, he is not the eldest son in the family, and his father is just a small comprador of CIB. His family is far from being rich, and even in the Tongwen Pavilion, he is not excellent, which is why he does not want to miss the opportunity, which naturally includes the opportunity to form a trading company.

Give a business project, or you really don't have anything to eat!

After the establishment of the trading company, he pleaded with the Unified Supervision Office and the company by virtue of his status as an adult "student", and after some requests, the trading company signed a contract with the Mining Bureau for the overseas consignment sale of Pyongyang coal mines, and the Mining Bureau provided the company with high-quality and low-cost Pyongyang anthracite, and the company thought of exporting it overseas and selling it for two profits.

Although both the Beiyang Mining Bureau and the Beiyang Trading Company are ostensibly subsidiaries of the Beiyang Industrial Company, they are in fact independent units, and even the Beiyang Industrial Company, at least for the time being, has only one "office" located in the Unified Supervision Office, and as for the trading company, it is even simpler - only six employees. But the only thing to be thankful for is that the six people are all very young, all from Shanghai, and naturally know Shanghai very well.

"We went to Shanghai to open a branch because the Shanghai market is still the closest to us, and the demand is the most, as long as we can knock on the Shanghai market, we can knock on the whole Chinese market along the river. But now that Shanghai is full of foreign companies, and they are already competing fiercely with each other, it may not be easy for us to get into it like this. ”

When talking to Ding Mujie, the deputy manager next to him, Zhang Jing's brows frowned, in order to open the Shanghai market, now the entire trading company is simply "pouring out of the nest", except for one person left, the other five people went to Shanghai with him, and even took away all the company's working capital.

"It's not easy!"

Ding Mujie sighed, but at the age of 21, he had just graduated from the church school and was invited by his teacher to go to the Special Economic Zone, and he never expected to return to Shanghai so soon.

"Shanghai has been open for nearly 50 years, where there are many foreign companies, and what we do is the simplest export of primary products such as rice and coal, these market competition itself is very fierce, not to mention, we have to build an unloading dock to start trade, this Shanghai wharf, but all foreign companies themselves repair, if we have nothing who will trust us? Who wants to do business with us, there are so many sellers! Just this wharf, because the foreigners' foreign companies are even more preconceived, and occupy all the advantageous positions, take the latest Japanese Mitsui foreign firm in Shanghai, for example, the wharf they built is not only small in scale but also remote in the place, and extremely shabby. ”

Ding Mujie's sigh, listening to Zhang Jing's ears, he was stunned at first, and then said confidently.

"But that's it, they also did business, all the Japanese in Shanghai were added together, less than a hundred, we are like them, the local consumer market is not to count on, that can only count on other people's homes, so we have to learn from them, come up with the most sincere attitude, the most cautious products, with the most persistent courage, the most brilliant smile, in the vast sea of people, one after another in front of strange faces, all kinds of white eyes, suspicion, contempt, and even scolding, One by one, they tirelessly and repeatedly promoted their products. Since Mitsui & Co. was able to do it back then, we can do it too, you know, our coal ratio is much better than theirs! ”

"But where did the money come from......

Ding Mujie asked rhetorically, this is the most critical place, although the Mining Bureau has given very good care in the settlement because it is his own family, but after arriving in Shanghai, whether it is land acquisition, building a warehouse or building a wharf, it will require silver, but the trading company is only 20,000 yuan. Relying on the 20,000 yuan, let alone building a warehouse and a wharf, or land acquisition, it may not be possible to acquire enough land, after all, the land price in the concession is extremely high, and the 20,000 yuan is not enough to plug the gaps.

"Isn't our God of Wealth on the ship?"

Thinking of the one he met when he got on the boat before, Zhang Jing smiled at Ding Mujie and said.

"Let's go, let's go meet this God of Wealth together, maybe, he can help us find a way!"

I'm here to borrow money again!

Almost at the moment of getting to know each other, Tang Rongjun realized the intention of the two managers and deputy managers of the trading company in front of him, the Beiyang Industrial Company was ostensibly a private company, but in fact it had shares obtained by the Unified Supervision Office in exchange for land, mining rights and other things, because the stall was too large, so that all aspects were facing financial problems, and the same was true of the trading company in front of him.

These two will come to the door, in addition to wanting to get a loan from the bank, what else can they be for? After a brief politeness, in the face of Zhang Jing's request to obtain a loan to build a port, after a moment of silence, Tang Rongjun asked rhetorically.

"Yu Jing, come, tell me what you will do when you arrive in Shanghai? If my guess is correct, this rice and other local products are just a statement, the real focus is on coal, how are you going to sell coal? How to compete with the Japanese who monopolized the Shanghai coal market? ”

Because he had been in contact with coal merchants when he worked at HSBC, Tang Rongjun knew that the coal market in Shanghai and other places was now monopolized by Japanese foreign companies, and if North Korean coal wanted to open up the market, it must first squeeze the Japanese down.

"Don't think about the Japanese just yet!"

When it comes to the layout of the market, Zhang Jingquan looks full of interest.

"Now our production is limited, Japanese coal can be sold in Shanghai 50,000 or 60,000 tons a month, now the most important thing is to sell our coal, since our coal quality is not inferior to British Welsh coal, my idea is to rely on low prices, first squeeze out of Shanghai Australian coal, which is slightly inferior to Pyongyang coal, and at the same time squeeze out the British coal market, in this way, we can ensure a market of 40,000 to 50,000 tons a year, with this market, after Shanghai has a firm foothold, we will compete with the Japanese, and then talk about ......."

After a slight pause, Zhang Jing continued.

"The quality of Japanese coal is poor, and companies from all over the world are proportionally blending cheap Japanese coal with slightly higher Australian coal or high-priced British coal, which can weaken the defect of fast combustion speed of Japanese coal and obtain a more ideal heating effect, Pyongyang coal will not be able to replace Japan's low-grade Japanese coal, I estimate that if a qiē shun lì, Shanghai's annual market, in the next three or four years, will be at most 150,000 to 200,000 tons, and can grab the share of British coal and Australian coal. It will be enough for us to compete with the Japanese and force them to give up the market for high-quality coal. ”

Zhang Jing's thoughts made Tang Rongjun nod his head from time to time, as he said, this is indeed a relatively safe way, with low-priced high-quality coal to seize the high-quality anthracite market, although it seems safe, but Tang Rongjun sees one of the problems.

"Yu Jing, how much profit is there from 150,000 to 200,000 tons of coal a year?"

After asking a rhetorical question, without waiting for him to answer, Tang Rongjun continued to ask.

"What is the significance of coal mines to the Unified Supervision Office? With only 100,200,000 tons of coal a year, how can Fuzhong be satisfied? Yu Jing, the reason why the adults sent you to open up the overseas coal market is probably not just to let you sell more than 100,000 or 200,000 tons of coal, do you say this is the reason? ”

(Empire's Chaoyang Reader Exchange Group: 150536833 welcome everyone to join, Speechless will try to squeeze out time in the group every day, and everyone is welcome to put forward your opinions and suggestions to Speechless.) If you still have a monthly pass in your hand, you might as well vote for "The Rising Sun of the Empire", and you will not be disappointed without saying anything! (To be continued......)