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Smoking!

When the time was about to cross the threshold of 1890 in the Western calendar, when the foreigners in the Shanghai Concession were still in a hurry to celebrate the arrival of the New Year, a sudden news reached the Shanghai Concession, which only caused an uproar in the foreign concession.

Smoking!

Smoking is prohibited in Hubei Province!

The news did not originally come from Wuchang, but from Beijing, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, played the imperial court and vowed to ban smoking! And those who know him immediately think of the ban on smoking in Zhang Zhidong and Fujin, no one thinks that he is just talking, not to mention that when the music is still being debated in Beijing, the "Anti-smoking Administration" in Wuchang has quietly hung up the card.

Okay!

When this news reached Shanghai through the foreign companies in Hankow, it immediately caused a panic in the foreign banks, and now they were facing a crisis, and the senior executives who were concerned about their interests immediately began to hold private meetings to discuss countermeasures, and these senior executives were more clever than the officials, and the changes in the current situation could not escape the sensitive noses of the merchants, and they had already received the news, and they were more anxious and worried than the consular officials.

For any foreign firm, ** is one of their most important business projects, perhaps India ** by Sassoon foreign firms, Hartung foreign companies monopoly, but other foreign companies have shipped Iran** and Turkey**, although now China's domestic ** rapid rise, but they are not worried, because China's ** quality is not as good as foreign **, nearly 100,000 quintals of ** input every year, for the foreign banks to bring tens of millions of taels of silver benefits.

Now, although it is only a province to declare a ban on smoking, but let these sensitive businessmen realize the crisis, if the loss of the first trade, then I don't know how many foreign companies will suffer huge losses, with the Chinese market, operating ordinary goods, when can make up for the loss of profits caused by the loss of **?

Each of them was thinking about it, calculating repeatedly, and decided to think of a way to ensure their own interests, as early as when the news of the smoking ban in Hubei broke, they had discussed it privately with them, and the result of the discussion was that it was disappointing that the consul could not intervene in it, because Hubei did not prohibit ** import, at least nominally.

Once again, the meeting was chaired by Mr. William Madison, the master of Jardine Matheson. At the beginning of the opening of the port in Shanghai, Jardine Matheson and the foreign company rushed to Shanghai, and it was also the founding foreign company that opened up the concession in Shanghai, and it is precisely because of this that it has always been quite prestigious in the Shanghai foreign industry, and at the beginning of the meeting, he had a warm conversation with Sassoon. Behind the seemingly calm, in fact, he is extremely jealous of this competitor who surpasses Jardine Matheson in the first business and is ahead of him in the real estate trade, and every time they meet, he never misses the opportunity to ridicule.

"Dear Mr. Sassoon, Jardine Matheson Yuwuchang only sells less than 1,000 quintals of ** every year, while you and Elias's foreign firm sold nearly 3,000 quintals there last year**, and your loss should be the greatest this time to ban smoking."

"No,"

Albert Sassoon shook his head, and at the same time looked at his nephew Jacob Sassoon, whose father founded the new Sassoon more than a dozen years ago, on the surface the new and old Sassoon has always been regarded as a whole, thinking that they are closely related, and naturally they advance and retreat together, but in fact, the entire Sassoon family regards Elias's founding of the new Sassoon as a "rebellious" move, on the surface he has never said anything, but in his heart he is extremely disgusted, especially ...... Looking at Hartung sitting next to Jacob, Albert's heart was annoyed, after Hartung left the old Sassoon, he took refuge in the new Sassoon,

"It's in the interest of each and every one of us, not just Sassoon!"

Although he knew that Uncle Albert was secretly annoyed with his father, and that it meant a break with the Sassoon family when his father founded New Sassoon, Jacob Sassoon knew that, at least for outsiders, the old and new Sassoon were still one, and he also needed this "hypothesis".

"Our honorable Mr. Ma Dichen, what do you think of the current situation?"

"I think that's something that every one of us has to think about!"

Ma Dichen held the wine glass in front of his eyes and kept turning, as if to observe the trend of the situation from the glass.

"However, I think that the smoking ban in Chinese will always remain on the surface!"

All the Taipan stopped moving, looking at each other, wondering what the opinion of the Jardine Taipan, who has a reputation as the first Taipan in Shanghai, according to the usual practice in the past, they will always follow the strong, although now the old Sassoon & Co. has far surpassed Jardine Matheson in both ** and real estate, but Jardine Matheson is still the first foreign firm, especially since they enjoy an influence that the Sassoon family can never achieve in the British government.

"Their officials may be able to ban smoking for the sake of fame, but gentlemen ......"

Ma Dichen pretended to take a sip of whiskey mysteriously and calmly, smacking his lips,

"Will they be able to leave the tax revenue that ** brings? Since it is the United Kingdom, how can the United Kingdom leave the ** tax? Britain can't do without it, let alone China? ”

What Ma Dichen said is the truth, the fact is that China can not do without the first tax, the United Kingdom is also inseparable from the first tax, the British through the implementation of the ** monopoly policy in India and the local ** import heavy tax, every year to obtain tens of millions of pounds of huge taxes, whether China or the United Kingdom can not leave, the government can not do without the ** tax.

"What we can see is that the smoking ban in Hubei is not a complete ban, but the implementation of a monopoly policy, which means that in the future, we will have to deal with the Chinese government, but the buyers have become a smoking ban bureau, so the only thing we need to do now is how to reduce our losses, I think this is what we need to consider, after all, under the premise that the smoking ban bureau controls Hubei's ** procurement and sales rights, we may have additional losses."

Some people didn't understand it, and some pretended to understand, but the four words of reducing losses were deeply imprinted in their minds. After going back, they thought about each other and listened to the news from all sides, but no one noticed that Hartung's eyes flashed with a strange look.

"Hartung, do you have any ideas?"

Jacob Sassoon sitting in the carriage looked at the silent Hartung, four years ago, during the Sino-French War, under the construction of Hartung, the old Sassoon foreign firm took advantage of the war panic to speculate on the land of the French Concession, and after the war, he received millions of taels of silver, and as a hero, Hartung only got a "bonus" of one thousand taels, which contributed to Hartung's departure, that is, since then, Jacob Sassoon recruited him into the new Sassoon foreign company, in the past few years, Hartung has proved his ability again and again, Now Jacob Sassoon cares about his opinion as well, after all, ** is also very important to New Sassoon.

"What I'm thinking, what are they thinking?"

Hartung's tone remained as humble as ever.

"Them?"

"Other foreign companies!"

"Non-smoking ......"

After a moment of silence, Jacob Sassoon glanced at the Whampoa River outside the car window, and then spoke.

"It will bring unimaginable profits, no foreign firm will miss this opportunity, and even for many foreign firms, they even look forward to Hubei's ban on smoking, under the treaty, ** trade is legal, but Hubei only will ** purchase, sales into the government's unified control, at this point, there is no violation of the treaty, at least now the government will never interfere in it, in their opinion, this is just a means for the local government to obtain money, they don't need to ask about this qiē, However, for foreign banks, there are too many loopholes in this kind of control, and 100 quintals of ** from Shanghai can be transported to Wuchang in only one quintal, while Hanjiang Customs will not investigate whether the ship is sold in the commercial port along the river**, so as to ...... After entering Hubei, they will sell it at a high price along the river**, and the benefits obtained by foreign companies are far greater than in the past. ”

"Yes, they will smuggle ......"

Hartung nodded, looked at Jacob Sassoon and said seriously.

"However, they see the profits from smuggling, but they don't see another point, and the smoking ban also brings us benefits!"

Hartung's words stunned Jacob Sassoon, who looked at Hartung and said.

"The benefits? Bring us benefits? ”

"Yes, sir!"

At this moment, the carriage passed by the old Sassoon line, and Hartung pointed to the old Sassoon outside the window and said.

"Last year, the ** imported by Jianghan Customs was 6,752 quintals, of which we sold half of them with them, and the old foreign companies such as Jardine and Didian sold 2,000 quintals, and the remaining less than 2,000 quintals were sold by dozens of small foreign firms,"

When Hartung mentioned the old Sassoon company, Jacob Sassoon's brow frowned slightly, in the eyes of outsiders, the new and old Sassoon are one, in their opinion, Sassoon sold half of the ** to Wuchang, but ignored that the new Sassoon company only sold less than 1,000 quintals ** last year.

"What do you mean......"

"Cooperate with the Chinese!"

Hartung's eyes flashed with a strange brilliance, and he said in a low voice.

"Chinese According to our statistics, the demand for ** in Hubei Province is at least 15,000 quintals, and the share of foreign tobacco only accounts for 10% of it, even if the Hubei government controls 50% of the share, the annual demand for ** is not less than 30,000 quintals, if we can reach an agreement with Chinese first, then we will soon leave old Sassoon behind......"

Hartung's vision brightened Jacob Sassoon's eyes, and he thought for a moment in his heart and immediately agreed.

"That's it, Hartung, you personally go to Wuchang, negotiate with those Chinese, bring five, no, one hundred thousand taels of silver, you know, what they like!"

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