It was late autumn, and the most lively area of the public concession was because of the cold weather, and it seemed very quiet in the middle of the night. On a frosty night, except for the bright lights, only a shop on the side of the road was lit with strong electric lights, and piles of yellow soap were piled up in the crystal glass windows.

In front of the glass window, a slightly drunk Yamaguchi Konichi stared at the yellow soap for nearly half an hour. The reason why this yellow soap attracted him was not because of its quality, if it was its quality, it was not much better than Japanese soap, in fact, the quality of the soap produced by this Xinghua soap factory in Incheon was not better than that of Japanese products, but as the president of Mitsui & Co.'s Shanghai branch, he was keenly aware of the emergence of competitors almost as soon as the Beiyang trade was opened.

Although the display case of the Beiyang Trading Company is now only a simple semi-industrial and semi-handmade goods such as soap, matches, and leather, it is enough to warn it that North Korea, or more precisely the Incheon Special Zone, has begun to become a competitor to Japanese goods. Because like Japan, the Qing government in Korea fully supported the Incheon Special Zone to set up new factories and develop industrial and commercial enterprises, but its technology was inferior to that of Western countries, and its low-quality goods were exported entirely on cheapness, and Japanese merchants could do so, and Qing merchants would naturally do the same.

Perhaps the current competitor may even seem a little inconspicuous, but Yamaguchi Koichi is even more wary of it than the Qingguo factory in the Shanghai Concession, which is why he deliberately stopped the carriage when passing by the public concession after a banquet with his business partners. Staring at the soap on display in the cabinet. Koichi Yamaguchi said to Sato, who was following him.

"Sato. Has this Beiyang trading company made any recent moves? ”

"Your Excellency President, there seems to be no movement in the Beiyang Trading Company these days, and most of their soaps and matches are wholesaled to traders through the old channels, and they have not had much impact on our products......

After a moment's thought, Sato seemed to remember something.

"Your Excellency, but yesterday I heard Takahashi from Mitsubishi Trading Company that Beiyang Trading Company had reached an agreement with Mitsubishi Trading Company to purchase 50,000 tons of Takashima coal. The settlement location is Shanghai. ”

What the!

His brows jumped slightly, and Yamaguchi Hongichi was now a little puzzled, why would Beiyang Trading Company buy coal from Mitsubishi? If the intelligence is correct, aren't they still preparing to sell North Korean coal in Shanghai? Why buy coal from Mitsubishi.

"When does the contract ever be fulfilled? What is the price? ”

"The contract is executed from the next month, and the price is 10% lower than the market price......"

This is a typical long-term supplier's condition, Mitsubishi did not suffer, and the same Beiyang Trading Company did not take advantage, but why did it do this? Isn't this Beiyang Trading Company a "national policy trade" enterprise of the Korean Unified Supervision Office? Why did you buy Mitsubishi Corporation's coal instead of North Korean coal sales?

In the confusion of the heart. Koichi Yamaguchi pondered over some of the details of this seemingly simple supply contract for five months. 50,000 tons, which is almost half of the output of the Takashima coal mine in the next five months, what can the Hokyo Trading Company get from it? They don't have any demand for coal themselves, so why buy so much coal?

"Anthracite!"

In the room on the second floor of the Beiyang Trading Company, while pressing the cigarette butt into the ashtray, Zhang Jing spit out three words.

"Takashima Coal is the only anthracite mine in Japan right now!"

Zhang Jing, who had just signed the largest order since the establishment of the company, seemed a little excited in his seemingly calm expression when facing Song Yuxin's questioning.

"Anthracite?"

Song Yuxin looked at Zhang Jing silently, what did he want to do? Isn't North Korean coal also anthracite? If it weren't for the fact that it had to wait for the opening of the Shanghai branch, the news of this incident would have caused a great deal of turmoil when it returned to Seoul, and instead of selling coal, the most important commodity of the Tongjian Office, the trading company had bought 50,000 tons from the Japanese.

"50,000 tons of coal, that's hundreds of thousands of silver!"

"But in the future, it will be hundreds, tens of millions of taels of coal!"

If it weren't for the lesson Tang Rongjun gave him on the boat that day, Zhang Jing would never have done such a business, but it was precisely because of Tang Rongjun's lesson that he realized that the company was not only about transporting coal to Shanghai and selling it to Shanghai, but also how to sell more coal for the company.

"Supervisor Song, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, the largest use of coal is marine, followed by factories, and then it is residential fuel, but taking Shanghai Coal Market as an example, the annual coal demand is only five or six hundred thousand tons, of which anthracite accounts for about 30%, and the rest are bituminous coal.

This......

Zhang Jing's rhetorical question made Song Yuxin dumb, as the company's chairman of the board of supervisors, he didn't know much about business, the current Beiyang Industrial Company is heavy-footed, and the "brain" of the unified supervision office is in a certain way, completely relying on Tang Haoran's own decisions, and Song Yuxin is more often just a decoration.

"Therefore, the market should be cultivated, whether it is Shanghai or along the river, its residents have no habit of burning coal, but if the company can take advantage of this winter to cultivate the habit of burning coal in Shanghai and the people along the river, at least introduce honeycomb coal and honeycomb coal furnaces into the cities, and wait until next year when the Datong River deices and Pyongyang coal is exported, the market facing the company will be more than 100,000 tons?"

"Yu Jing, what do you mean to sell honeycomb coal?"

Song Yuxin's eyes widened slightly, this honeycomb coal was a business that adults started in Beijing back then.

"It's not to sell honeycomb coal, but to cultivate the habit of using honeycomb coal among the people in the south, the company just sells coal, as for honeycomb coal, isn't there Huayang, I've sent someone to Tianjin to contact Huayang,"

After all, compared with the limitations of marine and factory use, the people's household is the largest market, and it is also the market he is ready to open up, so as to avoid fierce market seizure from the beginning.

"That Japanese Coal ......"

After thinking about it for a while, Song Yuxin immediately realized that the honeycomb coal market along the river is huge, but the market is big, and it is not suitable to use Japanese coal!

"There is no way to use Japanese coal, the Shanghai coal market is the cheapest along the river, as for other areas along the river, because of the backward mining method, the coal quality is poor and expensive, naturally not enough, not to mention, the coal mines along the river are bituminous coal, naturally can not do honeycomb coal, and the anthracite sold in Shanghai, only British coal, Australian coal and American coal, the price of the three is extremely high, at least 13 taels of a ton, but Japan's Takashima coal ton coal is less than 7 taels, as for our mine, now a day of coal is only a few hundred tons, And soon the Datong River will be closed, the reason why this contract was signed is nothing more than to cultivate the coal market, and when the coal market is cultivated, the Datong River will thaw, and this Pyongyang coal can naturally be transported to Shanghai in a steady stream and sold along the river! ”

In his opinion, it is better for Yu Qi to sell Pyongyang coal to shippers in Shanghai than to directly seize the honeycomb coal market, thus paving the way for the market in the coming year.

"Supervisor Song, now let's spend hundreds of thousands of taels to open up this market, until next year's large-scale coal mines, so as not to suffer from a narrow market, after all, Pyongyang is surrounded by open-pit mines, a mine produces hundreds of tons of coal every day, more than 1,000 tons, today this winter, I am going to set up a coal station in every city along the river, all the way to Jingzhou, each city does not need more, only need to have hundreds of households with coal, by next spring, this honeycomb coal and new coal furnace can spread to thousands, tens of thousands, so that In this area along the river, hundreds of thousands of tons, or even hundreds of thousands of tons, of coal are needed every month, and at that time, we may need to think about how to increase production, not how to sell coal. ”

At this time, Zhang Jing's voice seemed a little excited, so that even his tone changed slightly.

"Now the coal merchants of all countries in Shanghai, are based in Shanghai, all of them have not considered the sale of coal along the Yangtze River, this along the Yangtze River is not only ordinary people to use coal at home, along the river all over the bricks, porcelain, in the past are used to use charcoal, we set up coal stations along the river, we can take the lead in seizing the domestic market, when the foreign businessmen of various countries react, we have almost monopolized the coal market along the Yangtze River, at that time, and then with foreign businessmen to fight for Shanghai and other treaty ports, the coal market of the coastal provinces, Song Supervisor, if the company can control the coastal, In the commercial and private coal markets along the Yangtze River, how can there be only 10 million tons of coal sold this year? At that time, what we will transport out is coal, and what we will bring back is silver, and with silver, Fuzhong will naturally be able to build factories and run new schools. ”

Zhang Jing's words were passionate, but Song Yuxin seemed to be unaffected, not only did he not show his attitude, but he became silent, he just looked at the contract, and after a long time, he raised his head and looked directly at Zhang Jing and asked.

"What did you sign this contract with, I think that Mitsubishi Trading, an Oriental person, will never sign this contract with you out of thin air!"

"This ......"

After a pause, Zhang Jing looked at the company's supervisor in front of him with a somewhat complicated expression.

"Don't sue me, you're holding the signboard of the Unified Prison Mansion!"

As he spoke, Song Yuxin's brows jumped slightly, and his face became stern.

"Of course not, Mr. has repeatedly taught us and others, and we must not rely on the Unified Supervision Office to talk about business, how dare students damage Mr.'s name,"

Song Yuxin's face changed and fell in Zhang Jing's eyes, only for him to hurriedly explain himself.

"No, I'm holding a letter of credit from the bank." (To be continued......)