The afterglow of the setting sun reflects the endless flow of the Yangtze River. The Hankou British Concession near the river is lined with rows, and the noisy market gradually quiets down with the dispersed flow of people. On the stone road paved with horse's tooth stone along the river, from beginning to end, there are large and small foreign foreign companies distributed one after another. The new and old Sassoon & Co. are also in the middle of it, and the Western-style three-story building in a two-story building is particularly eye-catching.

Old Sassoon & Co. is the largest firm of Sephardic Jews in China, and even in some sense, it is also the most capitalized company of Sephardic Jews in the world.

Unlike other enterprises, the old Sassoon Bank started by relying on the first one, as early as 20 years ago, it used better quality Turkey to leave behind the once monopolized business of Jardine Matheson, Buandi and other foreign companies, the reason why Sassoon was able to participate in HSBC in China, set up a steamship company, and engage in trade in the Far East relied on the huge benefits brought by the company, and it was the achievement of the Sassoon and the Sassoon family.

As the night deepened, when the other foreign companies had already closed their stores, the office hall on the first floor of Sassoon was still brightly lit. It is a two-storey brick and timber building, with a classical European Renaissance façade on the ground floor, a row of arched doors and windows, and a new two-story red brick wall on the upper floor.

At this moment, the senior class and several compradors of the Hankou branch of Sassoon & Co. were gathering, and the air in the room seemed to be filled with a smell of gunsmoke.

"Today, the government has taken action, and they have seized all the tobacco factories in Wuchang, Hanyang, and Hankou, that is to say, from now on, there will be no cooked tobacco for sale in the three places, and the inventory of each museum will be exhausted in no more than two weeks, and in three or four days. Guys, you sue me, what should we do now? ”

Like the Sassoon family, he also came to China from Baghdad, because he had some in-laws with the Sassoon family, and because of his business ability, he had just been appointed as the head of the Hankow branch last year. The government's ban on smoking has disrupted the overall plan of Foks, who originally planned to sell more tobacco this year, and he believes that those people will realize that the quality of Turkish ** is much higher than that of local medicine.

The comprador sitting opposite him said in a tone full of helplessness:

"What's the solution? The British consul did not come forward for us, and now our tobacco can still be shipped out of the warehouse, but the problem is that no tobacco dealer dares to buy it, and even if they do, what is the use. ”

Another comprador slowly agreed:

"But no, there is no way to buy it, the tobacco shop has been seized, in the past, those tobacco shops were set up by big tobacco houses, and then a few small tobacco houses were bundled, but now the tobacco shop is closed, and the smoker has also been taken by the government, even if they buy our tobacco soil, what can they do? If no one makes cigarettes, you can't make cooked cigarettes, and you don't have that time. ”

"It takes two months to make tobacco even in summer, and the current weather, without two months, the tobacco can't be cooked!"

"I didn't dare to sell the raw soil that wanted human life in the past, and no one dares now!"

The bitterness of the crowd made Fu Shi think for a moment, then looked at the compradors and said:

"Then according to what you mean, now, we can't sell our tobacco!"

The cold snort of the senior class made the compradors quickly hang their heads, and no one was willing to say anything, and it took a while before someone spoke.

"At least it's hard to sell now, and those local medicine stores are now scared to send tobacco to the concession ......"

The smoking ban is not sudden, after all, there has been news for a long time, but what is really sudden is that the smoking ban bureau will move so quickly, and it will hit the lifeblood of middle-aged people at once.

"Hmph"

Smiling contemptuously, Fushi retorted.

"Non-smoking? Monopoly? This idea of theirs is simply naïve. They suddenly closed all the tobacco shops, and I had to see how the anti-smoking bureau relied on so many dozen people to deal with what happened next! ”

With a sneer, Fushi pondered for a moment, then looked at the compradors and said.

"Increase the price of cigarettes by one percent, I believe that a prosperous market is waiting for us!"

When Fortune swore that Wangshi was coming, in another foreign house separated by three brick and wood buildings, Hartung was sitting on a sofa and discussing with Dabanteris of the Hankou branch, and they were also talking about the non-smoking and **.

"Oh, according to what you say, as long as the tobacco shop is seized, it is equivalent to severing the connection between the tobacco shop and the tobacco shop?"

Although he is also engaged in the ** business, for Hartung, he does not understand the tobacco retail process.

"The connection between the tobacco shop and the tobacco house has not been broken, because most of the tobacco shops are jointly established by several tobacco houses, and we also directly trade with the tobacco houses, but if the tobacco shops are seized, it means that the tobacco houses have lost the source of cooked cigarettes, which will invert it into a smokeless situation to sell, and the tobacco makers are arrested, so that even if they buy tobacco from the tobacco store, they cannot process it, which will invert it into a situation where there is no soil to sell, but this is not the most terrible!"

Taking a puff of his cigar, Tris looked at Hartung as he exhaled the smoke, and only said slowly after he had asked what was the most terrifying.

"The most terrible, those tobacco shops, are usually the implementation of the joint-stock system, with a large tobacco house as the head, and then a number or even a dozen small tobacco houses to join forces, the tobacco house from the tobacco shop after the purchase of tobacco soil, by its processing of mature tobacco, and then sent to the tobacco house, this means that each tobacco shop has its own account book, and the account book lists in detail the amount of cooked soil sent to each tobacco house, I believe that the anti-smoking bureau needs this account book, with those account books, all the tobacco houses in the three places need how much tobacco soil every day, are completely in its control, He can easily establish a monopoly system in three places! ”

"My God!"

Hartung couldn't believe his ears, that account book seemed to involve almost no money, but it clearly recorded the purchase and sale of tobacco stores and tobacco houses in Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang.

"My friend, believe me, if in the past, I suspected that he could not establish a tobacco monopoly system, now, I will no longer doubt that he can do this,"

Tris's exclamation made Hartung nod his head in agreement.

"He holds the power of the government in his hands, and the Chinese are afraid of officials!"

Hartung suddenly let out a long sigh and looked at Tris.

"It seems that this time I came for nothing!"

To be precise, he was late, he missed the time when the Anti-Smoking Bureau needed help the most, if he could have come a few days earlier...... Thinking of this, he shook his head helplessly and observed it again! Thinking to himself, he walked to the window and looked at Wuchang on the other side, the non-smoking bureau, chanting this word, the corners of his lips raised slightly, these Chinese, will also play word games.

Thousands of account books were placed in front of dozens of cases, and those scribes who were temporarily invited from the yamen kept making calculations to calculate the daily purchase and sales of each tobacco house in the account books, and then summarize them.

"So the 7 branches in the three towns of Fulin Pavilion sell 367 taels and 4 yuan of tobacco every day?"

Putting down an account book that had just been remitted in his hand, Tang Haoran looked at Song Yuxin, his face full of surprise.

"Back to my lord, a high-end smoke house like the Fulin Pavilion must be less than 100 yuan per dollar, and one yuan in the ocean to pick up one or two cigarettes, and there are only seven or eight dollars in between, and old smokers can't enjoy it."

Song Yuxin took out an account book, flipped through it for a while, and then continued.

According to the current statistics, there are 786 large and small tobacco houses in the three towns, more than 2,000 tobacco stalls, and the daily tobacco soil is at least 20,000 taels, although there is a saying that there is a cigarette one or two silver ......, but the tobacco is also divided into upper and lower grades, and the prices of the upper and lower grades are different, so the daily tobacco houses and tobacco stalls can get 12,000 taels of silver."

Tang Haoran looked at Song Yuxin, but there was a mixture of flavors in his heart, just three towns and one place smoked four or five million taels a year, so what about the whole of China? Thinking that when the smoking ban was banned in the late Qing Dynasty, it was estimated that the annual output of local medicine in the country was more than 1 million quintals, worth billions of taels of silver, Tang Haoran only felt a tingling scalp, fortunately, it has not yet developed to the point where the whole country grows and "enjoys" the fruits of their labor, if it is allowed to flood for decades?

Thinking of the "brilliance" seen in the historical materials, the annual consumption of nearly 200,000 quintals in Hubei Province at the end of the Qing Dynasty is now more than 10,000 quintals per year, no, suddenly, Tang Haoran raised his head, looked at Song Yuxin and asked.

"Twenty thousand taels, which is almost 15 taels, doesn't this mean that the three towns need 5,000 taels a year? If I'm not mistaken, last year's statistics on the collection of foreign medicine were 16,712 quintals, doesn't this mean that the three towns alone consumed more than 30% of the province's total in a year? Or is there still tens of thousands of quintals of private drugs every year? ”

The difference in numbers made Tang Haoran immediately realize the gap, the population of the three towns is only more than 700,000, while the population of Hubei Province is 30 million, the gap is too big.

"My lord, every year self-produced and self-sold plus the inflow of private drugs in Sichuan Province, although there are at least 10,000 quintals, but the real big head is adulterated, but all those who sell cigarettes, there is no adulteration, we don't copy hundreds of red dates in the tobacco shop, that is, it is used to make jujube paste to adulterate the tobacco soil, this adulteration varies from less than 40 percent, more than 60 percent, and the three towns actually have 26700 quintals of tobacco a year."

Soaking in the market all the year round, Song Yuxin naturally has more insight than others, especially these ninth-rate methods, and he is naturally very clear about tobacco and soil adulteration.

"My lord, there is a saying of two cigarettes and two silvers, and this is said to be in this fake,"

Hearing him say this, Tang Haoran breathed a sigh of relief, but when he looked at Song Yuxin, his mind seemed a little complicated, it was the person in front of him, Jian yì first raided the tobacco workshop, and caught the account books of the tobacco workshop, not only can grasp the situation of the tobacco market in the three towns, but also can copy a large number of tobacco soil.

But for Tang Haoran, what he values is the next step after the account books are in hand, if he is a qiē shun lì, at the latest tomorrow, he can initially implement the "monopoly" in the three towns.

"Jie Qi, this matter is thanks to you!"

Donggong's praise made Song Yuxin hurriedly get up and say.

"My lord, I have entered the curtain of adults in the next place, and I should serve my lords, and besides, I won't know until tomorrow!"

(The new book is being uploaded, and I hope you will continue to support the speechless, ask for recommendations, and ask for collections!) Rise of Empires Readership: 150536833)