"Third brother, you see, this is the headquarters of the sea trade bank, it is behind the city of Guangzhou, in front of the port of Guangzhou, it can be said that the geographical location is very superior, you can see the entire Guangzhou port on the third floor, every day there are countless maritime merchants come here to do business, it is the most lively place in the whole Guangzhou port!" On the wharf of Guangzhou Port, Princess Chen Guo and Wang Shiyue accompanied Zhao Yan to a tall three-story building, and then Wang Shiyue introduced loudly.

Zhao Yan looked up at the three-story building in front of him, only to see people coming and going in front of the wide gate, it looks so lively, there is a plaque with three big characters written on the door, most of the people who come in and out of the door are brightly dressed, at a glance, you know that these people are definitely not poor, in fact, most of the people who come here to do business are maritime merchants, and as long as a maritime merchant is not too bad, then there will definitely be no shortage of money, after all, the profits of maritime trade are too amazing.

At the moment, Princess Chen Guo and his wife invited Zhao Yan to enter the sea trade shop, as soon as they entered, they saw a very wide hall, the area can almost be compared with the largest Wende Hall in the palace, but compared with the extremely empty Wende Palace, the hall of the sea trade house in front of them is crowded, and there are all people everywhere in sight, these people either gather in groups to talk together, or they are crowded in front of the counter of the sea trade house, and some people look around the sign hung up in the hall, Zhao Yan approached and found that the sign was written with some transaction informationIf a businessman is interested in this information, he can contact the person who posted this information through the Guò Sea Trade Bank, and maybe a business can be completed soon.

Princess Chen Guo and his wife are the masters of the maritime trade house, and almost all the maritime merchants and clerks here know them, so when they saw their husband and wife come in, many people saluted, but it was Zhao Yan's first time in Guangzhou, and there was no one he knew at all. However, he was able to let Princess Chen Guo and his wife accompany him personally, and the people around him naturally saw that his identity was extraordinary, and some bold people even took the initiative to come forward to salute, and Zhao Yan only smiled at this.

After taking a turn downstairs, Princess Chen Guo took him up to the second floor, compared to the hall on the first floor. The space on the second floor is smaller, but it is more important here, because this is the office area of the sea trade bank, as well as some important places for sea business negotiations, speaking of which the sea trade bank manages most of the maritime merchants of the Great Song Dynasty, so it is naturally impossible to rely only on Princess Chen Guo and his wife, in fact, there are hundreds of management personnel in the entire sea trade bank, most of whom are responsible for receiving the maritime merchants below on the first floor, and some deal with the affairs of the sea trade bank on the second floor.

As for the third floor of the Haimao Bank, the area is even smaller. This is the office area of Princess Chen Guo and his wife, and there is also a considerable meeting hall, whenever there is an important matter in the sea trade house, Princess Chen Guo and his wife will gather the influential sea merchants in the sea trade house and discuss a decision in the conference hall.

Princess Chen Guo introduced all aspects of the sea trade line to Zhao Yan while walking, Zhao Yan also listened to this very seriously, he came to the southern coast this time mainly to take over the sea trade industry here, and the sea trade line is an important institution of the sea trade industry. Speaking of which, although the scale of the sea trade bank is not small, and occupies an important position in the sea trade industry. But after all, it is a non-governmental organization, even if there is Princess Chen Guo and his wife, it still cannot be regarded as an official organization, and some things can only be discussed with the government, and the purpose of Zhao Yan's coming here is to set up an official maritime trade agency, and then the maritime trade bank will become his subordinate institution.

"Big sister. How many maritime merchants have joined the Maritime Trade Bank, how often can they organize a fleet to go to the South Seas, and where can they reach farthest? After listening to Princess Chen Guo's introduction, Zhao Yan stood at the window and looked at the Guangzhou Port in front of him, and then suddenly asked. It is not an easy task to take over Haimao, he must do a comprehensive investigation of Haimao, starting with Haimao today.

"Third brother, there are a total of 2,327 maritime merchants in the maritime trade bank, most of them are small and medium-sized maritime merchants, there are not many real maritime merchants, these maritime merchants under the organization of our maritime trade bank, there will be two large fleets to go to the South Seas every month, generally the farthest can reach Java Island and the Strait of Malacca, we have also tried to cross the Strait of Malacca to reach Tianzhu, but the small countries on both sides of the Strait of Malacca are deliberately making things difficult and imposing heavy taxes on us, so that we can only give up this plan."

When Princess Chen Guo talked about the Strait of Malacca, her face also showed unwillingness, because their fleet could not pass through the Strait of Malacca, so they could only sell the goods to the merchants of the South Seas, although they could also make dozens of times the profits, but those South Sea merchants could get a hundred times the profits by transporting the goods of the Great Song Dynasty to the Tianzhu area, so the maritime merchants of the Great Song Dynasty naturally wanted to send the goods to the Tianzhu area in person, but unfortunately the Strait of Malacca was too far away from the Great Song Dynasty, and the deterrent power of the Great Song Dynasty could not reach there, so this situation could not be changed for the time being.

Zhao Yan also knows a little about the situation in the Strait of Malacca, in fact, Princess Chen Guo has a world map drawn by him in her hand, and there are many place names on the map that he marked, such as the name of the Strait of Malacca, which Zhao Yan moved from later generations, and Zhao Yan did not know the original name.

However, Malacca is too far away from the Great Song Dynasty, Zhao Yan can't take care of it for the time being, at least in a short period of time, Zhao Yan doesn't plan to move Malacca, he is now concerned about some other issues, for example, at this time he asked a little strangely: "Eldest sister, I remember that when you first established the Maritime Trade Bank, the maritime merchants of the Great Song Dynasty were only a few hundred people, but why has it increased to more than 2,000 in just a few years?" ”

Hearing Zhao Yan ask this question, Princess Chen Guo and Wang Shiyue looked at each other and smiled, and then said with some pride: "The third brother doesn't know, the reason why the number of sea trade has increased so much can all be the credit of our sea trade line, speaking of which the sea bandits were rampant back then, and generally at least a dozen sea ships went to sea together, and they must all be big ships, otherwise they may encounter pirates, but since the establishment of our sea trade bank, a large-scale fleet is organized to sail together every month, plus there is a large Song water volume escort, There is no fear of pirates at all, so that some wealthy people with surplus money in their hands have also begun to covet the profits of sea trade, and have ordered sea ships to join the sea trade line, as long as they are full of goods, they can join the sea trade line fleet to go to the South Seas together, once is dozens of times the profit, so now most of our sea trade line are these small and medium-sized maritime merchants, although they do not have many ships in their hands, but have become the main force of our sea trade line. ”

"I see, I didn't expect that the sea trade bank would have such a role." Hearing Princess Chen Guo say this, Zhao Yan was also a little surprised, he originally established the sea trade line mainly to regulate the sea trade industry in the Great Song Dynasty, and by the way, to crack down on rampant pirates, but he didn't expect that the sea trade line would indirectly stimulate the development of the sea trade industry, making the number of maritime merchants and ships increase greatly, but it is normal to think about it, the sea trade line can indeed play a role in protecting small and medium-sized maritime merchants.

"Giggle~, in fact, the role of the sea trade line is not only that, the hall on the first floor has just seen the second brother, many people are doing business there, before the sea trade line was not established, the maritime merchants can only rely on the tooth people on the port to do business, but these tooth people are not the same, some of the tooth people are united together, raise or depreciate prices, so that the sea merchants are not easy to do business, sometimes a ship of goods has to wait for a month at the port to sell, but since the establishment of the sea trade bank, the sea business is much simpler, I don't dare to say anything else, as long as the maritime merchants here in Guangzhou bring in goods, except for the goods themselves, there are almost no others that cannot be sold. Princess Chen Guo said proudly again at this time, the sea trade line was established by her and her husband with hard work, so when it came to the sea trade line, she couldn't help but gush endlessly.

"Haha~, what the lady said is right, the sea trade line does provide great convenience for maritime merchants, but this is also the credit of the third brother, if it wasn't for the reminder of the third brother, where would we have thought of such a great thing as the establishment of the sea trade line?" Compared with Princess Chen Guo, Wang Shiyue was very modest at this time.

"The eldest brother-in-law is serious, I just move my mouth, and the real thing is the eldest sister and the eldest brother-in-law, so the biggest credit is still you, in addition, this time the younger brother came to take over the maritime trade, and I still need the help of the eldest sister and brother-in-law!" Zhao Yan was also very modest at this time.

Zhao Yan and Wang Shiyue praised each other a few words, and then Zhao Yan asked some matters related to maritime trade, such as the main export and import goods of the Great Song Dynasty, speaking of which the Great Song Dynasty mainly exported some agricultural and handicraft products, such as silk, porcelain, tea, linen, gold and silver utensils, metal products, coins, etc., in addition to a variety of daily necessities, the current Great Song Dynasty is the most advanced country in the world, so all kinds of goods in the Great Song Dynasty are sought-after goods overseas, and there is no need to worry about sales.

As for the goods imported by the Great Song Dynasty, it is relatively single, all of them are all kinds of treasures, spices, medicinal materials, woolen fabrics, cotton fabrics, etc., almost all of them are luxury goods, some people may wonder, why cotton fabrics are luxury goods, in fact, before the Yuan Dynasty, the Central Plains almost did not produce cotton cloth, a small amount of cotton cloth is called white folded cloth, although the quality is not as good as the cotton cloth of later generations, but the price can be compared with silk.

In addition to the import and export of goods, Zhao Yan also asked about the size, speed, voyage and other issues of the sea vessel, and there were also some things related to sea trade, which he needed to figure out in advance, and the princess Chen Guo and his wife in front of him happened to be experts in this area, so Zhao Yan also humbly asked for advice, and even in the next few days, he asked the other party almost every day for advice on things related to sea trade, and took notes when necessary.

After studying for a while, Zhao Yan felt that he finally had a relatively comprehensive understanding of maritime trade, and then he finally began to take over another important institution in the Great Song Dynasty maritime trade industry, that is, the Guangzhou Shipping Division of the Great Song Dynasty. (To be continued......)