Li Nai stood on the deck with his hands behind his back, silently looking at the lucky ship with the flag of "Haihan" in front of him, but he was thinking about something else in his heart.

The trade name "Fu Ruifeng" was created by the Li family in the Hongwu period, and it has been passed down from generation to generation for more than 200 years. Through the efforts of several generations of the Li family, "Fu Ruifeng" has gradually developed from a hawker and merchant in the streets and alleys to a large trading house with 17 branches and business all over South China. In Guangzhou, today's "Fu Ruifeng" is also one of the few shopping mall predators.

Li Nai's life is good, it can be said that he was born with a golden key, this is because his father is Li Jifeng, the big boss of "Fu Ruifeng", and since the day he was born, he has been living a life of a human being. If there is any regret, it is that there are two elder brothers above him, and in terms of the order of heirs, Li Nai can be ranked third at most.

If nothing happens in the future, what Li Nai can inherit is probably a business name somewhere under "Fu Ruifeng". Just like the shopkeeper Li of Yazhou's "Fu Ruifeng", he and the big boss Li Jifeng are also cousins, but because they have no inheritance rights, they can only be assigned to local businesses as stewards.

Li Nai's father didn't want him to continue to follow the road of business, after all, the entire social environment was heavy on agriculture and light on business, and there were four classes of businessmen and businessmen, and businessmen had always been at the bottom. Although the Li family has been good at business for generations, and has continued to develop and grow "Fu Ruifeng" for more than two hundred years, if you really want to talk about social status, the Li family is still quite a long way from the real wealthy.

The reason for this is actually very simple, because the Li family has never been an official for eight generations, and they are all businessmen, so it is naturally difficult to achieve a higher social status. Li Jifeng learned from the pain, so he worked Li Nai, and spent a lot of money to invite famous teachers to study in famous schools, hoping that he would soar through the imperial examination in the future, so that the old Li family could also produce a civil servant in the system.

Li Nai was also angry, he won Xiucai at the age of fourteen, and passed the township examination at the age of eighteen, but he participated in the two examinations after that, but failed to pass. Although it is said that as long as you become a lifter, you can become an official, but there are so many people in the world that you have to rank a magistrate and county official position at least ten years later, which is obviously a deviation from Li Jifeng's original goal of hoping for Jackie Chan.

Li Nai himself has been reading books for more than ten years, and he is a little tired of taking exams year after year, so he politely proposed that he wanted to try to help his family take care of business. Li Jifeng is also an enlightened person, thinking that Li Nai has already been admitted to the Juren anyway, and he can be regarded as having a fame, and it is indeed not easy to grab the quota of the three hundred tributes, so he gave him a relatively easy errand to go to Qiongzhou Mansion to talk about trade cooperation with a local maritime businessman. If Li Nai does well, it is okay to slowly hand over some business for him to take care of, if it does not go well, it is enough to go back to study and take the exam, anyway, the family is not short of this money to support him to concentrate on studying.

Regarding the object of this visit, Li Nai has actually heard about it. In May, the merchant on the Qiongzhou side sent a few pieces of glassware and silver mirrors, according to the guy who sent the things, a new group of maritime merchants appeared near Yazhou in the south of Qiongzhou Island, claiming to be from thousands of miles overseas "Haihan Kingdom", its appearance, language are the same as the Ming people, but the clothing, customs have many unique features. These Haihan people seem to have mastered some unique craftsmanship that allowed them to produce glassware that was no less than that of Western merchants. As for the silver mirror, Li Nai has also seen it with his own eyes, and it is very clear, which is better than the bronze mirror, and it is an extremely rare object on the market.

Li Jifeng has been in business for many years, and he also knows that Western merchants have this kind of peculiar silver mirror in their hands, but because the quantity is extremely rare, people don't sell it at all, and they keep it for their own use. And these new Haihan people apparently mastered some kind of mirror-making technology, and among the mirrors they sold, there was even a square mirror that reached a foot in length and width. Although this mirror was asked for eight hundred taels of silver, in Li Jifeng's eyes, this rare thing in the world, let alone eight hundred taels, is worth it to double or triple the price.

Sure enough, this mirror was only placed in the head office of "Fu Ruifeng" for two days, and then it was purchased by a certain big man in Guangzhou Prefecture at a price of 1,500 taels of silver. The small number of other samples sent from Qiongzhou was quickly sold out. Li Jifeng immediately asked people to buy saltpeter, sulfur, coke and other commodities required by the other party in the market, and shipped them to Qiongzhou Island.

After that, every half a month, a batch of goods from "Haihan" would arrive in Guangzhou, because of the shrewd watch of the shopkeeper Li in Yazhou, "Fu Ruifeng" got the exclusive right to operate Haihan glassware and silver mirrors in Guangzhou, which also made the head office make a lot of money.

In mid-June, the shopkeeper Li of the Yazhou branch of "Fu Ruifeng" returned to Guangzhou to report on his work, and brought back the latest Haihan products and their requirements by the way. Li Jifeng kept half of this new glass stationery himself, and Li Nai, as a representative of the family's readers, was also fortunate to get a set.

In order to help the family promote this new product, Li Nai specially led a poetry meeting, which was attended by many local cultural celebrities in Guangzhou. As soon as this glass stationery appeared, the forced style of the entire poetry club seemed to have been qualitatively improved. As Schneider expected, this kind of crystal clear cultural goods immediately got the praise and popularity of the readers, of course, the readers who can pursue this thing are generally more well-off, after all, not every reader has the financial strength to spend a hundred taels to buy a set of glass stationery.

Yes, that's right, the factory price of glass stationery in Shengli Port is only ten or two sets, and after arriving in Guangzhou, the tide has risen, and the Li family has digested five sets themselves, so there are only five sets left on the market. One hundred taels is not too expensive, if it is not a person who is close to Li Sangongzi, the owner of "Fu Ruifeng", there is no place to buy it even if he holds the silver.

Li Nai at the poetry meeting "very regrettable" to inform the local scholars, this kind of glass stationery from thousands of miles overseas, and each set is customized, it is very difficult to come by, the contempt firm is trying to order, but as for when the goods will arrive, how much can be to be announced, friends who are interested in buying can pay more attention to the shop pù of the contempt firm The implication is that this thing is now priceless and unmarketable, if you want to buy it to pretend to be forced, then prepare the silver as soon as possible!

Naturally, there are people with fast brains who quietly find Li Nai after the poetry meeting, and they insist on taking a deposit to make a reservation first. In view of the high purchase enthusiasm of consumers, Li Nai only had "reluctantly" accepted these reservations, and after two or three days, more than 20 people have placed deposits in Li Nai, and its market prospects can be said to be bright.

According to the shopkeeper Li who brought back these samples, this is just a sample made by Haihan people, and the official product will definitely be more refined and perfect. A shopkeeper on Haihan's side has already spoken, and a variety of products will be launched one after another, and this category of products will be distinguished from the brand and price, in the words of Haihan people, this is called "developing products according to the needs of consumers".

The Li family's father and son were stunned when they heard it, the truth contained in these business strategies is not particularly profound, they are all people who have been in business for many years, and they can figure out the key to it a little bit, but no one has ever thought about it like this, and has never done this. These remarks relayed by the shopkeeper Li were like opening a new door in front of their eyes, making them realize that the original business could still do this.

Of course, in addition to these, the 1,000 catties of refined salt also aroused Li Jifeng's great interest. Needless to say, the profits of the private salt business are not to mention, and Li Jifeng, who has been rolling in the mall for many years, naturally has a number. The refined salt provided by the Haihan people is not only of good quality, but also extremely low in price, and the other party is willing to supply "Fu Ruifeng" for a long time at the price of 50 taels of silver per 1,000 catties. Compared with the current price of 350 to 400 taels of silver per 1,000 catties in Guangzhou, the profit is simply frighteningly high. Even if "Fu Ruifeng" does not sell it directly, but resells these illicit salt to several local salt merchants, the profit from this change of hands is also very considerable. But out of prudence, Li Jifeng still told the shopkeeper Li that when he replied to the Haihan people, he needed to ask the other party to supply more than 10,000 catties per month, if there was no huge transaction volume as a support, then the benefits that this business could bring were not enough for "Fu Ruifeng" to take risks for this.

In his opinion, there are several characteristics of Haihan people doing business, one of which is to be trustworthy, the price of goods negotiated, the type and quantity will not change, and the settlement of accounts is also very clear, and there is no delay and repetition.

The second is flexibility, the Haihan people do business will rarely require cash payment, generally barter, and now it is the introduction of a "negotiable coupon" such a thing in local transactions instead of silver money, saving the money in the settlement of the number of counts, check the trouble of quality.

The third is the method, Haihan people not only master the advanced production technology, its skills in promoting goods are also worth learning, like this time Li Nai engaged in the poetry meeting, in fact, Schneider to Yazhou Li shopkeeper out of the idea, of course, Schneider described this method did not mention the use of "poetry meeting" this form, but used another word that everyone is relatively unfamiliar with the product promotion meeting. But in any case, this method is obviously very effective, and Li Jifeng has even thought about what new things will be listed in the future, and he should promote them in advance like this.

These characteristics summarized by Yazhou Li's shopkeeper have become an important reference for Li Nai to visit the Haihan people on Qiongzhou Island. A few days later, the shopkeeper left Canton with thousands of taels of silver and two ships purchased for the Haihan, and he was going to Shengli Harbor to order the next batch of glassware, stationery, mirrors, and perhaps other new goodies from the Haihan.