November 17, 1843 is a memorable day, which is the day when the magic capital was opened to trade, and it is also the day when Zhao Dagui received the first business.

On this day, Bafur sent someone to tell Zhao Dagui to go to him, and when Zhao Dagui entered the consul's office, he found the consul chatting with a man in his fifties wearing a captain's hat.

"Mr. Zhao," seeing Zhao Dagui come in, Bafur motioned for him to sit on the chair in front of the desk, "You have been working in the consulate for a few days, I don't know how you feel?"

"I think it's good, everyone is very enthusiastic and the work is very smooth. Zhao Dagui pretended to be innocent and said.

In fact, what Zhao Dagui said is really not a lie, working in the consulate, every day there are British people who want to take him to the street to investigate the market, and he doesn't have to pay for eating and shopping, if you only look at it from the perspective of a migrant worker, this is simply a paradise.

However, hearing a Chinese person speak English so fluently, the old sailor looked like he had seen a ghost.

"It's good to know that you've adapted well. By the way, this is Captain Charles Alfred Kellett, you can get to know him. Bafur smiled and pointed to the old sailor.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Shaw, and the consul has praised you. The old captain said politely.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Captain. By the way, the new merchant ship outside the city is yours, right?" Zhao Dagui said politely.

The night before, a Western-style ocean-going merchant ship sailed over, just outside the Dadong Gate, Zhao Dagui had been paying attention to the situation of Western merchant ships, and he was very warm for a while after knowing the news.

"Captain Kellett came from England to do business in China, and he was arguably the first British merchant to trade in the northern port of the Magic Capital.

I hope you will assist Mr. Captain in obtaining the goods he needs and selling all the goods he has brought.

This will be your most important job during this time, and anything else at the consulate can be put down for the time being. Bafur said.

"Oh, I'll do my best. Zhao Dagui nodded and took the task, feeling ecstatic in his heart.

After waiting for so many days, I finally waited for the opportunity to do business, and I lurked at the British Consulate, isn't it just to wait for this opportunity.

Captain Kellett took out a list of goods and handed it to Zhao Dagui, while describing the type of goods he hoped to obtain.

Zhao Dagui carefully read the list and found that the goods brought by Captain Kellett included about 50,000 yuan in Spanish silver dollars, as well as about 80,000 yuan worth of Western goods, including various foreign cloths, clocks, gold and silver utensils, foreign guns, and bird's nests.

Among these Western commodities, foreign cloth accounts for the largest proportion, accounting for more than 80 percent of the total value, while there are many other commodities, but the total amount is not much.

After Zhao Dagui looked at it carefully, he nodded, this is almost a typical cargo brought by the British merchant ships that came to China in this era.

The journey from England to China was long and the cost was not small, so after the nineteenth century, the merchant ships in China tended to be larger, and the total value of the goods brought was much higher than that in the eighteenth century, and the total price was generally between 80,000 and 150,000 yuan.

Under normal circumstances, the cash brought by ocean-going merchant ships is usually only 20,000 yuan, but this captain brought a full 50,000 yuan, probably considering that the war had just ended, and he did not know that it was inconvenient to sell the goods, so he brought some extra cash.

However, there are still ten boxes of opium in this shipment, which are worth about 6,000 yuan at the current price, which is a bit annoying, and Zhao Dagui doesn't want to make this kind of money even if he wants to make money.

Fortunately, the total amount of opium was not large, and it seemed that it was also because ports such as the magic capital theoretically did not allow the free trade of opium, so the captain did not bring too much for the sake of prudence.

Many people think that under the Treaty of Nanjing, the British automatically gained the right to buy and sell opium freely in ports such as Modu, but this is not accurate.

The real situation is that according to the judicial interpretation of the Qing court, the British can freely bring opium into the port, but the government has the right to restrict and punish Chinese merchants who buy and sell opium, and the British diplomatic department is helpless about this, and as for how this regulation is implemented, everyone in Chinese knows it.

According to Zhao Dagui's understanding, his duty is to help Captain Kellett sell the cargo worth 130,000 yuan, and then help buy the return cargo.

"What kind of cargo do you bring, I know, and I want to confirm, what kind of return cargo do you want to get?" After confirming some details on the list with the captain, Zhao Dagui nodded and asked about the return cargo.

"The return cargo is naturally preferably tea, the more the better, preferably high-quality black or green tea.

If the amount of tea is not large, decent Nanking homespun cloth, rhubarb, raw silk and lacquerware will do, and of course tea is the best, knowing that it is in London that it is the most convenient goods to sell. The old captain replied.

"I see. Zhao Dagui nodded, this situation is similar to what he expected, at this time the British still value tea the most, and then soon began to pay attention to raw silk, and then in the next thirty or forty years, the export of silk tea accounted for more than 90% of the total exports.

"Let me tell you that Modu doesn't produce tea locally, but it's close to many tea-producing areas, so you should be able to contact some reliable tea merchants.

As for the other goods you bring with you, they should be marketable locally, which may be nice, but given that this is the first time a locals have come into contact with British goods, we should be cautious and not rush in the first place.

I think the safest thing to do is to go and get in touch with some local tea merchants, then show you some samples, and then decide whether to buy or not, the price, etc.

I see that the goods you brought include 50,000 Spanish silver dollars, and merchants in Guangzhou and other places may be very familiar with these light and easy to use currencies, but the magic capital is the north after all, and there was less contact with foreign merchants in the past, and silver dollars were not used as often as in the south.

But rest assured, this is a practical currency after all, and it is easy to exchange it with some banks, and even some merchants are willing to accept it directly.

In short, I will first find more samples of local tea to show you, and then help you buy tea worth 50,000 yuan, and then find a way to sell the other goods you brought, and then exchange them for suitable return goods, what do you think?" Zhao Dagui said.

"Quite reasonable. Captain Kellett thought for a long time before nodding and saying.

Zhao Dagui finalized some details with Captain Kellett before turning to Bafur and said.

"Mr. Consul, I told you at the beginning that I wanted to register a firm, and now if I want to do business with this Mr. Captain, it should be more appropriate to act as an agent of a firm, after all, the status is more equal.

What do you think?"