"This price seems to be 20 to 25 percent lower than that of Guangzhou, are you sure you can really get tea at this price, and it is still the bulk quantity I need?"

The captain asked thoughtlessly, but he instantly caused a 10,000-point critical blow to Zhao Dagui, which made him feel in pain, and he wanted to vomit blood on the spot.

"What I'm showing you, naturally, can be guaranteed. At this time, Zhao Dagui could only answer stubbornly.

"That's good, I'll buy 1,500 quintals of tea first, this, that, and these ones, let's buy a few quintals of each.

By the way, how long will it take for us to get the tea after we have finalized the business?

I want to tell you that the first time we do business, we can only pay with one hand and deliver the goods with the other, and there is no such thing as paying a deposit in advance. The captain stared at Zhao Dagui with blazing eyes, as if he wanted to see every subtle change in Zhao Dagui's face.

"That's natural, when the time comes, the goods will be delivered in the courtyard of the Yao family, and you will pay the money after you have inspected the goods.

If we can, we'll settle it in three days, how about that?"

"Well, no problem, I naturally hope that the sooner the better. However, I remember that in Guangzhou, the goods can only be obtained half a year or even a year after the deposit is placed, so the goods can be obtained so quickly?"

"You used to buy goods according to the process of exporting tea, but now you have signed some Jiangning Treaty, you are now in the magic capital according to the price of domestic tea, naturally also domestic tea delivery process, the intermediate links are naturally much less than in Guangzhou. ”

"I see. The captain said, but his face was hesitant, it was really the price and service that were too good for the experienced captain to believe.

After thinking for a while, the captain tried his best to squeeze out a smile on his face, stretched out his hand to Zhao Dagui to shake hands, and said approvingly: "Mr. comprador has worked hard, then we will make up our minds, and we will pay the money with one hand and deliver the goods with the other hand in three days." ”

"It's a pleasure to do business with you. Zhao Dagui also stretched out his hand and held it tightly with the other party.

Even if this business is so decided, but Zhao Dagui went out, his heart was cold, he had already reported this offer as high as possible, but he didn't expect it to be much lower in the end.

According to the captain, the purchase price of tea here is more than 20% lower than that of Guangzhou, so that the thirteen lines of Guangzhou have been selling tea directly at double the purchase price for hundreds of years.

Considering that the annual export volume of tea since the nineteenth century has been more than 10 million yuan, we can understand how much money the Thirteen Lines have made over the years, and it also makes Zhao Dagui have a new respect for the legendary Thirteen Merchants--- he is really good at doing business.

The so-called words are spoken, the water is spilled, and Zhao Dagui is helpless at this point, and it is not appropriate to change the quotation now, and now he can only fulfill the contract according to the agreement just now.

In the next few days, Zhao Dagui was very busy, first re-signing a formal contract with the captain, indicating the type, price, quantity, and fineness of the tea to be traded, in lieu of the previously signed memorandum-style initialed agreement, and also in duplicate in Chinese and English;

Then, Zhao Dagui had to find the corresponding tea house shopkeeper according to the tea samples determined by the captain, negotiate the details of the transaction, and sign the necessary written agreement.

In this era, Chinese businessmen did not like to enter into written contracts, and often had a word-and-say situation, but these only appeared between acquaintances who were particularly familiar with and had been dealing with for a long time.

Of course, these shopkeepers have great powers, and they have already inquired that this obviously layman Zhao is actually helping foreigners, and he is both curious and excited, and at the same time, like Zhao Zhushen, he regrets not quoting the price high, and there are not a few businessmen who slaughter these foreigners.

After these things were done, Zhao Dagui had to persuade the captain to find the largest local bank, deposit the 50,000 yuan of silver dollars, and exchange them for the money bank's special money ticket.

Captain Kellett still has great doubts about Zhao Dagui himself and the tea trade, but he is very relieved to use the bank, which the captain has also used in Guangzhou, and knows that this kind of bank with Chinese characteristics is quite reliable and easy to use;

Second, after all, this money bank is different from people like Zhao Dagui, they are all old enterprises that have been operating locally for decades or even hundreds of years, and it is impossible to run away with the money, even if that kind of thing happens, with the strength of the British government, it will definitely be able to recover from the Qing government;

After all, the war a few years ago also involved the problem of arrears of goods, and the compensation paid by the Qing government for more than 10 million taels included compensation for the arrears of some merchants in the 13 banks, and I believe that the Qing government will be very cautious on this issue.

And Consul Bafur is not a dry meal in the magic capital, so many days have long been inquired about the most reliable local money bank, and there is no need for Zhao Dagui's recommendation, the captain will go directly to the money bank recommended by the consul to apply for money tickets (from this point of view, the consul and the captain actually do not trust Zhao Dagui).

Zhao Dagui was very happy to see the captain so good.

What he is doing now is a kind of intermediary agency business, that is, to get money from the captain, deduct his own profits and send it to the tea house, if it is done with silver dollars, it is too inconvenient, the captain can easily judge what the purchase price of Zhao Dagui's tea is and what the profit is when he looks at the number of silver dollar boxes.

In short, the devil is in the details.

With the intensive preparations of all parties, on December 5, the first major purchase of the British in the magic capital began.

As the first direct transaction with the British in this city, this business naturally attracted great attention, whether it was dozens of foreigners living in the British Consulate, or officials of the major yamen of the government, they were very concerned about this incident, and even in later generations, there were a large number of papers on this transaction, discussing its impact on the pattern of the magic capital, the Qing Dynasty, Britain and even the world.

However, the day's trading was actually quite simple, lackluster, and nothing thrilling.

According to Zhao Dagui's arrangement, the transaction was held in an open courtyard of Yao's house, where Captain Kellett and his crew and the foreigners from the consulate stood at one end of the courtyard, staring at each other, and on the other side were the shopkeepers of the Chinese tea houses, bringing a large number of men and tea leaves, waiting murderously at the other end.

Then, as soon as Zhao Dagui gave an order, the two sides picked up their own guys and rushed towards each other with a roar, and for a while, the swords and swords were shining, and the flesh and blood were flying... Well, Zhao Dagui admitted that this was just a fantasy in his head, and when he saw that this was very similar to the scene of the underworld trading arms in the movie, he made up for it in his mind.

In fact, the time had come, and as soon as Zhao Dagui made a gesture, the shopkeepers of the tea inn instructed the men to pick up the tea and send it to the side where the foreigners were standing, and successively sent a hundred loads of tea, and then returned to the original place to wait.

Then, the captain and the sailors came forward to inspect the goods, including some foreigners who had come to help, such as Baoshun, Benhao, Qichang, Yihe and other foreign companies sent to the magic capital (in fact, they wanted to accumulate trading experience in the magic capital), and carefully checked the color, shape, taste and moisture of the tea leaves.

After the inspection of the 100 quintals of tea, the captain nodded, indicating that he accepted the goods, and then handed Zhao Dagui a silver ticket worth 5,000 yuan, Zhao Dagui counted it, and then went to the other side where the shopkeepers were standing to settle the bill with the shopkeeper who provided this batch of tea.