First of all, the factory building destroyed by fire had to be rebuilt, which had been done before, and it was not difficult to rebuild the building or make various machines, but it was an opportunity to solve the problems existing in the previous silk reeling system.

On the other hand, foreign branches in Huzhou and Hangzhou are also taking the opportunity to buy tea and raw silk at low prices.

At this time, there were no foreign compradors competing with the big noble firms, there were no opponents at all, and the prices of these local products were a little lower than before.

That's it for this year's business, but next year, in 1846, there will be British merchant ships coming to do business, and it would be good to prepare some goods.

Zhao Dagui also had the leisure to do some other things, such as studying the manufacture of silk and producing more expensive cooked silk from raw silk.

Regardless of whether silk or cooked silk, the price is more expensive than raw silk, and the profit in the middle is also more, imitating Western equipment for production, using China's cheap labor and low raw material costs, is promising.

In addition, it is very beneficial to send people to Shandong and other places to purchase raw silk and tussah silk, and to Fujian and Huguang to purchase tea, etc., so as to increase the supply of goods and the variety of goods.

Anyway, the firm is now full of cash and is not very busy, so it just happened to do all these things together.

At the same time, there is still much that can be done to seize the time to let the scholars of the Oriental Academy master English and mathematics, and to give enlightened lectures to the business guys, the shipyard workers, and the students, and to enrich their foundations.

The shopkeeper and his men of the Dagui Commercial Bank are actually confused, originally their own commercial bank was on fire, lost the factory and a large amount of goods, and their hearts are sad, how can they turn around and become the most cashy and the best economic business in Shanghai.

Compared with the tragic situation of other trading houses that could not be cashed out, it is very appropriate that they only lost two factories, is this the legendary blessing of misfortune resting on?

However, some shrewd shopkeepers sniffed out a different feeling, and it was all too much of a coincidence, so lucky that it was impossible to believe that it was a coincidence.

However, these people are all old and shrewd people, and they all bury this doubt in their hearts and never say it out.

In November, only small foreign banks and comprador houses collapsed, and from December onwards, larger commercial houses also closed down one after another, or at least ceased operations.

In the past, there were several powerful foreign banks in Hong Kong, some of them went bankrupt and went bankrupt, some of them ran away with debts, and some of them did not owe a lot of debts and left after paying off their debts with various assets.

Among the five members of the trade group, the trade between Ningbo, Xiamen, and Fuzhou has not done very well, and now it is even more miserable; Dinghai, which had done relatively well, has also seen its trade volume fall off a cliff, and several British merchants have withdrawn, leaving only one Englishman who is still holding on, and it can be regarded as a single seedling in a thousand acres of land.

However, judging from the current situation, this businessman may not last long.

There were many British textile factories in Shanghai that came to open foreign firms, which were once doing very well, but at this time they were all closed, and the inventory in their hands was disposed of at ultra-low prices, and then they all returned to their hometowns.

In the end, the foreign companies that only came to China to expand the market after the Opium War basically couldn't do it, and almost all of them went back, leaving only Qichang, Yihe, Benhao, Baoshun, Taichu and other foreign companies that had a relatively large scale in China before the Opium War, and they were still struggling to support them.

At this time, the most important problem is that each family does not have cash such as gold and silver available, and is only willing to exchange the goods in their hands for goods.

For example, an Englishman who had a stock of foreign cloth and wanted to sell it for five yuan a piece (three yuan a few months ago) finally found a Chinese merchant who was willing to take over the stock.

But the Chinese merchant was only willing to exchange the tea or raw silk in his hand for the goods, and was not willing to use cash, or he did not have enough cash in his hand.

Two merchants, who are also short of cash, must negotiate for a long time to get the goods they want, and then they are full of anxiety about whether they can sell the new goods they have obtained, and if they still smash them in their hands, it will be heart-wrenching.

At this time, there is also a very important issue, that is, the two parties should negotiate how to pay the tax after the transaction.

That's right, even if it is a trade in goods, the taxes to be paid must be paid, and they have to be paid in cash such as gold and silver, so the two merchants have to discuss who should pay the customs duties, and there is a lot of nonsense in between.

Overall, it's a market where transaction volume is down more than 90 percent from a few months ago, everybody is terrified, and everybody is asking for uncollected money from everybody else, and then they're being collected by somebody else.

(Note: After reading this paragraph, I learned that the merchants of Britain and China had to argue for a long time over tariffs and collect debts from each other, which also felt ridiculous for a long time.) ）

Zhao Dagui held a large pile of cash in his hand, observing the market situation with fierce eyes, and just wanted to wait for the most suitable opportunity to come to the market as a savior, and by the way, acquire those assets that he had been jealous of for a long time.

"How much cash do we have in our hands?" Lin Aqin of Yisheng Bank had a hard time during this time, and his heart was in a mess, knowing how much money he had in his firm, and he had to confirm it again and again with the shopkeepers below.

"There are less than three thousand dollars left. The shopkeeper in charge of the money replied: "The salary of the shopkeeper and the guys in the store can be paid late, but there will be a payment of 50,000 yuan tomorrow." ”

"As before, let's negotiate the post-payment. Lin Aqin said irritably.

"Yes, host. The shopkeeper was unimpressed, and after several previous sums of money had been suppressed, it was becoming more and more difficult for those creditors to speak, and some of them were already ready to move.

However, the shopkeeper also knows the current situation, and there is no other way to think about it except to press it.

"Now, is there a place to raise funds, as long as there is a turnover of five or six hundred thousand yuan, this crisis can be overcome.

Can you ask the outside bank, the interest rate is a little higher. Lin Aqin thought for a while and asked.

"I'm afraid it's difficult, several of the money banks close to us have closed down, and several others are still eager to collect debts, how can anyone release money at this time.

In the whole of Shanghai, I'm afraid no one has that much cash. The shopkeeper couldn't help but sigh.

In the past, when the business of Yisheng Bank was good, the business was booming, and there were many trading opportunities, and foreign cloth and silk tea kept moving to the warehouse of the trading house.

Yisheng Bank has also stocked goods several times, with millions of yuan worth of foreign cloth in his hand, at this time no one took over if he wanted to deal with it at half price, and he still owed a lot of money to the commercial banks, and he owed millions of yuan in foreign debts.