In 1847, the second Governor of Hong Kong, David de Pie, reported to the then Foreign Secretary and later British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, on the transactions in China's five major ports:

"At the beginning of 1846... The imminent bankruptcy of the brokers, who carried three-quarters of the transactions of the Chinese and British merchants, and the fall in prices caused by the flooding of the market in 1845 with the import of manufactured goods, seem to have had an adverse effect on the future of Shanghai...".

The bankruptcy of traders in charge of three-quarters of the trade is enough to see how ferocious and widespread the wave of bankruptcies has been.

After this unforgettable lesson, foreign merchants were much more cautious about importing foreign cloth, and then learned that around 1860, the amount of foreign cloth imported into China had been controlled within a reasonable level, and no one dared to enter more.

Later, there were various kinds of speculation in Shanghai, such as cotton speculation and rubber speculation, which involved a larger amount of money, and many committed suicide by jumping off buildings, but the scale of trade involving merchants did not reach three-quarters of the level.

Zhao Dagui had heard of this history, and secretly took it as a warning in his heart, but he felt that since he knew about this matter, he should be able to run away in advance, and he planned to stop until around March 1845, after accumulating enough assets, clear all the goods in his hands, and then watch the jokes of other businessmen.

It's just that during this period of time, the competition with other comprador foreign firms was extremely fierce, and Zhao Dagui devoted himself to leading the shopkeepers to fight with other commercial houses, not noticing that the value of the goods accumulated in his hands was extremely objective, and it was quite difficult to get rid of it.

It wasn't until he received a reminder of the Chen Hao incident this time that Zhao Dagui suddenly realized that he had so many debts and foreign cloth in his hands, and if he really didn't start dealing with them until March, I am afraid that most of them would be smashed in his hands, and then it would not be as simple as watching other people's jokes.

It was at this time that Zhao Dagui remembered that the reason why the tide of bankruptcies at the end of 1845 or the beginning of 1846 was so violent was that many merchants put their goods in the warehouse for sale, but after more than a year they failed to sell them, there was a terrible unsalable, and finally went out of business.

In this way, the unsalable foreign goods began to show signs in August and September of four or four years, and by January and February of four or five years, it had become very serious, and some clever businessmen saw that something was wrong and wanted to withdraw but could not do it, so they could only watch their business step by step towards the brink of bankruptcy.

Moreover, Zhao Dagui has a serious problem here, others think that Zhao Dagui still has six or seven hundred thousand cash in his hand, but Zhao Dagui understands that the money has long been absorbed by himself, although in the past few months, some of the gold has been turned into spiritual gold for preservation, and it is only one or two thousand taels, and the three thousand taels of spiritual gold given out today is one of the few stocks.

If we don't think about cashing out in a few months, the current pattern of 900,000 goods and 400,000 debts may become 1.8 million goods and 800,000 debts.

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhao Dagui finally decided that he had to stop now, and cash out all the foreign goods in his hand before the situation was too serious, and he could even bear a certain loss for this.

It's just that 900,000 foreign goods, under normal circumstances, about 100,000 yuan a month are sold as the limit, if there is no suitable way, at most two or three hundred thousand yuan can be cashed out, and the rest of the goods will begin to be unsalable.

Although as long as you cash out two or three hundred thousand, you can pay off sixty or seventy percent of your foreign debts, and then sell the goods in your hands cheaply, at least avoid the danger of bankruptcy, and you can still make some money, but it is very boring.

In this way, how to sell all the foreign goods in hand within a month or two is a problem that needs to be solved urgently.

Another issue that needs to be considered is that once Zhao Dagui reveals the intention of clearing the foreign cloth in his hand, it will inevitably attract the suppression and price reduction of other commercial houses, and may even lead to the early collapse and unsalable price of foreign cloth, so some unconventional means must be adopted.

Zhao Dagui thought for a while, and had some thoughts in his heart.

In the evening of the same day, Zhao Dagui held a meeting in the firm, in addition to a few branch shopkeepers in Suzhou, all the shopkeepers and men in the magic capital came to discuss the future development direction of Dagui firm.

However, the so-called discussion is actually a unilateral suppression by Zhao Dagui.

At the meeting, Zhao Dagui expressed serious dissatisfaction with the continuous decline in foreign trade profits, when he first set foot in trade last year, he could also achieve 30% profit of foreign goods and 50% profit of tea (more raw silk), but now under the competition of all parties, he can only achieve 20% profit of foreign goods, 40% profit of tea, and even the profit of raw silk has dropped a lot compared with before.

At first, the shopkeepers still had some resonance, but the more they listened to it, the more they felt that something was wrong.

In order to reverse this situation, Zhao Dagui said that he should not make too concessions when pulling orders, that is, when taking cloth with foreign merchants, the price should be reduced by more than 20%, and when taking silk tea with Chinese merchants, the price should also be reduced by more than 20%, and it is necessary to ensure that business profits will not drop too much.

"However, now the price is so fierce, and the price is too much, and you can't take the foreign cloth or the silk tea?" asked a shopkeeper incomprehensibly.

Zhao Dagui thought that you would not be able to get the goods, but on the surface, Shanghai had to explain: "You only noticed the increase in foreign banks and compradors, but you didn't notice that the number of foreign merchant ships coming to do business has also increased several times."

Isn't it because we are in a hurry to make an order, and we would rather suffer a loss than take down the goods.

That's not how business works, so we'll have to drink the northwest wind sooner or later.

In two months from tomorrow, try my way and haggle harder when it comes to bargaining. ”

"However, if you want to do that, the business will be robbed by other foreign firms or compradors, so what should I do?" The shopkeepers were all old business people, and they didn't think much of Zhao Dagui's words.

"Regarding this, I will unite with other foreign firms and compradors to unify the price, but we must start with our trading house first.

By the way, from today onwards, all orders of more than 5,000 yuan must be approved, and the price and profit do not meet my requirements, I will not allow that order to be made, you must be prepared in your heart. Zhao Dagui said.

The shopkeepers still felt that Zhao Dagui's actions violated the rules of the business field, but on the one hand, Zhao Dagui was the boss, and on the other hand, they felt that Zhao Dagui might want to integrate other foreign firms and compradors, unify prices, and slaughter the British merchant ships that did business in the magic capital, so they could only compromise.

"Find someone to send to Suzhou tomorrow and report the situation to the shopkeepers in Suzhou.

By the way, I have to urge them to sell the foreign cloth in their hands as soon as possible, and now the speed of selling foreign goods is getting slower and slower, and the time to wait for the payment is getting longer and longer, how can this be done.

We have to use cash for rent and wages, and the warehouse is always delaying time, do you want us to use foreign cloth to pay the big guys in the future?"

Zhao Dagui said angrily at the end, but the shopkeepers burst into laughter.

"It's nothing to pay with foreign cloth, but now that the cloth is selling so well, you may be able to make more money when you take it back." Knowing that Zhao Dagui has always been easy-going, several young shopkeepers at the bottom joked.