When Zhao Dagui experienced the catastrophe, it was still the end of February, and it was March in a few days.

In March, Dagui Commercial Bank opened again to do business, and Zhao Dagui's biggest feeling was that business was not good.

When the British first arrived in the magic capital a few months ago, there was really a shortage of people and places, and they didn't need to know English, but all traders who were willing to do business close to the British would be reused.

However, by now, the comprador industry in the magic capital has formed a pattern headed by the four major compradors such as Zhao Dagui, Wu Jianzhang, Lin Aqin, and Yang Fang, and more than a dozen small compradors competing for food together.

Zhao Dagui has the reputation and connections he established before, and it is still possible to make some money if he wants to, but if he wants to obtain the position that is close to monopoly before, it is impossible, and he must compete with other compradors.

"It is necessary to unify the business community in the magic capital, or at least let the Chinese compradors have a unified voice. Zhao Dagui realized the importance of monopoly for the first time and muttered to himself.

Zhao Dagui believed that the foreign trade of the magic capital had obvious stage characteristics, that is, from mid-November 1843 to the end of February 1844, it was the first stage of foreign trade, which belonged to the pioneering stage, but all Chinese merchants who ventured to approach the foreigners could make huge profits;

From now to the next few years, it is the time when the business pattern of the magic capital is initially established, that is to say, in the next few decades, which company will occupy the largest market share, in fact, will be determined by the business situation in the past few years.

In this way, it seems that Zhao Dagui should desperately expand the market, occupy more market share at any cost, and demarcate the territory with other compradors.

Unfortunately, this thing is not easy to do, and one of the important reasons is that Zhao Dagui refused to participate in the opium trade, considering that the value of opium accounts for about half of the total value of the goods brought by the foreigners, at least half of the foreign trade is Zhao Dagui's inability to interfere;

The remaining half, that is, the trade of foreign cloth, Zhao Dagui also has to compete with other compradors, and it is not bad to account for at most one-half or even one-third of the foreign cloth trade.

"With this market share, we have to endure lower profits and more labor than before, in short, we don't earn as much as before.

According to my estimates, from March to the end of this year, we can earn two or three hundred thousand taels of silver, and we will have to burn high incense, and this will require us to invest about 100,000 yuan in the early stage. ”

At the beginning of March, when a meeting was convened for all the shopkeepers and men in the firm, Zhao Dagui tried to make everyone understand the severity of the situation, and said hoarsely.

It's just that his reaction to these words was not very good, and everyone stared at Zhao Dagui below, putting on a bewildered look.

"The meeting will be dismissed first, everyone will go back first, and a few shopkeepers will stay to discuss things. Zhao Dagui was upset for a while, shook his hand and said.

Today's Dagui Commercial Bank has a lot more people than before, there were only two shopkeepers Chen Xie, and later the shopkeeper Xie was beaten to death by the bandits, but during this time, Zhao Dagui expanded wildly and recruited six shopkeepers.

Therefore, Dagui Commercial Bank is now under the seven shopkeepers such as Shopkeeper Chen, and there are dozens of business house buddies and dozens of Fuwei Dart Bureau dart masters available, which can be described as a great momentum.

However, in Zhao Dagui's view, this is all an increase in costs, what he could do by himself in the past, now he has to do it with seventy or eighty people, and the money he makes is not as much as when he did it himself before.

"Shopkeeper Chen, you were the first to enter our firm, what do you think?" Zhao Dagui asked Shopkeeper Chen to speak first.

Shopkeeper Chen came a month or two earlier than others, this qualification is really nothing, but he himself is the eldest of the shopkeepers, and Zhao Dagui acquiesces that he has faintly become the leader of the shopkeepers.

It's just that after listening to the owner's words today, Shopkeeper Chen felt a little inexplicable.

"I know the owner is worried that business will not be good today, but are you a little worried?

Nowadays, the commercial houses dealing in foreign cloth and opium seem to make a lot of money, even if our commercial houses don't make money and don't do opium business, they can make a lot of money just by relying on foreign cloth and other foreign goods, right?" asked the shopkeeper Chen cautiously.

"Well, that's not clear enough for me to say, I'm not worried about not making enough money, I'm worried about not making enough money. Zhao Dagui replied.

"You just said that the profit of two or three hundred thousand taels, isn't that enough?"

"Of course not. ”

"How much do you think is appropriate?"

"At least four or five hundred thousand taels, I used to run a single gang alone, and when I only had two shopkeepers to help, I also made so much money.

Now, there are so many of us, and we have to add a lot of capital, and the money we earn must be at least double that of before, right?" Zhao Dagui replied confidently.

"If you were to say that, that's true. "If it's to others, Shopkeeper Chen has to accuse people of being too big, but when he thinks that Zhao Dagui really earned more than 400,000 taels of silver in a few months, he can't say this.

Several shopkeepers exchanged vague glances with each other, and finally understood that their owners' desire to make money was so great that it was impossible to live comfortably in the trading house.

In the past, Zhao Dagui has always kept confidential information such as the purchase price and the shipping price, so that the shopkeeper at the bottom does not know how much money his firm has earned, but now the competition is becoming more and more fierce, and Zhao Dagui's net worth and connections can also bear the risk of one or two shopkeepers leaving, so Zhao Dagui revealed some key information, so that the shopkeepers know in their hearts.

Others don't say it, at least Shopkeeper Chen knows that Shopkeeper Zhao went to Huzhou to buy a package of 1670 yuan per pack of Husi, and finally sold it at a price of more than 400 yuan per pack, his expression became extremely exciting.

"What do you think you can do to make more profits? Zhao Dagui turned around and said to the other shopkeepers.

"I watch foreigners do business, but there are two kinds of silk tea, but the profit of tea is much lower than raw silk, so how about we buy more raw silk in the future?" said a shopkeeper surnamed Zhang.

"That's it. It's just that the seasonality of raw silk is very strong, and Huzhou's raw silk inventory last year was almost served by me, and the next batch of raw silk will come out again, and it will have to wait until after autumn. ”

"The owner is right, but raw silk is not a local production price in Huzhou, in addition to Jili silk, there are also large silk, in Jiaxing and Hangzhou and other places, there should be a lot of inventory.

Moreover, in addition to silk, can wild silk also be made, Qingzhou and other places in the north are rich in wild silk, and the price has always been cheaper than silk, so I don't know if foreigners can collect wild silk?"

Zhao Dagui thought about it and felt that this was really a useful suggestion, so he took out a small notebook and used the pen bought from a foreigner to write down his opinions.