Chapter 229: Trade Discussions (Part 3)
From everyone's reactions, Wen Desi knew this proposal wasn't generating much enthusiasm. Then Mo Xiao'an spoke: "Director Wen, your reasoning is sound, but mirrors are currently our flagship product. They've already established a luxury image among common people. If we rashly produce cheap products, I'm worried it'll hurt the high-end product line—"
Wen Desi answered: "Look, how many mirrors do you think Ming people can buy?"
Mo Xiao'an said: "A few days ago, the Guangzhou liaison station sent word that after the New Year, a batch of mirrors was sent to the capital for sale. Supposedly the shop was so mobbed that several people were injured. The Gao family is pressing for shipments, saying they want as many as we can send."
"How much does a mirror sell for now?"
"Guangzhou prices: jet-black mirrors retail between 80 to 120 liang, other colors between 100 to 200 liang."
"Crocodile, in a place like Guangzhou, how much income does the middle class have?"
Yu Eshui said: "That's quite a range. Ordinary shop assistants make about one to two liang per month. The chief manager our Guangzhou station hired previously earned 240 liang per year—considered a high-salary stratum in the Ming."
"Petty urbanites earning one or two liang a month definitely can't afford it. Even Ming 'senior white-collars' would probably have to grit their teeth to buy our mirrors. How many wealthy households who can casually spend several hundred liang are left? I'd guess a few thousand at most. Well, from last month's shipment volume, mirrors alone numbered over 1,200. The market will saturate sooner or later."
"Some wealthy households want more than one or two mirrors, you know. Rich men have ten or eight concubines—doesn't each need one? Otherwise women get jealous, and that's trouble. More wives means more children. Daughters, daughters-in-law—don't they all need some?"
Everyone laughed at Mo Xiao'an's words.
"Also, wealthy households from around Guangzhou all come to buy," Mo Xiao'an said. "Including from Fujian. I hear merchants from Jiangnan are also approaching the Gao family about procurement. Once they start ordering, they'll want a thousand at a time, right? They won't just buy a few mirrors."
"The overall situation does look quite good, but product lines need long-term consideration." Wen Desi thought Mo Xiao'an's commercial sense was rather mediocre—he'd have to replace him next time. Unfortunately, both professional salespeople were in Guangzhou... "Mirrors cost us next to nothing. Producing more and expanding our user base only has benefits, no drawbacks. As for high-end products, let the Guangzhou station handle that. They're supporting so many jewelry craftsmen—making mirror blanks more luxurious is easy. My idea is to let as many people as possible use mirrors."
"Can't we consider selling mirrors to other places? Like Southeast Asia?"
"Sure, which is why we're working on Macau, Liu Xiang, and Zhu Cailao." Wen Desi explained, "Macau goes without saying—it's a window in itself. The latter two both control fairly extensive overseas trade networks. Through them we can dump these products in Southeast Asia."
"Why not just operate directly ourselves? Why let them profit?" Li Haiping was puzzled. In his view, the Executive Committee was overestimating these pirate chiefs' power.
"Let me say it again—at this stage, we shouldn't make more enemies. This era isn't one of free trade. Being a sea merchant still requires some capability." Wen Desi said.
One could say that in 1629, Chinese sea merchants were in a high-risk, high-reward industry. They faced a crisis-ridden but profit-rich space.
Zheng Zhilong, the official-merchant-pirate hybrid, basically controlled the Fujian-to-Japan shipping lane. Trade ships passing through this region all had to pay tolls, otherwise they'd definitely be plundered. Moreover, the Japanese shogunate only opened a few cities for foreign trade, with very few trading partners. Some regional domain lords' ports also allowed trade, but each ship was still charged 1,000 liang in trade fees.
Portuguese/English/Dutch merchant fleets were all traders and pirates. When facing the strong like the Zhengs, they paid taxes. When facing the weak, they robbed.
Spain was absorbed in Southeast Asian colonization and the slave trade, basically controlling the Philippines and Malay archipelago regions. Though they heavily depended on Chinese merchants to supply colonial materials and labor, they lacked the strength to join trade with China proper, so they could only use Manila galleons to constantly ship silver from American colonies to entice Chinese merchants to come trade. Due to excessive dependence on Hua merchants and Chinese people, the Spanish developed a pathological fear of Chinese people and spared no effort in suppressing and controlling them—Hua merchants and Chinese faced many restrictions.
The Dutch possessed the most formidable maritime fleet in Chinese waters, but as latecomers, they had no good foothold. Seeking new colonies, they tried to control Taiwan and Penghu, waging decades of war against the Zheng family. Only in 1661 did Zheng Chenggong recover Taiwan, while the Netherlands also declined after losing the Anglo-Dutch wars.
Vietnam's Southern and Northern dynasties—the Northern dynasty also charged 1,000 liang annually for port trade. The Southern dynasty opened one city specifically for Hua trade. Both Vietnamese dynasties called themselves "Little China," yet each found foreigners to back them: the Northern dynasty had Dutch support, the Southern dynasty had Portuguese.
The English as rising stars, though arriving late without finding a foothold in this region, constantly sought to break into this market.
Economic, political, religious, ethnic—these chaotic factors intertwined, making the entire East Asian-Southeast Asian waters a Darwinian jungle.
The transmigrators certainly had strong ships and powerful cannons, but with scarce population, especially lacking ships and sailors, and unfavorable geography, they temporarily weren't qualified to join this maritime free-for-all. Using powerful sea merchant groups' existing networks for sales became the only choice.
"Chinese goods are very popular in Southeast Asia—originally an excellent money-making route. And many Southeast Asian specialties are things we need," Zhong Lishi said regretfully. "Currently we can't get silk, tea, or porcelain export rights. Selling mirrors isn't bad. I remember Chinese bronze mirrors were traditionally export goods."
"Trade's being discussed so enthusiastically—imports, exports—but where are the ships?" Li Haiping continued questioning.
"Shipping capacity is insufficient." Wen Desi sighed.
The transmigrators' current situation was somewhat like Japan's. Linggao itself produced very few industrial raw materials. The transmigrators' goods for sale and important industrial materials all depended on ships for import and export. Not only that—even salt transport from Salt Farm Village to Bairren City... though the transmigrators had built a simple road between the two locations, due to lack of draft animals and vehicles, bulk sea salt products were still shipped to Bopu for transshipment.
This made the transmigrators highly dependent on ships. Since the Baitu Village campaign, the transmigrator collective's fleet holdings had suddenly surged. They now owned three 70-ton two-masted sailing ships: Dengying Isle, Fubo, and Tongji; two 40-ton single-masted ships; and over a dozen small vessels. Of these ships, except for the Fubo which was equipped as a warship, all were used as transport ships. Of the five large and medium ships, except for the Fubo which had armament and couldn't easily enter Guangzhou port, all exclusively ran the Guangzhou route, bringing in large quantities of materials urgently needed by industrial departments. The problem was that shipping speed still couldn't keep up with industrial department demands. Sailing ships were slow with limited cargo capacity. The Naval Forces Department wanted to expand fleet size, but the sailor problem constantly plagued them—the prospect of several major maritime groups fighting to the death had made sailors extremely scarce. Whether Liu Xiang, Zheng Zhilong, Zhu Cailao, or even Ming local officials—everyone was recruiting coastal fishermen and people with seafaring experience. The transmigrator collective clearly wasn't viewed favorably by common people.
"We still hope to build larger ships—preferably powered vessels," Li Haiping said. "Not talking about huge ships, but at least 200-300 deadweight tons? With power, speed would be much faster, and sailor requirements would be much lower. The Dengying Isle is faster than the other ships—if only it weren't always out of diesel—"
"Director Wen, didn't the Planning Committee already approve building one two-masted schooner? This type should be 200 tons, right? Only needs 10 sailors."
"Shipbuilding isn't that simple. Many equipment pieces don't exist yet. To build ships, we first need to complete the shipyard's equipment matching." Wen Desi was also troubled by this: shipbuilding wasn't model-making after all. When the Swedes replicated the Götheborg, it took nearly ten years total, more than half the time spent researching period shipbuilding techniques. And that was with complete Swedish documentation.
"Let's push this. First complete shipyard equipment matching. Whatever you need, make a list. We'll have a separate meeting with the Machinery Department to resolve it."
"As for the engine problem." Wang Luobin said, "I think whether steam engines or self-made single-cylinder diesel engines, neither is a problem for our industrial capability. Especially single-cylinder diesel engines—not only for marine engines but for many applications, such as agricultural traction of small implements, water pumping, even as prime movers for short-distance transport. Fuel is easy to solve too. Even without diesel, we can make do with vegetable oil or coal gas."
Single-cylinder diesel engine manufacturing technology was the simplest among internal combustion engines. The earliest internal combustion engines were diesel engines, and early diesel engines burned vegetable oil, not diesel.
Wu Nanhai immediately supported: "This is great. I have many small agricultural machines here that can't be used due to lack of power."
Wang Luobin continued: "Though our self-made single-cylinder diesel engines can't yet match Changchai products in power, they're sufficient for general use. If electricity is insufficient, industrial equipment can be driven by these too. Early factory equipment was all driven by steam engines or other power machines. Considering that self-producing electric motors has some difficulty, future factories may need steam or diesel engine drives for quite some time."
(End of Chapter)