Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 148 Issuing an Edict of Self-Reproach is Pure Bullshit (Part 2)

Zheng Zhilong successfully closed the deal with the Spanish businessman.

The next morning around 7 a.m., after sending his precious son into the palace, this guy ran to the main hall of Yuxi Palace with a beaming face, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue put down the memorial and smiled slightly, "So, has the business been settled?"

Zheng Zhilong nodded repeatedly and said, "It's settled, it's settled. They wanted to do business with us anyway, and with our strict crackdown on smuggling, my ships haven't been able to do business for several months. Prices of all kinds of goods are skyrocketing in Europe and even Southeast Asia due to shortages. If I give them a little more discount, they will readily agree. Yesterday, they rushed back, eager to get some goods to sell in Southeast Asia."

The strict investigation into smuggling has actually yielded these results.

well.

Scarcity drives up value; that's the principle behind scarcity marketing—let these guys go hungry first.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "It's their business if they're impatient. We don't need to rush. You didn't agree to let them buy goods to sell in Southeast Asia, did you?"

How could I dare to agree on my own?

Zheng Zhilong shook his head repeatedly and said, "No, no, Your Majesty, I know that we actually want copper and rubber. Therefore, I told him that His Majesty only does big business and looks down on the small business in Southeast Asia. I told him not to waste our time on the small business in Southeast Asia."

Well, good, there is progress.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then solemnly said, "We will continue to strictly investigate smuggled goods, keep investigating, and gradually reduce the number of overseas goods in order to raise the price of goods."

Uh, what good would doing this do us?
Zheng Zhilong thought for a moment, then cautiously said, "Your Majesty, if I may be so bold, it seems we are not gaining any benefit from the soaring prices of overseas goods. Aren't we helping Spain raise prices?"

You're right.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then explained in detail: "Zhilong, we can't just look at immediate profits when doing business. We need to build a trade system that benefits us so that we can make more money."

Think about it. Now anyone can get goods from our Great Ming. The wealthy merchants and powerful families of Zhejiang are even openly raising pirates to sell goods privately and make huge profits. What benefits have we gained?

Even if we supply the Spanish with large quantities of goods, or even lower prices to give them more benefits, if we don't cut off the Ming Dynasty's other sales channels, others will still compete with us for business, you know?
Our strict crackdown on smuggled goods and cutting off other sources of supply is not just to help Spain raise prices. We are building a new trade system so that the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade becomes a transaction between us and Spain, instead of the Zhejiang Party, maritime merchants, and wealthy families raising pirates to sell their wares everywhere, leaving us with no benefit whatsoever.

Spain will benefit from this, but as I said before, there's only so much real money overseas. If the Spanish make money, their businesses will definitely grow bigger and bigger, and this money will eventually flow to us. Moreover, the more the Spanish benefit, the longer they can survive, giving us more time to develop.

More importantly, the Spanish have the raw materials we need to continue using—copper and rubber—that others don't. We need enough copper and rubber to develop, do you understand?

That's it!

Your Majesty is truly farsighted.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhilong nodded with admiration and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

I'm glad you understand.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "What goods did Valdes order, and what were the prices?"

You've finally gotten to the point.

Zheng Zhilong explained in detail: "Valdes didn't order many kinds of goods this time, just silk, cloth, porcelain, tea, sugar, glass, mirrors and steel ingots."

I gave him a discount on the silk. It was just ordinary silk, twelve taels of silver per bolt. They ordered one million bolts in the first batch, totaling twelve million taels.

I also gave them a discount on the cloth. It was just ordinary cotton cloth, two taels of silver per bolt. They ordered two million bolts in the first batch, totaling four million taels.

I also gave them a discount on the porcelain. The lowest-priced ordinary porcelain was fifty taels of silver per dan (a unit of weight). They ordered 100,000 dan in the first batch, totaling five million taels.

I also gave them a discount on tea. For our most common leaf tea, which costs 200 cash per catty, I calculated it to be 2 taels of silver per catty. They ordered 3 million catties in their first batch, totaling 6 million taels. I also gave them a discount on sugar. For the most common sugar, which costs about 20 cash per catty, I calculated it to be 1 tael of silver per catty. They ordered 2 million catties in their first batch, totaling 2 million taels.

Glass Minister didn't offer him a high price, just twenty taels of silver per piece. They ordered ten thousand pieces in the first batch, saying they would try to see how much they could buy per piece. The total was two hundred thousand taels.

I didn't price the mirrors high. For those palm-sized mirrors, I only asked for thirty taels of silver per mirror. They ordered 10,000 mirrors in the first batch to test the market, which totaled 300,000 taels.

The price I set for the steel ingots was very low, just like copper, one tael of silver for five catties. They ordered a large quantity, the first batch was five million catties, totaling one million taels.

All these goods, the first batch totaled 26.5 million taels. After deducting the cost of copper and rubber, we can roughly earn back 23.5 million taels of real gold and silver.

However, he said that the payment might involve more gold than silver, perhaps because they believe refining gold is much simpler than refining silver.

"As I said, one tael of gold is worth ten taels of silver. That's the market rate in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is rich in gold, so the gold price is lower. Actually, in our Great Ming Dynasty, one tael of gold can be exchanged for at least fourteen taels of silver. We can make a huge profit from that."

Yes, Not Bad.

It seems that Spain also wants to make a big gamble. They can probably plunder about 50 to 60 million taels of real gold and silver from the Americas a year, and they plan to use most of it to buy goods and make money.

Of course, there are also steel ingots. These things may seem like a worthless commodity worth only one million taels, but for Spain at present, they are as important as copper and rubber are for the Ming Dynasty.

This is because once they buy them, they can freely manufacture weapons and equipment, which will allow Spain to withstand attacks from other European countries for much longer.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Did you agree on a delivery time with him?"

That's settled then.

Zheng Zhilong nodded repeatedly and said, "He said that the first batch of copper and rubber will definitely be delivered to Dongfan before February next year, along with real money for the purchase."

He also said that there were probably no problems with copper, gold, and silver, but the rubber supply might be a bit lacking. The second batch would ideally reach 5 million jin (2.5 million kg), and would be delivered before July of next year.

Will this first batch of goods be delivered to Dongfan before February next year?

The capital city will be frozen over by the end of November or the beginning of December at the latest, and it's already August now.

In other words, they have at most three or four months to prepare the goods.

The silk, cloth, and tea should be fine, and sugar can be bought directly. The problem lies with porcelain, glass, mirrors, and steel ingots; they need to increase production as soon as possible.

The problem is that to increase the production of porcelain, glass, mirrors, and steel ingots, not only would a large amount of raw materials need to be brought over, but factories, kilns, and the like would also need to be built, all of which require a lot of land, and Wei Zhongxian would have to come to acquire the land.

How well did Wei Zhongxian manage to plagiarize?
As Zhu Jue was pondering this, Wang Yingchao strode in, cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Wang Yingchao and Lü Zhi were considered his confidants, which is why they were able to have an audience without prior notice.

This guy came back at just the right time.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Have you finished copying Wei Zhongxian's documents?"

Wang Yingchao explained in detail: "Your Majesty, Duke Wei said he's almost finished copying everything. There's also good news from the navy: the rebels have begun to withdraw from Fengyang Prefecture."

Hmph, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, if you have the guts, stay put and don't leave!
No wonder you can't stay in that godforsaken place, Fengyang Prefecture.

I knew it; you would all be gone without me having to shed a single drop of blood.

(End of this chapter)