Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 903 – China Shipping Group
6th month, 24th day, Shanhai City.
The aftermath of the Battle of Fei River slowly faded away and Ouyang Shuo started to get busy once more.
Currently, it was the afternoon, and the blazing sun had passed the middle of the sky. However, the temperature did not look like it was going down. The green trees in the courtyard in front of the reading room were really luscious and made it much cooler. Even the annoying cicadas of summer could not be found here.
At a corner of the Imperial Reading Room were basins of ice cubes used to lower the temperature.
At 3 PM, the lonely and quiet reading room welcomed a group of special guests. Financial deputy minister Cui Yingyu walked at the front. Behind her, there were the leaders of the three famous chambers of commerce – Bai Xue, Song Tianxiong, and Cui Shouren.
Without a doubt, this was a really special meeting.
Based on the system, although the three had relations with the imperial family, they could not enter the reading room.
Walking into the solemn reading room, a thick and powerful aura swept them. The three of them were hugely influential people on the outside, and any of their actions could easily sweep up massive waves in the merchant world.
However, as they walked into the Imperial Reading Room, the core of the Great Xia Dyansty’s power, not to mention the younger Bai Xue and Cui Shouren, but even Ouyang Shuo’s father-in-law, Song Tianxiong, felt nervous.
This meeting was not a sudden one; they had already been informed last night.
Before coming, Cui Shouren had asked her sister about it. However, his sister was tight-lipped and did not reveal a single thing. Instead, when his father found out, he was scolded.
Outside relatives interfering in politics was a huge crime in a dynasty.
“My king, Deputy Minister Cui and the others are here.” Tsing Yi reminded Ouyang Shuo, who was looking through some memorials.
Ouyang Shuo placed down the brush in his hand and raised his head, “Come in.”
The smile on his face made one feel inspired.
“Thank you my king!”
Song Tianxiong and the others did not dare be slow. They respectfully bowed before sitting down one by one.
Looking at the young ruler in front of them, Song Tianxiong was in awe. He really could not believe that the man in front of him and the young man in real life were so different.
Apart from looks, Song Tianxiong could not find a single shred of similarity. Obviously, his journey to the top had changed him.
If the Song Family children had a tenth of his ability, Song Tianxiong would be delighted.
Song Tianxiong was not the only one in awe; Cui Shouren was also filled with many thoughts. He thought back to his first interaction with the king, which was close to three years ago. A that time, the Cui Family had learned that Cui Yingyu was alive.
As the Cui Family representative, Cui Shouren used the super auction platform to complete the first trading deal with Shanhai City.
The cooperation with Shanhai City was sort of like a higher up working with a subordinate. They did not think about earning too much profit. They only did so because they wanted to repay Shanhai City for saving Cui Yingyu.
In a short three years, everything had changed.
In three years, Cui Shouren went from a normal child in the family that no one had high hopes for to a person who took over the family business. He had slowly walked into the central region.
For Cui Shouren to have such good fortune and stand out from the rest of the children, apart from his own ability, it was mostly because of the role he played between the family and Shanhai City.
That alone had greatly strengthened his position.
There was no other reason. After all, in the family, only Cui Shouren had met the king and interacted with him.
It was also due to that unassuming business deal that changed the fate of the Cui Chamber of Commerce, letting them roll like a snowball and become one of the giants of the business world.
Not long ago, a few chamber of commerce heads in Dali Imperial City who had suppressed the Cui Chamber of Commerce all specially rushed to Shanhai City to build relationships with Cui Shouren. They wanted to ask him to take care of them for voyage trading.
The tables had turned.
Out of the three of them, only Bai Xue was really calm.
As they say, one could be austere if one had no selfish desires.
Her husband, Wei Yang, was in a core position. On the other hand, her father, Bai Gui, was in charge of the business college. Bai Xue herself did not have much ambition to chase riches. All she liked was the battling in the business world.
Not long ago, Bai Xue donated 500 thousand gold to the Imperial Court to rebuild the various schools in the counties and prefectures; this became the biggest donation since the Great Xia established the country.
This matter even alerted Ouyang Shuo, who personally gave them the title of Benevolent Merchant.
The three of them were having different thoughts, and each was caught by Ouyang Shuo’s eyes. Since he started training in the Yellow Court Internal Scripture, his senses also became much sharper as he tried to open up the middle dantian.
Ouyang Shuo could roughly guess the thoughts of normal people.
Luckily, Ouyang Shuo did not have such a hobby; he turned around to say to Cui Yingyu, ” Deputy Minister Cui, detail the organization you are planning to establish.”
“Yes my king!” Cui Yingyu unveiled the secret behind this meeting.
Along with the Great Xia Dynasty voyage trading becoming more and more prosperous, the trading income slowly became one of the financial pillars of the territory. As such, Ouyang Shuo had been thinking about how to upgrade the system.
His order for the Four Seas Bank to start the Insurance Industry was just a small part to it.
The key to voyage trading was the channel, and this channel was made up of the ports and the trade route. The port was where the products came in and out from, while the trade route was the lifeline that connected the ports.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to change these two points.
In terms of the port, Ouyang Shuo had already ordered the Financial Court to build a Custom Division under the Tax Division to be in charge of import and export management.
Of course, the Customs Division’s role was far from this. Apart from that, it was also in charge of customs tax, smuggling matters, information tabulation, and the like.
To the Great Xia Dynasty, where voyage trading was really important, the Customs Division had a really important role. At a suitable time, the Customs Division would step out from under the Taxation Department.
As for the trade route, Ouyang Shuo wanted to organize it and do an unprecedented organization.
It was mentioned that voyage trading had risks, and the risks were not small. Apart from the rare wars, there were also storms, tsunamis, pirates, and other uncertain risks.
No matter how strong the Great Xia Dynasty navy was, it could not totally clear out the entire trading route and ensure that every merchant ship was safe. Even the federation navy in real life could not ensure that point, much less parties during the ancient times where technology was lacking.
To the three imperial chambers of commerce, their businesses were huge, and they could take losing one or two trips. As such, it was not much to worry about. However, to small-sized and mid-sized ones, one bad trip would cause them to lose everything.
Hence, that greatly restricted the eagerness of them to engage in voyage trading.
Their common method would be to pay a certain amount to one of the big chambers of commerce to get them to help them transport the goods.
Or 10 over of them could travel together to face the risks together.
As the way they ran was not regulated, it also greatly reduced their profit margin. To gather up a squadron of merchant ships also took up a lot of time, which was also money.
As a ruler, Ouyang Shuo wanted to change this, and the process would undeniably affect the profits of the three imperial chambers of commerce.
It was said that the three earned a lot just from the fees that the mid and small-sized chambers of commerce paid them.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to break that rice bowl; he was ready to gather the three of them and the Business Department to build a super shipping group.
The shipping group had three main jobs, dock, shipping, and ship building and maintenance.
First, dock.
The dynasty had 15 commerce ports alone, and there were numerous docks and piers used to transfer goods.
These docks were under the jurisdiction of the Business Department or the local offices.
During this organization, Ouyang Shuo would include the rights to use and manage the docks together to be managed by the shipping group.
As for the Business Department and the local offices, they would only keep the power to monitor.
Just this alone would allow them to solidify their spot at the top of the voyage trading.
Secondly, shipping.
It was not a simple matter of merging their squadrons but a modification and enhancement. The entire squadron would be given specific trade routes for them to stick to.
Even the travelling time was fixed.
For this, Ouyang Shuo let the Navy Headquarters work with them to provide navigators and captains. Additionally, they would build an ocean escort squadron with some strength; the squadron would have cannons and handguns.
This could greatly increase the safety of the ships and lower the risk.
The reorganized squadron would provide services to all chambers of commerce, and the prices would become more transparent to increase the eagerness of the others.
Thirdly, the building and maintenance of ships.
A long time ago, merchant ship and warship building had been separated. During this organization, Ouyang Shuo would split some of the shipbuilding factories and relevant maintenance factories that were under the Shipbuilding Division to the shipping group.
With that, the shipping group would have the ability to build its own merchant ships. Ouyang Shuo was even prepared to take a batch of shipbuilders from the division to increase the development strength of merchant ships.
This separation was to reduce the duties of the Shipbuilding Division and also to use the shipping guild to push shipbuilding and maintenance industry profits to a whole new level.
With these three points, it was enough to let the newly established trading group become a huge group that exceeded 5 million in scale.
After which, this China Shipping Group would play a hugely important role in voyage trading.
Even to say that the dynasty’s trading with West Chu and Stone City, Ouyang Shuo was going to list it in to let the shipping group manage it.
