“You will still sell me the raw silk at the same price as before, thirty taels per pack, and I will give you an extra sum of cash at ten taels per pack.”
After the foreigner finished speaking, he looked at Shen Qing with a smug expression.
He had previously used this method to bribe those foreign compradors.
He believed that all Chinese people were the same; they only needed a little something sweet to open their doors.
So he was very confident this time.
"Ten taels per pack?" Shen Qing feigned surprise. "If we calculate based on 50,000 packs a year, then you'd have to give me 500,000 taels?"
"Yes! You can say that you can obtain this 500,000 taels effortlessly, because it requires no cost."
Shen Qing nodded: "Yes."
The foreigner continued, "Not only raw silk, but we can also cooperate on other businesses."
Shen Qing feigned interest: "Other businesses?"
"For example—tea, silk, and even..."
Shen Qing raised an eyebrow: "Even what?"
“Silver…” A meaningful smile appeared on the other person’s face, “You’ll be responsible for collecting these things for me in China, and I’ll give you a considerable reward… more than 500,000 taels of silver a year for raw silk…”
Shen Qing nodded: "Hmm, that's a good idea. So, where should I transport these things to for you?"
The foreigner mentioned several port names, which Shen Qing noted down one by one.
She never expected that her confrontation with this person today would lead to the discovery of several ports used for smuggling.
"Boss Shen, how about you sell it to me for thirty taels a pack, at the same price as before?"
Shen Qing snapped out of his daze and held up five fingers: "Five hundred taels per package! Cash on delivery! Payment upon receipt!"
The foreigner immediately realized he had been tricked, his expression changed, he glared at her fiercely for a few seconds, and then left angrily.
Shen Qing immediately went to Qi Zhenheng's study to find him and told him about the port names he had just learned from the foreigners.
Qi Zhenheng immediately wrote to the capital, requesting that the officials in charge of port affairs conduct a secret investigation.
He handed the letter to the clerk, closed the door, and sat down opposite Shen Qing, asking with concern, "How did the talks with that foreigner go about the raw silk?"
Shen Qing told him the truth.
Qi Zhenheng frowned after listening and said, "The price of five hundred taels for a bundle of raw silk is probably not appropriate. The foreigners have no profit to gain from this matter, so they will not do it, or they will use some means to disrupt or interfere."
Shen Qing explained, "The reason we gave them five times the cost of raw silk is because they had been scavenging raw silk from China for three or four years. This price is also to make up for past losses. Once the losses are made up, we can restore normal export prices."
Qi Zhenheng nodded: "I know you have good intentions, but I'm afraid this matter will be detrimental to you."
Shen Qing smiled: "They won't dare to act recklessly on Chinese soil for the time being. Besides, I have Jiang Shen and He Fei protecting me 24 hours a day, so I'm not afraid of them!"
Jiang Shen and He Fei were both armed.
Qi Zhenheng looked at her with concern: "But have you forgotten what happened outside the city gate? Even Jiang Shen was seriously injured back then."
Recalling that incident, Shen Qing immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
Seeing that she looked unwell, Qi Zhenheng said nervously, "Don't worry, I will send people to protect you secretly. If anyone tries to harm you, at least we can use the government's name to suppress them."
Shen Qing nodded with a pale face: "Okay, thank you, Lord Qi."
She left the Imperial Silk Manufactory and returned to Jiangzhou, where she continued to dedicate herself to the construction of silk factories and schools.
A week later, the school was completed.
Shen Qing selected a few girls from those rescued from England, and together with the female workers recruited by Su Lan, they gathered a total of ten girls to learn spinning at the school.
The school's principal was Mr. Fan, who brought two skilled weavers with him to teach the girls.
The factory was completed a month later.
The ten weavers borrowed from the Fan family were the first to enter the factory and begin spinning silk for the Gao family.
Seeing that the school and factory were operating normally, Shen Qing went to the Nanxun warehouse again.
The foreigners stopped causing trouble, and everything was normal.
Shen Qing went to the Imperial Textile Bureau.
As soon as they entered the side courtyard, they could see some people sitting in the accounting office from afar. Upon closer inspection, they realized that they were other members of the Chamber of Commerce.
When she arrived, no one gave her a friendly look.
She knew then that these people were going to cause trouble again.
He cleared his throat, straightened his back, and walked in, heading straight to the head of the long table. He smiled and said, "Since everyone's here, let's begin the meeting."
She was stunned for a moment after saying that.
It reminded me of my job in modern times, where I would say the same thing every time I entered a meeting room.
The ledgers brought from the Nanxun warehouse were placed on the table, with the abacus placed on top of them, the four corners aligned.
He looked at everyone and said, "It has been exactly one month since the raw silk was put into storage. I have brought the ledger with me. Now I will announce the data."
He then opened the ledger: "Last month, the Nanxun warehouse received 4,000 bales and shipped 650 bales... Of these, the Gao family silk shop received 200 bales, the Wu family received 100 bales, and the Liu family received 60 bales..."
Mr. Li sneered, "You buy 4,000 packs a month, but only sell less than 700. So the remaining 3,300 packs are all stuck in the warehouse?"
Shen Qing closed the ledger: "Yes, they are all stored in the warehouse in Nanxun. Someone counts and protects these raw silks every day."
Mr. Li: "Based on the current monthly purchase volume, I estimate that I can save 40,000 bales of raw silk over the course of a year?"
Upon hearing this, the other merchants panicked and exclaimed, "Why are you stockpiling so much raw silk? Next year, another 50,000 bales will be needed. How long will it take us to use them all?"
"That's right! This was all hoarded with real money!"
"We should never have agreed to establish this damn chamber of commerce! Nothing good has come of it! We've just wasted a lot of money!"
Shen Qing raised his hand and pressed his temples: "Everyone, don't be anxious. Didn't we agree that the raw silk would be given to the members of the Chamber of Commerce first, and that we would sell the surplus to the foreigners at double the price?"
Mr. Wu then asked, "If that's the case, why didn't you sell to that foreigner who came to buy raw silk the other day, Mr. Shen?"
Shen Qing explained, "It's not that I don't want to sell, but the foreigner couldn't accept the price, and we couldn't reach an agreement."
Boss Liu slammed his fist on the table: "Nonsense! The cost of raw silk is one hundred taels a bundle, and you're selling it to foreigners for five times the price? Of course they won't buy it! Foreigners aren't stupid!"
Mr. Li said, “Mr. Shen, these raw silks were all stockpiled by us merchants with real money. Now that foreigners want to buy them, you deliberately raise the price and refuse to sell, tying up everyone’s funds. This is an extremely irresponsible act!”
Boss Liu: "Yes! Boss Shen is incompetent! I demand that she be removed from her position as president!"
Soon, others echoed this sentiment, all demanding Shen Qing's dismissal.
Shen Qing didn't say anything. After everyone had calmed down, he calmly explained his reasons for raising the price of raw silk by five times.
She made a prediction about the prospects of overseas raw silk demand: "Due to climate, Europe has not produced much silk in recent years. If they want to use silk fabrics, they can only import them from China. We have the initiative in pricing raw silk. If we give up this initiative at such a good time and sell raw silk cheaply to foreigners, it will be very difficult to raise the unit price of raw silk in the future!"
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