Shen Qing gave Qi Zhenheng the list of suspected moles, telling him to carefully consider whether to take back their shares.
Once their quota is recovered, they will no longer be eligible to supply silk to the Qing court, and thus can be kicked out of the Silk Merchants Association.
It's not that Shen Qing is excluding his peers, but these people are cunning, love to stir up trouble, and have already been infiltrated by foreigners. Right now, they are not only affecting the normal operation of the Chamber of Commerce, but if they continue to develop, they may become traitors in the future.
Now that they've been kicked out of the Silk Merchants Association, they're no longer of value to foreigners, and naturally, foreigners will stop trying to infiltrate them.
A month later, the raw silk arrived in France smoothly. Shen Qing took the documents to a bank in Shanghai to exchange the currency, and then immediately brought the bank drafts back to the Chamber of Commerce's accounting office.
Shen Qing looked at the stack of silver notes on the table and pondered how to use the money.
The five million taels for raw silk this year have been raised. One million taels was given as a deposit to the silk farmers, and the other four million taels are locked in a slush fund. Once the raw silk deposits reach one million taels, the four million taels will be used.
Five million taels is more than enough to cover this year's raw silk payments. The one million taels that were just received today, should be distributed as profit to the merchants, or used for something else?
Shen Qing originally planned that once the Chamber of Commerce had enough money, they would go to other provinces to collect raw silk, and strive to firmly grasp all the raw silk in the country as soon as possible.
This would require more money, but it would also give them greater control over the export of raw silk.
The acquisition of raw silk from across the country requires the concerted efforts of everyone in the chamber of commerce.
Currently, the chamber of commerce is in disarray; how can this matter be handled?
Shen Qing had a bit of a headache. He gathered up the silver notes on the table and prepared to lock them in the cabinet.
As soon as I turned around, I heard voices entering the yard.
Several merchants entered the accounting office, saw her, and asked with a smile, "Ms. Shen, we heard you went to a bank in Shanghai today to settle your foreign exchange?"
Shen Qing looked at the silver notes in his hand, turned around, and put them back on the table.
“Yes, those raw silks sold to the French,” she pointed to a thick stack of silver notes on the table, “a total of 3,500 bales were sold, worth 1.75 million taels. You can count them.”
The merchants immediately came forward excitedly, looking at the stack of silver notes on the table.
At this moment, Mr. Wu, Mr. Li, and Mr. Liu also entered the accounting room.
Hearing that the silver notes on the table were from last month's purchase of raw silk, Boss Li scoffed, "Who knows if they're real or fake?"
An honest merchant asked, "How can it be fake? These are genuine banknotes!"
Boss Liu: "Why can't it be fake? Didn't we invest four million taels in her before? Maybe she took some of that four million taels to cheat us!"
Mr. Li: "Mr. Shen, if you want to prove that you really made this much money for the Chamber of Commerce, then bring out the previous four million taels and let all of us verify it!"
Shen Qing remained seated.
She could guess what the three people were up to.
It was simply a matter of getting her to lay out all the Chamber of Commerce's funds on the table, and then taking the opportunity to demand a clear breakdown of the 1.75 million taels earned from the French.
They prevented the Chamber of Commerce from having sufficient funds to purchase raw silk from other regions.
The foreigners have already suffered a setback with the raw silk in Nanxun, so they will definitely be wary of her buying raw silk from other places.
The first step in preventing her from acquiring raw silk was to control the Chamber of Commerce's funds.
Shen Qing put the silver notes back on the table, turned around and locked them in the cabinet.
He sat down again and said calmly, "This is indeed the money we received from selling inventory last month, but it has other uses and cannot be touched for the time being."
Mr. Liu: "Why can't we touch it? This money is the profit of the Chamber of Commerce, which means it's our business. Why can't we touch it?"
Mr. Li: "Yes! Let's split it! Let's distribute these profits!"
Shen Qing coldly looked at everyone: "You've split it up? Do you still want to earn more money? If so, then don't split it up for now!"
Mr. Liu: "We just want to get back the 500,000 taels we invested as soon as possible!"
Mr. Li: "We agreed that the profits from selling raw silk would be shared, but now Mr. Shen doesn't want to share them. What does that mean? Does he want to monopolize everyone's money?"
The other merchants also looked at Shen Qing with suspicion.
It's true that she personally promised to share the profits with everyone, but now she's saying that the money she earned has a purpose and can't be touched for the time being.
Everyone felt that she had changed her mind and began to have doubts.
At this moment, Boss Li suddenly said to Shen Qing in a sinister tone, "I heard that the Gao family owed a large sum of money in Jiangzhou before, and it escalated to the point that their house was about to be seized by the creditors. Boss Shen was also arrested and taken to the yamen several times, right?"
These words immediately caused even greater panic among the people.
Everyone looked at Shen Qing in disbelief, and suddenly understood why she was the only woman in charge of the Gao family.
With a woman who should have been kept in seclusion now in charge, the Gao family is probably already at its wits' end.
With four or five million taels of silver in her hands, will something go wrong?
Mr. Wu, who had been silent until now, stepped forward and said, "The fact that the Gao family has debts doesn't mean that Mr. Shen will embezzle our money. But I do want to take back the 500,000 taels I invested earlier, as well as the profits that are due to me. This is my personal matter and has nothing to do with Mr. Shen."
Shen Qing stood up and glared at the man with hatred.
His words, though seemingly fair, were followed by his decision to withdraw his shares, which deepened the unease among all the merchants.
Sure enough, as soon as Mr. Wu finished speaking, the other merchants also expressed their desire to share their previous investments.
This move is intended to distribute all the funds in the chamber of commerce's slush fund.
Once that money is gone, Shen Qing will no longer be able to settle accounts with the silk farmers. If the silk farmers don't receive their money, they will no longer supply raw silk to the Chamber of Commerce.
At this point, the British could take advantage of the situation and resume obtaining raw silk from the silk farmers.
Having figured all this out, Shen Qing sat back down wearily.
As long as these three traitors remain in the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber will never be at peace.
Today they're clamoring for a re-election, tomorrow for money distribution, and the day after that they might be clamoring for something else entirely.
In short, they just wouldn't let her properly regain control over the raw silk business; they were determined to force her to sell the raw silk cheaply to the British again.
That's enough!
Staying with these people will only hold us back; we should get rid of them as soon as possible!
Shen Qing got up, walked to his desk, picked up the brush from the brush holder, and began to write a letter of withdrawal on the Xuan paper.
The three withdrawal agreements were quickly prepared, and Mr. Wu, Mr. Li, and Mr. Liu readily signed them.
Shen Qing opened the cabinet, counted out the silver notes they were entitled to, and gave them to them.
The three were satisfied and about to leave when Shen Qing stood up: "Wait!"
The three people turned around.
Shen Qing said loudly, "The price of raw silk will soon reach one thousand taels per bale, a tenfold profit, but that has nothing to do with you anymore! At the same time, none of you three will be able to get half a bale of Nanxun raw silk anymore! I will give the warehouse an order that none of you three will be qualified to purchase goods again!"
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