Chapter 110 Assam 2

Chinese people are not stupid.

Yan Shizhang, Miao Tsuensun, Gu Jiaxiang and Niu Yugeng are even less stupid. Being admitted to Jinshi is enough to show that they are very smart and erudite people.

Unfortunately, China is completely staggered with this era.

It seems to live on two planets.

For the Chinese people of this era, British, French, American, Russian and other foreigners are simply Martians.

Hu Chuyuan insisted on taking them with him and going to Europe together. He wanted to take this opportunity to let them change, have new experiences and learn, and make them more capable of being his staff.

Hu Chuyuan did not think it was troublesome, so he explained carefully from the beginning to these people, including Hua Weifang, Wu Dezhang, Ye Fu and others.

He made an example. The world now is like dozens of big shops, doing business with each other. You buy my things, I buy his, and he buys yours. This is the world economy.

Who is rich and who is poor depends on who is better at doing business, whose goods are better, whose craftsmanship is good, and who buys more.

Tea is China's two major economic pillars, supporting tea farmers in Jiangnan, Lianghu and Liangguang, as well as those tea field owners and landlords, so that they have a certain purchasing power.

If this pillar is interrupted, these tea farmers and landlords will lose their sources of livelihood. Even if they change to farming, the income will be greatly reduced, gradually causing the five provinces in Jiangnan to lose their purchasing power.

Simply put, the market is shrinking, shops are no longer prosperous, and all kinds of goods are beginning to be unsalable.

In the past, people who could afford silk could only buy coarse cloth. In the past, those who could afford coarse cloth could only buy linen cloth. The impact will expand step by step, and China's economy will fall by at least 30%.

Similarly, the taxes of the imperial court will also decline.

The problem is that the taxes of the imperial court are dead, especially in the current Qing Dynasty. There is no surplus at all, and it is not enough to use as much as you collect.

In order to maintain the current total amount of taxes, the imperial court can only continue to raise taxes. From then on, it has fallen into the deep pit of "if you die without increasing taxes", unable to extricate itself. The more taxes are increased, the poorer the country is, the less taxes it can pay, and the court can only increase taxes again.

In the end, that is, the country is destroyed, the people are displaced, and the poverty is ruined.

Inadvertently, Hu Chuyuan explained to everyone present the key factors that each dynasty had to die in the end.

After hearing what he said, Yan Shizhang suddenly smiled and said, "My host, you are really a genius in the world. Unfortunately, you are so worried about the world, but the court may not appreciate it."

Everyone was silent for a while.

Hu Chuyuan secretly blamed a little, and said to himself: Lao Yan, you really don't miss any opportunity to instigate others against the Qing Dynasty and the court.

Of course, he knew that Yan Shizhang was not simply out of personal hatred, but Yan Shizhang knew very well that the court was a Manchu court. As long as these people controlled the court, China would not be saved.

Miao Tsuen Sun said, "Listen carefully to my lord's words. It's really better than reading ten years of sages. My lord, my subordinates have been taught."

Niu Yugeng, who has been silent, also said, "Yes, it's better to read ten years of sages and be taught!"

Hu Chuyuan was also very satisfied to hear this, at least not for so long.

However, although everyone understands the important surname of this matter and what to do, no one can know.

In the evening, no one had a feasible strategy.

After dinner, everyone gradually dispersed, and Zheng Xitai came back with the Indian guides.

When he returned to the hotel, he couldn't wait to report to Hu Chuyuan. At Assam Tea Company, he told the British that he wanted to buy Indian tea and ship it back to China and Min Hong, and then sell it to the United States and Nanyang.

Chinese businessmen are all anniper, which is known to foreigners who are engaged in the tea business.

Only Chinese people can come up with such a marketing strategy of annitening fraud. They often do this. They put good tea on it, and the bottom is full of garbage tea powder, which are inferior and good ones, or it will be mixed, or even loaded with red sand to lift the scale.

Therefore, the people of Assam Tea Company have no doubt at all. They immediately promised to let Zheng Xitai visit the company and the tea field, and also gave a very detailed quotation form and other relevant information.

In the information given by the British, Hu Chuyuan quickly noticed a detail - Indian tea also enjoys tax exemption clauses in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Hu Chuyuan believes that this discount should cover the entire British Empire's colonies and Commonwealth countries... This is the biggest advantage of Indian tea.

In fact, since 1839, when the British decided to try to grow tea in India, the British political axe had never collected a peny tax on Indian tea, and the agricultural tax was completely exempted. It also provided a large amount of cheap land to British merchants, and the political axe organized merchants to build a railway to every main production of tea. And connect the railway directly to the port.

Indian tea enjoys the most special privileges in the world from birth. It does not pay any tariffs in and out of the UK, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong... and banks also lend generously to British companies that operate Indian tea.

Think about it, in the face of such competition, is there any way out for Chinese tea?

The information of Assam Tea Company to prove the competitiveness of Indian tea to Zheng Xitai made Hu Chuyuan sleepless all night.

It was still early in the morning. For the first time, he got up with some suffering and went to the next door to find Wu Shuzhen.

He thought that at this moment, only she could understand her heart.

Wu Shuzhen was sleepy, but she could indeed understand Hu Chuyuan. She simply washed her face with cold water, so she ordered a kerosene lamp, made a pot of tea for Hu Chuyuan, and sat at the table with him.

After a while, she asked Hu Chuyuan with concern, "Is there nothing you can do?"

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly and sighed, "At least there is no good way in front of me!"

Wu Shuzhen analyzed one by one for him: "I think there are four main problems, taxes, transportation costs, production costs and process quality. The first two problems are dead knots. Not to mention that the Qing Dynasty refused to agree to build a railway, even if they agree, it is difficult to build a railway in Fujian. The last two problems can't be solved by others. You can have a try. However, solving the latter two problems also requires a lot of money, unless you only consider making a few varieties in small areas.

Hu Chuyuan said, "As you said, if I really want to solve the tea problem in China, how much money I need to invest. If the first two problems can't be solved, or even if they can't be solved, I will lose as much as I invest."

Wu Shuzhen sighed slightly, dragged her cheeks and sighed leisurely, saying, "What a poor person!!! Sometimes, I really don't think you can work so hard. From a business point of view, I don't support you to invest in the Chinese tea industry. According to your surname, if you decide to do it, the scale must be very large, but you will lose as much as you invest, so why bother?

Hu Chuyuan didn't say anything, because he knew that he still had the last little hope - Zuo Zongtang.

Seeing that Wu Shuzhen was speechful, Suo said, "I closed the door with you. Since you have contacted the matter of Nanyang, you might as well take root in Nanyang!!"

Hu Chuyuan smiled softly and said to her, "There is no strong China. Even if we establish a Chinese country in the Southern Ocean, it is just a rootless duckweed, which will eventually be destroyed in the tide of British colonies."

After a pause, he said, "Actually, let's think about it from another angle. Do you think the Shaman has caused some trouble for Assam?"

Wu Shuzhen smiled and said, "Look, I can't beat others head-on, and I want to use a crooked brain again. In fact, it should be okay. The question is how you want to toss around. The main problem is where their arms come from and go from the China-Myanmar border. The cost is too high, but it seems to be the only way!"

Hu Chuyuan thought in his heart that this place in Yunnan... He had to go there and pick Huang Longyu by the way. The point is to build a military factory in Yunnan, which is not very difficult.

At this time, the governor of Yunnan was Liu Changyou of the Hunan Army. The Hunan Army also stationed two battalions there, with about 4,000 to 5,000 people.

If possible, he wants to organize a special national armed force among the Dai, Han and Thai to engage in a little civil strife in Assam and affect the construction of tea in Assam.

But he also knows that this matter cannot be taken for granted. The success may be negligible, and it is unlikely to stop the British from annexing the whole of Myanmar, let alone a counterattack.

Britain in this era is like the United States 130 years later, even much stronger, and there is basically no irremea match.

At this time, China is like India 130 years later. It thinks it is very strong and buys a lot of weapons. When it doesn't fight, it is someone else's father. As soon as there is a war, it becomes someone else's grandson.

After evaluating in his heart, he and Wu Shuzhen whispered, "You can try it, but you can't put all your hopes on it, because the surname may not be big."

Wu Shuzhen shrugged her shoulders helplessly and said, "I feel the same way."

After a pause, she persuaded Hu Chuyuan: "Sleep for a while. With your talent and intelligence, you can always find a way out. Even if you can't solve all the problems, at least it won't be too bad. So, don't think too much, and don't worry about exhausting your body for a while.

Thinking about going to visit the tea plantation and factory of Assam Tea Company during the day, Hu Chuyuan nodded and went back to his room to rest.

He didn't sleep for a long time. After three hours of a nap, he took the carriage of Assam Tea Company to the tea garden with Wu Shuzhen, Zheng Xitai, Hua Yanfang and others.

Areas that can produce tea usually have hills, with high average temperature, sufficient sunshine, large temperature difference between morning and evening, high humidity in the morning, abundant rain, and red soil.

Most of these places are also relatively remote and difficult to travel.

Agartala is like this, but even so, the British still spent a lot of money and manpower to build a railway port here, and British tea companies have also set up tea factories along the railway, doing their best to reduce transportation costs.

There are more than a dozen British-funded tea companies in this area, monopolizing all the surrounding tea fields. The tea field area of Assam Tea Company is one of the largest, with 45,000 mu of tea fields.

When visiting the tea field, Hu Chuyuan found some details. The tea fields in India are completely terraced instead of China's slope style, which can reduce rainwater and take away the soil, which is more convenient for hoeing. Tea trees are generally tall and loosely spaced. All tea branches have been carefully trimmed to ensure that every Tea trees can get plenty of sunlight.

The big problem of the tea tree is not the factor of the tea tree species, but that they are more scientific in management. From the beginning of the growth of the tea tree, they try their best to reduce the branches of the tea tree, so that the tea tree grows taller and can get more light.

Tea trees will cut off all branches after a certain age, so that all new branches will grow in the coming year to ensure the long-term quality of tea.

In order to irrigate tea trees, Assam Company uses a lot of lead pipes and rubber pipes, which can irrigate all tea trees on a whole mountain with little labor. Their fertilization density is quite high. All fertilizers are prepared and fermented by special personnel. The management of the field is also a unified standard, and the depth of weeding is It is digital management.

Looking at the tea trees all over the mountain, they are almost exactly the same. All tea trees can have special output and quality, which greatly stimulates Hu Chuyuan, just like a needle piercing his heart.

In an instant, he suddenly realized that there was still a lot to be done for the further improvement of China's agriculture.

For example, mulberry trees can also learn from these experiences.

Western agriculture and animal husbandry learning that the whole scientific system is rigorous. For China, this is probably the place where they are really eager to learn.

Subsequently, Hu Chuyuan and others visited the tea factory of Assam Tea Company. The whole production process was completely mechanized, and all the machines were constantly updated. Whenever there were new inventions and improvements, the British would quickly absorb and promote them.

Although the British method of producing tea on a large scale in a single investment, the cost calculated all year round is very low.

In order to win the orders of Chinese businessmen, Assam Tea Company has almost no reservations. The representatives they sent to publicize how cheap their tea is, how beautiful the tea is, how the tea fragrance is like malt, and how the quality of tea is unified.

In short, even if it is not mixed, these teas can be sold to China.

If Zheng Xitai is willing to act as an agent, they are willing to maintain a special preferential supply price for a long time, and the price quoted on the spot will startled Hu Chuyuan and Zheng Xitai.

Because this price is 30% lower than the purchase price of Jiangnan Commercial Bank in the Fujian tea market.

If even so, if Assam Tea Company still has profits, then Chinese tea really can't live. Even if it is lucky to keep the domestic market, it has to rely on low tariffs - this is impossible. China's tariffs have always been controlled by the British.

Sad.

Hu Chuyuan seems to have seen the complete decline of China's tea kingdom.

(to be continued)