Chapter 540: Becoming a Shareholder

Zong Ben's arrival put Tang Qiao in an exceedingly good mood.

Zong Ben's arrival signified support from the native Ming people for the Transmigrators' previous South Seas plan. More importantly, it meant that at least a portion of the native elite recognized the superior system of the Transmigrators and were willing to put up real gold and silver, formally staking their family's future on the military strongman Cao Chuan.

The seventeenth century was an era of unlimited liability. According to traditions stretching back a thousand years, if one failed in a struggle of this magnitude, those who invested their family fortune and followed Cao Chuan with their entire household could not escape the confiscation of their property and the extermination of their clan.

"Haha, Shopkeeper Zong, this is truly a great support for my work, brother! It must be treated with the utmost solemnity!"

Vigorously patting this Shopkeeper Zong on the shoulder, Tang Qiao ushered the guest into the building: "First, come in and have a cup of coffee. Today, we'll have a good chat."

Drinking coffee was secondary; handling the procedures was the main event. No matter the investment circumstances, one must always verify the capital before discussing serious matters, right?

So the next step was, first and foremost, capital verification.

Because this happened suddenly, the main Company was unprepared, so Tang Qiao urgently dispatched someone to the bank for help. Fortunately, the Transmigrators' newly opened seventeenth-century version of the People's Bank — the National Reserve Bank — was not far from the Company, on the same main street. Thus, the moment the coffee was brewed, the people arrived.

What followed was the grand activity of weighing and dividing the gold, quite common in this era.

In the inner courtyard of the main Company building, enclosed by the surrounding structures, staff brought out tables and chairs, opened the three chests Zong Ben had brought, and took out the precious metals inside to weigh and register them one by one.

The silver and money Zong Ben brought were of very mixed composition. Not only were there gold bars and silver bars of various purities, but also a large number of Ming silver ingots, as well as foreign gold and silver coins like Spanish Pistols, Rials, and Dutch Guilders.

All these precious metals first had to be sorted by currency type, and secondly, their purity had to be inspected.

Old Master Zong sat in his chair, holding a cup of coffee. While chatting with Factory Manager Tang, he curiously watched the strange measuring instruments on the table.

He understood the scales; implements of similar shape existed in the Ming Dynasty, though they were much cruder. However, he did not recognize the metal specific gravity tester the bank employees brought.

A specific gravity tester built on Archimedes' principle of buoyancy, with its electronic screen and transparent water tank, was certainly incomprehensible to a Ming person.

Very quickly, the specific gravity tester detected several pieces of counterfeit silver.

Do not assume the ancients were simple and honest; counterfeit goods were just as rampant in the Ming Dynasty.

After the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, as the social economy gradually developed, counterfeit silver emerged in an endless stream. Despite repeated prohibitions by the authorities, it could not be stopped, causing immense damage to commodity trade and civilian life. Among the counterfeiters were not only criminals and idlers, but also silk brokers, middlemen, and gold, silver, and pawn shops — these merchants were a main force.

By the late Ming period, counterfeiting silver had developed into an entire industry chain. The varieties of fake silver alone numbered in the dozens, including Paper Cover, Tripod Silver, Hanging Copper, Lead Filling, Bamboo White, Burnt Partition, Shaken Thread, Double Green, and Flying White.

And that was not all. Besides counterfeit silver, in the economically developed Su Hang region of the Ming Dynasty, wine was adulterated with ash, chickens were stuffed with sand, geese and sheep were inflated with air, fish and meat were pumped with water, bayberries were dyed with a purple-black pigment, old hens had long tail feathers inserted to pass as pheasants... there was also fake milk, fake rat poison, fake antiques, fake books, and so on and so forth.

All of the above were recorded by Ming people themselves, along with countless Ming poems and stories mocking the counterfeit goods of Su Hang at the time. Therefore, those later-generation fakes and shoddy products were all just leftovers from the ancients' playbook. Apart from having fewer types of commodities, the ancients truly did not lose to their descendants in other aspects.

A group of employees from the National Reserve Bank quickly sorted the silver and money Old Master Zong brought by category, then appraised their purity, weighed them, and incidentally picked out a pile of counterfeit silver.

Regarding the counterfeit silver, Old Master Zong could only resign himself to his bad luck this time. In his daily business dealings when settling accounts in silver, he would certainly conduct meticulous inspections. This time, mainly because time was too tight and he feared trouble might brew overnight, coupled with the sheer volume of silver and money, the proportion of counterfeit coins he received was slightly higher.

After all the precious metals were measured and weighed, a conversion was made according to the exchange table publicly issued by the bank. The total value of the precious metals Old Master Zong brought was one hundred and four thousand yuan. The "yuan" here was calculated based on the one-yuan face value paper note, the "Cao Big Head," issued by the Transmigrators.

Upon learning the total sum, Tang Qiao rose with a chuckle, grasped Old Master Zong's hand, and led him into his own office on the second floor.

In the crude office with its cement floor and walls whitewashed with lime, an investment agreement lay quietly atop a flower pear wood desk.

Immediately, Old Master Zong enjoyed the treatment of having the Old Chief of the South Seas Company personally explain the contract terms. During this process, he nodded frequently, raising no objections to the contract whatsoever.

The reason was simple: whether ancient or modern, a so-called contract only takes effect when the strength of both parties is equal. In the brutal environment of the seventeenth century, Zong Ben did not have the legal environment of later generations to back him up. He could figure out with his feet whether this contract could be enforced, and to what extent — it all rested on a whim of the other party. He himself had no capital to bargain with.

Since that was the case, what was written in the contract was not important to him, having already staked everything. He would study it slowly after returning home.

Slowly extending his hand, Zong Ben picked up the writing brush from the table. At this moment, his expression finally turned solemn. Ultimately, after a moment of consideration, he sighed and signed his own name on the contract.

"Thus, I, Zong, entrust my entire family fortune to Factory Manager Tang and Lord Cao. From now on, I hope for your generous care, Daren!"

According to protocol, a figure who suddenly emerged like Zong Ben would definitely require a background check by the main Company in the aftermath. But Tang Qiao did not need a background check today to know that this man had staked his entire fortune: because Zong Ben had not previously appeared on the key invitation list for the investment recruitment meeting.

So Tang Qiao was still somewhat moved at this moment: for this brother to come to him today, who knew how many resources he had mobilized behind the scenes; the pressure must have been immense! One had to know, this was one hundred thousand taels of silver — not something an ordinary person could produce on a whim.

"Shopkeeper Zong, please rest assured." Tang Qiao's expression was solemn at this moment: "I can now, on behalf of Lord Cao, promise you that no matter what the future holds, this silver of yours will absolutely not be money down the drain!"

From the moment Tang Qiao finished speaking these words, Zong Ben became the first Ming person shareholder of the South Seas Development General Company.

And precisely at this moment, someone suddenly ran in from outside to report: a certain Bai Shenming, Bai Xiaolian, had also come to the Company to deliver silver and buy shares!

General Manager Tang Qiao was blessed with double happiness today; upon hearing this, he could not help but burst into hearty laughter once more.

If Zong Ben had today earned the achievement of "revolutionary masses willing to draw close" within the Transmigrator Organization, then Provincial Graduate Bai had long since been an "old friend of the Transmigrators," belonging to the "dependable local backbone force, an active revolutionary element."

So Provincial Graduate Bai swaggered in today, bringing Shopkeeper Lao Wu and his silver right into the main Company.

With Provincial Graduate Bai's arrival, the scene became even more lively. Upon learning that this Old Master Zong had actually beaten him to the first prize, Provincial Graduate Bai could not help but regard Zong Ben with newfound respect. After this, the two major speculators quickly fell into conversation. After all, everyone was now a grasshopper on the same rope, sharing a common pursuit and bearing the same risks.

Like Zong Ben, Old Master Bai's investment capital was neither more nor less, exactly one hundred thousand taels of silver. This one hundred thousand taels in ready silver had also nearly cost Old Master Bai his life: he not only sold off his country estates but also drained almost all the ready silver from his commercial network, even digging up the cellar gold buried in his residence, and additionally took on some debts.

Upon learning of these circumstances, Tang Qiao handled the matter decisively. When foreign merchants came to invest in later generations, the local area would typically provide some matching funds plus bank loans. The seventeenth century was the same; one couldn't let the shareholders face the northwest wind after investing, could they?

Thus, Tang Qiao coordinated with the bank on the spot and granted Old Master Bai a loan to relieve his urgent need. Immediately after, he contacted a batch of high-demand industrial goods and allocated them to the two newly-minted shareholders, allowing them to maintain their own sales networks.

Old Master Bai was now truly a thousand thanks and ten thousand gratitudes. He had never imagined that after taking his one hundred thousand taels of silver, this side would not only return a portion to him at low interest but also advance him a batch of goods on credit.

One had to know, this batch of goods included best-sellers like Warm Pots and Oil Lamps. In today's Guangzhou City, where the wealthy congregated, as soon as Old Master Bai got the cargo manifest, he could sell it for a high price without even needing to move it out of the warehouse, making money while sitting at home.

After a preliminary taste of the benefits of being a South Seas Company shareholder, the two Old Masters then went through a series of further procedures. This included not only the two of them but also the subordinates they planned to bring to the South Seas. These men were all selected capable personnel, and now they were all incorporated into the South Seas Company's "Security Team," thus gaining official status.

After all the procedures were completed, the two Old Masters finally received their formal credentials.

There were two types of credentials. One was a leather-cased work permit, no different from those of later generations, with a photo, name, and embossed seal on the inner page. Only, due to technical limitations, the photo on the permit was black and white.

Knowing full well that this leather booklet was their "letter of appointment," the Old Masters hastily stowed it away.

The second type of credential was a chest badge.

The hanging badge, made of glass, colored cord, thin iron sheet, and identity paper, was undoubtedly much heavier than the genuine articles of later generations. However, the two Old Masters put them away with great solemnity, never once considering that this strange "waist token" was inelegantly hung around the neck, somewhat resembling a dog tag.

Old Chief Tang told them that in the future operation to attack Haojing'ao, only those wearing this "waist token" would be permitted to observe the battlefield and enter post-war Macau at the first moment.

With the two Old Masters' investment as a starting point, from the next day onward, Ming people came one after another to buy shares, and the East India Company established by the Transmigrators could be considered on the right track.

At the same time, the Transmigrator Group, having made preparations on all fronts, also began to gradually bare its fangs.

On April 3, 1631, a team of Ming Army soldiers, clustered around a sedan chair, entered through the Lotus Stem Pass Gate, barreling straight ahead without obstruction, and arrived before the doors of the Macau City Council.