Chapter 461- Imperial Chamber of Commerce
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
When Song Jia heard his explanation, she relaxed slightly and asked, "Then where do we rise from?"
In her eyes, the current Song Family was a burden; her father taking control was not something to feel proud about. Instead, he was just carrying an exceedingly hefty burden.
Ouyang Shuo smiled slightly, "Before this, I mentioned something to your father. After Shanhai City takes over Zhaoqing Prefecture, the Song Family would back out of Tianshuang County and change to establishing a Chamber of Commerce. Before your brother left, did he not bring all the funds of Tianshuang County out? Is this not a good time to establish the Song Chamber of Commerce? You can send a letter to your father and talk about this."
"Shanhai City has so many Chambers of Commerce. With our little funds, it is incredibly difficult for us to gain a footing." Song Jia was an intelligent woman; she also had knowledge in business matters.
For a Chamber of Commerce to gain a certain status, they needed opportunity, time, luck, and connections; they could not lack a single aspect. Even so, numerous generations of people must run it before it could increase its scale and grow solid and stable.
The Song Chamber of Commerce, apart from some starting funds, did not have any connections nor have any items they could sell. To enter Shanhai’s commerce so suddenly, others would eat them up in minutes.
The business field was like a battlefield, fraught with uncertainty.
"Luckily, I'm the future son-in-law of the Song Family. Naturally, I will not treat them badly." Ouyang Shuo could see Song Jia’s worries, “Firstly, the sixty-eight thousand gold Song Wen brought out from the Four Seas Bank branch, I will not take it back. Instead, I'll loan it back to him for a low interest loan. Secondly, the Song Chamber of Commerce will become the sole pearl distributor of the territory. Thirdly, we will fund ten merchant ships. Just like that, your Chamber of Commerce will have funds, items, and a right channel. As for how to develop, I think your father has the experience and the know how. I believe that with your father's experience and ability, the rise of the Song Chamber of Commerce is only a matter of time."
When Song Jia heard his words, her eyes turned red, and she said in a low tone, "Wuyi, you don’t need to do that." She knew that for her family, Ouyang Shuo had broken a precedence.
This was the first time an Imperial Chamber of Commerce had appeared in Shanhai City.
Ouyang Shuo planned the matter in such a way, apart from making things up to the Song Family, because he did not want to put Song Jia on a spot. She was the eldest daughter. During such a tough time, if she did not help out, they would crucify her.
Taking a step back, Ouyang Shuo helping them out at such a moment resulted in a win-win situation.
In the circle of Chambers of Commerce, having one he genuinely trusted did not harm Ouyang Shuo at all. The potential for problems lied in whether or not the Song Chamber of Commerce would abuse his support and destroy the rules of the marketplace.
Ouyang Shuo believed that Song Tianxiong was not a dumb person. In fact, not only was he not dumb, he was actually keenly intelligent. With his ability, he could definitely enter the circle of Chambers of Commerce like a fish to water.
He also did not wish for Chambers of Commerce like Hequanji to block up the future distribution channels of Shanhai City products.
As the commerce in Shanhai City grew more and more prosperous, their reliance on imperial cities for goods would decrease. Thanks to the help of the Chambers of Commerce, they could obtain spices, fine ceramics, and jade items. Thanks to the Chambers of Commerce’s workshops, such as the blusher powder workshop, and the pearl processing workshop that Shanhai lacked, they did not need to import anymore.
The only problem laid in the supply of ingredients and raw materials.
They could gather the fragrance tree needed for the blusher powder on Qiongzhou island. This was also the reason why the various Chambers of Commerce loved Yashan City so much. The mountains contained many priceless raw materials.
The only source of regret was the lack of a single jade mine in the three prefectures. They had to import all of the raw jade. The moment a lack in raw materials appeared, the jade item market would immediately skyrocket.
Out of the four great jade lands in China, none were located near Shanhai City. On the other hand, Myanmar, a place connected to the Yunnan Prefecture, exported jade. In the future, Ouyang Shuo would definitely turn his eyes onto it.
Apart from jade, various precious stones were also in limited supply.
Shanhai City had a great geographical location, but in terms of rare resources, they did not have any advantage. At the same time, its people were rich, so they had an ever increasing demand for gems and jade.
Just this one aspect was enough to let the various imperial city Chambers of Commerce make a killing. Especially those from Xianyang and Luoyang, who were the main jade sellers.
The jade supply of the city were in the hands of these Chambers of Commerce.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo planned to nurture them.
Apart from the Song Chamber of Commerce, he would do the same for the Cui Chamber of Commerce. The relationship between the Cui Family and Shanhai City had grown closer and closer. Ouyang Shuo had also heard the news that the Cui Family had plans to move their headquarters over.
With the support of these two Imperial Chambers of Commerce, Ouyang Shuo could finally feel more free and relaxed.
Of course, pros and cons both existed.
As more and more powers entered, the conflicts of interest in Shanhai City would become more and more complicated. The way to handle these interests would pose a huge test to Ouyang Shuo.
At this point, it was a true test of a Lord's standard.
……
After settling the worries of Song Jia, he needed to discuss another matter with her.
For this expedition, the moment he entered Zhaoqing Prefecture, Gaia would block his access to the alliance channel. Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to arrange for someone to carry out his duties in the alliance.
Although the Shanhai Alliance members rarely gathered up, in truth, they handled ninety percent of their matters through the alliance channel.
When this big war erupted, Xunlong Dianxue and the others wanted to send reinforcements, but Ouyang Shuo rejected them.
In his eyes, the current situation was still under his control, so he did not need backup just yet. If he needed to pull in his allies just to take over one prefecture, the luster of Shanhai City would a lose its sheen.
The role of his allies was to expand their influences in their respective regions.
The fall of Tianshuang County was the greatest learning experience. Although Song Wen had agreed to the Shanhai Alliance-Tianshuang Alliance under Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion, the alliance that they formed alliance was just a clump of scattered sand that could not stand up to any challenge.
At the crucial moment, the members of the Tianshuang Alliance did not band together, which truly disappointed Ouyang Shuo. He did not want the other regional alliances of his allies to be so weak too.
Amongst all his allies, the one in the toughest spot was naturally Wufu. In the entire Jingdou Region, there were probably not many Lords that dared to ally with him.
Based on the news Ouyang Shuo received, Di Chen was ready to press down on Stone County once again, his end goal to totally remove it.
After all, Di Chen saw the entire Jingdou Province as his own. Everyone knew how angry and annoyed he felt to have a territory part of the Shanhai Alliance in his core area.
Since they knew about Di Chen's plans, Ouyang Shuo would naturally not allow him to get away with it.
Recently, Ouyang Shuo had the intentions of increasing his support of Stone County, including priority equipment purchases and monetary support through the Four Seas Bank.
Stone County was Shanhai City’s bridge in the north; they could not lose it.
Not only Ouyang Shuo, the other allies all supported Wufu. Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang similarly prioritized sales to Stone County. As for the other allies, they had no complaints.
Wufu was originally thinking that the alliance would forsake and abandon him. Who knew that there would be such an outcome. Wufu was a quiet man and not a person good with words. Nonetheless, he swore that he would remain a stubborn rock and resolutely stand in the north.
Apart from Wufu, Gong Chengshi in Jiangchuan Province, and Xunlong Dianxue in Minnan Province were both facing strong opponents. In the face of such tough challenges, their situations did not look all that optimistic.
Even Feng Qiuhuang was facing many challenges. On the east of Fallen Phoenix City stood Asura County, with Handan City to the east, Fallen Leaf County southwest, Luoyang at the south, and Pill Sun City further south.
If one looked at it, the Yanhuang Alliance completely surrounded Fallen Phoenix City.
The reason behind this situation had to do with the Six Tyrants of Handan at the start of the game. Before the game had started, the six powers had already arrived at a consensus to devour the center area of the China Region.
As a result, the six territories were all basically located in the middle plains region.
Who would have guessed that Feng Qiuhuang would quarrel with her family and break out of the alliance?
With that, her old allies naturally surrounded Fallen Phoenix County, resulting in her bleak situation.
At the current stage, the various powers of each region had not exited the province. However, in the mid to late game, when territories started to fight for provinces, Fallen Phoenix City would face an exceedingly perilous scene.
As a result, Feng Qiuhuang’s planned to go all out in the future, raising her influence in Taiyuan Province to try to quickly solidify her rule.
Amongst all his allies, only Bai Hua had a smooth time. This overlord of the Yunnan Province in his past life was slowly climbing to the top, as she slowly took over territories in the province.
Toward the entire situation in Nanjiang, Ouyang Shuo actually had a large-scale plan. However, some matters were not easy to announce, so he needed them to silently find out.
And to fulfil his strategic plan, the various members must grow strong. At the least, they must become the strongest power in their respective provinces.
If not, everything would just be a bunch of empty words.
Hence, in this period of time, not only would Ouyang Shuo not ask them for help, when the time came, he would even send troops to support them.
The entire alliance would exchange information everyday.
The moment Ouyang Shuo was not able to receive any information, the entire alliance would probably fall into chaos.
Before this, when Ouyang Shuo was not here, Mulan Yue took up this role.
However, she was still the prefect of Mulan House, so she was extremely busy. Based on Ouyang Shuo’s observations, that Yue Yue brat had great potential, so he was ready to develop her to another level.
In the future, when the time was right, Ouyang Shuo was even ready to promote her to the governor position.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to find a replacement.
Sun Xiaoyue had also played a similar role before, but she seemed to have set her mind on remaining in Yashan City. She was not prepared to leave in the short term.
Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo thought of Song Jia.
Thinking about it, she was the most suitable candidate. The alliance members knew that she was his girlfriend and the future female Lord of Shanhai City.
Most importantly, she had enough ability to take up this task.
One must not merely look at her wielding blades and swinging them around. In reality, she was a business genius. Be it in terms of communication skills or coordinating skills, she was amazing.
However, was she willing to descend the mountain?
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