As a result of the Treaty of Nanking signed after the Opium War, Shanghai was opened for trade, and the United Kingdom was able to establish a concession there.
Consequently, numerous foreign companies, led by Jardine Matheson, began to enter China.
Originally, before the Treaty of Nanking, foreigners had to trade through the Cohong, known as the Canton 13 Hongs in Guangzhou, to do business with China.
These monopoly merchants enjoyed enormous profits by monopolizing trade with the West until the Opium War.
Among them, figures like Wu Bingjian achieved such unparalleled fame that he was even rumored to be the richest man in the world at the time.
The name of Wu Bingjian’s Cohong was the Yihe Hang.
After their downfall following the Treaty of Nanking, Jardine Matheson adopted the name Yihe Yanghang as their Chinese company name, inheriting the legacy of the Yihe Hang.
However, just because the Cohong disappeared did not mean that foreign companies, unfamiliar with both the Chinese language and culture, could immediately open trade with the Chinese people.
This created a need for intermediaries to bridge the gap between China and foreign companies.
Those hired as these intermediaries were known as the Comprador.
Yet, it was difficult to see these hired intermediaries as mere employees of a foreign firm.
Most Compradors were wealthy merchants with a solid foundation within China.
The Chief Comprador of Jardine Matheson, whose name was Archie, was actually Tang Tinggui.
He was one of the first people in China to learn English.
He didn’t just pick it up clumsily through contact with the British; he had formally learned British-style English at a school called the Morrison Academy in Macau.
Based on his excellent English skills, he later earned a fortune acting as an intermediary in trade between the United Kingdom and China.
During this process, he formed a deep connection with Jardine Matheson and became their Chief Comprador.
As the Chief Comprador of Jardine Matheson, he was one of the important executives, while simultaneously being a wealthy merchant who owned a massive merchant group in China.
Furthermore, he had a connection with Li Hongzhang and was an important collaborator in the Self-Strengthening Movement led by him.
The name Archie was originally a childhood nickname.
To an old man with a white beard like him, being called that could be considered a type of insult.
However, since foreigners were unaware of these Chinese customs, they often called most Compradors by such nicknames, and the Compradors themselves did not particularly object.
At any rate, even Archie, a leading merchant of China, could not help but be shocked by the 120 catties of ginseng spread before his eyes.
Goryeo Ginseng is a specialty of Joseon and is a complete monopoly of the Joseon government.
The Joseon government purchases all the produced volume, and anyone who trades it privately is subject to immediate execution by beheading.
Therefore, most of the ginseng traded in China is what was purchased from the Joseon government, carried to the border, sold, transported by land, and then sold in inland China.
The profit gained from this ginseng trade is one of the Joseon government’s largest sources of revenue.
No matter how strictly the Joseon government prohibited smuggling, there was no way people would obediently hand over ginseng—which was more expensive than its weight in silver—to the government.
It was impossible to stop everyone who tried to siphon it off and sell it.
In the end, vast amounts of ginseng were diverted through smuggling and sold throughout Joseon, and some was even smuggled into China.
The ginseng I purchased from the Songsang was also diverted in this manner.
While most ginseng smuggled into China goes through the Yalu River border, sometimes the Tuman River route is used, and sometimes it is traded by ship on the West Coast.
Of course, if caught by the Joseon government, execution by beheading awaits, but since the profits were so immense, there wasn’t a single person among those who grew ginseng who did not engage in smuggling.
And because it went through such complex distribution processes, the price naturally skyrocketed.
It was common for ginseng traded in China to be more than ten times more expensive than when it was traded at the border.
Furthermore, most of that supply was traded in Beijing, and it was extremely rare for it to make its way down to Shanghai.
Thus, it had the power to make even a great merchant like Archie leap from his seat.
“Where did you get this?”
Yuli Briner replied with a smile.
“Do you not doubt if it is real?”
“I can tell whether it’s real or fake just by looking.
Where on earth did you get it?”
“In this world, the only land where Goryeo Ginseng grows is Joseon. If not from Joseon, where else would I have gotten it?”
Archie nodded.
“Unlike our Great Qing, Joseon is a land where Westerners cannot enter. There is no way a Westerner like you went into Joseon to get it. Does it perhaps have something to do with that child?”
Yuli Briner pushed me forward toward Archie and said, “Actually, this child is the owner of half of this ginseng.”
Since I was from Joseon, the Land of Courteous People of the East, I could not call him Archie like the Western commoners did.
I cupped my hands in a fist-and-palm salute, bowed my head, and said in Chinese, “My name is Lee Myeong-jin, and I have come from Joseon.
As you can see, I am still a child, so please just call me Myeong-jin.”
In China and Korea, there is a custom of name taboo, where adults who have studied properly avoid calling each other directly by name, but for a child like me, it did not matter if I was called by my name.
Archie was fascinated that I knew Chinese and said, “Then I shall call you A-jin from now on. In the Shanghai concession, you don’t have to follow China’s complicated etiquette. Many Chinese people call me Archie, so you may call me Archie as well. But seeing you dressed in Western clothes while being from Joseon, are you a child who crossed over to live in Russia as well?”
Surprisingly, Archie was aware of the fact that some Joseon people had crossed over to live in Russia.
“You are well-informed about the situation over there.”
“I learned of it because people occasionally bring ginseng from that direction. However, this is the first time I’ve seen such a large quantity. Can you perhaps bring more?”
I shook my head.
“I risked my life just to obtain this much. Doing it a second time will be very difficult.”
Archie was well aware of how dangerous it was to smuggle ginseng out of Joseon.
He nodded his head.
However, I continued my words.
“However, depending on how much profit is gained here, it might be worth risking my life one more time.”
At my words suggesting that I could bring more if he sold it at the highest possible price, Archie looked at me with curiosity before speaking to Yuli.
“How old is this child to be like this?”
“He is exactly as he looks.
He just turned ten.”
“Oho, this child is even more mysterious than the ginseng.”
“You would be even more surprised if you knew his true nature.Not long ago, Tobi invaded the place where we were staying, and this child killed over ten of them.And then he went into Joseon and brought back this much ginseng.”
The Chinese call the Honghuzi by the name Tobi.
I had killed six people in total, so Yuli was exaggerating a bit.
However, since I also killed the eight Honghuzi who killed my Father, the total number of Honghuzi I had killed was fourteen.
“I will send a cart to fetch the kelp and open a separate auction for the ginseng.”
Originally, consignment sales were one of Jardine Matheson’s important tasks, and they often handled them by holding auctions.
Thus, we left the consignment sale of the ginseng and kelp to Jardine Matheson and headed to a hotel Archie recommended.
Yuli spoke as he looked around the bustling streets of Shanghai.
“Shanghai feels new every time I see it. It has changed so much more than when I was here four years ago.This is also the first time I’m seeing those Dongyang-geo things today.”
Dongyang-geo refers to a rickshaw.
It was called Dongyang-geo because it was brought in from Japan.
The term ‘Dongyang’ here refers to Japan.
“Do you see anything that could make money here?”
Yuli tilted his head and then said, “Real estate?”
“Of course, if we buy real estate, the price will go up. In a developing city like this, a rise in real estate prices is practically guaranteed. But if we buy real estate, our capital gets tied up there, and we can’t do anything until the price rises. Besides that, do you feel anything looking at those Dongyang-geo?”
“Are you saying we should take those and sell them in Vladivostok?”
I shook my head.
“Shanghai is flat land, so a person can pull those without much trouble, but Vladivostok has many hills, so it would be difficult to operate something like that. Rather, I see several points where the Dongyang-geo can be improved. Especially the wheels.”
The rickshaws of today did not have rubber tires yet.
So, I thought we could make a significant profit if we manufactured and sold rubber tires.
I wasn’t just talking about a single rickshaw.
There are carriages, bicycles, and even cars if we look further into the future.
The streets of Shanghai weren’t just filled with rickshaws; many Western-style carriages were also moving about.
And even the carriages lacked rubber tires, which suggested that rubber tires had not yet been invented.
Yuli patted my shoulder and said, “It really seems like you can see the money flowing through the world.”
“That’s why I’m saying this. After we sell our ginseng, let’s not go back to Sidimi right away. Let’s take a look around the world first.”
“You want to go on a world tour?”
“Maybe not a full world tour, but I think it would be good to at least look around as far as India.”
“I suppose it would be good to broaden our horizons while we have the chance. I came out expecting it to take some time anyway, so people won’t worry even if we take a bit of a detour.”
We unpacked our luggage at the hotel Archie recommended.
The next day, Yuli came in with a face full of grins and said, “Rumors of the ginseng have spread all over Shanghai.”
“But wouldn’t we be able to get more if we sold it outside the concession? Or by taking it to Hankou? Why did you leave everything entirely to Archie?”
“No, no.Shanghai is actually better in that regard.
Even within the Shanghai concession, there are countless wealthy Chinese people. During the Taiping Rebellion last time, a huge number of wealthy Chinese flocked into the safe Shanghai concession, so Shanghai probably has the most rich people in China right now. Moreover, ginseng originally spreads to various places from Beijing, so Shanghai is one of the final consumption points for ginseng. That’s why it’s better to sell it here in Shanghai. It might be more expensive if we went into a remote area like Sichuan, but we can’t exactly go there.”
“Then about how much can we expect to get?”
“Since we got it for roughly 2,000 taels of silver, we should get at least ten times that.”
“Won’t the Chinese merchants collude to try and buy it cheap?”
“Leave that part to Archie. Since you left a hint that you could bring more depending on the price, Archie will get us the highest price possible.”
“How much commission do we have to give him?”
“For something like this, giving 10 percent of the sales proceeds is standard.”
“That’s a bit expensive.”
“It might seem expensive, but it’s worth it. If you try to save on commissions like that, you might end up having to sell it even cheaper. I almost went completely bankrupt trying to save like that.”
“I’ve heard you say you went completely bankrupt several times, but how exactly did you fail?”
“My greed was excessive.”
“I’m asking how it happened.”
“I should have just bought the tea Archie was selling here and taken it to Primorsky Krai to sell. But I got greedy and went all the way to Hankou to buy tea.
On top of that, I believed I could make a huge killing because some decent tea was being released cheaply, so I bought it. But when Archie saw it, he told me to sell it immediately, even for half price. He said the tea I bought wasn’t properly preserved, which is why it was cheap, and that it would rot while being transported to Primorsky Krai. But in my greed for a big hit, I forced it all the way to Vladivostok. When I arrived and opened the crates, it had indeed all rotted away.”
As my jaw dropped, Yuli said hesitantly, “I learned then that a merchant must not aim for such gambles. Though, of course, that realization came far too late. “
Russians are people who cannot live without tea, just like the British, and tea is a necessity for the nomads living in Russia as well, so the demand for tea in the Russian Far East is quite large.
If he had done business steadily as he said, he could have established himself as a merchant in Primorsky Krai without failing.
Having finally cleared my curiosity as to why Yuli Briner often self-deprecatingly called himself a merchant who failed due to greed, I went outside with Yuli to grab a meal and witnessed an incident.
***
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