Li Mingxun introduced his business ambitions to Lin Shizhang and Liu Rushi in simple language. Even though they were well-educated, they could not fully understand Li Mingxun's idea. In fact, the vocabulary used by Li Mingxun is quite concise and easy to understand. What restricts them from understanding trust. They really find it hard to believe that an institution called a bank can grow into a behemoth quickly.

As he was talking, Xu Changxing knocked in. Xu Changxing, who used to be just a shopkeeper, has risen because of joining the club. Former big shots like Lin Shizhang have to pay attention to him. After all, Xu Changxing not only controls the business of the club, but also the most important channel for communication between the gentry in Jiangnan and Li Mingxun.

"Okay, Manager Xu is here, sit down quickly. We are talking about the bank and loans to silk cotton farmers. You will explain the details in the details." Li Mingxun said with a smile.

Xu Changxing was prepared for a long time. He took out a lead seal booklet and opened it and said: "First, this bank's preliminary operation plan is only used to provide small amounts of rice and grain loans to silk cotton farmers. According to estimates, the initial capital invested is 2 million taels of silver."

Lin Shizhang and Liu Rushi looked at each other. Two million taels sounded like a large sum of money. If we consider that this was open to the gentry of Jiangnan, it would be a small sum of money. But at this time, no one would be willing to invest money in something illusory.

"Mr. Li, how much is your club going to pay for the initial share capital of these two million taels?" Liu Rushi asked with a smile.

Lee Mingxun said: "The thing that is confirmed now is 400,000 taels."

"There are only so many?" Liu Rushi asked.

Xu Changxing coughed lightly and said, "Of courses of the 400,000 taels that our boss said, the boss personally took out 300,000 taels, while Xu was responsible for the remaining 100,000 taels. However, our club still has at least 800,000 priority holding rights. The reason is that we have not mobilized other senior leaders of the club. In Guangdong, Guangxi, Japan and other places, we also have some partners that we may join."

Li Mingxun smiled slightly: "In the three and a half years since the club was established, we have paid dividends to the senior executives who hold the club's equity twice. 300,000 taels is more than two-thirds of my current private property."

"What about your club?" Liu Rushi asked.

Li Mingxun shook his head helplessly: "It is undeniable that in the past few years, our club's public accounts have indeed accumulated considerable wealth, but since December last year, we immigrated more than 270,000 from Shandong and participated in the large-scale war against the Donglu at its own expense. In the public accounts, only some of the emergency funds were left, so this bank club will not take out the money."

"Okay, we won't talk about the long term, we only look at the current situation. The two million yuan of equity is mainly used to lend to silk cotton farmers, but now it is the end of May and the spring famine has passed." Lin Shizhang said.

Xu Changxing quickly explained: "In fact, the spring famine is only for the Changping year. Now, the tides and the thieves rage in Huguang. Now the one-stone rice in Nanjing has reached 2 taels and 8 cents. The court is unable to recover Huguang. Then the grain imported into Jiangnan will be reduced on a large scale this year, and the price of grain will rise. As long as there is food, you can control most of the raw silk and cotton cloth produced this year. The loans from banks to silk cotton farmers are not money, but rice and grain."

"Okay, where does the food come from?" Lin Shizhang asked.

Xu Changxing said: "Nanyang."

Lin Shizhang stroked his beard and smiled: "So that's it, so that's it."

At this time, Lin Shizhang understood the reason why Li Mingxun strongly promoted this bank. Although he could make a lot of money by monopolizing this year's cotton cloth and raw silk, this money was not made by Li Mingxun's club. The gentry of Jiangnan also had his own fleet, going to Japan, North, and even going to Southeast Asia to make a lot of money. However, now only Li Mingxun's family can provide large-scale food. Of course, this is also an important part of the community's commercial expansion.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the agricultural environment in Southeast Asia was much better. There were countless fertile land here, and there was not as dense as the Ming Dynasty. Whether it was civilized countries such as Annan, Guangnan, and Siam on the Indochina Peninsula, or the sultanates distributed in Southeast Asia, they all had the ability to export food. The Little Ice Age had little impact on Southeast Asia, which was in the subtropical and tropical regions. The people here also had vast and fertile land. With a climate of three ripening a year, they could produce a large amount of food without even intensive cultivation. In fact, in many countries, rice is almost the only resource that can be exported.

This has led to extremely low food prices in Southeast Asia. The Madaland Sultanate, located in Java, has the largest rice export capacity. Before the fall of Malacca, the price of rice transported to Malacca was less than three cents of silver. Of course, similar prices are not worth reference now. However, this time the club immigrated from Shandong. The grain supported by these immigrants came from Nanyang, and most of them were transported by Nanyang merchants and Chinese merchants to Hong Kong. The price of one stone has been floating around about six cents. Even if it was transported to Jiangnan, the price of rice would not exceed one or two ounces. This is a stable route for grain imports.

On this route, the club is no different from the only overlord. Not to mention, the club has a large-scale and skilled transportation fleet that can minimize the cost of shipping. Now, through the influence, constraints, and the strength of the club itself, the Zheng family has already accused of the passing rights of the club fleet. This alone is enough to gain an absolute advantage over other fleets. It can be said that once the bank is really established and a large-scale rice and grain loan is borrowed from Jiangnan, the club will make a big profit. Even if Li Mingxun cannot control most of the equity of this bank, but if he masters the source of grain, everything must be followed by Li Mingxun.

In the long run, the large influx of immigrants will soon become a more stable source of food. At that time, the community will have greater control over Jiangnan silk cotton.

At this time, Lin Shizhang and Liu Rushi had already understood that Li Mingxun and Tenglong Trading Company did want to expand Jiangnan as a core area, and naturally they would spare no effort to protect the stability of Jiangnan with the gentry of Jiangnan. However, they realized more deeply that in this process, the community would gain far more benefits than other gentry, and it would be false to say that they would not be jealous. However, now the gentry of Jiangnan has sought the community, so they really cannot negotiate conditions.

"Mr. Li, according to your wishes, the gentry in Jiangnan pays money to help your club make money. The gentry can only pay dividends, and the big ones are all for you to make money. Haha, it's a good idea to make a decision." Liu Rushi said lightly.

Liu Rushi's words are not obscure at all. The meaning is very simple. Your Li Mingxun's eating habits are really ugly. If this is the case, the gentry would not take out the stored silver. Li Mingxun smiled: "It was the case in the early stage, but Mr. Liu, Mr. Lin, this rice and grain loan for silk cotton farmers is just the early operation of the bank, in order to boost the confidence of various gentry in the bank. The bank's next development plan will be tilted towards the gentry in Jiangnan on a large scale."

"Oh, please tell me in detail." Lin Shizhang asked in an interest.

Xu Changxing said: "How long has it been since you two been to Chongming?"

"After Chongming wiped out the pirates last year, I went to the county town once and also to Nansha once. Oh, Shopkeeper Xu, you know." Lin Shizhang said immediately.

Xu Changxing looked at Liu Rushi, and Liu Rushi said, "I'm afraid I haven't been there for three to five years."

Xu Changxing laughed and said, "Don't say that he hasn't been there for a year or two, even if he hasn't been there for a month or two, he will not recognize Chongming."

"How do you say this?" Lin Shizhang asked in confusion.

Xu Changxing said: "Since two years ago, the hydrological changes in Chongming have become stable. Few sandbanks collapsed and disappeared, but sand dunes continued to appear and the waterway was blocked. Now the sand dunes in the north and central areas of Chongming have gradually been connected. Looking at the trend, in less than half a year, Changsha to Nansha will soon be connected into pieces. At that time, Chongming will form a whole island starting from Gaotousha in the east and from Nansha in the west. It is a large island that is more than 200 miles long and forty miles wide. What does this mean? You two will not understand!"

"You mean, soil...land!" Lin Shizhang suddenly became nervous.

Xu Changxing praised: "Mr. Lin is worthy of being Mr. Lin. He hit the nail on the head. You may know that Chongming County currently has a population of only 100,000, and only 400,000 acres of arable land. More than half of them are often threatened by floods. When this violent hydrological movement is over, Chongming will form a large island. As long as the embankment is built on the north and west sides of Chongming, the terrain of Chongming Island can be stabilized, and hundreds of thousands or even millions of acres of farmland can be reclaimed."

Li Mingxun said: "When the rice and grain loan is successful and enough profits are generated, it will inevitably usher in a trend of stakeholders. Banks can take over the colonization work of Chongming Island, build and promote, drain the accumulated water, fix Chongming Island, and reclaim enough farmland. These hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile fields can be planted with cotton, mulberry trees, and rice. For the gentry and rich peasants in Jiangnan, the land is never enough. The cultivated farmland will be sold out soon and eventually fall into the pockets of the gentry in Jiangnan. The same is true for the exchange. For me, hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile fields are completely useless because in Taiwan, I still have thousands of acres of land that need to be reclaimed urgently. I will obtain the main income in the early stage, but what you get is the fertile land that can be passed on to generations. Who made it? Let me tell you clearly?"

As he said that, Li Mingxun had already stood up and said, "Don't think that this is the entire plan of the bank. In fact, this is just a three-year plan. Chongming is just an attempt. In Taiwan, there is land, the climate there is the same as in Jiangnan. The land is fertile and the climate is warm. Rice can be ripened twice or even three times a year. Planting economic crops such as sugarcane is even more profitable. The only thing that is lacking is the capital to be opened, not only Taiwan, but also the vast Nuergandusi. Perhaps it is not suitable for planting rice there, but it can be grazed. The fertile black soil can also be used to plant sorghum, beans and other miscellaneous grains. These can be used as bank development projects. No one would think that there is too much land. The demand for land by the gentry and people of the Ming Dynasty is almost unlimited, and these can be led by the bank. It will be the Milky Way that flows into the pockets of the people!"

Liu Rushi began to become stunned when he listened to Li Mingxun's words. Among these endless words, Li Mingxun mentioned countless place names, which she was not familiar with in many places, but these passionate words made an incredible plan so real, as if it was within reach. Although Liu Rushi was young, he had seen countless scholars who were good at speaking, but never had the enthusiasm of today. Compared with Li Mingxun, most of the people she had met before were just empty talk.

Lin Shizhang was equally excited and couldn't help himself. He felt his mouth dry. After the room was quiet, Lin Shizhang said: "Okay, Mingxun, your remarks have never been seen before. At least I have convinced me that I am willing to invest 200,000 taels of silver to become a shareholder of the bank."

Li Mingxun smiled slightly and praised: "Senior, you won't regret today's decision. The gentry in Jiangnan asked you to lobby. At present, there is no need to ask for the amount of investment. The key is to bring in more famous figures in Jiangnan and influential to the court. Fundamentally, this is a major reshuffle of the gentry class in Jiangnan. It is a game where big fish eat small fish and small fish eat shrimps. It is a matter of fighting for interests from small and medium-sized landlords. In the early stage, we must not only be able to withstand the pressure, but the bank itself also needs more personnel to assist."

Li Mingxun did not say these words too thoroughly, but Lin Shizhang knew that the pressure on this matter would be very great. To put it bluntly, providing usury to the people, including silk cotton farmers, will occupy their land and houses when they cannot afford it. This is also one of the means for the gentry to exploit the countryside. Now banks are willing to provide low-interest loans for rice and grain, and can be repaid in kind with cotton cloth, raw silk and other things. As long as the prices and interest of various kinds of physical goods are set reasonably, or even slightly lower than the standards of gentry in various places, they will be recognized by a large number of silk cotton farmers. This is to cut off the gentry in various places.

But Lin Shizhang knew better that they had many ways to deal with such small landlords, especially in Jiangnan. As long as there were enough people who were big enough to pull in in the early stage, then this matter would be easy to deal with.

"Let's take out the plan to colonize Chongming Island first. Painting cakes to satisfy hunger is never as good as real interests. What do you think?" Lin Shizhang asked.
Chapter completed!