Wang Cong stepped onto Guangzhou Harbor in high spirits, warmly greeting everyone he passed—whether he knew them or not.
They had bought an entire row of houses at Guangzhou Harbor, using them as warehouses and lodging for sailors. They had also set aside the two best-located units as shops. On the surface, they sold imported goods; in truth, they also handled wholesale orders.
Guangzhou Harbor was developing rapidly now. There were not only merchants from Nanyang, but also fair-haired, blue-eyed foreigners from the West. Unfamiliar with the Ming Dynasty, they were often swindled.
Wang Cong's two shops had been set up specifically for them. He could wholesale Ming Dynasty goods to them—exquisite silk, porcelain, even tea and fine wine.
His prices were higher than those charged by the people who cheated them, but everything was guaranteed genuine and of reliable quality.
After being duped once or twice, those Westerners wised up and went only to Wang Cong for their goods.
And as Wang Cong traveled west with them, he both opened up new sea routes and swiftly seized market share in the West.
By now, Wang Cong was one of the largest Ming Dynasty merchants in Western trade. Another was the Foreign Trade Ministry's official fleet.
The Foreign Trade Ministry had been jointly established by the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works in the thirteenth year of Jingtai, specifically to oversee the Ming Dynasty's official foreign trade.
It could be said that the Foreign Trade Ministry deserved enormous credit for how smoothly the Ming Dynasty's later Commercial Tax reforms had proceeded.
That was because the silver it brought back each year filled the gaps left by exempting poll taxes and reducing land taxes.
Whether taxes were to be reduced or exempted, the prerequisite was that the treasury had