Li Songchen laughed and said, "That's not enough. But now we are purchasing in a diversified way. It not only consumes time, but also wastes a lot. We have to fight the war with all our might, so we can't afford it. Therefore, we plan to set up a Liaodong Military Supply Joint Supply Association, which is called the Military Supply Association, to purchase the materials we need, set a unified price and settle the settlement. You also perform their responsibilities according to the materials you can supply. Of course, there will be detailed arrangements for the whole operation model. We will send the printed materials to you later. In short, this will save time and effort, simplify the intermediate links, and improve efficiency."

After Li Songchen finished speaking, a series of discussion suddenly sounded in the restaurant, because this suggestion was a bit unexpected, but it was reasonable to think about it. Now it is a war period, so naturally we cannot purchase as scattered as before, and organize all merchants who supply goods to the East China government to conduct unified procurement. This is indeed much more efficient. For merchants, it is not a bad thing, at least they cannot see any adverse effects on merchants.

Zhang Zhenxun was the first to stand up and support him, saying: "I support you. As long as you establish this 'Military Supply Federation', I will definitely participate."

Li Songchen said: "Old Xun, don't rush to express your opinion. Listen to me first. First of all, whether to join the "Military Supply Association" depends on your own voluntary measures. We will never force it. Even if we don't join the "Military Supply Association", we can still provide us with supplies. But if we have to make it clear, our Caiyang will definitely give priority to joining the "Military Supply Association" merchants, and then non-Military Supply Association merchants."

Zhang Zhenxun smiled and said, "This is naturally, otherwise there would be no need for the Shanghai New District to establish this 'Military Supply Federation', and we don't need to join."

Li Songchen nodded and said, "In addition to the benefits I mentioned just now, we have several other requirements. First, we must formulate unified rules. All members who join the association must respect these rules, so that they can avoid malicious competition between each other. Once there is a commercial dispute between members, the "Military Supply Federation" organizes personnel to arbitrate and determine right or wrong and punishment according to the rules formulated." After a pause, Li Songchen said, "Everyone is a businessman. The shopping mall is like a battlefield, so there will inevitably be competition, but the shopping mall is also

It is not exactly like a battlefield, and it can be used everywhere. If there is no reasonable rule, there will inevitably be malicious struggles, such as suppressing each other's prices, slandering and smearing opponents, and even borrowing gangs or government forces to suppress opponents. Although such competition can be presented for a while, it will be difficult to last long. Of course, this is not our business at all, but the war on the front line is urgent now. If you fight each other, it may delay our major affairs. Everyone respects certain rules and acts, so this will not happen. Therefore, we are also forced to do so, so there is such a regulation."

After Li Songchen finished speaking, the restaurant was silent for a while, and soon a low voice of discussion sounded, some people agreed, some opposed, and some were very worried about it. In fact, from the hearts of most people, they really hoped to be able to operate under a unified and fair rule. Although everyone present had extensive connections, it was inevitable that the other party would maliciously suppress the price or use other forces to suppress it. In order not to lose business, they had to stay with them to the end. The other party pressed the price and pressed the price even more; the other party asked the Qing help array, and he asked the Hongmen to help; the other party took the governor's way and he would vote in the name of the governor, but all this was not in vain. He spent a lot of money, and at most, even though he fought for the business, he would probably be operating at a loss and could only lose money and gain publicity.

But this has happened in the past century, and everyone has become accustomed to it. Now the East China government is going to formulate a set of rules, but many people hesitate. Are the rules established fair? Arbitration is fair, and most people have no idea. The people who support it are people who have close business dealings with the East China government and have opened factories and set up shops in Shandong. They have reaped the benefits of doing business under fair rules. Of course, they hope to expand this set of rules to Shanghai. They also have full confidence in the execution ability of time travelers.

At this time, Zheng Yingguan said: "I wonder if District Mayor Li is asking how these rules are formulated."

Li Songchen said: "Of course, it is formulated by everyone's efforts and joint efforts. The principle is 'fairness and justice'. It not only takes care of the interests of big businessmen, but also takes care of the interests of small businessmen."

Zhang Jian said: "District Mayor Li, merchants who join the association must respect the rules, so merchants who have not joined the association do not need to respect the ones. Will competition in this way be detrimental to merchants who join the association?"

Li Songchen nodded and said, "Old Jian asked very well. Although the rules have not yet been released, these rules only apply to competition among merchants who have joined the association. If there are merchants who have not joined the association, everyone can still use other means to deal with it. In addition, all merchants who have joined the association should be consistent in their external affairs, and advance and retreat together."

With a "boom!", the restaurant became lively again. Merchants all understood what Li Songchen meant, which was to gather the power of the plenary session to deal with merchants who had not joined the association and had malicious competition. This naturally had a great advantage, and there was no need to be afraid of malicious competition from merchants who had not joined the association. Most of these merchants were just suppliers, and there were many small and medium-sized merchants or production workshops below. The future demand for materials by the East China government will definitely be extremely huge, and the demands are quite urgent. Downstream merchants or production workshops will inevitably threaten price increases. There are already signs of vagueness. If the Military Supply Federation is established, then as long as the merchants of the plenary session join forces to exclude the merchants who have raised the price below, they will have to force those merchants to go bankrupt, which is naturally beneficial to these merchants.

At this time, Zheng Yingguan suddenly said, "What if it's a foreigner competing with us?"

Li Songchen said: "No matter who it is, it is the same. If foreigners want to use malicious competition to destroy the supply of materials on the front line, we must also unite against foreigners."

The whole place was silent at this moment, and everyone was stunned by Li Songchen's words, because since the Opium War, China's national gates have been opened and foreign businessmen have poured into China, almost all competition between Chinese merchants and foreign merchants ended in failure without exception. First, foreign merchants have a lot of political privileges in China and undoubtedly occupy an extremely favorable position in commercial competition. Second, foreign merchants have strong capital and a unified organization. When necessary, the government will provide help. Chinese merchants are basically single-handed. The court not only does not support them, but will also put in the insult and stir up behind the scenes. Therefore, even in fair competition, there are very few defeats.

The most typical example of a business war is in the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), the red-topped businessman Hu Xueyan fought a raw silk war with foreign businessmen. He spent more than 20 million taels of silver to collect millions of dans of new silk in China, resulting in a break in his capital chain. At this time, the Qing court not only did not give Hu Xueyan enough support, but instead condoned Shanghai Daotai Shao Youlian deliberately delayed Hu Xueyan's salary for 20 days. Bureaucrats from all over the country competed to withdraw deposits from the money houses opened by Hu Xueyan, causing a run, which caused Hu Xueyan's money houses to go bankrupt one after another. The Qing court issued an order to dismiss Hu Xueyan and secretly investigated Hu Xueyan's assets in order to repay the debt, which led to Hu Xueyan's heavy debts and completely bankruptcy, and eventually ended in depression.

Of course, China is not without victory in this era. After the establishment of the China Merchants Group of Shipbuildings organized by Sheng Xuanhuai, ship companies such as Swire Co., Ltd. in Britain, Jardine, and the United States, joined forces and used the means of significantly reducing freight costs to squeeze out the China Merchants Group. At this time, Li Hongzhang, behind Sheng Xuanhuai, decisively gave the China Merchants Group favorable support, raising official funds, allocating grain and carrying official goods to ensure the business of China Merchants Group. As a result, Qichang Company was run and went bankrupt. Swire Co., Ltd. and other companies had to compromise with China Merchants Group and sign a price contract, becoming one of the few commercial victory in modern Chinese history. This also shows how important the country's support is when competing with foreign countries.

However, this business war is just an exception, and the opportunity for Sheng Xuanhuai to receive the full support of the government is hard to come by. Overall, Chinese businessmen have basically suffered one-sided defeats in the competition with foreign businessmen. Therefore, in this era, China's national capital can only survive in the monopoly of foreign businessmen and cannot develop and grow at all.

At this time, Li Songchen said again: "Foreign merchants are not scary. This is on our territory in China. As long as you can unite and be united to the outside world, it is no problem to defeat foreign merchants. It is so difficult that you are willing to be suppressed by foreign merchants like this. Don't you want to be proud!"

At this time, some smart businessmen had generally understood the intention of the East China government. This was not just to prepare the materials needed for the war, but to unify the business community in Shanghai. Because according to the rules mentioned by Li Songchen, even if the war ended, it would be possible to continue to operate with only a small adjustment. It seems that overseas Chinese have a great ambition! So everyone was quickly calculating in their hearts that if they joined the Military Supply Federation established by overseas Chinese, there would be a lot of gains and losses.
Chapter completed!