Chapter 78: Grand Opening

Although the Hainan Women’s Cooperative Co., Ltd. had a grand name, it was essentially just a second-hand store. The source of goods was naturally the household goods confiscated from the Gou family estate. Antiques, ornaments, calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain had no market locally, but there were a large number of ordinary household items, especially clothes, shoes, and hats, which were brought in by the dozens of cartloads. These things were very attractive to the common people.

However, as Wen Desi said, the capital of the various investors was based on the internal accounting currency of the transmigrators, the “dianquan”. How much silver and copper coins one dianquan was worth became a big problem. According to the Executive Committee’s past explanation, one dianquan was equivalent to one RMB.

“Since the dianquan is based on one RMB, we can use RMB as a reference when calculating the value—” Li Mei said.

“Well, although I’m not an economist, the time and space are different, and the value of the RMB can’t be applied like that.” Wen Desi was a little worried. “For example, a huanghuali wood table is worth a lot of money in the 21st century. If we use RMB to calculate it, wouldn’t this table be sky-high?”

“We can use grain prices for conversion,” Cheng Dong suggested. “The purchasing power expressed in this way is more realistic.”

He used rice as the conversion benchmark.

The price of rice in Lingao was one tael and three qian of silver per shi (94.4 kg).

The average price of rice in modern Chinese cities is about 3.2 yuan per kg. Converted to shi, one shi of rice is equivalent to 302.08 yuan.

Using this as a unit, the actual purchasing power of the RMB in Lingao in 1628 was that 302.08 yuan was equivalent to one tael and three qian of silver. They basically understood the prices in Lingao, so it was more convenient to convert them into RMB.

After a series of complex cost calculations and understanding of the market, the Hainan Women’s Cooperative Co., Ltd.—referred to as the Women’s Cooperative—finally opened for business. Because its opening time was a little later than the salt store, and with Li Mei’s public relations and social skills, the cooperative’s scene was much grander than the salt store’s. Although it was also just a few rows of brick pillars with sheds and raincloths on top, it occupied a large piece of land on Dongmen Street. Li Mei originally wanted to buy this piece of land in the name of the company, but the land system was another sensitive topic, and the Executive Committee did not dare to make a decision. After her repeated efforts, a three-year land use certificate was issued—the glorious No. 001.

Compared to the quiet opening of the salt store, the opening of the Women’s Cooperative was particularly “eventful.” Not only were 10,000 firecrackers, specially bought from the county town, set off at the opening, but a wooden plaque with the seven large characters “Hainan Women’s Cooperative” handwritten by Xi Yazhou was hung on the simple brick gatehouse. The brick pillars along the street were filled with congratulatory plaques, which, although simple, looked the part. The signatories were naturally various departments: the first one on the left was from the Executive Committee, followed by the Dongmen City Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Military Department, the Security Department, the Nanhai Experimental Demonstration Farm… Even the village committees of Maniao Salt Farm Village and Damei Village sent congratulatory plaques. A pair of loudspeakers at the door continuously played the cheerful “Joyful Encounter.”

This familiar scene still made many transmigrators feel a sense of intimacy. Even if they didn’t want to buy anything, they wanted to go in and have a look. There were more than a dozen stalls inside, with no counters. Fortunately, there was plenty of furniture swept from the Gou family, so various long tables and square tables were used instead. They were piled high with a dazzling array of goods. Li Mei had a plan for the first batch of goods. The purchasing power of the countryside was limited, and the expenses were nothing more than food and clothing. Porcelain, ornaments, and furniture were not necessities. The common people neither needed them nor could they afford them. Only clothes and daily necessities were essential, so the main products were clothes, shoes, and hats. Sorting and classifying thousands of pieces of clothing by texture, newness, and use was a huge project. The Ming family of four worked together for two days and two nights to finish it. Damaged clothes were no longer sold, but were directly loaded onto carts and sent to the paper mill construction site as raw materials.

For a time, the entrance of the cooperative was bustling with activity. The local natives had never seen such a scene and gathered around. Li Mei took this opportunity to direct the clerks to attract customers.

The clerks were selected from the villagers who had moved from Damei Village. They were all middle-aged women with decent looks and good speaking skills. After bathing and changing clothes, they all wore indigo cloth skirts and jackets, with the five characters “Women’s Cooperative” embroidered on their chests, looking neat and energetic. She herself was also in a blue cloth skirt and jacket. She didn’t look out of place in Ming dynasty clothes at all. Her face was clean, her hair was neatly combed, and she had a clean and capable air about her. She stood at the door alone, greeting guests from all walks of life. Even the natives who craned their necks but did not dare to get too close, she would greet them in not-so-fluent Lingao dialect—after all, the main purpose was to earn their money! The customer is the Buddha.

She knew that farmers in the past, due to their limited experience, often did not dare to enter unfamiliar places easily, for fear of being deceived. Therefore, she placed the old clothes, shoes, hats, small combs, hairpins, and other things that were more attractive to them on the stalls along the street for sale. The vast majority of the common people had never seen so many goods in their lives. Colorful clothes of silk and satin, families with daughters to marry or daughters-in-law to be married, all planned to pick a few pieces to take home. For those with tight hands who felt that the poor had no fortune to wear this, it didn’t matter. There were also many new and semi-new cloth clothes, both linen and cotton, and the price? Cheaper than weaving the cloth themselves and hiring a tailor to make it. Even the most shrewd and cautious people’s hearts were moved.

Less than an hour after opening, the five-bay storefront at the entrance of the shop was full of people bending over to pick things and bargain. Li Mei watched this lively scene with a smile on her face. She suddenly felt that it was not so bad to have come to 1628 so inexplicably—she was already looking forward to the future commercial empire, a peak that she could never reach in her original time and space! With a surge of excitement, her head felt a little dizzy. Only then did she realize that she was almost sixty years old—she didn’t know if she could live to see that day—she had to find a Chinese medicine doctor to check her pulse. Autumn was the time for nourishment, and wasn’t it autumn now…

Just as she was thinking, she suddenly saw a man and a woman coming out of the East Gate. The woman was blond and blue-eyed. The common people who were watching the excitement at the door saw a new spectacle and all flocked to see the barbarian woman.

Li Mei hurriedly separated the crowd and went up to greet them: “Hello, Editor-in-Chief Ding, you’ve come to grace my humble shop with your presence?”

The person who came was Ding Ding, the self-proclaimed president and editor-in-chief of the “Lingao Times,” and the one with him was naturally his foreign girlfriend, Pan Lin. The two had just returned from Damei Village a few days ago and had worked overnight to finish the special feature report “The Criminal History of the Gou Family.” The final proof was just out yesterday. Hearing that the first joint-stock enterprise had opened, his sensitive news nerve was excited again, and the two of them immediately rushed to Dongmen City.

“Big Sister Li, your new shop is opening, and we didn’t come to support you first. We’ve been rude.” Ding Ding was also a man of the world, and his words were even more polite. He looked around, “Oh, I didn’t even send you a congratulatory plaque—”

“Not at all, not at all. It’s enough if you help me with more publicity in the future!” Ding Ding was still an editor-in-chief without a newspaper office, but Li Mei had no doubt that the “Lingao Times” would one day become a large newspaper group like the “New York Times.” It was much easier to build a relationship now than later.

“Sure, I’m here to gather news today. I’ll give you an extra tomorrow!”

“Oh, thank you so much! According to custom, when a company opens, everyone should be invited for a few drinks, but we don’t have the conditions now. In a few days, you and your wife can come to my house for a few drinks. I’ll cook myself—I still have a few bottles of Pixian doubanjiang there. I’ll make you a Sichuan meal!”

“Then we’ll definitely come. I’m dying for boiled fish. I can’t even find a red chili in this place.” Ding Ding said with a smile, “Big Sister Li, please show us around.”

Of course, Li Mei was more than happy to. She took them on a tour of the place. The material conditions were still very simple, but the entire business management was already on the right track: there were records for purchasing, receiving materials, inventory, and sales. The clerks could not read, so Li Mei did the bookkeeping herself. The clerks’ remuneration was based on a sales commission, which meant there was no fixed salary, but a percentage of the sales. The commission rate for each product was different. The commission rate for easy-to-sell items was low, and the rate for hard-to-sell items was high. Three meals a day were provided, and the working hours were adapted to the ancient people’s habit of getting up early and going to bed early, from 5 am to 6 pm, with no rest days. However, they could ask for leave for family matters or illness, but of course, asking for leave also meant no income.

According to the standards of another time and space, this system was a serious violation of labor laws, but in this time and space, it was not particularly harsh. Ding Ding still remembered an interview with an old brand in Shandong: until the early 20th century, many clerks in the shops had no salary at all. The boss just provided three meals and a place to sleep, and at the end of the year, a small red envelope was given as a bonus.

[Note: In the past, it was quite common for commercial enterprises not to pay a basic salary. The income of clerks mainly came from two parts: one was the daily small account income sharing, and the other was the year-end bonus from the boss according to the human capital shares.]

He saw a few porcelain vats in a corner of the shop, filled with artemisia tea, with a bamboo ladle and many wooden bowls beside them.

“This is free tea.” Li Mei explained that in the past, some merchants would offer tea at the entrance of their shops in all four seasons for the convenience of passers-by. This was a traditional commercial virtue. It was very popular and also helped to increase the customer base—many people initially just came over for a drink of tea, and then were attracted by the goods.

“You really have a way with things.” Ding Ding couldn’t help but praise. “Sure enough, every profession has its master. Not simple! I think you’ll be the first one to get rich here.”

“That’s not necessarily true.” Li Mei said with a smile, “Don’t look at how hot this business is. This is just the first day. There are still many days to come. We are a joint-stock enterprise. The rent for the land use right, the materials and labor for building the house, and even the daily meal money for the clerks are all paid in cash by the cooperative. Except for the goods given by the Executive Committee as an investment, the cooperative did not ask for a penny from the Executive Committee. This can be said to be a typical example of self-reliance and economic development, right? You have to give me good publicity, so that I can strive for some preferential policies in the future, right?”

“Okay!” Ding Ding said with an excited face, and then whispered, “Does our women’s cooperative allow men to buy shares?”

Li Mei understood: “Isn’t Xiao Pan a woman?”

The two of them laughed knowingly.