At the same time that Kong Tai was buying seeds of oil tung, lacquer tree, and Phyllostachys pubescens, Skandar, another deputy who understood Mandarin, was not idle. Although he was not able to contact with the Ming officials because he was not as capable as Kong Tai, Skandar's Chinese level was still sufficient. With the help of the government office of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Skonda is also responsible for part of the procurement business.
The first purchase business of Skonda is wheat. Marin has long known that the wheat varieties of the Ming Dynasty are better than the current European varieties. Of course, it does not mean deliciousness, but growth rate.
European wheat is too ugly to grow for a whole year. Daming's winter wheat is cropped with rice, usually only about half a year. Therefore, what Marin values is the growth rate of Daming wheat.
In the future, Marin intends to implement the rice-wheat rotation system in the subtropical climate region of southern North America, just like the Daming Yangtze River Basin. In this way, the grain output is even more terrifying, and it can feed more residents.
However, in this era, wheat is not grown in Guangdong. Even in later generations, only a small amount of winter wheat was grown in the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong. After all, the rice-growing areas are mainly grown in Guangdong and Guangxi. Therefore, it is really a little trouble to get wheat seeds in Guangzhou.
However, fortunately, the Ming Dynasty was a developed country. Because Daming officials are mobile throughout the country, it is inevitable that a large number of officials in the north will be transferred to become officials in the two regions. The northerners are used to eating pasta, so a market demand has formed. Moreover, although this demand is not necessarily large, it is very important. Because, those who need wheat are those officials who are transferred from the north ...
If the common people, even if there is demand, no one will bother-Nima, you have to eat rice in the south, want to eat pasta? go away……
However, those big masters can't treat it that way. What they want, they have to have. In particular, those businessmen who need to stifle those old masters will also think of ways to transport flour or wheat from the north.
Therefore, after Skandar and Kongtai were separated, they immediately went to the grain shop in Guangzhou City to find out if there was wheat for sale. Moreover, focus on the winter wheat produced in the Yangtze River Basin.
However, after all, it is Guangzhou, and there are too few wheats sold here. Those grain shops, even taking care of the needs of customers in the north, generally sell flour instead of wheat. In many grain shops, it's simply flour, not wheat, to come back and grind the noodles.
Therefore, for a few days, Skonda did not gain anything. Finally, with the help of Shen Rui, a Zuobu political ambassador born in the west of Ganxi, Sconda found a person born in the north of Zhili in the south (approximately equivalent to the place north of the Huaihe River in the northern Anhui region in the later generations. In the provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui) who are used to eating pasta, and spent a high price of 20 two silver to buy the winter wheat that they brought from their hometowns and had not been ground into two stones. Although the amount is less, it is considered to be there.
Skonda's second task is to acquire rice seeds. Of course, it is not the indica rice popular in the southern tropical area, but the japonica rice popular in the northern area. For example, rice like Northeast Rice.
In his previous life, Marin was from Jiangbei. He was used to eating soft glutinous japonica rice, and he was not used to eating southern indica rice. Although it is said that there are also scented rice in Indica rice. But in general, japonica rice is more fragrant and softer.
Moreover, regardless of whether they are in Daming or in later generations, northerners are more likely to eat japonica rice than indica rice. Even in the southern Jiangsu area, which is the Daming granary, mainly produces japonica rice. This is because the area around Suhu is an important rice supply area in Beijing. Through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the ships transported the rice around the Su Lake to the capital, supplying the officials of the capital.
However, many officials of Beijing Normal University are more used to eating japonica rice. Therefore, the most important grain-producing areas in Daming are also mainly planted with japonica rice according to demand. In later generations, Jiangsu Province is still the largest japonica rice producing area in the country. Including its Jiangnan and Jianghuai areas, it has always been an important japonica rice producing area.
Of course, these are all false. The main reason is-Marin likes to eat japonica rice ...
Therefore, as a younger brother, Skandar must find the seed of japonica rice for Marin. Then, they were transplanted to North America and the Yangtze River Basin with similar climates for planting and supplying to Marin for food.
To this end, Scondart went to the grain shop and purchased the seeds of japonica rice ...
The seeds of japonica rice are not difficult to purchase. After all, japonica rice was favored by officials from the north of the Yangtze River in Daming. Therefore, japonica rice is much better than wheat. Skoda went to a grain store and bought 100 stone japonica rice.
After purchasing japonica rice, Skonda also purchased a large number of seeds of local indica rice from Guangdong and Guangxi. After all, the tropical colonies controlled by Marin are not suitable for the growth of japonica rice, only for the growth of indica rice. Before that, although Marin obtained the seeds of indica rice from India, he did not believe in the rice varieties of Asan, so he asked Skonda to purchase some high-quality indica seeds in Daming.
In addition, Skonda also purchased a large amount of glutinous rice seeds. The reason for this is that Marin intends to use glutinous rice to make vinegar in the future, but of course he can also make wine. In addition, you can also make rice cakes. In short, glutinous rice is also very versatile. Although glutinous rice cannot be used as a staple food, it is widely used. Stuffing vinegar with glutinous rice is also one of the important uses. After all, it's a bit expensive to make vinegar with apples, but it's more cost-effective to use glutinous rice to make vinegar. And apples are better for people to eat directly ...
...
After Scanda purchased grain seeds, it finally began to purchase other ...
Since coming to Daming, it would be unreasonable not to purchase silk! Therefore, Skandar borrowed the authority of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and invited several large silk suppliers in Guangzhou City to purchase raw silk and some silk fabrics from them.
The main reason for purchasing raw silk is because the aesthetics of the East and the West are different. Daming people think that beautiful silk fabrics are not necessarily recognized by Europeans, and vice versa.
Therefore, the best way to solve the aesthetic difference between the East and the West is to purchase raw silk from Daming and go back to weave silk cloth that meets the European aesthetic ...
Right now, Daming's raw silk is very cheap. On the market, a burden of raw silk (a Sima weight, weighing about 120 pounds) is only about 50 pairs, and the average raw silk is 0.41 two silver, which is much cheaper than the price of 0.5 two kilograms of raw silk in Wanli years. After all, during the Wanli period, the influx of silver caused a rise in prices. In the period of Zhengde, silver had not yet flowed in large quantities. At this time, Daming, the price was lower than that of Wanli Dynasty.
Skandar offered to purchase raw silk at will, but silk merchants in Guangzhou were not very happy. Why? Because they have their own sales channels. Can't you sell him the raw silk that was originally intended to be sold to old customers just because of Skandar?
But this is not a problem. When Skonda proposed to purchase at a price of 56 yuan for each raw silk, those big silk merchants suddenly abandoned their ethics. Except for a small number of larger customers who must be given priority, the priority of the rest of the customers is ranked behind Skonda-who asked Skonda to increase the price by more than 10% ...
However, it is probably because Guangzhou City is far away from the main silk producing area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and no Europeans have come to purchase in large quantities every year. Therefore, Guangzhou City has not yet formed a large-scale supply of silk climate. The silk purchased by Skonda actually grabbed the local share.
So, despite the high price, Skonda purchased a total of 900 dansen silk. In this regard, the raw silk in Guangzhou City was also swept away, resulting in serious difficulties in the supply of raw silk in Guangzhou in the short term.
Of course, if this is left at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it will never be possible. Because at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the supply of Daming silk was quite sufficient. Even during the Jiajing period in the Ming Dynasty, out of economic considerations, a large area of "changing rice into mulberry" appeared in Huzhou and other Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. Because, growing mulberry and raising silkworms, selling silk, the benefits are much greater than selling rice. A stone of rice is only half a silver, and a raw silk price is dozens of two ...
Before the Westerners proactively purchased Daming silk, although the income from planting mulberry and raising silkworms was high. However, due to the limited market, no one is willing to change rice to mulberry. However, since the Portuguese began to purchase silk in large quantities in Daming, for the purpose of stimulating economic interests, the situation of large-scale conversion of rice to mulberry in the Jiangnan region began. In this regard, a TV drama "The Ming Dynasty 1566" later described this situation in detail.
However, as a talented student of the history department, Marin naturally knew that the father and son Yan Song as mentioned in "The Ming Dynasty 1566" vigorously promoted the "change of rice to mulberry". He did not hesitate to destroy the **** and flood the fields.
In fact, it is the interests that truly promote the conversion of rice to mulberry in the Jiangnan region. And the executor is not Yan Song and his son, but Jiangnan gentry who has a large field. For example, the super big households such as Xujiang in Songjiang where Xu Jie is located are the real promoters. The reason for this is naturally the huge profits of silk foreign trade.
However, that was what happened later. Today, Columbus's fleet came to Daming for the first time. Daming has not yet seen the huge profits from the silk trade, and naturally there is no wave of changing rice to mulberry. Therefore, the supply of silk is not sufficient. If you put it back in Chongzhen years, as long as you have money, you can still buy it freely in Daming, not to mention 900 dansen silk, 9 thousand dan can be bought ...
Seeing that I couldn't buy enough raw silk, Skonda began to change its goal-to start purchasing porcelain ...
In this era ~ www.novelhall.com ~ Porcelain is very valuable in Europe. The price of a piece of porcelain is in gold coins. In many novels, ancient European kings were angry, and they like to drop one or two pieces of "precious" porcelain to show that they were really angry. Otherwise, you can't bear to drop such precious porcelain ... and this stalk has appeared in many novels many times ...
Therefore, Skonda will naturally not give up the purchase of porcelain this time. To this end, he hired a large number of porters to follow the porcelain shops to scan the goods. A few days later, the post warehouse where Skanda lived was full of goods he had swept from major porcelain shops in Guangzhou. Skonda not only purchased a large number of exquisite porcelain bottles, pots and other porcelain for decoration, but also purchased a large number of porcelain bowls. Not to mention blue-and-white porcelain, ordinary celadon bowls have bought much more. As a result, this made it difficult for people in Guangzhou City to buy bowls. If anyone accidentally broke the rice bowl and wanted to go to the porcelain shop to buy a new one, they couldn't buy it ...
In this way, with the efforts of the two envoys of Conte and Skonda, a 500-ton warship and two 250-class armed merchant ships brought by Columbus were filled with all kinds of goods ... The behavior of goods also seriously interfered with the market of Guangzhou City. For example, the supply of silk industry and porcelain industry encountered serious difficulties. For this reason, many people complained to the government, and the two chiefs of administration were also somewhat overwhelming. Fortunately, the two people's crazy purchases finally filled the cargo compartments of the three ships, and they stopped scanning. Otherwise, the situation will be more serious ...