Chapter 94 The First Private Salt Dealer in the Ming Dynasty
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When Qin Hao came back with his mighty fleet, Zuo Guozhu was stunned for a moment. At first, he only thought that Qin Hao was just a small smuggler on the sea, with only one or two small boats. But today, when he saw it, he turned out to be four or five large ships, and they were all giant ships, equipped with artillery.
It is truly luxurious to the extreme!
When I got on the boat and saw so much refined salt piled up in the cabin, my whole tongue almost fell out.
"This, this is sea salt? You guys cooked it." Zuo Guozhu grabbed a handful and stuffed it into his mouth.
The salty taste of salt comes out immediately, with a hint of seafood.
In his impression, the salt produced by seawater is bitter, and the taste is far inferior to that of boiled salt. Not only is the taste inferior, but the salt produced by sea water also has many impurities. However, the appearance of the salt in front of me is as crystal clear as snowflakes. In terms of taste, it is almost the same as the green salt produced in Shanxi Jiechi Salt, Northwest Huamachi and other places.
They are all excellent salt!
"Of course we did it. We have such technology overseas. As for the other things, Brother Zuo and I will do it."
"I know, don't ask if you shouldn't ask."
This is their core technology, so Zuo Guozhu will naturally not be dull and boring.
When Qin Hao proudly told him that he could dump at least 30,000 shi of refined salt into the mainland every month, Zuo Guozhu immediately fell into deep thought for a moment. Then he said something, which made Qin Hao look at him with admiration.
"This kind of salt sells for forty or fifty cents, which is a bit too cheap. On the contrary, it is not easy to sell. If it costs eighty cents per catty, it is easier to sell in places south of the Yangtze River and north of the Yangtze River. The market price of green salt is about one hundred More than sixty articles, now the road is not smooth and the source of green salt is unstable. This is the opportunity for refined salt to show its talents. "
"Each ship carries eight hundred tons of refined salt, a total of four thousand tons, which is eight million catties. Each catty of salt is sold at eighty cents per catty, eight hundred and sixty-four. Today, the market price of silver and copper coins is one tael of silver In exchange for a thousand coins, my dear! This trip is worth 640,000 silver!" Zuo Guozhu reported a figure that surprised him.
Even if there is some loss on the road, even so, excluding the cost and consumption of sea transportation, it is negligible compared with land transportation and river transportation. After deducting costs and losses, he estimated that at least half a million silver dollars had been recorded during this trip.
Qin Hao and his father-in-law were divided 40-60, so his family could get 300,000 taels of snowflake silver from just one shipping trip.
"Too many, it's incredible." Even though Zuo Guozhu usually didn't care about money, he was still shocked after calculating such an account.
"Brother Zuo, can you give the Donglin Party and salt merchants a small punishment?" Qin Hao said with a smile on his face.
When Zuo Guozhu heard this, he joked: "Isn't this a small punishment? This can be regarded as cutting off their lifeblood."
"Hahaha!" The two looked at each other and smiled.
Then Qin Hao continued to introduce: "Each ship is fully loaded with a speed of eleven knots. It is only more than 140 nautical miles from here to the North Sea of Guangxi. The fleet can reach it in a day and night. From Beihai to Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, it is more than 4,000 nautical miles. Li, converted into nautical miles, is only more than 1,100 nautical miles, and we will reach the Yangtze River within ten days at the earliest. "
"Sir, you seem to have forgotten about this night flight?" Zhuge Xuan, who was standing aside, reminded Qin Hao cautiously.
"Oh, by the way, our ship can also sail at night. In this way, the cargo volume can be increased by half." Qin Hao said with a smile.
Zuo Guozhu's face was no longer as shocked as before. Qin Hao had given him so much good news that day that he couldn't bear it anymore. However, he was still curious in his heart, so he asked: "What's going on this night?" Is there any secret to sailing that I haven’t heard of before?”
In the early Ming Dynasty, although shipping was developed and there were many ships, it even inadvertently solved the scurvy that had plagued the West for many years. However, after the sea was banned, the technology tended to lag behind. Now it is far behind the Western countries. Very far.
Qin Hao knew that this technology was different from table salt and would eventually attract attention. Moreover, the technology was not very high and could only stand up to a tower, so he pointed at the workers working outside the port.
"The most important thing about sailing at night is not the section at sea, but the section close to the land. At night, you can just rely on the navigation chart to align yourself in one direction and go straight, but this section on the road is not possible. The coastline is full of rocks. If you are not careful, you can easily There is a chance of running aground, so most ships dock during the day.”
"So the thing you built is for ships to dock at night." Zuo Guozhu was smart, so Qin Hao naturally saw the truth.
"The left chest is high, so what you built is a lighthouse."
"lighthouse?!"
"Yes, this lighthouse is a Western thing. It is naturally rare in this dynasty. I also learned about it when I communicated with the captain of the Western Yi people at sea. There will be such a lighthouse on their land, and they use a brazier to emit light at night. The light shows the ship the route in and out.”
Hearing what Qin Hao said, Zuo Guozhu opened his eyes and immediately ran to the lighthouse to see such a magical thing.
Looking at the curious figure, Qin Hao shook his head. It hasn't been built yet and nothing can be seen. Even if it is built, people must be deployed to guard it.
He still concealed something about the lighthouse. How could a fire pot emit such a bright light? In fact, there was a black technology method that Li Chun was responsible for.
The calcium carbide lamp, the predecessor of the electric light, was one of the most important exploration methods in my country in the 1950s and 1960s. It used stones and ammonium carbonate to react and emit white light.
Even in the daytime, people can still feel the brilliance and dazzling of the light.
And this lighthouse is a large calcium carbide lamp. It burns stones at night, waits for it to emit white light, and then uses a mirror to transfer the light to the sea, guiding the direction of the sailing ships and guiding them into the port.
In this regard, Qin Hao also plans to build a few more for more insurance.
Zuo Guozhu tapped his forehead gently with the folding fan in his hand, "So, in a few days, our goods will suddenly appear in the hinterland of Jiangnan with overwhelming force."
Eight million jin of fine refined salt suddenly rushed into the market at an extremely low price. He could think of what kind of adverse effects it would have on the salt merchants' salt sales;
Moreover, people who are used to eating refined salt will be disgusted when they see the salt sold by those salt merchants. This will also have a huge impact on the future business of salt merchants.
Moreover, Qin Hao said that at least 30,000 shi of refined salt will be sold to the mainland every month in the future.
Well, according to the standard weights and measures he said, each shi is 150 jin, and 30,000 shi is 4.5 million jin.
According to a salt permit, 300 jin, it is equivalent to adding another salt merchant with sales of 15,000 salt.
Salt merchants with such huge salt capital are second to none in the whole Yangzhou, no, the whole Jiangnan.
If the transportation volume is increased in the future, it will be able to swallow up the entire Jiangnan hinterland and become the number one salt dealer in the Ming Dynasty.
Damn salt rats! You made a fortune from salt, relying on smuggling and tax evasion. Now that Brother Qin's batch of high-quality green salt has arrived, you are afraid that your financial resources will be cut off. The days of Yangzhou's skinny horses drinking wine will definitely not exist in the future.
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