The Rise of the European Emperor

While Kong Tai was buying the seeds of tung tree, sumac and bamboo, another deputy envoy Sconda who knew Chinese was not idle. Although he was not as competent as Kong Tai and was not in charge of contacting Daming officials, Sconda's level of Chinese was still sufficient. With the help of the yamen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Skanda was also responsible for part of the procurement business.

The first procurement business that Sconda was responsible for was wheat. Marin had long known that the wheat varieties of the Ming Dynasty were better than the current European varieties. Of course, it's not about the taste, but about the growth rate.

European wheat is so stupid that it takes a whole year to grow. The winter wheat in Daming is rotated with rice, and generally only takes about half a year. Therefore, what Marin values ​​is the growth rate of Daming wheat.

In the future, Marin intends to implement a rice-wheat rotation system in the subtropical climate region of southern North America, like the Daming Yangtze River basin. In this way, the output of food is more terrifying, and more residents can be fed.

However, in this era, wheat was not grown in Guangdong. Even in later generations, only a small amount of winter wheat is grown in the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong. After all, the Guangdong and Guangxi regions are mainly rice-growing. Therefore, it is a bit troublesome to obtain wheat seeds in Guangzhou.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty was a country with developed commerce. Because Daming officials moved across the country, it was inevitable that a large number of officials from the north were transferred to the Guangdong and Guangxi regions as officials. The northerners are accustomed to eating pasta, therefore, a market demand has been formed. Moreover, this demand, although not necessarily large, is important. Because, those who need wheat are those officials who were transferred from the north...

If the common people, even if they have needs, no one will pay attention - Nima, when you go to the south, you have to eat rice, do you want to eat pasta? go away……

However, those big lords can't treat them like this. They have to have whatever they want. In particular, those merchants who need to curry favor with those lords will also think of ways to transport flour or wheat from the north.

So, after Sconda and Kong Tai separated, he immediately went to the grain shop in Guangzhou City to find out if there was any wheat for sale. Moreover, focus on inquiring about winter wheat produced in the Yangtze River Basin.

However, it is Guangzhou after all, and there are too few wheat sellers here. Those grain shops, even if they catered to the needs of northern customers, generally sold flour, not wheat. Many grain shops simply use flour instead of wheat to grind the flour.

So, for several days, Sconda did not gain anything. Finally, with the help of Shen Rui, the political envoy of Zuo Bu, who was born in western Jiangxi, Sconda found a man who was born in the northern part of southern Zhili (approximately north of the Huaihe River in northern Anhui in later generations, and the southern Zhili in the Ming Dynasty included later generations) The family of a small official who was used to eating pasta in Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces, spent 20 taels of silver to buy two stones of winter wheat that he brought from his hometown before being ground into flour. Although the amount is a little less, it is still there.

Sconda's second mission,

It is the purchase of rice seeds. Of course, not the indica rice popular in the tropical south, but the japonica rice popular in the north. For example, rice such as Northeast Rice.

In a previous life, Malin was from Jiangbei, and he was used to eating soft and glutinous rice, but not very used to eating southern indica rice. Although it is said that indica rice also has the existence of fragrant rice. But in general, the japonica rice is more fragrant and softer.

Moreover, no matter in the Ming Dynasty or in later generations, the northerners were more accustomed to eating japonica rice rather than indica rice. Even the southern Jiangsu area, which is the granary of the Ming Dynasty, mainly produces japonica rice. This is because the Suhu area is an important rice supply area for the capital. Through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, water ships transported rice from the Suhu Lake area to the capital to supply the officials of the capital.

However, many officials in the capital are more accustomed to eating japonica rice. Therefore, the most important grain-producing areas in Daming also mainly plant japonica rice according to demand. In later generations, Suzhou is still the largest japonica rice producing area in the country. Including its Jiangnan area and Jianghuai area, 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 the younger brother, Sconda must find japonica seeds for Marin. Then, transplanted to North America and the Yangtze River Basin where the climate is similar, and supplied to Marin.

To this end, Sconda went to the grain shop to purchase the seeds of japonica rice...

It is not difficult to purchase the seeds of japonica rice. After all, japonica rice is very popular in Daming by officials from the north of the Yangtze River. Therefore, japonica rice is much better to buy than wheat. Sconda just found a grain store and bought 100 stone japonica rice.

After purchasing japonica rice, Sconda also purchased a large number of local indica rice seeds in Guangdong and Guangxi. After all, Marin-controlled tropical colonies are not suitable for japonica, only indica. Before that, although Marin obtained indica rice seeds from India, he did not trust Asan's rice seeds, so he asked Sconda to purchase some high-quality indica rice seeds in Daming.

In addition, Sconda also purchased a large amount of glutinous rice seeds. The reason for this is because Marin intends to use glutinous rice to make vinegar in the future, and of course wine can also be made. In addition, you can also make rice cakes... In short, glutinous rice is also widely used. Although glutinous rice is not a staple food, it is widely used. Using glutinous rice to make vinegar is also one of the important uses. After all, the cost of brewing vinegar with apples is a bit high, and it is more cost-effective to brew vinegar with glutinous rice. As for apples, it is better for people to eat directly...

...

After Sconda purchased grain seeds, it finally started to purchase other...

Since I came to Daming, it is impossible to justify not purchasing silk! So, using the power of the Yamen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Skanda invited several large silk suppliers in Guangzhou 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. The silk fabrics considered beautiful by the Ming people may not be 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 weave silk cloth that conforms to European aesthetics...

Right now, the price of raw silk in Daming is very cheap. On the market, a load of raw silk (a Sima's load, weighing about 120 jin) is only about 50 taels, and the average price of raw silk per jin is only 0.41 taels of silver, which is much cheaper than the price of 0.5 taels per jin of raw silk during the Wanli period. After all, during the Wanli period, due to the influx of silver, prices rose. In the Zhengde period, silver had not yet flowed in in large quantities. At this time in the Ming Dynasty, the price of goods was even lower than that in the Wanli Dynasty.

Sconda proposed to buy raw silk in a big way, but the silk merchants in Guangzhou were not very happy. why? Because they have their own sales channels. You can't sell the raw silk that was originally intended to be sold to an old customer just because of a word from Sconda, right?

But this is not a problem. When Sconda proposed to purchase at a price of 56 taels per load of raw silk, those big silk merchants immediately abandoned their ethics. Except for a small number of customers with higher backgrounds who must be given priority, the priority of the rest of the customers has been placed behind Sconda - who asked Sconda to increase the price by more than 10%...

However, probably because the city of Guangzhou is far away from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the main producing areas of silk, and there are no Europeans who come to buy in large quantities every year. Therefore, Guangzhou City has not yet formed a climate for large-scale supply of silk. The silk purchased by Sconda is actually grabbing the share of the locals.

So, despite the high price, Sconda only purchased 900 tandem silks in total. In this regard, the raw silk in Guangzhou City was 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, in the late Ming Dynasty, the supply of Daming silk was quite sufficient. Even in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, due to economic considerations, Huzhou and other Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions had a large-scale "change from rice to mulberry". Because, growing mulberries, raising silkworms, and selling silk is more profitable than selling rice. A stone of rice is only half a tael of silver, while a load of raw silk costs dozens of taels...

Before the Westerners purchased Daming silk, the benefits of growing mulberries and raising silkworms were also high. However, due to the limited market, no one is willing to change rice to mulberry on a large scale. However, since the Portuguese began to purchase a large amount of silk in Daming, due to the stimulation of economic interests, a large area of ​​rice has been changed to mulberry in the Jiangnan region. In this regard, a later TV series "Da Ming Dynasty 1566" also described this situation in detail.

However, as a top student in the history department, Marin naturally knew that the story in "Da Ming Dynasty 1566" that Yan Song and his son vigorously promoted the "change from rice to mulberry" and did not hesitate to destroy the dikes and flood the fields to forcibly promote the plot is not in line with historical facts.

In fact, what really pushes the Jiangnan region to change rice to mulberry is interest. And the executors were not Yan Song and his son, but the Jiangnan gentry who owned large fields. For example, a super-big family like the Xu family in Songjiang, where Xu Jie is located, is the real pusher. And the reason for this is naturally the huge profits of silk foreign trade.

However, that is what happened later. Today, Columbus's fleet came to Daming for the first time. Daming had not seen huge profits from the silk trade, and naturally there was no trend of changing rice to mulberry. Therefore, the supply of silk is not very sufficient. If you put it in the Chongzhen period, as long as you have money, you can buy it freely in Daming, let alone 900 taels of raw silk, you can buy 9,000 taels...

Seeing that he couldn't buy enough raw silk, Sconda began to change his goal - to start sourcing porcelain...

In this era, porcelain is very valuable in Europe. The price of a piece of porcelain is in gold coins. In many novels, ancient European kings were so angry that they liked to drop a piece or two of "precious" china to show that they were really angry. Otherwise, I would be reluctant to drop such precious porcelain... And this stalk has appeared in many novels many times...

Therefore, this time, Sconda will naturally not give up the purchase of porcelain. To this end, he hired a large number of porters and went to those china shops to scan the goods. A few days later, the warehouse of the post house where Sconda lived was full of goods that he had swept from various china shops in Guangzhou. Sconda not only purchased a large number of exquisite porcelain vases, jars and other decorative china, but also bought a large number of porcelain bowls. Not to mention blue and white porcelain, ordinary celadon bowls have been bought a lot. As a result, this made it difficult for the people of Guangzhou city to buy a bowl. If someone accidentally broke their rice bowl, they would not be able to buy a new one if they wanted to go to the china store...

In this way, with the efforts of the two messengers Contay and Sconda, a 500-ton battleship and two 250-class armed merchant ships brought by Columbus were filled with various goods... and the two men's crazy sweep The behavior of goods also seriously interfered with the market in Guangzhou City. For example, the supply of silk industry and porcelain industry encountered serious difficulties. For this reason, many people complained to the government, which made the two chief executives have a big head. Fortunately, the frantic purchases of the two finally filled the cargo holds of the three ships, and they stopped scavenging the goods. Otherwise, the situation will be more serious...