The Rise of the European Emperor

Different from the lively trade scene at Sconda, which is like cooking oil on fire, the purchases that Kong Tai is responsible for are few in variety and not large in quantity. However, they are all very important.

However, Guangzhou is a trading port and is located in the lower plains of the Pearl River Delta. Therefore, more rice is grown in the surrounding areas. Most of the tung trees and sumac trees are produced in the hills and mountains, and the plain areas are mostly cultivated into rice fields, so they will not be wasted to grow trees, not to mention the surrounding areas of big cities like Guangzhou?

Therefore, despite the high price, Kong Tai's harvest is not very big. For example, he only bought 500 catties of tung tree seeds, which basically wiped out the inventory of tung tree seeds in Guangzhou. And the sumac seeds are even less, he only bought 300 catties, and also bought all the sumac seeds in Guangzhou city. As for the bamboo seeds, it is even worse, only the 5 catties of seeds obtained from the bamboo forest in the north of the city...

It's not that these seeds are rare in the world, but that in plain areas like Guangzhou, these seeds are relatively rare. Because, even if these seeds are bought, they cannot be planted in the lower reaches of the Pearl River Delta. Since no one is planting, the natural supply will be less. Kong Tai was able to buy 500 catties of tung tree seeds and 300 catties of sumac seeds, but it was because he paid a high price and collected a lot of bulk goods to get so much.

Of course, if Kongtai can stay in Guangzhou for a year and a half and make long-term acquisitions, he will definitely be able to acquire more. However, because he did not qualify for the tributary trade, Kongtai would definitely not be able to stay here for a long time. Therefore, this kind of hurried acquisition is naturally not much.

But these are not too small. One catty of tung tree seeds can reach thousands, which is because the seeds of tung oil are relatively large. According to the safe method of spotting two or three seeds in a pit (the seeds may not germinate if they are sown, so add two more neutrons for insurance. If all three seeds germinate, then leave the best growing one in the end and pull it out. The other two plants. Of course, if the land area is sufficient, the other two plants that are pulled out (maybe they may not germinate) can also be transplanted elsewhere, but the growth will definitely not be better than the retained one). Even if it is conservatively calculated according to the low germination rate of half, one catty of seeds can grow four or five hundred tung trees. And sumac seeds are much smaller, a pound of seeds is estimated to be able to grow more than a thousand sumac trees. Therefore, as long as he takes good care of them, the 500 catties of tung tree seeds and 300 catties of sumac seeds that Kongtai purchased can still grow at least 20,000 tung tree trees and more than 30,000 lacquer trees.

As for the 5 catties of Phyllostachys edulis seeds, Phyllostachys edulis seeds are very light, only about 24 grams per thousand seeds. There are more than 20,000 bamboo seeds in 1 catty. If it is 5 pounds, there are more than 100,000 seeds... Even if only half of them survive, 50,000 bamboos can be grown. Moreover, this thing grows fast, jumps up fast, and its vitality is extremely tenacious...

...

Seeing that these three kinds of seeds could not be acquired, and the acquisition by Sconda was still in progress, Kong Tai did not want to be idle, so he opened up another acquisition business - tea acquisition...

You know, because Europe and Daming have not yet opened maritime trade routes,

And the Earl Grey milk tea invented by Marin has swept all over Europe, which has led to the high price of tea in Europe. It takes a war horse to exchange a four-pound tea brick. The price of a war horse is about 100 gold coins. Therefore, the current price of tea in Western Europe is as high as 25 gold coins per pound, which is ridiculously high.

Marin also forgot to instruct Kong Tai to buy tea, but Kong Tai knew that tea was very popular in Europe. Not to mention, now European aristocrats like to use Earl Grey milk tea as a drink when entertaining distinguished guests. Of course, this is for entertaining distinguished guests. Ordinary guests, it is more economical to drink red wine... The real reason is - tea is so expensive...

You must know that the tea bricks obtained by the Europeans were obtained by the Ming Dynasty at the northern border and the Mongolian tea-horse trade. Mongolians can exchange for 120 catties of brick tea with a Mongolian war horse, which is 30 tea bricks. However, when it was transported to Europe through land commercial routes, one tea brick was actually exchanged for one war horse, and the price was 30 times higher.

In fact, the Daming tea-horse market has already been regarded as a ruthless slaughter of Mongolian businessmen. In the Ming Dynasty, tea was even cheaper. In the Guangzhou market, the price of good bud tea per catty is 80 cents, which is 0.08 taels of silver. And ordinary leaf tea, only 20 cents per pound, which is 0.02 taels of silver. As for brick tea, the grade is lower, and it is the existence of low-grade leaf tea. The most expensive leaf tea is about 40 cents a pound, also called fine tea. The low-end leaf tea is brick tea, only 15 cents per pound. Of course, the black tea bricks produced in Anhua, Funan are more famous, and the price is 20 cents per pound.

However, even if Anhua dark tea is as expensive as 20 cents a pound, a 4-pound tea brick costs only 80 cents in Daming, which is 0.08 taels of silver. However, the black-hearted Daming officials used 30 tea bricks in exchange for a first-class Mongolian war horse. In terms of cost, even if you use Anhua dark tea, it is only 2.4 taels. Using other unknown tea bricks, the cost is lower... However, in Daming territory, the price of a war horse is a dozen taels of silver... Therefore, the Daming tea-horse exchange market is actually a scam for herders and uncles, and the price is several times higher. s price. However, the steppe peoples have nothing to do about it. Because, this business is completely unique to Daming, don't buy it if you have the ability...

Kong Tai also heard about Anhua dark tea from Marin, so after the three seeds could not be purchased, he began to inquire about the source of Anhua dark tea.

In fact, Marin doesn't like dark tea, he prefers green tea like Longjing. The problem is that green tea, including the later black tea (which didn't exist in this era), has a shorter shelf life. Generally speaking, the shelf life of green tea is only about one year, while the shelf life of black tea is 18 months, which is one and a half years.

However, at the current speed of the ships, it takes 10 months to sail from Guangzhou to Europe. Nimad, the tea leaves shipped back to Europe are about to expire before the expiration date, so they still sell them?

Therefore, the dark tea with the longest shelf life has become Marin's first choice. You know, even if it is loose tea, the shelf life of black tea has 5 10 years. And black tea brick tea, the shelf life is more than 10 years...

In other words, if you transport the black tea bricks back, you will not worry about the deterioration of the tea leaves. Unless you enter too much and are hungry, you can't sell it at all...

However, because of Marin's promotion, it is now very popular to drink Earl Grey milk tea in Europe (mainly, coffee has not yet emerged, and everyone can only drink milk tea). Therefore, as long as you don't buy too many goods, you can still sell out within the shelf life. The shelf life of more than 10 years allows merchants to stock up with confidence...

And what is the profit of black tea tea bricks? Kong Tai calculated an account. In Guangzhou, buying a brick of Anhua dark tea is only 0.08 taels of silver. In the European market, the price of black tea bricks is now 25 gold coins. According to the gold and silver exchange ratio of 1 to 12, it is worth 28.6 taels of silver. If you don't count the cost of shipping, the price has doubled by 357.5 times... This is so special, it is more profitable than silk and porcelain...

Of course, if a large number of black tea bricks are shipped back, the price of tea in Europe will definitely decrease. But even if it is reduced by three times and the transportation cost is erased, there will always be a hundredfold profit...

Thinking of this, Kong Tai's heart was extremely hot. He stopped Sconda's purchase of porcelain and other commodities that took up space and weight, and waited for him to buy tea...

After inquiries from all over the world, Kong Tai contacted all the tea merchants from Funan in Guangzhou, and bought 10,000 Anhua dark tea bricks from these merchants at a high price of 100 yuan (original price 80) Anhua dark tea bricks. That is 40,000 catties of Anhua dark tea.

After that, he bought 2,000 other types of tea bricks of slightly lower grades, and collected 48,000 catties of brick tea. If the Guangzhou tea bricks were out of stock, Kong Tai would still want to buy more. If these tea bricks are pulled back to Europe, they can be exchanged for 12,000 war horses...

Of course, this is under the condition that the price of tea has not been lowered. But pulling back so many tea bricks will definitely lead to a sharp drop in tea prices. However, no matter how much it falls, there will be more than a hundred times the profit.

As for the silk and porcelain purchased by Sconda, silk is available in Europe itself, but the quality is not good. The quality of Daming silk is better, but it can be sold for ten times the price at most (compared to the low price of Daming), and the profit will be several times. The profit of porcelain is slightly higher, because Europeans do not know how to make porcelain, so this transaction is unique. An ordinary porcelain bowl can also be sold for one gold coin. The purchase price of ordinary porcelain bowls in Daming is only 5 cents... This seems to have more than 200 times the profit...

It's just that the market for ordinary porcelain bowls is limited, and the purchase price of those gorgeous porcelain bottles and jars is also relatively high. After all, the profit will be several times as much. This profit margin is higher than that of silk, but lower than that of brick tea.

However, although the profits of porcelain are high, transportation is a big problem. Because porcelain is fragile. If it is piled up in the cabin casually, in case of strong wind and waves, the porcelain will be easily broken. Therefore, when transporting porcelain, special wooden frames and boxes are required, and buffers such as cotton are also needed to fix the porcelain. Therefore, the transportation of porcelain is a big problem, and it takes up a lot of space. Unlike raw silk and tea bricks, which can be densely stacked…

Therefore, in the end, the profit of porcelain is 20 to 30 times higher than that of brick tea, only a little higher than that of raw silk.

Therefore, at the time of loading the ship, Kongtai required a limited load of tea bricks, followed by raw silk. Finally, load the china and drink other goods...

Sure enough, because the wooden boxes and wooden racks required for porcelain take up a lot of space and weight. In the end, Kong Tai decided to keep only those exquisite porcelain, such as blue and white porcelain and other high-grade porcelain with patterns. As for ordinary celadon bowls and other low-grade porcelain with bare appearances, they were all discarded. Of course, it was not lost, but it was given to the Guangzhou Shipping Division to carry Ding Haishan. Although these porcelains were resisted, they were large in quantity, and they were worth more than a hundred taels of silver. Kong Tai nominally said that the "deposit" was in the Guangzhou Shipping Division, but before leaving, he secretly told Ding Haishan "how to deal with love", that is to say, he asked him to exchange money...

In addition, in order to make room for high-end and lucrative commodities such as tea bricks, porcelain, silk, etc., the rice seeds purchased by Sconda were also discarded by Kong Tai, and only a few sacks were kept for seeding. The rest were directly thrown on the pier, and the people from the Chief Secretary's Yamen were notified to come and give them to those hungry people...

After filling the cabins of the three ships, Kong Taicai called Columbus, who had been fooling around in the Qinglou in Guangzhou for the past few days, and urged him to set off...

Because Columbus didn't understand Chinese, he could only let Contay and Sconda handle the matters that came into contact with Daming. As for himself, the old problem has been committed, and he can't control his lower body...

Kong Tai also knew what was wrong with this product. Fortunately, the silver he brought this time was very sufficient. So, Kong Tai found the largest Qinglou in Guangzhou, stuffed the old bustard with a few large silver ingots, and let Columbus live in the Qinglou... It wasn't until the work was over that he called this fellow back...

And when Columbus came out of the Qinglou, although he was not drunk, his footsteps were swaying three times - obviously collapsed...

In desperation, in order not to let Columbus, the great navigator, die during the voyage, Kong Tai had to spend a lot of money to find a famous doctor in Guangzhou city, and prescribed a few pairs of precious tonics, intending to give Columbus a kidney tonic during the voyage. Otherwise, this fellow will definitely die if he doesn't insist on returning home...