Chapter 95: Harvest season
Both Yan and Chen looked intently, but it was Stephen, the Englishman. This guy is an artillery instructor and also serves as the British trade representative in the Southeast. Knowing the new sugar production, the key is to see that the sugar in the Southeast is pure, white and solid. , Overcoming all the cane sugar, he immediately ran to ask for the full purchase!
They have the friendship of selling artillery, and there will be two more next year. Yan Changwu generously promised that the contract will be underwritten by the British for five years.
In the first year, the British bought 30,000 dans of white sugar and 1,000 dans of rock sugar in Taiwan, and then gradually increased, but they still received as many as it is amazing.
According to the British explanation, they did not actually sell the sugar back to the British mainland, but digested it in the Indian Ocean, mainly the Strait of Malacca---the Indian Ocean coastal countries, where there are many green countries, plus India Tubang (in fact, there was no such country as India at that time, it was a geography), Arabs and Ottoman Turks. They had a big appetite and sold white sugar very well (everyone liked sugar).
In fact, the South and Indian Ocean regions are also suitable for planting sugarcane, but at that time the British did not control the market in those areas, and how can people everywhere grow sugarcane, a cash crop, when they are not full of food.
If the British occupies a large area, it can be deployed. For example, this area has strong sunlight, a variety of sugarcane, another area grows grain, and the produced grain is sent to the place where the sugarcane is grown, so that everyone has food to eat. There will be no famine, the British rule can last forever, and can get income from the sugar trade.
At this time, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean are not yet in a system in Southeast Asia. One-third of the land is planted with sugarcane, one-third of the land is planted with rice, and one-third of the land is planted with miscellaneous grains, vegetables, melons and fruits. , Naturally dare to grow sugar cane.
Taking a step back, even if sugarcane is planted in those areas, it is not as high as the sugarcane production in Southeast Province (the rabbit breeds said he is the second, and no one dares to call him the first), and the quality is also better. The sugar quality is not high in Southeast Province.
In addition to the annual revenue of hundreds of thousands taels of white sugar and rock sugar, the southeast government also sold brown sugar and a small part of white sugar and rock sugar to the mainland. It also earned more than 100,000 taels of silver. The income was very stable, and it was indeed sweet. Career.
As a result, Southeast Prefecture has its own export fist products!
Not only that!
Sugarcane is a treasure in its entirety. Except for white sugar, in the process of producing white sugar, "molasses" is produced. It is the sugarcane juice squeezed out by the sugar industry. It is made by heating, neutralization, precipitation, filtration, concentration, crystallization and other processes. The remaining thick liquid is commonly known as syrup.
It contains more than 40% sugar, but it is not suitable for human consumption, and it is unpleasant in appearance and smells good. It can be used as a liquid energy feed and fed to livestock for fast digestion and absorption. For example, it can be fed to dairy cows (added to feed), which can increase the production and quality of dairy cow's milk, so that pigs can gain weight after eating.
But the big use of molasses is that Yan Changwu used it to produce "rum"!
Rum is the transliteration of English Rum. It is a distilled liquor produced by fermenting, distilling, and aging the syrup or molasses pressed from sugar cane. The alcohol content is 40 degrees, generally not sweet, there are also sugared ones. The wine is pale yellow, with a prominent aroma, no rushing taste, and a long lasting fragrance. The alcohol content is about 45%. The main production characteristics of this kind of wine are: selecting special aroma-producing (ester-producing) yeast and adding organic acid-producing bacteria, after co-fermentation, and then distilling and aging.
Rum is one of the most consumed wines in the world. It originated in areas rich in sugar cane and cane sugar, such as Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Dominica, Puerto Rico, Guyana and other Caribbean countries, among which Jamaica and Cuba are produced. Rum is the most famous.
Now, Yan Changwu relied on the memory of his cane sugar production program to organize wine masters to produce rum. This is not difficult. After all, the Chinese are the ancestors of drinking and produced rum.
He had bought a lot of suitable wine utensils in Yuegang before, and processed them to make a complete set of wine utensils to make wine.
The rum produced at this time is relatively rough, spicy, and has a strong after-bitter taste. Most people cannot drink it except for the old drunkard who dares to drink it.
Hong Maofan’s method is that the original wine is aged in white oak barrels. The normal wine period is 3 to 6 months, the high-quality wine is 9 to 12 months, and there is also 3 to 10 years of rum.
can be taken out and blended after maturity, the finished wine is colorless or golden yellow.
China does not have white oak, and it is unrealistic to import from a distance. How can Yan Changwu give money to Hong Maofan to buy wood? He is very sophisticated in using "Chinese oak", that is, oak wood barrels of rum. Oak and oak are of the same family, with similar textures, and can be used to refill the number.
But the taste of the wine is not as good as that from white oak barrels. At this time, other flavor additives can be added to improve the taste. Such as adding cinnamon, **** and cloves, mixing with the final rum, and soaking for 1-2 weeks.
still tastes good!
The British, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese all bought a lot of rum, but the main bulk was sold to the mainland! ]
Without it, the output is large and the price is relatively cheap.
On the mainland, most wineries can't afford to have such a large source of raw materials as Yan Changwu!
Use grain to make wine?
That would be beaten by a crutches too!
Due to the weather entering the Little Ice Age, the mainland has failed to harvest grain for many years, and the grain is not enough to eat. You dare to use it to make wine?
leads to a serious reduction in the output of alcohol, but the alcoholic does not reduce it.
or even more, after all, being drunk can alleviate a thousand worries.
At this time rum entered the mainland, with large quantities and low prices, and its sales were mainly "medicinal liquor". Chinese people like to tonic most, especially in winter. It is originally strong and with the effects of medicinal materials. Hey, the whole body is warm. Just one word cool!
The southeast prefecture fought against Ming, but under the **** of many steadfast patriots of Ming, the rum successfully entered the mainland.
First sold in Fujian, then north, into Jiangsu and Zhejiang, to Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and finally sold to the tribesmen of the old wild boar skin by the Shanxi merchants at that time. It is very popular wherever it goes!
soon swept the mainland, and the amount of silver in a year was hundreds of thousands of taels!
...
To tell the truth, Tainan is not prosperous. Seriously speaking, the entire southeastern province is Yan Changwu's tenant farmers and long-term workers, serving his industry and agriculture, and serving him as a soldier.
And commerce is his monopoly.
However, in recent times, Tainan Street has been crowded with a lot of fresh-faced foreign businessmen, and their faces anxiously filled an administrative center in Tainan Street.
They need to buy a flag to go to sea for trade!
Two thousand silver dollars per side!
