Chapter 1195: Sitting in Wuchang, widely harvesting herbs

After receiving support from Da Ming and Qing Liu headed by Liu Daxia, Marin was finally satisfied, and was planning to go south to purchase. But before going south, Malinte asked Kong Tai to contact various clubs in Beijing.

The so-called assembly hall is a place where scholars from various provinces enter Beijing for examinations or after merchants from all over the country come to Beijing for concentration. This kind of place is generally built by the financially rich merchants, but it is open to the same scholars, and even offers preferential accommodation. As for why this is done? Of course it is a human investment! The taxi scholars who came to Beijing to take the exams were at least a stubborn person. Once you have won the Jinshi, the lowest starting point is the Qipin County Order. Therefore, building a conference hall (also called a trial hall) is a very good investment in human relations.

Of course, in addition to giving preferential treatment to fellow fellow scholars and making human investments, the Guild Hall itself is also a contact center for businessmen from all over the capital in Beijing.

And if you can come to the Beijing Guild Hall to do business, it must be that the business is getting bigger, and the place can't afford it, so come to the "Longtan Tiger Cave" to try the water ...

In addition, not everyone in the meeting place can meet in the capital. Generally speaking, it is only in rich places, or where special products have to be sold in the capital, will they meet in the capital. In impoverished areas, there are no businessmen with capital in the capital meeting hall.

To give a simple example, Jingdezhen wants to sell porcelain to Beijing, and Huzhou wants to sell silk to Jingcheng. There must be halls in these two places. In addition, some wealthy prefectures in Jiangsu and Zhejiang will also open clubs in Beijing.

Anyway, as long as you find the conference hall in the corresponding area, you will definitely be able to contact the businessmen who come to Beijing from this area, and they are all big businessmen ...

Moreover, most of these halls are gathered outside the first three gates (Zhengyang Gate, Xuanwu Gate and Chongwen Gate). Most of them are outside Xuanwu Gate, which is easier to find.

Marin wanted to go south to purchase materials, and it wouldn't work without an acquaintance. Otherwise, it will crash like a headless fly, wasting time.

Therefore, if you want to buy special products from various places, it is best to find a local to cooperate. Where to find local people? Naturally, it is the corresponding clubhouse ... Therefore, Kong Tai was sent by Marin to contact the merchants in Beijing ...

Before going south, the first merchants to be practiced by Kong Tai were not the southern merchants that Marin was going to, but the Beikou merchants in Zhangjiakou ...

Why find a businessman in Zhangjiakou? Because they have a commodity that Marin needs very much-mouth alkali ...

Mouth alkali is sodium chloride, also known as sodium carbonate. Because most of the Ming's caustic soda is sold by Mongolian merchants to Zhangjiakou, and then sold exclusively by Zhangjiakou merchants to the mainland, it is also known as caustic soda.

Daming's caustic soda is very cheap, it only costs 10 jin a catty. Why is it so cheap? Because these alkalis are picked up randomly by the Mongolian herders from the edge of the salt lake, at no cost ...

Speaking of which, there are also many salt lakes on the Mongolian plateau, but the tragedy is that most of the salt lakes on the plateau are not salt lakes, but instead of producing alkali or sodium sulfate (sodium sulfate). Therefore, the ancient Mongolian herdsmen were also very tired-obviously there is a salt lake, which does not produce salt ... Only a small part of the salt lake produces salt, and then becomes the target of the tribes to fight for life ...

As for the salt lake that produces caustic soda, it was rejected by various Mongolian ministries. Fortunately, the northerners of Daming mainly use pasta, and the use of soda for making noodles is not small. Therefore, the Mongolian herdsmen went to pick up the salt lakes that produced alkali, or scraped the alkali frost on the ice in the winter (soda ash is easy to frost), and then the merchants on the grassland pulled Zhangjiakou to sell to Han businessmen. If not, the cost of land transportation is high, I am afraid that alkaloids can not be sold for 5 pounds. In fact, when a merchant buys alkaloids from Mongolian herders, the price is less than 5 jin a catty ...

Soda ash has so many functions. Whether it is glass manufacturing, paper making, or soap making, a large amount of soda ash is required.

Although Marin can now purchase natural soda ash from Egypt's Alkali Wadi from Cairo, the price the Egyptians demand is at least several times the price of Daming. Moreover, Marin has been worried that Egypt was captured by the Turks. By that time, the supply will definitely be cut off. Therefore, Marin thought in advance, intending to open up a way to import soda ash from Daming, to avoid being necked by the Egyptians, or to prevent Egypt from being out of stock due to war ...

...

Originally, Marin also planned to order saltpeter in large quantities. However, the businessmen said that because saltpeter is the main raw material for the manufacture of gunpowder, commodity transactions need to be controlled by the official service. Without official permission, it can not be ordered in large quantities.

In desperation, Marin had to go to Zhengde and the ministers, seeking to order saltpetre. In this regard, Daming Junchen has no opinion. Anyway, saltpeter is really nothing rare in Daming. And Marin is now his own, and selling saltpetre to Marin is really not a problem.

But what Marin wanted was that the quantity was too large, and it would cost 1 million catties a year to scare Daming Junchen. It's not that Daming doesn't have so much saltpetre production every year, but that Daming itself consumes a lot of saltpeter. Moreover, it is not because the army consumes a lot, but it is too expensive to make fireworks ...

Therefore, after discussing with the Ministry of Armed Forces, the cabinet of Daming agreed to sell 400,000 catties, or 200 tons, to Marin each year at a unit price of 25 yuan per catty. Although there is a gap with Marin's expectations, it is enough for Marin. Moreover, in the future Marin will develop Chilean saltpeter, but it does not necessarily need to buy too much saltpetre from Daming.

Moreover, the large-scale purchase of saltpetre from Daming, in addition to being cheap, also means to cover up the development of saltpetre in Chile. When European countries see the North Sea country importing large amounts of saltpetre from Daming, it is difficult to notice the problem of large amounts of saltpetre produced in Chile ...

...

After talking about the supply of two bulk goods, saltpeter and alkali, Marin went south with peace of mind.

At this time, Kong Tai also negotiated with the merchants in the halls outside the first three gates, and expressed his willingness to pay a large amount for rare goods and medicinal materials in various places ...

In addition to some specialty herbal medicines from the north, other herbal medicines, Marin asked merchants in various halls to return to their hometowns to prepare a large amount of goods, which were sent to Wuchang, the most central part of China.

The reason why Wuchang was chosen as the central point for the acquisition of herbal medicines, besides that Wuchang is indeed located in the central core area of ​​China, the convenient water transportation conditions are also the important reasons why Marin preferred this place.

For this acquisition, Marin needed a large number of Huanglian, mainly from Shuzhong and Huguang (there was no division between Funan and Fube in the Ming Dynasty, and it was only in the Kangxi period that Huguang was divided into two provinces), Qian and Shaanxi south.

Huanglian, which was acquired from Shuzhong, can be fully loaded on the ship and travel down the river to Wuchang. Huanglian, which was acquired in southern Shaanxi, can also be transported down the Han River to Wuchang. Funan also has convenient water transportation conditions for the Xiangjiang River, and it is very convenient to arrive in Wuchang.

In this era ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ mainly transported by carriage on the road, the amount of goods transported is small, and the cost is still high. The water transportation is very large, and the cost is low, which is in line with Marin's requirements.

In addition, after the acquisition of Youyang Qinghao from Chong Yiqing, it was also very convenient to reach Wuchang by water. And Anhua Black Tea in Funan is also easier to pass through the Zijiang River and enter Dongting Lake by water transport, then into the Yangtze River, and down to Wuchang ...

Therefore, Marin put the herbal medicine delivery location in Wuchang, which is really the right choice.

However, it seems that Panax notoginseng, which is produced in southern Yunnan, is the main drug of southern Yunnan Baiyao, which is very inconvenient for water transportation. Moreover, purchasing Panax notoginseng in southern Yunnan seems to be necessary to say hello to the local homeland Mu family.

After thinking for a while, Marin decided to postpone the acquisition of specialty medicinal materials such as Sanqi in South Yunnan. He first hired brokers to say hello to Mu's family in southern Yunnan, and then cooperated with local powerful medicinal materials suppliers to acquire Sanchi. Then, through the Nanjiang River, a tributary of the Pearl River, the water transported across the Pearl River and arrived in Guangzhou. Then, Kong Tai sent a merchant ship from Keelung to Guangzhou to buy ...

Marin himself was going to sit in Wuchang directly, waiting for the medicinal merchants from all over the world to deliver the medicinal herbs and medicinal seeds he needed. Anyway, the price he gave was high enough, so that those profit-seeking businessmen would not sell him ...