open sea

Chapter 635 Jewelry
The six lucky boats are indeed what Zhao Shizhen said, one pilot ship that has been to Spain, two grain escort ships that have landed in Majia Port in North America, and the other three lucky boats, large and small, are Nanyang pioneers. treasure ship.

Although it looks unattractive, but before entering the Bohai Sea, it has been sailing slowly with the large fleet until it entered the absolutely safe North Zhili coast, and then quickly sailed to Dagu Port with the pilot ship.

"My subordinates have been instructed by the Minister of Nanyang, knowing that the Beiyang military expenditure should not be delayed for a day, and they will not stop when they enter the Bohai Sea. The fast boat is coming."

The captain of the treasure ship that sailed from Nanyang is a student of the first class of the Guangzhou Lecture Hall. Seeing that Chen Mu has the closeness of an old subordinate, as soon as he entered the Beiyang yamen, he sighed a few words and said to Chen Mu that the school had changed a lot after not seeing it for a year. Presenting the cargo list sent by the Nanyang Military Mansion, he said: "This list is in triplicate, Nanyang kept one copy, and just gave one to Mr. Chang Ji. This is the last copy."

The bills were sealed with wax on a round paper tube, and the wax seal with the ring-shaped private seal of the Minister of Nanyang was intact. When opening the bills, the writing was simple, but the goods shipped were not simple.

Luzon Macheng Mansion cast large ingots of silver, packaged in 260 boxes, a total of 50 ingots, [-] taels per ingot.

Gemstones from Lion Country and Tangmin Island, crowfalcon, cat's eye, green red, and agate are packed in eight boxes and four boxes, each box is different in size and type, weighing [-] catties in total.

The sea pearls of the Sulu Kingdom are divided into three boxes according to their rareness, each box is of different sizes and types, and the total weight is 970 taels.

The ivory of Champa was divided into 34 boxes according to the size, a total of 470;

These things were loaded into three ships, and Chen Mu was very happy to see them. After he closed the bill, he encouraged the captain of Nanyang, and asked, "It's been a hard journey, and I will rest in Beiyang for a few days. When will the next Beijing transport arrive?"

"It's just a few days ago. Now the advance fleet should have set sail from Denglai. I would like to thank the commander for his kindness, but my subordinates can't rest, and they will set sail tomorrow." The captain apologized to Chen Mu and explained: "This year, Myanmar , Sheng and the two prefectures have good harvests, Beijing has a huge amount of traffic, and there is not enough shipping, we captains may make two trips at least, and many may make four trips. Seeing the strong wind is approaching, we can go back before the wind blows and we can make one more trip.”

In the past, more than [-] ships were transported by sea, which is about all the number of Fuchuan with more than [-] materials in the Nanyang Army. Now they are required to transport them two to four times, which is at least [-] ships. It will consume [-] to [-] shi of rice and grain.

"Since this is the case, I have worked hard for you, and a good harvest is the best thing." Chen Mu nodded slowly, and then warned: "Be careful of the wind and waves, and sail back and forth thousands of miles for two months. Don't rush to sail, and be careful of drifting."

"The rest time is not long. You go down with the soldiers and find a barracks for the waterman to rest. Just explain to the soldiers what you need."

After the captain left, Chen Mu secretly calculated the value. Originally, he thought that the Nanyang military government would take care of the Western countries this year, and that the goods transported to the Eastern military government during the Beijing Games would be much less, but unexpectedly it was even more than last year.

Last year and this year, the same amount of silver was transported, 30 taels, but last year, the goods transported were large quantities of Guangdong cotton cloth, and the rest were mostly building materials such as cement raw materials, and there were no valuable goods; big piece.

"Xu Gong, go to Nanyang, what's going to happen in the past two years?"

No matter who Chen Mu asks about this matter, his staff will not know. It is something they can know in the north. Chen Mu must know it himself. If Chen Mu doesn't know, his staff will not know, Xu Wei asked suspiciously What's wrong with him, I saw him shaking his head and said: "The goods sent by Nanyang this year seem to be overstocked, but there is not a lot of silver in it. I feel like something happened."

With that said, Chen Mu handed the invoice to Xu Wei, who stepped forward, for him to have a look.

It is true that Sulu produces pearls. If it is easy to sell bulk goods, it is not surprising to exchange thousands of taels of pearls, but it can get more than 4000 catties of gems at once. This amount is beyond the scope of normal trade-not Ming merchants or Nanyang army The government can't afford it, but the lion country simply can't afford cotton cloth or other goods of equivalent value.

What's more, gems are the same as pearls. Neither of these two kinds of treasures can be sold directly to get the highest profit. They have to be sent to Suzhou, where there are the most skilled jewelry processing craftsmen in the world. , One tael of agate can be sold for more than a dozen taels or even hundreds of taels of silver.

Also in the southeast, these processed finished products can be sold as quickly as possible, because Jiangnan is where the wealth of the Ming Dynasty gathers.

This is something that can earn ten times and dozens of times, and those rhino horn ivory.

Chen Mu did the math, as long as he was willing to pay the price of 5 taels of silver and a few years, the value of these things Gao Gong sent to the Dongyang Military Mansion this year might be between 200 million and 300 million taels of silver.

There are only one small, two big and three lucky boats.

It seems that Nanyang has made a fortune, otherwise he would not be willing to send these things to Tianjin.

"Could it be that Xiyang's Yin Yangshi has come ahead of me, Mr. Chen, and gained a lot in Xiyang? The Guangxi Banner Army is not useless either!"

Chen Mu rubbed his chin and had a short beard, and suddenly heard Xu Wei clapping his hands suddenly: "Commander, I should know why the quantity of goods delivered by Nanyang is different this year. Nanyang must have made a fortune last year, but this year It fell into the hands of Nanyang."

Chen Mu became interested and asked, "What windfall?"

"I'm still guessing, but it's more or less related to this matter. Last year, Lin Afeng led a fleet of thousands of soldiers and civilians to leave Tangmin Island, and did a lot of looting in the west of Malacca. I think that Gaoxin Zheng Xing may have followed Chen Shuai's example and captured Lin. Did Feng get the stolen goods and buy them?"

Xu Wei shook his head as he spoke, and said, "No...such as jewelry and ivory, which are mostly produced in the east of Malacca. If so, this batch of goods should have been in the hands of Gao Xinzheng from the beginning, and he sold them last year. The merchant bought it in Malacca, and was robbed by Lin Feng's fleet, and then sold back to Nanyang, if so, it would make sense for this batch of goods to be sent to Beiyang."

"How can it make sense?"

Chen Mu didn't think this conjecture made sense. Gao Gong could sell these things again, and let Lin Feng snatch them again. How interesting is it?
Others don't know, but Gao Gong doesn't know that, following Daming's establishment of a military mansion in Western Ocean, Portugal's living space in that sea area will be further squeezed. long.

This is Daming. The common people miss their wives and children. The country is rich and self-sufficient. Policies are changed every day when the first assistant takes office. Only God knows when the sea will be banned again!

What long-term considerations?
One vote, one vote, and another vote. It is the last word to only find big windfalls to continue working. If you grab a tael of silver, you can make money.

It’s not too late to think about the long-term if you’re short-sighted. Anyway, in terms of management, governance capabilities, agriculture, and water conservancy technology, Daming can surpass the distance between Beijing and Nanjing.

"There is still Duke Yin in the West, so the ministers of Nanyang must not be able to sell this batch of goods again, or they will sell them into the middle of the country by themselves, and they will be played by the ministers of Western countries; or, they can only be sent to Beiyang.

"It seems to make sense, but don't worry about how this product came from. Once it's in my hands, don't even think about going out. No one will give it to you. This is my three-year military expenditure in Dongyang." Chen Mu said standing Standing up, he turned his head and said, "Mr. Trouble, I will take a trip and send Qianqi from Beiyang to take care of transporting the goods into the military mansion in good condition. I will go to see the envoy who returned from Spain."

"Everything is ready, the only thing left is the warship, and the troops are ready. Chen can finally go to Mexico!"

(End of this chapter)