Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 364 The Dutchman's Sample
Just after the first lunar month, the Dutch came to Xinjiangkou again, and they sent a shipment of goods.

The goods were very diverse, including two cannons, ten muskets, a suit of armor, a chime clock, two binoculars, and a pair of war horses.

To be precise, this is not a product, but a sample.

"I don't know what the Earl thinks?"

Jones took Yang Chao to look at the goods and introduced them in detail one by one, just like a little salesman selling goods.

Yang Chao just shook his head lightly: "It's flashy, but if you bring these goods from a long distance, I will buy them all. You can make a price."

Jones couldn't help but be disappointed. Sure enough, every Chinese is not interested in Dutch goods. He sent these necessary supplies for war. Guns and cannons are the most popular in Europe at present. They are the goods that are installed in the armies of Britain and France. It was taken from the most elite mercenaries of the East India Company, but Yang Chao was still not interested. He really couldn't think of anything else that could impress the Chinese.

"Hey, these are considered gifts for the count. But you are really not interested at all?"

Of course, Yang Chao is not uninterested. He has seen muskets and cannons, and they are all good. In this era, Westerners are obviously ahead of Daming in terms of firearms, but the technology is not so advanced. With these few samples, Yang Chao can completely imitate it, and the cost must be much cheaper than shipping it from Europe. This is why he didn't specify the goods at the time, but asked the Dutch to ship some by himself, and he can buy it if he is satisfied.

But there are also things that cannot be imitated, such as war horses.

"The war horses you brought are very strong, what is the price?"

Yang Chao pretended to ask casually. The two horses brought by Jones were very handsome. Although Yang Chao didn't know horses, he could tell that they were much taller than the Mongolian horses in his army.

Seeing that Yang Chao was slightly interested in war horses, Jones couldn't help being overjoyed, and after thinking about it in his heart, he said, "200 taels of silver!"

"200 taels!"

Yang Chao couldn't help being a little surprised, not because it was expensive, but because it was cheap.

In peacetime, the Ming Dynasty bought horses from the Mongols for 30 taels, and when they were transported to the south of the Yangtze River, the amount was doubled. Now it is wartime, and even 200 taels of silver may not be able to buy qualified war horses in Jiangnan, and mules are sold for 50 taels. .

Jones thought that Yang Chao was too expensive, so he immediately explained: "Lord Earl, you know that Europe is far away from Daming, and it takes a year for a ship to leave Europe to reach Daming, so it is naturally more expensive."

Yang Chao nodded: "I know. If that's the case, then 200 taels. If you can do it, give me a thousand horses."

200 taels a horse, and 20 taels is [-] taels. Although it is nothing compared to the trade volume of the East India Company, it is a good start. At least the Chinese will accept their goods. Business, isn’t it? It was slowly developed in this way, which is of great significance.

Jones hurriedly agreed, and went on to sell other things.

After thinking about it, Yang Chao felt that the telescope itself had no conditions to imitate. The Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to manufacture qualified transparent glass. It is not yet possible to imitate the telescope, and this thing is very useful for war.

So he asked, "What is the price of this telescope?"

Jones said: "It's also 200 taels!"

Yang Chao couldn't help shaking his head, 200 taels for a horse is enough, the West can manufacture a large number of telescopes, and 200 taels for armor is too expensive. Of course, Jones didn't ask for the sky-high price, which is still a big discount for Yang Chao, because This thing is worth thousands of gold in Daming.

This kind of thing is generally enjoyed by princes and nobles as all things, and they don't hesitate to spend thousands or even thousands of taels to purchase.

But if it is equipped with the army, it is really impossible to equip it.

The reason why Jones is willing to give Yang Chao a low price is that although they sell the princes and nobles at a higher price, they often cannot sell a few pieces for a few years. If Yang Chao is willing to equip the army, the quantity will increase. It can definitely be operated as a bulk commodity.

Jones explained: "This mirror requires a skilled craftsman to make, so it is expensive."

Yang Chao said: "That's too expensive. It's 100 taels at most. If it's 100 taels, I'll buy [-]. If there are too many, I don't want it."

Jones pondered for a moment: "I don't know if the Earl will purchase in the future?"

One thousand is worth 10 taels, and it is worth the Dutch sending a trip from Europe. It is better than pulling money to buy porcelain, but if it is only this trip, the profit will be too thin.

Yang Chao said: "If it is useful, I will consider buying it every year."

Jones nodded: "That's 100 taels. I don't know if the Earl is optimistic about other goods?"

Yang Chao shook his head, he really didn't like other things, he didn't need blankets or glass vases.

Seeing that Yang Chao really looked down on his goods, Jones said again: "This time I have the governor's permission to ask Earl Yang if he still needs ships? Merchant ships or warships are fine!"

The last time Jones went back, the East India Company attached great importance to his achievements. The Governor and several important officials in the East got together and listened to his report. After discussion, they decided that selling a few ships to the Chinese would not Affecting the power of the Dutch in the East.

After all, even if they don’t sell the warship to Yang Chao, the Dutch still can’t compete with Zheng Zhilong. Fortunately, Zheng Zhilong is only interested in Japanese trade and doesn’t pay much attention to other aspects, so the Dutch can occupy a place in Nanyang. They think that if Yang Chao develops sea power , The threat to Zheng Zhilong is greater than them. If Yang Chao breaks with Zheng Zhilong, they can just profit from it. If they can replace Zheng's monopoly of China's trade, the Dutch would like to dream of it.

But disappointing Jones, Yang Chao still shook his head.

Yang Chao hasn't opened up the sea route yet, so he doesn't need so many sea ships for the time being. The existing ten warships are enough for Yang Chao to suppress the smuggling of wealthy merchants in the Yangtze River Estuary. The heavy price is something Yang Chao can't afford at the moment. Raising 300 soldiers costs at least 500 million taels a year, and this year it may cost [-] million taels. Now there is no spare capacity to build a navy.

Before leaving, Jones did not forget to purchase a large amount of goods. He did not want to waste every opportunity, whether it was directly sailing to Japan, or bringing it back to Taiwan for storage. Anyway, buying as much as possible when the Chinese opened the sea would not be a disadvantage. Yes, after all, no one can say whether the Chinese will suddenly change their minds when they wake up tomorrow, and ban the sea again.

Yang Chao looked at the Dutchman's manifest and found that there was an extra item of tea. They purchased [-] catties at once. It seems that the Dutchman accepted the tealeaves.

In fact, what Yang Chao didn't know was that this was the decision of the governor of the Dutch East India Company. They planned to use tea as a strategic material reserve. They have verified that green tea can indeed effectively prevent and treat sepsis. Then the Dutch crew will die during the long voyage. It will be greatly reduced, which will have an advantage over Spanish and Portuguese navigators, and will be better able to deal with later competitors such as Britain and France.

This batch of tea is not only for the crew of the East India Company in the East, can it be used in other directions, and they decided not to sell tea to other countries, so as to keep the advantage of the East India Company to the end, and tea can cure sepsis Secrets are as secret as their charts.

In addition to tea, other commodities have also changed. For example, the porcelain purchased by the Dutch in large quantities last time disappeared, and only a few high-end porcelains remained, such as large plum vases, small disks, vases, etc., but there were porcelain-related items. Another commodity, that is porcelain clay!
This change in the situation made Yang Chao very concerned. In his memory, China’s monopoly on porcelain lasted until the [-]th century. Why is it that the Dutch are not buying ordinary porcelain now, but buying porcelain clay instead? Could it be that the Dutch have started to manufacture porcelain themselves?

This matter must be clarified, but as a business secret, the Dutch themselves will not reveal it.

So he sent a batch of high-end brocade fabrics to Jones, and asked him to take them back to Europe as promotional materials. Yang Chao immediately asked Mrs. Zheng to inquire about the situation.

After asking, I realized that the problem did not come from the Dutch, but from the Japanese.

The Japanese learned to burn paper porcelain from China as early as the Song Dynasty. Not only the Japanese, but also the Koreans and Vietnamese also knew how to make porcelain.

However, North Korea only focuses on white porcelain, while Vietnam focuses on celadon, and the two countries cannot catch up with China in terms of scale or technology, and North Korea does not trade with the Netherlands at all. Vietnam’s porcelain is not enough for its own use, and it will not be exported. Only China has the conditions Porcelain was exported on a large scale.

In addition to Jingdezhen’s thousands of years of porcelain making skills, it is also because of Jingdezhen’s inexhaustible high-quality porcelain clay. It is really because of the quality of the porcelain clay itself that Chinese porcelain is always superior to Japan and other countries.

Zheng Hongkui told Yang Chao that it took the Dutch ten years to get the Zheng family to agree to supply them with porcelain, but the porcelain that the Zheng family gave them were all made by folk kilns in Dehua, Fujian, and the quality was very average.

After getting the supply of porcelain, the Dutch began to sell it exclusively to Japan. In the past few years, they exported tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain to Japan every year. Porcelain is gone, and the Dutch can't compete with Zheng's in terms of price, so they launched the porcelain trade, specializing in the trade of porcelain clay.

It has been several years since the Dutch not only stopped selling porcelain to Japan, but began to import a large amount from Japan. Although Japanese porcelain is not as exquisite as China’s, even the Japanese prefer Chinese porcelain, but Westerners don’t care, and Japanese porcelain is still the same. I like it, but also because the Dutch purchased a large number of cheap Japanese porcelain, which led to a large increase in the output of Japanese porcelain.

The Japanese porcelain industry has developed!
Yang Chao suddenly felt a sense of crisis, and this kind of thing was absolutely unacceptable.

"Zheng Zongbing, I have a proposal. In the future, I will only charge double the tax for Japanese porcelain!"

Zheng Hongkui couldn't help but be overjoyed, this is a windfall!

(End of this chapter)