Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 797 Cut the Cake

In the evening, the new main building of Jianxinzhai was already brightly lit.

The biggest feature of this new Jianxinzhai main building is "non-wooden".It is made of high-efficiency white marble and refined cement from Jinghua Cement Factory, so it is also called "Baiyu Building".

The second characteristic of this building is the "Western style". It is the Fontainebleau Palace, one of the representatives of the Renaissance style, which hired several French architects from Guangdong (in fact, several of them were Italians). Built for basic styles.

Therefore, this Baiyu Building is not just a single building, but a complex of buildings. Its location has also shifted a little to the northeast from the original Jianxinzhai, and it is on the edge of Jingjing Lake.

Fortunately, European "palaces" don't have any special standards, and their regulations in Ming Dynasty are only "strange" and not illegal. Therefore, although this Baiyulou seems strange to Ming people, human beings have "Beauty" has something in common. Even the nobles who saw Baiyulou for the first time were just amazed, and didn't think it was ugly or anything else.

In fact, with a highly pragmatic aesthetic, his White Jade Tower looks a little better than the Fontainebleau Palace, because white... Gao Pragmatic likes pure tones.

Of course, the reason why white marble is used is not only because Gao Pragmatic likes white buildings and has too much money to spend, but also because there is a white marble producing area near Yanjing City-Fangshan Dashiwo, which is the hometown of white marble.

Since the cement is produced by itself, the cost is actually several times cheaper than that sold outside, and the white marble is obtained from nearby materials, so the construction cost of this replica of Fontainebleau Palace is actually not high, and it is only more than 2 yuan. two silver.

Daming's labor costs have always been very low. This has already been said, so there is no need to mention it.What is really expensive is the interior decoration, according to Gao Pragmatism - except for those religious murals, it must be completely Western style.This led Jinghua Infrastructure to spend a lot of time studying Western-style decoration with those foreign architects, and then sent people to test and manufacture.

But it is also interesting to say that the tung oil produced in Guangxi has become a favorite, because the effect of soaking and curing the wooden decorations with tung oil is very good, which surprised the foreigners.

Gao Yushi’s White Jade Tower was not just built for fun, but for other purposes—because Chinese buildings like to use wood, they are not as solid as Western-style buildings that like to use stone, that’s for sure (Lima There are comparisons and records in Dou's notes).

And this has led to the fact that once there is a war, very few Chinese-style buildings can be preserved, which will cause a lot of waste. Therefore, Gao Wu has always wanted to introduce some advantages of Western architecture to make up for the shortcomings after he came up with cement.

Maybe there will be a Chinese-style architectural style and a Western-style architectural connotation in the future, but first he wants to demonstrate it, which is the real reason for the creation of Baiyulou.

Anyway, Daming is not the Qing Dynasty, and it is not xenophobic, nor does it think that outsiders will not have good things. What should be learned from, what should be learned, learning from each other is a virtue that the Han people have long had, and they are highly pragmatic and not afraid of being scolded.

What's more, as the champion of the six poems, if you want to scold him for adoring foreigners, you have to ask yourself whether you are qualified-I am already at the pinnacle of someone's Chinese studies, so why not pursue Chinese and foreign studies now?

In the banquet hall, Gao Wushi looked at the Yanjing nobles who gathered together, and greeted them with a smile.

At today's banquet, the nobles of Yanjing almost came out in full force, except for Zhang Rong, the British prince who was too sick to leave the ground, who sent Zhang Yuangong, and Xu Wenbi, the Duke of Dingguo, who went to Maoling to worship the pure emperor of Xianzong. In addition to sending grandson Xu Xigao to come, the other nobles in Beijing came in person.

It can also be seen that Gao's face is really not ordinary now.

Especially for his ten-year business ally Jingshi Xungui, it is quite useful.

"Everyone, Gao Qi and others have already explained some things about ocean trade to you in the Shipbuilding Department of Craftsman School." I have learned a lot. Taking Japanese fans as an example, an ordinary Japanese fan can be sold from Japan to Daming, and I can make a net profit of two to three hundred cash. But how much can a mere fan weigh? How much can a ship of fans earn? Money, you must be able to imagine—to tell you a piece of good news, as long as you join the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, I will not take any money from this transaction, and I will give it all to you!"

All the nobles were shocked when they heard it, and thought to themselves: Gao Qiuzhen is indeed a big deal, so he gave up such a big deal?
But Zhu Yingzhen is very familiar with Gao Yushi, and knows that Gao Yushi must have a follow-up. In order to show his unusual relationship with Gao Yushi, he deliberately teased: "Hey, if you don't want to do fan business, you must have other business interests. You might as well say it and let us all know, so as not to violate the taboo of your tall God of Wealth in the future."

"Oh, there's a business deal, and Gao doesn't intend to let you get involved." Gao Wushi didn't seem to pay attention to them, the dignified princes and marquises, and said with a smile.

Zhu Yingzhen was slightly taken aback, but he was not angry, because it was not a high-practical style to ask them not to intervene in a certain business, so Zhu Yingzhen became a little nervous instead, and asked, "What business is it?"

"Sulphur." Gao Wushi said indifferently: "Jinghua has taken over this business. At the same time, I will also ask the emperor to send a commissioner to my Jinghua fleet to supervise."

Zhong Xungui gasped, subconsciously shrinking his neck.

Zhu Yingzhen coughed dryly, and said: "To be honest, even if you don't talk about this brimstone, we won't dare to touch it. You can rest assured about this, everyone is not such a careless person."

That is, although sulfur can be used medicinally, for Daming today, its main function is to make gunpowder.

Although Daming has been privately engaged in military industry for several years, there is a strict supervision system. For example, Jinghua has the authority to purchase sulfur, but it will be subject to the double supervision of the Ministry of War and the Imperial Horse Supervisor. Dongchang and Jinyiwei also have the right to buy sulfur at any time. investigation.

Others are capable of doing this, but these nobles in Beijing really dare not touch them—they are military officials and nobles, generals for generations, making money or something, maybe no one will catch them talking nonsense, but sulfur... you master Beijing What is the purpose of the battalion commander to get so much sulfur?
Therefore, they really dare not touch such a tricky business, and they have a good idea of ​​this warning line.

Zhang Yuangong, the young master of the British government, is also an old acquaintance with Gao Wushi. He asked a question at this time, and said: "Although fans are a big business, we have a large number of nobles in Beijing, so it is not easy to do this kind of thing." What’s more, we can’t go to Japan with an empty ship to buy fans and sell them back, we have to sell some goods to them first, and which goods are in short supply, I ask you for advice on this.”

Gao Wushi smiled and said: "There are a lot of goods, and the Nanzhili area is especially good at silk cloth. As far as I know, whether it is white silk, five silk, damask, gauze, silk, twisted silk, Luojin , Shiny satin, gold satin, Nanjing satin, Nanjing silk, etc., are all in short supply, and they are never afraid of being sold out.”

Zhang Yuangong had a worried expression on his face: "But these things, we Yanjing nobles can't reach them."

Gao Wushi smiled slightly and said, "It's okay, we also have special products in the north, and the Japanese are not afraid of our large quantities."

Zhang Yuangong asked in surprise, "What is that?"

"Iron." Gao Wushi said: "Jinghua's biggest business in Japan right now is selling iron... Japan is not within the scope of Ming's ban on the sale of iron. Besides, they are fighting internally, and there are too many places that need iron."

Selling iron to Japan, of course, may make Toyotomi Hideyoshi stronger in the future, but in Gao Pragmatic's view, it is a small problem and does not involve the root cause.

Because the benefits that Daming gained from this kind of trade were even greater.

Japanese iron is expensive but silver is cheap. Some scholars in later generations estimated that from 1560 to 1644, Japan produced about 84 million taels of silver in 25429 years, with an average annual output of more than 300 million taels of silver!
However, Japan’s productivity is there. It doesn’t need so much silver at all. It can only be used for “foreign exchange”. ——North Korea has little complementarity with it, and its productivity is also low.

But what the Portuguese needed was Asian specialty goods instead of silver, and Japan couldn't produce too many goods that the Portuguese were interested in, so the transaction volume was not too large.

Only doing business with Daming is what Japan needs.

Gao Wushi told the honorables that when doing business in Japan, you can achieve "seven irons for one silver", and even Jinghua's high-quality fine iron can "three irons for one silver", which shocked the honorables so much that their jaws dropped. !

"My dear mother...why does this country with a big bird shit have so much money?" When Sun Xu Xigao, the eldest son of Dingguo, said this, his eyes were straightened.

Uh, Japan is a bit small compared to Ming Dynasty, but it’s not as big as a bird’s shit, okay?

Gao Wushi coughed dryly and said, "Jinghua Kaiping can allow [-]% to [-]% of the output to you for trade with Japan."

Oh my God?
Knowing that Jinghua Iron’s output has been increasing these years, the nobles’ eyes were straightened again, and Zhu Yingzhen hurriedly said: “Is this true? Jinghua is willing to give up so much iron production? Uh… please don’t misunderstand, I It’s not that I don’t believe you, I mean that Jinghua himself uses a lot of iron, this...do you have enough for yourself?”

Jinghua does use a lot of iron, and in the current era, there is too little iron, not much to say, giving up such a large production capacity will definitely have an impact on Jinghua itself.

However, Gao Pragmatic has a way to make up for it.One is that Kaiping continues to expand production. There is no explanation for this. In Kaiping, in terms of resources, the current output is not as good as that of later generations. Although most of the iron ore of Shougang in later generations is imported, domestic iron ore Iron ore cannot be said to be useless at all.With the productivity of this era, Kaiping's own Qianxi Iron Mine alone is enough.

As for coal... Hehe, can Tangshan be short of coal?
And it won't be long before the iron mines in Annan Hejing are developed and iron factories are built, not only Annan, but also the supply of pig iron and refined iron in southern Daming will be in charge of it, and Kaiping can be liberated. Isn't that enough?
In fact, Jinghua only gave up some opportunities to expand business, but it did not affect the foundation.

So Gao Wu said: "You don't have to worry about Jinghua itself. We have plans to expand production, and we won't cut down the supply to you just because we don't have enough money."

Then there is nothing to say, the nobles naturally signed up enthusiastically, and in a short while, the banquet hall was almost as noisy as a vegetable market.
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Continue to ask for subscriptions and various tickets~
(End of this chapter)