Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 694 Another new product that earns a lot of money by export
"Oh my God!
Simply amazing!
It's only been a day, and the ground has become as hard as a stone, which is incredible! "

Van Luck, in his 30s, looked at the smooth concrete road in front of him with disbelieving eyes, and kept exclaiming and admiring.

After arriving at Tianjin Wei Wharf with the merchant ship, Van Luck went ashore and approached the Tianjin Customs officials with a Han official hired from Manila, claiming that he had to meet with senior officials of the Ming Dynasty on important matters.

The customs officials who received him did not dare to be negligent, and hurriedly sent someone to Honglu Temple in the capital to report. The next day, a master of Honglu Temple was ordered to go to Tianjin Wei Wharf, and took Van Luke and Tong Shi to the capital to settle down.

After handing over the map and information to the officials of Honglu Temple, Van Lyk had completed his mission. In the next few days, accompanied by officials of Honglu Temple, Van Lyk wandered around the huge city of Beijing , while tasting the delicacies of the Ming Dynasty, he also visited a lot of markets. The prosperity and prosperity of the capital of the Ming Dynasty made Van Luck, who set foot on the territory of the Ming Dynasty for the first time, very envious.

Now the Netherlands is in a period of rising national power. They rely on [-] merchant ships and powerful gunboats to communicate with the world, transport various commodities and raw materials back and forth, and obtain huge profits from them.

Although many people have heard about the prosperity of Ming Dynasty, Van Luck always believes that the wealthy Netherlands is the most developed country on the planet, and its national strength and people's living standards are unmatched.

Although Daming in the east is rich in products, it should be a place where most of the citizens are extremely ignorant. Apart from being rich in commodities such as silk and porcelain, it should still be far behind the Netherlands in other aspects.

But after coming to Beijing, the prosperity and civilization in front of him changed his deep-rooted view.

The clean and spacious streets, the bustling and noisy markets, the dazzling array of goods, the high-spirited and confident looks of the passers-by on the streets, the clean and beautiful clothes on their bodies, the orderly market life, etc., all of these made Van Lyck amazed.

It turns out that the legendary Ming Empire was extremely prosperous. The capital alone has a population of more than 100 million, which is already one-fifth of the total population of the Netherlands. If it can become an ally with such a prosperous and powerful empire, the appeal of the Netherlands in Europe will be stronger.

After Van Lyck inspected the market and thought about it, he still decided to bring those exquisite porcelain and silk back to Europe.

This is the most sought-after Ming product in Europe. As long as the merchant ships return to the shore, within a month, these silk and porcelain will be snapped up by merchants from all over the world.

At this moment, the officials of Honglu Temple who received instructions from Zhu Youjian took Van Lyck to the section from the Tongzhou Canal Wharf to the Jingshi Road, which was basically widened and renovated, and introduced the cement that came out 200 years in advance to Van Lyck. This magical new thing conquered Van Lyck in an instant.

Now the road hardening in European cities is all made of stone. Although the stone is strong and durable, the cost is too high, and it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to lay. If the road is not hardened, the road will be muddy during the rainy season. Traveling and various commercial activities have caused great inconvenience.

But these seemingly dusty and worthless things in front of us can easily solve the problem of road hardening. Compared with stone materials, the cost has been greatly reduced, and it saves time and effort. It is indeed Wumart. Good quality goods at a low price.

After beating around the bush to inquire about the raw materials and processes needed for cement from the officials of Honglu Temple to no avail, Van Lyck, who saw a huge business opportunity, immediately solemnly proposed that the Ming government would hand over the exclusive distribution rights of cement in Europe to the Dutch East. Indian company.

This time, after the Dutch merchant ship he took was filled with cement and returned to the Netherlands, he would report the matter to the senior management of the East India Company. He believed that the company would send a large number of merchant ships to Daming to transport the cement back to Europe from the east.

Although the time is short, Van Lyck has discovered the great commercial and strategic value of cement.

After testing the hardness and strength of the cement by hitting the road with a hammer, Van Lyck knew that this fast-solidifying commodity would be the best raw material for building forts and fortresses.

This material will become one of the best-selling commodities in the world in the future, and the market prospect is extremely broad. After trying it in various countries, there will be a huge demand for cement, and the excess profits contained in it will make the origin and agents earn more. earned a lot.

"Daming is really a magical country. It actually invented this kind of high-profit product. If we can find a way to get the production formula, then all the profits of this product will belong to our East India Company. With huge wealth, we can Build more and bigger gunboats, and the whole world will be under our Dutch control!"

With regard to Van Lyk's request to underwrite the cement, the officials of Honglu Temple could not decide, so after sending Van Lyk back to the official post where he was staying, the principal hurriedly reported the matter to him.

Zhu Youjian soon learned of Van Lyck's request. After thinking about it for a long time, he planned to conditionally agree to the request of the Dutch. Go out and negotiate with it.

As for whether the cement ingredients will be leaked, Zhu Youjian is not worried.

The current level of science and technology has not reached the level of later generations. No matter how Europeans lead the world in the original history in later generations, without many sophisticated instruments, you will not know that cement is made of a few simple things. Mix it together and burn it.

Zhu Youjian will order the negotiators of the household department to raise the price when signing the cement underwriting conditions with the Netherlands, so as not to be too cheap for these Europeans.

The cost of cement is not high in the first place, and now it is much lower than it was at the beginning.

The cost of any industrial product decreases with the expansion of scale and production capacity, and cement is no exception.

As for the transportation and packaging of cement, we can only use wooden barrel packaging for the time being.

Before kraft paper appeared, it could only be like this.

There is no way to agree to the Dutch underwriting.

Judging from the fact that Fang Yizhi led a delegation to visit and there has been no news for more than two years now, with the current ocean transportation capacity of Ming Dynasty, there is no way to dump cement on a large scale to Europe. Now only the sea coachman has this condition .

You have to let others taste the benefits, so that more countries are willing to cooperate with you.

The Dutch are good at being middlemen, as long as they get a taste of the sweetness, they will help you when needed in the future.

Mutual benefit is the best means of sustainable development.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian ordered Jin Yiwei to closely protect the Dutch to prevent the cement production process from leaking out.

Now many places in the Northland have opened cement plants one after another, so there is no need to worry about production capacity.

The hardening of Daming roads is a long-lasting project, and there is no rush.

Decades after the reformation of New China in later generations, there are still many roads in backward areas that have not been hardened, not to mention the present Daming.

If you have the opportunity to earn money from foreigners, it doesn't matter if domestic demand is affected a little.

(End of this chapter)