Nanming: I can build wonders

Chapter 5 British East India Company

The diplomatic relations between Ming and Zheng were very embarrassing. On the one hand, Guo Xingye regained Yizhou Island and completely turned against the Netherlands. On the other hand, the relationship with Spain, the colonizer of Luzon Island, was not good.

Coupled with the Manila massacre, Guo Xingye was furious. If he hadn't died young, he might even have won Luzon Island.

After fighting against these two colonial empires, Zheng Kezang's father, Zheng Jingda, joined forces and brought in a new helper from the sea-Britain.

At that time, the United Kingdom was wrestling with the Netherlands and Spain in Asia, and was eager to open up the huge market of the ancient oriental country.

Mingzheng needs British firearms and silver. The two hit it off, and they are natural allies. They quickly hooked up, signed a trade agreement, and became an in-depth trade partnership.

Thomas Woolhouse was the commercial liaison officer of the British East India Company in Yizhou Island. He was brought up by Sir Joseph when he was a child. Later, through Sir Joseph’s connections, he came to the mysterious country that the West believed was full of gold.

The blond, hook-nosed British guy saluted Zheng Kezang slightly, and said enthusiastically: "My dear prince, I heard that you have developed sugar whiter than snow with ancient oriental methods, and the magical Dongning perfume , may I have the honor to see you?"

Zheng Kezang smiled when he saw the flattering Thomas. It turned out that he deliberately sent someone to leak the news to the British business house. No, the British guy was hooked like a fish that smelled fishy.

Let Eunuch Li bring out a jar of sugar and perfume that he had prepared earlier, "Oh, my old man, your speed is really fast, this is what you want." Zheng Kezang said in an interpreter's accent.

"My God, I've never seen such white sugar." Thomas was stunned. In his memory, the white sugar was actually yellow, or even black. He had never seen such sulfur-smoked white sugar.

Then I smelled the rose essential oil perfume specially made by Zheng Kezang. It smells really good. If it is dedicated to the King of England, maybe he can also get a knighthood.

Europeans don’t like to take a bath these days. They firmly believe that taking a bath will bring about the Black Death. Some kings even boast that they have only taken a bath twice in their lives, one for birth and one for marriage. This king is Queen Elizabeth of England.

London in the seventeenth century was full of narrow lanes, dirty markets, and filth everywhere.

The stench in the streets and alleys is overwhelming, the stench of rotten fish and rotten meat, the smell of excrement and urine, and the stench of corpses emitted from shallow grass burials...etc. The stench is disgusting.

William Lakey said this in his book "The History of European Morals": the cleanliness of the body is the blasphemy of the soul, and the most admired sages are those filthy bodies with clumped clothes.

At that time, the European nobles who didn't like to take a bath would emit an unpleasant smell.

In order to cover up this smell, their practice is not to change the old habit of bathing every day, but to put some perfume on their bodies to maintain their dignity.

Therefore, Europeans have a particularly large demand for spices and perfumes, especially nobles with a good face, but the current European perfumes have a general fragrance and do not last long.

Therefore, the Dongning perfume made by Zheng Kezang is a dimension reduction blow to the current Europe. It smells good and lasts for a long time. The real development of European perfumes has to wait until Napoleon's rule, and it is still tender.

Thomas quickly imagined in his mind how big the market for Dongning Snow Sugar and Dongning Perfume would be.

Soon he was stunned, white sugar was okay, but as for perfume, he couldn’t imagine how great its potential would be to enter the Indian market and the Western market, and it was still monopolized by the UK, because now Mingzheng’s products can only be sold to the UK , is sold to Japan.

Thomas knew that he was going to get rich, and he had to hug this cash cow quickly. If he missed this village, he would lose this store.

The British guy said excitedly: "Your Highness, our East India Company is willing to buy snow sugar at a price of 150 Wen per catty."

"Dude, you also know that friendship is priceless, but without 200 coins, you can't get the special white sugar from our Zheng family." Zheng Kezang waved his hand regretfully.

The British guy seemed to have made up his mind, gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, you are so heartless. We can accept this price, but you can't sell it to the Dutchmen and the Spaniards."

Why is the British guy so quick to give in? Because the perfume is so tempting. If the price of sugar doesn't satisfy Zheng Kezang, what if he doesn't sell the perfume?

"Of course my buddy, the Netherlands and Spain are our common enemies. I can give you the exclusive agency right of sugar, but for perfume." Zheng Kezang nodded, obviously there was something in his words.

"The name of this Dongning perfume is Meirenxiang. As for its price, you can take it home and try it out before you talk to me." Zheng Kezang is very confident. As long as Thomas experiences Meirenxiang himself, he believes that the East India Company will give Offer a satisfactory price.

Zheng Kezang felt that the decency of this European nobleman could only be measured by silver. He would have to pay one tael of silver and one tael of perfume, otherwise he would lose more points!As for the future, of course, new models will be launched every year, and prices will increase every year.

"His Royal Highness, please allow the villain to try it out for a day or two, and I will definitely give you a satisfactory price later." The British guy's freckled face smiled like a flower.

After sending away the reluctant Thomas, Zheng Kezang heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that now his new army's salary would be stable, and only with stable financial resources would he be able to improve the treatment and food standards for the new army.

These days, the army usually trains every three days or every five days (this is still relatively hardworking). If the army trains, it must provide the soldiers with food equivalent to the busy farming season, otherwise the nutrition will not be able to keep up.Most armies cannot afford to provide such food, so they cannot practice every day.

Zheng Kezang wants to build a truly professional army. Wouldn't it be nice to train six days a week and take a day off on Sunday.

But the training is so frequent, the nutrition must keep up, otherwise the training will be broken.

He is a half-child and eats the poor. All he recruits are well-behaved teenagers in their teens. They are not yet fully developed. The demand for food and meat is huge, so he has to work hard to make money.

The money from the national treasury still needs to be reserved for the construction of wonders. In the future, we don’t know how many things will be built. We must save some prodigals and open source more is the kingly way.

"Eunuch Li, during this period, your main task is to expand the perfume workshop and increase the production of perfume as soon as possible. We will make a fortune from this." Zheng Kezang looked at the insignificant Eunuch Li and asked.

Old Li understood, and when he was about to do something, Zheng Kezang suddenly called him: "Wait, remember to arrange more guards, guard the sugar house and perfume workshop day and night, and don't let some villains steal our secret recipe. "

The villains in Zheng Kezang's words are naturally his good uncles. In case they have malicious intentions and see that the sugar and perfume business is so hot, what should they do if they give him the whole thing?

Zheng Kezang felt a little tired, and sighed while lying on the grand master's chair. The enemy is not in the Forbidden City, but the Yanping Palace!

(End of this chapter)