People all say that the middle and late dynasties were the biggest changes in social customs in Chinese history, and this is actually true.
At the beginning of the founding of the country, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang made a series of regulations in order to domesticate the people. For example, men could only wear black trousers, and businessmen were not allowed to wear gorgeous clothes made of silk brocade when going out. There were even requirements on the length of sleeves.
However, he may not have thought that in just a hundred years, these rules of his would be gone.
There are many reasons for this result, the two most important of which are the rapid development of the commodity economy and the update of everyone's consumption patterns.
Take the first barrel of golden sugar that Xian Ruxing came here to unearth as an example. If she had traveled back in time to the Tang and Song dynasties, she might not have been able to do this business so easily. The main reason was that the south was not fully developed at that time, and there were fewer cash crops like sugar cane and less people consuming it.
Not on such a large scale.
As the situation became relatively stable and the population gradually increased, people discovered that doing business could bring huge profits. For a time, doing business became the main means of making profits for many people, and a large number of new wealthy people emerged. The new rich people had a lot of money and no social status.
, so you can only satisfy your desires through consumption.
When it comes to consumption, women are the main force. So now in the Ming Dynasty, various gold and silver jewelry styles emerge in endlessly, such as highlights, manicures, and high heels. At this time, women are also using them. Among them, the women of the Ming Dynasty were the most divorced.
The only thing that is not open is incense.
Compared with the Tang and Song Dynasties, only literati and officials were qualified to play with incense. In the Ming Dynasty, incense has entered the market. In "Awakening the World", it is written that before the oil seller Qin Zhong went to Wang Jiuma's house, he "bought a few sticks of benzoin.
"The clothes are smoked again and again." It can be seen that even ordinary people can afford it if they grit their teeth.
With such a vast market, Xian Ruxing would be considered a time traveler in vain if he didn’t get involved.
In fact, the process of making perfume is not complicated. You can get a simple perfume by mixing various fragrant petals in high-strength liquor and boiling them for an hour. To obtain more complex essential oils, you need to rely on a distillation extractor for further separation.
, Fortunately, these equipment were not difficult for Xian Ruxing to obtain, and a large number of them were quickly produced.
She had tried the perfume she developed for Queen Mother Zhang before. Queen Mother Zhang said she liked it very much, and later ordered two more bottles to reward her. So now the perfume is somewhat famous among the ladies of the capital. So after the opening of the new store,
At that time, many family members of dignitaries came to support him.
Although men and women were strictly guarded in the Ming Dynasty, women did not really stay out of the house. Let’s not talk about ordinary people. Even in official families, women could still walk on the streets wearing veils or men’s clothing.
Of course, family members must follow.
Although it is difficult for Xian Ruxing to have direct contact with anyone who wants to respect him in the government and the public, the female relatives are happy to see each other.
The name of the new store "Fang Ling Ji" comes from the great classic "Dream of Red Mansions". It not only sells perfume, but also essential oils and soaps developed accordingly. The receptionists were the women brought out from the Leopard Room that day, and less than half of them went home with
The parents were reunited, and most of the rest stayed in the accommodation provided by Xian Ruxing. After receiving training, they couldn't wait to go to work.
Here, not only food and accommodation are provided, but the wages are also high, and there is also a monthly bonus. Although most of them have lived in the backyard all their lives, they also know that such a decent job is not easy to find, so they cheer up one after another.
Therefore, the female relatives who came to shop found that although this place sells incense like other stores, the service attitude is very different. The female waiters in the store are pleasing to the eye, not too enthusiastic to cause discomfort, and speak softly and softly.
They also explain the products patiently and carefully, often making people buy a lot of them without even realizing it.
Several girls dressed in men's clothing selected two bottles of essential oils and took a few bars of soap with them. When they were paying the bill, they were a little stunned: "Why does it cost so much? Isn't there a price tag on this essential oil?"
"Yes, madam, the rest is mainly the price of soap. This is your bill, please take a look." The female shopkeeper smiled and respectfully handed over a piece of paper with a special seal. If any products appeared
If you have any quality issues, you can use this product to come to the store to inquire. If you save a certain amount, you will get discounts during holidays.
Although it was just a small move, consumers found it very novel. At the same time, they felt that it was rare to be so safe selling things outside. Some of the women who originally came here just to make friends with Xian Ruxing just listened to what their family said. After a long time, they started to study it carefully.
Goods come.
"Soap is so expensive?" The girls were a little surprised.
Yes, there was soap in the Ming Dynasty, but unlike modern society, the "soap" in the Ming Dynasty was mainly made by pounding soapberries or soap pods, adding white flour and various spices to form balls, and the shape was somewhat similar to braised lion heads.
The price depends on the raw materials, but basically only wealthy families can afford it. Poorer people generally use rice noodle soup or natural soap locust to clean themselves.
The soap provided in the store is indeed a purely industrial product. After filtering the oil, add plant ash soaking liquid and high-strength liquor, stir thoroughly and remove the sediment. Caustic soda must be added in the process, otherwise it will be difficult to shape. In the absence of mature alkali making technology,
Under such circumstances, the only way to obtain caustic soda was lime water and sodium chloride. For this reason, Xian Ruxing even opened an alkali mine near Kaifeng Prefecture.
Whether it is oil, liquor or alkali, the price is not cheap nowadays, so soap is naturally a rare commodity.
Xian Ruxing is not worried that no one will buy it. In terms of decontamination ability and convenience, industrial soap has a dimensionality reduction impact on traditional handicraft soap balls. Not to mention that she also specially asked Tang Bohu to design the color and appearance. The finished product will look good even in modern times.
Very capable.
Sure enough, the two girls hesitated for a while and finally gritted their teeth and paid.
"Fanglingji" mainly targets the high-end market, and nothing in it is cheap. This is actually Xian Ruxing's intention. Of course she can expand production and sell cheap perfumes that are simply processed, but in this era, high-quality liquor is made from grain.
brewed, if
Spending extravagantly can easily arouse people's opinions. Secondly, Xian Ruxing has never been very fond of doing things. Once the perfume is released, it will definitely have a severe impact on the previous perfume industry. Now she occupies part of the upstream and does not touch the low-end. This is also
Let them have a chance to breathe.
But even so, Fang Ling's reputation has grown rapidly since its opening, and it has quickly become a new talk among women's circles in the capital. There is an endless flow of people in the store every day, and the turnover continues to soar.
Xian Ruxing breathed a sigh of relief. After going through a series of measures such as buying a royal store, opening a factory, transferring industries, training employees, etc., she had spent almost all the money she had accumulated before. Now she can finally make money again by selling perfume and soap.
After getting up, I can barely hold on until the next wave of revenue.
…
Women in the capital were flocking to their stepmothers, and their husbands could not have known it. At this time, men and women were not required to incense, especially in the north, where the weather was cold for a long time. In order to prevent illness, it was impossible to take a bath every day.
In order to avoid embarrassment in the workplace due to body odor, men also use spices.
Compared with incense sticks, the scent of perfume is stronger and lasts longer, so ministers have begun to use it. Some of them have poor taste and wish to apply it five times a day, so that they can still ask questions even from three meters away.
Its rich aroma.
Zhu Houcong once complained that every time he spoke to Wang Qiong, Minister of War, he would choke and could not open his eyes.
Xian Ruxing shrugged. This Wang Shangshu was their big customer here. They always let their female relatives bring them. But he couldn't do it. He had to come in person and buy boxes by boxes. At first, Xian Ruxinghai thought that the other party was taking care of his own business.
, but after a long time, I discovered that people really like these.
Naturally, she had to cherish guests like herself, so she didn't talk to Zhu Houcong.
Seeing that he didn't reply, the little emperor pursed his lips, and after a long while, he came up to him with a smile and said: "In two days, the courtiers will bring the potatoes they have planted to me for inspection. Then you can also evaluate them together."
"What should I do?"
Seeing her refusal, Zhu Houcong became a little anxious. Originally, everyone could discover the value of potatoes, but now many ministers have written letters recommending its promotion. He was trying to take this opportunity to push the provider, Xian Ruxing, to the forefront.
Since entering the palace, Zhu Houcong has been trying to give Xian Ruxing a title and promote her to lead the world's Taoists. As a result, many people opposed her. The opponents unanimously believed that Xian Ruxing, a woman under twenty, even with the merit of being a dragon, would not be able to win.
Not so
Able to convince the public. For this reason, Jiajing has repeatedly stated that Xian Ruxing is not an ordinary person and will be among the immortals sooner or later. However, the courtiers only think that the emperor is deceived and will not give in at all. Now that Taoist Xian holds the potato artifact, Jiajing can finally feel proud.
I will swollen the faces of those of you who are ignorant!
Zhu Houcong looked ferocious and thought viciously in his heart.
For this reason, he talked hard and almost made a fuss (...), but Xian Ruxing finally nodded in agreement.
So when it came time for the acceptance, the ministers saw that the emperor's cheeks were flushed, he was not as excited as usual, and his eyes were bright and he was staring at everyone.
Everyone: "...?"
All the civil and military officials were a little confused, and in the end they could only think that the emperor paid too much attention to the potato harvest, so he was so excited. As a result, some officials secretly regretted why they did not plant the potatoes well, and could only watch others receive commendations from the emperor.
The potatoes brought by Xian Ruxing are of good quality. Normally, one plant can produce three to six, and some can even produce more than a dozen, but only if they are taken care of well.
There is naturally no shortage of people who serve flowers and plants in the families of officials. Although they have never seen potatoes, they can get started with them after some research, so the results everyone submitted are pretty good.
Of course, there are also people like Ge Lao Fei Hong who are unwilling to cheat and are extremely arty. They think planting by hand is a good story. As a result, they neither topdress nor remove the weak and retain the strong. His potatoes are just a pile of "bird eggs".
Several small round beans were piled together densely. The old man was still stubborn, saying that the small ones were the best, and his kind would definitely taste better than the big ones.
Out of sympathy, no one exposed it, but it was difficult to reveal anything in their expressions. Fei Hong was so angry that he immediately went back to pickle the potatoes into pickles for them to taste.
Xian Ruxing stood aside and weighed everyone's potatoes together with Huang Jin. When it was a certain portion's turn, he was a little stunned, "This...whose family does this belong to? Isn't it a bit too exaggerated?"
I saw a small pile of potatoes on the ground in front of me, each one as big as a goose egg, which was very pleasing to look at.
Huang Jin looked at the name tag and whispered: "It seems to be from Jianchang Bo's house."
Ever since Zhang Yanling was reprimanded by the emperor for Xia Yan's tireless writing of letters, she had been thinking about how to obtain the Holy Family, so she put great effort into this potato.
Seeing that he was being praised, he quickly took two steps forward and showed a flattering smile to Xian Ruxing, "Master Xianxian, how about it? Mr. Zhang didn't waste your seed. I heard your majesty say that you traveled thousands of miles a day and came from a barbaric land.
Come on, next time something like this happens again, just tell Zhang that I still have a fleet of ships at my house for a long voyage, so I can just get it for you."
"Then I'll thank you uncle first." Xian Ruxing smiled and nodded. Although she was a little puzzled, she was not an agricultural expert. She thought that in the news of modern society, she had heard that a certain farmer had grown huge crops.
Nothing to be surprised about.
However, just when Huang Jin finished weighing and wanted to put the things down, a potato accidentally fell and cracked, revealing the white flour inside.
Xian Ruxing: "..."
Jian Changbo was kicked out by the angry Jiajing because of match-fixing.
In the final selection, the Ministry of Industry won a great victory because it had been dealing with land and grain crops all year round and had many people under its control. It won all the first three positions.
Xian Ruxing congratulated Lin Jun, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, who was in high spirits, and Lin Jun happily accepted the offer. The Ministry of Industry was at the bottom of the Six Ministries, and he was always being crowded out in the court. Today he was considered to have a long face, and he couldn't help but said happily: "
It should, it should, it’s related to people’s livelihood. We at the Ministry of Industry are working together to study potato cultivation. There is no way something like this will appear at the gate of the Ministry of Industry.”
He pointed at a certain potato seedling that only bore two longan-sized fruits.
The flatterers nearby also agreed.
"Yeah, I had the nerve to show it out, it's so embarrassing!"
"If you can't do something as simple as farming, how can you be an official and share the worries of the court?"
"I really want to see whose family it belongs to?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a figure walked past them.
Yang Tinghe hugged Tudou with an expressionless face and turned to leave.