The warm sun in the winter morning dances dappledly on the branches, falls from the sky and has a long aftertaste, illuminating every particle of dust in the air, slightly transpiring the cold night and turning it into mist.
Today was the first day of a new week, and William Askew was not prepared to do too strenuous work.
Taking advantage of the warm and comfortable morning sun, he moved his old lounge chair outside.
Squinting his eyes and wearing a somewhat darkened blanket, he rarely enjoyed some leisure time.
However, he had not been comfortable for long, when a huge sound came from his ears in a hazy state - to be precise, it was the sound of someone breaking open the fence.
As we all know about fences, whether they are foreign or local, they will not last long in the face of brute force cracking, but under normal circumstances, most people will not do such a thing.
It was broad daylight now, and even if there were thieves, they would not come to the door at this time. Therefore, in a daze, William Aisku had only one thought in his mind:
Damn it, it’s not the Dutch who are calling, right?
In 1665, in the middle of the famous Anglo-Dutch War, John Bull and the Netherlands fought a total of four major battles and countless small battles.
Although Woolsthorpe is located inland, if the security is not intact, what small team will sneak in to harass behind enemy lines?
Thinking of this, William Escu subconsciously let out a low roar.
He was about to get up and run to the cowshed to play Lu Bu with a cow dung stick, when a face appeared in front of him whose facial features were slightly deformed due to excitement, but his eyebrows and voice were very familiar:
"Uncle William, Uncle William! Wake up! Wake up!"
Seeing this, William Aisku's head shut down for several seconds, and then his voice suddenly rose in pitch:
"Little Isaac? You, the bushy-eyed one, have also rebelled against Great Britain?"
"?"
There was a trace of doubt visible on Maverick's face, but he quickly put it behind him. He gently pulled William's sleeve and said in a low voice:
"Uncle William, I'm telling you, we're going to get rich!"
After being pulled by Mavericks like this, William came to his senses and asked with a frown:
"Little Isaac, what happened?"
Mavericks did not answer him directly, but looked around vigilantly, raised his chin and poked around the room:
"Uncle William, let's talk after we go in."
"What are you doing?"
William glanced at Mavericks inexplicably, then at Xu Yun who was following behind him holding a package, and hesitantly put them into the house:
"...Forget it, come with me."
As soon as he entered the house, Maverick rushed to the window, pulled down a somewhat damaged curtain with a swipe.
Then, rarely talking to Lisa, he pulled Xu Yun directly to the table where he had been dining.
At this time, apart from Xu Yun, Mavericks, William, Lisa and Mrs. William, only Lilani was present among the three remaining sisters.
It is worth mentioning that compared to the last time, this naughty kid seems to be more well-behaved, at least there is not much dirt on his face.
Then Mavericks put Xu Yun's package on the table, quickly took out a few pieces of roasted potatoes, dipped them in sauce, and handed them to William and others:
"Uncle William, you try this first. Auntie, Lisa, Lilani, you guys can also try it."
William took the potato, put it in front of his nose, and twitched his nose a few times:
"What is this, strawberry jam?"
Mavericks shook his head and gave him a pass:
"You'll know after you try it."
William hesitated a little when he saw this, but out of trust in the calf, he finally ate half of the potato.
Mavericks had just taken the potatoes out of the stove not long ago. Although they had cooled down a bit along the way, they were still slightly warm under Xu Yun's deliberate protection, making them suitable for cooking.
As soon as the sticky potatoes entered his mouth, William's taste buds were hit with a wonderful taste of sweet and sour.
This smell is not as refreshing as mint, but it can't help but make people feel a little happy and whet their appetite instantly.
William's left hand and lips holding the potato seemed to be uncontrollable. Before his brain made the next stage of feedback, he pushed and bit, swallowing the whole potato.
Then he chewed the potatoes mechanically, looking at his fingers in confusion, which were still stained with a little bright red sauce.
After a while, he looked at the calf and asked:
"Little Isaac, what is this?"
Mavericks didn't play it safe this time. He touched Leilani who was licking his fingers and said:
"ketchup."
The ketchup Maverick mentioned was not ketchup, but the transliteration of ketchup, so William immediately understood the raw materials of this thing and whispered:
"Tomatoes? God, isn't that poisonous?"
After saying that, he stepped forward, intending to stop Lilani's subsequent behavior.
Seeing this situation, Xu Yun, who had been well prepared, smiled slightly, took the initiative to step forward, and repeated what he had said to Mavericks before.
As mentioned before, William is also a graduate of Cambridge University, and he obtained a degree in natural sciences.
According to the popularity of education in 1665, it was almost equivalent to the number of PhDs graduated in 985 in later generations.
Coupled with some experiences he had gained in the past few years, William was quickly led by Xu Yun to the same idea as Mavericks before, and was successfully convinced.
"ketchup?"
William glanced at Lilani, who was munching on potatoes and dipping them in ketchup, and asked Xu Yun:
"Mr. Fatty Fish, are you saying that this is a special sauce from the East, and are you willing to share its recipe with us?"
Xu Yun nodded and looked at him calmly:
"Yes, this is a sauce developed by a chef named Yuan Zhou in the East. It is very simple to prepare. If Mr. William is willing, we can do this business together."
William took a deep look at this young man from the East, with doubts still on his face:
"Mr. Fat Fish, since you have mastered such a technology, why don't you choose to go it alone?"
"Of course it's because of my friendship with Mr. Newton."
Xu Yun patted his chest and put on an expression as if the calf and I were in love, then sighed and said:
"According to the current situation of the Black Death in London, I'm afraid I will have to stay in Woolsthorpe for a while, and my parents can't be contacted for the time being. I can't just stay here and eat and drink for free, right?
In addition, the market for ketchup is definitely not small, and may even be European-level, but the cost of copying it is too low to achieve a monopoly.
If I choose to go it alone, I'm afraid there will be a lot of imitations on the street before I can sell them to Grantham.
Instead of making less money on your own, it’s better for everyone to work together and come up with ways to earn more guineas during the window period of cracking technology.”
After saying this, Xu Yun looked at William calmly and stopped talking.
There are some truths and some lies in his explanation. It is not all lies, nor is it all the truth.
The fake part is naturally the technical reason, but the real part is his judgment on the copy market.
At present, in the UK - or in all European countries except Italy and Spain - the biggest barrier to tomato paste production is not the recipe, but the inherent belief that tomatoes are poisonous.
The method of making tomato sauce is actually very simple. You only need to cook and mash the tomatoes first, then add sugar, salt and blended oil (Xu Yun originally used butter), and slowly stir according to a certain proportion.
This kind of technology is not so outrageous that it can be deciphered in one or two days, but it can only take two weeks.
After all, if it was really a complicated process, Xu Yun wouldn't be able to do it so easily, right?
Once people's perception of tomatoes as poisonous began to change, it would only take a few days for ketchup to become ubiquitous.
Just like local Liangpi, the national Liangpi market is definitely not small, but have you seen which person or company has a monopoly?
In some small counties, you can even see "Shaanxi Liangpi" who speak the local dialect.
This is the inevitable result of the absence of barriers to technology, and it is also one of the reasons why Xu Yun chose ketchup:
The taste of ketchup is innately compatible with Europeans, but due to the short window for copying, the time to make money is relatively limited.
This will not only improve the living conditions of Mavericks and William's family, but will not skew Mavericks' future life trajectory.
If you switch to other things with technical barriers - such as soap or airplane cups, Mavericks will be obsessed with money for the rest of its life.
His gaze returned to the house.
Looking at the ketchup in front of him, William thought for a while and said:
"Mr. Feiyu, I have no objection to doing business together, but the specific share ratio..."
"Mr. William."
Just when William was about to discuss the distribution of benefits, Xu Yun suddenly interrupted him:
"Mr. William, we can discuss the issue of sharing ratio later, because we still lack one person, an essential partner."
After hearing this, William and Mavericks looked at each other and asked in unison:
"who?"
"You think about it."
Xu Yun pointed to the ketchup on the table and explained:
"For people like you two who have read books, you have to go through guidance to figure out the reason why tomatoes are 'dead', but what about ordinary people?
With the knowledge reserves of those civilians, they may not even understand the reaction that acid can dissolve lead. How do you convince them to buy ketchup?
Just because the taste is what you like? This is obviously impossible. No one is willing to die for something delicious."
Xu Yun looked at the two thoughtful people in front of him, smiled and spread his hands:
"So we must find someone who is highly respected and can gain the trust of others with the simplest words, such as..."
"Pastor Arlin of the Church of St. Tidodia."
........
Note:
I heard that a bunch of place names were suddenly reduced to pinyin abbreviations yesterday. The protagonist of some books was named Li (Luo) (Yang). As a result, all the readers saw were Li LY, which is really miserable...
