After flipping through a few pages, he really couldn't figure out what was going on, so he stopped thinking about taking a closer look and turned directly to the general ledger at the back.
Then he was surprised to find that there seemed to be something wrong with the data, and he quickly asked: "Auntie, aren't the only businesses we cooperate with are donkey-hide gelatin, canned food and sugar making? What's going on with this paper?"
Changsun Wugou had already guessed that he would ask this question, and said with a smile: "I built a papermaking workshop using the method you mentioned last time, specializing in the production of bamboo paper."
"You invented the Bamboo Paper Technique and the most important tool, the crusher. How can I not give you a share of the profits? I will take it upon myself to give you a share as agreed before. You won't find it too little, right?"
Chen Jingke was moved and said: "How is it possible? It's too late for me to be happy. I just think it's a bit too much and I'm embarrassed to ask for it."
Changsun Wugao smiled and said, "Isn't it embarrassing to have this little money? Then when the sugar cane matures at the end of the year, won't you be even more afraid to ask for it when the sugar business starts?"
Compared with sugar, donkey-hide gelatin, canned food, etc. are completely worthless. The speed of making money from this thing is comparable to coinage.
The two talked about the process of doing business.
Ever since he learned about these recipes last year, Changsun Wujia used his strength to organize production. The efficiency in ancient times was really criticized. Even with the Queen's ability, it took nearly three months to set up the workshop.
This workshop is not only as simple as making glue, but also a canning workshop to process donkey meat in a timely manner. There is also a donkey farm. After all, is it sustainable development?
Anyway, it was busy until the beginning of this year, when canned donkey-hide gelatin and donkey meat were officially launched.
There is nothing much to say about the business of donkey-hide gelatin, just a word of "royal tonic" is enough to make it popular all over the world.
Just as Chen Jingke thought before, those who buy it are rich people, and poor people cannot afford it, so there is no psychological burden when cutting leeks like this.
"The best sellers are the canned meats that we were worried about not being able to sell at first. The transport ship was already divided up before it even docked."
"Later, in order to get the meat, those merchants paid first and then took the goods. Our orders were queued up until the end of the year."
If he had just traveled through time, Chen Jingke might have wondered why business was so good, but now he feels that this is normal.
There is a shortage of meat. The entire country has been short of meat for the entire era. Rich people in the countryside cannot eat meat every meal. It’s not that they don’t want to eat meat, but they have money and nowhere to buy it.
The emergence of canned meat was like a drop of nectar after a long drought for the entire Tang Dynasty.
Yes, a drop of nectar has evaporated before it fell to the ground. Just like their canned meat, it has been sold before it is produced.
This is all money. For the couple who are desperate for money, there is no greater motivation than this.
"After discussing with His Majesty, I decided to open canning factories in Fengzhou, Shengzhou and other places in the Hetao area. This place is close to the northern nomads, and we can purchase grassland livestock through mutual trade and slaughter them on the spot to make cans."
"And since it is close to the Yellow River, we can use water transportation to transport cans to prosperous places in the Central Plains for sale."
Speaking of this, Changsun Wugou said with regret: "Unfortunately, land transportation takes too long, and the cans are fragile ceramic bottles that cannot be bumped. Our cannery can only be opened near rivers and transported by water.
.”
"It would be great if the land transportation problem could be solved. Then canneries could be opened in every border town. Jingke, you always have a lot of clever ideas. Is there any way to solve this problem?"
Chen Jingke was already shocked when he heard this. Is this Queen Wende? I admire her.
Chen Jingke had no solution to her problem. He couldn't just tell her to build a railway or build a train, but he could think about the problem in another way.
"I really don't have a particularly good solution for land transportation, but why don't we think about it from another angle? Maybe the problem can be solved."
Changsun Wugou was just asking casually, but when he heard that there was a way, his eyes immediately lit up and he said, "Tell me, what way."
Chen Jingke said: "Since land transportation is inconvenient, we will find the answer in the water. Fish is also meat and can also be canned."
"There are many rivers and lakes in the world. Isn't it easy to build a few canneries? There is also the sea, where the rich fishery resources are enough for us in the Tang Dynasty to eat for tens of thousands of years."
"It is cheaper and more convenient to build sea-going ships for fishing, make canned fish on site, transport it to the inland for sale through rivers connected to the sea, and then go to border towns to open canneries."
"Pah." Changsun Wuguo clapped his hands and said, "I was only thinking about the meat of cattle, sheep, and livestock, so why did I forget about fish and meat? Fortunately, you reminded me."
In fact, it was not that she had forgotten the fish, but that she did not know enough about canned food. When Chen Jingke told her to use livestock meat to make canned food, she subconsciously thought that only this kind of meat was suitable.
When he reminded me, I immediately realized that beef, mutton, and fish can be used.
There are more ways to obtain fish than cattle, sheep and livestock, and the cost is also lower, and they live in the water, making it easier to build factories and transport them.
Looking at it this way, fish is the most suitable thing for canning.
Thinking of the profits from canned food, Changsun Wugu could not restrain his excitement: "Jing Ke, you have so many ideas, and you have solved a big problem for me. I really don't know how to thank you."
Chen Jingke smiled and said: "Auntie, what are you talking about? You've given me more. Little Sizi alone can pay for everything."
Changsun Wugou smiled even happier and said, "You just doted on her too much and spoiled her rotten. I'll see what you do in the future."
Chen Jingke gently tapped the little Sizi's nose with his hand and said: "Our little Sizi is the most well-behaved and the cutest, so he won't become bad, right?"
The bored little Sizi chuckled and nodded his head non-stop: "Well, I am the most obedient and most obedient to my brother."
"Haha..." Chen Jingke couldn't help laughing.
The eldest grandson Wugou on the side was very pleased, and there was also a deep thought in his eyes. Maybe it was time to make a clear decision to finalize the marriage between the two.
I will talk to His Majesty about this matter later.
Next, Chen Jingke was having fun with the little girl while discussing business matters with his eldest grandson Wugou.
Most of the good paper of this era was made from vines, but these were small in number and difficult to grow, causing the price of good paper to remain high.
Last time when Chen Jingke was making hydraulic tools, he mentioned the technology of bamboo paper, and Changsun Wujiu immediately had people study it.
There are too many bamboos and they grow very fast. Coupled with the use of crushers and mixers, the price of good paper has been reduced several times.
The low price and the quality that is not inferior to rattan paper have quickly become the first choice for readers, and the price of rattan paper has also been driven down.
If it weren't for the limited production and inconvenient transportation, bamboo paper could only be promoted in some areas, and all rattan paper workshops would have been forced to close down.
Even so, far-sighted rattan paper workshops have begun to seek solutions and try to develop high-quality and low-priced paper.
It can be said that Changsun Wujia’s bamboo paper workshop is about to set off a revolution in the paper industry.
By the way, ancient people began to use paper to go to the toilet very early. At least in the Tang Dynasty, it was very common for wealthy people to use paper, but they were not allowed to use paper with words on it.
There are even relevant laws that prohibit the use of paper with words on it in the toilet. On the other hand, paper without words can be used casually.
It can be seen that the ancients were still very sober and not as pedantic as we think. Paper is just a tool, and words are truly worthy of respect.
…
As for sugar production, it is limited by the annual growth cycle of sugarcane. Mass production cannot be carried out until sugarcane matures after October.
Changsun Wujia introduced: "There are two sources of sugar cane. One is to let the barbarians in Lingnan plant it, and the court purchases it from them. The other is to use prisoners to reclaim land and plant sugar cane..."
"This is the first year. The barbarians still don't trust us very much. Only a few tribes have planted some, which adds up to about seven or eight thousand acres. We have planted more ourselves, one hundred thousand acres."
One hundred thousand acres, Chen Jingke was speechless. In the Tang Dynasty, this was definitely not a small amount.
He made a calculation in his mind.
In previous generations, the yield of sugarcane per mu was generally four to five thousand kilograms, and some varieties of sugarcane could reach 10,000 kilograms. In the Tang Dynasty, there were no varieties of sugarcane, no chemical fertilizers, etc., so the yield was calculated based on the yield of one thousand kilograms per mu.
The sugar yield of sugarcane is between 14 and 24 percent. Taking into account variety improvement, a relatively low value is chosen, with a sugar yield of 15 percent.
One hundred thousand acres is equivalent to a yield of 100 million kilograms, which can extract 15 million kilograms of sugar. If the fraction is removed, it is calculated as 10 million kilograms, which is also a terrifying number.
The price of sugar in the Tang Dynasty was as low as one or two twenty cents, and the price of stone honey, that is, sucrose, was as high as sixty cents.
Of course, the high price of sixty cents per tael is due to the scarcity of the quantity. The influx of 10 million kilograms of sugar into the market will inevitably drive down its price.
But no matter how low the pressure is, it is still the best sucrose, and it is calculated as twenty cents per tael.
Ten million kilograms are worth 4 million yuan, and at this time Datang's annual tax revenue was only over 3 million yuan.
Although this is only an idealized figure, it also has a certain reference value. It is conceivable that the imperial court will greatly solve the financial pressure because of sucrose.
Don’t forget that all this money belongs to the internal treasury. With money in his hands, Li Shimin will have more say and can do more things.
As for Chen Jingke, 10% of the shares can be divided into about 400,000 yuan. After excluding the cost, there is no problem in getting more than 100,000 yuan.
This is hundreds of thousands of yuan.
Two words, sent.
…
Later, he took the opportunity to learn about the application problems of the machines he invented.
Crusher and mixer are widely used. In addition to paper making workshops, they are also used in ceramics, metallurgical production, etc.
Not to mention the hydraulic saw, which was the fastest popular tool. The imperial court issued an order to promote it, and the Ministry of Industry, General Supervision and other departments took the lead in building large quantities of them, and later major shipyards also began to use them.
But even so, the total number of existing hydraulic saws does not exceed one hundred. This is actually caused by the inconvenient transportation of this era and the slow transmission of information.
If a new technology can be popularized in a few years or decades, it will be considered fast. However, it may take hundreds of years to become popular, and it may never even have a chance to be popularized.
Other tools were also used where they should be used. In short, there were no idle tools, which gave Chen Jingke a great sense of accomplishment.
