Gao Xiaozhuang said hurriedly: "When I first came to the capital, I had nothing to do, so I went to help the kitchen for two days. I heard the second master said that the price of cattle and sheep here in the capital is cheap, which is different from that in Henan. It is said that it is in Xuanda.
The border troops on the border were very poor, so they had to quietly do small business with the Mongols, selling pots and pans and other things to the Mongols. But I didn't expect that those Mongolians were probably even poorer than the border troops.
They had nothing, and were not very willing to sell horses, and were only willing to take some cattle and sheep to make up for their losses. But although our frontier army seemed to have a lot of people, we couldn't eat the many cattle and sheep, so we had to do a resale business.
Bian is the largest place for resale and purchase. In the end, the price of cattle and sheep in the capital fell again and again, and in the end it was cheaper than pork!"
When Gao pragmatic heard this, he was really... shocked!
At present, the tribute tribute has not yet happened. Jiubian and the Mongols are still in a state of complete hostility. They start wars at every turn throughout the year. The two sides have dozens of large and small battles on the border line throughout the year. They have dispatched more than 10,000 troops.
Dozens of people, in short, they will never stop. But I never thought that there is such a secret mutual market! This... If this fucking thing is put on the line, it is not an exaggeration to call it traitorous! p>
However, Secretary Gao is a pragmatist after all. After calming down and thinking about it, he found that it is not strange. It is not that betraying the country is not strange, but considering the economic situation of the border army, it is not strange.
After all, it seems that in just one or two years, Anda will pay tribute, and according to records, this matter was jointly decided by Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng. Both of them are pragmatists, and they withstood a large number of Qingliu in the DPRK.
The verbal and written attacks finally led the Ming court to reconcile with Ada Khan on the condition of mutual trade, and the war ceased on most of the northern border, which created good external conditions for the future Wanli ZTE.
The governing philosophies of Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng are actually quite consistent. The most important thing is to be as pragmatic as possible, to pursue actual results, and to seek practical results. Unless the issue of face is completely unacceptable, they should be put aside for the time being. As for the issue of tribute,
If it weren't for the benefit - or even great benefit - they would definitely not insist on agreeing at the risk of being infamy.
So, where are the benefits?
Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about the price of cattle and sheep. That can be considered part of the profit!
What's more, the business of selling "pots and pans" to Mongolia to obtain beef and mutton meat will also promote the production of "pots and pans". To produce pots and pans, you must increase the output of pig iron and increase the production of pig iron.
A large amount of pig iron production requires more workers to be hired to mine and forge iron. Isn't this a good thing? In Secretary Gao's era, these piles and piles were all driving employment! They were all solid political achievements.
What's more, on the premise of boosting employment, it also improved the living standards of the people. When he was in power, only the mentally retarded would reject such a good thing, old iron!
Of course, Gao Pragmatic also knows that things will not be that simple. At least the private actions between the border army and Mongolia are definitely not something that grassroots soldiers have the ability to do, not to mention that this business has become so big that it can affect the price of meat in the capital.
!
As for the Bianjun only selling some pots and pans... Humph, Secretary Gao said, do you think I just graduated from kindergarten?
However, this matter is not something he can interfere with right now - not to mention interfering, not even interfering. You know, the huge interests involved, the large number of people involved, and the wide scope involved can definitely be described as amazing.
, I'm afraid that even if Gao Gong has the mind to deal with it, he may not dare to act rashly. If a little kid like him dares to get in, he may even be killed.
Forget it, forget it, I don’t have the ability to deal with this matter for the time being, so let’s put it aside for now, and wait until I become a politician. For now, it’s more serious to get the big business of making money done first.
Gao Pragmatic calmed down and pretended not to care too much: "Well, so that's what happened... So, the raw materials I need are quite cheap?"
Gao Xiaozhuang hesitated for a moment and said hesitantly: "That... is not the case."
Gao Pragmatic rolled his eyes and asked: "But the fixative - uh, I mean, those spices are expensive?"
"That's really too expensive!" Gao Xiaozhuang clapped his fingers in surprise and said, "That ambergris is said to be divided into three types: upper, middle and lower. The top-grade one is three cents more expensive than gold, and the middle-grade one is three cents more expensive than gold.
It’s slightly lower than gold. Even low-grade ambergris is more expensive than silver. One tael of silver can’t buy the same weight of low-grade ambergris!”
Gao Pragmatic sighed. This was actually within his expectation. After all, ambergris itself was scarce and could only be obtained purely by luck. It was strange that it was not expensive. Although he was a little disappointed,
But because I was mentally prepared, it was still acceptable, so I asked, "What about the other items?"
Gao Xiaozhuang replied: "The castoreum that the eldest young master was talking about, the younger one went to more than a dozen stores, but they all said they had never heard of it. Later, a Liaodong druggist who went to Chuji Pharmacy to buy goods heard it interestingly, and came over to talk to him.
The little one talks about beavers..."
It turned out that the Liaodong medicine dealer had traveled all over Liaodong and had seen a kind of raccoon living in the river northwest of Sachahwei, the former Nu'ergandusi. One of his Haixi Jurchen friends told him that this kind of raccoon
The fur is very good, no less than that of mink, and there is one special feature, that is, there are a pair of sachets in front of its anal glands, and "scented oil" can be squeezed out of the sachets. However, the original smell of the sesame oil is weird, not pleasant at all.
It must be dried in the sun before it can emit the strange fragrance. But Gao Xiaozhuang only heard Gao Pingshi say a name, and had no idea whether it was the castoreum his eldest master mentioned, so he didn't dare to confirm it.
After listening to the explanation, Gao Pingshi suddenly remembered that the name beaver was actually wrong. This thing actually lives in freshwater rivers. In his previous life, he had changed his name to beaver before crossing over. It was only because of habit in the spice world that he changed his name to beaver.
It is still called castoreum. Moreover, the beaver species is very rare in China, and the number in Russia and Mongolia is not large. The real main producing country is Canada. Of course, it was originally distributed in Europe. Unfortunately, beaver skin was very precious.
, was hunted to the point of extinction.
When Gao Pragmatic heard this, he felt that this would be difficult to handle. It seemed that no one in the Ming Dynasty was engaged in the castoreum business, and there were probably very few people who even knew about beavers.
In fact, in theory, he could also consider discussing cooperation with the Liaodong drug dealer and asking him to organize people to go to the beaver distribution area in the upper reaches of Heilongjiang to collect incense, but after thinking about it, he forgot it. After all, the value of beaver fur is more likely to be sold than the value of castoreum.
People of this era accept that if the species is wiped out by over-hunting like in Europe, wouldn't they be indirectly the biggest sinners? Protecting the ecological environment is something that the ancients would not consider at all, but for him it is still
It's very important, after all, he is a person who was brainwashed by bombing in his previous life...
It seemed that there was no hope for castoreum, so Gao Pragmatic had no choice but to ask: "What about civet scent?" He did not ask about musk first, because musk must be on sale, and although the price would not be very cheap, in this wild animal world, it is still available.
In fact, it was not ridiculously expensive in the era when it was quite abundant. However, there is a big problem with musk, which is that it is dangerous to women.
I remember that one day when Secretary Gao came home, his mother happened to be watching "The Legend of Zhen Huan". In the play, Zhen Huan was pregnant for the first time. The emperor was very happy, but unfortunately Zhen Huan was scratched by a cat. Ling Rong, who was deeply afraid of falling out of favor and losing power, tried his best to give her a gift.
He gave Zhen Huan a bottle of ancestral Shuhen glue and told her that the medicine was very effective in removing scars. In fact, Lingrong put a lot of musk in the Shuhen glue, hoping that Zhen Huan would use the medicine for a long time to remove scars and harm Zhen Huan's belly through the aroma of the medicine.
The fetus caused her to miscarry.
At that time, Secretary Gao was a little stunned, how powerful is musk? So he picked up his mobile phone and searched Baidu, and found that musk is actually very common in life, such as plasters, perfumes, air fresheners, and even foot powder, etc., almost all of them are
It contains musk. The only question is, can musk really cause miscarriage? Secretary Gao read some articles carefully and came to the following comprehensive views:
First of all, natural musk and synthetic musk are different. Natural musk is the secretion of the gland sac between the navel and genitals of male musk deer. After drying, it is both a valuable spice and a valuable medicinal material. In addition to promoting blood circulation and relieving pain, unblocking meridians and resuscitation
In addition to refreshing the mind, it can also be used to induce labor and give birth. Artificial musk is a kind of medicine and pharmaceutical ingredient that can replace natural musk. The musk that Secretary Gao came into contact with in his daily life in his previous life was usually artificial musk.
Natural musk has relatively strong medicinal properties. Long-term exposure or direct consumption does have the effect of causing miscarriage in pregnant women. However, almost all musk seen in daily life is artificial musk, although it will also have more or less adverse effects on pregnant women.
But it is far less serious than what is shown in the TV series, and it does not cause miscarriage immediately after smelling it. Generally speaking, even if it is natural musk, only pregnant women who have been immersed in the scent of musk for a long time will have the chance to induce miscarriage. Usually by accident
Smelling the smell of musk perfume and musk ointment will not cause miscarriage. Of course, in the past, people cherished their children, and pregnant women would definitely not smell it.
The effect of musk is like this, so for Gao Pragmatic, who wants to make soap and focus on upper-class sales in the early stage, he has basically announced goodbye to it.
Imagine this charge: "A pragmatic offering of soap will please the emperor and empress, and they will use it constantly, but they will have no heirs."