In the evening, I saw that the new main building of Xinzhai was already brightly lit.
The biggest feature of this new Jianxinzhai main building is that it is "not wooden". It is made of high-practical white marble and refined cement from Jinghua Cement Factory, so it is also called "White Jade Building".
The second feature of this building is its "Western style". It hired several Franconian architects from Guangdong (in fact, several of them were Italians), and it is based on the Fontainebleau Palace, one of the representatives of the Renaissance style.
Built for basic styles.
Therefore, the White Jade Tower is not just a single building, but a complex of buildings. Its location has also been shifted a little northeast from the original Jianxinzhai, to the edge of the Spectacle Lake.
Fortunately, European "palaces" do not have any special standards. In the Ming Dynasty, their regulations were only "bizarre" and not illegal. Therefore, although the White Jade Tower seemed strange to the Ming Dynasty, it was not considered by humans.
"Beauty" has something in common. Even these nobles who saw the White Jade Tower for the first time were just amazed and did not feel ugly or anything else.
In fact, with Gao Pragmatic's aesthetics, his White Jade Tower is more beautiful than the Palace of Fontainebleau, because Bai... Gao Pragmatic likes pure colors.
Of course, the reason why white marble is used is not just that pragmatic people like white buildings but have too much money and no place to spend it, but that there is a white marble producing area near Yanjing City - Fangshan Dashiwo, which is the hometown of white marble.
Since the cement is produced in-house, the cost is actually several times cheaper than sold outside, and the white marble is sourced nearby. Therefore, the construction cost of this replica of the Palace of Fontainebleau is actually not high, only more than 20,000 yuan in total.
Two silver coins.
The labor costs of the Ming Dynasty have always been very low. This has been said a long time ago and there is no need to mention it. What is really expensive is the interior decoration. According to Gao's pragmatic view - except for those religious murals, it must be completely Western style. This leads to Jinghua
In terms of infrastructure, a lot of effort was spent studying Western-style decoration with those foreign architects, and then sent people to test and manufacture it.
But it is interesting to say that tung oil produced in Guangxi has become popular because the effect of soaking and preserving wooden decorations in tung oil is extremely good, which even surprised the foreigners.
Gao pragmatically built the white jade building not just for fun, but for other purposes. Because Chinese-style buildings like to use wood, they are not as sturdy as Western-style buildings that like to use stone. This is for sure (Lima
There are comparisons and records in Dou's notes).
This in turn resulted in the fact that very few Chinese-style buildings could be preserved in the event of war, which would cause a lot of waste. Therefore, after Gao Qinggong came up with cement, he always wanted to introduce some advantages of Western architecture to make up for the shortcomings.
Maybe Chinese architectural styles and Western architectural connotations will be formed in the future, but first he has to set a demonstration. This is the real reason for the emergence of Baiyu Tower.
Anyway, the Ming Dynasty is not the Qing Dynasty. It is not xenophobic and does not think that outsiders will not have good things. It is a virtue that the Han nation has long had in being pragmatic and pragmatic.
What's more, given his status as the number one scholar in the Six Poems, if you want to scold him for worshiping foreigners, you have to ask yourself whether you are qualified first - I am at the peak of someone's Chinese studies, can't I pursue learning from both China and foreign countries now?
In the banquet hall, Gao Pingshi looked at the gathering of dignitaries from Yanjing and greeted them politely with a smile.
At today's banquet, almost all the dignitaries from Yanjing came out, except for the British Duke Zhang Rong, who was too ill and could not leave the ground. In addition to the sent chief Sun Xu Xigao, other dignitaries from the capital came in person.
This also shows that Mr. Gao's face is really not that great now.
Especially for his business ally of ten years, Jingshi Xungui, it is even more useful.
"Everyone, regarding some matters regarding maritime trade, Gao Qi and others have already given you some explanations in the Shipbuilding Department of Craftsman School." Gao Pragmatic said with a genuine smile: "I believe you are all aware of the business opportunities contained in it now. Now that I have a lot of understanding, take Japanese fans as an example. An ordinary Japanese fan can make a net profit of two to three hundred yuan when shipped from Japan to Daming. And how much can a mere fan weigh? How much can you earn from a shipload of fans? Money, you can probably imagine - let me tell you some good news, as long as you join the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, I, Beijing Capital, will not take any penny from this deal and will give it all to you!"
All the honorable nobles were shocked when they heard this, and thought to themselves: Gao Qiuzhen is really a generous person, how could he just give in to such a big deal?
But Zhu Yingzhen was very familiar with Gao Pragmatic, and knew that Gao Pragmatic must have something to do with it. In order to show the unusual relationship between himself and Gao Pragmatic, he deliberately joked: "Hey, if you don't do the fan business for real, you must have other businesses that you like." Yes? You might as well tell us and let us all know, so as not to violate your taboo of being a tall and wealthy God in the future."
"Oh, there is a business, and Gao is not going to let you interfere." Gao Pingshi didn't seem to pay attention to these noble princes and marquises at all, and said with a smile.
Zhu Yingzhen was a little startled, but he was not angry, because he clearly asked them not to interfere in a certain business. This was not Gao's pragmatic style, so Zhu Yingzhen became a little nervous and asked: "What business is it?"
"Brimstone." Gao Pragmatic said calmly: "Jinghua has taken over this business. At the same time, I will also ask the emperor to send a commissioner to my Jinghua fleet to supervise."
The nobles took a deep breath and subconsciously shrank their necks.
Zhu Yingzhen coughed dryly and said: "To be honest, even if you don't tell us about this sulfur, we won't dare to touch it. You can rest assured about this, we are not such unreasonable people."
That is, although sulfur can be used medicinally, for today's Ming Dynasty, its main function is to make gunpowder.
Although the military industry has been privately owned in the Ming Dynasty for several years, there is a strict supervision system. For example, Jinghua has the authority to purchase sulfur, but it will be subject to double supervision by the Ministry of War and the Royal Horse Supervisor. Dongchang and Jinyiwei also have the authority to purchase sulfur at any time. investigation.
Others can do this, but these nobles in the capital really don’t dare to touch them - they are military ministers and nobles, generals for generations, making money and so on. Maybe no one will tell them to talk nonsense, but Brimstone... you guys who control the capital General of the camp, what is your intention in getting so much sulfur?
Therefore, they really do not dare to touch such a scheming business. This warning line is well understood in their minds.
Zhang Yuangong, the young prince of the British government, was an old acquaintance with Gao Pragmatic. He asked a question at this time and said: "Although fans are a big business, there are so many nobles in the capital, so it's not good to make them all."
?Besides, we can’t go to Japan empty-handed to buy fans and sell them back. We have to have goods to sell to them first. I need your guidance on which goods are in short supply.”
Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "There are a lot of goods. South Zhili is especially famous for silk cloth. As far as I know, whether it is white silk, five silk, damask, gauze silk, silk silk, twisted silk, Luo Jin
, shiny satin, gold satin, Nanjing satin, Nanjing gauze, etc., all are in hot demand, and we are never afraid of not being able to sell them.”
Zhang Yuangong looked worried: "But these things are beyond the reach of our Yanjing nobles."
Gao Pragmatic smiled slightly and said: "It doesn't matter, we also have specialties in the north, and the Japanese are not afraid of the ones we have in large quantities."
Zhang Yuangong said in surprise: "What is that?"
"Iron." Gao pragmatically said: "Jinghua's biggest business in Japan is selling iron... Japan is not within the scope of the Ming Dynasty's ban on the sale of iron. Moreover, they are fighting internal wars and there are too many places where iron is needed."
Selling iron to Japan may, of course, make Toyotomi Hideyoshi stronger in the future, but in Gao's view, that is a minor issue and does not involve the fundamentals.
Because the benefits that Ming Dynasty gained from this kind of trade were greater.
Iron is expensive but silver is cheap in Japan. Later scholars estimated that from 1560 to 1644, Japan produced about 254.29 million taels of silver in 84 years, with an average annual silver production of more than 3 million taels!
However, Japan's productivity is there. It doesn't need so much silver at all. It can only use it for "foreign exchange". But in East Asia, there are not many people it can trade with. Apart from the Portuguese, almost only the Ming Dynasty.
——North Korea has no complementarity with it, and its productivity is also low.
However, what the Portuguese needed were Asian specialty goods rather than silver, and Japan could not produce many goods that the Portuguese were interested in, so the transaction volume was not very large.
Only doing business with Ming Dynasty is necessary for Japan.
Gao pragmatically told the nobles that when doing business in Japan, one can exchange "seven irons for one silver", and even Jinghua's high-quality refined iron can exchange "three irons for one silver". The nobles were so shocked that their jaws dropped.
!
"My dear mother... why does this Japanese country, which is as big as bird excrement, have so much money?" Xu Xigao, the eldest son of Duke Dingguo, his eyes widened when he said this.
Well, Japan is a bit small compared to Ming Dynasty, but it’s not as big as bird poop, okay?
Gao Pragmatic coughed dryly and said: "Jinghua Kaiping can allow 30% to 40% of the production to be used for trade with Japan."
Oh My God?
The nobles who knew that Jinghua Iron Production has been increasing over the years were once again stunned. Zhu Yingzhen hurriedly said: "Is this true? Jinghua is willing to give up so much iron production? Uh... Please don't misunderstand me.
It’s not that I don’t believe you, I’m saying that Jinghua itself uses quite a lot of iron, this… are you enough for yourself?”
Jinghua does use a lot of iron, and in this era, there is only too little iron. There is not much to say. Giving up such a large production capacity will definitely have an impact on Jinghua itself.
However, Gao Pragmatic has ways to make up for it. First, Kaiping continues to expand production. There is no easy explanation for this. In terms of resources in Kaiping, the current output is really not as good as that of later generations. Although the iron ore of Shougang in later generations is
Most of the iron ore is imported, but it cannot be said that the domestic iron ore is not used at all. With the productivity of this era, Kaiping's own Qianxi iron ore alone is completely sufficient.
As for coal... Haha, can Tangshan be short of coal?
And it won't be long before the iron mines in Annan and Hejin are developed and an iron factory is established. Not only Annan, but also the supply of pig iron and refined iron in the south of the Ming Dynasty will be responsible for it. Kaiping can be liberated.
Isn't that enough?
In fact, Jinghua just gave up some opportunities to expand its business, but it did not affect its foundation.
So Gao pragmatically said: "As for Jinghua itself, you don't have to worry. We have plans to expand production and will not reduce our supply to you just because our own expenses are insufficient."
What else is there to say? All the nobles naturally signed up enthusiastically to participate. Suddenly, the banquet hall was as noisy as a vegetable market.
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