That night, the three people who completed their first time and space journey held their first work summary meeting. [Read the latest chapter] The meeting minutes were taken according to the formal meeting procedure. According to Wen Desi: We are making history.
At the meeting, various issues during the crossing were summarized. The conclusion is: too much contempt for the wisdom of the ancients, not enough homework, too little understanding of the Ming Dynasty, and mostly taken for granted.
Overall, I had good luck and found a reasonably suitable agent quite smoothly.
As for the next trade plan, although the price was lower than they expected, after careful calculation, the profit was not as low as imagined.
One tael of silver in the Ming Dynasty amounted to about 37.3 grams. Although the purchase price of silver in this time and space has fluctuated, it is only about 3 yuan per gram (the sales price is 3.6-3.8 yuan, and the purchase price is 2-2.6 yuan. If you take a slightly higher price, you can get 112 yuan for one tael of silver. RMB. In fact, including the "fire consumption" cost - much of the silver circulating in the Ming Dynasty was of low purity and needed to be remelted, and the yield was lower.
If a powder box can be sold for ten taels, that means you can get about 1,000 yuan. Xiao Zishan brought more than 200 powder boxes. From this alone, he could earn 2,000 taels of silver, or 200,000 yuan. Even if they want to purchase these powder boxes, the current wholesale price is only a few yuan each, and the cost is almost negligible.
"Actually, we can resell it once." Xiao Zishan took a pen and daubed it for a long time. "I remember that the price of gold and silver in the late Ming Dynasty was about one to ten. We asked for these two thousand taels of silver to be converted into gold. We got two hundred taels. , a total of 746o grams. Calculated at 15o yuan per gram, it is more than one million. It is more profitable than selling goods."
"But generally speaking, the stock of gold in society is limited, and you can't exchange much for it." Wang Luobin felt it was a pity.
"In fact, we can ask for another thing to price, which is more valuable than gold." Wen Desi said.
"what?"
"Porcelain." Wen Desi pointed to the Christie's auction announcement in the newspaper, "I don't need to mention the porcelain of the Ming Dynasty..."
When the servant came to the study with a pale face, Master Gao knew that the three Australians were here again. This time it was late at night, and just like last time, he appeared out of thin air in the hotel yard.
If they hadn't come during the day last time and left in broad daylight, Mr. Gao would have really suspected that they were some kind of ghostly monster.
"Gao Daguo, these are goods."
Under the corridor of the study, there were piles of four or five cardboard boxes that the servants had moved from the hotel yard. This was the first time he saw using paper to make cargo boxes, and his heart couldn't help but beat wildly. Although he had secretly soaked the samples with chicken blood a few days ago, when he looked at them the next day, they were still in good condition. Turning into a clod puppet, this is peace of mind.
"Manager Yan, take stock and make a list." Master Gao ordered his men.
"Yes, sir."
The steward led the servants to unpack the cartons. Each piece of goods was wrapped in exquisite cartons and stacked neatly. Mr. Gao nodded. This Australian businessman was really extravagant - the packaging alone probably cost a lot of money.
The three of them sat on chairs and watched the servants of Gao Mansion counting. Under the dim candlelight, Master Gao's Nanjing satin robe shone slightly. Xiao Zishan thought of the shroud inexplicably and got goosebumps.
Fortunately, they had prepared a special gift. The counting was over and both parties compared the numbers one by one. Wen Desi opened a box and took out a kerosene lamp. It took them a long time to buy this thing from a handicraft store. It cost 120 yuan, which was the most expensive thing of all. I saw Wen Desi taking out a can of kerosene from the box, pouring it in, and lighting a fire with the candle at hand. After a while, the flame of the lamp gradually became brighter, and the originally dark study room suddenly became bright.
Master Gao and the servants were all dumbfounded. Nothing brought by Australian maritime merchants these days was as impressive as this.
"This is a kerosene lamp. It's a good idea."
"What a wonderful thing!" Mr. Gao also walked up to it in a few steps. A ball of white flame was dazzlingly bright, and there was a completely transparent glass lampshade on the outside. He turned around and asked, "This thing is from a noble place, how much is it worth?"
Xiao Zishan couldn't help lamenting mankind's desire for light. They thought that the things that would surprise the ancients did not cause much trouble. Instead, they were shocked by this kerosene lamp that has been eliminated from modern society-just because it is much brighter than candles and oil lamps. What if Mr. Gao could see the light? ! Xiao Zishan was immediately full of confidence in his future travel plan.
"It is indeed produced in our country," Wen Desi smiled like a profiteer, "Two hundred taels are enough."
"Strange thing, strange thing!" Mr. Gao looked around the lamp in fascination, and then imitated Wen Desi's example and turned the knob to adjust the size of the flame. He could make the light brighter or darker as he pleased. I was secretly amazed in my heart. He knew that although this thing had a weird shape and an expensive glass cover, it was actually a lamp or oil stand used by poor families. However, the light was ten times brighter. There was no oil smell, no smoke, light and dark. It can also be adjusted. Are all the craftsmen in Australia resurrected by Lu Ban?
Suddenly I remembered something and asked again: "The oil used for this lamp - um, kerosene, is it also produced in Australia?"
Xiao Zishan nodded, Mr. Gao is really a smart man, he can see the key points at a glance.
"Exactly."
"Gas price?"
"Twelve a bottle." A bottle is actually just one liter. They don't plan to engage in large-scale kerosene trade at the moment, so it's okay to sell it more expensively to leave some room for the future. (Quotation of kerosene for lamps in Shanghai at 8.5 yuan/liter
"The lamp is a good lamp, but it only needs oil..." Mr. Gao looked regretful.
"A bottle of oil can burn for more than ten hours. It only costs one or twenty taels of silver a month. It's not too expensive."
"If the oil can be cheaper, I can sell this product..." Mr. Gao was unwilling.
Xiao Zishan only laughed and did not answer his words. Master Gao knew that this group of Australian maritime merchants would not let go. But getting this lamp and the twelve bottles of kerosene for free is a huge benefit. He thought that maybe it could be replaced with vegetable oil, so he would try it tomorrow.
Now Xiao Zishan demonstrated the methods of disassembly, maintenance, and oil filling. Gao Ju ordered a boy to watch and learn from it, and followed it a few times. When he saw that nothing was wrong, he checked the price according to the order.
The payment was settled at the price they had agreed upon, and they received a total of more than three thousand taels of silver. Xiao Zishan asked for one thousand and fifty taels to be converted into gold. Mr. Gao shook his head repeatedly and said that there was no place to exchange gold at night, and he only had five taels in his hand. Sixty taels of gold. Finally, six hundred taels of silver were replaced with sixty taels of gold.
Xiao Zishan asked to buy porcelain again, which was not beyond Mr. Gao's expectation. Overseas businessmen like to buy porcelain. It's not a problem, there are a lot of them in his warehouse. Then he ordered someone to bring over a few baskets of porcelain for export.
He opened the straw rope bag and took out a few pieces for inspection. Based on several porcelain books that Xiao Zishan had read unexpectedly, he identified that this was the so-called "Clark Porcelain", which was a representative variety of exported porcelain in the late Ming Dynasty.
How much can this porcelain sell for now? An ordinary plate will cost no less than a few thousand yuan. On December 10, 2005, 214 pieces of Clark porcelain were salvaged from the South China Sea by Swedish Stensjostrand and auctioned at China Guardian's "Ming Wanli No. and Qing Disha Ru No. Sea-Saved Ceramics". Although the porcelain glaze was severely corroded and even peeled off due to being soaked in water for a long time, it still achieved a transaction rate of 92% and a total transaction volume of 2.727 million yuan. One of the Ming Dynasty Wanli blue and white lotus petal-shaped consecrated flower and bird dishes sold for 55,000 yuan.
At this moment, there were several large baskets full of brand new Clark porcelain in front of them!
It cost less than twenty taels of silver to buy these porcelains. Xiao Zishan and others thought they were cheap, while Mr. Gao secretly laughed at these maritime merchants for not understanding the market. Both parties felt that they had gotten a big deal.
Before leaving, Wen Desi left two hundred taels of silver and asked Mr. Gao to buy a house nearby for their stay. According to the plan, the exit of the wormhole in this time and space will be temporarily arranged there. Mr. Gao agreed one by one.
After the Australian maritime merchant left, Mr. Gao thought for a long time alone in the study, and even kicked out the concubine who invited him to rest. Buying a house was naturally nothing given his ability, but the fact that these people's identities remained unknown still made him a little worried. After going around in circles for a few times, he called the manager over and told him not to leak out the affairs of the Australian maritime merchants. He was also asked to bring in a list of all the servants, servants and maids who knew about the incident. If the news leaked out, he would be investigated and severely punished.
Note: The knowledge about Clark Porcelain comes from Mr. Ma Weidu’s book.
