Historically, until the early nineteenth century, the island nation had been an importer of raw silk, silk fabrics and white sugar.
Let’s talk about raw silk and silk fabrics first.
With the restriction of the import of raw silk during the reign of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and the implementation of the "Masōtoku New Order" in the later period, the import of raw silk declined year by year.
In Nishijin, Kyoto, the number of merchants engaged in wholesale silk has gradually grown to 32. In order to develop the local silk industry, these merchants not only provide loans to silk farmers, but also teach sericulture techniques, which greatly promotes the development of silk in Kyoto. The development of silkworm breeding industry in the area.
By the Xiangbao period (1716-1736), the raw silk production of the entire island country had reached 300,000 kilograms.
Moreover, the nearly two hundred years of peace in the world have weakened the shogunate and local daimyo's armaments, and the demand for raw silk, which was originally used in large quantities for armor and bows and arrows, has also been greatly reduced.
Therefore, in the middle and late Edo period, the island country has shifted from importing large amounts of raw silk to importing silk products.
In the early eighteenth century, the island country imported more than 200,000 silk and cotton fabrics from the Qing Dynasty every year (anti, made in Japan. It is 2 feet 8 inches long and 9 inches wide. It is exactly the fabric used to make a kimono.)
Among the 200,000 pieces of fabrics, there are nearly 190,000 pieces of silk products, and only a few thousand pieces of cotton fabrics.
But this was the last glory. By the beginning of the 19th century, as the copper trade continued to decline, the annual trade volume of silk fabrics was only more than 14,000 yuan.
After careful analysis, Zhao Xin felt that this period of "famine at dawn" was an opportunity. Because of the food shortage in various places, all vassals are encouraging food planting. At this time, who is in the mood to vigorously develop mulberry planting and silkworm raising.
He planned to use silk fabrics produced on a large scale in another time and space through low-price dumping to completely defeat the silk weaving industry in Nishijin, Kyoto. Just keep doing printing and dyeing.
So how profitable was the silk fabric trade in this era?
From the merchants of the Qing Dynasty who took great risks and traveled on the sea, we can guess that the profits will not be small. According to historical records, the average profit of silk fabrics is between 120% and 200%. (Don’t believe those who often write “hundred times profit”, that’s just a description.)
Let’s talk about white sugar.
At the end of the 18th century, the CIF price of the best-quality Chinese white sugar (Ichiban rock sugar) in Nagasaki Port was 2 taels of silver per catty; when Nagasaki offered a bidding price, it rose to 3.17 taels per catty; Finally, when merchants from the island country bought it and sent it to Osaka for sale, the price at this time had risen to 5.7 taels of silver per catty; as for the Kanto region, the price had reached between 6.5 and 7 taels per catty.
Zhao Xin has carefully calculated that at dawn, one tael of gold is equivalent to 60 days of taels of silver. One tael of silver per day is 3.759 grams.
By this calculation, 225.54 grams of variegated silver can be exchanged for 1 tael of gold (pure gold content is 8.52 grams).
What is the amount of white sugar that Qing Dynasty merchants now transport to the island country every year? More than 1.2 million kilograms!
If I get half a million kilograms of white sugar at one time...it's a trivial matter. It's only two hundred and fifty tons, and the total is just over two million. According to the price listed in the Nagasaki Club, it can be sold for twenty-six thousand five thousand. A small fine of one hundred taels.
Then? Then only fools smelt pure gold!
Use the small amount of money to buy a complete set of Song edition books from the Qing Dynasty merchants in Nagasaki. It doesn't need to be too much, just buy five sets.
How much does a set of modern Song Dynasty books cost? In 2018, a set of five volumes of "Ju Song Guang Yun" sold for more than 80 million.
This is just one year's profit from the sugar trade. You would be a fool not to do this business!
And when Zhao Xin said that he could provide a large amount of sugar and silk fabrics, Denzo Katsuyama's heartbeat increased violently and his face turned red. If you take an instrument to measure it, it will definitely exceed 180 and it will explode.
Zhao Xin thought that he was going to be evil. Boss Shengshan was afraid that he would have a heart attack under his temptation. So he quickly helped the other person find a place to sit down, and asked Pingtai beside him to quickly bring him a cup of hot tea.
Denzo Katsuyama covered his heart and leaned on his chair, unable to speak for a long time. After he took a few breaths and drank half a cup of tea, the blush on his face slowly faded.
But when he accidentally glanced at the cup in his hand, his hand started shaking again: "Mr. Zhao, you are too...I am just a businessman, how can you entertain me with such a high-quality glass cup?" Woolen cloth?"
Denzo Katsuyama stared blankly at the patterned glass in front of him and said with a choked voice.
Katsuyama Denzo's fear is justified. Although the big businessmen of this era were rich, their social status and property ownership were not guaranteed at all.
If the shogunate and the daimyo said they would default on the debt, the merchants would have to borrow money; if the merchants lived too extravagantly and ruined the social atmosphere, they would find excuses to raid their homes.
"Oh, you said this was a big deal." Zhao Xin sighed helplessly. The famous "Edo Kiriko" and "Satsuma Kiriko" (hand-cut patterned glassware) would not appear until the 1830s. A complete luxury product.
The engraved glass drinking glass he used for Shengshan Densan was a bargain he bought at a discount from the merchant - imitation Italian crystal glass, a set of six, one hundred yuan, one hundred yuan.
Zhao Xin was so busy thinking about the profits from silk and sugar that he didn't react at all. So he said to Katsuyama Denzo: "Like it? Then I'll give it to you."
"Ouch, my heart~~" Denzo Katsuyama clutched his chest and couldn't help it.
Soon, like a smelling puppy, the owner of Murataya joined in, wagging his tail. But when Murata Jiroemon heard the prices of silk fabrics and white sugar given by Zhao Xin, his heart almost couldn't bear it.
At this time, in the eyes of the two of them, Zhao Xin was a God of Wealth covered in gold.
So after some secret discussions, Katsuyama Denzo and Murata Jiroemon finally ordered a total of 200,000 kilograms of white sugar and 50,000 kilograms of silk fabrics of various colors.
The two men plan to ship the goods to Osaka and Edo to see the market reaction before proceeding with placing orders.
After the secret discussion was completed, the boss of Murataya felt that Denzo Katsuyama’s expression was strange, and that the man was particularly anxious to get on the ship and return to port. He noticed that Katsuyama Denzo's arms were bulging, and he kept covering them with his hands, so he felt that there must be something good hidden there.
How can this work! The boss of Murataya guessed that Katsuyama Denzo and Tang Yi had other businesses, so he immediately took a boat back to Ishinomaki Port and secretly brought half a boatload of figurines over at night.
Zhao Xin, who had just fallen asleep for a while, was woken up by Ping Tai, saying that the boss of Murataya wanted to see him and he also handed over a gift list.
Zhao Xin read the gift list and said, "Good guy, rinsing your mouth with shark fin and abalone every day is enough this time!"
If you have nothing to do to be courteous, what is this person doing?
After Zhao Xin hurriedly washed up, he met the owner of Murataya. After hearing his hesitant expression of his intention, he immediately felt dumbfounded. He didn't explain, and asked Pingtai to fetch two carved glasses.
"Hiss~~" The boss of Murataya took a look and suddenly took a breath of air. This is too expensive! No wonder that guy from Chuan San is so sneaky.
Just when he was about to ask how much this thing was worth, Zhao Xin said to him, "I'll give it to you."
"Oh, my heart..." The boss of Murataya stopped talking nonsense, happily held up the cup, bowed to Zhao Xinshen, and then left.
The next morning, Ishinomaki received an urgent letter from Aoba Castle. The letter ordered him to immediately order 50,000 shi of polished rice from Tang Yi. The quality must be exactly the same as the sample he brought this time!
"The Ida family is really rich!" Zhao Xin couldn't help but admired when he received the news. Nearly thirty-three thousand taels of gold. Take it out as soon as you ask for it, without blinking an eye.
It is said that the most famous oiran in Yoshiwara, Edo, Takao Taifu Shiobara, was favored by Date Tsunamune, the third generation head of the Date family, and he did not hesitate to spend 75 kilograms of gold nuggets to redeem Taifu. (Later, the shogunate ordered Tsunamune to return to his hometown and live in seclusion, and Takao Taifu also followed Tsunamune to settle in Sendai, where he lived to be pampered until he was seventy-seven years old. This incident is recorded in the "Mutsu Papyrus". As for those who tell the story of Date Tsunamune's murder The story about the oiran's finger is nothing more than a rumor.)
However, Zhao Xin did not want to let go of the Date family so easily. Since Katsuyama Denzo revealed to him the relationship between polished rice and brown rice, Zhao Xin immediately raised the price from 0.65 taels of gold per stone of polished rice to one tael. gold.
It only costs one or two gold. This business is so cost-effective. Sign the agreement quickly!
After learning the news, the elders of Aoba Castle did not care that the Sendai clan could not come forward, and hurriedly ordered Ishinomaki Hojo to send Shibata Kakuzo, who had participated in the negotiations last time, and the tax collector from the fujo office to go directly to the ship for an interview.
After bargaining between the two parties, this batch of 50,000 shi of rice was finally sold for 45,000 taels. The condition for Zhao Xin's agreement to reduce the price was that the Sendai clan must pay the grain purchase price in one lump sum and cannot default on it.
So, after another quick letter, Qingye City fully agreed; then both parties signed the grain purchase agreement.
Of course, Ishinomaki Minato still had to spend money to buy the two thousand koku of polished rice that he wanted privately, and not even a single copper penny was dropped.
Five days later, all three thousand new refugees had boarded the ship, and Zhao Xin immediately ordered the Thor to set sail.
But what he didn't know was that among the refugees on the boat this time, there were not only spies from the Sendai clan, but also spies from the shogunate.
The people of the Sendai clan thought that their business with Tang Yi was going on unnoticed, but in fact they had been noticed by thoughtful people in Edo.
For the current shogunate veteran Nakatanuma Yiji, food is a top priority. Although the shogunate himself did not want to use food to rescue those foreign daimyo, any troubles they had would be quickly sent to Tanuma Yiji's desk.
Sendai Domain was only eight or nine days away from Edo, so many things could not be hidden. Although the Sendai Clan had issued a seal order from top to bottom, the news that Matsushima Town was bombarded by foreign ships had already reached the ears of Tanuma Yiji.
So after Tanuma Yiji asked the general for instructions, the secret troops of the shogunate, the Koga group and the Iga group, began to dispatch. These ninjas disguised themselves and went into various places in Sendai Domain to search for news. For example, in Matsushima Town and Ishinomaki Port, several walking monks and wandering doctors suddenly appeared a while ago.
These people visited Ishinomaki Port and discovered that someone was transporting refugees to the sea. In order to find out the specific situation, he bribed several refugee families in advance and pretended to be family members.
Because these spies were in good physical condition, their families were also given priority and became one of the three thousand people on board the Thor.
But what these ninjas didn't expect was that once they left, they would never come back.
(End of chapter)
