"This is not rum." Zhu Heji certainly would not admit that what he brewed was rum. "This is a tribute wine produced in Chaozhou, called Daming Spring Wine, which is brewed from sugar cane. If it were still the Ming Dynasty now, During good times, this tribute wine is not sold for takeout..."
Rum is made by adding sugarcane bagasse, water and yeast. After fermentation for a day or two, it is repeatedly distilled, colored, seasoned, blended and stored. It is also divided into two categories: strong fragrance and light fragrance. Among them, the best rum, whether strong or light, must be stored for several years or even ten years.
However, the rum that Zhu Heji drank to Charlie Goff was all artificially aged rum. If you meet a real expert, you will definitely be able to taste it.
Of course, even if it was tasted, the rum he drank for Charlie Gough was still top-notch in this era.
In the seventeenth century, even Louis XIV could not drink Martell and Lafite now. Ordinary rich people would be very happy if they could have a sip of artificially aged wine that did not become sour or deteriorate.
Moreover, this rum is still a necessity for Western sailors at sea - fresh water is easy to spoil, and wine with too low purity is difficult to store at sea for a long time, so rum of 40 to 50 degrees is very suitable for sailors to drink.
Because Zhu Heji mastered the pasteurization method, he could even blend "ship rum" with a lower alcohol content.
Since this rum is a necessity, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell it. This is not an era of oversupply of goods. Most goods are a seller's market!
For example, although the cane sugar produced abundantly in Chaozhou is easy to sell, the sugarcane bagasse after juice extraction has little value and can only be used to feed cattle. Besides, the black scraps left over from making soup are of little use.
If you can turn these worthless things into rum or other alcohol, you can make a lot of money.
Zhu Heji added certain spices and essential oils to the high-grade original wine that was distilled many times, and the value of the perfume prepared was incomparable to that of rum.
In later generations, high-end foreign wines were sold in large bottles, while perfumes were sold in small bottles, and they were extremely expensive...
In addition, the "special white" sugar served with the brine is the only "good sugar" in the world, and it is no problem to be 20 to 30% more expensive than ordinary white sugar.
As for the value of the sweet gunpowder produced by mixing sucrose and fire salt, it is incomparable to wine, sugar and perfume... Of course, sweet gunpowder is not for sale and cannot be sold. This thing is easily affected by moisture and cannot be shipped to Europe by sea.
But it is precisely because of the existence of sweet gunpowder that the sugar, wine and perfume in Zhu Heji's hands can be sold at a good price, and there will be free trade rules based on strength!
Charlie Goff also made repeated calculations in his mind. He originally wanted to obtain the "monopoly free trade" rights from the Third Prince Zhu and the Third Grandson Zhu. But now he found that these Confucian Puritans wearing turbans, robes, beards and possessing mysterious bombs were not easy to deal with. Don't let the "monopolistic free trade" fail and let someone blow it up with a bomb... Why not give in first and build a good relationship with these Confucian Puritans, and then try to find out the secret of Zhuge Shenlei? !
After figuring out the secret of the divine thunder, are you still worried about free trade without a monopoly?
Thinking of this, Charlie Gough was already smiling, "Your Highness, our British East India Company hopes to become the general agent for the overseas sales of Chaozhou Damingchun Wine and Dongchang Perfume!"
Zhu Heji did not agree directly, but asked: "Mr. Goff, what price does your East India Company intend to give?
The output of Daming Spring Wine is relatively large, but the output of perfume is limited... it can only produce a few hundred kilograms per year at most. Moreover, there is demand in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Nanjing, so there is no need to worry about selling! "
Charlie Goff thought for a while and said: "If the Damingchun wine you provide has the quality of the Damingchun wine I am drinking now, I can give you one pound and a half ounces of silver.
If it's just Da Ming Chun Liquor that's equivalent to ordinary rum, I'll give you a pound of 200 Wen at most. "
Zhu Heji shook his head and said: "I don't know what ordinary rum is like, but I know that there is no ordinary Daming Chun wine in Chaozhou... All Daming Chun wine can reach the level of Daming Chun wine you are drinking now. The standard of spring wine. But you can’t buy it for a pound and a half ounce! If you don’t believe it, you can go to Dahao and see if there is such a cheap Da Mingchun wine?”
Charlie Goff looked back at Ji Dabao. Ji Dabao shook his head and said to him in old English: "No, I have never seen Da Mingchun in Dahao."
Charlie Goff frowned, seeming to be making a difficult decision, "At most, the maximum amount is 0.7 ounces of silver per pound...but we can underwrite 10,000 pounds of Daming Spring Wine every year."
"The minimum is eight yuan," Zhu Heji also looked very embarrassed, "but you have to be responsible for providing the oak barrels, and you have to pay half of the payment in advance... The original wine of this aged Daming Chun wine must be used Only real money can be collected. If you don't pay the payment in advance, this business cannot be done.
In addition, the amount of 10,000 kilograms is a bit too much, and I don’t know if I can receive it. Let's do this...sign a contract for five thousand pounds next year. "
Of course there is 10,000 kilograms!
How could there be no wine that can be made from sugarcane bagasse? But Zhu Heji still knows the tricks of hunger marketing.
"Okay..." Charlie Gough seemed to have made a lot of determination. He hesitated for a long time before nodding and said, "Your Highness, I can meet your conditions. But I also have two conditions. One is I have a batch of advanced Hongyi cannons, turtle-foot muskets, and a lot of gunpowder! I want to use these things to offset the advance payment. These things are worth about four to five thousand taels. I don’t think you want me to use these. Let’s give the things to the Qing Dynasty for cash, right?”
Zhu Heji nodded, "Okay... Mr. Gaofu, you are very good at business! I really can't let Qing Gou buy your artillery, muskets and gunpowder!"
Charlie Gough smiled and said: "Before talking about the second condition, I want to take a look at Dongchang Perfume. If it is really as good as I think, I hope to get its exclusive export rights!"
Perfume is the big deal!
Toilet water had not yet been invented these days, and the smelly European aristocrats could only make do with the unsatisfactory Hungarian water and powder that could fall off at any time.
Therefore, the Dongchang perfume produced in Daming is the only one in the world!
Those emperors, kings, queens, grand dukes, popes and the like in Europe, if they want to smell good, they can only buy Dongchang perfume at a high price. And you have to buy it... Otherwise, the king of France smells good, and the emperor of Germany, the king of Britain, the pope of Rome, and the czar of Russia smell so shameless? They are all powerful masters, and no one wants to save money and become "notorious"!
Zhu Heji shouted: "Sister Ling, bring a bottle of Dongchang's Royal Concubine Incense to Mr. Gaofu."
Da Bo Ling had been waiting outside with a bottle of perfume for a long time. When she heard Zhu Heji's call, she immediately entered the door with the perfume. A small bottle, plus a Teochew lion head and goose feather, was handed to Charlie Gough very carefully.
Charlie Gough also carefully took the perfume bottle with both hands, pulled out the cork and took a sniff - it smelled really good! I have to take it back to Europe and donate a few pounds to His Majesty the King, and maybe I can pawn it with a lord.
Now Gaofu could no longer suppress the joy in his heart, and his face was all smiles! It's not that his city is not deep enough, it's that the things Zhu Heji came up with are so good!
Seeing his happy expression, Zhu Heji knew that he was about to lose his temper!
Thinking of this, he smiled and said to Charlie Goff: "Mr. Goff, you can use this bottle of perfume first. Let's discuss the price and agency issues tomorrow. How about it?"
Zhu Heji let Gao Fu use it first because he wanted Gao Fu to fully understand the longevity of the perfume. After Gao Fu figured it out, he could discuss the price... It would be expensive, at least one tael of silver or two taels. water. And the price will have to increase every year in the future!
"Okay! Let me try first..." Gaofu nodded repeatedly, dipped a feather in some perfume, sprinkled some on himself, then carefully plugged the stopper and put away the perfume bottle.
Zhu Heji smiled and said again: "Mr. Gao Fu, Mr. Ji, look at the plate of white sugar served with the brine. Is it particularly white? This is the famous Chaozhou tribute sugar, the best in the world." sugar!"
