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 from the second master that the prices of cattle and sheep here in the capital are cheap, which is different from ours in Henan. It is said that it is from Xuanda. The border troops were so poor that they had no choice but to quietly do small business with the Mongols, selling pots, pans and other things to the Mongols. But I didn't expect that those Mongolians were probably even poorer than the border troops. We have nothing, and we are not very willing to sell horses. We are only willing to take some cattle and sheep to make up for the loss. But although our frontier army seems to have a lot of people, we can't eat the many cattle and sheep, so we have to do a resale business. Here in the capital It was the biggest place for resale and resale. 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 Pangshi heard this, he was really... shocked!
At the moment, 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. The large troops are dispatched to more than 10,000, and the small troops are dispatched. Dozens of people, in short, never stop. But I never thought that there was such a secret mutual market! This...if this fucking thing is put on the line, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it traitorous!
However, Secretary Gao is a pragmatist after all. After calming down and thinking about it, he found it not strange - not that it is not strange to be traitorous, but it is not strange considering the economic situation of the border army.
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 were pragmatists, and they withstood the verbal and verbal criticism of a large number of Qingliu in the DPRK and China. In the end, the Ming court reconciled with Ada Khan on the condition of mutual trade, and ceased fighting on most of the northern border, which made good progress for the future Wanli ZTE. external conditions.
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 practical results, and to put face issues aside unless they are completely unsolvable. As for my answer to the tribute issue, if it weren't for the benefits - or even great benefits - they would definitely not insist on agreeing to it at the risk of being infamy.
So where is the benefit?
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 food will itself promote the production of "pots and pans". To produce pots and pans, we must increase the output of pig iron. To increase the output of pig iron, we need to hire more workers to mine and forge iron. Isn't this also a good thing? In Secretary Gao's era, all these things were driving employment! But these are all real 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, this kind of good thing would only be turned away by the mentally retarded, old man!
Of course, Gao Pragmatic also knew that things would not be that simple. At least the private actions between the border army and Mongolia were definitely not something that grassroots soldiers could do, not to mention that this business has become so big that it can affect the price of meat in the capital. !
As for Bian Jun only selling some pots and pans... Humph, Secretary Gao said, do you think I just graduated from kindergarten?
But this matter is not something he can interfere in now - not to mention interfering, not even interfering. You must know that the huge interests involved, the large number of people involved, and the wide scope involved can definitely be described as amazing. I am afraid that even if Gao Gong has the mind to deal with it, he may not dare to act rashly. He is a little kid. If you dare to get in, even Gao Gong will be killed.
Forget it, forget it, I don't have the ability to deal with this matter for now, 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 either."
Gao pragmatically 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, and 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 I was a little disappointed, 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 purchase goods heard it interestingly, and came over to talk to him. Small talk about beavers..."
It turns out that the Liaodong drug dealer has traveled all over Liaodong and once saw a kind of raccoon living in the river in the northwest of Sachahwei, the former slave Gandusi. One of his Haixi Jurchen friends told him that this kind of raccoon is The fur is excellent, 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, from which "scented oil" can be squeezed out. However, the scent of the sesame oil originally smells weird, and it is not pleasant to say the least. It must be dried in the sun before it can emit its unique fragrance. But Gao Xiaozhuang only heard Gao Pingshi say a name, and had no idea whether it was the castoreum mentioned by his eldest young master, 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. Still called castoreum. Moreover, the beaver species is very rare in China, and its numbers are not large in Russia and Mongolia. The real main producing country is Canada. Of course, they were originally distributed in Europe. Unfortunately, beaver skins were so valuable that they were 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 decided not to do it. After all, the value of beaver fur is more easily accepted by people in this era than the value of castoreum. If the species is over-hunted like in Europe, wouldn't he be an indirect sinner? Protecting the ecological environment was something that the ancients would not consider at all, but it was still very important to him. After all, he was a person who had been brainwashed by bombs 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 country where wild animals are still available. The rather rich era is actually not outrageously expensive. 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, my 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 Zhen Huan a bottle of family-hered medicine, 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 the scars, and the aroma of the medicine would harm the fetus in Zhen Huan's belly and cause her to miscarry.
At that time, Secretary Gao was a little stunned. Musk was so powerful? So I picked up my 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 contain musk. The only problem is, can musk really work? Causes miscarriage? Secretary Gao read some articles carefully and came up with the following comprehensive views:
First of all, natural musk and synthetic musk are different. Natural musk is the secretion of the glandular 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 the meridians, reviving the mind and 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 strong medicinal properties. Long-term exposure or direct consumption can indeed cause abortion in pregnant women. But almost all musk we see in daily life is artificial musk. Although it will have more or less adverse effects on pregnant women, it is far less serious than what is shown in TV dramas, and it does not cause an immediate miscarriage after smelling it. Generally speaking, even if it is natural musk, only pregnant women who are immersed in the scent of musk for a long time will have the chance to induce miscarriage. Occasionally smelling musk perfume or ointment will not cause miscarriage. Of course, in the past, people in the past cherished their children, and pregnant women would definitely not smell it if they could.
The effect of musk is like this, so for Gao Pragmatic, who was making soap and focused on selling it to the upper class in the early stage, he basically said goodbye to it.
Consider this charge: "A pragmatic offering of soap will please the emperor and empress. If they use it consistently, they will have no heirs."
Well, that would be a lot of fun.
