In the evening, the new main building of Jianxinzhai 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 Tower".
The second feature of this building is its "Western style". It was built by hiring several Francois architects from Guangdong and based on the Palace of Fontainebleau, one of the representatives of the Renaissance style.
Therefore, this White Jade Building 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 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, according to 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 only because Gao Qiang is pragmatic and likes white buildings but has too much money and no place to spend it, but because 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.
Daming's labor costs have always been very low. This has been mentioned a long time ago and there is no need to mention it again. What's really expensive is the interior decoration, which, according to Gao Pragmatically, should be completely Western style except for those religious murals. This led to Jinghua Infrastructure spending a lot of time studying Western-style decoration with those foreign architects, and then sending 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 those foreigners.
Gao pragmatically built the white jade building not just for fun, but for other purposes - Chinese-style buildings like to use wood, so in terms of sturdiness, they are not as strong as Western-style buildings that like to use stone. This is for sure.
This has led to the fact that in the event of war, very few Chinese-style buildings can be preserved, which will cause a lot of waste. Therefore, after Gao Yingqing came up with cement, he has 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 up a demonstration. This is the real reason for the emergence of Baiyu Tower.
Anyway, the Ming Dynasty was not a Qing Dynasty. It was not xenophobic, nor did it think that outsiders would not have good things. It was a long-standing virtue of the Han nation to learn from others and learn from others.
What's more, given his status as the number one scholar in the Six Poems, if you want to scold him for worshiping foreigners, even if you have to ask yourself if 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. He sent Zhang Yuangong here, and Dingguo Duke Xu Wenbi went to Maoling to pay homage to Emperor Xianzong on the anniversary of his death but did not return. In addition to sending the chief Sun Xu Xigao to come, other dignitaries from the capital came in person.
This also shows that Gao's face is really not that great now.
Especially for his business ally for ten years, Jingshi Xungui, it is even more useful.
"Everyone, regarding some matters regarding maritime trade, Gao Qi and others have already explained it to you in the Shipping 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 earn 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 him 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 get involved." 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's your purpose in getting so much sulfur?
Therefore, they really did not dare to touch such a dangerous business. This warning line was well established 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." What’s more, 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. Which goods are in short supply, please give me your guidance on this."
Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "There are a lot of goods. Southern Zhili is especially famous for silk cloth. As far as I know, whether it is white silk, five silk, damask, gauze damask, 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 have 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 pragmatic 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 be used 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 little 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 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. Even Jinghua’s high-quality refined iron can exchange for three irons and 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 Dingguo Duke, 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…do you have 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 a way 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 a drop in the bucket compared with that of later generations. Although most of Shougang’s iron ore in later generations was imported, domestic production It cannot be said that iron ore is not used at all. With the productivity of this era, Kaiping's own Qianxi Iron Mine 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 only 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 we 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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