The wide Atlantic Ocean, what is the concept of a one-way trip every two weeks? You must know that on land, if you don't change horses, Marin will only march more than 100 kilometers a day with his men and two horses. In two weeks, it was only a little more than 1,000 kilometers.

The Atlantic Ocean is more than 2,000 kilometers wide, so the clipper can run faster than one person and two horses, and the cargo capacity is large. Of course, for the large-scale goods such as grain, they will definitely not be transported by clippers. The clippers are generally valuable. In the 19th century, for example, clippers were used to transport high-value goods such as crow slices and tea. For example, the Cutty Sark, which sailed back to London from Guangzhou around the Cape of Good Hope in 100 days, was specially used to transport tea. Because, at that time, the most popular black tea in the UK, the shelf life was only about one year. If it is transported by an old ship, it will take 10 months just one way. Even if the imported tea is new, it is almost past the expiration date when it is shipped back to the UK. Therefore, the clipper boat, which can run a one-way trip in 100 days, has become the first choice for transporting black tea.

It is precisely because of the shelf life of black tea that Marin does not make it even if he knows how to produce black tea. In the Ming Dynasty, black tea didn't come out until around 1568. The reason is that the local tea farmers were frightened by a passing army and did not have time to dry the freshly picked tea leaves in time, resulting in the fermentation of the tea leaves, and then drying and processing, giving birth to black tea.

In fact, the most popular green tea that Ma Lin drank in later generations was Longjing Biluochun. But the shelf life of green tea and black tea is about the same, or even shorter. Therefore, from the perspective of economic interests, Marin finally chose black tea bricks that can be preserved for more than ten years. If nothing else, just that long shelf life.

Moreover, the "Earl Grey Milk Tea" invented by Marin is not brewed, but boiled with milk, sucrose, etc. In this way, the problem of poor brewing taste of black tea can also be covered, and it doesn't matter.

In addition, the honeycomb coal stove "invented" by Marin is so good that it can cook milk tea or provide hot water at any time, and has become the standard equipment of European rich families. If anyone doesn't have a honeycomb coal stove to cook milk tea to entertain guests, they are embarrassed to say that they are rich and noble.

And the profit of tea is also extremely amazing. At the beginning, in Western Europe, a 2 and a half catties of black tea bricks were sold for fifty or sixty wen in Daming, but when they were transported to Western Europe, they could be exchanged for a horse, which was worth dozens of gold coins or dozens of taels of silver. How much more than a hundred times the profit?

But later, with the sharp increase in the import of tea bricks, and the Portuguese began to enter the Daming coast, they could also get some tea secretly, knowing the low price of tea. Ma Lin had no choice but to reduce the price significantly, but a tea brick was also worth 10 gold coins, that is, 4 gold coins a pound of black tea. This price is a unified price set by Marin after negotiating with the Portuguese.

After all, Portugal will always be able to get tea in the future, whether it is smuggling or trying to find other ways. In order to prevent the two sides from suppressing the price too low due to vicious competition, Marin took the initiative to negotiate with the Portuguese to set the price of black tea bricks at 10 gold coins a piece. Although the price is more than half cheaper than before, it can be carried out in the future, and the profit is still not low.

However, the Portuguese didn't know that in the Anhua area, which is rich in black tea bricks, Marin had already asked the Kongtai merchants to go over and control the supply of goods in advance. Even if the Portuguese want a piece of the pie, they have to have a supply. And if you import ordinary black tea and green tea, at the speed of the Portuguese ships, even if the tea is shipped back, it will be almost past the expiration date.

In addition, Marin had already asked Conté to send someone to steal the tea seeds. Moreover, on the island of Cuba, there are already experimental tea plantations. At that time, Beihai can drink its own tea without going to Daming to import.

Marin, however, is skeptical about the cost of Cuban-grown tea. Because, in this era, there is no other country with lower labor costs than Daming. The production of tea is very labor-intensive, which makes Ma Lin feel that the cost of his own tea will be much higher than that of the Ming Dynasty......

Marin remembers that historically, in the 17th century, the wholesale price of British sugar production on the island of Barbados was as high as 60 shillings per hundredweight, which was almost 137 cents per catty of sugar. Shipped back to London, it could be sold for 100 shillings per hundredweight.

However, during the same period, the price of cane sugar in the Ming Dynasty was only 30 Wen. This is still the price in the north, and the price of cane sugar is only 15 wen a catty.

The wholesale price of the place of production is several times higher than the market price of the Ming Dynasty, which is the embarrassment of the Europeans. Therefore, Ma Lin plans to try to poach workers from Huaxia to make tea in the future to reduce costs.

Moreover, with clippers, it is faster to take the Pacific route. At three times the speed of the clipper, it used to take 3 months to go from Panama City to Keelung, but now it only takes 1 month. Even if you have to go around Panama City from Keelung, three times faster, it will be there in 2 months.

In this way, for some labor-intensive products, Marin was too lazy to produce them himself, and just purchased cheap ones directly from the Ming Dynasty. Of course, only for non-essential items. For example, high-end consumer goods such as tea and cane sugar, Marin chose to import them from the Ming Dynasty. If it is food, sisal and other strategic materials, it must be produced by oneself to feel at ease.

……

However, the experienced shipbuilders were skeptical of Marin's proposal for a clipper that could run three times as fast. After all, now the ships of the North Sea Kingdom can run at a speed of 10 knots, and if it is three times faster, it will not be able to run at a speed of 30 knots?

In fact, they were also misunderstood. When Marin speaks of triple speed, he does not mean the maximum speed, but the average speed. With the use of 20th-century technology for the upper edge of the girth, the clipper ship is about 50% slower than the downwind speed, even if it is against the wind, unlike the traditional sailing boat, which is three or four times slower than the downwind.

In other words, a clipper ship with an upper edge boom sail can run at a high speed of more than 10 knots even against the wind, which is faster than the current maximum speed of the Galen ship in Marin. Only in windless or light wind conditions will the speed of the boat be below 10 knots. As a result, the average speed of the ship is terrifying. Unlike traditional sailboats, downwind and upwind are two completely different situations, and the difference is huge.

In order to verify the "high tide speed" mentioned by Marin, the shipbuilders specially built small clippers for testing. However, because the processing was not well controlled, the hull was made too thin and small, a bit like a canoe. Even with the stabilizer fins, it's a little scary. Because, the hull is too narrow......

When Marin saw the "canoe" they had built, he suddenly had an idea—it seemed that the first catamaran in the world was a Polynesian catamaran canoe......

This kind of catamaran canoe, because the two small boats are connected, makes it like Cao Cao's chain boat in the red cliff, very stable, not easy to capsize, very stable.

So Marin simply asked the shipbuilders to experiment with the catamaran, connecting the two experimental boats with crossbars and repairing a deck. Then, a sleek catamaran was born......

After attaching three small upper rim band sails, the catamaran is ready for sea trials. As a result, its speed was surprising - 20 knots! It was the largest speed the shipbuilders had ever seen, and it almost stunned them......