At the same time that Kong Tai was buying the seeds of tung oil, sumac and bamboo, another deputy envoy who knew Chinese, Sconda, was not idle. Although he was not in charge of contact with Ming officials because his ability was not as good as that of Kong Tai, Sconda's Chinese level was still sufficient. With the help of the officials of the Yamen of the Governor of Liangguang, Sconda was also in charge of part of the procurement business.

The first procurement business that Sconda was responsible for was wheat, and Marin had long known that the wheat varieties of the Ming Dynasty were better than those of Europe today. Of course, it's not about how delicious it is, it's about how fast it grows.

European wheat is too bad to grow, and it takes a whole year to grow. The winter wheat of Daming is rotated with rice, and it generally only takes about half a year. Therefore, what Marin values is the growth rate of Daming wheat.

In the future, Marin intends to implement a rice-wheat rotation system in the subtropical climate zone of southern North America, as in the Daming Yangtze River basin. In this way, the production of food is even more terrifying, and it can also feed more residents.

However, in this era, wheat was not grown in Guangdong. Even in later generations, only in the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong, a small amount of winter wheat was cultivated. After all, the Liangguang region is mainly cultivated with rice. Therefore, it is really a bit troublesome to get wheat seeds in Guangzhou.

However, fortunately, the Ming Dynasty was a commercially developed country. Because the Ming officials were mobile throughout the country, it was inevitable that a large number of officials from the north would be transferred to the Liangguang region to serve as officials. And northerners are used to eating pasta, so there is a market demand. Moreover, this demand is not necessarily huge, but it is important. Because, the people who need wheat are those officials who have been transferred from the north......

If it were ordinary people, no one would pay attention to it even if there was a need - Nima, when he got to the south, he had to eat rice and wanted to eat pasta? Get out of the way......

But those big men can't be treated like that. Whatever they want, they have to have. In particular, the merchants who needed to befriend the old men would also think of ways to bring flour or wheat from the north.

Therefore, after Sconda and Conté separated, they immediately went to the grain store in Guangzhou City to inquire if there was any wheat for sale. In addition, the focus is on winter wheat produced in the Yangtze River basin.

However, after all, it is Guangzhou, and there are too few wheat sellers here. Those grain shops, even to cater to the needs of northern customers, generally sold flour instead of wheat. Many grain shops simply bring in flour, not wheat to grind.

So, for a few days, Sconda did not harvest. In the end, with the help of Shen Rui, the political envoy of Zuobu who was born in Zhenxi, Sconda found a small official who was born in the north of Nanzhili (about the same as the place north of the Huai River in the northern Anhui region in later times, and the Nanzhili in the Ming Dynasty included Su Province and Anhui Province in later generations), and spent 20 taels of silver to buy two stones of winter wheat that had not been ground into flour from his hometown. Although the amount is a little less, it is still there.

Sconda's second task was to procure rice seeds. Of course, it is not the indica rice that is popular in the southern tropics, but the japonica rice that is popular in the northern region. For example, rice like Tohoku rice.

In his previous life, Ma Lin was a native of Jiangbei, and he was used to eating soft and glutinous japonica rice, but he was not used to eating indica rice from the south. Although, there is also such a thing as fragrant rice in indica rice. But overall, japonica rice is more fragrant and soft.

Moreover, whether in the Ming Dynasty or in later generations, northerners are more accustomed to eating japonica rice than indica rice when eating rice. Even, as the granary of the Ming Dynasty, the southern Jiangsu region also mainly produces japonica rice. This is because the area around Suhu Lake is an important rice supply area in Beijing. Through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the rice from the Suhu Lake area was transported by boat to Jingshi to supply the officials of Jingshi.

However, many officials in Beijing are more accustomed to eating japonica rice. Therefore, the most important grain-producing areas in the Ming Dynasty also mainly grow japonica rice according to demand. In later generations, Suzhou Province was still the largest japonica rice producing area in the country. Including its Jiangnan region and Jianghuai region, it has always been an important japonica rice producing area.

Of course, to say that these are all false. The main reason is that Marin likes to eat japonica rice......

Therefore, as the younger brother, Sconda must find rice seeds for japonica rice for Marin. Then, it was transplanted to North America and planted in places with similar climates in the Yangtze River basin and supplied to Marin for consumption.

For this reason, Scanda went to the grain store to purchase japonica rice seeds......

Japonica rice seeds are not difficult to procure, after all, japonica rice is very popular in Daming Dynasty for officials from the north of the Yangtze River. Therefore, japonica rice is much easier to buy than wheat. Sconda found a random grain store and bought 100 stone of japonica rice.

After purchasing japonica rice, Scanda also purchased a large number of seeds from local indica rice in Liangguang. After all, the tropical colonies controlled by Marin are not suitable for the growth of japonica rice, only for the growth of indica rice. Before that, although Marin obtained indica seeds from India, he didn't trust Ah San's rice seeds very much, so he asked Sconda to purchase some high-quality indica seeds in Daming.

In addition to this, Sconda also procured a large number of glutinous rice seeds. The reason for this is that Marin intends to make vinegar from glutinous rice in the future, and of course it can also make wine. In addition, rice cakes can also be beaten...... In conclusion, glutinous rice is also very versatile. Although glutinous rice cannot be used as a staple food, it is very versatile. And making vinegar from glutinous rice is also one of the important uses. After all, the cost of making vinegar with apples is a bit high, and it is more cost-effective to make vinegar with glutinous rice. And apples, it's better to eat them directly......

……

After Sconda finished purchasing grain seeds, it finally began to purchase other ......

Since you have come to Daming, it is simply unreasonable not to purchase silk! So, Sconda borrowed the prestige of the Yamen, the governor of Guangzhou, and invited several large silk suppliers in Guangzhou to purchase raw silk and some silk fabrics from them.

The reason why raw silk is mainly purchased is because of the different aesthetics of the East and the West. The Ming people thought that the silk fabric was beautiful, but the Europeans did not necessarily agree, and vice versa.

Therefore, the best way to solve the aesthetic difference between the East and the West is to purchase raw silk from the Ming Dynasty and weave silk cloth that conforms to the aesthetics of Europeans......

At the moment, the price of raw silk in Daming is very cheap. On the market, a load of raw silk (a Sima Dan, weighing about 120 catties) is only about 50 taels, and the average per catty of raw silk is only 0.41 taels of silver, which is much cheaper than the price of 0.5 taels per catty of raw silk in the Wanli period. After all, during the Wanli period, because of the influx of silver, prices rose. In the Zhengde period, silver has not yet flowed in large quantities, and at this time in the Ming Dynasty, the price was lower than that of the Wanli Dynasty.

Sconda offered to buy raw silk aggressively, but the silk merchants in Guangzhou were not too happy. Why? Because they have their own sales channels. You can't just sell Sconda's raw silk to an old customer because of his words, right?

But this was not a problem, and when Sconda offered to buy it at a price of 56 taels per load of raw silk, the big silk merchants immediately abandoned their temperance. Except for a small number of larger customers who must be given priority, the priority of the rest of the customers is ranked behind Sconda - who told Sconda to increase the price by more than 10%......

However, probably because Guangzhou is far away from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the main producing areas of silk, and there are no Europeans who come to buy a large number of them every year. Therefore, the city of Guangzhou has not yet formed a climate for a large-scale supply of silk. The silk purchased by Sconda is actually robbing the locals of the share.

Therefore, despite the high price, Sconda only purchased a total of 900 quintals of raw silk. In this way, the raw silk in Guangzhou City was swept away, resulting in serious difficulties in the supply of raw silk in Guangzhou in the short term.

Of course, if this is left at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it will never be possible. Because, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the supply of Ming silk was quite sufficient. Even, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, out of economic considerations, Huzhou and other Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions had a large-scale situation of "changing rice to mulberry". Because, planting mulberry and raising silkworms and selling silk are more profitable than selling rice. A stone of rice is only half a tael of silver, and the price of a load of raw silk is tens of taels......

Before the Westerners purchased Daming silk aggressively, although the income from mulberry and silkworm cultivation was also high. However, due to the limited market, no one is willing to change rice to mulberry on a large scale. However, since the Portuguese began to purchase a large amount of silk in Daming, out of the stimulation of economic interests, a large area of rice into mulberry began to appear in the Jiangnan area. In this regard, a later TV series "Ming Dynasty 1566" also described this situation in detail.

However, as a top student in the Department of History, Ma Lin naturally knows that the plot of Yan Song's father and son vigorously promoting "changing rice to mulberry" in "Daming Dynasty 1566" is not in line with historical facts.

As a matter of fact, it is the interests that really promote the transformation of the Jiangnan region from rice to mulberry. And the executors are not Yan Song's father and son, but the Jiangnan gentry who own a large field of land. For example, a super big family like the Songjiang Xu family, where Xu Jie is located, is the real promoter. And the reason for this is naturally the windfall profits of silk foreign trade.

That's what happened, though. Now, Columbus's fleet came to Daming for the first time, and Daming has not seen huge profits from the silk trade, and naturally there is no trend of changing rice to mulberry. Therefore, the supply of silk is not very sufficient. If you put it aside in the Chongzhen period, as long as you have money, you can still buy it freely in Daming, not to mention 900 quintals of raw silk, 9,000 quintals can be bought......

Seeing that there was not enough raw silk to buy, Sconda began to change his goal - to start buying porcelain......

In this era, porcelain was worth a lot in Europe. The price of a piece of porcelain is measured in gold coins. In many cases, the ancient kings of Europe were angry and liked to throw one or two "precious" pieces of porcelain to show that they were really angry. Otherwise, I would be reluctant to throw away such a precious porcelain...... And this stalk has also appeared in many times in many places......

Therefore, Sconda will naturally not give up the purchase of porcelain this time. To this end, he hired a large number of porters and followed them to the porcelain shops to sweep the goods. Over the course of a few days, the warehouse of the post house where Sconda lived was full of goods he had swept from the major porcelain shops in Guangzhou. Sconda not only bought a large number of fine porcelain vases, porcelain jars and other porcelain for decoration, but also purchased a large number of porcelain bowls. Not to mention blue and white porcelain, ordinary celadon bowls have been bought. As a result, this made it difficult for the people of Guangzhou to buy bowls. If someone accidentally breaks their rice bowl, they can't buy a new one if they want to go to the porcelain store......

In this way, with the efforts of the two envoys of Contès and Sconda, Columbus brought a 500-ton warship and two 250-class armed merchant ships, which were piled up with all kinds of goods...... And the crazy sweeping behavior of the two also seriously interfered with the market in Guangzhou City. For example, the silk industry and the porcelain industry have encountered serious difficulties in supplying goods. For this reason, many people complained to the government, which made the two political envoys a little big. Fortunately, the frenzied purchase of the two finally filled the cargo holds of the three ships, and they stopped sweeping the goods. Otherwise, the situation will be more serious......