At present, there was no professional decontamination soap in the Ming Dynasty, and ordinary people generally used soap horns. Wealthy families, on the other hand, mainly use pig pancreas soap made from pig pancreas. The effect is okay, but not as strong as soap. Moreover, pig pancreatic soap is not cheap, and it costs more than a dozen yuan for one.

This is also something that can't be helped, in the Ming Dynasty, pork is not a bargain, as high as more than 20 wen a catty. In the future, it is equivalent to more than 20 yuan a catty, which is more expensive than beef and mutton.

Of course, this is in the north. Because there are many cattle and sheep in the north, the border army also secretly smuggles beef and mutton from the grassland, so beef and mutton are much cheaper. In the south, lamb is still relatively expensive. As for beef, it is almost impossible to find. After all, the Ming Dynasty government was not allowed to kill cattle without permission. And the cattle that die of old age and sickness are basically not of good meat quality, and they can't catch up with the delicious pork.

The most important thing is that pork has oil and water! The thirst for oil and water in ancient times is incomprehensible to modern people, because vegetable oil was lacking in ancient times, so oil and water were often only obtained from meat. And pork is obviously the product with the highest fat rate, and it is also the commodity that people like to consume the most oil. So, in ancient times, the fat of pigs was the favorite of people. Therefore, the ancients called very tempting things "big fat", not big lean meat. Even in the last century, the Chinese people were very short of oil and water. Many elderly people also have the habit of eating fatty meat. Just like Marin's grandparents in his previous life, they always like to eat fatty meat when they eat meat, and give lean meat to Marin. At first, Marin thought that they were completely lying to themselves that they "like to eat fatty meat", but in the end, they really didn't lie to themselves completely......

After traveling to this era, it was not only the ancient Chinese who liked fatty meat, but also the Europeans. Especially those who are poor, their eyes can light up when they see fat.

For example, the braised pork supplied in the army, the first to be robbed is often fatty meat. Only the children of the aristocracy are tired of eating fatty meat, so they often like to eat lean meat. Or, fat and thin. Only a traverser like Marin, as well as members of the royal family and big nobles, who can eat meat until they vomit, will like to eat lean meat. Many small aristocrats prefer to eat fatty meat.

Of course, this changed after Marlin introduced soybeans. Marlin uses a spiral oil press to extract soybean oil from soybeans produced in North America. Today, the nobility of the Beihai Kingdom, including many low-ranking officer families, have begun to consume soybean oil generally. Therefore, the dependence on fatty meat is greatly reduced. After all, stir-frying vegetables with soybean oil also has a lot of oil and water.

Just like the people of later generations to lose weight, you say you eat vegetables, why do you put so much vegetable oil in Nima to stir-fry vegetables? Vegetable oil is not oil, right? Eating such oily vegetables has a hairy weight loss effect? The really ruthless people eat boiled vegetables. That taste, I want to vomit after eating it a few times...... Therefore, generally only ruthless people can complete the feat of losing weight, and ordinary people can only say "concubines can't do it"......

Therefore, in ancient times, the biggest problem in making soap was not caustic soda, but grease!

In his last life, Marin saw some people who said that they used sesame oil to make soap, and they longed for a while. But when he came to this era and learned about prices, he knew how nonsense it was. Why? Because sesame oil is more expensive than pork!

People like to eat pork, but they like the fat in it. And sesame oil, it's all oil! Through Kong Tai's understanding of Daming, Ma Lin learned that sesame oil was not a must-have for ordinary people at all in ancient times.

Especially poor families, they can often only cook gruel, and it is difficult to afford sesame oil at all. Only during the New Year's festival will I get some oil and cut some pork. This is still not too poor, the really poor, there is no oil and water during the New Year's holidays.

Sesame oil, I'm afraid only the landlord's family can eat it every day. In addition, the monks of the temple can also mix. Therefore, don't look at the monk's vegetarian diet, people put a lot of sesame oil in vegetarian dishes. I eat too much of this kind of food, and I meditate every day like an otaku, and it's strange that the monk is not fat.

According to the data given by Kong Tai, in the Quanzhou area of the Ming Dynasty, pork was 24 Wen a catty. And sesame oil, actually reached 45 wen a catty, which is almost twice as much as pork!

With such an expensive price, Nima traverser uses sesame oil to make soap? I'm afraid I'm going to lose my pants, right? After all, there are only a dozen pieces of pig pancreatic soap for people's use. Do you use sesame oil to make soap? The cost is more than a dozen yuan, and you can still make a lot of money?

It's okay to make soap and sell it for a tael of silver, but don't do it for the mass type. If you dare to sell it more expensive than pig pancreatic soap, the people of Daming will definitely not buy it. For people in the poor era, quality is not what they value, price is!

Therefore, the elderly who came from the poor era, they will only sell bargains, and they will queue up when they hear about discounts. Only modern young people who have never suffered will pay attention to what quality and brand.

If you use the ideas of modern loser youth to do the business of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty, you will definitely go bankrupt and jump off the building. In ancient times, only the ideas of those rich children could be more consistent with the ideas of modern youth. Strictly speaking, young people in modern society live the life of children of rich families in ancient times, which the poor dare not imagine.

Therefore, if you want to make the soap business bigger in Daming, you must emphasize the cost issue. Only when the cost is low enough and the price is low enough can we occupy the market. Otherwise, you can only make high-end soaps. The market is also large, but it is definitely difficult to do it to a large extent. At the very least, it will be difficult to make up for the huge trade deficit of the Beihai State with the Ming Dynasty.

And whale oil happens to be the lowest-cost oil! Whale oil cannot be eaten, so it cannot be sold at a price and can only be a cheap industrial grade oil.

In addition, whale oil is not dry oil, and the quality of the oil paper made is not as good as the oil paper made by tung oil. The only thing that is stronger than tung oil is that it is not slightly toxic like tung oil. Therefore, tung oil paper is not suitable for food wrapping paper. Whale oil paper, on the other hand, is possible. Because, whale oil is not toxic. Its iodine value, between 110 and 135, is a semi-dry oil.

Therefore, whale oil can be used to make oiled paper like dry tung oil (just a little less quality), and it can also be used as a lubricant like non-drying oil (which is also slightly worse quality), and it can also be used to make soap.

In conclusion, in the industrial field, the application of whale oil is very wide. In addition to being used to make candles, soap and oiled paper, whale oil also acts as a lubricant of general quality and can also be used in the dairy refueling process of the tanning process.

This process makes the leather softer, and at the same time, the toughness and strength are improved, and the water resistance is also improved. In later generations, whale oil was also a very high-grade oil for tanning.

It just so happened that Marin's people went to the Northeast to buy mink and needed post-processing. Whale oil, on the other hand, is a good raw material for refining mink.

Moreover, the cost of whale oil is very low! Because, in this era, the ocean is full of whales. They are giants in the sea, and sharks are also little brothers in front of them, so it can be said that they have no natural predators. So, this stuff is easy to get these days. The premise is that you have a whaling cannon that can kill them efficiently.

As long as you have a whaling cannon that can kill whales efficiently and quickly, whaling is simply at your fingertips on the seas of this era. Just see the water column spewed by the whale, the ship leaned over, the whaling cannon was aimed at a shot, and a whale weighing dozens of tons would be planted......

According to later estimates, a whale contains as much oil as 1,700 pigs or 8,000 sheep. In addition, if you have a sharp knife and a skilled master, you can also pick a large piece of whale skin from the whale.

Whale skin, on the other hand, is a very soft and thick leather that is not easy to crack. Later data show that the whale skin that a whale can peel off is equivalent to 80~100 cowhides......

Because of its softness, whale skin is not very suitable for armor. However, it is very good to use it to make daily necessities.

Because of its softness and comfort, whale skin can be processed into soft and comfortable high-end leather clothing, and can also be made into leather bags. In addition, it is possible to make intimate clothing such as umbrellas and women's moon masks. Of course, it is also possible to make sofa upholstery, just like elephant skin.

Because the characteristics are similar to elephant skin, and it is softer and feels good, whale skin can also be made into sofa leather cushions like elephant skin, and can also be used as a leather ring leather cushion for machines to prevent air leakage.

Then, apply whale oil, which is also produced from whales, as a lubricant, which is naturally very effective for the machine. Marin had people try it with whale skin, and it was no worse than elephant skin.

But whale skin is not as wrinkled as elephant skin, and it looks ugly. Because it is an aquatic animal, in order to reduce the resistance of the water, whale skin tends to be smoother and more suitable for making clothes. Therefore, Marin finally decided that whale skin is more used to make leather clothing and other things to wear, while elephant skin is more used in machines. Anyway, elephant skin is not good-looking, so it is used for durable occasions.

And whale skin, because it is smooth, can not only make comfortable clothes. Moreover, the whaleskin clothing also protects against the rain. After all, whales can make waves in the sea by relying on this whale skin. Among them, the prevention of seawater infiltration is the minimum requirement......

In terms of cost, whale oil and whale skin are much cheaper than any land-based animal fat and leather......

For example, a whale can get the equivalent of 1,700 pigs or 8,000 sheep. Raising 1,700 pigs is not only labor-intensive, but also requires a lot of food costs. Not to mention the bran or anything, it is to beat the pigweed, and it takes a lot of labor to cut the pigweed every day.

And 8,000 sheep, that also has to get 8,000 lambs first, and then spend a lot of energy, grazing for more than a year, before it can be raised, which is very troublesome.

But whale oil is different, as long as the whaling cannon comes and several big ships come over to divide and process together, you can get so much whale oil, and the cost is several times lower than that of lard and mutton fat.

Ma Lin calculated that even if the labor is calculated according to the highest cost, and the soap is made from whale oil, the cost is at most two or three cents per piece according to the Ming Dynasty. This is also the reason for the higher wages of labor in Europe, if it were in the Ming Dynasty, the cost of a bar of soap was definitely less than two cents. When the time comes, Marin will sell it for the same amount of more than a dozen yuan as pig pancreatic soap, and he will definitely be able to grab the market. Also, the soap doesn't have the weird smell of porcine pancreatic soap.

The same is true for leather, the skin peeled off by a whale is equivalent to 80 to 100 cowhides. The price of cowhide in Daming is as high as four or five hundred wen, mainly because cattle are rare.

But whale skin is different, the sea is full of whales, no cost to feed, catch a whaling cannon to get a single shot, you can get the equivalent of 80 to 100 cowhides of high-grade leather, it's not too cool...... Its cost is estimated to be far less than one-tenth of that of cowhide......

In short, whales are full of treasures, and if they don't kill them, they will lose a lot......