After receiving the support of the Ming Qingliu led by Liu Daxia, Ma Lin was finally complacent and planned to go south to make a big purchase. But before going south, Marin specially asked Kong Tai to contact various guild halls in the capital.

The so-called guild hall is the place where scholars from various provinces enter Beijing to take the examination or merchants from all over the world settle down after entering Beijing. Such places are generally built collectively by wealthy merchants, but they are open to the same scholars, and even give them room and board discounts. As for why? Of course, it's a favor investment! The scholar who came to the capital to take the exam was at least a lifter, and he was a reserve official in his own right. And once you get the Jinshi, the lowest starting point is the Qipin County Order. Therefore, building a guild hall (also called a trial hall) is a very good investment in human relations.

Of course, in addition to giving preferential treatment to those fellow villagers and making favor investments, the guild itself is also the contact center for businessmen from all over the world in the capital.

And to be able to mix in the Beijing Hall to do business, it must be that the business is bigger, and the place can't accommodate it, so come to the "Longtan Tiger's Den" in the capital to test the water......

In addition, not everyone in every place can open a guild hall in the capital. Generally speaking, it is a place where there are rich people, or places where there are specialties to be sold to the capital, and the meeting hall will be opened in the capital. In poor places, there are few businessmen who have the capital to open a conference hall in the capital.

As a simple example, Jingdezhen wants to sell porcelain to the capital, and Huzhou wants to sell silk to the capital, and these two places must have guild halls in the capital. In addition, some wealthy state capitals in Jiangsu and Zhejiang will also open guild halls in the capital.

Anyway, as long as you find a guild hall in the corresponding area, you will definitely be able to contact the merchants who come to Beijing in this area, and they are all big businessmen......

Moreover, most of these halls are gathered outside the first three gates (Zhengyang Gate, Xuanwu Gate and Chongwen Gate), and most of them are outside the Xuanwu Gate, which is easier to find.

Marin wants to go south to purchase supplies, and he can't do it without acquaintances. Otherwise, it will be like a fly without a head, and it will be a waste of time.

Therefore, if you want to go to various places to purchase special goods, it is best to find a local person to cooperate. And where to find locals? Naturally, it's the corresponding guild hall...... Therefore, Kong Tai was sent by Marin to contact merchants from all over the country in Beijing......

Before going south, the first merchants that Kong Tai went to practice were not the merchants from the south that Ma Lin was going to, but the merchants from the north of Zhangjiakou......

Why look for a businessman in Zhangjiakou? Because they have in their hands a much-needed commodity in Marlin's hands - sesop alkali......

Oral alkali is edible alkali, also called sodium carbonate. Because most of the edible alkali in the Ming Dynasty is sold to Zhangjiakou by Mongolian merchants, and then sold to the mainland by Zhangjiakou merchants, it is also called oral alkali.

Daming's alkali is very cheap, and the mouth alkali is only 10 yuan a catty. Why is it so cheap? Because these alkalis are randomly picked up by Mongolian herders from the edge of the salt lake, it does not cost ......

Speaking of which, there are also many salt lakes on the Mongolian Plateau, but the tragedy is that most of the salt lakes on the plateau are not salt-based salt lakes, but either produce alkali or sodium sulfate. Therefore, the ancient Mongolian herdsmen were also very tired - there are salt lakes, but they do not produce salt...... Only a small part of the salt lake produces salt, and then it becomes the target of life-and-death competition among the tribes......

As for the alkali-producing salt lakes, they are disliked by the Mongolian tribes. Fortunately, the northern people of the Ming Dynasty mainly use pasta, and they need to use alkali to make noodles, and the demand is not small. Therefore, Mongolian herdsmen then went to the edge of the alkali-producing salt lake to pick it up, or scraped soda cream on the ice in winter (soda ash is easy to frost), and then the merchants on the grassland took it to Zhangjiakou and sold it to Han merchants. If it weren't for the high cost of land transportation, I'm afraid that the mouth alkali would not be able to be sold for 5 yuan a catty. In fact, when the merchants buy soda from Mongolian herdsmen, the price is less than 5 yuan a catty......

And soda ash has so many functions, whether it is glass manufacturing, or papermaking, or soap manufacturing, a large amount of soda ash is needed.

Although Marin is now able to buy natural soda ash from Egypt from the alkaline dry valley near Cairo, the Egyptians are asking for a very expensive price, at least several times the price of Daming. Moreover, Marin was constantly worried about the capture of Egypt by the Turks. At that time, the supply will definitely be cut off. Therefore, Marin thought in advance, planning to open up a way to import soda ash from Daming to avoid being stuck by the Egyptians, or to prevent Egypt from running out of goods due to the war......

……

Originally, Marin also planned to order saltpeter in large quantities. However, the merchants said that because saltpeter is the main raw material for the manufacture of gunpowder, the trade of goods needs to be controlled by the official uniform. There is no official license and cannot be ordered in large quantities.

In desperation, Marin had no choice but to go to Zhengde and the ministers to seek an order for saltpeter. In this regard, the Ming monarch and ministers have no opinion. Anyway, saltpeter is really not a rare thing in Daming. And Marin is now his own person, and it is really not a problem to sell some saltpeter to Marin.

But what Ma Lin wanted was too much, and he asked for 1 million catties per year, which frightened the Ming monarchs and ministers. It's not that Daming doesn't produce so much saltpeter every year, but Daming itself consumes a lot of saltpeter. Moreover, it is not because the army consumes a lot, but because it consumes too much to make fireworks......

Therefore, after discussing with the Ministry of War, the Ming Cabinet agreed to sell 400,000 catties to Marin every year, that is, 200 tons, at a unit price of 25 wen a catty. Although there is a gap with Marin's expectations, it is enough for Marin. Moreover, in the future, Marin will develop Chilean saltpeter, but it is not necessary to buy too much saltpeter from Daming.

Moreover, the large-scale purchase of saltpeter from Daming, in addition to the cheap price, also has the meaning of covering for the development of Chilean saltpeter. When European countries saw the large import of saltpeter from Daming in the North Sea, it was difficult to notice the problem of large quantities of saltpeter produced in Chile......

……

After negotiating the supply of saltpeter and mouth alkali, Marin went south with peace of mind.

At this time, Kong Tai also discussed with the merchants in the various guilds outside the first three gates, and expressed his willingness to pay a large price to buy rare goods and medicinal materials from various places......

In addition to some special herbs in the north, other herbs, Ma Lin asked the merchants of the guild halls in various places to return to their hometowns to prepare a large number of goods and send them to Wuchang, the most central part of China.

The reason why Wuchang was chosen as the center point for the purchase of herbs is that in addition to the fact that Wuchang is indeed located in the core area of the middle of China, the convenient water transportation and transportation conditions are also an important reason why Marin prefers this place.

In this acquisition, Ma Lin needed to purchase a large number of Coptis chinensis, mainly from Shuzhong, Huguang (there was no distinction between Funan and Fubei in the Ming Dynasty, and Huguang Province was divided into two provinces in the north and south during the Kangxi period), Guizhou Province and southern Shaanxi.

The Coptis chinensis purchased from Shuzhong can be loaded on a ship, go down the river, and arrive in Wuchang. The Coptis chinensis acquired in southern Shaanxi is also available, which can be transported down the Han River to Wuchang. Funan also has convenient water transportation conditions on the Xiangjiang River, and it is very convenient to transport to Wuchang.

In this era, road transportation mainly relied on horse-drawn carriages, and the volume of goods transported was small and the cost was high. Water transport, on the other hand, has a large volume of goods and low cost, which is very much in line with Marin's requirements.

In addition, after the acquisition of Youyang Artemisia annua in Chongyiqing, it is also very convenient to arrive in Wuchang by water. The Anhua black tea in Funan is also relatively easy to pass through the Zijiang River, enter Dongting Lake by water, and then enter the Yangtze River, and go down the river to Wuchang......

Therefore, it is really the right choice for Marin to place the herb delivery location in Wuchang.

It's just that it seems to be produced in southern Yunnan, which is the main drug of southern Yunnan Baiyao, and this thing is very inconvenient to transport by water. Moreover, to purchase notoginseng in southern Yunnan, it seems that you need to greet the local overlord Mu family first.

Ma Lin thought about it and decided to postpone the purchase of Panax notoginseng and other special medicinal materials in southern Yunnan, first hire brokers to go to southern Yunnan to say hello to the Mu family, and then cooperate with local powerful medicinal herb dealers to purchase Panax notoginseng. Then, through the Nanpan River, a tributary of the Pearl River, it was transported across the Pearl River by water and arrived in Guangzhou. Then, Kong Tai sent merchant ships from Keelung to Guangzhou to buy ......

As for Ma Lin himself, he was going to go directly to Wuchang to sit in the town and wait for the medicinal herb merchants from all over the country to deliver the medicinal materials and medicinal seeds he needed. Anyway, the price he gave was high enough that the profit-seeking merchants would not sell it to him......