John, an American botanist, followed Zhu Jinglun's army, and it can be said that he walked through the tea areas such as Heshan, Xinning, and Gaoyao, and he collected a large number of specimens and drew a map of the distribution of local tea areas. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

During the inspection, he communicated with Zhu Jinglun many times.

He told Zhu Jinglun that tea, an economic plant, is most suitable for operation in the form of large plantations and the establishment of modern factories for processing.

John did not say this without purpose.

It turned out that before he inspected China, he also made a detailed investigation in India, inspected the plantations and tea factories under the Assam Black Tea Company in India, and found that the British had designed several processing industry machines in India, but due to the cultivation of tea varieties and the skills of workers, they were not as good as the best tea in China, but the quality assurance of machine products had appeared.

The most fundamental reason why John was able to come to China immediately after the negotiation was over was that he had been hired a long time ago, and it was only because he couldn't get along that he went to India to investigate.

John's investigation in India inspired Zhu Jinglun to plant large plantations and factory processing, which is not the fundamental reason why Indian and Ceylon tea later surpassed Chinese tea.

He has always been most worried about the future status of China's tea, out of practical considerations, Zhu Jinglun believes that tea exports will certainly be the largest source of foreign exchange for China's industrialization in the future, out of emotional considerations, Zhu Jinglun has always felt that China's loss of monopoly on porcelain, silk and tea is not only an economic loss, but also a shame.

Now porcelain and silk technology has long spread all over the world, and even a tea can maintain a monopoly position because of the late contact of Westerners, if there is a way, Zhu Jinglun will spare no effort to continue this monopoly position.

Therefore, John's investigation in India made Zhu Jinglun very inspired and stimulated.

But the reason why John said this was for his own purpose, he suggested at that time, hoping that Zhu Jinglun would allow American businessmen to operate tea plantations in China, because he found that there were still many barren mountains in China that had not been cultivated, and according to his investigation, the geographical location of those barren mountains, the height of the air, the temperature, and the condition of the land were no different from some local high-quality tea gardens, so he thought that those barren mountains could also be developed into tea gardens, but unfortunately the local people did not have the financial resources to develop them.

There are indeed many such barren mountains in Heshan and other counties, and it took more than 100 years for the Hakka people to develop the tea garden area in the Heshan mountain area to 80,000 acres, but a county with many mountains and few lands cannot only have 80,000 acres of mountainous land, but the cost of tea development is very high, because it takes at least three or four years for a tea tree to be planted to produce tea, and people who have no savings simply cannot afford this opportunity cost, so the Hakka people have slowly accumulated tens of thousands of acres of tea gardens in a hundred years.

The British use the form of joint-stock companies, directly in the London stock market to raise funds, there is no cost problem at all, so they can develop India's mountains on a large scale, at a time tens of thousands of acres or even hundreds of thousands of acres of tea plantations, in the face of this modern business speed, if the Chinese do not change, it is only a matter of time to be surpassed, after 1890 in history, not only surpassed by India, but even Ceylon tea production is more than China.

So at that time, Zhu Jinglun was a little moved, in this world, except for the British, aren't they Americans?

But for the introduction of American capital, Zhu Jinglun still has deep concerns, because the land, as a person who has experienced various movements in the middle of the republic, his mind is actually not open, and there is still a traditional Chinese feeling for the land, so that he will hand over the land of China to the Americans to manage, even if it is just a barren mountain, it is still emotionally difficult to pass.

Therefore, knowing that the introduction of Americans would definitely greatly increase the planting area and planting efficiency of Chinese tea plantations, and at least stand on the same starting line in the competition with the British, he still did not agree.

When the last remaining 100,000 Hakka people in Enping hid in the Wukeng Mountains with their families, he went to make a covenant and found that the vast majority of the 100,000 Hakka people were old and weak women and children, and there were less than 20,000 young and strong, and most of them were killed in battle.

How do these people live?

This question immediately poked Zhu Jinglun's heart very painful.

These remnants of the Hakka people, who are severely short of labor, have been driven to the mountains, and it will be difficult for them to survive, because they have no capital to develop tea plantations or reclaim wasteland. A big reason why the Hakka people are more desperate than the Cantonese people in the Tu Hak weapon fight is that the Cantonese people can still go to their relatives and friends after being driven out of their land, while the Hakka people will be in a desperate situation. As far as Zhu Jinglun saw the situation, in the weapon fight, most of the casualties of the Cantonese people were directly killed, and many of the casualties of the Hakka people were due to hunger after losing the land.

Zhu Jinglun had experienced famine, and he not only believed that famine was a tragedy, but also that it was a crime.

It was this kind of evil that made Zhu Jinglun change his original intention, for people who are going to starve to death, who can let them live when the land is handed over is the most important issue, not some bullshit emotional issue.

So he immediately decided to allow the Americans to contract barren mountains and develop plantations in the local area, but the Americans must hire those Hakka women and children, Hakka women and children do not bind their feet, are good at walking mountain roads, and are generally more robust, and they are usually the main labor force, and there is no problem at all in hiring these people to develop tea gardens, and even technically, most of them have mastered the technology of planting tea.

The Americans had no reason to refuse, so Zhu Jinglun reached an agreement with an American, coincidentally, this American was the cousin of Thomas, who was killed for stealing tea, and the only relative.

As for why the Americans, instead of attracting big Chinese businessmen like the Wu family and the Pan family, who are also powerful.

First, the Wu family and the Pan family are not familiar with the economic model of the big plantation, most of them go directly to the tea area to purchase, or from the tea sellers, rarely go directly to the tea garden to collect tea, they just wait in the small town under the Wuyi Mountain, naturally someone over the mountains and mountains to help them transport what they want, although the Wu family has tea gardens, but they are scattered small tea gardens, which were collected from the hands of tea farmers in debt in the past, and the intensive business model of large plantations is far away.

Second, Zhu Jinglun is still thinking about a brand and channel. As far as he knows, the most brand is the best of the British and the Americans, and many well-known brands around the world in later generations, although they are divided into countries, but behind them are the figures of the British and American conglomerates.

In this era, the Americans are China's second largest industrial importer, second only to the United Kingdom, and last year the British imported 400,000 quintals of tea in Guangzhou, and the United States imported almost 200,000 quintals. In this era, influenced by the culture of the British Empire, the suzerain, Americans were more keen on drinking tea. Later, because they did not have control over the tea themselves, domestic politicians turned to favor coffee from Americans, because many coffee plantations in South America are run by Americans.

After World War II, American culture began to gain momentum, and they in turn built cafes all over the streets of Britain, resulting in a continuous decline in the amount of tea consumed by the British each year.

So it's important for Americans to have a tea channel, which is likely to affect Americans' beverage choices in the future, and from a big perspective, this will make tea and coffee occupy a favorable position in the competition between the two major drinking crops in the United States, the world's economic highlands. If Americans still want to become hegemonic in this era, then with the export of American culture, tea will be brought to a wider range.

This not only means that China will reap greater benefits from tea, but also means a wider spread of tea-drinking culture.

Third, Zhu Jinglun is actually introducing a production model to China, and the Americans who know how to engage in a large plantation economy in the world at present will bring this business model into China, and Zhu Jinglun believes that as long as they see the efficiency of this model, Wu Chongyao, a giant businessman, will definitely start to imitate, and Zhu Jinglun has no doubt about their ability to imitate. Therefore, the introduction of an American plantation can be regarded as the introduction of the seeds of a big capital agriculture.

Because it is a seed, Zhu Jinglun has only granted a license to one American for the time being.

For this reason, Warren also expressed through John at the beginning that he hoped that all Americans would be allowed to obtain this kind of permission, and Zhu Jinglun's explanation to the American minister was that if this privilege was given to the Americans in the context of a treaty, then the British, the French, and other European countries would obtain this kind of power at the same time according to the one-sided most-favored-nation treatment, and then the privilege of the Americans would be meaningless.

Chu reminded the Americans that the United States may not be able to win if it competes head-on with the British, because the British can not only compete with the United States in China to set up plantations, but also monopolize plantations in India.

At the same time, Zhu Jinglun also told Hua Ruohan that if the Americans must obtain this power through a treaty, then Zhu Jinglun will not be qualified to participate, and he must go to BJ to talk to the imperial court, and if he talks with the imperial court, the American minister also feels that it is not so easy.

So he finally accepted this private permission and gave up the pursuit of procedural justice.

The introduction of an American plantation, the introduction of the capital agriculture system to China, the introduction of American brand management methods to China, the search for a firm position for Chinese tea in the United States, and other methods have been completed, but for the future of Chinese tea, at least Zhu Jinglun can do more.

But this could only be done after the mission he sent to Europe.