Cracking down on the Japanese porcelain industry is Yang Chao's only purpose.

Exporting their favorite Chinese porcelain to Japan in large quantities was obviously a powerful tool.

The reason why Jingdezhen can occupy the position of the porcelain capital in the world, not to mention Japan and other countries, is that the rest of China can not compare, to talk about history, I am afraid that some kilns in the north are older than Jingdezhen, but Jingdezhen can always stand, and other porcelain production areas are lost in history, the only reason is that Jingdezhen's porcelain clay, they occupy too good conditions.

There is no place in the whole world where high-quality porcelain clay is so dense and on the surface that it can be mined for thousands of years without drying up, which makes Jingdezhen's porcelain not only of high quality, but also inexpensive.

If Yang Chao only supplied Zheng on a large scale at twice the market price, then Zheng would have the ability to sell Chinese porcelain all over Japan, leaving the Japanese porcelain industry without any way to survive.

But it is definitely not enough, it must be both ways.

"But you Zheng have to promise me one condition!"

Yang Chao said immediately.

Zheng Hongkui said: "Uncle Yang, please speak." ”

Yang Chao said with a smile: "Cut off the supply of porcelain clay to the Dutch." ”

Zheng Hongkui didn't think about it: "Deal!" ”

With Yang Chao's interest in supplying Jingdezhen porcelain without restrictions, the profit of supplying porcelain clay to the Dutch is insignificant.

Jingdezhen has a waterway directly to Panyang Lake, together with the Jiujiang River into the Yangtze River, water transportation porcelain is very convenient, than by land to Fujian more than double the price, so although Fujian and Jiangxi southeast border, but the Zheng family to obtain porcelain from the Yangtze River is easier, otherwise they do not have to rely on Dehua porcelain.

As long as Zheng can cut off the supply of porcelain clay to the Dutch in Fujian and other places, and Yang Chao will never give porcelain clay to the Dutch, then the Japanese porcelain kilns have absolutely no hope of obtaining good quality and low price raw materials.

"Hehe, uncle. The Japanese also produce silk! ”

Zheng Hongkui said to Yang Chao with a smile.

Yang Chao sighed: "Zheng Zongbing, you are too greedy. ”

Zheng Hongkui was very smart, and it was easy to guess that Yang Chao wanted to strangle Japan's porcelain industry, and Japan imported China's two major goods, porcelain and raw silk. Porcelain is because Japanese porcelain clay and skills are not good, raw silk is even more so, the best quality of raw silk in the world is Huzhou, not to mention the Japanese. Even the rest of China, the rest of Suzhou, is not as good as the silk of Huzhou.

That's natural reasons, where the water and soil, the climate is suitable for the growth of silkworms, and the rest of the world is not comparable.

"There is raw silk in Japan, but you probably don't know, there are also silkworms in Europe."

Yang Chao said with a smile.

After Marco Polo, Italy first began to grow mulberry and silkworms, and the mulberry tree is an ancient tree species. There are also mulberry forests in Europe, but since the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty has been extremely secretive about silkworm seeds, and even the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty also attached great importance to it, when stealing silkworm seeds was a crime of killing heads, many European merchants lost their heads for this, but the profits of silk trade were too great, they did not hesitate to cross the desert Gobi in the Western Regions to China, naturally they were not afraid of risks, and finally stole them away.

But the quality of silk in Europe is not good. Neither the first Italy, nor the rising French, have cultivated excellent silkworm breeds to adapt to the European climate, so Europe still needs to import a large amount of Chinese raw silk and silk to meet the consumption of the aristocracy and even the middle class.

Zheng Hongkui smiled. Obviously, he knew the news, and when it came to understanding the West, Zheng was the number one.

"But Benjue can reduce the price of silk first. Just follow the price of porcelain. There are also those ordinary porcelain and ordinary raw silk The price can be reduced, but the good porcelain in Husi and Jingdezhen should be doubled. The Zheng family won't have an opinion. ”

Zheng Hongkui frowned slightly, thought about it in his heart, nodded and agreed.

The yield of lake silk is not high. Originally, there were fewer exports, because China was not enough, so there was no need to worry about sales, but exports were obviously more profitable, so there were people smuggling.

And Husi is the same as high-end porcelain, even if it is exported to Japan and Europe, it is not for ordinary people, even the middle class can't afford it, but for the powerful and rich, the price is not very sensitive, even if it is doubled, they are also willing to accept it, nobles, what kind of aristocracy is it if they can't afford to spend money.

After some discussion, Yang Chao and the Zheng family reached a series of trade wars against Ming competitors, ordinary and cheap raw silk, and Japan's local silk quality is about the same or slightly higher, then the supply is released, with the price advantage of obvious Japanese silkworm farmers bankrupt. Low-grade silk was also open to supply, making it impossible for a large number of weavers to survive. It is estimated that in a few years, Japan will only be left with those workers who can spin the most exquisite silk from Lake silk, even if these workers, Yang Chao does not think that they will have an advantage over those weavers in Nanjing who can weave cloud brocade, and when the time comes, the price of high-grade silk will be reduced, and the Japanese will be able to say goodbye to the silk weaving industry.

As for Europe, it will not be a climate in a hundred years, but Yang Chao still decided to export a large number of low-end silk to Europe, suppressing the budding silkworm industry in Europe, so that they would give up this industry before they had the opportunity to cultivate their own silkworm varieties.

But Yang Chao's income will definitely be greatly affected.

In the past, the Zheng family bought 1 million taels of goods from Jiangnan every year, and sold them to Japan worth more than 5 million, and it was the limit that the supply could be doubled, there were too many, and the Japanese could not eat it, and the Zheng family did not have greater financial resources.

The Zheng family is rich, and Zheng Zhilong has more than 200,000 mu of land in Anping, but the Zheng family has invested too much money in the land because of Zheng Zhilong, a guy who has no interest, which greatly affects the amount of funds he can mobilize.

If he had been replaced by Yang Chao, he would have invested capital in the most profitable industries, and he would have been desperate for shipbuilding and recruiting sailors, and he would have driven the Dutch out of the East and monopolized the entire Oriental trade.

In fact, the establishment of Zheng's status was not very long, basically after Zheng Zhilong was ordered by the imperial court, but the defection to the imperial court also annoyed a large number of pirates, pushing the Zheng family to the opposite side of the pirate group, when the pirates joined forces to deal with Zheng Zhilong, although the Zheng Zhilong group is the largest wave of pirates, but there is no dominance, when other pirate groups unite, Zheng Zhilong really can't fight, and the Dutch also joined the anti-Zheng alliance, at the beginning Zheng Zhilong was repeatedly defeated.

But Zheng Zhilong is powerful in his vision, he unswervingly stood on the side of the imperial court, the ship lost the imperial court, and recruited again when the people were exhausted, and finally eliminated other pirate groups one by one, and finally established the battle intention of the sea supremacy was the Battle of Liuluo Bay, that year was the eighth year of Chongzhen, and the last rival Dutch after the war succumbed.

However, the Zheng family was also unable to exterminate the Dutch, and after the Dutch promised to pay protection fees according to the rules (in the jargon it is called pumping), the Zheng family ceased war with the Dutch.

This year is the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Zheng family really monopolized the sea trade, it is only ten years, Zheng Zhilong does have tens of millions of wealth, but in Fujian, where there are few people and more land, more than 200,000 acres of fertile land are worth more than five or six million, and after a large amount of profits become land, the Zheng family can take two or three million capital to turn over every year.

Yang Chao promised to supply without restrictions, and the Zheng family would only purchase five million taels a year, and more could not be obtained.

However, after this large-scale price reduction, the Zheng family's five million taels of silver can probably buy goods with a market price of two million taels, and Yang Chao only took three million from it, which is a great benefit to the Zheng family.

Originally, the five million taels could only buy goods with a market price of one million from Yang Chao, but Yang Chao took away four million, and this price reduction lost one million taels of silver.

But in order to crack down on Japan's silkworm and porcelain industry, Yang Chao is happy to pay this price.

Anyway, Yang Chao still has the profits of the shipping industry, although it is not as good as making money from sea trade, but now that the Yangtze River trade is more and more monopolized by Yang Chao, one million taels of silver a year is not a problem, and there is an income of four million, which can barely feed an army of 100,000.

When it was time to expand the army a few years later, it was believed that Japan's silkworm and porcelain industries had basically collapsed, and China monopolized these two industries, and it was up to them to raise prices.

"Benjue has given such a big benefit to the Zheng family, shouldn't the Zheng family also give Benjue a little benefit."

Although the agreement reached with the Zheng family is a win-win situation, no matter how you look at it, Yang Chao has lost one million taels, and the Zheng family is obviously more advantageous.

Zheng Hongkui was also happy: "Lord Yang said it directly, what do you want the Zheng family to do?" ”

Yang Chao smiled: "I heard that the craftsmen of the Zheng family can imitate the red-haired plywood boat? ”

Zheng Hongkui nodded and smiled: "The Zheng family sent a craftsman to help Lord Yang build a ship." ”

The so-called plywood ship is a Western ship, because there is a layer of deck, so it is called a plywood ship, and cannons are arranged on each deck, so the firepower is stronger than the traditional Chinese ships.

Zheng Zhilong fought with the Dutch many times, and he always suffered in firepower, and the Dutch East India Company only had a total of more than 100 armed merchant ships, and there were only 40 pure warships, and they were distributed on the long route from the Netherlands to Asia, but the Zheng family could not do anything about them, which already showed the superiority of their warships.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong has long begun to imitate Western warships and has the ability to manufacture plywood ships, but due to the limitation of the level of artillery casting, the number of guns on the Zheng family's warships is still inferior to that of the Dutch, and the Dutch installed fifty guns, while the Zheng family only installed twenty or thirty guns.

Yang Chao drove a warship into the Longjiang Shipyard, hoping that Yao Jiangtou would copy a large number of them, but Yao Jiangtou's progress is very slow now, because the difference between the ship type and the Chinese ship is too big, and he needs time to digest some of the different technologies, if there is Zheng Zhilong's craftsman guidance, I believe that Longjiang Shipyard will quickly master the technology of manufacturing Western warships.

"Then please Master Zheng!"

Yang Chao thanked Zheng Hongkui and raised his glass of wine. (To be continued.) )