As soon as the New Year came out, the Dutch came to the mouth of the river again, and they brought a shipload of goods.

The variety of goods was very varied, including two cannons, ten muskets, a set of armor, a chiming bell, two binoculars, and a pair of war horses.

To be precise, this is not a cargo, just a sample.

"I wonder what His Excellency the Earl thinks?"

Jones took Yang Chao to see the goods, and introduced them in detail, like a small salesman selling goods.

Yang Chao just shook his head lightly: "It's flashy, but if you bring these goods from thousands of miles away, the official will buy them, so you can make a price." ”

Jones couldn't help but be disappointed, sure enough, every Chinese was not interested in the goods of the Netherlands, he sent these materials that were necessary for the war, muskets and artillery were the most popular in Europe, and the goods that were listed in the British and French ** teams were taken from the most elite mercenaries of the East India Company, but Yang Chao was still not interested, he really couldn't think of anything else that could impress the Chinese.

"Well, these are supposed to be gifts for the Count. But are you really not interested at all? ”

Of course, Yang Chao is not uninterested, he has seen muskets and artillery, they are all good, Westerners in this era are obviously ahead of the Ming Dynasty in terms of firearms, but the technology is not so open, there are these samples, Yang Chao can be imitated, the cost is definitely much cheaper than shipping from Europe, this is also the time he did not specify the goods, but let the Dutch transport some by themselves, expressing their satisfaction can be purchased.

But there are also things that can't be imitated, such as war horses.

"The horses you brought are very strong, and they are not only worth a lot?"

Yang Chao pretended to ask casually, the two horses brought by Jones were extremely handsome, although Yang Chao did not understand horses, he could also see that they were much taller than the Mongolian horses in his army.

Seeing that Yang Chao was a little interested in the war horse, Jones couldn't help but be overjoyed, and thought about it in his heart: "Two hundred taels of silver!" ”

"Two hundred taels!"

Yang Chao couldn't help but be a little surprised, not because it was expensive, but because it was cheap.

In peacetime, the Ming Dynasty bought horses from the Mongols for twenty or thirty taels. It has doubled several times when it is transported to Jiangnan, and now it is wartime, and two hundred taels of silver may not be able to buy qualified war horses in Jiangnan, and mules are sold for fifty taels.

Jones thought Yang Chao was too expensive. immediately explained: "Lord Earl, you know that Europe is thousands of miles away from Daming, and it will take a year for a ship to depart from Europe to Daming. So it's naturally a bit more expensive. ”

Yang Chao nodded: "I know." In that case, then two hundred taels, and if you can do it, send me a thousand. ”

Two hundred taels and one horses, one thousand horses is two hundred thousand taels, although it is nothing compared to the trade volume of the East India Company, but this is a good head, at least let the Chinese accept their goods, business, not all slowly developed in this way. This means a lot.

Jones hurriedly agreed, and then moved on to pitch something else.

Thinking about it left and right, Yang Chao felt that the telescope itself was not in a position to imitate, and the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to manufacture qualified transparent glass, so it was impossible to imitate the telescope for the time being, and this thing was very useful for war.

So he asked, "How much is this clairvoyant mirror worth?" ”

Jones said: "It's also two hundred taels!" ”

Yang Chao couldn't help but shake his head, two hundred taels for a horse is enough, the West can make telescopes in large quantities, and two hundred taels of armor is too expensive, of course, Jones actually did not ask for a sky-high price. It's a big discount for Yang Chao, because this thing is worth a thousand gold in Daming.

This kind of thing is generally used by the princes and nobles as a way to enjoy everything, and they do not hesitate to spend thousands or even thousands of taels to purchase.

But if you equip the army, you really can't afford to equip it.

And the reason why Jones is willing to give Yang Chao a low price. The reason is that although they sell to princes and nobles at a higher price, they often can't sell a few pieces for a few years, and if Yang Chao is willing to equip the army, then the number will be more, and it can definitely be operated as a bulk commodity.

Jones explains, "It takes a skilled craftsman to make it, and it's expensive. ”

Yang Chao said: "That's too expensive." Up to one hundred taels. If it's a hundred taels, I'll buy a thousand, and if it's more, I don't want it. ”

Jones pondered for a moment: "I don't know if the earl will purchase it in the future?" ”

A thousand planes are worth 100,000 taels, and it is worth a trip from Europe by the Dutch, which is better than pulling silver to buy porcelain, but if it is only this trip, the profit is too thin.

Yang Chao said: "If it is easy to use, I will consider purchasing it every year." ”

Jones nodded: "Then a hundred taels." I wonder if Earl is optimistic about other goods? ”

Yang Chao shook his head, he really couldn't look at other things, he didn't need blankets or glass vases.

Jones saw that Yang Chao really didn't like his goods, so he said again: "The contemptible person got the permission of the governor this time to ask Count Yang if he still needs a ship?" Merchant ships or warships will do! ”

The last time Jones returned, the East India Company valued his achievements, and the Governor and several dignitaries in the East got together to listen to his report, and after discussion, they decided that the sale of a few ships to the Chinese would not affect the Dutch power in the East.

After all, even if they don't sell to Yang Chao's warships, the Dutch still can't compete with Zheng Zhilong, fortunately, Zheng Zhilong is only interested in Japanese trade, and doesn't pay much attention to other aspects, so the Dutch can occupy a piece of the world in the South Seas, they think that if Yang Chao develops sea power, the threat to Zheng Zhilong is greater than them, and if Yang Chao breaks with Zheng Zhilong, they can just take advantage of it, and can replace Zheng's monopoly on Chinese trade, the Dutch can't ask for it.

But to Jones's disappointment, Yang Chao still shook his head.

Yang Chao has not yet opened up the sea route, and there is no need for so many sea ships for the time being, the existing ten warships are enough for Yang Chao to suppress the smuggling of wealthy merchants in the Yangtze River estuary, and there is no need to form a huge fleet, after all, it also requires a very heavy price, which Yang Chao cannot afford at present, raising 100,000 soldiers is at least three million taels of silver a year, and this year it may cost four or five million, and now there is no spare strength to form a navy.

Before leaving, Jones did not forget to purchase a large amount of goods, he did not want to waste every opportunity, whether it was to sail directly to Japan, or to bring it back to Taiwan for storage, anyway, it would not suffer a loss to purchase as much as possible when the Chinese opened the sea, after all, no one can say whether the Chinese will suddenly change their minds when they wake up tomorrow and ban the sea again.

Yang Chao looked at the Dutchman's bill of goods and found that there was more tea, and they purchased 100,000 catties at one time, and it seems that the Dutch accepted tea.

In fact, what Yang Chao didn't know was that this was the decision of the governor of the Dutch East India Company, and they intended to use tea as a strategic material reserve, and they had verified that green tea could indeed effectively prevent and treat sepsis, so that the mortality rate of Dutch sailors on long voyages would be greatly reduced in the future, which would have more advantages than Spanish and Portuguese navigators, and better cope with later competitors such as Britain and France.

This batch of tea was not only for the East India Company's crews in the East, but also for other directions, and they decided not to sell tea to other countries, keeping the East India Company's advantage to the end, and the secret that tea could cure sepsis was as secret as their charts.

In addition to tea, other commodities have also changed, such as the porcelain purchased by the Dutch in large quantities last time is gone, and only a few high-grade porcelain remains, such as large-sized plum vases and other things, small disks, vases, etc., but there is another commodity related to porcelain, that is, porcelain clay!

Yang Chao was extremely concerned about this change, and he remembered that China's monopoly on porcelain continued into the twentieth century.

This matter must be clarified, but as a trade secret, the Dutch themselves will not say it.

So after sending a batch of high-end Yunjin fabrics to Jones and asking him to bring them back to Europe as promotional materials, Yang Chao immediately came to Zheng to inquire about the situation.

When I asked, I realized that the problem was not from the Dutch, but from the Japanese.

The Japanese learned to burn paper porcelain from China as early as the Song Dynasty, and not only the Japanese, but also Koreans and Vietnamese.

However, North Korea only focuses on white porcelain, Vietnam is celadon, and these two countries cannot catch up with China in terms of scale and technology, and North Korea does not trade with the Netherlands at all, Vietnam's porcelain is not enough for its own use, and it will not be exported, only China has the conditions to export porcelain on a large scale.

In addition to Jingdezhen's thousand-year-old porcelain-making skills, it is also because of Jingdezhen's inexhaustible high-quality porcelain clay, and it is really because of the quality of the porcelain clay itself that China's porcelain has always been higher than that of Japan and other countries.

Zheng Hongkui told Yang Chao that it took the Dutch ten years to get Zheng to agree to supply them with porcelain, but the porcelain Zheng gave them were all products from Fujian Dehua, and the quality was very average.

After the Dutch got the supply of porcelain, they began to sell to Japan, and in the past few years, tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain were exported to Japan every year, but in recent years, the technology of the Japanese has improved, and the porcelain clay sold by the Dutch can be fired into decent porcelain, and the Dutch can not compete with the Zheng family in terms of price, so they launched the porcelain trade, specializing in porcelain clay and other trade.

For several years, the Dutch not only did not sell porcelain to Japan, but began to import a large number of porcelain from Japan, although Japanese porcelain is not as fine as China, even the Japanese prefer Chinese porcelain, but Westerners do not care, they still like Japanese porcelain, and because the Dutch buy a large number of cheap Japanese porcelain, resulting in a large increase in Japanese porcelain production.

The Japanese porcelain industry has developed!

Yang Chao suddenly felt a sense of crisis, this kind of thing must not be agreed.

"Zheng Zongbing, Benjue has a proposal that in the future, he will only pay double the tax on Japanese porcelain!"

Zheng Hongkui couldn't help but be overjoyed, this is an unexpected gain! (To be continued.) )