Because the salt drying method is almost a bookless transaction, it is very popular with the salt chamber of commerce, and now the vast majority of the salt in the private salt trade is through the salt drying method, therefore, all the salt merchants involved in the ditch are full of ditches, and the Cao gang followed up to get a lot of soup and mixed a full stomach.

Thinking that it was the time when the new salt was released, Lin Jin said with a serious face: "Mr. Wu, you tell the salt merchants in the Chamber of Commerce to restrain themselves, if the private salt continues to be so rampant, once the salt tax collected is too much worse than in the old years, even if the joints on the government side are opened, it is useless, and the emperor can't fool it." ”

The flood of private salt has squeezed the market for official salt, which is equivalent to taking money out of the emperor's pocket, how could the emperor be willing? If you really want to move the real chapter, the little arms and legs of the Salt Ship Chamber of Commerce can't confront the emperor who can mobilize the power of a country.

Wu Jiugong naturally understood this truth, but he still defended the salt merchant: "Actually, everyone is already very controlled, and every time the Cao Gang transports goods, it only transports a little more." ”

"A little bit more luck?" Lin Jin laughed angrily, "I don't know how you define this little bit, but the Cao Gang is such a big stall, every time the goods are transported, even if each ship carries an extra bag of private salt, it is very considerable." Did you know that the salt we use in our house now is made by drying salt? ”

Wu Jiugong said disapprerovingly: "This just shows that the quality of the salt made by the sun-dried salt method is good." ”

The salt obtained by the traditional decoction salt method contains a variety of impurities, with a bitter taste and a black color; The salt made by the modern sun-dried salt method taken out by Lin Jin is snow-white in color, the crystal particles are small, basically not damp, and the taste is the purest fresh and salty, except that it is not specially iodized, it is basically the same as the ordinary salt sold in modern times.

The two are incomparable in terms of quality, but decoction to make salt, not only requires a lot of fuel, but also uses an iron pot or iron plate, and it is more labor-intensive than the salt drying method, and the cost is far beyond the salt drying method.

The reason why there is a market for private salt is because it is cheaper than official salt, and now it has won a lot in terms of quality.

So Wu Jiugong's words are not wrong.

When Lin Jin heard this, she was angry and anxious, and said with a little anger: "Am I discussing the quality of private salt with you?" Mr. Wu, have you forgotten what my father did? He is a salt patrol and is in charge of salt! ”

Wu Jiugong nodded, "Master Lin is patrolling the salt imperial history, I know, I don't need you to deliberately remind me." He immediately stroked his palms and smiled, "It's funny, it's funny, I didn't expect that the dignified salt patrol imperial historian would also use private salt, this is really a rare big joke." ”

Lin Jin raised her eyebrows and said coldly: "It's not rare." In comparison, it is his good son who digs up his father's wall and ruins his father's official career, I think this joke is rare. ”

Seeing that she was really angry, Wu Jiugong hurriedly put away his smile and said, "I'll let them pay attention to proportion." ”

Sighing, Lin Jin was very helpless, and persuaded bitterly: "I know that the interests are moving, but when you stretch out your hand, do you want to think about it first, is there a life?" The salt merchant has been a fat pig for so many years, and now he has finally found a way to live, do he still want to go back to the old way? ”

Wu Jiugong didn't take this matter to heart, but when Lin Jin asked him like this, he only felt a little cold, stretched out his hand to wipe the cold sweat on his head, and gave Lin Jin a big gift, saying: "It's ridiculous that I pride myself on being more detached than others, but I didn't expect that I am still a mortal person, and I am still blinded by money, ashamed, ashamed." ”

Lin Jin smiled and sighed: "It's understandable, after all, this is almost not only a business without capital, but also a profit."

Actually, I don't want to prevent the Chamber of Commerce from selling salt, but in order not to attract the attention of the imperial court, it is better not to sell it in China, such as Annam, Siam, Qianxiangguo, Dongying、...... These neighboring countries sell casually.

Although there are more transportation costs than selling them in China, these countries also have good things that our country does not have, and shipping those things back to sell, back and forth, not only makes more money, but also is safe. ”

Wu Jiugong bowed his head again and again, expressing his agreement.

Although Lin Jin has always felt that she is a waste of firewood, the education and information she received in modern times have given her far more insight and pattern than everyone in this world, so even Wu Jiugong, who had a contempt for her at the beginning, gradually wanted to use her from the beginning, and gradually became a cooperation with her, and even sometimes, when neither of them was paying attention, he relied on Lin Jin's vision and planned the future of the Chamber of Commerce according to her suggestions.

After Wu Jiugong realized the seriousness of the matter, he made a decision: "Since this is the case, then all the salt ponds in China about the salt drying method will be destroyed and built in Luzon." It's just," he hesitated, "but in this case, I'm afraid there won't be enough people on the Luzon side, and I want to protect the secrets of the salt pond from being leaked......"

Lin Jin interrupted him: "Since this is the case, then don't send someone to protect it, just pull the Luzon locals onto the boat." ”

"Huh?" Wu Jiugong looked at her, as if he didn't understand what she meant.

"In addition to the local natives, there are many people from the former dynasties, as well as the inland people who settled in Luzon for some reason. Some of these people are very well mixed. When we go to Luzon, we are not like the Westerners who have been driven away, but we just use Luzon as a place to live there, and we want to settle there, so we have to interact with the locals. If you want to have a good relationship with the locals, what better way to bring them closer than having a common interest? ”

Wu Jiugong nodded and said, "You're right. Even if we don't do anything else in Luzon but just open up wasteland and farm, we still have to deal with the locals. Otherwise, everyone has hundreds of acres of land, and where can they get so many people to plant. ”

"Don't worry about this, I've already thought about it." Lin Jin took out a large stack of drawings and handed the top one with a sharp weapon suitable for clearing land in a flat land in a horse and a flat river-Eight Ox Plough to Wu Jiugong, "You don't need too many people to farm the land with this." Moreover, all the land we have is planted with sugar cane, and taking care of it is not only much less troublesome than planting crops, but also saves manpower, so what we have to do is to make friends with the local Luzon people and let them not make trouble with us. ”

"Growing sugar cane? Why not grow food? If you don't grow food, what will you eat? ”

"Growing food is not as profitable as growing sugar cane. On the market, how much is a pound of sugar, and how much is a pound of grain? 1,000 catties of sugarcane can produce about 80 to 110 catties of raw sugar, and a load of cane sugar on the market is about three and a half taels of silver, and the best Siamese rice is only five coins of silver and one stone.

If you grow sugarcane and 100 acres of land, you can have an income of about 200 taels a year, and you can take these 200 taels of silver to Siam to buy rice, and a family of five will not need to buy grain for ten years. ”

Lin Jin took out another sheet from the stack of paper in his hand and handed it to Wu Jiugong, "This is the brown sugar decolorization method." After the brown sugar made from sucrose is decolorized, it becomes snow-white sugar, which is not bad at all compared to Western snowflake sugar. ”

In the past three years, the Yanship Chamber of Commerce began to engage in maritime trade while exploring Luzon and preparing for the capture of Luzon. In the maritime trade, in addition to silk and porcelain, the two backbone products are the most popular, sugar is also a very popular fist product.

In later generations, there was a dispute between the "sweet party" and the "salty party", but in ancient times, whether it was the East or the West, most people were sweet parties.

Although both the East and the West lack sugar, the Eastern and Western worlds have gone two separate ways because of geographical problems. The East chose sugarcane, and sugarcane sugar production flourished for a while. And the West chose honey, not relying on the sky to eat and harvest wild honey, but beekeeping.

Even if the West obtained the method of making sugar from sugar cane and sugar beet through colonial expansion, sugar is still very expensive in the West, and there is a big gap in the market. Therefore, if you use sugar for trade, you don't have to worry about not being able to sell it. Not to mention, Lin Jin also came up with a decolorization method.

Lin Jin added: "In addition to sugar, bagasse after sugar production can also be made into 'sugarcane wine', although it is not as expensive as wine, it is also a good commodity." ”

Wine is good, but not everyone can afford to drink it, and relatively speaking, cheap sugarcane wine takes the low-to-mid route, which may not make less money than wine that occupies the high-end market.

……

Wu Jiugong looked at the stack of papers in Lin Jin's hand and asked, "It seems that you have already made a plan?" ”

Lin Jin nodded: "Of course." When I gave you the map of Luzon and the nautical charts to Luzon three years ago, I started planning. In my opinion, it's much better to plan ahead and plan ahead than to be crammed on the fly. ”

Take the stack of papers to Wu Jiugong, "You take a look, if you think it's inappropriate, we'll adjust it." ”

Wu Jiugong didn't look at it after taking it, but stared at Lin Jin and said, "Eldest prince, do you want to pass the Xiucai exam?" ”

"Why did you talk about this all of a sudden?" Lin Jin shook his head and said, "I'm not sure, wait until I study for a few more years." ”

Wu Jiugong said: "If you pass the Xiucai examination, I won't be so strict with you when I want to come to your house, and I should be able to allow you to go out and walk around." You went to Luzon in person, saw it with your own eyes, and planned better to do it. ”

Lin Jin smiled helplessly: "Expect the family to let me go out?" It's not that you don't know that my Lin family's heirs are thin, don't say that I am a talent in the examination, even if I am a Jinshi, I am afraid that I will have to wait until my grandson can marry a daughter-in-law. ”

The Jia family treats Jia Baoyu as a phoenix egg, and easily does not allow him to go out, in fact, in the Lin family, where there are few heirs, the Lin family's nervousness about Lin Jin is not lower than that of Jia Baoyu.

"I'll definitely go to Luzon, but when I'll go, it's hard to say now, but you can go and have a look first." Looking up at the sky and estimating the time, Lin Jin saw that the time was not early, so she said goodbye and left.