Because the salt drying method is almost a costless transaction, it is very popular with the salt merchants in the salt chamber of commerce, and most of the salt in the private salt trade is obtained through the salt drying method, so all the salt merchants involved are full of ditches.

Thinking that it was a new salt release now, Lin Jin said with a serious face: "Mr. Wu, you told the salt merchants in the Chamber of Commerce that the private salt is so rampant again, once the salt tax collected is less than in the old year, even if the government has opened up the joints, 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 small arms and legs of the Salt Ship Chamber of Commerce can't fight against the emperor of the lord 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?" Lin Jin laughed angrily, "I don't know how you define this little bit, but when the Cao Gang transports goods, even if each ship carries an extra bag of private salt, the entire amount 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 produced by the salt drying method is good." ”

The salt obtained by the traditional decoction salt method contains a variety of impurities, has a bitter taste, and is black in color; The salt produced by the modern salt-drying method taken out by Lin Jin is snow-white, the crystal particles are small, basically not damp, and the taste is the purest fresh and salty taste, except that it is not specially iodized, and there is basically no difference from 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 requires the use of iron pots or iron plates, and is more labor-intensive than the salt drying method, and the cost is far beyond the salt drying method.

Originally, the reason why private salt can have a market is because it is cheaper than official salt, and now it has lost a lot in quality.

So Wu Jiugong's words were not wrong, but when Lin Jin heard this, he was angry and anxious, and said with a little anger: "Do you think I am 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 made a look of sudden realization, and nodded again and again, "Yes, Master Lin is the imperial history of the salt patrol." He 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 looked at him 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 he was really angry, Wu Jiugong hurriedly put away his smile and said, "I will let them pay attention to proportion." ”

Sighing, Lin Jin said 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 dign, stretched out his hand to wipe the cold sweat on his head, and gave Lin Jin a big salute, saying: "It's ridiculous that I pride myself on being more detached than others, but I didn't expect that I was still a mortal person, and I was also blinded by money, ashamed, ashamed." ”

Lin Jin didn't chase after him, and said with a smile: "It's understandable, after all, this is almost not only a business without a book, but also a million profits."

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. 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 has given her far more insight and pattern than anyone 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, and seemed to be a little unable to understand what she meant.

"In addition to the local natives, there are many natives from the previous dynasties and the current dynasty who settled in Luzon for some reason. Some of these people are very well mixed.

We took Luzon, not like the Westerners who were driven away, but just wanted to use Luzon as a floating place to live there, and we also wanted to vigorously develop and develop it.

In this case, you can't get around the Luzon natives. In that case, then why not join forces with them? ”

Wu Jiugong thought for a moment, nodded and said, "What you said makes sense." Even if we don't do anything else in Luzon and just open up the wasteland and farm, we still have to deal with the local people in Luzon. Otherwise, everyone has hundreds of acres of land, and where can they get so many people, they can't grow it at all. ”

"Don't worry about this, I've already thought about it." Lin Jin took out a large stack of drawings and handed the topmost piece of the flat land of the flat land - the eight ox plough to Wu Jiugong, "You don't need too many people to farm with this." In addition, I plan to grow all my land with sugar cane, which is much easier to take care of than growing crops, and will save a lot of manpower, so what we have to do is to befriend the local Luzon people so that they don't mess with us. ”

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

Lin Jin chuckled and calculated an account for Wu Jiugong, "Growing grain is not making money by growing sugarcane." 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. ”

He 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 we make 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 Salt Chamber of Commerce has been exploring Luzon and preparing for the capture of Luzon, while engaging in the business of sea trade.

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 there is a lack of sugar in both the East and the West, 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 and scarce in the West. Therefore, using sugar for trade, there is no need 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, sugarkaya bagasse after sugar production can also be made into 'sugarcane wine', although it is not as expensive as wine, but it is also a good commodity. ”

Wine is good, but not everyone can afford to drink, relatively speaking, cheap cane wine takes the low-to-mid route, not necessarily less than the 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 making plans. In my opinion, it's better to plan ahead and plan ahead than to cling to it on the fly. ”

Take all the stacks of paper to Wu Jiugong, "You take a look, if you think it's not suitable, we'll adjust it." ”

Wu Jiugong didn't look at it after taking it, but stared at Lin Jin and said, "Master Lin, I don't think there's any problem with your academic test Xiucai, so do you want to take the Xiucai exam this year?" ”

"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'm going to Luzon, but I'm definitely not going for a while. But you can go over and have a look first, I'll leave first. Lin Jin saw that the time was not early, so she said goodbye and left.