Chapter 294: Venice Scroll (10)

Huang Xuan picked up the list without saying a word, and bought 1 million tons of standard grain on the R plane, the price did not exceed 20 million hot circles, whether there was really a profit, it still depends on the loss of the base, so the price that Sandro can reduce does not make much sense.

Nick quickly translated the list into Chinese, and saw that the Sandro Chamber of Commerce divided the ivory into three classes, with 120 ducats for each first-class product, for a total of 800; The second class is 70 gold ducats, a total of 3,000 pieces, and the third class is 50 gold ducats, a total of 1,000 pieces.

Huang Xuan silently calculated in his heart, in terms of grain prices, each ivory here is about equivalent to the price of 10-20 tons of wheat. According to the grain equivalent method, a piece of ivory is about more than 5,000 US dollars in modern times, and according to the information collected in Lorraine, the price of each ivory (6 kilograms) set by the State Forestry Administration of China is 250,000 yuan, but this is used to calculate property in fines and confiscations. The price of a kilogram of ivory in the international market is slowly crossing the 45,000 yuan mark, and the bigger the more expensive, a larger ivory can weigh 20 kilograms, doubling to 200,000 US dollars, and the lighter one will be worth about 40,000 US dollars, which alone is hundreds of millions of US dollars in banknotes.

He couldn't help but sigh again, the money from plane travel is really good.

Thinking about the maintenance and upgrade costs of the three bases, he sighed again, how could this money be spent so quickly?

Seeing the change in Huang Xuan's face, Sandro asked with some concern: "Mr. Cosa, this is just a preliminary offer, if you have any ideas, we can discuss it again." ”

Huang Xuan said "hmm", frowned and said, "These ivory cost 350,000 gold ducats, which seems to be a bit more than my budget." He said and looked at rhino horn, compared with ivory, the price of rhino horn is much more approachable, there are only two grades, the first grade is 4 gold ducats per kilogram, the second class is only 2 ducats, and in the international market, the price per kilogram of African rhino horn is more than 5,000 US dollars, and at its peak it can reach 15,000 US dollars per kilogram. In fact, it is more expensive than ivory, and for those who have already completed the smuggling process, for example, in some domestic "medicinal" markets, rhino horn powder is occasionally sold, and its price will exceed 500 yuan per gram.

Sandro had already considered Huang Xuan's needs, he made a list of such chapters, and he didn't expect Huang Xuan to buy them all, mainly to provide a space to choose, he smiled slightly, and said: "So what about the price of rhinoceros horn, sheep 'wool', and wool?" ”

There are about 30,000 kilograms of rhinoceros horn, and the price is only more than 80,000 gold ducats, while the woolen wool is as many as 500,000 horses, each horse costs 12 florins (20 gold ducats), and the sheep "wool" is 100 pounds and 20 gold ducats, which is not very cheap, and should also be affected by the British war, but the increase is not very high, after all, Spain is also a big sheep "wool" country in Europe, and England has not yet decided the influence of "sex".

When Huang Xuan saw the amount of wool, he smiled knowingly, glanced at Joseph and said, "The Medici family intends to sell a large amount of wool and sheep wool?" ”

In Italy, the only people who can produce 500,000 horses of wool are the Florentine, Lombardy and Veneto regions, and the only family that can produce 500,000 horses of wool is the Medici family in Florence.

"At this time, the family still needs some food to meet the needs, and of course the sheep 'wool' is also needed." Joseph did not hide his identity.

Hearing him say this, Huang Xuan immediately understood that among these ivory and other luxury goods, I am afraid that the inventory of the Medici family is indispensable, in fact, this is normal, after all, for a trading house, the trade volume of 100,000 gold ducats is already very large, and the warehouse of 350,000 ducats, if it is placed in the 21st century according to the ranking, how can it be the world's top 500. The Medici family, who owned Florence, could well be understood as the great family that owned modern London in terms of prestige and wealth.

Huang Xuan's mental arithmetic was the foundation laid when he was a child, and he had not lost it, and with Nick listing the detailed table, he soon knew how much gold he would need to pay if he bought the materials taken out by the Medici family: ivory and rhinoceros horn cost 420,000 ducats, and 10 million pounds of sheep "wool" needed 2 million gold ducats, which was almost impossible, let alone 500,000 horses of wool.

What's more, there are people from the Perot Chamber of Commerce who did not come forward.

As soon as he thought of this, he heard a servant stepping on a ladder and walked up, and Huang Xuan looked out and saw that it was the Mecero of the Perrault family.

Sandro stood up to greet Messero, and before he walked up, he said quickly: "If Mr. Cossa returns to China in the near future, he can bring some spices back, the price of spices in Venice is rising, and if you want to come to Europe, we can buy it on your behalf." ”

Their main purpose was to buy this batch of food, and if it was paid purely in gold, it would still be a little difficult, and only with considerable supplies could they raise funds in a short time.

Huang Xuan's eyes lit up, he secretly scolded himself for being stupid, and asked with a golden star in his eyes: "What about the purchase price?" ”

In 15th century Europe, the thirst for spices was incomprehensible to people after the 19th century, because for a long time, Europeans have been simple and rough in the preparation of food, they always marinated beef and mutton with strong sandalwood for a long time. However, with a little pepper, cloves, or other spice powder, they turn into a delicious and tasty dish. This makes Europeans who have tasted it once can't help but be fascinated by it.

In addition, in Europe during this period, the technology of preservation was very backward, and they had a habit of eating meat, and after slaughtering (animals) in winter, they hung there, and in spring this problem was very serious. In order to keep the meat a little longer, and so that the meat will not be too smelly even if it turns bad and rots, this spice is more and more important.

However, the price of the spice itself is not expensive, his high price is because Europe is far away from the spice production area of the East, from the 13th century, the pepper that can be seen everywhere in the East, the European market is calculated in grains, "pepper bag" is another name for the big money in Europe, those noble "women" often sprinkle a little spice water on their bodies, cars, and immediately, swaggering through the market, yes, not perfume, but spice water.

The initial reason for the succession of a large number of seafarers such as Columbus can be attributed entirely to the search for spices, or the search for shipping routes to reach the areas where spices were produced.

Huang Xuan also thought of spices at first, but because he had brought 1 million tons of grain, he felt that it was enough, where did he think that the Venetians were so rich, and in the following time, he began to be busy with the calculation of time and the location of the warehouse, and almost forgot the most profitable things.

Sandro slowly stretched out four fingers and said, "100 pounds 400 gold ducat." ”

Huang Xuan almost couldn't help but say, "I have".

The 15th century was the peak of spice prices, and furthermore, the peak of spice prices in the entire history of mankind was around 1455.

In those days before 1443, the Portuguese bought 1 quintal in India (1 quintal equals 100 kilograms of pepper for less than 3 ducats), but in Lisbon it was sold for a whopping 40 ducats. At that time, the Europeans were already haunted by such huge profits.

However, it pales in comparison to the price after the Ottoman Turkish Empire captured Constantinople. When the Turks took complete control of the Balkans and Asia Minor, and were able to cut off the long-standing trade routes between the East and the West, the price of spices rose rapidly and made it more difficult to obtain them due to the looting of caravans and heavy taxes imposed on passing merchants by the imperial army in the occupied lands. It is reported that at that time, the pepper purchased by 1 Ducat's gold coin in the East was transported to the European market through the checkpoint for more than 300 Ducat's gold coins!

300 times the profit, is 100 300%.

With the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, it is foreseeable that more ships will be conscripted to engage in non-commercial or semi-commercial "sexual" activities, and more experienced crew members will be removed from their posts, which means that the price of spices will continue to rise.

Huang Xuan's eyes lit up and he said to Nick in a dark voice: "Ask Lu Min to buy a lot of cardamom, black pepper, chili, cloves, cinnamon, coriander ......", and he asked again: "What else?" ”

"The great yellow 'color' master, do you mean that spices are fine?" Nick asked timidly.

"You want to be familiar with what you have in this era. Right away, speed. Huang Xuanlian said it twice before he put away his somewhat changed face.

Joseph thought that this price frightened Huang Xuan, snorted disdainfully, and said, "The price of spices will continue to grow, so it's best to buy some now." ”

Huang Xuan began to laugh unabashedly, his face cramped with laughter, and the laughing Mr. Medici was a little annoyed and angry, and then he said loudly to the stunned Sandro: "I remember, I brought spices." ”

"You brought spices?" Messelo, who happened to come up, slowed up his steps and ran to Huang Xuan: "Oh, I thought the Portuguese had given up, how much spice do you have." ”