Chapter 1208 Green Li
Qin Lang hopes to promote the manor economy in Luzon.
He even wants to cancel employment land, public land, and school land. Anyway, these public lands are essentially for tenants and rent collection, so it is better to directly allocate funds in the future. Although it is said that the former public lands and farmlands have the meaning of earmarking funds for special use, they are relatively troublesome, and the renting of such public lands over the years has not been less corrupt and harmful to the people.
"Protect the basic interests of the tenants, so you don't have to worry about mergers by powerful people."
The imperial court had promulgated laws earlier, incorporating the tenant trilogy into the national household registration, no longer being a vassal to the powerful landlord, and even made more detailed regulations on tenant rent, setting a minimum limit, so there is no need to worry about the landlord's excessive Exploitation of tenants.
Qin Lang also encouraged self-cultivating farmers and small landlords to operate, but Qin Lang hoped to break away from the situation in the past where the family was bound in the countryside and the family did not have a few acres of land, living in poverty and hunger.
Landless people who come to Luzon can choose to purchase restricted land, loan in installments, and become self-cultivated farmers.
You can become a tenant if you don’t want to pay a loan. You can farm the land of the landlord, manage it yourself, and then pay the rent. Or become a hired long-term worker in a landlord's manor, or work in a workshop in a town to make money.
Without the burden of heavy head tax, labor, etc., they can be more free. They don’t have to pay land tax even if they don’t have land. They only need to pay household tax. Serving forced labor, because the money is also deducted from the labor and distributed to the fields.
"As long as you are in the Luzon Governor's Mansion, you can come and go freely without restrictions."
In the past, it was very difficult for ordinary people to go out of the county. They had to go to the government to issue a certificate to obtain the certificates.
For the previous imperial court, the population was the source of taxation and the basis of labor and military service. Of course, it cannot be lost easily.
For the feudal era, the land system was indeed fundamental, and different land systems would determine the development direction of the entire society.
The Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties all had policies emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, while the Song Dynasty adopted a policy of not suppressing mergers and emphasizing commerce and promoting trade, so they also developed in two completely different directions.
If Luzon wants to develop, it is definitely not enough to rely on farming alone. If it is only farming, it may be more stable, but it is difficult to be active.
Land needs to be planted, and agriculture is the foundation, but it cannot only be cultivated.
Land is privately owned, mergers are not suppressed, circulation is encouraged, and business is promoted.
At the same time, through enfeoffment and other methods, a manor economy was established in Luzon, allowing vassals to provide arms, and the Dudu Mansion established an elite army and pro-military troops.
Qin Lang tried to take a different path.
As for the natives on the island, Qin Lang wasn't too worried.
Although it seems quite big now, it still lacks dimensions. After all, Luzon is an island. It is neither a northern prairie nor a jungle mountainous area in the southwest, so the aborigines are facing the Qin family who came across the sea. There will be no chance.
Qin Lang was not in a hurry to attack with the whole army, but because he could control the situation, he was not in a hurry.
"A whaling ship came back to port today. It was full of whale oil and returned a newly caught whale. I have asked someone to buy that whale. I will eat the whale at noon."
Qin Lang smiled and said to everyone.
"What kind of whale is it? A whale that is too big is not tasty, it smells bad."
"It's a minke whale. The taste is not bad. It's relatively bland, almost like beef." Although a whale is a fish, it is a mammal, and the meat quality is indeed closer to that of pigs and cattle. It's really not tasty.
Compared with sea fish such as tuna, whales are indeed much worse.
There has long been a tradition of whaling along the coast, mainly for candles made from whale oil. These days, candles are still relatively high-end daily necessities, and ordinary people cannot afford them. Going to sea to hunt whaling is risky and hard, but rewarding. The rate is also amazing. In recent years, the whaling wax industry has become bigger and bigger, and there are more and more whaling ships.
Some ships may stay at sea for several years before returning.
Luzon is located in the South China Sea, surrounded by sea on all sides, and its whale oil resources are much stronger than those in the southeast coast. Therefore, Luzon has quickly become a new place for the whaling wax industry.
"I heard that whaling ships hunted whales in the deep sea, and they would only come back after a tank full of oil. They would stay there for several years."
"Well, now whaling is often dispatched by one ship, each with a division of labor. The captured whales are directly refined into oil on the ship equipped with a refining furnace, and then stored in the barrel of the transport ship. There is no need to go ashore There is no need to return to the port for processing, and it can be kept at sea for several years, saving a lot of time and cost.”
"Then their whale meat is wasted. It's a pity. A whale is as big as hundreds of pigs and cows!"
Compared to the precious blubber, whale meat is not worth mentioning in the eyes of whalers, and it cannot be kept on board for a long time, nor is it worthwhile. A barrel of blubber was shipped back to Hong Kong and sold to the wax factory for a handsome profit, but the fish was worth nothing.
Whaling is a very dangerous operation. After a whale is found, a whaling speedboat will be dispatched. Generally, six to eight whalers hold a harpoon and wait for a boat to chase and hunt the whale. The whale is stabbed by a whale gun with barbs and ropes. , will run away desperately, and the whalers will follow closely behind, until the whale is exhausted, kill it, and then drag it back to the big ship with ropes, directly cut the blubber, and then take the whale meat Ruthlessly abandoned.
Except for blubber, that is, whale skin and baleen, which are valuable, the crew members do not eat whale meat.
However, for ordinary people, there are not many opportunities to eat this giant sea monster.
Although there are hundreds of whaling ships at sea today, and countless whales are caught in a year, not many whaling ships will bring back the whale meat without effort, unless they happen to be near the port when they return to the port. Got it.
The whale meat brought back to Hong Kong was relatively fresh, so I made two dishes at noon.
A piece of whale tail sashimi, the whole piece is white and tender like fish jelly, but the taste is crunchy like white fungus, and it has almost no taste without seasoning.
Another fried whale steak.
The red whale steak looks like beef, with a little more fishy smell, but it is not as tender as steak after frying, it looks tough, and the taste can only be said to be average.
However, all the retainers of the Qin family present here have never eaten this stuff before, and they were full of expectations, but they were disappointed after tasting it.
"No wonder I heard that the crew on the whaling ship don't eat whale meat."
"In fact, there is another way to eat whales, which is to cut the whale blubber into small strips and eat it directly like eating noodles, just like eating sheep tail oil. Whale blubber is very greasy. Eating it can protect against the cold. Eat some when it is cold. This stuff is very good, but let’s forget it for today, I’m afraid everyone will feel uncomfortable after eating it in summer.” Qin Lang laughed.
Luzon has excellent fishery resources. The city of San Francisco is built next to the Qin River, with San Francisco Bay on the west and a huge back lake on the east. There is no better fishery resource than here. Every morning in the market in San Francisco, there are There are a large number of fresh fish on the market, loaded from the boat into the car, and the car is transported to the market, which is called car fish by everyone.
These car fish are very cheap, the price is only one-third of that of Jiaozhou and Guangzhou, and one-tenth of that of Luoyang Chang'an.
Limited to technology, the rich fish resources are actually a bit wasteful and cannot be converted well. The fresh fish caught is difficult to preserve, and the local market can't digest much, and it's not easy to process, so it can only be dried into the sun.
Qin Lang once planned to make it into cans, but to make cans, you need to use porcelain with good airtightness. Ordinary pottery is not enough, and you have to use wax to seal it. But wax is a scarce material these days. Just look at the price of candles. Now, ordinary people can only use torches and pine nuts for lighting, and only those with better conditions can use oil lamps. Candles are really good things that can only be used by families above the middle class.
Who would use wax to seal the cans? And porcelain is the same as wax these days, which is also expensive.
So Qin Lang's test results show that the technology of high-temperature steaming and sealing cans is not difficult, but the cost of cans and sealing wax is too high, and the other is that transportation is inconvenient.
The final canned food has already exceeded the number of times or even dozens of times the amount of fish stored in it. This is a failed product.
Of course, the technology is still good. He made a batch of glass cans, including fruits, fish, and meat.
After the food is processed, put it in a glass bottle, put it in a boiling water pot, heat it for half an hour, plug it tightly with a cork while it is hot, then reinforce it with a thread, and seal it with wax. Basically, it can guarantee at least one year's time. Fresh.
Especially for canned fruit, it can make people thousands of miles away eat fresh and delicious food elsewhere, but the cost is too high, so it can only become a luxury food in the end.
Paying tribute to the court, or being a novelty that can only be enjoyed by aristocrats and wealthy families, for Qin Lang, this lost its original intention and became a tasteless thing.
Cans are meant to be sealed and sterilized. The most difficult thing is sealing, and the transportation is inconvenient. Without better materials to replace cans and wax, this thing cannot reduce costs and become popular on a large scale.
The popularity of cans in history began with the invention of thin tin cans, which are easy to store and transport. But nowadays, even glass is still more expensive than porcelain, let alone canned latte.
"Go get some canned fruit!"
Qin Lang thought of canned food, so he simply asked someone to fetch some and cook dessert for everyone.
When the cans in glass bottles were placed on the table, everyone couldn't help but stare.
"I'm too polite today, there are glazed fruits after the whale feast."
Because of the high cost, canned food is a good thing that is harder to taste than whales, especially when they saw the fruits contained in these glass cans, they couldn't help drooling.
"Green Plum!"
"There are also yellow plums!"
"There are still cherries!"
Tang Dynasty has a rich variety of fruits, but when it comes to the ranking of fruits that Tang people like, green plums must be the most.
The world recognizes that the green plum is the first among the fruits, the pear is the second, the cherry is the third, the sweet potato is the fourth, and the rose apple is the fifth.
Green plums are plums with a green color. Tang people love to eat plums, and there are many varieties of plums. According to records, there are fifteen types of plums, including plum fifteen, purple plum, green plum, Zhu plum, yellow plum, Qingqi plum, Qifang plum, There are as many as fifteen kinds, including Tongxin Plum, Chexia Plum, Hanzhi Plum, Jinzhi Plum, Yanyuan Plum, Chuluqiang Plum, Yan Plum, Man Plum, and Hou Plum.
Among the many varieties of plums, only the green plum is the king of all fruits favored by Tang people.
Of course, besides these, lychees from Lingnan and grapes from Gaochang are also very popular.
However, fruits are produced in different places, and storage and transportation are not easy. Even if you are as rich as a prince, you sometimes have no chance to taste delicious fruits from all over the world. Even if you are an emperor, you can’t eat whatever you want.
But now is not the season to eat plums, but Qin Lang served plums, green plums, and many kinds of fruits such as cherries, yellow plums, oranges, apricots, lychees, etc. How could it not be surprising.
"Come, let's eat, you're welcome."
Qin Lang opened the vat himself, Qin Yong and other retainers stood up respectfully, came over with plates, and carefully picked up green plums, yellow plums, cherries and other various fruits, two or three per person, but they But he was overjoyed.
Qin Lu from the mint took a bite of the green plum, and felt the sweet and crisp, crisp and slightly sour taste, and suddenly a lot of saliva was secreted in his mouth, "ah, this is last year's green plum, it's been almost a year , it can still be so fresh!"
"A green plum preserved in this way is worth twenty or thirty dollars, right?"
A bucket of rice in Luoyang is only 20 yuan, so this green plum is worth a bucket of rice?
"Twenty or thirty dollars? Look what it's made of. It's a crystal clear glass bottle. The seal is waxed. And where does the best green plum in the world come from? Jiangxi, Jiangxi How far is it from here? This is still last year's green plum!"
A jar of good wine can sell for three hundred thousand, isn't it normal for such a rare bottle of green plum to sell for tens of thousands? How many green plums are there in this bottle? After all, which one should not be worth a hundred dollars?
Qin Lang himself ate it unceremoniously. The green plums were very crispy, with a slightly sour taste, which was absolutely amazing. Although the canned food has been sterilized at high temperature, after being sealed for nearly a year, the green plums are still very well preserved, not much worse than fresh fruits.
Green plums are crisp and peaches are sweet.
All kinds of fruits almost maintain their original characteristic taste.
Even the water inside is so sweet.
Everyone was eating fruit happily, and the servant outside came to report.
An angel came from Luoyang.
The envoy brought good news. Qin Lang's younger sister, Prince Liangdi Qin Wuniang, who married into the East Palace, just gave birth to a son for the prince, and the sage personally named him Xian.
Only three days after his birth, the emperor held a grand baptism ceremony for the emperor's grandson Li Xian. At the banquet, he bestowed on Li Xian the title of Lu Wang, the governor of Yangzhou and the general of Zuo Tunwei. The governor of the Bohai Governor's Mansion.
For the crown prince Liangdi Qin, the emperor also gave him a great reward. Not only did he bestow a lot of beautiful silk, but he also specially gave Qin a pearl necklace worn by Empress Elder Sun, which the crown princess Su had never enjoyed. treatment.
Qin Liangdi had only three days after giving birth, but she personally sewed a summer robe for the emperor, which moved Li Shimin very much. The emperor sent envoys to Lu Song to inform Qin Lang, Qin Liangdi's elder brother, that he had become an uncle.
Secondly, it is also intended to reward Liang Di's elder brother and Lu Wang's mother's uncle Qin Lang, and a special gift of Qin Lang's nine-ring jade belt, and a volume of Lanting Preface copied by the emperor himself.
"The sage wants to serve as the palace for the crown prince and a daughter from the Qin family."
The emperor also made a request, wanting Qin Lang to send another younger sister to the East Palace to be Chengqian's concubine, saying that sisters are good companions.
Qin Lang received the imperial decree, and for a moment didn't know how to react. I always feel that something is wrong with the emperor's operation. The younger sister gave birth to the emperor's grandson, who is the prince's fourth son, but after all, he is a bastard, so it is a bit too much to be rewarded like this when he was just born. And now the emperor wants the Qin family to send another daughter to the East Palace, what is the meaning of this?
(end of this chapter)