Chapter 1241 Turning Iron into Copper Alchemy
"The price is easy to say. If the quantity is large, the cost will definitely be reduced. If the court purchases a large amount, I predict that this kind of glass mirror should be cheaper than the three-jin bronze mirror. People can also get one or two hundred for the replacement. money subsidies."
"Really?" Yin Anguo was very prosperous, "Then the official will report this matter to the court when he turns around."
Qin Lang smiled slightly, a huge order of millions of glass mirrors, this is another big profit.
"Of course the Qin family has no problem in this regard, but if they want to produce so many mirrors, build more kilns, hire more workers, etc., I hope the imperial court can give corresponding support. For example, we want to build a mirror in Luzon. More glass kilns and mirror workshops require more manpower, and we are now limited by the imperial court's immigration policy, and we have been short of manpower."
Yin Anguo smiled awkwardly.
"This lower official will make a statement to the court, but I can't guarantee that it will be resolved."
"I'm not greedy either. I'm always a person who wants to exchange conditions. The imperial court's immigration policy is already very good for us in Luzon. I don't want to change it, but I hope that the imperial court can properly consider our needs and relax us a little bit. The conditions for hiring craftsmen and workers from the Central Plains. We only need to recruit and hire, and we will not violate the restrictions on immigration.”
Employment and immigration, these are two different things.
The imperial court strictly restricted immigration to Luzon. After several negotiations, the conditions were still very strict, and it was difficult to break easily. But if you just hire people from the Central Plains to work, this is completely different.
After all, I just came here to work and earn money, and my family is still in the Central Plains.
For Qin Lang, there is no way to immigrate here for the time being. Get people here first, even if they are just here to pan for gold or work to earn money, it doesn't matter, just take your time.
Yin Anguo was very grateful for Qin Lang's attitude.
In the end, it inevitably returns to the beginning.
"Why is Duke Wei able to mine such a large amount of copper in the mines in Wa and Luzon? Is it true that Duke Wei really has the art of alchemy as rumors say, and there are rumors that Duke Wei can turn iron into copper?"
Qin Lang chuckled.
"It's the official who is being rude."
Qin Lang poured him a cup of tea, "I also know that there are all kinds of rumors in the market nowadays, but they are not all groundless. My Qin family has indeed mastered a new copper smelting technique, and can indeed turn iron into copper. "
"It's just that, it's not some mysterious alchemy, but an ancient smelting method."
Yin Anguo's breathing became short of breath.
Qin Lang pushed the teacup in front of him, and he came back to his senses.
But that gaze still revealed his thoughts at this time, he really wanted to know this mysterious spell.
"In many works of the Han Dynasty, there are records of this method of turning iron into copper. For example, in Jin Gehong's Baopuzi Nei Pian·Huang Bai Yi Shu, there is a record of using Zengqing to coat iron, and the iron is as red as copper. Tao Hongjing of the Southern and Northern Dynasties also said that throwing chicken dung and alum into bitter wine and applying iron will turn it into a copper color."
Yin Anguo was dumbfounded, not knowing why.
Qin Lang heard from Yin Anguo that he asked about iron turning into copper, and knew that the court definitely knew more. It was because he knew a lot of important information that he asked him to ask.
They just don't know some key information yet.
Therefore, there is no need for Qin Lang to hide it completely, after all, he can no longer hide it.
You know, in the past, the imperial court of the Central Plains only mined hundreds of thousands of catties of copper a year, and the Qin family has produced over one million catties of copper casually in a year, no matter whether it is cooperating with the Japanese country or mining copper in Luzon. Not amazing?
The imperial court has been investigating secretly for a long time.
The Qin family has indeed mastered a new technology, but it is not a mysterious high-tech. To be precise, it is called gall water copper smelting method, also called wet copper smelting.
The core principle is actually to put iron into copper sulfate solution or other copper solutions to replace elemental copper. It sounds amazing, but later generations even have such experiments in chemistry classes of middle school students. It is very simple, and the chemical formula is also simple. , the operation is simpler.
From the Han Dynasty, some people discovered this situation. In the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, this copper method flourished. Because of this technology, the Song Dynasty also greatly increased its copper production. Sometimes it can reach more than 10 million catties, 20 million catties.
The biggest reason for the increase in copper production is this gallbladder copper method.
Compared with the traditional method of looking for copper mountains and then mining them, the gallbladder copper method has low cost and high efficiency. In this era, there are few copper mines, and many of them are poor mines, which are not easy to mine and cost too much.
The bile copper method is much simpler. As long as you find copper mines, you can usually find some bile springs. Slowly forming copper sulfate, this thing was called bile alum or stone gall in ancient times.
Because it is as blue as gallbladder, hence the name.
After the stone gallbladder is poured and dissolved by rainwater, it gathers in the spring water, and this spring water becomes the so-called gallbladder water.
When someone accidentally drinks the water from the gallbladder spring, poisoning may even occur, such as a poisonous hoarse voice, so the gallbladder spring is also called dumb spring.
Ordinary people are terrified of this dumb spring, but they don't know that this thing is actually a treasure.
Because as long as the concentration of copper sulfate in the gallbladder spring is high enough, then put in the pig iron sheet, and after a few days, the iron can be turned into copper, so the gallbladder spring copper immersion method is also used.
Generally speaking, where there are copper mines, there are often such gall springs, and even many large-scale poor copper mines are worthless by traditional methods, but the associated gall and alum springs can become a big treasure.
For example, Qin Lang sent people to secretly search and investigate in recent years, looking for Yaquan everywhere, and found eleven Danquan springs with a high enough concentration, and they were basically near Tongshan.
Although many people have discovered the phenomenon of turning iron into copper since the Han Dynasty, most of them regarded it as a method of alchemy and gold, and did not fully understand the principle, nor did they really apply it to copper smelting on a large scale.
Qin Lang is very clear about this principle. He had done this kind of small experiment before, and when he was in Taiping Port, he accidentally flipped through an ancient book and saw the relevant records on it. Then he remembered this, and began to ask people to look for it. Kind of gall spring.
In Luzon and Wa Kingdom, Danquan was found again.
Danquan copper smelting, the most important thing is first to have a high concentration of gall spring, second to have a lot of pig iron, and third to need more rain.
Because it is rainy, it is possible to ensure sufficient concentration of gall spring water for the gall spring copper smelting method.
So ordinary people do not necessarily have the conditions to play this. After all, iron, like copper, is a national strategic material and is strictly controlled.
Qin Lang is a big boss in the mining industry, and his family mines all kinds of mines, so he has a lot of copper and iron in his hands. It is quite cost-effective to use pig iron to smelt copper.
Otherwise, the normal copper mining method has high mining costs, and secondly, the mining efficiency is low, so it is impossible to have such a large amount of mining.
Qin Lang admitted to Yin Anguo that he was a bit of an iron-to-bronze technique, but he only said that it was an ancient technique, and that he had obtained it by accident from an ancient book.
But how to do it, he didn't say.
In fact, it is a layer of paper. Find the gall spring rich in copper sulfate solution, and then dig a ditch beside it to build the gall spring pool. Then put the pig iron sheet into the pool, soak it for several days, and then take it out for refining. and it became copper.
After soaking a batch of copper, open the pool to change the water.
So during the rainy season in summer, the bile spring is rich in solution and easy to soak copper, but it will be much worse in winter and autumn.
The south is more suitable for the gallbladder spring copper immersion method than the north.
Among the eleven bold springs in the Central Plains that Qin Lang has explored, the largest one is the bitter spring in Qianshan Mountain in Xinzhou, Jiangxi. Shen Kuo specifically recorded this bitter spring in his Mengxi pen talk, and this bitter spring is also It once became the largest Danquan copper smelting field in the Song Dynasty, with an annual output of more than one million catties of copper at its peak.
Compared with the traditional copper mining method, this copper smelting method can be said to increase the efficiency by a hundred times. After all, there is no need to dig mountains or quarry, dig some pools to draw water from the spring, and then as long as there is enough pig iron, it can be impregnated And refining, you can get a steady stream of copper.
One million catties a year is the output of dozens or even hundreds of copper mines in the past.
In addition to this wet method of copper smelting, there is also a dry method of copper smelting, that is, when the bile spring water is insufficient, bile bauxite is used to decoct the solution and then copper is smelted.
In comparison, the cost of wet copper smelting is about 40 yuan per catty of copper, and the cost of dry method is about 80 yuan per catty of copper.
This cost is subversive compared with traditional copper mining.
After all, the imperial court stipulated that the purchase price of copper was one hundred and sixty yuan per catty. In fact, the cost of mining in the mine must be more than one hundred yuan. , the difference is huge.
But in this day and age, mining does cost more.
In the remote inland deep mountains and old forests, the transportation is inconvenient, and the mining is all manual. Even many copper mines mine copper, which is under the auspices of the government. In order to obtain copper, the cost is not considered.
The cost of wet copper smelting is only more than 40 yuan, not more than 50 yuan per catty. If the mine is located along the coast and near the river, the transportation cost can be reduced.
Just like the Qin family, based on the cost of 51 catties, if it is sold to the imperial court for 160 catties, it can directly earn 110 yuan per catty, and if it costs 1 million catties, it can earn 110,000 guan.
But if the Qin family used this copper to make money themselves, there would be a profit of fifteen points, and one million catties of copper could cast more than 200,000 guan coins, which would be a profit of 30,000 guan. Rounded up, it is almost 100 million.
The more copper you have in hand, the more money you can mint, and of course the more profit you will get.
Therefore, for the Qin family, from excavating iron ore, smelting iron and steel, and then using pig iron to smelt copper, then casting it into money, and then transporting it to Haidong and other foreign countries, they can make another fortune. An entire industrial chain can bring huge profits beyond imagination.
"Does Wei Gong have any plans to dedicate this method to the court?" Yin Anguo asked a little cautiously. He also knew that if he had such a secret method, he probably wouldn't say it. But I still couldn't help but want to ask, if Qin Lang was interested, wouldn't it be that he made another contribution.
"Actually, I have already started sorting out this new copper smelting method of turning iron into copper. I have already sorted out a very good material, but I don't plan to sell or transfer this technology directly, but plan to invest in technology. Recruit some partners and build a copper mine in the Central Plains together."
Qin Lang plans to buy shares with technology, establish a partnership with the court, the emperor, the prince, etc., and smelt copper together. At that time, the Qin family will have the technology, the local government will have courage, and the court will still have enough iron. , Those who produce technology produce technology, those that produce people produce people, those that produce springs produce springs, and those that produce iron produce iron, all benefits are shared.
Don't worry about someone doing things to sabotage.
Qin Lang also knew that since the imperial court had been eyeing this kind of technology, it was impossible to keep it exclusive all the time. The imperial court came to ask, but still insisted on it. At that time, jealous red-eyed people would probably take the opportunity to mobilize and attack it.
Qin Lang has never been a person who eats alone, he was like this before, and he is like this now.
He has not moved the eleven discovered bold springs in the Central Plains, because they will attract people's attention when they move, and they will not be able to keep their secrets at that time, so he simply does not move. He will do it in Japan and Luzon first, and he will make a fortune first. , At that time, with this amazing efficiency, it will be more costly to discuss cooperation with everyone with the technology in hand.
After all, it is an indisputable fact that the Qin family can get several million catties of copper a year. Everyone knows how valuable this technology is. The Qin family should take more shares in this partnership business. , everyone can understand.
Copper smelting using the gall copper method requires natural and high-quality gall springs, and secondly, it requires sufficient iron materials. Pig iron is strictly in the hands of the imperial court. It can produce tens of millions of catties of iron a year.
As long as there is enough iron, it is no problem to produce tens of millions of catties of bile copper a year.
The quality of copper is far superior to that of most ore copper.
It is also fortunate that the mining industry has flourished since Zhenguan, otherwise there would be no iron to use if there was a copper method.
You must know that during the Han Dynasty, salt and iron monopoly was promoted, and there were 68 iron mines with an annual output of 5 million catties of iron. At the beginning of Wude, the iron output was only 530,000 catties, and at the beginning of Zhenguan, it was only more than 2 million catties. In the following two decades, the mining industry was greatly promoted, and the number of iron mines in the country increased sharply. It has increased year by year, and now it has reached an annual output of 18.5 million catties of iron, more than three times that of the Han Dynasty. This amount is the amount of iron ore self-produced in Datang, not counting the iron ore and iron materials imported from abroad.
There was even a glorious era of producing hundreds of millions of tons a year, ranking second in the world.
The current private iron mines in Datang accounted for more than 80%, and the official iron mines accounted for less than 20%.
Of course, compared with the annual production of 50 to 60 million tons of pig iron in later generations, the output of pig iron in the Tang Dynasty was only 10,000 tons, which is indeed too little. But today's production technology conditions in this era are there.
In the past, the dynasties emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce. They had a more repressive attitude towards mining, and it was enough. If an emperor was too concerned about mining, he would often be criticized by the scholar-bureaucrats. Even in many dynasties, mining This thing is an industry monopolized by the rich and powerful, so if the imperial court wants to participate in mining, or the emperor collects mining taxes, it will be sprayed with the people to compete for profits, or even extortionate levies. For example, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty levied a mining tax. A few silver coins were used to repair the palace or improve the life, and they were sprayed to pieces.
Even in the Zhenguan Dynasty, many officials have always opposed Daxing Mining, thinking that mining everywhere will exhaust the people, delay farming time, etc. Anyway, they just say the same thing.
Yin Anguo trembled with excitement.
The imperial court can produce nearly 20 million catties of iron a year, but it can only produce a million catties of copper. The output of iron is nearly 20 times that of copper, which shows that mining is better than copper mines, and iron smelting is more advanced than copper smelting. . Now that Qin Lang has the technology of turning iron into copper, he can immediately make up for the lack of copper.
Two and a half catties of iron are used to smelt one catty of copper. If ten million catties of iron are used to smelt copper, wouldn’t it be possible to directly increase the annual output of copper by four million catties?
"It seems that to increase copper production, the key is to increase iron ore mining."
Smelting iron is much easier than smelting copper.
(end of this chapter)