Chapter 254 Brother Ah San
Xu Jingzong is very active now, but also very low-key, with his tail between his legs. His reputation in Chang'an official circles was rotten, and everyone knew that the emperor hated him, so even if he was relegated to the Imperial College as a teaching assistant, few of the noble officials' children and students looked down on him.
Xu Jingzong smiled on the surface, but was extremely annoyed in his heart. It happened that the Imperial College was on holiday during the Chinese New Year, so he simply came to the Transshipment Department to help. Qin Lang hadn't transferred him yet, so he simply brought his own dry food to help.
Thinking that he is a descendant of the famous Xu family, once one of the eighteen bachelors of the Qin Palace, and now he is reduced to this level, it is unavoidable to sigh, but the more so, the more it inspires him to fight back.
Qin Lang came to condolences to the officials who stayed on duty during the Chinese New Year of the Transshipment Department, and found that Xu Jingzong was immersed in his work. Everyone ignored him, but he was still working hard.
"Why is Mr. Xu here?"
"I'm free during Chinese New Year anyway, so I came here to see if there is anything I can do to help." Xu Jingzong wore a green robe, not even a green robe. He was dressed plainly and had a pitiful look on his face. "Sanlang, this is the list of tribute items from the feudal vassals that I have compiled."
Qin Lang took it and looked it over, and found that Xu Jingzong was indeed a very smart person. He had already taught himself Qin Lang's tables and Arabic numerals, and Qin's accounting method was also very good.
Tables look clear at a glance.
It seems that this guy is really hardworking.
The so-called tributes from various countries are actually not many, but the missions of all parties took the opportunity to bring a lot of private goods, so they also pretended to be tributes. In fact, they came to do business.
Qin Lang knew it well, but he didn't intend to expose it. Anyway, he had long regarded this as a tribute trade. Since it was a trade, it must be profitable, so why worry about it?
The tributes of various countries are mainly rare and special products, such as tame elephants from Linyi country, five-color parrots from Pyu country, linden trees from Tianzhu, giant birds from Persia, white sandalwood from Luopodeng country, sweaty and **** BMW from Cao country, The Luo and Luo countries offer fire beads, and some countries from Tianzhu offer pepper, Borneo, Tianzhu osmanthus, indigo flowers, frosting sugar, etc.
In addition, coral, amber, calamine, stone sulfur, green salt, money alum, frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, aloe vera, cumin, Persian dates, alum, jackfruit, olives, figs, etc. Daffodils and more.
There are no less than a hundred kinds of these so-called local specialties.
Most are ivory rhino horn pearls or various spices and medicinal materials, and a few such as gold and silver products, frosted sugar, carpets, slaves, etc.
Elephants, lions, peacocks, parrots, ostriches, rhinos, bears, cows, horses... These rare animals sent by various countries can form a zoo.
Kunlun slaves, white-headed slaves, Silla maidservants, Dongying slaves, black slaves, monks and other slaves.
There are so many things, Xu Jingzong classified them into categories, which is indeed quite remarkable.
"Mr. Xu thinks how should we reward?"
Xu Jingzong had known for a long time that Qin Lang had received the reward mission, so he had guessed for a long time.
"The lower officials thought that I should be rewarded with special products of the Tang Dynasty."
The imperial court is short of money, so it is unrealistic to give back money, especially gold, silver and copper are scarce.
"The Weaving and Dyeing Department of the Shaofu Supervisor has ten works of weaving and weaving. There are silk products such as weaving, silk, yarn, damask, Luo, brocade, Qi, and silk, which can be used as rewards."
The Weaving and Dyeing Department is actually the official textile and dyeing state-owned enterprise of the Tang Dynasty. There are professional commodity production workshops under it. Silk is a general name for silk fabrics, and silk is a thicker silk fabric, also known as silk; yarn is the light and fine silk fabric; Thin and thin high-grade silk fabric; Luo is silk fabric with soft texture and clear warp and weft threads; brocade is silk fabric with various patterns and patterns woven with colored warp and weft threads; Wen silk fabrics. In addition, there are names such as 紬, lian, 缣, sash, silk, 縠, onyx, su, xian, wan, and 紃, which are generally distinguished by the rawness, texture, and color of silk.
The official workshop of the Shaofu Supervisor has high technology and a large scale, so it is more subdivided and more distinctive than the ordinary fabrics that are hand-woven and dyed by ordinary people.
More categories and better quality.
Chinese silk fabrics have always been loved by Hu merchants. As early as the Han Dynasty, the Silk Road started, and Eastern silk fabrics were deeply loved by Rome, Persia and other countries.
Even at this time, Persia also began to have its own sericulture and silk weaving industry, but their silk products were far behind that of China, and the oriental silk was the best.
Now many Sogdian and Persian merchants also like to come to the Central Plains to directly buy raw silk, and then sell it back to the local silk factory for further processing. This kind of behavior actually dealt a big blow to the silk weaving industry in Tang Dynasty. After all, raw silk is such a thing. It is just raw materials, while silk and other products are deeply processed commodities, and the added value is not the same.
Qin Lang directly gave instructions that the six kinds of silk fabrics, silk and satin brocade, are all high-grade silk fabrics and deep-processed products. They can not only represent the superb silk weaving technology of Tang Dynasty, but also have high added value. , you can make a high price.
Compared with simply exporting raw silk and other raw materials or simple silk products, it is of course more cost-effective.
Xu Jingzong quickly picked up his notebook and memorized it.
"There is also porcelain. Porcelain is an excellent specialty of China. White porcelain from Xing Kiln in Hebei and celadon from Yue Kiln in Yuezhou in the south of the Yangtze River are all good things. We can include white porcelain and celadon in the list of gifts."
Xu Jingzong wrote it down and asked, "In the history of trade with Hu merchants, iron, swords, saddles, cloaks, mink fur, agarwood, musk, cinnamon, galangal, etc. in our Central Plains are also hot commodities. Included in the reward list?"
"Ginger can be included, but the others are fine."
Qin Lang opposed the simple export of raw materials, but iron, swords, and saddles were not simple commodities. These items were still in short supply of strategic materials by the imperial court, and could not be rewarded.
"Nowadays, the imperial court is eliminating Buddhism and Taoism, and many temples are being banned and demolished. There are many Buddhist scriptures, Buddha statues and other things among them. It is useless for us to keep them. It is better to include them in the list of rewards."
If a piece of bronze is simply melted and cast into copper, it actually depreciates. After all, the value of copper ware is often several times that of copper itself. Now that the Buddha is eliminated in the Tang Dynasty, it is better to export these temple objects.
"Mr. Xu, please value the tributes sent by the envoys of various countries according to the market price. We can make a 20% premium to estimate the value, and then you can make a catalog of the list of reward items I just mentioned, and all of them are marked Let’s list the price, estimate it at a 50% premium to the market price, and then send it to the envoys of various countries to see, discuss with them, and let them choose the items they want.”
Qin Lang set up an ambush.
The tribute to the Hu people was valued at a 20% premium over the market value, but the premium for their own goods was 50%.
In the end, the reward was equal to the estimated value of the tribute. In fact, on the surface, it seemed that Datang gave more rewards.
Anyway, the pricing power is on Qin Lang's side, and most of the rewarded products are high value-added products, so the 50% premium is not so obvious, after all, it is not the price of raw materials.
Anyway, Qin Lang doesn't care about anyone who is shameless, he has only one requirement, not to lose money, but to make money.
"The premium is 50%, is it a bit higher?"
"What's the price? The production of these brocade silk and satin brocades is limited. Now that there are so many of them all at once, the market price will naturally rise. This is also caused by the relationship between market supply and demand. It is our porcelain, which is also high-quality porcelain. They are not ordinary cheap goods, they are all high-quality goods, understand?"
Xu Jingzong is very obedient now, and immediately implements Qin Lang's decision.
A day later, Xu Jingzong had already completed the valuation, but after Qin Lang looked at it, he still expressed high valuations for the lions, tigers, elephants, ostriches, etc. among them.
"What kind of colorful parrot is this? It's just a parrot. What is the value of a bird? And this sea dongqing is just an eagle. This giant bird grows a little taller. These things In their locality, those wild animals are very common, they are everywhere, and they are worth more than gold in our place?"
"How much is it worth if we hunt a tiger? So the price has to be lowered, and it can't be much more expensive than our local ones. Just add some transportation and breeding costs to them. Foreign animals can't be more expensive than ours in Datang. Bar?"
Xu Jingzong immediately stated that he would change it immediately.
"The prices of our Buddha statues, copper bells, scriptures and other items are too low. These are not only dead objects, but also represent culture and art, so the price has to be raised. I don't think it is too much to increase it by ten times. How can you sell this exquisite Buddha statue as a copper price? This Buddhist scripture cannot be sold as an ordinary book, this is the supreme secret book, the Bible of Taoism, understand."
Xu Jingzong nodded repeatedly, repeatedly saying that he would revise the valuation immediately.
"The price of this Tianzhu frosting sugar is too high." Qin Lang saw that the price of this frosting sugar was frighteningly high.
"Sanlang, Tianzhu Frosted Sugar is only available at this price in the market now, and there is no market for it, and the supply is limited. Let's get it at this price and resell it on the market, and we can make a lot of money." Xu Jingzong reminded.
Tianzhu frosted sugar is actually granulated sugar. In fact, China has long had sugar-making technology, but the sugar-making technology of Tianzhu people has surpassed that of China. Their granulated sugar is not easy to melt when it is hot. They even put milk Add it to make the granulated sugar sweeter and more fragrant.
However, this kind of granulated sugar looks ordinary to Qin Lang, because it is very yellow in color and not very attractive.
But they are the only one after all.
The frosted sugar of the Tianzhu people has always been loved by the merchants of the Central Plains. This time, the tribute envoys from the Tianzhu countries brought a lot of sugar, but they did not sell it directly because they pursued higher profits, that is, they brought the sugar with them. The imperial court exchanged some more rare commodities from the Tang Dynasty, such as the fine silk products made by the supervisors of the Shaofu, and the fine porcelain produced by several major official kilns. A sum of money is more cost-effective than simply selling sugar.
(end of this chapter)