Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 376, Sucrose

"Ryukyu?"

Everyone looked at the place Liu Jin was pointing at and said in unison.

At this time, Baodao was not called Baodao. Historically, Baodao was called "Daoyi" in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. At that time, the world was divided into Kyushu, and Baodao was included in Yangzhou. It is still a land of barbarians, and the word 'barbarian' is enough to explain it.

In the pre-Qin period, it was also called Yingzhou, and after Qin destroyed Han, it was also called Dongying, and in the Three Kingdoms, it was also called "Yizhou". From Tang to Song Dynasty, it was changed to Liuqiu, and from Yuan Dynasty to Ming Dynasty. In the middle period, it was changed to Ryukyu again.

So at this time Zhang Mao, Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Fu, Xu Guangzuo and others will talk about Ryukyu.

In fact, there are many names here in Baodao, such as 'Dongfan', 'Chicken Coop', 'Dawan', 'Dayuan', 'Taiwanyuan' and so on. Only in the Wanli period, because the terrain of Baodao is like a bow , The floating sea is like a platform, so there is the name "Taiwan ~~ Bay".

"Yes, it's Ryukyu."

Liu Jin smiled and nodded, then pointed to the map and said, "Look, everyone, the location of Ryukyu is very important. It enters North Korea and Japan, and it can go to Luzon in Nanyang, and it can also go to Australia. It is the throat of the southeast coast, and its geographical location is very important."

Naturally, the location of Treasure Island is unquestionable. The current era is still dominated by land, so it is not prominent, but once it enters the age of navigation, the location of Treasure Island will suddenly become prominent.

Everyone listened to Liu Jin's words, looked at it carefully, and then analyzed it again, and immediately nodded.

"Before I really didn't realize that this Ryukyu is so important, but now it seems that this Ryukyu is indeed very important."

Zhang Mao stroked his beard and said.

The Ming court in this era did not pay much attention to Ryukyu. There are many reasons for this.

One is that Ryukyu in this era has not yet been developed. The real developers of Baodao are Zheng Chenggong and his descendants. When they migrated to Baodao, they brought tens of thousands of people with them. develop.

Because it has not been developed, Treasure Island in this era is actually a land of barbarians. The description in the book is that the miasma is rampant, and the barbarians are uneducated.

There are very, very few Han people on Baodao. Even in the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court organized people to relocate the Han people on Ryukyu to the Zhangzhou and Putian areas, which was regarded as abandoning this place.

The other one is that Baodao and Shenzhou are facing each other across the sea, and it is extremely inconvenient to travel. In addition, Japanese pirates and pirates started at the end of Yuan Dynasty. The Ming court also felt that it would be a thankless task to develop here.

Furthermore, the weather here is hot, there are many miasma and mosquitoes, and it is easy to breed various diseases. It is difficult for the Han people who migrated to adapt to the environment here, and the conditions here are difficult, so no one is willing to migrate there.

The most frightening thing among them is the mosquito, which not only bites people, but also brings malaria. Before the cinchona tree was discovered, there was no cure for malaria.

Malaria was conquered by humans only after Europeans discovered the cinchona tree from South America and ground the bark of the cinchona tree into powder to treat malaria.

"In the future, if we want to go south to Nanyang and Australia, we will definitely not be able to avoid Ryukyu. In addition, we must use Ryukyu as a base to eliminate Japanese pirates and pirates along the southeast coast."

"It is imperative to develop Ryukyu!"

Liu Jin said firmly.

"Liu Jin, as far as I know, there are very few Han people in Ryukyu. The miasma is rampant here, and the barbarians are very barbaric. It is not easy to develop this place."

"And we are here to make money, not to lose money. If we really want to have a base, there are many bases in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, and they have their own bases, especially here in Quanzhou, which used to be one of Zheng He's voyages to the West. The key point is that there is no need to work hard to develop Ryukyu.”

Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu thought for a while and said.

In his opinion, there is no need to develop Ryukyu at all, because Fujian is very close to Ryukyu, just separated by a river, and Fujian itself has a very good foundation.

"Of course there is money to be made in the development of Ryukyu. How can I, Liu Jin, do business that loses money?"

Liu Jin said with a smile.

Hearing Liu Jin's words, everyone's eyes lit up slightly. After thinking about it carefully, it seems that this is really the case. Liu Jin's business has never lost money.

"Although Ryukyu is a barren land, full of miasma and fierce barbarians, the geographical location of Ryukyu is very important. It is the place we must pass through when we go south to Nanyang and Australia in the future. It is necessary to develop here, build ports, build ships, etc. It can lay the foundation for the future."

"In addition, the Jiangnan area and the southeast coastal area have always been inaccessible to us, but Ryukyu is different. If we develop it ourselves, it means that we have a foothold in the southeast coastal area, and it will be much easier to intervene in the future. .”

"In addition, Ryukyu is a place, although many conditions are very harsh, but Ryukyu also has many advantages of Ryukyu."

"There is plenty of sunshine and abundant rainfall. Rice can be grown here twice a year, and even three times a year in the southern part of Ryukyu."

"If the entire Ryukyu is developed, it will mean that we have an extra big granary after the Ming Dynasty. If there is a famine in the north, we can directly transfer grain from here to the north for disaster relief."

Liu Jin began to slowly talk about the benefits of developing Ryukyu.

"Liu Jin is close to the tropics. Even in winter, there is very little frost and snow here. So in winter, when we have no way to grow vegetables and fruits in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, we can grow vegetables and fruits here. At that time, once it is transported to the capital by boat, you can make a lot of money casually."

"Of course, these things can only be done slowly after the development of Ryukyu. In the short term, if we want to make money by developing Ryukyu, we can do two things. One is to grow rice, and the other is sugar."

"sucrose?"

Everyone listened carefully. According to Liu Jin's description, this Ryukyu is not only a land of barbarians, but a treasure land. With a little cultivation, real gold and silver can be harvested here, and it will lay the foundation for the future.

Everyone was not surprised to hear that rice was planted, but everyone became suspicious again about the sucrose.

"Yes, sucrose~"

Liu Jin nodded, and then poured out a bowl of sugar from a jar beside him.

"Look, everyone, this is sucrose. I think everyone eats it often and is no stranger to it."

Everyone took the bowl that Liu Jin handed over, looked at it carefully, and nodded one after another. Zhu Houzhao, a glutton, even grabbed some candy and ate it happily.

"Old Liu, why is the candy in your house tastier than that in the palace?"

Soon, Zhu Houzhao discovered that the candy he ate just now tasted more pure than the candy in the palace, without a trace of miscellaneous taste, so sweet that he couldn't help but take a few more bites, and then took out a handful of candy Look carefully.

When the others heard it, they immediately grabbed a handful of sugar and put it on the table to take a closer look, and then tasted it carefully, and suddenly their eyes lit up slightly.

The sugar that Liu Jin took out was snow-white in color, with very delicate granules, and a very pure taste, without a trace of miscellaneous taste. This is definitely the best sugar.

"This sugar is processed by myself from brown sugar, and I turn it into white sugar."

Liu Jin explained with a smile.

There is no white sugar in the sugar of this era, and only the sugar cookers inadvertently produced white sugar during the Jiajing period, so the sugar now is basically brown sugar.

The granules of brown sugar are large, the color is ugly, and the taste is not pure, but even this kind of brown sugar is considered a luxury in this era, and it is not something that everyone can afford.

Of course, this is not only the case in Ming Dynasty, it is the case on the entire earth in this era, sugar is a luxury.

If you want to eat sweets, one is honey, but the production of honey is very limited, which is not enough to satisfy everyone's appetite, and the other is sugar.

But the production of sugar is also very low, and sugar has always belonged to the ranks of luxury goods.

Caramel, which was made from malt in the pre-Qin period, is an expensive condiment, usually used in sacrifices and state banquets, and is even an expensive medicinal material for nourishing qi and blood.

In the Tang Dynasty, through the Silk Road, the sucrose technology of ancient India was introduced to China. At this time, sugar was relatively easier to obtain, but because of the regional climate, it could only be produced in the south. The output was still very small, and it still belonged to the Expensive luxury.

In the Song Dynasty, icing sugar began to appear. Because of the improvement of technology, the output and quality have also been improved. Sugar has gradually developed from something exclusive to the court and dignitaries to an expensive commodity. For ordinary people, it is still Can't afford something.

Only in the [-]th century, when Europeans began to use beets to make sugar, did the sugar production increase significantly, and it gradually entered the mouths of ordinary people, but the price was still very expensive.

The Ming Dynasty is not bad here, because bees were domesticated to produce honey a long time ago, plus sucrose, although the sugar is expensive, it is not too much, but in Europe in this era, sugar is definitely only for the top princes Only nobles can afford it, and the price of what they can eat is comparable to gold, which is definitely not a joke.

On Daming’s side, even though the sugar production is not bad, the price of a catty of sugar, even the worst sugar, is thousands of renminbi. High-quality sugar, even a catty of sugar, costs a few taels of silver. The price can be described as extremely expensive.

For the era when you can marry a wife with three taels of silver, ordinary people are not willing to eat such expensive sugar. It is a luxury that can only be afforded by the rich.

　After carefully checking the information, I found that many ordinary things are luxury goods in ancient times. Sugar is one of them. In ancient times, it was a real luxury. People in the area are rich~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)