Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 196 The East Is Bright, The West Is Bright

The next door to Zizhenzhai is Zichengji, and the main product of this shop is Guoshi Wushuang wine—the person in charge, Zhang Xin, found that he had too much wine in his hand, so he had to put it in a big wine jar Waiting for more bottles from Lingao.However, the brewers didn't stop for a moment, and they were processing the soil burnt purchased from various places every day.As a result, the price of earth burning in Guangzhou has begun to rise slowly.

When Guo Yi discovered that Zichengji's liquor inventory had exceeded 2.5 tons, he was taken aback and asked Zhang Xin: There are not so many glass bottles right now, so what's the use of making so many liquors?

"Of course I sold it." Zhang Xin's plan was very simple. Since wine in glass bottles is a luxury, he would use simple porcelain bottles to sell to foreigners in Macau.

"You're just kidding," Guo Yi said, "How many people are there in Macau? How much can they consume? Besides, Europeans also make fruit liquor. Do they like grain liquor?"

"Treasurer Guo, you don't understand." Zhang Xin chuckled, "Foreigners also have grain shochu, isn't vodka? There is also gin, and vodka is pure alcohol mixed with water. It is not difficult to make ... Juniper berries are not a rare thing, they are found everywhere in the northern hemisphere, we just need to distill some."

"But the market is too small! The population of Macau—"

"This is the mystery," Zhang Xin said confidently, "Foreigners have glass, and it becomes a rarity when it is transported thousands of miles to China; our Chinese porcelain is a rarity when it arrives in Europe—"

"I understand." Guo Yi suddenly realized, "So you said you want to use a porcelain wine bottle!"

"The soil burning in the countryside of Guangzhou, if it is put in a glass bottle, it will be 'Guoshi Wushuang'; if it is put in a porcelain wine bottle, it will become 'Louis XIII': mysterious porcelain from the mysterious east, filled with mysterious fine wine... This is What a business stunt."

Porcelain was the bulk of the materials seized from the Gou family, and it was estimated that there were tens of thousands of pieces at that time.Obviously, so many porcelains cannot be sold in Daming, and the only way is to continue to sell them to the original owners—Europeans.There are many samples of porcelain in Dengyingzhou's recent shipments, which were originally planned to be sent to Macau to see if there is any demand.Zhang Xin came up with the idea of ​​using porcelain vases for wine by chance, and he chose a vase with a capacity of about 600-700ml as the packaging bottle.There are at least tens of thousands of such bottles in stock.

With wine bottles and other development projects, there is no activated carbon in the hands of the time travelers, so it is obviously useless to make vodka.However, distilled wine with spices can still be made, which is the so-called sweet wine.In theory, this wine can use fruits, spices, flowers, and even various plants with special aromas.Since there were so many options to choose from, Zhang Xin was hesitant, so he sent a telegram to a professional in Lingao for advice.

"What kind of spice plants are used to make export wine?" This topic was quickly sent to Fa Shilu's desk. This botanical expert is leading a few students who have initially shown interest in botany, concentrating on the collected local plants. Make specimens.

When he heard this question, Fa Shilu showed a look of "Finally let me wait" behind his glasses.

"Well, it's simple, just use rhubarb."

"Are you kidding?" Zhang Xin who received the call back thought he was crazy.What is rhubarb?After eating laxatives for diarrhea, taking this distilled wine out, it is considered a prank, after a person suffers a loss, will he be fooled a second time?

"No joke." Fa Shilu explained in detail in the call back:

Rhubarb is a commonly used drug in traditional Chinese medicine. It originated in the northwest and southwest of China. The use of rhubarb as a medicine may be the experience of the people in the Western Regions, and it was later spread to the mainland.It has been used as a medicine for at least two to three thousand years.

Since Zhang Qian emptied the Western Regions and the land trade between China and Europe opened up the Silk Road, rhubarb was transported by caravans to West Asia and the European continent via the Silk Road. Camel caravans transported dry rhubarb from China and crossed the mountains to Central Asia. Bukhara, then came to Europe via the Black Sea.Because it reached Europe through Asia Minor, it was later named Turkish rhubarb.Rhubarb was once a very important commodity in the Silk Road trade,

In later days, Central Asian merchants ran this thriving rhubarb trade route through Persia and other parts of the Middle East.In the Ming Dynasty, two rhubarb trade routes from China were formed: one took the sea route through India, and the other crossed the Gobi Desert and Siberia to Moscow.Rhubarb also accounts for a considerable proportion of Macao's re-export commodities operated by the Portuguese.

Rhubarb has long been a favorite of Persian and Arabic physicians.Since the Middle Ages, rhubarb trade has flourished on the Silk Road for more than a thousand years.Rhubarb can invigorate the stomach and detoxify. People who eat meat and milk as their staple food rely on Chinese rhubarb before they know how to drink tea, and regard it as a panacea for all diseases.Therefore, rhubarb has been one of the most in-demand commodities in Central Asia, West Asia and even Europe for more than 1000 years.Due to Arab influence, rhubarb was widely used in European medicine.By mastering the difference in dosage and usage, it can be used not only as a laxative for treating constipation, but also as an astringent for treating dysentery and diarrhea, and as a medicine for treating burns, boils and carbuncles.

Later, Europeans also bred edible rhubarb, which can be used in various snacks and dishes, and even eaten as a fruit.But until today, rhubarb used in medicine is still only grown in China.Rhubarb has such a high status in the minds of Europeans that there are rhubarb festivals in many parts of the world.The popularity of this drug abroad is probably hard to imagine in China, the country of origin of rhubarb.

"Hey, I thought it was a laxative, but foreigners thought it was a treasure." Zhang Xin said to Guo Yi after reading the telegram, "Hurry up and send someone to the market to buy rhubarb, this thing can also be exported Woolen cloth."

Guo Yi hurriedly sent people to the market to inquire about rhubarb, and found that rhubarb had long been specialized in export business.In China, rhubarb is mainly produced in Qinghai and Gansu, with Lixian as the distribution center. The business of exporting Portuguese to Macau in Guangdong is monopolized by a "Quanshui" warehouse run by Lixian people.

Although it was a bit disappointing to find that this way of making a fortune was taken the first chance, making rhubarb wine was definitely an unpopularity. Zhang Xin asked people to secretly collect a large amount of rhubarb from various pharmacies, wash and dry it overnight.

Traditional Chinese herbal wines are basically soaked, but Zhang Xin decided to use the alcohol distillation method just like making gin.Put the chopped rhubarb on the distillation rack, pass the vapor of the liquor through the distillation rack, and finally recover it through the serpentine condenser tube, and finally distill a slightly yellowish liquid with a fragrant smell.Finally, according to Xue Ziliang's suggestion, a small amount of melted sugar solution was added to the wine in an appropriate amount.It makes the taste slightly sweeter - now it becomes a rhubarb liqueur.

As for the rhubarb residue after distillation, Zhang Xin asked people to dry it and seal it up for storage—he planned to use this as the raw material for making rhubarb tea bags—since the black tea powder can be made into bags that Chinese petty bourgeoisie regard as "fashionable" Black tea, then rhubarb tea of ​​the same nature can also make Europeans flock to it.

The stickers and labels on the porcelain wine bottles are not very attractive. Several people from the dispatch station discussed them. Yan Maoda designed them and ordered a batch of antique small ivory hanging tags in the ivory carving shop. They were hung on the bottles with multicolored brocade strings. Traditional patterns, the trademark is "Princess of the Tang Dynasty".This vulgar name made everyone despise Zhang Xin. Zhang Xin said:

"You want to talk about something elegant, such as Roselle, can foreigners understand? Look at the famous wines in France, either Napoleon or Louis XIII, are they more vulgar? I haven't called it Kangxi yet. What about Yongzheng and Qianlong?"

"No, you're still your Tang princess." Guo Yi said with a smile, "As long as it's not a nobleman or something."

"Lan Guiren? This idea is also good, but foreigners can't understand China's wives' hierarchy, and can't tell the difference. If you want to use it for domestic brands in the future, you can also come with a series of brands."

Datang Princess and Guoshi Wushuang wine are being intensively processed, and the artisans recruited by Shen Fan have also arrived.When Bao Hengxiang was down, although the boss raised wages, the craftsmen received meager wages on weekdays and didn’t have much savings. When Chinese New Year was over and they were worried about the future, Shen Fan’s timely recruiting was just like timely rain. very grateful.Yan Maoda comforted everyone again, saying that the treatment will be favorable and everyone can continue to work with peace of mind.At the moment, each person sent another [-] yuan as a new year's fortune.Then he took out the jewelry album he had drawn and asked the craftsmen to express their opinions.

To his surprise, the craftsmen held objections to most of the modern jewelry drawn by Yan Maoda - they thought that the jewelry was good-looking, but the quality was too light and the weight was not enough to please them.Yan Maoda spent a long time trying to convince them, but it seems that the two sides still need to adjust their views.

Although the craftsmen did not agree with Shopkeeper Yan's design, he was the boss after all, and it was the boss's right to do whatever he wanted, and everyone followed suit.Originally, some craftsmen were afraid that the owner would close down sooner or later after such a toss. After seeing the samples of Zizhenzhai, the consensus of the craftsmen was: With such good secret glassware, it is no problem for shopkeeper Yan to do whatever he likes.

Some people also put forward some additional processing suggestions for glassware. For example, a jeweler named Zhu Shengyi suggested that the handles and rims of some glass cups can be inlaid with gold and silver edges, and some small flower decorations can be added to make more gorgeous.Yan Maoda didn't take this suggestion seriously—in his opinion, it was a vulgar behavior that destroyed the beauty of glassware, but he still expressed his appreciation for it—creativity should be encouraged, not stifled because of different opinions from his own, and then Or, their aesthetics should be more suitable for this time and space than their own.

(End of this chapter)