The Rise of the European Emperor

When it comes to trade, there should be exchanges between the two sides. Otherwise, it would be too silly to pay for it unilaterally. Moreover, the party who pays unilaterally will be in a weak position and will be slaughtered and threatened at any time. Because, the other party doesn't need to beg you.

Therefore, Marin had to prepare some rare goods that the Ming Dynasty needed very much. For example, perfume...

This is a trade project that Marin has prepared for a long time, and he has been preparing for it for a long time. Currently, Marin has prepared a total of two perfumes - lavender and rose.

Lavender is a project that Marin had prepared long ago. He specially sent people to the Mediterranean coast to introduce the seeds of lavender with a relatively strong aroma, and selected an uncultivated area in North Münster Province, Beihai State, and planted 10,000 mu for it. Extract lavender essence.

Extracting the essence is very simple, that is, extracting with alcohol. And the most indispensable thing for Marin is probably alcohol. Because, in the process of steaming Erguotou, the alcohol gas at the head and tail of the pot will be processed into medical alcohol. Accumulated in this way, the amount is very large. Even for medical use, it doesn't take that much. After all, there are not many people who can afford to see a doctor these days. Therefore, Marin was still worried about how to consume alcohol.

Of course, the alcohol requirements for making perfume are very high, and there must be no impurities and odors. Therefore, Marin will use charcoal to pass through the medical alcohol to absorb impurities. Then, it is distilled again to increase the purity.

Ordinary charcoal does not have a strong absorption capacity, for example, the willow charcoal used for gunpowder in ancient China. This kind of charcoal is a product after simmering, and its quality is average.

The charcoal used by Marin to absorb impurities is to put the wood into the furnace to isolate the air and heat it with coal at a high temperature, and the temperature can reach thousands of degrees.

Under such a high temperature, the wood will not only be converted into charcoal, but also the volatile substances in the wood will also gasify and leave the wood. The representative of them is methanol, which was also called wood essence in the past.

When substances such as methanol vaporize and leave the wood, many pores are formed on the wood, forming a honeycomb-like internal structure. And this structure is very similar to activated carbon. It's just that there are not as many pores as activated carbon. However, if the amount is large, the effect is also good. Then, the cost of these charcoal is not high, and it can be burned after being used as an adsorbent.

Marin plans to further expand the planting area if the Daming market is opened. After all, despite the fact that the planting area of ​​lavender is as high as 10,000 mu, the essential oil extracted from lavender per mu is only about 3 to 5 kilograms even if Marin's new agricultural technology is adopted.

Calculated according to the density of about 1.33 liters per kilogram of essential oil, 5 kilograms are only 6.65 liters, which is equivalent to 6650 milliliters.

The perfume bottle used by Marin is 100ml. Even if the perfume is configured according to the minimum ratio of 15%, each bottle needs 15ml. in this way,

Only 443 bottles of lavender essential oil can be configured for one mu of real estate. 10,000 mu of lavender is enough to make 4.43 million bottles.

Don't look at the large number, but the demand is even greater. In Europe, the demand for perfume is very large. The main reason is that if you don't take a bath, your body smells strong, and you need perfume to cover it up.

Moreover, after providing Marin with perfume craftsmen, the Holy See asked Marin to supply no less than tens of thousands of bottles of perfume every year. After all, those bishops also need to cover up the smell of not bathing. At the same time, Italian women are also very enthusiastic about the pursuit of fragrance.

As long as Marin is willing, these perfumes can be sold in Europe, and the supply exceeds demand. But the problem is, Marin wants to recover the money spent from Daming. After all, it is too bad to buy Ming Dynasty goods with real money.

Therefore, Marin decided to sell most of these perfumes to Daming to fill the trade deficit.

Moreover, the 100ml glass bottle of perfume is also a big selling point. Because there was no decent glass in the Ming Dynasty, only variegated glass called colored glaze.

The glass bottles used by Marin to hold perfume are all transparent lead glass, which looks very high-end. You know, there was no transparent glass in the Ming Dynasty, and using transparent glass to package perfume is absolutely full of style.

As for the price of a bottle of perfume, Marin also planned to be a little darker, and set a price of 5 taels of silver. Anyway, the Ming Dynasty was not able to produce perfume, even transparent glass bottles. If it weren't for the fear that the price would be too high for the other party to afford it, Marin planned to set a higher price.

5 How much is a tael of silver worth? That's 186.5 grams of silver! According to the ratio of 1:12 in Europe, it can be exchanged for 15.54 grams of gold, which is 4.36 gold coins. If the current exchange rate of gold and silver was 1:6 in the Ming Dynasty, it would be doubled.

In fact, Marin also plans to use smaller glass bottles for perfume, which also cost a lot of money. However, these days, glass bottles are blown by artisans. It is not easy to blow the small 30ml glass bottle that Marin wants. Ordinary glass craftsmen may not be able to blow it well, and it needs a master craftsman to do it, so it is difficult to mass-produce it. In desperation, Marin had no choice but to choose a 100ml glass bottle that was less difficult and could be blown by ordinary glass craftsmen, which was convenient for mass production. After all, there are still many ordinary-level glass craftsmen, and they are easy to train.

...

In addition to lavender-scented perfume, Marin also made rose-scented perfume. The origin of rose essence is mainly in England.

It's funny to say that Marin got the supply of English roses by accident, and the reason is also very funny...

It turned out that after Edward won the throne of England with the help of Marin, he naturally wanted to highlight the status of the York family. Therefore, the white rose was designated as the national flower, with a noble status.

The red rose, the symbol of the once rival Lancaster family, was rejected by Edward.

Therefore, Edward ordered that red roses be declared cheap flowers, and red roses should not be sold on the market, and planned to order the eradication of red roses across the country.

Marin saw that it was not good, so he dissuaded Edward. After all, red roses are a symbol of love. If you follow Edward's approach, then send white roses to your lover in the future? What the hell, white flowers are a symbol of mourning in the East. Thinking of using white flowers for courtship in the future, Marin felt very uncomfortable...

But Edward insisted not to allow red roses to be sold in the market, and insisted that red roses are cheap flowers. Marin was helpless, and could feel that the English flower farmers who planted red roses must be out of luck.

However, at that time he was preparing for perfume production. So, Marin had an idea—since you don't allow red roses to be sold in the market, then I'll send someone to buy red rose petals, and it will be no problem to process them into essences, right?

So Marin pleaded with Edward and took over the purchase of red rose petals in England. In this way, red rose flowers disappeared from the English market. However, the essence extracted from the petals of red roses has become an important product of the perfume workshop under the name of Marin.

Moreover, because it was taking advantage of the fire, the price for Marin to buy red rose petals in England was not high. After all, red roses cannot be sold in England now, and selling them to Marin to extract essence is probably the only use.

Of course, it's not like no one has the idea of ​​playing with red rose petals. There are also people who learn from Marin to buy red rose petal extract essence, but their scale is very small and not successful. Because they don't have enough alcohol to extract the essence...

...

Lavender scented and rose scented perfumes are currently Marin's main products. As long as these two flagship products are managed well, there is still a lot to do. Regardless of the low prices in the Ming Dynasty, there were many rich people. Moreover, perfume is a rare thing, and there will always be rich people to buy it.

In addition, Marin has long thought of a sales strategy - two main routes, one is the route of officials and wives, which is mainly used for giving gifts and bribes to gain fame; Use fragrances to attract guests, and even endorse fragrances to expand your popularity...

With such a two-pronged approach, it is estimated that it will not be difficult for perfume to sell well in Daming...