The Rise of the European Emperor

At present, there is no professional soap for decontamination in the Ming Dynasty, and ordinary people generally use saponins. Rich people mainly use pig pancreas soap made from pig pancreas. Works okay, but not as strong as soap. Moreover, pig pancreas soap is not cheap, one costs more than ten yuan.

This is also something that can’t be helped. In the Ming Dynasty, pork was not cheap, as high as twenty yuan a catty. In future generations, it is equivalent to more than 20 yuan a catty, which is more expensive than beef and mutton.

Of course, this is in the north. Because there are many cattle and sheep in the north, and the frontier army secretly smuggled beef and mutton from the grassland, so beef and mutton are much cheaper. In the south, mutton is still relatively expensive. As for beef, it is almost impossible to find. After all, the government of the Ming Dynasty forbade the suicide of cattle without authorization. As for cows that died of old age and disease, the meat quality is basically not good, and it is not as delicious as pork.

The most important thing is - pork is oily and watery! Ancient people's thirst for oil and water is incomprehensible to modern people. Because of the lack of vegetable oil in ancient times, oil and water can only be obtained from meat. Pork, obviously, has the highest fat content, and it is also the product that people like to consume most of the fat. Therefore, in ancient times, pig fat was people's favorite. Therefore, the ancients called the very tempting thing "big fat meat" instead of big lean meat. Even in the last century, Chinese people were short of oil and water. Many elderly people also have the habit of eating fatty meat. Just like Marin's grandparents in her previous life, they always liked to eat fat meat when they ate meat, and gave up the lean meat to Marin. At first, Marin thought they were lying to themselves that they "like to eat fat", but in the end, they really didn't lie to themselves...

After traveling to this era, not only ancient Chinese people like fat meat, but also Europeans. Especially those poor people, their eyes will glow when they see fat.

For example, the braised pork served in the army, the first to be robbed is often the fatty meat. Only the children of nobles, who are tired of eating fatty meat, often like to eat lean meat. Or, fat and thin. Only travelers like Marin, as well as members of the royal family and nobles, who can eat meat and vomit, will like to eat lean meat. Many little nobles prefer to eat fatty meat.

Of course, this changed after Marin introduced soybeans. Marin uses a screw press to extract soybean oil from North American soybeans. Today, the aristocratic class of Beihai Kingdom, including many low-level military officer families, have begun to eat soybean oil. Therefore, the dependence on fat meat is greatly reduced. After all, there is a lot of oil and water in cooking with soybean oil.

Just like people in later generations lose weight, you say you eat vegetables, why do you put so much vegetable oil in the stir-fry? Vegetable oil is not oil, is it? Eating such oily and watery vegetables has hairy weight loss effects? A truly cruel person eats boiled vegetables. That taste makes you want to vomit after eating it a few times... So, generally only ruthless people can accomplish the feat of losing weight, and ordinary people can only say "the concubine can't do it"...

Therefore, in ancient times, the biggest problem in making soap was not caustic soda, but grease!

In his last life, Marin saw some stories saying that sesame oil was used to make soap, and he yearned for a while. But in this age,

Only after knowing the prices did he realize how nonsense it was. why? Because sesame oil is more expensive than pork!

People like to eat pork, but they like the fat in it. And sesame oil is all oil! Through Kong Tai's understanding of Daming, Marin learned that sesame oil was not a must-have for ordinary people in ancient times.

Especially poor families, often can only cook gruel, and it is difficult to afford sesame oil at all. Only during Chinese New Year and festivals do they get some oil and cut some pork. This is still not too poor, really poor, there is no oil and water during the New Year and holidays.

Sesame oil is something that only landlords can eat every day. In addition, monks in temples can also be mixed up. So, don't look at monks who are vegetarians, they put a lot of sesame oil in their vegetarian dishes. I eat too much of this kind of food, and I still meditate like an otaku every day. It's no wonder the monk isn't fat.

According to the data given by Kong Tai, in the Quanzhou area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, pork cost 24 Wen a catty. And the sesame oil actually reached 45 Wen a catty, almost twice as much as pork!

At such an expensive price, Nima traveler uses sesame oil to make soap? I'm afraid I'll lose my underpants, right? After all, people use pig pancreas soap for only a dozen pennies. Have you tried making soap with sesame oil? The cost is more than a dozen yuan, and you still make a lot of money?

It's okay to make soap and sell it for a tael of silver, but it's better not to make popular ones. If you dare to sell it more expensive than pig pancreas soap, the people of Ming Dynasty will definitely not buy it. For people in the poor age, quality is not what they value, but price is!

Therefore, the elderly who came from the poor age, they only sell cheap goods, and they will queue up when they hear discounts. Only modern young people who have never experienced hardship will pay attention to the quality and brand.

If you use the thoughts of modern prodigal youths to do business with ordinary people in Ming Dynasty, you will definitely go bankrupt and jump off a building. In ancient times, only the thoughts of the rich children could be more consistent with the thoughts of modern youths. Strictly speaking, young people in modern society live the lives of the children of rich families in ancient times, which is beyond the imagination of the poor.

Therefore, in order to make the soap business bigger in Daming, the issue of cost must be emphasized. Only when the cost is low enough and the price is low enough can it occupy the market. Otherwise, you can only make high-end soap. The market is also huge, but it is absolutely difficult to achieve a large volume. At least, it is difficult to make up for the huge trade deficit of the North Sea country with Daming.

And whale oil happens to be the lowest-cost oil! Whale oil cannot be eaten, so its price cannot be sold, and it can only be cheap industrial-grade oil.

In addition, whale oil is not a drying oil, and the quality of oiled paper made from tung oil is not as good as that made from tung oil. The only thing stronger than tung oil is that it is not slightly toxic like tung oil. Therefore, tung oil paper is not suitable for food wrapping paper. But the whale oil paper is fine. Because, whale oil is not toxic. Its iodine value is between 110 and 135, which is a semi-dry oil.

Therefore, whale oil can be used to make oiled paper like dry tung oil (only with a lower quality), it can also be used as a lubricant like non-drying oil (also with a slightly lower quality), and it can also be used to make soap.

In short, in the industrial field, the application of whale oil is very extensive. Besides its use in making candles, soap, and oiled paper, whale oil acts as a lubricant of general quality and is used in the dairy oiling process of the tannery process.

This process can make the leather softer, while at the same time, the toughness and strength are improved, and the water resistance is also improved. In later generations, whale oil is also a very high-grade tanning oil.

It just so happened that after Marin's people went to the northeast to buy mink fur, they needed post-processing. Whale oil is a good raw material for refined mink fur.

Moreover, the cost of whale oil is very low! Because, in this day and age, the ocean is full of whales. They are giants in the sea, and sharks are also little brothers in front of them. It can be said that they have no natural enemies. So, this stuff is easy to get these days. The premise is that you have a whaling cannon that can kill them efficiently.

As long as you have a whaling cannon that can kill whales efficiently and quickly, in this era of sea, whaling is simply at your fingertips. As long as you see the water column sprayed by the whale, the ship approaches, the whaling cannon is aimed and fired, a whale weighing dozens of tons will fall...

According to later estimates, the amount of oil contained in a whale is equivalent to the amount of oil in 1,700 pigs or 8,000 sheep. In addition, if you have a sharp knife and a skilled master craftsman, you can also peel off a large piece of whale skin from the whale.

Whale skin is a very soft and thick leather that is not easy to crack. The data of later generations shows that the whale skin that can be peeled off by a whale is equivalent to 80-100 pieces of cowhide...

Because it is relatively soft, whale skin is not suitable for making armor. However, it is perfect for making daily necessities.

Because of its softness and comfort, whale skin can be processed into soft and comfortable high-end leather clothes, and can also be made into leather bags. In addition, intimate clothing such as umbrella covers and women's lunar masks can also be made. Of course, leather cushions for sofas can also be made, just like elephant skin.

Because the characteristics are similar to elephant skin, and it is softer and feels better, whale skin can also be made into sofa leather cushions like elephant skin, and it can also be used as leather ring cushions for machines to prevent air leakage.

Then, apply whale oil, which is also produced on whales, as lubricating oil, and the effect on the machine is naturally excellent. Marin had someone try it with whale skin, and it was no worse than elephant skin.

But whale skin is not as wrinkled and ugly as elephant skin. Because it is an aquatic animal, in order to reduce the resistance of water, whale skin is often smoother and more suitable for making clothes. Therefore, Marin finally decided-whale skin is more used to make leather clothes and other things worn by people, while elephant skin is more applied to machines. Anyway, elephant skin is not good-looking, so it is used in durable occasions.

And whale skin, because it is smooth, can not only make comfortable clothes. Moreover, whale skin clothes can also protect against rain. After all, whales can swim in the sea with this whale skin. Among them, anti-seawater penetration is the minimum requirement...

In terms of cost, whale oil and whale skin are much cheaper than animal fat and leather on land...

For example, a whale can get the fat equivalent of 1,700 pigs or 8,000 sheep. Raising 1,700 pigs is not only labor-intensive, but also requires a lot of food costs. Not to mention the chaff, but even cutting pigweed, it takes a lot of labor to cut pigweed every day.

As for 8,000 sheep, it is necessary to obtain 8,000 lambs first, and then spend a lot of energy, grazing for more than a year to raise them, which is very troublesome.

But whale oil is different. As long as a whaling gun is fired, several large ships come to divide and process together, so much whale oil can be obtained. The cost is not only several times lower than lard and mutton oil?

Marin has calculated that even if the labor is calculated according to the highest cost, the cost of making soap with whale oil, according to the Ming Dynasty, is at most two or three pennies a piece. This is also the reason for the higher labor wages in Europe. In the Ming Dynasty, the cost of a piece of soap was definitely lower than two Wen. At that time, Marin will sell it for a dozen yuan a piece like pig pancreas soap, and he will definitely be able to grab the whole market. Moreover, the soap does not have the weird smell of pig soap.

The same is true for leather. The skin peeled off from a whale is equivalent to 80 to 100 cowhide. The price of cowhide in Daming is as high as four to five hundred yuan a piece, mainly because cattle are rare.

But whale skin is different. There are whales everywhere in the sea, and there is no cost to feed them. If you catch them with a whaling cannon, you can get high-grade leather equivalent to 80 to 100 pieces of cowhide. Not even one-tenth of cowhide...

In short, the whale is full of treasures, if you don't kill it, you will lose a lot...