"Awaixi (Hawaii), alias Santoku (sandwich), commonly known as Honolulu." - Qing, "Wuzhou Tukao", author unknown.
This is the record of Hawaii in the Qing Dynasty. The reason why this place is famous is because of its special sandalwood, which is directly smashed into the price of cabbage in Guangzhou.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a great demand for sandalwood.
The United Kingdom has a trade deficit every year, not only turning its attention to opium, but also to sandalwood from Southeast Asia. In order to provide sandalwood to the Chinese market and earn huge profits, the colonists used up all the sandalwood in Southeast Asia.
So, the British thought of Hawaii, where sandalwood is everywhere!
The king of Hawaii found that sandalwood was valuable, so he moved his capital directly to Honolulu Island, which has the most sandalwood. By selling sandalwood, the king built a palace, enjoyed a luxurious life, bought firearms and warships, and even dreamed of unifying the Pacific Ocean.
The king forbids civilians from mining, all sandalwood belongs to the royal family, and 40% of the profits are donated to the chiefs of the islands to encourage those chiefs to harvest sandalwood.
All the civilians and slaves in the Hawaiian islands joined the tree-cutting team, and those who did not cut down the trees planted saplings. The fields gradually became barren, and finally a great famine was caused. The king felt something was wrong and ordered the people to plant food again, but he died the next year.
The new king came to the throne, bewitched by the chiefs, and fell sandalwood again. In the end, the sandalwood on the island was cut off, and countless people starved to death. Due to the huge amount of logging, the oversupply caused the price to plummet.
The British businessman at that time described it like this: "Sandalwood is worthless in Guangzhou. Even if it is given to you for free, don't touch it."
It's okay now, with Zhao Han opening the sea, the price of sandalwood is neither high nor low, and you can make a small profit by shipping it back.
The most popular in the Chinese market is Guanxiang, also known as Tuchenxiang, among which the best one is called Nuuxiang. It is mostly produced in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, especially the one produced in Dongguan. Of course, the price is relatively cheap.
Agarwood, sandalwood, and musk are even more expensive, and at least only the wealthy families can afford them.
The batch of sandalwood that Li Quan shipped back, because the purchase cost was extremely low, the profit was probably 1000%. The volume of cargo was small, and I didn't make much money, because there were still American goods in the cargo hold.
Most of the cargo on the ship is fur, and there is also a large amount of sucrose, and copper ingots are used to ballast the bilge.
In addition, there are 30,000 taels of silver, and American merchants like to pay with silver.
At this time, China's gold-silver ratio has increased from 1:4 in the early Ming Dynasty to 1:10 year by year. On the other side of the Americas, the gold-silver ratio is 1:15.5, and you can get the difference between the gold and silver prices. There are many businessmen in the Philippines doing this.
This behavior led to a large inflow of silver, while gold continued to flow out of China.
The Datong court had nothing to do about it, because gold was prohibited as currency, and the legal tender was only silver dollars and copper coins. Then China's gold can only be used for luxury goods, and domestic businessmen are willing to exchange gold for silver.
With the prosperity of sea trade, silver and copper ingots continued to be imported, and more and more merchants no longer buried silver in cellars, inflation had already appeared in coastal areas, and quickly spread to the inland along the river.
The price of rice in Nanjing has risen to six cents per catty, which has nothing to do with grain production, it is purely a depreciation of currency.
The price of rice in Nanjing this year is very likely to rise to seven cents per catty!
The common people are complaining about this, the workers in the factory are clamoring for a salary increase, and even the taxi fare for taking the sliders has also increased.
Another minister suggested to Zhao Han, should the salaries of officials be raised accordingly?
The issue of the salary of civil servants has not been discussed for the time being, and it will not be too late to increase it in a few years. The imperial court has made a decision to start issuing gold coins next year. At that time, the legal currency value will be 1 gold dollar = 15 silver dollars, and 1 silver dollar = 800 copper coins. In doing so, it may be possible to reduce the outflow of gold, provided that private private casting is severely cracked down on.
Li Quan dispersed the goods in Manila, bought Nanyang goods, and shipped them all the way to Shanghai for sale. Even the silver and copper ingots on the ship were sold to the Datong Bank in Manila, in exchange for silver dollar drafts, which could be purchased in Shanghai, and the vacated cabins had to be loaded.
Arriving in Shanghai, Li Quan discovered that merchant ships were being auctioned here.
However, many maritime merchants could not pay the fines, their capital chain was broken, and they were forced to auction by the government.
Li Quan was overjoyed, and won two boats in one go, increasing the size of the fleet to eight large boats.
"Fugui car, take the rich car! Where is Xianggong going, do you want to take the rich car?"
"Fugui's car is not good, buttocks, my husband should take a slider."
"Fugui car does not bump its buttocks, it is very comfortable."
""
Li Quan is planning to enter the city, at the pierAt this time, twenty years ago, people were exhausted and hungry. These days, as long as you work hard, you can save money every month. The eldest of my sons is about to graduate from elementary school. If he is admitted as a public-funded student, let him go to middle school. If you can't pass the public examination, you will become an apprentice. If he can make money, life will be easier. "
"Then you just wait to enjoy the blessing, haha." Li Quan also laughed.
But the coachman said: "I am not blessed with life. If I can be free from illness and disaster, I will be thankful to be able to pull the cart until I am fifty years old. Thanks to the Lord Long Live, we poor people can also work hard to make money. In the past, even if we wanted to work hard, we would not be able to sell well." The price. The neighbors in this neighborhood say that it is good that the Long Live Lord can live for 10,000 years, and it is not good to change it to other emperors, and they are always in fear when they work."
Li Quan said with emotion: "It's such a reason."
The better the life of the people, the less willing to travel to America with him. Even if life is difficult, Taiwan and Nanyang are the first choice. Who the hell would go to that shitty place in America?