My British Empire

  Chapter 517 Raw silk

  After visiting all the way, the hired guide led Robin and his party to an inn and stayed.

  Although it is just an inn, its sanitation and environment have surprised Robin a lot.

  Pure wooden buildings, carved patterns, tall floors, clean quilts, and the steaming and fragrant wine and vegetables.

  All of this surprised and admired Robin. This place is much better than the hotels in London.

   Later, at night, the hot water service delivered to the door made Robin full of emotions.

  You must know that in England, although thousands of public bathrooms have been built, and the government has vigorously promoted the benefits of bathing, there are still a large number of people who are still unwilling to spend a penny to take a hot bath.

  So, the hot water in the hotel is also very little.

  Being able to get plenty of hot water, and then take a hot bath, the refreshing feeling is indescribable to Robin.

   "Sure enough, Mingren's skin is so white and tender, and it has a lot to do with taking a bath every day!" As his body soaked in the bathtub, Robin couldn't help but think of the guy's speech relayed by the guide, and sighed softly.

   "From this point of view, taking a bath cannot cause the invasion of evil diseases. The previous views are indeed wrong!"

  Even if he accepts the idea of ​​frequent bathing, Robin is still skeptical about the idea that bathing can invade diseases. After all, it has been circulated for many years and it is difficult to change easily.

  Until now, it has been found that people in the Ming Dynasty bathe every day, but there are very few evil diseases, which completely collapses the view of disease invasion.

   After taking a nap, under the guidance of the guide he hired, Robin and his party started shopping again.

  This time, they were no longer out of curiosity, but out of business.

  Going to the East is for spices and raw silk, as well as oriental items such as silk, porcelain, and tea.

   But let’s say, their favorite is raw silk.

  The price of raw silk is not only easy to save, but also more profitable to resell, which is the highest value among all commodities.

  The so-called raw silk is the product obtained after silkworm cocoon reeling. Commonly known as real silk, machine-reeled silk is also called factory silk, hand-reeled silk is called soil silk, and raw silk degummed is called cooked silk.

  Even though the silk purchased by Dongfang is exquisite in texture and superb in technology, how can it compare to the favorite style made by others?

  Yesterday, Robin who was shopping was not without gain. At least, he knew the market he purchased.

  In Macau, raw silk is extremely rare, and it is often sold out as soon as it is available.

  The price of raw silk is usually around 60 taels of silver per load, but you only need to resell a load of silk to Japan, and you will get 400 to 500 taels of silver immediately, and the gross profit is close to seven or eight times more.

And if it is sold to Goa (Portugal's colony in India), the gross profit will reach ten times, and if it is transported back to Europe after a lot of hard work, and a load of raw silk is sold for thousands of pounds, the gross profit will reach more than fifteen times. Even more amazing.

  Of course, tea and porcelain are relatively easy to obtain.

  For example, when walking into the largest store that was observed yesterday, Robin asked the guide to translate after observing for a while, and began to lower the price.

   "Sir, we need a huge amount of tea, porcelain, and silk!" Robin said seriously.

  The guide also translated word by word.

   "Shopkeeper, this gentleman needs a lot of tea, porcelain, and silk!"

  The shopkeeper, dressed in a fine fabric robe, quickly touched his goatee, looked at Robin and his party who came in, and looked at their appearance, and hurried over to greet them.

   "Sir, we have everything here, please just order, from silk to chopsticks, I can provide you with everything, as long as you want!"

  The shopkeeper looked at Robin who was in the middle giving orders, with a gentle smile on his face, bypassing the guide translation, and speaking directly to Robin in Portuguese.

   "Oh! I didn't expect you to speak Portuguese!" Robin was very surprised.

"It's just a meal, and it's not bad to know a little bit!" The shopkeeper with goatee narrowed his eyes and said with a smile, but his eyes quietly drifted to the abacus on the counter. The profit this time will definitely let him Divide a lot of money.

   "Dongzi, what are you doing? You still haven't poured tea for the guests!" He scolded the guy who was still taking care of the other little guests there, ignored his aggrieved eyes, and made a gesture of invitation from the shopkeeper:

   "Sir, please come inside, this is where we discuss business!"

   Afterwards, Robin, who was brought into the private room, realized that the porcelain in the place he was in was even more exquisite than the ones outside, and the texture of the silk became more delicate and beautiful.

   "Look, these are the porcelain and silk we provide, which one do you like?" The shopkeeper asked with a smile, pointing to the number of exquisite items on the table.

   "No, sir, for these, I don't need much, but the porcelain like the outside is what I need!"

  Looking at the exquisite porcelain, Robin resisted the temptation in his heart and reluctantly refused.

  No matter how stupid he is, he still understands that the consumption of porcelain along the way is too great, and only cheap and large quantities of low-end porcelain outside are the best transport goods.

   "The price outside, each plate and vase only costs 100 Wen, and the goods are at a great discount!" The shopkeeper suddenly doubled the price for the sake of his rookie.

  After learning about the market price and currency yesterday, Robin frowned when he heard this: "Sir, the price is higher than yesterday!"

   "You are really knowledgeable, how about this, I will give you seventy coins, if the quantity is large, it can be reduced to fifty coins!"

  The shopkeeper smiled, and then lowered the price back to the original point.

   Robin reluctantly nodded.

   "Porcelain, I need to customize, the quantity is 100,000 pieces!"

   "As for silk, please give me a package of one hundred pieces, medium price!"

   "Tea, just like this! Take a hundred dans!"

   Surrounding the room, while Robin was observing, the shopkeeper was also carefully explaining the prices. After a while, Robin bought a large amount of goods under the recommendation of the shopkeeper and his entourage.

   "Guest officer, the total is fifty-six thousand eight hundred and sixteen taels of silver, counting you as an integer, fifty-six thousand eight thousand!"

   "Do you accept ivory?" Robin did some calculations and found that the silver he brought was not enough, so he coughed in embarrassment and asked softly.

   "Of course, of course we will accept it. Since you are a big customer, I will buy it at the market price of six floors!" The shopkeeper was overjoyed when he heard the words, and quickly patted his chest and said against his conscience.

  Robin's face was a little ugly, and he asked a little stiffly:

   "Do you need muskets? Make beautiful muskets!"

  As soon as this remark came out, the shopkeeper's eyes lit up. This is a sharp weapon against Japanese pirates, of course it is needed.

   "Guest officer, if you have muskets and sell them to us, then I will buy your ivory at 70% of the market price!" the shopkeeper said quickly.

   "Then, do you have raw silk?" The shopkeeper said that the raw silk was sold out, and Robin didn't believe it at all. Such a big store must be unusual.