Chapter 15: More Profitable Than Pancreas

When the stall owner saw the woman asking about pork fat, he looked up at her again.

Although his clothes were covered in patches, there were also patches on the cuffs and shoulders. Would such a poor family buy lard to eat?

He kindly advised, "Sister, the price of lard has gone up again recently. It costs more than 80 coins per catty. One catty of lard can only yield 60-70 ounces of lard. It's not as cost-effective as sesame oil and rapeseed oil."

Sesame oil costs thirty or forty wen per jin, but vegetable oil costs more than twenty wen per jin. The difference of several dozen wen is something that even poor people would understand.

Shen Qing finally understood.

The stall owner did not quote the price of pork fat, mainly because she was not her customer base.

However, she couldn't make the braised food business, so she thought of trying making soap.

The most important thing in making soap is oil. The boss reminded her that she could also buy sesame oil.

She had made handmade soap at home before and was successful. There was no ready-made alkali available for purchase here. She knew that it could be extracted from straw ash, but she had not tried it before and was not sure how much to get right. She had to try a few more times.

So you must buy lard, but don’t buy too little.

She politely said to the stall owner, "I want three pounds."

When the stall owner heard that Shen Qing wanted three pounds, he was overjoyed and busy cutting and weighing. When he collected the money, he not only gave him pig hair, but also the big bone that Jiang Xiangnan had been longing for.

Jiang Xiangnan was carrying a bucket filled with pig heads, pork fat, pork hair, and pork bones. The burden on his shoulders was nothing, but the burden in his heart was getting heavier.

Mom bought so much. Will the income from selling fish and eels in the morning be enough?

When he got home, he immediately went to catch fish and eels, never being lazy!

He must be worthy of the meat and lard his mother gave him to eat!

Shen Qing walked along the street and saw a spice shop, so he immediately went in.

Before she went in, she still held a glimmer of hope for the braised food business, but when she came out, she had completely given up on it.

I originally thought that I couldn't braise pig offal, but I could braise goose or pig's trotters. But after asking about the marinade ingredients such as star anise and cinnamon, which are the spices of this dynasty, I was completely worried.

So expensive! No wonder spices were used as salaries for officials in ancient times.

Jiang Xiangnan followed his mother closely, and saw her enter the spice shop and then the grocery store without any fear.

When he came out of the spice shop, his brows were furrowed and he looked hopeless; when he came out of the grocery store, he was in high spirits, but soon he looked sad again.

He couldn't understand why his mother's mood changed so quickly.

Shen Qing didn't care about Jiang Xiangnan. She was silently calculating the feasibility of the soap business!

Here, it is called pancreas. One piece of pancreas costs 180 wen. After deducting the profit of the grocer, the purchase price is probably between 100 and 120 wen.

The cost of one pound of lard is about one hundred coins. She looked at the size of the pancakes in the grocery store and knew that it could produce about five or six finished products, which means she could earn five hundred coins with a cost of one hundred coins!

She even specifically asked if there was any soap specifically for washing hair, but the shopkeeper said no;

Sesame oil costs thirty or forty cents per pound, and the cost is even lower. The shipping price can be appropriately lowered at that time, so that the grocery store owner can make more profit. In this way, even if soap cannot open up the market, sesame hair soap can do it!

However, Shen Qing thought with some worry that no matter what kind of soap or what kind of production process it is, it basically needs to be kept for a period of time. The professional term is "maturation", and simply speaking it is a saponification reaction. The irritating substances in the soap gradually decrease over time, making it milder and more suitable for skin use.

Does not cause skin irritation.

When they first started selling their products, every grocery store owner would inspect them. If they found any skin irritants, wouldn't that ruin their reputation? And who would dare stock products made by them?

So it will be safe to leave it for at least a month.

It is now mid-March, and even if we work non-stop, we will not see any money coming in until the end of next month.

More than a month is nothing in a peaceful and prosperous era, but there will be floods in June, and everything will be submerged. We must set off before that.

Without food and belongings, the old and the young cannot walk, so before setting off, they must have a large amount of silver to buy a means of transportation - a cart. If they are poor, they can use a flatbed cart or a wheelbarrow; if they are rich, they can use an ox cart, a donkey cart or even a horse cart.

The time to earn money is too short...

Although it was short, Shen Qing still went to the oil shop and bought ten kilograms of sesame oil and five kilograms of rapeseed oil.

When Jiang Xiangnan came out with the jar in his arms, his mouth was almost big enough to fit an egg.

Jiang Xiangnan was carrying a large bucket filled with pork, lard and other things. Shen Qing was holding a jar, so it was really inconvenient for him to walk around anymore.

She said, "Let's go back. I remember there was a candy shop on the way here. Let's buy two kilograms of brown sugar."

Huo Bing still has more than twenty days before she is released from confinement. Now that she has oil, she can fry an egg. According to the custom of her hometown, adding a spoonful of brown sugar makes it delicious.

Traditional brown sugar, made entirely by hand, is perfect for women who are weak after giving birth.

Jiang Xiangnan had no objection after hearing this. When passing by a bookstore, he hesitated for a long time before asking, "Mom, are you really not going in to take a look at the brushes?"

Shen Qing looked at Xiangnan beside her in confusion, not understanding why she was looking at the brush?

Jiang Xiangnan pursed his lips and finally chose to remind: "My younger brother said that his brush is bald. What if I don't buy it and the teacher blames me?"

The teacher's words are more important to me than an imperial edict, and I am the child I love and pamper the most. I was cruel to you last night, for fear that I would regret it after returning home today. If I want to buy a brush by then, it will be too late because the city gates are closed.

"No!" Shen Qing said unhappily.

The profit from soap production can only be seen after a month, and the key is that this month cannot be idle. If we want to make it continuously, we must make continuous investments. There are only eleven taels of silver in the family. Oh no, I gave Huo Bing more than one tael yesterday, and with what I have spent today, it is just over nine taels left.

With just over nine taels of savings, how can I afford to buy expensive things like paper, ink, brush, and inkstone?

Expensive goods?

The raw materials for ink and inkstone are difficult to make, but paper and pen can be made, especially good paper. She can't make good paper, but she has seen videos of making bad paper. Bamboo, weeds, trees, vines, etc. can be used.

The process of making a brush is much simpler and easier than making paper.

Shen Qingxin moved casually, stuffed the jar in her hand into Jiang Xiangnan's hand, and said quickly: "Mom, go in and take a look, wait a moment!"

Jiang Xiangnan forced a wry smile.

He knew his mother would go in and see.

Come to think of it, mother has doted on me for more than ten years, and I am the only scholar in the family. In the future, the Jiang family can only rely on me to change its fortunes. How could mother really not care about me?

Mother has treated them and her elder sister-in-law Xiaohua Jiangshui better, so she will definitely treat her most beloved younger brother better.

While Jiang Xiangnan was daydreaming outside, Shen Qing had already found out everything he wanted to know in the bookstore!

A brush costs one hundred and fifty or sixty cents, which is only slightly cheaper than soap.

But the cost of hair is high. A brush that costs 150 or 160 wen must be made of pig hair, wool or rabbit hair. The profit is really not low.

Even more profitable than pancreas!