"You must not have rested well these past few days, you should sleep a little longer. Now that you're all up, let's learn how to make white sugar."
Zhao Xian's words put the three of them at ease. The head of the family not only did not blame them, but also cared about them a lot.
Furthermore, the head of the household did not tell his family that they had bought them from the brokerage firm, which shows that he did not want his family to treat them as slaves, for which they were very grateful.
The family was making white sugar, which piqued their interest. They wanted to know what the finished product would look like and whether it would taste good.
Zhao Xian poured all the sugar he bought into water, which dissolved into dark brown sugar water. He then poured the sugar water into a filter to filter it, and obtained a lighter-colored brown sugar water.
We are currently filtering the sugar water, and this part of the work is almost finished.
Since Zhao Cheng and the other two hadn't seen the operation process, Zhao Xian explained that part of the process to them. After listening, the three nodded, indicating that they had memorized it.
In no time, all the sugar water was filtered out, and what came out was brown sugar water, filling half a bucket.
To give everyone a direct view of the activated carbon adsorption process, he poured half a bucket of brown sugar water into a wooden basin, added a certain proportion of activated carbon, and started stirring. The light red brown sugar water quickly turned into a dark black color.
This left everyone stunned. The brown sugar water had turned black; was it still edible?
Zhao Liyue'e began to feel distressed. Ten catties of sugar, that's a full tael of silver, gone just like that. Isn't that too wasteful?
She looked at Zhao Xian and saw that he was calm and composed, continuing to stir the black sugar water quickly.
After a short while, Zhao Xian stopped stirring and poured the black sugar water into the filter. Soon, pure water flowed out of the filter.
Zhao Xian started all the filtration devices, and the sugar water filtration proceeded quickly. In no time, the filtration was complete, and he obtained a basin of clear water with almost no loss.
"This is sugar water, from which sugar can be extracted. Now, start a fire and heat the sugar water to evaporate the water."
Zhao Xian gave the instructions.
Li Chun'e immediately lit the stove. Since the iron pot was not large, she only poured in half a basin of sugar water to heat it.
Zhao Xian began to consider buying a large iron pot to boil sugar, but this would require a new stove and make the kitchen too small.
That's it for now. When conditions are right, we'll build a workshop specifically for white sugar production.
The sugar water in the pot was boiling, and a lot of steam was coming out of the pot. The water content in the sugar water was decreasing little by little.
Everyone gathered around the stove, staring wide-eyed at the changes in the sugar water inside the pot.
The sugar water in the pot decreased, becoming viscous and gradually turning into syrup.
Zhao Xian ordered the heating to be stopped, and at the same time, he quickly stirred the syrup with a spatula to prevent it from burning.
Zhao Xian demonstrated the procedure while providing detailed explanations.
Everyone listened attentively and silently took notes of the operating instructions. At the same time, they had a question in their minds: how did Zhao Xian know so much? Did he learn it all from books?
As the syrup cooled, Zhao Xian took it out and put it into a clean bowl, then began to boil the next batch of syrup.
Once the syrup had completely cooled, it turned into a large crystal. Zhao Xian broke the large sugar block into pieces, then further crushed the pieces to obtain a pile of white sugar.
Due to limitations in conditions, the produced white sugar is not granulated sugar, but rather resembles snowflakes, pure white and flawless.
"Is this white sugar?" Everyone's eyes widened with curiosity.
How does white sugar taste? Is it very sweet? Everyone wants to try the taste of white sugar.
Chao Xian took out a spoon and put a spoonful of white sugar in each person's palm, letting them taste it.
Everyone opened their palms and began licking the white sugar with their tongues.
"It's sweet and fresh, much better than sugar and red sorghum." The group began to comment, as this was their first time tasting white sugar.
“Master,” Qin Shiyu said, “Our Qin family has been in business for generations and knows a bit about the market. We have never heard of white sugar in the Northern Dynasty before, but today the master has actually made white sugar.”
Based on market conditions, such scarce white sugar is far more valuable than brown sugar. Brown sugar is generally unaffordable for most people, let alone white sugar. I wonder if the head of the household intends to sell the white sugar on the market.
Zhao Xian never expected that Qin Shiyu would know how to do business. With someone who knows business by his side giving him advice, it would be hard not to get rich.
“Miss Qin is right. If we were to sell the sugar on the market, what would be a suitable price?” Zhao Xian asked.
Qin Shiyu was taken aback. She hadn't expected the head of the family to address her as Miss Qin, which meant that the head of the family didn't treat her as a servant at all. She couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
She would remember the kindness of the head of the family for treating her so well and vow to be loyal to him to the death.
Qin Shiyu composed herself and continued speaking.
"Because the market is so large, no matter how much the owner expands production, white sugar will always be in short supply. This means that the price of white sugar will remain high. Therefore, the price of white sugar is at least five times that of brown sugar, or even more than ten times. It all depends on the owner's sales methods."
Therefore, if I were to price white sugar, I think a price between two and five taels of silver per pound would be reasonable.
Qin Shiyu's words made everyone gasp. A pound of white sugar cost several taels of silver. Only the rich and powerful could afford such a high price.
No one spoke; they continued listening to Qin Shiyu.
"Currently, only granulated sugar and brown sugar are sold on the market. In addition to the white sugar produced by the family, there are three types of sugar on the market. Granulated sugar is relatively cheaper and can be afforded by ordinary people, while brown sugar is more expensive and is for the wealthy."
Since there is currently no better sugar on the market than brown sugar, even some high-ranking officials and nobles have no choice but to eat brown sugar.
The white sugar produced by the head of the household was far superior to brown sugar, and the limited production of white sugar resulted in a very high price.
This determined that white sugar became a standard item for high-ranking officials and nobles, and only they could afford it.
In our dynasty, the wealth of the rich has exceeded our imagination; for them, no matter how high the price of sugar is, they can accept it.
Qin Shiyu's words filled Zhao Xian with awe. He hadn't expected this young lady from a prominent family to know so much and analyze the market so logically. Could it be that she, like him, had also transmigrated from another era?
"Miss Qin, I'd like to sell the white sugar we produce directly to sugar merchants and have them act as our distributors. What kind of sugar merchants do you think we should choose?"
Qin Shiyu began to think. When her father was doing business, he had business dealings with a sugar merchant in the county. This was the largest sugar merchant in the county, and his business was very large.
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