204. Studying Things to Gain Knowledge: Light Industry Innovation Starting with Sugar (Part 2) (Page 1/2)
It wasn't just Choi Hyun who smelled the sugar.
The sweet caramel aroma, mixed with the fishy smell from the dock and the aroma of various breakfast foods, attracted passers-by at Zhouqiao Wharf to stop and look, but few dared to ask the price.
Grocery market.
A crowd of people had gathered outside Zheng's Candy Shop.
This shop is not big, but it is very elegantly organized.
In the shop, behind the sandalwood counter.
There stood a lean man in his forties, wearing an indigo silk shirt, leaning lazily against the counter, with two patinated walnut plates in his hands making a clacking sound.
Facing the group of people surrounding him, he was too lazy to even lift his eyelids.
This person is the owner of Xu’s Sugar Shop, Xu Sanfu.
Nowadays, sugar is one of the most scarce and precious goods, and it is easy to sell.
Therefore, Xu Sanfu has no awareness of "serving customers" at all.
Cui Xian saw the candy shop from afar and walked forward.
The newly appointed 'bodyguard' Dashan followed closely.
Behind them, Mrs. Cui, Mrs. Lin, Mrs. Chen and others followed quickly.
Cui Ying, who was held in Cui Yu's arms, suddenly brightened up her eyes and cheered, "Great, brother is going to buy me some candy!"
Lin turned around and glared at her daughter, "You get excited just because you see food, but my brother needs to do some serious work!"
The whole family laughed.
But their eyes subconsciously turned to the 'Zheng's Sugar Shop', with infinite expectations in their hearts.
Could it be that what Brother Xian said about the business that could become the Cui family of Henan was opening a candy shop? !
Then the cost of initial investment will be infinitely increased.
Chen, who had studied accounting for five years, stared at the candy shop and started calculating the amount of initial investment in his mind.
Lin, the "Administrative Personnel", was thinking about opening a candy shop. If so, which prosperous city should be chosen for the location, and then which store should be used to poach an experienced manager.
As for Mrs. Cui, she was wondering which official's connections she could use to open up a cheap channel to purchase sugar.
It is worth affirming that these three women have really grown a lot.
It is worthy of the learning accumulation in the past five years.
However, they obviously underestimated Cui Xian's abilities and means.
Cui Xian really wanted to do a sugar-related business.
But instead of opening a sugar shop to resell sugar, he produced sugar himself and opened a white sugar workshop.
To make white sugar, the best raw material is actually sugarcane.
But now it is July, which is not the time when sugarcane is ripe.
Moreover, the Kaifeng area today is not suitable for growing sugarcane without cultivation and improvement.
The largest sugarcane-growing area in the Daliang Dynasty was far away in southern Fujian.
Therefore, Cui Xian had to temporarily change his method and abandon the raw material sugarcane and use brown sugar to refine white sugar.
Cui Xian was thinking about all this as he walked outside Zheng’s Candy Shop.
A few ragged children were clinging to the door frame, staring at the sugar jars on the shelves inside.
One of the little girls tugged at her mother's sleeve and begged in a low voice: "Mom, I want to lick the sugar spoon..."
The woman sighed.
She fished out five copper coins from her bosom, hesitated for a long time, and finally handed them over: "Boss, can you...can you scrape some sugar residue from the bottom of the jar?"
Zheng Sanfu sneered and scooped up half a spoonful of the sour yellow malt candy: "Eat it, and then leave quickly, or you will delay my business."
The woman gritted her teeth, nodded, and paid the money.
The girl immediately rushed over, closed her eyes and sucked up all the syrup on the spoon. The sticky sugar threads hung on the corners of her chapped but happily curved mouth.
The rest of the children were drooling with envy.
Not far away, a porter wiped his sweat and smiled bitterly at the sugar shop: "We can't even afford half a pound of sugar after working for a month."
Cui Xian watched the scene silently and walked into the candy shop.
Zheng Sanfu, who had taken back the sugar spoon with disdain and thrown it into the maltose jar, noticed someone coming in. He raised his eyelids and looked slightly stunned.
Then, under the incredible gaze of the onlookers.
Then the shopkeeper, who had originally looked arrogant, smiled in an extremely attentive manner: "Oh, why did I keep hearing the chirping of magpies outside today? It turns out that a distinguished guest has come to visit!"
"Yesterday I went to Kaifeng Prefecture School to join in the fun. Mr. Cui's demeanor on the debate stage yesterday was truly admirable! I, Old Xu, am a simple man, and I admire talented scholars the most."
"Mr. Cui, what kind of candy do you want to buy? Come, try it first."
Speaking of.
Xu Sanfu enthusiastically opened all the sugar jars on the shelf one by one.
Those large jars were filled with maltose, brown sugar, and ordinary white sugar.
Maltose is the cheapest kind of sugar. One pound of it can be bought for thirty cents. It has a very light sweetness and only ordinary people would buy this inferior sugar.
Brown sugar is actually brown sugar, which costs one hundred coins per pound.
As for ordinary white sugar, it is not actually white, but brown in color. But the price is as high as one thousand coins, which is one tael of silver per pound.
(This chapter is not yet finished, please click on the next page to continue reading) 204. Studying Things to Gain Knowledge: Light Industry Innovation Starting with Sugar (Part 2) (Page 2/2)
Sounds like the price is reasonable.
But if you convert it, the price of one pound of ordinary white sugar can buy nearly 150 pounds of rice.
Even the lowest quality malt sugar requires four and a half pounds of rice to make one pound.
This is enough to show how precious sugar is in this era.
Cui Xian glanced at the sugar jars, his eyes passed over the brown sugar and ordinary white sugar, and looked at the exquisite small porcelain jar at the innermost.
The china jar was labeled 'Icing Sugar'.
This icing sugar is actually what modern people call "white sugar".
It is also a good thing that Cui Xian is about to open a sugar workshop and plan to produce in large quantities to set off a light industry revolution.
Under Xu Sanfu's nervous gaze.
Then Cui Xian opened the small can of frosting and leaned over to take a look.
Xu Sanfu cried out "Ouch!" and quickly held the jar of icing sugar in his arms like it was his ancestor. He said nervously, "Mr. Cui, this is icing sugar, you can't move it!"
"This pound of icing sugar is worth five taels of silver! Throughout the entire Kaifeng Prefecture, there are only a few cans of icing sugar left!"
This is true.
Today, the production capacity of icing sugar in the Daliang Dynasty is shockingly low.
If about 1,000 kilograms of sugarcane can produce half a kilogram of icing sugar, it is considered a "good harvest".
And it will take several months.
Not to mention Kaifeng, a major city in the Central Plains, even in Jinling or even the capital, the amount of icing sugar circulated each year is only a few hundred kilograms.
Half of them have to be enjoyed by the nobles in the palace first.
Obviously, the frosting production capacity within the Daliang Dynasty is not enough.
Therefore, Daliang has to spend a lot of money every year to import Indian sugar and Arab "Western sugar".
A small "decolorization" problem caused the Daliang sugar industry to take a detour for hundreds of years.
But in fact, Cui Xian wanted to taste the "icing" for comparison.
He had traveled through time five or six years ago, but he still had no idea what this thing tasted like - where could such a precious thing be sold in that small county town of Nanyang?
Seeing Zheng Sanfu holding on to the icing sugar, Cui Xian looked at the brown sugar and asked, "How much is the brown sugar?"
Zheng Sanfu said, "Sir, it's written on the sugar jar: 100 coins per pound."
When Zheng Sanfu heard that Cui Xian wanted to buy brown sugar, he was not as enthusiastic as before.
But Cui Xian said, "I saw it, but I bought a lot. Give me the lowest price."
Ah this.
Zheng Sanfu muttered, "The current market price of brown sugar is like this, how can we give a low price..."
Cui Xian: "I want to buy 1,000 kilograms."
Zheng Sanfu was stunned.
The crowd watching outside were stunned.
Even Old Cui and others who followed in were dumbfounded.
How many?
One thousand pounds?!
Zheng Sanfu reacted and excitedly handed the icing in his hand over: "Mr. Cui, you can take a look at it, even taste it!"
Cui Xian pinched some frosting and put it in his mouth to taste it. To be honest, the taste was just average.
He did not comment, but a hint of ambition flashed in his eyes.
But Zheng Sanfu was so excited that he looked at Cui Xian as if he were his ancestor: "Mr. Cui, I only have 200 kilograms of brown sugar here! How about I charge you 80 cents per kilogram?"
"As for the other 800 kilograms, I'll go and get them for you! They'll all be charged at 80 cents each!"
"Don't worry, I'll go and transfer the goods in the name of my own purchase and will never reveal your identity!"
Cui Xian was somewhat surprised that the shopkeeper was quite good at dealing with people, and said with a smile, "Okay."
Under the trembling gaze of Old Cui and others, this business worth up to eighty taels was done so easily.
That’s eighty taels!
I can buy a house in Kaifeng City!
However, out of trust in Xiang'er, Lao Cui and others held back and said nothing.
That afternoon.
Thousands of kilograms of brown sugar were piled up in the Cui family’s yard.
Not only the old Cui family and others who followed Cui Xian to the "investigation", but also the brothers Cui Boshan and Cui Zhongyuan who went to report to the authorities in the early morning, the whole family looked at the pile of brown sugar with nervous and conflicted expressions.
Finally, Old Cui couldn't help but ask carefully, "Xian'er, are we going to start a business of reselling brown sugar?"
If you buy at 80 wen per catty and sell at 100 wen per catty, you can indeed make money.
But it seems that it is still a long way from growing into the Henan Cui family?
Facing the family's dull gazes, Cui Xian grinned and said, "No, what we have to do next is to turn all this brown sugar into frosting."
Cui family members heard: ???
Brown sugar costs one hundred coins per pound.
Icing sugar costs five thousand coins per pound.
How did you change?
This is not just a fantasy!
This is you robbing money in your dream!
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