Chapter 153: Business (Part 2)

Over the next few days, under Shen Fan’s diligent management, several identical courtyards were built one after another on the wasteland next to the Purple Pearl Pavilion, along Huifu Street. The courtyard walls were high, and the gates were tightly shut. Inside were rows of standard brick-and-wood factory buildings. The winery was the first to go into production. Distillation technology in the Ming Dynasty was already mature, and there were numerous wineries in both urban and rural areas, producing all sorts of famous wines and cheap local spirits.

From the very beginning, Guo Yi had no intention of brewing wine from grain fermentation. According to Wu Nanhai’s wine industry development plan, the transmigrators’ wine production would only begin after a large harvest of sweet potatoes and sugarcane. To purchase grain locally in Guangzhou for brewing would be too costly. The process was complex, and there were specific technical requirements for the water and yeast, which was quite troublesome. Moreover, the brewing process would involve the transportation of large quantities of grain and the disposal of lees. Traditional wineries often raised pigs to deal with the large amount of lees, and Guo Yi had no intention of opening a pig farm in Guangzhou.

Therefore, they adopted a method of re-distilling local spirits. This type of white liquor was available everywhere in the country, the process was simple, the price was low, and the quantity was large. By directly purchasing the local spirits and performing a second distillation, they could remove impurities, purify the liquor, and increase the alcohol content to create a high-grade product. In fact, many famous modern white liquors are made by purchasing base liquor from small distilleries in large quantities and then blending them. Compared to the best wineries of this era, the transmigrators had the advantage of a quantifiable quality control system, modern monitoring equipment, and highly efficient distillation equipment.

The distillation equipment was manufactured in Lingao by the mechanical department, then disassembled and transported to Guangzhou by the Dengyingzhou. The still was made of cast iron, tin, and wood. This still was much more efficient than any contemporary still. It no longer used direct heating but was equipped with a small Transmigration Type-1 boiler—a very simple atmospheric pressure boiler made of cast iron and oil drums—which produced steam to indirectly heat the coiled pipes. After this re-distillation, the local spirits became a clear, fiery liquor, as clear as water. Due to the second and even third distillation, the smell of various phenols almost completely disappeared, leaving a pure taste.

Along with the still, several hundred small, flat wine bottles were also transported. The bottles already had printed labels—a woodcut of a Han general in armor, with the seal script characters “Guoshi Wushuang” (Peerless National Scholar) below it, and a further annotation in small simplified characters. At the bottom of the label was: “Honorably Produced by the Zicheng Company.” Finally, the label even had a volume marking: 250 ml. This seemingly superfluous practice was proposed by Xiao Zishan: the promotion of the new metrology and Arabic numerals should be done “subtly and silently.” Many of the new generation of the Transmigration nation first learned simplified characters, Arabic numerals, and metrology from the packaging of various “transmigration goods” in their youth.

After the wine was produced, several winemakers tasted it. They all agreed that it was richer and stronger than the various local spirits on the market, but compared to the best white liquors, it was only on par, not particularly fragrant or mellow. One winemaker lamented that with such a good still, he could make his own yeast and find a good water source to create the best wine in Guangdong province. Guo Yi smiled without answering—the value of Zicheng’s wine was not in the wine itself, but in the glass bottle. Guo Yi was going for the high-profit gift box route. He ordered the wine to be bottled and sealed for later use. The first batch was small and would be used as gifts for important people when the business opened.

Shen Fan had a hundred or so gift boxes custom-made at a local lacquerware shop, lined with brocade. Each box contained two bottles of wine and two small glass wine cups. This idea was copied from the wine gift boxes of this era. In the Ming Dynasty, this was an unprecedented innovation. Even Old Manager Shen praised it, saying the master was very generous.

Guo Yi, however, marveled at the exquisite craftsmanship of traditional Chinese handicrafts. The exquisite production and gorgeous decoration of these lacquer boxes were something he had never seen before. According to Old Manager Shen, these were not even top-tier works, just mass-produced items.

Throughout the first month of the second year of Chongzhen, the Guangzhou advance station was even busier than Lingao. Opening three businesses at the same time was no easy task for anyone. Every day, Guo Yi, along with Manager Shen and Sun Chang, went out to visit guests, paying their respects to everyone. Being new here, proper etiquette was very important. At each place, they presented different gifts according to the host’s status. They even paid a special visit to the home of Liang Cunhou, to whom they had given a name card at the human market. Young Master Liang was quite pleased to see his business opening. Besides accepting the gift, he also gave back some of his family’s homemade cured meats. The close relationship between Master Guo and Young Master Liang made Old Manager Shen ecstatic:

“Master has good methods, to have actually become acquainted with Young Master Liang,” Old Manager Shen praised in a low voice.

“Is Young Master Liang very famous?” Guo Yi had heard from Liu Gang that Young Master Liang was from a noble family, and was known for his public-spiritedness and charity.

“You don’t know, Master?” Shen Fan was a little surprised. “This Young Master Liang Cunhou is the direct grandson of the late Minister of Revenue, Liang Renpu. His father served two terms as a prefect, and he himself is a successful provincial examination candidate. He is a prominent official and gentry family in this area.”

This Old Manager Shen said that the Liang family prided themselves on being a family of scholars and officials and had never been interested in things like jewelry and curios. It was probably impossible to do business with them. But their family had deep roots here, and befriending them would bring many benefits.

“Then we’ll befriend him more in the future,” Guo Yi said casually. Suddenly, a question occurred to him. “Old Manager Shen, do you know all the officials, gentry, and prominent families in Guangzhou?”

“I know eight or nine out of ten,” Shen Fan said with considerable pride.

“Write them all down. I want to know all the officials in Guangzhou—”

Shen Fan laughed. “What’s so difficult about that? I’ll send someone to the bookstore to buy a copy of the Jinshen (Register of Officials) in a moment. From the Grand Secretaries down to the unranked, every official in the Great Ming court is in it.”

“There’s such a book?” Guo Yi was a little surprised. Not to mention anything else, in his original time, a book like the “Directory of Civil Servants of the People’s Republic of China” definitely did not exist—and even if it did, it would not be sold publicly.

“If the master wants it, I’ll send someone to buy it right away.”

“No hurry,” Guo Yi thought. The intelligence and data group had originally requested the dispatch station to collect information on the officials of Guangdong, which he had thought was a huge project. Now it seemed it wasn’t so complicated—the information was sold publicly.

“Is there anything more detailed? For example, those who were once officials but are no longer, but still have great power—”

“There’s that too, the provincial Jinshen Lu (Register of Gentry).”

“Good, good. Send someone to buy all these books later. Hmm,” he thought for a moment. “I also want to get the court gazette.”

“That’s not difficult either. We can just have it copied from a yamen. But why does the master want this?” Shen Fan found it strange. The Jinshen Lu was useful for business, but the court gazette was full of memorials and court discussions. Besides officials, no one would be interested in reading it.

“The court’s movements are also very important to us. Who knows what the court’s plans are for maritime trade?”

That’s true, Shen Fan thought. Most of the master’s goods come from the sea. If the court strictly prohibits maritime trade, it would be a big blow to the master. But for this kind of news, as long as you had good relations with the yamen clerks, secretaries, and even minor officials, they would leak the news in time when they saw it. There was no need to go to the trouble of copying the gazette, was there? But since the master said so, he would do it. It wasn’t a difficult task anyway.

“I’m very familiar with Secretary Li, who handles documents in the Governor-General’s yamen. A little benefit for him will do.”

“You handle this matter. Report the expenses directly to me. Don’t put it on the shop’s account.” According to the notice from the Economic and Financial Committee, the intelligence expenses of the dispatch station could no longer be included in the operating costs of the shops but must be managed and accounted for separately. This had given Guo Yi a headache for a while. In terms of personal expenses, it was difficult to distinguish exactly whether it was for intelligence or for business; it was mostly a bit of both. Finally, after discussion, it was decided to count all personal expenses as intelligence expenses.

“Yes, Master.”

Back at the Purple Pearl Pavilion, the shop’s decoration was nearing completion. To avoid causing a stir, the decoration was done in a relatively traditional way. The three shop fronts along the street had square brick floors, with the fine brickwork of the walls left unplastered. The ceiling was made of wooden lattice, from which hung four large red palace lanterns and a row of small glass lamps bought from Yiwu. The hall was surrounded by a rosewood corridor, and the walls were adorned with calligraphy and paintings by famous local artists, creating a varied and elegant style. On closer inspection, the artists were either from local prominent families or current officials. The three large characters “Purple Pearl Pavilion” hanging in the center of the hall were the work of Lu Yizhong, the most favored advisor of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Wang Zunde—these three characters alone had cost Guo Yi five hundred taels of silver. The flower stands, side tables, eight-immortals tables, and official’s-hat chairs were all made of rosewood, and the various vases, screens, and ornaments were all exquisite—all transported from Lingao, from the Gou family’s collection. The Dengyingzhou had recently been transporting large quantities of such items to Guangzhou, partly to save money on decorating the new businesses and partly to dispose of the stolen goods, to avoid them piling up in the warehouse. This made Shen Fan wonder: where did all these good things come from? Could they really have been obtained from pirates?

The four glass display cases were located on both sides of the main hall, very conspicuous. To ensure safety, Guo Yi had an additional circle of brass railings made outside the large cabinets to prevent the glass from being crushed if the crowd of onlookers became too large.

The sales samples were all displayed on various exquisite trays and boxes custom-made from outside, lined with black, red, and gold velvet. With spotlights made from modified kerosene lamps hanging diagonally above each cabinet, the samples in the cabinets all looked radiant and dazzling. Shen Fan, who was used to the dim and deep environment of old-style jewelry stores, was amazed—Master Guo really had a touch of genius.