Chapter 192: Orders from Guangzhou

The farm had expanded its soybean cultivation this year, but soybeans were currently in short supply, and Nick was also competing for them. Xun Suji decided not to compete with this horse fanatic and simply made a substitute—fava bean tofu.

Fava beans were easy to grow and live, had a high yield, and their root systems had a nitrogen-fixing effect. The bean husks were also excellent organic fertilizer. The farm had planted a lot of them to improve the soil, so the supply was ample. In the years of difficult supply, fava bean tofu was also a common substitute. Its disadvantage was that it was not very appealing in appearance, coming out blackish, and its texture and taste were far from the delicate quality of real tofu.

With not enough soybeans and mung beans being an important food for relieving summer heat, the tofu workshop’s bean sprout business had to turn to fava beans again. Xun Suji used porcelain basins and earthenware jars to sprout the beans.

After the tofu workshop’s production with substitutes was on track, Xun Suji put together a team for a sauce workshop from the immigrants he had found. This team was quite impressive: a bankrupt sauce workshop owner, an unemployed sauce master, and miscellaneous workers—a group of sauce workshop practitioners from all over the country gathered in Lincheng to form the first commercial entity under the Ministry of Light Industry—the Tianchu Sauce Workshop.

He did not place the Tianchu Sauce Workshop in the food factory but found a remote location in Dongmen Market. Xun Suji’s idea was simple: since the transmigrator group was gradually abolishing the supply system and more and more outside immigrants were joining, the consumption of pickles and other preserved vegetables would also increase daily. Placing the production and business premises in Dongmen Market was much more convenient than at the farm within the green zone.

He had originally thought of naming this sauce workshop “Liubiju,” but he heard that Liubiju had already existed in Beijing for many years at this time—legend has it that the plaque of “Liubiju” was written by the famous Yan Song. Using the name again would be suspected of impersonation. So he used the name of the Tianchu Monosodium Glutamate Factory, founded by Wu Yunchu, who had made outstanding contributions to the Chinese food industry and was the inventor of MSG in China.

“Actually, the name Tianchu is very good, it has style! And meaning!” Mo Xiao’an said at the opening of Tianchu. “In the future, when the food factory gets bigger, it can also be called Tianchu.”

The Tianchu Sauce Workshop used traditional techniques and equipment to brew bean paste, chili sauce, and soy sauce, and also pickled various kinds of preserved vegetables and pickles. The products were not only supplied to the various cafeterias but also sold externally. The masters and workers in the sauce workshop came from all over the country and brought the flavors of their hometowns. Xun Suji himself was a chef, well-versed in food, and good at blending the strengths of various schools. It wasn’t long before the fame of Tianchu pickles spread.

The Agriculture Committee highly praised this move. Originally, a portion of the large amount of vegetables in the farm’s vegetable garden could not be consumed in time and had to be turned into feed, especially the high-yield cabbage and radishes. Now, with the sauce workshop, the surplus vegetables were consumed by the workshop without any waste. Huang Dashan came to the sauce workshop several times to provide technical guidance and also brought several new types of fermentation bacteria.

The transmigrators were also genuinely happy to have such a sauce workshop. Having another food item to vary the taste was always a good thing. Not long after it opened, many people came to Tianchu to offer suggestions and contribute their hometown’s secret methods for making preserved and dried vegetables.

Seeing that the demand for pickles was good and the supply of red peppers was sufficient, Xun Suji ordered several large pickling jars from Xiao Bailang and taught the workers at the sauce workshop the technique of making Sichuan-style pickles. Soon, Sichuan-style pickles were available in the cafeteria. The refreshing and palatable pickles were very popular in the hot summer. Even the gentry and officials in the county sent people to buy them to try something new.

Next, he turned his attention to the small shrimp at the seafood processing plant. Every day, the catch in Bopu included a large amount of low-grade small shrimp, which were either dried to make shrimp skins or used directly as phosphorus fertilizer or feed. Xun Suji remembered the “Jinzhou small dishes” he had eaten in the northeast, which were pickled in shrimp oil—delicious, extremely salty, and went very well with rice. The so-called shrimp oil was actually the clear liquid extracted from the upper layer after fermenting small shrimp with salt. As for the mixed sediment at the bottom, it was “shrimp paste,” also a kind of seasoning sauce.

After he shared his idea with the seafood processing plant, he soon got this “shrimp oil.” The characteristic of “Jinzhou small dishes” was that they were mostly pickled with “small vegetables,” with small cucumbers and small eggplants being the most popular, and these were originally of little cost—they were the ones screened out from the vegetable garden.

Neither Xun Suji nor Mo Xiao’an had expected that the Tianchu Sauce Workshop would one day become one of the most important export enterprises of the Ministry of Light Industry.

A few days after Mo Xiao’an handed over the affairs of the food factory, Zhang Xin returned to Lincheng. That evening, he had someone invite Zhang Xin to his office—he wanted to hear the opinion of this professional who was on the front lines and had a background in sales regarding export products.

“I don’t know how you plan to sell MSG,” Zhang Xin said after hearing his initial idea. “In my opinion, if there are no grain control issues, the idea of dried rice noodles is good, because everyone has to eat. But MSG is just something that adds icing on the cake. The rich don’t need it, and the poor don’t need it.”

The rich were particular about their food and used high-quality soup stock made from whole chickens and ham, slow-cooked. They would look down on this artificial flavor enhancer. The poor had trouble just filling their stomachs and wouldn’t think of this stuff—besides, MSG was just a seasoning, not canned soup. Adding a little MSG couldn’t “turn clear water into chicken soup,” which made its sales a big problem.

“So there’s no hope?”

“No, there is still a market,” Zhang Xin said. “Besides the rich and the poor, there is also a middle class in this world, but you can’t expect it to be exported in large quantities. Also, the small merchants who come to Lincheng won’t like this—the customers they face don’t need it. The only possible users are the catering industry.”

“The catering industry is fine too. As long as we can sell it, it’s good.”

“We can give it a try,” Zhang Xin thought. They could first use it in the kitchens of the inns and mule stations under the Qiwei Escort Agency. If the response was good, people would naturally come to inquire.

“If you were a small merchant from Guangdong or Fujian, and you came to Lincheng and sold all your goods, what kind of goods would you think would be popular to bring back?” Mo Xiao’an listed, “They probably wouldn’t dare to bring salt, as it’s illegal. Sugar is a bulk commodity, and it’s pointless for them to bring a few dozen jin. Besides, there’s sugar in Leizhou, and Fujian has plenty too…”

“First, it must be cheap. Second, it must be novel and unavailable elsewhere. Third, it must be easy to use,” Zhang Xin said. “Australian goods already have a reputation for being exquisite and easy to use. Ordinary citizens can’t afford mirrors and glass, but the admiration for Australian goods and the desire to use them already exist. It’s the same psychology as someone who can’t afford a Mercedes-Benz but insists on having a Mercedes logo as a keychain.”

Zhang Xin’s opinion was to develop some cheap and beautiful, novel and ingenious things to cater to this mentality in the market.

“Actually, sewing needles are quite good. The steel quality is good, and in terms of appearance, they are the best on the market. They can well reflect the impression Australian goods have left on everyone,” Zhang Xin commented.

“But sewing needles require steel, which is a first-level controlled material…”

“How much steel can that use?” Zhang Xin said dismissively. “A single 12-pounder cannonball is how much iron? You can make many, many needles from one cannonball.”

Mo Xiao’an hesitated, “There’s also the issue of production capacity. Sewing needles are produced by the machine factory. It’s not an urgently needed material, so it’s often pushed to the back of the queue.”

In fact, the production of sewing needles had stopped after less than ten thousand were made. Not only did the machine factory have too many things to do, but everyone also lacked interest in making such small hardware daily necessities.

“This equipment can’t be kept in the machine factory, even though you are all under the Engineering and Energy Committee—but the people in the machine factory are machine players. They’re not satisfied with making steam engines and boilers. You want them to make sewing needles for you? Talk to the Chief and have the machine factory make a few more sets of needle-making equipment and transfer them to the Ministry of Light Industry’s establishment. For the workers, you can have the machine factory train them for you. The raw materials will be allocated by the Planning Committee. This way, the sewing needle factory can guarantee daily operation.”

Mo Xiao’an thought, why didn’t I think of this earlier! With the machines and personnel in others’ hands, of course things wouldn’t go smoothly.

“A sudden enlightenment!”

“We also hope the light industry department will develop more new products for sale. Always selling mirrors and glassware will eventually lead to aesthetic fatigue.”

“How are the sales of flat glass?”

“This kind of thing, like glass mirrors, how big can the market be?” Zhang Xin’s view on luxury goods was very clear—although luxury goods had huge profits, they were not the main direction of commodity development. But now, it was lonely at the top. The measure proposed by Chief Wen to make small mirrors cheap had not been implemented by everyone so far. After all, the current profit was both considerable and stable.

The Engineering and Energy Committee itself was now unwilling to make mirrors cheap. The production capacity of the glass factory was limited. Once they were made cheap, sales would soar, which would put even more strain on the already busy glass factory.

“We can also try to focus on food, not MSG—are there any cheap, popular snacks, the kind you can buy several of for one cash… for example—candy”

“Candy?”

“Candy!” Zhang Xin said. “Yes, the kind of candy children eat. When I was a child, I lived in a small county town in Hunan. A relative who went to Guangzhou on a business trip brought me a bag of fruit drops. At that time, I thought it was the most delicious thing in the world…” Zhang Xin was immersed in memories of the past.

“Will there be a market?”

“At least in Guangzhou, it’s impossible for there not to be. Don’t forget how the people of Wenzhou made their fortune back then.”

“I know that—exchanging chicken feathers for candy.”

“The candy exchanged for chicken feathers was just maltose made by the farmers themselves in their spare time. In China at that time, with extremely scarce material conditions, it was enough for the people of Wenzhou to accumulate their first capital. Perhaps it can also work in the Ming Dynasty.”

“I understand. Develop a candy industry,” Mo Xiao’an nodded. This was indeed an idea. First, sugar was a bulk product of the transmigrator group, so there was no shortage of raw materials. And this was deep processing to increase the added value of the product.

Although the price of sugar was not low now, it was sold by the “shi.” Candy, no matter how cheap, would cost one or two cash. Calculated this way, the profit of candy would be much higher.

Zhang Xin also mentioned a few other materials that could be exported in large quantities, first of which was writing paper. Since the chemical department could already produce sulfuric acid and caustic soda, large-scale paper manufacturing was no longer a problem. Whether it was making paper from sugarcane bagasse in Leizhou or from straw, the paper produced by the transmigrator group would definitely be the cheapest. By adding kaolin, they could also make the whitest paper.

“Writing paper is very expensive,” Zhang Xin said. Although the raw materials for papermaking were cheap, in the past, without chemicals, the process of rotting the raw materials into pulp took a long time and a lot of labor. The only chemical that could help was lime.

Mo Xiao’an’s Ministry of Light Industry had a small, traditional paper-making workshop under its jurisdiction, run by paper-making workers who were immigrants from the mainland, using entirely traditional methods. Mo Xiao’an was well aware of the low efficiency of traditional papermaking. Of the paper produced, besides the better quality paper used for writing, most was used as toilet paper.

The papermaking industry in the Ming Dynasty was already quite developed, but its value was still not low. Besides the detailed tribute of “sheets” of special paper from various paper-producing areas, the government also had a system of “paper payment”: convicted prisoners had to pay a certain amount of paper. Later, even the litigants involved in cases had to “pay paper.”

The paper used for account books in the past was already extremely coarse and poor. Even with such paper, Zhang Xin had seen people writing on the back of it. Writing paper was not cheap at that time.

“Speaking of paper, we must also talk about books. Books are not cheap either. We have an opportunity,” Zhang Xin said.

What was the price of books in Guangdong? Zhang Xin said the price was very high, higher than in any country in the 21st century. A set of well-collated and well-printed commercial edition books cost at least one or two taels of silver.

“Woodblock printing should have been very mature in the Ming Dynasty. The only labor-intensive part of woodblock printing is carving the blocks. After that, can’t they be used repeatedly?”

“The cost of woodblock printing is very high, and it’s not easy to preserve them. They are prone to insect damage and mold, and some have to be repaired or replaced every year. This long-term maintenance cost is not low.”

Moreover, woodblock printing was labor-intensive and material-intensive. After completion, it also took up a lot of space. If they could not ensure long-term sales of niche books or new works, booksellers were not willing to print them. Therefore, it was very difficult to publish new books in ancient times. Authors often had to self-publish. Authors who were short of funds could only publish their books by finding sponsors. Li Shizhen wrote the “Compendium of Materia Medica,” but it was only with the help of the Nanjing publisher and collector Hu Chenglong and the literary giant Wang Shizhen that he was able to see his work begin to be printed in his lifetime. As for its official publication, it was not until the sixth year after his death that it was formally published. The long time span and huge cost of publishing books are hard for modern people to imagine.

“We can consult Zhou Dongtian on this matter. He’s an expert in this. We might as well set up a movable type printing factory.”

After talking with Zhang Xin, Mo Xiao’an felt greatly inspired. He wrote several pages full of notes. But Zhang Xin had another business promotion matter to discuss with him.

“This matter is directly related to the Ministry of Light Industry, and it also involves whether our Guangzhou station can still occupy the high ground of fashion consumption in Guangzhou in the future!”

Ancient society also had trends and fashions. In Guangzhou at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a place with a strong commercial atmosphere and a supreme consumerist ideology, occupying the high ground of fashion could largely change the consumption habits of the relatively wealthy citizens, thus allowing various “Australian goods” from Lincheng to smoothly enter the market.

“What is it specifically?”

“The redecoration of the Ziminglou,” Zhang Xin said.

“It’s not PEPI causing trouble again, is it?” Mo Xiao’an had an instinctive dislike and suspicion of this person.

“It was her idea, but this is a collective discussion of the Guangzhou station,” Zhang Xin emphasized the “collective discussion” from the beginning. “We want to turn the Ziminglou into a model of fashionable consumption in Guangzhou…”

“Don’t tell me it’s the Ming Dynasty version of ‘Heaven on Earth.’ That would make it easy to gather intelligence and build connections. Brilliant, truly brilliant!”

“Not at all,” Zhang Xin smiled. “It’s more complicated.”

The guiding principle of this renovation was to transform the Ziminglou into a model of the “Australian lifestyle.” They would install various modern living facilities and promote all kinds of consumer goods to the wealthy households who could afford them, covering all aspects of life, including food, clothing, housing, and transportation.

“Note that it’s consumer goods, not luxury goods.”

“What’s the difference? Ordinary people can’t afford them anyway.”

“There are many kinds of ordinary people. The people of Guangzhou are very prosperous,” Zhang Xin had been in Guangzhou for a long time and had a relatively deep understanding of the social life of the Ming Dynasty. The lives of the people in Guangdong, especially in the Pearl River Delta, were relatively stable and prosperous. Especially in a city like Guangzhou, although people dying on the streets were a common sight and beggars were not few, the living conditions of the general citizens were still decent.

This urban class, which could barely be called the “Ming Dynasty middle class,” although they might not be able to spend lavishly at the Ziminglou, just like the modern middle class who are particularly obsessed with words like “high-end,” “elegant,” “luxurious,” “premium,” and “noble,” would endure hunger to buy an LV bag and occasionally pretend to be chic and go to some place where a cup of coffee would make their hearts ache for a long time, the life of the rich was their object of imitation. Even if they couldn’t enjoy all of it, they could at least enjoy a small part.

“I roughly understand what you mean. The Ziminglou is like a high-end club or nightclub.”

The model for the Ziminglou was a high-end nightclub from the modern era, offering nothing more than sensual pleasures, food, drink, and entertainment. It was just that all of this would be packaged with technology, concepts, and products from the modern era.

“So is PEPI a famous courtesan or a madam?” Mo Xiao’an said without restraint.

“Damn, PEPI is going to fight you to the death. Nominally, she is Guo Yi’s concubine…”

“Little Guo has good taste.”

“Didn’t I say it was nominal?” Zhang Xin said with dissatisfaction. “Don’t joke around. This is a trial commercial promotion activity of the Guangzhou station on the mainland. If it succeeds, your Ministry of Light Industry will be flooded with orders!”

“Alright, alright, I’m all ears.”

“The first thing now is to develop a full set of sanitary ware,” Zhang Xin gave him a list. “The sanitary ware must be ready within two months. The rest can wait.”