There are boats of all sizes parked in the waters near Songjiang Port.
Passenger ships, pleasure boats, fishing boats, cargo ships, merchant ships, high-rise ships... some are from this dynasty, some are from other countries, and there are a lot of them.
The Huo family's fishing boat shuttled through it, like water dripping into the sea, without attracting any attention. Huo Xi also asked Bao Xia to spread the fishing nets on the bow of the boat, and dried fish on the roof of the cabin. No one looked at it as they rowed along.
Eye.
Originally, Huo Xi was afraid that others would stare at her, but she didn't expect that when her ship arrived at Songjiang Port, it was submerged in a large number of large ships, making it completely inconspicuous.
A ship that goes out to sea and rides the waves cannot be small. The ship must be filled with cargo, dozens, hundreds or even more people, as well as food items and various supplies used along the way.
The ship must cost at least 2,000 materials.
Smaller boats can barely be parked at the pier, but larger ones can only be parked in the nearby waters. The only option is to hoist the boat down and take the boat to the pier.
When white sugar first came out, Huo Xi didn't want to trade at the dock. She just wanted to row the boat to nearby waters to find foreign ships and sell them quietly.
This was the first time we were doing something like this, and everyone was unsure, fearing that they would encounter a shipping company's ship.
If someone from the Shipping Department boarded the ship to inspect the cargo and paid the tax for a small amount of time, the sugar on the ship might have been confiscated as tribute. If someone could not explain it clearly, they would be guilty of it. This recipe would have to be handed over to the court.
A few people were worried and pretended to be fishermen, lowering a few nets into the water from time to time along the way, while Huo Xi stood on the bow of the boat and observed.
I found many large ships parked in the waters not far from the dock, and many small boats shuttled back and forth. Looking closely, I also found that small ships from overseas and ships from this dynasty were docked together. It could be seen that they were secretly trading.
It seems that smuggled goods have existed in all ages. Firstly, they want to make more money, and secondly, if the shipping company does not exploit them too harshly and everyone does business honestly, there is no need to worry.
If it is ordinary goods, Huo Xi will follow the regulations. She must pay the taxes and follow the procedures obediently. She is a good citizen in a legal society. It's just that sugar is not available in the world now.
Huo Xi and Yang Fu stood on the bow of the ship and observed, circling around several large ships.
I saw a lot of boats approaching, so I was not in a hurry to get close to them.
Seeing that the sun was rising at noon, Huo Xi started to make lunch on the bow of the boat. Bao Xia and Huo Erhuai were still setting nets nearby, and they and Yang Fu were undressing fish, scraping fish scales, and making dried fish.
Several ships from the DPRK also approached them for inspection, and one seemed to be a patrol ship from the Municipal Shipping Department.
Yang Fu was also a chicken thief, so he raised his voice and asked from afar: "Want to buy fish? Do you want to eat? There are noodles and rice, chicken, duck, fish and shrimp. Each portion only costs fifty coins."
It turned out to be a food seller. Several boats looked at them and turned around and left. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The sun was high at noon, and there were gradually fewer boats in the nearby waters. After Huo Xi and others had a good meal, they spotted a large boat and rowed over there.
Before they got close, when they were still some distance away, someone on the big boat scratched the edge of the boat and asked them to stop using bad Wei Dynasty dialect.
No matter how big the boat was, it was still afraid of water thieves. The person shouting on the boat told Huo Xi and others to stop when they were two or three feet away.
Huo Xi saw that they were not from Ryukyu and Japanese countries, but looked like they were from Managawa, Java and other places, so he put his hands to his mouth and shouted to each other, asking them if they wanted to see the goods.
The man holding the edge of the boat was stunned. It was the first time he heard the other party speak such fluent words. He turned around and waved his hand, and immediately two more people came on the deck and asked her in fluent words what she was.
Huo Xi said that the candy was as white as snow.
The man shouted loudly and asked her to wait.
Huo Xi and others saw a small boat being lifted off the side of the big ship, and three people jumped on. Soon the small boat was rowed towards them.
It was the first time that Bao Xia heard Huo Xi talking about business with others, and he was dumbfounded.
When they saw the other party's boat approaching, the masters all looked prepared and concentrated their minds, watching the boat with full vigilance.
Soon the small boat approached the Huo family's ship. Huo Xi looked at the big ship over there and saw a row of people holding bows and arrows emerging from the deck, aiming at them.
Uh... are you so well prepared? Are you afraid they will kill someone?
Give Yang Fu and others a signal not to stare at each other. They are not water thieves anyway, they are just doing business normally.
As soon as the boat approached, the two people climbed onto the Huo family's boat. They first looked at Huo Xi and the others on the deck. They saw that Bao Xia had only one eye and stared at him for a long time.
Perhaps seeing that there were only four of them, including two and a half-year-old children, I became a little wary.
I saw fishing nets hung at the bow and stern of the boat, and the fishing box at the stern was still open, with fish and shrimp splashing in the water. I was confused. Is this a fisherman or a seller?
When Huo Xi saw the other party looking at her, she smiled and let them look at her.
Thinking that the other party had come all the way and was a guest, he greeted him with some words first.
The two people's eyes were filled with surprise. Can they communicate with each other through words, which is no better than chatting with a duck, and better than talking with fingers? The two foreigners lost some of their wariness and started chatting with Huo Xi.
Within a short while, Huo Xi found out where they were coming from. The other party was from Manchuria. They had received the prospectus from the Shipping Department, and less than half of the goods on the ship had been sold.
Huo Xi nodded and motioned for Yang Fu to go in and get something.
Bao Xia had been staring at him curiously since he came up. When he saw Yang Fu, he winked at him and hurriedly lowered his eyes and went into the cabin to help get things.
The two quickly brought out several clay pots and several packages of sugar bricks wrapped in hemp paper.
Several people sat down on the deck, and Huo Xi opened the white sugar and sugar bricks in the clay pot to show them.
The two foreigners followed Huo Xi's example and each took some and put it into their mouths. When they tasted it, their eyes widened. They stopped being polite and nodded immediately, indicating that they wanted them all, and asked how many there were.
Huo Xi compared eight and told them that there were eighty stones.
The two foreigners nodded. It was only eighty dan. Their boat could hold a lot, so how could they not eat it? It was still too little. I had never seen such good things.
White sugar has never been sold by merchants from the Wei Dynasty these days.
Huo Xi then negotiated the price with them.
Huo Xi and Yang Fu discussed the price of sugar when they came here. The price of sucrose this year is thirty-five cents per catty, and one stone of sucrose is four or two cents.
They lost two or three stones in making sugar, and they also prepared iron pots and other items, which also increased the cost a lot. This is their exclusive business and cannot be sold cheaply.
Huo Xi made a gesture and asked for forty taels and one stone.
After listening, the two people immersed themselves in calculations, shook their heads and waved their hands at her, disagreeing.
She complained to her that they had traveled thousands of miles and spent a lot of money, and the wind and waves were high. They had to work hard to transport it back and had to sell it to their home country at several times the price in order to make a profit.
Moreover, after a narrow escape, they still don’t know if they can come back alive. If they bought it for forty taels and one stone and shipped it back, they would have to sell it at a price several times higher. No noble person would eat two taels and one pound of candy.
Huo Xi told the other party that this was an independent business and they would not suffer any loss if they bought it. They bargained with the other party.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, when white sugar was first developed, the Ming Dynasty sold it to foreigners for one or two liang per catty. Even the price of white sugar in the later period was fifty or sixty cents per catty for people in this dynasty.
The price she wanted was not expensive at all. I thought they worked hard and were not profiteers at all.
The two persisted for several rounds, but the other party still disagreed and only accepted thirty taels and one stone.
Thirty liang and one stone were in line with Huo Xi's expectations. But she didn't want to agree just like that, which would make her stuff look cheap.
