At this time, not only Wei Zhongxian, but also Li Huaishu and the guards saw an outrageously beautiful white sailboat sailing into Nagasaki Port.
"Wei Gong, this is the master's ship. This is the Star, which is the ship you came to Nagasaki on." Li Huaishu said excitedly.
This was the boat that Yang Fan took when he sent Wei Zhongxian to Nagasaki. Wei Zhongxian sat in the VIP cabin, and Li Huaishu and his guards sat in the bottom cabin.
Wei Zhongxian was also deeply impressed by this luxurious sailing ship because it was so fast and it arrived at Nagasaki in one and a half days. He was extremely shocked at that time.
The Star slowly approached the pier and docked slowly.
The Japanese people in the port were not too surprised, because this ship had come many times, but Wei Zhongxian didn't come out often, so he didn't see it.
The Star came to Nagasaki basically once a week, mainly transporting soap.
Because Mrs. Masuda represents many Yang Fan products, the best-selling ones are soap and toilet soap. In Japan, the supply is basically in short supply.
Beginning in the early 17th century, it was the last samurai shogunate in Japanese history. It was also called the Tokugawa shogunate (April 21, 1603).
In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate in Edo (today's Tokyo). By the time Edo opened the city in 1868, the Edo shogunate had a total of fifteen generations of generals who conquered barbarians, which lasted 265 years.
When the Tokugawa family established the shogunate, statistics in 1603 showed that there were about 250 daimyo in the country, and the number of samurai was 400,000. If family members are included, the number exceeded 1.6 million. The total population at that time was about 15 million.
Now is the first year of Chongzhen (1628). It is estimated that the total population of Japan is about 16 million. In Yang Fan's view, this is a very huge market. At least the daimyo and samurai classes are an effective population with spending power. In addition to merchants and
There are at least 300 handicraftsmen and wealthy landowners in Japan who have the ability to purchase Yang Fan's products.
As daily necessities, soap and soap are in greatest demand. These are consumables and must be used up before buying new ones. After using soap and soap, the upper class of Japan can no longer do without this kind of cleaning.
supplies.
The invention of soap is of great significance to mankind because % of the bacteria in the world do not have cell membranes.
The composition of bacteria is relatively simple. The most basic components are composed of genetic material and proteins. Lipids form an envelope on the outermost layer of the virus structure, which not only protects the inside of the virus, but also participates in the process of invading cells.
The bactericidal effect of ordinary soap is to destroy the lipid component of the virus shell. The soap and oil react to dissolve and fragment the outer lipid membrane of the bacteria, causing them to die. They lose the ability to infect normal cells.
Therefore, when washing hands and bathing, as long as the foam is kept for fifteen seconds, % of the bacteria can be killed. This can greatly reduce the possibility of human infection with bacteria.
Yang Fan's letter to Mrs. Yitian explained in detail that soap has a unique effect in preventing illness. This was later proven by users.
Especially after babies are bathed with soap, the probability of getting sick is greatly reduced. This leads to a sharp drop in the infant mortality rate in the upper class.
Soon, this magical item that can drastically reduce people's illness rate became popular in Japan.
As long as the goods are good, there will never be a shortage of buyers. There are many rich people in this world.
The Star delivers 10 tons of soap and 1 ton of toilet soap every week. According to the current packaging specifications, each bar of soap and toilet soap weighs about 100 grams. Each wax carton can hold 100 pieces.
About every month, Yang Fan can provide 40 tons of soap and 4 tons of toilet soap. About 400,000 pieces of soap and 40,000 pieces of toilet soap. This quantity is not enough even for the upper class. Moreover, after learning about the benefits of soap in reducing diseases
, the middle and lower class handicraftsmen, small traders, and middle-class farmers are also willing to buy. This makes the supply even more severe than the demand.
Yang Fan gives Mrs. Yitian one tael of silver for each piece of soap and two taels of silver for the soap. In this way, every month, Yang Fan can get 480,000 taels of silver from Japan. After taking out the cost of raw materials, labor, and transportation, Yang Fan earns at least 40
Ten thousand taels of silver.
Because the grease used to make soap is extracted by Yang Fan from modern kitchen waste, the factory in the neighboring province no longer transports kitchen waste. The waste is separated from the grease and transported here. The rest is used for feeding
pig.
Yang Fan's cost is very low, because the main cost of soap is oil. Oil in this era is not cheap, and there is not enough to eat. How can it be used for luxury toiletries? The second raw material, caustic soda, is very cheap. In the Ming Dynasty, there was
There is a lot of caustic soda ore, and one ton of alkali powder is only ten taels of silver.
As for the heinous behavior of using gutter oil to make toilet soap and soap, Yang Fan doesn't have any psychological burden. He doesn't use it anyway. There is no 315 to investigate him in this era, so what is he afraid of?
Mrs. Masuda, on the other hand, sold the soap at twice the price. She sold the soap for two taels of silver a piece, and the soap was sold for five taels of silver a piece.
In this way, Mrs. Masuda can earn 650,000 taels of silver every month. However, as a sales terminal, Mrs. Masuda has to transport, rent stores, hire personnel, and hire warriors to protect the entire chain. Her costs are not low.
Although the cost is high, half of the gross profit margin is still available. In this era, if business makes a 10% profit, people are guaranteed to do it everywhere. Half of the profit is huge profits, and there are people who dare to commit murder and arson.
The most important thing is that this thing is not a one-time deal. It is a daily chemical product. It is simply an endless gold mine.
From this time on, the strength of the Nagasaki Order began to expand without being known to anyone.
More and more people are beginning to hope to join the religious order and become believers, because as long as they become a believer, they will get a job to support their family in Hukou.
Thanks to Japan's urbanization rate, which was the world's leading at that time, business began to develop unprecedentedly. Mrs. Masuda learned a lot of leading business knowledge through correspondence with Yang Fan.
Mrs. Masuda opened department stores according to neighborhoods and markets in the city, grocery stores in small neighborhoods, and small shops in the countryside.
Believers can apply to open small shops in the countryside as a family unit.
In this form of opening a store, you can obtain goods from the religious group on credit, then sell them within a designated range, and settle accounts with the religious group after the sales. At the same time, you can also operate lending and pawnshop businesses.
The lending business mainly provides small loans to residents in the area. Funds can be applied to the religious groups. The competitors are loan sharks in the countryside.
The pawnshop business in the countryside is equivalent to a small pawn shop in the Ming Dynasty. It collects useful tools, clothing, linens, livestock and poultry, wine and meat, grain, raw silk, etc. If it is not redeemed when it expires, it will be sold in the store. It is equivalent to the circulation of second-hand items.
business.
Because of the huge profits from soap, it brought a lot of cash flow.
Mrs. Masuda was very happy at first, but was soon replaced by fear. She was worried that too much cash would bring disaster.
Under Yang Fan's guidance, she turned to business operations and invested the money.
Her sect was originally an inconspicuous one, because she took the bottom line and was not taken seriously at all.
When no one was paying attention, she asked the believers to adopt a secret membership system, maintain a single line of contact, and pretend to be a business organization on the surface. In secret, it developed rapidly.
For many believers who take refuge in her, their family has a livelihood.
Many families at the bottom of the society who live a difficult life join. After studying and training, the whole family strengthens their faith. After passing the upgrade assessment, they will be awarded the title of priest. Then the whole family will be assigned to open a shop in the countryside and secretly preach at the same time.
This changed social status and economic conditions almost overnight.
At this time, the Warring States Period had just ended. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of illness in the third year of Keicho (1598), the Toyotomi family split into two factions: Omi (Western Army) and Owari (Eastern Army).
As one of the five elders of the Toyotomi regime, Tokugawa Ieyasu launched the Sekigahara Battle in the fifth year of Keicho (1600) and defeated the Western Army.
In the eighth year of Keicho (1603), the Tokugawa shogunate was established. In 1603, the Toyotomi clan was gradually eliminated in the two battles of Osaka. In the following years, Japan was gradually unified, and the Warring States Period ended.
It is now 1628, just over ten years after the war ended. The defeat of the Toyotomi clan caused a large number of samurai to lose their lords and become wandering ronin.
Mrs. Masuda began to secretly recruit these warriors with combat experience into the religion. She also began to organize them into separate security departments according to what Yang Fan taught her.
In cities, department stores in main streets and grocery stores in communities are directly under the jurisdiction of religious groups.
At this time, Japan's urban development level was the first in the world. The urbanization rate actually reached 10% in the 17th century. Japan's Edo had a population of more than 1 million, Kyoto had more than 500,000, and Osaka had more than 350,000.
.These three places are known as the three capitals of Japan, and at the same time, the size of London and Paris was only about the same as that of the three capitals of Japan, which had the smallest number of people.
The development of these metropolises and commerce greatly facilitated the rise of Mrs. Masuda's business empire.
She is like a poisonous spider hiding in the darkness, weaving her network bit by bit, extending to every corner of the empire.
No one noticed her, and she openly broke away from various religious orders. She became a businessman. In the eyes of the government and businessmen, she was just a widow who inherited her husband's small territory.
But behind the scenes, he uses his strong financial resources and secret private cults to control the situation.
In the increasingly sharp conflicts between various religious groups and the Tokugawa generals, they separated themselves from each other and watched with cold eyes. They promoted changes in the situation behind the scenes.
A few days before the Star came to Nagasaki again, a major event occurred in the Order. Mrs. Masuda's son left them forever due to cholera.
In another place in Kitakyushu, a new religious sect emerged. A handsome boy who was unlike any other in the world, as a messenger of God, gathered a large number of believers.
Other religious sects are also gradually moving closer to him. The various sects gradually begin to unite and gradually form a trend.
At this time, in Edo City, on the castle tower, a young man was also silently paying attention to the chaos in Kyushu.
He is the third generation general, Iemitsu. He came to power five years ago and is only 24 years old this year.
In recent decades, since Toyotomi Hideyoshi's sudden change of attitude towards the believers, his father and ancestors have continued to persecute these believers of Western religions. However, they have grown in size during the Warring States Period, with millions of believers across the country.
"It's not as cold as a day's freezing." At the top of the castle tower, the young general murmured to himself. His young face seemed to be full of sadness.
His fingers tapped the railing gently, wondering how to deal with them.
