Liu Jin gently pinched a little coarse salt and put it in his mouth to taste it.
"Bah~"
Soon, Liu Jin vomited it out.
The taste of this coarse salt is really bad. It is snow-white in later generations. The snow-white refined salt only tastes like salt and does not have other impurities. But this coarse salt tastes very light, bitter and astringent.
Takes up the bulk.
"This salt tastes terrible."
Liu Jin vomited several times and couldn't help but say.
"Of course the sea salt we cook is not as good as the pool salt from Shaanxi, Shanxi, or the well salt from Sichuan, let alone the green salt that only the wealthy landlords can afford."
"This sea salt is sold in the market for only sixty or seventy cents per catty, but this pool salt and well salt cost over a hundred cents per catty. The best green salt is said to cost two to three hundred cents per catty. It can't be compared, it can't be compared.
.”
"But although this pool salt, well salt, and green salt are good, their yield is not much. Especially this green salt, the yield is extremely low. Although our sea salt has a bad taste, its yield is very high."
After hearing Liu Jin's words, Zhao Heishan smiled, showing his black and white teeth, and said all the salts.
"This salt can be divided into pool salt, well salt and green salt?"
Liu Jin was slightly startled when he heard Zhao Heishan's words.
Coming from a later generation, he naturally had never heard of the difference between salt. He only knew that salt is divided into iodized salt and non-iodized salt. He had also grown up eating iodized salt since he was a child. He only knew that eating iodized salt could prevent big neck disease.
.
"Of course, the salt produced in different places is completely different. Even if they are all sea salt, the sea salt in different places is also different."
"The sea salt we cook in Changli is white and yellow, while the sea salt produced in Shandong is white and red. They are all different. This pool salt is also different from the well salt. The pool salt is made from brine mined from the saltwater lake.
Well salt is mined from brine wells, while sea salt is made from seawater and cooked with sea brine. Each type of salt is different."
Although Zhao Heishan was a farmer, he knew a lot about salt. This made Liu Jin very curious, so he thought about it and asked.
"Uncle Heishan, where did you know these things?"
"I didn't know about these things at first. The salt traders who came to our village to collect salt told us about it. They traveled all over the country and were well-informed. They also did this for a living, so naturally they knew it."
"Each of these salt dealers has its own territory, and the salt produced in each territory is also different. Sometimes you can tell if someone has crossed the border to do business just by looking at it."
Zhao Heishan smiled and said.
"This green salt can be sold for more than 200 yuan per catty, which is many times the price of other salts. What is your green salt like?"
Liu Jin nodded, and then remembered that the green salt he just said could be sold for more than 200 yuan per catty. This price was more than ten times more expensive than the coarse salt, which was really incredible.
"How do I know what green salt looks like? It is said that this green salt can only be used by officials, landlords and wealthy people. It is said that rich people use this green salt to brush their teeth in the morning."
Zhao Heishan shook his head and said.
Hearing this, Liu Jin probably understood what was going on. The sea salt cooked by Zhao Heishan and others was what later generations called coarse salt. Because this coarse salt had not been refined, it contained a large number of impurities.
These impurities include insoluble soil, fish bone powder, shell powder and the like, as well as soluble magnesium chloride, calcium chloride and other impurities.
Because there are too many impurities, the salt looks impure in color, unlike the snow-white purified salt of later generations. At the same time, the taste is also very bad. Various flavors are mixed together and occupy the main
the taste of.
Green salt is expensive. It should be because this kind of salt contains fewer impurities and has a relatively pure taste. In addition, the production is limited and can only be supplied to powerful people, so the price is naturally very expensive.
"Perhaps this is a good way to make a fortune. If this coarse salt is purified into the white snow refined salt of later generations, based on the price of green salt, a pound of salt is more than 200 yuan, then at least there is no way to make a fortune.
Any questions.”
Thinking of this, Liu Jin's eyes couldn't help but light up.
Although Liu Jin is a scumbag, he is at least a person who has experienced formal chemistry education in later generations. He can understand the truth at a glance. As for refining coarse salt, it should be divided into two steps.
One is to remove insoluble impurities. This is relatively simple. Crush the coarse salt, crush it into powder, then remelt it into water, and then filter it. Use filtration to remove the insoluble impurities.
Get rid of it.
After such a step, the sediment, shell powder, etc. contained in the coarse salt can be removed.
As for removing soluble impurities, this involves chemical reactions. Although Liu Jin is a scumbag, he still knows some of the most basic and basic things. After several experiments, he can always find a way to remove them.
These impurities are removed and refined salt is extracted.
"Uncle Heishan, can you sell me two kilograms of coarse salt?"
If there was a way to make a fortune, Liu Jin naturally wanted to find out as soon as possible.
Liu Jin knew the situation at home very well. Even though Liu Jin was wearing the clothes of a scholar, his family also had more than ten acres of land. However, because Liu Jin was studying, the family was already bare. Liu Jin's mother had to save money every day.
He lived frugally, not even daring to take another bite of rice.
What's more, there is also a mortal enemy, Tang Laohu. Without money, it would be difficult to compete with Tang Laohu. Only with money can we have more ways to deal with this Tang Laohu.
"No matter whether it is for sale or not, if you want my salt, you are looking down on me, Zhao Heishan."
When Zhao Heishan heard this, he immediately picked up a shovel and put several kilograms of salt in a small jar.
"Uncle Heishan, I only have 10 cents here. You take it first. If it's not enough, I'll make up for it later."
Naturally, Liu Jin would not take Zhao Heishan's things for nothing, so he took out 10 cents from his pocket. These 10 cents were given to Liu Jin by his mother Wang before going out, saying that Liu Jin was a scholar and could not take them with him when he went out.
I had some money, but my family was really poor, so I only had 10 cents.
"You are out of sight now. It is my honor that you can look up to me, Zhao Heishan, and call me uncle. How can I accept your money?"
Zhao Heishan said very angry when he saw it.
Although he is poor, Zhao Heishan is still a very good person, otherwise he would not have helped Liu Jin's family often before. Now that Liu Jin wants his own salt, in his opinion, he is looking up to Zhao Heishan.
"Uncle Heishan, you must keep the money. If you don't, I won't want the salt. I'll find someone else to buy it."
When Liu Jin saw Zhao Heishan's refusal, he put 10 coins into Zhao Heishan's hand with a straight face.
Zhao Heishan and his son could only cook two pots of salt a day, which together weighed less than 10 kilograms. They earned more than ten cents a day by boiling salt.
Cooking salt takes time and firewood, produces very little salt, and is of poor quality. How could I bear to give him several kilograms of salt for nothing?
"Brother Jin, just accept it. My dad said that if your family hadn't lent me the food, I would have starved to death. A few kilograms of salt are nothing."
Zhao Erhu on the side also said in a naive manner.
"Then your family also helps my family farm every year, and I haven't said anything to thank you."
Liu Jin shook his head and said, forced 10 words to Zhao Heishan, picked up the small jar of salt and walked to the beach.
"Let's go, Huzi."
"Let's go to the beach to catch crabs."
As he spoke, he said to Zhao Erhu who was stunned behind him.
"Okay~"
When Zhao Erhu heard this, he immediately grinned and said, "Pitian." Pidian wanted to follow Liu Jin to the beach to catch crabs, but he looked at his father, Zhao Heishan, in fear.
Zhao Heishan looked at Liu Jin, then at Zhao Erhu, and then looked at the pot that had been refilled with brine, but did not say anything to stop him. Suddenly, Zhao Erhu was like a wild horse that had escaped the reins, flying after Liu Jin.
Liu Jin's family and Zhao Erhu's family have a very good relationship. They have played together since childhood. Their favorite thing when they were young was to go to the beach to catch crabs and eat them back.
In this era, there is no pollution, and the seaside environment is very good. The water is very blue, and the waves are turbulent between the sea and the sky, which makes people feel relaxed and happy.
The sand on the beach is very clean, and there are many kinds of small animals. Crabs are also very common, and there are also many large crabs. They can be seen everywhere and are easy to catch, especially in some rocky places.
, that’s a lot more.
Unlike later generations, ocean fishing was very popular, and the mesh of the fishing nets used was very small. In addition, some people put cages and nets in the sea, etc., which once depleted the lake for fishing, causing the ocean fishery resources to become increasingly depleted.
The large yellow croaker, small yellow croaker, etc. that once flooded the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Bohai Sea are almost on the verge of extinction, so that the price is very high.
In this ancient time when sails were not allowed to go into the sea, the fishery resources in the ocean were extremely rich. Even when Liu Jin was walking on the beach, he could see dead fish washed up on the beach by the sea water.
"If you leave such a treasure house and don't use it, you will stick to that one-third of an acre of land."
Tired of catching crabs, Liu Jin sat on the rocks at the beach, looked at the vast ocean in front of him, and couldn't help but shake his head.
Liu Jin, who traveled from later generations, really couldn't figure out why the sea was banned. There were countless fish, shrimps, crabs, etc. in the sea for food. He could catch them casually without starving the ground.
There are countless treasures in this ocean, and the profits from ocean trade are astonishing. If a piece of silk from the Ming Dynasty could be shipped to the West, its value would be comparable to gold.
"Damn Zhu Chongba, small farmers are still small farmers after all. After becoming emperor, the situation is still very small."