Tens of kilograms of ginseng can be exchanged for an axe, hundreds of furs can be exchanged for a long knife, and even a dagger made of iron nails can be exchanged for a few kilograms of ginseng.

Such a good deal really shocked everyone.

Even after learning the news, Li Yide was stunned for a while before he said for a long time.

"There are also sincere people in the red wings, so they should be treated well."

The so-called "being well" means continuing to trade. There is no shortage of iron tools in the fleet. Before voyage, they replaced the ballast stone with iron ingots, which happened to be used to make iron tools.

After a private tentative transaction, it became an official-led transaction. The first meeting between the two parties was very harmonious. They exchanged more than a dozen iron knives for a large amount of fur. After ginseng, the natives took the initiative to perform their dances for these outsiders after eating their fill.

Next to the campfire, the two sides were having barbecue and talking happily, even though they didn't understand what each other was saying, and when the natives tasted the strong wine brought by the Ming people, the white wine was burning, but the feeling of being drunk and dreaming of death instantly convinced these natives.

That night, everyone slept well, and there was no need to be careful of the natives plotting that they were all drunk.

A night of peace.

The next morning, the leader of the natives led the gray wolf to come to Li Mu on his own initiative, pointed to the wine pot on their waists, and spoke in stiff Chinese words.

"Wine, wine..."

"Do you want wine?"

Li Mu didn't think the natives were too greedy. After all, they took too much advantage yesterday. So, before they parted, Li Mu and the others gave them all the remaining wine. The natives were naturally very happy.

A few days later, these natives even appeared outside Yuzhang City on their own initiative. They put down a few bundles of fur from afar. This time they came over not for iron tools but for strong wine. Their request was naturally met, and this also allowed Li Yide to see the opportunity to exchange strong wine for ginseng.

"Compared with iron tools, natives seem to prefer strong wine."

Li Yide said thoughtfully.

The Indians did prefer wine because they had never developed large-scale agriculture, so the Indians in North America never pointed out the technology tree of winemaking. In history, when faced with European muskets and armor, they were killed so hard that they were soon conquered by another thing brought by the Europeans.

It is spirits. The reason why many Indians chose European colonists as friends was to obtain spirits. In order to obtain spirits, the Indians not only cooperated with the colonists, but also hunted a lot of fur in exchange for money to buy spirits. They would always drink drunk. However, although spirits harmed the souls and bodies of the Indians, their obsession with spirits never changed.

"They love both of them. We have a lot of iron tools, but not much wine."

Wang Pingfeng replied.

As the deputy of the little marquis, he will stay in Yuzhang City. It is precisely because of this that he advocated that he should repair and recruit some tribes, and that he should fight another group. This is the foundation for taking root here.

The spirits on the boat are used for many purposes. In addition to drinking, they are also used for wound disinfection.

"It's not easy to want wine, so let's make a bar ourselves!"

"But, we don't have much food!"

Li Yide was immediately angry. There was indeed not much food on the boat, but there were a lot of canned food.

...

Half a month later, the little marquis's problem was solved with the sailing ship "Nicolas". Xu Anlin, who went to Acapulco, New Spain to trade, not only brought back a large amount of gold and silver, but also brought a whole ship of corn and more than a dozen tons of wheat. Corn can also be made into wine.

Of course, for Li Yide, he was more concerned about learning about the situation of Acapulco from Xu Anlin, especially the sales of goods. Perhaps the discovery of ginseng gave Yuzhang City a commodity that could be transported back to China, but the transportation and sales of Ming products were directly related to the future of Yuzhang City.

"Those Spanish don't doubt the source of your merchandise?"

"When we talked to the young marquis, the Spanish said they monopolized the trade of New Spain, but in fact, there were ships from other countries in each port, which was just a matter of how many things were. When we arrived in Acapulco, the cargo in Manila had not arrived yet and our goods were underwritten by several local wealthy merchants before they even left the port. For them, as long as there is something to sell, they didn't care about where the goods came from,"

Capitalists always have only profits, laws, and even the state, in their eyes, are not worth mentioning. At most, they are just taking them out as a banner when they need it.

"Little Marquis, you don't know that our Ming Dynasty cotton cloth, a good Songjiang flower cloth and Acapulco can make ten times the profit. Even ordinary white cloth can be sold for ten pesos. In Mazatlan, the price is even higher. If shipped to Bogota, the price of Peru will increase by at least another 20% or 30%. Those Spaniards are so unhappy that they can't add everything twenty times before selling it."

In fact, Xu Anlin didn't know that the reason why the Spaniards increased the price by more than ten times was that the Pacific route of this era was too long and full of unknown risks. Without several times or more profits, it was impossible to guarantee the operation of the sailing route and maintain high monopoly profits. This is the fundamental reason why this route has continued to this day.

Xu Anlin said again.

"Little Marquis, I'm wondering if I can go to Bogota or Peru next time. They have a larger population and our products sell better there."

"Well, no problem. The key is to expand sales. This time we bring a lot of goods, and it is also important to earn less. The most important thing is to open up sales. As long as the sales are opened, you will not worry about money in the future."

Profits may be important, but what is more important?

It's the market!

Xu Anlin thought about the words of the little marquis and then said.

"I have calculated that we can bring the goods and remove the ones we use for. It takes at least thirty round trips to buy a ship like the "Saint Nicholas". Can we lead the Spanish merchants to Yuzhang City? In this case, we may make less money, but the goods will be sold faster..."

Although Xu Anlin's suggestion made sense, Li Yide still refused without thinking.

"It's not the time yet. We have too few people. Yuzhang City has just been built. We have not yet established a foothold here. Let's wait a little longer and talk about it when another batch of immigrants is shipped next year!"

When you have not yet established a stable foothold, it is better to keep a low profile first!

Two months later, according to the Ming Dynasty's emperor's history, it was already the twelfth lunar month of the Ming Dynasty.

The temperature in Yuzhang City did drop a little, and even snow had started in the deep mountains in the north. But to everyone's surprise, the temperature dropped slightly a few degrees, and this place was obviously different from the Ming Dynasty.

Li Yide naturally recorded this "anomalous" in the navigation log. In fact, this is not a "anomalous". After all, in the "Geographical Record", there is a description of the Mediterranean climate, but it is inevitable that he feels a little surprised to be in it.

It is also because of this that when people in Yuzhang City spend the New Year of the Ninth Year of Gansheng, they always feel that something is missing, that is, there is no coldness in the north and the heat in the South China Sea.

This weather is simply…it’s so comfortable!

The only thing they felt sorry for was that there was no pork. According to the tradition of the Han people celebrating the New Year, they had to eat big meat, but here, this became a luxury.

In the past few months, the first generation of immigrants in Yuzhang City have not only explored hundreds of miles around, but have even sailed thousands of miles north along the coast by boat. During this period, they encountered more than a dozen native tribes, some of which are more friendly, so they reached an agreement with them to exchange for ginseng with strong liquor, iron, cotton, and porcelain. When they encounter a more fierce and attempt to attack the immigrants, it would be simpler. They can directly destroy their tribes and plunder their women.

By the ninth year of Gansheng, the population of Yuzhang City had exceeded 4,000. Not only did all the sailors who were willing to settle here had native maids, but even most of the exiles had families.

As the Lantern Festival is about to come, Li Yide finally led the fleet to leave Yuzhang City.
Chapter completed!