Chapter 2355
Wang Tom couldn't be sure at the moment whether Matsumae Kohiro really didn't know Haihan, or whether he was deliberately acting like this to trick himself. Out of caution, he tried his best to introduce Haihan's situation in a plain tone. Tom Wang described Haihan as a country that focuses on maritime trade and has established good trade relations with East Asian countries. As for Haihan's military expansion, Wang Tom did not mention it at all, so as not to arouse the hostility of the other party.
Matsumae Kimihiro showed great interest in the cross-border trade mentioned by Wang Tom, and asked him about the specific trade content.
Although Wang Tom is a senior military official, he is not completely unfamiliar with trade matters. He is also relatively clear about Haihan's products that are popular in international trade. However, the needs of Hokkaido may be different from those of mainland countries, so Wang Tom is also prepared for this.
Although the purpose of this trip was to explore unknown areas and its nature was focused on the military field, Wang Tom also asked the cargo ship to load some goods produced in Haihan when setting off from the Datong River, so that he could visit the ports encountered on the way in the name of trade.
"Lord Lord, I have prepared a few small gifts. They are all products produced in our country. Please accept them. We also have some products on the ship. If Lord Lord is interested, you can have some samples sent over later."
Wang Tom made a gesture, and Amakusa Shiro immediately handed a specially brought rattan box to Matsumae Ujihiro.
Matsumae Ujihiro took the box and returned to his father to open it. After Matsumae Kimihiro looked at it, his face looked a little confused. Inside the box were a small flat paper box, a glass lamp with a copper base, and a book with the words "Three Hundred Poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties" on the cover.
Wang Tom had already expected it, so he added: "Lord, can you allow my subordinates to show you how to use it?"
Matsumae Kimihiro happily agreed, and Amakusa Shiro stepped forward and took out the glass lamp from the box, opened a small mechanism, took off the glass lampshade, and then took out the small paper box and pushed it gently with his hand. It turned out that it contained He took out one of the dozens of small wooden sticks and rubbed it against the side of the cardboard box. The small wooden stick immediately burst into flames, making both Matsumae and his son couldn't help but widen their eyes.
Amakusa Shiro took the small wooden stick and lit the wick, then blew out the flame on the wooden stick and put the lampshade back on the base. The flame was not disturbed by the surrounding air and burned extremely smoothly.
After Shiro Amakusa finished the operation, he introduced in concise language how to use the dial on the oil lamp to adjust the length of the wick, how to open the mechanism, refill the glass oil bottle under the base and change the wick. After the explanation, he asked Matsumae Kohiro to open the book "Three Hundred Poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties" to see if the illumination of the oil lamp was bright and clear enough for reading.
The principles of matches and oil lamps are not complicated, but they are the embodiment of Haihan industrial technology and are by no means comparable to competing products of this era. The glass windshield, oil pot, and the mechanical structure of the oil lamp seemed to Matsumae and his son to be very exquisite, and the matches that could be easily lit made them very convenient.
Although it was daytime, the lighting in the large room where Matsumae Castle arranged the meeting was very ordinary. After the oil lamp was lit, it was quite bright. When Matsumae Kohiro opened the book "Three Hundred Poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties", he found that the handwriting on it was particularly clear.
Of course, this is not entirely due to the effect of the oil lamp. This "Three Hundred Poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties" was printed by a printing factory in Sanya using the most advanced metal movable type clappers and high-quality inks. In addition, special printing paper developed for this purpose was used. The clarity is definitely far better than the printing techniques such as engraving, wooden movable type, and porcelain movable type that are common in this era.
If you are someone who often has the opportunity to come into contact with printed books, you will probably immediately notice that this book is unusual in terms of materials and printing technology. However, Matsumae and his son are obviously not among these. They both subconsciously think that this is a good thing. The look and feel is brought about by the lighting provided by glass oil lamps.
Matsumae Kohiro asked Wang Tom through Amakusa Shiro whether these things were all goods sold by Haihan. After receiving a positive answer, he immediately expressed his willingness to spend money to buy some more oil lamps and matches, and was ready to learn more about Haihan ships. Other goods brought by the team. As for books, they were obviously not among his interests.
But Tom Wang doesn’t care. Haihan’s main purpose of selling books abroad is to enhance its external influence from a cultural perspective, and profits are secondary. Many books are not profitable at all, and even require special funds for subsidies. He chose the book as a gift not to sell books, but simply to show the lighting effect of the oil lamp and to show his goodwill on this trip.
As for commodities of a special nature such as arms, Wang Tom did not intend to take them out at the beginning, so as not to make the other party suspicious.
For the Matsumae clan, due to its remote location, there are not many merchants willing to come here to trade, and even fewer people come to this ice and snow in winter. If this fleet from Haihan Kingdom came here for trade purposes, it would really be considered a rare visitor.
Of course, if Matsumae Kohiro wants to maintain this hard-won trade relationship for a long time, it is definitely not enough to just spend money to buy the goods shipped by Haihan. He also has to come up with local specialties that interest Haihan people.
The Daonan area where Matsumae Domain is located is almost all mountainous, and the area that can be used for agricultural cultivation is extremely limited. The cultivated land is basically used to grow grain, and grain obviously will not be the reason that attracts the Haihan people to come here for trade. However, the Matsumae clan monopolized the trade between Japan and the Ainu tribe, and it did have some special stocks.
"We have all kinds of furs in our warehouse, including deer skins, bear skins, fox skins... and many other good things harvested from the mountains. If you are interested, you can ask my son to take you to choose from."
There really weren't many things that Matsumae Kimihiro could trade, and they were basically all from the Ainu tribe. These things usually have to wait until late summer or early autumn before they are transported to Edo for sale. However, the number of wealthy people in Edo who could consume these fur products was limited, so there was still a lot of inventory in the warehouses of Matsumae Castle.
When Wang Tom heard this, he was naturally interested in taking a look at Matsumae Domain's inventory. These furs are not souvenirs that can be obtained just anywhere. If they can be purchased in large quantities, the shipping costs will be included in military expenses, so at least they will not lose money on this transaction.
In order to further discuss the contents of the transaction, Matsumae Kohiro invited Wang Tom to stay for dinner. However, due to the limited local products, this dinner was not up to the standard of a banquet. In Wang Tom's opinion, it was just a homely meal, not even comparable to the officer's meal he had on the ship. There were a lot of dishes on the table, but each portion of food was only enough for two bites, and most of it was seafood, so it could only be half full. Of course, eating is secondary. The main purpose is to get closer to each other and discuss the method and content of the transaction.
That night, the Haihan Fleet docked at the coast near Songqian Castle to rest. The sailors were allowed to take turns ashore for activities, but they were not allowed to approach Songqian Castle on their own initiative to avoid causing unnecessary trouble. Although this disappointed many sailors who wanted to see the Japanese style in the area near Matsumae Castle, there were so many military orders that no one dared to violate them.
After Wang Tom and his party had dinner, they returned to their temporary station on the beach. Tom Wang is quite satisfied with the result of today's contact with Matsumae Kohiro. He actually did not expect to establish a solid trade relationship with Matsumae Clan through this visit. In a place as far away as Matsumae Clan, without extremely generous profits, it would be difficult to drive Haihan merchants to come here to engage in trade. Activity.
As for the fur products that Matsumae Domain can provide, although they are all good goods, their value is far from high enough to allow foreign merchants to ignore the shipping costs. It would definitely not be a loss for Wang Tom to pick up the goods on the way. There is no need to consider the freight cost anyway. But if Haihan merchants are to make a special trip from Dinghaiport and other places to sail thousands of miles, the resale price of shipping it back to Daming or Haihan will probably be higher. Only by setting an extremely high price can you protect your capital.
Apart from these, Matsumae Domain seems to have nothing else to offer. Moreover, this place has no mineral deposits, no land suitable for establishing a colonial port, and does not have a large permanent population. It does not have high potential for Haihan. strategic value. According to Wang Tom's observation, the Matsumae clan has extremely limited financial, human and material resources. It is not even qualified to become a trading partner of Haihan. It can only do a small business to establish a relationship first, which may come in handy in the future.
However, in addition to trade negotiations, Wang Tom has a special gain. During the meeting with Matsumae Kimihiro, he expressed that he would continue sailing north and hoped to hire a local guide who was familiar with the northern environment. Matsumae Kimihiro readily agreed and asked his son Matsumae Ujihiro to help arrange the matter.
When leaving Matsumae Castle, Wang Tom learned that in addition to the Japanese who moved from Honshu Island, there were also Ainu people from the northern region who came here from time to time, bringing various goods for trading. . Some Ainu people think that the living environment of Matsumae Domain is relatively more livable, so they will stay here for a long time.
After winter, land transportation is inconvenient, so some Ainu people who have arrived in Matsumae Domain will wait here until spring before leaving. If the Haihan people want to find a guide, there will definitely be Ainu people who are willing to take a smooth boat to leave here and return to their hometown.
Sure enough, Matsumae Ujihiro, who was responsible for handling this matter, found two Ainu guides for Wang Tom without spending much effort. The two men were wrapped in thick animal skins, and each carried a pair of earthen bows and arrows on their backs. The most eye-catching thing was that they both had beards that were more than half a foot long. Their appearance was indeed obviously different from that of East Asians.
The two men, who claimed to be uncle and nephew, came here from the north on a merchant ship of the Matsumae clan in the autumn, and sold various mountain goods collected by the tribe to the Matsumae family. They planned to purchase some daily necessities here after winter passed and then look for opportunities. Take the boat back.
Because these two people have been doing business with the Matsumae clan for many years, they can also speak Japanese and are familiar with the customs and customs of the west coast of Hokkaido. After Amakusa Shiro communicated with him and confirmed that there was no problem with the communication, Wang Tom decided to let these two people serve as guides for the subsequent itinerary.
However, before setting off, the deal with Matsumae Domain still had to be completed. Early the next morning, Matsumae Domain's retainers delivered five cartloads of various goods, totaling over a thousand furs of all sizes. The Ainu uncle and nephew who had just been hired immediately came to work as technical consultants to help inspect the goods.
There was actually nothing we could do about it. All of Wang Tom's men were sailors. There were almost no Orions who were familiar with beast furs and all kinds of mountain products. They were far less knowledgeable than these two Ainu people. For this errand, Amakusa Shiro promised them a hundred kilograms of rice, and the two immediately regarded the Haihan people as their temporary allegiance.
After their selection, they finally selected three carts of goods, which were then discounted with the Haihan goods selected by the Matsumae clan. In addition to high-end daily necessities such as matches and glass oil lamps, the goods sold to the Matsumae Domain were mainly iron farm tools and cooking utensils.
These iron products are very practical for the Matsumae clan. After all, there are no iron mines within the jurisdiction of the Matsumae clan. If they want to purchase a large amount of iron products, they have to go to the big cities on Honshu Island. Including the intermediate costs, they are much better than what the Kaihan people provide. Iron products are much more expensive.
Most of Haihan's iron daily necessities have adopted industrial production methods, and the production cost is much lower than that of traditional blacksmith workshops. Even if they are shipped from the far south, there is still a slim profit after deducting transportation costs. These iron products were extremely popular in the Ming Dynasty and North Korea, and it seems that Japan will be no exception.
When the two Ainu people saw that Kaihan had traded so many iron tools to the Matsumae clan, their eyes widened. They hurriedly expressed to Amakusa Shiro with pictures and gestures that they would leave some iron tools for their tribe and they could provide them with more iron tools than Matsumae. The feudal lord offered more favorable trading conditions and even hoped to exchange their wages for iron settlement.
For the Ainu people who lack smelting technology, iron tools are considered a very precious and scarce resource. If they can obtain a large number of iron tools for the tribe, the uncle and nephew will make a great contribution.
Shiro Amakusa immediately reported the situation, and Tom Wang was dumbfounded after hearing this. If he had known this, why would he have bought so many goods from the Matsumae Clan and traded directly with the Ainu people at the source of the supply? There was no middleman to eat the price difference. Wouldn't it be more cost-effective?
But now that the matter has come to this, he can't play with Haihan's business reputation, and the deal he has promised to the Matsumae clan must still be completed. You won’t lose money anyway, you’ll just make less money.
Fortunately, there were many ships coming out this time, and each ship still had a lot of such cargo to act as ballast, so there was no need to worry about running out of things to trade with the Ainu. At that moment, Wang Tom asked Amakusa Shiro to appease the two people and asked them to do their jobs well first. After the errand was completed, he would give each of them an iron pot as a reward.
(End of chapter)