Chapter 322: Very Fragrant

August asked Liang Yao for a sample of kerosene, and soon, Connie brought a small bottle of kerosene sample.

"Excuse me."

After thanking Connie, August carefully observed the pale yellow transparent liquid in the glass bottle, and even leaned forward to smell it.

The pungent smell forced him to quickly move his nose away from the mouth of the bottle.

"What a strange and disgusting smell, the smell of whale oil is much better than this shitty kerosene. The inferior whale oil with a fishy smell smells better than it."

Hills frowned and said with disdain.

"Compared to this stinky oil, I think people are more willing to choose whale oil that tastes better, even inferior whale oil is more comfortable to use than this stinky oil.

Excuse me, this oil is garbage, there will be no market at all. If my servant buys this stinky oil, I will pour it into the sewer without hesitation."

Hills belittled kerosene.

Hills originally thought that Liang Yao had asked him to come today to discuss gold, banking, securities, finance, and other decent and big businesses that the Barings family is good at.

Unexpectedly, Liang Yao actually asked him to discuss such a dirty business, which was simply an insult to him!

Kerosene is just a daily necessity, no matter how much it is praised, what great future can there be in a small daily necessity business?

Can this thing have a market of hundreds of millions of dollars?

Hills lost his patience and left angrily.

"Mr. Liang, I thought you would have better taste than those old-fashioned people in New York, but I didn't expect you to be more old-fashioned than them. What kind of money can you make by selling such daily necessities? Ridiculous, really too ridiculous."

Before leaving, Hills did not forget to mock Liang Yao.

"Mr. Hills really has no patience at all."

Liang Yao glanced at Hills who was leaving with disdain, then turned his head and looked at August and said.

"I think the Rothschilds must have better vision and more patience than the Barings."

Hills thought Liang Yao was ridiculous, and Liang Yao also thought Hills was ridiculous, not only ridiculous, but also pathetic.

Selling daily necessities commonly used by the public is a way to make money. Kerosene is not only very popular in industrial countries such as Europe, but also in agricultural countries in East Asia.

Both the people of industrial countries and agricultural countries have a demand for lighting.

After the Second Opium War, kerosene was one of the first industrial products that the West successfully dumped in China.

The Qing government's high taxes on kerosene could not stop kerosene from carving out a path among the many Chinese native vegetable oils.

The reason is that it is cheap and easy to use.

In 1871, the price of tea oil in Guangzhou was 5 taels and 4 cents per dan, soybean oil was 5 taels and 5 cents per dan, hemp oil was 5 taels and 5 cents per dan, and peanut oil was 5 taels and 3 cents per dan.

In contrast, the price of kerosene was only 2 taels and 8 cents per dan, which was only one-third of the price of local vegetable oils.

Moreover, the combustion process of kerosene is stable, it will not be interrupted, and the brightness is higher. The lighting effect is much better than traditional vegetable oil. In the end, even the oil farmers near Guangzhou stopped using vegetable oil and switched to kerosene for lighting.

August shrugged, but was secretly delighted.

He hoped that the Baring family would withdraw from the project, so that there would be one less competitor in the European market in the future.

Therefore, when Hills left, August was too lazy to get up and pretend to retain Hills.

"The Baring family is not a group of short-sighted people, but this Mr. Hills who is out of touch with the world is."

August put down the glass bottle of kerosene in his hand and gave the Baring family a fair evaluation.

"If Thomas was sitting here to discuss this business with you today, I think the communication process would be much more harmonious. I would like to ask, is this oil vegetable oil or animal oil?"

If the children of the Baring family were all ignorant and short-sighted people like Hills, the Baring family would not be able to maintain such a great influence in the British Empire today.

Rothschild wished that all the children of the Baring family would be like Hills, and the banking industry was also a key industry for the Rothschild family.

After all, the founder of the Rothschild family, Mayer Sr., made his fortune in the banking and financial industry.

Their two families also had frequent business dealings, especially the third son Nathan Rothschild, who was arranged by Mayer Sr. to develop in London, who had the most intersections with the Baring family. It can be said that the two are both partners and competitors.

"Mineral oil." Liang Yao answered August's question.

"What kind of mineral?" August opened his eyes and continued to ask.

"It's a commercial secret. I can't tell you." Liang Yao smiled, "Mr. August, you asked too many questions."

"This is a big business. The more you ask, the more you will understand. The Rothschild family will be more confident to cooperate with you." August also smiled very kindly, "Since it is mineral oil, the output must be very high, right?"

Kerosene is selling very well in the Crystal Palace Mall today. American consumers like good quality and cheap kerosene, and European consumers will definitely like it too.

The market prospects of kerosene are beyond doubt. August is most concerned about the output of kerosene now.

If you want to make a huge fortune by relying on cheap daily necessities, output is the top priority.

"Last year's output was 8 million liters, and this year's output will exceed 15 million liters without any problem. If Rothschild Bank is willing to provide me with a loan to expand production capacity, I am confident that the annual output will reach more than 50 million liters within two years!" Liang Yao said with great enthusiasm.

In 1852, the Rothschild family's assets reached an astonishing 9.53 million pounds, and the funds it controlled were tens of millions of pounds. They must have a large amount of working capital in their hands.

If Liang Yao could borrow money from the Rothschild family, he could also alleviate the current problem of tight working capital.

The construction of the Pacific Railway will occupy a large part of his working capital. The California Coal and Steel Union has not yet achieved profitability, and it still needs to continue to invest money in it to increase steel production. Even if he has gold mines in California and Australia, it may not be able to guarantee the supply of the two gold-eating beasts of railways and steel.

But California's heavy industry has to be carried out. At present, Liang Yao also wants to expand the oil production capacity in Los Angeles, and he needs more working capital for turnover.

Now only the current financial giants such as the Rothschild family and the Baring family can meet his needs.

"Increase the production from 8 million liters to more than 50 million liters in two years. Have you found an oil lake in California?"

The annual production of 8 million liters of kerosene is enough to shock August. Increasing the production of kerosene from 8 million liters to more than 50 million liters in two years

If it were someone else, August would definitely treat the other party as a lunatic and a moron, thinking that the other party must be bragging.

After so many years of immersion in the business world, August has seen many financial scammers.

But Liang Yao is not a person who can only brag and draw cakes. Two years ago, when Liang Yao signed a bet agreement with him and Buckhouse, August thought Liang Yao was crazy, stupid, and a brainless, stupid and rich upstart.

Not only he felt that way, but many New York nobles and even the citizens who were watching the excitement also felt that way. Most people were not optimistic about Liang Yao's New York business district plan until the opening of the Crystal Palace Mall today.

If California really has such a terrifying kerosene production capacity, the market of hundreds of millions of dollars mentioned by Liang Yao is still very conservative.

In other words, the business demon in front of him who was talking nonsense with him was still a very modest and conservative person.

At this moment, August felt that his brain was buzzing, a little messy, and even a little excited. Every cell in his body was boiling with excitement.

Damn it, such a terrifying kerosene production, any lighting fuel instantly became indecent in front of kerosene.

"It's not that I found an oil lake in California, but that I dug an oil field." Liang Yaoyun said calmly.

August couldn't sit still anymore. He jumped up from his seat excitedly, and sniffed the bottle of kerosene sample like crazy, not caring about the strange eyes of the people around him.

"This smells damn good, very fragrant."

Now August doesn't think the smell of kerosene is pungent at all.

Ordinary consumers will not think that the inferior kerosene with insufficient purity smells bad. The price of a liter of kerosene in Crystal Palace is 30 cents, which is 20 cents lower than whale oil.

The 20-cent difference is just a day or two of food expenses for the working class, so who cares whether it smells good or not.

Besides, the fishy smell of ordinary whale oil is not necessarily much better than the smell of kerosene.

"The smell of money is of course very fragrant." Liang Yao said.