Chapter 492 Need to Pay Extra

In the late Qing Dynasty, the price of a 120mm semi-rapid-fire cannon from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was about 11,000 taels of silver.

At the same time, the price of a 120mm semi-rapid-fire cannon from the German Krupp Factory was only 9,000 taels.

If only the cost is counted, the actual cost may not exceed 1,000 taels.

After all, the selling price of 9,000 taels not only includes the manufacturing cost, but also includes the freight and the profit earned by the German manufacturer.

It is normal for the price to increase seven or eight times from Germany to the Qing Dynasty thousands of miles away.

Why is the actual cost of a cannon that may not exceed 1,000 taels more than 10 times when it is placed in the country?

The reasons are too complicated.

The three most important points are: first, there is no technology, second, there is no industrial system, and third, corruption.

The so-called Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is very corrupt, and it is proficient in everything. When it comes to guns and cannons, there is a lack of technology, a lack of raw materials, and even fewer talents.

Even imitation requires hiring foreign technicians, and all the raw materials such as steel, steel bullets, and steel pipes required rely on imports.

In this way, it is no wonder that Li Hongzhang sighed that it is better to buy than to make.

After all, the same guns and cannons, the German Krupp cannons and American Remington rifles imitated by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, are not only more expensive than imported ones, but also far inferior in quality to imported ones.

At present, the artillery technology of the Song Dynasty has made a leap forward.

At first, copper cannons were mainly manufactured. Copper cannons were safe, but expensive. The cost of a copper cannon was more than two or three times that of an iron cannon.

Iron cannons are cheap, costing only more than 100 strings, less than 200 strings, but their safety is greatly reduced.

This situation did not change greatly until the establishment of Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant, which completed the technical transformation from wrought iron to steel through new steel technology.

After that, all cannons produced in the Song Dynasty became steel cannons.

At the beginning, the cost of steel cannons was even more expensive than copper cannons, so the army had to use desulfurized wrought iron cannons to deal with emergencies.

After all, the steel production was too low at that time, and there was no way to supply too much.

After the Qingli Year, the production capacity of Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant was raised, and the number of steel cannons increased rapidly, and played a brilliant role in the subsequent wars to defeat Liao and destroy Xixia.

Basically, steel guns and cannons can cover the entire army.

In recent years, the steel technology of the Song Dynasty has been improving, and the performance and quality of steel have been getting better and better, and even some alloy steels have appeared.

Anyway, the School of Chemistry has always had enough funds, and they dare to add all kinds of alloy elements to the molten steel.

Relying on the national exhaustive method, high-strength steels such as chromium steel and nickel steel also appeared in the past two years, and were mass-produced in Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant, and have long been used in armaments.

At the same time, nitrocellulose also appeared.

Nitrocellulose is produced by pouring a mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid solution on cotton. Its process is not complicated, and it only needs to master the purification ability of sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

Not to mention that sulfuric acid and nitric acid have been discovered in ancient times, when Zhao Zhen found the answer in the novel and asked the School of Chemistry to study in this direction.

The School of Chemistry has naturally not been able to eat white rice in recent years. It has long been easy to produce sulfuric acid and nitric acid by dry distilling gallstones and saltpeter.

This operation was achieved by the alchemist Gu Gangzi in the Tang Dynasty. The School of Chemistry does not even need to study it by itself. The answer can be found by flipping through the "Yellow Emperor Jiuding Shendan Jingjue" written by Gu Gangzi.

It just so happens that the Song Dynasty now has cotton, so the Song Dynasty has smokeless gunpowder since then.

The only problem is that this thing is too dangerous. It will spontaneously ignite and explode when the temperature exceeds 40 degrees. If it replaces black gunpowder, it will allow the Song Dynasty's guns and cannons to be upgraded to a higher level, but it will kill 1,000 enemies and lose 800 of its own.

If this thing is put in a bullet, the bullet will become a small grenade, and it will explode when it encounters a high temperature and is exposed to the sun.

So in recent years, we have been studying how to make it stable.

Until the year before last, a doctor in the School of Chemistry mixed it with purified alcohol, stirred it with gelatin, and turned it into a jelly, dried and sliced ​​it. Since then, smokeless gunpowder has officially entered the historical stage.

Therefore, the artillery of the Song Dynasty has been updated again, and the technology is probably at the level of the late 19th century, that is, the most advanced artillery technology between 1860 and 1899.

This has led to another historical legacy problem.

That is, from the Baoyuan year to the tenth year of the Qingli period, the Song Dynasty made a lot of black powder grenades, flintlock rifles, cannons, field cannons and other firearms.

And the number is not small.

Taking cannons as an example, the Song Dynasty first formed an 80,000-man firearms army, each army had 5,000 people, a total of 16 armies, one army had 30 wheel-drawn cannons, and the 16th army had 480 cannons.

Later, the entire army carried out firearms reforms, and the number of cannons increased rapidly. The number of thousand-jin-class cannons in the hands of the 600,000 regular troops of the Song Dynasty alone exceeded 3,600.

Together with the city defense artillery in various places, the total number is about 5,000, far exceeding the level of less than 2,000 cannons during the Napoleonic era.

The remaining small field artillery exceeded 10,000, grenades numbered millions, and guns numbered nearly one million. After the technology upgrade, the Song Dynasty once again had a serious problem of overspending on military equipment.

This was mainly due to Zhao Zhen's fear of insufficient firepower.

Zhao Jun did not expect the technology to upgrade so quickly. In just ten years, the Song Dynasty would get rid of black gunpowder and begin to move towards the technological level of chemical gunpowder.

And steel with better performance also appeared.

So the problem occurred again after the cold weapons were eliminated and the hot weapons were replaced.

Zhao Jun's solution at that time was to sell the cold weapons in stock to neighboring countries and make a fortune from the war.

Now, we can only use the same method to solve it.

So this time the envoy came out with a mission. If there was a chance to sell the iron and crude steel weapons that were backward in the Song Dynasty, that would of course be the best result.

At this moment, everyone in the envoys was standing on the high tower. The demonstration of the Guangzhou just now had greatly shocked Emperor Rajaraja Chola I.

The other party quoted the price of four pounds of gold for one cannon, and asked for fifty cannons.

This means that the price of each cannon is 768 taels of silver. According to the average cost of the Song Dynasty, which is about 180 taels, and it is a second-hand cannon, it is already a profit.

However, Tan Wenxue shook his head and said: "Your Highness, at least I will not accept the price you proposed for four pounds of gold. I will report this matter to the court when I return to the court after my mission from Dashi. As for the court's answer, If you don’t agree, then it depends on what I, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, want.”

Hearing his words, Emperor Rajaraja Chola I asked anxiously: "Why, your cost is only three kilograms of gold. Isn't it enough for me to give four kilograms?"

"Your Highness should have never had any business dealings with the Song Dynasty."

Tan Wenxue smiled.

King Raja Chola I shook his head and said: "I really don't have it, and I don't know much about it."

"Then please ask Fulian to tell you."

Tan Wenxue said.

King Raja Chola I looked at Buddha Lotus.

Fulian had no choice but to whisper to him: "Your Majesty, if Dr. Tan did not lie to us, and the three kilograms of gold were indeed only the cost of construction, then the freight cost alone would have more than doubled when shipped to our Chola Dynasty, and the selling price If so, it will have to be doubled, which means it may take at least nine pounds of gold before they will sell it to us. "

"Nine pounds of gold?"

Emperor Rajan Chola I was stunned and lost his voice.

For religious reasons, Indians are particularly obsessed with gold. Since ancient times, various temples in the Indian Peninsula have been filled with gold.

In addition, ancient Indian nobles also used gold and gemstones as jewelry and dressed themselves in various gold jewelry.

However, the Indian peninsula is not a place with particularly large gold reserves, and local gold production is not high in the world rankings.

In addition to local gold deposits, their main source of gold comes from the sale of spices.

Since the time of the Kushan Empire, due to the expansion of the Silk Road in the Western Regions, many countries in the Indian Peninsula have sold spices to the Kushan Empire, and the Kushan Empire sold them to the Han Dynasty, thereby grabbing gold.

Later, during the Tang Dynasty, merchants from the Arab Empire brought spices to the Tang Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, some countries appeared on the Indian Peninsula, such as the Chola Dynasty, the Later Chalukya Dynasty, etc., and began to trade with the Song Dynasty by sea. .

So foreign trade is their main source of gold.

But what really made India the world's largest private gold holdings country in later generations was that during the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, European colonists plundered gold from the Americas, transported it to India in exchange for spices, and then transferred it to Europe.

After the seventeenth century, European colonists also transported American silver to the Qing Dynasty in exchange for tea, silk and porcelain. In this way, global gold was transferred to India and silver was transferred to the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, although there is a lot of gold in the Indian peninsula, it is actually very precious. It mainly relies on exchanging spices for gold, and there is very little export.

Raja Chola I felt that four kilograms of gold was already the high price he could give, but he didn't know that normally, the cost price was three kilograms of gold, and it would cost at least nine kilograms to sell it.

For fifty statues, it weighs 450 kilograms. When converted into the Song Dynasty, the price is 1,728 guan per statue, totaling 86,400 guan. It is basically sold at ten times the cost.

However, the price is actually not high. As a wealthy businessman, Fo Lian has a net worth of millions, which is more than enough to buy a thousand cannons.

The key is that gold is a religious and aristocratic instrument, often used to make noble ornaments and statues of gods. Therefore, countries in the Indian Peninsula always exchange things for gold, and rarely exchange gold for things.

This sudden loss of 450 kilograms of gold was obviously hard to accept for Emperor Rajaraja Chola I.

Although Tan Wenxue didn't understand what they were talking about, he could tell by looking at the expression of Raja Chola I. However, he did not speak and his expression remained calm.

The artillery of the Song Dynasty is not that easy to get. Even if it is a second-hand and backward cannon, it can at least be fired. If placed in the Middle East and the Indian Peninsula, they are products that are beyond the times. How can they be cheap?

What's more important is that selling artillery at ten times the price is only secondary. The main thing is follow-up maintenance, shells and gunpowder.

An artillery piece sells for 1,728 guang, and a cannon shell costs 3 guang no matter what.

The amount of gunpowder is 1,800 kilograms, or at least 200 kilograms.

And this is just the cost. When it was sold to the Chola Dynasty, all the data had to be doubled.

For example, during the late Qing Dynasty, the German Krupp Factory sold artillery shells from the Qing Dynasty for 30-80 taels of silver each.

Various parts include 35 taels for a bullet box, 61 taels of saddle for carrying ammunition, 70 taels of belt parts for horseback cannons, and 132 taels of equipment for marching.

All these things added up, a 75mm mountain cannon worth 2,753 taels, including various accessories and 300 rounds of shells, the total price can reach 12,000 taels.

This is just a 75mm mountain cannon. The price of a 120mm semi-rapid-fire cannon is 9,000 taels. The total price of a full set can reach about 33,000 taels, and the freight is as high as 20,000 taels per cannon.

In December of the 13th year of the Guangxu period, Xu Jingcheng, a minister of the Qing Dynasty, ordered 50 cannons of various types from the Krupp factory. The price of each cannon ranged from several thousand taels to 20,000 taels. The total price was 835,000 taels of silver, and the average price of one cannon was 16,700 taels.

The products sold by the Song Dynasty were all backward products. They were definitely not as good as Krupp cannons in terms of cost and production cost, but they could not lag behind in price.

Others dared to increase the price by seven or eight times, and the Song Dynasty dared to increase it by ten times.

These 50 cannons plus various supporting facilities cost less than 30,000 taels of silver. Selling them for 300,000 taels is not too much.

After all, the Song Dynasty is the only country in the world that has arms, and it is a monopoly.

Unlike the late Qing Dynasty, Britain, France, Germany and even the United States all had guns and cannons, and the competition was fierce, which led to severe price pressure.

"Your Highness, you have to think clearly. We have to go to the Western Chalukya and the Arabs on this trip. If Your Highness does not buy, I am afraid they will buy."

Tan Wenxue saw that Jathiraja Chola I was still hesitant, so he added fuel to the fire.

After hearing Fulian's translation, Jathiraja Chola I finally made up his mind and said, "Can we exchange it with spices?"

"The price of spices is not constant, and this is considered barter. A large amount of spices shipped to the Song Dynasty will depreciate, so we only exchange gold and silver."

Tan Wenxue shook his head.

Jathiraja Chola I pondered for a while and said, "If we are willing to buy it at the price of nine catties of gold per statue, can you not sell it to the Chalukya?"

"Ah?"

Tan Wenxue was surprised and said, "Your Highness, nine catties of gold is the normal selling price. I'm afraid this additional condition won't work. The Song Dynasty has always been about free trade and fair trade. You are making it very difficult for us."

"Then what will it take for you not to sell this cannon to the Chalukya?"

Jathiraja Chola I asked.

"This seriously violates the spirit of free trade in our Song Dynasty."

Tan Wenxue pondered.

Jathiraja Chola I looked at him with eager eyes.

Seemingly moved by the other party's sincere eyes, Tan Wenxue finally gritted his teeth and said, "But it's not impossible, unless Your Highness is willing to make up for our losses."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

Jathiraja Chola I asked hurriedly.

"You have to pay more!"

Tan Wenxue squeezed out a few words from his teeth and said: "Eighteen catties of gold for one ounce of gold for fifty statues. Your Highness also knows that cannonballs and gunpowder also cost money. If you have nine catties of gold for fifty statues, we can also sell fifty statues to the Chalukya Dynasty. In that case, we can also sell a lot of cannonballs and gunpowder. But if we don't sell them to them, we will lose a lot of cannonballs and gunpowder. This is because of your hospitality. Otherwise, "

Eighteen catties of gold for one statue?

Jatiraja Chola I was also shocked, and then he discussed with several important ministers around him.

After a while, I don't know what those ministers said to Jathiraja Chola I. He finally made up his mind and said, "Okay, I agree."

Although the price of eighteen catties of gold for one statue, plus various supporting facilities, the total price may exceed more than thirty catties per statue, but as long as the mortal enemy Chalukya Dynasty is eliminated, this amount of money is just a small amount of money.

The wealth of a dynasty is more than a few thousand catties of gold?

"Then congratulations, Your Highness. When I return, I will report this news to the court. I will lobby the court for this matter. Please wait for my good news." Tan Wenxue said with a smile. Although the price was almost overpriced, that is, a crude steel cannon with a barrel cost of only 180 guan was sold for 3456 guan, which was nearly 20 times higher. As for the shells and gunpowder, it is enough to make 10 times the profit. The shells are equipped with 200 rounds and the gunpowder is equipped with 1800 jin. The quoted cost of the shells is 3 guan and the gunpowder is 200 guan, but in fact the cost of the shells is only 1.5 guan and the gunpowder is 120 guan. The total cost of the barrel is 180 plus the shells are 300 plus the gunpowder is 120, and the total cost does not exceed 600 guan. Sold to the Chola Dynasty, the shells are 3000 guan, the gunpowder is 1200, plus the barrel is 3456 guan, and the full set of cannons is 7656 guan, fifty statues, which is 380,000 guan. The Song Dynasty seemed to be making a lot of money.

But this meant less business from the Chalukya Empire.

Even if they only sold it at 9 jin per piece, 50 pieces would be 300,000 guan.

The Chola Dynasty wanted 50 pieces, and they sold another 50 pieces when they passed by the Chalukya Empire, which would be 600,000 guan, a full 220,000 guan less.

It was not a huge profit, but a huge loss.

But the problem was.

It was okay not to sell cannons.

After all, the Song Dynasty was trustworthy, and since they had signed such an exclusive sales contract, the Song Dynasty would naturally abide by it.

But who said that the Song Dynasty only had cannons?

Anyway, the contract only stipulated that cannons were not allowed to be sold.

There was always one type of hand grenade, flintlock, ceramic fragmentation mine, primitive rocket launcher that was suitable for the Chalukya Empire.