Chapter 769

Wang Cong blinked in surprise: "Live at the Maritime Trade Office?"

Pan Yun patted his shoulder and said: "You can move to your rented or bought house later; for now, stay at the Maritime Trade Office. Use this chance to meet more people—it'll help your maritime trade in the future."

Wang Cong's eyes darted, and he understood.

The Maritime Trade Office oversaw maritime trade; now he would live alongside its officials, sharing a courtyard with the Director of Maritime Trade, Cao Jixiang…

Wang Cong chuckled like an idiot.

"Wait, I'll have the rest of the cargo on the ship unloaded too."

Wang Cong hadn't just brought back silver—he'd also brought back plenty of other goods as cover.

Such as Japanese swords, lacquerware, and sulfur; Wang Cong had even bought a good deal of rice and wheat.

Sigh, there was nothing to be done—he'd been focused entirely on refining silver and hadn't paid attention to these things; by the time he realized he needed goods to mask the silver, it was too late to buy much.

Of all these goods, sulfur and Japanese swords offered the best value.

Sulfur was cheap, but for Wang Cong, a Daoist Priest, it could become extremely valuable.

Mount Sanqing's foundation was Daoist medicine, and sulfur could be used in prescriptions—not only for making Spirit-Sand Pills and other elixirs, but also for making sulfur ointment to treat scabies, and rock sulfur to treat cold deficiency syndromes;

Yet its highest usage was in military and industrial applications.

Sulfur was essential for gunpowder; the Nine Border Garrisons purchased vast quantities annually to mix gunpowder;

The rust-preventative grease used for maintaining firearms was also made from sulfur and oil.

And perhaps due to the special status of Daoist Priests, whenever industries lacked sulfur, they couldn't help but inquire with Daoist Priests about its mining and procurement.

So in Wang Cong's mind, sulfur had always been in high demand.

When he'd been selecting goods under Yi Tian Xintai's escort, he'd immediately spotted the cheap sulfur.

This stuff was abundant in Japan, easy to mine, inexpensive, and highly pure—truly a High-quality item for alchemy and artifact crafting.

So Wang Cong bought a large quantity, even modifying the cargo hold's layout to prevent sulfur from affecting other goods during transport.

As Wang Cong happily ordered the goods unloaded, he whispered softly into Pan Yun's ear: "If we can use the Maritime Trade Office to establish sulfur trade with the Nine Border Garrisons, our profits won't be any less than mining silver mines."

Pan Yun: "You've got big ambitions."

Wang Cong chuckled: "Aren't you the one who kept a few firelocks? And now that this envoy was bombed by pirates with cannons, I'm sure the imperial court will pour resources into researching cannons and firelocks—gunpowder needs sulfur, and if we don't import it, sulfur prices will rise."

Pan Yun asked him: "Do you know who currently supplies sulfur to the Nine Border Garrisons?"

Wang Cong: "I know."

Pan Yun paused, blinked: "You know?"

"I know," Wang Cong grinned: "It's the merchants from Ningbo. This time, when I went with Yi Tian Xintai to buy sulfur, the Japanese merchant who sold it to me happens to have a partnership with those Ningbo merchants. Do you know how much sulfur they import from him each year?"

Pan Yun: "How much?"

Wang Cong: "At least eighty thousand jin."

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow.

"That's just one Japanese merchant," Wang Cong winked, lowering his voice: "Little Xiao Shishu, guess whose name they're using to move through these waters?"

Pan Yun's gaze flickered: "Do you know?"

Wang Cong boasted: "The Sun family of the Marquis of Xichang."

Pan Yun's mouth opened slightly, and he glanced at Xue Shao.

Xue Shao was equally astonished; both fell silent. Neither had expected the secret to come so easily.

After a long silence, Pan Yun suddenly burst into laughter, shaking his head: "So it's hidden from above but not from below—I forgot I could start by investigating Japan."

Wang Cong: "What?"

Xue Shao pondered: "I wonder if the Sun family is one of the Four Families."

Wang Cong: "What?"

Pan Yun's gaze grew deep: "The Sun family is the Empress Dowager's maternal clan—they've always been discreet. If it turns out they're colluding with pirates, what do you think the Emperor will do?"

Wang Cong's eyes widened: "What?!"

Xue Shao thought of the Emperor's private treasury: "The Emperor may well know."

Wang Cong: "!!!"

He placed his hands on his hips and shouted: "Pay attention to me!"

Pan Yun and Xue Shao both looked up at him and said: "For now, forget about sulfur. Stick to lacquerware and Japanese swords."

Wang Cong listened, lowered his arms, and muttered: "Oh."

Sulfur was indeed in high demand in the Great Ming; the moment Wang Cong brought it into the city and stored it, merchants came knocking and bought it all at a good price.

Remembering Pan Yun and Xue Shao's conversation from earlier, Wang Cong took the merchant out for drinks; by the time he staggered back drunk that night, he had a decent grasp of the domestic sulfur market.

In the Great Ming, sulfur was a strictly controlled strategic commodity—civilians could only buy it from pharmacies and Daoist temples.

Wang Cong had only ever bought it for the temple, and only his father and Third Master used it for alchemy and artifact crafting, in small amounts—he never realized how tightly it was controlled.

He also didn't know that domestic sulfur mining was minimal; most came from imports.

Drunk and stumbling, Wang Cong returned to the Maritime Trade Office and knocked on Pan Yun's door.

Pan Yun opened the door, frowned at him, helped him inside, then went to the kitchen to make him a hangover decoction.

Wang Cong gulped it down, then after savoring it, said: "This is way too sweet…"

Pan Yun: "Too much honey. If it's too sweet, drink more water, go to the latrine more often—the alcohol will dissipate."

Wang Cong shook his head, probably dizzy—he immediately grabbed his head and pushed it upright to face Pan Yun directly: "Little Xiao Shishu, do you know where the Great Ming's sulfur mostly comes from?"

Pan Yun: "I didn't know before, but after returning, I checked the Quanzhou Maritime Trade Office's records—it's from Japan and Ryukyu."

Wang Cong grinned, raised one wobbling finger: "No—only Japan."

He exhaled: "The licensed trade system—monopolized by the Maritime Trade Office. Every time Japan came to Ming, the most they brought was sulfur.

Sulfur is cheap; they use it to exchange for our raw silk, silk fabrics, porcelain, books, and Ming coins—thin in, thick out—they take vast sums of our money with this cheap commodity."

Pan Yun said without a flicker of expression, "This is the bearing of a great nation."

Wang Cong scoffed: "Losing money on tally-trade, then letting merchant caravans smuggle huge quantities of sulfur out of Waegu past the Maritime Trade Bureau—no wonder every official strongly urges abolishing the Bureau; the books really are too ugly to look at."

Tally-trade is basically a losing business, run by the Maritime Trade Bureau;

while the trade that could move at fair prices all bypasses the Bureau and goes straight into smuggling, so the treasury doesn't collect a single copper in tariff, yet keeps having to pour money out to cover the Bureau's deficits…

Wang Cong only had to think about it and felt the Board of Revenue's vision go black.

(End of chapter)