Chapter 82

"In a few days, Brother Luo will know that our company can't just sell sesame oil; we need to have some other items as well. I plan to make some small trinkets with these hides, just as a supplement. They're not worth much, but have you found the crystal and magnets I asked you to look for?" Hong Tao kept the whale hides to make gloves and umbrellas.

Working at sea involves rough ropes, and Hong Tao's hands, which were already a bit rough in modern times, looked even finer compared to the hands of the Tanka women. Whether it was hemp rope or sail rope, a few rubs would cause pain, so he wanted to make a pair of sturdy yet soft leather gloves for himself, a kind of labor protection. However, there were no gloves in the Song Dynasty, so Hong Tao had to figure it out himself. Now that he had the whale hides, he could have the Tanka women sew gloves as a side business. After all, they couldn't boil whale oil every day, and once these women were idle, Bo Fu would be as unhappy as an old landlord, feeling that they were getting paid for nothing.

Another small item was the umbrella. There were plenty of umbrellas in the Song Dynasty, but none made from whale baleen and whale hide. Compared to wood and bamboo, the ivory-like texture and natural elasticity of whale baleen made it an excellent material for umbrella ribs. The highly stretchable and soft whale hide, with its natural patterns, was a perfect match when used to cover the whale baleen ribs. It was light, waterproof, sun-blocking, and beautiful. Although they weren't the only ones making umbrellas, they could still make some money with these features. After all, there was plenty of whale baleen, and it would be a waste to leave it unused.

"Of course, they're not rare. I picked the best ones to buy. Brother Hong, are you going to use them to make something?" Luo Youde's curiosity about Hong Tao's strange ideas had gradually shifted from extreme curiosity to mild interest. He was always discovering new things, which eventually became tiring.

"This time it's not about business. I want to make some navigation equipment." Hong Tao was already eager, snatching the silk package from Luo Youde's arm, quickly opening it, and examining a piece of natural crystal against the sunlight.

"Oh... I wonder when Brother Hong's glass kiln will start? I've already asked someone to buy soda ash from the north, and they should be back soon." Seeing Hong Tao's eagerness, Luo Youde quickly asked the question he most wanted to know before Hong Tao lost interest.

"Glass kiln! Oh, right, the glass kiln... What do you think of this? When the soda ash arrives, I'll first make something that sells better. As for the glass, I think we should wait. We need more soda ash, and I don't have enough people to make glass. It's a complicated process. How about we wait until our company makes some money and then decide?" Hong Tao had long forgotten about the glass kiln. With whale oil and whale hides, who would bother with glass? Besides, he wasn't good at it. Without pure soda ash, he couldn't guarantee making clear, transparent glass.

"Alright, I won't disturb you then. I'll leave Uncle Cai here. If you need anything, just ask him. I'll take the sesame oil to Guangzhou... uh... the company." Luo Youde agreed with Hong Tao. They needed to do things step by step. Hong Tao had only a few people, and they had to go out to hunt whales, so he didn't have time to deal with glass. He got up to leave and went to the dock with Luo Dacai to supervise the loading of whale oil onto the ship.

"Little fish and shrimp, I have a question for you. Listen carefully! One jin of sesame oil sells for 500 wen. How much would 5000 jin of sesame oil be worth?" Watching Luo Youde and Luo Dacai leave the schoolyard, Hong Tao smiled and started to quiz the children.

"Clack, clack, clack..." The children, regardless of age, all had a small abacus made from whale baleen hanging from their chests, which looked like ivory if not examined closely. Upon hearing Hong Tao's question, they immediately lowered their heads and started calculating. Soon, Bo Jiao was the first to raise his hand with the answer.

This was Hong Tao's rule. In class, he was the authority, and no one was allowed to speak out of turn. If they wanted to speak, they had to raise their hand and wait for his permission. This wasn't to stifle their creativity but to teach them to follow rules. Rules were necessary everywhere, and on Ximaizhou, his word was the rule!

"Good, Bo Jiao, you're the fastest. You go first!" Hong Tao waited a moment, seeing that most of the children had finished and raised their hands, before letting Bo Jiao give the answer.

"2,500,000 wen!" Bo Jiao loudly read out his answer from the abacus.

"Good, let me see... Yes, Little Fish and Shrimp got it right too. Weng Ya and Weng Shu did well too. Huang Ya, your answer is a bit off, but it's still good, not worse than your older siblings." Hong Tao nodded, walked to the children, and looked at their abacuses on their knees, feeling satisfied.

These seven or eight children were of different ages. Bo Jiao was almost 12, while Huang Ya was only 6. The three little girls from the Weng and Bu families were just over 8, and their intellectual development was at different levels. Therefore, he couldn't use the same standards for all of them. For someone like Bo Jiao, if he couldn't correctly calculate simple multiplication and division, Hong Tao would make him memorize the multiplication table. For someone like Huang Ya, as long as the method was correct, the answer didn't matter, and he could take his time.

2,500,000 wen! All in copper coins, not paper money, which is 2,500 guan! Plus the whale hides and baleen, which would be worth at least 500 guan. So, a whale, not even a large one, weighing about ten tons, could be exchanged for six Tanka boats! This didn't even include the value of the whale meat. If the whale meat could be sold, even at the cheapest fish price of 15 wen per jin, three to four tons of meat would be worth hundreds of guan. Additionally, whale bones could be used to make high-quality bone glue, which was invaluable.

No wonder European and American countries went crazy over whaling in the 19th century. One whale could support a hundred families. For survival and development, humans have even eaten tree bark, so killing a few whales was nothing!

Moreover, the current use of whales was still very basic. If they could do more research, they might significantly increase their value. For example, the by-products from boiling whale oil still contained a lot of fat, but Hong Tao didn't know how to extract it. However, he had an idea that might turn these by-products into treasure, creating more wealth for himself and those with whom he had business ties.

Unfortunately, this method couldn't be used yet. The by-products couldn't be stored for long and were all buried by his father-in-law as fertilizer. Bo Fu, the old stubborn man, was a good landlord material. He originally said he didn't want to go ashore, but once he did, he was more active than anyone else. Due to his joint disease, he couldn't do heavy labor, but he didn't sit idle. He took a hoe and dug a plot of land next to the school, turning it into a vegetable garden. After Hong Tao told him that the oil, after fermentation, was excellent fertilizer, he started digging pits and burying the waste oil, watering the garden every day.

Surprisingly, the seeds in the garden sprouted and grew well. As the saying goes, an old person is a treasure. Who said Tanka people only knew how to fish and not farm? They just didn't have the conditions. If they were given the chance to buy land and build houses, they would likely be good farmers.

By mid-November, everyone had put their work aside and started preparing for the New Year. The Song Dynasty followed the lunar calendar, so December 30th was New Year's Eve, and January 1st was New Year's Day. Hong Tao had thought about switching to the Gregorian calendar, but he couldn't figure out the exact conversion, so he decided to stick with the lunar calendar. After all, it was just a time unit, and as long as January didn't turn into March, it was fine.

How did the Tanka people and the Song people usually celebrate the New Year? Hong Tao didn't know, but this year, the Tanka families on Ximaizhou planned to splurge. They would buy chickens, ducks, pork, and beef. As for seafood, they would just catch it themselves, as it was fresher than anything they could buy. Hong Tao had wanted to show off by making a ceramic hot pot, but after a lot of effort, he found that there was no mutton! It wasn't that it was expensive; it simply didn't exist!

Did people in the Song Dynasty not eat mutton? No! In the Northern Song Dynasty, mutton was the best meat on the table, whether boiled or roasted. Although it was expensive, it was still available. However, in the Southern Song Dynasty, except for some major cities in the north, mutton was rarely found in southern cities. The reason was simple: the areas suitable for raising sheep were occupied by the Jin Dynasty. South of the Yangtze River, there were no sheep, and although the Song and Jin Dynasties had reached a peace agreement, large-scale trade hadn't started yet. The few sheep that existed didn't even make it to Hainan Island, let alone Guangzhou.

Could sheep not be raised south of the Yangtze River? They could, but the people didn't want to. Cattle could plow fields, but sheep were only good for eating. During the Jia Ding period, the Southern Song Dynasty imported some lambs from Western Xia, intending to raise them in the south, but it caused widespread complaints among the people. The sheep often damaged crops, and the cost was too high. In the end, it was more practical to import the sheep directly, so they stopped raising them.

PS: Click, collect, and recommend! Throw them all at Hong Bapi...

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