A barrel of black water oil from Sumatra is about 26 gallons, which is converted into a Ming unit of measurement, which is about 118 liters and weighs about 100 kilograms. Such a barrel of black water oil is worth about 25 Ming Yuan in Sumatra, which is an extremely cheap local lighting item.

As a member of the British Pattani Trading House, Captain Andre purchased 200 barrels of this not very good condition, but it burns without much smoke and is very bright fuel. He originally wanted to try to go to Manila or Hoi An to sell the black water oil and open up a new trade route for himself.

But when he arrived at the island of Ambuna and met and talked with the Chinese, he abandoned the voyage of commercial exploration in the hope that the Pattanii Merchant House would establish formal trade relations with China.

As a result of his efforts to persuade him, the British merchants in Pattani finally agreed to authorize him to go to China on behalf of the British Merchant House in Pattani, pretending to be an envoy of the British Crown, and establishing normal trade relations between Great Britain and China. Before 1604, the name of England was England. But in 1604, when James I succeeded to the throne, he called himself King of Great Britain.

The geographical term Great Britain has become synonymous with the name of the United Kingdom. After all, the current King of England is not only the King of England, but also the King of Scotland and the Duke of Wales, and it is a bit cumbersome to pronounce the names of these two kingdoms and a principality together. Therefore, the British nowadays prefer to simply call their country the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Captain Andrew, an English squire-turned-merchant, hurried back to the island of Ambuna with a forged credential in his hand. When the Chinese on the island heard that he had brought the credentials presented to the Chinese emperor by the British king, they naturally did not dare to slack off.

They sent a boat to accompany André's Stag, a typical British East India merchant ship, low to board and slender, a far cry from the rounded hull of the Dutch. The Buck has been in the water for less than two years and has a payload of about 600 tons, but it cost more than £3,000.

Even within the British East India Company, this armed merchant ship was a good ship that could be ranked among the top few, so the Chinese ships accompanying the Buck were thrown away by the Buck if they were not careful. Faced with this embarrassing situation, Andrei had to let his crew sail at half speed.

Even so, it only took 23 days to arrive in Shanghai from Ambuna Island. Although the accompanying Chinese ships slowed down the fleet's sailing speed, with this Chinese ship leading the way, the Buck only made a slight repair in Taiwan for 2 days, and sailed directly into the Yangtze River port, the richest port in China.

The mouth of the Yangtze River, Chongmingsha, Wusongkou, Huangpu River, and finally the two ships docked at the new wharf outside the Baodai Gate at the east gate of Shanghai County, which is close to the town of Shanghai and is also the seat of the Shanghai County Ya.

Shanghai County was established in the Yuan Dynasty to the twenty-eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty, but the construction of the city wall of the county seat was in the Jiajing period, during which more than 200 years were small counties without city walls.

At the beginning, the main purpose of building the city wall was to guard against the Japanese invaders, so the county city wall was originally separated from the Huangpu River, but it enclosed a lot of rice fields in the west.

Shanghai County is located in the southeast front of the Yangtze River Delta, and the Huangpu River runs through the north and south, dividing the county into Pudong and Puxi. The Yangtze River Delta was originally formed by sediment accumulation in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, so nearly 300 years after the establishment of Shanghai County, the county has become much larger.

After Yongle ruled the water, the Huangpu River and the Wusong River converged outside Shanghai, and the Huangpu River became the outlet of Taihu Lake, but Shanghai also gained a waterway to Suzhou.

The city wall of Shanghai County was built in the Jiajing period, but the city wall is very different from the style of other counties, and the city wall of other counties is square, but the city wall of Shanghai County is a circle. Because of the dense waterways in Shanghai, there are four rivers from the Huangpu River to the county, and it has become an important transportation waterway connected to the Huangpu River.

Fangbang, in the middle of the four waterways, has become the most prosperous waterway in Shanghai because it passes through the city god temple and market in the city.

As one of the main production places of Songjiang Dabu, the county seat of Shanghai is very busy with water transportation along the Huangpu River and Wusong River. As André stood on the bow of the Buck and followed the Chinese ship into the Huangpu River, he saw the small Chinese sailing boats passing by them, like a school of sardines huddled together one by one on the Huangpu River, swimming outward.

Coming ashore from the new pier at the Treasure Gate, André noticed that the pier under his feet was made of Roman-style cement in addition to large stones. The wharf and the ground poured with these cement are very strong, the only regret is that the cement pavement is gone without the wharf, which is obviously relatively rare in China.

Led by the Chinese captain from the island of Ambuna, he was spared from being questioned by customs officials on the docks and went straight into the county.

Entering the county seat, he first went to visit the top governor who ran the city, a Chinese official named Song Yingsheng. Although this official is over middle age, he is very interested in novelties overseas. Not only did he promise that André could come to Shanghai to trade in the future, but he also advised him to bring more goods that were common overseas but not very common in China.

With the friendly hospitality of the Chinese magistrate, André enjoyed one of the sumniest meals since his arrival in the East, which was in every sense sumptuous compared to the monotonous and boring Chinese diet of the Siamese.

Shanghai County is nine miles in circumference, and most of the people living in the city are wealthy families, so there are many gardens. After resting for the night at the inn in the city, André took the Chinese captain who accompanied him north for a stroll around the county.

Although the white walls and green tiles in Shanghai County are separated vertically and horizontally, they cannot hide the faintly rich and elegant scene within the walls, and some Chinese scholars can often be seen swaggering in and out of these famous gardens. But for Andrei, an expatriate, these gardens are obviously not going to be opened.

Andrei, who wanted to see the home garden of the Chinese aristocracy, had to give up his little reverie after hitting a wall in a row. As an English squire, he was eager to see the art of Chinese gardens, so that he could draw on some ideas for building his own estate in the English countryside after his seafaring career.

But it was clear that in the eyes of the owners of these gardens, neither he, the English squire, nor the Chinese captain who accompanied him, was not qualified to enter their gardens.

Having given up his knowledge of Chinese garden art, André soon regained his nature as a trader and headed to the city's busiest bazaars in search of expensive and in-demand Chinese goods.

On the street adjacent to Fangbang, a wide street paved with bluestone slabs, on both sides of the City God Temple, there are shops next to each other.

Apparently it was a certain market day, and the street, which could accommodate two carriages in parallel, was also squeezed out by the crowd. Andre walked as he watched the shops fill their lives with a wide variety of goods.

He bet that even Edo Castle, which was bigger and more prosperous than the city, would not be able to find so many dizzying goods. Not to mention the famous Chinese goods such as raw silk, porcelain, tea, lacquerware, silk, and brocade, he can also see mirrors, pendulum clocks, soap, deerskin gloves, deerskin boots, whale jerky, and canned fruit.

André walked most of the street to the horror of realizing that he wanted to buy too much and too little hard currency in his pocket.

He inquired about the prices of these goods and found that the mirrors and pendulum clocks of the Chinese were as cheap as the ones he had brought with them made in Europe.

Most of the cargo on Andrei's ship, the Chinese have, and it is cheaper. And a few goods can't be sold for much money.

Eventually, he realized that with the exception of the black water oil he had gotten from Sumatra, the rest of the goods were sold at a loss in China. However, black water oil can also make him some money, in this market, whale oil for lighting is as high as 045 yuan per liter, while vegetable oil is 03 yuan per liter.

André then dragged the Chinese captain who was acting as an interpreter back to the ship outside the city, and he ordered the crew to carry a few barrels of black water oil off the ship, and then found the Chinese man who was soliciting guests on the dock and wanted the Chinese man to sell the black water oil for him at a price of 015 yuan per liter.

The man looked at the black water oil scooped out of the barrel, which Andre said was an excellent fuel, but in his eyes it was a mixture of water, black wax, and some black oil.

The Chinese man couldn't help frowning and said to Andre: "This owner, what kind of oil are you, the quality is so poor, how can anyone buy it?" Not to mention 015 yuan per liter, I think it's difficult to shoot five cents per liter. ”

Under the translation of the Chinese captain on the side, Andrei understood the other party's contempt for his cargo, and he couldn't help but blush a little. In order to prove that these black water oils are indeed good lighting oils, he gave a demonstration to this Chinese man on the spot.

But even so, the Chinese man did not have much interest in these black water oils, and was only willing to buy 10 barrels at 8 yuan per barrel and try sell them in the market for a period of time.

Andrei had to find other Chinese, but apparently these Chinese had some kind of channel for exchanging information, and the other Chinese, who did not bid higher than 8 yuan per barrel, were only willing to buy 3 or 4 barrels.

In the end, Andre sold 34 barrels of black water oil in Shanghai, and some other goods, with a total price of no more than 1,000 yuan. However, the goods he purchased in Shanghai exceeded 20,000 yuan, and the excess was paid for in silver.

As André got on board and left, looking at the houses and warehouses being built between the county seat of Shanghai and the Huangpu River, and north of the Wusong River, he suddenly felt that the city might become as great as London.