After drinking for several rounds, Li Sanjiu and Saville's secret talks were coming to an end. The two sides reached an agreement on some important matters, and Saville could not stay here for too long to avoid suspicion from other members of the mission. So Li Sanjiu seized the time to move on to the next topic.

He ordered people to bring a few pieces of cloth, which were dyed purple, but the purples were different. Saville looked at them one by one and looked at them with some confusion: "Is this?"

"I heard that the Roman Kingdom regards purple as the most respected, but there are many kinds of purple. I wonder which purple is the noble purple of the Roman Kingdom?"

"Oh..." Saville looked carefully at the few pieces of cloth in front of him, and after a while, he shook his head: "At most, it is close, but not exactly consistent."

"Is that right?" Li Sanjiu was a little surprised, and then asked with interest: "I heard that the purple used in Rome was taken out of the snail Berry in the sea?"

Saville replied: "Yes, so the cost is very high and very precious."

Seeing that Li Sanjiu was quite interested in this matter, he briefly introduced how purple dye was obtained in Rome and Persia.

There is a conch called bone snail in the sea. This conch secretes white or colorless mucus. After being left for a period of time, the mucus will turn purple and can be used to dye textiles. It is very magical.

The purple color obtained through conch (sea shells) is called "shell purple" or "bone snail purple", which is the main source of purple dye in Rome, Persia and neighboring countries.

There are two ways to extract purple dye from bone snails. One method is like squeezing milk. Squeeze these bone snails to secrete mucus, then put the bone snails back into the sea, and take them out and "squeeze" after a while.

Another method is to remove the shell of the bone snail and directly "juicy" the soft body.

The first method is more troublesome. The amount of purple dye obtained in a single time is smaller, but it does not harm the bone snail and can be "repeated"; the second method can obtain more purple dye, but it is consumed at one time.

Either way, there are very few purple dyes obtained from a single bone snail, and hundreds or thousands of conchs can extract decent amounts of purple dye, so the cost of extracting purple is very high, and only wealthy people can afford purple textiles.

The rarer things are, the more precious things are, so purple has become the most noble color in Roman countries. It is precisely for this reason that purple is also welcomed by nobles in Persia and other countries.

"So that's it, no wonder it's so expensive." Li Sanjiu sighed. Today he was very eye-opening and continued to ask: "So, if the sea ships in the Central Plains could transport purple textile dyes similar to bone snails... bone snails to Afilica, what do you think the sales will be?"

Saville looked at the cloth in his hand and asked tentatively: "You mean... purple silk? That purple is purple that is close to bone snail purple?"

"yes."

After hearing Li Sanjiu's affirmative answer, Saville couldn't believe it: "Does there be many bone snails in the Central Plains?"

"No, the purple dye in the Central Plains mainly comes from a kind of grass, that is, purple grass, which you can call grass purple."

This time it was Li Sanjiu's turn to introduce the purple dye in the Central Plains. In fact, he didn't understand the relevant knowledge at all. It was only after the emperor introduced it yesterday that he roughly understood one or two.

The purple dye in the Central Plains originates from a plant called "purple grass". The roots of this plant can squeeze out purple juice. It is the main source of purple dye, and it has been like this since ancient times.

Just as the cost of extracting purple from bone snails is high, the cost of extracting purple from purple grass is not low, and the dyeing process is very troublesome, so purple in the Central Plains is also not low, and is mostly used as a high-quality official color.

But that was the past, and it is different now.

Since the "chemistry method", the printing and dyeing industry has developed rapidly. The traditional dye extraction process has been significantly improved with the help of various chemicals, and the cost has dropped significantly, and the same is true for the dyeing process.

Li Sanjiu only learned yesterday that the extraction process of grass purple has made breakthrough progress. It is said that after using "alcohol extraction", the extraction rate of grass purple has increased, so the cost has dropped significantly. The successful development of new dyes has also reduced the cost of purple dyeing.

Various dyes, dye aids, dyes, and dyed textiles are new marine trade products vigorously launched by Liangyang Trading Company. Now that Rome, which respects purple, has come to the door, the new dye factory that has been put into production in Huainan, will have a large customer.

These are the results of a series of industrial development, and just like dough fermentation, it changes very quickly.

With the popularization of hydraulic textiles, the textile industry in Zhongyuan has developed greatly, and thus has higher requirements for the printing and dyeing industry, requiring more dyes and better dyeing processes.

Large dye factories have appeared with the goal of making dyes and selling profits, and the planting area of ​​dye crops is getting bigger and bigger. Taking purple dye as an example, large-scale purplish plantations have appeared in Huainan area, providing a large amount of raw materials for the dye industry.

The scale of bluegrass planting is larger because the imperial court's demand for indigo can no longer be described as "hungry".

As the emperor's confidant, Li Sanjiu knew that indigo could be used to make "hard explosives", and also knew that the cultivation of dye crops was an important part of the imperial court's promotion of the planting of "economic crops".

So Li Sanjiu, the head of the secret detective, worked as a temporary part-time "salesman" and promoted the secret envoy Saville's Cao Zi from the Central Plains.

This change made Li Sanjiu feel a little embarrassed. He was not very good at doing business, nor was he good at selling goods. He could only follow the "secret" taught by Yuwen Wen and boast about it.

"Let's do this, this time the fleet to Afilga will have a sea ship full of purple silk traveling together. Of course, to avoid accidents, it is actually two ships carrying cargo, each of which is half a ship of silk."

Speaking of this, Li Sanjiu added: "The purple color of this silk, dyed according to the color you just pointed out, will look very similar to the purple of bone snail..."

"Of course, if dye is needed in the future, the sea ships from the Central Plains can also be transported there..."

As Saville listened, he was a little overwhelmed. Looking at the purple cloth in his hand, he couldn't believe it: Is this true? Can Zhongyuan sell so many purple dyes and purple textiles to the outside world?

So many purple dyes and purple textiles were shipped to Rome and Persia, so you don’t have to worry about selling them at all...

However, over time, purple becomes less precious, and will the status of purple decline?

Is this good or bad?

Saville was a little confused. After talking for a while, he got up and said goodbye. After Li Sanjiu asked someone to send him out, he sat alone in the room and looked at the pieces of cloth, feeling a little moved.

The profits of selling glass mirrors to Persia and Rome are of course very generous, but others can't benefit from this business because the manufacturing process of glass mirrors has been kept confidential.

Eating alone is not the situation the emperor wants, so the emperor should think of other ways to make more people benefit from the maritime trade with Rome and Persia as much as possible.

One of the solutions is to export large-scale purple dyes and purple textiles, which directly stimulates the development of purple grass planting industry, so that farmers who have headaches due to "scarce grains hurt farmers" will have another "cash crop" to support their families.
Chapter completed!