1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 323 Message Across Ten Thousand Miles
Although China's tea exports experienced a downturn after the Opium War, in 1843, when the Treaty of Nanjing was signed and five ports were opened to trade, the volume of tea exports temporarily dropped to 135,000 dan.

However, after the initial underestimation of the tea industry at the beginning of the port's opening, and the establishment of stable supply channels between foreign trading companies and local tea merchants, tea exports quickly rebounded.

By 1850, total exports had rapidly increased to over 200,000 dan (a unit of weight).

The tea trade pie has indeed grown large, but more than 80 percent of the tea trade share is controlled by British trading companies such as Jardine Matheson and Shunbao Trading Company.

French and American trading companies could only compete for less than 20% of the remaining tea trade share, and even that share depended on the whims of British trading companies.

In a normal year, the purchase price of a dan (a unit of weight) of bulk black tea in Shanghai was at least 22 taels of silver, while the selling price in London was 12 to 16 pounds per dan, which is 40 to 50 taels of silver per dan.

In New York and Boston, the price generally fluctuates between $55 and $70 per liter, which is basically the same as or slightly lower than the price in the English market.

This is just the price of ordinary bulk black tea. Premium black tea, such as the Ninghong tea that Peng Gang just served them at the Northern Prince's Mansion, would only be more expensive.

Although the tariff on tea is high, the gross profit margin can still be 50% after deducting tariffs, transportation costs, spoilage due to mold, insurance costs and other miscellaneous expenses.

If one were bolder and more unscrupulous, engaging in smuggling directly and pushing profit margins back to levels seen before the Opium Wars, such as the British East India Company's near-monopoly on the tea trade, it wouldn't be impossible.

What was laid out before Masali, Kim Neng-hyung, Smith, and others was not tea, but rather gleaming pounds, dollars, and francs.

Given the current market conditions, as long as they get their hands on this batch of tea, even if they don't ship it back to America, they can still make a steady and ruthless profit by reselling it to other foreign firms in China.

"Your Highness, how much tea do you have on hand?" Smith, the most impatient of all, couldn't help but swallow hard and asked eagerly.

Peng Gang held up one finger: "Around 10,000 dan (a unit of weight), and more tea will continue to flow into my warehouse."

Kim Neng-hyung glared at Smith, scolding him for his impatience, then turned to Peng Gang and asked, "Your Highness, is it all black tea?"

"Half black tea and half green tea, with a small amount of dark tea." Peng Gang smelled the rich aroma of tea in the warehouse, and seemed to already smell the scent of money.

Black tea is more popular in the European and American markets, and foreign companies purchase large quantities of tea. The purchase price of black tea is generally about 15% higher than that of green tea.

"Your Highness, may we take a look at the samples?" Kim Nung-hyung asked.

"You may take samples and examine them at your leisure," Peng Gang readily agreed.

Tea is very profitable. Taking bulk black tea as an example, Beidian Shengku directly purchased tea from local tea farmers, mainly Tongshan tea farmers, at a price of four or five taels of silver per dan (a unit of weight), while purchasing it from Hankou merchants at a price of seven or eight taels per dan.

According to Tang Zhengcai's investigation in Shanghai and Chen Alin's report, due to the impact of the war, the current purchase price of bulk black tea offered by Shanghai trading companies is no less than 28 taels per dan (a unit of weight).

As for why tea prices in Shanghai were so high, you have to ask the officials and merchants of the Qing Dynasty. The answer is that millions of tea farmers depended on them for their livelihood.

Peng Gang's goal is to make a long-term, sustainable business. The profits from tea export are already substantial, so there's no need for him to ruin his reputation by selling inferior goods.

The members of the American mission, who could also be considered partners of Russell & Co., collected samples from various places, examined them carefully, and after whispering and discussing for a while, reached a consensus.

Jin Nengheng walked up to Peng Gang and said, "Your Highness's tea is of acceptable quality. Our Qichang Foreign Firm is willing to purchase all of the bulk black tea at a price of 21 taels of silver per dan (unit of weight), and we are willing to offer 17 taels and 8 mace of silver for the green tea. Of course, the price of premium tea will be calculated separately."

“Consul Kim Neng-hyung, these are peacetime prices. These are extraordinary times,” Peng Gang said, shaking his head.

Jin Nengheng's offer is not unreasonable; it's the normal tea purchase price in a normal year. But this is not a normal year.

"At what price per unit of silver would Your Highness be willing to sell this batch of tea?" Kim Neng-hyung asked, his brows furrowing slightly.

"The price is negotiable." Seeing that Jin Nengheng and the others had finished examining the tea, Peng Gang walked out of the warehouse, lifted his robe, and plopped down in a grand chair that had been prepared beforehand.

“I carefully reviewed the arms samples and list you provided last night. You are very sincere, and I am very satisfied with your cooperative attitude. I am willing to pay for the arms at a price of thirty taels per dan for bulk black tea and twenty-five taels and five mace for bulk green tea, as well as the cost of purchasing your three steam paddle steamers.”

Although the three paddle steamers that the American mission sailed to Wuchang were armed merchant ships with a displacement of three to four hundred tons, not proper warships.

However, these ships were a devastating blow to any Qing naval vessel, including those of the Fujian and Guangdong navies.

Once these ships are purchased and their own sailors are trained to form a fighting force, the Northern Palace's navy will be able to roam freely throughout the entire Yangtze River basin, at which point the Qing Dynasty's inland waterway navy will be powerless to resist.

Even when not used for combat, these paddle steamers were far more efficient in transporting goods, especially upstream, than traditional inland waterway vessels that relied on sails and human power. This greatly benefited the logistics of the Northern Palace army.

Tea is currently a scarce and valuable currency, and paying directly with tea would be very advantageous for Russell & Co.

Kim Neng-hyung and others were very happy to accept payment in the form of tea.

"Paying with tea is no problem, but selling the ships is not in our plans. Besides, if we sell all three ships, along with their weapons, to His Highness, how will we transport so much tea to Shanghai, Boston, and New York?"

A steamship is not like a sailing ship; it requires not only a regular helmsman and sailors, but also at least a chief engineer, a second engineer, four engine room crew members, and three cooks. As far as I know, Your Highness does not have such personnel.”

"This is another collaboration between us. I'd like to hire the existing crew members as well. If we don't have the necessary personnel, we can train them," Peng Gang said. "In addition, I can invest in Russell & Co. in my own name."

Kim Neng-hyung's eyes lit up upon hearing this. He was very familiar with China's national conditions and knew that without an official background, it was extremely difficult to do business in this land.

The reason why Russell & Co. initially brought in Wu Jianzhang, the Shanghai Daotai, was based on this consideration.

Peng Gang's willingness to invest in Russell & Co. was tantamount to endorsing the firm, something Jin Nengheng and others were eager to obtain.

“Your Highness is willing to invest in our Qichang Trading Company, which we warmly welcome,” Kim Neng-hyung said hastily.

"Don't be too happy yet, my investment comes with conditions," Peng Gang said calmly.

"As far as I know, your J.C. Smithy has a number of shares held by Qing government officials. They are my enemies, and I will not invest in J.C. Smithy until they are removed from the company."

“As the head of Russell & Co., I assure you that once we return to Shanghai, I will persuade the board of directors and major shareholders to remove your enemies from Russell & Co.,” Jin Nengheng assured Peng Gang.

“There is another condition.” Peng Gang put forward another condition: “Jackson & Co. is not allowed to engage in opium or any business related to opium. In exchange, I can guarantee a stable supply of at least 20,000 dan of tea per year for ten years.”

Foreign firms operating in China all dealt in opium; the only difference was the amount they dealt in.

British trading companies, having access to a stable opium supply channel from the East India Company, dominated the majority of the market along the route.
The opium sold by Russell & Co. in China was mainly produced in the Ottoman Empire.

Kim Nenghyung hesitated for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, and finally agreed.

After all, the cooperation with the Northern Palace is not only a business partnership, but also a political investment that seems very worthwhile at present.

Although the profits from the opium trade were considerable, they were insignificant compared to the cooperation with the North Palace.

Peng Gang spoke with the American envoys for a while, and the two sides had a very pleasant conversation.

After the discussion, Peng Gang took them for a stroll around Hankou.

It wasn't until someone from Wuchang reported that the Morse wire telegraph brought by the American mission had been set up in Wuchang that Peng Gang led the members of the American mission and invited senior military officers from the three towns of Wuhan to Wuchang to see the wire telegraph.

The Yuemachang (Horse Review Ground) in Wuchang City, a vast area that was once used for training troops and horses, has a completely different atmosphere today.

The red scarves of the holy soldiers of the North Hall, standing all around, were as fiery as fire, solemn and silent. All eyes were drawn to the few newly erected pine poles, coated with tung oil, in the center of the arena, as if drawn by a magnet.

Between the wooden poles, slender copper wires shimmered with a mysterious golden luster in the spring sunlight, like a dazzling lightning bolt stretched out, connecting an unknown world.

In a telegraph room not far from the horse riding arena, American Minister Marshal stood in front of an iron box covered with matte black paint.

The box was intricately designed, with a key inlaid with an ebony handle, a coil wound with bright copper wire, a buzzing reed, and a sophisticated gear mechanism driving a snow-white paper tape—this was a Morse telegraph machine.

Mashali took a deep breath, praying to God that nothing would go wrong along the way, and with a proud expression on his face, he turned to Peng Gang and the North Palace officials and senior officers who had come to see the telegram, and began to speak.

"Your Highness the Northern King, Your Excellencies, Generals."

Kim Nung-hyung, who was accompanying them, acted as their translator, loudly translating Masa-ri's words.

"Please allow me to show you a recent invention that embodies the wisdom of American inventors—the telegraph. It does not rely on post horses or carrier pigeons to transmit information, but rather on the omnipresent electromagnetic force that allows information to travel across mountains and rivers in the blink of an eye. Even if people are hundreds or thousands of miles apart, it is as if they are talking face to face, without any delay!"

After he finished speaking, Ma Shali, Jin Nengheng, and the others were met with a large silence filled with doubt and whispers. Everyone present, except for Peng Gang, firmly believed that tangible means such as beacon fires, post horses, carrier pigeons, and footsteps were the true carriers of military intelligence.

The idea of ​​transmitting messages over a thousand miles is so fantastical and unbelievable that it seems almost mythical.

Mashali nodded to the technician, indicating that the telegraph technician could begin the demonstration.

The telegraph technician was a young American named Morris with freckles on his face. He was focused and, based on a piece of paper handed to him by Kim Nung-hyung, which read "Respectfully inquired about the well-being of His Highness the Northern King, from the American Mission," he skillfully tapped the telegraph key.

"Click...click-click...click..."

A crisp, rhythmic metallic clanging sound suddenly rang out.

Almost at the same instant that sound rang out.

A mile away, another identical instrument seemed to be summoned by an invisible force. Its electromagnet snapped into action with a soft "click," and the slender ink needle on the dotting device pressed down, precisely drawing a short ink mark on the uniformly moving strip of white paper.

Immediately afterwards, as the rhythm of the telegraph key changed in the distance, a series of dots and lines of varying lengths and intervals were left on the paper tape, like a book written in the sky.

The telegraph technician quickly tore off the still-wet paper strip, took out his codebook, and rapidly compared the code with his fingers. He then quickly wrote down the contents of the telegram in English and handed it to Huang Dabiao, who was waiting nearby.

Huang Dabiao picked up the telegram, rode his horse for more than a mile, and handed the telegram to Peng Gang in the telegraph room.

"Your Highness, you are the only one here who understands English, so we will have to trouble you to translate for us."

Peng Gang picked up the English telegram, stared at it for a long time, and slowly said, "Respectfully inquiring about the well-being of His Highness the Northern King, from the American Mission."

Mashali breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the telegram on the table, and showed it to everyone.

The senior officers in the telegraph room were all Peng Gang's students. They had learned pinyin and could recognize the English in the telegrams exactly.

As for the Chinese translation, although Peng Gang's translation is more faithful, expressive, and elegant, the meaning is roughly the same.

The people in the telegraph room were shocked. The spacious room was like a honeycomb that had exploded, and they couldn't help but whisper among themselves.

"Your Highness, may I see the two letters?" Guo Kuntao, the magistrate of Jiangxia County, asked, his face filled with disbelief.

Peng Gang nodded and handed two sheets of paper with telegrams written on them to Guo Kuntao.

Guo Kuntao snatched the two sheets of paper and compared them back and forth repeatedly. After a long while, he exclaimed in surprise, "The characters in these letters are exactly the same! Not a single one is different! They definitely mean the same thing!"

The mature and composed Liu Bingwen leaned closer to Guo Kuntao, staring intently at the words on the letter, repeatedly muttering to himself, "It's real. It's not an illusion."

Liu Bingwen's gaze was no longer sharp, but became somewhat blank and dazed, as if the rules of heaven and earth that he had known all his life had collapsed before his eyes.

He staggered, and if the person next to him hadn't caught him, he would have almost collapsed to the ground.

Chief of Staff Huang Bingxian also lost his composure, but at the same time, he keenly realized the power of the telegram: "This is not a matter of morning and evening arrival, but an instant! It arrives in an instant! Your Highness! Gentlemen! If our army has this, while the Qing army's messengers are still on their way, our military orders will have already reached thousands of miles away! This is not just about speed in war, this is this..."

Huang Bingxian racked his brains but couldn't find the right words to describe it. Huang Bingxian, who never stuttered, suddenly became somewhat stammering.

A near-manic shock and excitement permeated the officers.

They were all seasoned veterans who knew the importance of the speed and accuracy of information transmission in war.

The reality before them—the ability to transmit messages across thousands of miles, arrive instantly, and with perfect accuracy—far exceeded the limits of their imagination.

A near-mythical power was laid bare before them, leaving them utterly shaken.

Huang Dabiao, who was sending the telegram, was also incredulous: "This black box, this copper wire... can it really swallow words and utter speech?! This... isn't this the mythical teleportation that travels thousands of miles?! No! It's even faster than that! This is... this is..."

Huang Dabiao's education level was much lower than Huang Bingxian's, and he racked his brains but couldn't find the right words to express his current thoughts, his face turning red with embarrassment.

“It truly is a divine artifact.” Even Liu Rong, who had maintained a relatively composed demeanor among the group, couldn’t help but remark.

"If we were to set up these telegraph lines between all the cities, armies, camps, and passes of our empire, and with more telegraph machines, we would be able to know the enemy's movements instantly! The Qing army's troop movements would be as if they were happening right before our eyes! Our troops could be deployed with perfect ease, without a moment's delay! If officials in various regions encountered any urgent matters, they could also use this device to submit memorials, instantly transmitting the situation to Wuchang. Your Highness's orders could also be transmitted instantly through this device."

Zuo Zongtang also exclaimed, "In the past, even with fast horses and boats, traveling five or six hundred li in a day and night would leave the men and horses exhausted and at their limit. Moreover, there were many unpredictable dangers along the way, such as being intercepted or delayed by wind and rain! If we had this, military orders would be carried out without hindrance, and we could arrive in the evening after setting off in the morning! It would be an instant! This would be of great use to Your Highness in strategizing and winning battles from afar! It is truly a vital national asset and a treasure for military strategists!"

Seeing the reactions of the people in the telegram, Masali, Kim Neng-hyung, Smith and others couldn't help but show proud and smug expressions.

Peng Gang sat calmly on the armchair covered with yellow satin, his posture upright and motionless.

His deep eyes did not look at his excited subordinates, nor at the smug Mashali and the others, but stared at the still-clicking telegraph machine, his gaze as calm as if he were examining an ordinary object that he had long been accustomed to.

The telegraph machine, which seemed magical to Liu Bingwen, Guo Kuntao, Huang Bingxian, and others, appeared not only ordinary but also somewhat primitive to Peng Gang, who was more than 170 years later and had seen much more.

Before arriving in this space-time, he could instantly transmit real-time images, and he used the little box he held in his hand every day.

Masali and others had expected to see the same, or even stronger, shock and admiration on the young ruler's face as on others, which would be proof of his diplomatic victory.

But Peng Gang's unusual calmness was like a bucket of cold water, instantly cooling down Ma Shali and the others' smugness, and a sense of unease and confusion arose in their hearts.

Peng Gang calmly stood up slowly, walked to the telegraph machine, and said, "Minister Masali, thank you for this generous gift from you and the United States of America. This thing is indeed ingenious and can greatly improve the efficiency of information transmission. It is of great use in both military and civil affairs."

Then, Peng Gang turned around, his gaze sharp as lightning, sweeping over his subordinates who were still immersed in shock. His calm tone carried an unquestionable, all-knowing authority: "The principle behind this device is not some kind of sorcery or magic, but rather the study of things to acquire knowledge. It uses the on/off state of electric current as the basic signal, and uses this specific combination of long and short signals to represent text and numbers, thereby achieving remote, instantaneous communication. Its setup requires specialized materials and skills, and its daily operation and maintenance also require specialized training."

After Smith translated Peng Gang's words, the members of the American mission were all dumbfounded.

Massali and his technicians were completely dumbfounded. They couldn't understand how a warlord leader from the Far East could so thoroughly understand this latest technology that even many European nobles found mysterious.

The telegraph was a very new technology. The first practical telegraph line in the United States, and arguably the world, was a 40-mile-long line laid in 1844 between Washington and Baltimore.

The first telegram was sent by its inventor, Morse, in the Supreme Court meeting room of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

At that time, the entire nation of America was in an uproar, feeling proud and elated.

Europeans across the Atlantic had always mocked Americans for only imitating and copying European products and lacking creativity. The advent of the telegraph finally silenced those Europeans for a while.

Of course, although the United States was the first country to successfully put the telegraph into practical use and commercialize it.

The voices in Europe still mocking America for merely piecing together European inventions and technologies to create the telegraph machine.

But the United States no longer cares about such sour grapes or ridicule. The ability to integrate relevant technologies, manufacture practical telegraph machines, and quickly commercialize and profit from them is also an outstanding capability.

Masali and the others looked at Peng Gang with complicated expressions. This young ruler was far more mysterious and complex than they had imagined.

He either lived in America or Europe, or he was a genius who could understand how the telegraph worked just by looking at it and touching it.

"Immediately select ten intelligent, quick-witted, literate, and meticulous young officers from each army and battalion. Starting today, they will be carefully instructed by American technicians to learn the skills of telegraph setup, operation, maintenance, and even decoding." Peng Gang smiled as he looked at Ma Shali.

"Your Excellency, I think it shouldn't be a problem for me to hire your technicians?"

“Of course, no problem.” Mashali grinned from ear to ear. “If Your Highness needs translators, we would be happy to provide them.”

Peng Gang's plan to train technicians to operate telegraph machines indicates that he has a plan to lay out a telegraph network, and the future demand for telegraph machines and telegraph lines will be huge, with considerable profits to be made.

The telegraph machine that Mashali gave to Peng Gang was a relatively new model of a rotary telegraph machine from the American Electromagnetic Telegraph Company. It was a high-end telegraph machine and was not cheap. It would cost more than one hundred US dollars per unit in the United States. The wires, insulators, crossarms and other materials required to set up the telegraph line were also very expensive.

Subsequent personnel training and line maintenance can also generate profits.

As a key figure in Morse's electromagnetic telegraph company's opening of the Chinese telegraph market, Mashali certainly received a generous thank-you fee and a cut from the company.

(End of this chapter)