Huichao is the paper currency issued by the imperial court. If the government hires civilian labor, the wages are paid in this paper currency. If the court wants to purchase large quantities of goods from the people, it also pays with huichao. Although the face value of this paper currency is the same as copper coins, ordinary people generally don’t like to use it. So, when buying things with huichao versus copper coins, there are two different prices, and the price difference is huge. How big is the difference? Not sure about other places, but in Zhenzhou City, the price gap can fluctuate between ten to fifteen times.

For example, this spring, rice was 2.8 guan per shi in copper coins, but the price in huichao was about 30 guan. Wheat is even more expensive on Hainan Island, costing 4 guan per shi, while the huichao price goes straight up to 70 guan. Considering that one guan of copper coins is currently just over 800 wen, the price gap with huichao is even greater. Rice and wheat on Hainan Island are much more expensive than on the mainland, because there isn’t much arable land here, and wheat isn’t produced at all. Most of the rice and flour have to be shipped in from the mainland, and given the transportation costs at this time, prices in the grain-producing regions of the mainland are probably much lower.

As for how heavy a shi actually is, there’s a big dou on Henry Hayes’s boat. After filling it with rice, Brian Carter poured it into his clothes and weighed it in his hands—just over 10 jin. This skill of weighing by hand was also honed through fishing. For fish under 20 jin, Brian Carter can estimate the weight pretty accurately just by lifting it, with an error of no more than ten percent when put on the scale. Some fishermen are even more skilled—they don’t even need to touch it, just a glance and they know the approximate weight. These are all skills developed from idling by the water, practicing over and over again. There’s no secret—just familiarity with the hand and the eye.

However, Brian Carter still isn’t clear about the Song dynasty’s units of weight, because this dou measures volume. If you fill it with rice, one dou is just over 10 jin, but if you fill it with stones, it’s not just over 10 jin anymore. Brian Carter must figure out this issue of weights and measures. Since he wants to build ships to go to the open sea, without a unified system of measurement—or at least one he can convert—he’ll never be able to build a reliable ship. As for the conversion between the Song dynasty’s chi and the modern meter, Brian Carter has basically figured it out. In the afternoon, on the boat, Brian Carter spent a long time using a rope to compare the two notches on the side of the boat. If these two notches are accurate, then one Song chi is about equal to one modern chi, just a bit shorter, which can be ignored.

Chapter Fourteen: The Cooperative

In addition, this seafood hotpot also brought an important piece of news: the issue of Paul Grant. She’s already turned 18 this year. According to the customs of the Tanka people, she should have been a mother long ago, but Paul Grant has a hard time getting married. The reason is simple: Paul Grant is considered an unlucky woman. Her mother died in childbirth when she was born! And when she was ten, her eldest brother—that is, Paul Foster’s eldest son—his whole family of three died. At that time, her brother was about to head out to sea, and she happened to squat at the bow of his boat and pee. After that, her brother’s family’s boat never returned.

With these two incidents, Paul Grant became unmarriageable. The Tanka people are very superstitious about the sea. Since chasing fish far out at sea is dangerous, they attribute all their lack of understanding of nature to the gods. Any act of disrespect toward the gods is seen as a great offense, and who would dare marry someone who’s offended the gods? Even if Paul Grant grew up to be the most beautiful woman among the Tanka, no one would dare marry her.

This actually worked out for Brian Carter. Paul Foster has only this one daughter. Even though others see her as unlucky, Paul Foster still hopes to find her a good match. As it happened, Brian Carter showed up and even joined the Tanka. Isn’t this a heaven-sent son-in-law? Others may shun Paul Grant, but Brian Carter shouldn’t. Besides, Paul Grant herself seems to be quite fond of Brian Carter. The reason Paul Foster tolerates Brian Carter bossing around and interfering with the Tanka’s fishing is all for his precious daughter.

That night, Brian Carter had another sleepless night. In fact, since he crossed over, he’s only slept two nights in total, and never slept well. It wasn’t because he was thinking about Paul Grant, but about how to get rich as quickly as possible. Whether or not to buy a boat could wait; first, he wanted to build himself a bamboo house by the shore, then get a wooden bed, and weave a few layers of hemp rope into a tight net in the middle—that would be a primitive Simmons mattress. Otherwise, sleeping on these hard planks every day, he’d never get any sleep!

But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a quick way to get rich. For now, he could only try to improve his fishing efficiency. According to Henry Hayes, a two-jin mackerel can be sold for eight wen. One guan is over a hundred of those! Even if they were all the kind of groupers that can sell for over twenty wen each, that’s still fifty fish! A two-jin big green crab only sells for a little over ten wen. Who the hell set these prices? Is eating seafood really cheaper than eating rice? Is there any justice left?

He cursed, but Brian Carter knew the prices were actually reasonable, because this place is just too poor. Not only are the Tanka poor, but the people on land are poor too—only a little better off than the Tanka at best. They can’t even get enough rice to eat, and often have to fill up on taro. Who has the spare money to buy seafood? If you want to sell at a high price, you have to take the fish to Zhenzhou or Qiongzhou, where there’s a Maritime Trade Office and lots of merchants coming and going between the mainland and Southeast Asia. They’re the ones with money to spend on seafood. The rarer the catch, the higher the price it can fetch there. If you could get these fresh fish to Guangzhou, the price would be even higher.