Sulfur

Wang Cong froze. "Stay at the Maritime Trade Office?"

Pan Yun patted his shoulder. "You can move into a rented or purchased house later. For the next few days, stay at the Maritime Trade Office first. Take this chance to get to know more people—it'll help you with maritime trade in the future."

Wang Cong's eyes rolled, and he understood.

The Maritime Trade Office oversaw maritime commerce. Now he would be living with its officials, in the same courtyard as Cao Jixiang, the Maritime Trade Commissioner...

Wang Cong cackled foolishly.

"Wait a moment. I'll have the rest of the cargo unloaded from the ship too."

Wang Cong had not returned with silver alone. He had also brought back quite a few other goods as cover.

Japanese swords, lacquerware, and sulfur. Wang Cong had even bought quite a lot of rice and wheat.

There was no helping it. At the time, all his attention had been on refining silver, and he had not cared much about such things. By the time he realized he needed cargo to conceal the silver, it had been too late to buy many items.

In truth, among those goods, sulfur and Japanese swords offered the best value.

Sulfur was cheap, but to Wang Cong, who came from a Daoist background, it could become very valuable.

Mount Sanqing's foundation lay in Daoist medicine, and sulfur could be used in medicine. It could not only be used to make pills such as the Spirit Sand Pill, but also sulfur ointment for scabies and ringworm, or mineral sulfur to treat deficiency-cold disorders.

Yet its greatest use was still in the military and industry.

Sulfur was essential for gunpowder. The major garrisons along the Nine Borders purchased vast quantities of sulfur every year to prepare gunpowder.

The anti-rust paste needed