Chapter 1126 Preparation and Results

Chapter 1126 Preparation and Results

Chapter 1126 Preparation and Results

After passing Yingyin, Xuchang is a few dozen miles east.

There is Wei Cang in the northeast of this city and Jingfu Cang in the southeast, which are adjacent to Fu Bao's manor.

On the tenth day of the seventh month, Han Wang Shao Yan inspected the Wei granary and found that there were actually 377,000 hu of grain in stock, while the expected amount was more than 378,000. The difference was not much, so he ordered the officials to make up the difference as soon as possible and did not pursue the matter further.

On July 15, he arrived at Jingfucang again. While inspecting, he planned to visit his elder sister, but he found out that she had gone to Xiangyang...

Shao Yan's brother, King of Zhao Shao Xu, was in Xiangyang.

He has been here for some time and has been planning to build a market town, which is now taking shape.

The Xiangyang Market will not officially open until next year, but that doesn't mean it won't be used this year. There are already merchants trading here. It will be open for one day on the first and fifteenth day of each month. The Shaofu will collect some business taxes as the cost of the next phase of construction.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, Shao Xu, accompanied by Pei Zhan, the teacher of King Zhao, climbed up a high platform and looked out at the market town.

Pei Zhan was a former soldier in the General's Mansion, and his appointment as King Zhao's teacher was a family decision. It was a bit regrettable for him, after all, he could not show his abilities in the court, but it was also a good choice.

Lieutenant Xue Tao and two hundred soldiers were guarding the platform.

He was the former Ningwu magistrate. Entrusted by the Pei family, he carefully selected one hundred warriors from the descendants of the Xue family in Fenyin. Together with the one hundred people recruited by the Pei family, they formed the main military force of the Zhao Wang Mansion.

At the beginning of the si hour, with a burst of passionate "opening drums", the Xiangyang market reopened after a lapse of half a month.

The mayor led the temporarily conscripted men out of the main gate first and hung wooden signs on the wall of the town.

When the merchants saw it, they were stunned at first, and then silently read the words on the wooden sign -

"There is a Liangzhou merchant named Yin Ben who sells ambergris, claiming it to be a rare treasure from the Western Regions. It is actually pine resin mixed with spices. When it is burned, the smoke is thick and the smell is pungent, causing people to cough and wheeze..."

"The nanmu comb sold by Jingzhou merchant Liu Yuan claims to be able to dredge the meridians and activate the collaterals, but it is actually made of ordinary willow wood coated with gold lacquer. After only a few days of use, the lacquer fell off and the wood cracked, damaging the hair and skin..."

"Yangzhou merchant Kong Xiu sold night-shining pearls, boasting that they could illuminate the night. In fact, they were fake pearls coated with fluorescent powder. At first, they flickered, but soon became dim..."

"Yuzhou merchants..."

After reading it, everyone became furious and cursed.

The mayor waited for everyone to finish cursing, then said loudly: "The above-mentioned people who sold fake goods have all been verified. His Highness Prince Zhao ordered that their goods be exposed at the market gate and brought to justice, and double the value of the goods be compensated. If there are still unscrupulous merchants selling fake goods in the future, please report them immediately. His Highness will not tolerate it."

When the merchants heard this, they cheered and swarmed in holding their business flags.

"Your Highness's reputation has spread throughout Jingxiang." Pei Zhan said with a smile as he watched the market becoming increasingly lively.

"This is not the work of one person alone." Shao Xu said modestly, "The Xiangyang market has only been open for two months, and we have already made a profit of 300,000 coins. This is a huge profit, and the court attaches great importance to it, so we have to be careful."

Under his gaze, the merchants arrived at their respective shops and hung up their own business flags.

The merchant flag was made in Xiangyang market, issued after registration in the city, and hung in front of the shop.

The shop is rented for three hundred coins a month.

Only after having a shop and a business flag can you officially start trading, otherwise it won’t work.

Other market towns also had city rents, but the merchant flag system was introduced after Shao Xu planned to build the Xiangyang market. If anyone dared to sell counterfeit goods, their merchant flag would be confiscated and compensation for losses would be sought.

If the goods for sale have defects, they will be exposed outside the market gate so that people can identify them. This system existed in the Jin Dynasty but was not popular. After Shao Xu's research, he decided to popularize this exposure system within his jurisdiction.

In addition, Shao Xu also introduced a system he had worked out when he was in Yecheng by gathering the strengths of various companies: the official guide price.

This is to prevent random bidding and cheating of foreign merchants who are unaware of the situation, and to maintain the business environment. However, it allows buyers and sellers to complete transactions at other than the estimated price. Anyway, it is just a reference price so that you can have an idea of ​​how much the item you want to buy is worth.

Shao Xu's goal was to use measures such as merchant lists, price control, and quality supervision to maintain a good business order.

The purpose of the imperial court was to collect market rent and commercial taxes. Only when merchants were willing to come and trade in large quantities could the imperial court receive more money. Shao Xu had told this simple truth many times without getting tired of it, and he had people compile it into a book called "Market Law" as the basis for the future market trading system. As the Shaofu Market Supervisor, Shao Xu felt that this was the place where he could best shine and achieve results, and the officials in the royal palace also agreed with him.

"The merchants are all drinking tea, and we can't just sit there and do nothing, Your Highness..." Pei Zhan watched for a while, then wiped the sweat off his face with a silk scarf and suggested.

"Okay." Shao Xu looked at the market again, then stood up and left.

The moment the market opening drum sounded, someone in the market set up a stove, threw ground tea cakes into boiling water, and began to brew tea.

In the first few years of the Daliang Dynasty, the tea drinking trend became more and more popular under the strong promotion of the emperor. Correspondingly, more and more tea was planted, the output increased, and the varieties became more and more abundant. As this continued, the originally high price began to slowly fall, because the increase in output always exceeded the increase in demand. In the future, this must be a good business, and the court collected taxes until its hands were full.

The group got off the platform, found a pavilion to sit down, and started to make tea and chat. During this time, people kept sending the latest quantity and price of goods sold to the market supervision department.

After hearing this, Shao Xu immediately laughed and said, "Today's first transaction was a transaction where someone used 20 hu of polished rice to buy 10 rolls of ramie cloth. The buyer was a merchant from Xiangyang, and the seller came from Huarong."

"As far as I know, a merchant from Nanjun rented three ships and transported thousands of pieces of ramie cloth to the north." Pei Zhan said, "This family alone has brought tens of thousands of bushels of glutinous rice into Nanjun. This is all thanks to your Highness."

"It's passed, it's passed." Shao Xu smiled gently.

Having said that, he was still very happy in his heart.

My father had always hoped that the nobles in the north would move south to reduce the resistance to land reclamation. However, land reclamation requires a large number of manpower and food, which is not such a simple matter.

It has been a year and a half since the end of the war, and the progress of land reclamation is not satisfactory. Not to mention diseases, which we have been mentally prepared for, the most prominent contradiction is the lack of manpower and food.

If there is a shortage of manpower, the land reclamation will be ineffective. If there is a shortage of manpower, the grain production will be insufficient, which in turn will directly affect the number of people that can be fed, not to mention the need to ensure the food needs of Jiangling's land and sea troops - this has a higher priority.

Therefore, in order to reduce initial investment, many families began to make quick money by harvesting local natural resources, such as wild silk cocoons, medicinal herbs, kudzu vines, fruits, etc., and selling them to Xiangyang.

These resources are all wild, all over the mountains and plains, in huge quantities, and no one has picked them. The manpower required to harvest these resources is far less than that required to open up wasteland and plant crops, so many people have set their sights on this.

After Shao Xu went south, he thought that this was not a bad thing and should be encouraged. It would be best to let the people of Xiangyang use grain to purchase these goods and then resell them to the north.

In this way, northerners obtained goods from the south, and the pioneers obtained food, and both sides benefited.

For example, the price of the kudzu cloth that was just sold has basically reached that of the Taishi period in the early Jin Dynasty, which is much lower than that in the late Jin Dynasty. It can be seen that kudzu vines and kudzu cloth began to be supplied to the north in large quantities and steadily.

Especially in this hot summer, the demand for kudzu cloth is the strongest. The price has dropped to two hu of millet per piece. Can't the soldiers afford it? Don't be kidding.

Shao Xu was also very happy.

Things that were originally only enjoyed by rich men are slowly entering the homes of ordinary people. This is the original meaning of what Guang Chengze mentioned when he discussed Taoism: "The world does not worry about having no money, but about having no one to share it with."

When everyone was drinking the brewed tea, the second transaction was reported: a merchant from Nanjun sold 200 dan of salt in exchange for 500 hu of rice.

This was another typical transaction of exchanging local salt springs for food.

In addition, although salt and iron monopolies have existed since the Han Dynasty and a lot of money has been made, salt was really not expensive in those days. The money earned from salt since the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties is really hard to compare with that of later generations.

In fact, until the Tang Dynasty, the Hedong Salt Lake was still mined by both officials and civilians. It was not until the middle and late Tang Dynasty that the imperial court repeatedly increased the tax rate on "salt money" and it began to become a relatively important source of income. At that time, the private salt dealer Huang Chao finally appeared.

But salt was still not expensive at that time. The real big price increase did not occur until the Northern Song Dynasty, when the price increased tenfold or twentyfold. Salt truly became a highly profitable commodity. It was so much so that Guanzhong, the traditional market for Hedong salt, was smuggled and dumped in large quantities of low-quality Xixia green salt. The Northern Song Dynasty court was unable to ban it, which is quite a strange thing.

Nowadays, one stone of salt can be exchanged for two stone and five dou of rice. It is really too cheap...

A moment later, the third deal was reported: a Jiangling merchant exchanged a thousand baskets of candied oranges for grain...

Shao Xu looked at it and said, "In the past, Sun Quan sent an envoy to Wei to present oranges. Wei Wen issued an edict saying, 'There are oranges in the south. The sour oranges are so delicious that they can crack people's teeth. Sometimes they are sweet.' I have sent people to Jianping and Badong to buy a thousand orange orchards. They taste rich and sweet. Wei Wen was wrong. If these pickled oranges are sold in the north, they will be sold out in a few days."

"Your Highness is right." Pei Zhan agreed, "I heard that the Kuai family was selling orange vinegar to Luoyang. When they reached Luonan, the soldiers of the Left Cavalry Guard snapped them up, so they had to go to Luoyang with an empty carriage."

"It's not just the Kuai family!" Shao Xu said with a smile, "Even my elder sister made money from selling oranges."

Everyone laughed along.

After Pei Zhan finished laughing, he reminded him, "Your Highness, the book "Market Law" must be compiled as soon as possible and submitted to the emperor. The Xiangyang market will not be officially opened until next year, but in just a few months this year, we can collect 2 million yuan in rent and taxes, which should also be recorded in a big way."

Li Yong, a servant, also said, "Your Majesty will conquer Cheng and Jin in the future. They have always attached great importance to food and grass, as well as people's livelihood and commerce. Your Highness may be able to explain this and please Your Majesty. Emphasize that merchants carry grain to the south and return north with goods. The people of Henan have cotton clothes in winter and cool clothes in summer, which is a great benefit."

The Right Chamberlain Song Heng suggested, "Perhaps we can bring up the business affairs together with the land measurement. Your Majesty also attaches great importance to the land measurement."

Everyone talked about it at once, mentioning every aspect, always sticking to the most important policy in Shao Xun's mind, and describing their achievements around this, which was quite professional.

All in all, the thief Shao has been figured out.

Shao Xu nodded repeatedly and said, "I will go to Caizhou tomorrow or come back the day after tomorrow. We will discuss it in detail then."

(End of this chapter)