Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

"Hongzhou, Tongkeng No. [-]."

"Yuan Zhou, Tongkeng [-] and Iron Pit [-]."

"Fuzhou, gold pit one, silver pit one."

"Jiangzhou, Tongkeng [-] and Yinkeng [-]."

"Raozhou, copper pit three, gold pit one, silver pit one, and iron pit one."

"Xinzhou, the second copper pit, the first golden pit, the second silver pit, the first iron pit, and the third lead pit."

"Qianzhou..."

Shao Shude flipped through the account books brought by the copper envoy one by one.

He didn't pay too much attention to output and pit owners. These were too cumbersome and too detailed. He mainly looked at the distribution of minerals.

Generally speaking, the mineral resources of Jiangxi Province are very rich.Since the great development of Jiangxi in the Tang Dynasty, minerals quickly came into the sight of the imperial court, and the mining industry has developed vigorously with a huge scale.

In addition, Jiangxi itself has a relatively large grain output and convenient water transportation, so it can support a large number of groups that are out of agricultural production, such as handicraftsmen, pit households, garden households, and merchants.

The Xia Dynasty's mining industry in Jiangxi basically followed the Tang Dynasty.

During the Jianji period, after Master Wang regained the entire territory of Jiangxi, Xianghu Town, Yudu County, Qianzhou, set up a "Ruijin Supervisor" in this county because of "digging the ground to get gold, and gold is Rui". It is also responsible for managing the production of local silver pits, lead pits, tin pits, iron pits, and copper pits.

In the eight prefectures of old Jiangxi Town, except Jizhou, the other seven prefectures have nine mining supervisors in total, seven of which are mainly responsible for the mining and smelting of copper mines.

It can be seen from the prosperous production of Jiangxi Dao copper industry.

"Where is Tongdo traded?" Shao Shude asked after reading it.

"Your Majesty, most copper is traded in Pengze County, Jiangzhou." The envoy asked for copper.

"Is it all copper from Jiangxi?"

"More than that. There are also in the north of the river."

"for example?"

"For example, there is also a copper pit in Shuzhou, Huainan, and all the copper produced is shipped to Pengze."

Shao Shude nodded. The location of Pengze County is very good. It is close to the river and has convenient water transportation. No matter where it is shipped, the cost is very low.

In addition, metals produced in other states can be easily transported to the Yangtze River through Pengli Lake—also called Gongting Lake, today’s Poyang Lake—through waterways.

Like Jiangnan, Jiangxi's water transportation conditions are so good that it makes people jealous.

As soon as Shao Shude stretched out his hand, a map was sent over. His eyes wandered back and forth among the mountains, rivers, waters, cities and towns above, but he was still unable to meet the Jiangxi of later generations.

Without him, there are too many swamps, lakes, and rivers, too many forests, and too few towns.

It suddenly occurred to him that the construction of the Heyang Sancheng pontoon bridge in the early Tang Dynasty was shipbuilding in Hongzhou, Jiangxi (now Nanchang).Because there are large areas of virgin forest near Nanchang, there are many towering trees and the quality is also high.

But now, Hongzhou is well-known as a land of fish and rice. The seven counties under its jurisdiction had a population of 40 million during the Tianbao period of the former Tang Dynasty. The food produced strongly supported the development of Jiangxi and neighboring Hunan and other places in the Tang Dynasty for 300 years.

Hongzhou can no longer provide the high-quality timber needed for the three-city pontoon bridge in Heyang.

In the past few years, the pontoon bridge was replaced with ships, which was logging and shipbuilding in Qianzhou.But now Qianzhou is also undergoing large-scale development. The mining industry is very prosperous and wood consumption is very large. Coupled with the increase in the number of immigrants, many forests have been cut down and turned into fertile farmland. If this continues, Qianzhou will be in trouble.

The so-called development means that man asks for land from nature.

"How does Pengze Copper Market compare to Fuliang Tea Market?" Shao Shude asked.

"It's not as good as it is." The copper envoy replied honestly.

"Where is copper mainly used?"

"More than half of it was used to make bronze wares. There are everything from Buddha statues to bronze mirrors."

After speaking, some palace people presented several bronze wares.

Shao Shude picked up one and looked at it.

This is an auspicious animal grape mirror.There is a pattern of tangled grapes on it, and eight high-relief auspicious beasts fight in pairs, with different expressions and lifelike.The mirror itself is very smooth, and the silhouette of the people it illuminates is very clear.

There are several mirrors next to them, with different styles, such as those with the theme of Buddhist treasures and flowers, and those with the theme of cranes.

"They are all produced by the mine supervisor?"

"Exactly." The Copper Envoy replied cautiously.

Like gold and silver, copper was both a monetary raw material and a commodity.The imperial court did not force all copper to be minted, and there was no such rule in all dynasties.In fact, until the later 18th century, Britain was short of money, but still nearly [-]% of precious metals were used for other purposes, which was even more impossible in ancient times.

Taking the Great Xia Dynasty as an example, it was impossible for them to use all of the 25% tax (offset in copper nuggets) to mint money.Because minting copper coins does not necessarily make money, sometimes it loses money. To be honest, it is a bit difficult to collect seigniorage on copper coins, unless you mint the kind of bad money that is thrown on the ground and thrown in half.

But the remaining 75% may not all be made of copper ware.

Sometimes the imperial court will take out part of the grain and cloth to buy copper ore, cast money on the spot and transport it away.This kind of situation usually occurs in the location of the copper pit, and it is also a way to consume the tax in kind that is inconvenient for long-distance transportation.

In short, the actual situation is more complicated.Instead of casting copper coins, it is better to sell them as copper utensils, because the income is higher.

The mine supervisor had a strong urge to sell cast copper wares.But as a government, it is impossible for you to ignore the plight of the lack of money in society. Sometimes you have to pinch your nose to mint copper coins and put them on the market to alleviate the money shortage.

"Jiangxi Nine Mining Supervisors, how much copper will be produced in a year?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, Tongguang produced a total of more than [-] catties of copper in seven years."

"Too little." Shao Shude calculated silently, and then said.

Minting money is very costly.

At Tang Xuanzong's meeting, at most 32.7 Kaiyuan Tongbao were cast in a year, and more than 200 million catties of copper were spent. Counting other consumption, there was still an output of several million catties of copper a year at that time.

But is that enough?Still not enough.

Compared with the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the output of gold, silver and even various consumer goods such as tea in the late Tang Dynasty has greatly increased, exceeding the level of Tianbao's prosperity, but copper is not.

During Tang Xuanzong's time, the mine supervisor who was still in operation only counted the output of 66 jin of copper.

There was a slight decrease in the fifth generation.

After the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, the output of copper exploded immediately. By the second year of Emperor Shenzong Yuanfeng (1079), it had reached 1461 million catties, surpassing that of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty.

The Great Xia Dynasty only produced 300 million catties of copper last year, not as good as that of Tang Xuanzong.The main reason is that the copper mines in the north were mined in the Tang Dynasty, and most of them faced serious problems such as the depletion of reserves and the decline in output. This is the output of the newly added copper in Yunnan and Liaodong, otherwise it would be even lower.

Now, we must find a way in the vast south, and strengthen exploration and mining efforts.

The Northern Song Dynasty should have vigorously exploited the copper mines in the south, otherwise the output would never have doubled compared to the Tang Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Shao Shude said: "You are the copper envoy, and all the copper supervisors are under your control. Some things cannot be neglected. The old mine must find a way to increase production, no matter what method you use. On the other hand, send more people to find new ones. Mine. Jiangxi has more than just such a few copper pits, you should use more snacks."

"The minister obeys the order."

"Is there a strategy to increase production in old mines?"

"My minister thinks that there are only two ways. One is to recruit more cheaters, and the other is to use more slave labor."

Shao Shude fell silent.

"Pit households" are contractors.Recruiting more pit households means contracting out more mine pits. The mine supervisor and the pit households negotiate a share ratio, and then send people to supervise them, and no longer directly participate in mining.

Judging from historical experience, contracting is a way of higher income than directly ending up with yourself-of course, taxes are still indispensable.

Using slave labor is another way to increase income.In fact, slaves have been used in large quantities in the coal mines in the north. Persian slave laborers are all over the northern and inner regions of the Guanbei. They dig coal in pits, burn bricks in kilns, and dig mud in rivers.

He also eats less and works more, which is much better than the local people temporarily recruited by the mine supervisors.

"Let's look for mines first." Shao Shude said: "Jiangxi and Yunnan should not only produce such a small amount of copper. If you do well, if you make meritorious service, the imperial court will naturally reward you."

"The minister obeys the order."

After waving his hand to let the copper envoy retreat, Shao Shude continued to drink tea, and then picked a few Raozhou officials and gentry to come over for questioning.

After the tea was finished, the questioning ended.

He got up and walked around the tea market carefully.

It is roughly divided into several areas, each area is controlled by a guild and sells locally produced tea.

Things like guilds have been deeply rooted since the Tang Dynasty.

There are colorful and silk shops, silk practice shops, grain and wheat shops, rice and noodle shops, fruit shops (fruits), rapeseed shops (seeds), pots and kettles shops (hardware), ordinary utensil shops (containers), and so on.

There are banks, of course, but they only deal in silverware.

The guild system has advantages and disadvantages.

The good side is that the production organization, transportation and circulation, and brand building of commodities have been strengthened. Members of a guild help each other, fight against the government's extortion as a group, and have greater bargaining power in front of the court. Funds can be borrowed to help it tide over difficulties, or expand production.

The bad side is that it is easy to form a monopoly, force buying and selling, falsely high prices, speculation, hoarding, etc.

Overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages at present.Without guilds, it would be impossible to have the current scale of the commodity economy. Perhaps a single accident would directly bring various industries to zero.

Guilds are capable of hiring warriors, which has been common since the Tang Dynasty. Even in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, there were a large number of business guards carrying knives and guns across the state and county, and the court did not care about these so-called "sources of turmoil."

Maybe it's self-confidence, maybe it's some other reason, in short, I'm too lazy to care.

Shao Shude didn't bother to care.

Forty years ago, he went to Hedong with the army to put down the rebellion of Li Guochang and his son.The remnants of the defeated Zhaoyi Army plundered Jinyang smoothly at first, and finally when they grabbed the head of Fangshi, they were killed by the "Fang Citizens" and smashed into groups.

There is no need to set everything to death, just strengthen supervision.The feudal town has been separated for 150 years, and no businessman has ever heard of a successful rebellion, and they have no such intentions.

On the first day of June, Shao Shude left Fuliang Tea Market and went to Lisuo Poyang County, Raozhou.

Along the way, the countryside is full of golden wheat fields, which is very pleasing to the eye.Among the wheat fields, there are also some paddy fields full of japonica rice. The rice is growing well and can be harvested in July.

Fortunately, it's another great age.The south has increasingly become a "refuge" during the Little Ice Age.Or, lowering the temperature is actually not a bad thing for them.

On the tenth day of June, Shengjia arrived in Poyang County, where Shao Shude went boating on the lake, admiring the magnificent scenery of the vast expanse of blue waves.