Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 287 Money
Xie Tong left Hezhu by ferry and arrived at the west bank.

The current Lingzhou City is somewhat similar to Heyang.There is a city on the sandbar in the center of the river, and settlements have gradually formed on the east and west banks, and it is imperative to build a city.

After that, there are probably three cities in the west, middle and east.

Well, West City is just a common name at present, and there is no city wall yet, but there are really a lot of people.The caravan stayed here for half a day, and hundreds of pieces of white porcelain they carried were sold.More than half of the various silk items were also sold. If Xie Tong hadn't asked me to keep half of them, so as to have an excuse to continue northward, they would have been sold out on the spot.

It can be seen that Lingxia is relatively short of silk.

The 25 prefectures of the North Road and the 28 prefectures of the Henan Province of Guochao all produce silk.Interestingly, not all states in Huainan, Jiangnan, and Sanchuan in the south produce silk.For example, there are nearly 44 states in Sanchuan, but only [-] states produce silk.It can be seen from this that the agriculture in Henan and Hebei is very developed, the population is large, and the technology is also very good. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are the core areas of the country.

As far as silk is concerned, the quality of northern silk at this time was much higher than that of Jianghuai. Even in the Song Dynasty, Hebei silk still surpassed Jiangnan silk.However, the South has produced a lot of high-end brocades, which has gained a reputation.In the future, as the temperature in the north dropped, a large number of people moved to the south, bringing with them the advanced silk fabric technology of the Central Plains, and the overall quality of silk began to improve, instead of relying on brocade from Chengdu, Xuanzhou and other places to win the world.

The Songzhou silk and Bozhou silk brought by Xie Tong and others cost 950 yuan a piece, which is almost equivalent to the Banan liaobu from Guozhou, Langzhou and other places. The latter only sells for [-] yuan a piece. More than a thousand dollars.

Of the Lingxia prefectures, only Suizhou produces a large amount of silk, and Yinzhou and Xiazhou produce a small amount of silk. Lingzhou has just started.The focus of future development should be the towns in Longyou, and the silk production there should be increased.

Caravans come to Lingxia to sell things, so naturally it is impossible to collect money.What they harvested were hides, tendons, horns, and even live animals such as cows and horses.After bringing these things back to Henan, they can make a fortune, and only fools take money.

Zhao Cheng led a caravan going south from the north, and happened to encounter the scene where the Bianzhou caravan made a big profit.When he took a closer look, all the silk sold was from Henan, and he was a competitor of the Sichuan silk he had wholesaled, so he frowned.But then it started again, and these businesses were no longer the most important to him.

Since they got on the line of King Lingwu, their Zhao's firm has now taken over the hot horse business in Central Shu.

The source of the horses is Yongqingzha, Fengzhou, mainly grassland horses, and the Yinchuan Qinghai Cong operated by Datong Horse Bank, a government-run firm, are two breeds.

But even prairie horses are still very popular in central Sichuan.Especially with the intensification of the war, sometimes a war horse can be fired at a sky-high price of fifty or sixty pieces of silk.The most amazing thing is that the war horse itself is a consumable. If you are unlucky, it is very common for more than a thousand horses to die in a big battle.The more horses bought in a certain area, the more likely a war broke out in that area, and when a war broke out, more horses tended to be bought.

Take a thousand war horses from Yongqingzha to the south, sell them at Shannan West Road or Longjian Town, and then exchange them for silk and tea in Sichuan, sell them in Guanzhong, and buy a bunch of daily necessities.Then go north, along the route of Suizhou, Yinzhou, Linzhou, Shengzhou, Zhenwujuncheng, Fengzhou, sell Guanzhong daily necessities along the way, buy livestock and war horses, go south along Lingzhou, go to Huizhou, From Qinzhou, Fengxiang Mansion to Shannan West Road, the delivery was completed with the livestock company in Chuanzhong.

This is Zhao Cheng's "triangular trade". After a year of operation, he has gained a lot. The profit is so large that he is afraid: he can earn [-] to [-] bolts of silk a year!Excluding the share given to Zhao's mother and son, he still had [-] horses left.

Earning so much money, if you are an unfounded businessman, you will be trembling at this time, not knowing what to do.I was afraid of being approached by some military leader and getting a reputation as a "donor", or being eaten up by officials and taking cards.But Zhao Cheng is not afraid, his niece Zhao Yu is the concubine of the King of Lingwu County, and she has been favored by him for so many years.

This is something that surprises many people.There have always been rumors in the land of Lingxia that Zhao Yu has a "national beauty", otherwise it is impossible to explain why he is still so fascinated by the King of Lingwu after he is over thirty.

Zhao Cheng left the trading site of the Bianzhou caravan and went to rest at a mule and horse shop not far away.

This shop was opened by a certain Hexi party leader, of course, that is all old things.At that time, this person was still the head of a tribe with a population of 3000, farming and grazing in the west of Lingzhou.Later, when the commander-in-chief marched west to Hewei, 300 people from the tribe were transferred, and more than 20 came back, and they all scolded Yang Yue, the commander of the southeast army.

Later, even these twenty or so people were not left behind, and were directly recruited away by the Dingyuan Army as auxiliary soldiers.

During this southern expedition, another 300 members of the tribe were transferred.The headman thought hard all night, and felt that the Lingzhou government would not let him go, so he took the initiative to find the shogunate, proposed to register Qimin, and then took a job as a state secretary to join the army and got a piece of land. A mule and horse shop was opened at a key intersection, tax-free for 20 years, and started a business.

Luomadian has a large piece of grassland attached to it, about a hundred acres in size.The store recruited several fugitive slaves from other tribes to help him grow alfalfa and turnips, and provide fodder for caravans, which was a considerable income.In addition, the store also provides accommodation and meals, which are also an income, which adds up to a lot.

Zhao Cheng knew this party member who had changed his surname to Shao, and thought he was easy to talk to.The other leaders, who hold Dingkou in their hands to death, even if everyone is willing to follow the King of Lingwu, they can push it away, which is very different from the Hengshan party departments who are vying to send troops.

The bottom line is that the Hengshan Dangxiang is the commander-in-chief's "insider", but the Hexi Dangxiang is not. This world is so cruel.

"This mule and horse shop is very prosperous." Zhao Cheng smiled as soon as he entered.

When the shopkeeper saw him, he immediately got up from the bed and said with a smile, "It's not as big as Zhao Hao estimated, with a thousand horses, who would dare to do this kind of business?"

There are hundreds of servants behind Zhao Cheng, all of them carry knives and bows, they are all the guards he recruited in Qinzhou, many of them are Tubo barbarians, all of them are poor and impoverished.This battle alone, if there is no official care, people would have been suppressed as horse bandits.

"This business is still not profitable enough." Zhao Cheng sat down, watched the shopkeeper skillfully order the shop to serve him wine and food, and said with a smile: "If the business can be returned to the rebel states, then it will be called consummation. "

He remembered what the king of Lingwu County had told him, and went to Lanzhou to open a business firm, trying to do business westward.If possible, you can cooperate with the group of Sogdian merchants on the territory of the Guiyi Army to sell the goods from the Western Regions into the Central Plains, and then transfer the goods from the Central Plains to the Western Regions.

Zhao Cheng didn't dare to think about this in the past, but recently he felt that it might be possible.

To do business, you need a stable order most.The Dingnan army marched from east to west and swept away all the ghosts and snakes on the Guannei Road, and along the way even Longyou Road and Shannan West Road were plowed.This is a large market with a population of 500 million. Once there is a stable order, you can make a fortune just by doing livestock business, not to mention that there is more than one business in the world.

It's a pity that there are still some obstacles to doing business now.The biggest problem is that it is difficult to estimate the price of silk, and the price is one for each place, which is very troublesome.Copper coins are inconvenient to carry, and there are not so many copper coins available.

It is more convenient to go to Chang'an to do business.After the goods are sold in Chang'an, they usually go to Jinzuoyuan or a famous big businessman in each town in the capital, hand over the money, get the flying money certificate, and then go home to get the money.It would be great if the scope of this kind of flying money can be further expanded, and more and more people or places dare to guarantee flying money, which will greatly facilitate transactions.

Zhao Cheng suddenly thought of Ding Nanjun's "flying money".Because the reputation of the King of Lingwu County is very good, the previous rewards have never been in arrears, so when going out to fight, sometimes no real rewards will be given out, but a piece of flying money will be given to the soldiers. The name was given by the King of Lingwu County himself. It is said that "the coupons of a certain state in a certain state of the Yamen for the military envoy" are recorded.

After class division, the sergeants use this registered coupon to go to the corresponding treasury.A coupon usually corresponds to how much money, how much silk or how many sheep, and the name is written on it. There is also an account at the military envoy's office, and you can get it after matching one by one.

If this kind of coupon can be anonymous, it should be of great use.

But now I can only think about it, there are still many problems, the biggest one is trust.

The warriors these days might fall from power one day, will the new commander-in-chief still accept his old scores?not necessarily.To put it bluntly, Yizhen Jieshuai's reputation is not as high as that of local wealthy businessmen.Who dares to use this coupon?What if people don't admit it?Or because of frequent wars, more coupons were issued?
Everyone is not stupid.In today's world, there are really too few people with a little credit.Don't look at the fact that the King of Lingwu County can issue coupons now, that is because of his high prestige in the hearts of the sergeants, but as long as he fails to cash in once, his credit will be completely ruined.In future wars, real objects must be issued. If they are not issued, the soldiers may not even be willing to open their bows.

"Kang Hao of the Guiyi Army just passed here two days ago and went to Xiazhou. There are more than [-] camels, full of goods, and I'm afraid he can earn thousands of dollars for a trip." The shopkeeper personally helped to serve the food : "The gazelle that was hunted yesterday is probably Zhao Hao's favorite food."

"The store is interested." Zhao Cheng said with a smile: "Kangfu Gold is a big business, so it's easy to sell. Especially the jade, the price is the same in the Western Regions, and the price is the same here. And the armor made by the barbarians Well, some generals like to spend a lot of money to buy a pair back home, even if they are not used on the equipment rack, they still have to buy them just for fun. There are also those hufen and so on, all of which are good deals. Thousands of dollars is an underestimation of others. Yes. If I can get involved and earn tens of thousands of dollars a year, even if I give half of it to the shogunate, I'm willing."

The shopkeeper kept laughing, thinking to himself: Aren't you a member of the shogunate?The king of Lingwu County raised so many soldiers, and used money every day to lure the bitterness of the party and various ministries, how could it be possible that no one made money for him?Now it seems that he has set his mind on the business in the Western Regions again. If he wants to make money from this, he really will not let go of anything.

(End of this chapter)