royal robes

Chapter 690 Silk 50 Taels

These merchants should enter the city to do business, why are they stranded outside the city gate?Could it be that people from Xizhou don't let merchants from the Central Plains enter?This is also impossible.For the people of Xizhou, the people from the Central Plains came to sell precious goods, and then took away the worthless jade... Are the people of Xizhou crazy?What are they doing keeping these merchants outside the city?Of course, they want silk, porcelain, and spices from the Central Plains.

Yizhou and Xizhou are both territories of the Uyghurs, so the policies should be the same.These merchants were still very popular in Illinois, why were they blocked in Western States?What kind of business is this?
"Go quickly, these merchants must be waiting anxiously, let's go and ask what happened." Zong Xin told Zheng Ziming to speed up, Zheng Ziming and the wolf pulling the cart also saw the situation ahead, and drove immediately forward.

Xizhou City was right in front of us, but the group of people drove for nearly an hour before arriving.The speed of the car should not be too fast, because there is still cargo in the car. Although the eyes can see it, the distance is actually very far away.In a place as far as the eye can see, like the Western Regions, it takes a long time to reach the destination.

Passing through the town, there is a stone formation next to it. Walking from the main road and not entering the range of the stone formation, a group of people came to the gate of Xizhou City.Youyun Eighteen Riders and the masters of Leiwang's Mansion immediately came to Zong Xin's side, and it had been a long time since they had seen each other. If it wasn't for protecting these useless businessmen, they would never have left Zong Xin's side.

Seeing Master Zongxin's carriage arriving, many merchants were waiting outside the city gate, ready to complain.

Zong Xin asked directly, "Old Fifth, what's going on here?"

"Reporting to the master, the city defender's asking price is too high, and all the merchants are staying and camping outside the city." Lao Wu said: "In fact, the merchants can accept several times the tax, but this time the asking price is too high. They actually asked for a truckload of goods. The tax of 50 taels of silver has increased tenfold. Don’t merchants take this trip to the Silk Road just to make money? If they have to pay 50 taels of silver to enter the city here, then although their trip is not in vain, But at least half of the proceeds were taken away by this city defender."

Zong Xin nodded, probably knowing what was going on.The Uyghurs are really wicked, they welcome them in Yizhou, and then let them go all the way to Xizhou.After arriving in Xizhou, a lion opened his mouth and forced these merchants to hand over more than half of the profits of the trip.

Of course, even after paying this money, the merchants still make money, and they still make a lot of money.But the merchants are making their hard-earned money along the way, while the Uighurs are completely empty-handed. This is simply a clear-cut robbery.

But one thing is certain, as long as the attitude of the Uighurs is clear, these merchants must hand over the money, at most they will not come to Xizhou City next time, but they must hand over the money, and then go to the city to sell the goods and buy them again The jade was transported back to the Central Plains, and it was still profitable, and it was still a lot of money, but the profit was not as much as imagined.

The Uyghurs are also sure of this point, because Xizhou is the end point of most Central Plains people, they will not go west, and it is enough to go to Xizhou.What the Central Plains needed most was exquisite jade, and what the Uyghurs needed most was of course the Central Plains silk.

They also knew how much money the Central Plains people could earn by taking this Silk Road trip, so they deliberately looked at the asking prices for these goods and insisted on grabbing money from the Central Plains people's pockets.Anyway, these Central Plains people earn money from the Uighurs, so there is nothing wrong with asking them to collect more taxes.

Of course, the most important thing is that these Central Plains people must give, otherwise they will lose money if they cannot enter the city, and all the hard work along the way will be in vain.Even if they return to Illinois, Illinois will still charge high taxes, otherwise these people will not be allowed to enter the city.

This is where the Uighurs are immoral. Since the Central Plains people have arrived in the Western Regions, the hard work of this journey is to enter the Western Regions to do business. There must be.

"The Uighurs are so wicked..." Zong Xin said, "This is simply an open robbery."

Zhao Kuangyin said: "No, this is tax collection. Other people's tax is so high. If you don't want to pay it, you don't have to pay it. How can it be regarded as robbery? I think the Uighur people are pretty good. There are only such people in the Central Plains caravan. If they want to grab it, who can stop it?"

Zong Dao said: "Those who don't want to give it can be sent back to the Central Plains directly? Not to mention the hardships of the journey, the goods on the car can't be sold, and they can't buy jade. A lot of consumption along the way, don't they really Will they give up entering Xizhou? Not to mention 50 taels of silver, even if they want 100 taels, they have to give it. The merchants in the Central Plains have no choice, they have to give it, so this is a clear grab."

Zhao Kuangyin nodded: "There is some truth to this. This is indeed an open robbery. This city guard is too ruthless. The Central Plains merchants have worked so hard to go to the Uighurs to activate their economy. Even if they don't tax the Uighurs, there are great benefits. They Not to mention the tax collection, it’s so expensive... I like to fight against injustice, Zong Xin, don’t stop me, I’ll go directly and kill the city guards, and then bring these merchants into the city.”

"Fuck you... Is this a problem with the city guards? It's clearly a Uighur policy deliberately used to suppress businessmen in the Central Plains. They are short-sighted and only care about making small profits, regardless of future development." Zong Dao said: "There is no way around this. Ah, who let the Silk Road be cut off for so many years? They also think that the merchants on the Silk Road are all for small profits for a while, and they only take this trip, so they count as much as they can. If the Silk Road is smooth, the trade between the two places If we have been in contact for many years, this kind of thing will not happen.”

Others also nodded. In fact, these merchants' taking the Silk Road has a great effect on the economic development of the Uighurs.But after the Silk Road was cut off, occasionally businessmen would go back to Uighur, but only once and never again.Although such merchants can also bring great benefits to the Uighurs, the number is too small to be of much use...

So the Uighurs thought of this way to earn as much profit as possible from the merchants in the Central Plains, that is, to keep quiet when they are in Yizhou, and when they come to Xizhou to sell goods and buy jade, they will come to a lion. .But when things have come to this point, what can the businessman do?It is moral enough for the Uighurs not to directly kill people and take the goods.

The Uyghurs just want to make as much profit as possible, because at this point, it is impossible for the merchants to turn around and go back, and they have to pay as much as they want.You can buy silk and sell jade, but you can get an extra 50 taels of silver for each car, which is a lot of money if you calculate it this way.

This caravan is very spectacular. I dare not say that there are thousands of vehicles, but there are also hundreds of carriages pulling goods.The Uighurs could squeeze tens of thousands of taels of silver directly from this caravan, how could they miss such a good opportunity?After all, these are just some businessmen, not the army, and they are far away from home to do business on their own territory, so they can't bully them however they want.

I finally understand that this is not a problem with the city guards, but a problem with the Uighur system.They just think that after the Central Plains merchants come once, they won't come again, so once they scrape enough, they won't see each other anyway.

A system like the Uyghur is also one of the reasons that made the Silk Road more and more lonely. Everyone can understand the risk of making money.However, Uighur’s open grabbing makes people very angry. Even if there are good goods in the Central Plains, merchants hope to produce and consume themselves, and they don’t want to go to Uighur to suffer this kind of injustice.

Zong Xin said: "It's easy to handle. Let all merchants put a sign on their commercial vehicles. The sign says '50 taels of silver a piece of silk'. That's about it."

"50 taels of silver a piece? Are you going crazy?" Zhao Kuangyin said, "Have you ever bought anything? You know silk...it makes sense, I figured it out."

Zhao Kuangyin originally thought that Zong Xin didn't understand prices, but when he was talking, he suddenly figured out that Zong Xin just wanted to raise prices.In fact, merchants from the Central Plains have greatly stimulated the economy of the Uighurs, and the Uighurs are also extremely eager for silk from the Central Plains. Of course, they want to let the Central Plains people enter the city to do business.If the silk in the Central Plains is so expensive...it's not that no one buys it, it's just that there are very few people who buy it.

In fact, there is no need for 50 taels of silver at all. As long as it is sold for 30 to [-] taels of silver, the price of goods in the Uighurs will increase. By then, the poor will become poorer and the rich will get richer. This is definitely not a good thing for the Uighurs.

The old one said, "Master, shall we continue with this order?"

"Yes, remember to ask them to be firm. This is also for the sake of future development." Zong Xin originally did not want to make such a damaging move, because this move can easily cause conflicts.As the saying goes, a strong dragon cannot suppress a local snake. Others have troops and masters here, but here are all merchants. If there is a fight, the soldiers and civilians of Xizhou will crush this caravan with one kick, and they can also seize all the goods here.

But if the attitude is not strong enough at this time, the Uighurs will really continue this tradition, and then the merchants in the Central Plains will not want to come again after visiting once, and the Silk Road will always be cut off in Xizhou.This is of course impossible, because the Silk Road is very important. It is a bridge for the Central Plains to communicate with foreign forces. The Silk Road must be restored to allow the Central Plains to develop better.

The Central Plains may have a lot of technology and prosperity that the Western Regions do not have, but as the saying goes, a good threesome must have my teacher.There are many things in the Western Regions that the Central Plains does not have. Everyone learns from each other's strengths, so that everyone can achieve better development.

The old one immediately went to do what Zong Xin ordered. This was a very simple idea. Everyone understood it, but no one took the lead.Zong Xin's words are very influential in the hearts of the Central Plains people, and this method is already very good, so everyone agrees.

(End of this chapter)