Father can be an enemy to the country

In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not allow private tea-horse trade. According to the provisions of the "Ming Dynasty Law", those who illegally exported tea and failed to supervise the pass would be executed by slow slicing.

Zhu Zhen's brother-in-law Ouyang Lun was sentenced to death by Zhu for smuggling tea.

But in terms of business alone, the Ming Dynasty was definitely beaten by the Song Dynasty. The official monopoly of the tea-horse trade in the Ming Dynasty was extremely ineffective, and the trade volume was less than one-tenth of that in the Song Dynasty.

And the tea-horse trade was the foundation of the prosperity of Yunnan. Zhu Zhen took a flexible approach and established the Yunnan Tea-Horse Trading Association in addition to the Yunnan Tea-Horse Department.

In fact, the two are a team with two names, both headed by Gu Yuanchen. When connecting with the official, he was the tea-horse department. When in front of the merchants, he was the president of the tea-horse trade fair.

Gu Yuanchen played a similar role when he was in Suzhou. He knew very well that the prince's game was actually focused on the latter, and the former was just a cover.

Moreover, he knew that the most important thing about trade was the trade volume. As long as the scale was increased, everything else would be easy. So after he took office, he had been committed to expanding the scale of the tea-horse trade. One of the important items was to change the original tea-horse trade to a tea-horse trade fair.

So Zhu Zhen must support him.

~~

Two days later, the third Kunming Tea-Horse Trade Fair was held at the Daxiaochang outside the east gate of Kunming City.

The weather was fine and cloudless that day. The trade fair was crowded with people from all ethnic groups. In addition to the majority of Han merchants, there were also foreign merchants dressed in Bai, Dai, Miao, Luoluo, and Tibetan costumes, and even foreign merchants from India, Dashi, and Nanyang... There were about 10,000 to 20,000 people in total.

Before the official start, there was a simple opening ceremony.

First, there was a lion dance performance with strong Han characteristics, and then Gu Yuanchen took the stage to hold the opening ceremony and invited the prince to the stage to give a speech.

Zhu Zhen stepped onto the stage amid the welcome of the crowd and delivered a short and powerful speech. He first expressed a warm welcome to the merchants who came to the exhibition on behalf of the Yunnan government, and assured them that they would provide a safe, fair and honest trading environment. Finally, he wished them a prosperous business and a lot of money!

His speech was very down-to-earth, but the effect was amazing, and he immediately won the hearts of the merchants from foreign countries. They all paid the highest respect to Zhu Zhen, the protector of Yunnan.

For merchants, no matter how many words they said, they could not be more moved by those six words.

Hu Quan was convinced. The prince's ability to speak to people and to ghosts was already perfect, and the most amazing thing was that he would always make the other party feel that the prince was speaking to him from the heart. Unconsciously, he fell in love with him...

At the end of the ceremony, Zhu Zhen struck the gong, announcing the official start of the trade fair!

~~

After the trade fair started, the merchants took their positions, and Zhu Zhen also came to the VIP lounge under the stage.

Ma He quickly took off the eye-catching dragon robe for him and changed into ordinary civilian clothes so that the prince could visit the market.

Although Zhu Zhen was so big that his invisibility was not very good. But today, all the people present were smart businessmen. Seeing his dress, they knew that the prince did not want to be watched and would not get close to him.

While changing his clothes, Zhu Zhen smiled to Gu Yuanchen who was standing beside him: "I didn't expect the scale of today's exhibition."

"Yes, we didn't expect it at the beginning." Gu Yuanchen sighed: "At the first session, we just had a try-and-see attitude, and not many people came. There were more than 2,000 merchants and more than 50 stalls, basically all of whom were partners we invited."

"But the effect was surprisingly good. The merchants who attended the fair at that time made a lot of money. They got far more choices from the trade fair than before, and they could choose products that were truly suitable for their target customers. How could the competitors who didn't come compare? That's it? Naturally, they beat them to a pulp. "

"So when the second session was held last year, the number of merchants participating in the fair doubled, and the turnover increased fivefold. "Gu Yuanchen proudly reported: "In just ten days of the trade fair, the turnover reached a huge amount of two million taels!"

"That's really good." Zhu Zhen praised: "It has far exceeded the Yuan Dynasty and is almost catching up with the level of the Song Dynasty."

"This year, the number of merchants participating in the fair has doubled on the basis of last year, and the number of exhibitors has increased to 300. If there is no major accident, it will definitely exceed the level of the Song Dynasty." Gu Yuanchen said confidently.

"It is necessary to surpass the Song Dynasty. At that time, it was just selling tea and buying horses, but we sell all kinds of general merchandise. How can this be compared?" Zhu Zhen smiled and said: "You are so excited, let's go out for a walk."

"Please, Your Majesty." Gu Yuanchen hurriedly led the way.

~~

As soon as I left the VIP room, the outside suddenly became noisy, just like entering a big market.

In fact, the trade fair is just a big market. Each merchant's booth is a stall with a shed. The merchants walking around are customers who look at goods, buy goods, and bargain.

It's just that there is only wholesale here, not retail, and the transaction amount of a single transaction may exceed the business of an ordinary market for a whole day.

Zhu Zhen took a quick look and found that the exhibited goods were really dazzling. In addition to tea, which must be the protagonist, there are also silk and porcelain, which are two masters of stealing the show. In addition, all kinds of cloth, rouge, jewelry, needles and threads, pots, bowls, plates and dishes... are really available.

Although a closer look shows that they are indeed a level lower than the inland goods, these are all produced locally in Yunnan!

In order to expand the influence of the trade fair and promote the development of industry and commerce in various places, Zhu Zhen issued exhibition tasks to all prefectures. Each county was required to send at least one exhibition booth, with no upper limit.

And it was not enough to send them, because all merchants who registered had to be reviewed by the Tea and Horse Association to determine the quality and quantity of the goods, and would not damage the reputation of the trade fair before they were allocated booths.

After the trade fair, they would be scored and ranked according to indicators such as trade volume and profit margin, and the results would be directly recorded in the annual assessment of local officials.

Lao Liu had strict performance assessment in Yunnan, and the promotion and demotion of officials depended on the assessment. This move was a life-threatening move. Which prefecture and county magistrate dared not pay attention to the development of local industry and commerce?

Of course, Zhu Zhen not only made things difficult for them, but also provided them with favorable conditions-the 50,000 craftsmen promised by Boss Zhu were distributed as soon as they were sent to Yunnan.

Local officials regarded the craftsmen they were assigned as sweet cakes, giving them money, people and venues, and letting them fully develop local handicrafts. Then the best ones are selected and sent to the provincial capital to participate in the exhibition. Regardless of the ranking, the boost to the local economy is obvious.