Originally, Hubayi's caravan terminal was Wuwei City in Liangzhou. Sometimes the caravan was pressed for time, so Hubayi would directly cross Jiuquan City and rest in Zhangye City.
For businessmen, time is money. Every time we stop in a city, the clerks must relax a bit after entering the city. It will take a lot of time to wait for these clerks to be released and then reunited.
If a waiter causes trouble in the city, Hubay, as the boss, has to go out to get him. For merchants who are in a hurry, the only city they can stop at is one less city to stop at.
Compared to Zhangye, which has more abundant products, Hubayi will not stop at Jiuquan City unless it is absolutely necessary.
But today is different, because Hubay came to Jiuquan City specifically.
Zeng Mu was Hubayi's lifesaver. If it weren't for the salicylic acid pills Zeng Mu sold, Hubayi might have died of the high fever.
Hu Bayi had already had a relationship with Zeng Mu when Zeng Mu was the head of the post office.
Now that Zeng Mu has become the Sima of the Bafu and leads the military forces in Suzhou, Hubayi, as an old acquaintance, naturally cannot let go of this opportunity to establish friendship.
Hubay specially brought a lot of treasures to bring to Zeng Mu. Hubay even prepared to move his family and business to Jiuquan.
Now that Zeng Mu is now in charge of Jiuquan, Hubay is also prepared to increase Jiuquan's popularity and improve Zeng Mu's political performance.
However, when Hubayi entered the city, he was still surprised by the changes in Jiuquan City.
Jiuquan City has not undergone major renovations, and the ground is still in tatters, but the shops along the street have been renovated and are no longer the mess they were before.
This surprised Hubay very much. If there is one thing that worries businessmen the most in a city, it is the occupation of shops.
In the early Tang Dynasty, all transactions had to be conducted in the market. This was clearly stipulated in the Tang Code. If merchants did not operate in the market, the Yamen would impose fines and confiscate the goods.
However, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, Chang'an's commerce was developed, and the four cities alone could no longer meet the commercial needs of the people.
Many merchants whose houses face the street also find it troublesome to move goods to and from the market every day, so they simply sell goods in their own homes.
This is the so-called "shop". During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, Changsun Wuji once reported to the court, believing that shop was a behavior that seriously disrupted the court's business order, and asked the court to strictly inspect shops and not allow people to do business at home.
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After the fall of Changsun Wuji, Emperor Gaozong said that people doing business in their own homes was also a means of making a living, so he ordered to lift the restrictions on people doing business in shops, and only required those people who opened shops to pay taxes according to the rules of the city.
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There are more and more shops in Xijing City, and there are even cases where merchants rent houses along the street to do business.
The imperial court no longer banned it, but competition among shops began to affect people's lives.
What disgusts ordinary people the most is the phenomenon of occupying roads and running businesses.
In order to do business, some stores will display their products at the door or sell them directly outside the door.
When a family does this, people doing the same business will also take out their products and display them in a more eye-catching position.
Over time, some roads became inaccessible for horse-drawn carriages when shops were opened, and the roads were filled with stalls set up by various shops.
This kind of disorderly competition is difficult for the government to control. Even if the stalls are withdrawn today, they will be put up tomorrow.
But today when Hubayi walked into Jiuquan City, all the merchants in the city honestly withdrew their stalls outside the door.
But each store has a colorful plaque, which is said to be called a signboard. It contains the name of the store and the products it sells, giving a clear and intuitive introduction.
For example, the Zhaoda preserve store in front sells dried fruit preserves. The store name and store products are clearly written on the signboard, so that customers can immediately find the store they need.
In addition, there were workers cleaning in front of each store. It was the first time for Hubay to see such clean and tidy city streets.
Hu Bayi couldn't help but sigh that Zeng Mu was really powerful. The places he was in charge of developed rapidly and changed their appearance.
In this case, Hubayi will stay in Jiuquan for a few more days. He is going to find an inn to stay first, and then go to the Governor's Mansion to pay his respects, and then go to see Zeng Mu.
In Jiuquan City, Hubayi also has a familiar inn. The innkeeper Chao Silang is Hubayi's old friend, and Hubayi plans to stay at his inn.
When he arrived at Chao Silang's inn, he found that the inn was hung with red silk and satin, a group of waiters were hanging a plaque on the wall, and the neighbors were congratulating Chao Silang.
Is this a happy event? Hubayi is also a fastidious businessman, so he quickly walked over and said hello to Chao Silang.
"Hu Lang! It was last year when we last met, right? Come in, come in, there is a happy event in the shop today, and the food and accommodation will be discounted in half!"
"Congratulations, Shiro! Congratulations, Shiro! I don't know about your family's happy event, and I haven't prepared any gifts. Just accept the wedding money!"
Chao Silang quickly declined and said: "How can this be done? Come in quickly, come in quickly, you don't need any money, as long as you stay in the shop for one night!"
The inn was bustling with activity, so Hu Bayi asked: "I wonder if there is any happy event for the Shilang family?"
"It's not a happy event for my family, it's because the inn has been rated as a Grade A inn!"
"Class A inn?"
Chao Silang said proudly: "This is a new thing in our Jiuquan City. The inns in Jiuquan City have been rated into three grades: A, B, and C. Grade A is the cleanest, most comfortable inn. This time, my inn has been rated as Grade A.
All colleagues in Jiuquan have recognized our inn!”
"That's really a happy event, congratulations!" Hubayi immediately congratulated him.
Entering the inn, it turned out that the windows were bright and clean. It was as clean and sanitary as the inn where Hubay stayed in Shazhou City.
Chao Silang was also very proud. In order to be selected as a Grade A inn, he, the president of the inn guild, also spent a lot of effort upgrading the inn facilities and raising the salary of the waiters to improve the inn service.
After some renovation and upgrading, it was finally selected as a Grade A inn.
This time, there are only three Class A inns in the entire Jiuquan City, which means Chao Silang's inn is the top three inns in Jiuquan.
And even if you are rated as Grade A, everything is not worry-free. Every month, the inn guild will select ten inns for another assessment. If they fail the assessment, their rating will be lowered.
But Chao Silang, who is good at calculations, knew that the sign of this Grade A inn would become more and more valuable. If the accommodation costs of the two inns were similar, the guests would definitely choose Grade A over Grade B.
After a comfortable night's stay in Chao Silang's inn, Hubayi sent a greeting letter to the governor's office early the next morning, and couldn't wait to go to the market to see if there were any new specialties in Jiuquan City.