Xie Tong left Hezhu by ferry and arrived at the west bank.
The current Lingzhou City is somewhat similar to Heyang. It is a city on a sandbank in the center of the river, and settlements have gradually formed on the east and west banks. The construction of the city has become inevitable.
Further back, there are probably the three cities of west, middle and east.
Well, Xicheng 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 sold hundreds of pieces of white porcelain. It also sold more than half of all kinds of silk fabrics.
, if Xie Tong hadn't left half of it so that he could have an excuse to continue traveling north, it would have probably been sold out on the spot.
It can be seen that Lingxia is relatively short of silk.
There are 25 states in Hebei Province and 28 states in Henan Province, all of which produce silk. Interestingly, not all states in the Huainan, Jiangnan, and Sanchuan areas in the south produce silk. For example, out of nearly 60 states in Sanchuan, only 44 states produce silk.
It can be seen that the agriculture in Henan and Hebei is very developed, the population is large, and the technology is very good. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the core area of the country.
As far as silk is concerned, the quality of northern silk at this time greatly exceeded that of Jianghuai. Even in the Song Dynasty, Hebei silk still surpassed Jiangnan silk. However, the south produced many high-end brocades and became famous. In the future, as the temperature in the north dropped,
, a large number of people moved to the south, bringing with them advanced silk fabric technology from the Central Plains, and the overall quality of silk began to improve, instead of relying on the silk fabrics from Chengdu, Xuanzhou and other places to dominate the world.
The Songzhou silk and Bozhou silk brought over by Xie Tong and others cost 900 yuan a piece, which is almost the same price as the Banan silk cloth from Guozhou, Langzhou and other places, which also sold for 950 yuan a piece.
, never more than a thousand dollars.
Among the Lingxia prefectures, currently only Suizhou produces a large amount of silk, while Yinzhou and Xiazhou produce a small amount of silk. Lingzhou has just started to develop. The focus of future development should be on the Longyou towns to increase the silk production there.
When a caravan comes to Lingxia to sell things, it is naturally impossible to collect money. What they collect is leather, beef tendons, horns, and even live livestock, such as cows and horses. After these things are brought back to Henan, they can make a fortune, fool
Just collect money.
Zhao Cheng led a caravan from the north to the south, and happened to encounter the scene where the Bianzhou caravan was making a big profit. Looking closer, he saw that the silks sold were all Henan silks, which competed with the Sichuan silks he wholesaled.
He frowned. But then he realized that these businesses were no longer the most important thing to him.
Since getting on the hook of Prince Lingwu, Zhao's Trading Company has now taken over the hot horse business in central Sichuan.
The horses come from Fengzhou Yongqingzha, which are mainly grassland horses. They are two different breeds from the Yinchuan Qinghai Cong run by Datong Horse Racing, a government-run trading company.
But even grassland horses are still very popular in Sichuan. Especially with the intensification of war, sometimes a war horse can be sold for 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 lucky,
No, it is very common for more than a thousand horses to be killed in a war. The more horses bought in a certain area, the more likely a war will break out there, and when a war breaks out, more horses will often be bought.
Take a thousand war horses south from Yongqingzha, sell them to Shannan West Road or Longjian Town, then exchange them for silk and tea in Sichuan, sell them to Guanzhong, and buy a bunch of daily necessities. Then go north, along Suizhou
, Yinzhou, Linzhou, Shengzhou, Zhenwu Military City, Fengzhou route, selling daily necessities in Guanzhong along the way, buying livestock and war horses, going south along Lingzhou, taking Huizhou, Qinzhou, Fengxiang Prefecture to Shannanxi
Road, and completed the delivery with the livestock line in Sichuan.
This is Zhao Cheng's "triangular trade". After a year of doing it, he has gained a lot. The profits are so big that it scares him: he can earn 112,000 pieces of silk in a year! Excluding the share given to Zhao's mother and son, he
There are still 50,000 horses left.
If you are a businessman with no foundation in making so much money, you will have to worry about what to do. You are afraid that some military leader will come to your door, and then you will get a reputation as a "donor", or you will be taken advantage of by the officials.
The card has to be dealt with no matter how hard it is. 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 surprised many people. There have been rumors in the land of Lingxia that Zhao Yu has a "national beauty". Otherwise, it cannot be explained why he is still so fascinated by Lingwu County King after he is over thirty.
Zhao Cheng left the trading site of the Bianzhou caravan and went to a mule and horse shop not far away to rest.
This shop was opened by a certain leader of the Hexi Party. Of course, that was an old story. At that time, this man was still a tribal leader with a population of 3,000, farming and herding west of Lingzhou. Later, the general marched westward to Hewei.
, three hundred people from this tribe were transferred, and more than twenty people came back, and they all cursed Yang Yue, the commander of the Southeast Road armies.
Later, even these twenty-odd people were not left behind, and were directly recruited as auxiliary troops by the Dingyuan Army.
During this southern expedition, another 300 people from the tribe were transferred. The leader thought hard all night and felt that the Lingzhou government would not let him go, so he took the initiative to find the shogunate and proposed to organize households to equalize the people, and then took over a state
Si Gong joined the army as a sinecure and got a piece of land. He opened a mule and horse shop at this strategic intersection. He was tax-free for twenty years and started a business.
There is a large piece of pasture attached to the mule and horse shop, about a hundred acres in size. The shop owner recruited several escaped slaves from other tribes to help him grow alfalfa and turnips, and provide fodder for the caravans. This is a big deal.
In addition, the store also provides accommodation and meals, which is also an income, which actually 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 were very tight on the Dingkou in their hands. Even if everyone was willing to go on an expedition with the Lingwu Commandery King, they could push him away.
, which is very different from the Hengshan party departments competing to send troops.
The bottom line is that Hengshan Dangxiang is the commander-in-chief's "one of his own", but Hexi Dangxiang is not. The world is so cruel.
"This mule and horse shop is so prosperous." Zhao Cheng said with a smile as soon as he came in.
When the shopkeeper saw it was 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 dares to do this kind of business?"
Behind Zhao Cheng were a hundred or so servants, all carrying swords and bows. They were all guards he had recruited from Qinzhou. Many of them were Tibetan barbarians, and they were all poor and tyrannical. Just look at this formation.
, without official support, he would have been treated as a horse bandit and suppressed long ago.
"This business is still not profitable enough." Zhao Cheng sat down and watched the shopkeeper skillfully order the shop to serve him food and wine, and said with a smile: "If we can make the business go to the Guiyi Army Prefectures, that would be a complete success.
"
He remembered what Prince Lingwu told him, and went to Lanzhou to open a trading company and try to expand his business to the west. If possible, he could cooperate with the Sogdian merchants on the territory of the Guiyi Army to sell the products of the Western Regions into the Central Plains.
Then transfer the affairs of the Central Plains to the Western Regions.
Zhao Cheng never dared to think about this in the past, but recently he felt that it might be possible.
When doing business, the most important thing is a stable order. The Difficult Army marched east and west and wiped out all the ghosts and monsters on the roads inside the pass. By the way, even the Longyou Road and the Shannan West Road were plowed. This is a four-five-year plan.
Once a stable order is established in a large market with a population of millions, you can make a lot of money just by doing livestock business, not to mention that there is more than just this business in the world.
Unfortunately, there are still some obstacles to doing business now. The biggest problem is that silk is difficult to value. Every place has a different price, which is a headache. It is inconvenient to carry copper coins, and there are not so many copper coins available.
It is more convenient to do business in Chang'an. After the goods are sold in Chang'an, you usually go to the Jinzouyuan or a famous big businessman in each town in Beijing, hand over the money, get the flying money certificate, and then go home to withdraw 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 the "flying money" of the Dingnan Army. Because the reputation of the Lingwu Commandery King was very good, and he had never defaulted on previous rewards, so when he went out to fight, sometimes he would not give out physical rewards, but give them to the sergeants.
A piece of flying money, the name was given by the Prince of Lingwu County himself, saying "Treasury bond of a certain state of the Yamen for the army", and the name was recorded.
After the class, 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 also writes the name. There is also an account at the military envoy's yamen, which corresponds one to one.
You can get it after uploading.
This kind of coupon, if it could be kept anonymously, would be of great use.
But now I can only think about, ;w;.;. There are still many problems, the biggest one is trust.
The warriors these days may one day fall. Will the new commander still accept the old score? Not necessarily. To put it bluntly, the credibility of a local commander is not as high as the credibility of a local wealthy businessman. Who dares to use it?
This kind of coupons? What if people don’t accept the credit? Or because of frequent wars, more coupons are issued?
Everyone is not stupid. In today's world, there are really too few people with some credibility. Even though Prince Lingwu can issue coupons now, it is because of his high prestige in the hearts of the sergeants, but as long as he fails to cash it once, his credibility will be completely destroyed.
Destroyed. In future wars, real items must be distributed. If not, the soldiers may not even be willing to fire their bows.
"Kang Hao, who returned to the Yijun Army, probably passed here two days ago and went to Xiazhou. There are more than 200 camels loaded with goods. I'm afraid he can earn thousands of dollars on one trip." The storekeeper personally helped serve the dishes.
: "Zhao Hao probably likes to eat the yellow sheep he hunted yesterday."
"The store is interested." Zhao Cheng said with a smile: "Kangfo Jin is doing a big business, so it's good to get rid of it. Especially the jade, which costs one price in the Western Regions and the same price here. And the armor made by the barbarians.
, some generals like to spend a lot of money to buy a pair, even if they are not used on the equipment rack, they will buy it just for fun. There are also those hooded fans, etc., they are all good deals. A few thousand dollars is looking down on others.
If I can get involved and earn tens of thousands of yuan a year, even if I give half of it to the shogunate, I will be willing to do so."
The shopkeeper kept laughing and thought to himself: Aren't you from the shogunate? King Lingwu has raised so many soldiers and uses money every day to seduce the suffering of the party members. How is it possible that no one makes money for him? Now look at it.
Come here, I have my mind set on business in the Western Regions again. If I want to make money from this, I really won’t let anything go.