Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 547, the price of grassland
On Liu Jin's side, he was discussing with Battelle about surrendering. On the other side, the caravans that followed Liu Jin to the grassland were already busy.

In a huge open space, merchants put out all their goods.

Snow-white, snow-white Changlu Snow Salt, mouthfuls of large iron pots produced by Miyun Iron Works, rice from the south of the Yangtze River, white flour from the north, and pieces of tea bricks and tea cakes. The herdsmen on the grassland immediately knew that they were here for business.

This time, there were many caravans following the grassland. The caravans consisted of thousands of people, and everyone carried enough commodities.

With so many things on display, it immediately attracted the herdsmen of the Naiman tribe.

A large number of herdsmen gathered, looking at these salt, iron pots, tea leaves, etc., their eyes are shining.

The exchanges between Daming and the grassland have always been frequent, but in many cases, because the grassland people often go south to plunder, the Ming court also strictly prohibits mutual trading, and strictly prohibits merchants from smuggling goods to the grassland.

Especially in the past few years, the little Tatar princes went south every year, and the ban on the Ming court was even stricter. At the same time, border smuggling was constantly cracked down on.

Under such a policy, the materials on the grassland are very scarce.

Salt, iron pot, tea, grain, etc., these things are the most scarce goods on the grassland, especially the three items of salt, tea and iron pot.

Grasslands do not produce salt, but people cannot live without salt.

In Daming, a catty was worth a few tens of pennies per catty. Now, after several price wars, the best snow salt in Changlu Salt Field is only a few dozen pennies per catty.

But on the grasslands, the price of a catty of salt can reach hundreds of coins per catty. Of course, the copper coins of the Ming Dynasty are not used on the grasslands, and people in the grasslands often barter.

It is often necessary to exchange salt with cattle and sheep, and the price is even higher.

But even so, salt is still very scarce on the grasslands.

The Shanxi merchants in Shanxi basically started their business by smuggling goods to the grasslands. The profits in this are even greater than the profits of sea trade. If they change hands casually, the profits can be dozens or hundreds of times.

In addition to salt, iron pots are also sought-after items on the grasslands.

Grassland people don't know how to smelt iron, let alone make iron pots. An iron pot can even marry a grassland girl on the grassland, and it's not a problem to change a few cows.

Because if you don't have an iron pan, you can only cook meat and eat it.

This barbecue is okay for one or two meals, and if you eat it every day, no one can stand it, and there is no way to drink delicious mutton soup.

From here, you can know the value of the iron pot on the grassland.

The iron pots of the prairie people are handed down from generation to generation and are family heirlooms.

At this time, many herdsmen gathered together, looking at these iron pots, salt, tea bricks, etc. with bright eyes. They needed these things too much.

"Erji, it's an iron pot and salt~"

Qiqige looked at the things put out by the Ming people in front of her, couldn't help pulling her mother's hand excitedly and said.

"I know~"

An Mur nodded solemnly, then tremblingly came to a merchant's booth, pointed to an iron pot and asked, "How much does this cost?"

"Zhang An, come here quickly, I don't understand grassland dialect~"

Zhang Lei is a manager of Sangong Trading Co., and this time he was also ordered to buy wool on the grassland. He brought a lot of things and hired a guy who knew the grassland dialect.

Daming and Grassland have close contacts. There are many grassland people who understand Daming dialect, and there are also many Daming people who understand Grassland dialect.

"What do you want to buy?"

Hearing Zhang Lei's words, a young man came over and asked An Mur with a smile.

"How do you sell this iron pot?"

An Mur asked nervously.

The iron pot is really too expensive. When she was a child, her father bought an iron pot from Mingren, and it took a dozen cows to buy an iron pot.

The reason why she wanted to buy an iron pot was because her iron pot had rotted last year, and there was a hole in the bottom, and the prairie people didn't know how to mend the pot, so until now, she didn't have a pot at home.

Originally, she had hoped that last year, her husband would go south to grab an iron pot, but who knew that he would stay in Daming forever with the little Tartar prince and never come back.

It was later learned that the entire Tatar army that went south to plunder was wiped out, and even Dayan Khan died in Daming.

Now she urgently needs an iron pot, because without an iron pot, the family can only eat barbecue, and without an iron pot, it will be difficult for her son to get married.

Although the prairie people are not as particular as the Ming people, they still have a great influence if they don't have an iron pot.

"As long as three taels of silver is enough~"

Zhang An quickly replied.

"Three taels of silver?"

An Mur was taken aback for a moment, how could it be cheap?

She knew that Ming people used silver and copper coins. Although silver was valuable, three liang of silver was really cheap.

"Yes, only three taels of silver."

"Your Naiman tribe will belong to our Ming Dynasty in the future, and we will be a family. If this iron pot was in our Daming, it would be less than one tael of silver. We have worked hard to attract grassland people and sell you for three taels of silver. It is hard work. money."

Zhang An smiled and nodded.

"I don't have any silver, can I exchange it with cattle and sheep? Horses are also fine."

When An Mur heard this, he immediately became excited. The other party spoke so clearly. This time, these things are very cheap.

"Okay, of course, we need cattle, horses and sheep, and can you sell me some wool?"

Zhang An readily agreed.

When he came, Liu Jin had already told him repeatedly that in the future, when doing business with the prairie people, everyone should be sincere and the price should not be too high. Wool for everyone.

"wool?"

"No one in our prairie wants something, why don't I send you some cashmere, all of which are cashmere from new lambs this year."

When An Mur heard this, he was immediately dumbfounded. No one wants wool on the grasslands, and everyone collects cashmere from lambs to make clothes.

"We want wool, as much as we want, I can pay for it, and if cashmere is available, I want it too."

Zhang An replied.

"Okay, I'll ask my child to go back and see how much wool there is, and pull it all over."

An Mur nodded, and then gave instructions to his daughter Qiqige beside him.

Soon, Qiqige hurried back to her home on her own, and not long after, she and a teenage boy came here driving dozens of sheep, five cows, and three horses .

"Look at how much these ten sheep, five cows, and three horses are worth."

An Mur pointed to the cattle, sheep and horses that he was still driving over and said.

Zhang An is not familiar with this, but someone from Sangong Trading Company understands this very well, and immediately looked at it carefully, and the result was soon reached.

"These three horses are very good. They are good horses. I can give you thirty taels of silver for each horse. I can give you five taels of silver for each of these five cows. These sheep are very fat. I can give you 300 taels of silver." one."

Zhang An replied here.

Cattle and horses are very valuable in Daming, especially now in the Beijing-Tianjin area. Needless to say, cattle have a high status and cannot be slaughtered at will, and they have household registration.

Horses have always been a strategic resource of the imperial court, and they are expensive. Now, in the Beijing-Tianjin area, four-wheeled carriages are very popular. More and more horses are needed to pull goods and people. This has also led to a straight line in the price of horses. rise.

A horse can be sold for hundreds of taels of silver casually in Daming. If it is a good horse, it is also possible for hundreds of taels or thousands of taels of silver.

The price given by the Sangong Trading Company is fairly fair, almost the price of Daming divided by three, thirty taels of silver for a horse, and fifty taels of silver for a cow.

As for sheep, they are not very valuable in Daming. There are also many sheep in Daming. Moreover, sheep can only be used for food, not for work, so the price is very low.

"Thirty taels of silver for a horse, three horses is ninety taels of silver, which can be exchanged for thirty iron pots~"

"Sell~sell, at this price~"

When An Mur heard this, he calculated it carefully, and suddenly he couldn't help but said excitedly.

One horse can be exchanged for ten iron pots, the price is really fair, nothing to say.

"Okay, the three horses cost ninety taels of silver, the five cows cost twenty-five taels of silver, and the dozen or so sheep cost about ten taels of silver, so the total is one hundred and twenty-five taels of silver."

"You can look and choose whatever you want. The price of our Sangong Trading Company is very fair, and the goods are definitely the best. If there are any leftovers, I can give you money."

Zhang An said with a smile.

"This iron pot costs three taels of silver?"

An Mur nodded, the count was correct, she pointed to an iron pot and asked.

"Yes, this one only costs three taels of silver."

Zhang An nodded again and again, then pointed to other types of iron pots and said: "This kind of iron pot costs five taels of silver, and this one is smaller, and the one with a lid only costs two taels of silver."

"Give me an iron pot, no, bring me three of this kind of iron pot, and three of this small one, and three of this kind of pot with a lid."

An Mur's eyes lit up. Originally, he only wanted to buy an iron pot. Now that he heard that these iron pots were very cheap, he thought about it and bought nine pots, large and small.

Such a cheap pot, after passing this village, there may be no such shop, so what can I do if I don’t buy more.

"How many pots do you want to buy?"

Zhang An was slightly dumbfounded, the other party opened his mouth to buy five pots.

"Yes~"

"Hurry up and give me the pot~"

An Mur was afraid that the other party would repent, so he hurriedly said.

"Okay~"

Seeing that he was determined to buy a pot, Zhang An hurriedly took the pot for her according to her instructions, and then said: "Would you like to take a look at these salts? They are all the best Changlu salt, snow white, snow white, you can try it." Have a taste."

　Regarding the iron pot on the grassland, it seems that it was really expensive in ancient times~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)