Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 411 The Long-winded Matter of Buying Land
Zheng Wenxian followed the shopkeeper of Ju Shengchuan into the back hall, exchanged names, and then took out the letter that Shen Jingdan gave him.The shopkeeper's surname is Zhang, and his name is Zhang Xiuren, from Hongdong, Shanxi.After reading the letter, he immediately became extremely enthusiastic. He first offered someone good tea, and then expressed his gratitude to Boss Shen for saving his younger brother's life.

It turned out that when Shen Jingdan passed by Hankou last year to inquire about tea prices, he happened to meet a man in an inn who had a cold and fever, that is, malaria.Malaria in this era is a serious disease that turns pale upon hearing it, and cinchona cream is the royal medicine of the Qing Dynasty, so ordinary people don't even think about it.

Generally, the inn would consider themselves unlucky when encountering this kind of thing, and would like to hide it from all the guests; if the patient has money, he will be placed in a remote courtyard to take medicine to recuperate, and if he has no money, he will be thrown directly to the outskirts.Shen Jingdan saw that the man was about to be thrown out by the clerk of the inn, so he asked his subordinates to inquire about it, and he found out that he was from Shanxi, his surname was Zhang, and he had gone to Anhua, Hunan to serve tea.

Thinking of what Zhao Xin had told him, Shen Jingdan became more thoughtful, paid the inn staff to find a remote courtyard to house the man, and took the "compound dihydroartemisinin" from the Beihai Town Hospital from his carry-on luggage. piece".

Although Beihai Town is located in a cold temperate zone, due to dense forests and swamps, there are many mosquitoes in summer, and people who go out to work are often thirsty for raw water, so malaria also occurs from time to time.Although Cinchona Cream, that is, quinine, can treat malaria, it has serious side effects, so Hong Tao chose artemisinin tablets from another time and space as a reserve drug.

Because Shen Jingdan often goes out for business, he always keeps it in his luggage.The man surnamed Zhang was rescued by Shen Jingdan. He took the medicine for four days, and his condition was quickly brought under control. After that, he took the Dabuihu soup prescribed by the doctor. After seven or eight days, he almost recovered.

Only then did Shen Jingdan know that the man's name was Zhang Xiude, and he was the accountant of the Liu family in Hongdong, Shanxi.The Liu Mansion is the home of Liu Bingtian, the Minister of War of the Qing court.

If you don't ask, you don't know, this Zhang Xiude is actually the apprentice of "Shenquan Guo Yongfu" and Chen Jishan's junior.Back then, Guo Yongfu (Chen Youfu) beat someone to death in Henan and ran back to Shanxi. After some adventures, he took refuge in Liu Bingtian's house as a teacher.Afterwards, he took He Huaibi, the nurse of the Liu Mansion, and Zhang Xiude, the accountant, as disciples, and taught him the [-]-style Tongbei Quan with all his money.However, He and Zhang only heard their master mention Chen Jishan, but they never saw each other.

Shen Jingdan did not dare to say that Chen Jishan was currently playing in Beihai Town, but only said that he had met once in Xuzhou.As the saying goes, no thanks for a great favor, Zhang Xiude has nothing to repay, when he was sighing, he overheard Shen Jingdan mentioning the idea of ​​getting involved in the tea trade, so he said that his elder brother was working as a shopkeeper in a big tea house in Yangloudong, and he was waiting If he edits a book by himself, Shen Jingdan can go directly to his elder brother, and everything can be done.As for himself, he had to rush back to Shanxi to return to his command.

When Zhao Xin listened to Shen Jingdan's narration, he lamented that the karma in the world is so bizarre.Who would have thought that the person who was kind enough to save someone in Hankou turned out to be Chen Jishan's younger brother.

Chen Jishan is now Zhao Xin's personal bodyguard. In Beihai Town, he is the second in skill, but no one dares to be the first. Even Liu Sheng's bear-like body was smashed by Chen Jishan's strength. He never mentioned the trick again.

Zheng Wenxian, Guo Podai and others admired his skills and always wanted to worship him. Unfortunately, Chen Jishan followed Zhao Xin to fight Tsarist Russia last year, and was finally thrown by Zhao Xin in Irkutsk. It is estimated that he will not be able to return to Beihai Town this summer.

Afterwards, he talked with Zhang Xiuren for half an hour, and at night Zhang Xiuren held a banquet at the restaurant in the town.After Zheng Wenxian had a deep talk with him, he realized that he was a stickler at all, and he had never heard of many issues related to tea distribution.

In fact, the specific operation of the tea trade is extremely complicated. Even if Shen Jingdan had inquired about it beforehand, he had never dealt in tea after all, so what he told Zheng Wenxian was extremely limited.Seeing that Zheng Wenxian was an amateur, Zhang Xiuren explained in detail.

The tea law in the Qing Dynasty followed the Ming system, and in the early days, horses were traded through official tea storage, that is, "tea horse trade".In the 13th year of Yongzheng, as Gansu stopped using tea in horses, the tea horse trade officially withdrew from the stage of history, and the "leading class system" was fully rolled out.

Tea merchants in the Qianlong period can be roughly divided into purchasers, tea merchants and tea distributors, and the three have different functions in tea distribution and marketing.

As the name suggests, the purchaser goes to the mountains to buy raw tea from tea households, and then sells it to tea shops.The tea shop is similar to a broker, and some also handle raw tea processing.For example, Ju Shengchuan makes brick tea by himself.As for the distributors, they will rely on the photos issued by the government and rely on the "tea guide" to transport tea from the production area to various places.

The Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants mentioned above are basically operating in the same line, involved in everything from trade to tea production and tea factories in order to control the tea source.

There are roughly two types of distributors, the "introducers" who transport "official tea" and the "customers" who transport and sell "commercial tea".

The tea quotations are uniformly produced by the Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the tea-producing provinces are expected to apply for it once a year, and it will be written off at the end of the year, and it will be restarted the next year.Used remnants must be turned over to the Ministry of Accounts.Among them, tea quotations are divided into long quotations, short quotations, positive quotations, surplus quotations, belly quotations, side quotations, and soil quotations, etc., and the ticket method is also used.

For example, the "long quotation" is valid for one year and allows merchants to sell tea abroad; the "short quotation" is valid for three months and can only be sold locally.If there is no tea guide when transporting tea, it is the same crime as selling illegal salt.

The ticket law is aimed at tea export trade.All businessmen who trafficked tea to Russia had to go to the Tongzhi Yamen in Zhangjiakou to apply for a ticket issued by the Lifan Court as a special certificate for their permission to traffic.One ticket is given for every 1310 boxes of tea, and each ticket is written with the name of the person receiving the ticket and other related matters.The total tax payment is 6000 taels; the tax rate is 22% based on the total value of [-] taels of silver per ticket.

Regardless of whether it is Yangloudong or other tea-producing areas, the tea produced must first be purchased by "introduced merchants", and the rest will be sold to "customers".

Zhang Xiuren gave a general explanation, and then said to Zheng Wenxian: "Brother, if you want [-] dans of old green tea, it's probably not enough. Now the tea trade season in Guangzhou is coming, and various merchants have already sold old green tea produced locally. Ninety percent of them are all settled, so I really can’t make up this much. If there are three or four thousand dans, there are still some.”

Zheng Wenxian said with a smile: "Mr. Zhang, I am actually working for the boss. Before leaving, he specifically mentioned that he wanted to develop and buy mountain tea locally. In this way, not only the tea source is safe, but also the local tea farmers. It can be because of food and clothing."

Zhang Xiuren thought for a while and said: "It's a good thing to buy mountain plant tea, but the tea making is extremely cumbersome. There are only a few hundred people who can't open a tea farm, and you need to find a good packer."

In the Qing Dynasty, from raw tea to the production of finished tea bricks, it generally had to go through multiple processes such as kicking, picking, roasting, and sieving, and each process had strict regulations.Before the tea leaves are released, the finished tea must be packaged. No matter it is Guangzhou or Qiaktu, tin cans or lead barrels are used for foreign boxes of tea, and board boxes are mounted on the outside. On average, each box can hold [-] to [-] yuan of tea. It varies from catty to catty.

To open a tea farm, it is most important to hire tea workers, who are divided into picking workers, sifting workers, kicking workers, contempt workers, talking workers, leadsmiths, tinsmiths, etc., and the wages vary.

Zhang Xiuren said: "For example, Old Qingcha needs eight kickers for each gang, and two people for punching and hanging. The wages for kicking hands are 160 Wen, and the wages for hanging are 120 Wen. They also need to hire another eight kickers. The salary per worker is 140 Wen...the sieve workers are paid [-] Wen per day, and there are also [-] Wen."

After hearing this, Zheng Wenxian's head got dizzy twice. He put all his thoughts on the sea, and every day he thought about when he would be the captain of the Thunder God. He thought about it, so he said quickly: "Or According to the owner's request, buy a few barren hills first, and the rest will naturally be arranged by the owner."

In his opinion, as long as he can buy the barren hills and start growing tea, and let Beihai Town's tentacles go deep into the bottom of the tea industry, the purpose of this trip will be accomplished.As for the tea farm in the back or the cooperation with other tea companies, it is the people from the trade department who are in charge.

So starting from the next day, Zheng Wenxian, under Zhang Xiuren's arrangement, first hosted a banquet for the servants of the local county government, then invited the secretary of the household house, and finally the teacher of the county government.Fortunately, Zhang Xiuren helped with all his strength, otherwise Zheng Wenxian would have been brutally slaughtered.

After all the negotiations were settled by the government and the bribes that should be given were enough, Zheng Wenxian met with a few middlemen under the recommendation of the Household Book Office to negotiate the purchase of the barren hill.

The procedures and regulations for buying and selling land in the Qing Dynasty generally followed the Ming system with some enhancements, and the owners generally entrusted middlemen.It should be noted that selling land does not mean that you can sell it directly as soon as someone buys it, but you must first ask your immediate family members, family members and clan members if they want it, and then ask the original owner if they want it, and then sell it to outsiders.

Going directly to the buyer without asking the in-laws first will often lead to disputes and even fatal cases.The buyer and the seller are ruined, and in serious cases, they are even exiled.Such examples were not uncommon in the Qianlong period.

Zheng Wenxian, the seller, and the middleman sat down to negotiate the price face to face. In the end, Zheng Wenxian bought three hilltops from two middlemen, covering more than 200 hectares, at a price of 300 taels of silver, or three taels per mu of land.After writing the "Deed of Absolute Sale of Land" and paying the land price for the painting mortgage, you have to pay the painting silver and the quitting money; this money cost a full 2000 taels of silver.

The so-called "painting silver" is the money that the seller, his in-laws, and clansmen demand from the buyer in addition to the regular price of the land.

The "off-job money" is also called "xili silver" or "reward silver" in the north, and it is to be paid to the previous landlord of the land.As a common practice in the countryside in the Qing Dynasty, when selling land, the first owner had to pay the original retirement money, and it was impossible not to pay.

Do you think it's over at this point?Don't worry, there's more to come!
According to the law, after completing the above, it is necessary to report to the government to pay taxes, change the government's field record files, and cut money and food.After all, there may have been something planted on the land before, and they had to wait until they had finished harvesting. Even if it was a barren hill, there might still be a few wild fruit trees. These must be clearly stated and implemented in the delivery documents.

At this point, Zheng Wenxian and the others had spent a lot of money on the bank notes they brought, but this was only the completion of the first stage.After that, there are three stages of price finding, redemption, and absolute sale before the land transaction procedures are completely completed.If there is a slight inappropriateness during this period, it will be difficult to realize the sale of the field.

Ordinarily, the sale of land should be the same as other commodities. Once sold, it should belong to the buyer, and the seller has no right to interfere after all the money has been collected.The problem is that as land output or land rent increases, land prices also rise.For example, because of the rich tea in Yangloudong, the low price of the barren hills is also rising year by year.

It is said that as the most important raw material in feudal society, land showed completely different characteristics from other commodities, so live sales and absolute sales came into being naturally.

The root cause of the "Dongtai Yizhulou" case back then was actually the redemption of the live sale.The Cai family wanted to redeem it at a low price, but the Xu family disagreed. The Xu family was a big country gentry, and the Cai family could not afford to mess with it. In the end, the Cai family held a grudge, and then sued the Xu family for writing a counter-report.Although the Xu family was destroyed, the Cai family did not get their land back in the end.

So what is the difference between a live sale and an absolute sale?To put it bluntly, as long as there is no indication of "putting an end to" on the deed of selling land, it will be sold alive.

Since it is a live sale, the seller can ask the buyer for money, or it is called subsidy money, also called "asking price".The reason for asking for silver is generally to complain that the original price is too low and a subsidy is needed.And often it is not enough to make up for it once, as long as the land price rises in the future, you can continue to make up for it.

This kind of situation is generally recognized by the government. If the buyer does not pay the asking price, causing disputes, the government will punish the buyer.

Under the premise of this township agreement, whether it is officials, businessmen or officials, can they not collude?If there is no collusion, let alone locals, foreigners will be swallowed up to the bone.

The saline-alkali land that Xu Dayong bought in northern Jiangsu back then was not wanted by anyone at all, and what he signed was a contract of living.The reason why there have been no disputes in these years is that Xu Dayong bribed the government, and he has already bribed all the servants in the Funing County Yamen.The second is that nothing has been planted on those saline-alkali lands in recent years.

Do you dare to improve the saline-alkali land and plant new crops?Okay!In the second year, the seller has to come to you to redeem or ask for a price.As long as it is not the kind of powerful and powerful who needs to be cursed by the local tyrants and evil gentry from all over the world, if you don't ask for a price, you will be "untrustworthy" and will not keep the village contract!

What is the basis for the survival of gentry in feudal society?Rural ethics.If you don’t keep this, no one will do business with you, and no one will come to help you.Still want to rise up against the rebels, Sifang Jingcong?
The reason why Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants were able to spread across the country in these years is that they have a large number of children who are officials in the court, and the second is that the children of merchants have donated their official positions.For example, Qu Tonghai of Qu's family is the title of Qianzong of the Shouyusuo, and Qu Yinghuang is the title of Tongzhi of Zhili Prefecture of the sixth rank.

Of course, now merchants can only donate to the fourth-rank alternate road at the highest, and the price is extremely expensive.Because the Qing government has been fighting with Beihai Town for many years, and the money spent has reached tens of millions. Now the price of donating an alternate road is 16400 taels of silver, and the alternate magistrate also needs 13200 taels.

More than 20 days have passed by the time the purchase is completed and the formalities are completed.Zheng Wenxian didn't dare to delay any longer, he first sent two people back to Sheyang Lake to report on the situation, so as to handle the affairs of the tea garden later, and he hurried to Guangzhou with Lin Daosheng and others.

Unexpectedly, on the way to Changsha City, when they passed by a tea shop to rest, they saw some strong men with swords and sticks passing by on the post road from time to time, and there were women among them.

Feeling curious, Lin Daosheng chatted with one of the men who stopped for tea, and the man told a piece of news that surprised Zheng Wenxian and the others.

A wealthy merchant in the south of the Yangtze River offered a reward of 1 taels of gold to anyone who could go to the north to take the head of Zhao Xin.

(End of this chapter)