Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

When Wang Chengwei and the other three were gathering, the grain merchants in Chang'an were also gathering.

Since Gao Zongnian began to use the sales system to sell grain to ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty, the total number of companies that can get involved in the grain business in Chang'an has never exceeded [-].

Those who can do grain business in Chang'an are not ordinary people, and those who can buy grain at the wharf need a lot of cost.

Those who can get through the joints and sell grain in the market in Fangshi cannot do it without a big backstage.

And these large grain merchants intermarried with each other. Under this monopoly, there are now 32 grain merchants in Chang'an City.

They divided the land among each other, divided up Chang'an's square market, and then sold grain at a uniform price.

A few days ago, merchants from Longyou stormed into Chang'an and intervened in the grain business in Chang'an.

The grain merchants in Chang'an united and wanted to give them a blow.

Unexpectedly, these Longyou merchants had their own channels and were protected by Wannian County Magistrate, so they made a fortune in Chang'an's grain market.

The grain merchants in Chang'an quickly followed up, and they also discovered the problems in the money law.

The grain merchants in Chang'an were obviously more powerful than the merchants in Longyou. They simply joined forces to monopolize the grain supply in Chang'an, causing the price of grain to rise wildly.

Food is completely different from other commodities.

If there are one hundred people in the market, they need one hundred portions of grain.

There are only [-] grains in the market now, so everyone will bid wildly for grains.

Because people who don't eat food will starve to death.

Grain is also not a simple business. Grain can be stored, but the price of old grain is much lower than that of new grain, and there will be losses in storing grain. Whether it is real rats or human rats, the loss of grain storage in ancient times was very high. big.

So this time Chang'an's food prices have risen, and each family has spent all their funds, preparing to make a fortune.

The descendants of Jingzhaowei's family are the highest-ranking grain merchants present.

Today's Xichuan Jiedu envoy Wei Jiansu comes from Jingzhao Wei's direct line, and he was a prime minister before becoming Xichuan Jiedu envoy.

There are countless of Webster's children who are officials and eunuchs, and there are many old officials of Webster's disciples all over the Yamen in Chang'an.

Webster has been engaged in the grain business since the reign of Emperor Gaozong, and grain trading is also the key to the Wei family's standing in Chang'an.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, they were not as hostile to businessmen as they were in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Wei family has produced queens and prime ministers, but there are many places where the family needs to spend money, and there are also businessmen in the family.

Just like the Wang family of Taiyuan, the businesses in Hedong almost all rely on the Wang family of Taiyuan, so that this family can survive for a hundred years.

Wei Jianshen and Wei Jiansu are of the same generation, and they are in charge of the grain business of the Wei family.

The Wei family has a big business, and it is impossible for all of them to be involved in the grain business. It took Wei Jianshen a lot of effort to get this job from the head of the family.

Regardless of the market situation, Wei Jianshen pays a certain amount of money to the family every year, and this money is regarded as the rent for contracting the family business.

And there are many people competing for this position in the family. Everyone knows that this is a profitable business, and it is certainly impossible for Wei Jianshen to enjoy it alone.

Every five years, the family will renegotiate the amount to pay, and then choose a new one to operate.

Wei Jianshen's branch has been contracting the family's food business for ten years. Over the years, other branches of the clan have attacked him more and more, and the clan's dissatisfaction has also increased. The next family meeting will definitely replace Wei Jian Deep grain merchant contracting qualification.

The reason why the big family can stand tall in the long river of history is because of these family rules.

A big family like the Wei family has experience in dealing with military disasters, natural disasters, and dynasty changes, and has a set of effective plans.

Any family business also has a corresponding contract period, and each room performs its duties, and the goal is to continue the family.

This is also the reason why rich and powerful families have been able to hold down poor families since the large-scale admission of scholars.

Since the family didn't want him to continue to do the food business, Wei Jianshen naturally wanted to make a lot of money.

This time Chang'an grain storage was proposed by Wei Jianshen. Taking advantage of the money chaos in Chang'an, he slowly increased the price of grain and artificially created a famine in Chang'an.

Now the price of rice in Chang'an has tripled compared to before Qianluan, but there are long queues at the door of every grain store.

Chang'an is a big city with tens of thousands of people. The fields around Chang'an can't supply the population of this super city at all, and the food has to be imported from Jiangdong.

Wei Jianshen cleared his throat and said:

"Yesterday we greeted the water transportation officials who were in charge of the sale. From now on, only 32 of us will be able to participate in the bidding and sale. Those people in Longyou can no longer disturb the situation!"

The grain merchants present cheered and jumped for joy. The most important source of grain supply in Chang'an is water transportation.

As long as they monopolize the sale of water transportation, they will monopolize the import of Chang'an grain, and then they can continue to increase prices.

The merchants cheered happily, but someone still asked:

"Duke Wei, where is the court?"

Everyone looked at Wei Jianshen again. Now the public opinion in Chang'an is quite unfavorable to grain merchants.

The main thing is newspapers. When there were no newspapers in the past, although there were some discussions on the streets, it was difficult to form a raging public opinion.

The complaints of ordinary people will not affect the overall situation of the court.

However, since the "Chang'an Daily" was published in Chang'an, everyone from the emperor and the prime minister to the traffickers and pawns have paid attention to the newspaper.

And this time the food crisis in Chang'an, "Chang'an Daily" published an article for a week in a row, analyzing the reasons for the increase in food.

Now the common people in Chang'an know that the increase in food prices is not due to insufficient supply, nor is it due to confusion in money laws, but purely because of merchants' hoarding.

This unfavorable public opinion made Yushitai speak out, asking the court to intervene with these grain merchants and stop their hoarding behavior.

"Chang'an Daily" also had an anonymous article, and rumors spread that someone suggested that the imperial court limit the maximum price of grain and force grain merchants to sell grain at a low price.

Wei Jianshen smiled and said indifferently:

"Sell it by force? Then we'll sell it with stones and sand. Are you not familiar with this?"

Everyone laughed.

Wei Jianshen said again: "The imperial court really forced us to sell, just say that there is no food. Didn't they hide all the food before?"

"His Royal Highness the King of Yue has just taken charge of the government. Didn't he talk about freedom of trade a few days ago? Isn't he slapping himself in the face when we are being raided at this time?"

"Hahahaha!"

Everyone laughed.

This is a few days ago, the imperial court established a new department under the household department, Tongshang Temple.

It is said that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is a department that manages merchants. For this new department, King Yue also published an article on merchants in "Chang'an Daily", mainly putting forward the slogan of trade freedom.

Grain merchants are naturally also merchants, and the Wei family has eyeliners in the court, so they naturally know what is going on in the court.

It is impossible for the imperial court to take action directly. As long as the imperial court does not turn the tables, the price of grain in Chang'an can only continue at this level.

Then someone asked:
"Duke Wei, if the court doesn't want to sell grain, how about selling grain in Chang'an at a fair price?"

Wei Jian smiled darkly and said:

"The imperial court sells grain? Do you know how many soldiers General Guo wants to reward? Is there a gap in the household department?"

"The Ministry of War is calling for disarmament. If there is no money to disarm, the hundreds of thousands of troops on the front line will immediately betray you, do you believe it?"

"The imperial court is so short of money, it will definitely not cut off this income."

"and."

Wei Jianshen changed the subject and said: "The water transport has been silted up frequently in recent years, who knows if it will be silted up at this juncture?"

Everyone laughed immediately, Duke Wei was so thoughtful!

These 32 grain merchants discussed the price increase plan of Chang'an grain, and each went back to prepare for this feast.

Sure enough, news came from the water transport the next day that three water ships responsible for transporting grain sank, blocking the water transport.

A large number of grain transport ships blocked the river, and the price of grain in Chang'an immediately began to rise wildly.

There are long queues at the door of every grain store, but they can be sold out within an hour.

People in Chang'an had to queue up overnight, and the prices varied from day to day.

The people complained, and even Gu Kuang hadn't bought food for two days.

Yushitai was full of murderous looks, but Zhengshitang did not respond.

Just when the grain merchants in Chang'an were celebrating and mocking the weakness of the court, a convoy of grain was transported into the city from the north gate of Chang'an.

Holding a warrant from the Jingzhao Mansion, the player businessman stopped his car on the street and started selling food on the street.

And the selling price of this grain merchant is even lower than the price before Chang'an Qianchao!

Naturally, such a low price was snatched up, and Chang'an grain merchants scoffed at it. It was just a few truckloads of grain, and even a street could not feed enough people. They wanted to bring down the price of Chang'an grain. These grains were just a drop in the bucket!

But before they could be happy for a long time, another convoy entered Chang'an City, and they also started selling them directly on the street, and the price was the same, which was lower than the price of food before the money chaos.

These are two fast-moving player merchants. The next day, a large number of caravans lined up to enter the city. Under the protection of Jingzhao Mansion's patrol officers, they entered Fang City one by one, holding Jingzhao With a license specially approved by the government, he began to sell grain at low prices.

Now Wei Jianshen began to panic. These merchants did not get the grain from the water transport, but the grain from the northwest!

And the food in the northwest is out of their control!
Wei Jianshen immediately summoned the rest of the grain merchants, this time they want to form an offensive and defensive alliance, and they will never sell at a lower price!