Northern Dynasties

Chapter 20
"The situation is not good!"

Li Tai stood in front of the southern mansion, looking at the carriage that was drifting away, with mixed emotions.

The spectator he met in the city before was named Liu Gong, and his service was really warm and thoughtful. He not only prepared all the food and groceries they needed to buy at one time, but also took the initiative to bring people to deliver the goods to their door, and agreed that the purchases would be on time every ten days and months. Delivered, so that they don't have to worry about going to and from the market.

But such a warm and considerate service is also expensive. This person sent a whole month's rations and seasonal vegetables for the whole family, while Li Tai and the others spent a hundred bolts of silk and a catty of gold.

Whether this price is expensive or cheap, Li Tai has no way of judging, because there is no fucking standard price scale in Guanzhong!

In addition to delivering the goods to the door, this person also gave Li Tai an economics class in Guanzhong.

Since the five chaos in China, the world has been divided for hundreds of years. As long as the world has been in chaos, Guanzhong has been in chaos for as long.Frequent regime changes not only greatly harmed people's livelihood, but also caused the entire Guanzhong currency system to collapse several times, and its credit power was almost exhausted.

Liu Gong told Li Tai that when Guanzhong was still making money, there were Han five baht, Wei five baht, Hou Zhaofeng money, Taihe five baht, Yongping five baht and other coins at the same time.In addition to these officially minted coins, there are also a large number of privately minted local coins in various states and territories.

Most of these coins are extremely poor and lose weight seriously. Even if good money is issued for a while, most of them will be melted and recast into bad money for weight loss by profit-seekers.

Although human life is cheap in troubled times, no one is a fool who is willing to exchange the fruits of his labor for a pile of bad money.So gradually, the currency such as copper coins withdrew from the trading market. People would rather tear the cloth into pieces for trading than exchange for bad money that could not be spent at all.

A few years ago, the court of the Western Wei Dynasty minted a batch of new coins, but they were also of poor quality, mainly for the pirated version of the Yongan five baht of the Eastern Wei Dynasty to go to Hedong, Hebei and other places to sweep goods, and by the way to reward meritorious officials, the market share was very small.

What Yu Wentai rewarded Gao Zhongmi was mainly the newly minted pirated five baht a few years ago, probably because the Eastern Wei Dynasty was too tight to guard and couldn't spend it, so he rewarded [-] yuan at one time.

That money, Li Tai, also looked at it, and it was really a good thing that floated in the water. It would not sink if it hit the water for more than a dozen floats. Basically, it could be said to be waste money.

The sudden drop in the purchasing power of money was a problem faced by the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, and even the Northern Wei before it.

In recent decades, the highest purchasing power was the Taihe five baht minted after Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved his capital to Luoyang. It once reached the level of two hundred yuan per piece of silk, but the Taihe five baht was only circulated in Luoyang.In other places, the theft and casting are serious, and private money is still used in various places.

Of course, the Western Wei Dynasty also used money, but it was mainly forced by the government, and the inflation was very serious. Compared with the Taihe period, the premium was ten or even dozens of times, and the price of money was even much lower than the price of copper of the same amount.

This is really a great spectacle. The purpose of casting money is to make money. As a result, artificial smelting materials are used. In the end, the money is not as valuable as the original copper materials. It can be seen how badly the monetary policy of the Northern Dynasty has been played, and the masses have come to see it. The degree to which money changes color.

Yu Wentai rewarded a total of [-] yuan, and more than [-] yuan was spent on the account. Li Tai checked the books again and found that the money spent was not used for shopping, but for offering to Buddha.It can be seen that the Buddhist sect has a high level of consciousness after all, and they will accept all the bad money that no one wants.

That Liu Gong said that he can also collect money, but it can only be used to buy and sell cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock and fodder.

He also did not hide his way of selling money, that is, transporting it to the northern Shaanxi provinces, where there are hustle and bustle and many urban residents, and there is almost no output of farming and weaving products. The price of grain and silk is extremely expensive, and the urban residents can only live with Money transactions, so all kinds of pastoral products can only be used to sell money.

Li Tai didn't know the prices in the northern states, but he couldn't accept the price Liu Gong offered. A pony cost more than [-] yuan, and the price of sheep was a little lower, but it cost thousands of dollars.

More than [-] yuan sounds like a lot, but it's just a few baskets. Li Tai would rather leave it at home than be taken advantage of by this obvious one.If the money can't be spent, then the only thing they can use from their family is gold and silk.

Although gold is not a currency in circulation in Guanzhong, there are quite a few merchants in Hexi who use gold and silver coins for transactions. As long as the business is large enough, there is no need to worry about spending it.

During the conversation, Li Tai also cross-examined the details of this Liu Gong. His family is a big local tycoon in Nanbaishui County on the west bank of Luoshui River. Hearing this made Li Tai's heart skip a beat.

"Huazhouju, it's not easy, as expected, farming is the future!"

Li Tai felt emotional in his heart, and turned back to his residence. He saw Gao Bailing walking towards him in the front hall: "Thirteen Lang, all the goods have already been put into the warehouse. But this is really not a long-term solution. Then the transaction Liu Gong mentioned, do you want it?" Think again?"

After Li Tai heard the words, he directly shook his head and said: "I have my own plan for these soldiers, and I will definitely not sell them!"

When Liu Gong came to the house before, he saw a lot of soldiers standing in the house, so he proposed to buy some and pay with rice, which not only reduced the pressure of supporting the family, but also had an extra income.

But Li Tai directly refused, saying that whether he has double standards or fake high-mindedness, he can accept others as gifts to him, but he doesn't want to traffic people to make a living.

Regardless of the issue of respect for human rights, Liu Gong is willing to pay a considerable price to buy soldiers. It can be seen that these manpower are also very profitable, and there is still a shortage of labor in Guanzhong Township.

The imperial court of the Western Wei Dynasty was in urgent need of finances, and there was really not much money to reward meritorious men, so bestowing soldiers has always been an important content.Therefore, He Basheng, Shuohui and other generals each have a large number of soldiers, and they don't feel bad about giving Li Tai dozens of them casually.

But at any time, people are the most precious social resources.

Those generals are away in battle and have no time to manage their careers carefully, so they feel that the army is bloated and a burden.But when the foreign wars have subsided for a while and they have the energy to expand industries and use manpower, they may not be so generous.

Why can Gao Huan achieve dominance in Hebei?It was because of taking over the townspeople of the Six Towns who were regarded as a burden by Erzhu's family and caused great headaches that the military power of the Eastern Wei Dynasty always surpassed that of the Western Wei Dynasty, and it was precisely because a large number of townspeople of the Six Towns stayed in Hebei.

"It's really not a good plan for the Ying family to live in the city for a long time without incident. Since the Western Dynasty has granted the countryside, I plan to lead a group of soldiers out of the city tomorrow morning to eat in the countryside. It is already early summer in April, and the farming season is coming to an end. During this season's farming season, it will be even more difficult to make a living in the future!"

At dinner, Li Tai told Gao Zhongmi about his inner plans.

"Since you have such a long-term plan, Ah Pan, I will not stop you. Fortunately, the place you are going to is not far away. If you have any difficulties, you can report back to your residence."

Although Gao Zhongmi didn't ask about family affairs, he also saw that so much family money was spent on one purchase, so he no longer confidently said that he could make a living for a year without any worries.

Although the officials of the Western Wei Dynasty banned alcohol and did not sell wine koji to the people, at most they could only control the market in the city.

If you don't pursue quality and taste, the technical threshold for private brewing is not too high. The wine that Gao Zhongmi is drinking is the one that Liu Gong gave as a gift in this transaction.

Since Gao Zhongmi did not object, the matter was finalized.

In the early morning, after breakfast, Li Tai summoned his troops again, and selected [-] strong men and [-] women as the first group of followers to follow him to the manor outside the city.These people are either loyal and reliable, or have rich labor skills and can be put into production in the first time.

"Twenty knives, thirty spears, ten bows, tents, felts, fire drills, whetstones and other miscellaneous items have also been prepared, and they can be loaded when the car arrives. There are other items needed for the camp, The items are listed in detail, and Thirteen Lang will definitely keep them if they are purchased in the hometown."

Gao Bailing checked the luggage again and again, Li Tai looked at the equipment, and felt that going out of the city this time was like robbing a house instead of going to the countryside to farm.However, considering the sturdy folk customs in Guanzhong, it is safe to bring these weapons.

Gao Zhongmi was depressed and sensitive, sad and tired of parting, although he got up very early, but he didn't go to the front hall, and only asked Li Tai to send someone to report as soon as he entered the village.

I have too much luggage and not enough cars at home, so I need to rent it from the Governor's Mansion in the south of the city. The days are calculated remotely and the miles are calculated short-distance.However, it is also the same that copper coins are not accepted, and payment is made in cloth.

It can be seen that the court of the Western Wei Dynasty was indeed not particular about it, and would not accept broken money.

In addition, the Lingmin Dudufu also provides another service, which is gold and silver exchange.

Precious metals in Guanzhong are not in circulation, so if Li Tai wants to buy materials and tools in the countryside, he must prepare cloth and silk.

Gao Zhongmi provided five catties of gold as farming funds, and Li Tai exchanged three catties at the Governor's Mansion, but only got fifty bolts of silk, one hundred and twenty bolts of cloth, and twenty catties of cotton.Whether the price is high or low is naturally impossible to measure, but considering the poverty of the Western Wei court, it is obvious that it will not benefit the people.

In the morning, the horse-drawn carriage rented by the Governor's Mansion was sent over. It was not a standard official car, but a civilian husband and vehicles that were requisitioned into the army.Seeing this scene, Li Tai couldn't help but feel that no matter when the government is good, it's a comfortable business without money.

After loading the car, the group of people marched out of the city in a mighty manner, accompanied by a Wuxiang county magistrate, who was responsible for contacting the township and measuring the number of acres of land given to him.

　There are very few records about money and prices in the Western Wei Dynasty. One of them is "Wan Guan was used to fry Yuxiangze". Substitute for miscellaneous goods: two thousand pieces of silk, one hundred pieces of miscellaneous goods; two thousand dendrobium of grain; ten servants and maidservants; ten horses; ten heads of cattle.The purchasing power of the Taihe five baht is considered to be a relatively high currency in the Northern Dynasty, but it is only used in the Luoyang area.In the Western Wei Dynasty, just one royal spice cost tens of thousands of dollars, so the monetary policy in the Western Wei Dynasty was basically in a state of collapse. It was not until the Hexi Corridor was reopened, and Shannan and Bashu were all returned to the Western Wei Dynasty that the commodity economy developed.During the Northern Anniversary, the large coins of Dangwu and Dangshi were mainly used for the Silk Road trade in exchange for gold and silver coins in the Hexi Corridor. There are already many records of gold and silver coins rewarded by Yu Wenyong in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, which shows that the Silk Road trade is very effective. .I myself majored in finance, and paid more attention to currency and commerce, which can be regarded as a side-view description of the people's livelihood at that time, and there will be some related plots in the follow-up. . .

　　
　
(End of this chapter)