A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 184 A Stack of IOUs
The war is over.

life goes on.

In the morning, the sun rises and it is a brand new day.Huaiyu slept until three poles above the sun, and Run Niang helped him to dress. Looking at his broad chest, vigorous body, and muscles all over his body, his eyes were drawn.

Huaiyu stopped her thoughts.

"Today is a ten-day holiday,"

Runniang was a little disappointed, and shyly picked up her small fist and punched him in the chest a few times. Huaiyu suspected that she was taking advantage of the opportunity.

September tenth.

The Turks have withdrawn from Xiaoguan and returned to the north of Saibei via Yanxia.

It's rare that everyone is free today, and the whole family can finally sit down and enjoy the warmth of the family.In the front hall of the main courtyard where Lao Wu lived, pears, grapes, dates and other fruits were placed on the table.

"Finally it's peaceful." The old martial artist said.

The house in Yongxingfang has lived in for a while, and everyone is very satisfied, because the place is larger, several times the size of the original Huaiyuanfang house. Although most of the land has been used as a garden pond, there are still several In the courtyard, Lao Wu, Huaiyi, and Huaiyu each have their own courtyards, but they are not crowded.

"When I have time, I have to go back to Longqiao, bring some food, and help the villagers."

In recent days, folks from Longqiao have always come to Chang'an to vote for the Wu family. After experiencing the catastrophe, many villagers are now very difficult. Almost all crops have been ruined, their homes have been robbed, and some even have dead men. The woman was taken captive.

Now that winter is coming, there is no food.

The imperial court gave food relief, but it was a drop in the bucket, and everyone could only help themselves, go to relatives and friends, or simply go to beg for food.Many people in Guanzhong have dragged their families out of Guanzhong, and went to Henan or Shannan to beg for food.

The local government does not want the people under its rule to be refugees, but there is not enough food, and they cannot be locked up and starved to death, so they can only turn a blind eye.

Both the Wu family and the Qianjintang still have a little food left.

At this time, although the price of grain in Chang’an was not as high as it was when the Turks were here, the price of grain had dropped, but the supply was still insufficient. The grain stores in the two cities only sold grain at noon every day, and the queues were long every day. Only a few people in the front can buy it.

Food in the underground black market in Nancheng is still astonishingly expensive.

And the relatives of the rich and powerful families, and even those temples, also took the opportunity to borrow food and lend money. It has become common to borrow money in autumn and spring, and borrow one and repay three. My own house is used as a mortgage, and once the mortgage is not paid, the house will have to be taken over.

Knowing that this is a trap, but in order to survive, I have to jump into it.

The villagers of Longqiaobao came and pulled again and again. Since the first orphan and widowed mother came to the door, they borrowed money from Lao Wu to bury their dead family members and to feed their families. Lao Wu and his wife borrowed without saying a word. People came one after another.

For them, Lao Wu, who has always been stingy, never refuses anyone.

In Lao Wu's words, they are all neighbors in the same village, and they can help them at this time.

There were also two families that suffered catastrophe this time. The pillars of the family were gone, and even the woman in charge was taken away. Both the old man with the hair and the child were exhausted from hunger.

When they met, they knelt down and directly offered to sell the land to the Wu family for money to bury their son. They even hoped that the Wu family could accept the three young children in the family as servants or buddies.

There is really no way to survive, and I want to go to the Kanto to beg, but the orphans are afraid that they will die halfway. The old man is very sad, and a toothless old woman can't walk steadily.

The only valuable things in the family are the three-hole broken cave dwelling and twenty acres of land.

This family is not the imperial army, but the former Guanzhong refugees who were resettled to Longqiao after the Wudechu War. At the beginning of the country, they were allocated [-] acres of land, and then leased dozens of acres of land from the old Wu family and the other two imperial army families. They are still there, and with their young and strong son and daughter-in-law, the family can still live a good life.

His son was killed by Turkic people. He was a brave man from the village, and he didn't even have any pension. Although he found the body later, he didn't even have money to buy a coffin. He was kidnapped and never came back.

The old man's husband was very anxious, and his health was not very good. He was hungry and angry, and he had a stroke. He didn't even have a place to live in Sanyuan City during the war, so how could he have the money to seek medical treatment? , could only stiffen for a few days, and then died.

Similarly, a broken mat can only be buried in a mass grave first, and a new coffin can be bought for burial later when there is a chance.

You should do good deeds, buy this land, and accept these three children.

The old man knelt down and kowtowed to Lao Wu and his wife.

Samurai Ke helped the old man up, but in the end he had no choice but to agree. Although Huaiyu thought that he could temporarily borrow money and food from them to tide over the difficulties, the old man refused.

Because they have no ability to repay at all now, borrowing money will only pay interest, and now they sell the land, let the Wu family take in the three children as an old love, and stay at home, at least they can have a free body, when they grow up in the future , There is still a little chance to stand up.

This is decades of life experience.

Lao Wu finally bought the [-] acres of land, including the dilapidated cave dwelling of the old man's family and the remaining shabby household items. The land is not very valuable now. Under the imperial government's land equalization system, land sales are restricted, and there are policies for buying land. risk.

However, Lao Wu is obviously obsessed with the land.

In fact, this transaction, if you look at it only as a transaction, Lao Wu lost money, the land price was higher than the market price, and even the dilapidated cave household took care of it and gave more money, as for the four young and old, they had to stay. That can't do much work, it's just four burdens.

Half the size, eat the poor old man.

Huaiyu looked at it in a complicated mood, but he could understand their approach. The debts in this era are really life-threatening. Even the public money of the imperial court has an annual interest rate of almost 100%, and the private interest will only be higher. , The more the famine war, the higher the interest on this debt.

The hemp rope is cut at the delicate point, and bad luck finds the poor.

Debt is the best tool for the powerful and even the temples to harvest the common people in this era. Once borrowed, it will be very profitable. They will not lend them debts, but if they are willing to borrow, they must be people who are eyeing their land and eyeing them. In a few years, their family and land will completely become someone else's.

It's better to take the initiative to sell the land, which can be regarded as a favor, and for the sake of the folks, beg for the children to survive.

In the end, Lao Wu bought [-] acres of land with money, took in three dilapidated cave dwellings, and took in four young and old. They were employed by the Wu family, but they had no wages and only provided food, clothing and lodging.

The old man was helping in the kitchen, followed by a girl, and two boys, the older one was nine years old, and was arranged to be an apprentice in Qianjintang, and the younger one was only seven years old, and he was made the third son Huailiang's bookboy.

As soon as this family settled down, another family in a similar situation also came to the house, and finally bought the land and took over the house, even the widow and orphan family.

The other villagers didn't have to, but they still wanted to grit their teeth and go to the Wu family, hoping to borrow some food to tide them over.

Lao Wu also generously agreed to this, and borrowed in spring to return it, and borrowed one and returned two.

The most generous interest rate at the moment, Daxingshan Temple and other big temples in Chang'an borrow more food than this.

When the villagers signed the IOU, many of them knew in their hearts that they would not be able to pay it back in the spring, and they could only postpone it until the summer harvest, and the postponement would require an increase in interest rates, or even rolling interest, and they would have to pay it back at that time. More food.

The family has a lot of land. If the harvest is good, they should grit their teeth and pay more food. If the harvest is poor at that time, they may have to pay off the old debt first, and then take out new debts. At that time, the interest will take away most of their harvest. .

It is even foreseeable that some families will not be able to repay after the due date, and may have to sell the land at that time, but no one is willing to sell the little land in their hands easily, and it can only be delayed for a while.

Many farmers went bankrupt, and even pawned their wives and sold their children. It was often because of this hesitation that they failed to deal with their debts in time and were eventually dragged down by interest.

lobby.

Lao Wu took out a box, which contained a stack of IOUs, land deeds, house deeds, and even private deeds for slavery.

Seeing these, Lao Wu couldn't help but sigh with emotion, how many families are ruined.

"This time, 230 acres of land in Longqiaobao and several neighboring villages have been collected," the old Wu handed over the land deed to the Liu family, "You take care of it, old lady."

The rest are IOUs, and this time I lent out a lot of food and money.

In fact, Huaiyu also has a lot of IOUs, more than this, all borrowed by the employees of Qianjintang, and some employees even brought relatives to borrow.

Huaiyu borrowed food from the employees in the autumn and in the spring, half a year, borrowing one and returning two.But lending to outsiders means borrowing one and paying back three.

Nowadays, food is precious, and it is not received. It is not the relatives of the employees, and even Huaiyu can't borrow it, and the borrowing is limited.

Qianjintang's business is booming now, with huge profits, and the West Market branch is also under construction, and even plans to open a branch in Luoyang.

The industry in Yanjing Village in Zhang County also has great potential.

Looking at these IOUs, Huaiyu gained a deeper understanding of the financial debts of the Tang Dynasty. After all, his first job was to catch Qian Lingshi in Sanyuan County. money.

These days, the financial industry is completely dependent on the imperial government, powerful officials, and those temples. The high interest rates are astonishing, and the debt burden of the people is also lamentable.

It can be said that lending is really the most profitable business these days, but the entry threshold is relatively high, and you can't do it without a strong relationship.

Huaiyu thought, or he might as well open a pawn shop himself.

These days, pawnshops are generally called Zhipu, or Changshengku, which originally originated from Buddhist temples in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

In the Tang Dynasty, the official government had public money, and the officials who seized the money lent money, and the temples had Changsheng Treasury for mortgage lending. Even gold and silver shops, grain shops, etc. also engaged in financial lending business. Gold and silver shops generally operated various stores to store precious money for customers. The service is equivalent to a bank safe, where there is no interest on depositing money and you have to pay a storage fee.

Those big temples and big business houses can even provide important customers with some inter-regional exchange services such as Chang'an Cun and Luoyang Qu.

Huaiyu felt that everyone came to the Wu family to borrow money, so it would be better to open a quality warehouse directly. Anyway, he does have some spare money on hand now, so he can't throw it in the cellar for mold, or deposit it in someone else's house and pay the storage fee for it. ?

If you use it to lend yourself, you can make money with money. The key is that this quality shop is very profitable. He is also the founder of the county now, so he doesn't have to worry about being swallowed up by others.

When I mentioned this idea to Lao Wu and Huaiyi, Lao Wu was a little hesitant. He always felt that this kind of business was not easy to do. He still felt that it was safe to buy land, land, slaves, and cattle when he had money. Huaiyi had never studied these things very much. Yes.

"Think about it carefully, and do it if you think about it." Lao Wu finally expressed his support.

"In a while, King Bin is going to propose a marriage with the matchmaker, so make preparations."

(End of this chapter)