People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 51 Tea Merchants’ Counterattack
For the next ten days or so, everything was calm.

The Jiaoziwu and Qianqian laws were carried out quite smoothly, and the imperial court's finances were relatively stable, as part of the Jiaoziwu money was misappropriated to purchase grain.

Especially after Chengdu heard that Bianliang had also opened Jiaoziwu, by mid-June, a large number of businessmen from Chengdu also went to Chengdu Jiaoziwu to save money, so as to facilitate doing business in Bianliang.

From the opening of Jiaoziwu in May to mid-June, in just one month, the treasury of Jiaoziwu in Bianliang and Chengdu had nearly 200 million yuan more, so much so that the Chengdu government needed to expand its warehouses to save these funds. cash.

Although it was only a businessman there, seeing so much money coming in still made Zhao Zhen happy.

Zhao Jun's prediction was correct. As an institution for the state to help merchants keep cash on their behalf, banks can indeed bring great convenience to merchants and induce a large number of merchants to put money in them.

Historically, the Renzong Dynasty only established Jiaoziwu in one place in Chengdu Prefecture, and the number of coins allowed to be stored was 125.6 million guan. This number has never exceeded this number.

Because Chengdu does not restrict people from using Jiaozi, there are a lot of Jiaozi circulating in the market, and there are even fake Jiaozi.Once this number is exceeded, the government will not be able to control the situation, so it has been operating on a small scale.

However, even so, this can still meet the commercial needs of Chengdu Prefecture. After the launch of Jiaoziwu, Chengdu Prefecture's business is extremely prosperous. Just relying on the storage of 125 million yuan has caused a huge increase in business share.

So for a period of time, the Chengdu Prefecture's Jiaoziwu was suspended due to some problems, causing Chengdu's business to plummet and the economy to be depressed. The transfer made Zhang Ruogu and the prefect Xue Tian realize the seriousness of this problem, and they petitioned Song Renzong to reopen the Jiaoziwu. Only then can the urgent need be alleviated.

Therefore, when the business atmosphere in the entire Song Dynasty was so prosperous, it was actually very necessary to carry out banking business.It can not only solve the "money shortage", but also promote economic development and drive the advancement of various industries such as handicrafts and manufacturing.

In addition, the real big businessmen shipped goods across the country. Unlike Chengdu Prefecture, Jiaozi could only be used in one prefecture. This shows that the entire Song Dynasty's economic operation system could issue far more than a mere 126 million yuan.

At least during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the banknotes issued were calculated in tens of millions of taels. However, the commercial prosperity of the Song Dynasty was much stronger than that of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the tax revenue alone amounted to tens of millions of taels every year.

This is enough to show that the annual commercial transactions of the Song Dynasty were in the billions, and it also meant that it was a huge market for the banking industry.

If used well, even if it only absorbs tens of millions of coins as a reserve fund, it will not be a problem for the Song Dynasty court to issue 5000 to [-] million coins.

But the prerequisite is that the imperial treasury itself is relatively healthy and has sufficient reserves.

Otherwise, like in history, during the Huizong period of the Song Dynasty, the state treasury clearly had no money, but it still went crazy printing jiaozi. The number of jiaozi issued reached 20-40 times that of the Renzong period, that is, 2000-5000 million guan, causing serious inflation.

Zhao Zhen was relatively restrained and did not overspend or send excessive amounts of money.

Since both Bianliang and Chengdu now recognize Jiaozi as their official currency, if he chooses to issue more Jiaozi and make millions of them, it will cause huge fluctuations in prices in these two places, and the gain outweighs the loss.

Therefore, it is only a part of Jiaoziwu's currency storage that has been misappropriated at present, which is a relatively routine operation. As long as there is no bank run by merchants across the country who deposited in Jiaoziwu, Jiaoziwu will probably not go bankrupt.

Under this situation, there was not much fluctuation in the market. Apart from the increase in food prices, which caused the price of tea to drop slightly, there were no other problems.

Zhao Jun still goes to bed early and gets up early every day, and listens to music on his laptop when he has nothing to do. Before coming here, he had already considered the possibility of wireless network disconnection in remote mountain villages, so he downloaded a lot of movies and music to his computer in advance for entertainment. Time, just teach Yan Shu and Fan Zhongyan to help him open the audio file.

His eyes were recovering day by day. With the unremitting efforts of the imperial doctors and through acupuncture and moxibustion, his eyes were much better. Even through the thick gauze, he could feel the bright sunshine during the day.

During this time, he also tried to use his laptop to charge his mobile phone. Unfortunately, he didn't know whether it was because the phone cord was broken or the phone was broken, so it couldn't be charged.

Instead, the laptop became his only electronic product.

When he first went into the mountains, he put his mobile phone in his pocket, put his laptop in his laptop bag, and then stored it in his suitcase. When a mudslide broke out, his phone would inevitably get wet and muddy, but his laptop would be fine because it was protected by the suitcase and laptop bag.

In addition, there is a solar panel, which is rolled up very small, four in total, wrapped in plastic film and placed in the suitcase.

This thing costs more than 200 yuan on a certain store, which is very cheap. It is an upgraded version of the third generation. It has a waterproof canvas bag, dual USB interfaces, and supports QC fast charging.

At that time, I also thought that Nini Village was located in a deep mountain and old forest and might be affected by power supply, so I bought one.Unexpectedly, now that the whole village has a power outage, it has become the hope of the whole village. Zhao Jun can still listen to music because of it.

Days passed like this day by day, time passed peacefully inside and outside Bianliang.

Until the morning of June 27th.

Nearly two months after the opening of Jiaoziwu, the elegant house in Guijian on the third floor in the east of Fanlou was filled with more than 40 people, including more than [-] people, inside and outside the large room. The place was quite silent.

There were no windows in the room, and a blue-glazed three-legged stove on the table exuded a faint fragrance, making the already airtight room even more stuffy.

Everyone sat or stood, folded their arms, or stood against the wall. No one spoke.

If Tian Chang were here, he would recognize that these people are basically famous tea merchants in Chengdu Fulu and Bianliang areas.

The venue was quiet for a while. After a while, Zhou Yunsheng, who had gone to pick up Tian Chang at the dock, slowly said, "Everyone, there is no turning back when you open your bow. Let's do it."

"Are you really going to do it? Isn't it too risky? Do you want to discuss it further?"

someone said.

Another head of the Wang family, Wang Min, looked around at the crowd and said: "The imperial court has cut off our financial path. If we don't find a way to prevent the implementation of the money-seeing law, next year you won't be able to get much coins, let alone the coins. Cha Yin probably won't get much. "

"That's the truth, but you Bianliang tea merchants have been cut off by the imperial court, and I heard that a few of them have been imprisoned. Even if you succeed this time, what will happen if the imperial court settles the scores?"

A Chengdu tea merchant continued: "And on the cusp of this storm, would it be too rash to jump out so blatantly? I am waiting to seek money, and I am not going to die. Why don't I wait for a while and see? Let’s talk about the court’s tone.”

"Yes, this is too radical now. It will anger the court, and we will suffer."

"It's better to wait a little longer, maybe there will be a turn for the better."

"Wait for what?"

Zhou Yunsheng angrily scolded: "If you wait any longer, can you still receive rice and wheat this year? Can you still get tea? If you delay the entry for a year, such a big family business will collapse in an instant. If you don't work hard, No one will have an easy time in the future.”

When he said this, everyone looked at each other in shock.

Although during the Zhenzong period of the Song Dynasty, Prime Minister Wang Dan said that it was common for wealthy merchants in Bianliang to have property worth more than [-] guan, and there were also many who owned more than [-] million guan.

But in fact, the merchants of the Song Dynasty were really not that rich. At that time, they were already rich people with a millionaire. It was no problem to be the richest man in an ordinary county, let alone a millionaire or above.

In the entire Bianliang tea merchant industry, only Tian Chang has a net worth of one million.

He can transport 12 kilograms of tea from Hangzhou at one time, and the maximum is 20 kilograms. Even if he sells ordinary tea at a price of one to two hundred and two hundred yuan per kilogram, he can still make an income of [-], [-], or even [-] or [-] guan.

If it’s good tea, it’s usually three to four hundred cents or even five to six hundred pounds, and the income will only be higher.And this was only spring tea. There were summer tea, autumn tea, and winter tea at that time. There was a tea market in all seasons. If the year went well, it could be shipped seven or eight times, so Tian Chang's income was more than [-] yuan every year.

But it should be noted that this is the total income, without deducting costs.

After deducting various costs, his actual net profit per trip is only a few thousand to ten or twenty thousand guan, and his net profit in a year may be around [-] to [-] guan.

But even so, including the stores, shops, other industries he has opened in various places, and the accumulation of wealth over the years, he is already a top millionaire.

The next-level high-level businessmen, such as Zhou Yunsheng and Wang Min, although they are also big tea merchants in Bianliang, their total net worth is only a few hundred thousand guan, and their daily working capital is generally only 10,000+ guan.

Apart from them, most of the remaining people here only have a net worth of 30 to [-] yuan and only a few tens of thousands of yuan in liquidity.

There are only two ways for tea merchants to make a living. One is to import tea and sell tea, and the other is to obtain falsely estimated coins by relying on the grain transported to the border every year.

However, the profit that Cha Yin can provide is extremely limited. First of all, there is a government policy on Cha Yin. 12 kilograms is the upper limit. No matter how rich you are, you cannot get more Cha Yin.

Secondly, the price of tea is greatly affected by the market. The government can reduce the profits of tea farmers through apportionment and purchase at low prices, but they cannot. They must raise the price to receive good tea.

In addition, the tea market is prone to fluctuations due to various circumstances. Sometimes, after working hard to transport tea from various places to Bianliang, the price of tea plummets. Not only will you not make money, but you will also lose money. money.

Therefore, compared to Tian Chang, these people actually rely more on making profits from border customs, obtaining false valuations of goods, and sucking the blood of the imperial court. In fact, the main source of profit for most tea merchants is to make money from border customs.

Now that the imperial court has introduced money laws to put an end to false valuations, it is tantamount to cutting off an important livelihood for them.

It's one thing to just cut off your livelihood, but it's another thing to go against the court at the risk of having your family confiscated and exterminated.

Historical records record that in addition to official and business backgrounds, the Song Dynasty has always been merciless to big businessmen.

Many local officials like to tax and exploit businessmen.

There are even records such as "Hundreds of thousands of volumes were discarded overnight. One day he became a wealthy businessman, and at night he became a beggar. Some people died by drowning themselves in the water."

It can be seen that the Song Dynasty court basically treated businessmen as leeks.

That's why they were so hesitant when Zhou Yunsheng, Wang Min and others gathered everyone together and called on everyone to resist the imperial court.

For a moment, the venue fell into silence again.

After a while, someone said: "I think our strength is still too small now. The big tea merchants in Chengdu and Bianliang are not enough to shake the imperial court. It is better to wait until next year to unite tea merchants from all over the country." , go to Chengdu to save money together, and then come to Bianliang to withdraw money, it will be easier for the court to cut off its income, and the law of seeing money will still have to be cancelled."

"Ah."

Zhou Yunsheng sneered and said: "Do you know what news I got from the government? After the Qian Fa was opened, the court could save 650 million guan a year. Even if tea merchants from all over the country ran on it next year, they might not be successful. Now it is Our only chance."

"really?"

Someone asked in disbelief: "Can the imperial court save so much money every year?"

Wang Min said: "Of course it is true. We have found out clearly. Do you think that a few thousand guan from the imperial court every year is not much? But you don't want to think about how many merchants the imperial court sends to the border to transport grain every year. Each person has several thousand dollars." Guan, adding up to millions of Guan, this money is saved, and naturally more grain and grass can be purchased and shipped over."

"And there are many such as Tian Chang who have become the lackeys of the imperial court. They will definitely continue to help the imperial court transport food. The imperial court may not need us anymore."

Someone else spoke to help.

"So while the food and grass at the border this year have not been delivered to the imperial court, it is the best time for us to find a way to end the money-seeking method."

Zhou Yunsheng continued: "The imperial court has recently been purchasing grain and grass on a large scale. This must be a response to our boycott of the money law this year. The national treasury is empty, where does the money for them to buy grain and grass come from? It can only be the money paid to the sub-committee. As long as we work together If there is a run, the court cannot pay the money, and the money law will definitely not be able to continue."

Under the words of the Bianliang tea merchants, the Chengdu tea merchants could not help but waver.

"Yes, if we don't find a way to stop the Qianqian method this year, we may not be able to get the tea next year. How can we achieve it with one less year of income? Let's do it now."

"Brother Zhou and Brother Wang are right. The court is forcing us to a dead end. No wonder we are in a desperate situation."

"Okay, Brother Zhou, Brother Wang, I listen to you."

"Then do it."

Everyone assessed the situation and found that Zhou Yunsheng and Wang Min were right.

If they don't do it this year, when the court saves 650 million yuan next year, there will be no need for them.

The current situation of Bianliang tea merchants is that some tea merchants have surrendered to the court, represented by Tian Chang and many middle and lower class tea merchants.

If the imperial court saves money through the money-seeking method, and people like Tian Chang continue to transport food, and there will be no shortage of food at the border in the future, then they will completely lose hope.

So you have to do it even if you don’t want to do it.

Just when the crowd was getting angry, there was a father and son businessman in the crowd. The elder was nearly sixty years old, and the younger was only fourteen or fifteen years old. The young man was full of energy. When he saw the crowd shouting, he shouted: " I have a good idea."

Before he finished speaking, his father grabbed his ears and pulled him toward the back of the crowd. Fortunately, everyone was still shouting and the sound was too noisy. Except for a few people around, he didn't hear his words.

Those who heard it turned around and saw a young man with no hair on his face. They all showed mocking smiles, then they didn't take it to heart and continued to look at the venue.

"Bastard, what are you talking about? You want to kill your father!"

After leaving the house, the father slapped the young man hard on the head. Although he had always pampered the young man as he grew old, it was too imprudent to speak here.

However, the young man said aggrievedly: "Father, I am also thinking about you. If the money law is opened, how much less will our family's income be?"

"madness."

His father glared at him fiercely and said, "Don't be so smart. Sometimes you have to make money that you should make. If you can't make money that you shouldn't make, you must stop at the right time, otherwise you will only harm yourself." ,Walk!"

With that said, he carried the young man and left Fan Lou.

(End of this chapter)