Diqin Designer

Chapter 222: Opening up the Trade City

"However, as for cattle and horses, a few dozen is fine, but if there are hundreds or thousands of them, it would be quite inconvenient if there is no fixed point for both parties to trade. It is not possible for you to drive thousands of cattle and I to bring dozens of carriages to trade in the wilderness. Therefore, it is best to set up a fixed point, which is the trading city mentioned by Jiao!"

Jiao Li continued, "This city can be built with one or more cities. It is located at the junction of Daqin and Xiongnu, which is convenient for Daqin and Xiongnu to trade with each other and sell what they have."

In fact, it was just to allow the Huns to open their trading ports, but there was no unequal treaty added, because there was no need for it. It was unequal to begin with. With the productivity and technological advancement of the Qin Dynasty, it was bound to be the dumping of Qin's goods on the Huns.

Touman asked: "Who should build this city and how should it be governed?"

Jiao Li said: "If there is already a city, then whichever side it belongs to will govern it. If there is no city in the selected place, then Daqin and Xiongnu will build one together and both sides will govern it."

This aroused the interest of a Xiongnu leader, who asked, "How can we govern together?"

Jiao Li said: "The laws of this city were negotiated and agreed upon by Daqin and Xiongnu, and the people who manage this city are also sent by Daqin and Xiongnu respectively. Of course, if the Chanyu and the leaders do not want to govern this city, they can also entrust this city completely to Daqin, and you will get a lot of wealth every year."

For Touman and the Xiongnu leaders, this is a novel model, but if both sides really govern the city together, Daqin will have more advantages.

The purpose of building trading cities was not only to allow the Qin Dynasty to trade with the Xiongnu, seize the Xiongnu's wealth and turn it into food for the Qin Dynasty's growth and weaken the Xiongnu's power, but also to control the Xiongnu through economic means, corrupt and poison the Xiongnu's power class, and influence the Xiongnu people through these cities.

After the establishment of these trading cities, Daqin's various commodities would impact the Xiongnu's already weak economic system, causing them to embark on the path of "it's better to buy than to make" in many aspects: Daqin's products are so good, why should we bother to make them ourselves, wouldn't it be better to just exchange them with Daqin for cattle and sheep?
In this way, the Xiongnu would gradually become a large livestock breeding base of the Qin Dynasty, and except for cattle and sheep, everything else would have to be purchased from the Qin Dynasty.

Moreover, all trading cities must use Qin currency for settlement in the future. Over time, the wealth held by the Huns will naturally be gradually converted into Qin currency.

In fact, currency has no value. It can neither be drunk nor eaten. If the Qin Dynasty wanted to take action against the Huns, it only needed to ban the circulation of Qin currency held by the Huns, which would cause the assets of many Huns to be devastated overnight.

Of course, for a nomadic people, these economic means are useful, but not that useful, because their real assets are livestock such as cattle and sheep.

Only the Huns had enough cattle and sheep to graze. Not being able to use Qin currency only caused them to lose some wealth. They could not buy things from Qin, but they still had food and drink, and they would not perish immediately.

But once the trading city is established, Touman and the Xiongnu leaders will definitely get involved, and they will most likely monopolize the goods traded from Daqin to the Xiongnu.

For example, salt was sold to Xiongnu civilians at high prices, and then the wealth seized from the Xiongnu civilians was used to buy Qin luxury goods for them to enjoy.

They will be corrupted into fat maggots that parasitize on the Xiongnu and suck blood, constantly sucking the Xiongnu people's fat for themselves to eat, drink and have fun. And it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury to frugality. This is human nature. Once the Xiongnu leaders get used to using all kinds of good things from Daqin, it will be difficult for them to get out of it. Then they will have to make the Xiongnu civilians suffer. I haven't gotten the glass wine set I'm interested in yet.

The Xiongnu civilians would be sucked thin by them and accumulate more and deeper resentment towards the Xiongnu ruling class.

Moreover, these trading cities would also become places for the Huns to learn about the Qin Dynasty. When they learned about the power, prosperity, advancement, and civilization of the Qin Dynasty, and then looked back at their own Huns and saw those blood-sucking Chanyu and leaders who did not treat them as human beings, what would they think?

Either it becomes "What Xiongnu? Master Li Nian said that Xiongnu is also Chinese, and hopes that we can return. What's wrong with me becoming a Qin person now?", "Although I miss Xiongnu very much, Daqin is my home", "Daqin is happy, and I don't miss Xiongnu anymore", "Daqin and Xiongnu are really different, the air is so sweet, full of the smell of civilization and strength"...

Either it becomes "Are the Chanyus of different races?", "Daqin is the most advanced and powerful country in the world. Only by learning from it can we get rid of backwardness and become strong", "We must abandon everything the Xiongnu originally had and completely transform ourselves into Qin people. Only then will the Xiongnu have a future"...

Who knows, some Huns might come up with the idea that “the Huns are doomed to fail on their own, and must introduce strength from outside. Since the Qin is our elder brother, why not ask the Qin to govern the Huns?”

Either way, it would intensify the loss of talent and wealth among the Xiongnu, causing huge divisions among the Xiongnu and leading to unrest.

Jiao Li continued, "When trading in these cities, it is necessary to stipulate what cannot be sold. For example, crossbows should be prohibited from sale."

This statement put an end to Touman and some Xiongnu leaders' desire to purchase weapons from Daqin. In fact, Li Nian felt that the weapons could be sold, but they had to wait until the Daqin army's weapons were updated and their own firepower advantage was ensured before they could sell the obsolete weapons to others.

Nowadays, it is better to strictly ban the sale of weapons. Not only weapons cannot be sold, but also metal products, ores and other items exported to the Huns must be strictly controlled.

"We must also set prices for various goods and collect taxes. Part of the taxes collected will be used to govern the city, and any surplus will be shared between the Qin and the Xiongnu."

This made Touman and the Xiongnu leaders understand what Jiaoli meant when he said, "You will all receive a lot of wealth every year." It turned out that there was really wealth to be distributed to them.

Not only is this collected through taxation, but also the profits they generated through monopolizing trade with the Qin people, how much would that be?
I'm afraid it will be a shocking number. With so much wealth, won't they be able to buy whatever they want? As long as the Qin people dare to sell, they can enjoy everything the Qin emperor uses!

Touman and the other Hun leaders seemed to have seen the benefits that could be gained from the establishment of a trading city, but they did not think about where the wealth came from and who produced the wealth?

Wealth does not appear out of thin air. They obtained such huge wealth, so who suffered the loss?
However, even if Touman and the leaders knew the answers to these questions, they would not care. They were just Hun civilians and not worth caring about. Aren’t civilians also their property?
Moreover, they had fought for the Huns, shed blood for the Huns, and done so many things for the Huns for so many years. What's wrong with enjoying themselves now?
Then play music, then dance!
(End of this chapter)