Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1285 Soaring Cotton Prices
In April 1656, the situation in the west of the Kingdom of Jin further deteriorated.

Russia, which was supposed to be at war with Poland in the Ukrainian region in history, turned its attention from the west to the east because of the Golden Horde of the Mongols. After defeating the Golden Horde, they crossed the Volga River and chased the Mongols into the Central Asian steppe.

It turns out that the trading area of ​​the Kingdom of Jin on the northern line of the Silk Road has covered Central Asia and the Volga River Basin, and the Mongols there traded with the Kingdom of Jin.

The Kingdom of Jin exchanged ironware, tea, porcelain, and cloth from the Mongols for a large amount of cattle, sheep, wool, and leather, which brought a lot of wealth to the Kingdom of Jin. However, as Russia moved westward, the Mongols retreated to Central Asia. Trade on the northern route has also been severely affected.

This time Russia is clearly preparing to conquer the Mongols first, and then go back to compete with Poland for Ukraine.

Russia's national policy changed. After a large number of Russians and Cossack cavalry crossed the Volga River, within a few months, they drove the Mongols from the Caspian Sea to the Aral Sea. It would not take long for them to control the road to Samarkand. Also cut off the trade channel from the Kingdom of Jin to the south.

In this way, it would be meaningless for the Kingdom of Jin to manage the Western Regions.

Sun Kewang is determined to help the Sengge and Yuzi Khanates, drive the Russians back to the west bank of the Volga River, and ensure the safety of the west of the Jin Kingdom and smooth trade. However, the main force of the Jin Kingdom is not in the Western Regions, but on the east front against Daming hold.

The army controlled by Sun Kewang is only 2 people. Although hundreds of thousands of households have received certain training, Sun Kewang knows that these farmers and soldiers can only help transport grain and grass, repair fortifications, and assist in defending the city. field battle.

In view of this, Sun Kewang decided to go to Chang'an and personally persuade the court of the Kingdom of Jin, hoping to mobilize some soldiers and horses so that he could support the Mongols and fight Russia to stop Russia's eastward advance.

In April, Sun Kewang set off from Qiuci and traveled quickly through the Hexi Corridor to Chang'an.

In a few days, he arrived in Guazhou, which was the first place he operated after he invested money. Now that he revisited the old place, he stopped for a short time, preparing to rest for a day before going to Chang'an.

Guazhou is the place where Sun Kewang managed it with all his heart, and it is also the place where he came out of the shadow of failure of the destruction of Daxi Kingdom, so he is very emotional.

After he arrived in Guazhou, officials in Guazhou vacated a big house for him to live in, but he didn't stay in the house, but planned to go around the city.

The city is very lively, even more prosperous than when he was running it. This is mainly due to the impact of the opening of the Silk Road.

The Ming Dynasty also built a city in the south of Qinghai, but because the cost of going out of Sichuan was relatively high, and the mountains had to be crossed, the goods shipped to Qinghai were limited, and the influence only expanded to the south of Qinghai Lake, and did not expand northward.

Guazhou was originally managed by Sun Kewang as a commercial center on the Hexi Corridor. Now with the blessing of the Silk Road, business travelers come and go, and it is more prosperous than before, and the area of ​​the market has doubled.

The Silk Road is very long, and it takes one or two years to complete the journey. Only a very small number of merchants will complete the journey. In most cases, merchants set up warehouses at various nodes of the silk trade, and the caravans in Guanzhong transport the goods to In Guazhou, most of them returned to Guanzhong, and then the merchants in Guazhou purchased the goods in the market, and then shipped them to the Western Regions, and then brought the goods from the Western Regions back to Guazhou.

It is this point-to-point relay that has contributed to the prosperity of the overland Silk Road and the cities along it.

Sun Kewang changed into plain clothes and entered the market under the guard of a few guards. As soon as he entered the West Market, he saw that there were a lot of voices in several places. Sun Kewang came over curiously. It was a few cloth houses, and many people were arguing outside the cloth shop. .

"Last year it was only a tael of silver per piece. How can it be raised to three taels of silver now? Your cloth is not Su Song's product, it's not even middle class, it's just low class. Why is it so expensive?"

"That's right! You have tripled the price in a short time, so how can we make money in business?"

According to the price, the low-grade cotton cloth in Guanzhong, that is, four to five renminbi silver, is shipped to Guazhou for a price of more than one or two renminbi, and it is cheaper in the south of the Yangtze River for only about three renminbi. Moderate price.

Seeing this, Sun Kewang couldn't help frowning, and asked a businessman next to him, "What's going on at this time?"

That man was obviously not a cloth merchant, and he probably had a mentality of looking at Relao. He glanced at Sun Kewang and saw that he had an extraordinary temperament, so he explained: "The cloth in Guanzhong was taken away at a high price by the Ming Dynasty, and the supply in Guazhou will naturally decrease. For more than a month, the price has been one day. The low-grade cloth has risen from more than one tael to three taels, and the middle-grade cloth has risen to ten taels. The stock of high-grade Susong has been sold out. Merchants got rich."

Sun Kewang didn't understand, "Why did the Ming Dynasty pay a high price to Dajin to collect cloth? Su Song's cloth is much better than Dajin's!"

"I heard that some kind of business route was opened, from Mughal." The man glanced at Sun Ke, and said coquettishly: "You don't know this Mughal, it's Tianzhu. The Ming Dynasty received a sum of 100 million yuan from there." Su Song couldn’t keep up with the order, and the deadline for delivery was approaching. The cloth from each company was transferred to the Weaving Bureau, and was ready to be shipped to Mughal by sea. The cloth in the Ming Dynasty was in short supply, so it was sent from the factory. Our Kingdom of Jin buys cloth."

Sun Kewang was contemplating, and the man started talking, but continued, "According to the merchants in the Ming Dynasty, the 100 million horses are just the first batch of orders, and there will be a second and third batch coming later. "

"One million horses, and there will be more orders. Can the Mughals eat so much?" Sun Ke saw the envious look on the businessman's face, and felt that something was not normal.

The grandson of the Mughals knew that the merchants of the Kingdom of Jin had arrived in the northern mountainous area of ​​the Mughals and indeed brought a lot of wealth to the Kingdom of Jin, but he still had some doubts.

Hearing the words, the man became more excited and said: "I knew you would have such doubts. When I heard it, I also turned my mouth in shock, but do you know how big this Mughal is? Hurry up and catch up with the Ming Dynasty!" Yes, and the population is 9000 to 1000 million, which is more than the sum of the Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty not only traded with the Mughals, but also Sasan next to him. It is said that the population is more than [-] million. So many people, how many I can eat them all, anyway, the cloth merchant got rich this time, unlike our tea merchants..."

Both Sassanian and Mughal Jin Kingdom merchants have come into contact with them, but because the competitiveness of their products is not good, they are not as cheap and exquisite as the goods shipped by sea, so the Jin Kingdom merchants are just blind people who have just touched a leg, and have not gone deep into it. Mughal, even if someone occasionally described the size of Mughal, Sun Kewang did not attract attention.

However, Sun Kewang did not fully believe what the businessman said. He planned to send people to investigate after returning to the Western Regions to verify the authenticity of the words.

As he spoke, the man sighed, but at this moment the shopkeeper of the cloth shop came out and cupped his hands and said: "Everyone, we are all old friends, and I, Mr. Sun, will not harm you. It is true that the price of cloth in Guanzhong has risen, and I will There is no way. Now there are only [-] bolts of low-grade cotton cloth and [-] bolts of medium-grade cotton cloth in the village. The low-grade cotton cloth costs three taels or six dollars, and the middle-grade tael.

In the time it took to speak, another penny was raised. Although the group of merchants scolded fiercely, they still snapped up all the cloth with their money.

Although the price of cloth has risen, Sun Kewang knows that it is still profitable to ship it to Yuzi at this price.

Soon, the buddy of the cloth shop hung up a wooden sign saying "sold out", then put the wooden board up, and closed the business.The people around immediately dispersed, and after the businessman bid farewell to Sun Kewang, he also turned and left.

Sun Kewang walked around the market again, and several cloth shops in the West Market also hung up the signs that they were sold out. Many merchants from Guazhou and the Western Regions were in a hurry, circulating their gossip and asking Where can I buy cloth.

Cloth merchants from the Western Regions gathered around a Guanzhong merchant to inquire about the news. They only said that the workshops in Guanzhong had received a lot of orders and were producing medium-quality cotton cloth for the merchants in the Ming Dynasty. To recruit people and expand the workshop, it is estimated that it will take some time before a large amount of cloth will be shipped over.

Although Sun Kewang always felt that something was wrong, he couldn't tell what was going on. After returning to the post house to rest for a night, he still left Guazhou and headed for Guanzhong.

After he passed Qinzhou, he began to discover that wheat fields began to be planted with cotton on the Weihe Plain. He got off his horse and asked, and said that the cotton had increased from five taels of silver to eight or two hundred catties. Replant cotton fields.

Most of the officials and gentry in the Kingdom of Jin owned large tracts of land, and the price of cotton rose, making it profitable, so some gentry naturally wanted to grow cotton.

The Kingdom of Jin is not a country that produces a large amount of grain, and it can only be self-sufficient in food. Although Sun Kewang has promoted commerce these years, he was born as a poor Shaanxi farmer. He immediately realized that this incident might bring harm to the Kingdom of Jin.

He walked along the Weihe River from Qinzhou to Chang'an, and while watching, he found that this phenomenon of switching to cotton planting was not just one family or some big clans, but many self-cultivating farmers also planted cotton.

On the sixth day of May, Sun Kewang entered Chang'an City, without rest, he went to find his old partner Yu Yin without stopping.

Because of his political achievements in Hexi, Yu Yin was transferred to Chang'an as the Minister of the Household Department. Sun Kewang had guarded Guazhou with him and had a good friendship, so he couldn't wait to ask him to report the situation.

Yu Yin was a little surprised when he heard that Sun Kewang was coming, and complained that he shouldn't have come to see him first, but Sun Kewang didn't care so much. After entering Yu Yin's study, he picked up the teacup and drank the tea, then hurriedly said "Yu Butang, do you know that on both sides of the Wei River, many wheat fields are planted with cotton?"

Yu Yin calmly motioned him to sit down, sighed and said, "I know what the prince is worried about, but the court knows about this matter..."

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(End of this chapter)