Prime Minister

Chapter 817
Xizhou, City Exchange.

As soon as it was daylight, the Exchange began to get busy.

Xizhou's Exchange Office was moved from the ancient Weizhai.

The predecessor of the stock exchange in Guweizhai was Yongningzhai.

Yongning Village belonged to Qinzhou before, and after Wang Shao established Tongyuan Army in Guwei Village, Yongning Village was included in Tongyuan Army.

During Song Zhenzong's time, not to mention the ancient Wei, even above Qinzhou, that is, on the north bank of the Wei River, there lived hundreds of thousands of aboriginal people. Until two years ago in Xining, Xixia often invaded Qinzhou to fight grass valley.

But all this has changed since Xining three years ago.

With Xihe Road protruding to the west, Qinzhou and the entire Qinfeng economic strategy made the road almost become the hinterland.

In the second year of Qingli, Qinzhou was the first stop for the Huanfan tribe to enter the Song Dynasty. At that time, all Uighur, Qingtang, and Western Region missions had to be inspected in Qinzhou. The government of Qinzhou sent officers to escort them, and the mission was not allowed to hire people privately, just in case of accidents.

Qinzhou was the starting point of the Silk Road on land in the Song Dynasty. However, because Qinzhou was located in a densely populated area, and at the same time there was no danger of mountains and rivers, the Song Dynasty was always worried about the missions from the Western Regions.

But all this changed after three years in Xining.

Yongning Village is the earliest Bomachang. At that time, Yongning Village was described as such, 550 miles to Lanzhou, and [-] miles to Zongge City (Xining, Dong Zhanpei).At the beginning, Xue Xiang, the transshipment envoy of Shaanxi, bought a large amount of horses from the Tibetans here with salt money, and could trade [-] to [-] horses every year.

As a result, Xue Xiang bought a large number of war horses with only a few pieces of torn paper, which caused the salt money to plummet. Finally, Zhang Yue set up an exchange in Bianjing to solve this problem.

Fortunately, the salt money was not devalued as worthless, and ended up with the same fate as Jiaozi.

Afterwards, Xining Houshi Exchange was transferred from Yongning Village to Guwei Village (Tongyuan Army), and in the fifth year of Xining, it was transferred from Tongyuan Army to Xizhou.

Last year, Tabai City was defeated, and Hezhou was besieged. Under the suspected fall, the local Tibetan tribe in Xizhou rebelled under the support of Mu Zheng, and attacked Xizhou City several times.

Several bandits pretended to be caravans and wanted to infiltrate and attack the Shiyi Division outside Xizhou City, but the Song Army saw through it, but the market was also looted and burned, and it was burned to a piece of white ground.

The aboriginal people came here for the money of the Shiyi Division, but the officials who guarded it burned the two 10,000+ salt notes in advance.

Officials who witnessed all this at the time said that they seemed to have seen the most expensive flame in their lives.

For Zhang Yue, this is a good solution to a problem for future generations, that is, if you have 100 million soft sister coins burned to ashes, how much loss will it cause to the country and individuals?

100 million for you, the answer is more than 1 for the country.

All in all, even if it is burned to ashes, it will not let the enemy take advantage of it.

Li Xian and Zhang Yue wore casual clothes to inspect the Market Exchange Department. Zhang Yue said to Li Xian, "The market in Xizhou is held once every three days, and the market exchange is forced to use salt bills to trade!"

Li Xian asked: "What about those who trade gold and silver in private?"

Zhang Yue said: "Those who trade in gold, silver and copper coins in private will have their goods impounded for three years."

Li Xian nodded and said: "Good! Is there a private market?"

Zhang Yue said: "Yes, if there is one, you will be fined three times. If you have more than [-] guan, you will be fined for one hundred sticks. If you have more than [-] guan, you will be punished for one year. If you have more than [-] guan, you will be interrogated by Luefu."

Li Xian asked: "The punishment is so light? Can it be tolerated now?"

Zhang Yue said, "Zi Fan doesn't know something."

The market exchange is like a market, like a customs office, not only collecting taxes but also forcing salt and money settlements, and the private market is like smuggling.

Not only the folks evade taxes, but even the officials of the Song Army on Qinfeng Road and Xihe Road also smuggle, and the ban is endless.

Li Xian was also surprised when he heard that the officers and soldiers also joined the private market. Zhang Yue said to Li Xian: "When the camp was at the frontier, the imperial court once allowed the side to return to the trade. Now to rectify it, we must first prohibit the army from returning to the trade."

Li Xian listened silently.

If even the army's return to trade cannot be banned, then private private markets cannot be banned either.

Zhang Yue said with a smile: "Right now we only have to catch the big and let go of the small. You can ban gold and silver, but you can't stop smuggling. Zifan will have a look!"

The City Exchange outside Hezhou City is, to be precise, a complex of the City Exchange and the Marketplace.

Generally speaking, the market is managed by the supervisor of the third division, but since the establishment of the Shiyi Division, Xihe Road has bypassed the third division and directly belongs to the Xihe Jinglueshi Road.

Today, the Shiyi Division in Xizhou was previously operated by Lu Shengqing and Huang Cha.

Underneath the activities are the merchants. A total of 16 major merchants were allowed to enter the Shiyi Division. These merchants recommended [-] people to form a guild to jointly manage the entire trading market with the Shiyi Division.

Earth walls were built on all sides of the quarry, and a wooden watchtower was built every few dozen steps on the earth wall. Several Song soldiers held bows on the watchtower to look out.

The entire market is divided into three gates like a small city, leading to the east and west respectively, and the north is towards Xizhou City, except that there is no gate on the south.

So the streets in the city are in a T-shape.

The trading market is full of merchants and Han people living in it, with a population of tens of thousands. Once the day of the market comes, another 3 or [-] people will flood into the trading market.

In addition, a sub-fort was built near the water of Taohe River.

In front of the city gate of Quchang, I saw a huge caravan composed of camels, mules and horses from Xifan merchants slowly entering the city.

The soldiers guarding the city gate are checking and checking.

Li Xian heard that in addition to horses, Xifan merchants like to use musk, mercury, bezoar, and pearls to trade silk, tea, gold, silver, lacquerware, etc. from the Song Dynasty.

After Li Xian entered the city, he saw that the entire market was full of shops for buying and selling.

The shops are full of goods from the Western Regions, such as musk, mercury, cinnabar bezoar, pearls, raw gold, rhinoceros jade, coral, velvet brown, camel brown, Sanya brown, pistil cloth, douluo cotton, pill sand, asafoetida, Woody incense, benzoin, coptis, yak tail, marmoset hair, antelope horn, bamboo horn, red and green leather, etc.

As for Song people, there are also department stores here. It seems that Qinzhou's specialties, Longxuxi and Xiongqiong, are also sold.

The crowd on the street can be said to be shoulder to shoulder, and there are businessmen on all sides.

Li Xian was very happy to see this lively scene and said to Zhang Yue: "Last year, the Exchange was burned, and it has been restored in only half a year."

Amidst the hustle and bustle of voices, Zhang Yue said with a smile: "This is what money is going for, and it's always going to be disadvantageous."

Li Xian couldn't help being curious when he saw that many Western businessmen ignored the shops on the left and right of the street, but went straight to the center of the market.

Li Xian didn't ask much, but followed the crowd to the center of the venue.

In the center of the market, the guards are stricter here, and the Exchange is in front of it.

There was a large open space in front of the Exchange, where Western merchants came here with camel and horse teams, pointing to the goods on horseback and talking loudly to the toothmen in front of them.

There are dozens of people like this in the open space.

These Argentines all spoke proficient Fan or Chinese to bargain with Spanish merchants.

Zhang Yue explained to Li Xian: "The goods carried by these Xifan merchants are too large, and they are afraid of being lowered by merchants from outside shops, so they first go to the market to inquire about prices."

"And these Yamen are all hired by the market, and everyone has a guarantee. They can set a minimum price to buy the goods on hand from the foreign merchants from afar. The money is paid by the court!"

Li Xian praised: "This is Wang Xianggong's market transaction law!"

Ps: Starting point Chinese website first launch.

(End of this chapter)