Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1628 Announcement Part Three
Wait for more than a month, and many ships moored at the Haizhou Port Wharf will fly south like migratory birds.

Such is the monsoon climate.

Summer and autumn come, winter and spring go, every year like this, creating a large number of trade "migratory birds".

Many people bought land and built houses in Donghai and Qushan, and settled down.

Because of the increasing importance of this northern port, more and more people do this-even if the owner himself has to leave, he will keep his nephew or trusted confidant here.

Not for anything else, just for buying and selling.

As the helm of the new generation of the Tuoba family, Tuoba Ju also built a house on the island, which also occupies a large area, which is very grand - it can also be used as a warehouse.

On this day, he came to Fangshi early to participate in the last fair of this month.

"Coral, agarwood, shark skin..."

His family is located in the shop in Fangshi, and the guys count everything, and only after making sure that they are correct, put them carefully into the warehouse.

Next door is a pepper shop run by a big cannibal. A businessman with a Hebei accent was negotiating with him, and it took a long time to make a decision.

The merchant from Hebei had a few large carts of porcelain brought in. After the delivery with the big cannibal, because he bought a large amount of pepper, he made up another batch of silk and satin. At the end of the final settlement, he still owed a lot.

There was no other way, this person took out several silver bowls and handed them to others with a heartache on his face.

The big cannibal frowned, not really wanting to accept it.

First of all, he wants to receive the goods more than the silver bowl, because the profit will be ten times or even dozens of times when he goes back and changes hands.

Secondly, the weight of this silver bowl is easy to weigh, but I don't know its fineness, will it be tricked?

To be honest, he was very surprised that the "Qin people" were extremely backward in business, and they actually used silver bowls, silver plates, silver vases and other utensils for transactions, and there were still a lot of them.

One of his relatives was engaged in the overland silk trade. In Dunhuang in the early years, the local people were the same as Tubo, and the main transaction currency was silver, not the silk that is common in other places.

If you buy something in the market, I will give you a silver bowl. If it is not enough, I will add a few more bags of wheat.If there are too many, just cut the silver bowl and give you a part-don't laugh, these kinds of utensils often appeared in commercial transactions in the Tang Dynasty, and were used as currency, which is not uncommon in various contract documents.

He was wondering, are silver bowls, silver plates, silver spoons, and silver bottles easy to measure?

"Dirhan! Dirhan!" The big cannibal finally gave up the cash register bowl, shook his head, and said, "I only want Dirhan."

The Hebei businessman muttered a few words, and finally untied a bundle, took out dozens of silver dollars from it, handed it to the man, and said, "Here you are, Great Shadier Khan, I won't do business with you next time."

Tuoba Ju watched from the side and smiled slightly.

Beginning many years ago, a trade fair in various cities in Daxia ended, and everyone transferred their accounts. After the liquidation, if there is a surplus, the merchant will receive a silver dollar bill.

Silver dollar bills are generally used for tax deduction, and occasionally used as gifts, but if given the opportunity, they will eventually be exchanged for silver dollars and taken home.

When the imperial court collects taxes, they would rather hand in copper coins and silk. If they are not enough, they will take gold and silver wares such as silver vases, silver plates, and silver bowls to offset the debt, and the imperial court will also collect them.But after collecting, there will always be a few words: next time try to pay taxes with copper coins, silk, silver dollars or silver dollar bills.

But no one would do that, silly?

The eighteen baht silver dollar set by the Shuofang Army era is exquisite in workmanship, constant in weight, full of color, easy to carry, and extremely easy to calculate. When buying and selling goods in private, I don’t know how convenient it is.

Over the past 30 years, the price unit of many goods has become silver dollars—otherwise, what price do you use?Silk?Then I'm going to talk to you about the width, latitude and longitude, new and old, and workmanship. Why do you set the price at one thousand dollars?I said it was only worth eight hundred!
As for the copper coin pricing, it is not impossible, but it is too heavy, and it is really inconvenient for long-distance transshipment.

Choose to choose, or the eighteen baht silver dollar is more suitable as the unit of calculation.

In recent years, due to the serious shortage of [-] baht silver dollars in existence, some merchants in Haizhoufang City have spontaneously started to use dinar gold coins and dirhan silver coins for business transactions. Even if the imperial court does not approve of such foreign gold and silver coins, they still use them in private transactions.

"Hey, Jianji silver dollar." Tuoba Ju was a little surprised when he saw that the Hebei businessman took out a Jianji silver dollar that was one size larger, with his arms folded.

The so-called Jianji silver dollar is a newly minted silver coin after the founding of the Great Xia, which is provided to various markets in case someone needs to exchange it.At present, there are not many, very rare.

The official name of Jianji silver dollar is "Daxia silver coin", and there is only one face value: one yuan.It weighs 21 baht, nine silver and one copper.According to the regulations of the Ministry of Households, one yuan of silver coins in Daxia is equivalent to two coins.

In fact, if you strictly follow the current silver-copper price ratio and calculate it purely by weight, one yuan is worth 1400 yuan (two coins = 1600 yuan). It seems that the imperial court took advantage (seigniorage), but merchants don’t care.

Anyway, after the wear and tear of this kind of silver coin is reduced, others will recognize it and continue to use it as two coins and circulate it in the hands of different merchants, which is enough.

After the big food merchant received the big summer silver coins, he was all smiles, and after counting the number correctly, he didn't look at it any more, and just put it away.Next, he had to go to other merchants to buy goods, and these silver coins happened to be used up.

"Hey, all the silver dollars saved in Beizhou Fang City were given to the big cannibal." The Hebei merchant looked at Tuoba Ju and asked, "Why didn't the imperial court mint more silver dollars?"

"The imperial court wants to, but there must be silver." Tuoba Ju laughed.

Everyone knows that silver coins are more useful than silver bowls, silver plates, and silver vases. Whenever there is a chance, they will throw out the messy and strange-shaped silver and replace it with silver dollars at home. But the problem is that the imperial court really doesn’t have that much silver to make money.

Tuoba Ju knew some inside information, and even chatted with King Qi at the wine table, and knew a lot of things.

According to King Qi, during Tang Xuanzong’s meeting, all silver mines across the country were taxed, with a tax of [-] taels of silver per year. In the Tang Dynasty, silver mines were private, government-run, and government-private partnerships. Just like Yanchi, ordinary people can also fish.

Based on the tax on silver, the annual output of silver is less than 8 taels.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the output was even smaller, less than 300 taels a year. During the 5 years of the Tang Dynasty, the average annual output was only [-] taels.

The silver output in Daxia was a bit larger than the 10 taels at the end of the Tang Dynasty. After all, many new lands in Helong, Liaodong, and Yunnan were added, but it was difficult to exceed 16 catties (80 taels)—annual silver output of 40 taels in the heyday of the Northern Song Dynasty (Song system, one tael is about 50 grams, slightly smaller than the Tang system), with an average of [-] taels, but most of them did not flow into the market.

18 catties of silver, based on the new silver coins minted after the founding of the Great Xia, would cost more than 2800 coins each year.

This amount is far from meeting the market demand, so as long as the court releases a batch of silver dollars, it will definitely be slowly taken away by merchants.

Although the imperial court made a little money from it, the annual seigniorage revenue is converted into copper coins, which is about [-] min - if the value of silver itself is not counted.

But to be honest, compared with rectifying the chaotic business order, the imperial court simply looked down on this little money.

"The holy man deserves his title this time, and I think he deserves it." Hebei businessman also sighed when he heard the words. He knew that there was a great shortage of silver in Daxia. However, the saint introduced the bookkeeping currency and silver dollars, which are both false and real, which still made the life of the merchants much easier. Therefore, he said: "Someone suggested that today you can be the new ancestor of our business. I don't read enough, and I don't know much. I just want to ask you, if you enshrine holy statues at home, can it be violated?"

"This..." Tuoba Ju was dumbfounded by the question, and he didn't know.

"Have you ever seen a saint?" he asked.

"I met him once in Bai Sima Ban many years ago." The merchant said, "Sound and smile... Uh, let's not talk about this, haha."

Tuoba Ju also felt that this topic was very dangerous, so he said instead: "Yesterday, dozens of Japanese merchants came to the market..."

"Have you met?" Hebei merchant's eyes lit up and he asked.

The current image of Japanese businessmen is completely stupid and rich.

They didn't know what kind of shit luck they had, but they dug up a lot of silver mines in their own house.Let's hear the rumors from maritime merchants that silver mines and copper mines are still being discovered one after another. There is no end to it. I don't know how many are buried in the ground.

After several years of mining, the Japanese are now really "arrogant"——

I used to be very stingy, and I didn't even want to live in a hostel or inn, and I could deal with it for a night in a thatch pile.But now, he eats the best restaurants, lives in the most luxurious hotels, spends money generously, speaks loudly, and looks like a local rich man.

"They brought a few thousand catties of silver and opened an account in Donghaifang City, which directly alarmed the ship envoy." Tuoba Ju said, "I heard people say that a total of five or six ships came, and all the goods on board were worth less than those silver coins. It is estimated that they will buy a lot this time. I don't know who will get this piece of fat."

One thousand catties of silver can cast more than [-] silver dollars, worth more than [-] coins.

The Japanese brought silver nuggets worth thirty-two thousand mins.Considering that their smelting technology is not good, and the silver has many impurities, they may have to be hacked, and it may only be worth [-] min.

But it’s really a lot! For a big deal of 10,000+ money, this group of merchants should be very smart in Japan. Their status is not low. Once they get rich, they rush to the Central Plains to buy.

Tuoba Ju could actually get a share of it, but it was inconvenient for him to say it in front of this Hebei businessman.

My own caravan is still working hard to transfer supplies to the imperial court, and the imperial court will naturally take care of it.

The envoy of Haizhou City and Qi Wang Shao Guancheng have already stated clearly that the Japanese want to buy silk, porcelain, leather, medicinal materials, books, and all kinds of Central Plains handicrafts. They will give you as much business as you can find, and the upper limit is [-] yuan.

Tuoba Ju is naturally grateful.For goods worth [-] yuan, if he doesn't take away [-] yuan of profit from the Japanese, he will close his business and stop doing business from now on.

This transaction can be described as a great supplement to Tuoba Trading Company.

There is really nothing to say about working for a saint. I will find supplements for you everywhere, and try to make you make money to make up for the deficit in the Western Regions.

"I can't eat the fat of the Japanese." The Hebei merchant sighed and said, "It's enough to transport this batch of Annan pepper back to Hebei and sell it slowly. You can earn your own share with peace of mind, and don't want to think about it."

Tuoba Ju always felt that his words were alluding to something, so he didn't answer, and said instead: "This year, the Annan Trading Company also shipped a lot of pepper to the north, why did they buy big food?"

Dashihuo, in fact, is also from Annan, and there may be some peppers from other places mixed in, but the quality of the two is similar.

"The big cannibal also has cloves, nutmeg and other spices. If you buy his pepper and buy these spices together, it will be much cheaper." Hebei merchants said.

"I see." Tuoba Ju nodded.

He is not very involved in the spice business, and he really doesn't know much about the twists and turns.The big food merchants are also good at monkeys. Seeing that the Annan Trading Co., Ltd. was established and was going to gradually steal their pepper business, it was interesting to come up with such a competitive method!
"The next step, the sage will grow cloves and cardamom in Annan, right?" Hebei people said again: "If Annan really produces these spices, I will not buy big food in the future. The supreme emperor gave us merchants an unprecedented good life, so naturally I will do things for him."

"If you have such a heart, it is not in vain that the saint has worked so hard for so many years." Tuoba Ju felt a little emotional.

Some people sowed the seeds 30 years ago, and now they have achieved fruitful results and are deeply popular.

At least, in the eyes of many merchants in Daxia, the title of "Supreme Emperor of Jianwen Shenwu" is worthy of the name, and it is not adulterated at all.

(End of this chapter)