Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1407 Tea-Horse Trade Fair

In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not allow private tea-horse trade. According to the Ming Law, anyone who allowed private tea to leave the country or failed to supervise the checkpoints would be executed by slow slicing.

Zhu Zhen's brother-in-law Ouyang Lun was sentenced to death by Boss Zhu for smuggling tea.

But in terms of business alone, the Ming Dynasty was absolutely beaten by the Song Dynasty. The official monopoly of the tea-horse trade in the Ming Dynasty was extremely ineffective, with the trade volume less than one-tenth of that in the Song Dynasty.

As the tea-horse trade was the foundation of Yunnan's prosperity, Zhu Zhen adopted a flexible approach and established the Yunnan Tea-Horse Trading Association in addition to the Yunnan Tea-Horse Bureau.

In fact, the two are the same team with two names, both headed by Gu Yuanchen. When communicating with the government, he is the head of the Tea and Horse Bureau. When facing the merchants, he is the president of the Tea and Horse Trade Fair.

Gu Yuanchen had played a similar role when he was in Suzhou, and he was very clear about the prince's tactics. The focus was actually on the latter, and the former was just a cover.

Moreover, he knew that the most important thing in trade was the trade volume. As long as the scale was up, everything else would be easy. Therefore, after he took office, he had been committed to expanding the scale of the tea-horse trade. One of the important measures was to change the original tea-horse trade into a tea-horse trade fair.

So Zhu Zhen must support him.

~~
Two days later, the third Kunming Tea-Horse Trade Fair was held at the Daxiaochang outside the east gate of Kunming City.

The weather was fine and cloudless that day, and the trade fair was crowded with people of all ethnic groups. In addition to the Han merchants, who made up the majority, there were also foreign merchants dressed in Bai, Dai, Miao, Luoluo, and Tibetan costumes, and even foreign merchants from India, Dashi, and Southeast Asia... There were about 10,000 to 20,000 people in total.

There is a simple opening ceremony before the event officially begins.

First there was a lion dance performance with strong Han characteristics, and then Gu Yuanchen took the stage to hold the opening ceremony and respectfully invited the prince to give a speech.

Zhu Zhen stepped onto the stage amid the respectful welcome of the crowd and delivered a brief and powerful speech. He first expressed a warm welcome to the merchants coming to the exhibition on behalf of the Yunnan government and assured them that a safe, fair and honest trading environment would be provided. Finally, he wished them a prosperous business and great wealth!
His speech was very down-to-earth, but it was very effective and immediately won the hearts of the foreign merchants. They all paid the highest respect to Zhu Zhen, the protector of Yunnan.

For businessmen, no matter what you say, nothing can touch their hearts more than those six words.

Hu Quan was convinced. The prince's ability to speak to people in a way that suits them was already perfect. And the most amazing thing was that he always made the other party feel that the prince was speaking to him from the bottom of his heart. Before he knew it, he was completely devoted to him...

At the end of the ceremony, Zhu Zhen struck the gong, announcing the official start of the trade fair!
~~
After the trade fair began, the merchants took their seats and Zhu Zhen also came to the VIP lounge below the stage.

Ma He quickly took off the eye-catching dragon robe for him and changed him into ordinary civilian clothes so that the prince could visit the trading market.

Although Zhu Zhen's size made him invisible, the people present today were all smart businessmen. When they saw his attire, they knew that the prince didn't want to be watched, so they probably wouldn't get close to him.

While changing his clothes, Zhu Zhen smiled and said to Gu Yuanchen who was standing beside him, "I didn't expect the scale of today's exhibition." "Yeah, we didn't expect it at the beginning." Gu Yuanchen said with emotion, "In the first session, we just had a try-it attitude, and there were not many people coming. There were more than 2,000 merchants and more than 50 booths, basically all of them were partners we invited."

"But the effect was surprisingly good. The merchants who attended the fair made a lot of money. They had more choices than before and could choose products that were truly suitable for their target customers. How could the competitors who didn't come compete with them? They were naturally defeated by them."

"So when the second session was held last year, the number of merchants participating in the fair doubled, and the transaction volume increased fivefold." Gu Yuanchen proudly reported: "In just ten days of the trade fair, the transaction volume reached a huge amount of two million taels!"

"That's really good." Zhu Zhen praised: "It has far surpassed the Yuan Dynasty and is almost catching up with the level of the Song Dynasty."

"The number of merchants participating in the conference this year has doubled from last year, and the number of exhibitors has increased to 300. Unless there are major surprises, it will definitely surpass the level of the Song Dynasty." Gu Yuanchen said confidently.

"It is necessary to surpass the Song Dynasty. At that time, they simply sold tea and bought horses, but we sell everything. How can we compare?" Zhu Zhen smiled and said, "You are making me itch. Let's go out for a walk."

"Your Highness, please." Gu Yuanchen hurriedly led the way.

~~
As soon as we left the VIP lounge, it suddenly became noisy outside, just like a big market.

In fact, the trade fair is just a big market, and each merchant's booth is a stall with a shed. The merchants walking around are customers who look at the goods, buy goods, and bargain.

It’s just that this place only does wholesale and not retail, and the transaction amount of a single transaction may exceed the entire day’s business of an ordinary market.

Zhu Zhen took a quick look and saw that the exhibits were really dazzling. In addition to tea, which had to be the main attraction, there were also silk and porcelain, which stole the show. In addition, there were all kinds of cloth, gouache, jewellery, needles and thread, pots, bowls, plates and dishes... There was really everything you could think of.

Although if you look closely, they are indeed a grade lower than the products from inland areas, but they are all produced locally in Yunnan!
In order to expand the influence of the trade fair and promote the development of industry and commerce in various places, Zhu Zhen issued exhibition tasks to all prefectures, requiring each county to send at least one exhibition booth, with no upper limit.

And it’s not the end of the story just after the assignment, because all merchants who have registered have to be reviewed by the Tea and Horse Association to determine the quality and quantity of the goods so as not to damage the reputation of the trade fair, and only then will they be allocated a stall.

After the trade fair, they will be scored and ranked based on indicators such as trade volume and profit margin, and the results will be directly recorded in the annual assessment of local officials.

Lao Liu strictly evaluates performance in Yunnan, and the promotion and demotion of officials are all based on the evaluation. This move is fatal, so which prefecture and county magistrate dare not pay attention to the development of local industry and commerce?

Of course, Zhu Zhen not only made things difficult for them, but also provided them with favorable conditions - the 50,000 craftsmen that Boss Zhu promised were immediately distributed after they were sent to Yunnan.

Local officials treated the assigned craftsmen as valuable commodities, giving them money and venues to encourage them to develop the local handicraft industry. Then they selected the best ones and sent them to the provincial capital to participate in the exhibition. Regardless of the ranking, the boost to the local economy was obvious.

(End of this chapter)