I studied in modern times

Chapter 715 Textile Wave (2)

As soon as the price of forgiveness was announced, Yelu Ju and Yelu Yongchang looked at each other, and saw shock in each other's eyes. Then, in an instant, the fire of greed flashed in their eyes!

A piece of silk cloth costs one string and two hundred coins?
A piece of silk costs two strings of cash and one hundred coins?

This this……

This is giving away money!
The price of silk cloth in Shangjing City is usually over three or four strings of cash!
As for silk?
More than five strings of cash!

Even this is defective and inferior silk!

If the silk is of high quality, a piece of it would often cost more than ten strings of cash.

Most people can’t even see it, let alone buy it!

But now, the Southern Dynasty has offered a rock-bottom price!

Moreover, the quality seems to be very high quality!
"Really?" Yelu Yongchang took a deep breath and asked anxiously.

"Really!" Xing Shu nodded.

Yelu Yongchang was immediately delighted: "If so, our dynasty is willing to purchase 100,000 pieces of silk and satin from your country!"

If he doesn’t buy it at this price, he’d be a fool!
He could even guarantee that they would take as much as the Southern Dynasty had!

Xing Shu chuckled and said, "More than 100,000 horses?"

"can!"

Yelu Yongchang was as happy as a child and immediately started to smile foolishly.

He could already imagine the praise and rewards he would receive after returning to the court.

It was at this time that Yelu Ju's eyes began to move.

He looked at Xing Shu and also at Yelu Yongchang.

Ten thousand thoughts are fluctuating in my mind.

"If it were me the year before last, I might have been as happy about this achievement as Yelu Yongchang was."

He was very simple at that time.

Simply wanting to get promoted and make money!
However, more than a year after the Song-Liao Jiaozi trade agreement was reached.

He has completely changed.

Because he was deeply involved in all links of Song-Liao Jiaozi, and was also a carnivore in this ecological chain.

So he knew that whether it was the emperor, empress, and imperial concubine in the palace, or the king's brother-in-law, prime minister, and dignitaries in the South Court and North Court, they all knew that he had benefited from this.

The king's brother-in-law, Prince of Lanling, Xiao Wochou, even directly asked him for benefits.

And the first thing he said was a benefit of 100,000 strings of cash per year!
If you don’t agree, change someone!

The King's Uncle spoke, and naturally the evildoers below began to reach out.

Especially the dignitaries from the Fifth and Sixth Academy Departments.

All they did was ask him to think of their friendship, saying that without their support, he would not be able to keep his position as the envoy of the Southern Dynasty!

Then, Yelu Ju was shocked to find out.

Although he had made a fortune in the Southern Dynasty, the appetite of the powerful in the country was like a bottomless pit.

It can't be filled at all!
Everybody is trying to make a killing!

Even the scholar-officials in the Southern Court were like this.

Except for Xiao Wuna, Zhao Xiaoyan, Wang Shiru and other upright people who refused to listen and insisted on making things difficult for him.

But others have never refused the money and property he brought to their doorsteps!

The list of rare artifacts that his wife's relatives asked him to buy in the Southern Dynasty could fill a large box!
Therefore, Yelu Ju saw it clearly.

The Liao Dynasty today seems to be full of flowers and thriving.

In fact, the inside has already been rotten.

But among the emperor and his ministers, few people can see clearly.

Even most people are addicted to it and cannot extricate themselves.

Just as the story of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" published in the Bianjing Xinbao of the Southern Dynasty said - in the temple, rotten wood are officials, between the steps of the palace, beasts eat the food; people with wolves and dogs are in power, and servile people are in power!

Coincidentally, the Liao emperor claimed to have the Han surname Liu, and was a descendant of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang!

It really fits the occasion!

The world was in such a state that Yelu Ju threw away the last bit of his feelings as a loyal subject of the Liao Dynasty and jumped into this world.

and so……

"As for silk and satin, the minimum order is 100,000 pieces each time..." Yelu Ju thought to himself, "Even if the decimals are added up, it will be a huge number!"

"You can even raise the price a little bit more. When you report it to the court, they won't be suspicious but will only praise you!"

That’s right, we have to wake up Yelu Yongchang!

Thinking about this, Yelu Ju asked, "Master, how much is this cotton cloth worth?"

Xing Shu laughed and said, "The current market price of cotton cloth in Beijing is fifteen strings of cash per piece!"

In the past, Jibe cloth was in small quantities and had to be transported from Lingnan to Beijing over a long distance, with various taxes imposed along the way, so the cost was incredibly high. The price in Beijing was also jaw-dropping - often twenty strings of cash per piece!
Nowadays, cotton cloth, as a tribute from Xihe, is transported duty-free all the way to Beijing, and no one dares to take it or extort it.

The cost has been reduced by more than a hundred times?
Therefore, the current market price is extremely profitable.

And the profits are unimaginable!

The exact amount is unclear, but a rough estimate is that it is at least several times.

"Considering the good alliance between Song and Liao, if your country has a large demand, each piece of cotton cloth will only cost 13 strings of cash!" Xing Shu slowly said the guide price that Zhao Xu had given him: "Of course, if your country needs it again in the second half of the year, or even next year, and the quantity is relatively large, we can still offer a discount."

Yelu Ju and Yelu Yongchang took a deep breath when they heard this.

Even if there is a discount, it still costs 13 strings of cash per horse?
This is more expensive than silk and even comparable to the price of some medium-quality brocade.

A true luxury!

only……

After thinking about it, they both felt that the price was reasonable and acceptable.

Because the cotton cloth in front of them is not only of good quality, but also feels good.

During these days, Yelu Yongchang also asked someone to make a few sets of cotton clothes for him.

It is indeed very comfortable and warm to wear.

It’s no worse than wearing a mink coat or something!
And how expensive is a mink coat?

Even he, the governor of the Liao Dynasty, doesn't have many of them!
Therefore, we can only try to purchase some of this cotton cloth and ship it back to China to see the situation.

Thinking of this, Yelu Yongchang asked: "Master, some time ago, thanks to the kindness of His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, he gave some icing sugar to us foreign officials during the New Year's Day celebration..."

"I wonder if your country is willing to sell this frosting? How much is one pound?"

When Xing Shu heard this, he immediately said, "To be honest with you, Your Excellency, that sugar frost is a tribute from Jiaozhou of our dynasty, and it is very rare!"

"If it was someone else, I wouldn't be able to sell it."

"But since Song and Liao are brotherly nations, we can sell some to Liao..."

"As for the price..."

He held up a finger and said, "Two thousand coins a pound!"

Yelu Ju and Yelu Yongchang looked at each other and swallowed.

How many?

Two thousand coins per catty? That's less than three strings of coins!

They were immediately ecstatic and were about to say, we will buy as much as your country can sell.

Xing Shu smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if you think it's expensive."

"We also have brown sugar in our dynasty. Although it is not as crystal clear and pure as this frosting, it is the sugar for gentlemen..." Xing Shu defined the frosting as soon as he opened his mouth - this is the sugar for gentlemen, the sugar that scholars eat.

So, it doesn’t matter if the price is a little bit higher.

But he did not notice the look in Yelu Ju and Yelu Yongchang's eyes.

Of course, even if he noticed it, it would be useless.

The prices were already determined long ago.

The goal was to set a price that would bring huge profits to the Song Dynasty and at a level that the Liao people would be willing to buy if they gritted their teeth.

"This brown sugar is much cheaper, only about one tael per pound..."

Yelu Ju and Yelu Yongchang rubbed their hands.

Then, Yelu Ju asked, "How much can your country sell?" "For brown sugar, we can sell 10,000, 20,000, or even 100,000 kilograms!" Xing Shu replied, "But the icing sugar is very hard to make, so we can only sell it in batches of 1,000 kilograms for now."

The two looked at each other, and then Yelu Ju said, "I would like to ask the scholar to sell us 1,000 kilograms of icing sugar and 10,000 kilograms of brown sugar first!"

First send these candies back to the country and present them to the emperor.

Yelu Ju believed that the emperor and the nobles in the palace would be delighted as soon as they saw this frosting.

Just ...

Yelu Ju looked at Yelu Yongchang and thought, "I have to have a good talk with Yelu Yongchang tonight."

These days, he and Yelu Yongchang have been traveling in the same car in the Southern Dynasty, and their relationship has become quite good.

And Yelu Yongchang, in the capital of the Southern Dynasty, was just like he was in the past, indulging in the brothels.

It's time to confront him.

……

When Xing Shu was talking with the Liao people on Ma Xing Street, in the warehouse of the cloth shop specialized in Lingjinyuan.

On Maxing Street, the most prosperous and busiest commercial street in Bianjing.

The owners of the cloth shops were also in their attics, looking at the hustle and bustle and congestion in front of the Lingjinyuan Cloth Shop.

Almost everyone had a frown on their face, sighing and looking sad.

Because this situation is not the first day.

After the New Year's Day court assembly, the cloth shop officially opened. Then, taking advantage of the fact that all civil and military officials at the court assembly wore cotton cloth in their court robes, the shop became an instant success in the city of Bianliang, instantly causing a sensation in Bianliang.

As for why they were able to quickly ignite this hot spot?
The culprit was the Bian Jing Xin Bao.

Starting from the second day of the first lunar month, the Bian Jing Xin Bao introduced cotton cloth on its front page for three consecutive days.

What is boasted about is something that is unique in heaven and cannot be found on earth!

The audience of the Bian Jing Xin Bao was spread across Bian Jing and its circulation had long been maintained at 50,000 copies per day.

What makes people even more jealous is that the Bian Jing Xin Bao announced early that "in order to celebrate the New Year of the second year of Yuanyou", it would start from the first day of the first lunar month, Jiayin, and end on the seventh day of the first lunar month.

For seven consecutive days, chapters of the story of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" were serialized.

Coincidentally, the current "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has been serialized for more than a year, and the story has reached the exciting part of Zhuge Liang's seven expeditions to Qishan.

So, the people of Bian Jing began to look forward to it early on.

Then, the introduction and praise of cotton cloth entered the public eye and became well-known both inside and outside the country.

Especially the Bian Jing Xin Bao, which used bold black fonts and emphasized the characteristics of cotton cloth: "warm and delicate, as good as mink; comfortable and close-fitting, just like satin," which made the people of Bian Jing go crazy.

Especially those merchants, workshop owners and officials who had some money began to be tempted.

Even though the price was as high as fifteen strings of cash per horse, there were still people willing to buy it.

These people buy them and make them into clothes to wear...

It was completely unbearable, and the whole of Bianjing began to go crazy for cotton cloth!

It's not just cotton that's selling like hot cakes.

The other cloths sold in the cloth shop of Lingjinyuan also started to sell like hot cakes.

Because their cloth is of good quality, low price, and the feel and comfort are far better than the products of other cloth shops.

So, this time it’s not just the mid- to high-end business that’s being snatched away.

Even low-end and cheap linen is sold there.

And the price is very low!
Only two hundred coins per horse!
Such prices have already broken through the costs of most cloth merchants.

"Boss, if this continues..." In a cloth shop next to Panlou, the busiest area of ​​Maxing Street, Dr. Bu, the owner, said to the invited owner, "I'm afraid our shop won't be open for much longer!"

The owner was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a green robe.

If you look closely, you will find that what he is wearing is actually a cotton coat.

And the cotton-padded clothes are filled with cotton wool, so the clothes are turned into a jacket.

This man is called Li Erhu, and he is the owner of this cloth shop.

Li Erhu sighed, touched the clothes he was wearing and said, "I know that, too."

As soon as the cotton cloth appeared, he immediately became alert.

I went to buy a few pieces immediately, and then I heard that the families of the royal family and relatives all used cotton cloth to make two-layer clothes, and filled the inside with cotton wool.

So he asked someone to buy two kilograms of cotton wool at a high price and made two jackets with it. As soon as he put them on, he felt amazing.

Even on this cold day in the first month of the lunar year, he felt warm as if he were sitting on a stove. He could go out even in the cold wind without fear of freezing.

He knew then that this cotton cloth was something extraordinary.

But he had never thought that the silk, satin, gauze, and even coarse linen produced by Lingjinyuan were of high quality and low price!
Thinking of this, Li Erhu sighed: "What can we do? That cloth shop is the property of the emperor!"

"How can an arm be stronger than a thigh?"

"I'm afraid the only way I can do is to get rid of the cloth in the store and then close the business!"

"Master Tian, ​​is there no solution?" asked the person in charge.

In the city of Bianjing, most trades had their own guilds, and their own charters and rules.

Everyone needs to sign and abide by the rules, and jointly exclude non-guild outsiders and crack down on those who destroy or damage the guild's rules and regulations.

The head of the guild is called the guild master.

The influence of the leaders is extremely huge!

For example, the exemption law of the Xining Reform was not initiated by the ministers of the New Party.

But in the sixth year of Xining, Xu Zhongzheng, the head of the Bian Jing Butcher Shop Guild, petitioned the Kaifeng Prefecture - begging for exemption from military service, and not to supply meat to other places!
Kaifeng Prefecture received the request but did not dare to act on its own, so it submitted a petition to the late emperor, who approved it and then ordered the officials to study the regulations for exemption from the law.

After the Exemption Law was promulgated, the imperial court directly abolished the system of imperial punishment, which had been in place for nearly a thousand years.

From then on, merchants could avoid being exploited by the government as long as they paid a tax exemption (roughly equivalent to sales tax).

The tragedy in the poem "The Charcoal Seller" has since become a masterpiece.

The current head of the Bian Jing Cloth Guild is Tian Qi, Li Erhu's father-in-law.

Tian Qi has a huge influence in Beijing!

Because Tian Qi's wife was the daughter of Liu Chengxu, the envoy of introduction, governor of Zhangzhou, and director of the Left and Right Futian Court.

Liu Chengxu's Taishan is actually not important. What is important is his mother-in-law - Nai Yingmiao's half-sister, the old lady who was conferred the title of Princess Jian'an.

The old lady is the only two living sisters of Yingmiao.

The relationship with the royal family is very close!

Therefore, when the person in charge heard that the leader of the association had admitted defeat, the look on his face suddenly became dejected.

"Didn't the emperor say that he would not compete with the people for profit?"

"What's going on?"

"Lingjinyuan, how come you can open a cloth shop?"

He kept muttering to himself.

If this cloth shop closes, Li Erhu can go back to being a rich man.

He would end up in a miserable situation where he had no food to eat.

You may even have to go to the Street Division and sweep the streets with others to earn a living.

Li Erhu sighed, "How can you and I know about the affairs of the court?"

"It's nothing more than money that attracts people's attention!"

As they were talking, a vagrant in rough clothes came to the door of the cloth shop and shouted into the shop: "Mr. Li, Mr. Li..."

"The president invites you to come over to discuss this matter."

"Oh!" Li Erhu heard the voice of the person coming and knew that he was the idler raised by his family in Taishan. He stood up quickly and replied, "I'll be right there!"

He turned around, gave some instructions about the shop's affairs to the manager, then hurriedly followed the idle man to Tian's house.

When he arrived at Tian's house, he saw that the stable in front of the house was full of horses.

I think all the cloth shop owners in the capital should be here.

When he entered the door, he saw two strange-looking looms in the yard of Tian's house.

But I don’t know where it came from?
However, the servants of the Tian family watched the looms very carefully and did not allow others to get close to them, as if they were afraid that they might be damaged. This made Li Erhu even more curious.

(End of this chapter)