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Chapter 381 The Invisible Front

Horses are the only goods that are most valued by farming people. The demand is huge and the price is not low. But for nomadic people, horses are not only livestock, but also their legs, and they are also a strategic weapon for survival.

If a large number of horses were exchanged for the farming people, the nomadic people's originally small strategic advantage would be gone. No matter how strong the body is or how tough the character is, it is not worth mentioning in the face of a population base that is more than ten times, dozens of times or even hundreds of times.

Think about it, when a large number of farming people, wearing well-made armor, holding sharp weapons, and riding horses appear on the grassland, how should the nomads respond?

There seemed to be no way but to run, and the skill of riding could not make up for the huge gap in population. Therefore, horses could only be exchanged in small quantities, which could not meet the needs of the farming people.

At this time, using the economic vocabulary of later generations to describe it, it is called a seller's market. The farming people have an absolute advantage and can choose not to trade when they cannot obtain sufficient benefits.

And the nomads can't do without these goods. Since the other party doesn't sell them, they can only rob them. So the war broke out. On the one hand, we were thinking about how to rob, and on the other hand, we were thinking about how to defend ourselves. The vicious cycle was passed down from generation to generation, and it was deeply engraved in our bones.

If someone could allow both parties to carry out barter trade normally without threatening the survival basis of one party and meeting their respective main needs, most people would definitely choose to live in peace. No one is naturally willing to fight. Kill and kill.

Suddenly, this man appeared. He was Zhu Changluo, Emperor Jingyang of the Ming Dynasty!

In addition to the imperial edict, the emperor's envoy also brought some goods. Don't get me wrong, it is not a gift to the Karaqin tribe, but a sample of goods that may be used in trade between the two parties in the future.

As the saying goes, people are silent when you ask them, but goods come when they nod. The envoys and imperial edicts could not convince the Mongols, but a few samples made everyone in the Karaqin tribe feel the sincerity of the Han emperor. For the future of their tribe, they are willing to start trade with Ming Dynasty first.

As for forming an alliance, the Karaqin tribe is not that easy to fool. They have been fighting with the Han people for generations. It is difficult to erase it with just a few samples and an imperial edict. We must observe it for a while to see if there is any relationship between the two sides. Sincerity.

However, the leader of Haraqin also said that non-alignment does not mean unfriendliness. As long as the mutual market can develop normally, the Karaqin people and the Minghan people will be friends. Although the relationship is not so good that I would go to all the trouble for my friend, I still have the consciousness not to help outsiders and harm my friend together.

The emperor's envoy did not seem to hold out the hope of turning the hostility into friendship overnight, and happily accepted this result. The two parties soon started detailed discussions on the terms and conditions of the mutual market. When these conditions would be completed, when the contract could be officially signed.

What kind of goods can have such great power? It's actually just a few rolls of fabric and a few pieces of clothing. The thickest ones are called felts, the medium ones are called blankets, and the thinner ones are called woolens; the ones that can be woven at will are called woolen ones, the shorter ones are called leather jackets, the longer ones are called leather windbreakers, and there are several pairs of boots of different shapes.

They have the advantages of being light, comfortable, warm and cold-proof, and affordable, but they are not enough to influence the diplomatic relations between two countries and regions. What really makes Karaqin people excited is another feature, the material!

The raw materials for these seemingly low-value goods come from the same animal, the most indispensable livestock of the nomads, sheep! Felt, blanket, wool, wool, are made of wool. Leather jackets, leather windbreakers and leather boots are made of sheepskin. Although Mongolians have been making felt a long time ago, yurts are also made of felt. However, the felts, blankets, woolen cloth and wool sent by the Ming Emperor were obviously better in quality and lower in cost. Leather jackets and boots are equally more sophisticated and equally cheaper.

Why is this happening? The Han envoy said that the emperor invented a magical medicine to rinse wool white and make sheepskin softer and smoother. Coupled with some very magical machine assistance, the finished product not only has good quality and beautiful color, but also has high output. , the only thing missing is raw materials, wool and sheepskin.

However, the Haraqin tribe has never been short of sheep. Before winter, when there was not enough fodder, a large number of sheep had to be killed. Many sheep skins were unable to be processed and had to be discarded. If there is a white disaster, tens of thousands of sheep will die, and they will not be able to eat all the mutton, let alone collect wool and sheepskins.

If the Han people are willing to use salt, cloth, iron tools, scriptures and medicines to purchase wool and sheepskins, the Karaqin shepherds will laugh. This is equivalent to turning waste into goods. The Karaqin nobles will be even happier. They have the largest flocks. This is equivalent to doing nothing, and the value of the family property has increased several times.

Both parties have needs, and both parties are very complementary. As long as no party wants to monopolize the benefits, this kind of transaction is the best to negotiate. However, the Han envoys were not satisfied with just bartering. They also proposed a deeper method, cooperating to set up factories and distributing profits according to shares.

Ming merchants invested in purchasing corresponding machines, recruited skilled craftsmen, and found suitable land to build factories, accounting for 70% of the shares. The nobles of the Karaqin tribe are responsible for providing a fixed amount of wool and sheepskins to the factory every month as raw materials for production, accounting for 30% of the shares.

When the factories produce felts, blankets, woolen cloths, woolen yarns, leather coats, and leather boots, 70% will go to Ming merchants and 30% to Haraqin nobles. Both parties can sell them at a higher price or keep them for their own use.

If the Haraqin nobles feel that the product is not easy to sell in their hands or are too lazy to sell, it doesn't matter. They can sell it back to the Ming merchants at the ex-factory price, and then use this part of the money to exchange the needed goods directly from the Ming merchants. The price is better than the exchange market. Even lower, and the quality is guaranteed. After all, the factory still needs to be built, and no one can be cheated but the shareholders can’t be cheated.

At the same time, the Ming court would open a market at Gubeikou, allowing Ming merchants to exchange salt, cloth, herbs, porcelain, silk, and even ironware with Haraqin herdsmen for goods.

To put it bluntly, the two sides not only need to engage in mutual trade among the people, but also have senior executives to do business together and become partners in all aspects, laughing together when they make money and crying together when they lose money.

From now on, there is no need to think about who is cheating whom, or who is plotting against whom. The factory belongs to both parties. We are all grasshoppers tied to the same rope. You can't run away, and you can't jump me. If measured carefully, if the factory was messed up, Ming merchants would suffer even more losses.

Faced with such a huge temptation, it took five days for the Karaqin lords and the Taijis to gather together from all over the country, and then they only made their choice after discussing it for more than two hours.

After worshiping the Changshengtian, under the watchful eyes of the gods, the Taijis wrote their tribe's names and put their own fingerprints on the agreement to jointly set up a factory. At the same time, the two sides also reached a preliminary consensus on strategic cooperation. Whether they can eventually become strategic partners will have to send higher-level envoys to each other to sit down and slowly negotiate terms.

(End of this chapter)