My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 340: The Gold Test Stone

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"East Market, West Market..."

"Huai City..."

After bidding farewell to Liu She at the Prime Minister's Residence and walking on Zhangtai Street outside Shangguanli - on the way back to his own Weiqihou Mansion, Dou Ying's heart was filled with emotion.

In fact, Chang'an City had more than two markets, east and west, but four in the city and five in the suburbs - a total of nine markets, which were called: the Nine Markets of Chang'an.

Among them, the four markets in the city are named East, West, South, and North Markets, but they are generally divided into East Market and West Market based on Huayang Street connected by Hengcheng Gate.

——East Market, located inside Hengcheng Gate and east of Huayang Street, is divided into East Market and North Market;
West Market is located west of Huayang Street and is divided into the main West Market and South Market.

The famous poem "The Ballad of Mulan" in later generations wrote: Buy a fine horse in the east market, buy a saddle in the west market, buy a bridle in the south market, and buy a long whip in the north market.

So some people said that in order to buy all the weapons for herself, Mulan ran in four directions: east, south, west, north and south, which was like a big circle around the city.

But in fact, the markets in ancient China - especially several markets in the same city, were basically arranged in strict accordance with the strict control system formulated for merchants at the beginning of China's feudal history, that is, during the reign of Emperor Taizu of Han, Liu Bang.

Liu Bang once said: Farmers are the root; merchants are the end.

Those who govern a country should strengthen the roots and weaken the ends in order to consolidate the foundation of the country.

Merchants were not allowed to wear silk or ride in carriages, and were kept in a separate house and registered separately, being regarded as "different people."

To translate it into plain language that is more understandable to later generations, starting from Liu Bang, Chinese feudal civilization not only had contempt and condemnation for the merchant group based on values ​​and morals, but also had specific punishment measures.

For example, Liu Bang's saying "Merchants are not allowed to wear silk or ride in carriages" - merchants are not allowed to wear expensive silk products, and cannot ride in carriages like officials and nobles. This is an extremely direct suppression of social status and deprivation of life rights.

But what truly reflects that in the feudal era, merchants were despised by mainstream public opinion is the second half of the sentence: live in a separate book and be listed separately.

What does separate residence and separate book mean?
——They did not live together with ordinary people, but were concentrated in a residential complex specially for merchants to physically separate them from ordinary people and farmers.

Moreover, a separate volume was opened for merchants, called the Merchants' Book;

The social value ranking of "scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans" is used to determine the low social status of merchants as "the last of all professions."

The reason for doing this is, of course, to let the business community realize that there is a big difference between being a businessman and being a farmer.

Once you become a businessman, you cannot live with farmers - that is, the 'vast majority of people', but have to become neighbors with merchants who are just as humble as you;

Even the household registration was no longer the agricultural registration that the general public had, but the merchant registration which was second only to the slave registration and prisoner registration in terms of disgust.

This is so uncomfortable!

Especially in ancient China where moral values ​​were relatively high and people attached great importance to reputation and fame, such differential treatment could really make people die of shame and anger!
This was exactly the idea Liu Bang had.

- Treat merchants differently by putting them in a separate category, causing them to be humiliated and condemned by society;

Not to mention whether those who have already become businessmen will suffer and be miserable because of this - at least ordinary farmers will never think of giving up farming and going into business after seeing their plight.

Not only will no one give up farming to go into business, but people will be very grateful: Fortunately, my family is not from the business community!

Look at how those businessmen live, is that how human beings live?
If I had ended up like this, I would have committed suicide to preserve the reputation of my ancestors, so that I wouldn’t have to cover my face with hair and be ashamed to face them in the underworld…

Of course, in the feudal era, especially in the present Han Dynasty, the policy of "separate residence" for merchants is not only reflected in the residences of merchants, but also in the distribution of markets.

That is: the two markets in the east and west of Chang'an, or the four markets in the east, west, south and north, are not four markets scattered in the four directions of Chang'an, but are clustered in one place and named according to their relative locations.

Similar to the South Campus and North Campus of later higher education colleges, they sound far away, but in fact they are probably just divided by an on-campus road.

Speaking of which, the East and West markets, or the Four Markets, in Chang'an today also have some of the meaning described in "The Ballad of Mulan".

There are four markets, each with different merchandise categories.

Dongshi, as the largest main market in Chang'an - even larger than the other three markets combined, has a wide range of commodities covering all aspects of daily life.

Soy sauce, tea, vinegar, cloth, firewood, rice, oil, salt, meat, needle and thread;
The East Market covers everything related to daily life.

It is precisely because the East Market occupies the largest area, has the most commodity categories, and has the largest flow of people, and most of the people are lower-class people, so the death row prisoners sentenced by the Chang'an court are almost all executed outside the East Market.

For example, four years ago, Emperor Xiaojing tricked Chao Cuo, who was wearing court robes, into the East Market in the name of "entering the palace to discuss matters", and then beheaded him and thrown into the market.

The "market" in the "beheaded and abandoned city" now refers specifically to the East Market in the Han Dynasty.

Compared with the East Market, the other three markets are more about filling in the gaps.

——Bei City, which is adjacent to Dong City, actually does mostly wholesale business because it is closer to Hengcheng Gate.

For example, if a farmer from outside the city wanted to come into the city and sell his furs, cloth, etc., he would usually go to the nearest city - through the Hengcheng Gate, he would arrive at the North City, sell his things to the resellers in the North City and leave.

The traders in the North City accumulate goods bit by bit. When they have accumulated a certain amount, they go to negotiate with the distributors in the East City: I have a certain amount of goods here. If you want all of it, I can give it to you at a lower price.

Across Huayang Street from the East and North Markets are the West Market and the South Market.

The area of ​​West Market is about half that of East Market.

Since it is closer to the corner of the city, I do poultry business.

All kinds of food such as chickens, ducks, geese, etc. can be bought in the West Market.

The customer flow is not large, but those who can appear in the West Market are mainly servants of wealthy families who come to buy goods, and a few are farmers who have saved some money and want to raise some chicks and place orders.

Overall, business is pretty good.

As for South City, it is the smallest of the four cities, covering only one-ninth of the East City, one-fifth of the West City, and less than half of the North City.
Its merchandise categories, however, are mainly "luxury goods" that ordinary people would not even glance at.

What rouge and powder?
Ceramic clay pot
There are also exquisite furniture, fine wines and the like.

Even the carpenters in the Shaofu mostly have a "second job" in Nanshi.

for example;

You are a descendant of a meritorious family in Shangguanli. It happens that your father is old and frail, and you are in charge of all the affairs of the family.

One day, your father called you and said: Boss, your second brother is not young anymore, it’s time for him to get married.
Although our family has not kept the glory of our ancestors, we are still a marquisate family after all.

Your second brother's wedding cannot be too lavish.
You said yes respectfully, and then asked your father: What exactly should we do to prepare for the grand wedding of the second son?
Your father said, go to the South City to find a few Shaofu carpenters, and then find some folk masons, to build a neat and beautiful yard for the second son. Then, from the South City - it would be best to find those Shaofu carpenters, to make some exquisite furniture to decorate the new house.

On the wedding day, I will buy some fine wine aged for more than ten or twenty years from South City to entertain the guests...

This is roughly the positioning of Nanshi.

——Their target customer group is the tiny portion of powerful people that remain after eliminating 99% of the lower-class people.

The customer flow is very small, and even a considerable portion of them are customized services.

But the trade volume is huge, and both the unit price and profit margin are far from comparable to the other three cities.

Moreover, in the former West Market, there was a category of goods that even nobles had to be wary of.

——Money!
In the words of later generations, it is usury.

Ziqianziqian is the business of lending out the 'mother money' and then collecting back the principal and interest - both the mother money and the 'ziqian born from the mother money'.

This line of work, whether in later generations or now, is undoubtedly something that cannot be accomplished without great connections and a strong background.

Once upon a time, the Ziqian merchants in Nanshi could even expand their business scope to Shangguanli and to those meritorious families whose names were recorded in history.

For example, if a certain noble family encountered an accident and needed money urgently, or if a second-generation rich man owed gambling debts and needed to pay them back, they would basically borrow money from the sub-merchants in Nanshi to bridge the gap.

Four years ago, something happened that made the Ziqian merchants in Nanshi famous and even more "powerful".

——When the Rebellion of the Seven States of Wu and Chu broke out, Lieutenant Zhou Yafu was appointed as Grand Commandant by Emperor Xiaojing, and he led his troops eastward through Hangu Pass to quell the rebellion!

In order to prevent Zhou Yafu from having a headache because of military expenses, Emperor Xiaojing and Empress Dowager Dou at that time each gave Zhou Yafu a huge reward of thousands of gold.

Just when Zhou Yafu went on that expedition, he brought as many as thirty-six generals who were capable of leading an army on their own!

The thirty-six armies, just to win over the hearts of the people and reward them, would cost more than a thousand gold.

Therefore, the 1,000 gold coins each bestowed by Emperor Xiaojing and Empress Dowager Dou - a total of 2,000 gold coins - were divided up by the 36 generals after Zhou Yafu finished the first pre-war mobilization meeting.

Then Zhou Yafu was dumbfounded.

——I haven’t gotten on the bus yet!

Uh, no...

I need money too!
I also have to bring my family soldiers and servants, as well as my fellow villagers and old subordinates, and equip them with weapons and give them bounties!

Two thousand gold, at least leave some for me!

The rewards from the emperor and the empress dowager had been used up, and he had no money of his own. In desperation, Zhou Yafu began to shamelessly go door to door in Shangguanli to borrow money.

The result was naturally self-evident—not a single four-zhu coin could be borrowed.

Firstly, most of the meritorious marquis families in Shangguanli today have three or even four generations of marquis in office.

Nearly half of them are second-generation rich kids, and even if there are still half of the normal people, most of them are second- and third-generation people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths;

What financial management and savings - the output of the closed country back then was enough for the current year's needs, and there was no need to borrow money from abroad. This was already a good way to manage the household, simple and plain!
Furthermore, when the Wu-Chu Rebellion first broke out, its momentum was so huge and the military force so sharp that almost everyone in the world was scared into thinking that after Emperor Taizong succeeded to the throne from Dai, another emperor of the Liu family who would "succeed to the throne from Wu" would appear in the Han Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, at that time, whether it was the nobles, the officials in the court, or the common people, almost no one thought that the Chang'an court could win this war.

They did not hold out much hope of winning, and even if they had money, they would not lend it to Zhou Yafu, a general who would most likely fail in suppressing the rebellion.

Therefore, Zhou Yafu, who couldn't borrow money from anywhere, had no choice but to turn to the money-lending merchants in Nanshi.

It is said that businessmen have a keen sense of smell.

——Wuyan, a wealthy merchant from Chang'an, lent a huge sum of gold to Zhou Yafu as military expenses to quell the rebellion without hesitation!

At that time, the whole Chang'an City thought that Wuyan was a fool.

Not only did he give away a huge fortune - nearly 10% of his family fortune - to Zhou Yafu, but he was also included on the clear list of the 'new emperor' because of it?

I'm afraid Wuyan's business acumen is even worse than that of Empress Dowager Dou!
The final result, however, shocked everyone inside and outside the community.

——Zhou Yafu actually put down the rebellion of the Seven States of Wu and Chu!
Not only did it level off, but it did so in just three months!

As for the thousand gold that Wuyan had lent out, after the war, it turned into 11,000 gold including principal and interest, and returned to Wuyan's arms.

In just three months, Wuyan, who had accumulated millions of dollars, accomplished the feat of doubling his family fortune!
Not only that, Wuyan even became the only loyal and righteous man who "made contributions to the country" among the notorious Ziqian merchants!

Even those who owed Wuyan money, and owed interest dozens of times the principal, did their best to collect money and make up for Wuyan's bad debts over the years.

For a period of time, Wuyan even became a role model for people in Chang'an and even the whole world to emulate!
At its peak, some people even compared Wuyan with the investment master who went down in history: Qin Prime Minister Lu Buwei.

It’s a pity that its rise was rapid and its fall was sudden.

Wuyan, whose wealth doubled and fame soared due to the Wu-Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion and who was also famous throughout the world, soon became a typical example of the Crown Prince Liu Rong, the current Crown Prince, in purging "traitors" when the Crown Prince Liu Rong was in charge of stabilizing grain prices.

——At that time, Liu Rong sold off grain to suppress grain prices, while grain merchants and nobles purchased grain, causing a shortage of grain in the market and driving up grain prices.

During this period, Wuyan, for some unknown reason, lost his keen political sense overnight and actually got involved in this matter, providing short-term loans with extremely low interest rates to those merchants and princes who intended to drive up grain prices!

If Liu Rong had not been well prepared and caught the enemy forces off guard, and if Empress Dowager Dou and Emperor Xiaojing had not taken action at the same time, Liu Rong might have really fallen into the hands of Wuyan that time!
Being targeted by a mere businessman, Liu Rong naturally did not hesitate;
Later, when investigating the "traitors" who drove up grain prices, Wuyan was included without any psychological burden.

At this point, the Wuyan family, a "righteous merchant" who had made their fortune in Chang'an during the reign of Emperor Taizu Gao and became famous throughout the world after the Wu-Chu Rebellion, ended up dead and their entire family was wiped out within just one year of their fame.

As a result, the business of loan sharks, or usurers, became one of the industries that was generally recognized as "the prince disliked very much", and the business plummeted.

Nowadays, Zi Qianhang can no longer be found in Nanshi.

It is said that after the Wuyan incident, all the merchants temporarily closed their shops in order to "temporarily avoid the power of the prince."

The result was that the crown prince became the regent, and later succeeded to the throne as the emperor;

The merchants knew that there was no hope of recovery, so they had to move their shops out of the city.

——If I can't afford to provoke you, I can afford to hide from you!
Huai City was the place where these merchants who fled from Chang'an in disgrace finally settled in the suburbs...

(End of this chapter)