Zheng Wenxian followed the shopkeeper of Ju Shengchuan into the back hall, exchanged names, and took out the letter Shen Jingdan gave him. The shopkeeper's surname is Zhang, named Zhang Xiuren, and he is from Hongdong, Shanxi. After reading the letter, he immediately became extremely enthusiastic. First, he was served tea, and then he expressed his gratitude to Boss Shen for saving his brother's life for a long time.
It turned out that when Shen Jingdan passed by Hankou last year to inquire about the tea market, he happened to meet a man in the inn who had a cold and fever, which was malaria. Malaria in this era was a serious and serious disease, and cinchona cream was the imperial medicine of the Qing Dynasty, and ordinary people would never even think about it.
Generally, inns are deserving of misfortune when such things happen, and they wish the guests didn't know about it; if the patients have money, they will be placed in remote courtyards to take medicine and recuperate, if not, they will be thrown directly into the suburbs. Shen Jingdan saw that the man was about to be thrown out by the innkeeper, so he asked his subordinates to inquire about it, and found out that he was from Shanxi, his surname was Zhang, and he had gone to Anhua, Hunan to host tea.
Thinking of what Zhao Xin had told him, Shen Jingdan became more thoughtful and paid for the inn to find a remote courtyard to house the man. He also took the "Compound Hydroxychloroquine" from Beihai Town Hospital from his luggage. Artemisia tablets".
Although Beihai Town is located in a cold temperate zone, due to the dense forests and swamps, there are many mosquitoes in the summer. In addition, people who go out to work are often thirsty for raw water, so malaria also occurs. Although cinchona, that is, quinine, can treat malaria, it has serious side effects. So Hong Tao chose artemisinin tablets from another time and space as a reserve medicine.
Because Shen Jingdan often travels for business, he always has it in his luggage. The man surnamed Zhang got help from Shen Jingdan. He took the medicine for four days in a row and his condition was quickly under control. Then he took the Dabuihu decoction prescribed by the doctor. After seven or eight days, he was almost healed.
Only then did Shen Jingdan learn that the man's name was Zhang Xiude, and he was the accountant of the Liu Mansion in Hongdong, Shanxi. The Liu Mansion refers to the Liu Bingtian family, who served successively as Zhang Jing of the Military Aircraft Department, Fujian Dao Censor, and is currently the Minister of War of the Qing Dynasty.
If you don't ask, you won't know that this Zhang Xiude is actually the apprentice of "Shenquan Guo Yongfu" and the junior brother of Chen Jishan. At that time, Guo Yongfu (Chen Youfu) killed someone in Henan and ran back to Shanxi. After an adventure, he went to Liu Bingtian's house as a tutor. After that, he accepted Liu Mansion's nurse He Huaibi and accountant Zhang Xiude as his disciples, and taught them the 108 styles of Tongbei Quan. He and Zhang had only heard their master talk about Chen Jishan, but had never met him.
Shen Jingdan did not dare to say that Chen Jishan was currently playing for Beihai Town. He only said that he had met him once in Xuzhou. As the saying goes, Zhang Xiude had nothing to say in return for his kindness. When he was sighing, he overheard Shen Jingdan mentioning the idea of getting involved in the tea trade, so he said that his brother was working as a shopkeeper in a large tea house in Yangloudong. , after he has finished editing the book, Shen Jingdan can go directly to his brother, and all the matters can be done. As for himself, he had to rush back to Shanxi to resume his life.
When Zheng Wenxian listened to Shen Jingdan's story, he lamented that the karma and fate in the world were really bizarre. Who would have thought that when he kindly rescued people in Hankou, the one who was rescued turned out to be Chen Jishan's junior brother.
Chen Jishan is now Zhao Xin's personal guard. He is second in skill in Beihai Town, and no one dares to say he is first. Even Liu Sheng's big, bear-like body was knocked to pieces by Chen Jishan with the help of his strength. After that, He never mentioned the matter again.
Zheng Wenxian, Guo Podai and others admired his skills and always wanted to be his disciples. Unfortunately, Chen Jishan followed Zhao Xin to fight against Tsarist Russia last year, and was eventually abandoned by Zhao Xin in Irkutsk. It is estimated that he will not be able to return to Beihai Town this summer.
Afterwards, he and Zhang Xiuren talked for half an hour, and in the evening Zhang Xiuren held a banquet at a restaurant in the town. After Zheng Wenxian had an in-depth conversation with him, he realized that he was simply a stickler. He had never heard of many issues involving tea transportation and marketing.
In fact, the specific operation of the tea trade is extremely complicated. Even though Shen Jingdan asked about it in advance, he had never dealt with tea before, so what he could tell Zheng Wenxian was extremely limited. Zhang Xiuren saw that Zheng Wenxian was a layman, so he explained it in detail. Only then did Zheng Wenxian understand the details.
The tea method of the Qing Dynasty followed the Ming system. In the early days, horses were also traded through official tea reserves, which was the "tea horse trade". In the thirteenth year of Yongzheng's reign, as Gansu stopped using tea to sell horses, the tea-horse trade officially withdrew from the stage of history, and the "leading course system" was fully launched.
Tea merchants during the Qianlong period can be roughly divided into purchasers, tea dealers and tea sellers, and the three have different functions in tea transportation and sales.
As the name suggests, purchasers go into the mountains to purchase raw tea from tea farmers, and then pass it on to tea shops. The tea shop is similar to a broker, and some also deal in tea processing. For example, Jushengchuan makes brick tea by itself. As for the transporters, they rely on the "tea guide" issued by the government to transport tea from the production area to various places.
The two tea gangs mentioned before, Shanxi Merchants and Hui Merchants, basically operate in one line, covering everything from trade to tea making and tea factories in order to control the source of tea.
There are roughly two types of transporters and distributors, the "Yin Shang" who transport and sell "official tea" and the "customers" who transport and sell "commercial tea".
The tea guide is uniformly produced by the Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and each tea-producing province is expected to claim it once a year, write it off at the end of the year, and start over again the following year. Used scraps must be turned over to the Ministry of Accounts. Among them, Cha Yin is divided into long Yin, short Yin, Zheng Yin, Yu Yin, abdominal Yin, Bian Yin, Tu Yin, etc., and also performs the voting method.
For example, "Long Yin" is valid for one year and allows merchants to sell tea to other places; "Short Yin" is valid for three months and can only be sold locally. If there is no tea guide when transporting tea, it is the same crime as selling illegal salt.
The ticket rule is for tea export trade. Any businessman who traffics tea to Russia must go to Zhangjiakou Director Tongzhi Yamen to apply for a ticket issued by the Lifan Yuan as a special certificate to allow his trafficking. One ticket is given for every three hundred boxes of tea, and each ticket has the name of the person who receives the ticket and other related information. The total amount of joy per ticket is 1,310 taels. Calculated based on the total value of each ticket of tea being 6,000 taels, the tax rate is 22%.
Regardless of whether it is Yangloudong or other tea-producing areas, the tea produced must first be purchased by "introducing merchants", and the rest is transported and sold by "customers."
Zhang Xiuren gave a rough explanation, and then said to Zheng Wenxian: "Brother, if you want 50,000 dans of old green tea, it will probably be too much. The tea trade season in Guangzhou is coming soon, and various merchants have already introduced the old green tea produced locally. Ninety percent of it has been settled, but we really can’t get this much. If it’s three or four thousand loads, we still have it.”
Zheng Wenxian smiled and said: "Mr. Zhang, in fact, I am also working for my boss. Before leaving, he specifically mentioned that he wanted to develop the local area and buy mountain-grown tea. In this way, not only the tea source is safe, but also the local tea farmers. You can have enough food and clothing for it.”
Zhang Xiuren thought for a while and said, "It's a good thing to buy mountain tea, but making tea is extremely complicated. It's impossible to open a tea farm without hundreds of people, and you have to find a good packager."
In the Qing Dynasty, from raw tea to finished tea bricks, it generally had to go through multiple processes such as kicking, sorting, baking, and sifting, and each process had strict regulations. Before the tea is released, the finished tea must be packaged. Whether it is Guangzhou or Kyaktu, the tea in the foreign box is made of tin cans or lead barrels, and is framed by crates. On average, each box can hold 50 to 70 yuan of tea. The weight ranges from kilogram to kilogram.
When opening a tea farm, it is most important to hire tea workers, which can be divided into picking workers, sifting workers, kicking workers, scorn workers, negotiating workers, leadsmiths, and tinsmiths, etc., and the wages vary.
Zhang Xiuren said: "For example, in Lao Qingcha, each gang needs eight people to kick, and two people to punch and hang. The labor for kicking is 160 cash, and the labor for hanging is 100 cash. It is also necessary to hire another gang of kickers. Eight people, each paid sixty cents... The sifter's daily wage varies from one hundred and twenty cents to one hundred and forty cents."
Zheng Wenxian's head swelled twice after hearing this. He was focused on sailing. What he thought about every day was when he would become the captain of the Thunder God. Who had the time to think about this, so he quickly said: "It's better. First, according to the owner's request, buy a few barren hills, and the rest will naturally be arranged by the owner."
In his opinion, as long as he can buy the barren hills and start growing tea, allowing Beihai Town to penetrate deep into the bottom of the tea industry, the purpose of this trip will be accomplished. As for the tea farms or cooperation with other tea shops, those from the Trade Department are responsible.
A few days later, with the help of Zhang Xiuren, Zheng Wenxian first invited the local county government officials to a banquet, then invited the secretary of the household office, and finally the county government clerk. Fortunately, Zhang Xiuren gave his full help, otherwise Zheng Wenxian would have been brutally stabbed.
After all the negotiations were settled with the government, I met a few middlemen under the recommendation of the Hufang Book Office to purchase Barren Mountain.
The procedures and regulations for buying and selling land in the Qing Dynasty generally followed the Ming system with some enhancements. Generally, the owner hired a middleman. It should be noted that selling land does not mean that you can sell it directly as soon as someone buys it. Instead, you must first ask your immediate family members, family members, and clan members if they want it, and then ask the original owners if they want it. If neither party wants it, you can sell it to outsiders.
Going directly to the buyer without asking about the house first will often lead to disputes and even fatal cases. This caused both buyers and sellers to go bankrupt, and in severe cases, they were even exiled and executed. Such examples were common during the Qianlong period.
Zheng Wenxian, the seller and the middleman had to sit down and negotiate the price face to face. In the end, Zheng Wenxian bought three hills and more than 200 hectares from the two middlemen for a price of 6,300 taels of silver, or three taels per mu of land. After writing the "deed of absolute sale of the land" and paying the land price as a mortgage, he also had to pay the money for the painting and the exit money; this money cost another two thousand taels of silver.
The so-called "painted silver" is money that the seller, his relatives, and clan members ask for from the buyer in addition to the regular price of the land. If they don't pay it, they will start a lawsuit.
The "unemployment money" is also called "happy gift silver" or "congratulatory silver" in the north, and is paid to the previous landowner of the land. According to rural customs in the Qing Dynasty, when land is sold, the first owner must pay the original unemployment money, and it will not work if he does not pay it.
Do you think it’s over at this point? Don’t worry, there’s more to come!
According to the law, after completing the above, you have to report the official tax, change the official field records, and cut the money and grain. After all, there might have been something planted on the land, and they have to wait until the harvest is finished. Even if it is a barren mountain, there are still a few wild fruit trees, and these must be explained clearly.
At this point, Zheng Wenxian and the others had already spent seventy-seven or eighty-eight dollars on the banknotes they brought, but this was only the first stage completed. After that, there are three stages of price search, redemption, and absolute sale, before the land purchase and sale procedures are completely completed. If there is any irregularity during this process, it will be difficult to realize the land transaction.
It is said that land sales should be like other commodities. Once sold, it should belong to the buyer. The seller has taken the money and has no right to interfere. The problem is that as the output of the fields or the amount of land rent continues to increase, the price of land also increases. For example, because Yangloudong is rich in tea, the low prices in Huangshan are also rising year by year.
It is said that as the most important means of livelihood in feudal society, land showed completely different characteristics from other commodities, so live sales and absolute sales were naturally formed.
The root cause of the "Dongtai Yizhulou" case at that time was actually the redemption of live sales. The Cai family wanted to redeem it at a low price, but the Xu family did not agree. The Xu family was a big country squire and the Cai family could not afford to offend him. This eventually led to the Cai family becoming resentful and then accusing the Xu family of writing a rebellion. Although the Xu family was ruined, the Cai family did not get their land back in the end.
So what is the difference between a live sale and a dead sale? To put it bluntly, as long as the land sale deed does not indicate "eliminate", it will be sold alive.
Since it is a live sale, the seller can ask the buyer for additional silver, or it is called supplementary silver, or "asking for a price." The reason for asking for price change is usually that the original price is too low and a subsidy is needed. Moreover, it is often not enough to ask for compensation once. As long as the land price rises in the future, you can continue to ask for compensation.
The government generally recognizes this situation. If the buyer fails to pay the change price and causes a dispute, the government will also punish the buyer.
Under the premise of such rural regulations, whether it is officials, businessmen or officials and gentry, can they not collude? If they don't collude, let alone locals, foreigners will be swallowed up to the bone.
No one wanted the saline-alkali land Xu Dayong bought in northern Jiangsu back then. What he signed was a living deed. The reason why there is no dispute is that Xu Dayong bribed the government and all the officials of the Funing County Yamen; but the saline-alkali land has not grown anything at all in these years.
Do you dare to improve the saline-alkali land and plant new crops? Okay! In the second year, the seller will have to come to you to redeem or find a price. As long as you are not the kind of powerful person who needs the favor of the local tyrants and evil gentry from all over the country, if you don't ask for a price, you are "untrustworthy" and do not abide by the local covenant!
What was the basis for the survival of the gentry in feudal society? Rural ethics. If you don't abide by this, no one will do business with you, no one will come to help you. Still want to rise up and take advantage of the scenery in all directions?
The reason why Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants were able to operate all over the country in these years was that, firstly, they had a large number of their descendants serving as officials in the court, and secondly, their descendants who were doing business donated their official positions. For example, Qu Tonghai of the Qu family has the title of Qian Zongzong of the garrison, while Qu Yinghuang has the rank of Tongzhi of Zhili Prefecture of the sixth rank.
Of course, now, businessmen who donate officials can only donate up to the fourth-grade alternate level, and the price is extremely expensive. Because the Qing court had been fighting with Beihai Town for many years and had spent tens of millions of money, the current price of donating an alternate road was 16,400 taels of silver, and the alternate magistrate also cost 13,200 taels.
By the time the formalities for purchasing the land were completed, more than twenty days had passed. Zheng Wenxian did not dare to delay any longer. He first sent two people back to Sheyang Lake to report the situation in order to deal with matters in the tea garden behind, while he hurried to Guangzhou with Lin Daosheng and others.
Unexpectedly, on the way to Changsha City, when they passed by a tea shop to rest, they saw some strong men holding swords and sticks passing by on the post road from time to time, and there were also women among them.
Lin Daosheng felt curious, so he chatted with one of the men who stopped for tea. As a result, the man told Zheng Wenxian and others something that surprised and made them laugh.
At present, there is a news circulating in various places in the south of the Yangtze River. A wealthy businessman has offered a secret reward to anyone who can go to the north to take off Zhao Xin's head. The price will be 10,000 taels of gold.
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