In October of the second year of Chongzhen.
The autumn wind is blowing, and the weather is starting to get cooler.
Outside the South City Gate, many old farmers gathered with vegetables to sell.
After July, there were several consecutive rains, and nearby farmers planted a lot of vegetables, melons and fruits.
Many people in the city went out to the city gate to buy.
Because the vegetables outside the city gate are one or two cents cheaper than those in the Black Wind Market.
Like cabbage, a cabbage weighing five kilograms in Heifeng market costs fifty cents, while cabbage of the same weight can be bought outside the city gate for thirty or forty cents.
That's right, it's just that the same weight, like the five kilograms of cabbage in the Black Wind Market, has never been seen outside.
"There are dates, fresh dates, they are not sweet and don't cost any money."
"Walnuts, walnuts with full flesh, come and take a look."
In the place where a group of hawkers gathered, a group of government officials wearing black clothes could be seen. These people walked to a hawker stall and said, "Ten cents stall fee."
Yes, miscellaneous taxes will be charged for setting up stalls on both sides of the road at the city gate.
Han Xi just set up these taxes and then didn't manage them much. More than 400 government officials would enforce them.
As the county's population grew, so did the number of government officials, with one person supporting hundreds of people.
These government officials are either collecting taxes or on their way to collect taxes every day. They occasionally arrest gangsters and resolve disputes.
Any accidental battle losses will be replenished on the second day.
"Good Lord, it's not open today. Just wait a minute! I'll hand it over soon." The middle-aged man selling porcelain bowls said with a smile.
The yamen officer glanced at the middle-aged man and then said: "You said the same thing yesterday, right? I don't know where the last person went. Including yesterday's, the total is twenty coins."
The middle-aged man was stunned, then took a closer look at the government officials in front of him, and repeatedly confirmed that these government officials were definitely not the same ones as yesterday. Yesterday he did evade taxes, but today he thought he would not be discovered if he moved to another place.
I just didn’t expect it!
"You guys, have you admitted the wrong person?" the middle-aged man said with an apologetic smile.
"If you refuse to pay the tax, if you don't pay twenty coins today, all the goods will be confiscated," the policeman said expressionlessly.
When he heard that the goods were about to be collected, the middle-aged man suddenly became anxious. He hurriedly took out ten copper coins from his shoes and handed them over painfully: "Haha! This is the stall money for today and yesterday. The extra money will be used to buy food for a few people. "
The policeman took the money and ignored the middle-aged man.
At this time, a woman with a child walked up to the stall and asked, "How can I buy this bowl?"
Seeing business coming to his door, the middle-aged man hurriedly smiled and said: "It's not expensive, only twenty cents each. Look, they are all fine porcelain bowls."
When the woman heard that a bowl actually cost twenty coins, she sneered and left with the child.
"Hey! It's cheaper to buy two, or a few for ten cents." The middle-aged man shouted.
The woman didn't look back.
The middle-aged people were a little puzzled when they saw this. Didn't they say that since the new county magistrate came, everyone in the city has become extremely rich?
After Han Xi came to the county, the people in the city were indeed much wealthier than before.
If two people in a family of five work, they can earn at least one, two, sixty or seven dollars a month. That's twenty taels a year.
With this money, Nanjing could live a life of food and clothing at this time.
But the people are used to living in a clean house, and they would like to break one pennie into two pennies for use, so naturally they will not be taken advantage of.
As lively as it is outside the city, it is equally lively in the city.
In a restaurant, Han Xi was standing by the window, looking at an alley.
All the shops in this alley are cloth shops.
There were many women walking in and out of the alley with pieces of cloth in their hands.
Under the window where Han Xi was sitting, a middle-aged shopkeeper opened a piece of cloth brought by a woman and observed it, while a waiter on the side used a ruler to calculate the length of the piece of cloth.
"Three feet six feet, one foot seven inches wide." The waiter reported the length and width of the cloth.
The middle-aged shopkeeper rolled up the cloth and said, "The old price is four cents of silver per piece."
"Why is it still four cents of silver? Shopkeeper Xu across the street charges four cents of silver and three cents of silver." The woman said with some dissatisfaction.
"Hmph! Old Xutou is a stingy man. Will he raise the price?"
After finishing speaking, the middle-aged shopkeeper didn't know what he thought of, and then said: "Okay, I will give you an extra penny. Did you ask about the matter last time?"
"The boss said that if you want to order six-foot-wide cloth, you can go directly to the Black Wind Market to customize it. As for the loom you asked about, those of us who are responsible for cutting cloth can't see it at all. Only a few designated people can see the house inside. Go in." The woman said softly.
When the middle-aged shopkeeper heard this, he had a displeased look on his face, obviously not very satisfied with the answer.
When the woman saw it, she immediately said, "I heard that people in Chenjiagou have seen that loom. The loom was made from Chenjiagou."
After hearing this, the middle-aged shopkeeper nodded with satisfaction.
This scene happened to be seen by Han Xi upstairs, which made him speechless.
At this time, a young man pushed the door open and entered the side room. He held a piece of paper in his hand and handed it over: "Mr. Magistrate, this is the price of the cloth you want."
Han Xi took the paper and read it.
A piece of Lu silk costs three taels, a piece of Hangzhou yarn costs one tael and three cents, a piece of lining silk costs eight cents, and a piece of raw silk costs four cents.
A bolt of coarse white cloth costs five cents and six cents of silver, and a bolt of coarse white cotton costs five cents and six cents of silver.
Five coins of green fine cotton cloth.
Linen costs three coins a piece.
Looking at this journey, Han Xi felt that his cloth was not very competitive!
At this time, except for the increase in food prices in the county, the prices of other commodities slowly fell back. Now in the Black Wind Market, only grain, salt and soy sauce are sold in largest quantities.
There are even vendors who buy grain and transport it to Luochuan and Jizhou hundreds of miles away for sale.
The price of grain in these two places is two taels and five cents per stone, which is three cents more expensive than in Yichuan County.
If you go fast, you can go back and forth every four days, and you will earn one tael of silver in one trip.
In addition to bringing some goods back, I can earn ten taels by running seven times a month.
Han Xi could collect four taels of customs duties and earn thirty-six taels of grain from twenty shi a month, so he did not stop these vendors from transporting grain.
"Hey!" Han Xi sighed. It seemed that there was no market for his high-priced cloth.
Price reduction?
It is impossible to reduce prices, even if you beat them to death, it is impossible to reduce prices.
There is no money to be made in the first place, so if the price is reduced, it is not a loss.
Therefore, Han Xi has already asked people to find sources of cotton, if not wool.
Cotton costs sixty cents a pound, wool fifty cents.
One hundred catties is only six taels of silver.
One hundred pounds of cotton can weave about thirty pieces of cloth, so the cost of one piece of cloth is two coins.
Han Xi wanted to see how these people would compete with him.
Thinking of this, Han Xi couldn't help but smile. He couldn't defeat a few businessmen with a Jenny. Isn't that a joke?
I'm afraid it won't be a situation where food is expensive and cloth is cheap.
In this way, a large number of people would bring in food and then take away the cloth.
Even now, there are many people from the surrounding villages bringing food to the Black Wind Market to exchange for money, and then going to cloth shops on the streets of the city to buy cheap cotton cloth.
After filtering his thoughts, Han Xi put his hands behind his back and said, "Go back to the Yamen."
