good!
Liang Chuan agreed without hesitation.
This speed made Xiao Zhang a little confused, and he even thought he heard wrongly.
A moment ago, he wanted to drag Liang Chuan under his command, but Liang Chuan was still full of anger and directly rejected his request.
Now asking him to do business with him, to put it bluntly, he just changed the rhetoric and changed the soup without changing the medicine. Liang Chuan actually agreed so readily.
Is this something fishy or does Liang Chuan have some intention?
He couldn't see through Liang Chuan more and more.
Xiao Zhang himself is full of scheming, so he has so many worries. When one person looks at another person with colored glasses, he is also full of doubts.
Just as it happened, Liang Chuan didn't have any extra thoughts in his mind at this time. His idea was very simple, which was to feed his nearly 10,000 men.
Having lost the Qingyuan Port, he has no income. These days, he can be said to have neglected food and drink. This trip to the Central Plains was nominally to buy new year's goods, but in fact, he wanted to find a way to make money through open source.
Xiao Zhang would never think that Liang Chuan just wanted to do business with him. There were ulterior secrets behind any of his intentions!
It is impossible for one person to support an army on the sea with enough food to hide from the court. This is a serious crime of beheading.
Just like someone who has nothing to do and gets a royal robe to entertain at home, isn't that the old man who wants to hang himself because he has a long life?
Not only Xiao Zhang, but also the heroes from all over the country who met Liang Chuan along the way, such as Ye Fan, Chen Cheng, Li Yuanhao, Murong Chaoyuan, etc., all spoke highly of Liang Chuan and felt that Liang Chuan would definitely rise to the top given time.
Of course Liang Chuan has his own plans.
The current plan could not be simpler.
Qingyuan's wharf has nothing to do with him. This place has been watched by many people, and with the current maritime ban, it is extremely difficult to do business.
The Khitan people took the initiative to extend an olive branch at this time!
Don’t underestimate this market in Khitan.
The Song Dynasty now has seven million households and a population of 30 million. There have been no large-scale wars or natural disasters in these years, and agriculture has been extremely developed, the most prosperous in history. It is even more of a time of peace, and the population has reached a peak. The market of the Song Dynasty Naturally, there is unlimited potential. You can make a lot of money just by selling the lowest product like a bamboo basket.
The Khitan should not be underestimated. Although their population is only one-quarter of that of the Song Dynasty, their domestic industrial and commercial productivity is extremely backward! This is a vast consumer market, but private productivity has always been insufficient.
After the five capitals of the Liao Dynasty were built one after another, they all became important commercial cities in the Liao Dynasty.
The economic exchanges between the Liao Kingdom and surrounding tribes and countries were mostly carried out in the form of tribute and mutual trade. For example, the grassland tribes in the north had no business sense. They only used oxcarts to pull skins or drove various livestock over. Low prices are exchanged for high-end products. Compared with the major tribes in the northern grasslands, the backward Liao Kingdom is already considered high-end. After all, there are also many Han people here.
However, they directly used force to seize the Jurchens in the Northeast, and what they got were some primitive primary products. Liang Chuan knew that their good life would not last long. When the Jurchens dug a ginseng root in the field, they could not keep even the ginseng roots. They had to hand it over to the Khitan people. Where there was oppression, there was resistance. The Khitan people's last hope was The enemy is these humble savages.
The Liao Kingdom and several surrounding big countries, such as Xixia and Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty generally did not sell good things to the Liao Kingdom. In addition to the deep hatred between the two families and the influence of the court's policies, the Liao Kingdom officials mostly sold goods in the form of annual coins. Get the premium products they want.
But the people also need a lot of southern products, and the good things they pay tribute in the annual coins have nothing to do with them.
Later, the Khitan people figured out that they also wanted to do business on their own.
Due to the development of commerce, a wealthy merchant class also appeared in the Liao Kingdom. They either did business in the five capitals, prefectures and counties, or traveled between the Liao and Five Dynasties countries or the Song Dynasty. Some even became envoys to negotiate on behalf of the Liao Dynasty.
Simple nomadic people, they hate merchants. Hui Tu during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty made Qiao Rong do business in the later Jin Dynasty, and also served as the leader of the Liao Dynasty.
They were representatives of commerce and trade, and could serve as envoys to negotiate government affairs with the later Jin Dynasty. This has a very long history. Han Shixun from Guihua Prefecture in Xijing was also a wealthy businessman.
In the Liao Dynasty, prices were very low. Although there was a tax on salt and wine, the tax rates were not consistent in different places. The prosperity of commercial trade promoted the development of monetary economy. According to historical records, the father of Yelu Abaoji had begun to mint currency when he was in Salashi.
However, the currency was not used much. During the reign of Emperor Shizong of Liao Dynasty, Shangjing was still in a state of having no money and using cloth for transactions. Different currencies are used in various places. For example, there were very few Liao coins minted before Shengzong, and slightly more after Shengzong, but they still accounted for very little, less than 2%, of the circulating currency. The main ones were Song coins. , followed by money from the Tang, Five Dynasties and other dynasties.
This is the recognized hard currency in the Liao Kingdom!
The purchasing power of Song money is very high, and it is absolutely recognized by merchants everywhere. Their casting technology is very mature, and it can be stored for a very long time without rusting or reducing its weight. There are also goods from the Song Dynasty. These goods are of first-class quality. As soon as the goods from various smuggling channels arrive, people don't even have to worry about the quality, they will be sold out immediately. Read the book
Many Han people in the north moved the business methods of the Song people in the south to the north, but here they found that the corruption within the Liao Kingdom simply left them no room to survive.
The Khitan people still think on horseback at heart. Most of what they do is the habit of killing cattle and sheep with one knife to get their meat. Here, the Han people open a few shops, that is, the cattle and sheep in their circle, and they come to extort money from time to time. As long as the Han people are in the mood to do business, it is more practical to farm the land honestly.
The Han people in the North are the main force in the handicraft industry. If they don't engage in production, there will be no goods in the country.
Another thing is that the Khitans hate merchants.
The Khitan people are a people on horseback, and the simple herdsmen have a natural feeling of repulsion towards businessmen!
Merchants just hire a few people and horses to pull the goods to the grassland, and then they can take away their best skins, eat the best beef and mutton, and enjoy the beautiful prairie girls!
As for herders, after defeating natural disasters and ferocious beasts, they can barely survive. They also have to deal with various sudden diseases and the oppression of other tribes that are more cruel than ferocious beasts. In the last year, they can only get a few pieces of skin and a few head. Cattle and sheep.
That's it, these damn businessmen come here and pick and choose, taking away the best leather and the most majestic war horses, leaving the old, weak, sick, and poor-looking leather cattle, sheep, and horses for them. Pay them some poor iron pots and tea stems, and a meager salary. Even so, they still treat these businessmen as uncles and let the most beautiful women in the tribe accompany them. .
They are a nation of hard-working people. They can just take whatever they want. Why do they want to do business with these merchants?
The backward and empty Khitan market is Liang Chuan's last hope for survival! They are short of too many things. As long as they can transport the goods to the north, it will be money!
When the Qingyuan Wharf was still in operation, a large number of northern merchants would transport furs, herbs, gold and silver products from their hometowns every winter, and then exchange them for piles of spices, tea, and boxes of porcelain, waiting until spring. Pull back to the north.
Maybe the ship boss was sallow and thin when he came here the first year. After all, in order to get a big ship, they may have to live frugally for a long time, but as long as they make one trip, they will have a plump face when they come back next year. They were shiny, wearing big gold rings on their hands, and big gold chains around their necks, as if they were afraid that others would not know that they had made money, because they really made money, and the money was so easy to make. .
As long as you can reach the port, you don't have to worry about sales. The goods from the south are synonymous with quality and status, and are the most popular goods on the market!
In the past, Liang Chuan made money every day as if he were casting coins by himself. When would he be able to do these small businesses? In addition, in the past few years, it was the time when the Japanese people in the north were causing the most trouble, so he was not in the mood to send his freight. Going up, the risk is too great and is not proportional to the income.
In the Sun family, Sun Houpu's younger brother never wanted to go to the north to do business again since he went to the north and was frightened by the Japanese. No matter how much profit there was, it was useless no matter how much money he made. He was afraid that his life would be lost.
Even now, unless those desperate ship bosses want to take a chance, they will take the risk to test the waters in Beizhu. Who out of Qingyuan Port will go north to Khitan to do business, except for the Jianghuai area?
It doesn’t work anymore, no matter how small the mosquito is, it still has flesh.
Liang Chuan also knew that only if maritime trade was revived could he really be able to support the huge expenses of the Liang family army he had on hand.
He had seen the account books on Su Wei's desk and picked up one at random. It was thicker than the Xinhua Dictionary, and he could remember all the accounts in it clearly. .
It would not be a big problem to feed everyone just by relying on those rotten sweet potatoes, but Liang Chuan refused!
When the weapons are gone and the iron ore and coal mines are gone, we can’t exchange sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves with others. .
This year he went overseas, saying he wanted to buy some New Year's goods for everyone to enjoy, but he didn't want to go out to see if there was any way out!
The wind on the sea suddenly didn't seem so cold, and it felt like there was a hint of spring-like warmth on people's bodies. .
Good man, these Khitan brothers coming to do business with him at this time is not what he hopes for most!
'Come here, bring us the best food and wine on board. We've had tea for a long time, and our stomachs are already empty. Is this how we treat our brothers from afar? How outrageous! Mr. Xiao, it's an unfortunate time today. You didn't say hello earlier, and the preparations on the boat were not very thorough. But you must appreciate this meal today!
