Chapter 2 Southwest Guild Hall
What does Zhao Zongshou think?
What can he think about? The companions behind him are all muscular, sharp-eyed, and have killed people before.
These people were sent here by the people behind them. Zhao Zongshou is just his face.
And Zhao Zongshou is also willing to take risks. The reason is very simple. Zhao Zongshou is not willing to remain anonymous. He is a chieftain after all, and he hopes to make a comeback.
He tried to find a way to enter Sichuan from Guizhou, from Sichuan to Longxi, from Gansu to the grassland, and then to Dongsheng. After a long and dusty journey, he finally arrived in Beijing. After he came to the jurisdiction of Beijing, he immediately felt the difference.
That is, the status of businessmen has improved a lot, and commerce has become very developed.
Even when he was in Gansu, he had already met merchants from Beijing. Without him, some people were willing to do anything to make money. Although after the war between the North and the South, Nanjing had announced that it would cut off all material exchanges with Beijing. The thief discusses the place. On the Hebei front line and along the Shanxi line, this rule was strictly followed.
After all, the troop density on the Hebei front line was too high, and such things could not be hidden from anyone.
There are just a few checkpoints along the Shanxi route, which are easy to control.
But the northwest is different. The northwest border is deserted, and the northwest border wall has not yet been built these days. There are not many troops on both sides, and it is easy to manage them. Therefore, although the trade on the surface does not exist anymore. But private trade cannot be stopped.
In fact, the private trade in the northwest is the smallest one. The real big deal is maritime trade.
Especially after Fang Chengfeng conquered Penghu, many products went to sea in the name of going to Nanyang, but not many people tracked where they went.
Zhao Zongshou came with the caravan.
Just by following the caravan, he felt something different.
In his view, Beijing is a frontier wasteland. It must have been a shortage of supplies, but after actually contacting these merchants, he discovered that it turned out that bulk goods were flowing from Beijing to the Nanjing jurisdiction, not the other way around. Even businessmen in Beijing don't buy much from the northwest. They can only buy more livestock, cattle and sheep. What they sell are ironware, cloth, etc.
He may not be clear about some things, but his intuition tells him that this is not good.
After Zhao Zongshou came to Beijing, he was like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Courtyard.
Zhao Zongshou was even more surprised when he learned that the city of Beijing had been built for less than ten years, and that even now there were still large-scale construction projects in some places in Beijing. In his opinion, Beijing was already far better than Chengdu and Xi'an. .
Chengdu and Xi'an are already a famous city in the western part of the Ming Dynasty.
They are all ancient capitals for thousands of years. Now in Beijing, a mere ten years is better than a thousand years. It's really unimaginable. .
Zhao Zongshou thought to himself: "What kind of power is this? Will the world return to the north?"
Zhao Zongshou's mind was spinning, but the first thing he had to do after arriving in Beijing was to find a place to stay.
The place Zhao Zongshou was looking for was none other than the Southwest Guild Hall.
Local guild halls were only developed in the Qing Dynasty. However, Beijing's commerce is highly developed. He Xi's design of a set of commercial laws is not perfect, but it is better to have laws than no laws, although in many cases, some business conflicts do not want to be brought to the Yamen. But now that the trouble has reached the Yamen, someone is finally taking care of it.
And even if some businessmen have the support of dignitaries, they don't dare to mess around openly.
Follow the law.
Of course, many people have ways to avoid breaking the law and bankrupt some businessmen. But this minimum ensures that some people don't go too far. If it doesn't work, some businessmen can also admit defeat and leave. Sell your property and become a rich man.
Generally no one would dare to kill them all.
After all, the court is here to watch.
Even this limited security has satisfied many businessmen. He is much bolder in many things.
This kind of guild hall came into being.
.
After all, the ancients teamed up in officialdom, and they would naturally stick together in business. We established a guild hall as a place to keep in touch with each other and settle down in Beijing. This is also normal.
However, with the beginning of the Civil War, the business of these guild halls also plummeted.
After all, many places in the Ming Dynasty no longer have trade routes with Beijing.
The prosperity of the guild hall is gone. Fortunately, business in Beijing is easy and prosperous, and many businessmen who support the guild can afford to lose money. It's just that there are few cars and horses in front of the door.
After Zhao Zongshou stayed in the hotel in the name of a businessman, he inquired about the owner behind the Southwest Guild Hall.
The boss behind the Southwest Guild Hall is named Bai, and he is a member of the Mu family.
Sent to Beijing to handle business.
After the war between the north and the south, he stayed here.
After all, the southwest is a remote place and has few business contacts with Beijing. Moreover, it is normal for the Mu family's influence to cover the southwest. It's just Guangxi, it's hard to say it's southwest. Unfortunately, there is no separate guild hall in Guangxi. Unless he is willing to go to the Guangdong Guild Hall, and the Guangdong Guild Hall is also willing to accept this Guangxi person.
It's just that Zhao Zongshou felt a little uneasy. He never expected that the Mu family would receive him when he came to Beijing.
I could only pretend to have admired him for a long time and asked the butler of the club: "I wonder if Mr. Bai is free now. Can I meet him?"
The steward was not surprised at all by Zhao Zongshou's question and said, "Unfortunately, you don't know something. There is a major event in the court today. My master has been invited to the Liaodong Guild Hall to discuss the matter."
Zhao Zongshou thought to himself: "This family is clearly backed by the Mu family, but they call Beijing the imperial court. This shows that the Beijing imperial court is still very popular under its rule." He immediately asked curiously: "I wonder what the big deal is?"
The steward said: "If you ask others, they may not know, but they know exactly what our family's background is. It's not other things, it's the court's fundraising. We won the battle last time and spent a lot of money. Went. The court was out of money, and everyone else proposed raising taxes. Only He Shoufu stood up to them and said that even if the taxes were raised, they would have to find a way to communicate with the people below. So, he summoned the rich people in the city. What kind of bargaining chips does Parliament have? In short, it’s a matter of paying for it.”
"Isn't this a sharing?" Zhao Zongshou said
"It's not the same as apportionment." The steward said, "The court said it has to be voluntary. If you don't want to take the money, you don't have to pay. However, I guess there are many people who are willing to take the money. It is said that a congressman has already reached this amount."
The steward held out a finger.
Zhao Zongshou was not surprised by this, he just felt that he was selling his official position. After all, those are the only ways the imperial court has used to make money since ancient times. Said: "One thousand taels?"
The steward smiled and said nothing, just shook his head.
Zhao Zongshou was shocked and asked tentatively: "Ten thousand taels?"
The steward said, "No, it's one hundred thousand taels."
Zhao Zongshou said: "How is it possible?"
It should be noted that the tax revenue of Guizhou Province is estimated to be less than 100,000 taels, but now one member here has 100,000 taels?
The manager said, "I don't know. If you don't come to Beijing, you don't know how much money there is in Beijing. It's the right time to come to Beijing to do business. Today, only Beijing can make a lot of money."
Zhao Zongshou sent the steward away. The whole person fell into deep thought.
One member is one hundred thousand taels, which is not much. If there are only a few dozen members, it will be tens of millions of taels. With such a huge sum of money, Nanjing could be killed by just throwing it at him. Doesn’t Beijing already have a chance to win this battle?
But he still doesn't believe that Beijing businessmen have such great financial resources?
In fact, Zhao Zongshou still underestimated the cost of current wars. The Battle of Hejian cost more than 10 million yuan. How can these tens of millions of dollars conquer the world? Moreover, Beijing is the place where banknotes are most popular. Although everyone is accustomed to calling them liang, in fact, the liang they refer to is the Yuan of banknotes.
Moreover, one thing was wrong.
That is, instead of spending 100,000 yuan, members must purchase 100,000 yuan in government bonds.
The imperial court does not take money for free, does it borrow money, or does it have money?
of interest.
Although He Xi has tried treasury bonds before. Has been running fine. Many people also made a little money on the national debt, but they still did not believe in the credibility of the Ming Dynasty. They would rather regard the national debt as an apportionment.
