The day is not yet dawn, there is a long queue in front of the Changping store next to the gate of Chang'an West City, the Changping store belongs to the Changping warehouse, generally when the price of grain soars, it comes to sell cheap grain, stabilize prices, is an official direct store.

But under the rule of Guo Song, it has another role, selling coarse grain, coarse cloth and coarse salt at low prices to ensure the survival needs of the people at the bottom, so Chang'an people generally call it 'three coarse shops', which are basically available in all states and counties, and there are more than a dozen in Chang'an alone.

But usually its business is not very good, now the price of fine grain and fine cloth is not high, rice per bucket 50 Wen, white flour per bucket 35 Wen, and coarse noodles generally refer to the wheat that is not husked and milled, 20 Wen per bucket, grinding wheat is very troublesome, time-consuming and labor-intensive, it is better to spend more 15 Wen to buy white flour.

Coarse cloth is not easy to sell, 20 wen a horse, fine cloth is only 50 wen a horse, the real bottom people are directly to buy hemp to weave their own cloth, and the cloth they weave is less than 10 yuan a horse.

As for coarse salt, although it is thirty wen a bucket, but the taste is very light, three buckets of coarse salt is equivalent to a bucket of fine salt, in fact, it is not much of a deal, and coarse salt has a strange smell, many people don't like it.

What's more important is that if you eat coarse grains and coarse salt at home, and wear coarse cloth clothes, you will be laughed at by the neighbors, as long as your family is not too bad, you will save face and don't go to Changping Store to queue up.

But these days are more special, every Changping shop is full of long queues every morning, the reason is that the imperial court began to supply jaggery at a low price, jaggery is a large piece of brown sugar, but it is far less delicate than the brown sugar of later generations, and the particles are relatively coarse.

Since Tianzhu's sugar boiling technique was introduced to the Tang Dynasty, at least during the Tianbao period, frosting sugar and brown sugar made from sugarcane began to appear in Chang'an, but that was a luxury enjoyed by the powerful, and ordinary people still continued to eat maltose or honey.

After the Anshi Rebellion, this kind of frosted sugar and brown sugar was once in the market, and then appeared one after another, but the amount was very small, until last year, the Dugu family and the Dou family launched a large number of frosted sugar and brown sugar boiled with beet and sucrose, and the price was also greatly reduced.

However, for ordinary people, they still can't afford to buy a pound of a pound of things, and this time the jaggery sold by the government is only a pound of 100 yuan, this news suddenly detonated Chang'an, more than a dozen Changping stores are lined up in front of a long line, although each person is limited to one catty, they can sell tens of thousands of catties every day, and the 200,000 catties of jaberseed sold this time can only last for 20 days.

This kind of jaggery is beet sugar, pressed and boiled in Yiwu County, Beiting, 500,000 catties from Yiwu County with camels, and also transported 1 million catties of cotton from Qiuzi County, Anxi, now Anxi's cotton, Beiting's sugar beet and wheat, Gaochang's wine has become several of their specialties, these specialties are transported to Lanzhou by tens of thousands of camels, and then transferred to the Yellow River to Chang'an.

At the next quarter of the hour, that is, at half past seven in the morning, the Changping store in the West Market finally opened, and several guys put bags of jaggery that they weighed last night on the counter, and one guy shouted: "A thousand bags are supplied today, don't worry, you can buy them!" ”

There are three copper scales in front of the counter, which is mainly used to weigh money, now ordinary people generally use silver money or copper money, a silver coin is equivalent to a hundred coins, money is also cast, but they are all collected, rarely circulated in the market, mainly more silver money.

At present, there is no fraud in silver money, but it is commonplace to hang money to do tricks and feet, and a hanging money is to wear a rope through a hundred yuan, but many ordinary people will secretly take out a few pieces, only ninety-seven or eight, taking a small advantage.

Therefore, most of the shops have purchased special copper scales, and the hundred pennies are put on the scales, and a few pennies are missing, and they can be seen immediately.

As for the vendors, they need a penny and don't need any copper scales.

'Dangchang! The man at the front of the line placed a penny on the scale, and the balance was restored with a few flips.

The guy handed him a packet of candy, "Please take it!" Next. ”

........

In the Xishi Sugar Store 100 steps away, the Dugu family's Yipin sugar and the Dou family's refined sugar are also sold in the two stores, but they sell fine sugar and frosting, fine sugar is brown sugar after repeated purification, melts in the mouth, the taste is very delicate, far from being comparable to jagan sugar, of course, the price is also good-looking, 500 wen per catty, and a kind of fine sugar, slightly thicker, 300 wen per catty.

In addition, there is frosting, that is, today's white sugar, the syrup is carbonized and decolorized, and the money per catty is consistent, and now the fine sugar and frosting are no longer luxuries, but high-end products, which can be borne by ordinary middle-class families.

Now sugar food has become a necessity in many families in Chang'an, there are two ways to drink tea in the Tang Dynasty, one is sencha, the other is to boil tea, sencha only drinks tea, but boiling tea is to put a variety of spices, even the tea leaves are eaten together, so a little sugar is often put in the boiled tea, the taste is better, generally put honey, and now the jaggery is also good.

In addition, the "Chang'an Express" once published the diet of the Jin king's family, which said that the king of Jin likes to cook cheese tea, and the recipe and production steps are published in the newspaper, and the recipe includes a piece of brown sugar, and the newspaper also mentioned that the princess asked the child to drink goat milk, and put a spoonful of frosting sugar after boiling.

The eating habits of the King of Jin and the Princess of Jin caused a general imitation among the families of officials in Chang'an and the commoners above the middle level, and many families bought frosted sugar, which was to put a spoonful after boiling goat milk, and then give it to the child to drink, the taste was completely different, and the brown sugar was used to cook cheese tea.

Guo Song came to the sugar store with a few entourages, and today he came to inspect the situation of selling raw sugar in Changping store, and by the way, he came to the West Market to have a look.

In fact, the sugar store mainly sells maltose and honey, and there are only two stores that really sell cane sugar and beet sugar, which is also related to the raw materials, the sugar beet in Fengzhou will be harvested this autumn, and the sugarcane in Lingnan and Bashu has begun to be planted on a large scale this year, but it will take time to transmit it to the market, at least until the end of the year.

Perhaps it is affected by the sale of jaggery in Changping store, today the business of Yipin Sugar and Refined Sugar is very good, there is a long queue at the door, most of them are people who look like subordinates or housekeepers to buy, and more than a dozen guys are very busy.

Guo Song walked to the door of Yipintang, but unexpectedly saw Dugu Changqiu, Dugu Changqiu is Dugu Qiu's second brother, and he is a well-known good man in the family, Dugu Youlan has often been loved by him since he was a child, so Guo Song has always had a good impression of him.

At this time, Dugu Changqiu also saw Guo Song at a glance, he was startled, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

"I'll just take a casual look, business seems to be good?" Guo Song smiled slightly.

"It's normal here, the business on the street outside Xi'an Gate is good, and we almost ran out of stock yesterday."

Dugu Changqiu saw that there were many people around, so he said: "Your Highness go to the store to have a cup of tea and take a rest!" ”

Guo Song also happened to be a little thirsty, so he nodded, followed Dugu Changqiu into the store from the small side door, and the two came to the back hall to sit down, and Dugu Changqiu hurriedly ordered the shopkeeper to serve tea.

"Has the new head of the house been decided?" Guo Song asked with concern.

Dugu Qiu has been buried, the deceased is in rest, but the living will continue, and the Dugu family was arguing about the new head of the family some time ago.

In fact, the main thing is to choose between Dugu Dashi and Dugu Mingren, although Dugu Changqiu is the oldest, he has been in business for a long time, and the head of the family can't take his turn.

Dugu Changqiu nodded, "According to His Highness's wishes, it has been decided, the third child will take over as the head of the family, and Akihito will take over the next one." ”

Dugu Dashi took over as the head of the family, in fact, it was also Guo Song's opinion, two days ago, the Dugu family specially came to ask for Dugu Youlan's opinion, in fact, it was to ask Guo Song's opinion.

Guo Song is inclined to Dugu Dashi as the head of the family, although it should be Dugu Mingren, the eldest son of Dugu Qiu, to take over his father's position as the head of the family, but Dugu Mingren is still only too often Shaoqing, his qualifications are not deep, and he is only over forty years old, and in another ten years, it will be appropriate for him to be the head of the family.

And Dugu Dashi once served as the general of Qianniuwei, with deep qualifications, and he took over as the head of the family, which can ensure the leadership of the Dugu family in the Guanlong family.

"What is the attitude of the other Guan Long family?" Guo Song asked implicitly, he was actually asking the leader of the Guan Long family a question.

Dugu Changqiu sighed and said: "Maybe after a while, everyone will sit together to discuss future business matters, Dou Yi proposed, or hold it in the literary hall of our Dugu family." ”

"I thought it would be held at Dou's house!"

Dugu Changqiu shook his head, "As long as Youlan is still in Xingqing Palace for a day, the position of the leader of the Guanlong family will not be the turn of the Dou family." ”

"What's next for business?" Guo Song smiled and diverted the topic.

"The next step is mainly shipbuilding, textile, sugar refining and overseas trade, now the shipyard of Hekou Port has been able to build 3,000 stone cargo ships, the following is to build 5,000 stone sea ships, Taiyuan Weaving Workshop has 3,000 looms, ready to expand to 5,000 units, and then after the cotton of Anxi comes, in Chang'an is ready to open a small weaving mill, 300 looms! The main thing is that the cotton in front of me is still filled with cotton clothes and quilts, and it will take two years to weave the cloth. ”

"What about sugar?" Guo Song asked with a smile again.