In the first year of the regency, in late December, Luoyang also snowed heavily, and it was snow-white from the Beibi Mountain to the bank of the big river. Even so, Luoyang merchant Jia Shishi and others were still braving the snow and waiting anxiously at the west city gate, looking forward to the west side of the road.

Luoyang is the city of Zhou Tianzi, but also the city of industry and commerce, this place is located in the world, east Jiaqi, Lu, south Jialiang, Chu, it is very convenient to do business. Although the so-called King of Zhou is just a puppet, he has the name of the Son of Heaven, and the princes of the Central Plains have reached a balance, although they have played out their brains, but there is still a bottom line, and a tacit understanding has been reached......

This has created Luoyang's industry and commerce is very prosperous, not counting the two cities of Henan and Gong, there are 40,000 households in Luoyang City alone, with a population of nearly 200,000, and among them, at least 100,000 people are non-agricultural households. They are engaged in industry and commerce, or they work on the streets, they rely on their crafts to eat, or they speculate on monopoly goods, and they earn the difference from them......

For example, Shi Shijia, who was originally the declining music official of Zhou Tianzi, after the demise of Zhou, his family changed to a fiber line that pulled cars and ships, and later developed into a transportation industry, with hundreds of vehicles at home, specializing in logistics and transportation business.

Later, although the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasty were destroyed by Qin, don't forget that the one who had the final say in those ten years was Lü Buwei, who was born in a big businessman, although Lü Buwei was a native of Puyang, but he made his fortune in Luoyang and Handan, so he had friendships with Su, Bai, and Shishi.

As an upstart in the imperial court, Lü Buwei implemented policies that were seriously inconsistent with the Qin traditions, and he also advocated heavy agriculture but opposed the suppression of commerce.

Wen Xinhou opened the door to the Kwantung merchants economically, not only allowing the Qin army to conquer the land as before, but even actively attracting the Kwantung merchants into the Kwantung region, hoping to pull the Qin state, which had always pursued economic uniqueness, into this huge market.

In order to sell his own ideas, Lü Buwei even did not hesitate to recruit the world's think tanks, spent great efforts to compile a huge work, and stuffed a lot of private goods into "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period".

As the closest area to Guanzhong and as Lü Buwei's fiefdom vassal, Luoyang merchants naturally made a lot of money in those ten years.

It is a pity that the golden age was fleeting, the Lü family fell, and after the Qin Shi Huang Emperor came into power, the direction of the court changed and the policy was tightened.

Qin Shi Huang inherited the economic intervention policy of Shang Ying, emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and business was not doing well. What's even more terrifying is that when Lü Buwei committed suicide, Luoyang merchants were also regarded as his accomplices and were suppressed.

This time I almost embarrassed the Luoyang people, their place is between the mountains and rivers, which is only hundreds of miles. Compared with Guanzhong and Liangchu, it is very small, and with a large population, the places that can accommodate people to cultivate are becoming increasingly scarce, and it is by no means a good agricultural area. Now that industry and commerce have been suppressed, the days of 100,000 non-agricultural people have suddenly begun to tighten, and Luoyang's economy has more than doubled compared with 30 years ago.

Seeing the drastic changes in the world, Luoyang merchants took advantage of the fall of the Qin officials' rule and began to counterattack the lost territory, and through political speculation, they finally stood on the right side.

When the soldiers who changed their name to "Dingyi Army" drove into Luoyang, but they did not have military discipline like the Chu army, robbing people's wives and wealth everywhere, but followed military discipline, Luoyang businessmen all felt that maybe the regent Heifu was not a person who did not enter the oil and salt.

Luoyang people are thoughtful: it seems that the general trend is black, and Heifu's experience is quite interesting, although he is not a businessman, but in Jiaodong, he is engaged in a special zone, not forcibly reversing Jiaodong, but according to local conditions, encouraging thirteen big families to go overseas to seek profits.

This made Luoyang businessmen envious, hoping that Heifu could also implement this policy in the Central Plains, so this time the Su and Bai families became lobbyists for all Luoyang businessmen, shouldering the mission, taking Shenyang's head, and resolutely going west......

After waiting for a long time, seeing that the weather is going to get dark again, the soldiers guarding the city gate are also vigilantly looking at this group of "five beetles", a hundred years of discrimination and suppression, in Guanzhong, businessmen are synonymous with humility, even if there are a few stinky money, but it is still the bottom, this kind of thinking will not change for a while.

Seeing that everyone was about to say goodbye and go home, they didn't want a few cars to come slowly, it was Su Li and Bai Zhi who entered Xianyang to lobby.

The big and small businessmen immediately hula-la-la-la, it was a matter of the future of each family, and they didn't care about the etiquette, so after a casual greeting, they hurriedly asked:

"Erjun, how's it going?"

Su Li and Bai gave each other a look, and on the way back from Xianyang, the two had been discussing for a long time, and basically understood the attitude of the government and the information revealed.

"The regent praised Luoyang Zhujia for killing the thief Shenyang, abandoning the darkness and turning to the light, his patriotic heart can be compared with the string high!"

Wear a high hat first, praising the Luoyang businessmen as "patriotic businessmen", and then it is a serious policy.

"However, salt, iron, gold and tin are the foundation of the country, and they still need to be monopolized by the government, and businessmen are not allowed to interfere, but salt is on the top, and today is on the board, and the army has less food, so there is a special case, merchants who have surplus grain, can transport grain and straw to the even-lose, leveling officials, in exchange for salt tickets, and then with salt tickets, they can go to the salt pond to obtain the same amount ......of salt, and they can transfer and sell it by themselves, and the price shall not exceed one time of the parity, and another salt tax can be paid on the sale of land."

To put it bluntly, the government handed over the retail rights to the merchants, and only controlled the production and wholesale links - Heifu still didn't worry about letting the Yi family directly contract the salt farm, this family was already the emperor of the Yi County, and then handed over the salt farm to his family?

In order to obtain salt legally, the Yi clan would cultivate it on their own or buy grain from other places in Hedong in exchange for salt stamps, thus achieving a de facto monopoly, while the merchants of Luoyang, even if they had the heart, could only get a piece of the pie.

The government still benefited the most, and the salt tax was not less, but it saved transportation and sales costs, and there were many fewer officials.

"Where's the grain?" Luoyang's local grain is not much, and the transportation of grain from outside through merchants has become a matter of life for the whole city.

"The same is true of grain, and the government uses the law of uniform purchase and sale."

The so-called equalization method means that the state controls the purchase, sale and price of grain: the government buys surplus grain from farmers at a parity price in good years to prevent businessmen from hurting farmers by lowering prices; In disaster years, the reserve grain will be sold at a parity to prevent businessmen from raising prices and hurting the people, and preventing "cheap grain from hurting the peasants, and expensive grain from hurting the people."

In addition, usury was not allowed to continue to be issued, and it was forbidden to annex land, or to buy peasants as slaves and maids—desperate peasants had no choice but to go to the government, or to hide their official status, to become official concubines, or to accept allotments as immigrants.

As a result, the hoarding of grain and lending money, the two Luoyang merchants' specialties were banned, and the months-long laissez-faire was over, and they had to return to the era of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor's withering private trade......

"Still."

Su Li discussed with Bai Qi, and they could secretly not say the next news, but the government would soon send someone to announce that instead of falling into passivity at that time, it would be better to take the initiative to give it all and continue to be the leader of the Luoyang merchants......

"The government will let go and let the people of Luoyang engage in trade!"

Heifu has decided that although the overall economy will continue to inherit the basic national policy since the Shang Dynasty and implement the monopoly of big government, in addition to making some cost-saving reforms, it is also necessary to allow the existence of private forces in areas that are difficult for the government to handle...... Especially in a place like Luoyang, where half of the non-agricultural population is not allowed to engage in industry and commerce, do you still expect their generation to farm in the city? Or have no livelihood and are reduced to proletarians with no perseverance?

A certain number of private private economies, but also competition for franchised workshops, put a catfish into the pond.

But Heifu also played a trick by strictly forbidding merchants to annex land and recruit them as slaves, and he changed the law with bad intentions, declaring that from now on, merchants and their children would no longer be restricted and could wear clothes and silks.

"Silk, sugar, lacquerware, these luxuries, are Chinese subtle things, someone has to consume it, no emperor spends the money of Shaofu to pay, let the merchants who are rich again pay......

Although Heifu himself wants to advocate simplicity, he reached a consensus with Xiao He, who had mixed in Jiaodong and came into contact with Guan Zhongzhi.

"If you are thrifty, you will be cheap, and if you are cheap, you will not be able to do anything, so it hurts."

If everyone does not consume, it will cause a decrease in the circulation of goods, which will hinder the activities of production and profit, so it is called "injury".

It is impossible to eliminate the inequality between the rich and the poor in this world, especially in a large city like Luoyang, where the non-agricultural population is extremely large, where a small number of rich people occupy the top of the pyramid, while a large number of small industrialists and proletarians are at the bottom. Guan Zhong believes that only the rich people continue to consume, and the poor people have jobs to do, and they produce silk and lacquerware, promote employment, and balance the economy.

This view of leading the times, whether it works elsewhere or not, Heifu doesn't know, but it is really effective in Jiaodong, so he decided to try it out in Luoyang.

Hefu blocked the annexation of the land, in order to force the landless tycoons of Luoyang to spend the money they earned on consuming luxury goods and increasing investment and expanding reproduction - at least, he hoped that would be the way things would go.

However, in the plan drawn up by Heifu and Zhang Cang, the political status of the merchants is still very low, but compared with the previous last class, they can have slightly better treatment, such as paying taxes to a certain extent, exempting from the status of city registration, enjoying the treatment of ordinary commoners, and their children can pay tuition fees and study laws and take the examinations of each county, but they cannot serve as officials in their own counties.

Heuff concludes with a passage that serves as the beginning of this new deal:

"Zhou Shu said: If the farmers don't come out, they will lack food, if they don't work, they will lack their work, if they can't do business, they will have three treasures, and if they don't come out, they will have little wealth.

"Therefore, today, when the tax of the field is light, the dispute between the city of Pingguan, the ingenuity of the craftsmen, and the number of merchants, if so, the country will be rich, and the people will be rich."

"Regent Wise!"

After hearing the relayed words, the businessmen praised them verbally, which was a great degree of tolerance compared with the Shang Ying's policy, but some businessmen who had been engaged in grain and lending business in the past were still sullen and secretly muttered that the transformation was so easy......

"If you are rich and have no business, then there is no impermanence of goods, those who are capable will be together, and those who are not good will collapse!"

Su Li glanced at the complaining businessman, and decided that it was difficult for the person who said this to achieve great things, it was really ignorant, the regent army was advancing eastward, and Luoyang would become a personnel and material turnover center, as long as he prepared in advance, it was enough to get rich just by providing the service industries of slim strength, selling fat and pulp.

Moreover, the government policy has always been like this, those who can adapt adapt to it, and those who can't......

Then go and die.

"The wind is coming, and Luoyang has not encountered a strong wind since the fall of Lü Buwei." Su Li thought so.

Standing in the limelight, pigs can fly!

And after the gale, the surviving businessmen will not shed half a tear for their peers who disappeared because they did not adapt to the times.

Shi Shi, who is not a big businessman, stood on the periphery, and after hearing Heifu's business policy, he couldn't help but be overjoyed!

Here's your chance!

Zhou Di is located in the middle of the world, there are many industries for cars and boats to pull fiber, Shi Shijia to turn the hub (gū) to make a fortune, his family's trolleys are hundreds, Qilu Zhao Wei Chu, everything!

He secretly pondered: "Sanchuan Shou Sima Xin re-established the granary in Luoyang, hoarded the grain handed over by Su and Bai, and looked at the current situation, after the beginning of spring, the regent will want to attack Chu in the east." ”

"This thousands of miles of transshipment, the people are from Luoyang, and the grain is also taken from the Luoyang warehouse, but Cheyu, I don't believe that there is really any wooden oxen and horses that are transported effortlessly, even if there is, it must be repaired. The convoy has come from Guanzhong to this point, and the bad ones are also broken, and the hundreds of rides in my family are just as a supplement! ”

Thinking so, he quickened his pace, it seemed that Shi's car workshop was going to start work day and night.

It is difficult to make a fortune in the country is the best choice, and the really powerful businessman makes it...... It's patriotic money!

……

Here, Luoyang's new policy for merchants was introduced, and what gave the merchants confidence that "Heifu will rule Luoyang for a long time" was that Dongmen Leopard had sent troops to seize Chenggao, with Beijing, Suo and Bishui as the boundary, and confronted Zhongli in Xingyang.

The people of Luoyang now only hope that the regent can send troops as soon as possible to advance the front to the east, and don't fight in Luoyang for a long time and affect their business......

Within the Chu State, there have also been new changes, Xiang Ji used troops in Huainan as a pillar state, and attacked Hengshan in the west, while the Huaibei region was completely handed over to another person, a person who is more suitable for governing the country than Xiang Ji, and his appeal is not bad......

"What?"

At the beginning of spring, Dongmen Leopard, who was in Gong County and drinking broth, got the latest movements of the Chu army:

"Xiang Liang summoned the Eighteenth Road County Duke of Chu to defend against Wang Shi?"

……

PS: I'm back in Kunming, I'm so sleepy...... Face smashed on the keyboard.,There's still only one chapter today.,I'll start making it up tomorrow.。

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