If you want to say what kind of trading is the most prevalent in this last days, in addition to the Fan family in Zhangjiakou smuggling weapons and iron ore outside the customs to make huge profits, the most common operation is to sell a grain at a high price.

Nowadays, almost everyone knows that it is easy to make money as a rice merchant, and the most important thing is that this money comes from the surface, and the government has nothing to do with it, after all, it is a serious business.

Henan's Henan businessmen, now seven or eight out of ten are engaged in the grain business, even if the main business is not, they are generally stockpiling grain, and then they can make a lot of money.

The rice merchants in eastern Henan are famous all over the world, and the root of this has to start from Wanli years ago, when there was a famine in Suzhou, and the merchant ships that purchased grain gathered in Jiangxi, and among them, "Yu people are especially numerous".

In the forty-eighth year of Wanli, the price of grain in Henan rose sharply, and the hungry people borrowed the rice of the Yu merchants, and the government naturally wanted to go to suppress it, but it caused tens of thousands of people to make trouble, and almost caused chaos.

Since then, there has been a small number of Yuzhou merchants who specialize in pouring grain from south to north, which is the first batch of Yuzhou rice merchants.

At that time, many merchants were still very conservative, and in peacetime, it was difficult to make money by buying and selling grain, so more people were waiting for this group of people to lose money and then buy their properties.

However, since the end of Wanli, Henan has had a major drought almost every year, and the price of grain has risen higher and higher, and in the year of Chongzhen, it has reached a high level.

The first batch of Yuzhou rice merchants hoarded grain out of the side, and instantly made a lot of money, and the imperial court had no way to deal with the high grain prices, and there were more and more people who followed the trend of hoarding grain to be sold at a price.

The first batch of rice merchants are now well-known figures in Henan, including Jin Wancai, who is already the owner of Henan Commercial Bank, and Xun He, who has more than 300 large and small ships.

In addition to these two big heads, there are also a number of highly appealing wealthy businessmen such as the Zhao family, the Zheng family, and the Zhong family.

These wealthy businessmen hold most of the grain stocks in Henan today, and although the grain from other places is endless, the people have not seen a grain of rice, and they are naturally secretly deducted by them.

This is an unhealthy trend, and many Shandong salt merchants are also engaged in grain trade.

For example, the first batch of salt merchants released by Liu Zeqing to Nanyang, after their salt ships were unloaded at Longkou in Runing Prefecture in the east of Nanyang Province and handed over to local Yu merchants, they often exchanged the excess fine salt into grain as return goods and returned with a full load.

When the time came to mid-June, Li Zicheng was fighting with Sun Chuanting, but suddenly news came from Kaifeng City in Henan, saying that the grain prices that had doubled recently suddenly fell.

The reason is that a batch of grain transported from Jiangnan to Henan was intercepted by bandits in Xuzhou at the end of May before it reached the Kaifeng wharf.

Coincidentally, at that time, Zhu Youhua, the king of Nanyang, was preparing to go north to Kaifeng, passing through Xuzhou, so he sent troops together with the local governor and snatched this batch of grain back from the hands of the bandits, and it is said that there were 18,900 stones.

Is this really such a coincidence?

The thieves robbed them of their grain, and it happened that Zhu Youhua was passing by, and he teamed up with the local governor to strengthen the grain that belonged to them to his own pocket.

As soon as the news came out, the price of grain in Kaifeng City suddenly fell by two percent, and the wealthy merchants approached the Jin family and asked what to do.

If the price of this grain continues to fall, and the rice hoarded in the hand cannot be sold, then it will be completely destroyed.

In this regard, Jin Wancai did not panic at all, saying that this was just that Zhu Youhua got a batch of grain by luck, and if the price of grain continued to fall, unless the locust plague turned around and the drought stopped for many years.

Henan Commercial Bank has the support of the government behind it, and the big proprietors Jin Wancai and Yu businessmen are very convinced, and after hearing this, they have stabilized somewhat.

Although I don't know what the background of the Jin family is, since the fifth year of the Apocalypse, the Jin family has never had trouble with the government, and many news can be obtained at the first time, so there must be a backer in the court.

The wealthy merchants and big families in Kaifeng City have a habit of using sea salt from Shandong to clean their teeth, and they also eat fine salt and refined salt produced in the salt fields and salt fields along the coast of Shandong.

June 11 is the day when the salt merchants bring salt every month, and early in the morning, the shopkeepers of the various warehouses of the Henan Commercial Bank are waiting at the Kaifeng wharf.

When they saw each other, they all greeted each other, with a smile on their faces, and it seemed that everyone had a consensus on the use and consumption of salt.

Kaifeng is not only a thoroughfare, but also a feudal land, the big merchants of Jingshi and Nanzhili have a branch here, and now this Central Plains is chaotic, this fine salt and grain are the same, and other places are out of stock.

Whether it is Huai salt, Changlu salt or Lu salt, Yu merchants and large households use and eat a lot of them every day, but there are no production conditions, so they can only buy from other places.

Fortunately, the salt merchants in Shandong have always been the partners of the Yu merchants, and a large number of private salt arrives in Kaifeng every month for the use of wealthy merchants and large households.

Seeing the familiar fleet, everyone's smiles became brighter, but soon, the leaders of Jin Wancai, Xun He and other bigwigs looked a little wrong.

On the bow of the ship at the very end of the Shandong fleet stood a young man wearing golden dragon pattern armor, seeing the somewhat handsome appearance of this guy, many people thought of a person without words.

The golden dragon pattern armor looks so jealous, who else can it be if it's not Zhu Youhua?

When the fleet approached the dock, many businessmen had begun to whisper, this Zhu Youhua, what is he doing in Kaifeng when he is idle?

Zhu Youhua jumped off the boat and said to Jin Wancai straight to the point: "Lao Jin, from now on, forty percent of the salt from Shandong will be transported to Nanyang, and you only have six percent left." ”

"This king has already negotiated with Shandong, and the rest of the salt will have to be transported to Nanyang and then transported to Kaifeng, although it takes a little trouble, but with this king to help you transport, this deal is worth it!"

What the!?

A group of businessmen completely exploded the pot at this time, doesn't this mean that if you want to use salt in the future, you have to ask Zhu Youhua, the king of Nanyang, first?

Seeing the appearance of this villain, the merchants were angry, but soon, they found that they really had no way to take this girl!

After all, Jin Wancai is the owner of Henan Commercial Bank, and the city government is quite deep, so he just smiled slightly: "I heard that a batch of grain in Xuzhou was taken back from the thieves by the prince of Nanyang." ”

"What grain?" Zhu Youhua asked with a smile.

"It's the eighteen thousand stone grains." Jin Wancai is still the same smile that does not change and does not beat his face.

Zhu Youhua suddenly realized, "Oh! It's those grains, this king has been transported back to Nanyang for disaster relief, you said it was your food, didn't this king transport it back to you? ”

As soon as he heard this, Xun He next to him couldn't stand.

"What! Is that our food, to help the people? Are the victims eligible to eat that grain, and do you know how many taels of silver this grain can be sold? ”

"Why, the victims are not human?" Zhu Youhua looked over lightly.

Xun He flicked his sleeves and said: "These Diao people, they only deserve to eat chaff and bark!" ”

When these words came out, for a while, the scene was a little heavy, Zhu Youhua was silent, but his face was already displeased, and for a moment, Jin Wancai laughed a few times and said:

"It's all to blame on the old man, I didn't inform you in advance when I transported the grain, this batch of grain was originally to help the victims, since the prince gave the relief in advance, then there is nothing to say."

"Kaifeng, Nanyang, Datong, Shaanxi... Where is the relief of the victims is not relief, Nanyang Prince, you say yes, right? ”

Speaking of the word Nanyang, Jin Wancai accentuated his tone.