At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, in order to ensure the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty, established a strict household registration system to restrict the movement of ordinary people.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, this strict control policy was indeed well implemented, for example, there are historical records that there was a peasant household, because of his grandmother's sudden illness to go out to seek medical treatment, when he left in a hurry, he actually led the road opened by the county government to forget at home, and was seized by the Changzhou Lucheng Inspection Division, ready to be sent to the legal department for punishment. This incident alarmed Ming Taizu, and finally Ming Taizu was extrajudicial and gracious, and the peasant household was exempted from punishment, which can be seen that the control of population flow in the early Ming Dynasty was quite tight, and civilians basically did not have the freedom to move, and it was quite troublesome to go out to do business or work.

So under such a strict household registration system, why did the Ming Dynasty's commercial and trade activities flourish instead?

In fact, this is mainly due to another system implemented in the early Ming Dynasty, the open system.

The so-called open system means that the merchants transport the grain, cloth, tea, beans, wheat and other daily necessities from the mainland to the border at their own expense and sell them to the local garrison, and then the government compensates them with salt introduction, transports as many materials as they want, and gives them how much salt they want, and then takes this salt to the salt field to receive salt and sell it, so that the merchants can earn the difference in the price of salt.

The origin of the open system stems from the problem of logistics supply on the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty.

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to defend against the attack of Warat and Tatar on the Central Plains, the establishment of nine sides for defense, because the nine sides are far away from the ruling center of the empire, logistics supply is difficult, in order to reduce this burden, Ming Taizu and Shanxi merchants reached an agreement, Shanxi merchants to Datong, Juyong Pass and other major border fortresses to send grain.

In this way, the imperial court reduced the burden of supply on the nine sides, and Shanxi merchants obtained the qualification to legally sell "official salt", which is the origin of the Kaizhong system.

It can be said that the implementation of the Kaizhong system provided strong support for the military operations of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang eight northern expeditions, Chengzu Zhu Di five northern expeditions, spent countless military food, horses and grass, but did not cause the Han Wu Emperor period such an extreme situation of public resentment boiling, Kaizhong's contribution is unparalleled.

The Ming court tasted the sweetness of the open system, so it slowly popularized the open system, to the back, wherever there is a garrison to defend, merchants can transport grain and grass and other materials to the past, in exchange for salt.

In this way, it provided an opportunity for the development of Ming trade activities, because merchants did not necessarily transport grain, grass and other materials to the border gates, and after they obtained salt, they sold more than just salt.

With the promotion of the open system, the Ming Dynasty business activities gradually flourished, and the merchants from all over the country also developed and grew, such as the Jin merchants who made profits at the beginning, and the historical data recorded that "Pingyang, Ze, Lu, the wealthy businessmen are the best in the world, and they are not rich if they are not hundreds of thousands!" ”

Of course, with the development of the open system, there are not only Jin merchants, that is, Shanxi merchants, but also Shandong merchants, Huizhou merchants, Jiangyou merchants, Fujian merchants, Guangdong merchants and so on.

And as Jinling once the imperial capital and the Ming water and land transit center, the development is incomparable, the Ming Zhengde Dynasty's "Jiangning Mansion Chronicles" records that there are 104 kinds of commercial shops in Jinling, and each industry is more than one household, among which "there are about 30 sugar shops", the prosperity of Jinling commerce and trade can be imagined.

Zhang Bin's third brother Zhang San and fourth brother Zhang Jun are the two famous "Dongshengtang" in the Fujian merchant gang, which was originally exclusive to the Huang family in Funing Prefecture, mainly engaged in overseas trade with Dongying, and has a semicolon in Yuegang in Fujian and Macao in Guangdong, the scale is not small, but it is not large, and it can only belong to the small role of beating the side drum in the Fujian merchant gang.

However, since Zhang Chengde, Zheng Zhiyuan and others of Daikin secretly participated in the shares, the development of Dongshengtang can be described as a rapid progress, and now, it has become one of the few big businesses in Fujian.

Zhang Bin already knew that his mother Huang family was in business, and his third and fourth brothers were also doing business, but he didn't know what business his third and fourth brothers were doing, let alone that the scale of Dongshengtang's business was terrifying.

After all, at this time, business is a cheap business, and it is not worth mentioning compared to being an official, who has nothing to do in front of him to show how big his business is, isn't that sick!

However, Zhang Bin does not discriminate against business, on the contrary, he still attaches great importance to business, because he knows that it is unrealistic to save the Ming Dynasty purely by relying on farmland taxes, and it must be open source, that is, to increase other sources of income, and business, especially overseas trade, is the focus of open source.

No, as soon as his fourth brother Zhang Jun came, he immediately used the excuse of checking his mansion and insisted on following Zhang Jun to find a house.

This kind of thing, officials generally arrange relatives or cronies to do it, a foreigner from the fifth grade, actually ran to find a house in person, he is also wonderful.

Zhang Bin's fourth brother Zhang Jun should be said to be the most similar to him among the five brothers, equally handsome and chic, equally courteous, the two stand together, absolutely no one doubts that they are brothers, unlike his eldest brother and second brother, those two muscular men stand with him, just like an eagle catching a chicken.

However, there is still a difference between Zhang Jun's tone and Zhang Bin's tone, as long as the two of them speak, others can immediately see the difference.

Because Zhang Bin's literary tone is cultivated from the Four Books and Five Classics, as soon as he speaks, he speaks in the official dialect of Wen Crepe, which can be described as an export chapter; However, Zhang Jun's tone was cultivated from the account book business deed, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he was arguing and bargaining, which can be described as full of copper smell.

Zhang Jun was a little self-sorry because of this, he didn't even dare to speak much in front of his fifth brother, but Zhang Bin admired his fourth brother quite a lot, in later generations, this is a business elite!

No, it can be seen from the matter of finding a house that Zhang Jun has a wealth of experience in business.

If Zhang Bin is asked to find a house, he can only go around the city without a clue, but Zhang Jun is different, he is not in a hurry to turn, but let his subordinates first inquire about the commercial layout of the entire Jinling, and after inquiring, he immediately locked the prosperous place outside the Zhengyang Gate of the inner city, on the bank of the Qinhuai River.

It is important to choose this place, because not far from Zhengyangmen is the six yamen, first of all, it is convenient for Zhang Bin to go to the yamen to do business.

In addition, it is more convenient for him to purchase goods by himself, because the Jubao Gate and Sanshan Gate on the left side of Zhengyang Gate, on the shore of Mochou Lake, are the famous Ning Silk source, and outside the Chaoyang Gate on the right side of Zhengyang Gate, Xiaoling Wei area, is the famous Wei Rong source, and Ning Silk and Wei Rong are the main goods he wants to purchase in Jinling.

After the general direction was determined, Zhang Bin wore civilian clothes and set off in a carriage with his fourth brother Zhang Jun.

As soon as you get out of Zhengyang Gate, a prosperous commercial market will come into view, the shops are lined up, the streets and alleys are vertical and horizontal, pedestrians, cars and horses, shoulder rubbing hubs, and the large signboards full of dazzling colors are hung everywhere, what "Northwest Two Leather Goods Dispatcher", "Liji Chuanguang Groceries", "Fuguang Seafood Dispatcher", "Chuanguang Guide Sen Brand" and so on, etc., make people dizzy.

Zhang Bin was really taken aback by the grand occasion in front of him, this prosperous scene, where can I see a little conscription of the imminent death of the country!

During this time, he was basically familiar with the affairs of the military department, and at the same time sent people to find the residences of Cao Huachun, Bi Maokang and the generals of the Qi family, and he really didn't come out to visit this street.

However, this time he did not come to go shopping, but to see the house, so although he was shocked by the prosperity in front of him, he did not have time to think about the reason why Jinling was so prosperous.

Zhang Jun is really experienced, he has already found a broker who sells the house, and waits outside the Zhengyang Gate, all the way, as long as he drives the carriage and follows the broker to watch slowly.

Zhang Bin was still having a headache, how big is it to buy a house, if he buys a small one, the family will not be able to live together, and if he buys a big one, it is beyond the scope that he can bear, which will inevitably arouse the suspicion of others and bring trouble.

This is not Pingyang, in Pingyang he can be the master of the house, no one will doubt how his money came from, in Jinling, if you take a dozen taels a month and suddenly buy a house of a few hundred taels, it is strange not to be suspected.

However, after looking at a few of them, Zhang Bin's doubts were gone, because his fourth brother Zhang Jun had already taken this into account and took him to choose the kind of multi-family houses.

The so-called multi-family dwellings are a group of houses that are connected together, but they do not share a common portal, and if you look at it from a single portal, it does not seem very big, and if you look at it as a whole, it is very scary.

How could there be such a family in Jinling, the house built seemed to be specially customized for Zhang Bin.

In fact, this has nothing to do with Zhang Bin at all, the reason why there is such a residence is mainly because of the ban of the imperial court in the early Ming Dynasty, which strictly prohibits the commoners from having more than three halls, even if they are rich and wealthy businessmen, although there are dozens of houses, and the adjacent links are more than dozens of acres, but the number of each hall does not dare to exceed three.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, although the ban is not very strict, but the private housing still does not dare to exceed the system, the general rich and noble home single portal is at most eight or nine halls, basically built a number of households, in the middle of the secret connection.

In other words, this is not specifically customized for Zhang Bin, but an architectural custom formed because of the ban of the imperial court.

In the end, Zhang Bin discussed with Zhang Jun and bought a mansion in the shape of a field, which looks like four houses, but is actually one, covering an area of dozens of acres, with portals open on all sides, and each household is three into eight or nine large houses.

If this kind of mansion is in the inner city of Jinling, a single portal will cost five or six hundred taels, which is not something that Zhang Bin can afford now, but this kind of residence in the outer city is not very expensive, and the four households add up to only eight hundred taels, that is to say, a single household is only two hundred taels, plus gray income, it is not surprising that Zhang Bin can buy it.