During the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou were once cities with a population of nearly one million, far from being comparable to the north.

Now because of the relationship between the north and the south, the Grand Canal is not open to the north and south, except for Yangzhou, which cannot be restored, from a commercial city, to a military town, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou These cities have been able to recover quickly.

The main reason for this is that at the beginning of Xiao Qihui, Zhang Cunren and others surrendered, so that many places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang did not fight a big battle, and the vitality was preserved.

The time gradually came to the end of December, and in a few more days, it would be three years of co-governance.

Nanjing city is particularly lively, since the return of the imperial court center here, so that the wealthy family, the chamber of commerce warehouse are located here, many trade and orders, are negotiated in Nanjing, and then inject funds into the local workshop, the settlement of bulk trade, the settlement of the government and the business is mostly carried out in Nanjing, which makes Nanjing gradually become a financial center, gathering a lot of wealth.

Nanjing is close to the Yangtze River, the transportation is convenient, the big ship can directly reach Nanjing, the business is extremely prosperous, the fixed population plus the floating population, has exceeded one million, covering the economic center of Guangzhou in the south, surpassing Hangzhou, Suzhou and other places, becoming the world's first commercial city.

There are 99 large industries in the city, more than 10 large bazaars, countless shops, more than 30 money villages, it can be said that the capital of the world's merchants, Nanjing and Wudi are six out of ten, and the other four points, three points in Guangzhou and Wuchang, one point in Fujian, the north can not be compared at all.

Nanjing city is divided into palace city, imperial city, inner city and outer Guo city, the palace city is now the royal residence, the imperial city is occupied by the imperial court yamen, the inner city is mainly gathered by the princes and nobles, the gentry, and the various chambers of commerce, especially near the Qinhuai River in the west market, there are more than 3,000 large and small shops, including more than 20 sugar shops.

Sugar is not something that everyone can afford to eat, there was no sugar in Europe before, and only the aristocracy could afford to eat it after it was there, so that Europeans left a change of habits, in order to show that they were rich, they liked to put sugar hard, and the sweet one could kill people.

The situation in China is better, there is a record of sugar production in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and sugar has become a necessity of life in the Song Dynasty, of course, this is only for the aristocracy and the rising burgher class, ordinary people can only get the sweet taste through dates, beets and other things.

Most of the people in the city, such as the sugar shops, are facing the wealthy class in the city, and most of the ordinary people do not come here, but in the markets in the outer city.

The outer city is mainly a place for the people at the bottom to continue, and the land price here is not high, because the grade is relatively low, and most of the families are unwilling to buy land here, and buying land here will lose the significance of being close to the center of power. In the outer city, it is mainly a concentration of handicraft workshops, where there are more than hundreds of handicraft workshops of all kinds, among which thousands of people work in the gun-making workshop of the government, and there are thousands of people in the folk bookstore and cotton spinning workshop.

At noon on this day, Wang Yan dressed up slightly, mainly to ask Xu Yanyan to help him cover a signature scar on his face, so he wore a square scarf on his head, a blue Taoist robe, a leather belt around his waist, cloud shoes on his feet, a long sword, and a Japanese fan that was the most popular among the corporals in his hand, and went outside the city to investigate the people's situation.

Wang Yan thinks that he has a very good way of governing the country, and the economy of the Ming Dynasty is thriving by him, but the Jinhua Rebellion in the first half of the year made him a little suspicious, whether there was something wrong and actually caused dissatisfaction among the people.

He just wants to listen to it today, take a look, and understand the various situations in Nanjing.

After dressing up, Wang Yan went out of the palace, and with him were Wang Fuzhi and Gu Yanwu, the two of them were older, and they looked like a gentleman, and their temperament was better than Wang Yan, and behind them, they were followed by more than a dozen guards, they were all very nervous, for fear that something would happen.

The three of them walked from the inner city to the outer city, the streets were full of traffic, bustling, and the people chatting on the street seemed very leisurely, Wang Yan walked all the way, and found that these people were all brocade clothes, almost no coarse cloth clothes.

Wang Yan and his entourage were going to go outside the city, so they didn't wear particularly gorgeous, just ordinary cotton cloth, which actually attracted a lot of people's attention along the way, and this kind of attention was obviously a little disdainful and arrogant.

Wang Yan felt these gazes, frowned slightly, Gu Yanwu is a native of Jiangnan, he said to Wang Yan: "Nanjing is prosperous, Wang Sun Gongzi, rich and noble people gather, every day is busy, spending money like earth, the people in the city over time, under the smell and eyes, it is also extravagant, like to compare and fight for wealth, a few years ago, the Qing army went south This trend was suppressed, and now the situation is slightly better, prosperous and prosperous, and recovered, the people in the city are ashamed of those who occasionally wear non-brocade, so everyone competes to wear brocade clothes. ”

Wang Fuzhi nodded, "Etiquette collapses, since Jiajing Wanli, after the science of science has been challenged, the atmosphere in the land south of the Yangtze River is like this. ”

Wang Yan listened to the words of the two, pondered slightly, although he hit the science of science, but he also had to admit that everything has two sides, science also has the benefits of science, he restricts people's desires, so that the whole society has a common moral standard, can make social stability, and the study of the mind also has the problem of the mind, he pursues the Tao in the heart, the Tao is in the heart, the Tao is in itself, all people are different, although the mind is emancipated, but there are also defects.

He promoted commerce, and the merchants were chasing interests, and the people would naturally be affected, but the Jiangnan of the Ming Dynasty was already economically developed, and the gentry loved money, not because of his talents, but because of the inevitable result of social development, he just added fire.

Wang Yan shook his head, everything is two-sided, he encourages business, the development of the economy, you need to bear the consequences of this, if the people do not have the heart of comparison, there is no sense of vanity, business will not develop, and no one will buy the woven silk.

In the process of social development, if you are too radical and too conservative, too left or too right, there will be problems.

Wang Yan felt that after going back, he needed to read Zhongyong again, so that he could feel a trace of context and grasp the scale.

Thinking about it, everyone has come to the outside of the city, and because the New Year is approaching, the market outside the city is also bustling with people.

Most of the people here wear coarse cloth clothes, and if the conditions are better, they wear Taoist clothes woven of good cotton cloth like Wang Yan, the color is very single, far less than the people in the city are dressed gorgeously, and the whole city of Nanjing, under the division of several city walls, has clear grades and strata.

Wang Yan walked on the street, many people came to the bazaar to buy New Year's goods, because a large number of troops were stationed in Nanjing, and the salary of the five loyal troops was very high, compared with the ordinary workshop workers, six or seven yuan more silver per month, plus the end of the year to pay a reward for quelling the rebellion, so that the army families were very generous, and the silk chickens and ducks were bought home as a whole, which attracted the envy of the people.

Gu Yanwu heard that the restaurant in front of him was very lively, so he said to Wang Yan: "Your Highness, the teahouse and wine shop have the most news, let's go and sit down." ”

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