In the market with three poles on the sun, the stalls are placed next to each other. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 By the time Fang Zhongyong and his party arrived in a hired ox cart, they were already crowded, and the places where they could set up stalls were full.

Chen Qi looked at Fang Zhongyong, his slightly dark skin made his white teeth whiter, like a toothpaste advertisement in later generations, he gritted his teeth and smiled, like Fang Zhongyong said: "We forgot, our bazaar, also known as the 'ghost market', before dawn, the stalls are all occupied, huh-"

He pointed to the inconspicuous oil lamps that had been extinguished on the side of many stalls, and continued: "These are the lamps that were lit when they came to occupy their seats before dawn. ”

Fang Zhongyong saw that there was really everything in this market, the flower seller and the garlic seller became neighbors, the toothpick and the decanting stone were placed in one place, and the stall selling fan bones sold shoehorns part-time, calligraphy and painting ancient money, rhino horn and ivory, the real and the fake were difficult to distinguish, and the odd and clever were mixed.

Chai Lin behind him jumped off the ox cart without a big smile, paid the money, and waved his hand to the family behind him to send the coachman back. He turned his head to Fang Zhongyong and said, "Since there is no stall here, it is better to go to the tea shop that my family opened on the west street, and put the stall at the door of the tea shop, or it will be over." ”

Fang Zhongyong had already seen a powdered sugar stall with various colors of cane sugar, he bowed down, thought slightly about the colorful cane sugar, and then said to the aunt who set up the stall: "These, but the soup made from different fruits, the color?" Sure enough, chic. Let's buy two catties of each. ”

As he spoke, he went to touch the money bag and paid.

The aunt seemed to have seen through the family secret plan, first glared at Fang Zhongyong, and then saw Fang Zhongyong's money bag, so she started to wrap Fang Zhongyong with enough weight.

Chai Lin was in a hurry, and when Fang Zhongyong finished the deal, he picked him up impatiently and walked towards West Street. As he walked, he said: "Hurry up, what time is it, and you're not here to visit the market, you have to sell me some catkins today, let me see what this new thing is, and what kind of inspection is good." ”

"Market inspection," Fang Zhongyong followed Chai Lin and walked to the West Street where Chai's tea shop was located, and said a new term to Chai Lin with a smile: "You are just too anxious, how do you know that I buy these and it is useless for our business?" ”

Like East Street, West Street is also bustling with people, with pawnshops, teahouses, Qulou post stations, and all kinds of things selling on the street. The tea shops on this street are not few, but the largest is still the Chai family's "rain does not disperse", but because this plaque is awkward, more people call it "Chai family tea shop".

The structure of the shop is a large hall house, with single rooms at both ends and at the back, which is called a private seat, similar to today's private rooms. In the elegant seat is a backrest chair, also known as the "official seat", and in the front hall is a stool and a square table. There are also long tables and benches called "loose seats".

Every morning, the teahouse is put out under the guise of opening, and when the preface is removed, it is closed. There are two flags in front of the door, one reads "Lu Yu Three Articles", and the other is "Lu Tong Seven Lights".

On the wall of the shopkeeper's small pavilion, there are eight small green and red silk ribbons, on which are written the names of various tea soups that were fresh at that time, which is very eye-catching.

The shopkeeper saw that the young owner Chai Lin suddenly came, and naturally stepped forward and greeted: "Son, this is-"

Chai Lin had already shown an impatient look on his face, so he sat down casually outside, and only said to the shopkeeper: "Feel free to bring us some tea, right here, let my brother set up a stall and sell something——"

As he spoke, he turned his head to Fang Zhongyong. Fang Zhongyong hurriedly bowed his hand and said politely: "Willow candy." ”

"Catkins?" The shopkeeper looked at him a little puzzled, and also replied: "What is this?" ”

Fang Zhongyong ordered Chen Qi to put out the marshmallow utensils, open the five-color sucrose in his hand, mix a little red and a little ordinary sucrose, put it into the small hole of the grinding disc together, light the lamp and heat, the sucrose particles quickly turned into a powdery liquid syrup, and the rotating centrifugal force threw the powder syrup out of the small hole in the side wall of the heating cavity again, and the dense syrup like catkins condensed on the bamboo skewer in Fang Zhongyong's hand, and after a while, a pink sugar ball was played again.

The shopkeeper greeted Xiao Er on the one hand, served tea and refreshments to the young owner's side, and watched Fang Zhongyong play one sugar ball after another.

The table was full of people, all holding the catkins candy balls handed over by Fang Zhongyong, and they were full of energy. The tea customers in the tea shop also felt the novelty, and after a while, a crowd of people gathered.

"An ordinary five-cent coin, a colorful eight-penny one, and a colorful twelve-penny, everyone come and try it." Chen Qi had heard Fang Zhongyong's instructions, and had already begun to take over the task of making catkins while shouting.

"Daddy, I want one." A childish child's voice rang out from the one in the east.

"I'll taste it too. Take a plain one, a colored one. ”

Xiao Er quickly handed over the copper coins from the table, Chen Qi said "gotchaf-" with a quick hand and foot heating and turning the "catkins candy machine" to make two catkins, Chai Lin gave a look to the family on his side, and the family was busy taking on the task of passing the catkins and copper coins to the diners inside and outside the tea shop.

Because the streets and alleys are extremely lively, the location of the window facing outward, and Chen Qi's joyful selling, soon attracted many children to come to taste the novelty. Soon, the family members were all busy, and Chen Qi happily made catkins and collected the money.

Fang Zhongyong took a back seat and concentrated on tasting tea and eating dim sum.

Chai Lin called the shopkeeper, took out the account book abacus, and asked a few words about the tea shop business from time to time. Looking like that, the shopkeeper seems to be very accustomed to it, and he is not perfunctory to this young master.

And Chai Lin's question is also a clear question, as soon as it comes to business, Chai Lin is completely missing in the school, the hakama ointment, the whole person indescribable spirit.

He pointed to a few lines in the account book, looked up to the shopkeeper and said, "How come there are so many iron coins to be collected, didn't you say that you should collect as much copper money as possible?" ”

The shopkeeper bowed slightly: "The prince doesn't know, now the copper coins have been looted to several major capitals to use, it is inevitable here, among the tea guests who drink tea, there are always people who have to pay iron money." Iron money, in the end, is also money. One copper coin is exchanged for ten iron coins, which is also a penny. ”

Chai Lin raised his hand and said, "It's not a matter of counting. It's right to exchange a copper coin for ten iron coins, but how much does a copper coin cost? How much does iron money cost? The weight of every thousand copper coins is thirteen catties for small iron coins and fifteen catties for large iron coins. After collecting the iron money, I went back to buy something, just buy cloth, let me ask you, a horse of ordinary silk cloth, how much iron money do you have to carry to buy? ”

The shopkeeper seemed to be suddenly asked: on the one hand, he has been in business for many years, so he naturally understands the problem of iron money; On the other hand, there is an inherent problem of real circulation, after all, the tea shop is not just for the rich or expensive people. When the common people come to drink tea for three or four cents and take out a string of thirty or forty iron coins, don't they do this business? So I didn't know how to reply, and the scene was a little embarrassing for a while.

Fang Zhongyong smiled on the side, half relieved, and said half-seriously: "Calculate it, it's almost more than 20,000 Wen iron money, about, about 500 catties." But presumably, now copper coins are not enough, and the shopkeeper also has his difficulties. ”

Chai Lin still had a slightly mocking smile on the corner of his mouth, and waved his hand to let the shopkeeper go down.

Chai Lin didn't know, but Fang Zhongyong, as a person from later generations, knew:

The commerce of the Northern Song Dynasty was highly developed, and the circulation of currency was incomparable to that of all previous dynasties, resulting in the production of copper coins not keeping up, and a series of financial problems always followed. Iron money was not suitable for currency circulation, and the mining of copper and silver was far from keeping up with market demand.

Although, during the reign of Empress Dowager Liu E, in order to curb the currency chaos caused by the counterfeiting of Sichuan Jiaozi, the imperial court ordered the establishment of Jiaozi in Yizhou in the first year of Tiansheng, and opened an official Jiaozi - that is, what later generations know, the appearance of paper money in the Song Dynasty.

On the official Jiaozi, the official seal of the Yizhou Jiaozi and the Yizhou Observation Envoy is stamped, and each one has a fixed face value, such as consistent, five, and ten. At the same time, an official reserve fund was also set up, and at the beginning of the issuance of official Jiaozi, a rule was set that each batch of Jiaozi should be prepared with a capital of 360,000 yuan, and each term would be exchanged for a period of two years.

However, the passage of official Jiaozi still mainly exists in several large prefectures, such as Kaifeng Mansion, Daming Mansion, Yizhou Mansion and other prefectures, and even Jiangning Mansion, at this time there is no exchange agency for official Jiaozi.

……

The waves of laughter on his side pulled Fang Zhongyong back to his eyes.

Chen Qi stood beside him, constantly pulling Fang Zhongyong's clothes.

And a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl with a marshmallow floc on her front placket, sticking to the satin clothes on her chest, with an awe-inspiring face, was staring wide-eyed and standing in front of Fang Zhongyong.

"What's going on?" Fang Zhongyong turned his head sideways and asked Chen Qidao, "Why does this girl have two marshmallows on her chest—oh no, catkins?" ”

Chen Qi blushed slightly obscenely, lowered his head and said, "This girl just came to buy two catkins, I saw that she was handsome, I looked at her twice, and for a while, I forgot to put away the bamboo skewers in time, God knows why at that time, there was a sudden crooked wind, and I blew those two lumps there......

Fang Zhongyong's backhand gave Chen Qi a scoop, "Stinky boy, make you."

Then he turned his face and saw that the girl herself was in full view, and she did not quickly clean up the two marshmallows by herself, but stood in the middle of the laughing crowd with a small waist. The heart is not good, but he still makes a long gesture like a gentleman, and apologizes: "I'm sorry, my brother is not good at craftsmanship, and he is really sorry for the girl." ”

"I don't have good craftsmanship, and I come out to sell things and stain people's clothes. No, you pay for it. You pay. The girl crossed her hands on her hips and said unrelentingly.

Fang Zhongyong thought that the Northern Song Dynasty inherited the Tang style, and the woman did not have to be confined in the inner courtyard of the house, and then looked at the pungent energy of the girl at the moment, a pair of Danfeng triangular eyes, two curved willow leaves hanging eyebrows, isn't this the street style of the Northern Song Dynasty?

When he felt a little overwhelmed in his heart, he was suddenly picked up by Chai Lin and made two marshmallows and snapped them on Fang Zhongyong's chest.

Chai Lin was not enough, so he spun out a few more marshmallows, glued the marshmallows to Chen Qi and his own chests, and then said to the girl with a rogue look:

"Yes, we should pay for it, how to pay for it? Can't, let you, little lady, take off your clothes in public, and we'll take it back and wash it for you, and then send it back to compensate you, right? Why don't we get your clothes dirty with you, you see—"

As he spoke, Chai Lin straightened his chest, swaggering and Fang Zhongyong, Chen Qi, and the three of them stood in a row, and the six marshmallows stuck to the placket were messy in the wind together.