Huang Bojian was a merchant from Yangzhou, who used to only do land cargo transportation business, but after the Ming Dynasty reformed the city's shipping department, he quickly switched to transporting overseas spices with the help of his connections.

That is, the spices were transported to Guangdong and Fujian, and the Daming maritime merchants were then transshipped to Ningbo, Hangzhou or Haimen.

Some merchants continued to transship, transporting spices to Runzhou (Zhenjiang) or Yangzhou.

Huang Bojian purchased goods in Yangzhou and transported them all the way to Kaifeng through the canal.

In this way, there are merchants on each layer to make money. However, the price of spices in Kaifeng was much lower than that in the former Song Dynasty, because the spices in the former Song Dynasty were bought and sold by officials.

After the Ming Dynasty reformed the city, not only did the merchants earn more, but the taxes of the imperial court also became more.

So the question is, where do these profits come from?

In addition to overseas spices, Huang Bojian also transports some southern goods, and diversified operations can hedge potential risks.

But no matter what you ship, you earn more than before.

Because the tax cards of the prefectures and counties along the way have been cancelled, there is no need to pay tolls repeatedly. The imperial court only set up tax offices in a few key places to collect taxes, which greatly reduced the burden on merchants.

Daming has the Holy Son of Heaven, and the life of the merchant is finally better!

Arriving at the tax field in the southeast of Kaifeng, Huang Bojian stopped the ship and waited for the tax declaration.

There were many merchant ships parked inside and outside the harbor, and after waiting for more than two hours, it was finally Huang Bojian's turn to enter.

The coolies at the dock moved the goods in, and Huang Bojian watched the whole process until the goods on the ship were transferred to the open space. Then, continue to queue.

After queuing for almost two hours, Huang Bojian took out his cargo certificate.

On the voucher, the type and quantity of the goods are written, and the place of departure is Yangzhou. and which tax offices to pass along the way, and how much tolls have been paid. From Yangzhou to the tax offices along the way, there are stamps in every place, but any lack of a seal is smuggling.

"Inspect the goods!" The tax collector shouted.

Immediately, there were tax collectors to conduct random inspections, but they were just random inspections, and all the inspections were too time-consuming, and there were many businessmen queuing up behind.

Huang Bojian is in a happier mood, and since last year's nationwide "strike hard" campaign, even tax collectors no longer deliberately make things difficult.

In the past, there were always small problems, and you had to give a small amount of money to get rid of it.

When the goods were sampled, a tax collector said to Huang Bojian: "This officer, please sit over there, there is a new law promulgated by the imperial court." ”

Huang Bojian didn't know what was going on, so he asked his henchmen to stay here and watch, and walked in curiously.

I saw an official sitting there, and there were many merchants around.

The official pointed to the notice on the wall: "Please read this officer carefully." If you have any questions after reading, you can ask the sitting Zhong Xianggong again. ”

Huang Bojian squeezed towards the crowd and announced the establishment of bylaws for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In the past, when goods were shipped into Beijing, the goods were transported to the tax office and then moved to the official warehouse for storage. There are wholesalers or intermediaries who come to see the valuation of the goods, and buy the goods when they can negotiate with each other.

If you can't sell it, you have to pay a daily fee for using the warehouse.

There are guilds in every industry, and the head of the guild must be the largest wholesaler, and most of them work part-time as intermediaries. Small and medium-sized retailers must rely on wholesalers for supplies. Merchants from other places must also rely on wholesalers to buy goods.

Of course, foreign merchants can trade directly with retailers, and the law does not prohibit this.

But if the guild bosses know about it, they will not buy the merchant's goods again in the coming year, and they will not sell the goods to the relevant retailers. Any private transactions that bypass the guild will be attacked by the guild bosses.

How do the guild bosses manipulate prices?

They first negotiated privately, and at a certain time they would not buy any goods. The goods transported by foreign merchants can only be stacked in the warehouse, and they have to pay the warehouse usage fee every day.

After a long time, not only can the foreign merchants not be able to bear the warehouse money, but the official inn warehouses are piled up and cannot bear it, and the officials who manage the warehouses will force the merchants to ship goods at low prices.

As a last resort, foreign merchants can only sell their goods at a low price, or even sell them at a loss.

After eating the merchants, the guild bosses ate the retailers again, and they have their own warehouses anyway. As long as the backlog of goods is not too much, then join forces to ship in limited quantities to create the illusion of shortage of goods, and then sell them to retailers at a higher price.

"Haha, there is also an exchange in Tokyo, and it is a blessing for merchants in the world!" Huang Bojian heard a merchant clapping his hands in admiration.

A merchant next to him said: "Dare to ask brother, is this exchange really a top deal?" Where else are there exchanges other than Tokyo? ”

The merchant said, "The six major cities have exchanges. ”

"How does it look like the city of the former Song Dynasty?"

"No, no, no. The city officials bought and sold the officials, and at first they waited for me, but then they gradually became sour. Those officials in the former Song Dynasty City said that the merchants' high-grade goods were inferior, and forced the merchants to sell them at low prices. He also took inferior goods, sold them to the merchants at a high price, and forced the merchants to borrow usury. Knocking on the bones and eating the marrow, it is more ruthless than the leaders! ”

"That is, Wang Xianggong's market law, it is better not to change it. We would rather be oppressed by those leaders than be knocked out by the officials. ”

"This exchange is different, the government does not interfere in buying and selling. It's like the government has set up a stage, let us sing on stage by ourselves, and pay a stage tax to the government. ”

"But what if those big businessmen join forces and don't buy goods? It is too slow to rely on small traders to buy goods, and once it drags on for too long, the warehouse money in the warehouse is a lot of money. ”

"Yes, I know about the exchanges of the six major cities. But the seaport is different, the local merchants do not buy goods, and their own foreign merchants buy and transport them away. This is Tokyo, and it is impossible to transport goods here to other places. The small and medium-sized merchants can't eat the goods for a while, so they will all be smashed in the hands of our merchants, and finally they have to be sold to those big merchants at a cheap price. ”

"Go and ask this Zhong Xianggong!"

“……”

The official who had been sitting was called Zhong Qi, and he skimmed the tea leaves and explained slowly: "I don't dare to be a minister, I am just an outsider in the household department, and I am an outsider like you." You can call me a bellsmith. ”

Huang Bojian arched his hand and asked: "Please also ask Zhong Xianggong to solve his doubts, what if the big merchants (wholesalers) do not receive the goods, and the small and medium-sized merchants (retailers) are too slow to eat the goods?" In the former Song Dynasty, the government would buy the excess goods, but now there is no government to buy the exchange. After a long time, we can't afford the warehouse cost. ”

Zhong Qi raised a finger: "One." When the exchange sells goods, as long as it costs ten cents to apply for a subscription warrant, anyone can buy goods for a long time. Although there is a minimum subscription amount for the manifest, even if it is a hawker selling along the street, several families can pool their money to buy a single order. ”

He raised a second finger: "Second." The daily market price of the exchange, which follows the price of the tenth day in Tokyo, is mostly lower than the shipping price of the big merchants. Small and medium-sized merchants in Tokyo will rush to place orders. Because of the large number of people, they have an extremely strong ability to eat. In the former Song Dynasty, the reason why small and medium-sized merchants could not buy too many goods was because the officials exploited profits. Even forced small and medium-sized merchants to borrow usury from the government to buy goods, and they did not sell if they did not borrow usury. ”

"Third, no matter how big dealers manipulate the market, their ultimate goal is to make money. If they don't sweep the goods, but let the small and medium-sized merchants buy them on the exchange, then they will never make money, and their warehouses will always be empty. Time dragged on, and they should be anxious. They will be more anxious than you merchants! ”

"Fourth, it's not you who should really be worried, but the small and medium-sized merchants who retail goods. It is very likely that the big merchants in Tokyo will join forces to sweep the goods and buy out the spot on the exchange. Then hoarded Juqi, pressed the goods and did not sell them to small and medium-sized merchants for retail. ”

"Hehe, let them hold the goods. If you really dare to manipulate the market collectively, the imperial court does not need to arrest people, but only needs to urgently contact foreign merchants to ship more goods to the exchange. When the time comes, small and medium-sized traders will be able to buy goods on the exchange. How much can the big merchants eat if they continue to sweep the goods? You can't fill up your warehouse and continue to sweep the streets, right? The more goods they hoard, the more they lose! ”

Huang Bojian asked again: "If the big businessmen really hoard Juqi, will the government be able to transfer goods from other places in time?" ”

Zhong Qi explained: "The imperial court gave the exchange the privilege of using 400 li to expedite at a critical time to contact merchants from surrounding provinces to transport goods into Beijing. Moreover, these merchants who received 400 miles to rush into Beijing were all allowed to pass by the tax offices along the way without being taxed. At that time, they did not pay taxes along the way, and the goods transported to the capital were cheaper. Kill the big hoarders! ”

"Wonderful, wonderful!"

"Sure enough, it's the Son of Heaven, and I've even thought about it."

"In the future, if the goods are transported to the capital, they will no longer be bullied by the big merchants."

"Long live Daming! Long live the official family! ”

“……”

Merchants from all over the world were cheering at this moment.

For them, the exchange is the second most important thing to prevent being depressed, mainly to avoid operational risks.

In the past, when there were more goods in Beijing, the big merchants would join forces not to buy the goods, and threatened the warehouse usage fee of the warehouse to force the merchants to ship home at a loss.

Huang Bojian tidied up his clothes and proposed: "After I finish things at the exchange, why don't I go to Donghua Gate to thank the Son of Heaven for his great kindness?" ”

"Go together, go together!"

The merchants laughed and agreed, they were very sensitive to policy and could judge exactly what was good for them.

Everyone continued to inquire about how the exchange traded.

In the afternoon of the next day, Huang Bojian completed the formalities.

Happy, he went to a restaurant outside the city of Tokyo and brought all the caravan men to eat and drink.

And the leaders of the Tokyo industry are in an urgent meeting.

It's still a meeting from all walks of life, not an internal meeting.

Their business predecessors were killed by Wang Anshi back then, but they soon colluded with the powerful to kill them. Even Song Huizong and Cai Jing, in order to accumulate wealth and restart the market law, were forced to compromise by the big businessmen and powerful people.

Tong Guan is so awesome, but during the conquest of Western Xia, he was also boycotted by the leaders of Chang'an.

"Is it okay to go on strike?" A line leader asked.

"If you want to die, don't drag us into the water!" The other leaders glared at him.

Strike?

Thinking about last year's big case, the leaders collectively shuddered.

(End of chapter)