The sun shone on the snow, and it was a little dazzling. Kang Chengdong and Yelu Buhua walked on the street, looking at the shops around them, full of interest. They had already signed a contract with He Kun just now, and they could return just waiting for their goods to be bought. For a while, I wandered around the streets.

Looking up and seeing a building in front of him, Yelu Buhua said: "Outside, I heard that this is a workshop in Bingzhou tanning, how about we go in and see?" There must be something extraordinary about being able to tann so many furs in this city. ”

Kang Chengdong nodded in agreement, and the two went outside the door together.

A soldier at the door saw the two men coming forward, walked over with a waist knife, and said vigilantly: "Who are you?" Why did you break into the forbidden land? ”

Kang Chengdong was stunned for a moment, looked at the closed door and said, "Isn't this a tanning workshop?" How did it become a forbidden place? ”

The soldier said coldly: "In the city of Bingzhou, all the places where the skins are tanned, as well as the goods yard, are all forbidden places. Seeing that you are foreign merchants, if you don't know about it, forget it. Remember, these places are not allowed to be trespassed! ”

After speaking, he ignored the two of them, and still went back to stand with the knife in his hand.

Kang Chengdong looked at Yelu Buhua, shook his head helplessly, and the two had to leave. Far away, Yelu Buhua said: "No one is allowed to enter here, I think there must be a secret, so that outsiders will not know." Isn't it, what is the secret of tanning here in Dingzhou? ”

Kang Chengdong looked at the few soldiers standing at the door, and said to Yelu Buhua: "I think so." Lang Jun, we are here to do business, don't make extraneous branches. If you are not careful, let people know your identity, but I am afraid that something will happen. ”

Yelu Buhua nodded, forced himself to suppress his curiosity, and followed Kang Chengdong away. The Khitans need to have a document to enter the Song realm, otherwise they will be captured and sent back, not to mention doing business without authorization. Therefore, Yelu Buhua needs Kang Chengdong's cooperation to trade, otherwise he is a Khitan, and he is restricted everywhere even in the field, not to mention going deep into the state.

The Xijing Datong Mansion of the Khitan was originally a Han land, dominated by the Han people, and was connected with the flesh and blood of Hedong Road. There are many mountains and forests between the two countries, and there are many small Tibetan tribes, which are difficult to inspect, and it is the most serious area for illegal smuggling in the two countries. Whether it is the Khitan people in Datong Mansion who infiltrated the Song Realm, or the Song people who infiltrated Datong Mansion, it is extremely difficult to detect. It is precisely because of this that Yelu Buhua pretended to be Kang Chengdong's family and swaggered to merge the state.

As the core of the industry, the fur yard was changed to a form of trading mainly by tooth people, and the factory and freight yard were closed off and strictly forbidden to outsiders. Even all the workshops in the Yamen have changed the rules of the craftsmen's rotation and changed to a employment system. The merchants and craftsmen who were initially involved in the construction were absorbed into the workshops and freight yards, and they were no longer small businessmen who did business casually.

In this era, exchanges are not so easy, and without the support of the state yamen, it is difficult to replicate the model of state merger. However, out of prudence, Du Zhongxiao still strictly sealed these places involving trade secrets.

In the Zhou Yahua Hall, a large pot of charcoal was lit in the middle, Xia Zhu sat in the middle, and the three of them, Wang Kechen, Du Zhongxiao, and Shen Shilong, the Zhilu, sat in two compartments, discussing the recent situation. Look at the end of the year, there are a lot of accounts to do, and the affairs of the yamen are busy.

After talking about this year's taxes, Xia Zhu said: "Since Du signed the sentence to go to Yongli to deal with the hundreds of thousands of catties of soil and salt, and built a fur yard in the city, there is a lot of money and grain in the state. With all this foreign wealth, everyone in the state can have a good year this year. Especially in the past two months, the self-freight yard is dominated by tooth people, and there is a lot more business, the tide is rising, and the taxes collected are also more. ”

Wang Kechen said: "Xianggong is right, with the fur yard, the commercial tax has increased several times. There is only one shortcoming, most of the taxes collected by the yamen are furs and the like, and they are piled up in the military treasury, which is of little use. There are all kinds of furs in this state, and it is difficult to sell them, so don't think about it. ”

Shen Shilong sighed: "Because there are too many furs in Curry, the officials and soldiers in this state are very strong, and they mostly use fur to break branches. It was okay at first, but this month there are many complaints. Everyone has several furs at home, and they can't change things when they go out, and the soldiers complain a lot. ”

Xia Zhu turned to look at Du Zhongxiao: "Is there a way to sign the judgment?" ”

Du Zhongxiao started with the refining of soil salt and the production of nitrate, and built such a large fur industry, which impressed Xia Zhu. As soon as there was a problem in the economy, he asked Du Zhongxiao's opinion. What is the best way for Du Zhongxiao? At present, most of the commercial taxes are collected in kind, and the fur industry in the state is developed, and of course there are many furs in the taxes collected. If you don't collect physical goods, you will collect cash instead, and there is not enough money in the market.

After thinking for a while, Du Zhongxiao said: "Fur is useless, and it is not very valuable in the city, so it is really inappropriate to use it to offset it." But if it is exchanged for cash, iron money is useless, copper money is insufficient, and it is not easy. It seems to me that it is necessary to select a few goods, such as silk silk, which can be used as money, and to exchange the furs in the warehouse. We have a yard there, so it's not hard to do that. ”

Xia Zhu nodded and said, "Compared to silk silk, there are only gold, silver and incense. It's just that there aren't many on the market, and it's hard to buy. Now there is a lot of fur in the military arsenal, and it is scattered into the freight yard at once, but I am afraid that there will be a shortage of light goods such as gold and silver, and the price will rise, but it will not be beautiful. ”

Du Zhongxiao smiled slightly: "The tooth people in the freight yard are all owned by the yamen, so you don't have to worry about losing money." Just use a large amount of fur to buy light goods, the yamen will not lose, the merchant will definitely lose, this is no way. ”

Xia Zhu said: "How can there be a reason to make a steady profit without losing money in business, and there is nothing for merchants to lose some." ”

Du Zhongxiao arched his hand: "If the minister says so, this matter will be handed over to me to do, and the curry fur will be replaced with light goods as soon as possible in these two months." In the future, the tax collected from the fur will no longer be put into storage, and it will be traded directly in the yard for something else. ”

Shen Shilong said: "This is the best. Otherwise, the backlog of Curry's furs will inevitably be used to cover the money, and it is inevitable that the military officers will complain. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded, knowing in his heart that if this matter is to be resolved, it is still necessary to find a way from the currency. However, with his current status, he can't solve such a complex problem. With precious metal currency, since it can be stored, as business develops, there will always be a shortage of currency. Even if a large copper mine is found in the territory now, it can only be alleviated in the short term, and this trend is still the same in the long run. To solve the problem, only paper money can be used.

Money and banks are the intrinsic needs of business development, and they are always unavoidable.

Seeing that Du Zhongxiao took the initiative to take over the task of solving the problem of overstocking furs, Xia Zhu stopped mentioning it and said: "The two prisons in this state, in addition to the soil salt of Yongli Prison, there is also the iron of Datong Prison. There is a lot of iron produced there, and there has been a lot of backlog in recent years. Although it can be minted money, there are a lot of iron coins that are stolen and minted by the people, and it is unprofitable. In the coming year, sign the judgment there to figure out a way. ”

Du Zhongxiao said yes. The imperial court is always faced with such a dilemma, whether it is copper money or iron money, once it is minted too much, the cost will rise, and the more it is minted, the more it will be lost. There are many iron mines and coal mines on Hedong Road, and after the use of iron money, the private theft is serious, and the value of the currency has dropped rapidly, so that Datong has a large backlog of iron. These irons are used to make money, and when they are cast, they lose money, and they can only be piled up there. There is the iron smelting center of Hedong Road, and the private iron smelting has been non-stop due to fixed demand, and the iron class has not stopped, and the iron has accumulated more and more.

This is the problem of collecting taxes in kind, which is not much on paper, but the actual use of tax has to be greatly discounted.