It's the middle of winter, and although the rising sun can't drive away the chill of winter, the fiery atmosphere is enough to make people forget the cold of winter. Reading artifact. Read please lock.

The lights and candles of the shop have not yet been extinguished, but the window lattices have already been pushed open, and all kinds of goods have been placed on the counters, and the shops are all over. Yesterday, it was hung on the door with a large-character signboard that had been scrubbed clean, and it was gilded by the rising sun, and countless Taiping wheels that pulled goods were shining by the morning sun, shuttling back and forth on the streets between the shops. The noise began to pour into my ears, and the cries of various vendors sang the scenery of the morning market, and many shops had already begun to open. Crowds of merchants poured into the market, holding gum and whistling, shopping and tasting, hoping to buy goods that would make them profitable.

Wan Yan Changzhi, who was in the crowd, smiled bitterly and said to Zhang Hu beside him: "If I didn't know in advance, I really thought I was in Lin'an again." ”

But this is not Lin'an, but the Song Dynasty set up in the Xinyang Army.

One of the peace treaties negotiated between the Song and Jin states was that the two sides could set up separate camps on the border and trade with each other. After Yan Yong's return to China, Daikin continued to open the field in Sizhou, Shouzhou, Yingzhou, Caizhou, Tangzhou, Dengzhou, Fengxiangfu, Qinzhou and other places. On the side of the Great Song Dynasty, it also opened a field in Chuzhou, Xuyi Army, Anfeng Army, Guangzhou, Xinyang Army, Guanghua Army, Junzhou, Yangzhou, Fengzhou, Gongzhou and other places. Buying and selling goods, exchanging goods.

From the original point of view, the Jin Dynasty had a boycott attitude towards the trade between the north and the south, because most of the people under the rule of Dajin were Han Chinese, and after the north and the south were connected, the Song Dynasty took the opportunity to investigate the internal security of the Jin State, or induce the Han people to return to the south, and incite the people to gather to rebel. However, some of the commodities of the Song Dynasty were in great demand in Dajin, such as tea and silk, and because of the huge price difference between the two countries, which was so profitable, that many merchants took risks and carried out smuggling activities, which were repeatedly prohibited. It is necessary to open a market to manage the trade of goods between the two countries in a unified manner.

However, to a certain extent, the establishment of the Rongchang can indeed regulate the trade between the two countries, exchange what is available, meet the needs of the country, and on the other hand, it can also increase the income of the imperial court through the taxation of the Rongchang, so for both sides, the Rongchang is also beneficial. In fact, as early as the Shaoxing Peace Conference (1142), the two sides began to set up large-scale fields to carry out trade exchanges. It was only later that Yan Liang raised troops to invade the south, and then the Song and Jin sides were hostile for several years, that the battle stopped.

Moreover, after many years of market transactions, the two sides have basically established a set of strict regulations on the form of market transactions. According to the amount of capital, the first businessmen were divided into large customers and small customers. That is, the capital is less than 100 yuan for the small customer, the small customer is guaranteed by ten people, first leave half of the goods in the country, take the other half to the other party to trade, and after the transaction is completed, the goods or money traded as collateral, and then take the other half to the previous transaction.

The capital of more than 100 is a large customer, and all of them live in the market of the country, waiting for the other businessman to come to trade. At the time of the transaction, the merchants of the two sides were not allowed to see each other in each other's corridors, and handed over the goods to the competent officials of both sides to determine the final price. That is, it can be bartered for goods, or it can be bartered for money. For each transaction, five percent of the money is charged to the merchants on both sides. In terms of time, it is not open every day, and is generally scheduled to be carried out on the first and fifteenth days of each month, ranging from one to three days each time.

However, this kind of transaction method is too restrictive, that is, it wastes time and energy, and the transaction volume is very small, which is simply not enough to completely solve the need for communication between the two countries. Therefore, even after the establishment of the smuggling field, the non-governmental smuggling activities are still very active, and the government has repeatedly banned them, and in some places the government has even been involved in smuggling.

Now that the two countries have opened up a field to each other, the country of Jin still basically follows the previous set of regulations. Wanyan Changzhi is a left-behind envoy in Nanjing, and most of the Rongchang in the Jin Kingdom are under his jurisdiction, but after this year, Wanyan Changzhi is now, and the income brought by the Dajin Changchang is much less than the original, and every time the Rongchang is opened, there are not many businessmen who participate, and sometimes on the last day, there are very few businessmen in the Rongchang. On the contrary, the Southern Song Dynasty was very hot, and the opening time was increased from two times a month to four times a month.

Although Wanyan Changzhi was puzzled by this, he didn't care too much. Although he was not a scholar, he was influenced by the social atmosphere and was quite contemptuous of commercial matters, and he was not familiar with business matters, so he only strictly ordered the border guards to strictly investigate smuggling, and did not delve into other matters.

At this time, Zhang Hu served as the governor of Nanjing, and also the governor of Kaifeng. But he is a businessman, the business is quite knowledgeable, so he also attaches more importance to it, after inquiry, only to know that the Song Dynasty's regulations on the field to change the economy, no longer divided into large and small customers, and according to the different types of goods, the corresponding tax price is formulated, first pay the tax, and then enter the transaction.

Moreover, when trading, it is also up to both parties to set their own prices. The officer in charge is only responsible for maintaining the order of the session and is no longer involved in the bargaining. At the same time, even if a merchant who does not have goods only needs to exchange the copper coins for transactions and pay a tax of 5 cents, he can also enter. In this way, the restrictions were greatly reduced, and the trade of goods was more free and convenient, so it was more popular with the merchants, and the merchants of the Jin Kingdom of Xuxiang were also willing to trade in the Song Dynasty's field, so the Song Dynasty's field became more and more lively, while the Jin Dynasty's field became more and more deserted.

After Zhang Hu understood these situations clearly, he couldn't help but be surprised, he didn't think that the Song Dynasty would use this method to attract merchants, so he hurriedly reported to Wanyan Changzhi, asking for an immediate report to the imperial court to find a way to change this situation.

After Yan Changzhi listened to Zhang Hu's report, he was quite unimpressed, and said with a smile: "It's just a transaction in the market, whether it is traded in the Southern Song Dynasty or in the gold market, isn't it all the same?" Is Bo Yi too worried? ”

Zhang Hu shook his head and said: "My lord, I don't think too much about it, the Southern Song Dynasty's move has three losses to my gold, one is to plunder my gold's wealth and use it for others; the second is to supplement the needs of the Southern Song Dynasty and fill its territory; The third is to take the opportunity of doing business to probe the secrets of the Golden State. Don't take it lightly. ”

After hearing this, Yan Changzhi was still skeptical. When Zhang Hu saw it, he said: "If you don't believe it, you might as well go to the Southern Song Dynasty to see it in person another day." ”

Wanyan Changzhi is not stubborn, seeing that Zhang Hu said it so seriously, he also felt that it was okay to take a look.

At this time, it coincided with the end of the year, and it was learned that Zhao Chen was about to hold a big wedding, although both parties knew that there would be no real peace between Song and Jin now, but the etiquette on the surface must still be respected. Therefore, the Jin State also sent envoys to congratulate the New Year more than 20 days in advance to the Southern Song Dynasty to congratulate Zhao Chen's wedding. So when the Dajin envoy passed through Nanjing, Wanyan Changzhi and Zhang Hu took the opportunity to send the envoys and wanted to take a look at the field set up by the Southern Song Dynasty in Xinyang.

It happened that the Dengzhou Rongchang set up by the Jin Kingdom was also open the day before, the two dressed up as businessmen, and went to the Dengzhou Rongchang first, and it was really deserted, only more than 20 businessmen on both sides were present, and in less than half a day, all the transactions were completed, and the transaction amount was only more than 1,000 yuan.

The next day, the two still dressed as businessmen and came to the Xinyang Army's field. Outside the field, the Xinyang Army's field is several miles in radius, surrounded by walls, like a small city, more than ten times larger than the field in Dengzhou.

Both of them couldn't help but be secretly surprised. Zhang Hu was surprised, did the Song Dynasty market trade reach such a large scale? And Wan Yan Changzhi was surprised that this field was simply a small village, and it was not a problem to accommodate tens of thousands of Song troops. Once the two countries go to war again, then it will have a great military value.

The two exchanged some Jiaozi and entered the field. Inside is indeed a small city, divided into four parts according to the cross street that runs through the city, and the merchants of the two sides account for half of each of them, and there are many shops, which are already full of goods. However, although the shops were distinct, the Han Chinese and the Jurchens mixed with each other, each looking for their favorite goods, and then bargaining and arguing, among which there were also Hu people of various ethnic groups in the Western Regions, as well as merchants from Dongying and Goryeo. The level of liveliness and frequent transactions make Dengzhou's field incomparable.

The two of them first wandered around the shops in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the main commodities they bought were tea, silk cloth, porcelain, clothing, spices, fans, and books. In addition, there are some more expensive jewelry, brocade, gold, jade and so on. Wan Yan Changzhi didn't know the price, but Zhang Hu was an expert, he had been in Lin'an, and knew that the price here was six or seven times higher than that of Lin'an. Because it is jewelry, silk brocade, gold, jade, etc. are even more expensive, hundreds of thousands of goods, abound. And the more valuable the goods, the more people will buy them. Of course, after being bought back to Dajin, it will definitely be sold to those high-ranking officials and wealthy families at a higher price.

Wanyan Changzhi couldn't help but smile bitterly, these things in the Southern Song Dynasty were very delicate and meticulous, but they were useless, they were just good-looking, but they were very popular in Dajin and liked by the wealthy families. Among the powerful and powerful, they are often proud of owning the jewelry, brocade, gold, and jade produced in the Southern Song Dynasty. Others don't say it, even Wanyan Changzhi's house has several pieces. So did Dajin's wealth flow into the Southern Song Dynasty like this?

After a few turns, the two came to the shops on the side of Jin Guo, where the goods were relatively simple, mainly all kinds of furs, ginseng, and cattle and sheep. However, in terms of price, except for a few precious furs and ginseng, the price of other goods is only three or four times that of Dajin China, and it is only twice that of livestock, which is much lower than the profit of goods in the Southern Song Dynasty.