A short autumn rain suddenly dissipated the remaining heat of summer, the sky no longer rained but was no longer slightly warm, the sky was filled with dark clouds, and the cool wind from the Arctic was like a warning from the gods.
Winter is coming!
Fortunately, farmers around Lake Malaren are always afraid of sudden frosts during the harvest season, and they even finish harvesting wheat before the rains.
The rain did temporarily disturb the minds of people who wanted to sell grain. Regardless of whether the shelling was completed or not, even the oat straws that were still in bundles were temporarily stored in the barn behind their homes.
When the land became dry again, threshing operations resumed.
Farmers around the Great Lakes are extremely looking forward to this year's harvest season, not only because this year's harvest is not bad, but also because all farmers have gained an unprecedented power! That is, they personally row boats to carry grain to Mälaren, which has been renamed Stockholm.
Big Bazaar.”
In the past, if you wanted to enter a big market to sell grain, you had to pay a tribute to the market manager after the ship docked, and then you had to pay another tribute to set up a stall. In the past, to deal with this situation, you would naturally sell grain.
The person and the buyer discuss the transaction on the lake and save a sum of tribute money.
However, foreign grain sellers have to go to the commercial street of the largest market to buy a batch of daily necessities, so the ship has to dock. At least the "landing tax" is unavoidable.
To be fair, the past rulers of the Melalen tribe did not have a harsh attitude towards paying taxes. Any ruler hopes that the largest market under his rule will become more prosperous, but I heard that the Rus people are in the north.
The fur market of the country has developed a new tax model. It is said that all foreign traders who want to leave with the purchased fur goods cannot leave without paying a "departure tax". At that time, the Ross tribe controlled the fjords, and they only needed to
The fleet guards the exit of the fjord, and foreign merchants cannot leave without paying taxes.
Since the nobles of Ross did this, the leader of Melalen, as the leader of the tribal alliance, should also follow suit.
The supreme power of the Melalen tribe has been transferred three times in the past ten years. The rulers have changed again and again, and the inventions for taxation have also increased.
As a result, small traders may not be able to afford the high taxes or feel that paying taxes is unnecessary. Since this market does not welcome everyone, it is better to row out of the big lake and go to the Russian Tombstone Island market to do business. Of course.
The Russians also have to collect taxes, but the taxes are much lower. Not to mention the Russians can provide more interesting products.
In the final days when Stockholm was still called Birka, the structure of the market's trade staff changed quietly.
Small traders have disappeared one after another. The merchants who are still doing business here are not only powerful but also from well-off families. They have the financial resources to pay tribute taxes and fees, and on this basis they can still earn financial resources.
Any ruler hopes that there will be more and more people with financial resources and stay in the trading port for a long time. They have wealth and generally have noble status. They need more slaves, more enjoyment, and weird things.
Decorate yourself with things.
These people are the consumers of Ross spirits, glassware, and precious leather goods.
Most of them also have another identity - suppliers of bulk agricultural products.
The area around Lake Malaren has a large population, which is an advantage. Its disadvantages are also considerable, including a lack of mineral products and a lack of technology.
There are two key products that local nobles can produce: grain and flax stalks. Among them, grain is the most important. The so-called grain is also divided into two types, oats and rye, of which oats have the largest yield.
The economy around Lake Malaren is based on oats, or the economy of any ancient civilization is based on food. It is the fundamental element of survival, and it is also a currency.
The situation in Sweden is special. People who cannot farm can still survive by fishing. After all, once you have the opportunity, you still have to get as much oats as possible. This is because the climate in Northern Europe is cold for most of the year.
Mode, pay attention to moisture-proof oats can be stored for three years.
Although in the Swedish area around Lake Mälaren, various tribes have been cultivating wheat in the past hundreds of years, it has only been in the past ten years that grain has really been exported as a commodity on a large scale.
The small farmers in the tribe all understand that as long as they successfully sell their surplus grain to truly generous buyers, they can get good things and improve their lives.
The small farmers thought so, and the big nobles of the tribe should think so too.
Who is the big buyer of grain in the Lake Malaren region? It’s the Rus, not even one of them!
More than ten years ago, merchants from Lake Mälaren who came as far as Rossberg Fjord rarely delivered food to the local area. Because the Ross people had long controlled the fishing industry in the Gulf of Bothnia, they had a small population and relied on
Fishing can fully satisfy their own needs. What's more, the Rus people also have a secret known only to a few nobles in the Melalen region - they have connections with certain people in the far east.
Until great changes occurred in the Ross tribe, and later those secrets were revealed to the world.
The Russians suddenly had a huge demand for food, and were willing to bypass currency transactions and directly exchange leather and iron for food.
This made the big landed aristocrats who had a lot of surplus grain in their hands very happy!
In the past, the grain trade in the Lake Malaren region was mainly about regulating the grain reserves of various tribes. Suddenly, the Rus people, who had disappeared for a long time, came back. When they came back, they had iron tools and leather in their left hands, and they stretched out their right hands to ask for grain.
On the one hand, the land aristocrats stepped up their efforts to exploit their own tenant farmers, and on the other hand, they also invested in the purchase of farmers' grain. They often set an extremely low purchase price, and the nobles on all sides worked together to exploit the farmers, and then tried to negotiate a high price with the Russians to sell the goods.
Peasants who lack financial resources want to go to the big markets to do business directly with the Russians. They are willing to sell their surplus grain at low prices, but the taxes and fees at the big markets, which are indifferent to big businessmen, are unbearable for farmers' families.
So light.
The land aristocrats and pure merchants around Lake Malaren have controlled the trading rights of the largest market in Malaren. They do not use force, they rely on their own wealth, pay taxes according to the rules of the ruler, and use legal means to transfer people who lack financial resources.
People are excluded.
The business atmosphere has evolved like this. Isn't it also a harm to the Russians, the largest and almost the only grain buyers?
Every year, the Principality of Rus purchases up to one million pounds or more of oats in the Mälaren region. Wouldn't it be a great thing if it could be imported at a low price every year?
As the ruler, Rurik must do this for the sake of stability, because his population is exploding on a large scale. Children who could feed only a few supplies in the past are now in a period of rapid body growth. Youdao would eat a half-grown child to death.
I am telling the truth. The population of teenagers has reached 20,000, but the farmland area cannot keep up. If Ross cannot obtain a large amount of food from other places, famine may occur in Ross itself.
Although the situation in Russia has improved now, population, grain output, and consumption are all floating. At this stage, Russia still needs to import grain to insure itself.
Rus's merged with Sweden to form a larger Rus' kingdom. The former Malaren Market was eventually renamed Stockholm. As the owner of the traditional market, Rurik could finally control the entire Swedish region according to his own wishes.
Grain trading.
As a king, do you really want to continue to maintain close grain transactions with all land merchants? You can implement an end-to-end flat process with those farmers, which means that farmers who intend to sell grain can directly send grain to the king
in hands.
Stockholm has been tax-free for ten years, and anyone can do business as long as they bring their goods!
First, the king took over the trading market and purged most of the local gangsters. This was a killing to establish his authority. Then the king went on an armed parade, which was a further deterrent. Third, the fishing villages in Stockholm were purged and the merchants were allowed to do all their bad things. The king's actions
Mediators came forward to dissuade big businessmen and landowners, thereby creating trading space for civilians to trade.
After a fierce operation, the ruins of the fishing village were gone, and an open space was designated as a "free trade zone" by King Rurik.
In this area, any farmer who is able to row over with surplus grain can sell it openly in this area. Fishermen can carry a sack of grain directly to the purchasing station with the flag flying, weigh the grain in a huge scale, and then change hands.
You can get silver coins and copper coins. Farmers don't have to leave immediately after getting the coins. They can go directly to another stall set up by the king and buy various ironware and salt on the spot.
This is not an idea, it is a reality!
The security forces trained by Governor White Fox changed their outfits. At first glance, they really looked like Ross's regular army.
The free trade zone is a protrusion deep into the lake. The king's men help these farmers who sell grain to look after their boats for free. The farmers sell the grain to pay back the money and then buy daily necessities. As long as they don't hold back, the transaction can be completed in a short time.
The area quickly became crowded, but thefts and robberies occurred on the first day.
Because the farmer suddenly got hold of a silver coin of real value, he deliberately showed it off when he was happy. The person who committed the robbery was also a farmer. It is not inconceivable that the coin had evil intentions in front of his eyes, but the Ross Navy and the security guards patrolling the trade area
The troops are on guard against this.
"You are doing this in the area I am responsible for? Is this humiliating me? Then I will kill your whole family!"
Bai Hu also felt malicious thoughts in his heart, and signaled to his subordinates that the captured gangsters would be brought to justice immediately.
Although he brought his own surplus grain to sell, because he suddenly stole other farmers' money, it ended in a tragedy that the whole family was beheaded.
The public execution shocked the entire trading place. The headless corpse was deliberately hung up by the White Fox police to scare everyone, and the trading place became extremely orderly.
Farmers from multiple tribes now completely bypass the local nobles and do not care about the attitude of their neighbors. They row their own boats straight to the tax-free Stockholm Free Trade Zone.
Although the King has put up a sign written in runic letters, the so-called purchase price this year is one silver coin and fifteen pounds of oats.
This is a very low purchase price, but smart farmers still make a profit after calculating. Some people have never even been to Stockholm. At that time, they had no money to pay the "landing tax" and could only take a look at the big farm from a distance.
The market left in a hurry. Because tribal fishing boats from far away were not allowed to fish in the waters of the Melalen people, wouldn't it be stealing fish if they stayed for a long time?
Farmers from far away who lacked financial resources brought out at most about 200 pounds of oats. Due to the time and climate, these oats were not even properly dried. They were generally a bit damp. Therefore, the Russians announced a very low purchase price.
It is the farmers who are at fault.
If they simply sold their grain, the farmers would feel that they were at a slight loss, but when they saw the various iron tools presented by the Russians and their selling prices, they all burst into laughter.
I have long heard that the price of ironware sold by the Russians was low, but when big merchants bought it and transported it to remote settlements, the price immediately skyrocketed.
Farmers from small tribes living in remote areas often have to trade half a year's harvest for an iron axe, so many families still use a large number of stone and wooden tools.
The mass-produced cast ax head is priced from three silver coins to ten silver coins depending on the width of the ax head. It is cast into an embryo with molten iron in a blast furnace, and then calcined at high temperature to make the surface lose carbon and turn into carbon steel. After natural cooling, the blade is rough.
After polishing and then quenching, it can be put on the market. The processing cost of this kind of ax has become very low due to the scale effect. It is naturally completely inappropriate as a weapon. It is completely sufficient for the needs of people's production and life.
Farmers will buy small hand axes with only three silver coins. One side has a roughly polished ax blade, the other side has a flat hammer head, and a cheap wooden handle is stuck in the center hole of the ax head. You can buy one for about fifty pounds of oats.
It's a good hand ax. You have to know that when you buy an ax from a profiteer in the past, at least 400 pounds of oats are gone, and the quality is definitely not as good as the one from the Russians.
Since the first earthen blast furnace in Rus began to flow molten iron, the overall cost of casting iron has become lower and lower.
The iron ax is the first iron tool needed by people everywhere, because everyone needs a tool that fits their hands to cut trees. The second iron tool is the spearhead, but I don’t know if this iron tool can only be used as a harpoon or a short spear for hunting. It is slightly more
The transformation is a very cost-effective war weapon. It is still made of cast iron, and its performance is completely different from the carbon steel spears used by Ross's military. Although the price is higher than the axe, sales are still booming.
For those farmers from small tribes, they now have no qualifications to be picky. They don't feel that they have been cheated. Since the king is willing to sell, they will immediately exchange for grain. In this way, ordinary life has been improved, and when they encounter enemies, the whole people
Equipping iron spears and iron axes is much better than before.
White Fox and Rurik witnessed the grand occasion of the free trade zone. Since the grain trading started this year, a large amount of grain has entered Ross's warehouse.
Those farmers have shown a very strong desire for transactions. Now they are busy buying iron tools to improve their lives. Once their production efficiency is improved due to iron tools, they will be able to create more surplus wealth and be able to buy higher-value Rus.
Commodities. Who would be willing to live in poverty for generations? Who wouldn’t want to enjoy life every day like those big landowners?
Rurik entrusted this matter to White Fox. Regarding the direct transactions between the king and the common people, White Fox was responsible for the governor's responsibility.
Rurik himself is not idle either. This is the first year of trading with farmers, and it is not the bulk of the grain trade this year.
The real grain trade is between the king and the landed nobles, and this year it involves the delivery of eight standard armed cargo ships. The nobles own a large amount of fertile land, and they also have a large number of serfs and tenant farmers. The larger the tribe, the more yeoman population there is.
On the contrary, the proportion is small. Therefore, the people who come to sell food in the free trade zone are all from small tribes, and there are some farmers from large tribes, but not many.
In the Mälaren region, the largest trade in grain and flax is still the direct trade between Rus and the local landed aristocrats.