On one side, Liu Jin was discussing with Battelle about joining. On the other side, the caravans who followed Liu Jin to the grassland were already busy.
In a huge open space, merchants laid out all their goods.
Snow-white, snow-white Changlu Snow Salt, large iron pots produced by Miyun Iron Factory, rice from generations south of the Yangtze River, white flour from the north, and pieces of tea bricks and tea cakes, all are placed together, making it look like a feast for the eyes.
The herdsmen on the grassland knew immediately that they were here to do business.
This time there were many caravans coming to the grassland, thousands of people in total, and the goods they carried were enough and rich enough.
The display of so many things immediately attracted the Naiman herdsmen.
A large number of herdsmen gathered and looked at the salt, iron pots, tea leaves, etc., with their eyes shining brightly.
There have always been frequent exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and the grasslands, but in many cases, because the grassland people often went south to plunder, the Ming court also strictly prohibited mutual trade and merchants were strictly prohibited from smuggling goods to the grasslands.
Especially in recent years, as the little Tatar princes have gone south every year, the Ming court has imposed stricter bans. At the same time, it has also continued to crack down on border smuggling in border areas.
Under such a policy, materials on the grassland are very scarce.
Salt, iron pots, tea, grain, etc., these are the most scarce goods on the grassland, especially salt, tea leaves and iron pots.
Grassland does not produce salt, but people cannot survive without eating salt.
In the Ming Dynasty, a pound was worth tens of yuan per pound. Now, after several price wars, the best snow salt from Changlu Salt Farm is only more than ten yuan per pound.
But on the grassland, the price of a pound of salt can reach several hundred yuan per pound. Of course, the copper coins of the Ming Dynasty are not used on the grassland. People in the grassland often barter.
It is often necessary to exchange cattle and sheep for salt, and the price is even higher.
But even so, salt is still very scarce on the grasslands.
The Shanxi merchants in Shanxi basically made their fortune by smuggling goods to the grasslands. The profits from this were greater than those from sea trade. They could easily change hands and earn dozens or hundreds of times the profit.
In addition to salt, iron pots are also popular items on the grasslands.
Prairie people don't know how to smelt iron, let alone make iron pots. You can even marry a prairie girl with an iron pot on the grassland, and it's not a problem to exchange a few cows.
Because if you don’t have an iron pot, you can only cook meat and eat it.
You can eat this barbecue once or twice a day, but if you eat it every day, no one can stand it, and you won't be able to drink the delicious mutton soup.
From here we can know the value of the iron pot on the grassland.
The iron pots of the prairie people are passed down from generation to generation and are family heirlooms.
At this time, many herdsmen gathered around and looked at the iron pots, salt, tea bricks, etc. with bright eyes. They needed these things so much.
"Eji, it's an iron pot and salt~"
Qiqige looked at the things displayed by the Ming people in front of her, and couldn't help but excitedly pulled her mother's hand and said.
"I know~"
Anmul nodded solemnly, then tremblingly came to a merchant's stall, pointed at an iron pot and asked, "How much does this cost?"
"Zhang An, come here quickly, I don't understand prairie dialect~"
Zhang Lei is a manager of Sangong Trading House. This time he was also ordered to buy wool from the grassland. He brought a lot of things and hired a man who knew the grassland dialect.
Daming has close ties with the grasslands. There are many grassland people who understand the Daming dialect, and there are also many Daming people who understand the grassland dialect.
"What do you want to buy?"
After hearing what Zhang Lei said, a young guy came over and asked Anmul with a smile.
"How to sell this iron pot?"
Anmul asked nervously.
Iron pots are really too expensive. When she was a child, her father bought an iron pot from Akito, and it took a dozen cows to buy an iron pot.
The reason why she wanted to buy an iron pot was because her iron pot was rotten last year and there was a hole in the bottom. The prairie people didn't know how to repair the pot, so until now, she doesn't have a pot at home.
She originally hoped that her husband would go south and grab an iron pot last year, but who knew that he would stay in the Ming Dynasty forever with the little Tartar prince and never come back.
Later I learned that the Tatar army that went south to plunder was completely destroyed, and even Dayan Khan died in the Ming Dynasty.
Now she urgently needs an iron pot, because without an iron pot, the family can only eat barbecue. Without an iron pot, it will be difficult for her son to get married.
Although the grassland people are not as particular as the Ming people, they still have a great influence if they don't have iron pots.
"It only takes three taels of silver~"
Zhang An quickly replied.
"Three taels of silver?"
Anmul was slightly startled, why is it so cheap?
She knew that Ming people used silver and copper coins. Although silver was valuable, three taels of silver was really very cheap.
"Yes, it only sells for three taels of silver."
"You Naiman tribe will join our Ming Dynasty, and we will become a family. If this iron pot were in our Ming Dynasty, it would only be less than one tael of silver. We worked hard to attract the grassland people and sell it to you for three taels of silver to make a lot of money."
money."
Zhang An smiled and nodded.
"I don't have any money. Can I exchange it for cattle and sheep? I can also use horses."
When Anmul heard this, he immediately became excited. The other party spoke so clearly. This time around, these things are very cheap.
"Okay, of course, we all want cattle, horses and sheep, and can you sell me some wool?"
Zhang An agreed readily.
When he arrived, Liu Jin had already repeatedly warned that when doing business with the prairie people in the future, everyone must be sincere and the prices should not be ridiculously high. The focus should still be on the wool, so that the prairie people will be used to shearing and selling sheep.
Wool for everyone.
"wool?"
"Take something that no one in our grassland wants. How about I give you some cashmere, which is from this year's new lambs."
When Anmur heard this, he was immediately dumbfounded. No one wanted wool on the grassland, so everyone would collect the cashmere produced by lambs and use it to make clothes.
"We want wool, as much as we want, and I can pay for it. If there is cashmere, I want it too."
Zhang An replied.
"Okay, I'll ask my kid to go back and see how much wool there is and pull it all over."
Anmul nodded, and then gave instructions to his daughter Qiqige beside him.
Soon, Qiqige got on her horse and hurried back to her home. Not long after, she and a teenage boy drove dozens of sheep, five cows, and three horses to the place.
.
"Look at how much these dozen sheep, five cows, and three horses are worth."
Anmul pointed to the cattle, sheep and horses that he was still driving over and said.
Zhang An was not familiar with this, but there was someone at Sangong Trading Company who knew it very well, and he immediately looked at it carefully and got the result quickly.
"These three horses are very good. They are good horses. I can give you thirty taels of silver for each horse. I can give you five taels of silver for each of these five cows. These sheep are very fat. I can give you 300 taels of silver."
One."
Zhang An replied here.
Cows and horses are very valuable in the Ming Dynasty, especially in the Beijing-Tianjin area now. Needless to say, cows have a high status and cannot be slaughtered at will. They also have household registration.
Horses have always been a strategic resource for the imperial court and are expensive. Now in the Beijing-Tianjin area, four-wheeled carriages are very popular. More and more horses are needed to pull goods and people, which has also caused the price of horses to plummet.
rise.
A horse can be sold for hundreds of taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty. If it is a good horse, it is possible to sell it for hundreds of taels or even thousands of taels of silver.
The price offered by Sangong Trading Company is quite fair. It is almost the same as the price here in Ming Dynasty divided by three. A horse is given 30 taels of silver and a cow is given 5 taels of silver.
As for sheep, they are not very valuable in the Ming Dynasty. There are also many sheep raisers in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, sheep can only be used for eating and cannot be used for work, so the price is very low.
"Thirty taels of silver for one horse, three horses are ninety taels of silver, which can be exchanged for thirty iron pots~"
"Sell~sell, at this price~"
When Anmul heard this, he calculated it carefully, and he couldn't help but said excitedly.
One horse can be exchanged for ten iron pots. The price is really fair, I can't say enough.
"Okay, these three horses cost ninety taels of silver, the five cows cost twenty-five taels of silver, and these dozen sheep cost almost ten taels of silver, so the total is one hundred and twenty-five taels of silver."
"You can look around and pick whatever you want. The prices at our Sangong Trading House are very fair and the goods are definitely the best. If there are any leftovers, I can give you some money."
Zhang An said with a smile.
"This iron pot costs thirty taels of silver each?"
Anmul nodded, her calculations were correct, she pointed to an iron pot and asked.
"Yes, this only costs three taels of silver."
Zhang An nodded repeatedly, then pointed to other types of iron pots and said: "This kind of iron pot costs five taels of silver, and this kind of smaller one with a lid only costs two taels of silver."
"Bring me an iron pot, no, give me three of these iron pots, three of these small ones, and three of these with lids."
Anmul's eyes shone. Originally, he only wanted to buy an iron pot. But now that he heard that these iron pots were very cheap, he thought about it and immediately bought nine large and small pots.
For such a cheap pot, there may not be a shop like this in this village, so why not buy more.
"How many pots do you want to buy?"
Zhang An was slightly dumbfounded. The other party actually opened his mouth to buy five pots.
"Yes~"
"Hurry up and give me the pot~"
Anmul was afraid that the other party would regret it, so he said quickly.
"Okay~"
Seeing that Zhang An was determined to buy a pot, he quickly followed her instructions and brought the pot to her, and then said: "Would you like to take a look at these salts? They are all the best Changlu salt, snow-white, snow-white, you can try it."
