Chapter 289 Choosing a house, a house worth seventy dollars
Wang Chen said with a smile: "We can afford a good house in Chengdu today, but it's all thanks to Your Majesty's reward today. If it weren't for this, I would probably have to save up for a year or two before I can buy such a good house." , if I were still in Xiping County, with my little accumulation, it would be more than enough to buy houses in five "districts" in the prosperous areas of Chengdu."
However, things were not so happy in the Tang Dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, things were better, and the prices of houses in Chang'an were normal.
During the Tang Dynasty - Ordinary people wanted to buy first-class commercial housing? It was more difficult than reaching the sky, especially when the Tang Dynasty was in its prime.
In my impression, the Tang Dynasty was one of the most powerful dynasties in ancient China. Little did we know that the housing prices in the Tang Dynasty were also unattainable, almost as much as the current pressure to buy houses.
How difficult was it to buy a house in the Tang Dynasty? Come on, let Bai Juyi find out.
Bai Juyi, the poet demon of the Tang Dynasty, passed the Jinshi examination at the age of 28, and worked as secretary of the Provincial School at the age of 32. This position is equivalent to the administrator of the National Library, and his salary is about 16,000 yuan per month.
However, even for such a person, Bai Juyi was "difficult to live in a big place" in Chang'an at that time.
Because house prices were so expensive, Bai Juyi could only rent a house when he first became an official, and the house he rented was very simple: "four or five thatched houses, one horse and two servants."
This kind of renting life lasted for several years. Even though Bai Juyi later appreciated in value to Jingzhao Hucao and his monthly salary reached 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, Bai Juyi still had no hope of buying a house in Chang'an. This shows how terrible the housing prices in the Tang Dynasty were.
It was not until his mother came to Chang'an to seek refuge with him that he bought his first house in Jin's Village, Yijin Township, Xiagui County, the most remote suburb of Chang'an.
Bai Juyi was not the only great writer in the Tang Dynasty who could not afford to buy a house. For example, Du Fu, the poet saint who wrote, "With tens of thousands of mansions, the poor people in the world will be happy." In his later years, he still lived in a house that was dilapidated by the wind. Rain thatched house.
In the Tang Dynasty, the state provided free dormitories for singles to court officials in Beijing. If they were willing to be single, they could live there. "Tang Yulin" records that "Zhao Li's ancestral ministers, most of the people living in the same dormitory have the purpose of ancestral cao." "She" means living in the same dormitory.
The residence of Lu Huaishen, the deputy prime minister during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was astonishingly simple.
Once when he was on sick leave, his colleagues Wang Jing and Lu Congyuan of the Song Dynasty went to his home to visit him. However, they saw that "all the utensils and buildings were very simple and crude". "Covering Yan with a mat" ("Miscellaneous Records of the Ming Emperor"), the dignified deputy prime minister of the Tang Dynasty was lying on a shabby mat to recuperate. There was not even a decent curtain on the door, so he relied on a shabby mat to block the wind. The rain shows how bad the living conditions are.
However, the reason why it was difficult to buy houses in the Tang Dynasty was closely related to the policies at that time.
"Tang Hui Yao Volume 85", which records various laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty, stipulates: "Every county in the world has fled, and has land and property. It has been destroyed by others. It is due to the debt of rent. It has been bought and sold by relatives and neighbors." .”
This means that no matter which city in the country, if you want to sell all land and real estate, you must first ask your relatives and then your neighbors.
The house can only be sold if no one from relatives or neighbors wants to buy it.
Otherwise, relatives and neighbors have the right to appeal to the government and redeem it at the original price. This can be regarded as the real estate purchase restriction policy of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, you can’t just buy a house if you want to. You have to first greet the homeowner’s aunts and neighbors before you have the chance to make a move.
As a result, the available housing stock is very limited, and it is natural that housing prices remain artificially high.
In the Song Dynasty, which later paid more attention to business, it took about 260 years of saving money to buy an affordable first-class house in Tokyo.
Housing prices in the Song Dynasty were no less high than in modern times.
Wang Yucheng, a scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote in "The Notes of Li's Garden Pavilion", "In the heavy city, under the double towers, every inch of land is worth the same price as gold." This is the most true portrayal of how every inch of land is worth as much as gold.
When it comes to buying a house, Su Che, one of the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties" can be said to have shed tears of bitterness. He passed the Jinshi exam when he was young, served as a local official successively, and then gradually rose from a local official to the upper echelons of power, but still failed to buy a house.
House. Even the children always complain in front of him:
"I don't have a house yet, so everyone thinks it's true"
It wasn't until he was seventy years old that Su Che took out the salary he had saved all his life and sold a collection of books to get enough money to buy a house, and it wasn't even in a first-tier city.
It is also difficult for the great writer Ouyang Xiu to buy a house. Even after he became a political advisor, he could not afford commercial housing and could only rent in this simple alley. This shows the high housing prices in the Northern Song Dynasty.
The topography of Bianliang determines that the layout of his houses is very dense, and it can be said that every inch of land is precious.
In the first year of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, General Tian Qin bought a house for a total of 5,000 yuan. This was the period when the Northern Song Dynasty had just been founded, and housing prices were not too high. In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, housing prices were so high that even the officials of the imperial court could not afford it.
get up.
San Su and his son also rented a house. Although Su Zhe later became rich and bought a house, spending a total of 9,600 yuan, he had no choice but to sell it because he was preparing for his daughter's dowry.
Someone calculated an account and found that during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, grassroots civil servants earned 3,500 Wen per month, which is equivalent to a little more than 3 guan.
At that time, a house in the suburbs of Kaifeng, a first-tier city, cost about 10,000 yuan, and the price in the city center was astronomical. In other words, a grassroots civil servant would have to save 270 yuan to buy an ordinary house in the suburbs of a first-tier city without eating or drinking.
ten years!
Let's look at the huge courtyard of Sheng's house in "Know or Not". I always thought that Sheng Xiaoliu was really born into a "small family", but now it seems that he is from a wealthy and distinguished family!
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the real estate market eased, and ordinary civil servants could buy their own property after saving for two or three years. Therefore, Wang Chen and the others were relatively lucky.
Unlike some later dynasties, even high-ranking officials at the upper echelons of power may not necessarily be able to afford a good house in a prosperous area of the capital, unless his family has some accumulation, even if it is obtained through corruption, if an upright official relies on his own
With that kind of salary, one cannot afford to buy a house in a good location in the capital.
Wang Chen turned to the side and asked Zāng (real estate agent) who was showing them the house: "The house in this area is spacious and there is a garden behind it. I like it very much. How much does it cost to buy it?"
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the earliest group of people who made a living by brokering transactions appeared - zāng 侩. Whether it was land, houses, livestock or carriages, they had to help broker transactions.
The man said calmly: "You are really discerning. The houses in this area are really good, but the price is 70 guan, which is 75,000 yuan (five baht). It's not What the late emperor cast is worth a hundred coins!"