As soon as it started to dawn, the market exchange started to get busy.
The market exchange in Xizhou was moved from the ancient Weizhai.
The predecessor of the market exchange in ancient Weizhai was Yongning Village.
Yongning Village belonged to Qinzhou before. After Wang Shao established the ancient Weizhai as the Tongyuan Army, Yongning Village was included in the Tongyuan Army.
During the reign of Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, not to mention ancient Wei, there were hundreds of thousands of Tibetan people living above Qinzhou and on the north bank of the Wei River. Until two years ago in Xining, Xixia often invaded Qinzhou to clear grass valleys.
But all this has changed since the third year of Xining.
With Xihe Road pushing out to the west, Qinzhou and the entire Qinfeng Economic Strategy made the road almost become the hinterland.
In the second year of Qingli, Qinzhou was the first stop for the Tibetan tribes to enter the Song Dynasty. At that time, all Uighur, Qing and Tang, and Tibetan missions from the Western Regions had to be inspected in Qinzhou. It was agreed that the number of people entering the capital and the tributes they carried must be
The government of Qinzhou sent officers to escort the mission, and did not allow the mission to hire people privately to prevent unexpected events.
Qinzhou was the starting point of the Overland Silk Road of the Song Dynasty, but because Qinzhou was located where Tibetan tribes were inhabited and there were no dangers of mountains and rivers, the Song Dynasty was always wary when facing envoys from the Western Regions.
But all this changed in Xining three years later.
Yongning Village was the earliest horse racing farm. It was described as such at that time, and it was 550 miles from Lanzhou and 900 miles from Zongge City (Xining, the capital of Dong Xiang). At the time, Xue Xiang, the Shaanxi transshipment envoy, used salt money here in large quantities.
If you buy horses from the Tibetan people, you can trade between 10,000 and 15,000 horses every year.
As a result, Xue Xiang only used a few scraps of paper to buy a large number of war horses, which caused the salt banknotes to plummet. Finally, Zhang Yue solved the problem by setting up an exchange in Bianjing.
Fortunately, the salt banknotes were not devalued as worthless and suffered the same fate as Jiaozi.
Later, in the year of Xining, the market exchange office was transferred from Yongning Village to Guwei Village (Tongyuan Army), and in the fifth year of Xining, it was transferred from Tongyuan Army to Xizhou.
Last year, when Tabaicheng was defeated and Hezhou was besieged and suspected of being lost, the local tribes in Xizhou rebelled under the support of Mu Zheng and attacked Xizhou City several times.
Several groups of Tibetan tribes disguised themselves as caravans and tried to sneak into Shiyisi outside Xizhou City to attack, but they were discovered by the Song army. However, the foraging field was also looted and burned, and it was burned to a white ground.
The Tibetan people originally came for the money from Yisi, but the officials guarding the place burned more than 200,000 salt notes in advance.
Officials who witnessed all this at the time said they saw the most expensive flames in their lives.
For Zhang Yue, this is a good solution to a problem for future generations, that is, if you have one million soft girl coins burned to ashes, how much loss will it cause to the country and individuals?
For you, it is one million, but for the country, it is more than ten thousand.
All in all, even if it is burned to ashes, it will not let the enemy take any advantage.
Li Xian and Zhang Yue were dressed in casual clothes and went to the Municipal Exchange Department for inspection. Zhang Yue said to Li Xian: "The market in Xizhou is held once every three days. It is mandatory to use salt banknotes in the market exchange!"
Li Xian asked: "What about those who trade gold and silver privately?"
Zhang Yue said: "Anyone who trades gold, silver and copper coins privately will have their goods seized and serve three years in prison."
Li Xian nodded and said: "Good! Is there a private market?"
Zhang Yue said: "Yes, if there is any penalty, you will be fined three times. If you have more than one hundred sticks, you will be punished with a hundred sticks. If you are more than two hundred sticks, you will be fined for one year. If you are more than three hundred sticks, you will be investigated by the Luefu."
Li Xian asked: "The punishment is so light? Can it be tolerated now?"
Zhang Yue said: "Zifan doesn't know something."
The market exchange is like a market, like a customs, which not only collects taxes but also enforces settlement of salt notes, while the private market is like smuggling.
Not only the private sector engaged in tax evasion, but also the officials of the Song Army on Qinfeng Road and Xihe Road also engaged in smuggling, which was prohibited.
Li Xian was surprised when he heard that officers and soldiers had also joined the private market trade. Zhang Yue said to Li Xian: "When we first camped in Bian, the imperial court allowed the border trade to return. Now if we want to rectify the situation, we must first ban the army from returning trade."
Li Xian listened silently.
Since even military returns cannot be prohibited, then private trade among the people cannot be prohibited either.
Zhang Yue said with a smile: "Now we can only catch the big ones and let the small ones go. We can ban gold and silver, but we can't ban smuggling. Let's see, Zifan!"
The market exchange outside Hezhou City is, to be precise, a combination of the market exchange and the market.
Generally speaking, the market is managed by the Urgent Administration Department of the Third Division, but since the establishment of the Municipal Yi Division, Xihe Road has bypassed the Third Division and is directly under the Xihe Economic and Lue Envoy Road.
The current Xizhou Municipal Yi Division was previously run by Lu Shengqing and Huang Cha.
Below the activities are the banks. A total of 16 large banks are allowed to enter the Trading Department. These banks elect sixteen people to form a guild and jointly manage the entire market with the Trading Department.
Earthen walls were built on all four sides of the market. A wooden watchtower was built every few dozen steps on the wall, and several Song soldiers stood on the watchtower with their bows clasped.
The entire market is divided into three gates like a small city, leading to the east and west respectively. The north is facing Xizhou City, but there is no gate on the south.
Therefore, the streets in the city are shaped like a T.
The market is full of merchants and Han and Tibetan people, with a population of tens of thousands. Once the market day comes, another 20,000 to 30,000 people will flood into the market.
In addition, a castle was built near the Tao River.
In front of the gate of Guechang City, I saw a huge caravan of camels, mules and horses from Western Tibetan merchants slowly entering the city.
The soldiers guarding the city gate were checking and checking.
Li Xian heard that in addition to horses, Xifan merchants like to use musk, mercury, bezoar, and pearls to trade Song people's silk, tea, gold, silver, lacquerware, etc.
After Li Xian entered the city, he saw that the entire market was filled with shops for buying and selling.
The shops are filled with products from the Western Regions, such as musk, mercury, cinnabar bezoar, pearls, raw gold, rhinoceros, coral, velvet brown, camel brown, Sanya brown, flower core cloth, Douluo cotton, pill sand, asafoetida.
, woody incense, benzoin, coptis, yak tail, tamarin hair, antelope horn, bamboo horn, red and green leather, etc.
As for the people of the Song Dynasty, they also had department stores here. Like Qinzhou's specialties, dragon beard mats and Xiongqiong were also sold.
The streets are crowded with people, and there are businessmen on all sides.
Seeing this lively scene, Li Xian was very happy and said to Zhang Yue: "The market exchange was burned down last year, and it only took half a year to recover."
Amid the roaring crowd, Zhang Yue said with a smile: "This is where money goes, and it will go anywhere."
Li Xian couldn't help but be curious when he saw that many Xifan merchants ignored the shops on the left and right sides of the street and headed straight towards the center of the market.
Li Xian didn't ask any more questions, but followed the crowd to the center of the market.
The security here in the center of the market is tighter, and in front is the market exchange.
There was a large open space in front of the market. Tibetan merchants came here with their camel and horse teams, pointing at the goods on their horses and speaking loudly to the people in front of them.
There are dozens of these fangs in the open space.
These Ya people all spoke proficiently in Tibetan or Chinese to bargain with the Western merchants.
Zhang Yue explained to Li Xian: "The goods carried by these Tibetan merchants are too large, and they are afraid that the prices will be lowered by merchants from outside shops, so they first go to the market exchange to inquire."
"And these Ya people are all employed by the market, and everyone has a guarantee. They can set a minimum price to buy the goods on hand from Tibetan merchants from far away. The money will be paid by the imperial court!"
Li Xian praised: "This is Wang Xianggong's market change law!"
