On the fifteenth day of Renxu (the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the first year of Qing Dynasty), before the Liao envoy entered Beijing, a strange convoy suddenly appeared in Bianjing city, including hundreds of ox carts and donkey carts, carrying boxes of quilts.
The tightly sealed wooden box walked slowly in the street.
The cargo was so heavy that it left deep ruts in the streets.
There is nothing strange about this.
But the strange thing is that the troops escorting the convoy all wore southern uniforms and carried the same flag as the Guangnan East Road Horse and Infantry Army, but the wooden boxes on each vehicle were those used to transport supplies.
Flag planted.
This is very strange.
Because as we all know, Lingnan is a barbaric land. Apart from lychees and longans, there is almost nothing that can be sold to Bianjing.
What's even more strange is that someone found some large, fishy-smelling coarse salt grains near these ruts.
"Salt?" Many people are wondering: "When did Guangnan Road produce salt?"
In this era, sun-dried salt technology had not yet been invented, so although sea salt existed, it was all ancient boiling salt and frying salt.
The efficiency is low and the consumption is huge. Therefore, the sea salt along the coast is only consumed by coastal residents and does not enter the circulation of commodities.
Now, when hundreds of carts coming from Guangnan East Road are suspected of transporting salt to Bianjing.
Bianjing's Jiaoyin Shop was the first to react - all salt notes and salt banknotes collectively fell by about 2% that day.
Among them, Xieyan suffered the largest decline, down 5%.
It's a pity that people can't know immediately what exactly are these carts carrying?
We can only guess that Guangnan East Road has finally added a material that can be supplied in large quantities for a long time.
After all, gang transportation has always been used only to transport local materials that are large in quantity and can be supplied stably and long-term.
…………………………
"Your Highness..."
"Here is the 10,000-stone dried fish that just arrived..."
Zhang Weiji accompanied Zhao Xin as they walked in a large warehouse in the imperial city.
Here, it has completely changed.
Countless wooden boxes are densely packed and piled up like a mountain.
The strong smell of sea fills the air.
"Open it and take a look!" Looking at these wooden boxes, Zhao Xin ordered Liu Yongnian.
Liu Yongnian nodded, immediately stepped forward with a knife, and cut open a tightly tied wooden box, revealing the densely packed dried yellow croaker squeezed inside.
The golden fish skin has been dried like tree bark, and the sea salt particles wrapped on it are densely packed.
Zhao Xin waved her hand and asked Liu Yongnian to take out a few dried fish from the box and bring them to him.
Then he squatted down and looked at the dried large yellow croakers in front of him.
Each one is more than four inches (12cm) long, the largest one may even be more than a foot long, and even the smallest one may weigh more than a kilogram in the hand!
Looking at these big fish, Zhao Xin couldn't help but sigh: "The ocean is indeed rich in resources beyond imagination!"
He knew that any one of the few fish in front of him would be worth several thousand in future generations.
The biggest one might sell for tens of thousands.
But now, these fish are just trash fish in the ocean.
One of the most common catches for coastal fishermen, it is not worth much.
Now, he ordered people to catch the fish in batches and tons, and even dried the fish into dried fish and transported them to Bianjing.
But Zhao Xin knew that as long as they were transported to Bianjing, these fish would immediately become the country's wealth and turn into hard currency!
Because, no matter how cheap these fish are along the coast.
But they are meat after all, and they are sea fish with rich nutritional value.
But what the Chinese people lack most now is meat.
In today's Song Dynasty, even the landlord class may not be able to get enough protein.
Like in Water Margin, beef is served at every turn. After all, it is just the words of a novelist.
The reality is - those who can have full stomachs are rich peasants, those who can eat white rice are landlords, those who can see oil in every meal are merchant families, and those who can eat meat every day are the ruling class.
At least it's a family with a mine at home.
In the Song Dynasty, more than 70% of the population lived near the subsistence line.
If you can fill your stomach, you are already very happy.
Taking Bianjing as an example, most of the residents have no idea what meat tastes like except during festivals.
The arrival of these dried sea fish, Zhao Xin knew, would usher in a golden age.
They will completely change the diet structure of Bianjing people.
He picked up a piece of dried fish and told Zhang Weiji: "Zhang Duzhi, starting from tomorrow, you will take one hundred stones of dried fish every day and sell it to Bianjingfang City..."
"Sold for two hundred cents per catty..."
"One hundred of them will go to Zuozang, and the remaining one hundred will be kept by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, twenty of which will be left, and another ten will be left for Kaifeng Mansion. The remainder will be returned to Guangnan East Road and handed over to the Xuanhui envoys to ask for Xuanhui.
The emblem dominates!"
When Zhang Weiji heard this, his enthusiasm immediately became high.
The little calculation in his heart immediately started to change.
For every pound sold, his chamberlain would be able to keep twenty pence.
One stone is ninety-two and a half kilograms. Wouldn't one hundred stones be enough to make a steady income of more than one hundred thousand pounds a day?
It seems like a small amount, but how about saving up?
Isn't it just a small treasury?
With this small treasury, it will be much easier for the chamberlain to do things in the future.
What's more, this is a long-term business!
At that moment, Zhang Weiji paid homage and said: "Your Highness, I would like to express my gratitude to you on behalf of my chamberlain!"
He even made up his mind that he would personally take charge of selling dried fish and try to sell more and more quickly!
Zhao Xin chuckled.
This method of dividing the cake and letting people work hard for him was the best method in the Song Dynasty.
Money can make the world go round.
He knew that after he distributed the benefits in this way, all the enthusiasm from top to bottom would be mobilized.
It won't be long before the Song Dynasty will have another financial source with stable income, comparable to the tea tax.
Moreover, the growth rate of this financial source will far exceed that of all other projects.
After all, the sea during this period was completely a treasure land that had not been effectively developed and utilized.
Once humans begin to develop, utilize, and taste the benefits.
Soon, various new technologies and new methods will appear continuously.
Working people can create miracles with their diligence, bravery and wisdom.
Just like his previous life, in just twenty years, the fishermen of the Song Dynasty almost eliminated the large fish stocks along the coasts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian.
Therefore, the fishing fleet can only enter the open sea.
And that requires bigger ships, bigger fishing gear, better navigation, better maneuvering, and more sailors.
Now that civilian ships can sail long distances.
Naturally, military ships will only get bigger, stronger, faster and better.
And these are all successful experiences from previous lives!