Before dawn, there is a long queue in front of the Changping store next to the gate of Chang'an West City. Changping store is affiliated to Changpingcang. Usually when the price of food rises sharply, it sells cheap food and stabilizes the price. It is a kind of
Official direct store.
But under the rule of Guo Song, it had another role, selling coarse grains, coarse cloth and coarse salt at low prices to ensure the survival needs of the people at the bottom, so people in Chang'an generally called it "Three Coarse Stores". This kind of three coarse grain stores
There are basically stores in every state and county, with more than a dozen in Chang'an alone.
But usually its business is not very good. Now the price of fine grain and fine cloth is not high. Rice is fifty cents per bucket, white flour is thirty-five cents per bucket, and coarse flour generally refers to wheat that has not been shelled and ground.
For twenty cents per bucket, grinding wheat is very troublesome and time-consuming. It is better to spend an extra fifteen cents to buy white flour.
Coarse cloth is not easy to sell either, costing 20 cents a piece, while fine cloth only costs 50 cents a piece. The real lower class people just buy hemp and weave their own cloth, and the cloth they weave costs less than 10 cents a piece.
As for coarse salt, although it costs thirty cents per dou, the taste is very bland. Three dou of coarse salt is equivalent to one dou of fine salt, which is not much of a cost. Moreover, coarse salt has a strange smell that many people don’t like.
More importantly, if the family eats coarse grains, coarse salt, and wears coarse cloth, they will be laughed at by the neighbors. As long as the family's financial situation is not too bad, they will save face and not go to the Changping store to queue up.
But these days are special. Every Changping store is lined with long queues every morning. The reason is that the imperial court began to supply jaggery at a low price. Jaggery is a large piece of brown sugar, but it is far from as delicate as later generations of brown sugar, and the particles are relatively coarse.
Since Tianzhu's sugar boiling technique was introduced to the Tang Dynasty, at least during the Tianbao period, frost sugar and brown sugar made from sugar cane began to appear in Chang'an. However, these were luxuries enjoyed by the powerful, and ordinary people continued to eat maltose.
Or honey.
After the Anshi Rebellion, this kind of frosting sugar and brown sugar were once on the market. Later, they appeared one after another, but in small quantities. Until last year, the Dugu family and the Dou family launched a large number of frosting sugar and brown sugar made from beets and sucrose.
The price of brown sugar has also been greatly reduced. A pound of brown sugar only costs one pound, instead of dozens of dollars per pound in the past. Therefore, the middle class in Chang'an has been able to access this luxury product in the past.
However, for ordinary people, they still cannot afford to buy something that costs one thousand cents per catty. This time, the jaggery sold by the government only costs one hundred cents per catty. This news immediately exploded in Chang'an, and there were queues in front of more than a dozen Changping stores.
There was a long queue, and even though each person was limited to buying one kilogram, tens of thousands of kilograms of raw sugar were sold every day. The 200,000 kilograms of jaggery put in this time could only last for twenty days.
This kind of jaggery is beet sugar, which is pressed and boiled in Yiwu County, Beiting. Half a million jins of cotton were transported from Yiwu County on camels. At the same time, 1 million jins of Anxi Qiuci County cotton was also transported. Now the cotton in Anxi,
Sugar beets and wheat from Beiting and wine from Gaochang have become their major specialties. These specialties are transported to Lanzhou using tens of thousands of camels, and then transported to Chang'an via the Yellow River.
At a quarter past midnight, that is, at 7:30 in the morning, the Changping store in West City finally opened. Several waiters placed bags of jaggery weighed last night on the counter. One waiter shouted: "We will supply one thousand bags today, everyone."
Don’t worry, you can buy them all!”
There are three copper scales in front of the counter. They are mainly used to weigh money. Nowadays, ordinary people generally use silver coins or copper coins. One silver coin is equivalent to one hundred penny. Money is also minted, but they are collected and rarely sold in the market.
The main thing in circulation is that there is a lot of money.
At present, no counterfeiting of money has been found, but it is common for people to do tricks with a sling of money. A sling of money is a hundred pennies threaded through a rope, but many ordinary people secretly take away a few coins, only ninety-seven or eight, to gain a small advantage.
Therefore, most shops have purchased special copper scales. As soon as a hundred pennies are put on the scale, it will be immediately obvious if a few pennies are missing.
As for the hawkers, they have to earn a penny and don't need any copper scales.
‘Bang!’ The person at the front of the queue placed a sling of money on the copper scale, and the scale tilted a few times to regain its balance.
The boy handed him a bag of candy and said, "Please take it! Next one."
Just a hundred steps away, at the Xishi Sugar Shop, the Dugu family's Yipin Tang and the Dou family's refined sugar stores also sell cane sugar and beet sugar, but they sell fine sugar and icing sugar, and the fine sugar is repeatedly purified.
Brown sugar melts in your mouth and has a very delicate texture, far inferior to that of coarse sugar. Of course, the price is also good, at 500 wen per catty. There is also a sub-fine sugar, which is slightly coarser and costs 300 wen per catty.
There is also icing sugar, which is today's white sugar. Syrup is obtained by carbonization and decolorization. It costs a lot of money per catty. Today's fine sugar and icing sugar are no longer luxuries, but high-end products that can be afforded by ordinary middle-class families.
Now sugary foods have become a necessity in many families in Chang'an. There were two ways to drink tea in the Tang Dynasty, one was sencha and the other was boiled tea. Sencha only drank tea, but boiled tea required adding various seasonings.
The tea leaves are eaten together, so a little sugar is often added to the tea to give it a better taste. Usually honey is added, but now jaggery is also good.
In addition, "Chang'an Express" once published the diet of the Jin Dynasty Prince's family. It said that the Jin Dynasty liked to make cheese tea. The recipe and production steps were published in the newspaper. A piece of brown sugar was included in the recipe. The newspaper also mentioned the princess.
Ask the child to drink goat's milk, boil it and put a spoonful of frosting sugar in it.
The eating habits of King Jin and Princess Jin were widely imitated by the families of Chang'an officials and ordinary people above average. Many families bought frosting sugar, which was made by boiling goat milk and adding a spoonful of it, and then gave it to their children. The taste was completely different.
Sugar is used to make cheese tea.
Guo Song came to the sugar store with several entourage. Today he came to inspect the jaggery sales in Changping store, and stopped by the West Market to take a look.
In fact, the sugar stores mainly sell maltose and honey. There are only two stores that actually sell cane sugar and beet sugar, Yipintang and Refined Sugar. This has nothing to do with the lack of raw materials. The beets in Fengzhou will not be harvested until this autumn, and the sugarcane in Lingnan and Bashu will not be harvested until this year.
Although large-scale planting has begun this year, it will take time to spread to the market, at least until the end of the year.
Perhaps due to the influence of the Changping store selling rough sugar, both Yipintang and Refined Sugar stores were doing very well today. There was a long queue at the door. Most of them were servants or butlers who came to buy. More than a dozen clerks were very busy.
Guo Song walked to the gate of Yipintang and unexpectedly saw Dugu Changqiu. Dugu Changqiu was Dugu Changqiu's second brother and a well-known good man in the family. Dugu Youlan had often received his love and care since she was a child, so Guo Song
Song has always had a very good impression of him.
At this time, Dugu Changqiu also saw Guo Song. He was startled and hurriedly came forward to greet him.
"I just took a look, the business seems to be pretty good?" Guo Song said with a slight smile.
"The business here is average, but the business on Xi'anmenwai Street is good. We almost ran out of stock yesterday."
Seeing that there were many people around, Dugu Changqiu said: "Your Highness, go to the shop to have a cup of tea and take a rest!"
Guo Song happened to be a little thirsty, so he nodded and followed Dugu Changqiu into the store from the side door. The two of them went to the back hall and sat down. Dugu Changqiu quickly ordered the shopkeeper to serve tea.
"Has the new head of the family been decided?" Guo Song asked with concern.
Dugu Qiu has been buried, and the deceased has rested forever, but the living will continue to live on. The Dugu family has been arguing endlessly about the new head of the family some time ago.
In fact, the main thing is to choose between Dugu Dashi and Dugu Mingren. Although Dugu Changqiu is the oldest, he has been in business for a long time and his turn as the head of the family is not his.
Dugu Changqiu nodded, "According to His Highness's wishes, the third child will take over as the head of the family, and Akihito will take over."
It was actually Guo Song's opinion that Dugu Dashi took over as the head of the family. Two days ago, the Dugu family came specifically to ask for Dugu Youlan's opinion, which was actually to ask for Guo Song's opinion.
Guo Song prefers Dugu Dashi to be the head of the family. Although Dugu Mingren, the eldest son of Dugu Qiu, should take over as the head of the family, Dugu Mingren is still just Tai Chang Shaoqing with little qualifications and is only in his forties.
In ten years, it will be appropriate for him to be the head of the family.
Dugu Dashi once served as the general of Qianniu Guard and has very senior qualifications. Taking over as the head of the family can ensure the leadership position of the Dugu family in the Guanlong family.
"What is the attitude of other Guanlong families?" Guo Song asked implicitly. He was actually asking the leader of the Guanlong family.
Dugu Changqiu pondered for a moment and said: "Perhaps after some time, we can sit together to discuss future business matters. Dou Yi suggested that we hold it in the literary hall of our Dugu family."
"I thought it would be held at Dou's house!"
Dugu Changqiu shook his head, "As long as Youlan is still in Xingqing Palace, the position of leader of the Guanlong family will not be passed to the Dou family."
"What are your next business plans?" Guo Song changed the subject with a smile.
"The next step is mainly shipbuilding, textiles, sugar refining and overseas trade. Now the shipyard in Hekou Port can build three thousand stone cargo ships. The next step is to build five thousand stone sea ships. Taiyuan Weaving Factory already has three thousand looms.
We plan to expand to 5,000 units, and then after the cotton from Anxi comes, we plan to open a small weaving workshop in Chang'an with 300 looms! The main cotton in front of us is mainly stuffed cotton clothes and quilts, and weaving cloth
It’s going to be two years.”
"What about sugar production?" Guo Song asked with a smile.