At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Page 549

Their merchants are also quite active, in addition to domestic trade, they are also quite active in international trade.

They went west to Anxi and Rome, and went east to China. They were very qualified intermediary merchants, bringing the mutual specialties of China and Rome to each other's countries.

They also have a very good level of hand metallurgy, good at weaving and jewelry processing, not only that, but also very good at minting coins.

Before Ma Yuan brought the caravan into Lan's City, he made deals with some curious Guishuang merchants on the side of the road. far to do business.

In this era, apart from professional spies, merchants always have the most information. They immediately understood where Ma Yuan and others came from, and immediately saw business opportunities, and immediately expressed their hope to do business with Ma Yuan.

After inquiring about the Dawan King's envoy, Ma Yuan decided to start a business with them and learn about the local prices by the way.

So on the side of the road, Ma Yuan set up a position to do business with these Guishuang businessmen he met by chance.

Because each other's goods did not know how to exchange them at an equivalent value, Ma Yuan took out the gold and silver pieces he was carrying. copper.

Ma Yuan gave his gold and silver to Guishuang Merchant Travel to test the purity, and he also took Guishuang gold and silver coins to test the purity.

While sending someone to test the purity, he looked at the gold coin in his hand.

On the front is a bust of a person, and in turn, you can see some statues of unknown characters, and there is a circle of unseen text-like things around it.

Although he couldn't read it, it didn't prevent Ma Yuan from giving a good score on the country's metal smelting level.

At least in terms of minting gold coins, they did a good job.

The pattern of the gold coin looks exquisite, and there are many merits in the details, which shows the craftsman's good intentions.

The fineness is good, and it is very heavy in the hand. It is a very good gold coin, which proves that the economy of Guishuang Kingdom is very good.

Moreover, this minting technology is very high.

Ma Yuan silently gave this country a score in his heart, thinking that the technology of this country is very good. If there is a chance, he would like to have a technical exchange with this country.

See what technology this country has to learn from.

This is also what Guo Peng explained, to see if Guishuang Kingdom has any technology that can be used on the Wei Empire, which the Wei Empire itself does not have.

Now it seems that minting technology is very interesting.

It is a pity that there is no general circulation of gold in the country of Wei, but copper coins, and the legal currency is only copper coins.

Although precious metals such as gold and silver also have the function of currency in a certain sense, they basically only appear in the process of bulk commodity transactions, or the exchange of benefits in the upper class.

Their joint caravan was for the convenience of large transactions, so Guo Peng gave them a lot of gold.

It's really not enough, not enough, not enough for circulation at all. If gold and silver are used for circulation, deflation can kill the Wei Empire in minutes.

But speaking of it this way, Guishuang Kingdom seems to have a lot of gold?

Without sufficient gold reserves, such minted gold coins cannot be circulated. Ma Yuan still understands this.

If there is not enough gold, silver and copper in Guishuang, it is impossible to allow gold coins, silver coins and copper coins to circulate in the economic field.

The Wei Empire could not use gold and silver to circulate, because the reserves of gold and silver were not enough to afford it, and it would take the Ming Empire to circulate silver into the currency field.

With the great geographical discovery in Europe, primitive capital accumulation developed to its peak, and triangular trade accumulated a lot of wealth for hundreds of years. After that, a large amount of American silver and gold were imported into the Ming Empire through the commercial activities of Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

Only then did the Ming Empire have enough silver to establish a silver standard and allow silver to enter the field of economic circulation.

Before that, it really couldn't be done.

Even the circulation of copper coins is a bit tight, and someone Guo remelted hundreds of millions of Dong Zhuo's small coins for this reason.

A certain Guo once had the idea of ​​using copper cast cannons to develop gunpowder weapons. Later, he calculated the reserves of copper he had mastered and the prospects for future economic development, and finally decisively dismissed such ideas.

The Wei Empire lacked precious metals, and even copper reserves were not so sufficient.

With the development of the economy, the Wei Empire's demand for copper coins further increased. In a sense, Dongchang was also established by Guo to avoid deflation.

He needs a professional team to mine efficiently and accurately according to his will.

The economy is developing so well, it will be interesting if deflation occurs due to insufficient currency in circulation.

Ma Yuan knew all these things, and Guo Peng had said it in the meeting with them, so Ma Yuan knew Guo Peng's desire for gold, silver and copper.

Guo is really eager for a lot of precious metals such as gold, silver and copper.

Ma Yuan also knew that in the past, China used a lot of gold in the Western Han Dynasty. There seemed to be a lot of gold at that time, but the gold disappeared later.

Ma Yuan was once puzzled by it.

Chapter 973 .980 Sanma Yuan saw himself back then

According to historical records, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty bestowed tens of thousands of catties of gold on those generals who conquered the Xiongnu.

But after arriving in Liu Xiu, the gold that heroes can get is only a few catties or tens of catties.

That is the clearly recorded [gold], not the overall concept of [gold], it is real gold.

Ma Yuan and others held a meeting to study this issue and had several brainstorming sessions, and Guo Peng also joined in.

Guo Peng’s point of view is that the gold did not disappear mysteriously, nor was the official record wrong, but that the gold was buried deep in the ground after the death of the owner who obtained it, and was taken as a funeral object and withdrawn from the circulation field.

Because a large amount of gold has been buried underground as funeral objects, there is less and less gold on the market.

Finally, it was the turn of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The amount of gold in circulation was extremely limited, so the emperor was naturally very stingy.

Mr. Guo didn't have much gold after he ruled the country. In order to get enough gold, he even sent people to Qingzhou to find gold mines.

As for things like digging graves, Guo once really wanted to let Captain Mojin, who was in charge of shit, do his job, but after thinking about it, he gave up.

It is a bit wicked to destroy someone's tomb for gold, so that they can't rest in peace.

Guo and other despicable people have done a lot of immoral things, such immoral things as digging graves should be left to those who are short of money in the future.

The economy of the Wei Empire was good, and there was no need to dig graves, so Guo felt that he would rather send people to find mines than dig graves to find gold.

But it is no secret that the Wei Empire is short of gold.

When Guo Peng rewarded the heroes, he always acted cautiously, for fear that his gold reserves would be wiped out if he acted too fiercely.

Seeing that the people of Guishuang used gold coins for circulation in a wealthy way, Ma Yuan immediately thought about it.

This is a bit interesting.

Guo Peng would be very happy if he could earn a lot of gold back.

The two sides have checked the purity of each other's gold and silver and found that the purity is close, so they are satisfied with the decision to trade gold and silver, and use the weight of pure gold and silver to measure the value of the goods.

Under the translation of the Dawan King's envoy, the two sides started a very fierce bargaining.

When it comes to bargaining, business travelers all over the world are the same, arguing endlessly, wanting to prove that their goods are better and worth more money.

Such as Shu brocade.

Ma Yuan tried his best to prove that Shu brocade was the best silk and deserved a higher price, but the merchants in Guishuang didn't think so.

Guishan people seem to be no strangers to some traditional Chinese commodities.

For example, they seem to know a lot about goods such as silk and porcelain lacquerware, saying that these things can be sold as much as they can, and they can’t be sold at a high price. If they are too expensive, they can’t make money.

The envoy of King Dawan explained that Guishuang merchants also went to the Western Regions to do business. They also went to the Central Plains of the Han Empire to do business when the Western Regions were unblocked. They have been obtaining silk and other goods in some way these years. I don't think it's strange.

That is to say, there are relatively few, so the price is so expensive. It is very difficult to continue to increase. These Guishuang merchants also want to make money, so they must lower the price.

Ma Yuan feels that he is still lacking in this aspect, and he doesn't know much about the local market, so he is easy to suffer.

So he only made a small part of the transactions with these Guishuang business travelers, and then felt that if he continued to do business, he had to learn about the local prices and transaction levels so that he could not suffer.

After getting some Guishuang gold and silver coins, Ma Yuan said that he would no longer trade and would go to Lan's City. If they wanted, they could go to Lan's City to find them.

Guishuang Business Hotel is obviously not satisfied with such a small number of transactions, so it expressed its willingness to take them into the city and arrange accommodation.

Ma Yuan felt that there was no problem, so the group arrived at the Lanshi City together, and then entered the Lanshi City under the curious gaze of the city gate guards, and arrived at the capital of the Guishuang Empire.

Ma Yuan's first impression of Lan's City was that it was dirty and messy.

Really messy.

The kind of mess that I can't get used to.

Narrow streets, low and dilapidated houses, muddy land with some water, inexplicable foul smell, and many people coming and going are even naked, and their humbleness and poverty can be seen at a glance .

Many members of the joint caravan, including Ma Yuan, frowned and covered their noses.

The air was still fresh when I passed through no man's land before, but I didn't expect to smell such an unbearable smell after entering the city.

Speaking of it, it was only a few years before such a smell could be smelled in the territory of the Wei Empire.

Guo Peng called on everyone to gather all the excrement and urine into the fertilizer needed for farming, so all states, counties and counties have built public toilets at a very fast speed.

There is also Captain Mojin who is in charge of excrement and urine, and is responsible for making manure and distributing it to various places to increase food production.

Grain production has increased, and the foul smell has gradually disappeared in populated areas.

When they were young, they could still smell the strong foul smell in the city.

People at that time didn't have that kind of concept. They threw their feces and urine on the street when they got up in the morning. The smell was really unforgettable.

But in the past few years, this kind of situation has hardly been seen. This is true for urban residents, and even more so for rural residents.

They regard feces as treasures, and they are less willing to defecate anywhere than urban residents, and are more willing to go to designated places to solve the problem of feces and urine, and then exchange for manure that can increase food production.

After many years, the cities and farms in the Wei Empire could hardly smell the foul smell, and the streets and roads became clean and tidy, and no one threw feces and urine on the streets anymore. .

After such behavior disappeared, the air naturally became fresher, and even the incense behavior of scholars and bureaucrats became a bit redundant and funny, and became a pure sense of ritual.

This is an important feature that distinguishes them from ordinary people and cannot be discarded.

As an imperial capital, Luoyang is clean, tidy, serious and fresh. At the beginning, Guo Peng's request was only to pave the main road with stone slabs, and the rest of the streets and alleys can be allowed to use straight road technology without paving stone slabs.

But later, because the budget was not spent, and the imperial officials felt the benefits of the stone road, they all thought that the imperial capital of Luoyang should be paved with stone slabs to show the status and courage of the imperial capital.

So Guo Peng nodded in agreement, and the streets and alleys in Luoyang City were covered with stone slabs.

On rainy days, you don’t have to worry about muddy muddy roads, muddy feet, and falling down after a few steps. When the weather is fine, you don’t have to worry about the strong wind blowing all over Luoyang City with flying ash, and no one knows anyone.

Living in Luoyang City is very comfortable.

Later, important cities such as Chang'an City, Yecheng City, Puyang City, and Linzi City all began to promote the paving of stone slabs.

From big cities to small cities, the main roads of many county towns have been paved with stone slabs in the past few years, which has greatly increased the cleanliness of the city.

Based on what these business travelers have seen and heard from traveling all over the country, it can even be said that any county in the Central Plains is a little cleaner and smells better than Lan's City.

The muddy road and the smell are second to none. The key lies in the people coming and going who are ragged and dirty, and are looking at their people curiously.

Watching and watching, suddenly, Ma Yuan and one of them met their eyes.

What kind of eyes are those?

curious?

No, I'm a little envious.

No, there still seemed to be numbness and sluggishness.

Ma Yuan no longer knew what was in his eyes.

But for some reason, his nose suddenly became sore, tears suddenly filled his eyes, and he almost shed tears directly.

How were these people similar to himself back then?

From these people, Ma Yuan saw himself back then.

Chapter 974 Four salty thick vegetable porridge

Ma Yuan came from a humble background, he was a lowly Li Shu through and through, without any moisture at all.

At that time, he didn't know where he was born, but later traced his roots, and he was sure that he was from Yanzhou, probably in Chenliu County.

His family has no land, and his parents are both tenants in a powerful manor. They live a tight life by farming land for the rich family to make a living.

Although he is tight, he still has something to eat and is able to live. Although he will inevitably be beaten and scolded, at least he can eat.

A bowl of dry grain, tasteless, just a piece of black pickled vegetables that tasted salty, and the family shared the food.