Chapter 110 Nostalgia and Chicness
The road outside Shangyuan Village is now a wide, flat road with a layer of sand on it, extending from the bottom of the plateau to the entrance of the manor. Even in heavy rain, it will not be muddy.
The construction of this road did not cost the manor any labor or materials. It was paved with bags of sand from the villagers who came and went nearby.
On both sides of the road is the Qu Market. The villagers are used to gathering here to buy and sell daily seasonal goods. No matter what they buy or sell, they can get a fair price. Three or five chicken eggs can be exchanged for needles and thread, and one or two buckets of beans can be exchanged for salt and vinegar.
Occasionally, the weavers who finish work early think that they have worked continuously today, so they cut off two fingers of fat and fat. When they return home, their aunt-in-law praises them and their children laugh. The man even smiles and brings the wooden basin for foot bathing to the bed.
The villagers only focus on their current lives and are reluctant to rent the shops and inns along the street. However, the merchants from far away places have nowhere to stay and are worried about when the new goods will be sold. They dare not leave for a moment and can only stay for a long time.
In addition to the villagers who do business, there is another group of people who make a living here.
These people are very agile. Whenever they see strangers or regular customers coming in and out, they will approach and ask: "Brother, do you have tickets? No matter how much, I will take the highest price here! One ticket for one cloth, and I will pay you the same amount now!"
Some people who are not familiar with the market and current affairs are happy to hear that there is such a bargain. They took out the red and green patterned two-finger-wide paper in their hands and said with a smile: "I have more than ten here, are you lying? I just went to the village to sell six or seven buckets of bean materials, and the farmer stuffed them in. I was planning to use them on the road to relieve myself..."
"I want it, I want it, no matter how much, I will take it now!"
Before the man finished speaking, he was pulled out of the road. Just as he was about to struggle in panic, his arms were stuffed with A roll of cloth, the ticket was naturally taken away. He returned to the middle of the road with a confused look on his face. He looked at the coarse cloth in his arms and found it was indeed real. Then he realized it and muttered to himself: "Did I suffer a loss?"
He was not stupid. He turned around and walked to a stall selling woven baskets on the side of the road. He bent down and asked: "Brother, what is the paper issued by the village, which people call the ticket?"
"You must keep the ticket. Shangyuan Lijia Village sells goods and materials. In addition to the goods, you must also check and collect the ticket. Without this ticket, you can't buy his goods no matter how much money you have!"
The stall owner was an enthusiastic person. After hearing this, he laughed.
"So that's the case. It's useless. I don't need to buy his goods!"
The man was relieved when he heard this. He just felt that the person who used the cloth to buy the ticket was a fool. The owner of the village was also a boring person doing boring things. Could it be that you can still take out the dragon liver and phoenix courage for people to fight for? As long as the villagers have food and clothing, what else do they want?
At this time, a team of knights rushed out of the village, guarding two large carts in the middle, and went straight to a big shop outside the village.
"New products, new products!"
Seeing this scene, the originally orderly market suddenly became boiling, shouting one after another, and people ran to the big shop everywhere. The stall owner who was guarding the stall also jumped several feet high and hurriedly shouted to the stall next to him: "Help me watch the goods!"
Before he finished speaking, the stall owner had already jumped more than ten feet away.
The man who had just asked was a little dumbfounded when he saw this scene. He couldn't figure out what the madness of Shangyuan villagers was. Because he was curious, he didn't rush to get on the road, but squatted on the side of the road to see what was going on.
After another half an hour, the stall owner came back sweating, holding a carved bamboo tube in his hand. He sat down with a gloomy face and sighed to the stall owner next to him: "Unlucky, I only got one tube of apricot blossom dough. It would be better to sell the ticket!" The onlooker heard that the stall owner was in a hurry just to buy the dough, and he was immediately amused: "Brother, are you Shangyuan people too ignorant? You can't make this honey dough at home, but you have to fight for it here?" "You know shit!" The stall owner didn't get the goods he wanted, and he was in a bad mood. After hearing this, he rolled his eyes and shouted loudly at the stall: "Lizhuang apricot blossom dough, only one tube and a half catty, first come first served ! "
As soon as this was shouted out, several people nearby gathered to ask about the price. The stall owner directly quoted three times the current price. The onlooker felt that the atmosphere in this village was corrupt, and couldn't help but said: "I also have glutinous rice at home, and the price is several times lower than this thief's!"
The few people who were originally bargaining immediately surrounded the onlooker after hearing this, and each of them offered a premium to compete for it. The onlooker couldn't help but stare at this, and nodded hurriedly: "I will go home now and ask my family to make it. I will be here in the second half of the month. Let's..."
"Your family makes it yourself? Not from Lizhuang? Get out of here, don't make trouble!"
When the few people heard this, they immediately scattered, and when they turned back to the stall, the tube of apricot flower glutinous rice had been sold.
Several people were unable to buy goods, and they glared at the onlookers. Some were even rubbing their hands in anticipation. Seeing this, the onlookers hurriedly took the cloth and drove the cart away. After walking for a long time, they spat fiercely: "Mad men, Shangyuan is full of crazy people!"
He just came down from the plateau, and another person rushed out from the road next to him, pulling the carriage and whispering: "Brother, are you going to Lizhuang to sell goods? Does he have a ticket for you? One ticket for one foot of cloth, current ticket, current goods!"
The man was stunned when he heard this, and after a moment, he looked at the roll of coarse cloth under his armpit, threw it hard on the cart and roared: "I don't have it! This Shangyuan, I will never come again!"
Li Tai didn't know that a foreign guest was at a loss and almost collapsed because of his strange hometown feelings for Shangyuan, but even if he knew, he would only laugh it off.
The Kansai region has been in chaos for many years. The entire logistics trading system has collapsed severely and is almost non-existent. The social structure has almost no concept of division of labor and cooperation, and everyone is an island.
Without division of labor, cooperation and mutual needs, social development will stagnate. Lacking the motivation to change the status quo, one can only stick to the status quo and live a merry life from generation to generation.
Li Tai has already achieved considerable results in transforming the countryside. The promotion of the Quyuan plow has greatly shortened the farming cycle of the villagers. The reconstruction of the Longshou Canal has increased the crop yields along the line. How should this part of the saved manpower and increased income be utilized? , in order to achieve better results?
The villagers used to plow the fields in three days, but now they can do it in two days. This saves one day to go home and dig the ground to store more food. So what am I busy with?
Hurry up and come to my workshop to work, the real thing is to make more money!
You don’t know what to do after making money, and you’re still panicking when you hide it at home? I have a supply and marketing cooperative here. I buy new clothes and add new dishes, so I feel full of energy after a hard day's work!
This is the truth, but when he first established Qushi, Li Tai was also beating the drum in his heart. After all, the nostalgia has been here for so many years, and the villagers may still be used to hoarding grain to prepare for shortages, and they may not be willing to enjoy the present.
So at first he just wanted to buy the surplus agricultural products in the countryside and then transfer them to Huazhou, Chang'an and other cities with high demand for sale.
But when the canal market was built, Li Tai soon discovered that the desire for consumption in the village was not low. It was not that the villagers had no demand for consumption, but they just lacked a stable and continuous supply channel for goods.
Especially for some simple tool products, not everyone may know how to make them, but there is indeed a demand for them. Instead of trying to make them yourself, which is labor-intensive and expensive, it is better to buy them directly from the market.
In addition to tools and utensils, various agricultural and fresh ingredients also sell well, and are often in short supply.
After all, a better life is the most instinctive pursuit of human beings. Even if Yang Bailao is so poor, he still has to put a two-foot-long red ribbon on his daughter's head.
Of course, there is another reason that encourages people to consume their surplus, and that is that the Western Wei government, or Yuwentai's tyrant, is not the right person.
On the eve of the Battle of Shayuan in the third year of Datong in the Western Wei Dynasty, there was a great famine in Guanxi. Yuwentai ordered the expansion of households to search for grain. It was a crime to store too much grain in the house. Although a lot of grain was brought back after the capture of Hengnong, and the Battle of Shayuan was a brilliant victory, there was no talk of returning the stolen grain.
Therefore, the people in Kansai really don’t have a strong desire to hoard. It’s a serious matter to wear and eat. There is no point in saving rations for cats.
The profits from buying and selling among the villagers are not large. The essence is still to exchange what they have and what they need. No matter how short of money Li Tai was, he would not be so crazy as to make profits from it.
But this atmosphere of prosperous business can be put to good use. Everything is done from the small to the large, from the bottom up. When some rules become common sense, they have power in themselves.
The channel tickets that are copied and sold in the channel market today are this kind of product. The channel ticket is just a certificate to record the size of the contribution within the channel alliance. But when it is introduced into a supply and redemption system and is recognized by the public, it itself has a certain credit value.
Of course, it is also because Li Tai's manor can provide some high-quality goods that the channel tickets are qualified to be linked to scarcity and even have a certain degree of circulation.
With the internal recognition of Qumeng and the Qulian ticket as a qualification certificate, Li Tai has created the prototype of a business system centered on him.
As long as it can ensure its own productivity leadership and the continuous supply of high-end products, this business system will continue to expand. In short, channel tickets provided Li Tai with another means of controlling and regulating the market.
He can expand the radiation range of the canal alliance by issuing additional canal tickets and replicate the Longshou canal business in other villages. You can also use a growing market to attract sellers who possess scarce resources, such as those wealthy salt families in Hedong, or Dugu Xin, who is extremely powerful on the Hexi trade route.
Of course, the current business system is still very immature and not enough to compete with the real big players, but one day, Li Tai will be able to master the social resources that can allow him to have equal dialogue and mutual benefit with them.
He is not worried that this method will be copied and used by others in the short term. Every method has its own characteristics, and others may not be able to use it if he can.
As for the Western Wei Dynasty, it would be better to directly engage in monetary policy reform to integrate social resources than to engage in these.