Chapter 864: Free Trade Zone Under Ross

A short autumn rain suddenly dissipated the remaining heat of summer. The sky no longer rained but was no longer slightly warm. The sky was filled with dark clouds and the cool breeze from the Arctic was like a warning from the gods.

Winter is coming!

Fortunately, farmers around Lake Malaren are always afraid of sudden frosts during the harvest season, and they even complete the wheat harvest before the rains.

The rain did temporarily disrupt the thoughts of people who wanted to sell grain. Regardless of whether the shelling was completed or not, even the oat straws that were still in bundles were temporarily stored in the barn behind their homes.

When the land became dry again, threshing operations resumed.

Farmers around the Great Lakes are extremely looking forward to this year's harvest season, not only because this year's harvest is not bad, but also because all farmers have gained an unprecedented power! That is, he personally rowed a boat carrying food to the "Malaren Market" that was once again renamed Stockholm.

In the past, if you wanted to enter a big market to sell grain, you had to pay a tribute to the market manager after the ship docked, and then you had to pay another tribute to set up a stall. In the past, to deal with this situation, the grain seller and the buyer would naturally discuss the transaction on the lake and save a sum of tribute money.

However, foreign grain sellers have to go to the commercial street of the largest market to buy a batch of daily necessities, so the ship has to dock. At least the "landing tax" is unavoidable.

To be fair, the past rulers of the Melalen tribe did not have a harsh attitude towards paying taxes. Any ruler hopes that the largest market under his rule will become more prosperous, but I heard that the Russians have developed a new taxation model in the northern fur market. It is said that all foreign merchants want to leave with the purchased fur goods. , it is impossible to leave without paying a "departure tax". At that time, the Ross tribe controlled the fjord. As long as the fleet guarded the exit of the fjord, foreign merchants could not leave without paying taxes.

Since the nobles of Ross did this, the leader of Melalen, as the leader of the tribal alliance, should also follow suit.

The supreme power of the Melalen tribe has been transferred three times in the past ten years. The rulers have changed again and again, and the inventions for taxation have also increased.

As a result, small traders may not be able to afford the high taxes or feel that paying taxes is unnecessary. Since this market does not welcome everyone, it is better to row out of the big lake and go to the Tombstone Island Market of the Ross people to do business. Of course, Russians also have to collect taxes, but the taxes are much lower. What’s more, the Russians can offer more interesting products.

In the final days when Stockholm was still called Birka, the market's trade structure changed quietly.

The small traders have disappeared one after another. The merchants who are still doing business here are not only powerful but also from well-off families. They had the financial resources to pay tribute taxes and fees, and still earn financial resources on this basis.

Any ruler hopes that there will be more and more people with financial resources and they will stay in the trading port for a long time. They have wealth and generally have a noble status. They need more slaves, more enjoyment, and strange things to decorate themselves with.

These people are the consumers of Ross spirits, glassware, and precious leather goods.

Most of them also have another identity - suppliers of bulk agricultural products.

The area around Lake Mälaren has a large population, which is an advantage. Her disadvantages are also considerable, including lack of minerals and lack of technology.

There are two key products that local nobles can produce: grain and flax stalks. Among them, food is the most important. The so-called grains are also divided into two types, oats and rye, of which oats have the largest yield.

The economy around Lake Malaren is based on oats, or the economy of any ancient civilization is based on food. It is a fundamental element of survival and a currency.

The situation in Sweden is special. People who cannot farm can still survive by fishing. After all, once they have the opportunity, they still have to get as much oats as possible. This is because in Northern Europe, where the weather is cold for most of the year, oats that are protected from moisture can be stored for three years.

Although in the Swedish area around Lake Mälaren, various tribes have been cultivating wheat in the past hundreds of years, it has only been in the past ten years that food has been exported as a commodity on a large scale.

The small farmers in the tribe all know that as long as they successfully sell their surplus grain to truly generous buyers, they can get good things and improve their lives.

The small farmers thought so, and the big nobles of the tribe should think so too.

Who are the big buyers of grain in the Lake Malaren region? He is a Russian, not even one of them!

More than ten years ago, merchants from Lake Mälaren who came as far as the Rossberg Fjord rarely delivered food to the local area. Because the Rus have long controlled the fishing industry in the Gulf of Bothnia, they have a small population and can fully meet their own needs by fishing. What's more, the Rus people also have a secret known only to a few nobles in the Melalen region - they have connections with certain people in the far east.

Until great changes occurred in the Ross tribe, and later those secrets were revealed to the world.

The Russians suddenly had a huge need for food and were willing to bypass currency transactions and directly exchange leather and iron for food.

This made the big landed aristocrats who had a lot of surplus grain in their hands overjoyed!

In the past, the grain trade in the Lake Malaren region was mainly about regulating the grain reserves of various tribes. Suddenly, the Russians, who had disappeared for a long time, came back. When they came back, they had iron tools and leather in their left hands, and they stretched out their right hands to ask for food.

On the one hand, the landed aristocrats stepped up their efforts to exploit their own tenant farmers, and on the other hand, they also invested in purchasing farmers' grain. They often set an extremely low purchase price, and the nobles from all parties work together to exploit the farmers, then try to negotiate a high price with the Russians to sell them.

Peasants who lack financial resources want to go to the big markets to do business directly with the Russians. They are willing to sell their surplus grain at low prices, but the taxes and fees at the big markets, which are indifferent to big businessmen, are unbearable for farmers' families. So light.

The land aristocrats and pure merchants around Lake Mälaren controlled the trading rights of the largest market in Mälaren. Instead of using force, they relied on their own wealth, paid taxes according to the rules of the ruler, and used legal means to sell goods to those who lacked financial resources. People are excluded.

The business atmosphere has evolved like this. Isn't it also a harm to the Russians, the largest and almost the only grain buyers?

Every year, the Principality of Ross purchases up to one million pounds or more of oats in the Mälaren region. Wouldn't it be a great thing if it could be imported at a low price every year?

As a ruler, Rurik must do this for the sake of stability, because his population is exploding on a large scale. Children who could feed only a few supplies in the past are now growing rapidly. It is said that it is true that a young man will eat me to death. The population of young children has reached 20,000, but the farmland area cannot keep up. If Ross cannot obtain a large amount of food from other places, famine may occur in Ross itself.

Although the current situation in Russia has improved, the population, food output, and consumption are all floating. At this stage, Ross still needs to import grain to insure itself.

Rus's merged with Sweden to form a larger Rus' kingdom. The former Malaren Market was eventually renamed Stockholm. As the owner of the traditional market, Rurik could finally control the entire Swedish region according to his own wishes. Grain trading.

As a king, do you really want to continue to maintain close grain transactions with all land merchants? It is completely possible to achieve end-to-end flat processing with those farmers, which means that farmers who intend to sell food can directly deliver the food to the king.

Stockholm has been tax-free for ten years, and anyone can do business as long as they bring their goods!

At the beginning, the king took over the trade market and purged most of the gangsters. This was to establish his authority by killing people. Then came the king's armed parade, which was a further shock. Third, the fishing villages in Stockholm were cleansed, allowing the merchants to do all their bad things. The king acted as a mediator to persuade the big merchants and landowners to retreat, thereby creating trade space for civilian transactions.

After a fierce operation, the ruins of the fishing village were gone, and an open space was designated as a "free trade zone" by King Rurik.

In this area, any farmer who is able to row over with surplus grain can sell it openly in this area. Fishermen can carry a sack of grain directly to the purchasing station with the flag flying. After weighing the grain on a huge scale, they can change hands and get silver and copper coins. After the farmers got the coins, they did not have to leave immediately. They could go directly to another stall set up by the king and buy various ironware and salt on the spot.

This is not an idea, it is a reality!

The security forces trained by Governor White Fox changed their outfits. At first glance, they really became Ross's regular army.

The free trade zone is a protrusion deep into the lake. The king's men help these farmers who sell grain to look after their boats for free. The farmers sell the grain to pay back the money and then buy daily necessities. As long as they don't hold back, the transaction can be completed in a short time.

The area quickly became crowded, but thefts and robberies occurred on the first day.

Because the farmer suddenly got hold of a silver coin of real value, he deliberately showed it off when he was happy. The person who committed the robbery was also a farmer. It is not inconceivable that the coin had evil intentions in front of his eyes, but the Ross Navy and the security guards patrolling the trade area The troops are on guard against this.

"Doing this in the area I am responsible for? Is this humiliating me? Then I will kill your whole family!"

Bai Hu also felt malicious in his heart, and signaled to his subordinates that the captured gangsters would be brought to justice immediately.

Although he brought his own surplus grain to sell, because he suddenly stole other farmers' money, it ended in a tragedy that the whole family was beheaded.

The public execution shocked the entire trading place. The headless corpse was deliberately hung up by the White Fox police to scare everyone, and the trading place became extremely orderly.

Farmers from multiple tribes now completely bypass the local nobles and do not care about the attitudes of their neighbors. They paddled their own boat straight to the duty-free Stockholm Free Trade Zone.

Although the King put up a sign written in runic letters, the so-called purchase price this year was one silver coin and fifteen pounds of oats.

This is a very low purchase price, but smart farmers can still make a profit after calculating. Some people have never even been to Stockholm. At that time, they had no money to pay the "landing tax", so they could only take a look at the big market from a distance and leave in a hurry. Because tribal fishing boats from far away are not allowed to fish in the waters of the Melalen people, wouldn't staying for a long time be stealing fish?

Farmers from far away who lacked financial resources brought out at most about 200 pounds of oats. Due to the time and climate, these oats were not even properly dried. They were generally a bit damp. So the Russians announced a very low purchase price. It is the farmers who are at fault.

If they simply sold their grain, the farmers would feel that they were at a slight loss, but when they saw the various ironware produced by the Russians and their selling prices, they all burst into laughter.

I have long heard that the price of ironware sold by the Russians was low, but when big businessmen bought it and transported it to more remote settlements, the price immediately skyrocketed.

Farmers from small tribes living in remote areas often have to trade half a year's harvest for an iron axe, so many families still use a large number of stone and wooden tools.

Mass-produced cast axes are priced from three silver coins to ten silver coins depending on the width of the axe. It is cast into an embryo by molten iron in a blast furnace, and then calcined at high temperature to lose carbon on the surface and turn into carbon steel. After natural cooling, the blade is roughly polished and then quenched, and it is ready for the market. The processing cost of this kind of ax has become quite low due to the scale effect. It is naturally completely inappropriate as a weapon and is completely sufficient for the needs of people's production and life.

Farmers would buy small hand axes for only three silver coins. On one side is a roughly polished ax blade, on the other is a flat hammer head, with a cheap wooden handle stuck into the center hole of the ax head. You can buy a pretty good hand ax for about fifty pounds of oats. You have to remember that in the past, when I bought axes from unscrupulous merchants, at least 400 pounds of oats were gone, and the quality was definitely not as good as that of the Russians.

Ever since the first earthen blast furnaces in Rus began to flow molten iron, the overall cost of casting iron has become increasingly lower.

The iron ax is the first iron tool needed by people everywhere, because everyone needs a tool that fits their hands to cut wood. The second iron tool is the spearhead, but I don't know if this iron tool can only be used as a harpoon or a short spear for hunting. With a little modification, it can become a very cost-effective war weapon. It is still made of cast iron, and its performance is completely different from the carbon steel spear used by Ross's military. Although the price is higher than the axe, sales are still booming.

For those farmers from small tribes, they now have no right to be picky. They didn't feel that they had been cheated. Since the king was willing to sell, they immediately exchanged grain for it. This ordinary life has been improved successfully, and when encountering enemies, it is much better for all the people to be equipped with iron spears and axes than in the past.

White Fox and Rurik witnessed the grand occasion of the free trade zone. Since the grain trading started this year, a large amount of grain has entered Ross's warehouse.

Those farmers showed a very strong desire to trade and looked for Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan. com Now they are busy buying ironware to improve their lives. Once their production efficiency is improved due to ironware, they will be able to create more surplus wealth, and they will be able to purchase higher-value Russian goods. Who would be willing to live in poverty from generation to generation? Who doesn’t want to enjoy life every day like those big landowners?

Rurik entrusted this matter to the White Fox. Regarding the direct transactions between the king and the common people, the White Fox was responsible for this matter and it was actually the governor's responsibility.

Rurik himself is not idle either. This is the first year of trading with farmers, and it is not the bulk of the grain trade this year.

The real grain trade is between the king and the landed nobles, and this year it involves the delivery of eight standard armed cargo ships. The nobles owned a large amount of fertile land, and they also had a large number of serfs and tenant farmers. The larger the tribe, the smaller the proportion of the population of farmers. Therefore, the people who come to sell food in the free trade zone are all from small tribes, and there are some farmers from large tribes, but not many.

In the Mälaren region, the largest trade in grain and flax is still the direct trade between Ross and the local landed aristocrats.

King Rurik himself took action in this matter.

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