Chapter 1215 Strong Competition

On December 12, the 800-li express letter from Yunzhou finally arrived in Chang'an. The messenger soldier directly sent the express letter to the Yunshuo Dudufu Jinzouyuan.

The Yunshuo Dudufu Jinzouyuan and the Yunzhou Jinzouyuan are a group of people, two signs, and the same is true for other garrison states, such as the Ganliang Dudufu Jinzouyuan, which is also the Liangzhou Jinzouyuan.

There is no need to set up a Jinzouyuan for the Dudufu alone, which is too wasteful, and the main reason is that the land price in Chang'an is too expensive.

The officials of the Jinzouyuan usually have two positions. If the memorial is sent by the state, it will of course be handed over to the Baihu Hall of the Menxia Province. If it is a memorial or express letter sent by the Dudufu, it will be handed over to the Privy Council.

The court built two large buildings outside the Danfeng Gate of the Daming Palace, one is the Baihu Hall, and the other is the external liaison hall of the Privy Council.

This is like the government hall in later generations. The memorials of each state are directly handed over to the Baihu Hall, and the memorials of each army are sent to the external liaison hall of the Privy Council.

At this time, Chang'an has been covered by a heavy snow, and the whole city is covered in silver. It is only half a month before the New Year. The whole city is filled with festive joy, and the business of each store is the best time of the year.

In the past two days, Li Ye and senior officials have been understanding the market. As Li Ye expected, after the demolition of the wall, more and more shops along the street have opened, and many shops in the East Market and the West Market have moved out. For example, more than 20 shops selling wine in the West Market have all moved to the east side of the street.

There are also livestock shops moved outside the West City. A livestock trading center has been established there, covering a large area. More than 30 shops each have four or five acres of land. A large number of pigs, cattle, sheep, donkeys, mules, horses, camels and other livestock are traded here, and the business is very hot.

It turned out that in the West Market, due to the limitation of the venue, there are much fewer choices.

Near the New Year, the best-selling is sheep, with more than 100,000 sold a day, and this is just private livestock sales for ordinary people.

The military and the official have their own sources of goods, and the quantity is even larger.

Although many shops had moved away, the West Market that Li Ye inspected was still very lively. Li Ye and Yan Zhenqing, the chief official of the Imperial Censorate, walked into a grain store. The grain store was very lively, with at least 30 people buying grain and shouting one after another.

Grain was the issue that Li Ye was most concerned about. Every winter, the price of grain in Chang'an would rise sharply. On the one hand, the grain from outside could not be imported, but more importantly, the powerful people who controlled the grain took the opportunity to raise the price.

Because the grain prices soared, the people were full of resentment, especially the military was unstable. This was a fatal matter, forcing the rulers of the Tang Dynasty to move to Luoyang.

So grain has never been a shortage problem, but a political problem, involving too many powerful interests.

But this is not unsolvable. Once the powerful people get rich benefits from other places, such as industry and commerce, they will let go of the grain price.

This is what the Song Dynasty did. The liberalization of industry and commerce made the Song Dynasty's industry and commerce extremely developed. The grain was decided by the court, and Champa rice could be introduced. The grain price was cheap and the population grew to over 100 million.

Li Ye also knew this truth. He had talked with the Guanlong nobles before. A dou of rice in Chang'an should not exceed 80 wen. This was the bottom line that he and the court could accept. He would not use the Changping warehouse if it exceeded 80 wen. Once it exceeded 80 wen, the Changping warehouse would immediately release the grain.

The shopkeeper of the grain shop recognized Li Ye and was so scared that he hurried out to salute, "Your Highness, I am here to see you!"

Li Ye nodded, "I just came to find out about the grain price casually. It will not affect your business."

Yan Zhenqing asked beside him, "What is the highest price of rice now?"

"A dou of rice is 80 wen. It has been this price since the beginning of the month. However, wheat has fluctuated. Now each dou of wheat is 60 wen, and the ground flour is about 65 wen."

"Is it the same in other shops?" Li Ye asked again.

"All the same!"

"What is the cheapest price per dou this year?"

"Three months ago, the price of rice was 60 wen per dou, which is the cheapest price this year."

"You guys are busy, I'll go look somewhere else."

Li Ye walked out of the grain store again, and Yan Zhenqing whispered: "The grain price is still controlled!"

Li Ye nodded, "I hope that after the large-scale promotion of Jiaozhou rice, the rice price can be reduced to 30 wen per dou."

Yan Zhenqing knew it was difficult, and he had to suppress the Guanlong nobles and force them not to confront the court. After Li Longji attacked the Guanlong nobles, the rice price in Chang'an fell to 10 wen per dou, which was the real prosperity, but it was a pity that the good times did not last long.

"Your Highness, I have a suggestion!"

"You say!"

Yan Zhenqing smiled and said, "We can issue a price bulletin. Every morning, we report the prices of various important items from the previous day to the Political Affairs Hall and Your Highness, so that we can keep track of them at any time."

Li Ye said happily, "I had this idea a long time ago, but I have never implemented it. Envoy Yan's suggestion is very timely. I will ask the Political Affairs Hall to discuss it tomorrow."

The reason why Li Ye did not implement it was because he wanted to create a price index. He would establish an index based on more than a dozen important daily necessities, and then observe the changes in the price index in various places, so that he could grasp the social trends of the Tang Dynasty. If the price index in a certain place suddenly becomes high, there must be a big problem. This index is very useful for the court to control the local area.

Then, Li Ye entered another cloth shop.

The cloth shop was only of medium size, but the store had a wide variety of goods, including traditional silk and linen fabrics and the latest cotton fabrics.

But the most popular ones were various fillings, especially cotton, which were placed in several huge bamboo baskets, and people were crowded on both sides.

The waiter didn't know Li Ye, but seeing Li Ye's momentum, he thought it was a big customer. The waiter smiled and introduced: "Welcome to our store. We have been in business for forty years and we are honest!"

Li Ye pointed to the cotton in the big basket and said with a smile: "How much is the cotton now?"

The waiter scratched his head and said: "Sir, this is loose cotton. If you have a large quantity, you can get a discount!"

"I just want to ask about loose cotton!"

At this time, the shopkeeper ran up and pushed the waiter away. Although he didn't know Li Ye, he saw the guards on both sides and hurriedly said respectfully: "Your Highness, loose cotton is 500 coins per catty ! ”

“Only 500 coins?”

Li Ye asked in confusion: “It was still one guan last year, how come it has dropped by half this year?”

The shopkeeper smiled bitterly and pointed to the baskets of cotton at the edge and said: “Is it because of them?”

Li Ye walked up to take a closer look. He twisted the cotton fibers and his heart moved, so he smiled and said: “Is this wood cotton?”

“Yes! This is the wood cotton shipped from Quanzhou. It only costs 300 coins per catty. It’s simply killing people!”

Yan Zhenqing next to him was really shocked. Cotton has always been sold by liang, and it is a welfare only for officials. Officials are given more than ten liang of cotton every year. Now it is sold by jin, and it is so cheap, only 300 coins per catty.

Li Ye asked again: “Where did you get the goods from?”

The shopkeeper shook his head, “I bought this for 300 coins per catty. They have set up several specialty stores, the first one in the north and the two opposite.”

“Let’s go! Let’s take a look.”

Li Ye took Yan Zhenqing out.