Chapter 523: Shopkeeper Wu's Daily Life (III)

The Transmigrators first used dumping to collapse the old salt industry structure, then leveraged their own massive military force as a guarantee to forcibly establish a new market mechanism.

Regarding the new rules, the strongest enforcement was naturally in Guangzhou City, right under the Transmigrators' noses. As for the counties, due to the short time and blocked transportation and information, many places are still in a chaotic state of transition between old and new.

However, Zengcheng County was an exception. Riding on a wave of bandit suppression, the local power bases capable of opposing Regional Commander Cao were now either wiped out or scattered, their remaining influence cowed into silence. Overnight, the county became so peaceful that lost items were returned and people lived in joy, so the new commercial order, including the salt trade, was implemented very smoothly.

Commercial demand plus safe roads — these two reasons were also the preconditions that prompted Shopkeeper Wu to personally lead a team to the He Family Basin this time.

After both sides finished weighing the salt goods on the drying ground inside the stockade, Steward He tossed aside a handful of refined salt in his hand, then contentedly stroked his beard and nodded in praise: "All top-grade goods, and the price is fair. Brother, you've put thought into this!"

"Heh heh, consider this a New Year's gift, so naturally I have to restrain myself a bit," Shopkeeper Wu immediately seized the opening to press his advantage.

Because the He Family Stockade was located in a remote area, all news usually arrived late, so the people here were certainly not very clear about the commercial landscape in the county seat. The seasoned Shopkeeper Wu would definitely not tell them that salt prices had actually already fallen, that supply was abundant, and that it was now an era where distribution channels were king.

After inspecting the salt goods, next came the farming tools.

Previously, because the Crossing Regime was unwilling to use industrial products to crush the existing traditional handicraft industry, the farming tools produced in the Kiln District were basically used only within the island, rarely sold outside.

However, this situation had loosened somewhat with the new establishment of the Guangzhou Special District.

Considering the imminent construction of a local steel plant and the opening of a series of metal processing enterprises, the Transmigrators were now beginning to test-market a small amount of metal products locally in Guangzhou, with farming tools making up the majority.

The intention behind this was very clear: to build a reputation for Yizhou metal products among the broad farming populace, and incidentally create survival pressure for the traditional handicraft metal processing industry, preparing for the next step of absorbing these people.

Thus, with Shopkeeper Wu's arrival, the farmers of the He Family Stockade saw steel farming tools for the first time in their lives.

The hoes, forged and pressed from high-carbon steel, gleamed with a layer of dull gray metallic luster, their blades sharp, their thickness specifications completely identical, looking very different from traditional handmade goods in appearance.

In addition, there were steel shovels gleaming with a blue light, looking thin but incredibly tough and sharp, as well as axes and a batch of other high-grade farming tools.

Upon learning that this batch of farming tools was Yizhou goods made of fine steel, the stockade side immediately conducted an on-site test. The results went without saying — traditional wrought iron farming tools were no match at all.

He Renzhong now nodded again with a beaming smile, expressing his willingness to pay silver, even though the price of this batch of farming tools was a bit higher than ordinary goods.

After the inspection and acceptance of the two most important strategic goods, what remained were some daily necessities. These daily necessities did not need to be purchased collectively by the stockade; instead, they were opened up for each household to buy on their own.

By this period of 1631, the Transmigrators' penetration into this plane had grown deeper and deeper, and the most representative aspect of this was these unique goods produced in the Kiln District.

Just as foreign matches, foreign cigarettes, and foreign iron nails once sold throughout our Qing Dynasty, the Transmigrators' specialty products — thermoses, oil lamps, lamp oil, sewing needles — had long been sold by merchants to every corner of the globe. Even in a stockade in a remote corner of the Great Ming, people were no strangers to these uniquely wonderful goods.

At this moment, the He clan members who had rushed over from the stockade had already surrounded the drying ground until it was impenetrably packed. Every household was selecting goods from the merchant caravan, and smiles spread across the rough faces of the men and women.

But overall, the consumption power of farmers was still very low. For these farming households, the most popular goods were, without a doubt, sewing needles, denim, and candles — commodities with acceptable prices.

Sewing needles go without saying; they were precisely the kind of commodity that best showcased the achievements of industrialization. In addition, denim and khaki cloth, spun from Jiangnan and Indian cotton, were also among the farming households' favorite goods.

Ancient homespun cloth, due to technological reasons, including the so-called Songjiang cloth sold everywhere, all shared one characteristic: a smooth, flat surface. The looped towels familiar to later generations, or fuzzy knitted underwear, socks, and other such fabrics, were things the ancients could not weave.

For the same reason, sturdy, wear-resistant, and comfortable-to-wear fabrics like denim and khaki were also welcomed by the Ming people from the very first moment.

Yet even ordinary cloth was not cheap for bottom-tier farming households. So after hesitating for a long while, the men and women could at most buy enough material for one outfit for the family breadwinner, unable to buy much.

The silver coins in their pockets were always limited. Even though life this year had inexplicably become a tiny bit easier, the farming households still could not afford too many things. After buying some cloth remnants and a tube of sewing needles, that was about it.

As for high-grade goods in limited quantities like oil lamps and thermoses, the ultimate consumers were still the upper echelons of the He Family Stockade, represented by the stockade master's family.

Today the stockade master was absent. As a trusted clansman, He Renzhong naturally knew the stockade master's household needs, so he took it upon himself to buy the oil lamps, most of the superior Yizhou smokeless white wax candles, lighters, two thermoses, and also the kerosene.

Seeing that the goods he had brought were just perfectly consumed by the He Family Stockade, Shopkeeper Wu was also content and at ease: this demonstrated his precise prediction of the He Family Stockade's consumption level. Without years of experience traveling through villages and stockades and familiarity with the He Family Stockade, one could not have assembled such a suitable selection of goods.

After the goods were sold, load after load of grain and mountain goods were carried out from the storehouse by the farming households. After the merchant caravan side accepted a portion according to their transport capacity limit, the remaining payment was all converted into silver, settled clearly between Steward He and Shopkeeper Wu.

After this entire set of procedures was fully completed, a whole afternoon had already been used up. What followed next was the relaxed and pleasant dinner time.

The caravan workers received sorghum liquor and some meat, while Shopkeeper Wu and Steward He, this pair of old brothers, went to Steward He's home. He's wife prepared a few dishes, and then Steward He brought out a jar of aged brew from the inner room.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, Shopkeeper Wu, smiling broadly, pulled out two equally large wooden jars from his pouch: "Old brother, today try this Yizhou light beer I brought. This brew has a name — it's called Jingniang Jiasibo. It tastes good and doesn't give you a headache when you drink it."

"Light beer? I've never heard of that, but since it comes from Yizhou, it must be good. Then today, your big brother here will impose on you for a meal, little brother, heh heh."