Chapter 335: Trade Rivals

According to the tradition since the Western Zhou, when craftsmen built a capital, the court was in front and the market at the back. The palace city of the capital sat centered and slightly to the north, while the markets were all placed in the south — that is, on the northern bank of the Wei River below the Xianyang plateau.

So after Heifu and Ba Zhong crossed the long Wei Bridge by carriage, they turned a corner, entered Changyang Street, and arrived at the southern market gate of Xianyang. A low wall enclosed the market quarters. It was said that the story of "a single word worth a thousand gold" happened right here: over a decade ago, the Lüshi Chunqiu was hung all over the market wall, inviting the whole world to point out its errors.

After Heifu presented his travel pass, the carriage entered the market. Looking out from the carriage, he saw that it was actually a long, narrow street, about three li from east to west, stretching out of sight. Both sides of the road were packed tightly with market stalls.

"The market fills at dawn and empties at dusk." The market opened during the day and closed at twilight. Though it was near evening, with only half a shichen left before trading ended, the southern market was still bustling and extraordinarily lively. An endless stream of people came to buy and sell — not only Xianyang locals, but also merchants from east of the Pass. The cries of hawkers filled the air without pause; people came and went, noisy and clamorous, and the market road was frequently jammed.

One could imagine that at its liveliest in the morning and at noon, it must have rivaled Jiangling's "fine clothes at dawn, threadbare by dusk."

Ba Zhong was a regular here. He said to Heifu, "In the past, the markets of the six other states and the Qin people's markets were separate. Now they are all merged together."

It looked somewhat chaotic, but in truth the planning was orderly.

According to Ba Zhong, the shops here were arranged by category, each located in different areas. As they traveled along, Heifu saw food stalls that had closed for the day, dog butchers packing up their stands, and shops selling silk, grain, farming tools, furs, pottery, and lacquerware — every kind of goods was available. Behind some shops, small workshops were directly connected, lined up along the Wei River, which also made transport by cart and boat convenient.

Heifu also noticed that no matter how large the shopfront or how many tens of thousands of cash they traded daily, the merchants in the market all dressed extremely plainly, basically in coarse hemp clothing. He rarely saw anyone wearing silk or clothes with embroidered patterns.

Merchants in Qin had low status and were tightly restricted by law. They were the first to be conscripted for war and corvée labor. Marrying someone registered as a merchant without reporting to the authorities could even lead to a criminal sentence. So the merchants kept an exceedingly low profile. Even Ba Zhong, whose family wealth exceeded a hundred million and whose mother had received the emperor's commendation, dared not flaunt his wealth when out and about.

While inside the market, they also had to submit to others' authority.

Ba Zhong pointed to both sides and said, "The market stalls are lined up in rows, hence they are called 'row stalls.' The merchants trading in the market are called 'market people,' registered in the market rolls. Every five households form a group, with a row chief appointed. Every li, a market pavilion is set up, a market flag is raised, and a market clerk oversees the trade."

"Therefore, as long as your cousin has not broken the law, nothing should happen."

The Ba clan also had a shop in the southern market and reported the situation here to Ba Zhong at any time, so he knew what had happened here.

"I hope so," Heifu said. Just then, Sangmu stopped the carriage — they had arrived!

This was the area that specialized in selling sugar and honey products. There was honey, there was malt sugar, and the air was thick with a sweet, fragrant scent.

The merchants here had also stopped doing business. They were all crowded outside the shop where Heifu's cousin Yan sold brown sugar, their faces full of schadenfreude.

Heifu got off the carriage and squeezed in to look. He saw a squad of soldiers sealing up the shop. Several young men from Anlu who were minding the shop stood to the side with bitter faces, while Yan followed beside the market clerk in black robes and a small cap, pleading incessantly...

"Superior Clerk, when I rented this shop, the contract was complete and bore the official seal. How can it be taken back just like that?"

"The market stalls are government land to begin with. Merchants may rent and transfer them, but someone has reported that this shop was forcibly rented, and that the goods sold here are suspicious. This clerk has come specially to inspect."

"Which bastard reported this!?"

Yan began to understand. He turned his head to look at the honey and malt sugar vendors watching the excitement, but he also spotted Heifu, who had come in plain clothes among the crowd!

Yan's face first lit up with joy, feeling that his savior had arrived, but immediately, Heifu shook his head at him.

Heifu's cousin was ultimately taken away by the market clerk. Sealed up along with him were the remaining five hundred jin of brown sugar.

Throughout the entire process, Heifu did not rashly step forward to shield him. Yan, having caught his look, never once mentioned Heifu's name from beginning to end.

This was something Heifu had instructed him from the very start: if trouble arose, he must absolutely not bring Heifu's name into it!

After the market clerk left and those honey and malt sugar vendors were contentedly closing their stalls, Heifu beckoned and called over the young men who had come with him from Anlu, leading them to a deserted spot.

"What exactly happened?"

The young men said indignantly, "Left Chief庶长, everything was going smoothly for us at first. We rented the shop that originally sold honey, and we had the contract and the authorities as witnesses..."

After hearing them out, Heifu understood the whole story. The general circumstances of this case were: the shop Yan rented originally sold honey. Because the honey supply could not keep up and the business could not continue, the owner transferred the shop to him at a fair price.

Yan and the others had been selling here for about ten days. At first, no one paid them any attention, but later business gradually picked up. They had already sold over a thousand jin of brown sugar and earned tens of thousands of cash.

Who would have thought that today, the honey seller who rented out the shop would suddenly go back on his word and actually tell the market clerk that Yan had coerced him into renting it!

This was clearly a false accusation, but the trouble was that the competing honey and malt sugar sellers nearby all came forward to testify, and they reported that the price of Yan's brown sugar was suspicious, vastly different from ordinary malt sugar. Furthermore, selling so much sugar at once surely wasted a lot of grain...

With multiple charges brought together, the market clerk thus came to seal the shop and took away Yan and several plaintiffs, intending to file a case and investigate.

Ba Zhong, having done business with his mother for many years, was long inured to such things. He laughed and said, "Gentleman of the Palace Household, your cousin has fallen victim to the jealousy of his trade rivals."

"I truly did not expect this." Heifu shook his head; instead of anger, he laughed.

Officials engaging in trade was not permitted by Qin law, so Heifu could only exploit loopholes in the statutes, registering the brown sugar enterprise under his mother's name and avoiding direct involvement as much as possible, so as not to give others grounds for criticism.

Earning money was certainly important, but risking his official career for it was not worth it.

Heifu had originally planned to have Yan present the brown sugar as tribute to the emperor, then use the fame of "Southern Commandery Tribute Sugar" to make its name. Unexpectedly, not only did the tribute fail to be presented, but Yan was also given a lecture by a minor clerk from the Lesser Treasury who handled such matters.

"Is tribute something just anyone can present?"

And then Yan was driven out.

At the time, Heifu was merely a Court Counselor and had not even met the emperor face to face. He could hardly submit a special memorial just for this matter, so he had to let it drop for the time being. He gave Yan a hundred thousand cash as operating funds and told him to try selling it in the southern market. For the next ten days, Yan was left to his own devices. Heifu was on guard duty in the palace, busy trying to divine the emperor's intentions — how could he have time to look after him?

Therefore, unless it was someone like Ba Zhong, who had far-reaching connections and had heard of Southern Commandery's sugarcane and brown sugar, Yan's trade rivals and even the market clerk had no idea of his background.

Heifu had originally had faith in Qin's laws and statutes. Yan was following the rules and making money; he never imagined that someone would actually stab him in the back like this!

He was not angry, but calmly instructed the Anlu youths on the testimony they should give when the case was heard the next day. If the law clerks handled everything by the book, Yan would certainly be cleared of the charges in this lawsuit.

Ba Zhong, however, thought to himself privately, "Those merchants, and the people behind them — this time they've really tugged on the tiger's whiskers..."

He had quelled the Ba people's rebellion on the Yi Road together with Heifu and had some understanding of his methods. Usually low-key, but when ruthlessness was called for, he did not hesitate in the slightest!

Ba Zhong also told himself that this was exactly an opportunity to show goodwill toward Heifu!

Heifu, at such a young age, was already a close minister to the Son of Heaven, with boundless prospects ahead. Strengthening ties with him would be nothing but beneficial to the Ba clan.

So, after Heifu had Sangmu take the Anlu youths to find a guesthouse to settle in, Ba Zhong took the initiative and said, "Gentleman of the Palace Household, this matter appears to be trade rivalry on the surface, but there is also someone behind the scenes secretly pulling strings! To my knowledge, their official rank and title are not low. If you let the law clerks handle the case unchecked, I fear Yan will lose!"

"Officials engaging in trade, colluding with market clerks and law clerks, squeezing out competitors, monopolizing the market?" Heifu shook his head. What a familiar scene. He never imagined that similar things happened even in the Qin dynasty.

But then again, those people — this time they had truly run headfirst into an iron wall!

He thought briefly, and soon an idea came to him...

PS: Trying to get the third chapter out before midnight.

(End of chapter)