In the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627), Huang Taiji had just succeeded to the throne, and a serious snow disaster broke out in Houjin.
And this snow disaster is tantamount to making things worse.
At that time, there was a shortage of grain, cloth, cattle and horses and other living materials in the entire Houjin, and the grain merchants of the Eight Banners nobles were hoarding strange goods, which made the grain of Houjin soar.
Huang Tai Chi
In the worst cases, it took eight taels of silver to buy back a bucket of rice, and as for cattle, it was one hundred and one taels, and the horses were even more expensive, three hundred taels and one horses:
When there was a great hunger in the country, the price of one gold bucket grain was eight taels of silver. There are cannibals among the people. At that time, although there were many silver taels in the country, there was nowhere to trade, and silver was cheap and everything was expensive. A good horse, worth three hundred taels of silver. Strong bull one, worth silver one guess two. One fetish satin, worth one hundred and fifty taels of silver. Mao Qingbu one, which is worth nine taels of silver. Thieves swarmed, stole cattle and horses, and killed people to the point of chaos in the country - "Manchu Old Files"
As for the treasury of Huang Taiji, the same is true, all kinds of materials are in short supply, even the cotton cloth is less than a thousand horses, if you don't get through this difficulty, I'm afraid that there will be no Houjin.
Therefore, Huang Taiji first temporarily stabilized the situation, and then sent people to do business, purchased materials, and appropriately relaxed the restrictions on business.
Fortunately, compared with the basic materials, Houjin is still relatively rich in gold and silver, after all, after so many years of looting, the treasury has piled up a lot of silver, which is just taken out to buy materials, and the ginseng and mink skins in Liaodong are also in demand, and they are very popular outside the customs.
The last thing that Houjin lacks is ginseng
As for the object of trade, it is naturally the Mongolia.
In this way, Huang Taiji ordered people to bring a large amount of silver, mink, ginseng and other Liaodong specialties to trade with the Mongolia along the Great Wall, and bought back horses, cloth, tea, grain and other materials.
As we all know, the most that Mongolia can provide is horses, cloth, tea and grain, which are basically materials produced in the Ming Dynasty, and mink and ginseng are also the best-selling items in the Ming Dynasty.
In other words, the Later Jin was essentially trading with the Ming Dynasty, and the Mongolia played the role of intermediaries between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin.
At that time, Houjin sold a large amount of ginseng and mink to the Mongolians, and the Mongolians sold them to Ming merchants, turned back to buy grain, cloth, and tea from the Ming Dynasty, and sold them to Ming merchants to earn the difference.
At that time, the profit of the difference in price earned was extremely high, for example, Liaodong ginseng was about six taels a catty, but through the Mongolia to sell it, the price to the Ming Dynasty merchants was as much as fifteen taels.
Of course, these things were carried out in private, after all, the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Ming Dynasty were still hostile on the surface.
The situation in the seventh year of the Apocalypse
But soon, the situation changed, and it was soon known to the imperial court.
In the fifth year of Chongzhen (1632), Emperor Taiji sent troops to take control of the Naturalization City, which was built by Litan Khan during the Longqing period, and since its completion, it has become a trading center between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolians, and another trading point is Zhangjiakou.
Now naturalized is occupied by the Later Jin, which also means that the Later Jin controls the trade between Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, Huang Taiji was not satisfied, in June of the same year, he besieged Xuanfu, Xuanfu was defeated, Xuanfu Governor Shen Di, and the general soldier Dong Jishu secretly made peace with Huang Taiji, and Huang Taiji also needed this trade port, so he agreed.
In this way, the Houjin easily controlled the two trade routes of Guihua City and Zhangjiakou, and also effectively controlled the trade along the Great Wall.
Every time he traded, Houjin sent caravans to Zhangjiakou with Liaodong specialties in exchange for silver, and bought living materials, and then bought horses from the Mongolians in Naturalized City, which was equivalent to cutting off the way for Mongolian dealers to make money.
However, Chongzhen soon discovered Shen Di's private trade behavior and was furious, after all, how different is this behavior from a capital enemy?
He was immediately ordered to be arrested and banned from trading with Houjin.
Trade merchants
In this way, Houjin could no longer trade directly, and could only trade through the white gloves of the Mongolia, allowing the Ao Han Department and the old Chahar people to go to Zhangjiakou to replace the Houjin trade.
Of course, on the surface, it was just that the Mongolia "preempted" this trade channel in order to fool the Ming Dynasty.
After this incident, the Ming Dynasty also began to take precautions and regulated the trade activities of Zhangjiakou.
Is it just that the norm works? The goods traded in Zhangjiakou eventually returned to Houjin's hands.
Seeing that Houjin could still obtain supplies, there began to be voices of restrictions and liberalization in the Ming Dynasty.
The representative of the restriction was Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of the Xuanfu, who believed that the Mongolia and the Jurchens had a close relationship and that mutual markets should be restricted to prevent supplies from flowing into Houjin's hands.
However, Wei Guozheng, the eunuch of Xuanfu Town, said that it should be released, after all, there was a Zhangjiakou mutual market before, and Datong had a good horse, which is the benefit of the mutual market, and it can also be exchanged for gold and silver as military salaries, that is, "collecting horses for war and suppression, and gathering goods for the benefit of soldiers and people."
Mutual market
So what's the limit? Just take precautions.
It can be said that the imperial court strictly forbade trade on the surface, but it continued to do so in private.
And Huang Taiji also understood that he could not do too much and overstimulate the Ming Dynasty, so he tried to trade with the Ming Dynasty in the name of the Karaqin Department of Mongolia, just to prevent the trade network he had built up with great difficulty from being destroyed, and even to cover up the truth with the local officials of the Ming Dynasty.
After all, without these materials, how can Houjin survive?
It's just that every time it's a large-scale trade, it can't be hidden, and soon someone reported to the imperial court, mentioning the fact that the magistrate and the Houjin were secretly traded.
In fact, in addition to the Karaqin Ministry, there were also Tumut Ministries, and even Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Xuanda, encouraged trade with the Tumut Ministry.
As for Chongzhen? To be honest, I also understand the truth of this mutual market, and I also know that behind the Karaqin Department and the Tumut Department is the Houjin.
But there was no way, after all, at this time, in addition to the external enemy of Houjin, there was also a peasant uprising inside.
On the one hand, he didn't have a military salary for the border defense of Xuanda, so he couldn't starve them, and in order to stabilize the border defense of Xuanda, he could only acquiesce to their trade.
On the other hand, the primary purpose of the Ming Dynasty now is to encircle and suppress the rebel army, but also to guard the Guanning defense line, if it is restricted, the Houjin will inevitably loot from the Xuanda line, and the Ming Dynasty is unable to divide the forces to guard the Xuanda defense line, so it can only be resigned.
So now you get it? There has never been any suggestion that the eight major Jin merchants privately colluded with Houjin.
If there is really collusion, then behind them are Emperor Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng, Yang Sichang and others.
Chongzhen was also very helpless
And even if there are no Jin merchants, with the ability of Huang Taiji, a new trade network can still be built, but it will take a little time.
This is Chongzhen's helplessness and predicament, he actually knows that this is cutting meat to feed the tiger, but compared to the tiger of Houjin, Chongzhen and the court are most worried and guarded against, in fact, it is still the peasant army, after all, they are really going to change the dynasty.
As for Houjin? The court thought that the situation was at most the same as that of the Song Liao or Song and Jin dynasties.
Therefore, Chongzhen explicitly ordered that he was only allowed to exchange markets with Karaqin, but secretly asked Yang Sichang to "try to secretly" and allowed trade with the Tumut Ministry (behind which is Houjin).
The inconsistencies are undoubtedly the cause of Chongzhen's vanity of dying to save face and suffering sin.
At this time, Karaqin had completely become a vassal of Houjin, acting as the white glove of the imperial Taiji in the frontline trade, on the surface it was the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolia trade, but behind each trade, the emperor Taiji sent people in the rear, and the Mongolians negotiated in the foreground.
It can be said that Chongzhen actually knew it for a long time, but there was really no way, the Xuanda defense line had to be stabilized, but he owed the border army salaries, and only trade could solve it.
Of course, in addition to the factor of stabilizing the Xuanda defense line, more importantly, the masters behind the trade between Guihua City and Zhangjiakou involve too many people.
All princes, nobles, high-ranking officials, and almost all the dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty were actually involved, and the so-called Jin merchants were just their white gloves.
How did a group of businessmen trade with the Houjin and Mongolia under the noses of a group of bureaucrats? After all, trade is a big commodity, very conspicuous, who has the ability to open up these relationships?
Only the nobles and civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty had such abilities and means, and perhaps Chongzhen sent eunuchs to participate in it, such as Wei Guozheng, who supported the opening of the border trade, was Chongzhen's henchman eunuch.
So there are a lot of travel texts, and the thing that must be done in the late Ming Dynasty is to copy the home of the Jin merchants, but they don't know that behind these Jin merchants are all Manchu nobles, taking people's money and property like killing their parents, if they really do this, Chongzhen is afraid that he will also go to the story of falling into the water and dying.
Is there a so-called Eight Jin Merchants?
Jin merchants did get a little close to the Later Jin in the late Ming Dynasty, but they were far less important than the descendants said, as for the origin of the eight Jin merchants, it may be from the eight merchants of the Later Jin itself.
After the establishment of the Later Jin Dynasty, Nurhachi set up a market in the south of the city of Hetuara to trade, and later moved the capital to Liaoyang, and continued to expand the scale of trade.
As for those who could participate in trade, it was carried out by the Han people who belonged to the Eight Banners of Manchuria, and the prices of the goods were also set by the Niu Lu of the Eight Banners.
It can be said that trade at this time was essentially monopolized by the magnates of the Eight Banners, and ordinary Jurchens and Han Chinese could not trade privately without permission.
However, in the period of Huang Taiji, due to the shortage of natural and man-made materials, the restrictions were appropriately relaxed, ordinary people were allowed to trade, and eight markets were opened in Shengjing City, so it had the title of "Eight Gates City", and the Eight Banners sent their own banners to manage it.
But at this time, the task of the Eight Banners was to go on the expedition, and naturally the ordinary soldiers of the Eight Banners would not be allowed to play the role of merchants, so at this time, there were people who were specifically responsible for trade, and these people were mainly Han people, and they also had a new title, that is, "Eight Banner Merchants", and also had the title of "Eight Merchants":
As for the Wangjing trade, those who are not complete have nothing to offer. Because mainland businessmen pretended to trade with horses, they deliberately did not hand over to the market. In order to follow the preface, he ordered eight merchants to trade together. "The number of the eight merchant teams who went to trade in Korea was in the hundreds-"Records of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty"
With the expansion of the Later Jin Dynasty, the trade scope of the eight merchants was not only limited to the Later Jin Dynasty, but covered the vast area from Saibei to Korea, and naturally became the backbone of foreign trade during the Huang Taiji period.
Steppe trade routes
Of course, foreign trade, naturally inevitably and activities in the north of the Jin merchants contact, the two sides will definitely trade, naturally there will be exchanges, it just so happens that the "eight merchants" have "eight", in order to spread falsehood, there is a "eight Jin merchants" said.
In other words, there are Jin merchants among the eight merchants, but it cannot be said that the eight merchants are equal to the eight Jin merchants.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the Jin merchants, as the earliest merchants to contact, and traded more with the Mongolians, naturally they would be treated differently and act as middlemen in the trade between the Qing Dynasty and the Mongolians.