If it is a kingdom, it is enough to roughly deal with the state gifts. When Chu surrendered to the Emperor of Zhou, the tributes were nothing more than buds and peach wood bows, which had more symbolic meaning than actual value. But for an empire like the Peacock Empire, other countries came to pay tribute and give gifts, not to mention triple returns, but double returns should be the same, otherwise how could the empire face?

After politely asking Lu Zhu and others to go down and rest, the prince Ermoti, who had been happy and turned from sorrow, began to fall into a state of embarrassment similar to the later Chinese Empire: he was afraid of tribute. For the Celestial Kingdom, tribute was actually a very disadvantageous thing, and even a bit cunning barbarian who wanted money (such as the Ryukyu Kingdom of the Ming Dynasty) came to pay tribute and cheated back the gifts again and again.

The Chuni gave more than 100 million silver panas to the state gift, and the empire would always give 200 million silver panas to the return gift, so that the empire could show the wealth and generosity. But how could the empire have 200 million silver panas to the empire? If you really want to give rice and cotton to the Chuni, unless the entire Indian granary is empty, you will not be able to get all the return gifts.

"Your Highness, the Chuni people come from afar. Perhaps in the Chuni country, these silks are not expensive." In the chamber, the Chancellor of the Finance Minister, Kaliland, suggested. "One million silver panas may only be ten million silver panas."

"It's really that way?" Ermoti had an epiphany. The country of Chuni produced silk, and the price would not be too high.

"It must be like this." Secretary of State Krishna insisted, and he pushed: "Maybe only only five million silver phanna."

"Five million silver pants?" Ermoti breathed a sigh of relief. Five million silver pants were already very small, and it was too small to be able to overcome the empire's face. He decided to say, "Let's prepare to return the gift with ten million silver pants, and it cannot be less."

"Yes." The ministers also breathed a sigh of relief. Ten million silver parsleys were still a lot, but if you gave more agate, turquoise, crystal gems, spices, etc., it would not be much more. As for the rice and cotton cloth that the Chunis wanted, the ten million silver parsleys minus those gems and spices, the amount needed would not allow the empire to clear the warehouse.

Lu Zhuo, Shen Yinshang and others temporarily rested in Wuyou Palace. The palace was a brick and wood structure rather than a common rammed earth and wood structure in China. The palace was not built on a high platform, and there were no Mingtang, general secretary, central court, etc. There were no temple people in the palace, and all the people served were palace maids. Their move to take off their shoes and enter the room was stopped by the palace maids. Unless they went to bed in the palace, they did not need to take off their shoes unless they went to bed.

Palaces, utensils, and palace maids all show that this place is a foreign country. Fortunately, Lu Zhuo had several ministers. Under the service of these ministers, he drank the tea from Chu again, and Shen Yinshang and others drank Persian wine. Everything was very comfortable, and only the chairs under their butt made them very uncomfortable - in India, chairs can only sit for people with status, and people without status sit on the ground. Although they don’t like it, they can follow the local customs. Lu Zhuo, Shen Yinshang, and Wu Sixing can only sit on the chairs.

"When will we meet the king when we meet the heavenly loves and see the king?" The accompanying minister called Anazhou. He kept welcoming everyone to the palace of Fahrenheit City, and they were already very familiar with each other.

"Sorry, Tian Aixi saw that the king was unwell and could not meet him." Anazhou looked regretful.

"Can my subordinates go to the big market?" Lu Zhuo asked again. Living in the palace is not good, at least the market is not convenient. He urgently needs to understand the prices in India.

"Of course." Anazhou immediately called two servants, who would take Buji to the market in Fahrenheit.

The extremely narrow and long city of Hua, the market is surrounded like the State of Chu, and all goods entering the market are subject to taxation. At the entrance of the Buddhist temple, the royal palace square is also a market. The servant led Buji and others directly to the outside of the palace. As soon as he left the palace, he saw the crowded palace market. The car was hit by the hubs, the shoulders of people were rubbed, and the market roads were erected, and the morning clothes were new and the evening clothes were covered, and the prosperity was not as good as Yingdu.

Although the market was crowded, with palace guards leading the way, everyone still walked very easily. Unfortunately, the language was not clear, and the translation was spoken in the palace, so the whole family could not communicate with the merchants on the market. However, since they were merchants, they naturally would not be subject to the language. Just take out the silver parcel and buy it. Take it back to the palace and calculate the weight of the rice, and the length of the cotton cloth can also be used to obtain the specific price.

In the era without the US dollar, gold and silver were the best equivalents. It was just because of geographical isolation that the gold and silver prices in the East and the West were different. The gold and silver prices in the East were 1:4 in the East, while the gold and silver prices in the Persian Mediterranean were 1:12\13. Gold has always flowed to the West in the east. Until the 19th century, the gold and silver prices in Japan, the easternmost direction, were still 1:5, and were frequently bought by the West.

If the value of gold in the East and the West is equal, then according to the price of gold and silver in the Mediterranean, the price of a jin of sterling silver is only worth 800 cents. A jin of jin is 251 grams. The standard weight of the Greek currency silver drakma is 4.37 grams. Calculated by a jin of jin, a standard silver drakma is only worth 41.78 grams; the Indian currency silver pana is only 3.5 grams silver, a standard silver pana is worth 33.46 grams.

This is from the perspective of the West. If the price of gold and silver in East Asia is compared, the value of Greek silver drakhma and Indian silver pana will rise three times. The price of gold and silver is the basis of currency prices, while the value of copper coins is uncertain, with great human factors. For example, in the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, at this time, the selling order of an Atba (25 kilograms) of wheat was 1.25 silver drakhma, which is equal to 75 copper drakhma. Decades later, the same Atba wheat, although the price of an Atba wheat was still 1.25 silver drakhma, but it required 350 copper drakhma.

In a market that is not geographically isolated, gold and silver can be used as standard currency; in a market that is geographically isolated, gold can only be used as standard currency. Goods, especially basic goods such as grain and cloth, have a lot to do with planting technology and planting varieties.

Even at the same latitude, the price of grain will be different because of the different wheat yields and corn and rice yields. Wheat yields are far less than corn. The yield of rice in India is grown in double seasons and has yielded more than corn in East Asia. This is actually the fundamental reason why the population in the East has always been greater than that in the West.

Buji and others walked around the palace market. After returning, they were in quantity and weighed them. After converting them, they finally came up with several happy results: buying one stone of rice is only 35 cents; buying one stone of wheat is slightly more expensive, forty-five cents; and the price of a piece of cotton cloth is fifty cents. This price includes a quarter of the transaction tax.

I also asked about the export tax. The tolls for grains and cloth are not high, about 4% and about 5%. Another surprising thing is the price of local employees: the salary of a grassroots official (a small inspector) is only 60 silver panas per year, totaling 960 copper masakas (1 pana = 16 masakas). On average, it is 2.67 copper masakas per day (360 days), which is only 5.5 cents per day.

When hiring workers to work, even the most powerful employed person only needs to pay four copper Massacres a day, which is converted into Chu coins and is 8.25 cents. This is the most expensive. The average employed person is between 1.5 and 3 copper Massacres, that is, between 3 and 6 cents. If he is employed for a long time and includes food and accommodation, then he only needs twenty copper Massacres a month, and only 1.37 Chu coins a day.

The comparison of wages made merchants see some Mingtangs: the goods purchased by everyone from the market should be extremely expensive. Among the countries, the rewards of the official slaves of Qin were the lowest, and they would cost six cents a day for food, and not eight cents a day. Indian slave workers were as low as 1.37 cents a day, which was lower than the daily meals of the official slaves of Qin.

There is only one reason for this: that is, rice and cloth are very low in price. As for how low it is, a sergeant sent by Bai Yi from Wei Shang, believes that according to his years of experience in selling grain and fodder, the price of grain is expensive in early summer. The price of rice should be fifteen cents per stone, twenty cents per stone of wheat, and thirty cents per horse. This is the cost of sergeant, and the actual purchase price for farmers is probably one-third or even one-half.

In this way, it is definitely profitable to sell cotton cloth. The cotton cloth is soft and the linen is rough. On the beam, a worst three-liter linen (each liter contains 80 warp yarns, the more liters, the finer the cloth) will also be sold for thirty yuan. This is the rough thread worn when wearing mourning clothes; a slightly better linen is seven liters, and the price is around sixty, but this linen is still rough and only for slaves and criminals to wear.

Ordinary people wear linens of ten to fourteen liters, which is expensive. Each piece costs at least more than a hundred qian, which is normally between 150 and 500 liters; more than fifteen liters are fine linens that only noble people can wear, called "cheel cloth". The fineness is like silk, and the dyeing and printing is extremely particular, and the price is equal to silk, which costs thousands of yuan per piece.

Indian cotton cloth, the cheapest one, has a fineness of more than ten liters, and is also very good for dyeing. Low-end goods can have the color of high-end goods. It should be no problem to ship to the beam for 200 yuan per piece; high-end fine-texture cotton cloth may cost more than 100 yuan, but as long as the dyeing and printing is good, it will be no big problem to sell a thousand yuan per piece on the beam. The cloth business is very worth doing.

The rice trading is much different. Even if the Pandiya merchants can evade taxes, the price of rice per stone when loading the boat is estimated to be twenty-five cents. The war in the world is getting stronger, and each stone is probably worth fifty-five cents per stone when transporting it to Daliang. A boat is 30,000 stones, and the gross profit is only 171 gold, which is really too little.
Chapter completed!