Trade was profitable to begin with. The size of the profit depended on the cost and the buyer's demand.
The cost included many things. Simply put, it was the cost of production technology, the cost of production materials, the cost of labor, the cost of publicity, the cost of transportation, and the cost of taxation.
Was the cost of goods sold by Tang merchants to other places high? Naturally, it was not high. If one really wanted to talk about it, it was high in technical research and transportation.
However, the profit earned was not small. This was because the buyer did not have the corresponding technology and wanted to have it. In such a situation, those who did not raise the price were not merchants but philanthropists.
After being promoted by some people, those who could afford it did not care. The watches produced by Tang were luxury goods. They wanted to buy cheap ones, but they did not want to buy them locally. In a situation where they could not personally go to Tang to buy, they instead hoped that the price of the goods would gradually increase, especially the goods they already had.
Even a person who did not understand economics and social ideology knew that owning luxury goods was equivalent to owning status.
If the watch bought today required 100 sheep to be exchanged, the same watch tomorrow would be 80 sheep, and the day after tomorrow would be 60 sheep.
In the end, this kind of watch could not be sold. No one bought it, even if it could tell the time, even if it was beautiful. However, it was depreciating. Not only was the number of sheep reduced, but also the identity and status of the owner.
Those who could not afford Tang's goods thought the opposite. They could not compare to those with money and status through their own efforts, so they hoped to use other methods to make those with money and status lose. It was a common thought of social individuals, regardless of system. It was a very complicated social relationship and a very simple social psychology.
The people behind the scenes would also find the latter and tell them the truth. They could not afford it, but they would criticize and criticize like consumers who were about to spend. They would criticize Tang merchants for selling cheap things to them at expensive prices and making them pay more.
They would protest and ask for Tang merchants to lower the price.
Tang merchants could not lower the price. They had to protect the interests of the rich and status people who bought the products and also maintain their own profits.
Therefore, those who wanted to sabotage continued to promote, letting those who could not afford to buy things accumulate emotions and prepare for the moment of explosion.
Even if the people who wanted to sabotage Tang clearly knew how powerful Tang's military strength was, even if they knew that people who were exploited would be severely punished for attacking Tang people, they still did it to make things difficult for Tang.
Among them, the Japanese were the worst. Silla had already been dealt with to the point that it did not have the slightest bit of strength left. Moreover, because of the border and frequent land and sea connections, many natives had already migrated to the Great Tang. Naturally, there were also people from the Great Tang who had colonized the Great Tang.
The Great Tang did not casually colonize other countries. It was not that they did not have the ability, but that they were afraid that they would become independent in the future. The Great Tang's military strength was still lacking, and this was primarily reflected in its lack of ability to engage in long-range attacks for a short period of time. Thus, it was not allowed to casually colonize.
Even if the colonized areas could have military strength, they were not allowed to have military equipment and technology.
There were colonists in Japan, and there were also officials sent by China to govern Japan together with the Japanese. Many Japanese had already accepted their fate, or perhaps they liked their current life very much. They felt that if they cooperated well with the Great Tang officials, their lives would be better than before.
But Japan was close to the Great Tang, and its culture had been passed down quite well. It wasn't so barbaric that it couldn't even have its own language. As the Great Tang developed, it began to trade with Japan, especially in its first few years of hibernation. Japan sent people to the Great Tang to study, and trade was frequent.
With culture came ideas. When they saw the Great Tang rapidly improving, they also wanted to learn and take advantage of it. As they studied, they realized that the Great Tang had begun to invade them, an invasion even more frightening than a military invasion.
At first, they didn't understand the new invasion method, but by the time those with insight discovered it, the Great Tang's economy and culture had basically stabilized. Those in power had been corrupted, and many of the common people had been brainwashed.
Those with insight were unwilling to accept this, and they launched many revolts, but they were all crushed. As they watched Japan fall into the hands of the Great Tang day by day, these people began to change themselves for the sake of revenge.
They no longer held revolts or rebelled. They did everything they could to come to the Great Tang, working as coolies, small traders, and even women.
They earned money and studied. In truth, what they wanted to do the most was to kill Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan. Zhang Xiaobao was their number one target. They knew that Wang Juan was also very formidable, but that was only in terms of military command and basic education. Zhang Xiaobao was the true leader and planner of this new invasion.
Some of them worked near the ports, and they saw with their own eyes that every time Zhang Xiaobao ordered the Great Tang ports to ship grain to Japan or restrict grain shipments, Japan would lose a large chunk of its currency. It seemed that what was being lost was currency, but the Great Tang didn't want Japanese money. It wasn't that ordinary merchants didn't want it. They would use money to buy things back.
Every loss was inevitably an outflow of resources. Those with insight in Japan had concluded that when goods were outflowed, the greatest damage was to the ruling class and the culture of the people.
Any action personally ordered by Zhang Xiaobao was bound to cause the Japanese people to be dissatisfied with the ruling class. At the same time, they would be even more loyal to the Great Tang because of the basic survival resources provided by the Great Tang.
What a frightening action, what a deserving Zhang Xiaobao.
Half a year ago, several people in this organization had persuaded a powerful quasi-ruler in Kobe to establish a bank on the same level as the Great Tang Bank to take in the local currency. They wanted to find an opportunity to trade with the Great Tang and exchange currency with the Great Tang.
When the bank was established, they received a large sum of money. More importantly, the Great Tang had also used goods as collateral to lend money at a low price. The interest was very high. A month's interest was 2%, a year's interest was 24%, and it was even higher in leap months.
But a month later, the Great Tang's grain shipments to Japan began to decrease. Most of the grain shipments were from Kobe, and at the time, there hadn't been any problems.
Later on, some people began to buy grain at high prices around Kobe. Last month, the people living in Kobe were forced to raise the price to buy from others.
At this time, the Great Tang's grain shipments stopped. A month later, the Great Tang's main wheat region in Jiangnan would have a harvest, but the Great Tang said that it didn't have enough grain.
Half a month ago, someone suddenly ran to the Kobe bank and used the Great Tang's wheat harvest in half a month's time as collateral to borrow a large amount of money from the Kobe bank.
Before they could figure out what was going on, the quasi-ruling clan of Kobe had lent a large amount of money to the Great Tang. In the end, the Great Tang began to buy grain from Japan while using Japanese money to exchange for Great Tang reserves.
And then … and then they said that the purchasing power of one hundred copper coins in Japan had become thirty copper coins. This was called devaluation, and internally, it was called inflation.
And when the Great Tang people who had borrowed from them did not return the money due, the other people began to run on them, and the Kobe bank went bankrupt.
The Great Tang began to lower the credit rating of the Japanese currency. Fortunately, they had been smart enough to transfer the loan to their own government before they went bankrupt. The money the Great Tang had borrowed would still have to be returned when the time came.
But yesterday, the day before the wheat was due, they returned the money. Including the interest, the money they returned was one-third of the actual purchasing power of the loan. In other words, two-thirds of the money was earned by the Great Tang.
And this was not the end. Today, the Great Tang announced that it would raise the export tariff of its new wheat exports by 10%. The reason was not that they could just raise the tariff as they wished. No, it was that the Great Tang's currency had begun to inflate, and its purchasing power had decreased. Thus, if the Japanese wanted to use the Great Tang's money to buy things, they had to adjust the tariff accordingly.
The problem was that the Great Tang's statement was based on your previous deflation. But why didn't the Great Tang lower the export tariff during the deflation?
Could it be that the Great Tang put a portion of the losses from the deflation on us?
And all of this was because of Zhang Xiaobao. When he heard that Zhang Xiaobao was looking at the new breed of pigs at the Sinongsi Temple, he casually said these words. Wang Juan added a few words from the side, and thus, the current situation was created.
How could such a person be allowed to live? One was a trade, and the other was a currency. We need to think and think before we can understand the principles behind it. The two of them seemed to have known the process and the result long ago. They were very familiar with their methods.
The most important thing was that Zhang Xiaobao's actions were never so simple. Now, he had just crushed a bank and earned two-thirds of the money. He could also earn another 10% of the grain exports.
However, those who knew him well knew that he would always use a series of schemes. The matter was definitely not over yet. This was only the beginning.
So what they had done before was right. They had to continue doing it. They could not let themselves be beaten and not fight back. It was just that they did not do it properly last time, and the Great Tang seemed to have taken advantage of it. But there would be a time when they would do it properly.
*****
The insightful people among the Japanese continued to walk forward in a dilemma.
Two days had passed since the increase in the export tax. Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan were going to the Ministry of Works and the research institute today.
The weather was warm. The capital was still occasionally cold, but Jiangnan was already in summer.
"In a few more days, the lotus flowers in West Lake will bloom. Xiaobei and the rest are not in a hurry to come back. Come back quickly. We still have to bring them to Hangzhou to play." Zhang Xiaobao was thinking about the trip. Xiaobei and the rest had said that the potato harvest was good, so they were processing chips there. How long had it been? Could they still be processed?
"If they are willing to ride horses there, then let them play. You still want to go out? I heard that many people want your life. "Wang Juan smiled and asked.
"There are many people who want my life. They have to have the ability to do so. I am not going out incognito anymore. I am going out with a large group of people. I still want their lives. Don't think that I don't know who instigated the attack on our merchants in Sumatra.
If they succeed, I will admit that they are powerful. In the end, those hundreds of people failed, and they gave us an excuse to further intervene with military force and ask for compensation from their country. They also ceded land for us to train and station.
If they have the ability, they can continue. Whoever dares to do it, I will cede their country's land. If they dare not, I will destroy them. They still want us to sell the goods at a lower price? If we sell them at a lower price, the first to oppose us will be their comrades. "
Zhang Xiaobao curled his lips and said.
Wang Juan added, "Let's not talk about that annoying matter. Today, the research institute said that they will give us a surprise. Let's see what is going on."
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