Tens of thousands of strong farmers led nearly 100,000 Weihai residents to carry out the basic construction of Weihai. The construction progress of Weihai was frighteningly fast.
In just 10 days, the Weihai Guards 'city defense had been completed. The city defense was not just the city wall, the city gate, and the moat. Lin Feng did not carry out large-scale construction of these three defense facilities. If it was not because the conditions did not allow it, he would have torn down the city wall.
Weihai Wei's city defense was mainly built on the outer perimeter. Small strongholds were set up on the main roads, and permanent fortifications were built on the mountains and highlands.
According to the principle of keeping enemies outside the country, Weihai Wei's city defense was very advanced. Each stronghold had a cannon position. Once they had cannons, they could install them directly.
The roads leading to the various highlands and the strongholds of the main traffic arteries had been widened and thickened. The main road was maintained at a width of more than ten meters, and the branch road was maintained at about six meters.
On this kind of road, let alone a carriage, even a car could run.
The perfect transportation network allowed the transportation of resources and the mobilization of troops to increase by several levels. As a result, the territory directly controlled by Weihai Wei had greatly expanded.
According to Lin Feng's plan, the center of Weihai Wei City would not be in the city, but in the direction of the east of the city near the seaside pier. The main road leading to the dock was paved with green bricks and was completely constructed.
When the wealthy merchants in Weihai Wei left their mansions and walked out of the city gate to the east, they saw a straight, 30-meter-wide road made of green bricks. Their eyes widened.
Especially when they saw the densely packed houses on both sides of the road, their eyeballs almost popped out.
This kind of immortal-like method shocked them too much.
"Is this the eastern suburbs?"
Great-grandfather Ren got off the carriage and looked at the wide and flat road made of green bricks in shock. He looked at the countless number of brick pavements on both sides of the road that were seven to eight meters tall. His eyes were so wide that they almost popped out.
In his impression, the area leading to the dock in the eastern suburbs was not exactly a desolate place, but it was actually filled with shacks. Because it was close to the pier, many fishermen lived here. There was a fishy smell and the smell of feces and urine everywhere. It was dirty and messy.
But now, looking at the scene in front of him, he was a little confused. Where was the city center?!
"This is indeed the eastern suburbs!" The wealthy merchant Wang smiled and said,"Of course, no one says that this is the suburbs anymore. There are thousands of shops along the road leading to the dock. Although there are not many people now, you can imagine how prosperous this place will be once these shops open for business.!”
" How much are the shops here?!"
Old Master Ren looked at these shops, which were all of the courtyard type. They were made up of four buildings with two floors, and each building occupied an area of more than a hundred square meters. There were many houses with such a structure in the Great Ming Capital, and they were very popular.
This was because every shop on the street could not only be used for living, but it could also be used as a warehouse. It was extremely practical!
If he could buy it, when Weihai Wei became prosperous, it would definitely increase the price of the house and increase the profits by ten times or a hundred times!
Wang shook his head and said with a pained expression,""These street shops are not for sale. We can only rent them."
Great-grandfather Ren instantly understood. He felt that the owner of Weihaiwei was simply a business genius!
Once the city developed, almost all the shops in Weihaiwei would belong to him. How much money would he earn every month?!
If the imperial court had such a method to earn money, how could they lack silver?!
"Then we'll rent them all!" Great-grandfather Ren immediately had another idea.
Wang shook his head, laughing and crying." There are rules above. The rented shops must be opened for business, and there are also conditions to limit the sales volume. The conditions change with the market at any time. For example, the monthly transaction volume of Weihaiwei City East is 1,000 taels of silver. All the shops will be evened out. Those shops that don't reach the average value will be warned. If they don't even reach one-fifth of the average value, then the shops will be taken back!”
"It's impossible to rent all the shops and then sublet them to others!”
"Not a drop of water can leak!" Great-grandfather Ren sighed and shook the carriage, allowing it to continue forward towards the trading market near the pier.
About 1,000 meters away from the dock, there was another 30-meter-long road that intersected with the East City Road, forming an intersection. Around this intersection was the newly built trading market.
Looking at the intersection, there were five-story buildings at each corner.
The five-story building was nearly twenty meters tall. In this era, it was very shocking.
When these wealthy businessmen saw the two buildings with large signboards that said "Commercial Building" and "Bank Building", they asked curiously,"What is this?"
"The commercial building is the Weihaiwei Trading Management Office. If you want to open a shop in Weihaiwei, you have to go to the management office to get a business license. If you don't have a business license, the shop will be closed down.”
"As for banks, they are very similar to money houses. You can handle deposits and loans inside.”Wang explained. He had gone to find out about this long ago.
"A loan?" "Isn't this just money?" Grandpa Ren was straightforward.”
"It's similar to money, but not that high. Most of the annual interest does not exceed one cent, between seven and eight percent! It can be said that the interest is very low!" Wang explained.
"One percent per year is indeed very low!”Old Master Ren nodded, and the dozens of squires and wealthy merchants beside him also nodded.
Then, everyone rushed into the bank building and found that many people were queuing up to exchange silver and copper dollars.
These people curiously exchanged the silver in their hands for dozens of silver and copper coins. Silver coins were not popular in the Ming Dynasty, but because of the coastal areas, many people went to the sea and obtained a lot of silver coins from the sea trade.
Naturally, he knew how convenient silver was in transactions.
"This silver coin is very well made. It's even more exquisite than the foreign coins outside!”Great-grandfather Ren looked at the exquisite picture on the silver and copper coins and could clearly identify them. He could not help but nod. Then, he weighed them and asked curiously,""This piece of silver is almost two taels, right?”
Wang nodded." 90% pure silver is cast with other metals. Weihaiwei defined each catty as ten taels, not sixteen taels. This makes it easier to calculate. A silver dollar is a new tael!”
" As for the exchange rate between silver and copper, it changes in real time according to the ratio of silver and copper prices in the market. Currently, one silver dollar is equivalent to 780 copper dollars!”
At this point, Wang said helplessly,""Weihai Wei has a rule that all transactions must be done in silver and copper coins. The copper coins and silver coins from before are not allowed to be traded!”
"What great ambition!"
When Grandpa Ren heard this, he immediately knew that the new owner of Weihai Wei was not satisfied with controlling the land, population, food, and other resources. Now, he even wanted to control money!
The importance of the custom money rule was very important to any force.
This was equivalent to controlling the source. If the merchants did not listen, they would be in an awkward situation where they could not spend money.
Moreover, he had no choice!
Unless he didn't buy food, cloth, or salt.
Otherwise, he would obediently run out of his money to exchange for it.
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