Chapter 60 Monopoly

Su Ze opened the blueprint, and as expected, it was a series of blueprints related to the [Blacksmith].

Had he raised Ah Zhi's favorability further and completed her task?

Su Ze unrolled the long scroll. After the upgrade, no buildings related to ironware had appeared in Peach Blossom Spring yet. Su Ze originally thought his Peach Blossom Cove's level was simply not high enough, but it turned out he needed to acquire blueprints first.

[Rustic Forge] (Blue)
"A blacksmith's workshop nestled in the countryside, poorly equipped and capable of forging only low-grade ironware."
Price: 15 points of Literary Vibe.
Function: The small shop is crude and cannot forge medium or high-grade ironware.
[Durable]: Hire Craft Sprites to forge ironware. The higher the level of the hired Craft Sprites, the more durable the forged ironware will be.

This [Rustic Forge] was different from the [Neighborhood Shop] of the God of Cookery. It was strictly limited to producing low-grade ironware; even if a higher-level Craft Sprite was hired, it only served to make the ironware more durable.

However, this was quite reasonable. After all, a good chef can work wonders, turning simple ingredients into magnificent dishes.

A blacksmith, on the other hand, could not do this. No matter how brilliant a blacksmith was, he still needed good equipment to manufacture high-grade ironware.

Su Ze said to Ah Zhi:
"I will build the forge right away. Let me know if you need anything else, Ah Zhi."

Ah Zhi nodded and said:
"If the iron flat iron is truly useful, the Peach Blossom Master's collected works can be printed immediately."

Su Ze left Ah Zhi's printing workshop and chose to build the [Rustic Forge] right beside it.

Building the [Neighborhood Shop] and the [Rustic Forge], recruiting the Bureaucracy Sprite, the Culinary Sprite, and soon a Craft Sprite as well, Su Ze spent a total of 45 points of Literary Vibe in one go.

Looking at the remaining 50 points of Literary Vibe, which could barely cover next month's wages, Su Ze felt a pang of heartache once again.

Arriving at Peach Blossom Cove, Su Ze hung up the recruitment wooden sign once more, though unfortunately, no auspicious phenomenon occurred this time.

[Plain Craft Sprite] (Blue)
[Plain]: The ironware crafted is simple, unadorned, and durable.

Su Ze was slightly disappointed, but being able to recruit a blue-tier sprite was a normal outcome; after all, it was impossible to roll orange or purple qualities every single time.

Su Ze casually named him Ah Tie, and began to ponder.

It seemed that the needs of the Spiritual Sprites could be actively fulfilled.

Therefore, Su Ze patrolled Peach Blossom Spring once more to see if any of the other Spiritual Sprites had any demands.

Sure enough, Ah Nong expressed the need for a durable hoe, the Farming Sprite in charge of the [Open-Air Flower Field] needed a pair of gardening shears, and the Woodcutter Sprite responsible for gathering firewood on the mountain also needed a sharp chopper.

Su Ze noted down their requests one by one, which should be craftable once the [Rustic Forge] was completed.

Looking at the vibrant and thriving Peach Blossom Spring, Su Ze contentedly logged out of this world.

The next day, Su Ze continued to accompany Feng Shiyuan to inspect the properties managed by the Office of Housing and Real Estate. Walking through the streets and alleys, he gained a deeper understanding of the market life in Bianjing City.

Bianjing City truly deserved its reputation as the most prosperous metropolis of the current era. Coupled with the relaxed commercial restrictions in the mid-early Northern Song Dynasty, the entire city could be described as bursting with vitality.

Such a massive population naturally gave rise to even more demands, leading to greater specialization in handicrafts and the service industry.

For instance, an oil-paper umbrella workshop relied entirely on peddlers to deliver the paper for the canopy, the tung oil brushed onto it, and the bamboo poles and strips for the frame; the workshop itself was solely responsible for assembling the oil-paper umbrellas.

These workshops were often run by entire families working together, with half-grown children helping out in the home workshop.

However, Su Ze could also see that their lives were extremely straitened.

Su Ze asked Feng Shiyuan:
"I see these commoners toiling all day long; why are they still living in such straitened circumstances?"

Feng Shiyuan sighed. As someone who had risen from the grassroots of the marketplace, he naturally understood the lives of the common people in Bianjing City. He said:
"These commoners toil all day and end up earning only a meager income. In truth, when it comes to livelihood, these ordinary folks crammed inside the city are actually worse off than the fourth-tier households in the metropolitan prefecture. Fourth-tier households at least have farmland, and as long as the harvest is decent, they can always manage to keep a bit of surplus grain."

"Then who on earth ends up making all this money?"

Feng Shiyuan replied:
"Naturally, the big merchants inside Bianjing City. And ultimately, of course, the powerful elites standing behind those big merchants."

True to his past as the head of the Housing and Real Estate Guild, Feng Shiyuan ticked items off on his fingers:
"Take that family making oil-paper umbrellas we just saw, for example. The bamboo for their umbrella frames and the oiled paper for their canopies must be purchased from the merchants of the corresponding guilds, and the finished oil-paper umbrellas must also be sold to the big merchants of the guild. With all this buying and selling, the profit they take home is naturally razor-thin."

Su Ze understood. This was the monopoly of the guild-based handicraft industry.

The monopoly of raw material supply and goods acquisition by big merchants meant that handicraft owners were essentially bonded laborers bound to their workshops.

They had to buy raw materials at high prices and then sell their products at low prices to these big guild merchants.

Su Ze asked again:
"As for these raw materials, why can't they buy them themselves?"

Feng Shiyuan explained:
"Some things can of course be bought independently, but take the bamboo poles used for making these oil-paper umbrellas, for instance. The peddlers outside the city cannot enter the city to sell them on their own; they can only sell them to the big merchants' peddlers outside the city walls."

"Then why don't the peddlers outside the city bring their goods into the city to sell?"

Feng Shiyuan said:
"To enter the city and sell goods, one has to pay transit taxes. There are transit taxes at the passes and gate taxes at the city gates. Let alone entering the city, by the time a peddler even reaches the outskirts of Bianjing City, he has already been fleeced down to his bare skin. If he were to make a trip into the city, I'm afraid it wouldn't even cover the tax money."

Su Ze finally understood. Transit tax referred to commercial taxes levied at customs checkpoints, specifically imposed on traveling merchants.

The Northern Song Dynasty established the Commercial Tax Bureau under the Department of the Three Ministries, with a theoretical tax rate of five percent of the total value of the goods.

However, various prefectures and counties established their own tax checkpoints, and without any tax-credit system, multiple taxation was a common occurrence.

Moreover, tax collection was a traditional craft for officials and clerks to fleece the common people. For thousands of years, they could play countless tricks with grain taxes paid in kind, and commercial taxes offered even greater room for manipulation.

Tax collectors could easily levy excess taxes simply by overestimating the value of the goods.

Only big merchants with powerful backers could smoothly enter the city and escape the plundering of tax collectors.

Feng Shiyuan continued:
"Furthermore, craftsmen fear instability above all else. What if one day you have work to do but no raw materials? That is the most fatal situation. While the materials from the big guild merchants are expensive, their value lies in stable supply."

"This is true for procurement, and the same goes for sales. How could ordinary folks possibly negotiate business deals on their own? They lack bargaining power, so they might as well sell to the big merchants of the guild for distribution."

Su Ze finally understood. Viewing this through the logical framework of modern capitalist society made it seem unreasonable, but the Great Song Dynasty was actually still in the stage of feudal handicraft guilds, making free trade seem perhaps a bit too advanced.