Chapter 25: A Tour of the East Gate Market (Continued)

“I never thought that your Master Liu San is not only a famous doctor but also skilled in the art of Fan Li.”

“Third Master is indeed a remarkable man!” the steward praised sincerely. “The fact that Runshitang has reached its current state is truly thanks to the assistance of Third Master.”

“So it seems all the Australians are quite capable.”

“Who can say they are not? They are skilled in farming, craftsmanship, warfare, building houses, and doing business. There is hardly anything they cannot do.”

“Let’s go and find a place to rest,” Li Luoyou said, closing his fan.

Gu Baocheng knew his uncle’s intention was to do business with the Australians, but when they arrived at the wholesale place for Australian goods, he showed no interest. Feeling puzzled, he quickly reminded Li Luoyou.

“It’s no matter,” Li Luoyou shook his head. “This is a place for small customers to do wholesale. We’ll just have a look.” Li Luoyou had another plan in mind. He had come this time to meet the Australians and talk business. The Australians would surely give him a much larger discount. Li Luoyou was confident that the resources he held were enough to bargain down the Australians’ prices significantly.

Just as they were about to leave, there was a commotion at the entrance. A female shop assistant from the cooperative, dressed in a blue cloth skirt, waved a small triangular flag and led a dozen people into the shop.

“Come, esteemed customers! This is the largest commodity wholesale market in Lin’gao—the Cooperative General Store! Our store has over a thousand different kinds of goods. From mirrors used by the empress down to the pickles eaten by the common people… Take a good look, we have all kinds of Australian goods. Buy them back and you will make a profit! It’s not easy to come to Lin’gao, so if you don’t buy enough goods, you’ll be doing a disservice to your own two legs…”

The female shop assistant shouted through a triangular paper cone while waving a triangular flag. Following her was a group of people who looked like peddlers. Arriving at such a magnificent and grand shop for the first time, they looked around with a mixture of awe and timidity.

“Everyone, have a cup of tea first. Don’t be polite. Take your time to look and choose. There’s plenty of time.” As she spoke, another female shop assistant had already brought out trays of cups filled with hot tea, cold tea, kombucha, and kvass, allowing the small peddlers, who had been queuing at customs for half a day after disembarking and had then sat on an ox-cart for a while, to recover their energy.

These were small peddlers who had come to Lin’gao to buy goods. Ever since the rescue of the Hai family’s five-masted ship, the peddlers on board had discovered a much closer source of goods. Later, they all made special trips to Lin’gao to purchase goods in bulk. At that time, Xiong Buyou of the foreign liaison department was keen to promote the light industrial products of the transmigrator group. He quickly discussed with the Executive Committee whether they could organize a “One-Day Tour of the East Gate Market” for these people.

And so, this “One-Day Tour of the East Gate Market” activity had continued ever since. As soon as the small peddlers passed through customs, they would be organized into groups of a dozen or so, loaded onto specially prepared ox-carts, and taken to different places to shop in batches.

The prosperity, cleanliness, and order of the East Gate Market were an eye-opener for the small merchants. The dazzling array of goods made their hearts itch with desire. There were so many new things here that could not be seen on the mainland: the thick “towels” that were becoming popular among the urban residents of Guangzhou, sewing needles with excellent steel quality, pure white sugar, colored candies, light, soft, and breathable knitted socks, small wooden sticks that could be lit with a single strike anywhere without a flint, and pure white, smooth paper… and many other unseen foods, wines…

The dazzling array of goods left the small merchants at a loss for what to look at. Everyone was calculating which items they could transport back to sell for a large profit. But to buy these things, neither silver nor copper coins would work. This place only accepted “paper slips”—circulation coupons.

Long queues formed in the hall of the Delong Grain Bank. The small merchants all went to the Delong Grain Bank, first using silver to buy rice coupons for brown rice according to the day’s grain price, and then exchanging the rice coupons for circulation coupons at the counter.

Over time, to facilitate customers, Delong not only set up an exchange point in the East Gate Market but also set up temporary exchange points in some designated shops.

In the past, there was only one trading post for wholesale shopping. After the second plenary session, such wholesale points expanded to multiple locations, including the “nationalized” cooperative, the Tianchu Soy Sauce Garden, and even Runshitang joined this system of accepting large amounts of circulation coupons. Yang Shixiang was willing to accept a large number of circulation coupons mainly because he needed to pay for services like buying machines from the transmigrator group.

There was also a newly opened shop specializing in rattan ware. It displayed many new and fresh styles of rattan ware, including various rattan furniture, daily necessities, and tools—Lin’gao traditionally exported red and white rattan as its main product. Wu Kuangming felt it was a pity to only export primary products with such good resources. So he set up a special rattan ware workshop to develop rattan products. These products had a certain specialty and required a larger display area, so it was not suitable for them to be sold on consignment by the trading post or the cooperative. Thus, the Ministry of Commerce specially opened a rattan ware shop.

The goods selected by the small merchants would be packed by each shop after collecting the shipping fee, and then collected and shipped by the post office. By the time they boarded the return ship of the Gao-Guang Shipping Company, their packed goods were already loaded in the hold.

The shipping routes of the Gao-Guang Shipping Company also expanded from the simple Guangzhou-Lin’gao route to regular routes such as Guangzhou-Qiongshan, Guangzhou-Xuwén, and Lin’gao-Qiongshan. The concept of a fixed liner service was introduced, expanding the customer base.

The “One-Day Shopping Tour of the East Gate Market,” vigorously promoted by the transmigrator group, gradually became popular. The small peddlers welcomed such thoughtful arrangements. The number of merchants coming to Lin’gao to transport goods also increased. Besides simply bringing cash for procurement, many people began to bring goods to trade. Many goods no longer needed to be procured from Guangzhou but were directly transported from the mainland by merchants, which not only met the needs of the transmigrators but also the daily needs of the general public. This was also beneficial to the overall social supply of Lin’gao—the transmigrator group could not possibly manufacture everything themselves.

Li Luoyou watched with interest as this group of small merchants loudly commented on the quality of the goods in the shop, calculating how much money they could make. Those who came for the first time did not know the rules and still tried to bargain. The female shop assistant just pointed to the “No Bargaining” sign with a smile and said nothing.

The Australians not only welcomed big business but also spared no effort for such small customers. They were afraid of not taking good enough care of them. What was the purpose of this? And from the steward’s introduction and his own observation, the Australians did not like silver. What they wanted were goods—not silk, porcelain, and other most popular foreign goods, but ordinary goods: iron, coal, cloth, grain, timber…

He was suddenly startled—the Australians wanted goods for national use and people’s livelihood! This thought suddenly entered his mind. He remembered that when the Jianzhou barbarians traded with him, what they valued most were grain and iron tools, and they were often willing to pay a high price for them—this was similar to the Australians.

Leaving the cooperative, the steward saw that they were a little tired and opened a private room in the cooperative’s restaurant. Li Mei was checking the accounts in the restaurant. Hearing that a distinguished guest had arrived, she came out personally to entertain them.

Li Luoyou saw that this “big business” female Australian was dressed in a very simple blue cloth skirt and jacket, with her hair cut short at the ears. She wore no jewelry and not an inch of silk. Her attire was not even as good as that of a slightly prominent maid in a large household in Guangzhou.

To do such a big business and yet live so simply, Li Luoyou was very impressed—at least he couldn’t do it.

Li Mei had long known of the arrival of this great Shopkeeper Li, and now she was even more attentive. She specially sent over the highest-grade bird’s nest and coconut milk mixed fruit sweet soup. It was smooth, fragrant, and cool, and contained many unknown fruits, which made even Li Luoyou, who was not fond of sweets, feel very satisfied. As for Quaker, he was so engrossed in eating that his eyes went straight.

Li Luoyou then took the opportunity to inquire about the internal affairs of the Australians, but although this female Australian was very attentive, she either changed the subject or just smiled when he tried to sound her out.

She’s a tough character! Li Luoyou thought. According to the steward’s introduction, this Li Mei should be a powerful figure among the Australians, seemingly some kind of “minister.” Now that he had met her, he had to properly ingratiate himself with her. It was uncertain what use she might be in the future.

With this thought, he changed the subject, his words becoming very sincere, and he even praised the management of the cooperative. Sure enough, a look of pride appeared on Li Mei’s face.

Seeing that the time was right, Li Luoyou gave a look, and Saoye, who was already prepared, took out a brocade box from his personal bag.

“A small, humble gift of local products from Liaodong. I hope you will accept it,” he said with a bow. “I will have many things to ask for Minister Li’s care in the future.”

“What are you talking about, you are too polite—” Li Mei’s face blossomed into a smile. She took the box and opened it. Inside was a whole ginseng with all its roots and leaves. Even by the standards of this time, it was a very valuable gift.

This made her hesitate. Recently, she had indeed been thinking of buying a few ginsengs for herself and her old man for winter supplements. But according to the regulations, valuable gifts had to be handed over, and if she wanted to keep it, she had to buy it at the market price. It wasn’t that she was stingy with the money—this ginseng was of such good quality that it was worth buying even for herself. But the relationship between this great Shopkeeper Li and their side was not yet clear. Would accepting the gift rashly cause any side effects? She had suffered a loss once before and had to be cautious about this.

After careful consideration, she returned the ginseng.

“This gift is too valuable,” she said. “I am not worthy of it.”

She refused it again and again. Li Luoyou had used ginseng as a door-knocker, and it had always worked wherever he went. Now, the other party actually refused it sternly. It was quite unexpected.

Li Mei exchanged a few more pleasantries with them before taking her leave. A moment later, someone brought four cotton cloth bags. The bags were exquisitely made, with dense and neat stitches. On the bags were characters embroidered with colored silk thread: “A gift from the Cooperative Union.”

“This is a small token of Minister Li’s regard.”

She didn’t accept his gift but gave him a gift in return. Puzzled, he opened it and saw that inside were the Australians’ most popular and most common products, two towels, one large and one small. The blue and white pattern was very elegantly dyed.

Although it was a very popular Australian product and quite practical in a place like Lin’gao, it was after all a very low-value item. To send it over specially, what was the meaning behind it?

The minds of these Australians are really different, Li Luoyou had a strange feeling. He had more in common with the Jianzhou barbarians. At least he could understand the thoughts of the barbarians. But with this group of people, he felt completely lost.

“Let’s go and have another look around,” Li Luoyou said, waving his fan.

When they reached the crossroads, he saw a building made of the best red bricks. He asked and learned that this was the place that managed the market trade. There were people on duty at the entrance, probably a yamen-like place. But people were coming and going at the steps of the main gate, and the guards were not stopping or questioning them. Li Luoyou became interested and wanted to go in and have a look.

“There’s nothing much to see inside,” the steward said. “It’s all offices.”

“It’s no matter. I just want to see how they do things,” he said, and stepped onto the steps.

This yamen was indeed not much to look at. The Australians’ houses used a lot of glass for their windows, so the rooms were always bright. This made Li Luoyou, who was used to the dim light in rooms, not very accustomed to it. He couldn’t imagine being able to work in such a room.

In the center was a large table with three objects on it. One was a huge balance scale, with many weights placed next to it. One was a ruler that seemed to be made of steel, and the last was a small bucket made of iron sheet.

In front of the large table was a sign with the words “Public Weighing Office.” The steward said that this was a place where standard weights and measures were kept. Anyone who bought or sold goods on the street and had doubts about the size or weight could come here to have it checked. If they didn’t know how to use them, there were also special scribes to help.

Li Luoyou nodded and went closer to observe carefully. The measurements seemed to be different from those of the Great Ming. Looking closely, the scale on the ruler was called “gongchi” (meter), the weight on the scale was called “gongjin” (kilogram), and there was another unit called “gongshi” (hectoliter). The small bucket was for volume, called “gongsheng” (liter).

“These weights and measures, they must have been brought from Australia, right?”

“They should be,” the steward said. “They are different from the standards of our dynasty.” He pointed to the “gongchi.” “This ruler is about a little more than three chi of our dynasty’s construction ruler.”

“And they are just used like that?”

“These three measuring instruments have been set up since the East Gate Market opened,” the steward said. “Originally, everyone claimed their own ‘chi’ was the longest and their own ‘jin’ was the heaviest. With these three instruments, there is a standard, and there are no disputes about the length and weight when doing business. If you are not convinced, you can come here to weigh and measure. Everyone finds it convenient, so they all use it.”

Privately setting up weights and measures. Li Luoyou added another crime to the Australians’ list. He turned around and saw that a large room on the left side of the central courtyard was separated from the courtyard by a half-height wooden fence. There was a gate in the fence, which was now locked. Inside was a long table arranged in a horseshoe shape. The table in the middle was high up. On the wall behind the middle table hung a huge wooden carving, somewhat like a European coat of arms. On it was a red sun, with a balance in the middle and a wave pattern below.

“It looks like a courtroom,” Quaker suddenly said.

This reminded Li Luoyou. It did indeed look like a European courtroom. When he asked, it turned out to be a “place for hearing cases,” officially called the “East Gate Market Summary Court.”

According to the steward, this court specialized in all kinds of trivial cases, such as littering, fighting, short-changing, and stealing. It also handled small-value trade disputes and issued notarial certificates and other legal documents. The trials were very simple. After a few words, if the facts were clear, a verdict would be given on the spot. They could hear more than a dozen cases in half a day.

For general public order cases without a plaintiff or defendant, the case was closed directly by the court’s verdict. For example, if someone was caught stealing by the police, they would just go through the motions at the court, the verdict would be read out, and they would be directly sent to the labor reform team to be free coolies. As for cases with a plaintiff and a defendant, both parties had to first buy standard official paper to write their complaints. This official paper was of a uniform format and was uniformly printed. All legal documents were written on this kind of paper.

“Do they issue notarial documents here?” Li Luoyou suddenly interjected.

“Yes, they do, but very few people get them. Most people don’t really understand…” The steward pointed to a row of picture frames hanging on the wall. “It’s all written up there.”

“Let’s go and have a look,” Li Luoyou said, calling out to Quaker.

Li Luoyou read it carefully, occasionally exchanging a few words with Quaker. Quaker could speak Chinese but couldn’t read it, so he could only judge based on Li Luoyou’s translation.

“…From what you’ve said, this group of Australians is using a European legal system,” Li Luoyou said. “At least the Great Ming doesn’t have this notarial certificate.”

“That’s right, and also these legal provisions. If this was drafted by the Australians, then the person who drafted the law must be very familiar with Roman law and various continental codes,” Quaker said. “I only have a smattering of knowledge about law, but based on what you’ve said, the Australians’ judicial system is clearly related to Europe, but it’s also different.” He shook his head. “I have a feeling they are probably more advanced than us.”

“More advanced than your home country?” Li Luoyou joked.

“Hehe, my home country is nothing compared to this,” Quaker said without any concealment. “A colony overseas can achieve this. I wonder what the mother country is like. I really want to see it.”

Leaving the administration building, the sun had already begun to set, and the pedestrians on the street had thinned out. The streets became empty and quiet. Quaker bought some small things on the street, saying he planned to send them back as gifts.

At this moment, a sharp whistling sound came from the air, from far to near, as if some monster was screaming one after another. Gu Baocheng’s face turned pale. Li Luoyou also felt a chill in his heart and was about to see where the sound was coming from. The steward quickly reassured him, “It’s no matter! It’s the steam whistle for the end of the early shift.”

The whistling sound, one long and one short, sounded seventeen times in a row. Shortly after it stopped, the road was filled with groups of people in greasy, blue coarse cloth clothes. They were like a tide, instantly filling the entire East Gate Market.

The craftsmen, laughing and talking loudly, swarmed into the cheap taverns and eateries in groups. The snack stalls on the roadside also came to life, and the vendors shouted with all their might.

The East Gate Market was suddenly filled with a strange smell, a mixture of sweat, oil, and the aroma of food. The originally somewhat deserted market street suddenly became lively again.