Chapter 684: Businesses 2 (1/2)

In the afternoon, Chu Lian was sitting in a pavilion by a lotus pond in their garden. There were quite a few different confections placed on the table.

There were glutinous rice cakes, yam and jujube cakes, four joys dumplings, and cloud cakes…

There was also a cup of fragrant jasmine flower tea next to the confections.

Chu Lian leaned against the railing of the pavilion and listened to Manager Qin and Zhou Wen’s reports on the northern market, as well as Dejufeng Restaurant.

All that Chu Lian did for her business was to check the account books once a month. Everything else was left to the two managers to handle.

“Madam, the population of Liangzhou has already increased a few times over thanks to the northern market. More than half of the simple courtyards we built at the perimeter of Liangzhou City have been rented out. There are still a few more courtyards that are more finely decorated. Should we rent those out as well?”

The original Liangzhou City had been like a dead town. The citizens hadn’t even outnumbered the soldiers stationed there. This had also caused the senior official’s seat of Liangzhou to remain empty ever since the last one had been sacked.

Chu Lian had built more than ten simple markets at the boundaries of Liangzhou at the start, attracting the barbarians and Tuhun commoners.

They had used barter to trade goods at first. A jar of salted vegetables could be exchanged for some livestock, including cows, horses or goats. It didn’t even matter if they transported the livestock as live animals or after processing them into meat and skins. They would reap incredible profits by shipping them to Su City.

Later on, as the markets grew bigger and bigger, the barbarians and Tuhuns were no longer so stupid as to continue trading at that low price.

While the price of material goods had increased, due to the restrictions of the geography in Liangzhou, there was still a huge difference in price from the other cities that they could profit from.

Merchants pursued opportunities. Su City was close to Qianshan Lake, and was considered a major city. Thus, the merchants of Su City were soon drawn to Liangzhou to do business. The northern markets had also become more vibrant and bustling thanks to the addition of those merchants.

After the first batch of merchants in Su City brought in their first profits, the reputation of the northern markets spread further and further.

Soon, merchants from far away places started travelling to Liangzhou.

In this age where everything depended on word-of-mouth, the more the number of people, the more the city would flourish.

Once these people entered Liangzhou City, they would add on to Liangzhou’s dwindling population. With the northern market having turned into a ‘grand market’ and drawing more people in, there were more and more people settling in Liangzhou City daily.