Chapter 628 (1/2)
It's OK to do business with the herdsmen, but it's better to consider what kind of business to do.
The most scarce things over there are salt, tea and iron.
Salt can make people strong and healthy, so Xie Zhifeng doesn't want to exchange salt with people over there. People over there grew up on horseback and are good at riding. When necessary, they can even fight all the people. Xie Zhifeng doesn't want to invest in enemies and make them stronger.
On the surface, they exchange things from their hands for cooking pots. In fact, they will return these irons to the furnace and use them to forge weapons to kill their soldiers.
How could Xie Zhifeng exchange iron with them?
The only things that can be exchanged are tea, cloth and so on.
Although the profits of these things are not as big as those of the former two, it is also a stable financial path under the condition of small profits but quick turnover.
Moreover, not only did they sell things to the Western barbarians to earn a lot of money, but they also made a lot of money by transporting the things they exchanged from the herdsmen to the mainland.
The fur of the Western barbarians is very popular in the mainland, and their cattle, sheep and horses can be used to eat and make animal power. Naturally, they are very popular in the mainland. Mutton is a tonic. Many rich families like to eat sheep, and the most important horses.
In fact, what Xie Zhifeng wanted most was a good breed horse of Ximan. This kind of horse has strong endurance and is tall, big and strong. What is suitable to be a military horse.
It's a pity that the Western barbarians are not idiots. On the one hand, their upper class nobles used all kinds of methods to take good breeds of horses from the herdsmen as army horses, on the other hand, they also used strict laws to force the herdsmen not to trade with good breeds of horses. Although occasionally they could buy some horses at a high price, Xie Zhifeng's desire to buy them in large quantities was just like a fool's dream.