Chapter 186 The old woman

The old woman pointed to the three young men standing next to her with satisfaction, the oldest of whom was about thirty years old.

"They have no wives yet, and I want to build houses for all three of them by my sugar-making skill, and then marry wives. With the copper coin, it was easy to do. Is it all right for me, chief?"

"Of course." I nodded. "You can trade among the tribes, and you can come to us anytime. How do you sell your sugar, by the way?"

"Oh, a copper coin for a bag of sugar." The old woman said here, mysterious up: "the leader do not know, we have a good way to find the hive, will also keep bees. None of the others. Some have given their lives to get the hive."

I nodded as I listened.

After the old woman said a long paragraph, I let Zhang Yutong pour some water for her and three young people. Let them sell sugar in the tribe.

The old woman thanked her and led her three sons out. The three young men picked up the three wooden boxes placed outside and carried them on their backs.

We followed along to see how she did business.

Out of the small square, the old woman touched a small bronze mirror, beating while introducing their honey sugar. Honey sugar adds some edible flowers and plants, so it has a strong fragrance.

Soon someone ran out with something to exchange for the old woman's sugar. And she turned them all down. Only the group leaders with money could buy sugar because they could afford copper coins. They are very generous in this kind of consumption, many of them, buy ten bags.

Maybe they think we don't have a lot of money to spend. And sugar is also something that many people like. Especially the tribal children who followed her around. But the old lady was not kind.

It didn't take long to sell two large wooden boxes of sugar, and when there was only one left, I went up and said I'd bought them all.

"So many, chief?" The old woman was surprised.

I nodded, turned to let Zhang Yutong home to take money, found them two disappeared. I had to lead the old woman home. I saw the two of them running back in the middle.

To the front, Zhang Yutong heroic said: "I want to buy a big wooden box of sugar."

The old woman quickly let the son clear the number, a total of twenty bags, paid the money. The family was so happy. Even if there were only twenty sacks in each box, that would make sixty sacks, or sixty coppers. That's the fastest way to make money.

Probably saw my mind, the old woman took the initiative to explain: "Chief, you don't think we earn much, we earn this money is not easy. Pick honey, make honey candy, go out and sell it. It'll take the best part of a month, and there's no time to do anything else. We need to buy food. It won't make much money."

I smiled and ushered them into the house. After greeting them to sit down, I took the two women aside.

"You couldn't eat all that sugar, could you? And we can buy more later... ."

Before I finished, Zhang Yutong retorted, "Who said we bought it for ourselves? We all agreed to give it to the kids in the tribe and to those who couldn't afford it."

"Why didn't YOU say so? That's what I was going to do."

"You think you're being kind." Zhang Yutong spit out tongue, back up the wooden box ran out.

While Lucie was cooking, I got to know the island with the old woman's family.

Although there was little friction between the kingdoms and tribes, they were not very stable internally. They had just split their homes, gained New Territories, and had to start all over again. There was even theft.

"Do you have any idea how many coppers a year the rich men made by employing slaves?"

"I know that." The old woman's eldest son said, "One of my brothers became a slave and gave him two coppers a year."

"So cheap?"

"Well, it's all of their own accord." The old woman's voice was full of disgust.

She has mastered the art of her own and can be proud to despise others.

Then I said, "That's not fair. So when you three go back, you can tell the people where you sell sugar. You can tell them that a day's work here costs two coppers, and your sugar is also one copper bag."

The three young men nodded together.

"Two coppers a year to be a slave, isn't it? You go back and tell the people who hired the slaves, the slaves. Wages must be paid once a month, and not less than five coppers. If I go to your place next time and no one else does, I will punish someone."

"You're putting us on the spot here, chief." The old woman quickly said: "Those kingdom people, we can not provoke."

"I told your three sons to do it. Would anyone dare touch them? You can rest assured." I timely of try to threaten: "if go again of time, discover you did not do so, later you forbid to do honey candy of business."

The family quickly admitted their mistake, saying that they would do their best to spread my words to all kingdoms and tribes.

After hosting them for lunch, the family said that it was hard to come all the way and wanted to spend the night in our tribe. I should have done the honors, but the house was too small. There were still vacant houses, but the thought that they had made sixty coppers out of us at once discouraged them.

Let them consult their own tribesmen about which house they can lodge in.

And let Zhang Yutong lead them in the past.

Lucie brought me a glass of water. "Honey, let's do some business over there."

"What kind of business?"

"Selling clothes. We make beautiful clothes, and they won't make them. There must be a lot of people like it." Lucie said happily.

I dropped my face: "Don't go, you are a wage, don't do business. Let the tribe do the business, if at all."

"All right, then." She sighed: "our three monthly salary is a total of one thousand and four hundred yuan, think of life can lead a very good."

"Yeah, let's just do a good job of serving people and not worry about making money." We're the ones who make the rules, and it's about maintaining them.

"Then I think I have another important matter to discuss with you." Lucie scratched her collarbone. "A bag of sugar is a copper coin.

"You mean change the salary?" I also think it's low by comparison. But if you think about it, the comparison is only sugar. Sugar is still at a premium on these islands, so it's normal to pay a little more.

"It could be." "But that's not what I meant," Lucie said. "I thought we could make a smaller coin to give it more purchasing power. So you don't have to increase wages to keep up with prices. Small copper coins work like loose change. At the moment we only have two types of copper coins, which we don't feel are enough."

I asked her to take out two copper coins. The diameter of the small coin is about three centimeters, and the large coin is five centimeters.

"Anything smaller is hard to make." I held up the small copper coin and showed it to her. "I have to leave a square hole in the middle, and I have to carve words. If the process is bad, the effect is not good."

"You don't need piercings." Lucie said: 'It's lighter, it's easier to carry around and people don't carry too much change, do they?'

I felt she said some truth, went to find a motherboard, first do the rough shape out. It's only about a centimeter in diameter, and then it adjusts the thickness.

"Do you think it's all right?"

"Good ah, with a dime about the same, you engraved on the top of the word is very convenient." Lucie looked pleased.

Four words can not be engraved, of course, this and my skills also have a great relationship, so change the way, engraved a "1" word, in the side of the inner ring, draw an inner circle. On the back are engraved the pinyin letters "JQSS", meaning "divine right of Kings".

When they were done, Lucie took it and examined it with great satisfaction.

"Then listen to your advice, the exchange value is the same as large and small copper coins, one for five." One for ten is not worth the money and will lead to inflation. Unlike paper money, copper coins must be carefully set on the exchange value.