Rise of Rurik

The herds of reindeer pulling sleds work hard and are rewarded with large amounts of oat feed.

For them, a high-intensity march of more than ten days is not difficult with sufficient feed supply. Now they can cultivate well in the pen.

The supplies pulled by the reindeer herds, together with the sleds carrying the supplies, were pushed to three separate wooden warehouses.

Bronze locks held firm, and soldiers supervised the warehouse to prevent problems with supplies.

Youdao pays the money with one hand and delivers the goods with the other hand. The Pechenegs and Kiev people essentially deliver the goods first, so how much the buyer is willing to pay depends on the buyer's willingness.

Of course Rurik is willing to make good deals with friends from afar. For the benefit of the country, a profiteer still has to do something.

After all, the total price of those six hundred horses has reached the equivalent of five thousand pounds of silver, which is a bit ridiculously high.

In fact, the price of horses should not be so outrageous, but the most outrageous problem is the economic situation of the Russians themselves. It is clear that the total amount of material production is not very high. It can only be said that with these years of hard work, the people under the rule of the principality have somewhat survived. However, after many consecutive years of war victory, a large amount of silver and copper coins circulating in the areas around the Baltic Sea flowed into Russia, so that copper coins almost no longer circulated. Silver coins became the most common currency and its purchasing power also decreased.

The continuous war dividends have attracted huge amounts of hot money into circulation, and there is rare inflation in the core area of ​​the Principality of Ross. The overall input of materials from outside the territory is very limited, so this inflation can only be absorbed internally by Ross.

As a result, guests from far away imported a large number of horses, and Ross took the opportunity to "economic blackmail" to quickly increase Ross's total social wealth, which was a means to alleviate inflation.

In fact, if the Pechenegs took the initiative to lower the price of horses, it would better meet Rurik's needs. After they came all the way to follow the local customs, they faced the high prices in the society of the Rus Principality and did not hesitate to increase the price of horses.

In a sense, the Pechenegs raised prices first, and it is just as reasonable for Ross to follow suit.

The principle is that Rurik must take advantage.

The soldiers opened the bronze lock, and the sleigh parked in the house still contained a large amount of supplies.

Some supplies have been unloaded, and the wooden boxes for shipping the goods are uniform and neatly stacked. Each box is nailed and requires a crowbar to open.

The boxes were stacked one on top of another, so high that they formed a low wall.

What's inside? Kagan and Maksakye were not curious about that for the moment, but they were deeply shocked by the large amount of leather.

"Ah! These white skins!"

Sakye rushed over, stroking the leather and grinning endlessly, then exclaimed: "They are all white bear skins? Are all the white bear skins here?"

"There are also brown bears." Rurik shrugged, "My friend, you are very knowledgeable."

"I understand! Of course I understand. You provided some last year, but I didn't expect this year..."

Rurik had an idea and asked, "How is it? How is the price of the bear skins hunted by our Ross in Kiev?"

"Of course it's great! Maybe you don't know, but in Kiev, bear hunting is a very risky thing, and even the entire bear hunting team is wiped out and becomes a delicious meal for the bears."

"I mean the market. How's the bearskin?"

Facing the large number of bear skins, Sacchi was so excited that he could only describe it as follows: "It is very valuable. Only noble people can enjoy it. If it is sold further south to Roman merchants, one skin can be exchanged for several dollars." Jar of olive oil.”

"Olive oil?" Rurik understood what this guy was saying and was shocked: "Did you bring olive oil?"

"It's so hard to get good stuff like that. I heard that the Romans used it for sacrifices and other things, and they also drank the oil. Anyway, it's really good oil."

The guy's answer was not what he asked, so Rurik took a strong tone and asked again: "You really didn't bring it?"

Sakye immediately made a face: "Really not. If you think of getting it, I will find a way to buy it."

"Then go! I hope you can bring me some olive oil when you come back next year. Wait! If you can really trade with the Romans, bring me more goods from the south."

Sakye gritted his teeth and agreed, but seeing the guy's sudden hesitant expression, Rurik could guess that he must have safety concerns in his heart.

Rurik was unwilling to delve further into this matter.

Sakye did have security concerns. In fact, from the Slavic community in Kiev to the Roman-controlled areas of Kherson or Odessa, all he had to do was drift along the Dnieper River.

However, the Slavs' shipbuilding level was always at the canoe stage. That kind of small boat could not carry much supplies at a time, and they had to stay ashore at night. Once a Slavic merchant reaches the shore and lights a fire, there is a high probability that he will be attacked by the Khazars wandering nearby. After going through dangerous rivers, they entered the cities of Eastern Rome and had to pay a high entry tax before they could trade. Because they did not believe in the Lord, and the Romans needed leather from the north, they imposed heavy taxes on northern merchants and allowed trade. This was what the Romans considered a reward.

Except for some weird aliens-Varyags.

Lonely long boats would suddenly appear on the Dnieper River. They would suddenly attack the villages of the Kiev people, and they would also dare to rob the homes of the Eastern Romans. Even the Khazars were unwilling to chew such hard bones.

Smart Kiev people can tell that the Russians are aliens among the Varyags. Rus is Varyag, but Varyag is not Rus.

The so-called Varyags in Kiev almost all refer to the Danes who rushed to the source along the West Dvina River. They also broke away from Denmark and moved from the Pskov area to the Lithuanian tribal living area. There are occasional encounters with his hometown in Denmark, but never with Ross.

Sacchi pointed out that bear skins were very expensive in the south, which gave Rurik a huge opportunity to raise the price.

A bear skin costs twenty silver coins, which almost only refers to brown bear skins. The white bear's activity area is farther north, and the cost of hunting should be higher. Considering that Kagan must pay high prices, it would not be easy to simply deceive him.

Rurik happened to notice that Kagan didn't seem to pay much attention to leather, but instead ran towards the bear heads piled into a hill.

Kagan held up a heavy white bear head. Although the bear's eyes, mandible and brain had been removed, the shocking length of the upper jaw and the terrifying huge fangs that were left on the upper skull clearly gave Kagan a huge shock.

"Brother, do you like bear heads?" Rurik asked.

Kagan suddenly looked back with bright eyes: "Who doesn't like it? Mighty warriors can often scare the enemy. In my opinion, these bear heads are the most suitable decoration for my warriors. Just like you decorated your mercenary Rurik with them. Brother, if you put so many bear heads here, you must not be arming your own soldiers. You must be planning to sell them."

This guy is really good! Rurik snapped his fingers and introduced cheerfully: "That's right! We are brothers. You have come all the way here and I won't treat you badly. I know, in fact, you know about the whole bear skin here. price."

"Yes, expensive, but not expensive. I noticed that your people are very good at hunting bears. It is not at all difficult as this Kiev man said."

Rurik felt a chill in his heart and hurriedly explained: "It is true for us, but it is difficult for them. Listen, no one in this world is better at hunting bears than us Russians. Guess how many bear skins I brought this time ?”

"It must be a huge quantity. I saw bear skins everywhere in the warehouse."

"Eight hundred."

When this number was spoken, Kagan and Sakhi stepped back in shock.

"You are afraid."

"I'm... not afraid." Kagan's words were quite reluctant. He was indeed not afraid. It was just that these times far exceeded his expectations: "I'm a little worried."

"worry about what."

"It can't be shipped back in one go."

When Kagan said this, Rurik laughed loudly. Kagan also brought a lot of horses here that were purely used for transport. Those horses could theoretically be sold, but once they were sold, the supplies could not be transported away. Rurik already knew this clearly.

"Each bear hide is heavy, as heavy as a bear's head. But I know that for the sake of glory and wealth, you will try your best to transport them away."

"That's natural." Kagan bit his lip: "I want all your bear skins, and these bear heads, sell them all to me."

"Okay, but..."

"How many horses is that?"

Kagan also spoke forcefully. It was obvious that he was dissatisfied with Rurik's lack of decisiveness, so he continued: "We are brothers, and we must complete the delivery of the goods immediately. I don't want to wait any longer, please give me a clear price." .”

"That's it..." Rurik gently stroked his golden beard: "The bear skin and bear head together are worth one hundred silver coins, the white bear skin is worth forty silver coins, the brown bear skin is worth twenty silver coins..."

Rurik simply made an offer for all the leather goods he brought. He was deliberately offering too high a price. It would be best for Kagan to accept it. If he didn't accept it, he would have the first mover advantage in bargaining.

However, Kagan was as heroic as that prairie man and decisively agreed to the price, which was twice as high as usual.

Although the price of brown bear skins has not increased here, all brown bears hibernate in winter. Ross hunters enter the traditional winter hunting period after winter and hunt all polar bears. In order to maximize profits, smart hunters naturally aim at large bears and launch javelins with torque slingshots. In this way, the bear meat and liver can satisfy the food of the bear hunting team, and the bear skin spread over an extremely large area can be sold at a high price. As for the bear head, its decorative value is far less than the practical value of the bear skin. Here in Rurik, pricing a bear head at 30 silver coins is really his crazy price increase.

However, the Pechenegs need some ferocious beasts to prove the prowess of their army, improve the morale of their own people, and also scare other people.

Kagan is not a businessman. He doesn't know and doesn't bother to think about whether he has been tricked by his good brother. Each bear skin is surprisingly large, and the white furry skin actually feels much better than sheepskin. His arrogance came at a high price. He had spent 350 good horses to buy all the bear heads and skins. Even so, Rurik also called this a friendship price.

And that's just the cost of buying bearskin and bears' heads.

The Russians also provided some furry little leathers, which came from ferrets and snow foxes. The leather area was not large, and its soft touch felt like touching a lump of butter. The pure white fur color made people love it.

Rurik raised the price of a ferret skin to ten silver coins, and two hundred ferret skins and snow fox skins were bought.

Purchasing Ross Leather was one of Kagan's tasks, and not even the biggest.

"I've basically bought all your leather. Now I want salt. I'll buy all the salt you have."

Kagan's eyes were urgent and sincere. Regarding the sale of salt, Rurik estimated that even if he raised the price, he would not be able to kill the grassland people.

Because the exchange ratio of salt to oats was fixed by law, the legislator was Rurik himself. The Principality of Rus implements the grain-based principle. The prince controls the management and dispatching rights of the granary. With a huge amount of grain, the entire Rus will not be in economic chaos due to the huge amount of silver coin hot money. The price of grain controlled by the government is set to a rigid standard, and the official conversion ratio of salt to grain is also set to a rigid standard.

The private buying and selling of grain and salt among the people is another kind of existence. The official price is more like a guide price.

Kagan knew the official price of ten silver coins for a pound of salt, and Rurik proposed a higher price.

"A lot of salt is reserved for us Russians for our own use. If you come to buy our country's salt this time, my subjects will be dissatisfied, even if you are my brother. If you buy less, forget it, you ask too much , in order to appease the anger of my subjects, the price of all salt has been doubled."

"That's one pound of silver coins to buy you five pounds of salt. I'll trade you a mare for fifty pounds of salt. I think that's okay."

There was no displeasure on Kagan's expression, but it made Rurik feel that his price was still too low. However, the words have already been spoken, and it would be unmanly to regret it.

Because the people of New Roseburg were mobilized to make salt on a large scale, boiling the Gulf of Finland seawater with extremely low salinity into brine. The cost of precipitating sodium chloride is mainly time cost. The local wood is simply inexhaustible. Fill in more firewood. The people are also tolerant. After all, the people exchanged salt for wheat. Rurik didn't care how many pine and fir trees his subjects consumed. The price he paid for the salt was one hundred pounds of oats for one pound of salt. Salt cannot be eaten as food, but a hundred pounds of oats can feed a man for two months. People still feel they are getting a big deal.

The Atlantic sea salt brought by the Balmoks was mixed by Rurik with the inferior salt produced in the Gulf of Finland raid, and mixed into five hundred pounds of salt, which was the share to be sold to Kagan. Because the price was forcibly doubled, the price was exactly ten mares.

Kagan's mathematics level is not high. He watched Rurik's "dazzling" sadness and concluded that five hundred pounds of salt was only the price of ten horses. He was so moved that he cried.

He took Rurik's hand and spoke a bunch of Turkic words in excitement.

There is only one thing Kagan wants to express - the Russians are really good people.

Because any bit of salt is cherished by the Pecheneg people. If they can't make salt, they will boil a pile of miserable bitter brine, which is poisonous to eat. Therefore, the grassland people would rather find other ways to get salt. They have never been unable to live without salt. They can get salt by drinking milk, but due to the huge consumption of war, the combat effectiveness of an army lacking salt is definitely not strong.

The Pechenegs never expected to get five hundred pounds of salt at once, and Kagan really felt that his excessive demands would arouse the dissatisfaction of the Russian people. Indeed, as long as these five hundred pounds of salt are transported back to the grassland, they will be enough for the Pecheneg people to use for a long time.

The next transaction went smoothly. Rurik provided a large number of steel sword embryos. Each sword embryo could be forcibly bent and then suddenly rebounded to be straight. It would be better if it was a saber. Even if it is just a straight sword embryo, it can be brought back to the grassland and Pecheneg's own blacksmith can make it into a saber.

The sword was just a sword embryo, complicated processing was thrown to the buyer, and a sword embryo cost two pounds of silver coins. Rurik learned the lesson of selling salt just now, and he forcibly raised the price of the sword embryo to three times the original price.

Kagan wasn't angry, even though he knew the original price. He pointed directly at the Ross steel sword he ordered hanging on his waist: "I didn't buy this sword for two pounds of silver coins. I want to buy a lot. Can it be cheaper?"

"You want to be cheap? That's not possible. But..."

"how?"

"I can give you something."

"what is that?"

In this way, Rurik smiled maliciously...

A good product coupled with some cheap gifts, and then marked with a high price will ensure that a group of buyers snap up the product and feel that they have made a profit at the same time.

How had Kagan ever seen this type of bundling? Rurik used exactly this kind of measurement, bundling and selling mass-produced pig-iron axes and hammers, as well as iron spears captured in the war against Denmark.

Kagan couldn't tell the clear difference between mild steel, wrought iron, and gray pig iron. In terms of pure quantity, he felt that the Rurik brothers gave too much when it came to iron.

The essence is that the Pechenegs have no choice. They can only obtain salt and iron through looting and purchase. These are strategic materials. This is true for them and the same is true for other grassland tribes. In the south, only the Eastern Roman Empire and the Bulgarian Khanate are salt and iron producers. Other ethnic groups can only exchange cattle, sheep and horses. The Pechenegs do not take advantage of the transaction, but salt and iron are consumables. As long as they cannot supply them for a long time, Replenished, military strength continues to decline.

For salt, iron, and leather, Kagan used more than 500 horses to finalize a large deal of strategic materials with Rurik. Together with all the recurve bows, they were also exchanged in equal quantities for the Russian crossbows without bow arms. Making a recurve bow is a craft, and the key to making a crossbow lies in the crossbow system, which is high-tech. The evaluations of Rurik and Kagan are equal exchanges.

At the same time, Maksakye, as the plenipotentiary representative of the Kiev people, completed a horse-for-materials transaction with Ross.

Kagan still has a share of the wealth of some horses left, and these horses are exchanged for simple gems.

"You want lapis lazuli? You want amber? Okay. I remember you clearly said that you want to marry your sister to me, even though you know that I have many wives and concubines. For the sake of the friendship between our two countries, I accept this marriage, and I will I will give you some extra gems and glassware. Find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com " Rurik emphasized this again, which moved Kagan to tears.

But the deal isn't over yet.

What is over is only this year's transaction. In the future, the three parties of Rus, Kiev and the Pechenegs will still start transactions, and the scale of the transactions should be expanded.

The three parties made an agreement. First, the three parties must ensure peace with each other. Second, they must take tough measures against the Smolensk community sandwiched between the three parties.

With the smooth flow of trade lines, Smolensk has become an obstacle. It is not yet an opportunity to conquer Smolensk. The Principality of Rus needs cheap labor. A simple method is to hire Pechenegs and Kiev people to capture slaves. The first target is Smolensk.

To this, Kagan and Sakhi readily agreed.

Raiding villages, seizing people and selling them to Rus, wouldn't this be easy for the Pecheneg horses heading north for trade? In Kagan's opinion, the Smolensk villagers are just a group of walking silver coins. He is already planning to prepare more ropes to transport prisoners when he comes to Russia for trade next fall.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . :