Among the ancient emperors, it was not uncommon to engage in business and trade, including Emperor Zhengde who dabbled in usury and Emperor Qianlong who was keen to hold carnival-like buying and selling activities.
As the emperor of the Ninety-Five, he is willing to open shops to buy and sell, which is an outlier in history, but it is not without a trace.
From Sima Shu setting up a stall to sell meat, to Qianlong setting up a New Year trading street, the emperors' buying and selling intentions can be seen.
1. Prince Huai set up a stall to sell meat, and the accuracy of his knife skills is amazing
Liu Hong, the Ling Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, ascended the throne as emperor in the first year of Yongkang. According to historical records, in the fourth year of Guanghe, he built a row of shops in the harem and let the palace ladies buy and sell in it. These palace ladies had disputes over buying and selling, and even quarrels and fights.
Emperor Ling changed into the costume of a merchant and drank and had fun in it. His love for business did not stop there, according to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty written by Xie Cheng of the Three Kingdoms Wu, Emperor Ling often played buying and selling games with the palace ladies in the West Garden, and played the role of a merchant himself.
The eldest son of Emperor Hui of the Western Jin Dynasty, the prince Sima Shu, came out of the East Palace in the first year of Yuankang. Although he was not easy to learn, he turned the East Palace into a lively market, and participated in the buying and selling with the people around him. "Book of Jin" recorded one of his stunts, "In the palace for the city, make people slaughter, carry two catties in their hands, and the weight is not bad." In other words, he was able to accurately judge the weight of an object by his hand without using a scale, a skill known as "one-size-fits-all".
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Liu Yifu, the young emperor of the Song Dynasty, ascended the throne as emperor in the first year of Jingping, and his reign lasted only two years. According to the "History of the South", he once set up a shop in Hualin Garden and personally participated in the buying and selling activities. The short-lived emperor not only built shops in the palace, but also started a business himself.
Tang Zhongzong Li Xian, the seventh son of Gaozong, ascended the throne twice. During his reign, he was also keen to open a market for trading. According to historical records, in February of the third year of Jinglong, he opened a market in Xuanwu Gate and let the palace ladies sell various items in it. He also invited his ministers and ministers to play the role of merchants and trade with them. In the course of these transactions, there are often arguments and quarrels, and the language is vulgar. However, Tang Zhongzong and Empress Wei took pleasure in it and regarded it as a pastime.
However, the good times were short-lived. In the fourth year of Jinglong, Tang Zhongzong was poisoned by Empress Wei, ending his career as an emperor full of twists and turns.
2. In the Ming Dynasty, the style of imperial shops prevailed, and the usury business was particularly prominent
If it is said that opening a store and buying and selling with the God King is just the nature of playing tickets, then the emperor of the Ming Dynasty did this business with real swords. They opened royal stores in and around Gyeonggi with the main purpose of pursuing wealth.
In the eighth year of Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch Yu Jingjiao asked to open two imperial stores of Baoyuan and Jiqing. Since then, the imperial store has sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and it is out of control.
The Imperial Shop is a special shop that has been granted a name by the emperor, and is usually opened by the imperial family, eunuchs and magnates. Some of these shops were converted from government stores or warehouses, while others were located near Huangzhuang or on major transportation routes. Huangdian has a wide range of businesses, including warehouse leasing, parking of merchants' goods, and tax collection. However, unlike the official store, the imperial store was not managed by the government, and its income went directly into the emperor's "small money cabinet" and became the emperor's private property. What's more, some royal shops are also involved in the usury business, making huge profits through money lending.
In the Ming Dynasty, Huangdian was not limited to the Gyeonggi area, but also as far as Shanhaiguan, Guangning (now Beizhen, Liaoning), and Liaoyang in the northeast, Datong and Xuanfu (now Xuanhua, Hebei) in the west, as well as Tongzhou (now Tongxian, Beijing), Zhangjiawan, Lugouqiao, and Linqing in Shandong. Relying on the emperor's privileges, these imperial shops intercepted merchants, expropriated and extorted, and did all kinds of evil. During the Zhengde period, the annual silver income of the imperial shop was as high as more than 80,000 taels, and the rest of the income fell into the private pockets of eunuchs and magnates.
However, the evil deeds of the imperial shop also aroused strong opposition from the courtiers. In the spring of the ninth year of Zhengde, after the fire broke out in the Qianqing Palace, Yang Yiqing, the imperial history of the right capital, and others went up one after another, pointing out that the imperial store was harmed by reckless wealth and asked to remove the imperial store. Although after the death of Emperor Zhengde, Ming Shizong Jiajing weakened the power of Huangdian for a time, they were never completely eliminated. In the twenty-fourth year of Mingshenzong's Wanli, Zhang Yangmeng also pointed out the harm of the imperial store in the matter, calling it a shackle that infringes on people's interests and hinders the development of commercial capital.
3. Qianlong's New Year shopping street is like a luxurious commercial club
By the Qing Dynasty, the number and scale of imperial shops were far less than they were in the heyday of the Ming Dynasty, but they still existed in the palace and appeared in a more luxurious and entertaining form – the New Year Trading Street.
During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, every Spring Festival, he would open a trading street in Tongyuan for nine days. This shopping street seems to be a high-end commercial club, with all kinds of antiques, clothes, wine shops and tea stoves. The shops were opened by imperial eunuchs, who carefully selected all kinds of goods, purchased them from various shops in the outer city, and recorded them with their prices. During the opening of the shopping mall, ministers flock to the park to buy their favourite items or enjoy their meals at the tavern restaurants. The street maids are all selected from the shops outside the city with loud voices and articulate voices, who shout loudly and report accounts, and are very lively.
Emperor Qianlong personally came to the trading street and couldn't help laughing when he saw this prosperous scene. However, this lavish form of entertainment didn't last long. It is said that after the death of Emperor Qianlong in the fourth year of Jiaqing of Qing Renzong, the custom of buying and selling streets in the Spring Festival gradually stopped.
Despite this, during the reign of the Empress Dowager Cixi, there were still shops in the palace. According to the "Qing Palace Ci" written by the owner of Jiuzhong, when the Empress Dowager Cixi lived in Xiyuan, she ordered the palace supervisor to set up a market on the side of the Chengguang Hall in Beihai, list department stores, and personally went to inquire about prices to inspect the situation of merchants.
In general, the economic activities such as Huangdian, Huangzhuang and weaving were all important reflections of the social economy at that time, and deserved our full attention and research. They not only show the business interests and methods of the emperors, but also reveal the complexity and diversity of the social economy of the time.