Two hundred and sixty-six chapters since ancient times granary
Han Du was asked this question by Lao Zhu and did not refuse. He nodded and said, "I think what the queen said is true. As the saying goes, it is difficult for a rich man to be a man without money."
Before Han Du could continue speaking, Queen Ma suddenly burst into laughter after hearing this. She pointed at Han Du and laughed tremblingly, feeling a little out of breath.
Lao Zhu also looked at Han Du with a constipated expression, complaining in his heart, "Is it possible for you to talk like this? It's hard to be a man again."
Han Du was confused by Lao Zhu and his wife. Was what he just said so funny? Han Du had no professional training. If what he said was funny, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
.
"Continue, you continue." Queen Ma had smiled enough and regained her composure, waving her hand to signal Han Du.
Han Du nodded and stopped talking about the difficulty of being a man. He said straightforwardly: "My thoughts are the same as those of the Queen. The royal family must have an industry that belongs exclusively to the royal family and must operate some fixed sources of income."
"Why?" Lao Zhu frowned and asked in a deep voice.
Han Du gestured to Lao Zhu and said gratefully: "I know that the reason why the emperor does not let the royal family interfere in the management is because he has the common people in mind, thinking that he can benefit the common people of the world and reduce some of the burdens of the common people. The common people's days are just like this.
It will be better."
Lao Zhu nodded silently after hearing this. This is what he thought. The rise and fall of past dynasties told him that the world's wealth is countless. If the royal family takes more, the common people will take less. In the end, if the common people can't take any,
Then it will naturally cause chaos in the world.
Lao Zhu also wanted the Ming Dynasty to be prosperous and prosperous for one lifetime or even for eternity. Naturally, he did not want the common people to survive and rebel. Therefore, he had always strictly controlled the expenses of the royal family. Even he himself was still in the imperial garden.
Plant tea, rice and other things in order to play a leading role and call on everyone to be diligent and thrifty together.
But in Han Du's view, the emperor did not spend his time on making everyone rich, but spent it on growing tea and rice. This was not a waste, but a waste of natural resources.
Lao Zhu was exhausted until death, and he could only grow enough rice to feed ten people in his lifetime. But if he spent his time on making everyone rich, maybe with a casual word, he could solve the problem of feeding 100,000 people.
"But the reality may not allow His Majesty to fulfill his wish." Han Du sighed.
When Lao Zhu heard this, his face darkened, he stared at Han Du and said, "Tell me, keep talking, why can't you let me get what I want?"
Han Du thought for a moment and gave an example, "All walks of life in this world are like cities. Even if the royal family does not occupy them, will these cities remain empty, waiting for the people to occupy them? Obviously not.
Well, when the emperor is fighting in the world, he should understand that there is no city in the world that will be empty for the people to occupy. There will always be someone who dominates. The same is true for all walks of life. Even if the royal family is not involved at all, there will be no one.
The industry can make profits for the common people, but only officials and wealthy businessmen can make profits."
Han Du's words tore Lao Zhu's beautiful dream into pieces, but he was not angry at all, he just stared blankly into the void.
"The emperor thinks that these officials and wealthy businessmen will be willing to use money to help the people? If they can do this, there will be no saying that there is no business without treachery."
As he spoke, Han Du's expression changed and became very serious, "On the contrary, I think it is necessary for the royal family to get involved in related industries, at least to grasp the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty. In Wei Chen's opinion, the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty is also
It means firewood, rice, salt, iron, clothing, housing, transportation, etc. The most basic firewood, rice, salt and iron, the royal family must have in their hands."
Empress Ma was overjoyed. She originally thought that Han Du just agreed with her idea. She did not expect that Han Du could actually control the royal family's industrial management and rise to the level of the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty.
After hearing this, Lao Zhu felt that Han Du was exaggerating, and asked doubtfully: "Is it so important?"
"How come it's not serious? Take rice for example, the grain trading is such a huge profit. And if the grain trading is completely left to the merchants, in order to pursue profits, a situation will inevitably occur. That is, the merchants will be in a good year.
It will greatly lower the purchase price of grain, and in famine years it will greatly increase the price of grain sales. Over and over again, the price difference of grain will be more than ten times, or even more. Have you encountered any
When there is a famine in a year, the price of food will be dozens of times higher than in a good year. How many people are forced to sell their fields, houses, property, or even their children in order to survive? In any case, as long as the food continues to
If it is left to businessmen to run it, the people will always suffer."
Lao Zhu was horrified when he heard this. He had never thought that it was just a grain business, but if it went wrong, something so serious could happen.
Seeing that Lao Zhu was silent, Han Du added another fire, "That's not all. Since they are businessmen, there is no one who doesn't know how to buy low, sell high, and hoard. They can even connect with each other to sell grain in good years.
Prices hit the lowest point on their own. In famine years, people hoarded. In order to maximize profits, they clearly had a large amount of grain in their hands, but they were unwilling to sell a single grain. Artificially created a great famine, resulting in the tragic scene of thousands of miles of desolation and starving people everywhere.
.”
"How dare they!" Lao Zhu was angry. If it was a catastrophic disaster from heaven, then Lao Zhu would naturally have nothing to say. Natural disasters are too common. A small disaster occurs every three years and a major disaster occurs every five years. So does Lao Zhu.
We are accustomed to it. But as Han Du said, it would be too much to think that it would cause a catastrophe. No one with any humanity at all would do such a thing.
But Han Du was not talking nonsense about such a thing, and it might actually happen.
Even Queen Ma became nervous about this. She pulled Lao Zhu's sleeves and said, "Han Du is right. Food is indeed one of the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty. We can no longer let those businessmen run their business. No matter what,
Even if it is for the sake of peace and stability in the world, the royal family must get involved in the grain trade."
Lao Zhu still had doubts and said in a deep voice: "Then what do you think we should do?"
"I think that the emperor can specify a reasonable price. Well, the price of rice in recent years is usually five to seven cents of silver per load. The emperor can specify a price, for example, six cents of silver per load. As long as
If the price is lower than this price, the royal family will begin to purchase grain without limit at this price. Once the price is higher than this price, for example, if there is a famine, and the grain price rises to one tael of silver per load, the royal family will start selling grain to stabilize the price of grain.
In this way, when there is a good harvest of food, the people will not suffer a loss, because their food can always be sold for six cents a load, and there is no need to worry about being bought for nothing by profiteers at extremely low prices. In times of famine, the people will not suffer either.
Worry about running out of food, because even if the royal family buys one tael of silver per load of food, it is still much cheaper than what they bought before. As long as the family has some savings, they can rely on the royal food.
Wait until next year when autumn turns yellow."
"In this way, although the profits will be slim, the fact that the royal family holds the food in its hands is equivalent to holding the stability of the people of the world in its hands. For the sake of the stability of the world, I think it is very worthwhile."
After Han Du finished speaking, he bowed his hands.
Han Du said that the profit was just a modest compliment. In fact, the profit from making grain sounds was not Weibo at all, and could even be considered huge. It seemed that the royal family purchased grain at a price of six cents of silver per load, and then
Sold at a price of one tael of silver per load, excluding labor, warehousing, drying, etc., a load of grain can only earn two cents of profit.
This profit is not much, at least compared with those of those merchants, it is far inferior. However, the basic principle of grain trading is not based on unit price profit, but on quantity. As long as the quantity is large, the profit is still very considerable.
At this time, due to the lack of meat food, people consumed a lot of food. Take the surrounding areas of the capital as an example, on average, a person eats about five tons of food every year, which is not enough to eat every meal.
, and you need to eat some wild vegetables to fill it up. Of course, the average quantity in the entire Ming Dynasty is definitely not that high, but it will not be less than three dans of grain. Even based on three dans of grain, the population of the Ming Dynasty in the 14th year of Hongwu was about 900
There are 40,000 households, which means there are about 40 to 50 million people. Even if you earn three cents of silver from one person, you can earn almost 15 million silver.
And this is how much money can be earned in about three to five years between good years and bad years. On average, the income is several million dollars a year.
This is not huge profits. What is huge profits?
Obviously, Empress Ma also knew this, and she said to Lao Zhu: "Han Du is right, making money is secondary, the most important thing is for the peace and stability of the world."
I thought that Lao Zhu would agree to this, but after listening to Han Du's words, Lao Zhu sneered and said: "Your method is just picking up my teeth. I once issued a decree requiring each county to build granaries so that the people can
Store the grain in the good years and take it out to eat in the famine years. In this case, why does the royal family need to do this again?"
When Queen Ma heard this, she was immediately startled and felt as if a large piece of white money was about to leave her.
Han Du is very calm. Lao Zhu is indeed a strange flower among emperors in history. He has formulated countless policies. To be honest, it is not easy to find a place where Lao Zhu has not formulated any policies. But it is also
This is not to say that there are no problems with the policies formulated by Lao Zhu. On the contrary, the policies formulated by Lao Zhu give people the impression that they are a bit "kill but not bury".
Lao Zhu formulated many policies, which were very comprehensive, and many of them were very useful, but when it came to the implementation of the policies, they were completely blank. Han Du didn’t know why it was like this, but Han Du felt like Lao Zhu when he looked at it.
Zhu only knew something superficial about these things. But this shouldn’t be the case. Lao Zhu had never seen anything in the Southern and Northern Wars, so how could he only understand superficial things?
Putting these thoughts aside for the time being, Han Du smiled and explained to Lao Zhu: "Your Majesty, rats have been born in the granary since ancient times, let alone a county's granary? When the people hand over grain to the county, how much grain can be handed over?
How much food did you get back?"
Lao Zhu's eyes widened and he asked: "Why is it impossible?"
Han Du shook his head and explained: "Your Majesty, this is impossible. Because it is impossible for no one to take care of the granary. If the grain gets damp, it needs to be taken out to dry, and if the grain is piled for too long, it will become moldy and rotten.
Everything is lost. If we can't figure out how to deal with the grains handed in by the people, it will be difficult for a county to support such a thing for many years. Therefore, it is impossible for the people to get back as much grains as they hand in.
There will certainly be losses.”
There was no way to refute this, and Lao Zhu was silent for a while. He couldn't force the counties to cancel all losses. Then after three or five years, the food will be rotten. Doesn't the court still have to return the original food to the people? That way
Come on, even if you take over all the county government offices in a few years, you won't be able to make up for this shortfall.
"Since there is loss, there are too many articles that can be done here. How much loss is not a matter of a word from the county magistrate? Or 30% per year, or 50% per year. Even if it is calculated based on 30% per year,
After those three years, there was not much food left over from the people. If there was a famine during these three years, that would be fine. The people would still be able to get some food back, and they understood the importance of storing food in the past. But
If nothing happens during these three years, then the people will definitely feel that the food they handed in was wasted. As a result, the people will definitely not be willing to continue to hand in food. Over time, this kind of food will
The method of storing grain is only in name only for the people."
To put it bluntly, the grain storage policy formulated by Lao Zhu is too rigid, without any vitality, and will eventually lead to death. And due to the price difference between new grain and old grain, people will definitely hand over the new grain in advance, and then they will be left behind.
After being sold, the old grain was taken and stored in the warehouse. Even in the later stage, even the superficial efforts of buying old grain and putting it in the warehouse were not done. The grain handed over by the people would be directly used by others.
Sell it. What was originally a good grain storage policy has become a tool for raising rats.
When Lao Zhu saw that the food storage method he had worked so hard to come up with became so ugly and full of flaws in Han Du's mouth, he naturally felt very unhappy. As soon as his thoughts changed, he snorted coldly and said: "What you said makes the royal family
The method of harvesting grains doesn’t work either. Since grains are bound to rot, then if I collect the grains and can’t sell them in the end, wouldn’t it be wasted?”
Not to mention that Lao Zhu is still very poor now, even if Lao Zhu became rich overnight, he would not be able to withstand such a toss. The current food preservation methods are backward. Although the food that is generally stored for three years is old food, it can still be eaten after all, but
Once it exceeds five years, the food cannot even be eaten and will only rot in vain.