In the seventh month of Mengqiu, the water flowing in the rivers and ditches gradually decreased, and waterwheels had to be set up to draw water from the ditches.
Li Tai sat astride the bullock cart with bare feet and drove the bullock cart decently. When he saw the farmer standing at the edge of the field drawing water with a bucket, he shouted: "Hot soup, make way!"
The farmers jumped to let the bullock carts pass. They looked at the water buffalo carts that were getting further away and sighed: "What a prodigal man. He doesn't like animal labor! His family owns thousands of acres of land during a journey of more than ten miles.
How many cows would have to be used to water the water!"
"A poor man is worried about the rich! Hundreds of people work in his weaving workshop, and hundreds of bolts of cloth can be woven in a day. There is also a workshop for pressing oil, and the big families in the countryside supply materials to his family and pour oil on the ground.
Enough to make..."
"How many months has it been since this family came to the country? Are they already so rich?"
The farmer who was watering the fields next to him couldn't help but be surprised when he heard this.
"How rich other people's families are is their business. You are still here gossiping, watering the ground all night long, missing work in the evening, but no one cares about your dinner at night!"
When the farmers in the field heard this, they also moved faster. After a while, another farmer couldn't help but sigh: "I can't help but admire the prosperity of the industry. The big families in the countryside will recruit people to work when they are busy, but who is as generous as this family?"
, full of rice and rice, meat and vinegar?
If a family accumulates good deeds, it will lead to wealth. This husband is too poor at farming and will starve to death in good years. However, the family's business is growing day by day. If you say that there is no blessing from heaven, I really don't believe it!"
Fortunately, Li Tai is a proficient driver of an oxcart and has already traveled a long way. If he hears that the villagers despise his farm work level, he will deprive a sheep of food even if he says nothing today!
The land reserved for growing winter wheat has been plowed twice, but it still needs to be watered once more to soak out the roots and stems of the previous crop.
Li Tai drove the ox cart back, and the villagers came in to draw water and irrigate the fields.
He had just jumped off the bullock cart when a man who had been waiting beside him for a long time hurriedly walked up, waving a big cattail leaf fan and came up to Li Tai: "Li Lang is really diligent. He has done wonderful things recently. The Feng family has a lot of money, but he can still do it."
The planning of marriage and farming is really admirable."
The bright sun hung in the sky, and no matter how hard he shook his cattail leaf fan, there was still no cool breeze. Li Tai walked all the way to the edge of the field and sat down under the shade of a tree. Then he pointed at Liu Gong who was following him diligently shaking the fan and said with a smile: "Liu San
If you don't go to the city to make a fortune, how can you have the leisure to come to my little garden to watch the scenery?"
"My husband said that, it really mortified me! Compared with the masterful work done by my husband the other day, what is the value of my little calculation? A bucket of sesame oil in Zuojin Township is equivalent to a piece of silk, and my husband collected the oil in front of me, just for one thing.
It’s already comparable to a mediocre person working hard for several years!”
When someone from the village brought the perilla drink from Jingshui Liangzhen, Liu Gong grabbed it first and handed it to Li Tai respectfully with both hands, showing a sense of hospitality from head to toe.
"If you have anything to say, just tell me. It's hot and dry in autumn. I'm too lazy to guess what you have in mind."
Li Tai took the drink and drank most of the bowl, then took a sip and said.
"I do have something to ask for. The price of oil is good this autumn, so my family also wants to take advantage of the market to replenish oil, so..."
"So you don't want to deliver Qiu Hou's flax?"
Li Tai glanced at him and said with a smile.
"It's not that I don't want to, how dare you..."
Liu Gong glanced at the grain truck transporting grain on the rural road as it drove into the manor, and hurriedly looked back. There are few secrets in the countryside. The historian who almost lost everything today came here to apologize for transporting grain. In a very short period of time, the news spread throughout the countryside.
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Although not much is known about the specific inside story, the big businessmen in the area no longer dare to regard Li Tai as a newcomer to Dongzhou with little foundation, and they feel awe in their hearts.
"My fellow villagers used to laugh at me... But now I realize that we are short-sighted fools! After a miscalculation, my family is not without the courage to admit defeat, but this autumn's flax harvest failed. But, it's just..."
Li Tai glanced at Liu Gong, who was still thinking about his words, and said with a smile: "It's just that the flax harvest is a small matter, but in the next few years, the current price of oil in the countryside will not be controlled by your hometown merchants. Is this the real big problem?"
"
"Mr. Sir, I know that although my family also has a profitable sideline business, it is still farming mulberry trees. All the food and clothing are harvested by our hard work. If we miscalculate in one season, we will suffer from hunger and cold for many years. And during the Daxingtai, there will be rewards and levies. Information from the countryside
Even more tired..."
Liu Gong said with a bitter look on his face, even shuddering in this autumn and summer weather.
After Li Tai saw this, he couldn't help but laugh again. It wasn't that he was gloating about his misfortune, but he was just proud.
Kansai has been disrupted by natural and man-made disasters for many years, making it difficult for small households to make a living, and land and population are concentrating on large estate owners. In addition to their considerable rural power, powerful people like Guanlong also have rich rural capital.
One of the characteristics of the large estate economy is that it can concentrate productivity and flexibly arrange production methods. It can be said that it is completely self-sufficient and does not need to make frequent transactions with the outside world.
Therefore, there is no money in the entire Kansai market, and these large estate owners are still living a very prosperous life.
Li Tai finally built a large spinning wheel, but due to the shortage of raw materials and labor, the production capacity was severely hindered, and the farming plan was floundering. This is evident from the stubbornness of these surface tycoons in their control of rural capital.
In later generations, the commodity economy was developed, so there was a saying that "if you have money, you can really do whatever you want." But when market transactions degenerate into barter, having money is nothing, but having goods is the last word!
In the past, Li Tai was well-known in the countryside as a man who took advantage of others. These big households set off a craze for slaughtering fattened sheep and sold him a large amount of sesame, the most important oil crop, and even pre-sold the post-autumn output for large sums.
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From a pure perspective of business gains and losses, these large households do not suffer losses. After all, the crops in the fields are produced every year. Even if they cannot keep up with the trend of soaring prices, they will only make less money.
But from a comprehensive perspective, Li Tai's temporary monopoly on sesame seeds is equivalent to directly cutting off a link in the estate economy of these large households. What they lose is not only the immediate profits, but also the cost of oil for the next entire year.
In normal years, although such interruptions will have a certain impact, losses can also be reduced by adjusting one's own production pattern, such as hybridizing some other oil crops, controlling self-consumption, etc.
However, this autumn Daxingtai issued a losing reward and transferred a large amount of materials from the countryside to the government. The savings of these wealthy households have been greatly reduced. If Li Tai pinches their ankles again, it will be very uncomfortable. It is likely that they will not be relieved for several years.
But this is the energy.
In particular, there is no legal transaction currency that can circulate freely in Guanzhong. The cloth usually used for trading also requires tedious work to produce.
This makes the big households even more stretched when arranging production for the coming year, and a loophole appears in the self-sufficient manor economy. This is the most uncomfortable thing.
"I am not a fairy who can live in the wind and dew. Since I still have to live in this world, of course I will not be grudged against the villagers for some material benefits. The orders received in advance after autumn can be redeemed, but it also depends on the sincerity of the villagers.
How much."
Old God Li Tai was saying, now he is not like he used to be when he had money and couldn't spend it, so he will naturally not be polite when he needs to make decisions.
"Of course, of course! All the prepaid goods made by Mr. Lang will be refunded, and my family will also give away a batch of fresh produce to compensate for the breach of contract."
Liu Gong was overjoyed when he heard this and quickly expressed his stance.
Li Tai was overjoyed when he heard this, waved his hand and said: "Liu Sanruo doesn't know how to speak human language, please go home first and ask your parents to come again. It's hot and dry, so I can't guarantee that I will calmly listen to your nonsense again."
"My family is indeed full of sincerity, why don't you give me some advice?"
Seeing Li Tai standing up to end the conversation, Liu Gong hurriedly said again.
"Let's do this. I'll get 30% more of the prepaid goods. How much flax will you sell in advance? In exchange, sell me ten times the grain, based on this autumn's current price."
Li Tai already had a plan in his mind and said directly after hearing the words.
"Thirty percent? This is too high..."
Liu Gong had a bitter look on his face after hearing this. Previously, Li Tai could buy the goods in the countryside at a 20% premium. They also took advantage of the difference in the price of flax in summer and autumn and collected it in advance. But now they have to pay 30% for the goods without doing anything.
It's really heartbreaking and a bit hard to accept.
Li Tai didn't bother to bargain with him, he stood up and walked to the manor.
Liu Gong hesitated at the rear for a while, and when he saw Li Tai was about to enter the manor, he quickly caught up with him: "Hold on, Sir, wait! Thirty percent, 30% is okay, but please agree to this, don't dump the market in the near future!"
In winter, the weather is dry and the nights are long and the days are short. Even without food consumption, a large amount of oil is needed for the maintenance of utensils. Although sesame oil is not the main maintenance oil, it will also increase in line with this wave of market conditions.
Although the newly harvested sesame seeds have a lot of moisture and are not suitable for oil pressing, these big investors obviously don't want to miss this market trend.
"Don't worry about this. Our oil will not be sold on the market before the end of the year. If you don't believe me, we can make another contract."
This time Li Tai was very talkative and expressed his position directly.
Most of the oil he purchased has already been transported to Zhou Changming, and the oil mill has not officially started construction yet. Even if there is still some storage, he has to wait and see the strength and scale of Daxingtai's control over relevant prices before entering the market.
Sale.
Moreover, while purchasing sesame oil, he also purchased a large amount of raw hemp materials. These materials need to be spun into cloth as soon as possible in order to directly increase his purchasing power and realize cash.
In the next few years, there will definitely be a systematic change in the people's livelihood in Guanzhong. The barter trading environment cannot be said to be inflation or deflation. Strengthening one's own productivity is undoubtedly the most critical.
It is precisely for this reason that Li Tai wanted to blackmail the historian into a hundred buddies. These buddies were not just young men, but Li Tai also required them to each have a skilled skill, in order to reserve their talents for the future development of the country.
To be honest, if He Basheng's capital hadn't been borrowed to cause trouble this time, Li Tai really didn't want those big investors to redeem the goods and buy them back. But since he was borrowing capital and saving profits, it was easy to borrow and repay.
The wealthy households in the village redeemed the bills of goods one after another, and Li Tai returned to Huazhou with a batch of returned fabrics to pay back the money.