Chapter 2229 Daming people really run out of food?
Paris, with the cutoff of grain imports from the Ming Empire, this prosperous city soon seemed to have lost its vitality and quickly became withered.
This capital of France in the old days is now the capital of Seine Province in Spain. Its scale and prosperity far exceed those of the capital of the Spanish Empire. It is one of the few metropolises in Europe with a population of one million.
However, at this moment, the entire city is shrouded in famine. Even if the citizens have money, they can no longer buy food. The hateful food merchants now regard the food in their hands as more valuable than gold and have no intention of selling it.
It means that even though the price of food has increased more than ten times, they have enough profits.
But they were still not satisfied. The Ming Empire tightened grain exports, allowing these grain merchants to see room for rising grain prices in the future.
They didn't even notice the profit of more than ten times in front of them. Instead, they waited for the price of food to increase to dozens of times and hundreds of times in a few months before selling it. By that time, the food in their hands would really be as good as gold.
, is as valuable as silver.
Without food to eat, the hungry people would do anything. Bandits broke out all over Paris in a short period of time. Robbery was frequent and theft became commonplace.
The hungry crowd has already eaten all the rats, so just stealing things or something is nothing at all. Even if the situation worsens, it is possible to exchange food for food. After all,
When you are hungry, you no longer care about so many things.
"This can't go on like this."
"Immediately send a message to His Majesty the King. Please allow me to use the army to forcibly confiscate the food in the hands of merchants and distribute it to the hungry people. Otherwise, the whole of Paris will be drowned by hunger."
Torres, the Governor of the Seine Province, looked at the hungry people on the streets of Paris in front of him and thought of the chaos that had occurred in the recent period. He was also worried.
"yes!"
When the officials under my command heard this, they also hurriedly went to handle it. At this time, the telegram from the Ming Dynasty was a good thing, and they could be contacted quickly even across a long distance.
"Your Majesty the Governor, Your Majesty the Governor!"
"I'm back, I'm back!"
At this time, an official came back in a car in a hurry, looking dusty and in a hurry.
"Afeilai, how are you?"
"Did you buy food?"
When he saw the person coming, Torres immediately asked.
The Afelai in front of him was the official he sent to Hong Kong to buy food.
"I bought it, I bought it."
"I contacted a noble from the Ming Empire through some connections. This noble has a huge network of connections in the Ming Empire. He dared to sell Ming's grain to us, but the price was 10 times the previous grain!"
Afelai nodded and told his story in detail.
“10 times the price?”
"Although the price is much higher than before, it is still acceptable."
"Hurry up and ask him to send you as much food as you can."
"You can buy food at 10 times the price now. In a few months, it might be dozens of times higher. It's hard to say."
When Torres heard this, he immediately said.
In the past, if I heard a price ten times higher, I would definitely scold my mother, scold this Ming Dynasty person for being greedy, and scold this Ming Dynasty person for being insatiable.
But now, ten times the price can be said to be the lowest food price in the market. After a while, the price of food may be even higher, so if you can buy more, buy more food as soon as possible.
"yes!"
"I have asked him to send ten shipments of food, which is enough to alleviate the current food problem in Paris and the Seine Province."
Afelai said quickly.
"Okay, well done."
"Immediately set up a grain specialty store. Each household is limited to buying only 5 kilograms of grain per day. The price will be sold at 10 times the price. We are not making money."
When Torres heard this, he immediately praised it.
It was indeed the right thing to send this Ah Fei to Hong Kong. Even if it was ten times the price, he would dare to make the decision to buy the food back first. If it were anyone else, I guess he would not have the guts.
But it was he who boldly made the decision to buy 10 boatloads of grain for himself. Now he could relieve his urgent need. He did not have to use the army to forcibly confiscate the grain from those merchants.
Soon, with 10 ships of grain shipped to Paris, and Torres effectively limiting the amount of grain purchased, these grains played a very important role and were quickly sold to the hands of the lower class citizens of Paris, easing the crisis in the entire Paris.
Hunger problem.
"You are still awesome, adults!"
"This strictly limits the amount of food that each family can purchase. Otherwise, even if we ship another 100 ships of food, I'm afraid it won't be enough for those merchants and nobles to hoard."
With the import of grain, Paris soon slowly stabilized.
Afelai couldn't help but admire Torres. This restriction on the amount of grain purchased by each household was very useful. Many merchants and nobles with ulterior motives wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to buy grain.
It can fall into the mouths of citizens and feed their hungry bellies.
"Haha, I learned all this in Daming."
"More than 30 years ago, during the tenth and eleventh years of the Ming Dynasty's reign, large-scale famines also occurred in the three northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty."
"At that time, merchants in the Ming Dynasty also took the opportunity to hoard and drive up the price of grain. The merchants usually raised the price of grain from seven to eight cents per catty to more than 100 cents per catty, and they also restricted the sale of grain."
"These businessmen even colluded with officials and businessmen to resell the grain from the Ming Dynasty's treasury to further exacerbate the grain shortage and drive up grain prices."
"At that time, many people in the Ming Dynasty starved to death and froze to death. Later, the current chief minister of the Ming Dynasty cabinet, Liu Jin and Liu Gong, came up with a way to solve the famine problem at that time by relying on fishing and importing food from North Korea. Among them were
A little bit, that is to limit the amount of food that everyone can buy every day to prevent food from falling into the hands of businessmen who are struggling to make a fortune."
Torres smiled and shook his head.
"Sir, there was also a famine in the Ming Empire?"
A Fei came to listen, thought about it and asked.
Everyone in the world knows how wealthy the Ming Empire is. Rumor has it that even ordinary Ming people have a higher standard of living than European nobles.
Furthermore, the agriculture of the Ming Empire was extremely developed. Legend has it that mechanized farming was used on a large scale. A farmer could cultivate thousands or tens of thousands of acres of land and produce enough food to feed thousands of people.
The Ming Empire also had some of the best granaries in the world, and its grain output was huge. But there were times when there was famine in the Ming Empire?
"The people of Ming Dynasty are actually not much different from us, they are all the same."
"Before the Ming Empire became truly powerful, the people of Ming Dynasty were no better than us. A few decades ago, the people of Ming Dynasty were also suffering from hunger, and they were also invaded by nomads, Japanese pirates, and internal thieves. There are also countless bandits and the like."
"They have developed very fast in the past thirty years. Through their continuous external expansion and the rapid development of technology and industry, the Ming Empire has become the current Ming Empire."
"This is why Pelos, Alfred and others like me and I want to assist His Majesty to unify Europe, follow the example of the East, and carry out reforms."
"Because if we in Europe want to live like the people of Ming Dynasty, then we must carry out reforms and develop technology and industry. Only in this way can we become truly strong."
Torres smiled and said.
He went to study in the Ming Dynasty, lived in the Ming Dynasty for several years, and met many people from the Ming Dynasty. He finally came to the conclusion that there was not much difference between the Ming Dynasty and his own Europeans.
What the people of the Ming Dynasty can do, the Europeans can also do. The people of the Ming Dynasty can become rich and powerful, and the Europeans can also become strong.
The premise is that Europe must be unified and concentrate its efforts on developing industry and technology. Only in this way can it be truly strong.
Otherwise, a fragmented Europe will never be able to develop, because without unification, its power will always be limited.
Apart from anything else, Spain does not have enough funds to build a railway from Paris to Toledo, the capital of Spain.
Because everything needs to be imported from the Ming Empire and built by engineers from the Ming Empire, the cost is high and it is simply not realistic for Spain today.
But if Europe is unified and Spain unites the Holy Roman Empire and the Apennine Peninsula, then it can concentrate its efforts on doing these things, and building a railway will not be a big deal at all.
"Don't talk about it anymore."
"I just received a call from His Majesty the King, saying that we have regained the supply of food in all parts of Spain, but the price is ten times more expensive than before."
"I'm a little doubtful now. Are the Ming people really out of food?"
"Or we want to take advantage of this disaster to raise food prices."
Torres smiled, then thought about it and talked about the Ming Empire's restriction on grain exports.
The people of the Ming Dynasty announced in a high-profile way that they would strictly limit the export of grain, but through various connections, everyone was able to find some Ming Dynasty merchants with great powers to buy grain, but the price was ten times more expensive than before.
"Sir, why do you say that?"
Al Feilai on the side asked puzzledly.
"Because when I was studying in the Ming Dynasty, I went to Liaodong Province in the Ming Dynasty. I saw with my own eyes the mechanized agriculture of the Ming Dynasty. The vast plains were all covered with grain. With the advancement of the harvesters, there was a continuous flow of grain harvest."
"The grain produced by the Ming Empire in one year is enough to feed the hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty for several years. Even if there is no harvest this year, the grain of the Ming Empire should not be able to produce enough food."
Torres shook his head as he thought about it, confused.