Chapter 442 Soaring Prices and People's Livelihood
Taking a motorboat to Hankou, Li Mu, under the protection of guards, quietly learned about the local price level and sighed silently.
Although we have won the battle ahead, as expected, prices are still on an upward trend, especially for people's livelihood supplies.
In silver dollars, one stone of rice costs about twenty silver dollars, and one stone is equivalent to one hundred and twenty kilograms.
Converted, one silver dollar can only buy six kilograms of rice.
Compared with rice, wheat is cheaper, but equally expensive. It is priced in silver dollars, and a load of wheat is worth nine silver dollars.
One load is equivalent to one hundred catties, and one silver dollar can only buy eleven catties of wheat.
The price of soybeans has also risen sharply. Before the war began, the price of soybeans was 6.5 silver dollars per quintal, but now it has risen to 11 silver dollars per quintal.
It is equivalent to nine pounds of one silver dollar, which is a little cheaper than rice and a little more expensive than wheat.
Compared with before the war, the prices of these staple foods have increased by more than 50%.
However, this is just the beginning, and the price will be higher in the future. Not to mention that it is priced in silver dollars. If it is priced in legal currency, as the currency depreciates indiscriminately, the price will skyrocket.
Feeling sorry for the domestic grain prices, and thinking about the international market, I sent a telegram to the Far East Commercial Bank and asked them to send a copy of the current grain prices in the international market.
Rice is about 45 US dollars per ton; wheat is cheaper, about 28 US dollars per ton; as for soybeans, it is 39 US dollars per meal, almost catching up with the price of rice.
Convert to silver dollars according to the current exchange rate.
Rice is 108 silver dollars per ton; wheat is 67 silver dollars per ton; soybeans are 93 silver dollars per ton.
Domestic food prices are twice as high as those in the international market.
While Li Mu was feeling emotional, he also knew that this was normal. Even before the outbreak of the war and during the years of the Republic of China, international food prices had always been cheaper than domestic prices.
Whether it was the Beiyang period or the Guofu period, foreign rice and wheat were imported to suppress domestic grain prices, and the results were good. Basically, once these foreign rice and foreign wheat came in, domestic grain prices would fall off a cliff.
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However, importing grain from abroad requires foreign exchange. With the financial situation of Beiyang and Guofu, it can be afforded. Only when domestic disasters reduce production and high grain prices can we import a batch to suppress domestic grain prices.
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To this end, Li Mu specifically sought out the grain prices over the years during the Republic of China.
In the first few years of the Republic of China, food prices were relatively stable, with rice prices hovering between 6.42 and 7.40 yuan per stone.
In the ninth year of the Republic of China, there was a drought on both sides of the Yellow River. In the tenth year of the Republic of China, the Yangtze River Basin was hit by floods. In the past two years, the price of rice rose to 9.61 yuan and 9.68 yuan per stone respectively.
In the end, it did not break through 10 yuan.
It was not until the locust plague occurred in the 16th year of the Republic of China that the price of rice rose. In addition, affected by the world capitalist economic crisis, the price of silver fell, and the silver-standard Chinese currency depreciated accordingly. By the 18th year of the Republic of China, the price of japonica rice exceeded 15 yuan per stone. In the 19th year of the Republic of China, the price of grain
The price continued to rise, reaching a maximum of more than 20 yuan, causing social unrest.
Agricultural economic experts, grain merchants and representatives from relevant authorities jointly formed a "Grain Committee" to discuss the import of foreign rice and decided to start selling affordable rice in early May. It lasted for 5 months and ended at the end of September.
Rice prices tend to ease.
After 20 years of the Republic of China, the capitalist countries headed by the United States encountered an economic crisis. In order to get rid of the economic crisis, they implemented a dumping policy. Foreign rice flooded into the grain market and rice prices fell.
When the January 28th Incident broke out in the 21st year of the Republic of China, the Japanese army invaded Songhu, and the rice market came to a halt for a time. However, after the market resumed, a large amount of foreign rice poured in, and the price of rice turned downward again. By the end of the year, the price of rice fell to 9 yuan per stone. By the Republic of China
In the summer of 2023, with the influx of foreign rice from time to time, the lowest price was less than 8 yuan.
In July of the 23rd year of the Republic of China, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were hit by a severe drought. Inland rivers dried up, waterways were blocked, and food supplies decreased. The price of rice rose to more than 10 yuan per stone. In the first half of the 24th year of the Republic of China, the price of rice was as high as 13 yuan in four months. In November,
The disaster-stricken production areas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang came to Shanghai to purchase grain, and grain prices increased again.
But soon foreign rice arrived again, and the price dropped. It was once lower than 10 yuan in the 25th year of the Republic of China. In the 26th year of the Republic of China, that is, last year, before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, one stone of rice was only 11 to 12 yuan.
Now that the Anti-Japanese War broke out less than a year ago, import channels are not smooth, and domestic food prices cannot be stabilized. Coupled with the panic caused by the war, one stone has risen to 20 yuan.
As for wheat, from the founding of the Republic of China to the Anti-Japanese War, wheat prices have been stable but low. From the first year of the Republic of China to the 13th year of the Republic of China, the price of wheat per quintal has been hovering between 3.81 and 5.14 yuan.
From the 14th to the 19th years of the Republic of China, it rose to 5.73 to 6.35 yuan. After the 20th year of the Republic of China, due to the import of a large amount of foreign wheat and the oversupply of wheat, the price dropped to a low of 2.71 yuan per quintal.
The equivalent of one silver dollar can buy thirty-seven pounds of wheat.
After July of the 23rd year of the Republic of China, affected by the rise in wheat prices in the international market, domestic drought hit again, causing wheat prices to rise. In the 25th year of the Republic of China, wheat prices continued to rise, and in winter, wheat prices in the international market soared.
By last year, the 26th year of the Republic of China, wheat prices had risen to a maximum of 6.07 yuan per quintal.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, import channels were blocked, coupled with domestic panic and grain merchants gathering, the price of wheat further rose, reaching the current 9 silver dollars per load.
The price of soybeans is relatively stable, and the wholesale price has remained between 5 and 6 yuan per quintal. It once exceeded 6 yuan in the 19th year of the Republic of China. It turned downward in October. It entered a low point of 3.5 to 4.5 yuan in the 22nd year of the Republic of China. It rebounded in the 24th year of the Republic of China.
to more than 5 yuan. On the eve of the Anti-Japanese War, the wholesale price of soybeans reached 6.5 yuan per quintal.
Today, the price has risen to 11 silver dollars per load.
After staying in Hankou for a day, because the business of bristle and tung oil had stopped, there were no supplies to be sold abroad. I only took the money back from the last sale of supplies and rushed to Singapore again.
After arriving at the place and receiving part of the ordered equipment, Li Mu thought about it for a moment and decided to use half of the space to purchase grain this time.
Although Nanyang is a grain-producing area, the recent influx of people has greatly increased consumption. Coupled with the military's consumption, it is already necessary to purchase from other places.
This has also led to the recent rise in food prices in Nanyang, which is almost catching up with the level in Wuhan.
The freight cost of buying grain from other places is not small. Even if you can purchase some cheap grain from the place of origin, the price of shipping it back to Nanyang will not be low.
The population of Nanyang area now exceeds seven million, of which two million have arrived in the past year. They have no land and can only buy food from the market.
Food prices are too high, which has a great impact on these people's lives and even their survival.
Purchasing some grain from abroad can make money while also suppressing grain prices in Nanyang.
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One cubic meter of space can hold about 800 kilograms of grain, and 10,000 cubic meters of space can hold 8,000 tons of grain.
This time Li Mu prepared 30,000 cubic meters of space to buy grain.
With the assistance of Far East Commercial Bank, 10,000 tons of rice and 10,000 tons of wheat were purchased.
Four thousand tons of soybeans have also been purchased. Soybeans can not only be used as food, but can also be used to make tofu and bean sprouts. In this day and age, they are also considered good dishes.
A total of more than 20,000 tons of grain was produced at a cost of less than 900,000 US dollars.
For the remaining 30,000 cubic meters of space, Li Mu spent another US$258,000 to purchase 80,000 barrels of 200-liter gasoline, thousands of tons of raw materials for gunpowder and steel, and some machinery and equipment to fill the space.
Full.
Before returning to China, Li Mu ordered another batch of river gunboats.
Ten ships with a displacement of 30 tons; ten ships with a displacement of 50 tons; ten ships with a displacement of 80 tons, a total of thirty ships, with a total price of about US$1.5 million.
It's a bit expensive, but it's still very useful.
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After returning to Nanyang, Li Mu set up a grain trading company and set up more than a dozen grain stores in Nanyang City and more than a dozen counties below, selling grain at a price of 15% off the market price.
Once it opened, it caused a great sensation, especially those at the bottom who had fled or moved here from other places. They were all delighted.
The continued rise in food prices has placed too heavy a burden on them. Although Li Mu has launched many major projects in the Nanyang area, as long as he has the strength, there is no shortage of places to make money. But they can only maintain food and clothing, and food prices will rise again.
If it goes down, we can no longer even maintain food and clothing.
Seeing that the war is getting more intense and food prices are rising higher and higher with no downward trend, everyone is worried. But there is no way. It is extremely rare to find a stable place in troubled times.
Now I suddenly heard that in order to curb the price of food, the Office sells food at 15% off the market price. Although it is only one and a half cheaper, it is a rare good thing for the people. It can finally reduce the burden, and there is some hope.
and hope.
This also resulted in a huge queue forming at the door as soon as more than a dozen food stores opened.
In just two days, more than 6,000 tons of grain were sold. Just like this, there was still a long queue of people buying grain on the third day.
The people's enthusiasm for buying grain was beyond Li Mu's expectation.
It's right to think about it. In addition to the original local population, there are more than two million people who have poured in from other places in the past year. More than two million people, how much food do they need to consume in a day?
Even if there is a rich local supply of food, there is still a big gap. Moreover, as the war spreads, there will be an influx of people fleeing the war, and the demand for food will be even greater.
This is a problem that has to be faced.
On the third day, seeing that people's enthusiasm for buying grain was not diminishing, Li Mu could only take measures to restrict purchases, and could only buy a maximum of fifty kilograms at a time. For a family, fifty kilograms of grain was enough to last for a while.
He did this not to restrict people from buying food. If you want to buy more, you can queue up again. It is mainly to restrict some merchants from taking the opportunity to purchase cheap food from here and hoard it. With this restriction, there are not many loopholes that can be exploited.
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In fact, it is not impossible to set the price of food at a lower point. If it is directly set to 20% off, 30% off, or even lower than the market price, he will make a profit. Li Mu mainly wants to prevent traders from taking advantage of the loopholes.
Low-priced grains are collected here and shipped to other places for sale.
It is not easy for him to transport food from abroad. It takes a lot of time to go back and forth. Although he can earn a lot, he can earn even more money if he switches to military supplies.
Mainly considering the local people's livelihood, we purchase food from abroad to stabilize prices.
If traders take advantage of this loophole and purchase low-priced grain from the local area and transport it to other places for sale, the gain will outweigh the loss.
The 15% discount is just a good price. It is collected locally and then transported to other places. The manpower and material resources used in the process are no different from the market price. Naturally, there is no profit, so there are no traders to do it.
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The purchase limit was indeed a good strategy. On the third day, the grain sales were only over a thousand tons. Li Mu breathed a sigh of relief.
Including soybeans, a total of more than 20,000 tons of grain were purchased from abroad. According to the sales method in the first two days, it would be gone in five or six days.
The current sales volume of more than a thousand tons per day finally gave him time to purchase.
There was no other way, so Li Mu got on the motorboat to Wuhan that night. He was going to Singapore to purchase food.
This time, Li Mu purchased 15,000 tons of rice, 28,000 tons of wheat, and 5,000 tons of soybeans.
A total of 48,000 tons was spent at a cost of US$1.65 million, equivalent to 1.65 tons of gold. Food that seems cheap is actually not cheap.
Back in Nanyang, with this batch of grain replenishment, more than a dozen grain stores were finally able to survive for several months.
At this time, Li Mu once again paid attention to the issue of people's livelihood. Those who had gone through countless hardships and fled with their families, could they have something to eat here? Can they survive?
In the next few days, accompanied by guards, he visited everywhere in a low-key manner. The situation was not optimistic.
The stable environment, good government and commodity prices in Nanyang area have attracted more people.
Although he launched many major projects and recruited as many workers as possible so that everyone could earn a salary and have food to eat, many new arrivals still encountered big problems in their survival.
Those with some wealth, knowledge and skills are fine, but those at the bottom or those who have fled are really miserable. They are always struggling on the verge of death. It is really common for people to starve to death these days.
The main reason is that the existing jobs are still not enough.
On the same day, when he returned to Yuyuan, Li Mu convened another meeting with relevant personnel, and the topic was how to keep these people alive. Of course, it was not possible to keep them for nothing, and they could only continue to work on the project.
Subsequently, under the leadership of Li Mu, more than a dozen large-scale brick and cement factories were established in Nanyang area.
These technologies have long been popular in China. As long as there are enough manpower, they are quite simple and there are many workers hired.
In addition, dozens of new factories, large and small, have been established, such as five or six flour mills, three or four soy product production factories, several fruit canning factories...
Of course, infrastructure is the area that absorbs the most labor. Several secret locations were selected and the construction work of several secret airports was restarted.
Near Nanyang City, Li Mu started the construction of another civil aviation airport, this time openly. As for whether it will be used in the future, it is hard to say, but it can attract labor anyway.
In addition, the construction work of more than a dozen arsenals has also begun deep in the mountains. Adding roads, water and electricity, it is another major project.
Although we don’t know when it will be used, as long as the factory building and supporting facilities are built, we can start production directly when the machines are brought in in the future.
Not only that, there is also a big project to build granaries. Next, he will choose some suitable places to build dozens of large granaries. There will definitely be a shortage of food in the country in the future, and this needs to be prepared in advance.
The launch of so many projects has even caused a small-scale labor shortage, and many local farmers have begun to do part-time jobs.
Li Mu has a lot of legal currency, but he can afford it for so many people.