On August 12, Gu Laoer was walking on his way to get off work, frowning.
Nowadays, for Gu Lao Er, working as a manager in a textile factory only provides him with a social status. The financial source of Gu Lao Er's family is instead the farm in Liaodong. Gu Lao Er's farm has 320 acres of land.
Gu Lao'er contracted everything to the service team. This year's harvest, after excluding next year's seeds, still leaves 195 shi of grain.
The one hundred and ninety-five shi of grain was divided between Gu Laoer and the service team 70/30, and Gu Laoer received 30% of the land rent, which means he received fifty-eight shi and five buckets of wheat.
These land rent income are now the majority of Gu Laoer's family's income. Compared with the manager's monthly salary of more than forty taels a year, these fifty-eight stones and five buckets of wheat are worth much more.
However, the recent food prices have made Mr. Gu very worried.
In July, animal-powered wheat harvesters produced in various factories in Tianjin showed off their skills in Liaodong. In the past, it often took farmers several days to harvest wheat fields, but under the operation of the harvester, the work was completed in a few hours. Piles of wheat were harvested.
When we entered the barn, they were piled as high as a hill.
There is a bumper wheat harvest in Liaodong this year. In the words of the newspaper, "Twelve million acres of wheat fields in Liaodong are like waves." It is said that due to strong irrigation and good weather, wheat fields in Liaodong generally have a harvest of more than seven bushels this year.
.According to estimates in newspapers, the 12 million acres of wheat fields in Liaodong can produce at least 7 million shi of grain.
This is a huge number. The newspaper analyzed that the current total population of Liaodong is only one million. In other words, the food that Liaodong needs to retain in the next year is only 3 million shi. The remaining 4 million shi of food will all be
Become a surplus of food.
Coupled with the continuous expansion of grain cultivation in Shandong and Taiwan over the years, Li Zhiling has a bumper harvest this year. Grain ships from the south are constantly transporting grain to Tianjin, filling Tianjin's granaries.
Of course, the most terrifying thing is the extra four million shi of grain in Liaodong. Once these four million grains came out, Tianjin felt a little unable to digest it.
As soon as the grain harvest in Liaodong began, the price of grain in Tianjin began to fall. At first, it fell one centimeter by one cent, then it fell by a few centimeters per stone of grain, and then it fell penny by penny.
Even Guo Gongye's Fair Price Grain Store determines its purchase volume based on annual sales. Under the "dumping" influx of wheat from Liaodong, the Fair Price Grain Store has already filled all its granaries and stopped purchasing from the market.
food.
As soon as the Fair Price Grain Store stopped purchasing, grain prices plummeted, with a new price every day. The price of spring wheat dropped from two liang per shi to one tael, four yen per shi. Affected by the fall in spring wheat prices, the prices of winter wheat and rice also fell.
Plunge.
The issue of "low prices hurting farmers" has been seriously raised in newspapers. Tianjin Daily discussed this issue for two days and solicited opinions from people from all walks of life. But in the end, no one could come up with a solution.
The plummeting grain prices caused Gu Lao'er to suffer heavy losses. Gu Lao'er could get one hundred and seventeen taels of silver originally. But because the grain prices dropped like this, Gu Lao'er could only get eighty-two taels of silver. One for one.
Go, Gu Laoer lost thirty-five taels of silver.
The thirty-five taels of silver lost could feed three people.
Gu Laoer frowned along the way. He was worried that if this continues, the price of food will drop next year. It is said that there are now more than 20 million acres of dry land in Liaodong Province with water conservancy facilities built, and next year Liaodong Province will sell it to Guan Nei
Food will cost tens of millions of dan, so how low will the price of food drop?
Gu Laoer originally planned to become a rich man by relying on these more than 300 acres of dry land, but he did not expect to encounter such grain prices. If grain prices drop like this, these farms in Liaodong will become worthless.
Gu Laoer sighed and walked into his villa.
In the living room, the eldest son Gu Weisheng was sitting at the table reading a newspaper. Gu Lao Er's wife was sitting aside holding her youngest daughter, and was constantly urging her eldest son to tell him what was in the newspaper. Gu Lao Er's wife
She was illiterate but wanted to know what was going on outside, so she urged her son to read the newspaper to her every day.
Gu Laoer walked into the room listlessly, pulled his chair back, and sat in front of the table.
"Dad, are you busy in the factory today?"
Gu Laoer said feebly: "I'm busy, but I'm not busy either."
Gu Lao Er's wife glared at Gu Lao Er and shouted: "You don't even have to be busy, why do you seem to have lost your soul?"
Gu Laoer sighed and said nothing.
Gu Laoer's daughter-in-law thought for a while and then said: "Master, do you want to transport the fifty-eight shi of grain from Liaodong to the pass to sell it? That's a lot of money! Don't let it get moldy in the barn in Liaodong.
The bugs ate it.”
Gu Laoer said sarcastically: "I've asked, and it costs fourteen taels to ship it back. Now that the price of food is so low, there's really no luck!"
When Gu Lao Er's wife heard Gu Lao Er's words, she also sighed. However, she was quickly attracted by her little daughter's actions. The little daughter finished a piece of maltose in her mouth and reached out to her to ask for candy. She hugged her
Then the little daughter stood up, walked to the cabinet at the other end of the living room and took out two pieces of candy.
Hearing the conversation between Gu Laoer and his mother, Gu Weisheng suddenly shouted: "Dad, don't you know? The price of food has gone up today?"
Gu Laoer was stunned: "It's gone up?"
"It's gone up! The Duke of Guo has issued a 'national food protection price' policy, which stipulates that spring wheat can be sold for one or two eight cents, and winter wheat and rice can be sold for two or two cents. The government will buy it, and it will buy as much as it wants. I will buy it this afternoon.
I was playing in front of a grain store at the intersection and found that the price of grain there had gone up."
Gu Laoer looked at his son in surprise and asked, "Really?"
Gu Weisheng pushed the newspaper in front of Gu Lao Er and said, "Read the newspaper yourself."
Gu Laoer read the article in the newspaper carefully, and the more he read, the happier he became.
"The Duke of Guo is really making decisions for the people. Now I don't have to worry about whether the wheat can be sold for a good price."
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Li Zhi was sitting in the third hall of the Duke's Mansion, with several generals and civil servants sitting in front of him.
Zheng Kaicheng asked: "We have never heard of the national protection price set by the Duke of the country, and I think it is indeed very clever."
When several officials next to Zheng Kaicheng heard this, they all sang and nodded. Obviously, the national protection price that Li Zhi learned from later governments was refreshing to them.
"It's just that if we purchase grain from the people at a price lower than the market price, what if the deficit is too big?"
Li Zhi looked at Zheng Kaicheng and said slowly: "Businessmen manipulate grain prices and suppress grain purchase prices during the harvest season. Now is the grain harvest in Liaodong, and grain prices have been falling. This is all caused by grain merchants holding down prices.
. The Ming Dynasty was full of famines. In Henan and Shaanxi, people exchanged their children for food, and the grain was sold for 10 taels per dou. As long as you find a way to transport the grain to other places, why worry about not being able to sell it at a high price? "
"With this protective price in place, grain merchants can't make waves. The enthusiasm of farmers and landowners in farming can be protected." After a pause, Li Zhi said: "These are troubled times. We have grain in our hands, so we don't have to worry.
It’s useless! Then when food prices fall, we will control the food in the hands of the government.”
