March is the time for spring plowing. While the north is experiencing drought, other provinces such as Liaodong, Hexi, Shandong, and several southern provinces are still peaceful.

"Attention, folks, starting from this year, the price of harvesting grain in Huangzhuang is one hundred cents per stone for sweet potatoes, one hundred and fifty cents for potatoes, three hundred cents per stone for wheat, and three hundred cents per stone for rice!"

On a field ridge in Fengyang Prefecture, South Zhili, when a village leader shouted, the people planting rice in the fields all looked up at him.

It was only after he finished speaking that the people below whispered:

"Mom, the price of food has finally been raised."

"The imperial court calls for planting sweet potatoes every day. In the early years, eight shi of sweet potatoes could only be sold for 600 yuan. Now the price has finally been raised."

"If it weren't for the military garrison fields, I wouldn't grow sweet potatoes."

"This year has been good. Eight stones of sweet potatoes can be sold for eight hundred cents. My family has five acres of sweet potato fields and two acres of potato fields. I think I can sell them to the court for one, two, six, or seven cents in silver."

"The imperial court has raised the price of sweet potatoes and potatoes. Should we switch to planting sweet potatoes and potatoes next year? Planting rice is too tiring..."

Harvesting grain in Huangzhuang was a policy formulated by Zhu Youjian after the army in the world abolished the field and distributed the fields to the people.

He knew very well that it was unrealistic to blindly ask people to plant potatoes and sweet potatoes, and the custom in Beizhili had not spread to the entire Ming Dynasty so quickly.

Therefore, it was necessary to find a place where the people could sell their grain, and this place was the Imperial Mansion, which had lost even an acre of land to its name.

At present, Huangzhuang has become an organization that specializes in collecting sweet potatoes and potatoes. Since the situation was not too bad in the past few years, sweet potatoes and potatoes are easy to grow and have low management costs.

Therefore, the purchase price of sweet potatoes that Huangzhuang sells to the people is not high, and the economic benefit of one acre of land is slightly lower than that of wheat and rice.

But starting this year, the trend began to change.

Huangzhuang has raised the purchase price of sweet potatoes and potatoes this time. In this area south of the Yellow River, the economic benefits of potatoes and sweet potatoes per acre are the same as those of rice and wheat.

Once the price of potatoes and sweet potatoes, which are easy to manage, becomes equal to that of rice, some people who dislike the pain of growing rice will inevitably expand their cultivation of potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Although this increased the cost of harvesting grain in disguise, it also increased the grain output of the Ming Dynasty.

However, it is impossible to just grow sweet potatoes and potatoes. The reason is very simple...

In terms of storage time, Paima cannot keep up with rice and wheat. Even in a particularly good environment, the storage time of sweet potatoes is only half a year, while the storage time of potatoes is about two months.

Such a short storage time meant that only places with convenient transportation were most suitable for the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, when Muramasa looked at the people and found out, he added:

"There are limits on the potatoes and sweet potatoes that the imperial court can purchase from each county. The upper limit for our Xincheng Village is two thousand acres, so anyone who wants to plant them should go to my house to discuss after dinner."

After that, Muramasa turned around and left, leaving the people looking at each other in shock.

Scenes like this happened in various places in the Ming Dynasty, but Zhu Youjian in the capital was very satisfied with his policies.

"According to your designation by Your Highness, Southern Zhili has an upper limit of four million acres, and the other southern provinces such as Sichuan have an upper limit of one million acres. There are no restrictions in Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaodong, Shanxi, Hexi, Henan, and Northern Zhili.

Old Port will not participate..."

On the eighth day of March, in the study room of Prince Qi's Mansion, when Bi Ziyan from the Ministry of Revenue sat on a chair and had a long talk with Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youjian also looked at the book in his hand and nodded.

There are no restrictions on the six provinces in the north and Beijing and Kowloon in the south. Jiugang only collects rice...

In other words, Huangzhuang's restriction on sweet potatoes and potatoes in the south is 13 million acres, while the lack of restrictions in the north will completely increase the proportion of sweet potatoes and potatoes in the country's grain output.

The reason why Zhu Youjian imposed restrictions on the southern provinces is simple. If all these 13 million acres were used to plant sweet potatoes, the output of sweet potatoes would reach 100 million shi.

Based on the calculation of 100 taels of silver per stone, the imperial court needed to spend 10 million taels of silver to purchase them.

The shelf life of sweet potatoes means that sweet potatoes from the southern and Beijing-Kowloon provinces will most likely not be used to provide relief to the disaster-stricken areas in the north.

Their use will be as feed and wine making, and secondly as relief food for temporary relief to local victims.

If all 100 million stones of sweet potatoes are used to make wine, the sweet potatoes can produce about a quarter of the weight of wine.

In these days, Zhu Youjian probably figured out the price of alcohol for civilians in the Ming Dynasty, which was roughly twelve cents per pound of wine.

Sun Yuanhua had already led people to make wine and gave Zhu Youjian an answer. One hundred million tons of sweet potatoes would produce three billion kilograms of wine.

If sold at ten taels per catty, excluding labor and freight, the Liquor Department’s revenue from alcohol tax on civilian drinks alone would be around 25 million taels.

Of course, unless the people of the Ming Dynasty drank the three billion catties of wine as water, they would not be able to consume so much.

But don’t forget one thing: a severe drought will be accompanied by a wide variety of diseases.

To deal with them, the amount of alcohol required is extremely terrifying, and in foreign wars, high-concentration alcohol is also in great demand to treat the wounded.

Therefore, the imperial court needed backup alcohol, so the amount of alcohol flowing into the market was approximately 2.5 billion kilograms.

In addition, Zhu Youjian also lowered the price of drinks to eight cents per catty, an extremely low price that had never been seen in the Ming Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, it was the same method he used to crack down on illegal drinking. If the wine on the market sold for twelve cents, he would sell it for eight cents.

After cracking down on illegal liquor on the market, it won't be too late to raise prices later.

Even if it drops to eight taels, 2.5 billion kilograms of wine, excluding labor and freight, can still be sold for more than 15 million taels of wine tax revenue, exceeding the 10 million taels of income during the Tianxi reign of the Song Dynasty.

"The number of imperial stores needs to be expanded. Every market town and countryside in Ming Dynasty needs a medium-sized or small imperial store. In the county, there should be one in each of the four cities in the east, west, north and south."

Zhu Youjian turned to look at Wang Chengen who was standing in the corner, and Wang Chengen also responded:

"The construction of the imperial store is not a problem, but according to your highness's request, one person per store in the countryside, five people per store in the market town, and forty people per four stores in the county..."

Wang Chengen paused for a moment, and then said with a troubled face: "In the Ming Dynasty, the number of employees employed by the imperial shops in prefectures, county offices, market towns and villages was up to 300,000."

"In this case, the wages of the hired workers alone will probably reach three million taels of silver..."

The wages of Huangdian employees are divided according to the size of the city, which Zhu Youjian had already formulated.

In big cities such as Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu, the daily allowance is 30 liters per person, and 900 liters per month.

The second-tier cities such as Jinan, Luoyang, Xi'an, etc. have 25 coins per person per day and 750 coins per month.

The next level is twenty cash per day, six hundred cash per month, and the last one is a small imperial shop in the countryside, where one person is fixed at five hundred cash per month.

Three hundred thousand hired workers cost three million taels of silver, which is comparable to the salary expenditure of more than 20,000 officials in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Huangdian must exist, because whether it is briquettes, salt, tea, or various commodities that will appear in the future, as well as the upcoming sweet potato wine, the Huangdian will be responsible for selling them.

The expenses of the imperial shop are high, but the money you can earn is enough.

Adding up all items, it is normal for Huangdian to earn more than 20 million taels of silver per year. The annual income of an organization is enough to compare with the treasury income of the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period.

If these more than three million taels of silver are distributed, they will eventually return to the imperial shop in the form of trade.

"As long as the revenue from the Imperial Store, the Municipal Shipping Department and the Ministry of Household Commercial Taxes can pay for the salaries of officials and the army, the remaining land tax can be used for disaster relief..."

"Don't be reluctant to spend three million taels of silver, Cheng'en." Zhu Youjian ordered, and seeing the money mentioned, Bi Ziyan also said:

"If the wine department wants to digest these tens of thousands of sweet potatoes, it will need to build at least one winery in every prefecture."

"Each government has a winery, which produces approximately 100,000 to 200,000 jins of wine every year. This requires at least 300 helpers, nearly 50,000 people..."

"The treatment in the wine shop can't be too bad..." Zhu Youjian heard this and said:

"On the basis of the wages of wine-making apprentices and masters in the market, an increase of 10% will be added."

After Zhu Youjian finished speaking, the clerks lined up in two rows at the door of the study began to fiddle with their abacus. After a while, someone walked in and said:

"After an increase of 10%, apprentices will receive one tael per month, and masters will receive three taels per month. One thousand six hundred and twenty-seven houses will need to invest 780,000 taels of silver to build a farm, and the annual expenditure will be more than 624,000 taels.

silver."

"The investment is not very large. It's no wonder that the two Song Dynasties were so obsessed with wine taxes." Zhu Youjian heard this and spoke to Bi Ziyan, and then said:

"If ten million stones of sweet potatoes are put into making wine in this winery, more than seventy million stones of wine residue will be left behind."

"These wine residues are later made into feed and sold to the people in the imperial shop for ten cents per bag or 100 catties per bag."

One hundred kilograms of wine dregs only costs ten cents, which is a very cheap price, and it can also be regarded as a subsidy that benefits the people after the wine is sold.

As a result, as the imperial court gradually purchased various daily necessities such as salt, wine, tea, etc., the Huangdian also transformed into another form of supply and marketing cooperative.

"The construction of liquor stores must be accelerated. After the Liquor Division is established in October, we need to start cracking down on illegal liquor. Before the end of the twelfth lunar month, we need to ensure that the Liquor Division is profitable."

Zhu Youjian was explaining to Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan also nodded to express his understanding.

However, despite being concerned, Bi Ziyan's expression was a little strange and he hesitated to speak.

"What's wrong?" Prosecutor Zhu You noticed Bi Ziyan's awkwardness and began to ask, and Bi Ziyan said:

"There is a severe drought in the north, war is about to start again in the southwest, and with the construction of the Yellow River, the national treasury has been overdrawn..."

Bi Ziyan never mentions the War of Sauling, but he does mention it every time.

Zhu Youjian heard this clearly, and Zhu Youjian frowned when he heard the words:

"The war to sweep away the captives is imminent. If the drought spreads more severely, our country will fall into a quagmire of drought and disaster relief."

"Jianlu is currently slaughtering the Han people who were plundered under his rule, and has reclaimed many acres of land. It has been stabilized for the time being."

"If they are allowed to recuperate, their injuries in the Battle of Fu Liao will recover within a few years."

"At that time, our court will be busy with internal affairs and can only maintain a large number of troops to defend Liaodong."

"What's more, the three prefectures of Taining, Yidonghe City and other places do not have the protection of the Great Wall, and the soldiers and infantrymen come and go like the wind."

"Instead of spending more than 3 million taels of military salary from the Eastern Army Governor's Office every year to defend, it would be better to spend 10 million taels of silver in one fell swoop to quell the Jianlu."

"As for the silver, when the fleet returns from the Western Ocean tomorrow, I will give the vassals time to think about it, and then discuss matters to replenish the treasury. You don't have to worry."
To be continued...