Brennan I said: "Our country needs 600,000 tons of grain. If it is priced at this price, it will be 120 million yuan. Even if the tax revenue we can collect nationwide in a year is not enough, it will not be enough for a fraction of this." Siam is this.
A small country simply does not have much financial resources to purchase so much food.
Gao Qiong asked: "Then how much money can His Majesty the King spend?"
King Brennan I glanced at the financial officer, who immediately came out and replied: "To inform the emperor, our treasury still has 30 million Lanfang coins in foreign exchange reserves. In addition..." He glanced at Gao Qiong,
He said with some hesitation: "In addition, we still have two hundred tons of gold reserves, but if we don't have this gold, our currency system will collapse. If that happens, the harm will be more than just starvation."
King Brennan asked tentatively: "I don't know if your noble leader will accept it..." Gao Qiong understood his words as soon as he heard it. Naturally, he wanted to pay the bill in Siamese currency. Fang Xiaoyu had told him before that he would definitely pay the bill.
He would never accept the joke of using a bunch of waste paper printed with ink in exchange for food. Even Fang Xiaoyu didn't want to accept the currencies of other countries. He was not in the habit of paying seigniorage to other countries.
As soon as King Brennan I was speaking, Gao Qiong interrupted him and said: "Your Majesty, our distinguished lord has told me before leaving that our Chinese leadership is weak and our economy is weak and cannot withstand any major turbulence. Therefore,
We only accept hard currencies such as gold and silver, or Lanfang coins when selling grain this time, and we will not accept anything else."
After listening to Gao Qiong's words, Brennan I pondered for a long time and said: "We can only provide one hundred tons of gold and thirty million Lanfang coins in foreign exchange reserves. I wonder how much food the Chinese people are willing to provide?"
Gao Qiong said: "According to the market price, one ton of gold can be exchanged for 200,000 Lanfang coins. One hundred tons is 20 million. Adding your country's foreign exchange reserves is 50 million Lanfang coins. We can exchange it for 200,000 Lanfang coins for your country."
"150,000 tons of grain." Gao Qiong's price is completely international standard, and there is no discount at all. Hearing Gao Qiong's words, Brennan I hesitated. He emptied the treasury but could only buy less than half of the grain. Some were not very good.
Good deal.
Seeing that the monarchs and ministers of Siam became silent, Gao Qiong smiled and said: "I have a proposal. If your Majesty agrees, we are willing to give your country another 350,000 tons of grain as a price."
Brennan I, who was feeling worried, raised his head in surprise and said, "What proposal is so expensive?"
Gao Qiong smiled and said something that made the Siamese monarchs and ministers change their expressions: "Land for food."
King Brennan I said with some anger: "What? You want me to use my country in exchange for food? How is this possible?"
Gao Qiong smiled and said: "This is not the first time your country has ceded territory. Last time, didn't you cede Tamsui Port and Sumen Island to the Saar Empire and Nantes Empire?" After hearing Gao Qiong's words, the officials standing on both sides
There was a commotion, and they all looked at Gao Qiong angrily, but it was difficult for them to get angry because of the presence of Brennan I. This was a great shame and humiliation for the Siamese country, and he actually exposed it so directly.
After listening to Gao Qiong's words, Brennan I rarely scolded him. Instead, he lowered his head and pondered for a while, then sighed and said: "Yes, if you can get enough food by giving up a land, I would be willing to accept it, but I won't."
Do you know which piece of land your country wants?"
"Sulu Islands." Gao Qiong said with a smile: "As long as your country hands over the Sulu Islands to us, we are willing to send food to Siam immediately."
"Sulu Islands?" The King of Siam looked at Gao Qiong in surprise. The Sulu Islands is a barren land with no human habitation and no resources that have been explored. If such a piece of useless land is exchanged for so much
The King of Siam was very willing to provide food. Those Siamese officials who had wanted to scold Gao Qiong just now breathed a sigh of relief, and the expressions on their faces became much more relaxed.
"Deal." The King of Siam did not discuss it with the ministers at all, and immediately agreed to Gao Qiong's proposal, as if he was afraid that Gao Qiong would regret it. When they heard that the Chinese Territory wanted the land, the officials were also overjoyed.
Exchanging such a piece of waste land for grain worth tens of millions of Lanfang coins was too valuable in their opinion.
News that the Kingdom of Siam had exchanged 600,000 tons of grain in exchange for the Sulu Islands and its stockpile of foreign exchange quickly spread throughout the world. Countries began to focus on this place with abundant grain. Governments from various countries sent important officials to China to negotiate for grain purchases.
Regarding the matter, the first person to contact Fang Xiaoyu was Cheng Wei, the representative of the royal family of the Lanfang Empire and the Minister of Revenue in charge of finance.
This year's Lanfang Empire also had almost no harvest. The only ones that were not affected were the Fang family's major farms, which were sprayed with pesticides under Fang Xiaoyu's special care.
However, the Fang family was established in business, and there were not many farms. The full farm was only 10 million acres. Even if Fang Xiaoyu used the seeds with an yield of 700 kilograms per mu, they would only harvest 7 million tons of grain.
This sounds like a lot of food, but the population of the Lanfang Empire is also large. Excluding the current population of nearly 60 million in the Chinese Territory and the 30 million people in the other three major lords, the entire Lanfang Empire also has a population of 300 million.
feed.
If such a large population survives until the next grain harvest season, 36 million tons of grain will be needed for these four months. Even if the Fang family uses all their grain, there is still a very large gap.
This time, Xia Houying not only confiscated all the grain of the Fang family, half by levy and half by purchase, but even the Cheng family, which had a relatively large amount of grain, also ensured the grain in their own territory and sold it to the country at a low price of two million tons, plus
Taking into account the country's own inventory, there is still a grain shortage of 15 million tons. If such a large grain gap is based on market prices, even a large country like the Lanfang Empire cannot afford it.
The territory is different from the big families in the country. The territory is a semi-independent institution within the country. In addition to the normal contribution to the government, the emperor cannot directly levy or force the purchase at a low price. Therefore, Cheng Wei, the Minister of Household Affairs sent by Xia Houying, approached Fang Xiaoyu.
, hoping to buy some food.
Fang Xiaoyu of the Cheng family was quite indifferent to him. The hatred between the two families was already quite deep, almost to the point of being on par with each other. However, Cheng Wei came on behalf of the emperor, and Fang Xiaoyu could not make the other party lose face.
Therefore, Fang Xiaoyu's answer was very simple. The grain will definitely be sold, and you can get as much as you want, but it requires a cash transaction. According to the market price, 15 million tons of grain will cost 3 billion Lanfang coins.
In order not to be tricked by the Cheng family, Fang Xiaoyu also put forward harsh conditions. Since the Lanfang coin was the currency of the Lanfang Empire, in order to prevent the country from maliciously devaluing the currency after paying, Fang Xiaoyu also required that half of it be paid in gold.
This requirement is a bit too harsh. If gold is paid to Fang Xiaoyu, let alone whether there is so much gold in the Treasury of the Ministry of Revenue. Even if there is, giving him Lanfang coins will become useless paper.
After receiving Fang Xiaoyu's conditions, Xia Houying was a little angry at Fang Xiaoyu's attitude. However, they supplied the goods completely according to the market price, and there was no fault that could be found. For this reason, Xia Houying specially sent Xia Houfeng, who had some friendship with Fang Xiaoyu.
The marshal was sent over, hoping to reduce some grain prices through their personal relationship.
Marshal Xia Houfeng was a person who had a very favorable impression of Fang Xiaoyu. He had helped Fang Xiaoyu many times, so he was warmly received by Fang Xiaoyu as soon as he arrived in the Chinese Territory.
Seeing Fang Xiaoyu, Marshal Xia Houfeng still smiled without any pretensions and said: "Xiaoyu, I really do have you. I haven't seen you for a few years and you have already achieved such an achievement. Even I, the Marshal, have to humble myself to beg you."
Fang Xiaoyu quickly said politely: "Marshal, how dare I serve you? I respect the marshal very much. I am also very clear about the marshal's purpose, but I also have some difficulties."
After listening to Fang Xiaoyu's words, Marshal Xia Houfeng was surprised and said: "Oh? You have harvested so much food in your territory, what's the problem?"
Fang Xiaoyu said: "The thing is, my territory is different from other territories. Although the cultivated land is the property of the lord, the lord only collects 30% of the grain output, and the other grains are owned by the farmers themselves."
Marshal Xia Houfeng suddenly said: "I have heard about the abolition of slavery in your territory, but I didn't know that you have done so thoroughly and given such generous policies to the civilians. No wonder the poor in the country are rushing to come to China to claim the territory.
develop."
Fang Xiaoyu added: "Furthermore, our territory also stipulates that every non-farmer citizen can receive a certain amount of food every day, so most of the food I collected was distributed again."
"There is such a good thing? This is a policy that no country dares to undertake." Xia Houfeng clicked his tongue in surprise. He looked at Fang Xiaoyu with admiration in his eyes.
Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "I have always had enough food, but I don't have much surplus. Therefore, if the emperor wants to buy food from me, I can only buy it from the private sector. This purchase requires real money, and we also follow the
We purchase the grain at international prices, so we can make no profit at all on the grain we give to the emperor. In addition, we also have to pay for the freight."
Fang Xiaoyu did not want the royal family to take advantage of the favorable opportunity he had worked so hard to create, but he could not openly confront the royal family, otherwise it would cause trouble for his future, so he deceived Xia Houfeng with half-truths and half-falsehoods.
: "The quantity of this batch of grain is too large. Even if all the fiscal revenue of our Chinese government is used up, it will not be enough to purchase such a large amount of grain. You said that I can't let myself go bankrupt just to provide food for the emperor."
Fang Xiaoyu pretended to have a helpless expression, as if if the price of food dropped, he, the lord, would go bankrupt tomorrow. After listening to Fang Xiaoyu's words, Xia Houfeng also felt that it made sense. He nodded immediately and said: "Of course not, but if everyone pays Lan