It was another ordinary morning, and Xuchang was still like a pool of stagnant water as always. People were starving and crazy. Some went crazy to grab food from grain stores, but were soon beaten to death.
This kind of robbery is naturally illegal, and it would be unreasonable to report it to the government office. Moreover, this kind of thing happens every day these days, and it is common for people who cannot live to survive to take risks.
If no one is killed, the government office will not care.
The whole city is now filled with an atmosphere of hostility.
However, as time goes by, some changes are taking place quietly. Dahao merchants control the price of food to prevent it from falling, but some small traders from various places are not in this circle. After seeing that the food is not easy to sell, they naturally have no choice but to lower the price.
People will take care of it.
Some officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs actually wanted to restrict these small vendors from reducing their prices, but there was no way Chu Nan could do it without nodding his head. Who would dare to do such a thing openly?
Although there are many of these small traders, their proportion is not high. Once the price is reduced, the grain will be sold out quickly. Then with the money earned, they quickly go back to buy grain and supplies, and then bring more supplies to Xuchang to sell.
Strangely enough, prices in Xuchang have skyrocketed, but other places have not been affected. Instead, a large number of cheap supplies have appeared, allowing these small traders to make a lot of money. They buy here at a low price and then go to Xuchang as quickly as possible.
Come and sell.
Although it is difficult to sell at the top price, as long as you are willing to lower the price, you can sell it quickly.
As time goes by, more and more people are doing this business. In Xuchang City, although the government office cannot distribute food, the Ministry of Household Affairs has launched a lot of repair projects and paid more than ten times the salary in the past.
Winter is approaching, and many people smell a different smell. There are more and more vendors selling food in the city, and they are bringing more and more food.
Other supplies are okay, but where did you get so much food?
This is everyone's doubt. Even if Chu Nan secretly supports it, although Xuzhou had a bumper harvest last year, the food and clothing for hundreds of thousands of troops have been reduced due to continuous battles. The income from one year's harvest can supply these hundreds of thousands of troops.
Not bad, how can you still have the energy to make such a large layout?
Most of the confiscated property was financial, and although there was a lot of food, conscription was going on everywhere in the second half of this year. In addition to the surrendered troops left by Cao Cao, the Ministry of War had issued a quota of 100,000, which means that 100,000 troops would be recruited.
, most of this food will be consumed just by conscription, so how can there be any spare time to do this?
If it is next year, when Xuzhou's four-season grain harvest is once again abundant, and there is no war, Chu Nan will also have a surplus, but this year it will definitely not be possible. In other words, these grains are not brought out by Chu Nan, these small traders
Where does the food in your hands come from?
no one knows.
As the money in the hands of these small traders increased, the second batch of grain entered the city, and these small traders began to quickly sell it in the city at half the previous price.
The wealthy businessmen began to feel restless. These small traders were not wealthy businessmen and were not in their circle. The little capital in their hands was nothing and could not affect the overall situation.
But Chu Nan's large-scale allocation of money put more coins in the hands of the people. These small traders sold grain at reduced prices. Even if it was half of the previous price, based on the purchase price, the profit was still more than ten times.
After selling off the grain, they quickly went back for the third and fourth time. It was like a snowball rolling in half. These small traders, who were inconspicuous in the eyes of wealthy merchants, brought more and more grain, and the two families also dropped from half to half again.
Less than 40%.
For these small traders, it is still a huge profit. When small traders come in again with a large amount of supplies at the end of autumn and early winter, it will be enough to impact the monopoly established by the wealthy merchants.
Some people couldn't sit still, some secretly threatened these small traders, and some wanted to suppress them through official means.
Last time, it was Chu Nan who invited the Minister of Household Affairs, but this time it was wealthy businessmen who took the initiative to visit.
"Suppress merchants?" Chu Nan looked at this man like a fool and asked with a smile: "Your name is..."
"I am Qin Yong, a native of Chengdu." Qin Yong's attitude was very low. The Qin family of Sichuan was once a wealthy businessman on par with the Mi family of Donghai and the Zhen family of Zhongshan. Their family wealth could be said to be as rich as that of the country.
"I said that I will not interfere with your normal business transactions in Xuchang by violent means. This sentence also applies to ordinary traders. They have not broken the law. Please give me a reason why I should help you deal with your competitors?
"Chun Nan stood up, looked at everyone and smiled and said: "But you have also reminded me that some parts of the Han law are not perfect enough. In the future, it is forbidden to collude between government and businessmen, and to suppress or help traders without reason in the name of the government office. This needs to be clearly stated.
prohibit!"
In fact, it is difficult to absolutely prohibit collusion between officials and businessmen. The law does not allow direct help, so it doesn't matter. The meaning of this is self-evident if you attend a banquet of a certain businessman.
There is also a need to suppress vendors, and we suppress them without knowing it, but I suspect that there is something wrong with what you are selling. I come over every now and then to check. This is in line with the rules. You don’t even need to use other dirty methods. If you continue to check like this, you will be able to get rid of you.
The business cannot be carried out.
There is no way to ban things like unspoken rules, at least currently, but the key to introducing laws is to let everyone know that there are such rules, so that they can be gradually improved in the future.
The faces of all the wealthy businessmen turned pale. Naturally, they did not dare to quarrel with Chu Nan. Before, Chu Nan asked for help from them, and they did not dare to openly show favor to Chu Nan. Now that the relationship between supply and demand is reversed, what kind of family and reputation can be used at this time?
He came to suppress Chu Nan, probably because he thought he would have a long life.
"Everyone knows that I am also a businessman. What this business values is profit and fairness. You can't say that you sold goods at high prices before and tried to stop me from intervening. Now there are people who are willing to sell at low prices but come to ask me to sanction them. There are no benefits.
You guys? Is it a crime for others to make money? There is no such truth in this world." Chu Nan smiled gently, his smile was like a spring breeze, but at this moment, everyone present felt only the biting cold wind.
"That's right." Chu Nan looked at the crowd and said: "The government office supports normal competition, but if any means are used to break the rules, don't blame me for breaking the rules. There are righteous merchants and profiteers, and I
Naturally, I hope that everyone is a righteous businessman. Since there are rules, you must abide by them. The five thousand stones of rice and grain you gave me last time...most of them were old rice. After all, the rice and grain you brought is not short.
, but you can’t pass it off as a good product.”
This is also what everyone is worried about. Their food prices are too high, so their shipments are naturally small. If the large amount of accumulated food is not handled properly, it is likely to go bad, but there is a cost to keeping it properly.
If it continues like this, I'm afraid it will die in my own hands.
"Your Majesty, I'll take my leave first!" Qiao Rui suddenly stood up, bowed to Chu Nan, and turned to leave.
Others also know that they will not get any good results if they continue to stay with Chu Nan. Although there is no clear evidence, the current scene in Xuchang is obviously related to the person in front of them, but even if they know this, they still can't figure out what happened to Chu Nan.
operational.
It is unlikely that those small traders and hawkers came from all over the country and were arranged by Chu Nan.
How did he mobilize these people?
After Qiao Rui returned, he immediately arranged for people to sell the materials he brought at a reduced price. He sold them as old grain at 20% of the previous highest price. It was cheaper than those sold by small vendors on the market. This price was still higher than the normal grain price.
It is much higher, but it is already within the acceptable range of the people.
Especially people who had experienced high food prices before were worried that food prices would rise again, so they immediately came to buy. However, within three days, the food prices in Qiaorui, where the prices were first reduced, had been sold out.
Then, major wealthy merchants began to cut prices one after another, and grain prices in Xuchang began to collapse, falling back to normal levels in less than ten days.
Although there are no huge profits, those small traders have already established themselves in Xuchang. They come from all over the country and find that Xuchang's prospects are not bad. Therefore, many people take advantage of this opportunity to make a lot of money and establish themselves in Xuchang.
The renovation project of the government office was also announced to be completed at the beginning of winter, and many shops were also recruiting people. Although there were not as many as the government offices, it was better than stability. Many people who had nothing to do for the time being began to work for these people.
Vendors work.
After winter came, those who were waiting to see Chu Nan's joke were helpless to find that the matter had been solved inexplicably, and Xuchang returned to its former prosperity, even more prosperous than before.
On this day, Lu Bu and Chu Nan came to attend the court meeting as a rare occasion. Chu Nan looked at the gloomy-looking officials one by one, with a smile on his face that never stopped.
The most important thing about this incident is not who made how much or who lost how much. In fact, those wealthy businessmen finally sold off the materials in their hands and seemed to lose money. However, the previous high prices had already made them a lot of money, not to mention a huge profit.
, but there is a small profit, and it will not be a loss.
Chu Nan was not involved in this matter from beginning to end, so naturally he could not say whether he had lost or gained.
What really depresses the court officials is what's behind this incident.
For example, in the re-establishment of the supply chain, those small traders who took this opportunity to become rich are not dependent on aristocratic families, but are relatively independent. In the current environment of the Central Plains, it is difficult to get these people to join them...
If one or more companies suddenly replace the original wealthy merchants and become Xuchang's new supply chain, they can also try to use various means to overwhelm or win over the other party.
But the problem arises here. The supply chain re-established this time is different from before. It is established by countless traders, large and small. Each of them is inconspicuous, but the power of these people gathered together is terrifying.
.
And Chu Nan, the Minister of Household Affairs who seemed to have done nothing from beginning to end, completely took control of the finances after this incident, and what the nobles lost... was the entire supply chain of Xuchang, which is not a matter for Xuchang alone!
Instead, the entire supply chain has been dismantled, and a new network has been formed from top to bottom, which is composed of countless networks. The wealthy merchants are still there, but their influence has been replaced by these small traders. They can follow
Chu Nan's bargaining chip was missing again!
This is the reason why the princes of the Manchu Dynasty are sinking like water. Their most important things are being gradually disintegrated in a silent way!
(End of chapter)
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