Gao Xiaozhuang took a long time to go there, and he couldn't make it back for lunch. It was almost midnight before he braved the wind and snow and rushed back to Gaofu. It was already getting dark.
Gao pragmatic saw that there were wet marks everywhere on his coat, and his hair was even dripping with water droplets. He asked with concern in a reproachful tone: "Don't you know how to go out wearing a raincoat or holding an umbrella? How did you do that?
Are you looking like a drowned rat?" He waved to him and pointed to the charcoal stove in his study: "Come here, come and warm yourself up, if you catch a cold...well, it won't be good if you catch a cold."
"Thank you, Master." Gao Xiaozhuang didn't care much: "Actually, I wore a raincoat and a hat when I went out, but I couldn't stand it. The wind in the capital was too strong, and the snowflakes were floating as if they had eyes.
Yes, I hope I can pour it into my coir raincoat. A hat can only block the top of my head, and there is nothing else I can do... But it’s okay, it’s just some floating snow, and it can be dried by the fire without even a stick of incense.”<
/p>
Shangyue brought a small chair to Gao Xiaozhuang. Gao Xiaozhuang thanked him somewhat bewilderedly. Gao pragmatic smiled and told him not to be polite and to sit down and talk. After he sat down at the bottom with half his buttocks, Gao pragmatically
Then he asked: "Have you asked about the prices of those things? What is the price of alkali? Is it expensive?"
Gao Xiaozhuang replied: "I have never bought alkali before, and I don't know whether it is expensive or not. In short, one tael of silver can buy two hundred catties of soil alkali and one hundred and twenty-five catties of refined alkali." [Note: Data.
It comes from "Wanshu Miscellaneous Notes", "Instructions for the Factory Warehouse of the Ministry of Industry", etc., which is quite authoritative.]
Gao Pragmatic was startled for a moment and said in surprise: "So cheap?" He was a little confused. It is said that although the soda ash in the capital should be oral alkali, it was installed and sold directly by the Mongolians from the alkali lake in Hetao, but from Hetao to the capital
The distance is not very close, and there are no trains or cars at the moment. With the transportation capacity being low, the transportation fee should be very high?
But after thinking about it, I realized it: not only is the alkali price cheap, but more importantly, the silver is valuable! After all, it is equivalent to one-quarter to one-fifth of many people’s monthly income! This is like what ordinary families spent in previous lives.
Four to one-fifth of your monthly income is spent on alkali, for example, it costs 1,000 yuan... that’s more than 600 kilograms (wholesale price).
After thinking about it this way, the price became much more normal. Gao pragmatically nodded and asked: "Where's the lime?"
Gao Xiaozhuang regained his energy, sat up straight and said: "Speaking of this lime, it seems to me that it is very cheap. I asked three or four stores and the prices are all about the same. One tael of silver can buy a hundred dou, but there is one thing.
What’s not good is that they only ship goods but don’t care about transportation.”
Gao pragmatically nodded, silently calculated in his mind, and remained silent for the time being.
One bucket is equal to ten liters, and one liter is about three kilograms, so let’s calculate it as three kilograms. In other words, one bucket is thirty kilograms. According to the price Gao Xiaozhuang asked, one tael of silver can buy one hundred buckets, which is about the same
It looks like three thousand kilograms... Even if the lime weighs heavily, three thousand kilograms of lime is only worth one tael of silver. No wonder the other party is not responsible for transporting it.
In fact, this is really a pragmatic misunderstanding. Those stores are unwilling to deliver not because the labor cost is too expensive, but because there are not so many transportation tools. You must know that even a wooden wheel cart needs to transport three thousand kilograms of lime.
It only takes a dozen or twenty trucks to do it, and for the store, using so many wooden wheeled carts to deliver lime is definitely not as good as using it to purchase goods and deliver smaller goods to buyers. Such a comparison
, it is not cost-effective to send lime. And their purchasing channels are not far away - there are many lime mines around the capital, and the limestone is transported to them by the mines. These days, the miners are really suffering, haha.
People have always sold the hardest labor and made the least money, which is really miserable. Therefore, miners' uprisings have been a very dangerous situation since ancient times - if you have labor and are not afraid of death, how can it not be serious?
So the problem lies with the cars, not the people. The labor cost really doesn’t matter. The income of the real "brick-moving gangs" who work hard these days is quite low. How low is it? A long-term worker wakes up early every day and works till late.
You have to keep working, but the salary is only three taels of silver per hundred days. The only benefit is that the store will provide you with a lunch. Fortunately, although there is not much profit in this meal, at least it is basically
You can eat enough.
Yes, manpower at this time was so cheap that people who grew up in modern society could hardly believe it.
In fact, regarding this issue, Gao Pragmatic later asked someone from the "Gao Party" who worked in the Ministry of Works. At that time, workers in various departments of the Ministry of Works were divided into two levels: craftsmen and husbands. Craftsmen and husbands were divided into long-term workers.
The wages of craftsmen and day workers are higher than that of husbands, and the wages of long-term workers are higher than that of short-term workers, but the difference is not very big, and the wages of different departments also vary. In general, the wage level of high-skilled types of work is higher than that of skilled workers.
Among the low-content types of work, the highest one is 0.07 taels per work [Note: Each work means one person's work for one day.], and the lowest one is 0.03 taels per work, which is more than double. [Note: The data source is still "Gongbu Factory"
"Instructions for the Treasury", which was compiled by He Shijin, an engineer from the Ministry of Engineering who had twice inspected the factory warehouse. It was completed in June of the 43rd year of Wanli and has a total of 12 volumes. From Volume 3 to Volume 12, the book contains detailed records of the Ministry of Industry
The amounts and unit prices of various materials "available" and "purchased" by the affiliated institutions, as well as the labor prices of some departments, total more than 400 types. The prices of many items in this book will be recorded in this book. Unless there are special circumstances in the future,
No separate explanation will be given.]
Next, Gao pragmatically asked about the prices of various major oils and fats, and by the way, the corresponding meat prices. Overall, it can be described in two words: cheap. If he had to use three words, it would be: extremely cheap.
!
At present, the price of pork in Jingshi is one tael of silver and fifty-five and a half kilograms. Lard is about three times more expensive than pork. One tael of silver can only buy eighteen kilograms and three taels. Beef is cheaper than pork, and one tael of silver can buy it.
It weighs seventy-seven kilograms, and butter is also cheap. One tael of silver can buy twenty-nine and a half kilograms. The price of mutton is basically the same as that of beef, but mutton fat is more expensive than butter. One tael of silver can only buy twenty-three kilograms.
But it’s still cheaper than lard.
"Why are beef and mutton cheaper than pork?" Secretary Gao, who grew up in a later generation and was highly pragmatic, said it was difficult to understand. He frowned and asked: "Also, lard is more expensive than beef tallow and mutton fat? What's the reason for this?
”
In Secretary Gao's view, the difficulty of raising pigs is so low. The output of pigs is many times that of cattle and sheep. How could it be possible that the price is higher? He subconsciously thinks that there is a problem with the price, and the problem is huge. Gao Xiaozhuang is afraid
Didn't you get deceived?
Unexpectedly, Gao Xiaozhuang also looked surprised and said in amazement: "Young Master doesn't know about this situation?"
Gao pragmatic was stunned for a moment and asked: "What's going on?"
What could possibly happen? Could it be that swine fever broke out near the capital during this period and all the pigs died?