Especially after the cheap rice from Xujiazhuang was put on the market.
Food prices, let alone maintaining the sky-high price of more than ten silver dollars per stone, could not maintain the price of 5 silver dollars per stone, and had to fall to 3 silver dollars, 2 silver dollars or even 1 silver dollar per stone.
A cliff-like plunge.
Because all the grain hoarders are selling grain, they just want to recover part of the losses and stop the losses.
As a result, huge amounts of grain flooded the market, and even old grain that had been accumulated in warehouses for two or three years appeared in front of consumers at extremely low prices.
This caused a serious stampede and made it more difficult to sell because there was food everywhere and the prices were lower than the last.
As for finding ways to rescue the market and bring food prices back up again, this is almost impossible.
One of them has no funds on hand.
Secondly, they have no hope of winning and cannot defeat Xujiazhuang.
The "Oriental Times" made it very clear that the 130 grain estates established by Xujiazhuang overseas, plus the 70 grain estates of the Zheng family in Fujian, can continuously supply food three times a year, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter.
, an average of nearly 300,000 koku of rice is supplied every day, ensuring continuous supply throughout the year!
This amount of rice can feed more than 30 million people.
In addition, countries in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Champa, Siam, Luzon, Myanmar and even India are rich in rice. Xujiazhuang's partners can also spend more than 50 million kong of rice from these countries every year.
This can probably feed a population of nearly 20 million people.
Added together, these grains from overseas can solve the food ration problem for 50 million people in the Ming Dynasty!
It can feed the entire population in the food-deficient areas of northern Ming Dynasty!
The grain produced in the Ming Dynasty is completely self-sufficient and even slightly surplus. The grain speculators' logic of rising grain prices has long been bankrupt. Even if they hoard more than 400 million shi of grain, it will last forever.
Even if not a single grain is sold, the people of the Ming Dynasty will not be short of food. With the sufficient food supply from Xujiazhuang, no one will starve to death.
There is only one end for grain speculators: blood loss or bankruptcy.
And their original plan was to sell the grain hoard of more than 400 million shi at a bottom-line price of 5 silver dollars/stone, which would be worth at least more than 2 billion silver dollars.
But now it has plummeted to the eighteenth level of hell price of only 0.5 silver dollars/stone!
Assets have shrunk by as much as 90%.
Therefore, in the past few days, news such as this has been circulating in the capital:
"I heard that Zhu Haidou, the largest grain merchant in the capital, committed suicide by hanging himself from a beam last night. He also poisoned his whole family, forty or fifty people, and they were all gone."
"Does Zhang Jinhao, a big grain merchant, know? He is a profit dog kept by the British government. But today someone saw Zhang Jinhao's body being carried out from the back door of the British government. It seemed that he had been stabbed to death with several swords, and it might have been the British government.
I wonder if the government will take care of the public outcry?"
"Something happened to the grain merchant Wang Weiyu. His whole family disappeared without a trace. He must have fled to an unknown place. People from the Xiangcheng County Prefecture are looking for him everywhere."
"Hahaha, these female businessmen died well, they died well, they should have met this end long ago!"
"It's so satisfying. It makes us unable to buy food every year and we often live hungry. They all deserve to die!"
"My family has been eating sweet potatoes and potatoes for more than half a year. In the past few days, we have finally eaten fragrant rice and noodles, and finally lived a human life. Oh, it's bitter. If only Xujiazhuang had taken action against these female businessmen.
, we have long been living a life of eating white rice every day.”
"Yes, after my salary was paid yesterday, I went to the low-price grain selling point in Xujiazhuang and bought six tons of Nanyang rice in one go. Finally, no one came to grab the rice. I also know that there are some cheap old rice.
One silver dollar can buy three stones, but I just want to take care of Xujiazhuang's business!"
"Me too, I will try my best to only buy food from Xujiazhuang in the future."
"Have you heard? His Majesty the Emperor seems to have also stocked up a lot of food. He also lost a lot this time. He was in a bad mood and beat to death several eunuchs who made small mistakes."
"Is it true or not, His Majesty is also speculating on food? If Your Majesty doesn't love the people like a son, how could you do such a thing?"
"Don't ask for it. (This chapter is not over yet!)
Chapter 244 Chongzhen’s internal funds went bankrupt
On the other hand, be careful of the Jin Yiwei over there..."
Everyone immediately stopped talking.
…
Forbidden City, in the Imperial Palace.
Emperor Zhu Youjian has been in a very bad mood recently.
He was also very irritable and irritable. Indeed, he ordered several eunuchs to be beaten to death because of a few trivial matters.
I haven't slept well for several days in a row. I often suffer from insomnia. My eyes are always red and bloodshot. When I'm angry, I even feel like I'm choosing others to eat. This makes the eunuchs and maids in the palace very cautious and cautious. It can be said that they are walking on thin ice.
.
By the way, what's going on?
What's wrong with Emperor Zhu Youjian? He was always smiling all day long, why did he suddenly become so irritable and irritable?
no way.
He lost.
He lost completely and completely, his eyes were red when he lost, he lost so much that he wanted to go crazy and kill people.
He can now be described as "bankrupt", so he cannot be in a good mood.
More than 5 million silver dollars in cash were gone.
There was a misappropriation deficit of 6 million silver dollars in the royal financial account.
There are 12 million shi of grain on hand - 2 million shi of which are the civil servants of the imperial court. Under the collective appeal to kneel down and beg the emperor to save the price of grain, they misappropriated the deposits in the royal financial account and paid 3 silver dollars/stone.
At a price of 2 million shi, we purchased low-priced grain from the market, which indeed played a role in saving the market.
But the effect only lasted two days.
In addition, Shang Yizhi owes Tianxiatong Bank 5.5 million silver dollars, which has not yet been repaid.
As well as the previous three loans, a total of 10 million silver dollars were owed.
So the financial situation of the royal family now before Zhu Youjian is——
6 million silver dollars are in short supply, 5.5 million silver dollars are in short supply, and the Royal Farm owes 10 million silver dollars in past debts, for a total of 21.5 million silver dollars.
The only positive asset is the 12 million shi of food.
But at the current price of grain, which is in the Eighteenth Level of Hell, these grains can be sold for up to 6 million silver dollars.
Still seriously insolvent!
Failed, this time he made a big mistake. Because of his momentary greed, he paid an extremely huge price.
Not convinced!
Of course he was extremely dissatisfied!
I sat down with some cabinet ministers, ministers, nobles and nobles who had lost their sights to discuss countermeasures with these defeated dogs, and discussed many tough and effective countermeasures.
For example, official forces were deployed to force the closure of all low-price grain sales points in Xujiazhuang.
For example, the food in Xujiazhuang was forcibly confiscated.
Others proposed an all-out war and sent troops to destroy Xujiazhuang in the south of the Yangtze River to completely eliminate the source of this disaster.
All in all, they are comments made by someone who cannot afford to lose and is unwilling to admit defeat and intends to overturn the table.
Zhu Youjian, who lost his internal money and went bankrupt, of course thought of flipping the table, but...
If you lose, you lose.
Although Xujiazhuang was a cunning woman, she also used the rules of the game in the shopping mall and won the game using the methods in the shopping mall. Although she killed some thugs and government servants, it was not considered to be a game-changer.
What's more, even if they choose to flip the table to compete with each other, will the imperial court be Xujiazhuang's opponent? Will Xujiazhuang be afraid of them flipping the table?
"Oriental Times" also warned that after this food war, grain speculators nationwide in the Ming Dynasty suffered losses of about one billion silver dollars, and their vitality was severely damaged. They will not be able to get rid of the problem in the next two years! Be honest.
If they really give up the idea of speculating on grain and go back to the right path, and Xujiazhuang will soon establish a grain futures trading market to regulate grain prices in a more standardized manner, they will never have any chance of a comeback.
If you want to achieve asset growth in the future, you can buy overseas development bonds, open factories and workshops, invest in industries, or even deposit money in banks to earn interest. However, speculating on food is a dead end! Xujiazhuang will let these speculators
They lost everything and told them that times have changed and this road to wealth is no longer available!
The most important thing is that on the matter of curbing grain speculation, Xujiazhuang won the hearts of the people of the Ming Dynasty and received a support rate of more than 90%. However, groups such as officials, gentry, nobles, and vassal kings were in the minority. Once fierce competition
To confront each other, (this chapter is not finished yet!)
Chapter 244 Chongzhen’s internal funds went bankrupt
The majority of the people can only support Xujiazhuang because it is related to their own survival. In the face of survival issues, even the emperor is nothing.
Faced with such public opinion.
Zhu Youjian could only admit defeat and keep his sadness and regret in his heart.
Then what to do?
How to clean up this mess?
Should Wang Chengen make a trip to call Qichunnian into the palace to discuss it carefully and come up with a charter to solve the problem, especially the 6 million silver dollar deficit in the royal financial account, which must be filled in
, because the money was not his, but was deposited in this account by someone else. Once the news leaked out and said that the emperor swallowed and used the money, resulting in a huge loss and the possibility of not being able to withdraw the principal, it would be a shocking disaster.
thunder!
It will be a fatal blow to the royal family’s credibility!
The remaining nearly 20 million account deposits will also be removed and squeezed in an instant.
only……
He can't bear to look like this.
Because just a few days before the collapse of grain prices, Fang Yizhi, Qichunnian, and bank president Gu Tianci went to the palace to see him. The three of them persuaded him to sell the grain in his funds immediately, otherwise the consequences would be serious.
Extremely serious!
But Zhu Youjian didn't listen and didn't take their suggestions to heart.
Now if he takes the initiative to summon them, admits his mistake, and then pleads for how to solve the deficit problem, this is something that makes him feel ashamed and unacceptable even thinking about it. After all, he is a very face-saving person, and he is more afraid of being ridiculed and irritated, especially that person
In the Qichun year, no good words will come out of your mouth.
After procrastinating for two days.
Zhu Youjian finally thought of a good solution that was not a solution, that is to ask the queen to come forward and summon Qichunnian and Gu Tianci into the palace to discuss a solution to the problem. He would not come forward in person and just stand back and listen.
.
As the queen is a woman, Qichunnian and Gu Tianci should be more polite and not put forward too harsh conditions.
So that night, after Zhu Youjian told Queen Zhou his thoughts, he hoped that she would come forward to help deal with this mess.
"Your Majesty, if I had known this today, why did I do it in the first place?"
Empress Zhou was quite speechless and said: "If we didn't get involved in grain speculation, how could we have suffered such a huge loss? There was also the loss of 6 million silver dollars and the 2 million stone bought to save the grain. After investigation, it was found that it was all caused by a few civil servants.
The old grain at home is not even new, and you have been tricked by those civil servants."
"I have ordered their homes to be confiscated and their clans to be exterminated, but they only managed to get less than a million taels, and the rest were concealed and transferred away by them. I was greatly deceived!"
Zhu Youjian gritted his teeth in hatred.
"You don't listen to a word of advice from Xujiazhuang and are always led by the civil servants. Your Majesty, I can step in this time, but in the future cooperation with Xujiazhuang, Your Majesty will listen to me, or at least discuss it with me.
We can no longer listen to those civil servants."
Empress Zhou made a request. She usually had a lot of contact with various people and things in Xujiazhuang. She also read every issue of "Oriental Times". She usually had a neutral attitude, but now she also had opinions about the civil servants. She always felt that the emperor
I have been deceived by civil servants in various ways, especially during this food war. I have been deceived terribly.
"Okay, Zitong, I will definitely listen to you and discuss it with you!"
Zhu Youjian nodded repeatedly and said after learning from the pain.
"Okay, I will talk to them tomorrow. At the most, I can shed a few tears to show them. It won't embarrass me, a woman."
Queen Zhou said...
Chapter 244 Chongzhen’s internal funds went bankrupt This chapter has been completed!