Chapter 75 Dongmen Chuiyu and Dugu’s ambition to propose marriage
In a conference room on the second floor of this hall where public scales are displayed, the first meeting of the Dongmen City Industrial and Commercial Administration Office is being held. The conditions in the conference room are difficult, and the walls are only painted with limestone. Because the construction is very rushed, the limestone
It's not completely dry yet. The floor is made of original wooden boards. The industrial sector has not found lacquer yet, and modern paint is a very distant future. As for the ceiling, there is no such thing as a suspended ceiling. The only modern equipment is a high-hanging
A light bulb under the roof. However, tables and chairs are very luxurious. They would cost at least several million in the 21st century. A large mahogany painting table, a red sandalwood official hat chair, and a rosewood round stool were arranged messily to look like a conference room -
These are all trophies brought from the Gou family.
There were seven or eight people in attendance, and they were all people who wanted to work in business. Some had real experience, and some were just out of interest. The leader was a young man who claimed to have worked as an assistant in an industrial and commercial office. His name
He had failed the exam, but when he learned that he was going to be the manager of Dongmen City, he gave himself a brand new name: "Dongmen Chuiyu".
Next to him is his deputy: wearing an iron-gray uniform-style shirt, black trousers, and a black hat. The armband has the words "Administrative Law Enforcement Coordination" written on it. His face looks murderous, and he looks like a hawker terminator.
Like Dongmen Chuiyu, this person’s real name is Wu Kao. In the future republic, the historical and astronomical network covers Europe, Asia and Africa, but at this moment, all the business of the time traveler is in the piece of mud below them that doesn’t even have cement.
On the ground. Fortunately, Wen Desi has already spoken. Business is a project fully supported by the Executive Committee. It requires money and goods.
As the flag points to, trade opens the way. Colonial expansion in history all used commercial trade as a breakthrough. Trade can not only bring profits, but also become an important means for colonists to gain a foothold in the local area. For travelers, they have already
After using violent means to occupy the land, the next step is to increase the contact with the local indigenous people and transform themselves from a green-faced, fanged, murderous pirate into a businessman with a large number of novel goods. The attraction of wealth will attract more and more people.
wary locals to win over them and ultimately align their own interests with theirs.
Of course, the travelers themselves also need the support of trade, especially the basic necessities of life such as grain and non-staple food. They must be supplemented by local farmers. Relying on imports from other places brings great instability. The ancient Romans often had to pay for transportation from Egypt.
Many people are familiar with the history of political instability caused by the failure of incoming food to arrive in time - this situation must be avoided at all costs.
The meeting first reviewed yesterday's grain purchase situation. Since the reconnaissance teams sent in all directions were continuously reported that farmers had begun to hand over grain to landlords, the traversers began to set up points in Dongmen City to purchase grain. The local rice price is
Silver costs one, two or three cents per stone. Calculated based on the general rice production ratio, it is about 70%. The purchase price of rice is set at eight cents per stone. This price does not take into account the transportation and profit costs in the rice price.
——The commercial department estimates that the local grain purchase price of rice per shi will not exceed five yen. Buying for eight yen is already a rare high price.
The purchase went very smoothly. The people nearby, from ordinary people to big grain farmers, were all tempted to see that they were willing to use their free money to buy grain. At first, there were only a few or twenty people here and there, but recently there have been more than one or two people every day.
Hundreds of people carried bags and buckets of grain on their shoulders or on carts. The seven or eight people in the commercial department were simply too busy, so they had to call in people from the agricultural department to help.
There was some confusion at the beginning, because the locals are accustomed to using a dou as a unit of measurement for grain, with ten dou and one stone. There are also official dou and private dou, with different capacities. The top of the dou is open, and the rice on the top of the dou is open.
Whether the heap should be full or the heap should be pointed, and how high the heap should be, these questions made them dumbfounded. After a period of confusion, they decided to implement new weights and measures and purchase by weight. The purchase price was set at eight silver coins per one hundred kilograms.
, called it the "public stone." The weight was measured using a floor scale removed from the ship. Unexpectedly, this change in weights and measures did not arouse any resentment or protest from the grain sellers. In their view, since the time traveler
They were free to use whatever unit of measurement they were willing to pay to purchase grain. This surprised Dongmen Chuiyu - no wonder the ancient landowners used small crops to produce large crops - the common people did not understand the importance of weights and measures at all.
In contrast, ordinary people were very interested in how to increase weight without using rice. At first, everyone was inexperienced and busy. The rice they purchased was mixed with a lot of grains, even husks and sand, and they suffered a lot.
At that time, someone came up with an idea and hurriedly made a group of grain spies to sign grain and look at the samples. Wu Nanhai also provided emergency training to teach everyone how to distinguish the quality and moisture content of rice.
contained.
"...As of today, we have purchased 90 tons of rice and 2,100 kilograms of peanuts." Dongmen Chuiyu reported the purchase situation to several executive committee members who attended the meeting.
"How much more do you think we can buy?" Wen Desi asked. 90 tons of rice, but only 70 tons of brown rice, seems like a lot, but now there are more and more people eating, and we have to provide relief to the people, which makes me a little nervous.
Yu Eshui opened a book he carried with him: "There is still room for acquisition. According to the county annals, during the Wanli period, Lingao's autumn grain harvest amounted to 7,646 shi, nine buckets, two liters and seven combined, and the newly reclaimed land cost six shi."
Seven liters and nine combined, a total of 7,686 stone, seven liters and nine combined. This is just the main item, plus miscellaneous fire consumption, additional levies, and layer upon layer of exploitation by officials, the grain farmers actually handed over will not
Less than 10,000 shi. Now is the late Ming Dynasty, when it is most serious for wealthy families to conceal their fields. There should be a considerable part of the fields without grain. So I estimate that the total autumn grain output in Lingao is between 50,000 shi and 70,000 shi.
There is no problem for us to acquire three to five thousand stones."
Some people raised doubts: "Is it necessary to reserve so much grain? Didn't more than a thousand stones be taken from Gou's house? Moreover, Yanchang Village has begun to sell salt to the mainland, using salt in exchange for grain from Guangdong. In the future, it can also be purchased from Vietnam.
It’s food.”
Wu Nanhai took the food issue very seriously and immediately argued: "The more food, the better. Don't panic if you have food in your hands. Whether it's Guangdong or Vietnam, they are both far away. If they are cut off, it will be detrimental to the stability of the people."
.”
Wen Desi continued: "At this stage, food is more valuable than money. When there is a famine, food prices will skyrocket, and money will depreciate. Don't forget that we are still in the Little Ice Age, and natural disasters are very frequent. We are not a few
There are hundreds of people on board, so we need to look at the overall situation of the county and make complete preparations."
"I also draw the attention of the Executive Committee to the trade situation and silver reserves," Cheng Dong spoke on behalf of the financial department. "The current trade balance is seriously exceeding the limit, and silver is losing rapidly. After the attack on Goujiazhuang, our silver reserves
It has risen to 15,000 taels under the old two systems, and almost 1,000 taels have flowed out in the past few days. It is not an option to continue like this, after all, there is a demand for circulating currency."
"Xiao Zishan has gone to Guangzhou. How about letting him withdraw tens of thousands of taels of goods deposited with the Gao family?"
"There is no need." Wen Desi said, "Lingao is a small place, and it is not a good thing if too much silver flows in. We have another thing that can replace silver-salt." Salt has played the role of currency for a long time in history.
He prepared it to pay part of the food and labor costs.
However, some people object to this approach: for ordinary people, between silver and salt, the former is obviously more attractive, and it is also easier to carry and use. The ordinary people have already tasted the sweetness of cash acquisition and will not like such a sudden compulsory
Barter trade.
"Let's open a salt shop." Dongmen Chuiyu had a sudden idea, "Specialize in selling salt. He took the money from selling grain with his left hand, and he has to return it to us with his right hand. Hahaha, I am really a profiteer-"
"This is a good idea. After all, using grain and salt as equivalents is not the direction of development. Now that the salt production in the county is controlled by us, it is very suitable to use it to withdraw currency." Cheng Dong nodded in agreement.
Dongmen Chui Chui struck while the iron was hot and quickly handed over a document: "This is our business group's business plan for Dongmen City. I hope the executive committee will approve it as soon as possible!"
"Planning plan?" Several executive committee members were stunned. Although they set up a free market outside Bairen City, the purpose was only to promote the circulation of goods and enhance the relationship between travelers and local indigenous people. There was no information on how the market was going to be run and managed.
Several people thought about it carefully. Everyone thought of this market as a free market like many cities in China: farmers and small vendors come to set up stalls to sell goods. At most, some people thought of free stall fees.
"Yes, planning plan." Dongmen took the opportunity to stand up, "Fellow executive committee members, let me now introduce the following overall planning plan. I believe that with this plan, under the correct leadership of the executive committee, under the leadership of the executive committee,
Under the guidance of Mr. Wen, and with the strong support of Commissioner Cheng -"
"Stop talking nonsense! Even in Ming Dynasty, you are still doing this!" Dugu proposed, already impatient.
"--Our Dongmen City will become the most prosperous commercial market in Lingao, no, in Hainan!"
After all, Dongmen Chuiyu had been through the officialdom informally. He didn't care about the complaints about the proposal. After finishing his opening remarks, he quickly hung up a newly drawn plan on the blackboard behind him. This was when he went to the construction engineering team.
After all the good words and a few packs of cigarettes, I got it.