Silk customers are here, but the reeled silk cannot be sold! No one is willing to sell the silk that they worked so hard to make at this pitifully low price, not to mention that most people have gone into debt for this silk!
Everyone in the village was hanging, and except for the little children who were not worried about anything, everyone had no smiles on their faces.
The "Silk Guests" didn't receive the silk, but they haven't left yet. They all looked very determined. They found a familiar "downtown" to stay, and during the day they had tea and chatted at the wild teahouse at the entrance of the village.
Your old acquaintances come to beg and plead, but they won't let go. They also have a way of saying it: they just keep lamenting their suffering, saying that they are "unable to help themselves" and are unwilling to treat "fellows" so harshly - this is all "yamen"
" means. In short, they gritted their teeth and refused to let go. They made it clear that they had to sell even if they didn't sell. They were sure that the "folks" would have to cut their flesh to mend their sores sooner or later. They were all old in this business.
Right now, silk is the only hope for the villagers. If it cannot be cashed in, where will the next various expenses come from? Besides, silk and cocoons are things that cannot be stored, and no one can stock up on them.
Finally, someone came up with an idea. Since the local silk shop has a public price, but the state capital next door probably doesn't have this, and the price is about the same as last year - just go to Huzhou, Jiaxing or Suzhou to sell silk.
It's just that it's a long way to go from here, and it takes five or six days to get there and back. The hassles on the road cost money, and it also costs money to go through the customs all the way. In the past, it wouldn't have been possible.
Forget it. But the market is so low right now. If you don’t take this trip, you will suffer even more losses.
Shen Kaibao made a good plan and decided to try his luck in Huzhou - he had been to Wuzhen when he was young and had some knowledge of the local area. There were many silk shops there. It was a big business place and he should be able to sell raw silk at a good price. Now he asked to go to Daqing.
Get some reed mats, ask your wife and Daqing wife to cook, wrap them in chopsticks leaves for the road meal, and bring some fried wheat flour to mix with boiling water and eat on the way.
Daqing's mother prepared the rice, put it in a basket, and told him: "Sell it and come back early! We don't have much rice at home for a few days!"
Shen Kaibao shouted as if he was about to quarrel: "No matter how fast you go, you have to row one row after another. After selling silk for a lifetime, you will be sent to the army to be sent to the army when you are old!"
Daqing said to his mother: "It's time to stop. You'd better go to Shen and others to borrow rice. Duoduo's mother has said that Mr. Zhao is willing to continue to borrow rice."
Shen Kaibao interrupted his son: "He is willing to borrow, but I am not willing to borrow. Where does this interest come from?! Pay it back with cocoons. Such a low market price is simply a waste of money! You try your best to endure it. Wait for me
Sell the silk and get the money back to measure the rice!"
It was sunny in those days, so Shen Kaibao and Daqing took the boat out. Seeing that Shen Kaibao's family had set off, other families also followed the boat out. Those who didn't have a boat borrowed a boat, or asked someone to take it with them.
go.
The flame of hope that had become tiny now is burning brightly again, and the faces of those left behind in the family have more smiles - there is no end to the road. As long as the head of the family can arrive at the outer mansion peacefully, he will be able to
If you sell it at a good price, you can still live a good life!
On the other hand, the silk guests were still drinking tea at the wild tea shop at the entrance of the village with a determined look on their faces, with unpredictable smiles on their faces. It seemed that they had already figured it out.
Sure enough, within two or three days, all the boats that had gone out came back one after another. Many of the boats were empty, but everyone on the boat had a sad look on their face: not to mention the hard work and hard work in vain, and some people even got slapped on the buttocks. I picked up the board and limped back. It turns out that all the water and land checkpoints out of Hangzhou have signs signed by the Yamen. This year, Yusi must have a ticket from the Famine Relief Bureau when leaving the country. Those who don’t have a ticket will be stopped at the checkpoint. , cocoon silk will be bought at a 20% discount at the "public price". If you disobey a little bit, you will be given a meal - it will be even worse if you are shackled. You will not be able to come back, and your family will have to immediately He rushed to bring the money to redeem him, or he would have to be in chains for a month before he could be released.
Shen Kaibao's family did not suffer any loss - he was a little clever. Although he was the first to set off, he hid in the back to pass the checkpoint. When he heard the bad news ahead, he quickly turned around and rushed back.
Although the silk has not been "purchased", his family's silk still cannot be sold, and the family has a lot of cocoons - the silkworm flowers are so good this year that his wife and Daqing's daughter-in-law alone are too busy making silk.
Families who were not so lucky were crying loudly. In particular, some of the families had their family members arrested and sentenced to shackles, and they had to bring money to collect and redeem them. Nowadays, which family in the village still has cash available? But how about redemption? , the shackles are out in the open day and night. If no one delivers food, there will be no food, no water, and starvation to death. What about the farm work for this month? If the delay continues, the whole family will be hungry. die.
The cries of women and children came from far and near. The village was filled with an atmosphere of despair: How can the common people defeat the yamen? He has thought of everything you want, and you can't help but sell it.
In the end, Siniang Wang came forward to help and lent the money from the redemption to these families.
The silk and cocoons were not sold, but the creditors and the food messengers came. The creditors did not want the silk and cocoons - they were very well-informed and knew that this year's silk and cocoons could not be sold at a high price. They just ignored them with a straight face. , and kept urging them to repay their debts. If they couldn't repay, they quickly took out the mortgaged land deeds.
The Shen Kaibao family is doing relatively well. After all, Master Cao has agreed to repay the principal and interest only during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The debt problem is not urgent. The only thing that needs to be repaid now is the debt owed to Master Shen's family, Mr. Zhao.
After returning home, Duo Duo Niang has been helping Wang Siniang to urge each household: after collecting the silkworm cocoons, don’t forget to pay back the debt of Mr. Zhao’s family: the debt of borrowing rice, the debt of credit leaves, don’t feel it when you borrow it, it will always add up. Only then did I realize that it was a large amount of money. Fortunately, the interest was less.
It is easy to repay Mr. Zhao's debt. His family does not need silver or raw silk, so they can pay off the debt with silkworm cocoons. For the farmers, it couldn't be easier - it still requires a lot of tricks. It's just that Mr. Zhao's family has verified the cocoon price and The price offered by the "silk customer" was the same, and the silkworm farmers were equally distressed, but now they could not help but hesitate any longer. The silk customer refused to raise the price, and the cocoons would pupate if left for a long time. If they were bitten through, they could only be sold as silk cotton. .
A large black scale was placed at the door of Shen's family, and every household carried baskets full of silkworm cocoons to pay off debts and interest. Wang Siniang had already made it known that she would pay back what she borrowed, and it would not be difficult to borrow again. Mr. Zhao was kind-hearted. , as long as you use cocoons to pay off your debts on time, everyone will be able to help you if you have any difficulties in the future.
These words greatly accelerated the speed at which silkworm farmers used cocoons to pay off debts. Some people simply did not reel the silk, and directly sold the remaining cocoons to the Shen family. After calculation, those who made their own silk suffered a lot, and the silk reelers suffered a lot. The amount of labor and firewood invested in silk production is horrendous compared to the current raw silk market. However, a few families have few hands and cannot afford the time and manpower. They spend less on selling cocoons directly, and in fact, they lose less.
Shen Kaibao's family had been hesitating at first, so now they had no choice but to use the cocoons at home that had not yet been reeled to pay off the debt. At the river port in front of the Shen family, some boats arrived at some time, and the silkworm farmers used the cocoons to pay off the debt. The cabins were filled with covered rattan baskets, which were tightly covered with reed mats, and shipped out one by one - it is said that they were all sent to the silk reeling field of Mr. Zhao's house.
The raw silk that had already been reeled had to be sold at the public price. Some were sold to silk customers and some were sold to Mr. Zhao. Although some young people angrily said that they would rather keep it until next year and sell it again, this was just an angry comment after all. , Not to mention that the silk will turn yellow after being stored for a long time, even if it does not turn yellow, there are still so many places to spend money - even if the silk sells for a hundred taels next year, they can't wait.
In the end, the silk and cocoons that had been worked so hard for more than a month flowed away from the fingers of the silkworm farmers, and were replaced by more or less a pile of scattered silver and copper coins. They spent so much on these. The remuneration for labor will not last long before it becomes someone else's. The debts owed, the taxes from the government, the family's food rations, and then renting oxen for farming, buying bean cakes, repairing farm tools... everything. Waiting for money - filling in all these is still a long way to go.
In the dilemma, the villagers had no choice but to continue to follow their old path: borrowing money to support themselves. Fortunately, Mr. Zhao, the owner of Shen Da, was willing to borrow money without a mortgage, and the profit was still only one cent. Therefore, the villagers who had just paid off Mr. Zhao's debt soon So I got into debt again.
Wang Siniang and Li Zheng were very happy. The tasks given to them by the master were completed: they bought enough silkworm cocoons, and at the same time, they burdened the villagers with more debts - as long as they were burdened with debts, they would not have to worry about their debts. Submit.
With the joint efforts of the government, Jin Shen and Zhao Yingong, the sericulture households in Hangzhou Prefecture were bloodied. The officials in charge, the members of the Famine Relief Bureau, the boss of the silk shop... everyone was shocked. Zhao Yingong gained a lot of wealth. Not only did he obtain a thousand tons of raw silk at a very low price, but he also got his wish by allowing more than ten villages that carried out cooperative activities to bear the debts of the cooperatives.
And the entire sericulture households in Hangzhou were on the verge of bankruptcy. Shanhai 5th Road sent him a lot of news in this regard.
"These black-hearted people are really eating people without spitting out their bones." Zhao Yingong thought.
We knew they were dirty, but we didn’t know they could be so dark. Zhao Yingong’s purchase guide price for the Famine Relief Bureau this time was fifty taels of silver per load—roughly the purchase price of the silk shop last year. He originally estimated that the Famine Relief Bureau would strip
On the first floor, the silk shop that handles it peels off a layer. The managers at the upper and lower levels divide the profits even more, and the actual purchase price from the silkworm farmers is about thirty taels.
Unexpectedly, this group of people would really come up with a "half-and-half bargain" and be so ruthless. This made Zhao Yingong wary of his "collaborators". It seemed that he had to organize some strong defense forces to ensure the safety of himself and the industry.