Dahan first prince

Chapter 127 The big agriculture, water conservancy should be the first
After paying a visit to his old lady Lu Zhi, he went back to the womb to recuperate overnight. The next day, at dawn, Liu Ying's figure appeared outside the Sima Gate again.

The destination of Liu Ying's trip is undoubtedly the prime minister's mansion between Shangguanli and Arsenal.

But what is different from the past is that Liu Ying did not bring a brigade of guards with great fanfare when she left the palace, nor did she take the prince's chariot.

Walking slowly on Hao Street, looking at the sparse figures of common people on the street and the bright smiles full of longing for the future, Liu Ying felt refreshed for a while.

"The important affairs of the country are only the military and the sacrifice."

"The important thing for the people is food and goods alone..."

She sighed to herself, and Liu Ying couldn't help showing a comfortable smile on her face.

This time, the Zhengguo Canal has been renovated. On the surface, it seems that only the Weibei area, especially the people on the north and south banks of the Zhengguo Canal, have benefited.

Going up to the sky, that is, after the autumn harvest, the court can collect more agricultural taxes from this area.

But in fact, as far as Liu Ying saw with her own eyes at this time, the people in Chang'an, hundreds of miles away from the Zhengguo Canal, all had longing and joy on their faces. Only the common people can eat it.

The reason could not be simpler: the relationship between supply and demand determines the market value.

Excluding man-made turmoil such as war outbreaks, and unexpected situations such as natural disasters such as floods and droughts, the demand for food in the Guanzhong area is basically constant.

That is to say, based on the consumption of more than 24 households in Guanzhong, with a total of more than 2000 million people, and [-] shi per person per year, the annual grain demand in Guanzhong is roughly around [-] million shi.

If you count today, most farmers only eat seven or eight cents full, and they all have the habit of eating corn and coarse grains. The grain demand in Guanzhong for a year may even be less than [-] million shi.

Compared with the demand of less than [-] million shi, what is the grain output in Guanzhong?
——In the sixth year of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu Bang issued the "Decree of Conferring Fields to the People", and all the people in Guanzhong will get a hundred acres of land for each household!

In this way, there are now more than [-] peasant households in Guanzhong, with more than [-] million mu of land.

Calculated on the basis of an average yield of three shi per mu, and after deducting the tax rate of 2000 shi, the agricultural tax that needs to be turned over to the treasury is nearly 5000 million shi, and the annual grain output in Guanzhong is at least [-] million shi!

The demand is less than 5000 million shi, and the supply is more than [-] million shi. Logically speaking, this is a proper oversupply. The price of grain in Guanzhong should be astonishingly low.

But in fact, as the unique "abundance of heaven" land in this era of barren land and scarce arable land, the grain produced in Guanzhong Dadi is not only used for "self-sufficiency".

——Jingwu, Huainan, Changsha and other places are full of swamps and rainforests;
——Yan Dynasty is located in the north wall, and the two counties of Shang and Dai, including Beidi and Longyou, have barren land and extremely low grain production;

In addition, Zhao State, which has many hills and wilderness in its territory, has little arable land, and Qi State, which is in a similar situation, and most of its people rely on commerce for a living...
Lin Lin finally figured it out, there are more than 700 million households in the world today, with a population of nearly [-] million, and the annual demand for nearly [-] million stones, grains and rice, most of them need to rely on the "exports" of the kingdom of abundance in Bashu and Guanzhong. '.

As a result, Guanzhong, where the food supply greatly exceeds the demand, has a tendency to be in short supply after "exporting" more than [-]% or even [-]% of the grain output to the Guandong.

Maybe it sounds a little strange: Why do the people in Guanzhong sell their food when they can't eat enough for themselves?

This question is actually well understood.

As impoverished farmers with hundreds of acres of fertile land sitting empty, the vast majority of people in Guanzhong basically have no ability to store food.

This makes it so that after the autumn harvest every year, the vast majority of the people will barely keep the food they need for the winter, and the rest can only be sold at a price slightly lower than the market price to those who "appear out of thin air" in the fields. At the head of the village, Mi Jia, a grain merchant waving a lot of copper coins to buy grain.

Grain merchant Mi Jia is not a philanthropist either. Having obtained the rice grains from the people, he is obviously more willing to transport these low-priced rice grains to the Kanto region, and then sell them to those barren lands in the Kanto region at a price several times higher than the purchase price. areas with high food prices.

Conversely, most of the rice in Guanzhong was sold to Guandong, which made the rice in Guanzhong more and more scarce. As the saying goes, the price of food in Guanzhong is also rising.

In this case, not to mention the fact that grain merchants are connected in series to drive up prices, the determinant of grain prices in Guanzhong is no longer determined solely by the relationship between supply and demand within Guanzhong, but by "the grain output in Guanzhong - the whole world." demand for food', the relationship between supply and demand.

It is an exaggeration to say that if the grain price in Guanzhong is to fall due to "oversupply", the grain output in Guanzhong must be enough to supply more than half of Kanto, and the remaining part should still be sufficient to supply Guanzhong.

This is also the reason why the price of grain in Guanzhong has remained high in the past ten years, and even soared to [-] yuan a stone at the beginning of the establishment of Guozuo.

——Kandong has been fighting for years, in order to supply the rations of tens of millions of people in Kanto, Guanzhong is really "stressed"······

But now, Prince Liu Ying, under the order of Emperor Liu Bang, completely renovated the dilapidated Zhengguo Canal. At first glance, it seems that it is only related to Guanzhong, or even hundreds of thousands of households in Weibei.

The Zhengguo Canal alone seems to be far from affecting grain prices in Guanzhong.

But the actual situation is: just a [-]-mile-long Zhengguo Canal can indeed affect the grain prices in Guanzhong and even the whole world!

The reason is simple - if Guanzhong and Bashu are the granaries of the whole world, then Weibei, especially the north and south banks of the Zhengguo Canal, are the granaries of the whole Guanzhong!
Gein alone has the task of irrigating nearly 30 hectares of fertile land on both sides of the north and south banks, which is close to 3000 million mu!
Take this year as an example, Liu Ying repaired the Zhengguo Canal at the beginning of the year. After the autumn harvest, the 3000 million mu of fertile land on both sides of the Zhengguo Canal, as long as the average yield per mu increases by one stone, the entire Weibei will produce an extra 3000 million shi of grain!
Then, can a Zhengguo Canal that has been completely repaired raise the 3000 million mu of fertile land in Weibei from last year's yield of two and a half to three stones per mu to three and a half or even four stones per mu in one fell swoop?

If it were changed elsewhere, this might be a myth.

But if it is along the Zhengguo Canal in Weibei, then this increase can almost be called inevitable.

——We must know that 40 years ago, the Zhengguo Canal had just been completed and opened to water, and the grain production on both sides of the canal that year exceeded five stones per mu!

By the next year, the grain production of the more than [-] hectares of salt marshes irrigated by the Zhengguo Canal reached an astonishing six stones and four buckets per mu①!
From this point of view, even today, the fields on the north and south sides of the Zhengguo Canal have lost a little fertility due to years of cultivation, but as long as the water used to irrigate the farmland is sufficient, the yield of five stones per mu may still be a bit low, but the yield of four stones per mu Above, no problem at all!
That is to say: the completion of just one Zhengguo Canal will allow nearly 30 hectares of land in Weibei to change from a lower field with an output of two and a half stones per mu to an upper field with a yield of more than four stones per mu in one fell swoop!

And the price of grain in Guanzhong will also drop sharply due to the extra 4000 million shi of grain!
From this point of view, the farmers on both sides of the strait are indeed the biggest beneficiaries of the Zhengguo Canal being repaired, but other places in Guanzhong, and even the people in Kanto, can get a little respite.

Naturally, in Chang'an, which is less than a hundred miles away from the Zhengguoqu Canal, it is quite normal for the people to smile because the Zhengguoqu Canal has been repaired.

"In this way, from next year, the agricultural tax paid by Weibei to the national treasury should be more than 200 million shi."

"Even if Yingbo rebels again, Xiao He will not be like this year, and can only get military rations from the courtiers' salaries..."

Thinking secretly, Liu Ying couldn't help but smiled again, and then stopped walking with a smile on her face.

——Xiangfu, here we are.

·
"Has it been counted?"

When Liu Ying's figure appeared outside the prime minister's mansion, the main hall of the prime minister's mansion was already filled with dozens of officials and a mountain of bamboo slips.

Almost everyone was so busy that they didn't even bother to go to the stage. While looking at the slips in their hands, they were calculating something on the ground.

And the contents measured by these officials who spent six hundred and a thousand stones were sent to Zhang Cang who was sitting on the head and was also busy with calculations.

Hearing Xiao He's urgent question, Zhang Cang couldn't help but raise his head, and put the brush in his hand back on the case.

"My lord."

"Not yet finished."

After shaking his head for a while, Zhang Cang immediately got up from the wooden table with joy on his face, and bowed his hands to Xiao He slightly.

"However, based on the comparison of agricultural production in Lianzhao, Sanyuan and other counties last year and the first year of the Han Dynasty when the Zhengguo Canal was still open, the current year in Weibei is more than four stones per mu!"

"If it is really possible to reach four shi, the national treasury should pay nearly 300 million more in agricultural taxes!"

Speaking of this, Zhang Cang's expression even faintly beamed with joy.

"The price of grain in Guanzhong should also drop from five hundred renminbi today to less than a thousand renminbi."

"After going back and forth for several years, and then dredging and repairing the water conservancy in Weinan, the price of grain in Guanzhong may fall below [-] yuan."

"The agricultural tax paid by the national treasury may reach as much as 500 million shi..."

Hearing Zhang Cang's calculations, even though he was mentally prepared, Xiao He couldn't help but gasp.

"The national treasury enters the agricultural tax every year, 500 million shi?"

He murmured again as if he couldn't believe it, and when Zhang Cang nodded his head seriously, Xiao He couldn't help but sighed in surprise.

"It should be noted that last year, the national treasury entered the agricultural tax, and it was only more than [-] million shi..."

"Only building a Zhengguo Canal, and the agricultural tax paid by the national treasury increased by nearly [-]% in an instant..."

"really!"

"The community should be based on agriculture!"

"When the government treasury is full, water conservancy should also be the first priority in the country's major policies!"

As soon as Xiao He finished speaking, before Zhang Cang nodded in agreement, he heard Liu Ying's slightly hoarse voice from outside the hall.

"Xiao Xiang's words are really old-fashioned theory of seeking the country!"

　ps: 1. "Historical Records Hequshu" records: "(Zheng Guo) canals were formed, filled with silted water, irrigated more than [-] hectares of brine land, and harvested one mu per bell.

　　In the Han Dynasty, 1 hectare equals 100 mu, one bell equals 64 dou, and one stone equals 10 dou, so one bell = 6.4 stone.

　　In this chapter, the issue of food is discussed a little bit more, mainly to pave the way for the subsequent plot, so don't be impatient.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)