Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 519

The cornfield is lush and green. The corn stalks have grown to the height of a person, and there are two ears on each stalk.

Zhu Yihai was walking in his private plot, seeing that the summer corn he planted himself was growing well, and he couldn't help being very happy. The people looking at this green gauze tent are really happy, their eyes are full of green.

The fifth princess, Zhu Ningwei, happily played hide-and-seek with Zhu Yihai in the green gauze tent, not afraid of being cut by the leaves.

"The corn is growing well this summer, and it is now the grain filling period. The rains have come in time." The ministers who followed the emperor were also very happy.

This year, under the strong suggestion of the emperor, Denglai Qingxin planted a large amount of corn in order to increase the yield and seek more food to fight the famine. This scene of green gauze tents everywhere was really hard to see in the past.

Although corn has been introduced for many years, it is still rare to plant it in such a large area.

But this year, coarse grains such as corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even sorghum soybeans have been widely planted or even forced to be planted, just to collect more disaster relief food.

Walking in the fields, all you can see is green, which is the color of hope.

Although Denglai, Qingdao, Yantai and other ports are constantly coming and going, grain ships have been transporting grain from the south, and Dengzhou, Changshan and other places have also stored a lot of grain, but the cost of these grains is very high.

Some grain was even shipped from Luzon and Annan. In the trade agreement between the emperor and the Spaniards, there were clauses such as exchanging raw silk for ships and silk for grain. Quantity of food will do.

This is like the opening of China and France in the early Ming Dynasty. Merchants want to buy salt from the court, so you have to transport grain to the Nine Borders to supply the army. The grain is transported to the border, where the grain is collected and then received by you List, you have to take this list to go to the government to get the salt, and then you can go to the salt warehouse to get the salt for sale.

If you want to earn high profits from selling salt, you have to transport grain for the court first.

Now Zhu Yihai and these North Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Annan and other merchants also have this additional clause. You can all come to Daming for direct trade, and you can stop at Guangzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Nanjing and other ports, but the condition is that the size of the corresponding ship must be Bring a certain amount of food as required.

Otherwise, even if you pay real money, you will not be able to buy the goods.

If you want raw silk, silk, porcelain, tea, etc., there is no problem. What you pay is not only silver and copper, but also food. Daming doesn’t care if you buy it from Annan, Luzon or even Batavia, you have to Just pull some food from outside.

Even though the food costs are high, Daming is willing to pay.

The grain brought by overseas merchants, together with the grain produced in the south, was transported to various coastal ports, and then shipped northward by sea. Although the cost of these grains was transported by sea, which was much lower than that by land and river, it was still quite expensive.

However, this method has indeed greatly alleviated the famine, especially the situation in Jiangbei.

A ship of food comes, and a ship of refugees leaves.

The food ships went north, and the refugees went south.

After several months of continuous transportation, there are still many refugees fleeing from Denglai, but fewer and fewer people died.

"In a month or so, we will be able to harvest corn. According to the current climate, this year's corn production should be good, and we can even harvest later to increase production. After the corn is harvested in autumn, we can plant wheat again."

University scholar Xu Shiqi told the emperor that the Denglai Qingxin Fourth Mansion occupied by the Ming army in Shandong now basically has no barren land, and even a large amount of waste land has been reclaimed.

Regardless of whether it is owned land or unowned land, regardless of whether it is official land or private land, it is all planted first.

In addition, there are many military farms now.

"The land property rights still need to be respected. Now it is a special situation. Some landlords have left their hometowns and moved south, some have fled from their homes due to famine, and some are still in their hometowns but cannot grow them. So we will arrange for people to take over all the land. The landlord must not obstruct the planting. Even if the landlord is not at home, if the land is planted, the rent that should be paid must be recorded on the account first, and will be given to them later.

Of course, now is a special situation, and the land rent should be reduced as much as possible. After all, many of them are refugees, so it is not easy. "

Xu Shiqi came up with the method discussed by the cabinet, "The cabinet negotiated a plan for reducing rent and interest according to His Majesty's will. In principle, this method should be tried out in the area north of the Yangtze River. Specifically, the summer grain harvested will be owned by the farming tenants. And For the harvest of autumn grain, [-]% of the harvest will be given to the tenants first, and the remaining [-]% will be divided equally between the landlord and the tenant farmers.

In fact, there is a tradition of not paying rent for summer grain.

In the past, most land could only grow staple food for one season, so landlords and tenants shared this staple product.Even now, in the land of Wu in the south of the Yangtze River, it has always been the custom to harvest wheat in summer and rice in autumn. The income from the wheat in the summer harvest is all owned by the tenants, but the rice harvested in autumn is divided into rents.

Therefore, tenants in Wu land like to grow wheat in the early season, and they don’t like to grow early rice. Wheat is only a by-product. Like radish and rapeseed, it is not the main product. Therefore, even in Jiangnan, they like to grow wheat for one season, and rice for another season. Two-season rice is rarely planted.

Firstly, there is plenty of time to replace wheat and rice, and secondly, if the early rice is planted, it is considered the main product, so rent is required.

So now the cabinet is ordered to reduce rent, regardless of whether it is planting wheat or rice in summer, and directly stipulates that summer grain should not be paid to rent landlords, and only autumn grain should be paid.

The method of paying rent is also based on sharing, not iron rent.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, iron plate rents were common practice in the Jiangnan area, that is, fixed rents. For good rice fields, the rent often reached two buckets of stone, but in fact it usually reached about one stone.

In the event of floods, droughts and pests, etc., the harvest will always be reduced, so the rent will be reduced appropriately. The bottom line is one stone per mu.

But now the cabinet believes that Jiangbei is now a special situation, so the starting point has to be to take care of the people, so the sharing and renting is carried out, but the output varies, so [-]% of the harvest must be reserved for farmers first, and then divided.

Peasants and landlords are further divided into [-] to [-]. In the end, the landlords always get [-] to [-], and the peasants to [-] to [-].

"Although it is a special period, we should still try to be as fair as possible. It turns out that the share of landlords and tenants is often [-]-[-]%, or even [-]-[-]%. When we formulate these rules, we still have to consider as much as possible.

The rent reduction was proposed by Zhu Yihai, and the purpose is that it is too difficult for the common people to survive in the current turbulent situation.

"I think it can be modified. There is still no division of summer grain, but [-]% of the income from autumn grain will be given to the tenants first, and then the landlord and tenant will be divided in half. In this way, the landlord gets four and the peasants get six.

In addition, it is necessary to prevent the landlord from oppressing the tenants in other ways, such as asking the tenants to work for them for free.

The starting point for us to formulate these policies is to ensure that everyone can survive in this difficult situation. "

"In the north of the Yangtze River, the land tax and land payment for three years will be exempted, and all previous ones will be exempted. If everyone can produce well and be self-sufficient, it is good enough, and it can also reduce the burden on the court.

If they have a surplus of food, they can sell it to the imperial court for purchase after leaving enough rations, and we will pay for it. "

Zhu Yihai emphasized that Jiangbei has exempted taxes for three years, and will no longer collect past arrears, etc., and now does not force the people to buy food.

However, in the Jiangbei area, private purchases of grain are prohibited, and public purchases are implemented. People can not sell, but if they want to sell grain, they can only be sold to the government, and the grain department will purchase it at grain stations in various places, and the price will be purchased at the market price.

The purpose is also to strengthen the allocation of food, supply the people as much as possible, and prevent people from hoarding and driving up food prices.If the imperial court does not control it, the price of food will be sky-high. Even though there is food, the more they are short of food, the more they hoard it, and the more they drive up the price.

Now in Shandong and other places, all grain stores have been taken over by the government, supply is limited, and wine making has even been banned to save grain.

Grain prices are priced in tiers, priced in tiers, and the price is guaranteed within the ration standard. If it exceeds the ration standard, it is an unplanned supply of food. The more you buy, the higher the price, so as to prevent some people from starving while others are still wasting.

The supply of coarse and fine grains, and even advocacy of saving, must be the main theme for a long time in the future. Zhu Yihai leads by example, and his current meal will not exceed four dishes and one soup.

Under Zhu Yihai's various measures, the current food prices in the four prefectures of Shandong are not bad. The planned ration is one stone of rice and one tael of silver. Of course, this is not the normal market price, but the result of strict intervention.

The common people supply rations in a limited amount, and they are mixed with miscellaneous items, but the unplanned food is expensive, and the increase is very fast, according to the steps, two, three, one stone, or even higher.

But now there are still many people in Shandong who can't afford rice at all. They are purely hungry people who are still receiving relief from the court for work, or even queuing up to receive porridge, waiting for resettlement relief.

Grain is now in Huainan, Shandong and other places, and supplies are already under absolute control. Except for rations, anyone who dares to hoard food will find himself dead, and will be convicted if he fails.

Those who are capable do not dare to resell grain easily now. This is all dispatched by the royal family and the court. Even the grain merchants in the south of the Yangtze River can only sell grain directly to the government, and cannot directly sell it.

Generally speaking, after the initial chaos, the hunger situation in the control area has basically stabilized. Of course, the situation is completely different in Jinan, Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Dongchang, Taian and other places. The real dire situation is a hell-like scene. Even the Qing army trapped in the city is in dire straits now. They have no ability to help the hungry people at all.

"The gold mines and other mines in the two prefectures of Terengganu are now successively arranging mining for victims of the disaster and using work as relief. This year, it is estimated that more than [-] taels of gold alone will be mined, and there are many other minerals. The Spaniards in Luzon and Macao The Portuguese all hope to exchange silver with us for gold."

Zhu Yihai knew that the price of gold and silver in the West was high, and one tael of gold could even be exchanged for 15 taels of silver. However, in Daming, the price of gold and silver was not high before, even one gold was exchanged for four silvers, so those Western merchants loaded up with silver to cash out gold.

This process even started before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and has been making huge profits until now.

There are many gold reserves in Denglai, Shandong, especially in the Zhaoyuan area, which is easy to mine. The Linglong gold mine in the Song Dynasty was a government-run gold mine with a high output. In the Song Dynasty, the gold mines in the Denglai area could produce nearly [-] taels a year.

There are so many mines here, because of the war and famine, many of them have stopped mining or even closed down. Zhu Yihai now accepts a large number of hungry people here, organizes reclamation and farming, and has surplus, and also uses them to build ships, fish and even mine.

"Tell these foreign merchants that gold was originally forbidden to flow out, but the current situation is special. If they are willing to exchange grain for gold, that is okay. They will trade grain at the price of 13 tael of gold to [-] taels of silver. Besides , Prohibit other transactions in gold."

2 taels of gold can be exchanged for 26 taels of silver. Even if it is calculated as one tael of silver per shimi, it is worth 26 taels of rice. Zhu Yihai feels that if these foreign devils are willing to transport food in exchange for gold, he will still keep his promise to exchange gold. No matter how good it is, it can't be eaten as a meal.

In this kind of famine, it is worthwhile to use gold to lure foreigners to transport grain overseas.

Even if two taels are exchanged for one stone, it is worth exchanging when there is a shortage of food.

But Zhu Yihai would refuse to exchange silver, tobacco, cotton, etc. Gold is an extremely rare precious metal, and it is much more valuable than silver.

"Your Majesty, Hong Chengchou wants to see His Majesty."

"Has he figured it out? No more hunger strike?" Zhu Yihai was a little disdainful.

　Thanks to Fengyu Wufei and classmate D for their rewards, thank you!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)