marquis of jingan

Chapter 32

This time, the government allocated 30 taels of silver to the government to buy grain, of which about 5 taels were apportioned to Jiangdu.

According to the original market price in Jiangdu, 5 taels of silver can buy about 20 shi of grain. Wanshi grain, but the government can only pay 20 taels of silver.

After careful calculation, it is about one penny per catty of grain.

There is no way for grain merchants to accept this price, because their costs are more than that.

However, these grain merchants have a big business. Even if they lose a little in this business, they will not be hurt. Take the Ma family, the largest grain merchant in Jiangdu, for example. It was a bit difficult, but there was absolutely no problem with the Ma family paying 20 taels of silver.

Chen Yu is a practical magistrate, he knows very well the family background of these rich merchants in Jiangdu, so he joined forces with Mr. Zhao from the capital, directly ignoring [-]% of the money from the household department, and bought it from the local grain merchants at a price of [-]% grain.

Because he knew that the grain merchants in Jiangdu were very fat, and a light butchering knife would just wipe off a layer of oily skin for them.

However, as a businessman, he naturally doesn't want to lose money at all, so in the afternoon of that day, these ten or so grain merchants united to discuss such a countermeasure. First, they spread the news of the imperial court's "grain requisition", and then collectively raised the price. He wanted to pass on the loss he suffered this time to the people of Jiangdu.

This is a very routine operation.

Because this time, it was Jiangdu prefect's yamen who took advantage, and the prefect's yamen was at a loss. The price of these grains was raised by the government under the pretext of collecting grain, and the prefect's yamen couldn't say much.

As long as there is no trouble, the magistrate's yamen will turn a blind eye at this time, and will not ask about the doubled price of grain overnight.

Anyway, there are not a few months before the autumn harvest. As long as the autumn harvest is over, the food price turmoil in Jiangdu will subside, and it will not have any impact on the prefect Chen's official voice. At most...

At most, it is the poor people.

This kind of thing is very common everywhere. After all, the government doesn't have to bear the notoriety, do evil things, and get benefits in the end, so why not do it?
Ever since, under the circumstances of collusion between government and businessmen, in just three days, the price of food in Jiangdu has soared by about three times, from the original two renminbi a catty, to now it has risen to six renminbi, and even seven renminbi a catty. catty!
Interestingly, in the case of collusion between officials and businessmen, the two sides still have room to shirk each other. The grain merchants said that the imperial court collected grain and there was a shortage of grain, and they had nothing to do.

But if you really ask the government, the government will say that they are not collecting grain, but buying grain.

But no matter what, the skyrocketing price of food in Jiangdu is an iron fact. The seller only has four words for such a just-needed item.

Love to buy or not.

But this kind of thing had to be bought again, so there was a long queue at the entrance of the food store.

I don't know if it's "hunger marketing" or because the imperial court really bought most of the food. The food stores in Jiangdu City only sell it until noon every day. After noon, a "sold out" sign will be hung at the door in the afternoon , no longer sell food.

During this process, a young scholar has been watching with cold eyes.

Right now, he doesn't have the ability to change the current situation in Jiangdu City, he doesn't have the ability to suppress the price of grain in Jiangdu City, and he doesn't even have the ability to transfer grain from other places to save the market, but...

As long as there is a suitable enough opportunity, he can take advantage of this food price turmoil to do what he wants to do.

On this day, Shen Yi stayed in the city all morning, drinking tea at the tea house near the Majia grain store, watching the "long queue" at the entrance of the grain store to buy grain.

Shen Yi didn't get up until the afternoon when the food store was closed, and then walked around Jiangdu City again, chatting with vendors and "bosses" in Jiangdu City in pure Jiangdu dialect.

In the afternoon, Shen Yi got a general idea of ​​the current situation in Jiangdu City.

Because of the increase in food prices, other industries have also started to increase their prices. The catering industry is directly affected. After all, opening a restaurant requires a lot of rice.

And other industries have also been more or less affected.

After all, although these industries have nothing to do with food, the sellers also need to buy food for food.

In this way, he wandered around the city of Jiangdu for most of the day. In the afternoon, he left the city from the east gate of Jiangdu, ready to leave for the academy.

As soon as he walked to the gate of the East City Gate, he saw horse-drawn carriages entering the city from the East City Gate. They were so mighty that they almost blocked the East City Gate.

Standing by the side of the road, Shen Yi looked at these carriages with some curiosity, and asked an old man next to him: "Old man, what kind of carriage is this transporting? There are so many carriages?"

There are probably forty or fifty of these carriages together, and there is almost no end in sight at a glance.

"Grain truck, what kind of truck can it be?"

The old man answered casually at first, and when he turned his head and saw Shen Yi dressed as a scholar, he coughed and said in a more polite tone: "My lord may not know that the imperial court has recently transported a large amount of grain from our Jiangdu, and some people say that grain , Some people say to buy food, anyway, there is a shortage of food in the city now."

The old man let out a "hey" and continued: "Students like you may not know it well. Now the price of grain in the city has tripled. The price of rice at the Chen's Rice Shop in the west of the city has reached eighth this morning." A catty of Wenqian is simply killing people."

Speaking of this, the old man glanced at the mighty grain team at the gate of the city, and sighed slightly: "These grain trucks should be grain bought from other places by members of several grain shops in the city. City, can bring down the price of rice in our Jiangdu."

The old man's complexion is dark and bronze. He is obviously from a working background. The price of food in the city has skyrocketed in the past few days. Although it has not reached the point where his family can't afford to eat, it has already made him feel a little hard.

Shen Yi thanked the old man, then looked up at the grain truck in front of him, and sneered in his heart.

"It seems that these grain merchants not only don't want to lose money, but also want to make another fortune!"

Officials in the imperial court are not fools, especially the officials of the household department. They probably know how much food there is in each place, and they will have an approximate amount when they collect food from various places.

Take Jiangdu as an example, they collected food from Jiangdu, and they all pre-determined the amount. The premise of this amount was that it would not affect the local people's livelihood in Jiangdu.

In other words, Jiangdu is definitely not short of food to the point where it needs to buy food from other places!
The previous rumors of the imperial court collecting grain, as well as these mighty grain transport convoys, were mostly the deliberate tricks of those grain merchants. Naturally, the purpose was to tell the people in Jiangdu that the grain stores in Jiangdu were running out of food, so that the people They scrambled to go to the grain store to buy grain, driving up the price of grain.

Shen Yi did not leave, but silently watched the grain carts enter the city. After the grain carts were all gone, it was already evening. At this time, Shen Yi left the city through the gate that was about to be closed, and walked all the way back to Ganquan Academy.

The Academy is not far from Jiangdu City, and it only takes one stick of incense to walk there. However, it was getting dark at this time, so Shen Yi quickened his pace and rushed back to the Academy.

After all, the law and order in this era is not very good, maybe you will encounter some thieves blocking the way.

Fortunately, the journey was safe. Shen Yi returned to the entrance of the academy smoothly. Just as he was about to return to the academy, a carriage stopped at the entrance of the academy.

After the carriage stopped, two people jumped out of the carriage.

One tall and thin, one short and fat.

It just so happened that Shen Yi recognized these two people.

The tall and thin one is Fan Dongcheng, and the short and fat one is Ma Jun.

After the two got out of the carriage, Ma Jun walked behind Fan Dongcheng, and said with a smile, "I was imprisoned by my father for half a month. If it wasn't Fan Shao who went to my house today, I'm afraid I won't be able to come out yet."

"Your old man Ma is too cautious."

With his hands behind his back, Fan Dongcheng said calmly: "The matter was over at that time, there was no storm in the first place, why bother to avoid the limelight?"

(End of this chapter)