Villager of Daming

Chapter 1309: Reward Disappears and Returns

"With chili peppers, meals really taste better. How will we calculate the price when we sell them to the barbarians and the common people?"

While Zhu Yuanzhang was talking about chili peppers, he looked out the window. Under the light outside, a train was parked on the dispatching track.

There is construction going on here, and railroad tracks are being built to transport materials. People in the work area also take the train to and from get off work.

"Father!" Zhu Di said, "As long as we stop the smuggling, we don't need to consider the price at home or abroad. The barbarians won't buy from us, and there is no other place to buy.

Use good packaging, beautiful glass bottles, and you can also sell the bottles at the same time.

The chili powder must be ground into powder to prevent them from growing out.

When making chili oil with chili powder with larger particles, first make sure that the chilies cannot grow again.

Ordinary people are not in a hurry to eat it, and our production capacity is insufficient, so we sell it to wealthy families at the price of pepper.

If the barbarians buy it, it will cost ten times the price of pepper. They sold pepper here at a high price.”

"Pepper is not very cheap nowadays." The fifth brother Zhu Su interrupted. The price of pepper has dropped due to large-scale cultivation, but most people still can't afford to eat it.

The main producing areas are Guangdong, Guangxi and Qiongzhou. There is no time to plant it in Yunnan, and even if it is planted, it is impossible to harvest it in a short time.

Apart from giving pepper to the rich, the rest was kept in the herbal medicine storehouse, and the common people could get pepper for free when they saw a doctor.

In terms of taxation, the land tax and taxes generated by transactions that people currently pay are simply not enough to support the current welfare.

Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang had good ideas. The Huimin Pharmacy, the herbal medicine store, the orphanage, and the official school all freed themselves.

As a result, only a few state capitals can do it, while other places can only...dream!

"Ten times, ten times what it was before. The world out there is so big, there are always people who have more resources. If they want to enjoy themselves, how can they do that without spending money?"

Zhu Yuanzhang decided to set the price according to the fourth brother's suggestion. Glass bottles would be charged extra and people had to buy them. A small bottle would only hold three or five cents of chili powder.

Zhu Wentian grilled the last fish and started to stew it, which felt like boiled fish fillets.

When there is leftovers, the chili oil will be taken out and then served to the palace maids and eunuchs.

The palace maids and eunuchs didn't think there was anything wrong. Instead, they were very grateful and would eat it all.

But generally, there would be no chili oil left, and those who ate it, including those in Xiaqiu Village, would even drink the soup in the end.

The sounds of work at the construction site can still be heard from afar. The weather is getting cold, so we have to hurry up to complete this progress. We will have to wait until the beginning of next spring to continue construction.

The train parked on the dispatching track outside started rumbling. It was going to get something somewhere else as it had to eat here tomorrow morning.

A former Northern Yuan minister stared at the train as it left his sight and said, "The train charges people for transporting goods. It must make a lot of money a year, right? I heard that this year our Ming Dynasty can earn 20 million guan?"

He is not qualified to advise King Liang, he is not very sensible, and now he is asking about the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang was in a good mood and didn't care about the other party's words. Since he had brought him here for a tour, he naturally hoped that he would spread the power of the court through the other party's mouth and not say bad things about him.

"If it weren't for everyone's cooperation in stopping the war, and if there were no soldiers who risked their lives to find good things for the Ming Dynasty, this year's fiscal revenue would indeed be more than 20 million strings of cash.

However, this income does not include new fixed assets and steel production inventory, so it depends on how the accounts are recorded.

We have different ways of keeping accounts and several sets of accounts, and by comparing them we can obtain data on economic development in different areas.

The same amount of money is spent today, and so far the fiscal surplus is about one million strings of cash.

The Village of Lower Hill is not allowed to spend more than it takes in, or it would run a deficit.

Hold on for a year, and next year you can consider a deficit budget plan, and there is no need to fight a war. The amount of treasure notes issued is large, and there is no run on them. If any merchant wants to raise the price of something, they don't have enough inventory or funds.

As long as they are not necessities of life, we will sell them the rest if they are willing to pay for it.

If they find someone to join forces to raise the price of salt in a certain place, we will arrest them and confiscate their properties.

Yichang, there are still two months left, how much money can be collected?"

Zhu Yuanzhang thought and said that he had no pressure because the masters had already planned everything for him. When the year was almost over, nothing happened and everything was so stable.

"This..." The head of the village first looked at the ministers from Nahachu's side.

He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and answered, "The King of Liang has surrendered, so we cannot confiscate his property, so we sold him and his ministers many good things.

The local forces that originally supported him, even though they had people following him, actually they also had money.

Our luxury goods such as glass mirrors, table clocks, perfumes, rouge and powder, life-saving medicines, etc. are selling well.

The total income was about 5 million strings of cash, but it belonged to the palace. The things they brought were sold and taxes of about 2 million strings of cash were collected, which was a luxury tax and belonged to the court.

The palace has a large financial surplus, over 15 million strings of cash, which can be spent or not. The bank will end its trial operation next year and start formal operations, which will require some funds.

For the cultivation and breeding of exotic species, since they are not sold, the inventory is not counted in the income.

If we start selling chili powder and other things now, we will calculate it based on the specific sales volume.”

The village head Tiliang Wang and the people here at Nahachu realized that they had bought a lot of things and that they were indeed good. Apart from being expensive, there were no other drawbacks.

If it's cheap, I still don't want it! It doesn't reflect my status.

Before they could think it through carefully, these things were actually intended to be rewards to them, but were sold to them according to the wishes of Xiaqiu Village.

The head of the village hurriedly continued, "The railway runs from Wuhu all the way to Huangcheng. In addition to the railway in Xiaqiu Village, there is another railway connecting Xuanwu Lake.

The Qinhuai River connects to the railway track at the Yanzhi River, and then takes another route along the bank of the Qinhuai River all the way to the Yangtze River.

If a merchant needs transportation, or someone needs to take a passenger bus with glass windows, the price will be calculated based on the weight and volume of the items, and the fee will be charged based on whichever charges more.

In order to prevent some people from being bored and taking trains for fun, both the elderly and children are charged. Free trips or other railway trains may be opened in the future.

The route with the highest cargo charges is from the Imperial City Outer Wharf to the Wuhu Wharf, which saves time when loading the goods on the ship.

We will continue to build the railway next year along the Grand Canal, and see if we can build a railway bridge over the Huangchi River in the winter.

Another track has been added to the railway from Xiaqiu Village to Dangtu County, and next year we will build it elsewhere and borrow money from the bank.”

As soon as the head of the village turned the topic to the railway, the others stopped thinking about anything else.

Everyone has felt the convenience of railways. They are fast, not bumpy, and can carry a lot of goods and people at a time.

If it is built along the Grand Canal, it would be much more convenient to take the train when going there and take a boat downstream when coming back.

It just takes a lot of money to build a railway, and if you throw that money away...

"How many years will it take for a railway to pay back its investment?" another minister asked about money.

"It depends on how you calculate it. There are different ways to calculate it. If you simply calculate the payback period, that's the simplest, but it's not fixed. It depends on the utilization rate of the railway line and the transportation fee."

There is no need to think about this, the village head has already memorized it.

(End of this chapter)