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Chapter 180 Food shortage 5
"A total of 40 Shinanyang rice... The health department has been suffering from the soaring food prices these days, right? Why not send people to Hangzhou to report the good news to the villages and towns along the way.

Let's just say that His Majesty, the wise majesty, personally spent tens of millions of stones of rice from Southeast Asia and the West.This is the first batch, and the price of rice will naturally fall once it reaches the market. It may be even lower than last year within a month. "

The bandit-suppressing admiral's office sent out this time a prime minister, who was equivalent to the admiral's deputy. If the emperor hadn't given permission, Yuan Keli would have personally escorted the ship to seize the city to load grain.

The prime minister was young, but he was a wonderful person. Not only did he successfully complete the tasks assigned by the admiral, but he also deeply understood the meaning of the trip. He did not waste any resources and even made full use of a chance encounter with a thousand households in the guard house.

"I have humble duty to thank you for saving my life!" After hearing the Prime Minister's explanation, Qianhu of the Guardhouse knelt down on the deck and saluted.He didn't know much about national affairs, but if food prices continued to rise, soldiers like them would also starve.Now, no matter which country's flag these ships fly, in his eyes, they are all living bodhisattvas who save the suffering.

"Hey, I was just running errands for Your Majesty. Fortunately, I have fulfilled my duty. I would like to thank Your Majesty for your kindness and caring for the people. Remember, you must add this sentence when you send a message!"

The Prime Minister quickly turned aside, pointed to the north, saluted together, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.Qianhu was in a hurry when he just told Qianhu, and he forgot such an important link. It was a sin, but fortunately there is still a chance to make up for it.

Qianhu sailed the boat as if it was flying, bouncing up and down among the waves for a while before disappearing. News of the arrival of 40 shi of grain soon followed him ashore, spreading rapidly to the surrounding area at a rate of hundreds of miles per day.

From word to word, 40 stones became 400 million stones, 4000 million stones... Twelve miscellaneous sailing ships also turned into hundreds of giant ships.Once a rumor spreads, even the King of Heaven will not be able to stop it.

Some people are happy and some are sad. Ordinary people, craftsmen, small and medium-sized wealthy households, and some soldiers and officials are certainly happy to hear about it. At the same time, they are also grateful to the emperor who is thousands of miles away and has never met him.When the food comes, life will be stable in the future, and my heart will no longer be anxious.

However, there are also a small number of wealthy businessmen, landowners, and officials who are on pins and needles. They want to send people to the dock every hour to count how much grain is shipped. If they carefully calculate it in their hearts, it will have a negative impact on the grain price in the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. What a huge shock, and then his face became increasingly ugly.

There are really 12 sea-going ships, they are really full of rice, they are really full of rice!
Five days later, when the last sea-going ship unloaded rice and set sail and slowly left the dock, food prices in Hangzhou did not rise for five consecutive days, but they did not fall either, as if they were waiting and watching.

But as soon as a notice was posted by Hangzhou Admiral Weaving Zhou Gui, food prices fell immediately, erasing the increase in the previous half month in just half a day.Even so, the large and small rice shops in the city are still deserted, and they are no longer as prosperous as before.

The announcement was very simple and only said one thing.From now on, the two granaries in the city and the four granaries outside the city will be opened for sale. But instead of selling grain, they will use this year's rice produced in Southeast Asia and the West in exchange for folk old rice and old grain at a price of one pound to one and a half pounds. , as long as it is not moldy or rotten for several years, it will last for one month.

More rice was loaded onto canals and transported along the canal to Suzhou and Wuxi.The rice market over there is bigger, gathering grain merchants from all over the country, and there are also many merchants who are willing to help the imperial court transport relief grain to the disaster areas.

Has anyone changed it?There weren't many on the first day, scattered on the second day, and you had to queue up after three days.Anyone can calculate this. If we exchange our stored grain at the current price, the price will basically be the same as last autumn.You will definitely lose money, but as long as the price is reasonable when you buy it, and you replace the old rice with new rice, you won't lose too much.

Of course there would be no compensation if they didn't change, but the Prime Minister of the Bandit Suppression Admiral Yamen told the Hangzhou Admiral Weaving and the Hangzhou Magistrate on the dock that their fleet could not stay long and would soon go to Nanyang to continue transporting grain.The grain purchased there has already filled up the warehouses near the dock. Assuming one round trip a month, it may have to be transported until winter. If the weather is not suitable for sailing, the Spring Festival may be spent at sea.

The prefect of Hangzhou asked at that time, Nanyang and Western countries are indeed rich in rice, but they also have to eat, and they cannot all be sold to the Ming Dynasty. How could there be so much food suddenly.

The Prime Minister of the Bandit Suppression Admiral Yamen responded easily. This batch of grain was not a temporary fix. Since the third year of Jingyang, there have been Franji merchants exchanging sugar for grain in various places.It is said that the price is very low. Two or three kilograms of sugar can be exchanged for one stone of rice. If it were not for storage and transportation, it would be almost like giving it for free.

At that time, there were many officials following the prefect and Admiral Weaving to greet the fleet at the dock, and many heard the words of the Admiral Yamen Prime Minister. After fermenting for almost four or five days, the source of the food was no longer a secret.

Damn it, regardless of whether this statement is true or false, it has become the last straw that crushes food prices.Whoever has a lot of grain hoarded at home will be the most anxious to sell it. Those who are reluctant to sell it for a while will try to replace it with the new grain of the year as much as possible, hoping to save it for a while and wait for the price of grain to rise before selling.

Anyone who has played stocks in later generations must understand the truth: chase the rise and kill the fall.The lower the stock price falls, the less people will buy it. Only when the stock price falls to the theoretical bottom can funds buy the stock and gradually stabilize.

In fact, the same goes for food prices. Although food is not an expectation for the future like stocks, food has similar attributes. Before the harvest season, it also carries the hopes of many people.

When food prices fall, people who have no worries about food and drink will definitely not buy them. They will have to wait until they hit rock bottom or reach their expected value before taking action.People who are not wealthy will not buy it. They have no spare money and need to be more careful with their budgets. As long as the rumors of the decline are not reversed, they will always wait and see.

The poor don't have much to hope for. There is no food left at home all year round. Food prices have risen. They eat one meal a day. Food prices have fallen. They still eat one meal a day. It's just another meal of gruel. There's no point in buying more to save. Money.

What about the rich and landowners?They dare not buy it and cannot buy it.I had already hoarded a lot of food, but now not only could I not sell it at a good price, but I was losing more and more every day. There were not many people who dared to cover their positions desperately to try to bring down the average price, but they were not many, and they basically had no impact on the general trend.

When no one is buying and the supply of goods is particularly abundant, unless the government intervenes and the measures must be strong and effective, there is only one option for prices, which is to fall.The speed of the decline depends on everyone's expectations and how long the rich can hold back the food they have hoarded.

Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for everyone to resist. In less than half a month, some people begin to sell their grain reserves in small quantities.They buy grain relatively early, so even cutting meat is not very painful.

But the rules of market operation are fixed. As long as someone sells, it will cause panic. Everyone is afraid that the food will end up in their hands. If you sell it for one hundred shi, I will sell it for [-] shi. This will soon trigger a chain reaction and eventually lead to Food prices plummet!Food prices in Huguang have also slid into the abyss.

(End of this chapter)