Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 118 Dongmen Chuyu and Dugu's ambition to propose marriage

In a conference room on the second floor of this hall where public scales are displayed, the first meeting of Dongmen City Industrial and Commercial Management Office is being held.The conditions in the conference room were harsh, with only limestone smeared on the walls, which hadn't fully dried because of the haste of construction.The floor slabs are original ecological wood boards, lacquer trees have not yet been found in the industrial sector, and modern paint is a very distant future.There is nothing like a suspended ceiling, the only modern equipment is a light bulb hanging high under the roof.However, tables and chairs are extravagant, at least several million in the 21st century.What kind of mahogany painting table, red sandalwood official hat chair, pear round stools are arranged in a disorderly manner to look like a conference room - these are all spoils brought from the Gou family.

There were seven or eight people in attendance, and they were all people who wanted to work on the business side, some with real experience, and some out of pure interest.The leader was a young man who claimed to have worked as a coordinator in an industrial and commercial office. His name had not been tested, but when he learned that he was going to be the head of management in this Dongmen City, he gave himself a brand new name: "Dongmen blowing rain".

Beside him is his deputy: wearing an iron-gray uniform shirt, black trousers on the lower body, a black hat, and a line of words "Administrative Law Enforcement Assistance" on the armband.With a murderous look on his face, he looked like a hawker terminator.This person is the same as Dongmen Chuiyu, whose real name is Wukao. In the history books of the future republic, he appears under the weird name of "Dugu Proposal".These two will create a brand new business model of this time and space in Daming Lingao County.

In the not-too-distant future, the businesses of the traversers will eventually spread all over the world, and the trade network of overseas companies will spread across Europe, Asia and Africa. But at this moment, all the businesses of the traversers are located downstairs on the muddy ground that does not even have cement. .Fortunately, Wen Desi has already said that business is a project fully supported by the Executive Committee, and it requires money and money, and things.

As the flag points out, trade opens the way.In the history of colonial expansion, all the means of commercial trade were used as a breakthrough.Trade can not only bring profits, but also can be an important means for colonists to gain a foothold in the local area.For the traversers, they have already used violent means to occupy the land, and the next step is to increase contact with the local aborigines, transforming themselves from green-faced, fang-toothed, murderous pirates into merchants with a large number of novel goods.The lure of wealth will draw more and more wary locals to them, eventually aligning their interests with them.

Of course, the traversers themselves also need trade support, especially basic living materials such as grain and non-staple food.Both have to be supplemented from local farmers.Relying on foreign input has a great factor of instability.Many people know that the ancient Romans often experienced political fluctuations because the food shipped from Egypt did not arrive in time-this situation should be avoided at all costs.

At the meeting, we first reviewed yesterday's grain purchase situation. Ever since we kept reporting to the reconnaissance teams dispatched in all directions that some farmers had started to hand over grain to the landlords, the traversers began to set up grain purchases in Dongmen City.The local price of rice is one, two, three, and one shi of silver. According to the general rate of rice production, it is about [-]%, and the purchase price of rice is set at [-] qian per shi.This price does not take into account the cost of transportation and profit in the rice price-the commercial department estimates that the local grain purchase price of rice will not exceed five yuan per stone.It is already a rare high price to buy it with eight dollars.

The purchase went very smoothly. The common people in the neighborhood, from small people in Shengdou to big grain households, were moved by seeing that they were willing to buy grain with a lot of money. At first, there were only a sporadic 20-200 people, and recently there were more than [-] people every day. Bags of grain were transported by shoulders or carts.The seven or eight people in the commercial department couldn't be too busy at all, so they had to ask the people in the agricultural department to help.

There was some confusion at the beginning, because the locals were used to using the dou as a unit of grain measurement, ten dou for one stone.There are also official and private fights in this bucket, with different capacities and sizes. The top of the bucket is open. Should the rice on the bucket surface be flat or pointed, and how high should the pile be? These questions made them all dumbfounded. .After a while of confusion, it was decided to implement a new weight and measure, and purchase by weight. The purchase price was set at eight coins per [-] kilograms, and it was called "gongshi".The weight was measured by a floor scale removed from the ship.Unexpectedly, this change in weights and measures did not arouse resentment or protests from the grain sellers. In their view, since the traversers are willing to pay for grain, it is their freedom to use whatever unit of measurement.This surprised Dongmen Chuuyu—no wonder the ancient landlords paid a lot for a small amount—the common people didn't understand the importance of weights and measures at all.

In contrast, ordinary people are very interested in how to increase weight without using rice.In the beginning, everyone was inexperienced and in a hurry. The purchased rice was mixed with a lot of chaff, even chaff and sand, and suffered a lot.At this time, someone came up with an idea and rushed to make a group of grain scouts to sign the grain to see the samples. Wu Nanhai gave an emergency training to teach everyone how to distinguish the quality and moisture content of rice, so that only shoddy rice can be used. somewhat contained.

"...As of today, we have purchased 90 tons of rice and 2100 kilograms of peanuts." Dongmen Chuiyu reported the purchase situation to several executive committee members who attended the meeting.

"How much more do you think you can buy?" Wen Desi asked. 90 tons of rice, but 70 tons of milled brown rice, seems like a lot, but now more and more people are eating, and it is a bit nervous to provide relief to the people.

Yu Eshui opened the book that he carried with him: "There is still room for acquisition. According to the records of the county annals, during the Wanli period, Lingao's autumn grain was 640 yuan, six stones, nine buckets, two liters and seven combinations, and the newly reclaimed rice was collected for six stones, seven liters and nine Together, the total is 680 six shi, seven liters and nine shi. This is only the main item, plus miscellaneous fire consumption, additional collection, and layers of exploitation by officials, the grain households will actually turn in no less than [-] shi. It is the end of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the most serious time for wealthy and powerful households to hide their land and households. There should be a considerable part of the fields without grain. So I estimate that the total output of autumn grain in Lingao is between [-] shi and [-] shi. We bought three Five thousand stones is no problem."

Some people questioned: "Is it necessary to store so much grain? Didn't the Gou family copy more than 1000 stones? Moreover, Yanchang Village has already started selling salt to the mainland, and the salt is exchanged for grain from Guangdong. In the future, grain can also be bought from Vietnam." Well."

Wu Nanhai regards the food issue as very important, and immediately opened his mouth to argue: "The more food, the better. If you have food in your hands, don't panic. Whether it is Guangdong or Vietnam, it is far away. If it is cut off, it will be detrimental to the stability of people's hearts." .”

Wen Desi went on to say: "At this stage, food is more difficult than silver. Once there is a famine, the price of food will skyrocket, and the value of silver will depreciate. Don't forget that it is still the Little Ice Age, and natural disasters are frequent. We are not a few There are hundreds of people on board, so we must look at the overall situation of the county. Be fully prepared."

"I also draw the Executive Committee's attention to the trade situation and silver reserves," Cheng Dong said on behalf of the financial sector. "The current trade balance is seriously oversupplying, and silver is being lost rapidly. After the fight against Goujiazhuang, our silver reserves will It has risen to 5000 taels under the old two-system system, and almost 1000 taels have flowed out in the past few days. It is not an option to continue like this, after all, there is demand for currency in circulation.”

"Xiao Zishan has gone to Guangzhou, why don't you let him withdraw tens of thousands of taels of money from Gao's family?"

"It's not necessary." Wen Desi said, "Lingao is a small place, and it's not a good thing to have too much silver flowing in. We have another thing that can replace silver—salt." Salt has served as currency for a long time in history. He prepared it to pay part of the food and labor costs.

However, some people object to such an approach: for ordinary people, between silver and table salt, the former is obviously more attractive, and it is also easy to carry and use.The common people have already tasted the sweetness of cash purchases, and will not like such a sudden mandatory barter trade.

"Let's open a salt shop." Dongmen Chuiyu had a whim, "Specialize in selling salt. He got money from selling grain with his left hand, but he has to give it back to us with his right hand. Hahaha, I'm such a profiteer—"

"This is a good way. Using grain and salt as equivalents is not the direction of development after all. Now the county's salt production is under our control, and it is very suitable for returning currency." Cheng Dong nodded in agreement.

Dongmen Chuiyu struck while the iron was hot, and hurriedly handed over a document: "This is our business team's business plan for Dongmen City. I hope the executive committee will approve it as soon as possible!"

"Planning plan?" Several executive committee members were taken aback.Although they set up a free market outside Bairen City, the purpose was only to promote the circulation of goods and enhance the relationship between the traversers and the local aborigines.Few people have thought carefully about how the market is going to be managed.Everyone thought of this market as a free market in many cities in China: farmers and small vendors come to set up stalls to sell goods, and at most some people think of free stall fees and the like.

"Yes, the planning plan." Dongmen took the opportunity to stand up, "Every member of the executive committee, let me introduce the following overall planning plan now. I believe that with this plan, under the correct leadership of the executive committee, in Under the guidance of Mr. Wen, with the strong support of Committee Member Cheng—”

"Stop talking nonsense! We're still doing this in Daming!" Dugu was getting impatient with his proposal.

"—Our Dongmen City will become Quanlingao, no, the most prosperous commercial market in Hainan!"

After all, Dongmen Chuuyu had been in the officialdom unofficially, so he didn't care about the complaints about the marriage proposal. After finishing his opening remarks, he quickly hung up a newly drawn plan on the blackboard behind him.This is what he got after a trip to the construction engineering team and a few packs of cigarettes.

(End of this chapter)