Ordinary clear day

Chapter 206 Open Source
After dismissing all the servants, Shuning closed the door, took her mother to sit down in the left room, and said carefully:
"I've been helping Er Niang with housekeeping these years, and I know how much money the family has in my heart. Although I got a lot of money and property in Guangzhou back then, Ding You bought a house and land in Fangshan for three years after returning to Beijing. , I also invested five or six thousand taels back and forth. Although there is some income, it is still more than the income. Now that Ama is an official of the Qingshui Yamen, when he wants to go up in the future, he will have to spend some money. Brother At the same time, I want to have a child, I want to be promoted, and my two younger brothers have to go to school and get married. After careful calculation, our family is really not well-off. If Ama Erniang blindly thinks about my face and buys a generous dowry, it will make me feel worse. There was a famine at home, how could I bear it? So I thought, save as much as I can, now that I have taken over the housework, I just think of a way to add one or two incomes to the family. I know that my talents are mediocre and I can’t earn It’s a lot of money, but as long as you can get two or three thousand silver, you can help a lot.”

Tong Shi smiled slightly: "Two to three thousand silver, isn't it the price of adding a small village to ten hectares of land? It seems that you have seen the dowry list that your Ama discussed with me?"

Shuning lowered her head in embarrassment: "It's on the table, I just accidentally saw it..."

Tong's smile said: "It's okay, it's rare that you have such a heart. However, Er Niang thinks that you underestimate your own family. Our family usually saves money on daily expenses, and relying on the house, we rarely socialize with other families and spend a lot of money. It’s actually not much. What’s more, the money we got in Guangzhou is actually more than you think.”

She took a sip of tea before slowly saying: "Actually, many of the properties we got back then were silk, satin, porcelain, jade and the like, and even the silver was at least 8 to 1 taels. After returning to Beijing, the money we spent these years , only around [-] yuan. However, Fangshan’s industry, although it has been short so far, has received more than [-] taels of income. In addition to the dividends from Guangzhou, there is still a slight surplus. It’s not too tight to take out [-] yuan to make your dowry. What’s more, many of the things you brought back from Guangzhou can be used directly, wouldn’t this save you money?”

Shu Ning was a little dumbfounded when she heard this, did she come from such a rich family?How did she never know?I thought it would be good if I got [-] to [-].

Seeing her daughter's surprised look, Tong pursed her lips and continued with a smile: "Besides, the jewelry, clothing, antique calligraphy and paintings that your aunt gave are worth tens of thousands, and it saved us a lot of money." A sum of money. I have prepared a lot of jewelry, utensils, clothing, medicinal materials, spices and so on. To be honest, in terms of jewelry alone, what we still need to prepare is actually a few strings of court beads, bracelets, bracelets, earrings, rings, tins and Most of the odds and ends such as pendants are on furniture, clothes, materials and furs. In this way, with only 5000 taels, you can manage very decently, and spend another 5000 taels to buy land and a small house. No one will underestimate you. That's why I told you not to worry."

Shu Ning was dumbfounded when she heard this, she originally wanted to do the calculation like this, but she still hoped to contribute, 2 taels is not a small amount, and it is not common to be able to get 8 to [-] taels of property in three years , It is better to save some.

She said: "Even so, I still want to contribute to the family. It is good to save three or two thousand, just for the sake of my younger brother and nephew."

Tong said with a smile: "Your idea is good, but how can a girl earn a dowry for herself? There has never been such a rule."

Shu Ning said: "The rules are also made by people, and if we don't say it, who knows? Besides..." She rolled her eyes and smiled: "Since it's my dowry, let me pick and take care of it, isn't it more important?" Okay? Anyway, I’ll pass through the door in the future, it’s also my private room, so I’ll know better, so I won’t let the servants fiddle with me in a daze.”

Tong's thoughtful: "That's true..." She thought for a while, glanced at her daughter, smiled, and saw her daughter's strange face, and said: "My family's Shu'er is different from other girls. When it comes to dowry, dowry, and marriage, they are also so generous, not as twitchy as others."

Shu Ning felt a little embarrassed: "Why did Er Niang say that? It seems like I have a thick skin..." In fact, it was just talking about what I brought to my new home when I got married.

Tong said with a smile: "I think this is good. No matter who comes to our house, they are open and happy. This is how to live." She thought for a while, put her hands together and said: "That's it. Let's do it, our family's property is temporarily handed over to you. Whether you want to increase revenue or reduce expenditure, it's up to you. It's just that I'm here for a day, and you have to let me know what you do. The expenditure exceeds 200 Two silvers, so you have to give me a nod first, how about it?"

Shuning quickly agreed.

The matter was settled, so she took advantage of her mother's lunch break to go back to her yard first, but not to rest.She took out a bunch of keys from the penultimate layer of the dressing box, and used one of them to unlock the second drawer on the right side of the large chest of drawers in the bedroom, took out a small rosewood chest, and used the other key to unlock the top drawer. Lock it, and take out a stack of banknotes.

These are all the private money she has accumulated in recent years.In Tatara Mansion, she has two or two months of money per month, but food and clothing are all from the public office, personal pockets are just buying books, skin care products and some small things, the big expenditure on makeup before the draft , or the money from the public, so I have accumulated a lot of monthly silver.Together with the red envelopes given by the elders during festivals and the dividends from Guangzhou Cyclamen, she actually saved more than 700 taels of silver.In order to save trouble, she had asked someone to help change the 600 taels into 50 taels of bank notes.Now that I want to make a dowry for myself, I have to take it out and make a small investment.

She counted out ten silver bills, folded them and put them in a purse. Then she packed up the box and locked it back in the big cabinet. Then she rested up next to the bed for a while. After half an hour, she went back to normal. Come to the courtyard.

In the afternoon, Mrs. Tong took her daughter to listen to Changgui's couple and Gu Quansheng's report on the recent situation of the other hospital.First, Changgui, he talked about the income and expenditure of the other hospital in the first three quarters of this year, the number of male and female servants, one person died of illness, three newborns were added, the distribution of funeral money and happy money and follow-up matters, and after asking the owner what he wanted A large cellar was dug in the southwestern corner of the garden, and the excavated mud was used to build a house in the backyard. Now the project is only about [-]% complete. In order to avoid disturbing the young lady Zhenzhen, the work has been stopped now, and the burnt bricks are placed in the In the tile-roofed house on the west.

Next is Changgui's wife Qiaoyun.She first said how many maids and servants were supposed to get married this year, and how many of them had already expressed their wishes, so Tong asked her to make arrangements for them to get married in the twelfth lunar month.After thanking the others, Qiaoyun talked about the number of mattresses, clothes, shoes, purses, etc. that their sewing room had made in recent months.

After hearing this, Tong said with a smile: "Let's use these first, but we will be busy next time. When you girls come out of the cabinet, you have to start making quilt covers, door curtains, curtains, chair covers, stool covers, and purses." Now, use more snacks. As for the clothes, shoes and socks, wait until the date is fixed, so as not to make them unsuitable early."

Qiaoyun hurriedly responded, then looked at Shuning and smiled.Shuning glanced at her, just smiled lightly and said nothing.

Next is Gu Quansheng.

He said: "There is too much rain this year. Fortunately, my lord asked someone to dig ditches early, and the young lady told me to build a dam, so most of the farmland was saved. But compared with the previous year's two stones per mu, this year it is only about thirteen or four buckets. Now they are all harvested, dried and stored in the cellar..."

"Why not sell it?" Shuning asked.

Gu Quansheng replied: "The owner of the rice store we were dealing with is from Pingyang. The old house was knocked down during the earthquake. Now he is planning to finish the business here and go back to his hometown. Therefore, he no longer collects grain and only takes We can just sell the leftover grain. But in the nearby ten miles and eight villages, his rice shop is the largest. The business of other grain shops is too small to accept our family's grain. This time, it will be delayed. Originally, there was a flood this year and the grain The price will be higher than in previous years, but last month, the imperial court waived land money and grain for the four prefectures of Shuntian, Baoding, Hejian, and Yongping for next year, and transported another [-] shi of rice for flat sale, but the price of grain was lower than in previous years. The little one felt that it was not worth selling grain at this time, so he planned to save it and sell it in April next year."

The so-called Ping Tiao refers to purchasing grain at a price higher than the market price when the grain price is too low, and selling grain at a price lower than the market price when the price is too high.In doing so, the imperial court not only stabilized prices to benefit farmers and merchants, but also made huge profits to enrich the treasury, which can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone.Gu Quansheng planned this way, but it was nothing. The government had food, and the common people would not go hungry.However, if you postpone the sale until April next year when the harvest is low, you can make more profits.

Tong Shi and Shu Ning looked at each other, nodded to each other, and motioned for Gu Quansheng to continue talking.

Gu Quansheng said: "In addition to the food, the fruit is only 800% to 300% of the previous year's. Although the taste is not good, but the sale is OK, about 180 taels of silver, but the business is also opened by Shanxi businessmen, and only pay for it. [-] taels, said to be made up in the twelfth lunar month. In addition, the lotus root is gone, and the flowers are only sold for some money in spring, but a lot of bamboo shoots and fish are sold. Counting back and forth, there are also [-] five taels of silver."

Shu Ning lowered her head and wrote down the numbers in the booklet, and then calculated with her heart.The current price of food is low, but it is estimated that in April next year, it can be sold for one stone, nine renminbi to one tael of silver. Including the price of fruits, fish, and bamboo shoots, it will be more than 2000 taels of silver. The estimated situation is better, probably in the early five thousand.

She looked at the account book again, and suddenly found something strange.In previous years, the grain produced by the family would only be used for chewing for more than half a year, and then it would be sold. When it was needed, it would be bought from the grain store, which would cost tens of taels of silver almost every year.Food prices are high this year, so we should spend more money than in previous years to buy food, but the books show that we haven't spent a penny this year.

She asked Chang Gui and found out the reason.It turns out that in the past, when my father received Lumi, he would always give it to Gongzhong to resell, and he could get more than 100 taels a year.But this year things are a little different.Firstly, his father Zhang Bao let go of his foreign job, took away some of his servants, and had another share of Lumi; but in the capital city, his elder brother Duanning’s share of Lumi was added.On the other hand, when Sanfang and Dafang had a rift, the Tong family no longer handed over Zhang Bao's share of Lumi due to his title to Dafang, but kept enough for Huaiyuan and Meiyuan, and then sent People and Duanning's share were transported to Fangshan for storage.Now the other courtyard can't finish the food, so naturally there is no need to buy any more.

After hearing this, she began to think about it.Father Zhang Bao's Lumi 180 five shi, I remember it was 850 dou of grain, and the sum of his brother's grain was more than 2000 dou.There are nearly [-] buckets of grain produced in my own field, and there are almost [-] buckets of grain in total...

She was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said to her mother: "In total, in our family, Ama and elder brother's Lumi plus the produce in the field, there are a total of about [-] buckets of grain. How can we eat it all? Why don't we open it?" Let’s set up a grain store to sell rice. In previous years, we sold it to grain stores at a much lower price than normal grain prices, and we lost money, so it’s better to keep the big money for ourselves.”

Tong Shi became interested, so Shuning took the abacus and told her carefully: "If we open a store, we can ask uncle and fourth uncle to give us their Lumi for sale, anyway, they are also selling it. For those who go out, we only need to pay one or two cents more than others. There is no grain store under the name of the mansion. If the production of Baoding Zhuangzi is included, there is at least 3000 dou a year, which is [-]. Shi, according to the current price of grain, you can earn two to three thousand taels of silver by changing hands. This is a good deal."

Tong Shi heard this, and thought about it carefully, it was really good, but she was a little worried: "If this year's situation happens, and the court wants to make a flat sale, then we are not at a loss, aren't we?"

Shu Ning thought for a while, then said with a smile: "It's okay, the imperial court sells food regularly, just to keep the price of grain down, it won't be too low, after all, cheap grain hurts the farmers. Let's just adjust the price according to the market outside. Except for the few of us Outside of the family, you can also help other people to sell. There are also many people under the banner who have received food that they can’t finish eating, and they have to sell. Grain stores specialize in this kind of business, and it doesn’t cost much. I heard that other people also do this.”

After hearing this, Gu Quansheng said: "Miss is right. In fact, the rice shop I just mentioned, called Fu Lusheng, does just that. But they are old rice mills. Sell."

Although Tong felt that this business could be done, she still had concerns, so she said to her daughter: "No one in our family has done this business. If you really open a store, who do you want to do it?"

Shu Ning was right after thinking about it, so she calmed down a little.At this time, Gu Quansheng said: "Ms. Ruo's wife really wants to do the business of the grain store. It's just right. Fu Lusheng is about to change hands now. Their guys have all the equipment ready-made. I have a good relationship with their Boss Shi, so it's good for me." I also know the rules in the industry, if Madam can trust me, how about entrusting me to do it?"

(Checking the information will kill me, I will check the price of grain and field for half a day today, and check the dowry for half a day...)
(End of this chapter)