Wentang

Chapter 489 Food shortage
When Yue Shan came to the palace, he happened to meet Wei Zheng who was reporting on work, and Li Shimin let him in without hesitation, Yue Shan could only stand aside and listen helplessly.

"Saint, since the news of the locust plague came out, grain merchants around the world have hoarded grain to drive up grain prices. Taking Chang'an as an example, grain prices have more than doubled from six yuan to fourteen yuan. The people in Guanzhong are terrified."

"The common people bought and hoarded grains for food shortages after the disaster, and the grain merchants used the shortage of grains as an excuse to buy and sell them in limited quantities, which caused great panic. If it is not rectified, it will cause future troubles."

"Crack." Li Shimin slapped the table angrily and said, "It's unreasonable. A dealer really thinks that I don't dare to punish them. I'll give an order to limit the price of food and force them to open."

The more Yue Shan heard it, the more he felt something was wrong, he hurriedly said: "Slow down."

Li Shimin turned his head and asked, "What advice does Cuilan have?" Wei Zheng also looked at him inquiringly.

"Wei Xiang, do you know that the grain merchants in Chang'an City have enough grain to feed the people of Chang'an City for a few days?" Yue Shan asked.

"In order to prevent rats from biting and insects from eating and from stealing grain, general grain merchants only have three days to store grain, and no more than seven days at most." Wei Zheng obviously investigated, and he opened his mouth.

"It's calculated on the basis of seven days, that is to say, if all grain merchants stop shipping from other places from today, then Chang'an City will be hungry in seven days, right?" Yue Shan said.

"Hiss..." Li Shimin and Wei Zheng both gasped and thought of a question at the same time.

Yes, there are policies and countermeasures, and the imperial court forces grain merchants to sell grain at a low price, and those grain merchants dare not ship new grain to Beijing for various reasons.When the grain in the warehouse is sold out, there will naturally be no grain to sell.

You can't force others to sell food when they run out of food, can you?At that time, there may really be a food shortage.

Normally, no one would dare to do this, because the folks have grain reserves, and if your grain merchants don’t sell grain, you can go to the market to buy farmers’ grain, and the imperial court’s granary will be able to solve all problems.

But now everyone knows that there will be a plague of locusts, and they will only dislike the lack of food in their hands. Who would be stupid enough to sell food?Even selling it is expensive.

Under such circumstances, if the grain merchants really cut off their supply, Chang'an City would really starve.And this is not just a problem in Chang'an City, but the entire Guanzhong region.

As for the imperial court's grain reserves, it's okay to understand a part of the turnover at ordinary times, and the more important events are encountered, the less they can move.

Well, I can't say that I can't move, but the later the better.

Grain storage is the last step, and it will only be moved when it comes to a dead end, and the food and grass stored by the imperial court are good for emergency, if you really want to feed millions of people in Guanzhong, it won't last long.

Another reason is that when a disaster occurs, everyone will not be able to eat and force the grain merchants to sell grain, and the common people will only applaud.

But now that the locust plague has not happened, everyone has less pain. Forcing grain merchants to sell grain may become a competition for profit with the people.A little guidance by someone with a heart can even cause unnecessary riots.

"What if we can't force them to sell grain?" Li Shimin said angrily.

Wei Zheng glanced at Yueshan, and seeing that he didn't intend to answer, he replied, "There is still more than a month before the outbreak of the locust plague. The imperial court can use this time to mobilize grain and grass from all over the world to stabilize grain prices in Guanzhong."

"That's the only way to go." Li Shimin said helplessly, "I'll order Dai Zhou to bring food and grass to Beijing."

"The sage is wise." Wei Zhengxi said.

He was a straightforward person, he had no intention of staying after finishing his business, so he bowed his hands to Yueshan and left.

When he was far away, Li Shimin slapped the table angrily and said, "I'm so angry, I wish I could punish these three clans for this businessman."

It was rare to see him so angry, Yue Shan felt so funny in his heart that he couldn't control his emotions and showed a few smiles.

Although he immediately took back his smile, Li Shimin still saw him pointing at Yue Shan's nose and saying, "What do you mean? Are you laughing at me?"

Yue Shan rubbed his nose and said awkwardly: "No way, I'm just laughing at those grain merchants who think they can't do what they can."

Overwhelmed?Li Shimin's eyes lit up and he said, "Can you deal with them?"

Uh... Yue Shan didn't know what to say, how did you hear the meaning of my words?

Just as he was about to deny it, he found that Li Shimin was looking at him with sympathy, and immediately changed his mind and said, "Is there a way, but I need to understand the situation of these grain merchants first."

"Ask me if you want to know anything, and Wei Zhenggang will go through it for me." Li Shimin will be there soon.

"I want to know who these grain merchants are." Yue Shan said.

"Seventy percent of the grain merchants in Chang'an City are in the hands of the imperial court, and thirty percent are in the hands of aristocratic families. The rest... [-] percent are in the hands of the imperial court, [-] percent are in the hands of ordinary merchants, and the remaining [-] percent are in the hands of aristocratic families." Li Shimin said with a heavy tone. .

"This..." Yue Shan was a little dumbfounded, such an important industry as grain trading was actually controlled by the aristocratic family.No wonder, no wonder he is so awesome that even the emperor dares to despise him.

In fact, this is normal when you think about it. Grain shops, a key industry related to people's livelihood, can't be entered with money, you must have power.

In addition to potential, there must also be a source of food. In ancient times, the output of food was low. After paying taxes and paying land rent, ordinary people may not even have enough to eat, and the remaining food is basically not sold.

Those who have grain in their hands are those big landlords, or powerful families in the local area. Only such families can raise a large amount of grain to open grain shops.

Is there a more suitable family for such a family than an aristocratic family?
In the local area, the aristocratic family is even more powerful than the imperial power. It has been passed down for thousands of years and owns a large amount of land that can produce countless grains... and the grain business is stable and profitable, and the aristocratic family likes to do it most.

Li Tang was also thinking of ways to control the grain trade, but it was a pity that the achievements in the founding of the country were not very great, and it took several rounds of cleansing for Chang'an City to gain the upper hand.

"Which one of the grain stores controlled by the imperial court and the family's grain stores has the largest shipment volume?" Yue Shan asked another question.

It's not that you have an advantage if you have more stores, but the shipments.However……

"It should be from a family. I don't know from other places. The grain store controlled by the Chang'an City court and the grain store controlled by the family have about the same shipment volume." Li Shimin replied, as if he couldn't hold back, and said quickly:
"They are all old stores with many repeat customers. After a long time, we will have an advantage."

Yue Shan has no doubts about this, however, there is no solution to the predicament in front of him.

Yue Shan began to think about how to break the situation, but he couldn't figure it out after thinking for a long time.Then I changed the angle again, since I couldn't think of a solution, I would look for a solution from history.

Thousands of years of history, similar things must have happened.

Not to mention, I really found an example for him to learn from.

At the beginning of the founding of the Great Heavenly Dynasty, a game with the capitalists in Shanghai...

(End of this chapter)