Edo Traveler

I am very happy that the railway has been completed, and the second Osaka Division has also begun to train. The shogunate is finally seeing signs of resurgence in the country. Taking advantage of how easy it was to leave Edo, Chuemon simply went for a walk around.

Last year, Hong Chi Shan began to promote cotton planting on some farmlands in the country to ensure the supply of raw materials for his textile factory. Of course Chuemon supported him, and he also helped him contact the British, who imported foreign rice.

Knowing that Chuemon was going to inspect the farmland, Honchi Zen did not dare to neglect, and personally led the team and followed Chuemon on the tour. Setsu, Hanoi, Izumi, and Yamashiro countries near Osaka all have lands of Koichiya. The family business accumulated by the big boss for more than 200 years has hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

tsk tsk...

When the ground rent correction and the progressive tax rate of land increments are implemented in the future, we must have a good talk with him.

As for now, there is no hurry, the experiment of agricultural reform has just begun. Besides, Chuemon is still relying on him to manage the textile factory. If we start the steel heavy industry, the textile light industry has to keep up.

"Are all the people willing?" Chuemon looked at the cotton in the field, it was already picking season.

"I would rather be willing, of course I would." Hong Chishan must have said that he would be willing. Can the common people still be reluctant?

There is a novel called "Shan Hai Qing", probably, it is about the peasants in Xihaigu, Ningxia, whose life is extremely hard, the land is dry, and there are some religious reasons. The story that makes the male protagonist hope that the local farmers will abandon the old potato planting and change to olive tree planting, thereby transforming the environment, and the hope of getting rid of poverty and becoming rich is almost dashed.

The positioning and needs of farmers themselves make them unwilling to change the existing crop cultivation methods. Because the crops planted now are often guaranteed crops.

What is a guaranteed crop, that is, after planting, if the weather is good, I will generally not starve to death.

Maybe someone is going to talk about a certain TV series, the so-called changing rice to mulberry is also true. The farmers in the TV series are also very resistant to changing rice to mulberry. According to the master in the TV series, silk is obviously more expensive than rice, and it is the same to raise silk to exchange for rice.

But farmers have their own considerations, and if they breed silkworms, it's fine if nothing happens, but what should I do if something goes wrong? If something goes wrong, do we also eat mulberry leaves and silk?

Of course not!

In Gorky's original words, it is "peasants everywhere are the same!"

Take the same example of growing cotton. In the old colonial era, the British government ordered farmers in Uganda and Kenya to grow cotton. This is quite normal, British textile mills need raw materials. And colonies were used to plunder raw materials and serve as dumping grounds for commodities.

But farmers in Uganda and Kenya reacted very differently to the switch to cotton, with Uganda farmers accepting cotton after a little resistance. And Kenyan farmers, your colonists are cutting hands and feet, and they are not willing to grow cotton.

The reason is simple, farmers in Uganda, their food crop, are plantains. It is the kind of bananas that are picked and cannot be eaten immediately, and they have to be boiled in a pot. Farmers in Uganda have a lot of experience in cooking plantains. They will add seasonings to them, and finally make something. There is a video on a certain website, you can search for it.

As for farmers in Kenya, their food crop is maize. As a result, the Kenyan peasants were firmly opposed to the British colonial government.

Without him, the planting time of corn and cotton coincide!

While plantains can be planted at a staggered time with cotton, farmers in Uganda plant both plantains and cotton, but it is just a little more laborious. The colonists are coercing with their swords and guns. Since it will not affect my eating plantains, I will plant them.

Therefore, when promoting cotton, Chuemon set two rules for Honchi. First, it is not allowed to force farmers to switch to cotton. Second, farmers who are willing to switch to cotton will be paid a year of foreign rice in advance as a purchase fee.

It's not that the Japanese never planted cotton, it's just that there was very little or no cotton before the Edo period. The race really began to exist, that is, in the last hundred years. In the middle, Tokugawa Yoshizong forcibly interrupted a development process, shoveled all the cotton, and changed to rice.

The Japanese know how much cotton can be produced from an acre of normal land. The cultivation techniques and seeds are all complete, but the area of ​​cultivation is not extensive.

Who said that the Japanese tribute is only based on rice?

All farmers paid tribute to rice, which made rice widely grown even in relatively cold regions such as Echigo and Mutsu. This is a two-way choice between the government and farmers, and there is not much to say.

"Let's go, follow me to the people's homes." Chungemon felt that it would be best to leave Hongchi Shan aside for a visit, but without him to lead the way, the farmers of these four townships and eight villages, if they met strangers, would probably still be summoned. The steward of Hongchi House has no choice.

"Yes yes yes." Hong Chi Shan was quite positive.

Not to mention that he was prepared in advance, only that he was loyal to the

The two rules set by Youemon ~www.readwn.com~ are normally implemented, and there is no incident of turning against the peasants, so he is naturally not afraid.

When you arrive at the hometown, Zhongyouemon must have a look at the rice bag and grain storage of the hometown. When I opened the rice jar, there was not a single grain of rice at home, whether it was Japanese rice or foreign rice.

What about the cotton deposit you paid?

Hong Chi Shan promised to pay for it, where did this foreign rice go? He hurriedly inquired about the farmhouse in the village, and the farmhouse glanced at the farmer. The farmer started talking about pouring beans in a bamboo tube.

It turned out that as soon as imported foreign rice was released, the farmers replaced the rice with various grains. Although they really want to taste the taste of rice, they are more happy to eat two more full meals than to satisfy the appetite of one meal.

Some farmers in Honzhuang even exchange foreign rice for tares and bran. The bran is the outer shell of the rice and the brown rice that is eaten every day. That thing is a lot cheaper than rice, and it's not very easy to swallow.

Barnyard tares are better to understand wow, some farmers in Japan also specialize in growing barnyard tares. Because barnyard tares are not very picky, and as a "weed" in a certain sense, as long as the weather is not extremely harsh, they can be harvested. If the grain can be harvested, then there will be seeds. The economic concept of farmers is so simple.

I used to be a tares-eating farmer. What's wrong with growing tares?

"So the British rice from Hongikeya was indeed distributed to you at the beginning of the year?" Chuemon confirmed again and again.

"Yes yes yes yes, yes to the little one."

very good! If the common people stutter, they will not rebel. Chuemon was relieved, and he could continue the promotion of Hongikeya.