At this time, the agricultural cooperative sold things that could not be bought in other stores, such as low-priced salt, toilet paper, matches and cigarettes.
Yes, matches and cigarettes were officially launched at this time.
Zhu Youxiao specifically chose this time of currency reform to put matches and cigarettes on the market.
It can be said that he had good intentions.
As he expected, as soon as matches came out, they quickly replaced the difficult-to-use fire sickle and became a must-have item in almost every household.
And Zhonghua cigarettes placed an advertisement in the weekly newspaper: His Majesty the Emperor’s favorite cigarette, Zhonghua cigarettes.
The readers had no idea what cigarettes were, but when they saw it at the agricultural cooperative, they saw that some people were smoking hookahs.
I bought one and tasted it.
A pack of cigarettes costs twenty and twelve cents.
I folded a pack of cigarettes and each one cost one cent.
I found that the taste was much more comfortable than hookah.
Many people began to give up hookah and started buying cigarettes to smoke.
Of course, for many people, these cigarettes are indeed good to smoke, but they are a bit expensive, but that doesn’t matter.
There are also Chinese brand cigarettes without flavoring.
The packaging is slightly different and the taste is strong, but they are cheap and only cost one pack.
It costs three cents.
Because the emperor was used as an advertisement, there were continuous advertisements in weekly newspapers, pointing out that cigarettes have the effect of removing moisture and expelling evil spirits, and can relieve tension, and even imply that they can make men more powerful.
So soon cigarettes became popular among the people.
Zhu Youxiao doesn't think he should worry about the harm of cigarettes now.
Anyway, if he doesn't do it now, others will soon do it.
The high taxes and high profits of cigarettes are really attractive.
However, he asked for the sentence "No smoking by minors" to be printed on cigarette packages, but did not explain why minors should be prohibited from smoking.
Wei Zhongxian took a look at the sales situation from the agricultural cooperative society, and hurriedly came to Zhu Youxiao and said: "Your Majesty, according to the current sales speed, I am afraid that matches and cigarettes will soon be out of supply.
Should we separate these two industries?
It has also been opened up to the private sector for manufacturing.”
The technology for producing straw paper has been distributed to various paper mills by the Patent Office.
The toilet paper produced by private paper mills is only slightly inferior in color and softness to Baochao's toilet paper, but its price positioning is very different from toilet paper, so now only wealthy families use toilet paper.
Generally, toilet paper is used by wealthy families.
Every household uses straw paper.
But matches and cigarettes can now only be produced by the China Match Factory and the China Cigarette Factory.
Whether it is the formula or the manufacturing machine, there is no way for the private sector to obtain it.
Although Wei Zhongxian does not want to give this piece of pie to others, the shortage of supply is really not something that the two factories can solve by themselves, so he came to ask if he could Open up these two industries as well.
Zhu Youxiao thought for a while and said: "The key point is taxation.
The tax rate on matches is only 30%, which is not a big problem, but the tax rate on cigarettes is as high as 80%.
This tax revenue must not be lost.
Matches are a necessity and can be opened up, but cigarette manufacturing No, we build cigarette factories in various provinces, and this industry must be in my hands at least for a period of time."
Wei Zhongxian said: "Then we must first encourage tobacco production in each province and build tobacco flue-curing equipment.
However, this will occupy land used for food production."
The most important reason why Zhonghua brand cigarettes are so popular is that the cut tobacco is mixed with spices.
The most important reason is that the cut tobacco is flue-cured tobacco instead of the air-cured tobacco used by the people today.
Flue-cured tobacco requires the construction of a large number of curing rooms, which is more expensive than drying tobacco.
Of course, compared with profits and taxes, the cost is negligible.
But if land used for food is encroached upon, the gains outweigh the losses.
Zhu Youxiao thought for a while and said: "According to the data submitted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, last year's grain production increased by 20% compared with the previous year.
This is only the production of wheat and millet, not counting new crops.
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Mingyue City in Vietnam is undergoing a high-yield rice production.
Experiment, last time students from the institute wrote in a letter saying that the yield of their 3,000 acres of experimental field was one percent higher than that of the Vietnamese. times, reaching four stones.
Of course, this is because the Vietnamese people’s income is too low, but I asked the transfer department that the yield of late rice in the south can only reach two stones and seven per mu, and the combined rice and wheat yield is less than four stones.
And if this kind of rice is promoted in Huguang, it only counts two crops a year.
The early rice is lower than the late rice, and the yield is still more than seven stones. " Wei Zhongxian's eyes shone brightly and he said: "Your Majesty, that means we no longer have to worry about food problems and we can grow tobacco in large quantities."
Zhu Youxiao shook his head.
He was still worried about Xiao Binghe.
Moreover, the weather is indeed getting colder now, and the food reserves must be sufficient.
He does not want to defeat the Jiannu and have to deal with endless domestic rebellions.
He said: "Although there is no problem with food now, we cannot take it lightly.
We need to let the people have at least a year's surplus of food, so that they can rest assured.
Of course, it would be best if there is two years.
As for tobacco production, we You can start planting in hilly areas.
Grain production in hilly areas is low anyway.
I think there is still a lot of room for increasing grain production in plain areas.
If we vigorously promote deep farming and careful farming, I don't believe that we can increase wheat production to three to four stones. " Wei Zhongxian said: "Your Majesty, most of our new crops are grown in hilly areas.
Will there be any conflict?"
When it comes to new crops, Zhu Youxiao feels that the food problem has been solved.
Needless to say, in Shaanxi, more than half of the fields are now planted with new crops such as corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes.
Almost all of the newly opened wasteland in Northern Zhili and Shanxi has been planted with new crops.
Farmers are very smart.
They heard that planting new crops in wasteland is exempted from tax for ten years, and planting millet and wheat is only exempted for three years.
Naturally, they started to plant new crops.
And last year’s harvest did far exceed traditional crops.
If these new crops are counted as food, then farmers in Shaanxi have actually reached the standard of having a year's surplus of food at home.
According to current statistics, by the end of this year, the food harvest in Beizhili and Shanxi will also reach this level. standard.
However, the problem is that farmers do not regard these sweet potatoes and potatoes as food at all.
They either sell them to cooperatives or keep some for themselves as a rarity to eat occasionally.
Millet is still the main food.
They still regard corn as food, but among these three crops, corn has the lowest yield and potato has the highest yield.
Sweet potatoes can be used as vermicelli, and their sales have always been very good.
However, potato vermicelli is not very popular, so now Shaanxi has built several huge granaries specifically to store potatoes that are dried and ground into powder.
The current storage capacity is calculated based on the population of Shaanxi, reaching more than 800 kilograms per person.
However, no one wants to eat potato flour.
Of course Zhu Youxiao knows that if the food harvest fails, these potato flour will be effective, but it is not a problem to store it for so long, and there will be more and more
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