This Ming is vast, although the northwest is drought, but the south is ripe.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the population of the whole country rose rapidly due to the government's adoption of policies conducive to economic recovery, such as appeasing exiles, releasing slaves, and persuading farmers to teach farmers.
It has raised the grain production in the south to a great level.
Therefore, there is a proverb that "the lake is ripe, and the world is full".
At that time, the amount of grain exported from Hunan was quite large, such as the fourth year of Xuande, "the resumption of the transportation method was to order Jiangxi, Huguang, and Zhejiang to transport 2.2 million stones of grain in Huai'ancang."
In the eighth year of Chenghua, a total of 7 million stones of grain were transported to Beijing across the country, of which more than 5 million stones were "southern grain" in Huguang, Jiangxi and other places, accounting for the vast majority.
By the late Ming Dynasty, the grain in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River mostly relied on Huguang and other places to supply, such as Anhui's Huizhou grain, "most of the grain was taken from Jiangxi, Huguang rice to eat enough".
The increase in grain production has provided the preconditions for the commercialization of grain.
The increase in grain production has also led to a large number of huge grain merchants who started by relying on grain trafficking, and now, almost every one of these grain predators is holding a brand-new Ming news in their hands, looking at the obvious news that Lu Hanqiang is buying grain at a high price in Pinglu, and is excited and planning.
What attracted these grain merchants was not only the sky-high price of brown rice offered by Lu Hanqiang, but also the carbon essence produced in detail.
The merchants of the south are shrewd, the sky-high price of grain is one thing, and the brainy people are immediately attracted by the object of the coal spirit that has never appeared, if it is really as introduced in the newspapers, then this thing is more suitable for the south, and seizing this business opportunity will be a long-term and continuous huge profit.
Li Zhiqiu, a descendant of the Huzhou Wang family, a big landowner, and a big grain merchant, resigned at the age of forty and ran the entire family's grain business, and now all the family's business is under his control.
However, Li Zhiqiu's grain merchant business is very difficult now, and the reason is the pressure brought by the eight Jin merchants.
The Jin merchants had a long history and flourished under Zhu Yuanzhang's policies, but in the late Wanli period, after Nurhachi betrayed the Ming Dynasty and established the Later Jin regime in Liaodong, the foreign trade business of the Jin merchants was severely hit.
Because in the face of the attack of the Later Jin, the Ming Dynasty army was repeatedly defeated, so it used economic warfare to carry out an economic blockade of the Later Jin.
At that time, the Later Jin army broke through the towns of the Ming Dynasty and plundered a large amount of gold and silver, but instead of enhancing the strength of the Later Jin regime, these gold and silver that could not be eaten and drunk were weakened because of the excessive amount of gold and silver, which caused inflation.
The Jin businessmen who encountered problems in development saw an opportunity to make a fortune.
The Jin merchants had all kinds of materials urgently needed by Houjin in their hands, and Houjin had a large amount of gold and silver in the eyes of the merchants.
As a result, the two sides hit it off, and the Jin merchants began to risk their lives, violating the ban of the Ming government, and smuggling grain, gunpowder, metals, salt and other materials to the Houjin.
All the gunpowder, eighty percent of the grain, and more than sixty percent of the metal of the Later Jin were all provided by the Jin merchants.
With the growing strength of the Later Jin, the Mongols, Korea, and the Ming Dynasty launched a continuous campaign for many years, and the grain needed was more, so in the south of the Yangtze River, the merchants of the eight major families had to buy a large amount of grain, and then transport it to Shandong to the sea.
Li Zhiqiu, as a backbone of the country, resolutely did not buy a grain for the Jin merchants, but he was also collectively suppressed by the Jiangnan grain merchants who were raised by the Jin merchants, and the result was that his own grain store could not sell a stone of grain at all, and countless grains produced by his own family were backlogged in the warehouse, and even the grain of the surrounding people was also backlogged.
And some elders in the clan began to doubt Li Zhiqiu's ability, and asked the clan to remove him from his position as a grain merchant and choose someone who could be flexible to replace him, Li Zhiqiu struggled to persuade and struggle, because he knew that once the merchant house was out of his control and let those who had milk and mothers succeed him, he would not hesitate to sell the grain to the Jin merchants and become an accomplice in amplifying the blood of the Ming Dynasty.
Today's meeting of the clan elders is to discuss this issue, those elders at the clan meeting, unanimously accused Li Zhiqiu of stubbornness and incompetence, and asked to remove him from the position of the shopkeeper of the firm, especially the ambitious brothers in the clan who contributed to the trouble, and made his position even more precarious, fortunately, the patriarch remembered that he had worked hard for many years, and tried his best to temporarily appease the old man, but it was also temporary, and at the same time he strictly ordered Li Zhiqiu to sell the mountains of old grain in the inventory before the autumn grain harvest, otherwise he could not do anything. 100,000 stone summer grain, that is to say, if you sell it, you have to sell it, so what kind of big family does it take to eat it was in a hurry, Xiao Si came in at the door to report, saying that the third master of the clan had come to visit.
Li Zhiqiu couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows deeper, the third master of this clan is the elder in his upper fifth room, and he has been peeking at his position for a long time.
But when the elders come to the door, you can't help but postpone the invitation, otherwise a sin that does not have the dignity of the elders and the young will be buckled on your head, and such a big hat, your own little head will have no way to bear it. commanded an invitation, and then watched Xiao Si go out, straightened the square scarf again, and lifted the corner of the robe to greet him in person.
As soon as he walked to the steps, he saw the third uncle turning from behind the shadow wall proudly, nodding at Li Zhiqiu with a smirk.
Li Zhiqiu hurriedly walked down the steps, stood on the left side of the road, and saluted respectfully: "Hello third uncle, nephew is polite here." ” The third uncle smiled and waved his hand: "That's it, count it, you are a little older than me, and in terms of knowledge and experience, you are much better than me.
Regardless of Li Zhiqiu's words, he directly lifted the corner of the robe and entered the room.
Li Zhiqiu smiled bitterly and hurriedly followed. entered the hall, quickly bowed down to give up his seat to the third uncle, and then sat down to accompany him in a proper manner.
A maid offered fragrant tea, and then quietly retreated.
"Third uncle, I don't know what to teach in the house today" is not to deal with it, and there is nothing polite to sit here, Li Zhiqiu asked bluntly.
The third uncle crossed Erlang's legs, squinted his eyes and played with the lid of the tea cup, and said with a smile: "The third uncle came this time, not because your errand is a family, how can the third uncle watch you worry about the food shortage of 100,000 stones" "Thank you so much Third Uncle."
Li Zhiqiu replied lightly, and he was not in the mood to continue.
The third uncle was not angry, but continued his words with a smile, "Half of the 100,000 stone grain in this public warehouse is our family's summer grain, and the remaining half is also purchased by us from the surrounding area with real money, but the summer tax is about to be released, and the people in the clan are waiting to take the money to pay the tax, does the eldest nephew have any regulations?"
This is the rule of the clan, as the patriarch of a large family, it is necessary to purchase the grain of the farmers in the clan, and then pay various taxes for the farmers in the clan.
"There is also the autumn grain to start preparing for the purchase of silver, we are the largest grain merchant in Huzhou, the surrounding people also sell grain to us according to the custom, if this year's silver money can not be prepared, once the surrounding people sell the grain to outsiders, then this mouth is opened, but it will be difficult to take it back, this is a major event related to our next generations of eating, drinking and chewing, I don't know if the eldest nephew has considered" "Third Uncle said it, it's not that you want me to sell grain to that Jin merchant Fan Yongdou I said, this Fan Yongdou resells grain to the Jurchens, so that they can eat and drink enough to kill us Han people, I can't control the corruption of the government, but I will never sell them a grain of rice, you know this, third uncle."
"My eldest nephew, you are a dead eye, people are Jin merchants dumping grain, that is business, even the political envoy of Shandong has turned his eyes closed, you are a small businessman who is idle, besides, the Jurchens are fighting the northerners, and everything in our south has been fighting for more than ten years, and our south is not a peaceful world sitting on you, why did you come here?"
Li Zhiqiu snorted, "Killing northerners is also our Ming people, and we are also Han people, I don't care about others, I still have this backbone." ” "This time, Boss Fan has paid a high price of eight dollars and a stone, aren't you tempted Even if you are not tempted, the clan has suffered a big loss, what will you explain when the time comes?"
"Eight dollars will buy your conscience, don't say eight dollars, even one or two, I won't buy it, as for the loss of the clan you said, I still have a little bit of my own money, I just smashed the pot and sold the iron and compensated."
"You" The third uncle was enraged all of a sudden, jumped up and pointed at Li Zhiqiu's nose and shouted: "Okay, good, my kindness, you are a donkey's liver and lungs, you just wait for the summer grain to rot, and the autumn grain has nowhere to store, wait for you to be expelled from the clan."
As he spoke, he flicked his sleeves and lifted the curtain and walked out.
"No."
Li Zhiqiu didn't even lift his buttocks, and coldly watched this spineless scum of the clan walk away.
But this guy just lifted the door curtain, but collided with a person who rushed in from outside, and one stumbled and almost fell back into the hall, looking up, it was a grandchild guy in the clan, who was furious at the time, and roared angrily: "You bastard guy, do you have eyes that go up to your buttocks, how can you walk without looking at it?"
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The man also recognized that it was his third master, and immediately bowed and apologized again and again, the third uncle snorted, glanced at Li Zhiqiu again, and walked away angrily after slamming the curtain.
When the third uncle was gone, the man from the grandchildren straightened up, turned around and bowed to Li Zhiqiu, who was the same age as himself, in a serious manner: "Little nephew Fifteen Lang, give a salute to the fifth uncle, there is no communication, the fifth uncle forgives the sins." ” Li Zhiqiu smiled and shook his hand, "We all grew up with bare buttocks, what else do we pay attention to, let's sit down quickly." ” The fifteenth lang sat down in the seat where the third uncle had sat before, and saw that the tea on the several cases was just right, and he was about to drink it when he brought it up, Li Zhiqiu frowned and stopped, "That tea bowl is dirty, change it for you."
As he spoke, he beckoned the maid to change the teacup, and then instructed the maid: "Throw this teabowl into the pit, and don't stain other furniture." ” Fifteen Lang laughed, knowing that his fifth uncle was such a jealous and hateful person, this kind of character, and he didn't know how to make the originally small family grain store in Huzhou the largest grain merchant in Huzhou in just five years.
After taking a sip of tea and glancing at the sullen Fifth Uncle, Fifteen Lang smiled slightly: "Fifth Uncle, I am still worried about the 100,000 stone stockpiles of grain."
When it was mentioned about the troublesome matter, Li Zhiqiu couldn't help but sigh, and he didn't hide his pain in front of this nephew, who was also a relative and friend: "You don't have the identity to participate in today's clan meeting, and you don't know the inside story, at today's meeting, the elders have forced the patriarch to give a death order, if I can't clean up the inventory before the autumn grain is put into storage, and turn the current grain into cash, then I will be dismissed from the position of the general office of my grain bank."
"Then he said bitterly: In fact, this general office is also dispensable, I don't care very much, but as soon as I leave the post, what I will take over is the thing of the loser, he will damage my Ming Dynasty and my Li family's loyal name."
Then he looked at the smiling fifteen lang, "But now that thing is colluding with the Jin merchants and besieging us everywhere, not only that, but also deliberately spreading the high price of eight coins and one stone, one hundred thousand stone of grain among the clan, how can you get rid of it at such a price."
As he spoke, he covered his head and frowned.
"Hahaha, but that's the case, in fact, it's not a big deal now."
Fifteen Lang laughed, Shi Shiran picked up the teacup and took a sip slowly.
"It's not like the big things are about to go to the house," he raised his head, smiled wryly and quipped: "If there is no way, I see that your west side house is still empty, and I, your aunt and a few of your brothers and sisters will go to live in your house." ” Fifteen Lang shook his head and deliberately looked around, "Fifth uncle, your family is magnificent, but it is not comparable to my family, you and your aunt go to live with me, you are really not used to living."
Then leaned out and said to the fifth uncle with a smile in his eyes: "It's just 100,000 stone grain, but this time it's really not a big deal, as long as the fifth uncle has the determination and courage, I dare to guarantee that not only the 100,000 grain will be sold out, but also bring a huge additional income to our family." ” "What about fooling around, you, 100,000 stones, no one can eat it all at once, and there is extra income, I'll wait for people to get out of this yard."
Knowing that his friend and nephew loves to frolic, Li Zhiqiu doesn't take it seriously.
"Fifth Uncle doesn't believe it, let's see what this is" Fifteen Lang took out a stack of newspapers like a trick and spread it out in front of Li Zhiqiu's eyes.
Daming News is also a must-read newspaper for Li Zhiqiu every day, but there are too many things to worry about today, so I don't have the heart to read it, at this time, Shifteen Lang took out a thick newspaper, which still aroused his curiosity, so he picked it up, and according to his habit, he directly had to turn over the pages of the advertisements to see the information about the market and food in various places.
But at this time, Fifteen Lang unceremoniously pressed the hand he wanted to look through, and said with a smile: "Fifth uncle, look at the first page of the headlines."
You're going to be amazed. ” t1706231537: