"What's the matter?" said the princess, a little surprised. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"Grain," Zhang Zhaohua said: "Before, you only asked the three uncles to borrow medicine, but did not borrow grain, I know that it is because grain transportation is the top priority, and even if it is an area under the direct jurisdiction of the kings, the grain will not pass through himself, and all of them will be collected and escorted into Beijing by the grain chief, and they will not be able to borrow grain." ”

At this time, the peasants who sold rice were called rice farmers, and they were grain farmers, and the merchants hoarded and sold or sold them to other provinces, which were called grain merchants, and the people who bought and managed the granaries by the state were grain officials. A unique way of grain expropriation and liberation in the Ming Dynasty is the grain chief system, the power of the grain chief is so great that the vassal king can not be asked, of course, such a system is also very harmful, but for the time being, it is a benefit, because this can effectively avoid the fishing invasion of officials, at least slightly better than the official grain collection system of the Song Dynasty, the speculative activities in the grain merchants of the Song Dynasty to the government in trafficking grain and grass are very unscrupulous, every time there is a flood and drought, its speculative activities reach a climax, and its despicable and shameless speculation is also exposed.

However, there are some disadvantages of the grain chief system, which is that the grain chiefs from all over the country are required to escort all the grain in their jurisdictions into Beijing, check the accounts and the yield per mu, and then the grain chief escorts a large amount of grain back, so it is simply useless work to go back and forth, and the appointment of the grain chief is not appointed by the government, but the largest local household, and the grain requisition and delivery are not official settlements, so in fact, there are many drawbacks, but it is not obvious now. So now that the summer tax has just been unified, it will be transported into Beijing by the canal, and it is obviously the grain that can save the people on one side, but it can't be used in the name of the Beiping government or the Yanwang clan, even if you go to ask the grain chief to borrow grain, no one will dare to give it.

At this time, the grain merchants were far less powerful and intertwined than the grain merchants of the Song Dynasty, and because the government took the bulk of the grain, the grain merchants operated by the grain merchants could not be compared with the country at all, but it was still useful in critical moments, for example, Zhang Zhaohua had heard his father Zhang Qi say many times that when their family had just come to Yongcheng, Henan Province from Shanxi, they encountered a famine, and the government bought grain from the grain merchants.

Zhang Zhaohua knew that her second brother Zhang Sheng was very talented and ambitious in business, and not long after coming to Beiping, he was thinking about following the local caravan to sell salt and grain, but Zhang Zhaohua was afraid that he would do squeezing business under the banner of the palace, so he was only allowed to open a few shops in Beiping City, and it is said that the shop is really good, which is also from the mouths of the Wang family and the Zheng family, and she has not seen the specific situation with her own eyes, but it is not bad to think about it.

As soon as the news of the big water came this time, Zhang Zhaohua took into account the problem of food, and she regretted it a little at this time, thinking that the foundation was not stable, but now it seems that it is correct to go to the grain team a few times. Either she is a brother and sister of the same mother, she is thinking about Zhang Sheng, Zhang Sheng also found her there, and as soon as she opened her mouth, she talked about transporting grain.

"You know, my second brother ran a few shops in Beiping," Zhang Zhaohua said truthfully: "He actually followed the caravan for ten years before, and tea, rice, cloth, alum, incense and other things, except for salt, have not been involved in long-distance trafficking. Nowadays, the shops are recruited by people who have experience in selling grain, who are familiar with the routes, and can go to business when they pull them out. After the direct sale of the flood, I thought that the grain audit of the official warehouse was detailed, and there should always be a three-point ballast warehouse, which would not be exhausted, and the grain of the summer tax in Beiping had not yet been transported to the canal, and without this year's summer tax, the official warehouse was actually half empty, and there was an idea that the grain might be insufficient. ”

Zhang Zhaohua has no bottom on his own inference, but this is a good opportunity, Zhang Zhaohua said to Zhang Sheng, let him go to sell grain to try, now after the summer tax, there are many farmers who want to sell grain, it is not difficult to raise grain, and Beiping is not far from Shandong and Shanxi, these two places are the same as Henan, they are places where grain is produced, Zhang Zhaohua has the heart to let him raise grain, and there are two ways to go.

One is that if Zhigu is not short of grain, he will fulfill Zhang Sheng's wish, he wants to sell grain and salt, and Zhang Zhaohua will not stop him. The second is that if there is a shortage of grain in Zhigu, Zhang Sheng's role will be greater, because he will inevitably find a grain merchant, the palace actually has no connection with the grain merchant and the salt merchant, and even some people were thrown to the door of the palace, but they were clicked by the king of Yan, and there is another thing that is also very famous, that is, the dowry of Yong'an, people are obviously perfect, but they were stunned by the palace Ge Changshi to pick out a bunch of problems, this matter is also spread in Yandi, so that the businessmen are afraid of the palace, in the final analysis, they are not willing to do business with the palace, one is because of the word profit, and the palace has no profit to make, and can not play any tricks, Otherwise, people will have a ruthless law with you, of course, when it comes to the law, this will definitely not be able to fight others. Second, because there are too many criminal records, the reputation of the palace is not as strong as that of roadside stalls.

Therefore, if the matter is urgent, people will naturally be happy to see jokes, and it is common sense to push back and hinder, not to mention that the palace buys grain at a high price, or promises a hundred times the profit, maybe it will not help. Who knows if you will not spend money again and pay less -- even compulsory expropriation is impossible, these people are fine, not necessarily just hoard grain within the boundaries of Beiping, people can put it in other boundaries, can you still check across provinces?

Even if Zhang Zhaohua reached this point, so he sent Zhang Sheng to raise grain, her idea was what she just said, if there is a shortage of grain in Zhigu, she will immediately contact Zhang Sheng and transport grain as quickly as possible, even if he can't raise it temporarily, he can also contact grain merchants in other places, and he can transport grain to Beiping, and if he asks for his own grain merchants in Beiping, even if people have only one way for him, and they have the intention to delay, you are helpless.

If there is no shortage of grain in direct sales, it only means that there is no shortage of grain at a temporary stage, and it does not mean that there is no shortage in the immediate future. In many cases, there is no shortage of natural disasters at the time, but when the disasters are overcome, there are man-made disasters, and some of the man-made disasters are said to be hoarders and businessmen who manipulate market prices. Therefore, it is essential to raise food by yourself and not rely on others.

If it is said that it has been seven days since Zhang Sheng left Beiping, Zhang Zhaohua's thoughts have come true, and there is a shortage of grain, and the princess was about to bow to the grain merchant, but suddenly heard such a sudden news, and was overjoyed.

"In this way, you have no merit or fault, so what sin can you talk about!" said the princess happily: "If your brother raises food as he wishes, it will be the first merit of this disaster relief, no matter how much he bids this time, I will be in charge, plus two percent." ”

Zhang Zhaohua said: "Mother, it's a bit of a headache when I talk about this. My second brother doesn't want to pay directly, he just wants to pay the price of grain with salt. ”

"Heyan," the princess thought for a moment, nodded and said: "Your Highness will not be so rigid to the end, every year the Jin King has sent a lot of salt, and it will be eaten by insects in the treasury, isn't this a waste of things?"

There were two ways to transport and sell salt in the country: one was for merchants to use their own grain to sell to the border, and the government used salt to pay for the price of grain, and the other was for transportation, that is, to recruit merchants to transport official grain, and the government used salt to reimburse for freight. It is true that the introduction is issued by the government, but it does not prevent those who give gifts to the vassal kings, especially the king of Jin, which case of salt and grain entry and exit in Shanxi has nothing to do with him? He has a lot of flowers, and he sent the Beiping brothers to have fun, but the king of Yan does not understand the customs, and he is particularly disgusted with the collusion between officials and businessmen, so it leads to the accumulation of salt.

Since the princess is the guarantor, Zhang Zhaohua knows that this thing should be 100% successful. It is even conceivable that Zhang Sheng's profits from selling salt alone in the future will be no less than 100 times, and her brother can be regarded as getting what he wants.