In a conference room on the second floor of the hall where the common scales are displayed, the first meeting of the Dongmen City Business Administration Office is being held. The conditions in the conference room were tough, and the walls were only plastered with limestone, which had not yet dried completely because of the rush of construction. The floor slabs are pristine wooden planks, the industrial sector has not yet found lacquer trees, and modern paint is a very distant future. As for ceilings, ceilings and the like, there was nothing like that, the only modern equipment was a light bulb hanging high under the roof. However, tables and chairs are very luxurious, and they are at least a few million in the 21st century. What mahogany painting table, red sandalwood official hat chairs, and flower pear round stools were messily arranged to make a conference room look like a conference room—these were all trophies brought from the Gou family.

There were seven or eight people in attendance, all of whom were interested in working in business, some of them were really experienced, and some of them were purely interested. Led by a young man who claimed to have worked as an assistant manager in the industrial and commercial office, his name was no longer examined, but when he learned that he was going to be the head of the management of this Dongmen City, he gave himself a new name: "Dongmen Blowing Rain".

He was flanked by his deputy, dressed in an iron-gray uniform-style shirt, black trousers, a black hat, and an armband with a line of lettering "Administrative Law Enforcement Assistant." With a murderous face, a hawker terminator. This person is the same as blowing rain at the east gate, his real name is not examined, and in the history books of the future republic, he appears under the strange name of "Dugu Marriage Proposal". These two will create a new business model in this time and space in Lingao County, Daming.

In the not-so-distant future, the trade of the Travelers will eventually be all over the world, and the trade networks of overseas companies will cover Europe, Asia and Africa, but at this moment, all the commerce of the Travelers is on the dirt floor below them that does not even have cement. Fortunately, Wen Desi has already spoken, business is a project fully supported by the Executive Committee, and it requires money and things.

The flag points to the fact that trade opens the way. Colonial expansion in history has all used commercial trade as a breakthrough. Trade was not only profitable, but also an important means for colonists to gain a foothold in the region. For the traversers, who have used violent means to take possession of the territory, the next step is to increase their contact with the local natives, transforming themselves from green-faced, fanged, murderous pirates into merchants with vast quantities of novelty goods. The allure of wealth will draw more and more wary locals to them, and eventually tie their own interests to them.

Of course, the traversers themselves need the support of trade, especially the basic means of subsistence such as grain and non-staple foods. It must be replenished from local farmers. There is a great deal of instability in relying on foreign imports. The history of political turmoil in the ancient Romans, which often caused by the late arrival of grain from Egypt, is well known to many - a situation that should be avoided by any means.

At the meeting, yesterday's grain procurement situation was reviewed, and since the reconnaissance teams sent from all sides continued to report that some peasants had begun to hand over grain to the landlords, the traversers began to set up a point in Dongmen City to purchase grain. The local price of rice is 1 tael or 3 yuan per stone of silver, and according to the general ratio of rice to rice, it is about 70%, and the purchase price of rice is set at 8 yuan per stone. This price does not take into account the cost of transportation and profit in the price of rice - the commercial sector estimates that the local grain purchase price will not exceed five cents per stone of rice. Buying it for eight dollars is already a rare high price.

The purchase proceeded very smoothly, and the common people in the vicinity, from the small people in Shengdou to the large grain households, were all moved to see that they were willing to buy grain with the silver spent in vain, and at first there were only one or two dozen people, but recently more than one or two hundred people carried in bags and buckets of grain every day. Seven or eight people in the commercial department couldn't keep it busy, so they had to call out the people from the agricultural department for help.

There was some confusion at first, as the locals were accustomed to using the bucket as a unit of measurement for grain, ten buckets and one stone. This bucket also has official and private fights, the capacity is different, the top of the bucket is open, whether the rice on the bucket surface should be flat or the pile should be full, and how high the pile tip should be, these questions make them all dumbfounded. After a period of confusion, it was decided to introduce a new weights and measures, and to purchase them by weight, and the purchase price was set at eight cents of silver per 100 kilograms, which was called "gongshi". The weighing is used to remove a floor scale from the ship. Surprisingly, this change in weights and measures did not cause resentment or protest from the grain sellers, who saw it as their freedom to use whatever the unit of measurement was to be used, since they were willing to pay for the grain. This surprised the East Gate by blowing rain -- no wonder the ancient landlords used small to produce large harvests -- and the common people had no understanding of the importance of weights and measures.

In contrast, the common people are interested in how to add weight without rice. At first, everyone was inexperienced and busy, and the purchased rice was mixed with a lot of straw, even chaff and sand, and suffered a lot of losses. At this time, someone came up with an idea and rushed to make a batch of grain spies to sign grain samples, and Wu Nanhai urgently trained everyone to teach everyone how to distinguish the quality and water content of rice, so that the shoddy situation could be curbed.

“…… As of today, we have purchased 90 tons of paddy. Peanuts 2100 kg. "Dongmen Blowing Rain reported the acquisition to several members of the executive committee who came to the meeting.

"How much more do you think you can buy?" Wen Deji asked. 90 tons of rice, milled into brown rice is only 70 tons, which seems like a lot, but now there are more and more people eating, and there is also a lot of relief for the people, which is a little nervous.

Yu Eshui opened the book he was carrying: "There is still room for acquisition." According to the records of the county annals, the autumn grain of Lingao in the Wanli period was 7,646 stones, nine buckets, two liters, and seven he, and the newly reclaimed rice was six stones, seven liters and nine he, totaling 7,686 stones, seven liters and nine he. This is only the main item, coupled with miscellaneous fire consumption, additional levies, and officials who exploit them layer by layer, the grain households will actually hand over no less than 10,000 stones. It is now the end of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the time when the wealthy families conceal the fields and households are the most serious, and there should be a considerable part of the fields without grain. Therefore, I estimate that the total output of autumn grain in Lingao is between 50,000 and 70,000 stones. It's no problem for us to buy three or five thousand stones. ”

Someone asked: "Is it necessary to stock up on so much food?" Didn't you copy more than a thousand stones from the Gou family? Moreover, Yanchang Village has already begun to sell salt to the mainland, exchanging salt for grain from Guangdong. In the future, I can buy food from Vietnam. ”

Wu Nanhai took the grain issue very seriously, and immediately opened his mouth to argue: "The more grain, the better, and there is no panic when you have food in your hands." Whether it's Guangdong or Vietnam, it's all far water. If it is cut off, it is not good for people's peace of mind. ”

Wen Deji continued: "At this stage, grain is harder than silver. As soon as there was a famine, the price of grain skyrocketed, and the value of silver depreciated. Let's not forget that it is still the Xiaoice River period, natural disasters are very frequent, we are not a few boats and hundreds of people, we must focus on the overall situation of the whole county. Be prepared. ”

"I also draw the attention of the Executive Committee to the state of trade and silver reserves," Cheng Dong spoke on behalf of the financial sector. After beating Goujiazhuang, our silver reserves rose to 15,000 taels under the old two systems, and almost 1,000 taels have flowed out in the past few days. This is not the way to go, after all, there is also a demand for currency in circulation. ”

"Xiao Zishan has gone to Guangzhou, do you want him to withdraw tens of thousands of taels of money from the Gao family?"

"There's no need for that." "Lingao is a small place, and it's not a good thing that too much money flows in. We have another thing to replace silver - salt. "Salt has long served as a currency throughout history, and he prepared it to pay for part of the payment for food and labor.

However, there are objections to this approach: for the common people, between silver and table salt, it is clear that the former is more attractive, and it is also easy to carry and use. The common people have already tasted the sweetness of cash acquisitions and will not like such a sudden forced barter.

"Let's open a salt shop." The east gate blows rain and has a whim, "Specializing in selling salt." He sold grain with his left hand and took the silver, and he had to return it to us with his right hand, hahaha, what a profiteer I am—"

"That's a good idea. After all, using grain and salt as equivalents is not the way forward. Now the salt production in the county is controlled by us, and it is appropriate to use it to return money. Cheng Dong nodded in agreement.

Dongmen struck while the rain was hot, and hurriedly handed over a document: "This is our business group's business plan for Dongmen City, and I hope the executive committee will approve it as soon as possible!" ”

"Planning a plan?" Several members of the executive committee were stunned. Although they set up a free market outside the city, the purpose was only to promote the circulation of goods and enhance the relationship between the traveler and the local natives. How the market is going to be managed has not been carefully thought about. The market is thought of as a free market in many cities in the country: farmers and vendors come to sell their wares, and at most some people think of free stall fees and the like.

"Yes, plan the plan." Dongmen took the opportunity to stand up, "Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the following overall planning plan now, I believe that with this plan, under the correct leadership of the Executive Committee, under the guidance of President Wen, and with the strong support of Member Cheng—"

"Stop talking nonsense! It's all in Daming, and it's still doing this! "Dugu is already impatient with the marriage proposal.

"-- Our Dongmen City will become the most prosperous commercial market in Hainan!"

The rain blowing at the east gate is unofficial and mixed with officialdom, where do you care about the complaints of the marriage proposal, after saying the opening remarks, quickly hang a newly drawn planning map on the blackboard behind him. This is what he got after a trip to the construction engineering team and a few packs of cigarettes.