Sunday, June 30, 1641.

Originally, Sunday was one of the few statutory holidays in the East Coast Republic of China, but all the workers of the National Reserve Grain Depot under the Ministry of Materials were working overtime today, and none of them could take leave to rest, because even Shao Shude, a member of the Central Committee and Minister of the Ministry of Materials, was squatting in the Dingyuan Reserve Grain Depot, the largest grain depot in China, to check the inventory accounts.

More than a month has passed since the harvest season in May, and all localities have successively sent over the latest account books of this year's grain after they were put into storage. After the secretaries classified and calculated, what is now presented to Shao Shude is such a series of data: The three reserve grain depots directly under the Ministry of Materials and the seven county-owned reserve grain depots (including overseas grain reserves in South Africa, Xinhuaxia, and Madao) have stored about 8,500 tons of potatoes, 3,000 tons of wheat, 3,500 tons of sorghum, 800 tons of soybeans, and 250 tons of rice.

In total, this is about 15,000 tons of grain, which is basically enough for one or two years of consumption by the country's total population of about 50,000 people (including more than 7,000 South African laborers) according to the rate of domestic grain consumption last year. Thanks to the intake of a large amount of beef and mutton, fish, shrimp and seafood, dairy products, poultry and eggs, the daily staple food consumption of the people on the east coast is not high, and on average, each person is about 1 pound per day. Thus, the population of the Republic of the East Bank directly engaged in agricultural production (excluding animal husbandry and fishing) is less than 5,000 people, but the annual production of food is sufficient to feed the whole population and there is a slight surplus, plus a considerable amount of sorghum and wheat that are repatriated from South Africa each year. It is not so surprising that you have accumulated a year or two of food reserves over the years.

"Remove a year's worth of combat readiness. That's nearly 5,000 tons of grain to be sold. Also mostly cheap potatoes. Alas, according to the recent FOB price of grain, it will be able to make up more than 200,000 yuan. It's still far away, fuck, it's easy for other people to cross over to make money. Why are we so hard to cross over, and it has been more than ten years since we crossed, and the country's finances have not been worry-free for a year. The debt is also getting heavier day by day, and now he has a debt of 500,000 or 600,000 yuan. I think this debt will be even heavier in the next few years, alas! Shao Shude sat behind his desk and muttered in a low voice, his face full of sadness.

The financial predicament of the East Coast Republic of China this year is to be expected. Not to mention the recent decision of the Executive Committee to increase the cost of importing various types of strategic goods, which will probably be able to cope with it. Because in the first half of this year, whether in France, Tuscany, the New World or the Ottoman Empire, the sales growth momentum of East Coast textiles was extremely strong, earning a lot of foreign exchange profits for the country; It is conservatively estimated that the number of Ming people who will be sent by the Portuguese to the new Chinese colony in large numbers from the end of the year until April next year will be more than 6,000. And the East Coast will pay a huge fee of up to 1.8 million yuan for these people, and how to get this money is still not at all in the executive committee.

$1.8 million is not a small amount, this is more than 400,000 pounds! It is important to know that King Charles I of England had to collect two ship taxes in the country to raise so much money. That's an old country with a population of nearly five million, and how can you afford that little country in the New World, which was founded less than a decade ago and has a population of only 40,000 or 50,000, can afford it?

Shao Shude is also one of the 11 members of the Central Executive Committee. Extremely knowledgeable about the country's financial situation. According to the economic situation in the first half of the year, the East Coast Republic of China will make a profit of about 1.3 million yuan in major markets such as Europe and the New World this year. Among them, the textiles and leather goods sold in Western Europe are the majority, accounting for about 600,000 yuan; The total amount of various commodities sold to the Ottoman Empire also reached 300,000 yuan; In addition, the annual profit from the sale of weapons is 50,000 yuan; The total profit of various textiles, leather goods, building materials, hardware, knives, fuel and other commodities sold to the new continent is about 350,000 yuan, which adds up to about 1.3 million yuan.

As for the increasingly lucrative trade income of Colonia City (about 200,000 yuan or more a year), it needs to be kept to keep the country running. Not counting the import of all kinds of continuing materials and the introduction of European immigrants that will explode in the next few months, this is another gold-swallowing monster, which will probably cost about 15-200,000 yuan just in case. In this way, if there is no good thing that falls from the sky, it can be predicted that there will be a huge financial gap of about 65-700,000 yuan in the East Coast Republic this year that cannot be filled.

This is a very fateful thing, because in the case that the east coast has not been able to fly directly to the Ming Dynasty, once the Portuguese lose their trust, then it means that the immigration from the Ming to the east coast will be temporarily suspended. Not to mention a series of other hidden losses, so in order to close this financial gap, it now seems that there are only two ways to go.

The first is borrowing, that is, borrowing from the neighboring white nobility of La Plata and Brazil, with which they have long-term relationships. However, this loan is also a bit troublesome now, not to mention whether the East Coast government can afford to repay it, just because the previous loan of 200,000 yuan from the Rodriguez Chamber of Commerce and 200,000 yuan from Brazilians in two installments has not been repaid, and it is really a question whether people are willing to borrow it. In Shao Shude's view, it is probably unlikely that the Rodriguez Chamber of Commerce will borrow more from the east coast again, but there is a great possibility on the Brazilian side.

Why do you say that, it still has to be related to the current situation in Brazil. Despite the poverty of the people on the East Coast and the high government debts, in terms of military strength, scientific and technological level, and even industrial production capacity, the Republic of the East Coast is a small and strong region in the southeast corner of the New World. Having wrestled with the Viceroyalty of Spain and Peru and the East India Company of England, and still living to this day, this is enough to explain a lot. As a result, the white indigenous group of Brazilians, now mired in the whirlpool of war, has set its sights on the East Coasters of the South.

Last month, Blanco had implicitly hinted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the East Coast that the group of white Brazilians led by the sugar tycoon Vieira, who were currently under Dutch rule, were secretly in contact with Brazilians in the São Paulo region and had sponsored a large amount of military spending. Blanco's point was clear: if the East Coasters could directly intervene in the situation in Brazil and wage war against the Dutch, their native Brazilian whites in São Paulo would also give an additional sum of money to the East Coasters, along with the military expenses sponsored by the northern sugar tycoons, to compensate for the losses caused by the war with the Dutch. It is believed that the amount of this military expenditure depends on the time and results of the war of the people on the east coast, and can be as high as 500,000 yuan. Moreover, Blanco even said that if the East Coasters and Brazilians reached an alliance against the Dutch, the Brazilians would vouch in their name to persuade the Portuguese who were transporting the migrants to accept the installment agreement.

I have to say that the Brazilians are very sincere, and the conditions offered are quite generous, which makes the people of the East Coast very excited. Moreover, judging from the established national policy of the East Coasters, it is only a matter of time before a full-scale conflict with the Dutch breaks out, so why not agree to the Brazilians now and join the big gamble of Brazil?

However, after many discussions, the Executive Committee did not agree to the proposal of the Brazilians, the main reason being that the people on the east coast were not ready for war at present. Neither the number of land forces, nor the number of naval ships, nor the hoarding of war materials were far from being able to fight a full-scale war that could last for a long time.

Since he was not ready to tear his face with the Dutch, he had to think carefully of other ways to deal with the immediate financial difficulties. And that's what we call the second way, selling things! Sell everything you can!

What are the most in-demand commodities in Europe today? The first is weapons, the second is food! These two are the most scarce materials in Europe today, and they are also the best and most affordable materials. The Thirty Years' War has been fought to this extent, and the material consumption of all countries is very large, especially the consumption of war materials. It's a pity that several major belligerent countries, Spain, Austria, France, etc., also have their own large military production capacity, especially the Habsburg Empire, whose military factories in Milan are even larger and more productive than those on the east coast, which have not entered the wartime production state. Therefore, it is more difficult to make their money in the arms business, and the arms business that the people on the east coast are currently selling is not a single order, which is quite unstable.

Weapons are not easy to earn, but food is different. As a result of the war that has lasted for many years, food prices in various belligerent countries, especially in Germany, have soared, and even potatoes produced on the east coast have risen by about 20 percent on the basis of the CIF price of 60 yuan per ton a few years ago.

"It seems that the only thing that can be sold in the country at present is the grain from the grain reserves. Although the Europeans also like the cannon, after all, the sales are still limited, far less than the food. Shao Shude said softly thoughtfully, "Damn, if you sell 10,000 tons of grain ruthlessly, mixed with more expensive grains, even if it is traded at a low FOB price, it is not a luxury to make up for the huge amount of money needed to make up the financial gap." It's just that in this way, this year's food will be tight, and it may not even be enough to eat. However, there should still be some surplus food at home for the common people, alas, how to get it is a headache, if it really doesn't work, send troops out of the country to rob it. Damn, it's not the first time I'm familiar with the road anyway! (To be continued......)