After receiving Zhang Wei's order, the Government Council quickly made arrangements, first issuing the order to increase the price to all administrative units of the empire, and at the same time storing a large amount of grain, dairy products, meat, etc. in various places. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In view of the increase in the price of agricultural and sideline products, the Government Council has set up a special material storage and transportation center to control and adjust the price and quantity of goods in the market.

On Monday, January 10, state-run grain stores in the provinces under the control of the Xia Empire simultaneously announced a 30 percent increase in the purchase price and sales price of grain.

Subsequently, the Imperial Food Company and the Material Storage and Transportation Center jointly announced a 30% increase in the purchase price and domestic sales price of all rice, white flour, dairy products, various types of canned food, sugar, coffee, cotton, camphor, spices, tea, etc., and a 100% increase in the export price.

After receiving the notice, Qi State, Lu State and Yue State also announced the news of raising the price of agricultural and sideline products at the same time.

The increase in the prices of agricultural and sideline products stimulated the production enthusiasm of the vast number of peasant households in the areas controlled by the empire, and their costs did not increase much, but their profits increased exponentially.

For the Lu State, they are very happy that the empire has unified and raised prices, especially after the occupation of the West Indies, where sugar and coffee have become the world's largest export areas, the sales price has increased, and the profits will increase exponentially, and they will not give those black slaves much more treatment at all; Moreover, Lu is also the world's largest grain production and export area, and they will get direct benefits from this price increase.

Taiwan's camphor, tea, sucrose, etc. followed to increase prices; Prices of fish, shrimp and canned food in Ezo Province have been raised; Australia's milk, dairy products, mutton, beef and other products have also increased their prices significantly; Cotton, grain, tea, etc., seized from India were also sold at high prices.

I felt the most painful thing about Japan and the Chinese Empire, they were close to the Chinese Empire, and the reaction was more timely, and on the day the news was announced, the price in the market reacted, closely following the price increase of the Xia Empire.

The price of grain in Japan increased by nearly 1 times on the same day, because Japan's grain growers were hit by the Xia Empire's low-priced grain, most of them went bankrupt or switched to other cash crops, and the grain relied heavily on imports.

The price of the Chinese Empire did not rise so sharply, only about 50% on the same day, but the price was slowly increasing in the following days, and most people in China immediately felt that life was not easy.

Most of the land in the Chinese Empire is now in the hands of the landlords, in recent years, the Chinese Empire has either been a drought or a flood, and the grain production has been greatly reduced.

Now that India's tea cultivation has been destroyed by war, the Chinese Empire has become the largest tea exporter, and the price of tea has directly doubled, so that the tea growers and tea merchants of the Chinese Empire can also obtain huge profits, and the country can also get more tariffs; So for the Chinese Empire, raising prices is not entirely a bad thing.

People all over the world have a common characteristic, that is, the more prices rise, the more they like inventory, and the more merchants and farmers rise, the more reluctant they are to sell.

Originally, the plan of the Government Council was to raise the domestic price every other month and gradually integrate it with the international market, but I did not expect that after the price increase, many people who sold products were reluctant to sell, and many merchants and families wanted to stock up, so that in a very short period of time, the domestic price was close to or equal to the export price except for grain.

Originally, Zhang Wei also wanted to take out some materials from the system to stabilize the market, but Zheng Daoyou rejected Zhang Wei's idea, since the market adjusts itself to the same price, then implement it according to the same price, regardless of the price high in China, the currency will circulate in the country, and the impact on the economy is not great.

Zhang Wei considered that the European war would break out soon, and the price would rise even more violently at that time, so let the market warm up in advance.

After obtaining Zhang Wei's consent, the Government Council directly raised the purchase price of grain to the same level as the export price; At the same time, let the material storage and transportation center control the supply of grain, so that the market is in a state of slight shortage.

Europe is a traditional grain import area, and grain traders stopped buying all the agricultural and sideline products of the Xia Empire after learning that the export prices of all agricultural and sideline products in the Xia Empire had increased significantly.

After learning about the situation of the Xia Empire, merchants from various European countries cautiously raised prices slightly, and some merchants directly stopped business for a few days to wait and see.

Originally, these products in Europe were in a state of scarcity, and later a large number of white Americans arrived in Europe, which exacerbated the demand for these products, and could only be met by large imports.

The result of wait-and-see is that the price continues to rise, that is, the domestic price of the Xia Empire is also rising wildly, and in less than 10 days, the domestic price and the export price of the Xia Empire have reached the same state, and the quantity is not very sufficient.

In this situation, merchants in European countries began to purchase goods in small quantities at high prices, and at the same time sent telegrams to their respective countries to increase the sales price.

In the past, the European market increased prices slightly, but now it is a large price increase, which stimulates many people to start a large amount of inventory, and they are worried that the price will rise; This phenomenon has led to a serious shortage of materials in the market, and forced traders to accept high prices and start buying in large quantities.

The rise in the price of cotton has made textile mills only increase the sales price of cloth, which will correspondingly lead to an increase in the price of clothing.

Due to the increase in the price of grain, milk, eggs, meat, clothing, etc., the cost of living of industrial workers has increased; Iron and steel mills, shipyards, coal mines, and all other industrial and mining enterprises can only improve the treatment and welfare of workers, and in order to pass on costs, they have also begun to raise sales prices slightly.

In order to maintain the short-term state of the market, Zhang Wei specially ordered the material storage and transportation center to increase the special steel project, and greatly increased the sales price of steel, which in turn led to the increase in the price of shipbuilding, machinery processing industry, and hardware products.

At the same time as the price of agricultural and sideline products increased, the price of all products was driven up in a spiral, and under the conditions of the market economy, this transmission mechanism reacted very quickly, and soon all walks of life in the empire began to increase the sales price of products.

Since the demand in Europe is only agricultural and sideline products and semi-finished products as raw materials, agricultural and sideline products have pushed up people's living costs, and semi-finished products such as yarn spindles and pig iron have pushed up the prices of European industrial products, making the prices of all materials in Europe begin to spiral.

Due to rising costs, rising market prices, and shrinking sales markets, more and more factories are going bankrupt in Europe.

As the number of bankrupt factories increases, jobs decrease, the overall purchasing power of society begins to decline, and then it is fed back to the market, causing more enterprises to go bankrupt and begin to enter a vicious circle.

Relatively speaking, the life of the Xia Empire was quite comfortable, and the prices of all kinds of materials rose, but the Xia Empire had a huge market, not counting the markets of the Chinese Empire and Japan, but the new territory and all kinds of materials needed by immigrants every year were massive, and they also had to provide assistance to the United States.

After the price increase, under the condition of the same amount of aid, only fewer materials are needed to meet the requirements of the aid amount specified in the agreement, and the amount of materials that need to be paid for the Xia Empire is much less, which can be regarded as a bargain. (To be continued.) )