Outside Chang'an City, a carriage began to rush towards the outside of the city, and there was a man and a woman in the carriage, and this man and woman were Shi Bufan and his woman Qin Jiarui. This time, Shi Bufan came to Chang'an City to investigate and investigate, and Qin Jiarui said that he would follow.

"Jiarui, your stomach doesn't matter, right? Now you have my baby in your belly! Shi Bufan said with a smile.

"Husband, I don't think it matters! It doesn't matter lately, I can still do things. Qin Jiarui said.

Shi Bufan knew that this Qin Jiarui would not give up doing things because he was pregnant, because in his previous life, as a white-collar class with a certain status, and even belonged to a relatively high-end white-collar class, he had some understanding of some female white-collar workers with relatively high levels of education. They are often full of self-confidence and self-esteem, and the same is true for Qin Jiarui, who will not give up her job just because she is pregnant. Because giving up one's job is almost equivalent to giving up one's financial resources, and once one gives up one's financial resources, one gives up one's independence of personality.

Qin Jiarui was unwilling to be Shi Bufan's concubine, that was because she had the capital to maintain her independence and self-esteem, so she would rather leave Shi Bufan than be given up her independence and self-esteem by the identity of this concubine. Therefore, Shi Bufan knew Qin Jiarui's thoughts, so he naturally would not force her. So now they can maintain the harmony of their own family, so that there is no contradiction between Dugu Daxue and Qin Jiarui, not because of how "charming" Shi Bufan is, but because neither of them has to look at anyone's face. Qin Jiarui doesn't need to look at Dugu Daxue's face, because she is not an extraordinary concubine, so naturally she will not be controlled by this "eldest woman", she is free. It is precisely because these two women have scruples that they maintain relative peace between them. Otherwise, Shi Bufan's family would have become restless long ago, and there would definitely be a lot of stumbling blocks due to various tricks.

Shi Bufan is also happy to do this, because he knows that he is not the kind of bull man who can make all women harmonious and make them have no contradictions. He can't do it, so it is most important to maintain a balance of status between several women, but to maintain family harmony. As for the reputation, does Qin Jiarui need this? Title is just a material economic guarantee given by a man to a woman, as long as he has enough wealth and living ability, that title is not very important. This point has never been ordinary and has become clear from later generations, why do many female white-collar workers who seem to be talented and well-paid refuse to get married, and even many people who talk about friends and even have children are unwilling to get a license? In fact, because they don't need to rely on others to live, they naturally don't care about this so-called certificate.

In the final analysis, the family actually has a large unit of production. It can also be seen from ancient times that a family is a thing created by the mutual support of men and women in order to cope with risks. It's just that the labor force of women was weak during the agricultural period of the ancient feudal era, so they attached so much importance to this so-called name and family. However, as long as either party can survive independently, and even be able to support its own offspring, it no longer matters whether this so-called certificate is used as a guarantee. If you like it, you can be together, and you don't like to be separated, and no one needs to look at anyone's face.

"Jiarui, how are you doing? What are you going to do with the small loans I asked you to prepare for the people? Shi Bufan asked.

Qin Jiarui replied: "I have prepared the funds and can use them at any time." However, according to the plan, Qian Zhuang intends to invest money around this Chang'an first, but at present, the people do not seem to be enthusiastic about our loans. It seems that the reaction of the people is not too strong, and there are very few people who are willing to borrow. ”

"Why?" Shi Bufan asked.

Qin Jiarui replied: "According to what I know, the people think that this loan is only less than five yuan, which is a bit embarrassing. Five yuan is just to buy a pair of farm tools. However, they themselves are not necessarily short of farm tools. But five times the money can't buy a ploughing cow, a ploughing cow is worth a lot of money, and the five guan money is obviously not enough. Therefore, it is too embarrassing to be less than five dollars, and there are relatively few things that can be purchased. On the contrary, if you want to buy a ploughing cow, the price is not enough. Now everywhere is preparing to resume farming, and the price of farming cattle is rising. Even if the people had cattle, they were not willing to sell them. However, ordinary cattle are obviously not fast enough, and it is obviously difficult to breed quickly with only a few years of loans. So it's too embarrassing to be less than five dollars. ”

"But if we increase the amount of the loan, then the interest and all kinds of repayment pressure will obviously increase again. Even if the people spend this money to buy farming cattle, it will cause the price of farming cattle to be higher, which will form a bad result. Husband, you also said that scarcity is expensive, and once we increase the amount of loans, not only will the people's repayment pressure increase suddenly, but they may not be willing to take this risk. Even if they take out a loan to buy cattle, the price of cattle will increase more rapidly at that time, which will not be in their favor. ”

Shi Bufan thought about it, and indeed found that he seemed to be a little negligent, and the previous practice of small loans was obviously a little negligent in considering the mentality of ancient farmers. Not to mention the ancient peasants, even if they were the peasants of later generations, they would not choose to borrow if they were not a last resort. Chinese generally do not have the habit of taking out loans, and Chinese are generally conservative in terms of loans. This was especially true of the ancient peasants, who were reluctant to borrow if they had no choice but to borrow.

However, this small loan is obviously a little embarrassing, and it is obviously enough to buy farm tools, but people often don't need too many farm tools. If you buy farming cattle, it is far from enough. If you want to meet the people's idea of buying more cattle, there is only one choice, increase the loan amount. However, this is tantamount to letting Qin Jiarui's money bank take a greater risk, once the loan amount is increased, the money bank itself will bear a greater risk of bad debts and bad debts, and the benefits have not increased. This kind of thing that increases risks but decreases returns is not stupid! Isn't Qin Jiarui's money his own money? He didn't have such a thankless stupid thing to do.

And on the other hand, if they are willing to increase their lending efforts, are the people really willing to borrow? With the conservative nature of the ancient people, I am afraid that they are not willing to borrow easily. I don't know how many times the ancient times were more conservative than the later generations, and the later generations were also very taboo to borrow money, let alone the ancient times? Those conservative farmers will definitely worry about their own interest and the risks involved, so once they increase the intensity of lending, then the people will bear more pressure on the interest, and they may not dare to borrow.

Five times the money, it is already the limit, the biggest limit, it can't continue to improve, and even those who dare to borrow five times the money are probably a minority! Maybe most of the people just dare to pay a couple of dollars, and they don't dare to borrow any more. Therefore, the amount of this small loan is really embarrassing and hungry, and the good things can't be bought, but the bad things can't be used.

Shi Bufan came to the countryside under Wannian County, where the people had just carried out the autumn harvest, and it was already time for the farm. Shi Bufan and Qin Jiarui, two relatively luxuriously dressed men and women, came here, which obviously made many people curious. There are almost no nobles coming down in this village, even if the emperor's so-called personal cultivation is actually just making a show, that is, making two looks by himself in the royal farm, fooling the ghost!

In addition, bureaucracy prevailed in this era, and there were very few officials willing to go down to the grassroots level. Therefore, this Shi Bufan and Qin Jiarui, a richly dressed "handsome man and beautiful woman", are obviously scarce animals, and many people are also curious.

Soon, someone came.

"Excuse me, Childe, who is it? I'm the one here! A middle-aged man said.

According to the previous plan, Shi Bufan did not directly say his identity, but said: "My father is an official in Chang'an City, I am curious this time, come and see what it is like to have a rural area in my Tang Dynasty!" ”

"Hey, it's really fresh, blessed in the city, actually come to us?" Obviously, some people don't understand the special "fun" of Shi Bufan.

"Yes! It's all because we want to go into the city, but the people in the city still want to come and see it, it's really strange! ”

"The siege effect, the people on the outside want to go in, and the people on the inside want to come out! In later generations, people in the city wanted to go to the countryside instead, but many people in the countryside desperately squeezed into the city. Where in this world is there a life that is utterly perfect? Only when you have truly experienced it will this really be another luxury. Everyone wants to be born in the emperor's family, but there are also many people from the emperor's family, saying that they want to be born in the emperor's family for the rest of their lives. No one is completely perfect, no matter what the status of, there will be a painful side to him. Some people may see the bright side, but they rarely know his painful side, and only they know the hardships of it. Shi Bufan thought.

"Hello uncles!" Shi Bufan took the initiative to greet and said.

"Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, don't dare to be!"

Under this hierarchical society, Shi Bufan was so polite, then they didn't dare. However, Shi Bufan was not reluctant, and directly began to get to the point, because he was going to investigate the grassroots production situation of this Datang society, so he naturally had to care about these things first.

"Guys, how was your harvest this year?" Shi Bufan asked.

"It's okay, just enough to make ends meet!" Some answered.

Shi Bufan also nodded, because according to his calculations from the data, the Engel coefficient of the Tang farmers in this period reached more than 66%. In such a situation, it is indeed just enough to "make ends meet". Once there is a slight change, I am afraid that it is really going to collapse.

However, Shi Bufan then asked: "Then how do you plan to cultivate the land next year?" Is it ploughing oxen? ”

"Ploughing oxen, the one who can't afford it, uses manpower to plow the land!"

Shi Bufan frowned and thought: "Use manpower to plow the land, plough a hundred acres?" I'll go! ”

Although Shi Bufan has never ploughed the land himself, and he is not from a rural background, he can imagine how tiring it is to plow the land by manpower. In the Tang Dynasty, each family had a hundred acres of land, and if all of them relied on manpower to plough the land, Bufan really didn't dare to think about it at that time, and he had never experienced this feeling. In short, it is a tired person, and tiredness is absolute.

"I think, am I undercounting, I'm afraid that such heavy physical labor, without enough oil and water, four catties of food a day, is it not enough?" Shi Bufan thought to himself.

Shi Bufan looked at these farmlands, and then asked, "Why don't you use horses to plow?" If you use horses to plow, you can plow the land quickly, if you are cultivating a lot of land, then horse ploughing is not faster and the cost is relatively lower? ”

"Horse farming? The horses are all in the hands of the imperial court, how can we have horses? Even if we have horses, we can't afford them! What's more, even if we can afford it, we won't be able to use it! We are only a hundred acres of land, and the oxen are enough, so what do we want horses for? When the time comes, I buy a horse and have to eat and drink to serve, and I will die. We only have a hundred acres of land, and a cow is enough, and we don't need horses. ”

Shi Bufan secretly wrote down the answer of horse ploughing and ox ploughing, and Shi Bufan knew that this ancient Chinese was generally based on ox ploughing, while the West was mainly based on horse ploughing. In fact, if you want to say that in terms of the cost of cultivated land, if it is a small area of cultivated land, it is indeed an advantage of cattle farming. However, if the cultivated land reaches a certain area and is large enough, then the relative cost is more advantageous than horse farming. Of course, this horse farming is also an important expense, horses are much more difficult to serve than cattle, and horses eat much more food than cattle, and it is not even easy to serve.

Moreover, ordinary people have little arable land per household, which is the traditional Chinese small-scale peasant economy, and the small-scale peasant economy does not need horse farming. This is just like the agricultural machinery of later generations, everyone knows that agricultural machinery is highly efficient, and even has many benefits. However, the price of agricultural machinery is high, and ordinary farmers cannot afford it. Coupled with the small land area of single-family farmers, the use of such efficient agricultural machinery is obviously a waste, but it is not as low as the cost of cultivating cattle.

This later agricultural machinery is actually a copy of the ancient horse farming, perhaps in the cultivated area reached a certain amount, the horse farming is relatively lower than the cost of cattle farming. However, because of this ancient small-scale peasant economy, the unit cost was higher, and the production model of the common people could not afford the cost of horse farming alone, so it was not worth it.

"It seems that the small-scale peasant economy is a shackle that restricts the productive forces in ancient times. Since I can't get a high-yield sweet potato, I can only change the ancient production relations and use them to increase productivity. Changing this kind of small-scale peasant economy of one household at a time is conducive to liberating the productive forces and increasing them as soon as possible. Shi Bufan thought. (To be continued.) )