The two parties reached an agreement on the transaction, and the formal transaction soon began.

The glass mirrors framed with copper frames were 1,500 taels and the vanity boxes were 1,000 taels and 1,000 taels, adding up to 285,000 taels of silver.

Zheng Shilian estimated that with the Zheng family's relationship and channels in the capital and Yangzhou, it would not be a problem for these dioramas to earn more than 100,000 or 200,000 taels.

Suddenly I was in a good mood, but I didn't know whether to sell this batch of dioramas to Beijing or Yangzhou, the capital is needless to say, dignitaries are everywhere, and the market is very broad.

It's just that although there are many dignitaries and nobles in the capital, the silver is not as much as the two Huai salt merchants in Yangzhou.

The Lianghuai salt merchants in Yangzhou can be said to be the richest group in contemporary times, and those capitals add up, even Zheng Zhilong, who is as rich as the country, can't compare.

Among the two Huai salt merchants, Hui merchants have the most, with more capital than tens of millions of taels, and less capital also have millions of taels.

Salt merchants live in luxury and have always been the best place to sell luxury goods, so Zheng Shilian pondered whether it was better to sell them in Beijing or Yangzhou.

Sell it to Yangzhou to earn more silver, and sell it to the capital, just enough to use these dioramas to make friends with the bigwigs of the DPRK and China, and it will be easy to do business in the future.

Zhao Quan and Zheng Shilian's housekeeper went down to trade, Zheng Shilian didn't think about it for long, and continued to discuss with Zhao Yan, naturally it was the matter of purchasing food on behalf of the nephew just now, "I don't know how much food my nephew needs to buy, I will let people prepare it as soon as possible." ”

"Probably tens of thousands of stones!" Zhao Yan thought and said.

"What~! Tens of thousands of stones, so many? Zheng Shilian listened to Zhao Yan's tone that seemed to be completely indifferent, and couldn't help but call out, "Nephew, this is tens of thousands of stone grain!" ”

"Can't Shibo buy it?" Zhao Yan took a sip of tea and asked calmly.

Zheng Shilian shook his head and said, "It's not, it's September, and the autumn harvest is just after that." My Zheng family has also collected a lot of grain in various places, and these tens of thousands of stones can still be handled. Even if my Zheng family doesn't have it, Jinan City is close to Caoyun, and it is not difficult to buy some food. ”

"It's just that the nephew has to be clear first, and he said that 10,000 stone of grain is enough for 3,000 people to eat for a year, and if there are more old and weak, there may be a surplus in a year. The nephew wants tens of thousands of stone grain, so do you have to raise tens of thousands of people? Zheng Shilian looked at Zhao Yan in surprise and asked.

"Shibo didn't know that Dengzhou was ruined by Kong Youde, and now it is starving all over the wilderness, and the people are displaced. The people who have nothing to eat can naturally only obey the Kou. My mother believes in Buddhism, so my nephew wants to buy more food to go back so that he can open a porridge shed to earn some merits. Relieving more people can also make Dengzhou more stable, so that the bandits will not be strong, as the so-called rise and fall of the country, the husband is responsible. Zhao Yan said with a heavy face, there are true and false in his words, he naturally would not say that he bought food and went back to recruit displaced people.

The intelligence of this ancient person is not covered, you must know that Tuntian is such a good strategy for strong soldiers, as long as you read more books, it is clear to those who have determined the world with this in history.

In ancient times, there was Cao Ying, and there was Zhu Yuanzhang in the near future, all of whom relied on this tuntian to sweep away hostile forces with strong supply capabilities. Zhao Yan now has more than 100 families on hand, can he be low-key or try to be low-key.

After all, the amount of food he needs is relatively large, and it is unreasonable to say that he is a tenant who supports his hands.

"The nephew has this heart for the country, it is really embarrassing for the world, since the nephew wants to open a porridge shed in Dengzhou, the world's uncle will also give five thousand stone of grain to earn some public morality!" Zheng Shilian said, promising 5,000 stone of grain to come out.

"Little nephew, thank you Shibo." Zhao Yan arched his hand and smiled.

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. In terms of grain, there is no need to worry about the nephew, my Zheng family still has seventy or eighty thousand stones of grain in stock, if the nephew wants more, I can introduce some grain merchants from my Shandong Gang to the nephew. Zheng Shilian said.

"The little nephew doesn't need so much for a while, so let's buy 50,000 stones first!" Zhao Yan pondered for a moment and said.

"How about a stone of rice and wheat for one or two or five cents?" Zheng Shilian talked about the price. Although he took out 5,000 stones and gave them to Zhao Yan for free, the business is business, and the price still has to be discussed.

Zhao Yan didn't want to talk too much, so he agreed directly, "Shibo's price is fair, so let's decide!" ”

"Okay, that's it." Zheng Shilian laughed happily, and said in his heart that it was really smooth to do business today, and he got him tens of thousands of taels of silver.

It's just that Zheng Shilian can't help but have some changes in his opinion of Zhao Yan, and he concludes that this young man's surname is still too tender, and he is not suitable for business at present, but he doesn't know what will happen in the future.

Zhao Yan is indeed not a suitable material for business, but he comes from later generations, and with his own ability and vision, it is not difficult to earn silver in this era, but it is inevitable to be passive in bargaining.

Zhao Yan didn't care much about this, this gain and loss was not worth his concern, anyway, he was not short of silver, so he just found a sophisticated shopkeeper to help him negotiate business in the future.

At present, the most important thing is to buy food, use this grain to recruit displaced people, and plant food on those deserted land in Dengzhou, as long as you plant sweet potatoes, self-sufficiency will not be a problem in the future, and you will no longer buy food.

However, the grain sales business still made Zhao Yan more excited, and the grain sales in the Ming Dynasty definitely contained huge profits. Buying low and selling high has always been the secret of those grain merchants making a fortune.

In the Ming Dynasty, because of the tax system, the price of grain fluctuated greatly, and when the peasants paid taxes, a large amount of grain would appear on the market.

Because the Ming court levied silver, not directly grain. When the peasants paid their taxes, they had to sell their grain first, exchange it for silver, and then hand it over to the government.

Therefore, when it is time to pay taxes, a large number of peasants in the market will sell grain, which will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in prices, and behind the sharp drop in grain prices, there are reasons for the laws of the market, and there are also reasons for grain merchants to deliberately lower prices.

The fall of the Ming Dynasty also had a significant bearing on the proliferation of the commodity economy.

If a farmer has planted 10 acres of land and has to pay a bucket of grain for each mu, then the grain that the farmer has to pay should be one stone. But if the price of grain has plummeted by half, perhaps even by six or seven percent, then the grain that the farmer has to pay will become two stones or more.

But the imperial court only levied one stone of grain, and asked where did more than 50% of the grain go? Naturally, it went into the pocket of the grain merchant.

That is to say, tens of millions of taels will enter the pockets of grain merchants every year, and their amount should be about 10%~20% higher than the tax and silver levied by the imperial court every year.

Grain merchants can use this grain to transport it to the frontier to sell, the frontier is poor, the price of grain is very high, and they can also be exchanged for salt. The Jin merchants specialized in the business of the border army, and it was precisely because of their targeting of the crowd, coupled with the Ming court's inability to supervise society and the relationship that the control of thought was about equal to zero, those Jin merchants actually did business in the Manchu Qing Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Whatever the Manchus wanted, they sold. After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, they became imperial merchants.

If there is a famine in a certain area, then these grain merchants will restrict the sale of grain and make huge profits by using it too high a price.

The huge loss of peasants when paying taxes is a relatively big burden on peasants. And for the imperial court, such a loss will not bring them any benefits, and there may be an uprising or something because of the hardship of the people.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, peasant uprisings ran through almost the entire Ming Dynasty, and in the context of low control over the people, it was simply a breeding ground for rebellion and rebellion.

To summarize the social situation of the Ming Dynasty, there is no more appropriate way to 'heaven and hell coexist', a paradise for the rich and a hell for the poor.

The reason why Zhao Yan was interested in this grain trafficking business was not because of how much silver could be earned, but because of the important surname of grain in the late Ming Dynasty.

This thing is simply the most important strategic material, tens of millions of peasants rioted because of food, countless officers and soldiers defected because of lack of food, and countless people starved to death because of food.

The grain is of little use to the grain merchants, and is nothing more than a tool for them to hoard goods, which is of no use at all to resuming production.

Zhao Yan got 55,000 stone of grain, and there were 210,000 taels of silver left, and he still had plenty of money on hand. Roughly converted, it is more than 5 million kilograms of rice and wheat, and if one person eats one pound of grain a day, it is enough for almost 30,000 people to eat for a year.

It is very easy for the labor force in this year to eat a pound of grain a day, and even one pound is not enough to eat, mainly because the intake of eggs, milk and meat is not enough. However, the elderly, children, and women don't eat so much, and on average, it's about the same amount.

In addition to food, Zhao Yan also has to purchase a lot of things, iron, cattle and so on are the most important, with iron, he can build weapons, farm tools, with cattle can improve productivity.

There is a lack of iron ore in Shandong, only Luxi has iron ore, and the quality is not high. It was a bit troublesome to buy iron materials, and in the end, under the recommendation of Zheng Shilian, Zhao Yan got acquainted with a mine supervisor.

Zhao Yan stuffed 3,000 taels of silver to the mine supervisor, and Zhao Yan finally found a stable source of iron, and bought more than 20,000 catties of iron in the hands of the mine supervisor in one go, and swept away the inventory.

Zhao Quanbian bought ploughing cattle near Jinan City and organized a convoy of transporters.

To transport such a huge amount of materials back to Dengzhou, it will inevitably take some mental and physical strength.

;