After retiring from all the subordinates, Shuning closed the door and pulled her mother to the left room to sit down:

"Over the years, I have helped Eniang housekeeper, and I also have a point in my heart about the amount of money in my family. Although he got a lot of silver and property in Guangzhou that year, after returning to Beijing, Ding was worried about it for three years, and purchased the house and land property on this side of Fangshan, and the house over there also invested five or six thousand taels back and forth. Now Ama is an official of the Qingshui Yamen, and when he wants to go up again in the future, he will have to spend some silver. The elder brother has to have children and be promoted, and the two younger brothers have to go to school and marry. If you calculate it carefully, our family is really not rich. If Ama Eniang blindly thinks about my dignity and makes a rich dowry, but causes a famine in the family, how can I bear it? So I thought, I can save it, and now that I've taken over the housework, I'm just thinking of a way to add one or two more items to the family. I know that my talents are mediocre and I can't make a lot of money, but as long as I can get two or three thousand silver, I can help a lot. ”

Shi smiled slightly: "Two or three thousand silver, isn't it the price of ten hectares of land plus a small village?" It seems that you have seen the dowry list that your Amma discussed with me? ”

Shuning lowered her head a little embarrassed: "It's on the table, I just accidentally saw ......"

Shi smiled and said, "It's okay, it's rare that you have this heart." However, E-Niang thinks you are underestimating your own family. Our family saves money on weekdays, but relying on the house, and rarely socializing with other families, the cost is not much. What's more, we actually got more money in Guangzhou than you think. ”

She took a sip of tea before she said slowly: "Actually, many of the possessions we got back then were silk, porcelain, jade, and the like, and even the silver, not to mention seventy or eighty thousand taels. After returning to Beijing, the money spent over the years. That's about 20,000. However, the Fangshan real estate industry, although the year is short, there are more than 10,000 taels of input, plus the dividends in Guangzhou, this in and out, there is a slight surplus, and then take out 20,000 yuan to give you a dowry, in fact, it is not tight. What's more, there are many things brought back from Guangzhou that can be used directly. Wouldn't that save a fortune? ”

Shuning was a little dumbfounded when she heard this, did she turn out that her family was so rich? How did she never know? I thought it would be good to get 30,000 or 40,000 yuan that year.

Shi looked at her daughter's surprised appearance, pursed her lips and continued with a smile: "Besides, the jewelry, clothing, antique calligraphy and paintings given by your aunt are also worth tens of thousands, and they have saved us a lot of money." I have prepared a lot of jewelry, utensils, clothing, medicinal herbs, spices and so on. Carefully speaking, when it comes to jewelry, what we still need to prepare is actually a few strings of beads, bracelets, bracelets, earrings, rings, pendants and other bits and pieces, and the big head is on furniture, clothes, materials and fur. In this way, it will only cost fifteen thousand taels. You can do it very decently, and spend another 5,000 taels to buy a field and a small house, and no one will look down on you. That's why I told you not to worry. ”

Shuning was stunned when she heard this, she originally had to calculate it like this, but she still hoped to make a contribution, 20,000 taels is not a small amount, and she can get 70,000 or 80,000 taels of property in three years.

"Even so," she said. I still want to contribute to the family, and it is good to save three or two thousand, just for the sake of my brother and little nephew. ”

Shi smiled: "Your idea is good, but how can a girl's family earn a dowry for herself?" There has never been such a rule. ”

Shuning said: "The rules are also set by people. And let's not talk about it, who knows? Besides......" She rolled her eyes and smiled: "Since it is my marriage." Wouldn't it be better for me to pick and choose? When I pass the door in the future, it is also my private room, and I have a number in my heart, so I will not let my subordinates fiddle with it in a daze. ”

She thought about it, ......glanced at her daughter a few times, smiled, and saw her daughter's strange look, before she said: "My Shu'er is different from other girls, when it comes to dowry, dowry and passing the door or something, she is also so generous, not as twisted as others." ”

Shu Ning felt a little embarrassed: "Why did E-Niang say that?" As if I was thick-skinned...... "Actually, it's just talking about what you bring to your new home when you get married, what's there to twitch?"

Shi smiled: "I think that's good, no matter who comes to our house, they are generous and happy, this is what life looks like." She thought for a while, clasped her hands and said: "Let's do it, our family's industry will be handed over to you for the time being, whether you want to open source or throttle, it's all up to you." It's just that if you do everything you have to let me know if you spend more than two hundred taels of silver, you have to report it to me first, how about it? ”

Shuning was busy.

The matter was decided, so she took advantage of her mother's lunch break to go back to her yard first, but not to rest. She took out a bunch of keys from the penultimate floor of the dressing box, used one of them to open the lock on the second drawer on the right side of the large cabinet in the bedroom, took out a small box of rosewood, and used another key to open the lock on the top, and took out a stack of silver tickets.

These are all private money she has accumulated in recent years. In his Tatara Mansion, she has two or two months of money a month, but her food and clothing are all in the public middle school, personal pocket money, just to buy books, skin care products and some small things, and the big expenditure of fat powder before the draft is still public money, so she has accumulated a lot of monthly silver. Together with the red envelopes given by the elders during the New Year's holidays, as well as the dividends of Guangzhou cyclamen, she actually saved more than 700 taels of silver. In order to save trouble, she had already called for someone to help exchange the six hundred taels of them for fifty taels of silver tickets. Now if you want to make a dowry for yourself, you have to take it out to make a small investment.

She counted out ten silver tickets, folded them and put them in a purse, and then packed them up, locked them back in the big cabinet, and then rested beside the bed for a while, and after half an hour, she returned to the main courtyard.

In the afternoon, he took his daughter to listen to the Changgui couple and Gu Quansheng report on the recent situation of the other hospital. First of all, Changgui, he said the income and expenses of the courtyard in the first three quarters of this year, the number of male and female servants, one died of illness, and three newborns, the distribution of bereavement money and follow-up matters, and after asking the master what he meant, he dug a large cellar in the southwest corner of the garden, and built a house in the backyard with the mud dug out, and now the project is only about thirty percent completed. In order to avoid disturbing the young grandmother Zhenzhen, the work has been stopped now, and the burned bricks are placed in the tiled house on the west side.

Next is the eldest sister-in-law, Qiaoyun. She first said that there are a few people in the Huamen prince sodu ring who should be married this year, and a few of them have already had a will, so she asked her to arrange it, and these people will be married in the month. skillful

After thanking them, they talked about the number of mattresses, purses, and other tasks that their sewing room had done in recent months.

After hearing this, he smiled and said, "Let's use these first, but then we will be busy, you girls will go out of the pavilion." The quilts, door curtains, curtains, chair drapes, stool covers, and purses to be used should be made, and more snacks should be used. As for the clothes, shoes and socks, wait until the date is set, so as not to make them unfit early. ”

Qiaoyun hurriedly responded, and looked at Shuning and smiled. Shuning glanced at her, but smiled lightly.

Next is Gu Quansheng.

He said: "There was too much rain this year, but fortunately, the adults asked someone to dig the ditch early, and the young lady told me to build the embankment, so most of the farmland was saved." But compared with the production of two stones per mu in previous years. This year, there are only about thirteen or fourteen buckets, and now they are all harvested. Dried in the cellar and put it away......"

"Why don't you sell it?" Shuning asked.

Gu Quansheng replied: "The owner of the rice shop we originally dealt with was from Pingyang, and the old house collapsed due to the earthquake, and now he is planning to finish the business here and return to his hometown, so he no longer collects grain, but only sells the surplus grain." However, in the nearby ten miles and eight townships, his family's rice store is the largest, and the business of other grain stores is too small to accept our family's grain. This one came and went, and it was delayed. Originally, this year there was a lot of water. Grain prices will be higher than in previous years, but last month, the imperial court exempted Shuntian, Baoding, Hejian, and Yongping from next year's land and grain, and transported 40,000 stone rice to Pingping, but the grain price is lower than in previous years. Xiaodi felt that it was not cost-effective to sell grain at this time. I plan to save it first and sell it in April next year. ”

The so-called flat is to use a price higher than the market when the valley price is too low. Buying grain, and when the price is too high, selling it at a price lower than the market. In doing so, the imperial court not only stabilized prices in favor of agricultural merchants, but also obtained huge profits to enrich the state treasury, which was a practice of killing two birds with one stone. Gu Quansheng's plan is nothing, the official family has food, and the people will not go hungry. And if you delay it until April next year, when it is not available, you can make a profit.

—

Shi and Shuning glanced at each other, nodded to each other, and motioned for Gu Quansheng to continue.

Gu Quansheng said: "In addition to the grain, the fruit is only six or seven percent of the previous year, although the taste is poor, but the sale is okay, about seven or eight hundred taels of silver, but the business house is also opened by Shanxi merchants, only three hundred taels were paid, and they said that they would make up for it in the month of Layue." In addition, the lotus root is gone, and the flowers are only sold for some money in the spring, but the bamboo shoots and fish are sold a lot, and there are 185 taels of silver before and after. ”

Shuning lowered her head and wrote down the numbers in the booklet, and did the math with her heart. At present, grain prices are on the low side, and it is estimated that in April next year, they will be sold for one stone and nine yuan to one tael of silver, plus the money for fruits, fish, and bamboo shoots, about 2,000 taels of silver.

She looked at the account book again, and suddenly noticed something strange. In previous years, the grain from the local area would be sold if it was only left for chewing for more than half a year, and when it was needed, it would be bought from the grain store, and it would cost dozens of taels of silver almost every year. This year's grain prices are high, and it is right that we should spend more money on grain than in previous years, but the ledger shows that we have not spent a penny this year.

She asked Changgui and found out the reason. It turned out that in the past, my father received Lu rice, and he would always hand it over to the public middle school for resale, and he could get more than 100 taels a year. But this year, things are a little different. First, his father Zhang Bao let go of his foreign post and took away some of the servants, and another part of Lu rice; And in the capital, a portion of Lu rice from his brother Duanning was added. On the other hand, there was a disagreement between the third room and the big house, so the clan no longer handed over the share of rice that Zhang Bao got because of the title to the big house, but left enough for the Huaiyuan and Meiyuan, and then sent someone to transport it to Fangshan together with Duanning's share for storage. Now that the courtyard can't finish the food, naturally there is no need to buy it.

When she heard this, she began to calculate. Father Zhang Bao's Lu rice is one hundred and eighty-five stones, I remember that it is 1,850 buckets of grain, and even the elder brother's sum is more than 2,000 buckets. Nearly 17,000 buckets of grain are produced in their own fields, and there are almost 20,000 buckets of grain in total......

She was stunned for a moment, and then said to her mother with a smile: "Counting our family, Ama and her brother's Lu rice plus the production in the field, there are almost 20,000 buckets of grain in total, where can we eat it?" It's better to open a grain store and sell rice. In previous years, we sold it to grain stores, and the price was much lower than the price of ordinary grain, and we lost some money, so it was better to keep this big head for our own money. ”

Shi got a little interested, so Shuning took the abacus and calculated it carefully to her: "If we open a store, we can ask the eldest uncle and the fourth uncle to give us their own Lu rice to sell, and they will also sell the land, we only need to add a penny or two more than others." There is no grain store in the name of the house, if even the production on the Baoding Zhuangzi is counted, there are at least 100,000 buckets a year, which is 10,000 stones, according to the current grain price, you can earn two or three thousand taels of silver. It's a good deal. ”

After hearing this, she thought about it carefully, and it was really good, but she was a little worried: "If we encounter a situation like this year, and the court wants to be peaceful, then aren't we at a loss?" ”

Shuning thought for a while and said with a smile: "It's okay, the court is peaceful, just to stabilize the price of grain, it won't be too low, after all, the grain is cheap and hurts the peasants." Let's just adjust the market price outside. In addition to our few stores, we can also help others sell. Although the imperial court explicitly did not allow it, in fact, everyone did it. If we let people open a grain store, we will specialize in this kind of business, and we don't need any capital to calculate. I've heard of other families doing the same. ”

Gu Quansheng listened and said: "Miss is right, in fact, the rice shop I just talked about, called Fu Lusheng, is doing this, but they are old rice houses, and they grind the old rice of their families into net rice and then sell it." ”

Although he felt that this business could be done, he still had concerns, so he said to his daughter: "No one in our family has ever done this, if you really open a store, who are you going to let do it?" ”

Shuning was right to think about it, so she calmed down a little. At this time, Gu Quansheng spoke: "If Miss Madam really wants to do the business of a grain store, it is just right." Fu Lusheng is about to change hands now, their guys are ready-made, I am good friends with their boss Shi, so I know a little bit about the rules of the industry, if Miss Madam can trust me, how about leaving it to me? ”