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Chapter 183, sky-high price of food

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    "The British Duke is a famous old fox. Of course he is smart."

    Emperor Hongzhi smiled and said: "If it hadn't been for him, we might not have been able to raise enough money and grain for disaster relief this time. Now we not only have one million taels of silver for disaster relief, but also raised 30,000 dans of grain. This famine  I was finally able to get through it smoothly.¡±

    "Father, you think too simply."

    Zhu Houzhao glanced at Emperor Hongzhi, curled his lips and said: "This time they have been planning for a long time, how can they look at this mere million taels of silver."

    "Didn't I say it before? This time they are actually coming for us, father and son, and our royal family. If they don't want to wipe out all the money in our hands, they will take away our property.  , they will never give up."

    "Now, Father, you only took out 500,000 taels of silver, which is only one-fifth of your internal funds. You still have 2 million taels of silver left in your internal funds. My private money is not touched at all.  How could they just stop?"

    Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Emperor Hongzhi's face darkened. After thinking about it, he nodded and agreed with Zhu Houzhao's statement.

    Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and asked: "Then what will they do next?"

    "It's very simple, create a phenomenon of extreme food shortage, and then drive up the price of food until the price of food is raised to a sky-high price. By then, the millions of taels of silver raised will not be able to buy much food at all, and then they will  I¡¯ll write to my father again and ask him to use the money to buy food.¡±

    Zhu Houzhao said almost without thinking.

    ¡°If they really want to do this, then I really can¡¯t be blamed this time.¡±

    A cold light flashed in Emperor Hongzhi's eyes, and then he thought for a moment and said, "Ask Liu Jin here in Tianjin to prepare as soon as possible."

    "yes."

    When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he immediately became more excited. At this time, he felt as exciting as marching to war, but the two sides were not fighting for soldiers, but for money and food. Now it depends on who has the money and food in his hands. Then  Whoever holds the key to victory in this battle.

    Things were just as Zhu Houzhao expected.

    On that very day, rice was sold for fifty-five cents per catty in Beijing in the morning. In the afternoon, it was like riding a rocket. The price of one catty of grain rose to one hundred and fifty cents per catty, and this amount of silver was only  Only ten kilograms of grain can be purchased.

    What's even more outrageous is that these grain merchants have also imposed purchase restrictions. Even if they are rich, each person can only buy a maximum of two kilograms of grain at a time, and a store can only sell a maximum of one thousand kilograms a day, creating an extremely scarce food supply.  How much inventory looks like.

    Originally, the price of food kept rising due to the famine. The original price of a few cents rose to more than fifty cents, and now it has suddenly risen to one hundred and fifty cents, and it seems that there is no food to sell at all.  The entire capital suddenly began to be turbulent.

    After all, food is the foundation of everything. As long as people live, they must eat and drink. If food is unstable, people's hearts will naturally be unstable. Food prices have risen to sky-high prices, and the famine has spread from outside the city to the capital.

    One hundred and fifty cents per pound of food, even here in the capital, everyone keeps saying that they can't afford it. You know, in this era, it is considered good for a young and strong labor force to earn forty or fifty cents a day. In other words, a  An adult can barely earn a pound of grain a day, so you can imagine how expensive this grain has become.

    Throughout the capital, public dissatisfaction boiled. Countless people who could not afford to eat or buy food began to gather to put pressure on the government, demanding that the government severely punish these profiteers who have made great fortunes in the country, and open warehouses to release grain as soon as possible to provide relief to the victims.

    The news naturally spread to the court very quickly.

    "What?"

    "The food price has increased to 150 yuan per catty?"

    On the morning of the next day, when Zhou Jing, the Minister of Household Affairs, told the latest grain prices, Emperor Hongzhi was shocked, with a look of disbelief on his face.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t I only have more than 50 yuan per catty yesterday?¡±

    "To be precise, yesterday morning it was still fifty-five cents per catty, but yesterday afternoon the price of grain rose to one hundred and fifty cents per catty."

    Zhou Jing said helplessly that he had asked someone to contact the grain merchant yesterday to discuss purchasing grain. When he heard the quotation given to him by the grain merchant, he was also shocked.

    These unscrupulous people actually sell one pound of grain for 150 cents per pound, and there is no room for negotiation on this price. Everyone keeps saying that food is scarce now, and they don¡¯t have much in their hands.There was little food, so even if it was sold, there was no way to sell too much to the court at once.

    "One hundred and fifty taels of silver can only buy ten jins of grain. The one million taels of silver donated by everyone can only buy 10 million jins of grain."

    "The three provinces of Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shandong have a total population of almost 10 million. In other words, the donated money is only enough to buy a pound of food for each of the victims in the three provinces?"

    Hongzhi simply calculated the amount with his fingers. One million taels of silver seemed like a lot, but it was only enough to buy one pound of food for each of the victims.

    How long can you eat this pound of grain?

    Even if you cook all the porridge, even if everything goes well for a day, if you just lie down and drink porridge to survive, this pound of food will not last for a few days.

    "Yes, Your Majesty, one million taels of silver will not last long at all, but it will take about a month to mobilize the food from the south, so we still need more silver taels to buy food."

    "I sincerely request your Majesty to use more money from the internal funds to purchase food to provide relief to the victims."

    Zhou Jing nodded, and habitually pawned the skin of a pig, preparing to get some money out of Emperor Hongzhi's internal funds.

    "Zhou Jing, should my money be used to help the victims? Or should it be used to help the grain merchants?"

    Hearing Zhou Jing's words, Emperor Hongzhi stood up immediately and stared at Zhou Jing, extremely angry.

    At this time, what he, the Minister of Household Affairs, was not thinking about because the price of grain was too high and whether these grain merchants should be severely punished. Instead, he was once again eyeing his own money. How could Emperor Hongzhi not be angry, no matter how good he was?  There are limits to your temper.

    "II also know that the price of food is ridiculously high, but food is scarce now. No matter how expensive the price is, we still have to buy it. People are starving outside Beijing, and the victims are exchanging their children to eat."

    Zhou Jing suddenly fell to his knees and replied in fear, with cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

    "good very good."

    Emperor Hongzhi laughed angrily, and then asked: "Zhou Jing, the one million taels of silver haven't been used yet, right?"

    "No, because the price of food has skyrocketed, I think it is too expensive. In addition, major grain merchants say that food is scarce, and I don't have much food on hand, so I haven't spent it yet."

    When Zhou Jing heard this, he quickly replied.

    "It's fine if you don't spend any money."

    Emperor Hongzhi nodded, then smiled and said: "This grain is too expensive. One hundred and fifty cents per catty, one million taels of silver can't purchase much grain."

    "But I have heard that here in Tianjin, the price of meat is only one penny per pound. I read the Zhou Jing that you can go to Tianjin and have a look. We might as well not buy food at all, but buy meat.  "(Remember the website address of this website: www.hlnovel.com
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