Chapter 41 Borrowing and Returning
In the seventh month of Mengqiu, the water flowing in the rivers and ditches gradually decreased, and waterwheels had to be set up to draw up the water from the ditches.
Li Tai sat astride the bullock cart with bare feet and drove the bullock cart decently. When he saw the farmer standing at the edge of the field drawing water with a bucket, he shouted: "Hot soup, give way!"
The farmers jumped to let the bullock carts pass. They looked at the water buffalo carts that were getting further away and sighed: "What a prodigal man. He doesn't like animals! He travels more than ten miles and his family owns thousands of acres of land. How many cows will be used to water this water?”
"A poor man is worried about the rich! Hundreds of people work in his weaving workshop, and hundreds of pieces of cloth can be woven in a day. There is also a workshop for pressing oil, and the big families in the countryside supply materials to his family and pour oil on the ground. Enough to make..."
"How many months has it been since this family came to this country? Are they already so rich?"
The farmer who was watering the fields next to him couldn't help but be surprised when he heard this.
"How rich other people's families are is their business. You are still here gossiping, watering the ground all night long, missing work in the evening, but no one cares about your dinner at night!"
When all the farmers in the field heard this, they also sped up their movements. After a while, another farmer couldn't help but sigh: "I can't help but admire the prosperity of the industry. The big families in the countryside will recruit people to work when they are busy, but who is as generous as this family?" , you are full of rice and rice, meat and vinegar?
A family that accumulates good deeds will surely become rich. This husband is too poor at farming and is a waste who will starve to death in good years. However, this family's business in the plateau is growing day by day. If you say there is no blessing from heaven, I really don’t believe it! "
Fortunately, Li Tai was skilled in driving the ox cart and had already traveled a long way. If he heard that the villagers despised his farm work level so much, he would withhold the food of a sheep no matter what he said today!
The land reserved for growing winter wheat has been plowed twice, but it still needs to be watered once more to fertilize the roots and stems of the previous crop.
Li Tai drove the bullock cart back, and the villagers came in to draw water and irrigate the fields.
He had just jumped off the ox cart when a man who had been waiting beside him for a long time walked up hurriedly, waving a big cattail leaf fan and approached Li Tai: "Li Lang is really diligent. He has been doing wonderful things skillfully and has a rich family, but he can still... The planning of marriage is really admirable.”
The bright sun hung in the sky, and no matter how hard he shook his cattail leaf fan, there was still no cool breeze. Li Tai walked all the way to the edge of the field and sat down under the shade of a tree. Then he pointed at Liu Gong who was following him diligently shaking the fan and said with a smile: "Liu San If you don’t go to the city to make a fortune, how can you have the leisure to come to my little garden to watch the scenery?”
"My husband said that, it really mortified me! Compared with my husband's ingenious work recently, what is my little vulgar calculation? In Zuojin Township, a bucket of sesame oil is equivalent to a piece of silk. My husband collected the oil in front of me, just for one thing. It’s comparable to a mediocre person working hard for several years!”
When someone from the village brought some perilla drink from Jingshui Liangzhen, Liu Gong grabbed it first and handed it to Li Tai respectfully with both hands, exuding hospitality from head to toe.
"If you have anything to say, just tell me. I'm too lazy to guess what you have in mind."
Li Tai took the drink and drank most of the bowl, then sipped lightly and said.
"I do have something to ask for. The price of oil is good this autumn, so my family wants to take advantage of the market to replenish oil by hot-pressing it, so..."
"So you don't want to deliver Qiu Hou's flax?"
Li Tai glanced at him and said with a smile.
"It's not that I don't want to, how dare I..."
Liu Gong glanced at the grain truck transporting grain on the country road and drove into the manor, and quickly looked away. There are few secrets in the countryside. Today, the historian, who almost lost all his money, came here to apologize for transporting materials. In a very short period of time, the news spread throughout the Sakon countryside.
Although not much is known about the specific inside story, the big players in the area no longer dare to regard Li Tai as a newcomer to Dongzhou with little foundation, and they feel awe in their hearts.
"My countrymen used to laugh at me... But now I realize that we are short-sighted idiots! After a miscalculation, my family is not without the courage to admit defeat, but this autumn's flax harvest failed. It's just, it's just..."
Li Tai glanced at Liu Gong, who was still thinking about his words, and said with a smile: "It's just that the flax harvest is a small matter, but in the next few years, the current price of oil in the countryside will not be controlled by your villagers. Is this the real big problem? "
"Mr. Sir, although my family also has a profitable sideline business, it is still farming mulberry trees. All the food and clothing are harvested through hard work. If you miscalculate in one season, you will suffer from hunger and cold for many years. There are also rewards and levies in Daxingtai. Information from the countryside Even more tired..."
Liu Gong said with a bitter look on his face, even shuddering in this autumn and summer weather.
When Li Tai saw this, he couldn't help laughing again. It wasn't that he was gloating about his misfortune, but he was just proud of it.
Kansai has been disrupted by natural and man-made disasters for many years, making it difficult for small households to make a living, and land and population are concentrating on large estate owners. In addition to their considerable rural power, powerful people like Guan Long also have abundant rural capital.
One of the characteristics of the large estate economy is that it can concentrate productivity and flexibly arrange production methods. It can be said that it is completely self-sufficient and does not need to make frequent transactions with the outside world.
Therefore, there is no money in the entire Kansai market, and these large estate owners are still living a very comfortable life.
Li Tai finally built a large spinning wheel, but due to the shortage of raw materials and labor, production capacity was seriously hampered, and the farming plan was floundering. This is evident from the stubbornness of these surface powerhouses in their control of rural capital.
In later generations, the commodity economy was developed, so the saying "you can really do whatever you want with money" was derived. But when market transactions degenerate into the state of barter, having money is nothing but having goods is the last word!
In the past, Li Tai was well-known in the countryside as a man who took advantage of others. These big households set off a craze for slaughtering sheep and sold him a large amount of sesame, the most important oil crop. They even pre-sold the post-autumn output for large sums. .
From the perspective of business gains and losses, these large households do not suffer losses. After all, the crops in the fields are produced every year. Even if they cannot keep up with the trend of soaring prices, they will only make less money.
But from a comprehensive perspective, Li Tai's temporary monopoly on sesame is equivalent to directly cutting off a link in the estate economy of these large households. What they lose is not only immediate profits, but also the cost of oil for the entire year.
In normal years, although such interruptions will have a certain impact, losses can also be reduced by adjusting one's own production pattern, such as hybridizing some other oil crops and controlling self-consumption.
However, this autumn Daxingtai issued a losing reward and transferred a large amount of materials from the countryside to the government. The savings of these wealthy households have been greatly reduced. If Li Tai pinches their ankles again, it will be very uncomfortable. It is likely that they will not be relieved for several years. But this is the energy.
In particular, there is no legal transaction currency that can circulate freely in Guanzhong. The cloth usually used for trading also requires tedious labor to produce.
This makes the big households even more stretched when arranging production for the coming year, and a loophole appears in the self-sufficient manor economy. This is the most uncomfortable thing.
"I am not a fairy who can eat the wind and sleep in the dew. Since I still have to live in this world, of course I will not be grudged against the village for some material benefits. The orders received in advance after autumn can be redeemed, but it also depends on the sincerity of the villagers. How much.”
Old God Li Tai said, now he is not like he used to be when he had money and couldn't spend it. He will naturally not be polite when he needs to make decisions.
"Of course, of course! All the money paid by Langjun in advance will be returned, and my family will also give away a batch of fresh produce to compensate for the breach of contract."
Liu Gong was overjoyed when he heard this and quickly expressed his stance.
Li Tai felt happy again when he heard this, waved his hand and said: "Liu Sanruo doesn't know how to speak human language, please go home first and invite your parents to come again. The weather is hot, and I can't guarantee that I will calmly listen to your nonsense again."
"My family is indeed full of sincerity, why don't you give me some advice?"
Seeing Li Tai standing up to end the conversation, Liu Gong hurriedly said again.
"Let's do this. I'll get 30% of the advance payment back to me. How much flax will you sell in advance? In exchange, sell me ten times the grain, based on this autumn's current price."
Li Tai already had a plan in his mind and said directly after hearing the words.
"Thirty percent? This is too high..."
Liu Gong had a bitter look on his face after hearing this. In the past, Li Tai could buy the goods in the countryside at a 20% premium. They also took advantage of the difference in the price of flax in summer and autumn and collected it in advance. But now they have to pay 30% for the goods without doing anything. It's really heartbreaking and a bit hard to accept.
Li Tai didn't bother to bargain with him, so he stood up and walked to the manor.
Liu Gong hesitated at the rear for a while, and when he saw Li Tai was about to enter the manor, he quickly caught up with him: "Master, wait a minute, wait a minute! Thirty percent, yes, 30%, but I ask your Majesty to agree not to dump the market in the near future!"
In winter, the weather is dry and the nights are long and the days are short. Even without food consumption, the maintenance of utensils requires a lot of oil. Although sesame oil is not the main maintenance oil, it will also increase in line with this wave of market conditions.
Although newly harvested sesame seeds are highly vaporous and difficult to use for oil pressing, these big investors obviously don’t want to miss this market trend.
"Don't worry about this. My oil will not be sold on the market before the end of the year. If you don't believe me, we can make another contract."
This time Li Tai was very talkative and expressed his position directly.
Most of the oil he purchased has already been transported to Zhou Changming, and the oil mill has not officially started construction yet. Even if there is still some storage, he has to wait and see the strength and scale of Daxingtai's control over relevant prices before entering the market. Sale.
Moreover, while purchasing sesame oil, he also purchased a large amount of raw hemp materials. These materials need to be spun into cloth as soon as possible in order to directly increase his purchasing power and realize cash.
In the next few years, there will definitely be a systematic change in the people's livelihood in Guanzhong. The barter trading environment cannot be said to be inflation or deflation. Strengthening one's own productivity is undoubtedly the most critical.
It is precisely for this reason that Li Tai wanted to blackmail the historian into one hundred parts. These parts are not just for young men, Li Tai also requires them to have a skilled skill, in order to reserve their talents for the future development of the country.
To be honest, if He Basheng's capital had not been borrowed to cause trouble this time, Li Tai really didn't want those big investors to redeem the goods orders. But since it is borrowing capital and saving profits, it is naturally easier to borrow and repay.
The big families in the village redeemed the bills one after another, and Li Tai returned to Huazhou with a batch of returned fabrics to pay back the money.