Chapter 350 Food is the foundation
"My father-in-law asked a good question." Qin An said, "The current hegemonic country in the world, Yingjiang Country, has the most people in the country with the most food in the world.
It’s not about how much food his country has, but that they control the vast majority of the world’s food and become the world’s four largest grain merchants. Three of them are in Eagle Sauce Country. "
"Is there another one in China?" Ying Zheng asked.
Qin An shook his head and said: "No, there is no one in China. The other one is in France.
The four major grain merchants can control grain prices at will. In 2008, the four major grain merchants launched a bloodless war against China.
Yes, it's a food war. They made a lot of money in China because they controlled the price of high-quality soybeans.
But they are not satisfied that they only control part of China's food. They want to control all of China's food and thereby control China.
As a result, the four major grain merchants caused a food panic in the world, and grain prices increased a lot for a while.
The four major grain merchants took this opportunity to continue buying grain, keeping the price high. "
"How cruel." Li Si said, "We are already in a food shortage, and if they buy like this, there will be even less food.
Now that all the grain is in their hands, doesn't it mean that they can price it at whatever price they want? "
"That's right." Qin An said, "At that time, the four major grain merchants caused a global grain shortage. The grain shortage was not like an ordinary crisis. There was no accurate figure for the increase in grain prices.
In ancient times, when there was a food shortage, those merchants, aristocratic families, and nobles who controlled food would take the opportunity to raise the price of food. It was not a slight increase in price, but a hundreds of times increase.
Maybe you just put the rice into the bag, and the grain merchant will pour it out for you again, and then tell you that the price of grain has increased again.
Therefore, we have already learned the lesson that the country must have enough food, preferably enough food to last for several years.
The reason why the Ming Dynasty, the last dynasty of the Han family, perished was inseparable from food.
Sun Chuanting once said: "What is the hearts of the people? The hearts of the people are food."
After all, if you don’t eat food, you will starve to death.
The four major grain merchants knew this and accurately calculated that China had a large population, which was already 1.3 billion at that time.
Once food prices increase, people will be panicked, especially since food prices are rising in all countries.
The grain of the countries and regions surrounding China has been almost wiped out by the four major grain merchants. If you think they want China to spend a lot of money to buy their grain, you are totally wrong. "
"They are not trying to make money. Do they want to control China's political power?"
"That's right." Qin An said, "I told you that some countries were attacked by businessmen and eventually disintegrated.
Businessmen can help a country develop, or they can destroy it.
But you can't ban trade. Once trade is banned, the country will never be able to develop. China was extremely powerful two thousand years ago, and was eventually divided and colonized. This is all because from ancient times to the present, the court has focused on farming and has not focused on merchants. relation. "
"After the opening of trade, all the people went to business, so who still farmed?" Feng Quji asked.
Qin An smiled and said, "Do you think ordinary people who don't know anything will give up farming and go into business?"
"But some people will choose to try their luck." Li Si said.
"Then let him try. If he fails, he will just go farming." Qin An replied with a smile, "Even if he doesn't give up and wants to continue doing business, then you have to ask him if he has money. "
"Can't you borrow it from the bank?" Ying Zheng said.
"The bank is not stupid, so why should it lend money to anyone?" Qin An replied, "Before borrowing money, you must evaluate whether he has the ability to repay the money, or if you lend the money to the other party, whether the other party can transfer the money."
"What you said makes sense," Ying Zheng rolled his eyes at Qin An, "You can continue talking about the four major grain merchants targeting China's grain.
How China responds? It is impossible to ignore the food rations for 1.3 billion people. "
Qin An smiled and said: "It's very simple, just sell the grain to the four major grain merchants at the highest price.
The country will sell as much as the four major grain merchants want, until the other party can no longer eat. In other words, they eat as much as the state throws away.
Finally, Huaxia made a lot of money by selling grain, and the four major grain merchants suffered very good losses. We were victorious. "
"Why is this happening?" Li Si asked, "Doesn't the country have a lot of food?"
"There are so many that you can't even imagine." Qin An said, "You know, in all the dynasties of China, there has never been a grain panic. The scene of grain panic is unimaginable.
Not to mention ancient times, food panics have also occurred in modern times. This is a disaster engraved in the bones of us Chinese people.
Therefore, the country does not allow such a thing to happen again, so the food stored in the country is unimaginable. Even the four major grain merchants were defeated by us. "
Ying Zheng and others suddenly felt proud and elated. The descendants are like this. As seniors, they also have glory.
Ying Zheng asked: "After you have said so much, I realize that food must remain the first priority. Once we have food, we can develop commerce and make the country and people rich.
Then there is technology. With technology, the labor force can be liberated. In this way, more people can find jobs instead of working in the fields.
Farmers devote their lives to the land, but their income is very little.
You once said that using commercial tax to replace agricultural tax, I am afraid that commercial tax has reached a terrifying level. "
"Of course. Using gold as an analogy, the current annual income should be 150 million taels of gold. According to 10 taels per catty, that is 1.5 billion taels of gold."
"1.5 billion taels?" Ying Zheng and the other four were shocked at the same time.
Qin An nodded and said, "That's right. It's worth that much when converted into gold."
"There are so many taxes." Ying Zheng murmured to himself, and instantly felt that his Great Qin Empire was no longer good, and there was not so much gold in total.
That's gold, not silver, and certainly not copper coins.
Ten thousand copper coins can be worth one tael of gold. 1.5 billion taels of gold converted into copper coins and other items is 15 trillion copper coins, which can flood the entire Xianyang city.
Ying Zheng has already begun to imagine what he would do if he had 1.5 billion taels of gold.
"Is there so much gold in the world?" Feng Quji asked the doubt in his heart.
"That's a good question." Qin An smiled, "Actually, I don't know, but the whole world no longer uses copper coins, gold and silver to settle accounts.
Instead, banknotes made of a special kind of paper are used for settlement, which is convenient and easy. The most important thing is to reduce the loss of gold and silver. "
Some people died, but not completely...
