Chapter 4 This Era

Style: Science Author: Sheep little starWords: 2177Update Time: 24/01/11 15:09:54
Mother Han looked at her son's wandering look and couldn't help but urge him.

"I don't care what time it is. Your aunt and the others are probably here, so why don't you hurry up and eat."

"I'll eat it now, I'll eat it now." Li Jie nodded and said with a playful smile.

After saying that, he picked up the porridge on the table and poured it into his mouth.

Mother Han loved her youngest son the most. When she saw her son devouring the food, she was afraid of choking, so she patted Li Jie's hand.

"Slow down! Slow down! Don't act like a starving ghost reincarnated!"

The porridge is very thin, and the main ingredient is water. After all, grain is rationed in these days. An average adult weighs about 27 kilograms a month, and a person with light physical activity weighs about 32 kilograms a month. The rations are not all fine grains (polished rice). , white noodles), but the thickness is matched. (Coarse grains generally include corn, purple rice, sorghum, etc.)

Li Jie drank up the bowl of porridge in two gulps, and Li Jie didn't plan to eat the remaining two sorghum buns at home. He grabbed the buns with one hand and walked out, planning to eat them while walking.

"Mom, I'm leaving!"

Mother Han looked at the remaining steamed bun on the table and called out.

"There's another one for you to take with you and eat on the way."

Li Jie raised his hand and said without looking back: "No, one is enough."

According to the memory of the original owner, the aunt basically came back to the city once every two or three months.

Auntie and the others come to the city not just to visit relatives, but they have to bring some clothes and food with them every time they go back, which is commonly known as fighting in the autumn wind.

Therefore, Li Jie knew that he was going to have a hard time, and he would save what he could.

There is nothing we can do about it. Nowadays, rural areas still eat from a big pot, and the household responsibility system has not yet emerged. The aunt’s family has a large population, and the cents she earns are simply not enough to eat.

Although the Han family is not very wealthy, except for the original owner and Han's mother, the six members of the family are all workers.

Workers were very popular in the 1970s. With four workers in the family, there was basically no shortage of food. Every province could deduct some money to help relatives in the countryside.

The Han family lives in Beiwanzi Hutong, next to Nanchizi Street, about 2 kilometers away from Daqianmen, also known as Zhengyangmen, and it takes about 20 minutes to walk there.

In the 1970s, except for buses and official cars, there were basically no private cars on the road.

There was no need to take a bus for a short two-kilometer journey. The original owner had been back to the city for a while and was unemployed. His pocket was cleaner than his face.

Oh, no.

There is still seventy-five cents in his trouser pocket, and he cannot keep this money. Later, he plans to use the money to buy some fruits for his aunt to take according to the plot, so that his brothers and sisters will not privately complain that she often comes to the house empty-handed. .

Li Jie was thinking as he walked, he still had to make money. Forget about having a private car, he had to get a bicycle.

But bicycles are not cheap. Brand-name bicycles such as Feige, Phoenix, and Forever cost around 1,670 yuan for a new bicycle.

The salary of ordinary workers is only about 30 yuan a month, but most of this money has to be spent on food. Li Jiejin read a report before. In the 1970s, the Engel coefficient (the total food expenditure accounted for an individual's total food expenditure) in 49 cities The proportion of total consumer spending) is generally 60%.

According to the most extreme way to save money, if you save thirteen yuan a month, it will take you a year to afford a bicycle.

However, in the era of the planned economy, you could not buy things with money. Whenever you went to a store to buy something, most things had to be purchased with a receipt plus RMB.

To buy grain, you need food stamps, to buy cooking oil you need oil stamps, to buy cloth you need cloth stamps, and to buy industrial supplies you need industrial coupons.

For industrial supplies such as watches, steel pots, bicycles, artificial cotton, etc., industrial coupons are unavoidable.

Since 1961, industrial coupons have been issued on a monthly basis. The rationing standard is based on the principle of one coupon for every ten yuan of salary to each employee. For example, if your monthly salary is thirty yuan, you can receive three yuan per month. Zhang industrial coupon.

According to the current market price, a Feige bicycle costs 170 yuan + 50 industrial coupons.

If an ordinary worker has no additional expenses except food and drink, he can barely buy a car by saving up a year's worth of money and industrial coupons.

Even if you have enough money and industrial coupons, you still need a bicycle ticket to buy a new car, otherwise you won't be able to buy it even if you save enough. But how can a person have no expenses except food and drink? This is unrealistic.

Therefore, if you want to buy a brand-name bicycle, you often need to save for one or two years. For ordinary families, a bicycle is definitely a big item.

Of course, the wisdom of working people is infinite. If I can’t afford a first-hand bicycle, why can’t I buy a second-hand one? There is no need to use a coupon to buy a second-hand bicycle.

There are specialized vendors in the market who recycle scrapped bicycles, then tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, replace the old and new, and a second-hand car comes out.

But people who do these businesses have to do it secretly, otherwise if they are caught, they will be speculating and will go to jail.

As early as November 1950, before the planned economic system was fully implemented, the Ministry of Trade issued "Several Instructions on Banning Speculative Business", which explicitly prohibited and banned eight commercial activities.

Exceeding the scope of business; not trading in designated markets; hoarding and refusing to sell supplies necessary for production and daily life; short-selling and speculating to make huge profits; deliberately raising prices to snap up or sell supplies, spreading rumors, irritating people's hearts, and causing price fluctuations; failing to comply with local regulations Commercial administrative measures disrupt the market; use counterfeiting, adulteration or violation of product specifications and use all other deceptive practices to seek illegal profits; engage in all speculative activities.

Since the unified purchase and sales in 1953, the planned economic system has been clarified, and regulations on speculation have become increasingly strict.

Later, household production contracts were implemented in rural areas, and with the autonomy of production, farmers could sell part of their agricultural products in the market after completing their unified marketing tasks.

However, even if the state has this regulation, farmers can only sell at markets near their homes and cannot go to markets further away.

When the first criminal law was passed in 1979, speculation, hooliganism and dereliction of duty were collectively referred to as the three major pocket crimes.

With such a background of the times, Li Jie has no plans to start a business for the time being. The risk of being a hawker in the past two years is too high. It is better to wait a few years until the situation is more relaxed before making plans.

It won't be too long, probably after 80 years, the policy will be much looser.

To actually open up this gap, we have to wait until 1985 when the government abolishes the unified purchase and sales. Only then can we do business in a somewhat aboveboard manner.

From 1977 to 1980, there were still three years to go. Li Jie had two plans for the time being.

The first is to prepare for the college entrance examination. In two months, the official will officially announce the resumption of the college entrance examination. Because of the special period, the questions in the first college entrance examination are not difficult. As long as Li Jie takes the exam, Qingbei can choose at will.

The second is to find a job and mess around first, but then follow the route in the original drama again.

————

PS: What do you think? Which is better?