This small grain store only serves the common people, and it rarely does business with the royal family. Where is the chance to establish relationships with foreigners? Since the day it opened ten years ago, no foreigners have entered this small shop.
Today this big-nosed foreign devil came in and scared the old ladies with their little feet so hard that they couldn't even walk. They tried their best to hide their grandchildren behind them.
The waiter didn't dare to say hello, so the shopkeeper came out to deal with it and bravely said, "This... this foreigner... I don't know why you come to the shop? We don't have anyone who can speak foreign languages here..."
"It doesn't matter... I can speak Chinese... I just want to buy some food. What kind of food can be stored?"
"Ah? Ouch... Mr. Foreign, your Chinese is really good. I don't know if our small business can serve you... If you ask for more, we may not be able to make ends meet with our small profit!"
When encountering this kind of deal, the shopkeeper's first thought is to turn it down, because the foreigners are too powerful and they will have no place to reason if they are cheated.
I bought your food, but what if I deliberately made trouble and refused to pay you? What to do if you blackmail someone? It’s better to just push it away!
Delaney smiled, "Don't be afraid, boss, I won't owe you any money. I can pay 60% of the deposit in advance, so your risk is gone, right?"
"I just want to ask, what kind of food can I buy that can be stored for a long time?"
The owner of the grain store never expected that the foreign devil would come to inquire about this, and he thought to himself, don’t you foreigners all eat bread? You don’t want to eat the mixed noodles I have here, either?
However, there was no reason why the foreigner would not answer the question. The boss smiled and said, "No matter how good the food is, it cannot be preserved for a long time. This is not like the wine getting better with age!"
"If you have to ask about long storage time, generally speaking, coarse grains can be stored longer than fine grains, and shelled grains have a longer shelf life than ground grains..."
"A small store like mine doesn't have many varieties. They only sell the common japonica rice, hybrid noodles, corn, and various beans...other big grain stores have more varieties, such as fragrant rice, imperial rice, and rouge rice. ...Wheat can also be divided into high-gluten and low-gluten. If foreigners want to try something new, you can turn left and walk about 300 blocks away and there is a Chinese-owned grain store..."
"There are a lot of grains from overseas, and the varieties are very strange..."
What the boss is saying is that he wants to invite you, Delaney. He really doesn't know the details of this foreign devil, and he doesn't know why he asks such a question.
The foreign devil was in the store, and the old neighbors at the door were so frightened that they didn't dare to come in. They gathered around the door to watch the fun.
But I didn't expect that the foreign devil had no intention of leaving. Instead, he reached out and touched the white rice in the grain bag. After a closer look, it turned out that the quality was not very good.
The beige color is yellow, and it is not polished rice, and the degree of grinding is not enough... People in the past did not know what vitamins and dietary fiber are. They knew that the longer the rice is ground, the whiter it will become, and the taste will be better, so it is called polished rice.
The yellowish outer layer is eaten by poor people. Although it has high vitamin content, they don’t understand this!
"Boss...if I buy rice in the husk, how long can it be kept?"
"Ah? Do you really want to buy it? If the rice in the husk doesn't get wet... it can be stored for two or three years without any problem. If you peel it off and eat it after three years, it won't be inedible, but the taste will be much worse!"
"What about the price? How much does rice cost per liter now?" Delaney asked very carefully.
The boss replied, "Hulled brown rice costs 80 cents per liter. Rice with husk... no one buys it. If you really want it, I'll give you 60 cents per liter..."
Delanie tilted his head and thought for a while, "I remember...I remember that rice was very cheap before the capital! Wasn't there a time when brown rice cost 60 cents?"
"Hahaha... Oops, Mr. Foreign, when was that in the old almanac? It was during the months when the head of state was regent in the capital!"
"The head of state is really powerful. At the lowest point, he was able to lower the price of rice to 40 cents per liter, which is directly on par with the price of rice during the Qianlong period!"
"But it didn't last long, and it soon returned to fifty or sixty cents per liter... until the head of state left the capital, the price kept fluctuating around sixty cents!"
"But it's not going to work in the past two years...the price of rice in Gyeonggi Province has risen to 80 won. If you want to ask why, it really can't be explained clearly in a sentence or two!"
"Although our capital has always been able to eat overseas grain shipped by Chinese grain merchants, so the people don't have to worry about eating! But don't forget that the court has too many projects in the past few years!"
"The construction of the Beijing-Tianjin Railway and the Capital Iron Works... brought together more than 100,000 people! These people came from remote villages, which caused a shortage of food supply in the market in a short period of time. Do you think this food price can Won’t it go up?”
"No matter how much subsidies the court gives, and no matter how much grain the Chinese people transport, the more than 100,000 common people are all pot-bellied. They eat too much... If they don't have enough to eat, they won't have the energy to work!"
"What's even more terrible is that the imperial court has brought so many workers and peasants from the countryside... all of them are good at farming! They leave their hometowns and leave the village, so the land originally cultivated by these people will also be abandoned!"
"I heard news from my hometown that many landlords are reducing rents. They can't do it without reducing rents. There are fewer and fewer tenants, and no one is farming the land owned by the landlords. They are so worried that they can't sleep every day!"
"There is no one to plant the land, so there will definitely be much less food harvesting in the fall... Do you think the price will not rise?"
"One last thing..." The grain store owner sighed, "Since the capital city launched this stock market... more and more people have made money. Countless wealthy businessmen from all over the world come to the capital to try their luck with their money!"
"There are too many rich people in the capital... It has become much easier to make money through various businesses. Extravagance has become common in the market, and private dishes are everywhere in taverns. Do you know how serious the waste is?"
"The swill poured out of restaurants every day is enough to feed tens of thousands of pigs outside the city. This is all money!"
"The people at the top don't use money as money, and the common people are following suit. With money being made in the market, they are also eating better..."
"In the past, the custom of being diligent and thrifty has become less and less popular. When people open their eyes, all they see is money, floating in front of them like sea water!"
"It's easy to get money, and it's easy to spend it! Our food prices are the basis of all commodity prices. Do you think it can be kept from rising?"
"It is reasonable for the price of rice to rise from 60 fen to 80 fen! A rising tide lifts all boats. In fact, our grain store's income is about the same as before, or even slightly less!"
"Because the purchase price has increased, there is nothing we can do!"
Delaney couldn't help but nodded. This grain store owner was indeed a good businessman. He was famous as a Shanxi merchant. His analysis was very reasonable.
"Boss, what is the exchange price of silver dollars and copper coins on the market today?"
"One thousand to one, the price is very stable, it has always been like this!"
"In other words, one silver dollar can buy husk rice for... 16 liters, one stone is one hundred liters, 6,000 Wen, which is six silver dollars?"
"That's right, Mr. Yang's calculation is correct!"
