My eunuch godfather

Chapter 44 Tambak Market Analysis

After completing the red contract, Zhang Kun instructed Xu Xin to book a restaurant and surrounding eateries, buy wine, slaughter pigs, and host a banquet for all the farmers.

With insufficient space, chefs from restaurants and eateries set up makeshift stoves on the street, placed large pots on them, and began cooking meat.

Most farmers rarely eat meat, even a few times a year, and their eyes are fixed on the bubbling broth in the pot.

Standing by the pot, unable to move, I twitched my nose, trying to inhale as much of the meaty aroma as possible.

To prevent fighting over the meat, it was divided into portions according to the number of people after it was cooked, with one bowl for each person.

"Oh, Mother!"

The elderly farmer held a piece of meat in his mouth and chewed it repeatedly, reluctant to swallow it.

Remembering that his mother wanted to eat meat but couldn't before she died, he suddenly cried out, and tears dripped onto the table.

The young farmer wolfed down his food, eating several mouthfuls of rice with each piece of meat.

After finishing the meat, I went to the pot to ask for a bowl of meat broth before continuing to eat rice.

"Eat slowly, be careful not to choke."

The middle-aged man patted the boy's head, picked up his bowl, and used his chopsticks to put a few slices of meat into the boy's bowl.

"Sir, you should eat too!"

The boy, realizing what was happening, quickly reached out and covered the bowl, stopping the middle-aged man.

......

Standing on the second floor of the restaurant, Zhang Kun noticed that not many of the farmers were drinking.

Only a few well-off farmers would eat meat with their drinks, chat, or play drinking games; most farmers were busy cooking.

The capital city is located in the northern part of the Haihe Plain, where the climate is relatively cold and rainfall is relatively low.

Now, we are also facing the intensification of the Little Ice Age, resulting in consecutive years of drought.

Zhongtian, which only grows winter wheat and does not engage in fallow planting, has one harvest a year, with an annual yield of only about 0.7 shi per mu.

Yuhe belongs to Wanping County, and Wanping County has three types of taxes.

The regular tax consisted of four items: summer grain, autumn grain, horse fodder silver, and salt paper silver.

The "tribute" system, which levied corvée labor in silver, included many items, such as the silver for horse and donkey stations levied by the Ministry of War and the silver for firewood levied by the Ministry of Works...

There is also horse breeding, with a quota of 441 horses, each horse being allocated about 6 hectares of land, which is converted into silver for horse breeding land allocation.

The total amount of the above three types of taxes is 18285.384 taels.

At the end of the Jiajing reign, Wanping County still had 34.27 mu of land designated for grain requisition, which was later reduced due to the emperor's continuous bestowal of estates.

Now only 28.65 mu of land are still subject to grain requisition, with an average of 0.0638 liang per mu.

The price of wheat in Wanping County was 0.6 liang per shi, so 0.7 shi would be 0.42 liang, and the tax rate was approximately 15.19%.

This is equivalent to one-seventh of the tax, far exceeding the one-thirtieth tax set by the Hongwu Emperor.

Don't forget that many of these fields were transferred to the names of officials and gentry, shifting a large portion of the tax burden to other fields!

You think that's all?

Not all corvée labor was converted into taxes; there was much corvée labor in addition to taxes!

They can be divided into two categories: those for actual service and those for recruitment. Now, all of them have been converted into silver, totaling 5329.4 taels.

The population was divided into nine grades for taxation, ranging from 1.64 taels per adult to 0.316 taels per adult for the lowest grade.

Under heavy taxes, most farmers could not afford to drink alcohol or eat meat, and they rarely ate refined grains. Hunger was a common occurrence.

Even in a year of plenty, some farmers will die of hunger, let alone in a year of famine.

Therefore, most farmers do not drink alcohol and save their appetite for white rice.

Zhang Kun sighed and turned to leave with Xu Xin and the others.

......

Upon returning to the capital, Zhang Kun began planning the promotion of tampoo in the city.

Tambaku is planted in spring and harvested in autumn, but Zhang Kun will not wait until next autumn to start promoting it; instead, he wants to establish the market in advance.

The gap between urban and rural areas was also very large at that time, with the living standards of urban residents being far higher than those of farmers, especially in large cities like the capital.

Even a laborer with no skills required would be paid at least thirty copper coins a day, or 0.03 taels of silver.

If you can work 300 days a year, that's 9 taels of silver.

That's equivalent to the yield of 21.42 mu of land!

Older, weaker workers could do odd jobs like cleaning and laundry, earning ten to twenty copper coins a day.

Those jobs requiring some technical skill, such as coachmen, sedan chair carriers, charcoal carriers, shed builders, and painters, were paid around 0.05 taels.

Those with higher technical skills, such as pottery workers, carpenters, tailors, printers, and book staplers, earned around 0.07 taels.

Those with high technical skills, such as grooms, blacksmiths, and scribes, are worth more than 0.09 taels.

For the citizens of the capital, it was not difficult to eat meat two or three times a month, and many could even eat meat every few days!

In Zhejiang and Fujian, the price of dried leaves of *Tamarix chinensis* is around 1 tael of silver per catty.

A box of ten cigarettes requires about 2.2 qian of dried basil leaves, which is less than 0.14 taels of silver.

Even a laborer with no skills can buy six or seven boxes if they work for a month without eating or drinking!

Moreover, there are many people in the capital who receive salaries, numbering in the hundreds of thousands!

Compared to most citizens, their income is more stable and their willingness to consume is stronger.

The combined annual salaries of the imperial relatives, officials, soldiers, and clerks in the capital city alone amounted to the expenses borne by the Ministry of Revenue's treasury.

It's worth over 64 taels of silver and over 233 million shi of rice!

In this respect, Nanjing is far inferior to the capital, not to mention other major cities such as Suzhou and Guangzhou.

Zhang Kun became more and more excited as he thought about it. In the capital alone, the market size of raw rice could reach hundreds of thousands of taels!

The problem now is that Zhang Kun lacks available business talent.

There was only one Deng Wenqi, who had to oversee both the cultivation of wild rice in Xuanbeifang Feiduan and the cultivation of wild rice in Yuhedu and other places.

......

"Is that the capital?"

Standing at the bow of the boat, Sun Shuyun removed the Guanyin-style robe that she wore while practicing Buddhism, gazed at the distant city walls of the capital, and muttered to herself.

Three months after the Sun family moved to Tianjin, they had already built a distillery and started brewing their first batch of wine.

Sun Jing left his eldest son, Sun Shouxin, to manage the distillery, while he himself, along with his daughter Sun Shuyun, went to Beijing to participate in Zhang Kun's tartary mushroom business.

Three flat-bottomed shallow boats were loaded with 15000 catties of dried basil leaves and 600,000 catties of various goods.

"These fresh mushrooms are very susceptible to moisture damage; they suffer significant losses when shipped to Japan!"

Inside the cabin, Yasunobu Matsuura and Jing Sun were discussing the prospects of tampons in Japan, with the latter expressing little optimism.

"Tanbagu is not resistant to moisture, and raw silk and sugar are even less resistant to moisture, aren't they?"

Matsuura Yasunobu was very optimistic about the prospects of tampons in Japan, and shook his head at Sun Jing, saying:

"With such a high potential return, even if half of it is lost, it's still not a loss!"

My hometown is densely populated and has limited land. The fields must be used to grow rice and other staple foods, otherwise we cannot feed so many people.

There's very little land available for planting mulberry trees and sugarcane; we simply can't sell enough!

Japan now has a population of 1200 million and, having just emerged from the Warring States period, is experiencing rapid growth.

By the end of the Chongzhen era, Japan's population would have grown to 1600 million.

By the end of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, Japan's population might have exceeded 3000 million, making it a major power that would rank among the top in the world.

"Father, Commander Zhang is here!"

Sun Shuyun rushed back to the cabin and said urgently to her father.

"What!?"

Sun Jing and Matsuura Yasunobu were both taken aback and hurriedly left the cabin.

Zhang Kun, riding a large Western horse, was seen leading a dozen or so riders, waving in their direction from the shore.

"Quick, get closer!"

Before the boat had fully docked, Sun Jing had his servants carry out the planks and hurried towards Zhang Kun and his party.

"Commander Zhang, how could I trouble you to personally greet me!"

Sun Jing knelt on one knee to pay his respects. Zhang Kun dismounted and helped Sun Jing up. Xu Xin, standing nearby, smiled and reminded him:

"Master Sun, Master Kun is now a deputy commander of a thousand men."

He relied on his achievements in suppressing bandits in Hejian Prefecture, as well as the influence of his eunuch godfather.

Zhang Kun has been promoted from a sixth-rank centurion to a fifth-rank deputy commander.

Congratulations, Commander Zhang!

Sun Jing congratulated Zhang Kun, then turned and pointed to the three boats, saying with a smile:

"I believe that our tampons business will also flourish, just like yours!"