Chapter 300 Establishing the Peasants' Association
For these landowners in Nanping County, they had mixed feelings when they received Su Ze's invitation.
If it weren't for Su Ze, they would definitely not come to this meeting.
Are you kidding, rent reduction and interest rate reduction? What do they eat when rents and interest rates are reduced?
For landlords, the bulk of their income comes from two aspects, land rent and usury interest.
Land rent is the lease money paid by tenant farmers, most of which is 20% to 30% of the output of an acre.
This does not sound like much, but in fact it is the same as the official Tian Fu, but there is a big difference.
For example, landlords would require tenants to hand over high-quality refined grains. The price of refined grains was often several times that of inferior grains. In order to collect enough refined grains, tenants would have to sell grains to buy refined grains.
Another example is that in addition to renting farmland, tenant farmers also need to work for the landlord's family, which is also a huge burden.
In addition to land rent, there is also usury interest, which is a means for landlords to exploit tenants.
Common people need seeds and farm tools to farm. It's okay if the weather is good. Agriculture that depends on the weather will always have various disasters. Once such a situation occurs, farmers may not have enough seeds for farming the next year.
At this time, the landlord will provide usurious loans to the tenants. These usury loans often have extremely high interest rates and are compounded. They exploit the tenants through usury loans, turning the tenants who were originally just employees into domestic slaves, or forcing the tenants to sell their children. Selling girls to pay off debts was a trick played by landlords in the Republic of China. "The White-Haired Girl" is such a story.
But the person who invited these landowners was Su Ze. Because of the name Su Ze, these landowners had to come.
The only person to be elected in Nanping County in recent years is Jieyuan from Fujian. Su Ze is the pride of Nanping County.
Over the years, Su Ze has been writing books, writing plays and medical books, running schools and engaging in team training.
In the military camp in Changning Weiqian, all the landowners from the entire Nanping County gathered together.
"Everyone, the current situation is difficult. There are Japanese pirates invading the sea, and the Feilong Army in northern Fujian has also captured Tingzhou." Speaking of the situation, the landlords
frowned. Su Ze said that it was indeed true. Although Yanping Mansion is in northern Fujian, It is also adjacent to Tingzhou Prefecture. If the Feilong Army continues to move north, Yanping Prefecture will be threatened.
"Mob uprisings" like the Feilong Army have always been what landlords hate most. Although Zhang Lian's slogan did not equalize land, it also had the slogan of killing evil gentry. In order to raise military expenses, the Feilong Army often ransacked homes.
Ordinary people naturally have nothing to speculate on, so the targets of property raids are naturally landlords.
Su Ze mentioned the Feilong Army, and everyone looked at him. Everyone knew that the Yanping Guard was unreliable. If the Feilong Army really went north after the beginning of spring, the only one who could rely on it was the Changning Guard.
Not to mention the main force of the Feilong Army, a "Flying Dragon Army" entered Nanping County years ago and destroyed all the mines of the imperial court. Even the guarding eunuchs were missing. This also made some landowners near the south tremble.
Su Ze said: "My idea is very simple. Let's reduce rent and interest for tenants. The land rent will not exceed the court's land tax, and the interest will not exceed five points of simple interest. What do you think?" Look at me, these landlords
. Let me look at you, Su Ze's rent reduction and interest rate reduction are not too big. The land rent and land interest of some landlords here are about the same amount.
Some people have already reached this standard, and naturally more people will support it.
Anyway, we don’t need to reduce the interest rate, so why not sell it to Su Ze to save face?
This is the benefit of high reputation. When something requires only verbal support, people with high reputation can easily get support.
Sure enough, as several landowners took the lead in responding to the request, the remaining landowners whose land rents were not far from this goal also raised their hands to express support.
The scene has changed. Except for a few landlords whose land rents and interest rates are particularly high, most of the people support Su Ze.
Fang Aizhu, who was hiding in the crowd, quietly recorded the landlords who had not raised their hands to support him at this time.
Su Ze continued to play chips and said: "In addition to reducing rent and interest, in order to guard against the Feilong Army and Japanese pirates, I suggest that each township and village set up a township group. In fact, a township support group does not need many people." "Ten acres of land can produce a man
. Ding, even a man from twenty acres of land will do. He can be sent to Changning Guards for training, and we will provide weapons. Once they encounter the Feilong Army or Japanese pirates, the township regiments from ten miles and eight villages can gather to fight against the enemy." "The township regiments
. There is no need to confront the enemy head-on. As long as we can resist for a while, we can inform our Changning Guard until the Changning Guard dispatches troops." Hearing that
Su Ze was willing to protect the Yanping Mansion, the remaining landowners gave up their resistance and were exploiting the people anyway. There are many ways for tenants to do this. Su Ze is not a government official and cannot check the accounts, so he must first agree to it.
Seeing that everyone agreed to reduce rent and interest, Su Ze smiled and allowed the landlords to eat in the camp for a while.
"Mr. Xie Yuangong, what is this?"
A young landowner looked curiously at the whale oil lamp on the table. It was customized by Su Ze's workshop in Fuzhou according to the style of kerosene lamps in the late Qing Dynasty.
Although the method of firing glass has been written in "Tiangong Kaiwu", due to problems with materials and furnace temperatures, the glass fired in the Jiangnan region still has high impurities, and the price of pure white glass is still the price of luxury goods. .
However, the price of ordinary glass with impurities has dropped rapidly. The whale oil lamp uses a variegated glass lampshade ordered from Jiangnan Workshop.
The base of the whale oil lamp is made of iron, and the wick is controlled by a brass knob to control the brightness of the oil lamp.
Whale oil is filled into the oil seat of the base. Compared with candles, this whale oil lamp has many benefits.
The flame is bright, and the glass cover can prevent wind and will not go out when the wind blows.
The size of the flame can be adjusted, it is not easy to catch fire when whale oil is added, and it will extinguish automatically when it burns out.
Landowners in Nanping began to ask where they bought this whale oil lamp.
Su Ze said with a smile: "Chang Ning Wei sells these whale oil lamps. Everyone can get as many as they want."
This was not surprising, but what Su Ze said next surprised everyone.
Fang Aizhu brought a plate, which contained the disassembled parts of the entire whale oil lamp.
The glass lampshade, base, wick, and brass knob are the main structure of the whale oil lamp.
Su Ze said generously: "It is not difficult to make a whale oil lamp. It mainly consists of four parts." "
The method of burning glass is described in "Tiangong Kaiwu". I think there are also local glass shops in Nanping City. "
"The base is made of iron and can be made using the sand casting method. There are also manufacturing methods in "Tiangong Kaiwu", so I don't need to go into details. " "The wick is a
special cotton rope, but it is a bit thicker . Any woman who knows how to weave can make a cotton rope." "
The last one is the brass adjustment knob. This thing is stamped and is a little difficult, but it can be made by hand." Su Ze
continued . After assembling it on site, he said:
"Actually, everyone can make this whale oil lamp by themselves. It sells very well in Fuzhou. One lamp can be sold for two taels of silver."
Two taels of silver?
Among the landowners present, there were also those who had workshops at home.
These quick-thinking people calculated based on the price of raw materials. If the glass cover was purchased from outside, the cost of such a lamp would be less than one tael of silver.
If you could burn glass at home, the cost would probably be less than six cents of silver.
A lamp can earn one tael of silver!
Everyone's thoughts have shifted from reducing rents and interest rates to whale oil lamps.
"This whale oil?" Su Ze said: "Whale oil is extracted from the body of whales. Whales are not a rare thing. They are also found in the open sea." "One whale can extract ten thousand kilograms of whale oil. Whale oil is
in It can be sold in Fuzhou, the price is much lower than candles, and a pot of whale oil can burn for a long time." "In the next year,
shops selling whale oil will be opened in several cities in Fujian."
Now everyone felt relieved, No wonder whale oil lamps sell well in Fuzhou.
If whale oil is cheap, the whale oil lamp is a one-time cost, and you only need to buy whale oil for lighting in the future.
Mr. Jie Yuangong is indeed the God of Wealth who descended to earth! He so generously named the elders in his hometown how to make money!
A few wealthy people bought a few whale oil lamps on the spot and went back to study them.
Su Ze smiled as he watched everyone studying the kerosene lamp. Just because it can be sold for two taels of silver now does not mean that it can be sold for two taels of silver in the future.
The fire ignited by "Tiangong Kaiwu" has begun to burn. This time Su Ze went to Jiangnan and saw many strange products.
When industry and commerce are rolled up, more products will naturally be created.
When any product makes a profit, more merchants will follow suit and lower the price.
The previous workshop owners either had to improve their craftsmanship and production efficiency, or they had to engage in price wars to drive prices down.
Two taels of silver can only be afforded by wealthy families in Fuzhou Prefecture.
But if it drops to one tael of silver, then ordinary wage earner families in the city can afford it even with gritted teeth.
If it dropped to six cents of silver, some poor families could afford it.
After a hearty meal, this time the Nanping landowners had a lot of delicious fish, shrimp and seafood.
Su Ze introduced: "These seafood are all caught in the open sea, using fishing boats that can sail in the open sea."
Hearing the fishing boats in the open sea, the landowners who were originally interested in such things also lowered their heads.
The Ming Dynasty banned the sea and had very strict control over fisheries, "do whatever you want".
According to Hong Wuye's rules, no board can be put into the sea, and fishing in the sea is also prohibited.
However, after strict implementation in the early Ming Dynasty and before the rise of Japanese pirates in the mid-Ming Dynasty, the court turned a blind eye to fishing in the sea.
After the Japanese rebellion broke out, the court banned arrests several times.
Nowadays, the court's policy is also ambiguous. Many villages in coastal areas go out to sea to fish. As long as they are not detected by patrolling guards, the court will not care.
Su Ze also asked someone to bring a huge grouper skeleton from the kitchen, and said to everyone: "What we are eating today comes from such a fish." Everyone exclaimed that there was such a fish
. Big fish?
In fact, with the current fishing net materials, it is impossible to catch such a large grouper.
Grouper is a carnivorous fish that lives near coral reefs. Its meat is delicious. In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Su Ze had never seen such a large grouper.
But now the fishing resources in the entire outer sea are so abundant that such a huge grouper was accidentally caught by fishermen on Dong'ao Island.
The fisherman struggled with the grouper at sea for two days before finally dragging the fish back to the port and presenting it to Su Ze.
Su Ze just happened to drag the fish back to Changningwei to entertain the landlords. Fortunately it was winter, and the fish would have stunk if it hadn't been for it.
Before the invention of stronger polymer fishing nets, catching such a big fish relied on the courage of "The Old Man and the Sea" to fight the big fish.
But Su Ze didn't lie to them. Nowadays, there are abundant fishery resources in the sea. As long as you cast a net, you can always catch some sea fish, and it is definitely not a loss to go to sea.
But Su Ze naturally hid a section, he said: "Including whales that produce whale oil, they can be seen everywhere in the outer sea. The unit price of whale oil is not high, but a whale produces a lot of oil, and the fat in the whale can also be used to make soap. "
There are already shops selling soap in Nanping County. Although the prices are not high, the business is booming.
Hearing this, another landowner's eyes lit up.
Su Ze continued: "Actually, Changning Guard also has a few idle fishing boats. If you don't want to buy them, you can rent them." "
These boats are the flags of the guard and will not be intercepted by the Haidao Yamen. If they are detained, Changning Wei will go and ask for people and boats."
After saying this, some bold coastal village leaders really changed their minds.
In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, the offshore fishing industry was very developed.
However, fishermen call their boats home and are highly mobile and difficult to manage.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Fang Guozhen Maritime Group was a headache for Zhu Yuanzhang. Fang Guozhen started his business by fishing and selling smuggled salt.
Fang Guozhen also has a large number of fishermen and maritime traders.
It can be said that the powerful power of Fang Guozhen Group was also an important reason why Zhu Yuanzhang banned the sea.
In the timeline before Su Ze traveled through, after the opening of the sea in Longqing, the fishing industry in Zhejiang and Fujian developed rapidly. A large number of sailboats went out to fish, and even fished as far away as near North Korea and Southeast Asia.
Therefore, people from Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong were the first to express dissatisfaction when it was said that the Chinese were not a maritime nation.
Now that the Japanese pirates have not been eliminated, Su Ze is just throwing out a hint.
When order is restored at sea this year, some people will naturally want to rent a boat and go fishing.
After sending away the group of landlords, a few days later the first batch of people from the township league were sent to Changningwei.
These are tenant farmers of large landowners, and some of them are close servants.
Su Ze quickly distinguished them. He separated the two groups for training and showed the tenants: "
This is the rent and interest reduction statement we have made with the landlords in Nanping County. They all agreed to reduce the land rent to the court land." The tax level has also been reduced, and the interest has been reduced to less than five points of simple interest."
These tenant farmers looked at each other, how could such a good thing happen?
Su Ze added: "But you have to protect your own rights. After you go back, you can meet to form a farmers' association. When the landlord collects the rent, you can unite to resist paying the excess land rent interest." All the tenant farmers pricked up their ears
. Listened carefully to Su Ze's lecture.
They trained during the day and listened to lectures under whale oil lamps at night.
It’s February of the 41st year of Jiajing.
Li Zhi and Liang Ruyuan arrived in the capital.
(End of chapter)