Chapter 165 7. The So-Called Bad Politics Promotes Suppression of Marriage

Things like straw sandals, straw hats and straw mats, like candles, are necessities and consumables of life. They are not expensive and will not deteriorate even if they are stored for several months or half a year. There is always a market for them and the price is very low. No one is afraid that these things that are closely related to life will not be sold, so there is no need to consider any market issues at all.

Of course, Kobayata has not finished speaking yet. He glanced at Yamauchi Yoshikatsu, who was hesitant and full of questions, and signaled him not to worry.

"Your Highness, I think the left horse head must be worried about the sales of the grass art, so I hope that Your Highness will announce the implementation of suppression in the whole territory!" Kobayata solemnly requested.

Yamauchi Yoshikatsu did feel uncomfortable because he had questions but was embarrassed to interrupt Kobayata's eloquent narration. He was not as good as his father in this respect, and his patience was still a little worse. Yamauchi Yoshiharu would sit there quietly and listen. He would usually wait for Kobayata to speak everything, or for Kobayata to ask questions before speaking.

Now Xiao Pingtai stopped on his own initiative, which not only answered Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu's doubts, but also provided a solution to the problem for Yamanouchi Yoshiharu. After hearing the word "Yi Pei", Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu's expression did not change. He just rolled his head and started to think.

What is "Yi Pei"? It means that in ancient times, the feudal government forced merchants and wealthy families to undertake certain things according to their financial and material resources. Once they were forced to do it, it was basically an evil policy that destroyed the family and the whole clan. It was the most ruthless and brutal economic plunder, and there was no humanity at all.

But Xiao Pingtai's "Yi Pei" here is very different from the literal "Yi Pei"! His idea is to examine the financial resources of the merchants in Ejiri and Yamanouchi, and the distance of the trade routes. At a price lower than one-tenth of the market price of the famous Tsuyama die, the Ejiri die was forcibly distributed to the merchants, and they had to find a way to sell it within three years. Merchants with ability and capability will definitely find a way to sell their products, and those who can't will be kicked out. They will no longer be needed to undertake Jiangjidie's business.

Although it is a forced method, first of all, the price is lower than others, and secondly, they are allowed to deliver goods first and pay later within these three years. Anyway, their family's supply of goods is all local, so there is no fear that they dare to run away. Moreover, Jiangjidie will definitely make money, and they will run away if they are stupid.

Through this sales method that does not require the government to worry about it at all, merchants can quickly exert their subjective initiative and open up trade routes by themselves, while the Yamauchi family can happily collect profits, and can also select a group of capable and capable merchants through suppression and matching for subsequent operations. (You can even discover some small merchants with low capital but outstanding talents. After all, you get the goods first and the payment later, and maybe you can help a few future wealthy merchants.)

After all, there is a bearded old man in Germany, Europe, who said it well: as long as there is profit, the whole market can be active, and as long as the profit is large enough, merchants can trample on any morality and law.

No matter whether what Old Ma said is right or not, this analysis of business is still incisive. At least Kobayata regards this paragraph as a criterion. What he said is really reasonable, even after hundreds of years, it still makes sense.

As long as Kobayata can ensure that the quality of Ejiri ware is not inferior to the already famous Tsuyama ware and Usuki ware, he is willing to reduce the sales price by one tenth. There are shrewd merchants who can help Kobayata sell things. Why do you have to go door to door like a fool to sell it yourself?

As a feudal ruler of the old era, Yamanouchi Yoshiharu himself was born with the conservative cognition that the four classes of people are scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, and business is the cheapest. Although he would also encourage commercial circulation to obtain money and special products from other places. But in his eyes, merchants still belong to the kind of people who can be exploited and forced, so he did not dislike the word "suppression and matching".

What money can be squeezed out of those poor farmers who dig for food in the fields? Exploiting merchants and craftsmen has been the consensus of feudal rulers from ancient times to the present. You have money, but no political status (or your political status is relatively low), who else can you exploit if you don't exploit?

Moreover, in Xiao Pingtai's plan, not only high-end straw art such as stacking will be suppressed, but also low-end straw bags and straw ropes will be suppressed. I believe everyone knows the story of Ishida Mitsunari's overnight dam. He promised that if farmers carried a load of soil to the dam, they could take away the rice bags filled with soil as a reward, and as a result, a dam was built overnight.

This rice bag is woven with rush, and similarly, there are salt bags, and even rope straw bags for dried goods and seafood, all of which are woven with rush. (It is very different from what many people think of weaving with straw. Most of the straw woven items in our lives are basically woven with rush, and have nothing to do with straw.)

Kobayata forced these grain, seafood, and salt merchants to force them to use straw bags and ropes in their shops. The Yamanouchi family still has some administrative power to prohibit them from using similar items produced in other countries.

Anyway, straw ropes and straw bags do not require any good rush and exquisite weaving, so they can all be entrusted to ordinary farmers who grow straw. Then the Yamanouchi family collects straw bags from the people at a low price (or let them directly deduct the annual tribute) and sells them to merchants in the territory at market prices. In this way, some funds can be quickly recovered without much resistance from merchants (after all, suddenly forcing them to only use straw bags produced by the Yamanouchi family may affect their production and transportation).

In this way, as long as the first rush in Ejiri is planted, the first sheet is woven, and the first straw bag is tied, we can start to make profits slowly and continuously expand the planting area and the scale of the handicraft workshop.

At a speed visible to the naked eye, the entire Ejiri, from top to bottom, from Yamanouchi Yoshiharu to the impoverished farmers, from businessmen with tens of millions of assets to poor households without overnight food, can all enjoy the various dividends of local economic development.

The people present were fascinated by what they heard. Why is Zixiaoji Danzheng's idea so great? Swamps and salt fields have been empty all the time, why didn't anyone think of using them? Straw sandals are worn every day, why didn't anyone think of developing the straw weaving industry?

"Your Highness, you can now send people to re-measure the salty fields along the coast and the lowland swamps along the river. Recruit landless farmers in the mountains and Ejiri or powerful military personnel trusted by Your Highness to start growing rush. At the same time, immediately purchase mat weaving machines, copy and process them, build mat houses, and train mat weaving personnel."

"Good! Good! Good!"

I never expected that after taking a look, I actually had more than 40,000 words of manuscripts in reserve.