ebookland Chapter 1284 County Meeting (4)
Chapter 1284 County Meeting (4)
As soon as County Magistrate Wang finished speaking, there was an uproar below.
Are you still considering using guano fertilizer? Why is there a purchase restriction in the blink of an eye?
It feels like you want to use it but can’t?
Thinking about it this way, everyone suddenly felt that bird droppings fertilizer was really precious.
Isn't there a giant pit of guano? So much so that they can't even use it all up? Why are there purchase restrictions?
What is going on, Lord Sun?
Not only did the audience below have objections, but all the officials, including County Magistrate Wang, also had objections.
What the hell is going on, Mr. Sun? Why are you restricting trading?
This is not the most important problem, but the purchase limit that makes these big farmers lack fertilizer.
Ordinary people like to evade taxes, and wealthy gentry like to evade taxes even more.
Especially regarding land, every wealthy family would underreport, miss report, or fail to report the number of acres of their own land.
Sun Shan’s restriction on the use of guano fertilizer has resulted in a lack of fertilizer for the fields that have secretly “leaked” it. How can the family increase its grain income?
The Wang family was the most dissatisfied, because they were a wealthy family in Yuanlu County and had countless fields.
After seeing the benefits of guano fertilizer, Mr. Wang wanted to go all in and use it all at once. By the time the summer harvest came, his granary would be overflowing. He even planned to build a granary to store more grain.
As a result of Sun Shan's actions, fertilizer could only be purchased on the registered land, but the rest of the land could not be purchased at all.
The Wang family still wanted to steal the bird droppings secretly, but they remembered that the villagers near the workshop had already been bribed by Sun Shan, especially the village chief of Big Bird Village, who was Sun Shan's confidant and was willing to report to Sun Shan at any time.
County Magistrate Wang was the first to raise an objection: "Sir Sun, why can't we sell more guano fertilizer? The more we sell, the more money our workshop will make. To recoup our costs faster, we should sell it in unlimited quantities. No matter who buys it, as long as we can sell it, we should sell it."
In his heart, he wanted to curse Sun Shan loudly, saying that everything he did was different from others, even his workshop.
I don’t know what Lord Sun is thinking.
Wu Zhubo also jumped in and said, "Yes, sir, when we sell things, of course it would be best if we could sell more. Why can't we allow others to buy? Our fertilizer is already very cheap. If we can't keep up with the quantity, how can we make money?"
Although Wu Zhubo was from another place, he had been cultivating the land in Yuanlu for many years and had already owned a lot of land.
Wu Zhubo and Wang Xiancheng had the same idea, planning to use bird droppings on the fields to make a good harvest, and then transport it to Chenzhou Prefecture to sell.
He had already calculated how much money he could make from early rice and late rice, but Sun Shan actually imposed purchase restrictions, catching him off guard.
Wu Zhubo was also a tax evader, so naturally he didn't want the government to know how much land he owned.
Then, Inspector Liang, Clerk Xia, and everyone who had a say expressed their opposition, using all sorts of excuses.
The only central idea is to open up purchases without any purchase restrictions.
Sun Shan sat quietly on the high hall, listening to the men's chattering.
One man is equal to 800 ducks, and with several men, you can imagine how annoying the noise is.
After they finished speaking, Sun Shan said lightly, "Guano fertilizer is so cheap in Yuanlu County. If we don't restrict people from buying it, they'll buy more fertilizer from the workshop and sell it to neighboring counties or even further afield. How will we sell the fertilizer we make in the workshop?"
孙山解释到：“30文一包卖给沅陆的百姓，已经是亏本卖了。想卖给邻县的百姓至少要60文一包。也只不过赚10文-20文。可沅陆的百姓向我们拿货，卖50文一包就能赚20文了。
One sells it for 60 wen a bag, the other for 50 wen a bag. Anyone who's not a fool knows which one to buy from. How can our workshop still do business?
The more Yuanlu people buy, the more we lose. How can the workshop continue? You know, the workshop can't make money from the people of Yuanlu at all. If we want to make money, we have to sell it outside."
One acre of land can sell fertilizer for 600 wen, but it does not make 600 wen in profit. This is just the sales volume, and the labor, transportation, sales and other costs have not been deducted. When you actually calculate, you can see that selling fertilizer to the people of Yuanlu does not make any money at all.
When calculating costs, both the government and investors knew that selling fertilizer to the people of Yuanlu was just a disguised form of welfare for the local people. If they wanted to make money, they had to sell it outside.
If there were no purchase restrictions, the more fertilizer the workshop sold, the greater the losses it would incur. Furthermore, if there were no purchase restrictions, savvy middlemen would buy more guano fertilizer from the workshop and sell it to surrounding areas, spontaneously starting a trade and thus taking over the guano workshop's business.
Sun Shan said seriously, "Guano fertilizer can only be sold in the workshop. We must restrict the purchase of guano fertilizer by the people. If we allow people to buy guano fertilizer, our workshop will be unable to do business."
County Magistrate Wang and his gang were speechless and didn't know how to refute.
Xia Dianli continued to struggle: "Sir, why should we sell it so cheaply? We can raise the price of fertilizer and decide how much the people buy and who to sell it to. We just need to sell it at a high price."
Everyone's eyes lit up. This was a good idea.
The workshop just sells fertilizer at a high price, as long as it can make money for itself. Why sell it to the people of Yuanlu at a loss?
Sun Shan spread his hands and said calmly, "I promised that all the people in Yuanlu would have access to fertilizer. If I sell it at a high price, I would be breaking my promise. No, no matter what, guano fertilizer can only be sold at a low price to the people of Yuanlu."
After a pause, he continued, "As the people's fields produce more grain, our government collects more grain taxes. As the people become richer, the government also becomes richer. This is mutually beneficial. Therefore, guano fertilizer must be affordable for the people and not sold at a high price."
Sun Shan also told them that guano fertilizer must be sold cheaply, even at no profit.
The people's fields had more grain, and the government collected more taxes. The people could sell their surplus grain, and when they had extra money, they would patronize cloth shops, hotels, tea houses, and so on.
When these stores make money, they will buy more goods and hire more employees. Hiring employees means they can get paid, which can further promote consumption, creating a virtuous cycle.
The business in Yuanlu County was booming, so the government received more taxes and could do more things, such as hiring workers to build bridges and roads, and construct houses.
Now that the workers have their wages, they can continue to buy more things. The previous cloth shops, tea shops, hotels, etc. earn more money, continue to hire more workers, and pay more commercial taxes.
When the government collects more taxes, the officials’ pockets are filled with fatter things, and everyone has a bright future.
The officials were confused by Sun Shan's evasive words and were unable to react for a while, so they agreed to the sales policy of limiting the price and purchase of guano fertilizer.
By the time you react, the opportunity has been missed and it is too late.