Many women were abducted and sold as prostitutes. Zhisi rescued many of them. Some were afraid to go home, some had their families missing, and some even found their families with great difficulty, only to be rejected and driven away by them.
At the beginning, the Ministry of Education set up a charity bureau to support some homeless children and women, but as more and more people were rescued, the expenses became higher and higher, and it was obvious that this was not a solution.
So the company opened a textile factory, which could both make money and support them.
The spinning machines used have also been improved and are much more powerful than the previous ones. At first, they were used to spin linen cloth, and later they were used to spin yarn. In the past two years, as Guangzhou included cotton in taxation, more people grew cotton, and they began to spin cotton.
In addition, a lot of sheep were imported from the Liao Kingdom and Western Xia, although the sheep in ancient times were not the white sheep like those in the West in later generations, and the amount of sheep they produced was not as much as in later generations.
However, Western white sheep are also bred through crossbreeding from generation to generation, and have not always produced so much sheep since ancient times.
Therefore, the Ministry of Animal Husbandry established in Shaanxi, which specialized in raising sheep on the now relatively deserted wilderness grasslands in Shaanxi, and provided guidance on hybrid breeding. Most of the sheep wool produced was transported to Bianliang and processed into cotton-padded clothes, which were warm and comfortable.
Hong Wen continued walking south for almost half an hour. He limped past Qumai Bridge and saw the silk ribbons of the brothels swaying in the wind. The courtesans waved their sleeves and sang loudly, "I, an old man, am still as wild as a young man. With Huang on my left and Cang on my right, I wear a brocade hat and a sable coat, and ride a thousand horses across the plain. To repay the governor for his kindness, I will follow him to the city, shoot the tiger myself, and see Sun Lang."
The Red Mansion on the other bank, not to be outdone, responded with a song: "The flowers have faded, the green apricots are small. When the swallows fly, the green water circles the houses. The willow fluff on the branches is blown away. There is fragrant grass everywhere in the world. There is a swing inside the wall, a road outside the wall. There are pedestrians outside the wall, and the beauty inside the wall is laughing. The laughter gradually fades, and the voice becomes quieter. The affectionate one is annoyed by the heartless one."
In recent years, the elusive Zhou Shuren has created many poems. Some say he is from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and his name is Lu Xun, meaning he is from a place called Zhoushu in Zhejiang. Others say his name is Zhou Shuren, with the courtesy name Lu Xun, and that he was born by the West Lake and is very talented.
Anyway, after so many years, the people of Bianliang only knew his words, not the person. Sometimes you can see him criticizing current affairs in the newspapers. He wrote many articles with great literary talent. He often shouted that the people of Song Dynasty should work hard. He was a popular fighter for war.
Not far from the Imperial College is the South City Grain Market. The government stipulates that bulk grain cannot be sold here. Those who come here to sell are farmers from outside the city, and they only charge a small stall fee.
Because the products sold here are fresh and slightly cheaper than those sold in the Bianliang Rice Shop, many Bianliang citizens come here to buy them.
Hong Wen looked around and saw that the grain market was crowded with people. There were farmers with smiling faces, but there were also farmers with unhappy expressions. Some sighed and shook their heads and said, "The price of grain is low again." But some people smiled and said, "We made more money than last year."
The agricultural tax in the Song Dynasty was nominally 1 in 10, but in reality it was around 3-4 in 10. Now, with the abolition of many of these taxes, only the basic agricultural tax and the population tax remain, with the tax rate remaining between 1 in 10 and 1.5 in 10.
That is to say, if a self-cultivating farmer cultivates 30 mu of land this year, 25 mu of it is used to grow grain and 5 mu of it is used to grow hemp, the rice output will be 3,470 Song jin, or 37.5 dan; and the linen output will be 500 feet, or 12.5 pieces.
In the past, one had to pay more than 10 shi of grain, about four pieces of linen, to cover the large amount of taxes such as land tax, capitation tax, travel tax, foot tax, discount, and head tax.
But now, one only needs to pay 4 stone of grain and 1.5 pieces of cloth to meet the tax requirements.
This means that farmers have a lot more property to control.
The problem is that this is how the market works. When supply exceeds demand, prices will rise, and when supply exceeds demand, prices will fall.
During the two years of war with the Western Xia and Liao from 1038 to 1040 AD, prices in Bianliang soared. At the peak, the price of grain rose to 600 wen per dan. After paying taxes, farmers could sell the remaining 20 dan of grain for 15-18 guan of money.
Now that the war is over, after two years of recuperation, the price of grain has fallen below the normal market price of 350 wen per stone due to oversupply, to only more than 200 wen per stone.
It seems like a good thing, but if you calculate carefully, even if all the exorbitant taxes and levies are abolished, the grain in hand can only be sold for less than 10 strings of cash.
certainly.
That's not how it's calculated.
Farmers also have to feed themselves, so most of the food can only be used for living expenses, and the surplus food can be sold.
So from a practical point of view, falling food prices are a good thing.
For example, a family of five used to have more than 20 dan of grain, and would eat 800 jin of grain a year. They also had to pay for firewood, rice, oil, salt, and meat, which would cost at least 1,500 jin.
The most that could be sold was 300-500 Song jin, which is roughly equivalent to 384 to 640 jin in later generations.
If you sell it at the price of 600 coins per stone, you can get about 2,000-3,000 coins.
Now the amount of grain available for consumption has increased by more than 6 dan, and there are more than 10 dan of grain that can be sold. Based on the current market price of 260 wen, the income is actually similar to the period when one dan was 600 wen, which is around 3,000 coins.
But don’t forget that if food prices increase significantly, the prices of firewood, rice, oil, salt and other necessities will also increase, and the cost of living will become extremely high.
And the highest price was during the war, from the second half of the first year of Kangding to the first year of Qingli last year. With the end of the war, the price of grain has stabilized, dropping from 600 wen to more than 400 wen.
So all in all, after a large number of exorbitant taxes and fees were canceled this year, farmers' disposable income will naturally be much higher than last year.
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