Master Fan looked at the old village chief in surprise.
The old village chief has always been prudent in his work, seeking stability over speed. His family's good life was built step by step with steady progress. How come he's talking big now?
“I’ve inquired about cattle before. Even a calf that takes several years to grow before it can work costs ten or so taels of silver. We don’t have that kind of money.”
Cows are much more precious than people!
Old Master Wang also coveted livestock. To be honest, which farming family wouldn't want to have their own livestock?
On ordinary days, it can carry people and goods, and during busy farming seasons, it can be equivalent to two or three strong laborers!
Even a donkey, which is not as good as an ox, costs seven or eight taels of silver. Seven or eight taels of silver can get a wife for the child in the family. If the silver is used to buy a donkey, the child can't live with a donkey, can he?
Thinking of this, he said, "Although we have income from selling rabbits now, there was no harvest in the fields this year, and the food for the whole family comes entirely from those rabbits."
Besides, everyone gets sick sometimes, and with a large family, if someone falls ill and needs to see a doctor and get medicine, it costs money. Even though rabbits are profitable, we can't just squander them all.
Old Man Xu, who spoke first, didn't think as much as Master Fan and Old Man Wang. He agreed with the old village chief: "We've bought it! Having livestock will make life much easier. The more land we cultivate, the higher the harvest will be, and the more money we'll make."
We won't buy expensive cattle, just cheap donkeys. The extra harvest might be enough to buy more donkeys!
Old Master Wang, being quite old, grunted and looked at Old Man Xu, asking, "How much harvest do we get from one mu (approximately 0.16 acres) of winter wheat?"
"At its best, it weighs three to four hundred jin, and at its worst, it weighs less than two hundred jin."
How's the rice?
"Pretty much the same." They're all farmers; the harvest from the fields is ingrained in their minds, something they know all too well.
That's why they value potatoes so much, even willing to exchange cornmeal that they wouldn't eat at home for them as seeds.
Old Master Xu just didn't understand why Old Master Wang was asking these questions. He knew perfectly well enough!
Besides, they were talking about buying a donkey.
Grandpa Wang calmly calculated for him: "The potato harvest is high, but people outside have never eaten them and we've never sold them before. We don't know how much money we'll get or whether we can even sell them."
But we know about rice and wheat. If we take 300 catties as an example, after paying taxes, it will be less than 200 catties. The grain merchant's purchase price is only a little over one or two taels of silver. A donkey costs seven or eight taels of silver, which is the entire harvest of at least four or five acres of good land!
"That's all! Tell me, how much do I need each time to earn back those seven or eight taels of silver? If most of the family's harvest goes towards buying a donkey, will we even be able to survive if something happens?"
With each sentence spoken by Grandpa Wang, Grandpa Xu lowered his head a little further.
Old Man Xu now only thinks that being good at accounting is really amazing, and that when they argue, they have a whole set of arguments that he doesn't know how to refute.
Master Fan sighed.
Looking at the silent old village chief, he still trusted him more. He was not one to boast. Had he already planned out those boasts?
With that thought in mind, he asked directly, "Old village chief, have you made up your mind?"
We've lived together in the same village for decades, there's no need to hide anything from each other.
The old village chief nodded. "After the potato harvest, even if we can't sell them, it's enough to feed our whole family. And this food is better than wheat flour, and it's not bad compared to cornmeal. We can also sell the rice, wheat, corn and beans in the fields."
We can raise about three to five rabbits every ten days to half a month, which means we can earn four to five hundred coins every half month, and nearly one tael of silver a month. In less than ten months, we can buy a donkey.”
Old Man Xu's eyes lit up, thinking that being able to do accounts was even more remarkable!
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