Fu Xiaoguan knew about the departure of the "Liu Jin".
He also knew how dangerous this trip was.
So he invited Su Jue, Gao Yuanyuan and Su Mo, not because they could protect the safety of the ship, but because he hoped that with their martial arts skills, they could bring back the nautical charts and logs before the "Liu Jin" capsized.
I wish them good luck and hope they can go further.
He was not used to having Liu Jin around, so he had to ask Eunuch Jia to find a more lively young eunuch to stay by his side.
Thinking of this, Fu Xiaoguan sat in a very ordinary carriage and left the palace with Eunuch Jia.
Today is the third day of the Lunar New Year, and he plans to visit Wen Xingzhou, and of course, he will also go to see Bai Yulian.
Bai Yulian married Wen Xiruo at the end of last year. Fu Xiaoguan also gave Bai Yulian a mansion, but the mansion seemed to be not ready yet, so Bai Yulian is now squeezed into the Wen mansion.
The streets were crowded with people, not affected by the weather at all.
Fu Xiaoguan became interested and said to Jia Gonggong, "It's still early, let's go to the east and west markets to take a look."
The prosperity of the market can best reflect the economic situation. He wants to see whether the lives of ordinary people have improved.
The population of Guanyun City today is hundreds of thousands larger than when Fu Xiaoguan came to attend the literary gathering.
Among them were merchants from various countries who came to the Wu Dynasty to invest, wealthy merchants from various states in the Wu Dynasty, and even wealthy barbarians from the Chi Lechuan Autonomous Region.
Guanyun City is the power center of the Wu Dynasty. The young emperor has frequently issued new policies. In Guanyun City, one can be the first to know about his policies and be the first to seize the business opportunities brought by these policies.
For example, raising pigs!
In Tangjiagou, a hundred miles away from Guanyun City, there was a barren man who contracted a large piece of barren land. His name was Tuoba Xiaoshu. He invested a huge amount of money to build a large pig farm there and hired several farmers in Tangjiagou to raise pigs for him.
Of course, this wild boss doesn't often go to the pig farm. After all, there are thousands of pigs and the smell is really unpleasant.
The barbarian boss bought a house in Guanyun City and moved his family there. He also bought two shops in the east and west markets to sell pork.
Now this pork has officially been put on sale before the New Year, and the price is the same as before, ten cents per pound.
On the day of the launch, a hundred pigs were slaughtered. Tuoba Xiaoshu was very nervous at first. He was worried whether this thing would be accepted by people.
But the result surprised him!
A pig is only five months old and weighs only about 120 to 130 kilograms. It can produce about 100 kilograms of meat. 100 pigs means 10,000 kilograms of meat. As a result, in just half a day, not only the meat, but even the bones were sold out.
This business is so popular that although a pig is only sold for a little over one or two taels of silver, after deducting the cost, the profit can be 30%. Compared with raising sheep, pigs are easier to raise and it only takes half a year to market them. The key is that the audience is huge, and most of them are ordinary people.
So Tuoba Xiaoshu decided to do something big this year and make pig farming his main industry from now on.
Of course, at this time he had not yet realized the future changes in the market.
Pork sold so well that farmers in rural Wu Dynasty also began to raise pigs in large quantities, causing the pork market to be saturated in a very short period of time.
Fu Xiaoguan and Eunuch Jia arrived at the East Market. When he got off the carriage, he saw a crowd of people.
People had smiles on their faces as they bargained with vendors. There were also the sounds of vendors shouting and children setting off firecrackers from time to time.
Everything was so vivid that Fu Xiaoguan felt that this was life.
He walked in, and Eunuch Jia followed him very nervously. Fu Xiaoguan looked left and right, and then came to the shops in the market that specialized in selling meat.
The plan is well done. Well, there are yamen runners patrolling, and public security is also good.
There were many people gathered in front of these shops. There were relatively fewer people in front of the mutton shop, but there was a huge crowd in front of the pork shop.
But as he watched, the joy on Fu Xiaoguan's face gradually disappeared, and he frowned. Eunuch Jia took a look and saw nothing unusual, so he asked in a low voice: "Master, what's wrong?"
"Look," Fu Xiaoguan pointed at the two groups of people, "those buying mutton are mostly people wearing silk and satin. But those buying pork are mostly from common families."
Eunuch Jia was stunned. There was nothing wrong with this. Mutton cost sixty or seventy cents per pound, and pork was only ten cents. Common people naturally couldn't afford mutton, and the rich would not bother to eat pork.
"The gap between the rich and the poor is serious. A country is not worried about the lack of wealth but the inequality..." Fu Xiaoguan didn't say anything else, because this is a thousand-year-old problem.
It is impossible to equalize the rich and the poor, because everyone has different pursuits, struggles, visions, and other factors, so there will definitely be a gap between the rich and the poor.
It took several generations of capital accumulation for merchants to achieve their current prosperous days.
Does this mean that businessmen are rich but unkind?
As long as businessmen conduct business in accordance with the law and pay taxes, that is what they deserve.
A country is made up of more common people, so the government should focus on how to increase the income of these common people.
Fu Xiaoguan fell into deep thought. The most important thing among them was education, fair education, and a fair imperial examination system, which would provide these children from ordinary families with a channel for upward mobility and solve the thousand-year-old problem of poor families having no noble sons.
With knowledge, they have vision. Even if they cannot become officials, they can find ways to get out of poverty during this best period of reform.
For families that are truly unable to help themselves...a basic security system for the poor in society must be established.
This matter must be carried out after the opening of the court. As for poverty alleviation, Fu Xiaoguan gave up after just thinking about it.
"Go buy some meat, pork, and let's go to Wen's house and roast it."
"……Danger."
"Don't worry, I'm just a third-rate expert after all."
Eunuch Jia regretted bringing Fu Xiaoguan to this place very much. Even if he had come, he should have greeted people like Bei Wangchuan.
He thought for a moment, looked around, and then walked towards the meat stall and lined up obediently at the back of the queue.
Fu Xiaoguan's eyes wandered around, and then his gaze fixed on a corner of the market.
There was an old beggar with a little beggar who was only five or six years old.
The little beggar stared at the meat stall in a daze, and seemed to swallow a few times.
He did not go over and give a few taels of silver, but thought of another thing - the orphanage and the nursing home.
There are many reasons for the emergence of such beggars. For example, this pair looks like a grandfather and a grandson. The grandfather is missing one hand and has a lame leg. He is obviously unable to find a job, so he cannot support the child through his labor.
They need assistance from the government, otherwise the children will not be able to enjoy the right to compulsory education.
After a long while of thinking this way, Eunuch Jia came over with a piece of meat weighing about three pounds. "That's all we have. I almost didn't buy it."
"Let's go. Remember to ask Zhou Tongtong to come see me after we return to the palace."
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