On the Huangpu River, a fleet flying the American Star-Spangled flag slowly went upstream, this fleet consisted of 22 large steam ironclad freighters, lined up in a long line of black smoke and whistles, which was particularly eye-catching, for the people of Shanghai, the steam freighters were no longer attractive, and what attracted people's attention was that this fleet came from the United States.

Since the outbreak of the economic crisis in the United States two years ago, few fleets have come to Shanghai, the last time was a huge gold and silver exchange between Yuan Qi and the United States, the United States shipped a large amount of gold, this time, what did the United States ship?

Soon, the grain merchants in Shanghai heard the news from the customs that this fleet was loaded with all wheat, a full 120,000 tons! And it's duty-free!

As soon as the news spread, all the grain merchants panicked, what does tariff-free mean, it means to encourage a large number of grain imports, which is bound to have a huge impact on the domestic grain market and grain prices!

As the American grain fleet docked and unloaded, there was news that Yuanqi had ordered 500,000 tons of wheat and corn in the United States in one go, and the arrival of this batch of wheat was only the first batch, and the rest of the grain would arrive in two months.

Half a million tons? All the grain merchants were taken aback by this number, this number is too large and scary, and all the grain merchants are skeptical, but no one dares to be indifferent, and they have shown their magic to find out whether the news is true or not through various channels.

In less than half a day, the price of wheat in Shanghai began to fall slightly, and rice and other grains also fell closely.

The next day, the "Shanghai Daily" publicly reported the news on the front page of the headline, Yuan Qi signed a contract with the United States for the purchase of bulk grain, importing 500,000 tons of grain, the first batch of 120,000 tons of wheat has arrived in Shanghai, and the remaining grain will arrive one after another within two months.

What does Yuanqi do when it imports 500,000 tons of grain? Is it disaster relief? Or immigration? Although the northern provinces have suffered disasters to varying degrees, it seems that they do not need to import 500,000 tons of grain for relief.

"Tick Ring" The crisp phone rang, and Zhao Liewen picked up the phone and listened to Yi's slightly excited voice, "Brother Guocheng, did you really purchase 500,000 tons of grain from the United States?" ”

"Nature is true." Yi Zhizhi said: "The bulk grain import contract signed by Yuanqi and the United States is for five consecutive years, and the annual import of grain is not less than 500,000 tons. ”

Five years in a row? How much silver does this cost? Yi couldn't help but gasp, originally he thought that Yuan Qi was deliberately exaggerating the amount of imported grain to suppress the rising domestic food prices, but he didn't expect to hide it, obviously, deliberately concealing it was for fear of causing panic.

He hesitated, "Need to import such a large amount of food? As long as you don't suffer from disasters, the southern provinces are fully sufficient to meet the ...... needed for disaster relief in the north. ”

"Who dares to guarantee that the south will not suffer disasters in the past few years?" Yi Zhixin said without hurry: "It's not a bad thing to have enough food. After a pause, he continued: "It is soon time for the provincial advisory bureaus to hold regular meetings, and many parliamentarians have complained about the immigration policy, and the imperial court should be on guard. ”

Yi hurriedly said: "Brother Guocheng, rest assured, the imperial court will never shake the immigration policy for any reason." ”

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the attention of the government and the opposition shifted from the drought in the northern provinces to the immigration policy, and the drought in the north was frequent, and the provinces of Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Gansu had drought conditions every year, but there was only a difference in the severity of the drought and the number of counties affected by the disaster.

There are many states and counties that have been affected by disasters this year, but there are not many, and the extent of the disaster is not very serious, it can only be regarded as a moderate drought, and the reason why it has attracted close attention from the government and the opposition is because Yuanqi has lent money at low interest rates to promote machine drilling, and the imperial court and Yuanqi have jointly launched a large-scale immigration policy, coupled with continuous reports from newspapers of all sizes in the north and south.

As the members of the county and provincial advisory bureaus at all levels questioned the immigration policy, and as the imperial court issued the task of immigration and listed it as the general assessment of local state and county officials, the attention of the government and the opposition turned to the immigration policy.

As a national policy, this was set as early as the Daoguang Dynasty, and the first planned and organized large-scale immigration in the Qing Dynasty began in the Daoguang Dynasty.

The large-scale migration continued for a full decade, followed by a small migration to the affected prefectures and counties in the provinces for another four or five years, and the migration that lasted for more than ten years led to a large loss of population in the northern provinces, which led to a continuous decline in land prices and a continuous decline in land rents, which caused heavy losses to the gentry who owned a large amount of land.

It has only been more than ten years since the cessation of organized immigration, and the imperial court and Yuan Qi have proposed large-scale immigration, and they have also imposed the task of immigration, making it a major assessment of local state and county officials.

This is tantamount to ordering local officials to spare no effort to guide and force the victims to emigrate, and the gentry who have not recovered from the last migration** are not justified in complaining?

The implementation of constitutional government, the establishment of provincial, capital and county advisory bureaus provided a platform for the gentry to participate in politics, and dissatisfaction with the immigration policy was the first to erupt at the regular meetings of the provincial and county advisory bureaus.

According to the constitution, the provincial advisory bureau holds a regular meeting once a year, and the meeting period is scheduled from the first day of September to the eleventh day of October in the lunar calendar.

The Provincial Consultative Council has the power not only to decide on the provincial budget and final accounts, to determine local taxes and public debt regulations, and to elect members of the Council, but also to question and protest against the administrative measures of the province, and to supervise, prosecute, and impeach unscrupulous officials.

Therefore, the meeting of the Provincial Consultative Bureau has not only attracted the attention of the provinces but also the government and the opposition, and has become the focus of attention of newspapers of all sizes in the north and south.

Halfway through the session, the legislators of Shandong, Henan, and Shanxi provinces questioned and protested against the immigration policy one after another, and newspapers of all sizes in the three provinces also added fuel to the fire, publishing articles accusing the large-scale organization of resettlement for wasting the financial, material, and human resources of the imperial court and the local government, seriously affecting the development of the local agricultural economy, leading to the depreciation of the fields, the barrenness of the land, and the economic regression.

With the efforts of Shandong, Henan, and Shanxi provinces, the legislators of Zhili, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces also questioned and protested against the immigration policy.

Shanghai, Zhennan Wangfu, Changle Book House.

Putting down the newspaper, Zhao Liewen glanced at Yi Zhixin, and said in a relaxed tone: "If the drought in the northern provinces continues to worsen next year, these anti-immigration parliamentarians don't know how to deal with themselves?" It's better to simply make things bigger...... ”

lit a cigarette, and Yi Zhizhi said slowly: "Huifu wants them to be embarrassed and excuse themselves?" ”

"Immigration is a national policy, and those legislators only take care of the interests of the province and themselves, and do not take into account the interests of the country at all, so what good will they keep?" Zhao Liewen said slowly: "Besides, at present, the proportion of gentry and gentry in the members of the provincial advisory bureaus is too large, and it is good to take this opportunity to reduce some of them." ”

After a slight groan, Yi Zhizhi said: "It's better to go with the flow, there's no need to mix." ”

Before the words fell, Li Hongzhang walked in quickly and said, "The big treasurer, the Russian minister Bu Ce asks to see you." ”

Butzer? Yi Zhizhi groaned for a while before looking at Yi Zhengxing and said, "Xingzhi will greet his father instead." ”

Butzer was in his early forties, tall, slightly fat and a little bald, he was in China for a long time, from 1869 to 1870 he was acting minister, last year was officially appointed as Russian minister to China, accompanied by Yi Zhengxing into the study, after greeting and sitting down, he tentatively said: "Yuan Qi imports a large amount of grain, because of the drought in the north?" ”

Listening to the translator, Yi Zhizhi smiled and said, "Your country also has a large amount of grain exports? ”

Yuan Qi imported 500,000 tons of grain to the United States at one time, which made his eyes warm, and Russia has always been a grain exporter, mainly exported to European countries, and because of the problem of transportation costs, it rarely set foot in the eastern market.

However, this time the situation is somewhat special, the financial crisis and economic crisis in European countries have triggered a world agricultural crisis, Russia, India, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and other large agricultural countries have all suffered a serious agricultural crisis, a large number of agricultural products are unsalable, and prices continue to fall.

Under such circumstances, how could Russia, as an ally of the Qing Dynasty, not be tempted by the sudden large-scale import of grain? They are all allies, and if the Qing Dynasty can take care of the United States, why can't it take care of Russia?

"Your Highness is very familiar with the situation in our country, and you should know that our country exports a large amount of grain to European countries every year." Bu Ce said in a sincere tone: "The economic recession in Europe in the past two years has seriously affected my country's grain exports, resulting in an astonishing backlog, and I hope Your Highness can help." ”

After a slight sigh, Yi Zhizhi said: "The Eurasian railway has not yet been opened to traffic, and the freight cost of your country's grain shipping to China is too high, and my country imports grain from the United States with silver ........ ”

Butzer did his homework before coming to Shanghai, and immediately stated: "China can also accept silver, and we can guarantee that the CIF price of grain is the same as that of the United States." ”

Settle the grain trade with Russia in silver, for the Qing Dynasty, which is eager to implement the gold standard, naturally there is no reason to refuse, Yi Zhicontent said with a smile on his face: "Your country and the United States are allies of the Qing Dynasty, we naturally treat everyone equally, Yuan Qi can sign an agreement with your country to import 500,000 tons of wheat, but it must be delivered before March next year." ”

500,000 tons! Bu Ce was very surprised, he originally thought that being able to export 100,000 or 200,000 tons was already the limit, after all, the Qing State had only imported 500,000 tons from the United States, and he confirmed: "Your Highness is talking about 500,000 tons of wheat? ”

Yi Zhizhi smiled and said, "If your country doesn't have so much inventory, you can have less." ”

"Yes, absolutely!" Butzer hurriedly said, "Thank you, Your Highness, for your generosity. ”

After a slight sigh, Yi Zhizhi said: "The Eurasian Railway, there are about three years to complete in my country, and I hope that your country can also speed up the progress, once the whole line is completed, it will greatly promote the commerce and trade between your two countries." ”

"Your Highness, rest assured." "His Majesty the Emperor attaches great importance to the progress of the construction of the Eurasian Railway. ”

After sending Bu Ce away, Zhao Liewen said: "Another 500,000 tons, the big shopkeeper is eager to spend the silver in his hand?" ”

After taking a sip of tea, Yi Zhizhi said slowly: "Huifu is Jue has purchased too much food?" ”

"500,000 tons is enough to guarantee the annual consumption of three or four million people." Zhao Liewen said: "If it is disaster relief, it is enough to help seven or eight million people ....... ”

"With the one million tons of grain from the United States and Russia, it is enough to ensure that we can continue to purchase grain in large quantities at low prices next year and the year after then." Yi Zhishu said slowly: "Furthermore, instead of half-dead relief, it is better to provide enough food for the victims to work for relief, how much can tens of millions of disaster victims do in four or five years." ”

Zhao Liewen said sincerely: "It's still the long-term thinking of the big shopkeeper. ”

"Father." Yi Zhengxing said: "Since the outbreak of economic crises in the United States and Germany in 73, the agriculture of large agricultural countries such as Europe, North America, and Asia has suffered serious impacts. Will there be periodic agricultural crises like economic crises in the future? ”

"That's a good question." Yi Zhifen did not hide the appreciation in his eyes, "This should be the first world agricultural crisis, China is also a traditional agricultural country, and it is difficult to change from an agricultural country to an industrial country in a short period of time, therefore, the world agricultural crisis will cause great damage to our economy."

As for whether there will be a periodic agricultural crisis like an economic crisis, it is difficult to say, so you may wish to summarize the characteristics of this agricultural crisis, analyze the similarities and differences between the agricultural crisis and the economic crisis, and conduct an in-depth comparative study of the two, which can be an important research topic. ”

Yi Zhengxing then asked: "Is the situation in our country an agricultural crisis?" ”

"It depends on how the agricultural crisis is defined." Yi Zhizhi said: "The economic crisis is the relative surplus of industrial products, and the agricultural crisis should be the relative surplus of agricultural products, the long-term unsalable agricultural products, the continuous decline in prices, the sharp decline in the income of farmers, the increase in unemployment of agricultural laborers, the decline in wages, and the ......bankruptcy of a large number of small and medium-sized farmers." ”

After a pause, he said: "Judging from the situation in our country, there is no agricultural crisis, but the drought in the northern provinces is more destructive than the agricultural crisis. ”

Seeing that Yi Zhengxing no longer spoke, Zhao Liewen said tentatively: "Most of the northern provinces have no rain in autumn and winter, the signal of the continuation of the drought has been very obvious, and the stock market has also continued to be sluggish...... ”

After a slight sigh, Yi Zhizhi said: "Spread the news of the discovery of large-scale gold mines in Zhaoyuan and Pingdu in Jiaodong, Shandong. ”