Seeing that the ministers no longer objected to the issuance of public bonds to banks to raise funds, Chongzhen motioned to Ji Jiliang to explain to everyone the plan for the establishment of the entire Daming grain trading market and grain reserve warehouse.

In the plan formulated by Ji Jiliang, regional grain distribution centers will be set up in places with convenient transportation, such as canals, rivers, and seaports.

In the north, the four cities of Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Xi'an are the center, and large-scale granaries and bulk grain trading markets are built.

In the south, Shanghai was established in Nanjing, Hankou Town, Changsha, and the northeast of Songjiang Prefecture near Baoshan, and these four places were used as grain distribution centers in the south.

These eight cities in the north and south will become primary markets for grain trading, and then all localities will rely on these central cities to set up secondary and tertiary grain markets.

In addition to how to build markets and warehouses, he also focused on how to connect these cities by water.

After listening to Ji Jiliang's plan, all the ministers had no objections. After all, the plan is very detailed, with a lot of data and charts to support it.

This novel way of drawing up a proposal is such that even the most discerning and sophisticated bureaucrats cannot find any flaws at once.

In the plan, the investment plan for these urban infrastructure projects exceeds 1.5 million yuan, and the remaining 3.5 million yuan is the principal used to purchase grain.

It is now clear to the officials present that every 1 million yuan is equivalent to 720,000 taels of silver, which is not a small amount.

Henan accounted for two of the grain centers in the north, which made officials from Shanxi and Shandong quite dissatisfied, and officials in both places wanted Henan to give up a place.

The four cities in the south were divided between the two provinces of Huguang and Nanzhili, and the officials of Zhejiang and Fujian were dissatisfied, but although the number of officials in these two provinces was quite large, they were not grain-producing areas themselves, and they could not say anything.

However, Zhang Ruitu pointed out that these cities are too far away from the real south to cover the provinces of Guangzhou, Hainan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. Although Yunnan and Guizhou can only meet their own grain needs, Liangguang and Sichuan are both provinces that can increase grain output through land reclamation.

Therefore, in his view, a grain trading center should be established in these provinces, covering the south-western provinces.

When it comes to the competition for monetary interests, the officials present are not willing to give in to each other, and looking at the officials who are grouped according to their regions, Zhu Youzhen also has a big headache.

In the end, both the emperor and the household department backed down and agreed to put the cities proposed by these officials into the second phase of the plan, which barely settled the controversy.

The Grain Center Cities and Grain Reserve Program finally gained the support of most officials, and after the plan was adopted, the number of underwritten public bonds was sought from the banks.

Wang Fengyuan stood tremblingly in front of a group of officials, it was the first time in his life that he had seen so many high-ranking officials wearing Zhu and purple, which made him quite weak and short of breath.

“… If the imperial court can use the taxes of raw silk, silk, tea, and cotton cloth as collateral, then I am willing, no, our bank is willing to underwrite a five-year public bond of 5 million yuan, with an annual interest rate of 45%, simple interest. Wang Fengyuan had the audacity to say the proposed conditions.

"Then in 5 years, the interest alone will exceed 1.1 million, which is not equivalent to an additional 2% of the amount that the imperial court has to pay? I'm afraid this is not good for the small people, right? Yang Jingchen calculated in his heart, and immediately opened his mouth to question.

Wang Fengyuan didn't dare to argue, but Di Jiliang immediately came forward to explain: "The simple interest of 45% per annum is already quite low interest.

At present, the pawnshop loans outside are usually 3 points per month, or compound interest. If it is in the countryside, the farmer borrows grain from the landlord, and borrows a bucket of old grain in March and April, and returns 2 buckets of new grain after autumn.

What's more, if the grain distribution center and grain reserve depot can be built one day earlier, it will be of great benefit to resist the famine in various places, and the benefits in this cannot be measured by money..."

Under Di Jiliang's explanation, Yang Jingchen and several other officials finally accepted this explanation with half a heart.

Guo Yunhou, the head of the household department, only then spoke: "In view of the high interest rate of private loans, it not only harms the commercial activities of the Ming Dynasty, but also makes some farmers who cannot afford to repay their debts abandon their fields and flee to become homeless people and bandits, which is not conducive to the security of our Ming Dynasty."

Therefore, the Ministry of Household Affairs decided to formulate a policy that the imperial court would not support any form of compound interest loans, and local governments would no longer accept such lawsuits.

In addition, any loan shark is illegal, and the court will give a grace period of 10 months, within which these loan sharks must be replaced with ordinary loans.

After 10 months, those who dare to lend usury again will have their illegal gains confiscated and imposed a fine of 1-10 times the fine, and if serious consequences are caused, they will also be subject to criminal punishment.

The interest rate on private loans shall not exceed four times the interest rate of the bank for the same period, and the excess shall be usury and shall not be protected by law. ”

Most of the officials did not oppose the policy proposed by Guo Yunhou, except for some officials from Shanxi who whispered a few words of questioning, and the policy of the household department was passed without shock.

After watching everyone vote and pass, Zhu Youzhen said to Huang Liji: "The establishment of the Grain Bureau is mainly to ensure that the imperial court has a part of the grain reserves.

In this way, it is possible to provide disaster relief to the affected areas in times of emergency, and it can also adjust the price of food in various places during the annual harvest season.

However, the establishment of the Grain Bureau has only solved the problem of market and circulation, and we also need to solve another problem, the problem of grain production. ”

Huang Liji cheered up and said to Chongzhen: "The minister will definitely issue a document urging all counties to do a good job in grain production." The minister then organized personnel to inspect the spring sowing situation in various places..."

Zhu Youzhen immediately shook his head and said, "No, what I want to say to Mr. Huang is not this. I hope that the county decree of each county will first sort out the actual population and grain cultivation area of each county, and then determine the food gap and surplus of each county.

What I want to know is how much grain each county in Daming can transfer under normal circumstances, so that we can do a good job of inter-regional grain transfer, after all, we can't transfer grain from areas where there is a shortage of grain, can we? ”

After only a moment's consideration, Huang agreed with the emperor's suggestion, and told the emperor that he would discuss the matter with the cabinet members as soon as possible.

Zhu Youzhen nodded, and then said again: "In addition to counting grain arable land, in order to ensure grain output, I also hope that the cabinet will adopt two food policies.

1. The Cabinet formulates a farmland protection policy, delineates the farmland red line in each county, and punishes local officials in areas where the farmland red line is breached;

2. Punitive taxes should be increased when cultivated land suitable for growing grain is used to grow cash crops. The output of well-known distilleries in various places shall be verified, liquor licenses shall be issued, the use of new grain liquor shall be prohibited, and all distilleries that exceed the approved output shall be punished.

Distilleries without a liquor license are prohibited from using staple grains to make wine and sell, but liquor made from non-staple foods such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, sugar cane or fruits is not prohibited. ”

The emperor's restrictions on winemaking and the cultivation of cash crops immediately caused many southern officials to start talking. Many of these southern officials were big landowners, and the cultivation of mulberry, hemp, cotton, and other cash crops in the south was far more profitable than the cultivation of rice.

For example, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Suzhou and Songjiang were the production areas of the Ming Dynasty, but with the rise of the textile industry and handicraft industry in this area, mulberry gardens and cotton fields have replaced the scene of rice fields everywhere.

Even rice paddies that are not suitable for conversion into mulberry gardens and cotton fields generally do not directly sell the harvested grain as commercial grain. After hundreds of years of development, Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang and other economically developed areas have developed a civic culture that likes to enjoy.

Representing this kind of civic culture, one is opera, and the other is food. For urban civilians in this area, even ordinary families are often able to drink and eat meat.

The dishes of Huaiyang and Suzhou, and the wine of Nanjing, have become the food representatives of the Jiangnan region. And Nanjing's wine is excellent not one or two, but hundreds.

Nanjing's Qinhuai River is also a famous place of wind and moon, where the wealthy of the south of the Yangtze River spend a lot of money every night, in addition to chasing prostitutes, exquisite food and drink are also indispensable.

It is under this demand that Nanjing's winemaking industry has become extraordinarily developed, and there are many Nanjing clans who are famous for winemaking. With these drinks, they earned a profit far higher than the grain trade, how could they be willing to be blocked by the emperor's prohibition order.

However, officials from the north were very supportive of the emperor's proposal, because it would hit the financial resources of the southern officials in the first place. In addition, the successive disasters in the north have also made these northern officials feel a sense of crisis.

The Ming Dynasty was governed by the gentry, and once the local disaster occurred, the local county officials would find the local gentry to organize disaster relief in addition to opening warehouses and releasing grain.

Generally speaking, as long as the gentry had the intelligence of ordinary people, they would agree to this request of the county magistrate. After all, the victims of the disaster have become rebels or bandits, and the first to suffer losses are the local gentry.

But since the end of the Wanli Emperor, the famine in the north has been continuous, and there is no end in sight. Even the local gentry, who owned a lot of land, did not have much savings.

And the southern gentry and landlords, at this time, also used a large amount of grain to make wine, and it was indeed a bit of a fire watching from the other side.

In the past, officials in the north did not dare to raise it, because they were afraid that the officials in the south would be outnumbered. But when the emperor came forward, these northern officials immediately united under Chongzhen's proposition.

While the two sides were arguing, Liu Zongzhou stood up and supported the emperor's claim. He believes that now when the north is full of victims, the people in the south are still addicted to wine, and they have obviously lost their original intentions.

Liu Zongzhou's support surprised Chongzhen a little, but it was a final blow and completely gave northern officials the upper hand in this controversy. So the meeting moved on to the next item, the topic of the establishment of the Ministry of Water Resources by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Water Resources.