The sound of metal clanging filled the military workshop. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After learning about the production of artillery and muskets, Xiao Ming told Song Changping and Chen Qi about the production tasks.

The production capacity of the military workshop has tripled, but it is still far from enough for Xiao Ming, for the simple reason that his current ability is too far behind the Western powers.

At this time in modern times, even the Dutch warships with a land area of only 40,000 square kilometers had hundreds of them, and in the Anglo-Holiary War, one side invested 8,000 artillery pieces at a time, and this was in the early 17th century.

Now in the eighteenth century, these imperial navies can only be stronger.

Compared to this terrifying figure, Xiao Ming's current power gap is very large, so now he is ready to vigorously develop trade and continue to expand the number of shipyards, otherwise it will be a lifetime to compete with these old empires for colonies.

So this time, after Chang'an experienced the gloom of politics, he didn't want to waste his energy on the court's deceit, and internal friction would only distract him and drag down Qingzhou's industrial and commercial development.

Moreover, he now holds two pieces of land in Youzhou and Qingzhou, and the land area is not inferior to that of the British Island at that time.

After all, at that time, the main island of Great Britain was only 240,000 square kilometers, and he was only a little worse, and there were still 150,000 or 60,000 square kilometers.

With such a land area, he has no need for land for the time being, and the only remaining problem is to industrialize the land and make the people on the land rich.

While thinking, Xiao Ming walked towards the Chamber of Commerce.

Today, Pang Yukun is responsible for distributing potatoes, and let the prefectures and counties be responsible for entering the villages to carry out the propaganda of potatoes, and he needs the help of the Chamber of Commerce to cooperate with this publicity.

Ordinary people are not stupid, they will not bother to grow something they have never seen before, unless they find that this kind of thing can be sold for money.

In fact, for Xiao Ming, it doesn't matter how many potatoes are sold this time, it doesn't matter how much money is sold, the important thing is that he wants to let the local people know that planting potatoes can make money.

Entering the Chamber of Commerce, a smell of potatoes came to the face, and iron pots were set up on more than a dozen briquette stoves in the Chamber of Commerce, and potatoes were boiling in water.

Merchants are eating boiled potatoes around the iron pot, which is also the most basic way to eat potatoes.

In the chamber of commerce, a cook is frying shredded potatoes, and a cook is frying french fries, and the merchant runs here to wait after eating boiled potatoes.

When Xiao Ming entered the Chamber of Commerce, Li Kaiyuan immediately stepped forward, and the businessmen immediately surrounded him, with a trace of expectation in their eyes.

"Your Highness, many merchants proposed to purchase potatoes, but they felt that the price was too expensive, and the officials discussed it with them just now, and they thought that it was more reasonable for these potatoes to cost five taels of silver and one stone." Li Kaiyuan said.

"Five taels of silver?" Xiao Ming frowned, this was much lower than the price they expected.

Nowadays, the price of one stone of rice is only 50 yuan, which is already ten times the price of rice, which can be said to be very high.

After hesitating for a moment, Xiao Ming said: "Five taels is five taels, now the main thing is to sell potatoes, one stone and five taels, one acre of land is more than a hundred taels of silver, if so, the people will be rich." ”

"Yes, the subordinates who said this want to go home and plant potatoes." Li Kaiyuan said happily.

Shaking his head, Xiao Ming said: "Don't be complacent too early, when the potato production comes up, the price of this potato will only continue to fall, and it will be good to be a little more expensive than the price of rice at that time." ”

Li Kaiyuan thought so.

After getting Xiao Ming's approval, Li Kaiyuan said to the businessmen at this time: "Your Highness has agreed, five taels and one stone, and you can place an order now if you want to buy it." ”

As soon as these words came out, the businessmen immediately surrounded Li Kaiyuan and shouted one after another.

"I'll buy twenty stones."

"Give me a hundred stones."

"Two thousand stones, I want to sell them to Chang'an."

“……”

The businessmen's enthusiasm for buying was high, and Xiao Ming was satisfied.

The potatoes would slowly spread throughout the country, and as he expected, the Chamber of Commerce was ready to turn the potatoes into actual profits after purchasing them.

As a result, merchants appeared on the dock who sold potatoes to other places, and the east and west markets of Qingzhou reacted the fastest, and the potatoes soon appeared in the market.

The next day, the people who entered the city were amazed when they saw the potatoes on the stalls.

Yesterday, the government government also sent people to the countryside to publicize potato planting, and many people did not dare to plant such strange things.

Land is the lifeblood of the common people, and a grain mistake in one season is enough to kill them, but when they asked about the price of potatoes, the people's expressions changed.

"Five taels and one stone." One of the people exclaimed.

The vendor nodded, trying his best to sell, "There will be no fakes, this is what I just bought from the Chamber of Commerce, I have to make some money by selling it here, a pound of five cents, the taste is very good, this pot is a taste, you try it." ”

The people's eyes turned, and in the past two years, his family's grain has been sold to the government office, and he can earn about fifteen or sixteen silver a year.

Compared with before, his family is a lot richer, and these five cents are not expensive, so he said: "Come on two catties, take it back and let my family taste it, I can't say that I will plant an acre of potatoes next year." ”

The vendor immediately smiled all over his face, the business of this potato is not bad, from the morning to the present, he has sold a total of three stone potatoes, from this point of view, this potato is not a problem, thinking of this, he thought about going to the Chamber of Commerce to purchase some more, this time the Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce provides limited potatoes, if you can't buy it in time, I'm afraid it won't be there.

And just as the traders thought, as the potatoes were sold, more and more merchants came to buy, and even many people came to buy potatoes and sell them in the village.

The traveling merchants who usually walk the streets and alleys have blocked the Chamber of Commerce.

These people are not big traders, they are all small vendors, and each time they buy one stone or two stones, but under Xiao Ming's instructions, the Chamber of Commerce is happy to sell potatoes to these small traveling merchants.

There is no other reason, because these traveling merchants and people are locals, and now Xiao Ming is supporting local business, and he should focus on supporting the people of the people.

Moreover, these traveling merchants and ordinary people are from the most basic people, and they carry goods to move around in the fiefdom, and they can also bring the most direct news to the Baixin.

Some big merchants are reluctant to go, these traveling merchants will also get involved, so that the news of potatoes can really cover every corner of the fiefdom.

A little later, Li Kaiyuan handed over the sales of potatoes for one day to Xiao Ming, and in general, the potatoes were sold for 2,000 stone on the first day, which is a very good number.

In the next few days, the sales task of 10,000 stones is estimated to be completed soon, and it is easy to get 50,000 taels of silver.

(To be continued.) )