At this time, the land price in Yongcheng was generally only 200 to 300 w w per acre of land. The good land around the county town was only 500 to 600 cents. A sheep could buy one or two acres of land. Du Zhongxiao didn't dare to think about this in his previous life. Of course, the Central Plains region was vast and sparsely populated, and the land price was lower than that in other areas. But even if it rose ten times, the money for a land acre of two or three cents was actually not high.

Correspondingly, at this time, the price of rice is 50 cents per bull, and the price of employed workers is generally 100 cents per person a day. The price of the people is slightly lower, and 50 cents a day is still a must-do. If you are more diligent and try to save for a few years, you can buy dozens of acres of land and become a middle-aged farmer.

The ratio of land prices, rice prices and labor prices reflects many problems. At this time, the land does not occupy an absolutely important position in the conflict between landlords and farmers, and other means of production account for a larger proportion. If the cattle price is lower, the answer will be obvious. Various agricultural tools are the big part of agricultural data, and the actual situation is the same. The land price is calculated as one mu. Thirty mu of land is only thirty mu, but buying various agricultural tools also requires thirty mu. If one stone is collected per mu, the annual output of thirty stones is already a typical middle-class household.

With the labor price at this time, working hard, it seems that you can get rid of poverty within ten years and become the middle class of this era. In fact, this is far from the case. In the past hundred years since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the proportion of main customers has not changed much, and even the proportion of fifth-class households has not changed much.

There are many reasons for this situation, such as natural disasters that can easily lead to a loss of years of savings. For example, heavy workforces and farmers cannot work with peace of mind. But the most important thing is to be a self-sufficient small peasant home, which is not much attractive to people of this era.

This made Du Zhongxiao very confused. Later, he saw the drastic class changes in this era, so he felt relieved. He thought that his family was a self-sufficient small peasant family. His father went bankrupt after taking the exam in Beijing. If Du Zhongxiao had not had the knowledge of his later generations, he would not know when he would be able to turn over. Wu Kejiu was originally a tycoon in a county and regarded his family as a slave. In just a few years, he could not even support the restaurant.

Simply put, holding assets in this era has costs, and national taxes are asset taxes. If the assets in hand cannot bring benefits, they will be quickly eliminated by various taxes. The middle peasants happen to be in such a position, and most of the burdens suppressed by the imperial court are pressed to their line. As long as the harvest is a little worse, taxes and blood draws will be particularly serious. Once an accident occurs, they will fall into poor farmers, or even hired farmers. If the employees are included, the life of middle peasants is not much superior to poor farmers and hired farmers.

Land is not only a rent collection, but also an important criterion for the court to share taxes. The cost of land holding is very high. As a landlord, you must not only have land, but also find people who farm for you. The land is deserted and you have to use your own property to fill in taxes. For example, Wu Kejiu's family, because they offended Du Zhongxiao, Du Zhongxiao happened to be admitted to the Jinshi. Not only did his restaurant not make money, but he also kept paying money from it. The same is true for the landlord. Once the landlord can't find the house that he inherited the tenant and the land cannot be rented out, the court would not be polite at all when collecting the taxes.

The harvest in the land was not good, and the hired farmers could not survive the famine, but the landlords had to continue to bear the taxes of the court. They forced the hired farmers to be too tight, and they could only leave and continue to plant them. According to the popular rules of credit at this time, life might be improved. The Song Dynasty abolished the personal dependence relationship between landlords and farmers, which were all contracts and had a deadline. The landlords lacked the means to bind farmers to their own land.

In addition to serfdom, there is another method of this method, which is to use financial means to tie the land to farmers. While buying and selling the land, the land will also be particularly valuable. In this era, due to the attack on usury, landlords lack this method, and they have to bear the cost of land capital risks.

To put it bluntly, this is that the stability of hiring farmers is insufficient. In Du Zhongxiao's factory in his previous life, if the wages are paid one day, the workers' mobility will be very high, and it is not particularly short of people who will not do this. When the manpower is richer, capitalists will not even satisfy the monthly wages and tend to bind workers with the annual bonus. This is not satisfied, and it will cause workers to be in debt, eat the food for the first time, and make you dare not leave. The same is true for landlords to control farmers. The biggest role of usury is not to exploit farmers, but to control farmers, and providing lasting exploitation is the most in line with the interests of landlords.

Du Zhongxiao studied these things, not to analyze the class relationships in this era. Those brain-hardened things will be done by Wang Anshi and others who like to do academic research. What Du Zhongxiao needs to know is that he needs to develop science and technology, promote technological progress in this era, open a factory, run a business, and where the workers come from. Only by understanding the social foundation of this era can he know what measures to take.

In such an era, there is no need for land enclosure revolution to drive farmers into the city. It is a means taken by serf-like capitalists. There is no need for land reform and distribution of land. There is a lot of wasteland there, manpower and tools are cheap enough, so they will naturally be cultivated. What is needed now is to gather a limited population around the city, and with densely populated settlements, industries have sufficient momentum for development. Of course, this does not mean urbanization, but to concentrate on transforming the land around the city, which can irrigate and ensure land that is safe for drought and flood, will attract people. Customers account for one-third of the population. If these people are used well, it will be enough to ensure the source of workers. In other words, solving problems in development without creating problems will force development.

The first step in industry now is to make large quantities of easy-to-use and cheap agricultural tools, and steam engines are not as important as this. This is why Du Zhongxiao asked someone to buy "Pie Jing". Starting from the plow, building a standardized factory for making agricultural tools. It does not require much scale. As long as you find experience and form a standard, you can even promote it to each state in the future.

After reconciling these ideas, Du Zhongxiao sat down, took a sip of tea, and sighed: "I hope I am right, and there should be no mistakes. When doing things, of course, you must first choose the easy ones. You have a engineering background, and of course you have to choose the ones you are most familiar with."

What is the most important thing in making agricultural tools? Steel. Unfortunately, the county he manages now is good, but there is no coal or iron. Du Zhongxiao could only send people to Yingtian Mansion in the north to collect iron, just as he sent people to Caozhou to buy cattle.

Just as Du Zhongxiao was thinking about these things, Chairman Dong found Houya. After the ceremony, he said with a bitter face: "Minister, today the one who bought cattle in Caozhou and the one who bought iron in Yingtianfu arrived in this county. The merchants were waiting at the dock."

Du Zhongxiao was happy: "Let's wait for them! The chief clerk, let's go together to let these merchants know that the county is in urgent need of these, and sell more in the future! With iron, we can make farm tools and cattle, which can turn the surrounding area of ​​the county into fertile fields!"

Chairman Dong, however, said bitterly: "What the magistrate said is of course right. But, where do we have so much cash now? More than 200 cows cost more than 300 guan. Thirty thousand kilograms of iron cost more than 300 guan. At this time, the spring tax has just been released into the state, where can I make six or seven hundred guan? "

Du Zhongxiao was stunned: "The county has no money anymore? Why did it have no money so soon?"

Chairman Dong complained: "A few days ago, I borrowed about 1,000 guan from the head of the county's household. Most of the money has been spent to establish that "commune", and the rest are useful capital. The rules set by the magistrate himself, we cannot withdraw money from there."
Chapter completed!