359Food and Development of Xinjiang

"The Pampa Plain is such a treasure land! The wheat planted last year has been harvested again this year. However, is this level of harvest really a good thing? The drama of increasing yields but not increasing income has been staged many times." On October 10, 1690, in Yancheng Port at the southern end of the Yanbu Railway, a former cow catcher, who is now a famous merchant in the Pampa Plain, shook his head and said while eating the spread pancakes.

Pancakes were bought in a restaurant on the side of the road. They used local special flour, but the price was still the same as usual. If the restaurant owner had not given the concessions, then the local grain prices must have fallen, so that the expensive special flour began to appear in the local market on a large scale.

The Pampa Plain was originally a first-class wheat production area. Yancheng Port and its surrounding areas were a famous grain-producing area in the East Coast Republic decades ago. Wheat, sunflowers, hops, burdock, soybeans, corn and other crops produced on the inland plains will gather here and then shipped to the north for sale. Of course, there are also a large number of local deep processing enterprises, mainly flour production, which is to create some tax and employment positions for Yancheng County, and also to use local advantageous resources to expand and strengthen the food processing industry.

The flour produced in Yancheng County is divided into different grades according to its quality, just like other parts of the country. Among them, the first-class flour is shipped to developed regions in the north, which is the main market for high-priced and extra-grade flour. Lausiji has been in the south for more than ten years. In his early years, he started to harvest cattle and operate cowhide, tallow, and pickled beef business. The business began to grow gradually. Naturally, wealthy businessmen like him, who have gradually become more particular about their daily food and clothing. It is almost a matter of course to consume extra-grade flour. Therefore, as soon as he ate the pancakes he bought just now, he immediately understood that this was extra-grade flour, but the price was still the same as before. What does this mean?

"There is indeed a phenomenon of increasing production but not increasing income, and the government is also working to solve it." Inigor, who has been promoted to commander of the Yanbu Railway, sat opposite Lausji. This was his office, so a burly soldier soon came over. He was holding a tray in his hand, and there were two cups of brewed coffee in the pallet.

"The Yanbu Railway now has trains for transporting grain every day, most of which go north and arrive at Nancun Port. After the grain arrives there, the government also has a headache. The national reserve grain warehouse has a bitter face to collect most of it, but in fact they don't have a good sales route, so they don't know how to do it." Inigo took a sip of strong coffee and said, "But they have to buy it! Because if the government does not support the farmers on the Pampa Plain, how can they let others come to explore the wilderness in the future? How can they open up the border? Therefore, the national reserve grain warehouse has to buy it, but the price they buy is not very high, and the farmers are always a little dissatisfied."

"It's good to be like this. After all, I have to use real money to support it, and it consumes a lot. The national reserve grain warehouse probably needs to ask the Government Council for subsidies. Increase production or increase income, this is fate. What else can you do? I just miss those pioneers. I worked hard all year long, but my income was completely inferior to expectations. It's so boring." Lausji applied some soybean paste to the pancakes and sighed while eating: "But now the government is still constantly immigrating to the Pampa Plain. Especially after negotiating with the Spaniards, more and more people entered the west of the railway. What will these people do in the future?"

"The government is also trying to find a way." Inigor struggled and said: "In fact, the government has recently signed a purchase and sales contract with Spain, the United Provinces and France, which can export large amounts of my country's surplus grain to the above-mentioned areas, but I don't know when it will be implemented."

"This kind of contract is just for a good sound. In fact, it is all intentional contracts. I'm afraid there is no confirmation?" Lausji has also done a lot of business and knows a lot about the name here. He continued to say: "United Province, a country, imports a large amount of grain from Poland and Russia every year. Well, the North German region is also their granary. Anyway, some of them are bought from places. Even if we can sell some, how much will it be? Moreover, such long-distance shipping will inevitably be very serious. Their country has not been blocked, and the grain price is normal. We can hardly make much money."

"Spain can actually be operated well, but it is quite complicated. Inigo, do you have relatives in Spain? You should know that the drought there is not lighter than France, right? In fact, it is still very short of food." Lausgi said again: "But the problem is that they have no money and do not intend to make a request to import food to us. It can be seen that this country wants to use its precious funds for war and no longer cares about the lives of the people. This is difficult."

"No, there are no relatives anymore." Inigor shook his head with a bad look on his face and said.

"Oh, even if you don't have relatives, you should know. Are you reading the newspaper? It has been reported that there have been droughts in France, Spain and Portugal several times. The grain harvest has been bad, and domestic inventory has almost been consumed. The Portuguese are already importing food from the Baltic Sea. This is really damn. Why not buy ours? Just because the price is a little more expensive? The Spanish are even more overdoing. They have given up buying food to help the victims. At present, only the church is doing these things, but they also import food from England and Italy, and it has nothing to do with us." Lausgi finished the last pancake on hand and said with a burp: "As for France, uh, this seems a bit wrong..."

"Sell grain to the Kingdom of France?" Just as Lausgi and Inigor were talking about the food problem in the Pampa Plain, the famous food merchants Agnelli and Gao Jinzhong were also chatting.

"France is fighting with United Provinces and Spain. We are so eager to sell food, right?" Gao Jinzhong asked, holding a pipe left and right, holding a horse in his right hand, wandering on the green grass outside Nancun Harbor.

"But what are the solutions now?" Agnelli took off the hat on his head, let the wind blow his silver hair, shook his head and said, "Now, solving the problem of food problems and solving the problem of farmers' increase in production and not increase in income is the top priority. It is political correctness. This is a policy decided by the superiors and can't control so much. You Dutch have the ability to eat all our food? Can't eat it? Then why should we sell it to whom we can't? Now the Golden Lily Flower Store is buying real money, and we have no reason not to sell it."

"As for Spain? Spain is even more ignorant!" Agnelli criticized without hesitation: "I think their king Carlos II has no concern for his people at all, completely lost his responsibilities and obligations as a monarch, and only knows to fight with the French without any concern for the poor economic situation in the country. He turned his attention to the pathological warfare. I have never seen such a shameful person."

"In fact, I think the monarchs of the Old Continent are basically such shameful people." Gao Jinzhong agreed, and then said, "I won't talk about this, let's talk about how to sell goods. This time, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said hello together and asked us to organize a batch of grain to sell abroad, with a good profit margin. Although there are some risks, we have to do it if we don't do it, and we have no choice."

In fact, as Gao Jinzhong said just now, the country has taken some measures to solve the food problem for farmers. In addition to increasing exports to their own colonies and raising import tariffs for foreign grain to 70%, they have also vigorously explored overseas markets.

First of all, New Kurland and Portuguese Brazil are two close-karland. The two places are already mainly economic crops, and some grain crops are produced by themselves and imported. This time, the East Coast government came to the door and demanded that they increase the import of grain from the East Coast, and signed a series of agreements, with the State Grain Storage and the local colonial government as the signing parties, which solved some of the problems.

Secondly, the East Coast people also sent people to inquire about the Spanish ambassador and the Madrid court, asking them to purchase a batch of grain for disaster relief. The Spaniards were surprised and sarcastic that the East Coast government was so concerned about the lives of their citizens, but they did not intend to use funds to purchase grain, even if the wheat provided by the East Coast people was not low and the price was not very expensive. Even when the East Coast people proposed to change the part of the payment to be paid in the land purchase agreement that was currently negotiating in an orderly manner into grain, the Spaniards refused without hesitation. They just wanted to get real money and then subsidize the financial deficit.

However, they were not allowed to do so this time. The Executive Committee has issued the highest instruction, requiring the negotiation team to add this article and use at least 600,000 yuan in cash from the purchase of land to purchase 30,000 tons of wheat. It is also "suggested" that the Spaniards purchase an additional 20,000 tons on this basis, because if the final purchase volume reaches 50,000 tons, the East Coast people can give an additional 5,000 tons of corn, which is a discount for major customers.

Negotiators of the Kingdom of Spain have seen the latest documents, so they naturally protested strongly, but were ignored by the East Coast. Negotiators of the East Coast even threatened that if the Spanish did not accept this clause, they would not rule out the possibility of termination of the negotiations and put the Spanish Kingdom, which was already in the quagmire of war, into a dangerous situation. They expected that the Spanish would eventually succumb to the pressure of the East Coast people, obediently return to the negotiating table, eat the tens of thousands of tons of food, and solve the inventory for the farmers in the East Coast.

Compared with the Spanish Kingdom, the French's problems were a bit complicated. First, they took the initiative to come to the East Coast to negotiate the issue of grain procurement, and asked the East Coast people to deliver goods to their doorsteps to avoid risks. You should know that although their navy has grown at an astonishing rate in recent years and has defeated the navy of England and United Provinces in the previous two battles, they are still a little scared after all, fearing that one day the fleet will be annihilated by the enemy and the coastline will be blocked, which will be troublesome. Therefore, Louis XIV directly pointed out that

Shiyuan Jinlihua Store in Qingdao Port, asked them to purchase grain on the east coast, hire ships, and then transport it to France. Louis XIV specifically pointed out that as long as the price is moderate and not outrageous, they would purchase it according to the amount of 10 million liffor. In the past two years, France has either drought or floods, and the grain harvest has been greatly affected by a great negative impact. We have to increase the procurement efforts from foreign countries. For this reason, Louis XIV did not hesitate to kill a few more "fat pigs" and paid for the huge wealth obtained by chasing the house.

To be honest, the French purchase volume is very huge, and the effect of destocking of grain is very obvious. Therefore, they just considered it for a moment and agreed to the French's procurement request, and then negotiated with them the details of delivery and payment. In order not to make Spain and the United Provinces feel "betrayed", the East Coast people also made a trick of stealing the bell, that is, the State Grain Storage, such an organization that represents the government, did not come forward, and major domestic grain production enterprises, traders, deep processing enterprises and even agricultural cooperatives traded with the French, exporting various types of food including wheat, corn, potatoes and barrel flour. Among them, the famous Rabbit Hole Flour Factory naturally undertakes the task of producing 3,600 tons of barrel flour, which is also a considerable business for them and is worth discussing.

After the two countries of France and Spain were settled, the pressure on the East Coast people to destock the grain inventory was greatly reduced, and the farmers' income could also be increased rapidly. From then on, pioneering and reclamation became a profitable economic activity, and the finances of local governments could be maintained (mainly relying on land sales), the frontiers could be enriched, and immigrants were continuously in. The whole country seemed to have returned to the perfect state of stable operation in the past. However, some people pointed out that the East Coast government, such as the artificial maintenance of the peasant class, actually seriously violated economic laws, which was equivalent to asking all classes of society to pay for subsidies to farmers. In the long run, it would inevitably lead to a rebound from all classes of society and have serious negative impacts.

There is no doubt that the upper government is aware of the situation. But for various reasons, they are unwilling to adjust their current policies and intend to continue to maintain the middle class status of the peasant class. To be honest, this is becoming increasingly difficult, and the difficulty is increasing every year, thus constantly attracting foreign attractions and expanding the scope of actual land control.
Chapter completed!