Jinning originally planned to ask Hu Qingyun to ask a coach from the Cao Gang, but he didn't know that Fei, the director of the Cao Gang Gang, came directly.

When Jinning came to Dingfeng the next day, he didn't know Ren Fei. Seeing him young and handsome, he thought he had a accountant.

When Hu Qingyun introduced her, she bowed in shock and hurriedly said, "Thank you for your face, thank you for your face."

Ren Fei’s ceremony, “Ren Fei meets the county marquis!”

"Don't be polite, everyone is cheerful, no matter how cares, please sit down!"

Jinning bowed and invited him.

The three of them didn't talk nonsense, and they watched tea after taking their seats.

Jinning directly said his purpose and said, "I am not intimidated by the leader of the gang. This time I am looking for the people of the gang to understand the current situation of the gang."

The leader of the Ren Gang sighed, "Monkey King, even if you don't ask, Ren plans to visit you in the next post. The Marquis of the County is a human being. Ren has heard of it for a long time, but he has never been able to meet him. When Ren learned that the Marquis of the County was going to serve as the supervisor of the grain transportation, Ren was so excited that he had not been asleep all night."

"oh?"

Jinning looked at him, "I would like to hear the details."

The leader of the Ren Gang said: "Then I forgive Ren for saying that the prices of our Dazhou have become more and more expensive in recent years because the transportation cost is too high. Ren said, for example, if one stone of rice is transported from Jinzhou to the capital, the freight charged by the court is 150 cents. In the early days of Taizu, the rice price of our Dazhou was 300 cents per stone. Now, it has risen to 600 cents. There is little cultivated land in Beijing and the nearby rice and grain cannot be supplied enough, so it must be transported from all over the country. The rice and grain in Beijing are used as the reference price of the whole country. Now the rice prices in nearby prefectures and counties are also between 500 and 55 cents per stone. The people are a little unbearable and overwhelmed. You can ask Manager Hu for this."

Hu Qingyun nodded, "That's right, the price of rice and grain has been rising."

“Is this related to the drought missed harvest?”

Jinning asked.

Hu Qingyun said: "It doesn't matter. Droughts occur every year, and the same is true during Taizu's period. It is indeed because the freight costs are gone a long way. If you take the land, hire people and find cars. The freight costs of all items are actually similar. However, by shipping, you can ship large quantities of goods, long schedule, and large losses. After all, if you encounter wet weather and the rice and grain are not well preserved, it will easily become moldy. This is part of the loss, and this is undoubtedly one of the reasons for the price increase."

"The long schedule is because the imperial court does not have enough ships for commercial transportation."

Jinning nodded, "So, now the emperor plans to open up private shipping, so the pressure will be reduced."

Ren Fei said: "That's what Ren wants to say. Opening private shipping is a good thing. A hundred schools of thought contend, but the court only opens three companies, which means that there is a lot of competition. If a ship merchant wants to stand out, it is necessary to do tricks in the General Courtyard. But Junhou, do you think, is the money of the ship merchant for free?

The Zongyuan Yamen will not watch the low prices of private merchant ships completely defeat the court's business movement. In this way, prices still need to be synchronized."

"It is completely necessary to synchronize the price."

Jinning listened carefully, "Because if the price difference is too much, it will always tend to one side, causing uneven shipping market."

"This is the problem. The ship merchant spent a lot of money to get a license from the General Courtyard. The money would inevitably be passed on to the owner. In other words, even if the private business transportation was opened, it did not relieve the pressure on the canal transportation, nor could it reduce the cost."

"Unless..." Jinning looked at him. Since he had analyzed, there must be a solution.

Ren Fei said: "Unless the court's merchant transportation is the first to reduce prices, then the ship merchants will have to lower prices to accommodate them. Ren believes that it is impossible to relieve the pressure of canal transportation by only opening up the three shipping companies."

"So as Ren Gang leader saw, how many shipping companies can open up to alleviate the pressure on the canal transportation?"

Jinning asked.

"At least eight!"

Ren Fei adjusted his sitting posture and said seriously: "Ren is not talking to his Caogang. However, if there are many private merchant ships open, there will be more merchant ships sailing on the sea and rivers. Once there are more merchant ships, there will be more competition. When there are many competitions, first consider reducing the price. Only when the price actually drops, the cost of living for the people will be reduced."

Jinning thought about it and organized what he said, "What do you mean is that the court wants the court to open up eight private shipping companies, and the court's commercial transportation was the first to reduce the price so that the ship merchants who received shipping licenses also had reference prices?"

"yes!"

Ren Feidao.

Jinning pondered for a moment and said, "In this case, the expenses that the prefectures have to bear will undoubtedly be more. After all, except for more than half of the silver made by the merchant ships, the remaining silver was borne by the prefectures. In order to settle the accounts, the commercial transportation was unified, and the meager income was earned for the court and the prefectures, and the maintenance of the merchant ships, personnel, etc...." Ren Fei was a little anxious. Hearing Jinning said this, he immediately interrupted her, "Prince, a stone of rice, a hundred and fifty cent freight can be used for ship maintenance. It only costs thirty cents for hiring workers. What the court and prefectures earn is rice consumption, not freight."

"Then let me ask you, how much does it cost to spend a stone of rice?"

Jinning asked.

"Ten cents!"

Jinning was stunned, "Ten cents?

That is to say, with all the costs and personnel expenses, it only costs for 40 cents to go from Jinzhou to Beijing for a stone of rice?"

"There are some other expenses, no more than fifty cents in total."

Jinning sat upright and said in surprise: "But one hundred and fifty cents are collected, so where did these hundred cents go?"

A stone of rice is deficient in one hundred cigarettes. What does that mean?

Wouldn’t this Cao Gang enter the water in the pig cage every day?

Ren Fei shook his head, "I don't know about this Ren."

Jinning looked at him, "Ren Gang Master, is this account reasonable?"

Ren Fei smiled bitterly, "Monk, let's not hide it. The ship transport of our Cao Gang has taken over a lot of goods from Jinzhou. We charge 80 cents per stone, but we have to pay 10 cents to the General Courtyard, and deduct 10 cents of the cost of renting a dock. The state capital also needs to handle some, so the profit of getting one stone of rice is 10 cents."

Jinning was puzzled, "Has the court ordered anyone to calculate this account?"

"The court will send a censor to calculate the cost every year, but Ren really doesn't know what the price to calculate."

Jinning couldn't speak for a long time.

She originally thought that if there was any corruption in the General Court, it would be the supervision of the filial piety of the states and prefectures, or to draw another amount of rice.

I never thought that there was such a big profit in the middle.

It's really her knowledge that limits her imagination.

Ren Fei whispered: "Monk, you don't have to think that they are all corrupt, because the court also uses grain to transport disaster relief materials, military food materials, tax grains, etc., which are all expenses from the profits earned.

, Moreover, the navy of the canal transport had to be maintained."

"The navy was supported by the court, not by the canal yamen."
Chapter completed!