Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 701 Social Change ([-])

"Your noodles." The owner of the small restaurant—actually a temporary shed with a few tables outside—brought up a bowl of noodles with a few vegetable leaves floating around.

Gao Jinzhong took a look and saw that the color of his face was black.He himself has set up a machine mill in a joint venture with someone in his hometown. He knows what the noodles of this color mean. This is semolina mixed with a lot of impurities such as wheat bran!In Zhenhai County and Xihu County in the north, this kind of semolina, commonly known as black flour, is generally exported to Brazil, where local farmers would purchase a large amount of it to make black bread, and distribute it to slaves.

In other words, even in Brazil, this is the food of the slave class. On the east coast where the average living standard is higher than that of Brazil, not many people are willing to eat this crude food.Agnelli eats these things now, and Gao Jinzhong can't help but admire him-apparently, the delicious food and drink in the past few years on the east coast has made him forget the difficult time in Shandong, when he couldn't even eat these things. I can't afford to eat anything.

Agnelli and Gao Jinzhong used to serve in the same company. Agnelli joined the army two years earlier, and the relationship between the two is very good.After Agnelli retired from the army, the contact between the two parties gradually decreased due to various reasons. Unexpectedly, the two met again in the remote town of Hejinbao. This is the most wonderful thing in the world.

Gao Jinzhong recently set up a steam mill in Rabbit Hole Village.The equipment was imported from Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, which is a simplified version of the mechanical milling line of Dafeng Food Factory, but the price is still high.For this reason, Gao Jinzhong himself went to the soldiers' committee in the county, recruited a few veterans who also didn't know how to invest, and invested with them in this machine-made flour milling line.

Of course, the price of a full set of steam equipment is quite expensive, so they inevitably have a lot of debt on their backs.However, Gao Jinzhong and others are not worried, because the construction team of the Ministry of Communications who is building No. 2 highway has already contracted out the business of supplying flour to the construction site to them, as long as they can supply the construction team with quality and quantity. If the flour is needed for daily consumption, then they don't have to worry about whether they have business for at least a year.

Now the domestic control of the grain market is gradually being liberalized. Apart from requiring grain farmers to sell a certain amount of wheat to the national grain reserve, the remaining grain in their hands has basically been left alone.Let it go, as long as the grain does not flow out of the country, you can sell it to whoever you like. You can sell it to the national grain reserve, and they will accept it at the latest price. Of course, you can also choose to sell the grain Selling to an acquainted miller or trader is no problem.

This policy undoubtedly greatly relieved the private millers in the country, because it means that they no longer need to buy grain from the national grain reserve depot, and they no longer have to risk being reported to have private discussions with grain farmers. Now that the deal is over, they can openly sign a purchase agreement with the farmers in the village, and then pull tons of grain back to their barn, start processing it into refined flour, and sell it everywhere to make a profit.

It's just that the domestic grain market has just been liberalized, and most farmers are still used to selling grain to the national grain reserve depot, and the grain reserve depot has become the largest grain "merchant" in the country by virtue of its strong network and famous brand.In addition to supplying a large amount of grain to the Dafeng Food Processing Factory, they also sold grain to millers of all sizes in the country, making a lot of profit.

Of course, units such as the miller and Dafeng Food Processing Factory are not fools.They are all enterprises, so they naturally know the importance of controlling costs, and also know how important it is to control a stable source of raw materials for production.Therefore, they began to bypass the national grain reserve and directly contact the grain producers.

The "luxury" milling line of Dafeng Food Processing Factory can consume more than 8000 tons of wheat a year, accounting for almost one-sixth of the country's total wheat production.Therefore, they sent a large number of agents to purchase wheat all over the country. At the same time, they also extended their tentacles to the countryside through the relationship of some flour sellers, trying to directly purchase the surplus grain in the hands of farmers.

They are really optimistic about the future of refined flour, because many businessmen have ordered a total of more than 3000 tons of refined flour at the Qingdao Autumn Commodities Fair a while ago.In addition, the Genoese and the Dutch West India Company have also placed orders for about 90 tons, which have removed more than [-]% of the plant's annual production capacity.The factory has already obtained a special loan from the United Industrial Credit Bank, and is preparing for the second flour production line. In order to have raw materials for production after the production line is completed, the factory is also frantically hoarding wheat, which makes the supply of wheat on the market rapid. decrease, and prices began to rise gradually.

The rise in wheat prices has inevitably been transmitted to the final consumer product flour, and this irresistible price rise has also contributed to the reluctance of many farmers to sell.Especially in Xihu County, the largest grain production base in the country and the county with the highest degree of agricultural commercialization, farmers are more reluctant to sell. They decide to wait with the grain in hand, thinking that they will seek greater benefits for themselves.

Under such circumstances, major private mill owners and grain processors immediately complained.They all complain that the government exports a large amount of wheat to foreign countries every year, but the result is that domestic grain prices have risen. This is simply unreasonable!It's just that complaints are nothing but complaints. In order to continue to operate their small workshops and small businesses, and at the same time to make profits, they had to show their talents across the sea and try their best to smash wheat in the market.Some people even travel long distances to try their luck in order to buy wheat, and Gao Jinzhong is obviously one of them.

Gao Jinzhong is a lame man, one of his legs was injured in the war, and he still has trouble moving, but he still came to the south without fear.He first ran to the Rongjun Farm in Luocha County, and used his special status as a disabled soldier to buy fifty or sixty tons of wheat from farmers who were also disabled soldiers—a figure that almost envied every country in the country. Millers.

After purchasing the wheat, Gao Jinzhong found that he still had some surplus money, so he took the train and steamboat to Hejinbao, hoping to try his luck in these towns that are not traditional agricultural areas, and see if he could buy some surplus grain.In today's East Coast Republic, the machine-milled noodle market is far from saturated. The Dafeng Food Processing Factory with the strongest production capacity is currently focusing on the foreign market with the highest profit margin, while many small private millers are developing in the domestic market. A brutal fight.

Everyone is not a fool. At present, a leading domestic enterprise such as Dafeng Factory has begun to build a second milling line. If the installation and commissioning of this line are completed, the annual processing capacity of the factory will reach a terrifying 1.7-1.8 Although they may still focus on the export market at that time, they will still pose a huge competitive pressure on many small mill companies in China.Therefore, when such giant companies have not yet taken into account the country, fierce competition has already launched among many private companies in the country, and bankruptcies have occurred almost every week.

Originally, almost one mill in every village was merged into two or three villages, and this year, there may be only a few mills in a township, which shows the fierce competition.Moreover, traditional animal power, water power and wind mills have also been gradually eliminated because they are not suitable for the market. At present, mills with a small scale in China, especially in the northern regions, have begun to use steam power and add mechanized production lines-of course, this is only limited to those who are not short of money and Businesses started by veterans who are willing to spend a lot of money upfront.

The mill of Gao Jinzhong and others got further development after the competition crushed two mills in a neighboring village, and then they were lucky enough to get an order from the No. 2 highway construction team, so they immediately began to introduce new investors and purchase machines equipment and expand production capacity to cope with increasingly fierce market competition.Several of their partners have a hunch that with the rapid development of the domestic infrastructure industry, when the traffic conditions improve a few years later, the originally closed and semi-closed markets in various places will gradually be integrated, and the cost of logistics and transportation will be greatly reduced. In time, the scale of the enterprise may be further enlarged.

Running a business is like sailing against the current, if you don’t advance, you will retreat.This is what Gao Jinzhong heard from a traveler who invested in them, so their only thought now is to seize the precious time, expand production capacity and further reduce costs - they even burn wood for steam boilers in order to save fuel costs , and then continue to develop, because Dafeng Factory, a leading enterprise, puts too much pressure on everyone.If you can't make it bigger and stronger while the market is not yet saturated, you will inevitably be squeezed out and have no business to do in the future.

"So you came here to buy wheat?" Agnelli shook his head and said, "Gao, you are wrong. This township couldn't even be self-sufficient in food last year. Although the summer harvest of wheat this year is good, it is not enough. It’s just self-sufficiency, maybe some farmers have surplus food, but they may not be willing to sell it, they may choose to raise a few large livestock.”

"There is none here, and there is no such thing as Chengshan Fort and Tieling Fort." Gao Jinzhong seemed to have expected this result a long time ago, and he didn't look very disappointed.

"You should try your luck at Ningjinbao or Dayan Township in the south. There should be some farmers eager to cash in their grain. Many of the residents there are Frenchmen, and they are happy to exchange their grain for money. Then go buy something else to enjoy. I've been there, and I know their virtues well. Believe me, Gao, this is the conclusion that a tinkerer who has been traveling all over the world can see through his own eyes." Agnelli is skilled He took the chopsticks to fork the noodles and ate them, and then said.

"Okay, I'll go there and have a look." Gao Jinzhong said, "But seriously, old man, you can't do a tinker's business for a few years, why don't you come to help us, at least you are familiar with all places It’s very important to us.”

"Is this a formal invitation?" Agnelli laughed, and then said, "Maybe I'll seriously consider it."

(End of this chapter)