Chapter 150
In Yizhou, many medium and small aristocratic families’ incomes all depend on white sugar.
After all, white sugar used to be monopolized by Yizhou. With such a big advantage, those medium and small families in Yizhou simply would not choose to do other businesses.
They only needed to take in land and laborers, grow mulberry bushes, produce sugar, and then every year they could harvest large amounts of wealth.
It is precisely because all the Yizhou aristocratic families have the same interests that they fiercely guard the sugar trade secrets, refusing to leak information, setting high sugar prices to obtain considerable profits.
But now the situation of just sitting back and collecting money can no longer be done.
Because the court has taken action.
This action by the court directly nailed Yizhou’s high-priced sugar to the attic — unless they lower the price, otherwise ordinary people simply will not buy!
Not lowering the price means no money, no money means living standards drop, and if living standards drop, how can a family maintain the appearance of an aristocratic clan?!
Do aristocratic families not have the burden of maintaining their image?
They do! Each burden is heavier than anyone’s. To maintain the family’s face, every family member’s food, clothing, daily expenses, housing, and transportation are all built of gold and jade!
Without money to manage these, it’s simply nonsense!
An ordinary aristocratic family spends thousands of taels a day, at least thirty thousand a month. If there’s no income, many of those medium and small families that rely on white sugar to live will directly perish and go bankrupt.
But the great families are different.
To become a great family, their industries must be more than one. They understand well the principle of not putting all eggs in one basket — for example, the four great clans. But white sugar is also extremely important to them. Losing the income from sugar will seriously hurt these four families.
Some worried people ask: “What should we do now? Do we really have to lower the price, to match the government’s price?”
Their sugar sells at about fourteen or fifteen times the price of rice, while the government-set price is nearly half as much as theirs!
If the government prices it like this, not to mention the merchants who bought sugar quotas, in order to sell more, they will set their prices even lower than the government’s!
Even if it’s the lowest sugar price, taking a low margin but high sales route, merchants will still make big profits!
If it weren’t for Jiaozhou being like this, their family incomes would not have looked so dismal after just one month.
Some are timid, some are bold.
Thinking about being forced by the court to lower prices so humiliatingly, some start shouting to cause trouble.
“The government is simply too oppressive! Our sugar is selling well, why does the court cut off our financial path! Since they are ruthless, we simply won’t sell sugar to other prefectures! Go to Great Liang, go to Northern Hu, I want to see how much sugar this little Jiaozhou can supply to the people of Great Wei!”
Many who feel aggrieved and resentful are mostly heads of small families whose main livelihood is white sugar. Each feels that the court’s move is like digging up their ancestors’ graves, forcing them to die.
“Exactly! When the court sold sugar, they deliberately ignored Yizhou, just to keep an eye on us, wanting to force us to lower prices with a fait accompli. We refuse to lower! We won’t send white sugar to Great Wei anymore; we’ll directly sell to Great Liang!”
“That’s reasonable. I’ll have people close shops in other places and bring the sugar back! Hah, if they don’t buy our sugar, I’m not bothered to sell to them either!”
“……”
Amidst the noisy quarrel below, the heads of the four great families sitting above exchanged glances but said nothing.
Someone noticed their bad expressions and the silence, especially when the head of the Sun family furrowed his brows tightly, and couldn’t help but ask:
“Head of the Sun family, given the current situation, do you four have anything to say?”
They definitely had something to say.
Especially when this group decided to cause trouble.
The head of the Sun family looked at the crowd below and asked in a deep voice, “Are you trying to go against the court?”
When he said this, everyone looked at each other in silence.
Although everyone was filled with righteous indignation and hated the court’s tactics, no one present dared to openly oppose the court.
If they really dared to raise the banner and confront the court, the 120,000 troops stationed in Yizhou, guarding against Great Liang, would directly crush them!
Seeing no one dare to speak, the Sun family head sneered.
They were only brave with words?
The mockery was full, and the crowd below was displeased, asking directly:
“The court acts like this, isn’t the head of the Sun family angry?”
“Does anger help?” the Sun family head retorted.
Of course he was angry; he was already furious when the steward reported all the facts.
But being angry alone was useless. The court had clearly made up its mind. When acting, they didn’t even notify Yizhou officials, obviously guarding against everyone here.
Now it had come to this point. There was no room for negotiation about the sugar issue. They could either obediently accept the court’s arrangement and swallow this bitter loss, or do some underhanded tricks and wait for the court to slap them down…
The Sun family head sighed deeply in his heart.
The guards in Yizhou were nothing, but the 120,000 troops stationed at the border with Great Liang were a big hidden danger.
The Sun family head was certain that if they dared to act, the court would definitely deploy the army.
Even if only half the troops were sent to crush them, it would be enough.
He did not want to confront the court.
Lowering the sugar price to match the court’s price meant they would simply earn less. After all, mulberry bushes can only be planted in Jiaozhou and Yizhou, and Yizhou’s aristocratic families still hold a semi-monopoly. It was impossible to cut off their livelihood.
And the four families did not depend solely on sugar. Earning less here, they could make it up elsewhere. The only difficulty now…
The Sun family head glanced at those small family heads below.
One side was those small families, the other was the aristocratic face of Yizhou families.
If sugar prices fell, the first group might not maintain their current aristocratic status, and the latter would be ridiculed by aristocrats everywhere.
Aristocratic clans are all about appearance.
They were in a dilemma.
The group was silent. Suddenly, the head of the Xie family made a suggestion.
“Why don’t we go talk to the government?”
When these words came out, some people seemed to think it over.
The Sun family head said, “Go talk to the Jiaozhou government? We’re unfamiliar with the place, it might not be satisfactory.”
The Xie family head shook his head, “No, we only need to find Prefect Yu, let him talk to the Jiaozhou officials.”
The head of the Bai family frowned, “What do you want to talk about?”
“Of course cooperation.”
Under everyone’s gaze, the Xie family head calmly said, “At this point, unless we are determined to confront the court, we have no choice but to lower prices. If we lower prices, the four of us can handle it, but other families will struggle.”
“After all, we are all connected branches of the same root for many years. If we watch other families suffer, it would show that the Yizhou aristocratic families are weak and useless. Then, looking at the whole country, where would our Yizhou families have any status? It’s better to choose to negotiate a deal with the government.”