The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir

Chapter 195: Competing to death

Importing rice from Su Province? The unit cost of two and a half bushel of imported rice would be over nine silver coins. How could there be any profit left after that? Although the shopkeepers from the major stores fell into silence, the small-time rice merchants didn't have so many misgivings. For them, they were operating on a shoestring budget. Whether they could earn a larger profit or smaller one, it was fine as they long as they could earn money.

A leader stepped forward for the small-time rice merchants. He looked at Ji Man as he said, "Owner Ji, we collectively have agreements with several tens of farming families, but the terms of these agreements are only six months. Once this year passes, they'll have to be signed again. What do you think..."

"That's fine." Yan Buba, who had been standing behind Ji Man this entire time with an abacus, said, "For every transfer of the short-term contracts, we'll compensate you with two taels. If the contracts are renewed in the following years, we'll continue to pay two taels for every year."

These conditions could be considered very generous. Not only were they being compensated for the loss of the residual contracts, they were also willing to sell their existing rice supply at a low cost. As the small-time rice merchants happily went over to look at the contracts, the remaining shopkeepers from the major rice stores looked at each other in dismay.

Their contracts with the tenant farmers were how they got their supply of rice. If they handed their contracts to Ji Store, wouldn't Ji Store have absolute say over the price of rice in the future?

How could they possible go along with this?

But, right now, they had no rice. Their only other option was to close their stores until the imperial court stopped collecting rice. The collection order from the imperial court superseded the enforcement of their contracts. It would be impossible for the rice merchants to try to snatch rice from the imperial court.

The remaining people were in a dilemma. After considering the options, Shopkeeper Liu saluted with his hands and said, "This is a serious matter. Owner Ji, how about we come back on another day once we've discussed the matter amongst ourselves?

Shopkeeper Rong also saluted with his hands and chimed in, "Yeah, we need to go back and have a thorough discussion."

Ji Man didn't try to stop him. Smiling, she nodded. "This one will look forward to everyone's future visit."

The shopkeepers from the major rice stores were wiping their sweat and whispering amongst themselves as they departed.

"Why don't we all work together and buy Ji Store's entire supply of rice?" Shopkeeper Liu's expression was slightly ruthless. "How did we not notice that someone had been already been collecting rice? They probably knew about the imperial court's order in advance. Since the situation is already like this, we can't let ourselves be manipulated and ordered about by Ji Store."

"You want to buyout Ji Store's entire supply?" Shopkeeper Rong thought it over. "Can we really afford to buy 25,000 bushels of rice together?"

Shopkeeper Liu sneered. "Shopkeeper Rong, let's not be so modest. We're all major rice merchants. We can easily buy more than 25,000 bushels of rice."

Shopkeeper Rong said with embarrassment, "My spendthrift son went gambling, and I ended up owing a buttload of money. I really can't afford to take out that much money right now."

The shopkeeper next to him parroted, "I recently settled my debts, so my money is stuck there. I normally don't have much liquid assets to begin with. I can't afford 25,000 bushels for rice."

A rice merchant usually only had a fraction of this amount in their inventory. If they had too much stock, they would risk the stock becoming damaged before they could sell it all. Although Ji Store was able to import rice from Zhangjun, it definitely wouldn't have that much rice in its inventory. If they were able to buy out its entire stock, they would be the ones to manipulate the food price and profit from the increase in price. It was definitely a better option than handing over their contracts.