Chapter 137

137. Chapter 137: Exchanging Fine Grain for Coarse Grain

Each sack was filled with rice harvested a few days ago, weighing nearly several hundred jin. Placed in the carriage, it suddenly became a bit crowded.

Jiang Xiaoxiao got on the carriage, waved her little hand at Qiulian Niang, and invited her to sit in the carriage together.

Qiulian Niang saw that her family's grain had almost filled the carriage, and was originally a bit embarrassed, preparing to follow the carriage to town on foot, but she couldn't resist Jiang Xiaoxiao's kindness, so she got on the carriage.

She sat carefully on the soft cushion, feeling a bit restrained. She looked out of the carriage window a few times. The carriage was driving towards Yong'an Town, the scenery outside was retreating rapidly, the speed was faster than an ox cart, and it didn't shake. Both people and grain were steady in the carriage.

Qiulian Niang touched the carriage and sighed: "Xiaoxiao, thank you and your family so much. This is the first time I've sat in a carriage..."

Jiang Xiaoxiao smiled.

People in the village regarded grain as more important than life. They would rather let the grain sit in the carriage than sit in the carriage themselves.

Jiang Wei drove the carriage in front and soon arrived at Yong'an Town.

The carriage stopped in front of the grain shop.

Jiang Wei jumped off the carriage and helped Qiulian Niang move all the sacks of grain into the shop.

There were quite a few people in the grain shop, and more than half of them were here to sell grain.

The shopkeeper of the grain shop was leading a few shop assistants to weigh the grain, and a circle of people was surrounded by the side.

The grain shopkeeper's face was very bad: "Your rice isn't dried at all, I don't want it."

That person cried directly: "Shopkeeper, I have no choice either. It has been raining heavily for the past few days, and this grain simply can't be dried. Please be kind and collect it at a cheaper price..."

The shopkeeper firmly refused.

This grain wasn't dried and carried a large amount of moisture. Not to mention that the weight weighed out was falsely high, and undried rice was prone to mold and rot. He didn't dare to collect it.

Seeing this, the families who were surrounded by the side preparing to sell rice also retreated silently, preparing to try other grain shops. Their rice had been severely affected by the dampness due to this heavy rain. Although it had been sunny for a few days, the government was about to send people to collect taxes. They had no money to pay the head tax, so they could only hope that the rice they had just harvested could be sold for some money.

But the shopkeeper of the grain shop wasn't a fool. Even if these people found another grain shop, they still wouldn't be able to sell it. Even if there were those who collected it, they would collect it at an extremely low price.

More than half of the people in the grain shop left, and it suddenly became much emptier.

Qiulian Niang pulled open the hemp rope on her own sack, revealing the rice inside, and asked: "Shopkeeper, do you think this is okay?"

The shopkeeper looked closely, touched it with his hand, and twisted it with his fingers, then said: "Your rice is okay. We collect it at 15 wen per jin. If you agree to this price, I'll have someone weigh it."

"15 wen per jin?" Jiang Xiaoxiao frowned tightly, "Wasn't the price of rice 18 wen per jin before?"

The shopkeeper looked at her, probably thinking she was young, and just replied indifferently: "18 wen was the price after the price increase. Now that there are so many people selling grain, the price has naturally returned to what it was before. If you think it's cheap, you can go to other grain shops to see, they are all at this price."

After listening to this, Jiang Xiaoxiao only felt speechless.

These people only knew how to pluck the wool of the common people. Before, when the grain in the fields hadn't matured and the common people lacked grain, the price of grain in the grain shops in town was getting higher day by day. Now that the common people wanted to sell grain, they were suppressing the grain price to death.

Damn it, didn't this ancient era have official positions like market supervision? They really should manage these merchants who do grain business well!

"Shopkeeper, 15 wen is fine. Weigh how much there is." Qiulian Niang said.

She was fortunate that the grain could be sold; she didn't dare to hope for a higher price.

The shopkeeper then directed a few assistants to put the sacks of grain on the scale one by one to weigh them. Finally, there were nearly 400 jin.

Qiulian Niang breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. The shopkeeper didn't shortchange her, and this number was the same as what she had weighed at home.

A few days ago, Tiezhu and his father put on coir raincoats and went up the mountain to cut firewood in the heavy rain every day. She and Old Man Zhao and her youngest son worked day and night to bake and dry the rice, almost without closing their eyes, and finally dried all the moisture in the rice.

Other people's rice couldn't be sold, but her family's was sold, which showed that the hard work of her family for these few days hadn't been in vain.

Finally, Qiulian Niang sold 300 jin of the 400 jin of rice, earning 4 and a half taels of silver, and exchanged 100 jin of rice for 70 jin of millet, 30 jin of buckwheat flour, 20 jin of brown rice, 20 jin of black flour...

Exchanging fine grain for coarse grain was the usual practice of farmers in this era.

The harvest in the fields was too small, coupled with the drought and hail this year, the yield of grain was even smaller. After paying taxes, it was completely insufficient for the whole family to eat for a whole year, so they could only exchange it for cheap millet and brown rice, so that they could eat for a while longer.

Jiang Wei helped move all this grain into the carriage. Qiulian Niang divided the 4 and a half taels of silver she had just earned into two parts, leaving 3 taels of silver to pay this year's head tax.

Her family had a total of five people, three adults and two children, and they had to pay a total of 2800 wen in head tax.

The remaining 1 and a half taels of silver were used to purchase winter clothing, oil, salt, needle and thread...

After selling the grain, Jiang Wei and Qiulian Niang went their separate ways, one to the grocery store to buy oil and salt, and one to the carpentry shop.

Jiang Xiaoxiao followed her mother to the carpentry shop, agreed with Master Zheng the mason on the time to build the house for tomorrow, and then went to the embroidery workshop to meet up with Qiulian Niang.

When they arrived, Qiulian Niang also happened to arrive at the door of the embroidery workshop, and the three of them entered the embroidery workshop together.

When Qiulian Niang arrived inside, she didn't rush to buy fabric, but walked to the counter, took out a small cloth bag from her sleeve, untied it, and placed it on the counter. "Shopkeeper, look, can you collect these few handkerchiefs? How much money?"

The shopkeeper scanned it idly and said: "Your embroidery skills are quite good, and the patterns embroidered are also beautiful, but this fabric is too poor, and some are made of scraps. I can give you at most 4 wen per handkerchief for these handkerchiefs here."

Jiang Xiaoxiao also stood on tiptoe to look at those handkerchiefs. It had to be said that the shopkeeper's words hit the nail on the head. Qiulian Niang's embroidery skills were impeccable, and the flower petals and butterflies embroidered on them were lifelike and beautiful. This embroidery workshop sold not only fabric but also some embroidery products. Qiulian Niang's embroidery skills were considered top-notch among these embroidery products.

If it were changed to good fabrics like silk and fine cloth, this price would be far more than that.

Qiulian Niang didn't dislike the low price given by the shopkeeper at all, and smiled as she pushed all 17 embroidered handkerchiefs over.

4 wen per handkerchief, earning a total of 68 wen.

For her, this money was equivalent to earning it for nothing.

She didn't spend any effort embroidering these handkerchiefs at all. She embroidered them in her spare time during lunch breaks, and could embroider one in two or three days. Coming to town once a month to sell them, she was already very satisfied to earn dozens of wen.

Relying on this embroidery skill, she had extra income every month, and she could stand tall at home. Sometimes even her mother-in-law had to look at her face.