Chapter 187 Panic and Countermeasures

"Honey, are they all nailed?"

His wife's voice woke Gazka from his memories, and he hurriedly said to the eaves: "Oh, everything is ready, we can lay the grass.

His eyes caught a glimpse of the scar on his wife's forehead, which was scratched by broken wood from the roof on the day of the hailstorm. Fortunately, the wound was not deep, and she and the children escaped by hiding under the dining table.

Mrs. Gazka tied up a large pile of thatch with a rope and watched her husband drag it up to the roof and spread it evenly bit by bit.

By noon, the roof of Gazka's house was finally restored to its original appearance.

Gaizka entered the house wiping the sweat from his head, and saw his wife coming out of the room, placing a plate with a large piece missing on the table - this was already the most complete plate in their house - and said hello with a smile: "You're tired, let's eat something quickly."

Gazka casually ate a few spoonfuls of mixed vegetable soup and bread, and pushed the plate: "Save these for dinner. I will go to the fields to see if there is anything else I can pick up."

There is still more than half a month before the wheat matures, but there are already many green wheat kernels. Although they are mixed in the mud after being hit by hail, some can still be removed.

He wants to get every grain of grain he can! Because after this bad harvest, his family's food stock was only enough for three months, and as a tenant farmer, he had not yet paid the rent to Viscount Colbert.

Gaizka sighed silently, thinking about how much money he would need to borrow to buy the seeds that would be used for planting for half a year and sustain the family's livelihood until the autumn harvest.

He suddenly made a sign of the cross on his chest and said in his heart: Thank you to the kind Crown Prince, may God bless you and may you live a long life!

If the crown prince hadn't helped him pay off his previous debts, this failure would probably have bankrupted his family...

He stepped out. After taking a few steps, he heard the cry of a child coming from Joffrey's house not far away. He could vaguely hear the child shouting "hungry".

Mrs. Gazka also heard the sound and followed her out. She looked at her husband and said, "There are still some green wheat kernels cooked last night. Do you want..."

Gazka nodded.

Joffrey contracted lung disease at the beginning of the year and his family was already extremely poor. After this disaster, his family's bankruptcy was a foregone conclusion.

Gazka took the broken bowl brought by his wife and saw that there was a piece of black bread on the boiled wheat kernels. Without saying anything, he picked it up and walked towards the neighbor's house.

Joffrey's wife took the food with trembling hands and thanked her profusely, while the three sallow-looking children gathered around eagerly, grabbed the food and stuffed it into their mouths.

Gazka was stunned for a moment and then managed to say: "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, no more..." Mrs. Joffrey returned the empty broken bowl to Gaizka, lowered her head, and hesitated to speak, "These food have helped a lot."

She knew that although her neighbors were doing well, they never had the ability to support her all day long.

There is still a small half bag of broken wheat under her table. No matter how sparing she is, it will only be enough to last for half a month at most. As for the livestock, they were all slaughtered and eaten as early as last year. In other words, after half a month, she had no choice but to go to the city with her family to beg.

Yes, given her family's situation, it's impossible to even get a usury loan.

Gaizka sighed and was about to turn around and leave when he saw Father Marmont from the diocese walking in and said anxiously to Mrs. Joffre: "God bless you, you can apply for a 'bread loan'!"

The village woman was stunned, bowed first, and asked hurriedly: "Dear priest, what is the 'bread loan'?"

"In order to help families like yours, His Majesty the King asked the parish bank to give you a loan." Father Marmont said, "You first go to the church and fill out an application there. From next month, you will be able to receive monthly A loan of up to 4 livres, or the equivalent in grain. The interest was only six cents.

"Go quickly, I have to inform the Julian family."

He turned around and took two steps, then turned back quickly and said, "Oh, by the way, the seeds your family used to plant should not have been harvested yet, right?

"Then you remember to apply for seeds from the government relief. But only potatoes.

"Actually, that stuff tastes pretty good. At least it's better than starving, right? And it doesn't require interest. You can just pay back as much as you borrow at the end of the year."

After Father Marment and Gaizka left, Mrs. Joffrey's eyes suddenly turned red. She knew that although it was only 4 livres a month, it could barely save the lives of her family!

She took a deep breath, turned around and summoned her three children, ordered them to kneel down with her, and said in a trembling voice: "Thank you, His Majesty the King, for your mercy! Thank God! We are saved..."

She stood up under the child's ignorant gaze, turned her face, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and rushed towards the parish church as quickly as possible.

The situation like that of the Joffrey family is also happening in rural areas across France.

With Joseph's preparations several months in advance, although the horrific natural disaster still came as scheduled, France did not experience the hell-like situation on earth that it had in history.

If a family like Joffrey's goes bankrupt, they will have no choice but to flock to the city to beg, and most of them will become the backbone of Daqiming in the future. There are millions of families like this in France!

At the same time, the addition of millions of mouths in the city will immediately push up the price of bread significantly, making it unaffordable for urban residents. Historically, after a hailstorm, the price of bread in Paris quickly doubled, becoming the direct cause of the outbreak of the Great Grain.

Now, first, steam engines have been brought to the countryside, helping farmland that would otherwise have been barren due to drought to achieve a certain harvest. Although it is only green wheat, and although it is only about 30% of the normal harvest, it is still better than nothing.

In addition, for provinces where a large number of potatoes are planted, the impact of hail is very limited. Especially in the south, potatoes are basically mature. After the hailstorm, farmers only need to dig the potatoes out of the ground to ensure food rations for the second half of the year.

At the same time, the "Parish Small Bank" that Joseph had previously set up to help rural areas purchase steam engines played an unexpected role this time.

Because now he has the weapon of Fachu Bank in his hand.

After the disaster, Joseph and the cabinet discussed and decided that the French Reserve Bank would directly provide loans to the parish banks, and then they would split the loans to the poor farmers to ensure that the disaster-stricken farmers would not starve to death.

This model of large-scale government funding for disaster relief was completely unheard of in the eighteenth century. In fact, this kind of disaster relief does not cost too much money. It costs nearly four million livres every month. A total of 12 million to 14 million will be needed before the autumn harvest. In exchange, the bottom level of France will be stable.

Chaos is always a serious drain on a country.

It not only consumes money, but also consumes the country's heritage and development prospects, and consumes people's confidence in the country. It's hard to buy these back no matter how much money you spend.

Historically, after the chaos in France, it took more than ten years for the country to gradually return to the right track and start to develop again. This is the person who has the ability to turn the tide. Otherwise, it will probably take another ten years.

Moreover, Joseph has his own additional plan for the 12 million for disaster relief, which can be used to speed up the circulation of banknotes.

The French Reserve Bank will officially issue banknotes starting next month, and the loans obtained by the Parish Bank from the French Reserve Bank will all be disbursed in banknotes.

Of course, for the sake of rural stability, the French Reserve Bank will also transport equivalent silver coins to various parishes in the first two months, so that farmers can exchange them with banknotes at any time.

After everyone gets used to banknotes and has a certain level of trust in banknotes, they will gradually reduce the amount of silver coins distributed.

According to Joseph's plan, the first batch of banknotes was issued for 50 million livres, of which 5% was exceeded. In other words, the actual silver coins prepared by the French Reserve Bank were 47.5 million livres.

Such a small over-issuance ratio will not have any impact on the country's finances. In fact, appropriate inflation is also beneficial to economic development.

Therefore, the funds used for disaster relief only require the issuance of 200 million livres in banknotes, which can basically be covered by the excess issuance.

However, Joseph also knew the importance of stable currency value, especially in the early days of the emergence of banknotes. He must not arbitrarily over-issuance, otherwise there will be backlash. The core reason why pound banknotes have remained strong and are gradually accepted by European countries is that their currency value is very stable.

In this period of gradual transition from gold and silver coins to paper money, the gold standard is the most suitable monetary policy, which also determines that paper money cannot be issued in large quantities.

…

In a big city like Paris, people don't feel the despair of farmers at all. The impact of drought and hail on them, in addition to repairing damaged buildings and public facilities, is mainly reflected in the price of bread.

When news of grain harvests across the country reached Paris one after another, although there were no signs of food shortages at all, the price of bread immediately began to rise under the influence of people's panic.

The price of Parisian bread is always the most important issue for the French cabinet. Because every time Parisians have a problem with the price of bread, it means a riot!

Palace of Versailles.

"So, many nobles protested against these regulations?"

Joseph turned over the "Miller's Service Bill" in his hand and looked at Brian in front of him.

The finance minister nodded helplessly: "You know, mill tax is an important source of income for those people. Although some situations are only assumed in the bill, they are still very resistant."

This is a bill that Joseph submitted last month, but it has not been passed.

Its main content is: the mill owner is obliged to carefully maintain the normal operation of the mill. If the mill cannot be used for two consecutive months, the parish where it is located will have the right to build a new public mill.

At present, the right to grind flour in most European countries is still in the hands of feudal lords. Even if farmers have wheat, if they want to eat bread, they have to pay taxes and go to the feudal lord's mill to grind it into flour.

Joseph thought for a while and changed the word on the document to the "Miller's Bill of Rights."

"In this way, the traditional mill rights will be described in detail first, and the obligations will only take up half a page at the end. Then no one will have any objections."

At present, the miller's rights are handed down according to medieval customs. There is really no specific express law, but the secular power is as solid as a rock. It is implemented in this way everywhere, and even the courts will make judgments based on this.

So Joseph directly wrote it into the decree, seemingly to endorse the nobles, but in fact the latter did not receive any benefits. But the later part of the task was actually added.

Brian suddenly smiled: "Your Highness, I think they will definitely look forward to the bill being passed as soon as possible."

While the two were talking, a financial official knocked on the door, saluted them hastily, and then said hurriedly:

"Your Highness, Archbishop, I just received news from Paris that bread has risen to 8 soudans per 4 pounds."

Brian's expression suddenly became serious when he heard this: "An increase of 7 dennies in two days?"

"It seems like that."

"These guys!" Brian stood up, "Have people inspect all bakeries immediately. Anyone who dares to sell less or secretly increase prices will be arrested immediately!"

The current bread price limit laws in Paris are so strict. If anyone dares to increase the price, even by just 1 denier, the shop owner will be arrested immediately.

Joseph was a little confused and said: "Archbishop Brian, the government has been emphasizing price limits every day since the hailstorm, and even the police are helping to monitor it. Why does anyone dare to increase prices?"

“You don’t know something,” Brian sighed. “Those profiteers in the bakery will obviously sell at the prescribed price, but secretly they will use various methods to increase the price in disguise.

"For example, they only sell 40 pounds of bread at regular prices every day, and then they announce that they are sold out. Anyone who wants to buy bread has to go to the back kitchen of the store and pay some 'asking fee' before they can buy it.

“Or do a tie-in sale, where you put a bean-sized bit of jam on the bread and call it jam bread, raising the price by a few denier.”

Joseph raised his eyebrows and said: "In this case, no matter how many people you send to check, it will be of little use.

"In my opinion, we should use our grain reserves to stabilize prices while the price increase momentum is not obvious."

Brian shook his head and said: "Your Highness, there is still plenty of food in the market, so there is no need to do this for the time being.

"You know, when those profiteers know that the grain harvest is bad, they will hoard the grain like crazy, waiting to sell it at a high price. Therefore, most of the grain put on the market now will be bought by them."

Joseph smiled, looking confident:

"Archbishop Brian, why have you forgotten that we now have the 'weapon' of an ID card?"

"ID card?"

"Yes. You first set up 'ticket collection points' throughout Paris, and anyone can receive a food stamp every day with their ID card.

"The grain reserve sells grain at a limited price, but you must have a grain stamp when purchasing. Each stamp can buy two pounds of bread of grain per day and cannot be used on alternate days.

"Those grain merchants only have one ID card themselves, so they cannot rush to buy large quantities of grain reserves."

Brian was not used to ID cards before. When the Crown Prince said this, his eyes immediately lit up: "No wonder you gave each ID card a different number. It turns out it can be used like this!"

He hurriedly summoned a few of his men, explained Joseph's method, and asked them to do it immediately.

Joseph thought for a while and then said:

"The current rise in bread prices is basically panic-driven. Therefore, we must try our best to divert people's attention so that they pay less attention to food issues."