Chapter 408 - Gold-filled Summer Harves (2/2)
But, of course, they definitely couldn’t consume this high-yielding wheat. Xiaocao planned on leaving the wheat as seeds for next year. She wanted to see if the kernels improved by mystic-stone water could be even more high-yielding next year. As a result, after all the seeds had been threshed, the Yu Family bought all of the wheat kernels from the tenant farmers at market price.
The news about the high yield of wheat at the Yu Family’s farmstead swiftly spread in the vicinity. The first to contact Yu Hai was the Zhou Family’s steward, who was in charge of the ritual fields. The Zhou Family and Yu Family were business partners, so he was considered an old acquaintance of the family. After they exchanged greetings, the steward directly revealed the intention of his visit, “Master Yu, our patriarch heard that your family had a good harvest of wheat, so he wanted to ask where you guys got the wheat kernels.”
Yu Hai had wanted to say that they were just normal wheat kernels, but he was stopped by his youngest daughter. Xiaocao smiled as she pushed the responsibility onto Royal Prince Yang, “Our plantation’s wheat kernels were awarded to us by Royal Prince Yang. At that time, the kernels appeared to be the same as ordinary wheat kernels. We didn’t expect it to be so high yielding.”
Royal Prince Yang had once gone to the western hemisphere and brought back many seeds of high-yield crops. This was something that nearly the entire Great Ming Empire knew about, let alone Tanggu Town. The steward from the Zhou Family pondered for a moment, and then asked, “Then…can Master Yu give some kernels to the Zhou Family? We’re willing to pay a lot of money!”
Yu Hai looked at his daughter, and when he saw her nod at him, he asked, “May I know how many kernels the Zhou Family wants?”
The steward pondered for a moment, and then said, “The Zhou Family has five hundred mu of ritual fields. The first branch has three hundred mu of fertile farmland under their name, while the second branch…”
“Steward Liu, it’s also our first time planting and harvesting wheat, so we don’t have a lot of seeds on hand. We can only provide you seeds for the five hundred mu of ritual fields.” One mu of land would require between fifteen to twenty catties of seeds. The Zhou Family would need almost ten thousand catties of seeds for just their ritual fields. The Yu Family’s farmstead collected a total of seventy thousand catties of seeds. If they let Steward Liu continue on, they would have to share one-third of their seeds with the Zhou Family alone. After making a rough calculation within her heart, Yu Hai interrupted Steward Liu’s words.
When Steward Liu heard that they could only give them seeds for the five hundred mu of ritual fields, he was worried that he had only accomplished half of the task that the patriarch assigned him. He wanted to try to get some more, but Yu Hai firmly stated that they would only provide ten thousand catties of seeds, and nothing else!
Yu Xiaocao just stood at the side with a smile. If the first branch of the Zhou Family had treated Third Young Master Zhou better, then she might have put in a good word for the Zhou Family and given them a little more wheat kernels. However, the Zhou Family’s first branch was a group of weirdos, who often bullied Third Young Master Zhou and his mother. The eldest master of the Zhou Family would occasionally use his identity as the birth father and attempt to control the second branch. It was great that their plantation didn’t have a good harvest of grains. It was none of her business! As for the farmlands under the name of the Zhou Family’s second branch, would her father not give Third Young Master Zhou face if he asked?
They had finished negotiating the price of the fine seeds. Since fine seeds could produce double the amount of normal wheat kernels, the price would be at least several folds higher. For example, normal wheat kernels cost ten copper coins per catty and twenty catties of seeds could be planted in one mu of farmland. Thus, it would be a total of two hundred copper coins. Three hundred catties of wheat could be harvested in one mu of fertile farmland. The market price of wheat was five copper coins per catty, so one mu of farmland could reap 1500 copper coins, which was seven or eight times more than the investment.
Their family could produce six hundred catties per mu with ordinary wheat kernels. If they changed it to fine seeds next year, the output would definitely be higher. If calculated based on a yield of six hundred catties per mu and an income of three taels per mu, then she could earn fifty copper coins with one catty of seeds. Shouldn’t be too much, right?
Steward Liu calculated in his heart, and then said with a smile on his face, “Master Yu, isn’t it somewhat expensive? Look, your family’s seeds only yielded double that of ordinary seeds, but the price is five times higher. Aren’t you asking for too much?”
Yu Hai felt that this daughter had set the price for too high, but he just smiled and didn’t say anything. Then he turned his gaze to his youngest daughter.
Yu Xiaocao looked at him with a gaze that said ‘don’t worry’, and then she said to Steward Liu with a smile on her face, “Steward Liu, let me make the calculations for you and you can consider whether this is a good deal. The yield from ordinary wheat kernels can only earn one tael per mu, but our family’s fine seeds can earn three taels per mu. For ordinary wheat, you will need to plant twenty catties per mu. For our fine seeds, you just need to plant fifteen catties. That is to say, if you invested 750 copper coins, you can earn three taels per catty. The net income will be 2250 copper coins. For five hundred mu of ritual fields, you can earn 1125 taels… If you just used ordinary seeds, you guys can at most earn a little more than 600 taels. It’s nearly doubled the money ah!”
Steward Liu took the abacus from the worker behind him and did the calculations. Sure enough, they could earn nearly twice as much on the same fields. Only a fool wouldn’t accept this deal!