"Master, the price of rice in the city has risen again."
One afternoon near the end of May, Ye Yu came into the study and complained to Wang Chen, who was practicing calligraphy. "Rice that used to cost three coppers per jin has now gone up to five. From what the rice shopkeeper said, it'll rise even more later."
"Hm?"
Wang Chen was slightly surprised. He set down his brush. "It's gone up that much?"
Although he had not concerned himself with the household's daily expenses since marrying Ye Dai, he still knew something about local prices.
The price of rice had always been stable, generally fluctuating around two or three coppers per jin. Sharp rises and falls were rare.
Since it concerned the stability of people's livelihoods, the authorities had always cracked down harshly on hoarding, profiteering, and speculative trading.
For rice to rise from three coppers to five was truly an astonishing increase.
Rice prices were linked to those of coarse grains. If rice went up, coarse grains would inevitably follow. The county's people usually mixed the two for their daily staple, making them extremely sensitive to prices.
Such a wild surge in rice prices would absolutely have a tremendous impact—many people would no longer have enough to eat!
"Yes."
Xiao Yu's face was full of worry. "Master, our school consumes over a hundred jin of grain every day. If prices keep rising like this..."
Last year, Wang Chen had purchased several adjoining houses in Tongluo Alley at high prices, then demolished them together with his own residence and rebuilt everything, expanding the school two or threefold.
After the new school was completed, not only could all the students attend lessons in spacious, bright classrooms, but even more commoner disciples were admitted.
The number of students multiplied several