I Created Scientific Magic-Chapter 484 - 457 Worthless Wheat and the Collapsing Kingdom Nobility!
September had silently arrived, and the hurried construction of the train station, along with the connecting rails across the region, was finally completed through the joint efforts of the Wizard and hundreds of thousands of laborers.
However, the kingdom's merchants and aristocrats had already fallen into a frenzy due to soaring grain prices. In just one month, the price of food had increased by five hundred times!
Every morning, countless merchant caravans would wait outside the granaries, where loads of wheat brought by airships would be snapped up before they even had to be unloaded!
For as soon as they could get their hands on the grain, in just a day or two's time they could earn several times the profit. Driven by such terrifying profits, most people had lost their sanity!
However, this frenzy had its limits, for the grains in the hands of the Parliament were like an inexhaustible supply. Every day, the amount of grain brought in would gradually be put on the market, with two thousand tons being dumped each day!
To completely consume these grains would require tens of thousands of Imperial Gold Coins, but their funds had already been spent in earlier transactions, with some merchants even having mortgaged all their assets!
But everyone knew they had to buy up all the grain, otherwise, once the price of wheat collapsed, their wealth would vanish into thin air!
This batch of grain was ultimately bought in batches by dozens of grain teams!
Having procured the grain, the major merchants and nobles could no longer sit still, and they each sent out their people, ready to investigate just how much grain the Wizards had!
Sneaking into the granaries of major cities to gather this information amidst magical surveillance was no easy task, so the spies thought of a solution: they would investigate the workshops.
Wizards needed to provide the workers with three meals a day. If they were short on grain, the supply would inevitably shrink!
After some investigation, they indeed received shocking news, which was exactly the opposite of what they had imagined — the magical workshops in the major cities were planning to add a late-night snack for the night-shift laborers, to reward their hard work!
The next day, Parliament went even further, dumping five thousand tons of wheat into the major cities of the kingdom, momentarily dumbfounding all the caravans that wanted to purchase the grain!
"This is impossible! Where did they get so much grain?" Marquis Mortan clenched the reporting Attendant's collar, roaring in anger!
Earls like Heerde, and others across the empire, no longer had the confident and calculating demeanor of the past few days, and they instead had bloodshot eyes, just as unable to believe the truth.
In the past month, they had bought enough grain to feed three million people for half a year. Other merchants who wanted to turn a quick profit had bought no less than they had. How could the Wizards suddenly bring out another five thousand tons of wheat?
"What should we do now, Lord Mortan?" Asked Viscount Ske, panicked. He had gambled everything to support Mortan's desperate plan!
"Otherwise, shall we sell the grain now?" Earl Bell suddenly suggested.
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Bell's proposal was undoubtedly very tempting to the nobles present. The current price of a kilogram of wheat was as high as five hundred copper coins. If they could sell all the grain they had previously bought—
"Idiot! Do you think we can still sell our wheat?" Marquis Mortan slammed down on the conference table, angrily shouting.
Selling it at the market price of five hundred copper coins per kilogram was one thing; even if the price dropped to a hundred copper coins, it would not attract a glance!
Marquis Mortan might not understand the concept of "pass the parcel," but he was very clear that Parliament was providing three meals a day to the poor, meaning that besides them — the hoarders of grain — no one else in the market would buy a single overpriced grain!
Merchants weren't fools either. With the current situation unclear, who would dare to keep buying grain?
The fact that Parliament had released five thousand tons of grain this morning and had by now not managed to sell any at all was sufficient proof!
If they were to release a large amount of grain, the price of wheat would collapse in an instant, potentially leading to massive runs on the grain and rendering it worthless!
Bell became panicked in an instant and blurted out, "But, aren't the Wizards buying grain? We can sell all of it to them!"
Mortan looked at Bell coldly, then turned to the trembling Attendant who had collapsed on the ground. "You tell us!"
"As of last night, the price Parliament was paying for wheat was... it was one copper coin for ten kilograms!" The Attendant spoke cautiously.
Upon hearing this news, Bell nearly fainted.
What kind of joke was that, one copper coin for ten kilograms?
This meant that the wheat he had bought by spending his entire fortune of ten thousand Imperial Gold Coins, which was now worth millions of Imperial Gold Coins, the Wizards intended to buy back for a mere two hundred Gold Coins!
This was madness!
"No, that's wrong. I remember Viscount Ske saying a few days ago that their purchase price for wheat was supposed to be twenty copper per kilogram!" Bell cried hysterically.
If it were twenty copper, he could accept the loss of most of his fortune, albeit just barely.
Under Earl Bell's cannibalistic gaze, the Attendant stammered out an explanation: Parliament's purchase price for grain had been falling almost daily, from twenty copper per kilogram, down to fifteen copper, then ten, five, two...
